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Full text of "The works of Thomas Goodwin"

^y OF pmcETo^ 

OCT 101968 

BX 9315 .G66 1861 v. 10 
Goodwin Thomas, 1600-1680 
The works of Thomas Goodwin 



NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. 



PDEITAN PERIOD. 



THE 



WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D. 

VOL. X. 



COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. 



W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational 
Union, Edinburgh. 

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh. 

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, 
Edinburgh. 

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church, 
Edinburgh. 

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church 
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh. 

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- 
terian Church, Edinburgh. 

©fttfral ©Ditor. 
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinbubgh. 



THE WORKS 



OP 



THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D. 

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., 

LINCOLN COLLEGE ; IIONORART CANON OF WORCESTKR ; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINGHAM. 

BY ROBERT HALLEY, D.D. 

PRINCIPAL OF TUB INDEPENDENT NEW COLLEGE, LONDOX. 



VOL. X. 

CONTAINING : 

AN UNEEGENERATE MAN'S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, 
IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 



EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL. 

LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : G. HERBERT. 



M.DCCC.LXV. 



kbinbiirgh: 

i'kintkd bt john okeio and son, 

old physic qakdkns. 



H; 



CONTENTS. 



AN UXREGESERATE MAN'S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, k. 

Page 
BOOK I. 

Of an nnregenerate man's guiltiness before God, from the impu- 
tation of Adam's first transgression to every person of his 
posterity. ...... 3 

BOOK II. 

An unregenerate man's guiltiness before God, in respect of that 
corruption of nature with which all mankind is infected, and 
the whole nature of every man is polluted and depraved. . 40 

BOOK III. 

The corruption of man's whole nature, and of all the faculties of 
his soul by sin ; and first of the depravation of the under- 
standing, which is full of darkness, and blinded, so that it 
caimot apprehend spiritual things in a due spiritual manner. 125 

BOOK IV. 

Of that corruption which is in the practical judgments of unre- 
generate men. . . . . . .179 

BOOK V. 

That reason in man being corrupted by sin, useth its strength and 
force to advise and contrive the satisfaction of his lusts ; 
whence it is that reason, which should have acted for God, 
now acts for sin and lusts. .... 216 

BOOK VI. 

The vanity of thoughts, being an instance of the abounding sin- 
fulness in one faculty of the soul, the cogitative ; whereby 
the sinfulness of the rest may be estimated. . . 256 



CONTENTS. 



P&QB 



BOOK VII. 

The corruption and defilements of conscience. . . 257 

BOOK VIII. 

Of the inclinations and lusts which are in the will and affections, 

after things fleshly and sinful. .... 278 

BOOK IX. 

Wisdom in the hidden part, or practical wisdom concerning 
original sin, founded on David's example and practice, Ps. 
li. 6. — That this sin is matter of repentance as well as onr 
actual sins, and how we are to be humbled for it, and to 
repent of it. . . . . . . 324 

BOOK X. 

That this state of guilt and natural coiTuption is the condition of 
all men unregenerate, though they make an external profes- 
sion of Christianity.' — A discovery of the several sorts of 
such men, both the ignorant, the profane, and the civil and 
the formal Christian. — And an answer to all those pleas by 
which they excuse, justify, or flatter themselves. . . 377 

BOOK XL 

That an unregenerate man is highly guilty, by reason of the 

numberless account of actual sins which he daily commits. 429 

BOOK XII. 

An unregenerate man's guiltiness by reason of the aggravations 

of his sinfulness. ..... 489 

BOOK XIII. 

Of the punishment of sin in hell. — That the wi'ath of God is the 

immediate cause of that punishment. . . . 490 



AN UNREGENERATE MAN'S GUILTINESS 
BEFORE GOD, &c. 



VOL. X. 



f '"'H 



\ 



X h] f\ -r \ 






AN UNREGENERATE MAN'S GUILTINESS 
BEFORE GOD, 

IX EESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHxMENT. 



BOOK I. 

Of an %mreg€nerate maiis r/uiltiness before God, from the imputation of Adam's 
first transgression to every person of his posterity. 



CHAPTER I. 

The yeneral design and division of the discourse. 

We have seen the state of pure nature, as to the holiness and happiness 
thereof, bj the law of God.* I come now unto man's fallen and lost con- 
dition in a state of sin and wrath, which is the condition of all by nature, 
and whilst in the state of nature. 
My method shall be this : 

I. To handle the sinfulness of all men by nature in respect of their birth- 
sin (which from Augustine we have used to call original sin), both in the 
guilt and corruption thereof. 

II. To treat of it as it is a state, or an abiding condition, and therein to 
discover the several sorts of men remaining unregenerate in the church, and 
of a common profession of Christ : viz. 1, of ignorant persons; 2, profane; 
3, civil and formal Christians ; and to detect the deceits and false pleas which 
each of these have, why they think themselves happy if they should die 
therein. That which I intend therein is a conviction of all these sorts of 
persons (that are the generality of the church) that they are still in the state 
of nature, and, without true regeneration, will eternally perish. 

III. The third is the sinfulness of sin, and the aggravations of it, as in 
sinning against mercies, against knowledge, &c. ; together with the fearful- 
ness of that punishment which is due unto men for the least sin in that 
estate. 

* In the Discourse of the Creatures, anrl the Condition of their State by Creation 
in Vol. n. of his Works. [Vol. VII. of this edition.— Ed.] 



4 AN UNREGENEEATE man's GUILTINESS BEFJKK GOD, [BoOK T. 

I. As to the first, my method is, 

iFirst, To shew the first entrance of sin upon all men by Adam's first sin, 
that is, the first imputation of that eoct to all men; and how far the guilt of 
that act is charged on us, and how far it was personal and proper only to him. 

Secondly, To lay open that corruption of nature which hath defiled all oui* 
natures. Concerning which, 1, how it flows from the guilt of that first act; 
2, that it is truly and properly a sin ; then, 3, the gi-eat abounding sinfulness 
thereof; and, 4, the parts thereof in general, as that it is, 

First, A total privation and emptiness of all that is truly good. 

Secondly, Positive inclinations to all evils, which consist in two things : 

1. In lusts, and therein of the nature of lusts, their inordinacj', their sin- 
fulness and deceitfulness. 

2. In an inbred enmity and opposition unto God, and whatever is holy and 
good (which I make the third particular branch of original corruption). 

This in general. 

II. More particularly, I lay open this corruption, as itlsjn the whole man^ 
and in every faculty. 

First, The understanding in blindness, unbelief, practical false reasonings 
and deceits, &c. 

Secondly, The thinking power, the vanity of thoughts. 

Thirdly, The defilement in the conscience. 

Fourthly, The subjection and bondage of the will and afifections unto lusts ; 
then the varieties of these lusts, and of those master-lusts which are in the 
hearts of several men. 



CHAPTEE 11. 

The text explained. — That all men are in a state of sin. — That it is worth our 
inquiry to know how sin, which thus involves all men in it, came into the 
v-orld. — That sin had its entrance by Adanis first transgression. — How 
Adam, being created holy, ivas capable of sinning. 

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and 
so death jjossed upon all men, in whom all have sinned : for until the law 
sin teas in the world : but sin is not imjmted when there {■s no law. Never- 
theless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned 
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was 
[to] come. — Rom. V. 12-14. 

You read the story of Adam's fall in the third of Genesis, and here you 
have how it concerned his whole posterity, and that illustrated by the anti- 
type of Adam, Jesus Christ, and his conveying righteousness unto his, of 
which Christ God intended Adam to be the type. And in this these two 
are parallel (as in other respects), that look as the story of Christ's birth, 
circumcision, obedience, and sufi"erings, are but barely and nakedly related 
in the three first evangelists, whereas the intent, efficacy, and benefit from 
thence accruing to us, was reserved to be set forth by the apostles in their 
epistles ; so it falls out in this. Moses tells the history of Adam's fall, and 
Paul explains the mystery and consequence thereof. 

That sin hath not only entered in upon the world of mankind, but hath 
universally ovei-flown it for sin,* not a man excepted, is evident in that 
speech, 'all have sinned,' upon which, he says, 'death followed;' yea, this 
* Qu. ' ever since ' ? — Ed. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 5 

is that which the apostle hath been proving at large all this while in the 
former part of the epistle, chaps, i.-iii. So then (as concluding he says) 
we have proved that both Jew and Gentile (which two then shared the world 
between them) are under sin, all and every one of them : ' Not one righteous,, 
no, not one,' chap. iii. 10. And what need we say any more of it (says he), 
it being such an irrefragable truth, as every mouth must be stopped, and 
'become' (in his own acknowledgment) 'guilty before God,' ver. 19. And 
it might be proved by induction of all men of all ages, and will be at the latter 
day, when the story of all the world shall be ripped up. There is no man in 
whom shineth but the light of nature, that either casts his eye into his own 
bosom, or looks out upon the sons of men, but must acknowledge as much. 

Neither is it any new thing lately befallen the world, but it is the ancient 
brine it hath lain soaked in, steeped in, these six thousand years almost. 
* The whole world lay in wickedness,' in John's time, 1 John v. 19. There 
was not by nature ' any man righteous, no, not one,' in David's time, when 
God looked down from heaven: Ps.. xiv. 2^ 3, * The Lord looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did under- 
stand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become 
filthy; there is none that doth good, no, not one.' Solomon says,. Eccles. 
vii. 27-29, ' Behold, this have I found (saith the preacher), counting one 
by one, to find out the account ; which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not : 
one man among a thousand have I found ; but a woman among all those 
have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man 
upright; but they have sought out many inventions.' That he viewed men 
and women one by one : ' And, lo, this I found,' says he, ' that they are all 
corrupted.' And therefore at verse 20 he says, * For there is not a just man 
upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth not.' So also his speech in his 
prayer, 2 Chron. vi. 36, * If they sin against thee (for there is no man 
which sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over 
before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off 
or near.' If you think the infant times (called the golden, innocent age of 
the world) was free, see what an account the text gives you: ver. 13, * Sin 
was in the world from Adam,' the first man, ' to Moses;' take the account 
shorter, from Adam to the flood. God, whose all-seeing eye runs through 
the whole earth, views every man, yea, every thought in man, brings in this 
bill and account, having viewed them one by one: Gen. vi. 5, 12, 'All flesh 
have corrupted their way upon earth.' Yea, and that so as from the first 
imagination or act the mind puts forth, to the last, ' all and every figment of 
the heart is corrupt.' 

To give you one evidence, which the text suggests, of this universal guilt 
and sinfulness of all men, ' death reigned from Adam to Moses' (or else that 
which is equivalent to death, a change, as in Enoch). It speaks of a mighty 
monarch here, death, the most universal and most lasting monarchy that ever 
was. It reigns, says the text ; its sceptre hath subdued, and brought under, 
all the sons of men: 'Death hath passed upon all men.' Other monarchs 
never subdued all; some outlaws and nations were not overcome; here not a 
man but falls under it. Other monarchies cease and determine; this hath 
lasted in all ages, 'from Adam to Moses ;' so the text says, and experience 
shews, ever since. Take the experience of the present age, not a man alive was 
seven score or eight score years ago ; nay, it comes into your houses, tears 
your children from your dugs, and kills them before your faces, and you 
cannot resist it. Millions come into the world, and but salute their friends, 
and then go weeping out again, so says the text ; that children who actually 
never sinned as Adam did (for that is the meaning of ' not sinning after the 



6 AN UNREGENERATE MANS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

similitude of Adam's transgi-ession'), do die as well as others. Now, if you 
ask death, as they asked Christ, Mat. xxi. 23, ' By what authority he doth 
these things' — by what title he reigns over all, even over children — the 
text shews his commission, and gives this as the ground of it (which we 
are now a-demonstrating therefore by this effect), that ' all have sinned ;' 
and tells us that * death entered into the world by sin,' being the ' wages' of 
it, Rom. vL 23, and the ' child' of it: James i. 15, ' Then, when lust hath 
conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
death.' And to the elect it is ordained, through the grace of God, to be his 
messenger to fetch sin out of the world, as sin was a means to bring it in. 

2. Doubtless it is a matter worth the knowing, and oui* most diligent in- 
quiry, how this deluge of sin and death entered in upon all the world, what 
was the first gap, the fia'st breach made, that let it in ; this universal flood 
that covers the face of the earth, which could never yet be drained and cast 
out ; yea, and what should be the spring that should feed it all this while 
continually in all the thoughts that is from every man's heart, so as it should 
never be dry ? 

The greatest scholars of the world have spent their wits often in the search 
of the original of trifles ; whole volumes are written of the original of other 
things ; but Solomon, the wisest man that ever was, thought this very point 
(namely, how all men came thus universally corrupt) a point of deepest 
wisdom, use, and profitableness : Eccles. vii. 25, ' I applied my heart,' 
says he, 'to know, and to search, to seek out wisdom, and the reason of 
things ;' and above all else, as appears in the next words, ' to know wicked- 
ness and folly, and to find the cause of it,' for that, the former words shew, 
is his meaning. For he says in the nest verses that he took a survey of all 
the world of mankind — women first, with whom he was too much acquainted, 
and then men also — and observed their dispositions: ver. 27, 'And this I 
found,' says he, 'God made man (originally) righteous; but now they are 
all corrupt, and have found out many inventions.' 

And indeed it is our privilege and advantage, who enjoy God's word, to 
know the original of this universal confusion in man's nature, and of the 
misery all are exposed unto; which the wisest men among the heathen, who, 
though they filled the world with complaLats about it, as Plato in the second 
book of his Commonwealth complains that men by their natures are evil, 
and cannot be brought to good ; and TuUy,* as he is cited by Augustine in 
his fourth book against JuUan, ' that man is brought forth into the world, 
in body and soul, exposed to all miseries, prone to evil, and in whom that 
divine spark of goodness, of wit and morality, is oppressed and extinguished :' 
yet they could never dive into the bottom of this universal disease and mis- 
chief. They found that all men were poisoned ; but how it came there they 
none of them did know or could imagine, or would ever have found out, but 
run to false counsel, attributing it to destiny and fate, or some evil planet, its 
having a malign influence into man's nature, or to an evil angel that attended 
upon every man. All which, how short is it of the truth ! 

And together- with this secret now made common to us, the knowledge of 
it is most profitable, yea, and necessary, for us, and is one of the main 
principles, yea, the first, which is committed to the church to be known and 

* Cicero, lib. iii., de Republica, cited by Aiigustiue, lib. iv., contra Julianum, cap. 
xii. p. 226, in torn. vii. oper. ed. Paris, 1571 : — ' In libro tertio de Eepublica, idem 
Tnllius hominem dicit non ut a matre, sed ut a noverca natura editum in vitam, eor- 
pore et nudo, et fragili, et infirmo ; animo autem anxio ad molestias, humili ad 
timores, molli ad labores, prono ad libidines ; in quo tamen inesset tanquani obrutus 
quidam divinus ignis ingenii, et mentis. Quid ad lia?c dicis? Js'on hoc author iste 
male viventium moribus dixit affectum, sed naturam potius accusavit.' 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. ' 7 

believed ; and therefore was the first thing which, next to the creation of the 
world and man, God manifested in the first book that ever he wrote. 

The first query will be, How all men come generally, and universally, and 
continually thus unrighteous, and thereupon exposed to death ? 

The text resolves us, saying, that ' by one man sin did enter into the 
world, and so death passed upon all.' If we had never heard of this same 
one man before, we would all be inquisitive who he should bo. The four- 
teenth verse tells us it was Adam. You have all heard of him who in 
1 Cor. XV. 45 is called ' the first man, Adam,' the first man that ever was 
in the world ; for how could sin by him enter upon all if he had not been 
before all ? Some men otherwise would have been free, if any had been 
before him. And the rest of the verses, from the 14th to the 20th, do 
generally inform us that he committed *a transgression,' ver. 14; * an 
offence,' ver. 15, 17, 18; that 'he sinned,' ver. 16; that 'he disobeyed,' 
ver. 19; and by that transgression, offence, sin, disobedience (call it what 
you will), it comes to pass that all other men are ' made sinners,' ver. 19; 
and that ' the guilt' of that sin ' came upon all men to condemnation.' 

If you ask, how it came to pass that this man should sin, God having 
created him righteous ? As Solomon, Eccles. vii. 29, ' Lo, this only have 
I found, that God hath made man upright ; but they have sought out many 
inventions ;' and as you read of him in the first and second of Genesis, that 
he was created in the image of God ! 

First, I confess I had rather, upon the experience of mine own frailty, fall 
down before the gi'eat God, and acknowledge mine own slipperiness and 
changeableness, as I am a creature, if left to mine own will, and that when 
so left, I am obnoxious to sin, over and above and beyond what corruption 
hath yet swayed me to, than dispute this point out with God or men ; for 
though I came not into the world holy, and endowed with created inclina- 
tions and dispositions contrary unto sin, as Adam did, yet in the course of 
my life I have full often found mine own will hath of and from itself cast 
the balance, and given forth a command for many a sinful act, not merely 
out of that sinful bias and inclination it hath to commit sin, but over and 
above out of that mere mutabihty and fickleness which is in my will to cast 
itself to evil. And when inclinations and assistances unto the contrary have 
been sufficient to preserve me from so sinning, yet mine own will hath deter- 
mined itself to an outward act of evil, so as I could and might resolve the 
act done into that uncertainty and aptness to change and fall, even (as I am 
a creature) to fall into that, which is a step into that nothing we were first 
created out of, namely sin ; so that beyond what the bias or poise which 
corruption sways man unto, it appears that in many passages of a man's life 
a vertibility of will hath been the cause of sin, which is then seen, when 
strong motions and impressions have been to the contrary, as well as im- 
pulses of sin and wickedness (so as the man could not but say he had power 
not to have done it), from whence a man may discern what he himself was 
like to have done, if he had been in Adam's state and case. 

Secondly, That also of James, that it is God's prerogative alone (and no 
person's else but he who is God withal, or one person with God), not to be 
capable of being tempted to evil, so as to be prevailed with by it : James 
i. 13, ' Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God : for God 
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.' To be ' without 
variableness, or shadow of turning,' ver 17, proves my assertion. It is 
further evidenced by this, that the greatest and holiest creature that could 
be made by God, if but a mere creature, and having no other but that pro- 
vidential assistance due by the law of the creation, was not only capable to 



8 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

reel and fall, but was slippery, and might easily totter and fall, and so break 
itself, as a glass without a bottom. 

Neither could this be laid upon God, that he upheld him not ; because to 
have been invincibly kept and preserved by God, was above the due that, as 
creator, God was any way obliged unto, and must have proceeded from a 
principle of an higher kind, namely, his free grace, and was inconsistent with 
his covenant of works ; so as God, in letting him fall, did therein no more 
but only not assist him by such a supernatural aid as was above the law of 
creation, and unto which God therefore was no way bound ; and it was but 
to leave the creature, to shew what as a creature it might will to do, and so 
that it was mutable. Which pi-erogative of God's so to do, who shall deny 
unto him, or put the contrary upon him, as meet to be expected from him, 
when it was a pure act of supernatural grace to have done otherwise ? The 
wisest of men, Solomon, having sought into the nature and original of 
wickedness and madness, lays all at man's door : ' God made man righteous, 
but they found or sought out many inventions,' Eccles. vii. 29. 

Neither is it to be conceived that man's heart was exposed to Satan to in- 
fuse sin, as a piece of fair paper lies exposed to an external hand to cast a 
blot or stain of ink upon it at his pleasure ; no, it must be an act of a man's 
own will, without the consent of which the devil cannot now in our corrupt 
estate force any man to sinning, much less then, when he had no matter in 
Adam to work upon. 

The which mutability God (when Adam was at the best and prime of his 
condition), gave him an extraordinary monitory and warning of; yea, and 
that which was to be as a sacrament thereof unto him, God singled forth of 
the garden he was placed in, two trees : ' the tree of life,' which was ordained 
to seal his constant estate of life and happiness, if he would persist in 
obedience ; * the tree of knowledge of good and evil,' to signify that he was 
mutable from good to evil ; and of this last tree God forbade him to eat, and 
that if he did, he died : Gen. ii. 17, ' But of the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die ; ' and that therefore he must look to himself, for this was 
his covenant, and the essential terms of it, and therefore sealed up by these 
two sacraments. Now the word disobedience here in the text points us to his 
sin, as it is also charged upon him by God: Gen. iii. 17, ' Because thou hast 
hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree whereof I com- 
manded thee not to eat,' which shews wherein lay the very sin. Adam had 
an express commandment from God, and the light of it, together with the 
principles of the law written in his heart, was in his understanding and 
judgment, ready to have guided him if he would use and ask counsel thereof, 
and attend thereto upon all temptations to the contrary. Neither was it 
possible that if he would have had recourse to those principles, and con- 
sulted with them, that he should have erred, or that his will should have 
inclined to such an act expressly contrary to God's law, if he had continued 
fully to consider what was at hand ready to his view, for neither could error 
befall his understanding, if he would use the light he had in that estate (fov 
then his understanding must be said to have been created by God, not ablo 
to judge of what was good in every action), neither could man's will then 
but fixedly cleave to that which the understanding did think j.good ; only he 
not being taken up into the seeing of God face to face, and so to have his 
understanding possessed with such a sight of God and his will, so filled and 
fixed with the possession of him thereby as he might not cast an eye to look 
and consider whether there might not be some further good as to himself, 
than he was yet possessed of in that condition ; and then this being sug- 



Chap. III.]j in respect of sin and punishment, 9 

gested to him by Satan that there was, he turned a sudden squint eye aside, 
as Lot's wife did hers backwards ; and thus the Scripture expresseth his sin, 
by a not hearkening or attending to the h'ght of the law, and the voice of it 
in his judgment, but an * hearkening to the voice of his wife.' It was a not 
consulting with the command, or not suffering it to speak, or not cleaving 
fixedly to the advice thereof; but his will would have his understanding gad 
and wander with a glance, to see if there might not be something in what 
SatanI suggested. And this very rash incogitant squint was his first slip 
from God, so as after it, when God's law came upon him, and was considered 
by him, yet this sin having first entered, thereupon followed a doubting of 
the truth of what God had said, a jealousy that God kept him from eating 
of that tree out of envy, lest they should bo as God, and so hoping to mend 
his condition another way than by obeying God, and to be free of the service 
of God, which by God's law he was (if he would have happiness from God) 
to be subject unto ; he rather chose to set up for himself, and seek his 
fortune, as we say, and so to be absolutely free as God is. And thus 
thinking he had found out a new trick to be happy, without and beyond 
what that condition would afibrd which God had set him in, he fell into sin 
and misery. And that this was the sin of his fall, is part of Solomon's mean- 
ing, when he saith, ' they sought out new inventions ; ' and having once left 
God, he doth now nothing else but seek a new way to be happy ; but be- 
ing a beggar of himself, finds he cannot himself support himself, and there- 
fore is forced for happiness and comfort to go to every creature to supply 
him, and so is plunged into the worst of servitudes, ' whilst he promised 
himself liberty,' even to be a servant to every creature. This for that one 
man's sin. 



CHAPTER III. 

How sin is derived from Adam to all mankind. — What sin it is which is pro- 
pagated by the first man to his posterity. — Whether original sin consists only 
in a corruption of nature, or also in the guilt of Adam's first sin imputed to 
us. — The inqnitation of that sin proved. — Adam, a public person represent- 
ing us. — By ivhat law he came to be so. — The justice and equity of God's 
imputing the first sin of Adam to us all. 

Now there are but two ways to pass sin to another: the one is by way of 
example, as Jeroboam is said to have caused Israel to sin, and as Eve 
caused Adam; or else parlicipatione culpce, by partaking of the sin of another. 
Now by the first way this sin is not derived, for besides that Adam being 
dead 4600 years ago, the force of this example reacheth not to us, nor to 
the multitudes of ages past ; that this was the way of deriving it, is not 
intended in the text, for then not Adam the first man, but Eve and the 
devil, should have been assigned as those by whose offence sin entered into 
the world, in that they were the ' first in the transgression,' and also be- 
cause then children (as the 14th verse of the 12th chapter of the Romans 
affirms) should not be guilty, as yet that verse afiirms they are, in that they 
die. Now God exerciseth no punishment where there is no fault ; also the 
apostle intends a comparison of Adam with Christ, that sin comes by Adam, 
as righteousness by Christ. Now Christ conveys not righteousness to all by 
example, for many persons saved by him lived afore him, as all under the 
Old Testament, as Hkewise infants. This indeed, as is likely, was the way by 
which the most of the angels fell, whom Satan as a head drew into the 



10 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

faction with him, and those whom his example prevailed not with did stand, 
and do still, which no man doth, but ' all have sinned.' 

Now concerning the second way how we should come to be partakers of 
Adam's sin, the Scriptures elsewhere tell us it was by propagation natural 
or generation, as David: Ps. H. 5, 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and 
in sin did my mother conceive me.' I will not earnestly contend that this 
way is directly expressed in this text, which yet Augustine pressed from the 
word ' entering into the world,' as a lues or contagion, and so passing and 
piercing through, or invading the whole world as it were by stealth ; but 
this may justly be argued for it from the text, that even infant children are 
affirmed here to die upon the account of that first sin's entrance, * who 
sinned not after the similitude of Adam's transgression,' that is, personally; 
which shews this to be the way of conveying this sin, for to them there can 
be no other. And why else were such children circumcised and now baptized, 
both being sacraments of remission of sin and sanctification ? Col. ii. 11-13, 
* In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, 
in putting oft' the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ ; 
buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through 
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And 
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he 
quickened together with him, having forgiven you all ti'espasses.' And in- 
deed this to be the way, other scriptures plainly affirm, not only that instance 
of David (though enough, for what could David have done before his con- 
ception that he should be conceived in sin ? and there is the same case of 
all), but Christ plainly affirms it, John iii. 6, ' Whatsoever is born of the 
flesh is flesh,' that is, what is^born of fleshly generation. The first birth (for 
he opposeth it to the second birth) is flesh, that is, sinful ; for flesh he 
opposeth to that grace which in the second birth the Spirit works, called 
spirit there ; and so Paul, Ephes. ii. 3, ' We are all the children of wrath 
by nature.' By nature, is there in part meant the natural course of pro- 
pagating our nature, namely, generation, and conception, and propagation 
natural ; and so Aristotle useth the word (pucig. 

Now, if we be the ' children of wrath' by virtue of our natural birth, then, 
first, children of sin thereby ; for God is not angry with us but for sin. And 
hence it is that because natural conception, by that ordinary law of gene- 
ration, is the way of conveying sin, that therefore all men, all and every one, 
are corrupted ; for to be sure all are born as from him, he being the first man, 
and having committed that sin ere he begat any. And why was it that 
Christ, though the son of Adam, Luke iii. 38, as having the matter of his 
body from him, yet was without sin, and born an holy one ? How came he 
to be free and exempted, but because he was conceived not by natural propa- 
gation from a man, but by the overshadowing of the Most High ? Luke 
i. 35, ' And the angel answered and said unto her. The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : there- 
fore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son 
of God.' So that this remains the only means why men are sinful, that they 
are propagated from Adam after the natural manner of all flesh ; the ground 
whereof you have hereafter. 

The third question and demand will be. What sin it is that is propagated 
and entered upon the world, and of which all men, as soon as they are made 
men by conception or birth, are guilty, by that one man's oftence ? 

To make way for the answer of which we must know that all sins are re- 
duced unto two branches : 1, that which consists in the guilt of some act of 
sin done and perpetrated ; or, 2, an inherent corruption in the heart con- 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 11 

tracted by that guilt. Now it is certain, that whether every man had had 
this original sin or not, that yet ixpon any act of sinning committed by any 
man, there doth and should have entered in that man a depravation of 
nature ; for by sinning a man is made the servant * of iniquity unto iniquity.' 
Kom. vi. 19, ' I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of 
your flesh : for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncloanness, 
and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to 
righteousness, unto holiness.' Which comes to pass not upon that mistaken 
ground that an habit follows upon acts in a philosophical way ; for then it 
must be that many reiterated acts produce such an inclination, and so not 
any one act of sin ; but depravation followeth by way of curse and forfeit- 
ure, even of the spirit of all inherent holiness, because man's having of it 
did hold of a covenant of works, of which more hereafter. Now therefore 
according unto this, Adam sinning, there were two things befell him : 1, an 
everlasting guilt of that act committed, binding him over to death; 2, a for- 
feiture of the Holy Ghost in him, and so of the image of God in holiness, 
and so by consequence the contrary depravation of his nature. Now Adam 
having contracted by his first sin both these to himself, if the question be, 
which of these two, or whether not both of these are the sin that entered, 
and is propagated by birth to all men ? 

The answer is. Both of them. 

First, The guilt of that very act of disobedience, which was lately spoken 
of, so as we all are accounted guilty of it as he, and as truly as if we had 
had a hand in it ; and that (besides what is to follow) appears plainly out of 
Rom. V. 12. For, first, it is said, that ' all have sinned ; ' secondly, the 
16th and 18th verses clear it, for they say, that ' by the offence of that man, 
judgment (that is, the guilt of that offence, whereby they were judged guilty 
as well as he) came on them all to condemn them.' Now God could not 
condemn them for that act, unless he did in justice judge them guilty of it. 
And whereas it is said here, they sinned, the very text viewed and compared 
cleareth its own intendment. A person may be said to have sinned, or to 
have done a thing two ways : 1, when one actually and personally doth it 
himself; and so we did not sin that sin, but Adam only ; for in ver. 14, it 
is said of infants that they * sinned not after the similitudeof his transgi-es- 
sion,' that is, in their own persons ; yet, 2, one may be said to have sinned 
in another. And look as the text gives that part of the distinction, that they 
sinned, not personally as Adam did, so it appositely sets out this other 
Ip' cL, ' in whom all have sinned,' speaking of Adam ; for that may be when 
one actually himself doth it not ; as what a whole body doth, a member of 
the same body may be said to do ; and so the word here, theij sinned, is to 
be understood, that is, they are to be accounted sinners, as the word is in 
1 Kings i. 21, ' That I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders' 
{Heh., sinners), upon what ground you shall hear afterwards ; and besides, I 
must speak presently to this very point again. 

The second thing conveyed is," a corruption of nature, which is a sin that 
is inherent, remaining and residing in us, and conveyed to us from him, as 
a leprosy is from the parent to the child, so as it may be said to be in them. 
Of this Jobspeaks, chap. xv. 14, ' What is man, that he should be clean ? and 
he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous ? ' And in the 16th 
verse of that chapter, he calls man ' filthy and abominable, drinking in sin 
as water.' In which place you see, that, first, there is a want of righteous- 
ness, which once he was made in; secondly, a contrary uncleanness or 
proneness to sin, and therefore he calls him filthy or greedy of sinning ; and, 
thirdly, this is conveyed by his natural propagation by man and woman ; for 



12 



AN UNREGENEKA.TE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 



it is inserted, ' that is born of a woman.' So that now you are to conceive 
thus of it : that Adam committing that act of disobedience, his nature was 
thereby first in himself for ever defiled by it. We often see that one blow 
or fall strikes a man's members out of joint, so as of themselves they ever 
remain so, and so did that fall of his, though but one act of sin. If there- 
fore we also be proved guilty of that act in him, then by the like reason also 
must that nature we receive from him by natural propagation be tainted 
with sin, as his was by virtue of that act ; so as it must first be supposed 
that we are guilty of that act, as the ground and reason why our nature is 
thus infected, that being a consequent thereof, and in part a punishment of 
it, and so as indeed it could not have been infiicted on our natures as a sin, 
unless we be first found guilty of that act of sin itself. 

Now, because this is questioned by some divines, I shall corae next to speak 
unto this great and main proposal, namely. 

Whether original sin doth consist only in a corruption and defilement of 
nature, and want of that first created righteousness ? Or, whether not also 
in the guilt of that first act of sin and disobedience of Adam's, by way of 
imputation derived down unto us, and that as the ground of that corruption 
propagated ? 

That the corruption conveyed is the whole of original sin, and not at all 
the guilt of that first disobedience as imputed to us, is maintained by some, 
but usually (if not generally) by such as withal deny the imputation of 
Christ's righteousness also. And indeed the occasion why they have denied 
the imputation of Adam's sin, hath been for the sake of their other opinion, 
that we are not justified by Christ's righteousness as imputed, but only for 
Christ's sake, and for his righteousness. For they see that if they should 
hold the imputation of Adam's first actual disobedience, that then they might 
as well assent unto the imputation of Christ's righteousness and obedience, 
Adam being Christ's type. 

The point therefore to be proved now is not, that the corruption is con- 
veyed, but that the guilt of the act of his first sin is also derived down to us. 
I shall endeavour it out of this scripture, in Rom. v. 12, 13, &c. (Of the 
conveyance of the corruption itself I shall after speak.) 

Now the proof of this is made up of these particulars laid together. 

1. Let the general order of the apostle's discourse in this epistle about 
about man's sinfulness be considered. In the two first chapters, he had 
shewn how, in respect of actual sins and a state of wrath, first, the Gentiles, 
chap, i., secondly, the Jews, chap ii., are all involved; and then, chap, iii., 
he speaks of both together, Jew and Gentile, laying open that inbred and 
general corruption of nature, concluding that ' all are unrighteous, and fallen 
short of the glory of God.' Now, then, in this fifth chapter, he proceeds to 
shew the source and spring of this corruption, viz., Adam's first sin : ' By 
one man sin entered into the world.' So then, having fully treated of the 
corruption afore, he here orderly next treats of the consequence of the guilt 
of the act, which is the ground of that corruption. 

2. The sin of that one man which he treats of in this chapter was, the act 
of sinning, and not so much the corruption of nature in him, which also 
befell himself, for he termeth it a transgression, ver. 14 ; an ofi'ence, ver. 
15-17 ; and says, that he sinned, ver. 16; and a disobedience, ver. 19; and 
ver. 17, termeth it, that one ofience. 

3. When he says, ' Sin entered into the world by that one man,' he by sin 
means one and the same sin, which by him as the author was first brought 
into the world, the guilt whereof accrued to himself as the perpetrator of it, 
and to his posterity ; so as in that word, * sin entered into the world,' him- 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishiient. 13 

self first is to be undorstood as one of, yea, the head of, this world of man- 
kind which sin entered upon ; and he speaks of the first entrance of sin 
therefore of that sin which was first begnn in himself, and that is evidently 
the guilt of the act here spoken of, and therefore the same sin or guilt is to 
bo understood, which is said that it goes on and is derived to the rest of 
mankind. And if otherwise it be understood, then, whilst Adam's sin is 
spoken of, and that as begun in him, one kind of sin, namely, the guilt of 
the act, but when the sin of the rest of mankind, then another kind of sin, 
viz., the corruption of nature, should be variously intended, which is not 
uniform to the apostle's scope. 

4. He thereupon says, that * death passed upon all,' this sin having first 
entered upon all; that is, death as the effect and punishment of that act of sin 
thus spoken of; and the connection of these two sayings is with an emphasis, 
* and so death passed.' Every word is emphatical to this purpose : 1, passed, 
as a sentence upon a crime foregoing ; and therefore, 2, he adds, xai ovrug, 
and so, which words are causal, or assigning a reason why death and the 
sentence of death passed upon all, even because sin, and that sin of Adam 
had entered first upon all. And look as death seized on Adam for the act 
which he did, so still likewise the same sentence on us all for the same act. 
Now we find that unto that act of disobedience it was that death was threat- 
ened : Gen, ii. 17, ' That day thou eatest thou shalt die.' And look as it 
is one and the same death that seizeth on both Adam and us, so the guilt 
of one and the same sin entered on both. 

5. And to that end he might be understood both to hold forth that sin of 
his to have been the cause of death, and also how sin, and what sin it was 
he intended, in saying it entered upon the world by that man, he further 
indigitates it and repeats it, in that (saith he) ' in whom all have sinned ; ' 
and this fully resolves us. 

For, first, if no more had been said of all men, than that they sinned, 
ii/Mas^Tov, it imports an act of sinning ; he says not, 7nade sinful, but have 
sinned ; therefore his intention is to speak them guilty of that act of his 
first sin, of which he manifestly speaks of afore and after. And further, 
seeing that many of them whom death reigned over were infant children, as 
well as others (for experience sheweth death reigneth over them also), and 
they are part of this world, which sin is said to have entered into, and that 
they are not guilty of any act of their own in themselves, therefore guilty they 
must be supposed of that act (if of any at all), viz., the first sin and dis- 
obedience of Adam (which he, you see, is discoursing of), nor of any other 
can they be supposed guilty in common together with all men else ; so then 
put but rt?^ and have s«n»ecZ together, it must be the guilt of his first sin that is 
intended ; and then the manner of involving children in that guilt can be no 
otherwise than by imputation, for of personal sin in themselves they are 
not guilty- 

6. Farther, to clear this, take the words that follow : ver. 14, ' Death 
reigned,' saith he ' even over them that sinned not after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression.' 

1st, That reif/ning attributed unto death upon sin's entrance hath, as 
Parous observeth upon the words, a respect to those violent prerogative 
extraordinary judgments which were (long before Moses) executed, as the 
flood on the old world, and on Sodom and Gomorrah, &c., in which children 
and infants were involved as well as those of riper years. 

And then, 2dly, those other words, * even over them that sinned not 
after the similitude of Adam's transgression,' is a designing, by a peri- 
phrasis, infant children, and their case and condition, as those that death 



14 AX UN-REGENERATE MAK's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

reigneth over, as well as others, though they had never actually or person- 
ally sinned, or in like manner as Adam had done. Now, besides other con- 
siderations, if only inherent corruption were the sin that had been intended, 
upon which it is that death had passed on all, and as that wherein infants, 
as well as those of riper years, are in common and alike involved, then the 
apostle had put no difference between Adam and them ; for concerning that 
sin it might be said of infants that they have inherent corruption in their 
persons, after the similitude that Adam had it in his person ; for it is ex- 
pressly said of it. Gen. v. 3, that ' Adam begat a son in his own image or 
likeness.' And those (with whom in this point I have now to do) all grant 
that same comaption to have been the punishment of that first act of 
Adam's, as well in Adam himself as in us, and so in all these respects 
bearing the very simihtude of that sinful corruption that was in Adam ; but 
it is not so in respect of the guilt of that first act ; we are not sinners in 
respect thereof after the similitude of Adam's transgression therein. So 
then, having first said that nil had sinned, and yet of some of that all, 
namely infants, that they sinned not after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
gression, it is an explication or correction that they are to be understood to 
have sinned, not in their own persons, as Adam did, but that only by way 
of imputation it is yet reckoned to them, which is the only way whereby it 
can be imagined they should be said to have sinned therein. 

And 7. After he had thus connected these two, the first man's sin and 
death, as cause and effect, he plainly sends us to that first curse directed 
against that very fact, ' That day thou eatest ' (which was the first sin) ' thou 
shalt die the death.' And this the scope of his ensuing argumentation 
clearly shews that bis meaning is, that death (then threatened) had, accord- 
ing to the tenor of that threatening upon that man's first sin, seized on all 
the world. His words that follow are these: ver. 13, 14, 'For until the 
law sin was in the world : but sin is not imputed where there is no law. 
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had 
not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of 
him that was to come.' He lays his foundation of arguing thus : children 
and all men die, and death is but for some sin, and all sin must have some 
law it is committed against ; now, what law should that be, says he ? He 
removes any kind of sins forbidden in Moses's law, or contained therein, to 
have been the cause of that death of mankind, yea, of children ; and yet it 
must be a sin against some law that was in the world, which must be the 
cause of that death ; for ' sin is not imputed where there is no law.' Now 
what law is it (that was no part of Moses's law, nor contained therein) 
against which all, even children, should be supposed to have sinned, and by 
vu-tue of which death should pass upon them and all, but that which was given 
to Adam, over and above any other command that is in Moses's law, which 
so expressly threateneth death in it ? That law which he first sinned 
against, namely, in eating the forbidden fruit; and therefore it must be the 
sin against that law which brought in death upon the world, in w^hich law or 
command this curse was in terminis, and expressly annexed, ' that day thou 
eatest thou shalt die.' It is certain, then, that it must be by virtue of this 
law that children die, or by none, for they died when Moses's law was not 
vet given ; so then, when you read that even children died afore Moses as 
well as others, you know what cm'se and what law to attribute it unto, even 
to the first law, and that first curse given to Adam, ' that day thou eatest, 
thou shalt die.'* 

* Faius, the Geneva preacher, together with Calvin, in his comment on these 
■words, resolves the apostle's argument thus : — Si est transgressio in infantibus, est 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishbient. 15 

8. If it prove that the words, ver. 12, are to be read thns, * In whom all 
have sinned,' then the matter is plain that the guilt of that his first act is 
the sin conveyed by imputation, and that we sinned in him. But those that 
are opposite to this great truth catch hold of this, that the words should be 
read, ' in that all have sinned,' and not * in whom ; ' and so our translators 
were pleased to read, although in the margin they also vary it, and say ' in 
whom,' as knowing that this latter might stand as well as the former. 
Now yet, 

1st, Kit be * in that all have sinned,' as taking 'i(p' £, *in that,' as a causal 
particle, yet still it implies that all have sinned, and were guilty of an act of 
sinning, as was argued. 

2dly, Know that Pelagius was the first who brought up that other inter- 
pretation, 'in that, or for that all have sinned.' But Augustine, and all the 
fathers but Theodoret, say, ' in whom,' as meaning Adam, spoken of in the 
words before. 

8dly, The apostle's speech seems an hyperbaton ; for whereas the apostle 
in the beginning of the verse had said, ' As by one man sin entered,' and then 
should in the next sentence have repeated those words, * by one man,' and so 
have gone on to have said, that thus or so death passed on all men by that 
one man, he omits the insertion of it there because of making a repetition, 
yet so as in this his close he emphatically brings it in, and with more advan- 
tage, in adding this as the reason or ground thereof, ' in whom all have 
sinned ;' and so that s'p' u. comes in fully referring to that one man, and to 
that his sin, as by whom he had said sin entered into the world, and death 
with it, as the reason of both.* 

Then, 4thly, compare this sense given but with that speech, 1 Cor. xv. 22, 
' in Adam all die,' this place, Kom. v. 12, ' in whom ail have sinned,' and 
they are parallel ; for look, as he plainly there affirms, that in Adam, as a 
common person, all did die, the same he affirms here of his sin, the cause of 
death, in whom all sinned. If, therefore, in the one place we are said to 
die in him as the consequent of that first sin (and actually in him we did not 
die when he died, for we are alive long after him), then much more it may 
be judged that the apostle intended to say here that we sinned in him then, 
when with the same breath he is proving that death entered upon all men 
upon the entrance of his first sin, so that the one place doth interpret the 
other. And although this here is put last in order of sentences, ' in whom all 
have sinned,' yet it is supposed first in order of causation, thus, in whom all 
having sinned, death hath by that passed on all ; that is, all died in him, 
because they all sinned in him ; for the law given him had said, ' That day 
thou eatest thou shalt die.' For these words there, ' in Adam all die,' do 
refer evidently to that curse in Gen. ii. 17, ' That day thou eatest thou 
shalt die the death,' even that very same curse and law which in the 
seventh consideration I shewed Paul pointed us unto. And if it were that 
by that law it came to pass they then died in Adam, then they must be con- 
sidered in Adam when that was spoken unto him ; and so this must have 
been, by the apostle's application and interpretation of it, God's intention, 
that when he said, ' thou shalt die,' that he included all mankind as con- 
sidered in him when he spake it of and unto him. 

To conclude this, consider but this further parallel of these two places, 
1 Cor. XV., and this Eom. v. 

legis alicujus transgressio ; non est transgressio legis actualia prohibentis, ergo est 
transgressio legis alterius. Lex autem ilia niilla alia est prjeter earn quae violata est 
ab Adamo, qua scilicet probibitus est Adamus Eden de fructu. — Faius in locum. 
* See Cornelius a Lapide in loc. 



16 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

1. Adam is in both held forth as Christ's type, as I have in another dis- 
course proved;* so in the Romans expressly, ver. 14, 'Nevertheless death 
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the 
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to 
come.' And as expressly, 1 Cor. xv. 45, ' And so it is written. The first man, 
Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.' 

And 2. Adam and Christ are held forth as public persons in both. First, 
in that 1 Cor. xv. 45, where he is therefore called the first man, not in respect 
of existence, but representation ; for in what respect is Christ there called the 
second man, and Adam the fii'st man, but in the same sense that Christ is 
termed the second ? For they are set together as type and antitype, other- 
wise Cain was in order the first after Adam. So, then, it is spoken in respect 
of his representing all mankind; and so it is of Adam here in this Rom. v., 
for all along the emphasis is put upon this one man: ver. 19, it is said, *by 
the sin of one man,' not one sin; and ver. 12, ' by one man sin entered.' I 
ask, seeing Eve sinned, and sinned first, was 'first in the transgression,' why 
was it not her sin ? yea, and she was a root of propagation as well as Adam, why 
by that one man, Adam, and not Eve ? No reason can be given but because 
Adam was the public person that represented us, and not she ; so also why 
are not other parents as well ? so why not Adam afterwards, but only in his 
first sin committed ? Yet let me add this, that Christ and Adam are made 
public persons in a differing respect in these two places : in 1 Cor. xv. 
47, .48, in respect of qualifications, ' Such as is the fii'st man earthy, such 
are they that are earthy of him.' But here in the Romans in respect of acts, 
or what the one and the other did, and therefore the sin of this one man is 
made the sin of all in him, as the obedience of the other is made the righteous- 
ness of all in him ; as the one for ' justification of life,' so the other for ' con- 
demnation of death,' in whom all have sinned, and in whom all died. And 
indeed it is the law of all nations that the acts of a public person are accounted 
theirs whom they personate ; the heads of the people of Israel sacrificed for 
a murder in the name of the nation, the females were circumcised in the males. 

Lastly, The scope of Paul in this chapter is to set Christ out by the illus- 
tration of Adam his type, in respect of his conveying the righteousness of 
justification; so ver. 16-18 expressly, 'And not as it was by one that 
sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but 
the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's 
offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of 
grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condem- 
nation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life.' And his conveying sanctification to us is made a 
new and distinct business from this, which upon occasion of this he enters 
upon, chap. vi. ver. 15 to 20, and this we argue against the papists. Now 
therefore, if Adam's type in respect of conveying sin be brought to set out 
Christ's justifying of us by his righteousness, then the imputation or charg- 
ing of Adam's disobedience, and so the guilt of the act, mustibe intended, or 
it had not served Paul's purpose ; for if Paul should have intended how 
Adam conveyed the sin of corruption of nature to us, to set forth how Christ 
conveys righteousness to justify us, it would have been foreign to his design, 
for these are things heterogeneal and of difiering uatm-e, and no way parallel. 
But the apostle's words in Rom. v. 19 are express, that in one and the 
same parallel respect it is that we are made sinners in Adam and righteous 

* See the Discourse of the Creatures, and the Couditiou of their State by Creation, 
chaps, viii. and ix. in Vol. II. of his Works. 



Chap, III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 17 

in Christ, ' for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by 
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' And the word xars- 
ardOrjtrav and -/.iraffrad/ifsovrai, made righteous and made sinners, there used, is 
a word noting an act of forensical or outward authority, applied therefore to 
the constituting of elders : Acts vi. B, ' Wherefore, brethren, look you out 
among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, 
whom ye may appoint over this business.' Karasryjsc^/jbsv, the word is. And 
so Titus i. 3, ' But hath in due time manifested his word through preaching, 
which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our 
Saviour.'* Karaar/iaric is the word there too. And so the justification of us by 
Christ's righteousness is an act of power, as when a king makes a man a noble- 
man by patent, constituting him such ; and thus'it is that Adam's sin makes 
us^by nature's letters patents sinful, even by deriving down the guilt of that 
act, which, in Rom. v. 16, is thus expressed, ' The judgment was by one to 
condemnation ;' that the judgment or sentence charging the crime, the guilt 
of the fact upon us, redounds to our condemnation. And so much for this 
great point. 

The next query may be, How and by what law Adam came to be a public 
person representing us? For it will be objected that there only it holds, that 
the act of a public person is reckoned or imputed, when he is chosen by the 
consent of those to whom it is imputed, which Adam was not by any of us. 
To which I answer, 

First, Adam being, as was said, Christ's type, I might ask. How came 
Christ to be a public person ? and who chose him to be so ? To be sure, 
he was not chosen by any of us believers ; and yet it is said, that sin is not im- 
puted to us, because Christ was made sin for us. By God's choice, and his 
own undertaking, 2 Cor. v. 21, Christ was appointed by God, and that by 
virtue of a covenant made with him for all believers, that what he did should 
be theirs : Isa. xhx. 1-8, ' Listen, isles, unto me ; and hearken, ye people, 
from far : The Lord hath called me from the womb ; from the bowels of my 
mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth 
like a sharp sword ; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made 
me a polished shaft ; in his quiver hath he hid me ; and said unto me, Thou 
art my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have 
laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain ; yet 
surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And 
now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to 
bring Jacob again to him. Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be 
glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And 
he said. It is a light t'ning that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up 
the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel ; I will also give 
thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the 
end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his 
Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, 
to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, 
because of the Lord, that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he 
shall choose thee.' Why may it not satisfy us, then, that by the like reason 
God should choose Adam, being the first that was created, as perfect as ever 
any after could have been, as the first man, the chief? And so God made as 
good a choice in it as men could have done for themselves. And further, 
who being to be the father of all the rest, had the law of nature, as well as 
that of love and conscience (which parents have generally towards their chii- 

Qu. ' Titus i. 5, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou sliouldcst ordain,' 
&c.? — Ed. ^ /^ 



18 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

dren's good as to their own), to poise and oblige him unto faithfulness, to 
whom God gave a law which did concern and bind his posterity in him as 
well as himself, and this covenant was expressly told him and made with 
him : — 1. That he should be able to multiply and fill the earth : Gen. i. 28, 
' And God blessed them : and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, 
and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of 
the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth 
upon the earth.' And, 2, that, standing obedient, he should convey the 
same blessed estate to that his seed, and therefore that same which God 
speaks, Gen. i. 26, ' Let us make man according to our image,' is expounded 
by Solomon, Eccles. vii. 29, of all men in him, ' God made man righteous, 
bat they,' &c. He speaks generally of all in the one and in the other. And 
therefore also, Gen. i. 28, he bids him multiply, and have dominion over all ; 
that is, his seed as well as he should have the same privilege. Yet so, 3, 
as that if he disobeyed God, his seed should die as well as he; so that, 
* That day thou eatest thou shalt die,' was understood by him, and spoken 
to him, as representing all, for it is so opened as the primitive intent of it 
in 1 Cor. xv. 22, 'For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive.' All are said there to die in him, which could not have been 
unless they had first all lived in him. 

But, secondJtj, to clear this the more, there are three ways by which it 
may be conceived or understood, that he was made a public person. 

1. By the absolute prerogative of God, resolving it wholly into his own 
secret ordination and appointment of him so to be. Thus some. But this 
cuts the knot indeed, but unties it not ; and I dare not wholly put it on that 
account. The covenant with Adam, both for himself and us, was the cove- 
nant of nature, as I have shewn : and it were hard to say, that in such a 
covenant he should use his prerogative alone ; and in some respects this was 
higher (if we suppose it such) than that with Christ, with whom he dealt 
distinctly, fully making known to him all things that concerned that covenant, 
which he also voluntarily undertook for to his Father, as in that place cited 
in Isaiah, and also here appears. 

2. A second way, therefore, is when it is by a covenant, and that so as 
though God's will to have it so, that he should represent us, was the main 
foundation it should be resolved into ; yet so as withal God should plainly 
utter this, and declare it aforehand to him, as he did to Christ in that place 
of Isaiah, ' I will give thee for a covenant to the Gentiles,' &c. Now, there 
is no such record of this, more than what hath been mentioned in the for- 
mer answer, now extant I know of, whereby God declared he would consti- 
tute him such, or laid it explicitly upon him, otherwise than in those parti- 
culars which yet I confess by just and like reason do infer it, so as I would 
not wholly put it upon that account neither ; for we read not of God's say- 
ing this to him in distinct words, nor of his accepting or undertaking so to 
be, namely, a public person, that if he sinned his posterity should siu in 
him. Therefore, 

3. I should think it to be mixed of the two latter, both that God made 
him and appointed him to be a public person, as 1 Cor. xv. 45 (see my 
exposition on those words*), yet not so out of mere will, but that it also had 
for its foundation so natural and so necessary a ground, as it was rather a 
natural than a voluntary thing. And necessary it was he should be so 
appointed, if the law of nature were attainted. And to assert this, I am 
induced, among other grounds, by that which, in handling the state of Adam 
in innocency, I thenf pursued. That his covenant was a natural covenant, 

* In the Discourse of the Creatures, chaps, viii. ix , in vol. ii. of his works, f Ibid. 



ClIAP. III.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 19 

and such as according to the law of his creation was due and requisite, and 
founded upon, and consonant to the principles of nature, and therefore I 
judge this law concerning the propagation of man's nature to his posterity 
to be such, and that God did not put forth his pi'erogativo in giving forth 
this alone ; but that it being a part of his covenant by the law of nature, it 
was therefore so well known to him, by the light and law of nature, that he 
needed not have it given him by word of mouth ; though in those fore-men- 
tioned charters, common to him and his posterity, of having dominion over 
the creatures, and begetting in his likeness or kind, it was sufficiently held forth'; 
and so as that threatening was to be understood in the same manner by him, 
'. That day thou eatest thou shalt die,' wherein all mankind are not only 
meant, but expressed by the same law that they are in those words, ' sub- 
due the earth :' Gen. i. 28, ' And God blessed them : and God said unto 
them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and 
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth ; ' which are spoken to 
Adam immediately, and yet meant of his posterity. And it is certain that, iu 
respect of conveying all that which was good, he was a common person ; as 
in that of conveying a lordship over the creatures, a covenant of life to them, 
&c., and by the same reason he was a common person to convey sin too. 
And truly those words, that we are said to be ' children of wrath by nature,' 
I understand not only (though so too) by birth, but even to extend to this 
sense, by the law of nature. See my exposition on those words.* 

Now, the natural necessity upon which this designation of him to be a 
public person was made is this : God had, as author of nature, made this 
the law of nature, that man should beget in his own image or likeness. Look 
what it should prove to be either through his standing or falling afore he 
puts this nature out of his hands ; and this law is in their kind common to 
beasts. So, then, in this first man the whole nature of man being reposited, 
as a common receptacle or cistern of it, from whence it was to flow to others, 
therefore what befalls this nature in him by any action of his, that nature is 
so to be propagated from him, God's ordinance in the law of nature being, 
that all should be made of one blood, which could not have been said of any 
other man than of him (no, not of Noah, because of the mixture of mar- 
riages afore with the posterity of Cain). And thus, also, man's condition 
difiered from that of the angels, of whom each stood as single persons by 
themselves, being all and each of them created by God, immediately, as 
even Adam, the first man, himself was. But all men universally by the law 
of nature were to receive their nature from him in his likeness ; that is, if he 
stood and obeyed, then the image of holiness had been conveyed, as it was at 
first created ; if he fell by sin, then seeing he should thereby corrupt that 
nature, and that that corruption of nature was also to be his sin in relation 
to, and as the consequent of, that act of sin that caused it, therefore, if the 
law of nature were ever fulfilled so as to convey his own image as sinful 
(suppose he should sin), so as it should be reckoned sin in his children, as 
it was in himself, this could not take place, but they must be guilty of that 
act that caused it, so far as it cast it, as well as himself. If indeed any way 
could have been supposed how he might have been bereft of that holiness he 
was created in, without a precedaneous act of sinning as the cause, then 
indeed we might have said that privation of holiness should not have been 
reckoned sin either to himself nor his posterity in that case. This corrup- 
tion of nature, or want of original righteousness, in such case would not 
have been, nor could not have been accounted a sin, (a punishment it might), 

* In Comment, on Ephes., Part ii. [Vol. II. of this Edition of his Works.— Ed.] 



20 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS B'".rORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

but it comes only to be a sin as it referreth to, and is connected with, the 
guilt of an act of sin that caused that corruption of nature. If, therefore, 
that corruption became truly and properly a sin in them as well as in him 
(and else it hath not ihe formale of his image), he must necessarily be con- 
stituted a public person, representing them even in respect of that act of sin, 
which should thus first infect and pollute their nature in him, or else the 
law of nature will not in this respect have its due effect ; for that which 
makes it a sin is not the want of it simply, but as relating to a forfeiture and 
losing of it by some act those are first guilty of who lose it. Hence, there- 
fore (I repeat the force of my reason again), if he will convey this image 
acquired by his sin as sinful, there must be a guilt of that act of his sin 
which was the cause of it, and therefore he must be a public person in that 
first act of sin ; so as without this, as the case stood, the law of nature could 
not have had its course. See more of this in my sermons on Ephes. ii. 3, 
* Children of wrath by nature.' 
Two objections clog this. 

1. Assertion. Why should not, for the same reason, his actual righteous- 
ness be conveyed ? 

I answer, There is a differing reason : for his acts of righteousness they 
were only means of preserving holiness in him, as causes without which he 
should else lose it (for omission would have lost it as well as commission), 
yet he had it not given him at first from acts of righteousness, but by crea- 
tion and free donation. But this sinful image, considered as sinful, was to 
come in wholly and merely from a sinful act, as the sole eflicient or merito- 
rious cause of it ; and that was it alone could bereave him of it, and which 
alone could make the want of that righteousness to be sin. 

2. The second objection is, Why was not Adam, in others of his sins 
(which also corrupted his nature), a public person, to convey the guilt of 
them with that corruption, as well as this first, seeing the law of nature is 
to beget iu his image ? Yea, why are not other parents public persons also, 
seeing this law to beget in their likeness is theirs as well as Adam's ? 

Ans. 1. It was the first act of sin in Adam that first cast his condition, 
that is, himself and all his posterity, into that utter privation of all righteous- 
ness, which was equally, for the substance of it (if I may use such an expres- 
eion of sin), to be communicated to all mankind; and as in the being of man 
it is in the integral substantial image, not the gradual, that the law of nature 
seizeth on, as to beget an entire whole man, not of such a stature, &c., so 
it is in corruption the integral body of sin, the integral substance of that 
corruption, which is equally to be derived to all, was at first cast and caused 
by that first act of his, and therefore upon that he ceaseth to be a public 
person, for there was wrought in him thereby an utter privation of all right- 
eousness- It was a privation total and integral, that had all sin it ; and, 
therefore, though he by other acts might afterwards corrupt himself more by 
degi'ees, j'ct the law of nature for begetting in his likeness extends not to 
degrees in any kind, but integraJitas, a wholeness of parts ; as to beget a 
whole man, a soul that hath all faculties, a body that hath all members ; 
but the degrees of abilities or stature, that is not in the common law of 
nature ; for else Seth should have been more corrupted than Cain, and the 
latter children of a wicked man than the elder ; and that is a strong argu- 
ment that it is not by mere propagation, but as conveying with it the guilt 
of the first sin. 

And, 2, for other parents ; though they are means to derive down this 
image from him, yet they are not public persons ; nor was it necessary, for 
the condition of all Adam's acts being cast by that first act, and a total 



CUAP. III. J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 21 

entire privation of all righteousness, as the common standard of all men's 
original sinfulness, being cast by Adam and his first act of sinning, there 
needed not such constituting other parents as public persons, but only as 
bare instruments by generation (which is but the channel of it) to convey it 
down. For the full scope and extent of the law of nature to convey the 
whole image of sin, for the substantial and integral parts of it, was by bis 
sin enough attained ; and therefore himself ceased upon it to be a public 
person, and other parents are never put iuto that office. And the scope of 
the law of nature is not to convey more or less degrees of siuning, according 
to the degrees of corruption in the parents that beget, as it is not to begat 
children as great or wise as themselves. 

The jiext thing to be spoken unto is the justice and equity of the imputa- 
tion of this first act of sin unto us by God. 

The difi'erence of this our first parent, and that of other parents, why he, 
and not the}', were singled out to represent us, and stand for us, having 
spoken to, even now in answer to an objection, and also afore ; and so 
supposing the justness of that difference, I shall now come to the clearing 
of the justness of this imputation of his first sin to us, and the corruption 
of it. 

Now for this general ground which the t-ext holds out, that he was that 
one man, as hath been shewn, as no father else is said to be. There are 
several ways by which a multitude are reckoned as one man, as included in 
one other man that stands for them. 

First, One that is head of many ; and Adam was the first head and father 
of mankind. Now the elders and first heads of any tribe did still appear as 
public persons in the stead of the rest, as our knights in parliament do for 
a shire, and for kingdoms or nations, only they are chosen by the multitude 
they represent ; but by the law of nature, the first had that privilege by 
nature, and so all the rest of that tribe were looked at as one man, in that 
man that represented them. And this holds good to this day in nations, 
namely, that some one represents a multitude, and stands for a whole cor- 
poration in matters of greatest moment : what such an one passeth, they are 
said to enact. It is Aristotle's maxim. Quod J'acit i^rinceps civitatis, id tola 
facit civitas. Now in this sense all mankind were (upon the principles we 
have given) but as one man in this one man ; and therefore the Scripture 
puts it upon this first man Adam, as from whom we receive the image which 
was in him, and by him left in our nature : 1 Cor. xv. 47-49, ' The first 
man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As 
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, 
such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of 
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.' And he was 
also thereto ordained and made by God in his first creation to represent us ; 
and so what this the head did, is reckoned to us the parts and members of 
him. His will was voluntas totius geueris humani ; his will was the will of 
us all, as the will of the head or chief is of the whole corporation. The 
Scripture declareth him the first man, to have all men in him ; why else is 
Christ termed the last man ? and so all sinned in him, as in that one man. 
And this justly derives the second. 

Secondly, We were all as one man in him, tanquam in orifjine ; so the buds 
or branches are one with the root, and receive their tincture or kind from it ; 
and also may be reckoned to be in it long before they sprout forth. Rebekah 
having two sons in her womb, is said to have two nations, which were to 
spring out of each of them, as the respective roots of them : Gen. xxv. 2b, 
' And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two man- 



22 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

ner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.' This is spoken of them 
long afore these nations came forth out from them. And Adam was the root 
of all the world, and had the whole of man's nature in him, tnnquam in ori- 
gine ; and was, as all other things, even as plants, to bring forth in their 
kinds, so he in his kind. We were all made of one blood : Acts xvii. 26, 
' And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face 
of the earth.' And if that blood were tainted in him, the law of nature and 
nations justifies this attainder ; and if the apostle Paul makes use of a law 
of nature, in the case of God's election by grace, to say, ' If the root be 
holy, so are the branches,' Eom. xi. 16 (God having, in his ordinations of 
grace, often taken in the rules and ordinary laws of nature, as I have else- 
where shewn*), this maxim must needs justly hold much more here. If the 
root be sinful and corrupted, so are the branches ; and therefore it is. Gen. 
V. 3, remarkably said of Adam, when fallen, he ' begat his son in his own 
likeness ;' and so, 1 Cor. xv. 47-49, he calls Adam the earthy man, of 
whom are all earthy men ; and as he is (says he) such are they for qualities 
as well as for substance ; and by that common law is that which the apostle 
there adds, * We have borne the image of the earthy man ;' which, though 
spoken in respect of the substance of flesh and blood, yet when fallen, it 
holds good by the same common law to both substance of our nature and 
qualities of our nature ; and because that generation is the means by which 
we spring out of this root, therefore this is the means of propagation. And 
therefore, though Adam's nature personally was afterwards sanctified, and 
GO are many of his sons, that beget children, as Abraham, &c., yet all are 
clill begotten in Adam's sinful image, because a man begets not his like in 
person, but in the common nature ; and the common nature of man, whilst 
betrusted as in common for us, in him and with him, having been in him 
corrupted, therefore, though in his own person his nature was afterwards 
sanctified again, and in others also ; yet men beget their like coiTuption of 
nature, as a grain cast into the ground without chafi" comes up with chaft', 
for that it is the common nature of it to do so ; and a man circumcised 
begets a son with uncircumcision, because it is according to the common 
nature of all to be born so ; so it is here. 

I further add, thiidhj, Suppose that a king should raise up a man out of 
nothing, to a gi'eat and noble condition, which he also gave him not for his 
own person only, but for his seed for ever, might he not make this covenant 
with him, that if he ever turned traitor, he should forfeit all for himself, and 
his posterity likewise to be made slaves ? And would not this law justly 
take hold of them, though they were rot born then ? Yes, God will justify 
his proceedings by this course in the world generally in all kingdoms, which 
shews it is the law of nature, and there is a justice in it, for the law makes 
the blood of a nobleman a traitor, tainted till restored ; it is all the world 
over, it was so in other ages also. Therefore also Esther, a godly woman, 
made a request that not Haman only, who was advanced by the king, but that 
his sons also, should be hanged, and they were so, Esther ix. 12-14. 

Fourthli/, It is an equal rule, that by the same law, by virtue of which 
one may come to receive good freely, he should upon the same terms 
receive the contrary evil deservedly upon offending ; as Job said, * Shall we 
receive good from God, and not evil ?' Job ii. 10 ; so say I. Shouldst thou 
have received the fruit of Adam's obedience in having an holy image con- 
veyed to thee, if thou hadstf stood ; and shouldst thou not have received 
the contrary if he fell through the guilt of his sin ? If God had made the 

* In the Discourse of Electiori, book v.. cap. vii., iu vol. ii. of his works. — [Vol. IX. 
of this Edition.— Ed.] t Qu. ' he had ' '? — En. 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 23 

law only to have received evil upon his offending, who could have found 
fault ? JMuch less when he put him into an estate which would have proved 
so happy for us if he had not offended ? 

Again, fifthly, it was equal, for it was indeed the best way ; for else all 
men should have stood on their own bottom, and after never so long stand- 
ing have been subject to have fallen, and so by the poll every man might 
have fallen off from God ; whereas this is put upon one man s obedience, 
who was as good as any of them. 

Sixthhi, If this course yet seem severity, then consider the goodness of 
God making use of the same rule for the salvation of multitudes of mankind, 
in ordaining Christ in our nature, a second Adam; in like manner sustain- 
ing the persons of multitudes of mankind, undertaking to be a common 
person, representing them to effect a * common salvation,' as Jude terms it, 
for them, ver. 3, that whereas all of mankind, if they had their estate to 
cast in their own hands, would certainly man by man have perished. God, 
according to the same law, whereby man was thus even by the law of nature 
cast and condemned, by the very same law and the equity of it saved us in 
our Mediator, who was ' made sin, that knew no sin, that we might be made 
the righteousness of God in him,' 2 Cor. v. 21, without which all mankind 
would have perished, as Sodom and Gomorrah. But in this very way of 
grace comes a mighty remnant of them (take them first and last) to be 
saved by imputed righteousness, so as God hath turned justice into mercy. 
* By grace we are saved ' this very way. 

Add to these, seventhly, that if all the creatures then upon the earth, and 
the earth itself was cursed for man's sake, as it is. Gen. iii. 17, ' Cm-sed is 
the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat it all the days of thy life ; ' 
and Rom. viii. 20, ' For the creature was made subject to vanity, not will- 
ingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope ; ' and if 
these creatures were not willingly subject to vanity, and if not only the crea- 
tures then alive, but ever after to this day, were thus accursed for man's sake, 
then much more justly is this sin, and the guilt and heavy punishment of it, 
derived to his posterity that came out of his loins, that have a nearer relation 
to him than those creatures had. 

And lastly, if, Heb. vii. 9, 10, Paul says he might truly say, that Levi 
and all his posterity paid tithes in Abraham, for that he was yet in the loins 
of his father, when Melchisedec met him, then may all Adam's posterity be 
as truly said to have committed sin in Adam, for that yet they were in his 
loins when he did eat the forbidden fruit. 



CHAPTER IV. 

How great every man's sinfulness is in having the guilt of Adam's first trans- 
gression imputed to him. — How far ice are all guilty of his sin. — What the 
aggravations of Adam's first sin were. — Whether they also, as well as the sin, 
are cJiarged upon us. 

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners ; so by the obedience 
of one shall many he made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, that the 
o fence might abound: but ivhere sin abounded, grace did much more abound. 
—Rom. V. 19, 20. 

Before I come to what I mean to speak of out of these verses, I will 
briefly recapitulate what I delivered out of ver. 12 concerning the derivation 



24 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

of the guilt of Adam's first sin, and that corruption of nature following 
thereupon. 

1. I shewed you that the conduit-pipe, or means and way of conveying 
both these, was only this, coming from him by natural generation ; for to 
this condition the conveying of sin is limited; for otherwise Christ, who came 
from Adam, was his sou, had his matter from him, should have sin pro- 
pagated to him, as well as we. Yet, 

2. Understanding this so as though it be the conduit-pipe, and means 
and condition to caiTy to all from him, yet not sufficient ground or full reason 
alone why it should ; for then, why should not other parents, from whom we 
are thus naturally generated, as well as from him, convey their sin also, 
which God hath said should not be ? Ezek. xviii. 20, ' The soul that 
sinueth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, 
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son : the righteousness of 
the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be 
upon him.' 

Therefore, 3, there is some further ground of this, which holds peculiarly 
in Adam, not in them, which is a covenant struck with him, he being the 
first man, the common cistern, or rather spring of human nature ; such a 
like covenant (in respect of being a common head and fountain of derivation) 
as was made with Christ for those that should come of him by a second 
birth, the fifteenth verse telling us Adam was therein a type of Christ. By 
virtue of which covenant, 

4. We were all one in him (as also Christ's members are in him), and 
that two ways, which in other parents holds not. 

(1.) lu'presentaLii-e. As the tribes in the heads of them, or as one bur- 
gess in parliament repi'esents all the borough, so did Adam all men, as Christ 
also all his members, therefore styled in 1 Cor. xv. 47, the one, ' the first ; ' 
the other, ' the second man ; ' God looking upon all as severally represented 
in these two, as if there had been no more men in the world. As Christ 
was the head of his body, and they one man in him, so were all as one man 
in Adam, the type of Christ therein. 

(2.) We were one in him, ianquain in prima origine et radice, in the same 
sense that two whole nations are said to be in Jacob and Esau whilst in the 
womb, Gen. xxv. 23. Even as the root and the branches make one tree, 
so he the root, we the branches, one man ; as Christ also is, John xv. 1, 
Eom. vi. 5. 

By virtue of which union thus made by covenant, and that founded in 
nature, 

5. It comes to pass that most justly, and by the right of all kind of law 
ordinarily in force with men, and the law of nature, both the guilt of his 
sin, and the corruption of his nature, should be derived unto us. 

(1.) The guilt of his disobedience, by virtue of the first ways of our being 
one with him, is derived. For it is a law in force with us, and in all nations, 
that what a person representing doth, the persons represented are likewise 
said to do. It is also the law of nations and nature, that if the head doth 
plot, or the tongue speak treason, the whole man is truly said to do it also. 
And, 

(2.) The corruption of his nature is derived by virtue of the latter way 
of our being one with him, and that even by the general law of nature ; 
for every root brings forth according to its kind, so Adam in his image, 
Gen. V. 3. 

Only, 6, this covenant comes to be examined, whether justly struck and 
imposed or no? And for that I answered, 



Chap, IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 25 

(1.) That God out of his sovereignty might make it, and impose it with- 
out iijjustice, especially man being innocent, whenas God imposed the like 
in the case of sinful Achan upon the whole nation of the Jews, Achan's sin 
becoming the sin of the whole camp : Joshua vii. 1, * Bat the children of 
Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing : for Achan, the son of 
Curmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the 
accursed thing : and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children 
of Israel.' And this was by virtue of a covenant made with every one for 
them all : Joshua vi. 18, ' And you, in any wise keep yourselves from the 
accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed when ye take of the accursed 
thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.' 

(2.) Yet here is a further equity ; for it is an equal condition, that if we 
should have received good from him if he obeyed, we should receive evil also 
if he disobeyed, especially when all the good itself was given by God him- 
self, the maker of this covenant, and the obedience he required was due in 
itself. If a king should raise a favourite out of nothing, give him all his 
honours for himself upon condition of obedience, yet so as if he rebelled, 
not only he, but his house should perish, he dealt not only equally in this, 
but bountifully both with him and his. 

And yet (3.) there was a farther conveniency in it, and a good provision 
made ; for better it was that all our estates should be ventured into a 
father's hands, the most perfect man that ever was to come, he himself 
being a venturer also ; and so after a while of obedience (viz., after he had 
put our nature once out of his hands, as is probable), then all to be con- 
firmed in grace, than for every man to be left to himself, and after many 
years' obedience left to a possibility of faUing away by the least error and 
swerving. 

7. And, lastly, if you think much that yourselves did not choose him that 
should thus stand for you, I answer you, (1.) That God made as good a 
choice as you could have done, took the best and perfectest of men. And 
(2.) I ask. Who chose Jesus Christ to be a covenant for his people ? Why 
might not God choose in the one as well as the other ? And if you yet 
think it harsh that another's sin should thus be put upon you, I answer you, 
God oflers the righteousness of another to be imputed to you, which you 
never performed ; and lest all men should perish, hath ordained Christ to 
be in like manner a common person for multitudes of mankind ; and Adam 
was his type herein. 

You see how Adam's sin becomes all ours. We cannot deny the debt we 
inherit from him ; God hath a bond, a covenant to shew lor it at the latter 
day. 

It is fit now we search what the debt is, how much it comes to, how far 
we are liable to pay it. Now the abounding greatness this sum swells to, 
the apostle intimates in this 20th verse, and shews us the arithmetic we 
must use to cast it up by, the law, which God taught man to this end, and 
brought this new art into the world, that man might by the rules thereof see 
the greatness and multitude of his sins : ' The law enters that the offence 
might abound.' Now in that he says the offence (ro iiuod^zruixa, that 
offence), though he means generally the sinfulness of man, yet especially, as 
by the coherence seems evidently to me, he points at that first sin of Adam 
which he had spoken so often of in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19lh verses 
under the same name. And having shewed how by that ofleuce, and by 
that one only, which seems, and hath seemed to many, so small a matter, 
that God should condemn all the world for eating of an apple, as one of the 
popes blasphemously said ; — to prevent this, and to shew ihe end of the law 



26 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

also, he brings iu these words in this sense, if we did but know what an 
aboundingly heinous and evil sin, even the least, is, and in particular what 
an abounding offence that was, we would not think so. Now that men 
might see it, and acknowledge, and be humbled under it, therefore God sent 
the law into the world, not to make sin to abound the more in itself, but to 
discover the abounding sinfulness of it, and of that particular offence as well 
as of others, as a glass that discovers spots and deformities in itself causeth 
none. 

I design to shew what an abounding sin that one offence of Adam was, where- 
of we are all guilt3% 

In the inquiry now into old Adam's debt, three questions are to be dis- 
cussed. 

1. Whether only that offence be imputed, and no more, and why ? For we 
would be charged with as few as we can, the guilt of the least circumstance 
in a sin being more than ever we shall be able to pay. 

2. How far we are guilty of it, whether of all aggravations considerable 
in it? 

3. How great the guilt of it was, as it extends to us ? It ' abounds,' the 
text says ; and this latter is the main thing iu the text, the former makes 
but way for it. 

1. For the first, we are guilty only of that first disobedience in eating of 
the forbidden fruit, and not of his other sins afterwards committed, though 
never so great or many. For still, in ver. 15, 16, &c., it is called ' the 
offence,' ' the disobedience,' and in ver. 16, it is expressly said, that 'judg- 
ment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences to 
justification;' where by one he means not one man but one offence, as the 
opposition, many offences, in the next words shew ; his scope being to shew 
the abounding of the gift of grace through and above Adam's sin. He com- 
pares not persons only, but things conveyed ; but ' one ofi'ence ' God lays 
to our charge, no more ; but in Christ ' abundance of righteousness ' for 
many sins. But the guilt of one sin is conveyed by Adam, but through 
Christ there is a justification of us from multitude of offences. And so in 
ver. 17 also, ' For if by one man's oflence death reigned by one ; much 
more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteous- 
ness, shall reign in hfe by one, Jesus Christ.' And there is this demon- 
stration to confirm it, for he could convey sin for no longer time than he 
stood a public person ; and when that ofiice and relation was laid down, then 
he became a private person again, and then sinned for himself alone. Now 
when the second covenant and promise of the second Adam was published, 
which was presently after the fall, then it is evident he was put out of office, 
for otherwise his faith in the promise must have been imputed also to his 
seed ; now God says, Hab. ii. 4, ' The just shall live by faith.' 

And withal, mark the reason why he remained no longer a public person 
after the first sin accomplished ; for the end of his being appointed thus a 
public person for us was but to cast our condition either into an estate of 
sin or righteousness, for our estate was laid as it were at the stake in him, 
and he was to cast the dice, as I may so say, either for the winning or losing 
of all ; and though indeed, to have won all, many righteous throws were re- 
quired, it may be, yet one bad throw lost the game as well as twenty, cast it 
which way it should go ; and therefore God looked at no more, the covenant 
then ended. And if men think that unequal, being to cast but one bad throw, 
so to lose all, we must consider this too, that he had an inclination to what 
was good, none to evil, only a possibility or potentia remota. And to give 
another similitude : as he was made the fountain of natural life for us, 1 Cor. 



Chap. IY.] ' in respect of sin and punishment. 27 

XV. 45, &c., so also of our spiritual. Now for him to have conveyed natural 
life to us, it was necessary he should not live one or two days, but perform 
the continued actions of life, even till he should beget a seed, for had his 
natural life been extinguished before by one death, we had all died in him, 
one death would have been enough. So for the convoying our spiritual life, 
and preserving and continuing the life of grace to us, it was necessary he 
should go on in all the actions of righteousness and obedience ; but one sin- 
ful deadly blow of sin was enough to extinguish all, and so cause us to be 
born dead in sin, as we all are ; so that it is clear, that though he should 
have stood longer as a public person if he had continued righteous, yet this 
ceased upon the first sin. 

2. To the second question, how far we are guilty of it ; I answer, that 
though the guilt of the whole act be imputed to us, and we counted sinners 
by it, as truly guilty of the whole act as he, yet not with so much guiltiness 
as doth arise to him himself, and his share who was the actor. Something 
there is that doth redound to Adam's person therein more than to us. For, 

(1.) There is a personal guiltiness, in that he did the fact, which is more 
than barely to have it imputed, and to be accounted to have done it; though 
we be as truly guilty of the whole act, yet the manner lessens the blame. 
There in ver. 14, speaking of children, who die only for the imputed guilt of 
that sin, and corruption of nature inherent, he speaks as diminutively of 
their guilt in comparison of his ; ' for,' says he, ' death reigned over those 
who sinned not after the similitude of Adam's transgression,' though as truly 
guilty as he ; for they died, yet not hke to him, which is a diminution and 
a lessening, as it were ; as if he had said, though they actually and person- 
ally did it not, or any other sin, sinned not like to him, yet they died. For 
example, to clear this by the second Adam, of whom this was a type, though 
we have his whole righteousness, active and passive, as truly accounted ours 
as it is his, yet it is said to be his, with this peculiar prerogative, that it is 
personally his, as light is the sun's, the stars but borrow it. So as in all 
things he retains a pre-eminence : Col. i. 18, ' And he is the head of the 
body, the church ; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead ; that 
in all things he might have the pre-eminence.' 

(2.) There is this diflerence, as in the manner, which makes it, as hath 
been said, a deeper guiltiness in him, so in this pecuHar aggravation, that 
he may be said to be guilty of the overthrow of the whole world by it, and 
this is peculiarly his ; for none of us, though we be truly guilty of the act, 
yet not of this circumstance, can be said to be the overthrowers of the world, 
as he might. This also may be cleared from the former instance of the 
second Adam, for though a believer hath all Christ's righteousness com- 
municated to him, and enjoys the fruits of it, yet this glory he gives to none, 
that they should be saviours of the world, that is his alone. 

That distinction in logic, concerning the genus communicating its whole 
nature to the species, illustrates both these to scholars ; for it is truly said 
that tola natura generis communicatur singulcB speciei, but not natura generica ; 
it makes not the species a genus as itself. 

3. Now the third thing follows, namely, what a great sin that first sin 
was, as the guilt of it is extended to us, that so we may be humbled 
under it. 

In all great sins there are two things to be considered : 

First, the substance ; secondly, the circumstance of the act. 

First, for the substance of the act, it hath inwards and outwards, an inside 

and an outside. There was an outward act committed, and inward acts as 

the principles of it. 



23 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

The outward act seems small ; as it hath usually been said, it was but the 
eating of an apple, stealing of a little fruit. Yet consider, 

(1.) The smallness of the matter or thing forbidden often aggravates the 
offence. To dare to offend the great God in a small matter is not a small 
disobedience. 1 may allude in this to the speech of Naaman's servant to 
him : 2 Kings v. 13, ' And his servants came near and spake unto him, and 
said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest 
thou not have done it ? how much rather then, when he saith to thee. Wash 
and be clean?' So in this case. If God had forbidden doing some great 
thing, should he be obeyed ? how much more when he forbids so small a 
thing ? CoQita (says Augustine) quanta fait iniquitas in peccando, cum tanta 
Jaciiilas noii peccaiidl. He gave them leave to eat of all the trees in the gar- 
den, forbade them but that one, even by Eve's confession, Gen. iii. 2, 3, * And 
the woman said unto the serpent. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the 
garden : but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God 
hath said. Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.' Thus 
Nathan aggi-avated David's sin : 2 Sam. xii. 3, 4, ' But the poor man had 
nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up : 
and it grew up together with him, and with his children ; it did eat of his 
own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto 
him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he 
spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the way- 
faring man that was come unto him ; but took the poor man's lamb, and 
dressed it for the man that was come to him.' He had many lambs of his 
own flock, and yet took that one of another's. Adam had fruit enough, yet 
these would not content him, but he must be tasting forbidden fruit. 

(2.) Sin is to be measured by the law that is given ; for sin being in the 
nature of it, transcjressio legis, the more urgent or greater the law is, the 
greater the transgression. Now that some laws are greater than others, 
Christ implies, when he saith. Mat. xxiii. 23, ' Woe unto you, scribes and 
pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and 
have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.' 

Now, of all laws this was the greatest given to Adam. 

1st, It being given only as a trial and testimony of his obedience in all 
the rest, called therefore symholicum ptrii^ceplum, as being a profession of 
his subjection to God in all the rest ; such as is doing homage by a vassal 
to the lord of the soil, which, though it consists in some petty small rite or 
acknowledgment, the neglect of which (though the least of all to perform), or 
denying to do it, is the loss of what they hold of him, as being the breach 
and highest kind of more than other acts, and greater neglect in other things. 

2dly, The more expressly the will of the lawgiver is manifested in a law, 
the gi-eater the enforcement and obligation is to that law. Now, God's will 
was more expressly manifest in that than any other written in his heart. 

1. His will was more in it, in that there was no reason for it, but the will 
of the lawgiver only ; stelit pro ratione voluntas. Other laws Adam might 
see a reason for ; of this none but God's will trj'ing his obedience. 

2. More expressly, for none else were delivered vied voce but this, as being 
an especial charge above all the rest. Other instructions he had only writ- 
ten in his heart, but this was given by mouth as an especial charge. 

3. None else so expressly threatened with death but it ; yea, that other 
law had its sanction in that threatening given to this. So God's will ap- 
peared to be more in it, because backed with so severe a threatening, a sign 
he was more earnest in it. 



Chap. IV.] in rkspect of sin and punishment. 29 

Secoudhj, Lot us look to the inside of Adam's sin. Now, though the laws 
of men examine not the inwards of an action, as not in murder, not how 
much or little malice or cruelty was in the fact, so it be proved by circum- 
stances it was in any degree wilful murder ; but the law of God looks most 
hereto. And so a sin, which for the outward act is small, may in regard of 
the inwards of it be a great one. As that act of the man gathering slicks 
on the Sabbath day, a small thing in appearance, to get a few sticks to make 
a fire ; but he doing it in contempt of Moses, so as to put Moses into a 
strait, since if for so small a thing he executed or inflicted any punishment, 
he would have been thought a cruel governor by all the people ; but, on the 
other side, if he should pass it by, he opened a way to have the Sabbath 
broken ; so as it was done in high contempt both of God and Moses, and 
this God took notice of especially. And it is in sins as in duties ; a man 
then performs duties best when God is most sanctified in his heart. If you 
would know when you pray best, it is then when you sanctify God in your 
hearts most, with most sanctified apprehensions of him, his greatness, good- 
ness, all-sufiiciency, working a sense of what it is to offend him. So a man 
then sins most when he dishonours God most in his heart. 

Now, then, for the inwards of this action, the sinful acts of his mind in 
it, they were principally ill opinions of God, which were the principles of it, 
which provoke most, and dishonour most. 1st, 111 opinions of a person 
provoke most, for we see men then most provoked when they see they are 
meanly or badly thought of: this incites, and inflames, and blows anger up 
to its height ; and men are angry at ill words given them by other men, but 
so far as they are expressions of their evil opinions of them in their hearts. 
2dl3% And ill opinions of a person dishonour most, for all true honour lies 
in opinion : so much greater is the honour as the opinion is greater. Honos 
therefore is said to be in honorante ; and so on the contrary it is as to dis- 
honour. And God is therefore then dishonoured most when we have dis- 
honourable thoughts of him. Now, they were low and mean under-conceits 
of God that first crept into Adam's heart, and are necessarily to be supposed 
to have been the foundation of this sin in his heart. 

1. He undervalued the Lord in his heart, ceasing to think him any longer 
to be the chiefest good. He would never have done it had he not thought 
he could better his condition without God, and better his condition by that 
means, by the virtue of an apple, whereby he should come better to know 
what was good and evil, than by keeping God's command, which is only true 
wisdom ; and so he thought to be as gods therein. The text expressly 
afiirms this was the main motive, and is set down therefore last, which the 
woman had, Gen. iii. 6. She thought it 'to be desired to make one wise,' 
which, but that the Scripture affirms, a man would scarcely have imagined, 
much less believed, of our first parents, for no wise man now would think 
an apple to have, or that it could have, any virtue in it, such as to make a 
man wise. To better the temper of his body one might imagine it to have 
a virtue, but it was extra splurram the capacity of such a creature to give 
wisdom to the mind. Besides, they might easily think that if it had any 
such virtue in it God had put it in, and then that all wisdom comes from 
him alone, as James says, chap. i. 5, 17, 'If any of you lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God,' &c. And, besides (which aggravates their sin), they had 
already tasted of the goodness and excellency of God, having had some com- 
munion with him. Now, then, to leave a certain infinite good now enjoyed, for 
so uncertain, so unlikely an one, this aggravates his sin above what is in our 
own sins now in our natural condition, for, alas, we never knew, or at least 
never tasted better; therefore, no wonder if we go after the creatures : but 



30 AN UNEEGEXERATE 3IAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

he knew and had tasted. And this aggravates in like manner a regenerate 
man's sin, because he hath had communion with God ; and then to forsake 
him, and go after the creature, how sinful is it ! 

2. Another ill opinion they had of God was, that God was not faithful and 
true. God had said, ' Ye shall die the death;' the devil had said. No; and 
to hear a creature affirm this confidently, and to be, and exist, and still to 
reason the case, they thought there might be something in it, and this stag- 
gered their faith. Now, to conceive thus of God of all other was the worst, 
foulest, and most dishonourable conceit; for is God 'such an one that he 
should lie' (saith Samuel, 1 Sam. xv. 29), ' or as a man, to repent ?' Nay, 
even men, who are all themselves but a lie and deceitful, yet value their truth 
and faithfulness as their greatest jewel ; and though they acknowledge want 
of excellency other ways, yet they will say they are true, &c. Therefore to 
call Gods truth into question, was worse than undervaluing his other excel- 
lencies ; yea, men that are profane will wipe off the disgrace of a lie given 
them with their dearest blood. And then add to this, their believing the 
devil, contradicting the Lord merely by his own authority, so as his word 
should sway more than God's. This was greater than the prophet's sin in 
believing the old prophet (for which yet God slew him by a lion, 1 Kings 
xiii.), for the old prophet pretended he had a contrary revelation himself, 
having the reputation of a prophet as well as himself. He opposed not his 
bare word and authority to God's, as the devil in this, but pretended a new 
commission, bearing date since, from God himself. 

3. There were jealousies engendered in their hearts, of unworthy designs 
and ends, that God had in prohibiting them; for so the devil suggested, 
' God knows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and 
you shall be as gods ;' as if he should have said, God knowing what virtue 
there is in the apple, hath purposely forbidden it, because he would not have 
vou be so happy ; which believed, must needs engender these thoughts, that 
God loved them not so well as they imagined, for he prevented their prefer- 
ment, and so far hated his creature, in not only not wishing it, but keeping 
it from that good it was capable of; which must needs engender hatred 
of God in their heai'ts again, or that perhaps they should imagine he envied 
their happiness, which must argue that they thought that God feared to be 
equalled or matched by them if they should know as much as he, and be as 
God in the knowledge of good and evil. All which thoughts, or any one of 
them to entertain of God, what more dishonourable ? "Whilst they seek to 
be as gods, they would make God as base as the devil, for maUce and envy 
are his two sins. 

4. He sinned against the sovereignty of God, for what was the thing that 
hooked him in ? It was to be as gods ; nothing else could have moved 
them ; and so they thought to be independent of God, no longer under him; 
and though they should sin against him, that they should yet be able to make 
their party good with him. These to have been the thoughts that drew on 
the sin, is argued from the temptation which suggested these things, and did 
engender them, and in the issue prevailed. 



CHAPTER V. 

The practical improvements irhi'sh tee should make of these truths delivered. — 
That we should charge ourselves ivith the guilt of Adam's first sin, and be 
humbled in the sense of our guilt of it, as well as for the sim uhich ue 
actually commit ourselves. — That since our first father failed in the trust 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 81 

committed to him, we should not put confidence in any creature, thoutjh most 
noble and excellent. — Froin Adam's example, tiho thus betrayed the trust 
placed in him, v:e should be awakened to be more watchful and more fniUiful 
to any trust reposed in \is for ourselves and posterity. — If the state from 
which Adam fell teas a state of holiness, then no man should he ashamed of 
beivff converted and reyenerated, since it is hut a returniny to that primitive 
condition again. — Since Adam, obtained mercy after haviny so hiyhly and 
heinously sinned, the greatest sinners should be encourayed to hope, and to 
come to God for mercy. 

The first use you ouglit to make of this is, to take upon you the guilt of 
the first act, so far as you have heard it belonged unto you, that so you may 
be humbled before God for your share of guilt in it. And indeed till the 
guilt of Adam's sin be acknowledged as truly as any of your own, and your 
hearts rest satisfied in it, you will not be humbled before God, but will have 
something to plead ; for still it will be said. How came I thus ? who made 
me thus ? And therefore the apostle, endeavouring to humble men, in this 
epistle to the Romans, convinceth them, in -the first and second chapters, 
of evil works ; then in the third chapter, of the evil of their natures ; then 
of the first entrance of sin by Adam's sin, in the fifth chapter; the ignorance 
of which made the Gentiles complain of nature, that is, the God of nature, 
for bringing man into the world prone to evil, void of good. And this like- 
wise makes many people think God made no creatures to destroy them, and 
on that false principle hope to be saved ; both these being alike ignorant how 
that this world of mankind was once righteous as it fell out of God's hands, 
and that God looking on you now can say. They are not as I made them. 
As therefore a potter breaks a vessel that hath poison put into it by another, 
though it be his own vessel, so God justly destroys his own creature when 
corrupted by the devil. Let him therefore be justified, and the creature 
condemned, which cannot be but by the acknowledgment of this; for if we 
go from works to nature, it will be asked. How came my nature thus ? I 
answer, by the guilt of this sin. So David, in acknowledging his sin, Ps. 
li. 4, 5, 'Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when 
thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother 
conceive me.' He hath recourse to this, and professedly to this end, that 
God might be justified. It is the speech of a godly divine, that the first 
step to the heavenly paradise is to see and acknowledge that which casts us 
out of the earthly, and that striking one of the last strokes is humbling the 
creature. 

Now for this let me give you two directions. 

1. If you cannot see reason for it, bring faith with you to believe it, for 
by faith we believe the world was made of nothing, which yet we see, Heb. 
xi. 3, ' By faith Abel oifered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, 
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his 
gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh.' Why then we are to believe 
by the same reason that God made man righteous, and that he fell, and we 
ail in him, for faith is the evidence of things not seen. And as one said on 
his deathbed, in acknowledging his sin. The oldest man alive, that we use 
to bring to know landmarks, knows not of this ; so we may say of Adam's 
sin, committed so many ages past. Now, to help your faith, resolve all into 
the wisdom, holiness, and justice of God, who therefore must needs make 
man holy, and justly impute his fall to all his posterity ; and if his wisdom 
cannot clear it at the latter day, when this very thing shall be scanned the 



32 AX UXREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

first of any thing ; if God cannot make his party good against all the world 
in this, and stop all their mouths, so as you shall not he ahle to plead not 
guilty, he must shut up his books, and go no further. Custom, indeed, will 
not carry it, unless the entrance was just, though it doth so with tyrants, but 
God is none. Aud as in the believing Christ's righteousness to be ours, 
believers use to have recourse to inherent righteousness, which is the frait 
of it, to help their faith, so have you to help in this, viz. as to that un- 
righteousness of nature you found in you from the beginning, think some or 
otber cast poison in at the beginning, and that you are guilty of some sin ov 
other, whereof this is the fi'uit. 

2. Let not the commonness hinder your sensible acknowledgment of it. 
Men think because all are guilty it concerns them little ; indeed, if the debt 
were so common as divided amongst you, then it might be slighted (if the 
least part of the guilt of a sin might be), but the whole resides upon every 
man, as if none else were guilty of it but he ; Adam communicating his sin 
as ffemis communicat totani naturam aiilibet speciei, that is, as a general 
nature communicates the whole of its nature to all the kinds which are 
under it. 

Use 2. Did Adam, who, as he was created and fell out of God's hands, 
was the most completely accomplished man with all habihments of wisdom 
and righteousness that ever was, insomuch as God chose him, and thought 
him fully fit to be the sole burgess, head, and root of all mankind, yet did he 
(I say) thus perfect, so foully miscarry and overthrow himself and us, and 
that for so small a trifle, two toys, an apple and a woman ? Then heace 
leani not to put confidence any more in men, or anything in man, be it 
never so excellent. For my part, would I ever have chosen a man (go 
through the bead-roll of them) since men were upon the face of the earth 
(Christ onlv excepted, that was more than man), to whom I would betrust 
my life, mv goods, my portion in eternity, and into whose hands I would 
have put all the good I look for in this world or world to come, it should 
have been none but Adam ; but by woful and lamentable experience we all 
find it, that he, when he had the lives and riches of all mankind ventured in 
him, yea, and himself, the greatest venturer of all the rest, a man judged 
able to have performed what was committed to him, to have steered and 
brought in safe this gi-eat cargo into the haven of life and happiness ; yet he, 
even he, deceived us all, foully and foolishly split himself upon a rock he 
might have avoided, and cast away himself and all. Hereafter trust not in 
anv creature, much less in man ; but trust only in the Lord, who is ' Je- 
hovah, and changeth not,' for all the good you look for to you and yours. 
It is a meditation David hath, Ps. Ixii. 7-9, ' In God is my salvation and 
mv glor\' ; the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him 
at" all times, ve people ; pour out your heart before him ; God is a refuge 
for us. Surelv men of low degi-ee are vanity, and men of high degree are a 
lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than canity.' At 
ver. 9, he concludes that all men, high and low, are vain : ' men of low de- 
gree,' which for their multitude and number might be relied on, are yet 
vanitv ' men of hi^h degree,' who have the government of states committed 
to their charge and trust for their wisdom and authority, yet they are a lie, 
deceitful if leaned on. Remember Adam deceived you all ; lay then all men 
in one balance, and vanity in the other ; they are overswayed even by trifles, 
often moved this way and that way, as our first parents with an apple. 
Therefore, saith David, ver. 7, ' In God is my salvation, the rock of my 
strength and my refuge is in God.' Trust to none but to him, to him only, 
ver. G • and ' trust in him at all times,' ver. 8. Whatsoever your princes 



ClIAP. Y,j IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT, 33 

be, your great men,' your parliaments,* all which, as Adam, arc betrusted 
with your lives and liberties and the gospel, be they never so wise, never so 
holy, leave them not to themselves with these, no more than you would let 
out a brittle bark to sea that had all your lives and goods in her, and leave 
her to herself, to be carried whither every billow and wind would toss her, 
but go to God to be the pilot, pour out your hearts before him : * God is a 
refuge for us,' ver. 8. Desire him to have an hand upon the stern, to guide 
the hearts of princes ; say not thoy are wise, and venturers themselves ; re- 
member Adam, so was he, yet how miscarried he when left to himself ! Oh 
see what need there is to pray for public persons, or any to whom public 
good is betrusted. As you are not to trust them, so not to trust to 3'our- 
selves, your own graces, your hearts, go not in your own strength : Jer. 
xvii. 5, ' Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, 
and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.' 
Tremble to put yourselves upon the occasions of evil. Are you stronger than 
Adam, who had no inclination to evil, nothing but the contrary, and yet 
miscarried, held not out the first brunt ? ' Thus Nehemiah argues in the 
case of marrying strange wives, when he would dissuade the Jews from it, as 
being occasions of evil, Neh. xiii. 26, ' Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin 
by these things ? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who 
was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel ; neverthe- 
less, even him did outlandish women cause to sin.' Did not Solomon, king 
of Israel, sin by these things ? a man so wise, and one who was beloved of 
his God, nevertheless ' even him did outlandish women cause to sin.' Are 
you more holy than he ? I add more ; did not Adam transgress, whom 
God made king over all the world, and thought him fit to betrust all j'ou 
had with ? Yea he, even he, transgressed. See Eliphaz his collection : Job 
XV. 15, ' Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints ; yea, the heavens are not 
clean in his sight.' God puts no trust in his saints ; his angels W'hom he 
created righteous deceived him ; so did man. How much less confidence is 
there to be put in vain man, which drinketh iniquity like water: Job xv. 16, 
' How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity 
like water ! ' Trust your own hearts no more than you would do the veriest 
thief or adulterer in the world. 

Use 3. Did Adam, being betrusted with all our inheritances, thus foully 
and fearfully by one sinful act overthrow the world ? Then learn we, when- 
soever we are betrusted with anything which concerns the good of succession 
and posterity (as Adam was), to be more faithful, more wary by this his ex- 
ample. How doth all the world rue that one act of his ? Had God 
lengthened his days through all generations, what curses think we would he 
have had thrown at him by his ofispring, made miserable by him, still as he 
rode through ! There is none here but will say. Were I to be in his case, I 
would never undo myself and them as he did. Why, my brethren, let me 
tell you, you that live in this kingdom have many things, yea, as great things 
committed to your trust for the good of your posterity as he had for his. If 
you ask me what ? I answer. Besides many outward hberties and privileges, 
the glorious gospel ; this book, which is all the evidence you and yours have 
to shew for that glorious inheritance in heaven, and the only means to attain 
it, which is so rich a casket as it contains the revenues of Christ's blood. 
This, as to the Jews of old, is committed unto you as yet : Kom. iii. 1, 2, 
' What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumci- 

* This was preached at St Andrew's in Cambridge, 1626, when a parliament was 
called. 

VOL. X. O 



34 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

sion ? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the 
oracles of God.' To them were committed the oracles of God, committed 
as a matter of trust to be transmitted to posterity ; for whilst men walk in any 
measure answerable unto the light of it, they are not only converted by it, 
but they whet it on their own and their children's hearts : as Deut. xi. 18-21, 
' Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, 
and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets 
between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of 
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, 
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up ; that your days may be 
multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware 
unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.' And 
as for God's part, see what a covenant he makes with them that truly turn 
in Jacob : Isa. lix. 20, 'And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them 
that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.' As for me, for my 
part, says he, this I will make good, if men turn in Jacob. The gospel, my 
brethren, is as good as your freehold for you and yours, and God will not 
take it from you till you basely sell it, and carry yourselves unworthy of it : 
what else doth that place import, Prov. xxiii. 23, ' Buy the truth, and sell it 
not' ? God takes it away from no people, or no man till he sell it, as Esau 
did his birthright, or as Adam did his primitive condition for an apple, till 
they lay it to pledge for base lusts. Why else doth he exhort them to buy 
and sell it not ? See this in that example of the Jews, Acts xiii. 46, ' Then 
Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said. It was necessary that the word of 
God should first have been spoken to you ; but seeing ye put it from you, 
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting hfe, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.' 
The Jews having been the pillar of the truth of God, that had kept it and 
preserved it for many ages, when the gospel came to be preached, and more 
grace and truth discovered, new mines digged up which never saw light 
before, see what Paul and Barnabas say : Acts xiii. 46, ' It was necessary,* 
(mark it) ' necessaiy the word of God should fii'st have been spoken to you ' 
— necessary that it should have been first spoken to them in regard of 
covenant ; but, say they, ' seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves 
unworthy of everlasting Hfe, lo, we turn to the Gentiles,' and so their seed 
are left in darkness unto this day. God put them out of his will, and put 
the Gentiles in, and hath given them all. God doth as a good chapman 
doth with his old customers, they shall have the first offer of it ; but if they 
refuse, and by their contempt of it shew themselves unworthy of it, he goes 
to some other market that will give more than they. Consider also that one 
place, Piom. xi. 20, 22, « Well, because of unbelief they were broken off", and 
thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. Behold therefore 
the goodness and severity of God : on them which fell, severity ; but toward 
thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness : otherwise thou shalt be 
cut off".' 'Because of unbelief they are broken off".' Mark, if thou con- 
tinue. My brethren, let me speak freely to you. The truth hath been pur- 
chased for you, and transmitted to you at a dear rate; it cost Christ his 
blood at first, and it hath cost your forefethers something. In Queen Mary's 
days they bought it with their dearest blood ; since it hath cost many a 
preacher his best blood, spent, though not spilt for it; it cost many a prayer; 
it cost many a converted soul amongst us all their sins ; it hath cost God 
himself much patience, the riches of his forbearance (notwithstanding our 
unworthiness), spent in great deliverances ; and thus you have it yet for you 
and yours. Murderers, will you undo your children ; will you sell it away 
from you by unbelief, by remaining still in your sins ; by corrupting the 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 85 

doctrine of the church, bringing in this more corrupt tenet than that of 
Popery and Arminianism ; sell it away as spendthrifts do their lands, now a 
piece and then a piece ; run so far behind-hand by unworthy walking in it, 
till it fall mortgaged, and then you and yours be undone ? Do, cut-throats, 
do, and let your children's blood, that shall be starved for want of bread, lie 
upon your heads ! 

Use 4. Was the state of man, as he fell out of God's hands, an estate of 
holiness and righteousness ? Then to turn from sin and become a saint 
again is not a thing men should be ashamed of, or mocked for, for it was your 
primitive and first condition, that which you were all created in ; it is but a 
returning to that which all once were in Adam, and which we ought to be in 
still ; and men are damned because they are not found to be so. Remember, 
holiness is older than sin : ' God made man righteous, but they sought out 
many inventions,' Eccles. vii. 29. Sins are but new inventions and new 
fashions, which though universally received, and so have obtained, yet grace 
and holiness is the ancient fashion and apparel our forefather was arrayed 
with, which till he lost he never met with shame, and though he was naked 
he never knew what it was to be miserable. In Col. iii. 10 the apostle 
useth this motive, and in a manner this resemblance, ' Put on the new man, 
which is created in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' 
He calls it indeed a 7iew man to be put on, in comparison of this sinful habit, 
and old rags of sin we are now apparelled with. 

Use 5. Are all born into the world sinners and enemies to God ? You 
see, then, that the devil's kingdom is aforehand provided for the maintain- 
ing of it ; his faction is sure to be increased, his army to have fresh supplies 
in every age. Every one born into the world is enrolled into his band, and 
at first fight under his colours. But Christ hath none but who turn from 
the world, and separate from it. You, then, that are for Christ, and the 
advancement of his kingdom, had need bestir yourselves for the increasing 
of his kingdom, seeing all must be won ofi" out of the companies which are 
in the devil's empire. Suppose that, whereas there is in this kingdom a 
strict law that Jesuits should not come into the land, there were a statute 
that none else but such as are Jesuited should come over, were not this 
church in danger ? Now, so is the case here. Every man that cometh into 
this world is for the devil : how, then, should we endeavour to continue a 
seed to God of his friends' children ? Otherwise the world will naturally be 
overgrown with tares. 

Use 6. You have heard what a fearful hideous sin this first sin was, on 
our father Adam's and Eve's part, who were the personal actors of it, and 
by which they overthrew all the world, which (as I then said) was a peeuUar 
guilt residing in their persons. And if it was the aggravation of Jeroboam's 
sin, and stuck by him as a brand, that he 'made all Israel to sin,' 1 Kings 
xiv. 16, then must it much more hold in Adam's sin, and He heavy on them, 
as those that made all the world to sin. We would all be ready to think 
now, that for these two, of all men else, there should nothing remain but a 
certain looking for of vengeance and fiery indignation to devour them ; 
nothing but damnation could certainly be the end of them, so abounding 
was their offence. 

But yet, my brethren, behold and WMider, God offered these two mercy 
and pardon ; yea, and when there was none to be a messenger and an am- 
bassador to bring them the news of it, rather than they should want it, God 
came himself to tell them the news of it, and to preach the gospel to them : 
Gen. iii. 8, 9, ' And they heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the 
garden in the cool of the day : and Adam and his wife hid themselves from 



36 AN UNREGENERATE JIAx's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden. And the 
Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou ? ' He 
calls them out when they ran away from him. He took the pains to examine 
them punctually, and all the partakers in it; was content to put up an 
afiront given him by Adam to his face, that the woman that he gave him had 
ensnared him, for so far was he from asking mercy, as he obliquely, and afar 
off, chargeth God with his fall. Yet when their conscience was, for all their 
shifting, filled with terror for their sin, ver. 10, and he stood trembling by, 
and could not but look every minute when God should fly upon them in 
wrath, yet then God lets drop a word of promise of a second Adam, of whom 
he was a type, that should destroy the kingdom of sin, and cursed works of 
the devil.: ver 15, 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
bruise his heel.' Yea, and undoubtedly they laid hold upon it by faith, and 
were saved, not's\'ithstanding this sin, which hath abounded so in sinfulness. 
Of the woman it is expressly said that God put enmity between her and the 
devil, such as between wicked men, and Christ and his saints, and therefore 
she (who yet was first in the ti'ansgression, and is put in the greatest blame, 
1 Tim. ii. 14) was saved, and plucked out of the kingdom of Satan ; and 
so likewise Adam ; for God preaching the gospel himself to them both, hav- 
ing first prepared them for mercy by examining their sin, surely this his 
first sermon was not in vain, himself being the preacher. And a church was 
to be called from the beginning of the world, and God's worship set up, and 
a kingdom erected in men's hearts through the preaching of man's fall, and 
the promise of a Mediator, which none but these two knew, and of which, 
therefore, it must be supposed that Adam, as a priest and prophet, instructed 
his children in, as appears from Gen. iv. 3, 4. The first news we hear of. 
his two children is theii- ofierings to God, and God's accepting Abel's : so 
as they were instructed both in the knowledge of the true God, and of the 
second covenant, and Christ revealed therein, of whom sacrifice was a figure. 
And in that Cain, a wicked man, was brought to it as well as Abel, it argues 
it was the force of his education, and his parents' authority and instruction 
brought him to it; yea, and when Abel was dead, the punishment God 
inflicted on Cain argues this, for it was an external excommunication and 
casting him out of the church, which was a real sign to him of God's cast- 
ing him from his favour and kingdom, which filled his heart with terror, as 
it doth excommunicated persons often. I say, he was excommunicated 
out of the church, which could be no other than Adam's family, for so the 
16th verse of chap. iv. e^ddently implies, for it is said, ' Cain went out from 
the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod.' And the opposi- 
tion shews that he went from a communion wherein God manifested his 
presence, to another place where he did not. And the face and presence of 
God is taken in Scripture for the society of the church, where his ordinances 
are received; Psa. xHi. 1, 2, 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the 
living God : when shall I come and appear before God ? ' Now, there was 
no family in the world but Adam's, of which he was the head and guide. 

Considering, then, with this the greatness of their sin, what use shall we 
make of all that hath been spoken, but even to admire at the greatness and 
goodness of God's grace, which is the next thing this scripture in Rom. v. 
19, 20 suggests, ' Where sin hath abounded, grace did much more abound.' 
From the beginning of the world to this hour, there is not the like instance 
of the greatness and freeness of God's grace. For if you would go rifle the 
heap of human offences committed from the first to the last, search God's 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 37 

dobt-book wherein all men's sins are registered, you shall find none like to 
this, the sin against the Holy Ghost excepted ; it being (besides other aggra- 
vations) the mother-sin of all sins, as truly as Eve was the mother of all the 
living, as Adam calls her : Gen. iii. 20, ' And Adam called his wife's name 
Eve, because she was the mother of all living.' For, as lust conceived brings 
forth sin, so this sin ihns conceived brought forth the mother of all lust : 
causa causie est ccmsa causatl. And yet, behold mercy and pardon ofleredby 
God to these two for this sin, and that unsought for by them. Kings use 
to hang up the general ringleader in a rebellion, even when they offer pardon 
to all the rest, as an example of their justice and terror to them all. No one 
would have thought that though God might have after published his extent* 
of saving others of mankind through Christ, to the rest of men his seed, as 
being but brought in by Adam to the guilt of this rebellion, that yet neither 
he nor Eve should ever have had the least hope of it; but behold, God, 
instead of making them an example of his justice that way, hath made them 
(as he did Paul) a pattern of the riches of his grace, to toll in the rest of the 
rebels, be their sins never so great. 

That which discoarageth many a poor soul from laying hold of mercy, and 
to put off the promise of grace, as not made to them, is the guilt of some 
great and hideous sin, which, if they themselves had never so and so com- 
mitted, they would and do think that then they might have had mercy. It 
was the case of Cain, the next man to Adam, who, notwithstanding this 
instance of his father before him, yet when he had murdered his brother, he 
thought. Gen. iv. 13, * his sin greater than could be forgiven,' for so inter- 
preters! acknowledge it may be read ; and thus the Greek and Chaldee 
paraphrase translate it. And yet compare but Cain's sin with theirs : Cain 
murdered but one man, his brother, and but his body was murdered by him, 
his soul he could not kill ; but Adam and Eve murdered all men, who were 
their own children, and murdered not their bodies only, but their souls, 
these being born dead in trespasses and sins from their guilt, and the children 
of wrath by reason of that offence : Eph. ii. 1-3, ' And you hath he quick- 
ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins ; wherein in time past ye walked 
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of 
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience : among 
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our tlesh, 
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; and were by nature the 
children of wrath, even as others.' 

And tell me now, what can there be in any of thy sins, whosoever thou 
art, that was not in this of our first parents, who yet found mercy at God's 
hands ? If thou sayest thou hast not offended one of the little ones only 
(commandments I mean), but against the great things of the law, Adam did 
so in this, the law of the forbidden tree being the greatest commandment (as 
I formerly shewed) that God gave to man ; yea, and his sin was more also, 
as some divines shew, even against all the commandments. If thou repliest 
again, that thou hast sinned against a great deal of light (which ingredient 
aggravates sin the most of anything), our first parents had the light of the 
law recollected wholly and fully, gathered together in them, as all light was 
in the body of the sun. For Adam was the great and common taper God 
set up for us to light our candles at. And the mind of man is thus called, 
Prov. XX. 27. He had also strength enough to have withstood it, had he 
used it, which we want often when we have light enough. And evident it is, 
that Eve did distinctly consider the law given to the contrary; for before she 
ate, she herself repeated the commandment, with the penalty annexed, to the 
* Qu. ' intent "? — Ed. t Septuagiiit : Hu^m h uItik (/.ou nu a.(p'J^iMa'i f^i. 



38 AN UNRE&ENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK I. 

serpent, Gen. iii. 2, 3. She did it therefore wittingly, and not out of igno- 
rance ; as Paul excuseth his great sins against the great things of the law, 

1 Tim. i. 13, 'I was a persecutor, and a blasphemer, but I did it ignorantly ;' 
so did not she. The weak light of nature, not joined with strength to do what 
it enjoins, makes the Gentiles' sins so much more sinful, Rom. i. throughout. 
And therefore so much more light, so much more sin ; then how doth their 
light aggravate this of theirs, for disobedience against light is more than 
witchcraft. 

If thou say, thou hast fallen into thy sin, since thou hast tasted of the 
good word of God, and hast been aftected with it, and the ways of God, 
which is a higher aggravation of a sin than the former, as Peter makes it, 

2 Pet. ii, 21, 'It had been better not to have known the way of righteous- 
ness, than after they have known it, to turn fi'om the holy commandment 
delivered unto them.' He speaks of a tasting and affecting knowledge there. 
Consider, our first parents' was more ; for they had enjoyed certainly sweeter 
communion and fellowship with God then, being created perfect in his image, 
and more near and intimate, than thou hast done ; and, therefore, as David 
takes it heinously, and much more heinously, an injury done him from a 
famiUar friend — Ps, Iv. 12, ' Had he been my enemy, &c., but thou my 
friend, that had took sweet counsel together,' — so might God much more 
resent it of Adam, who had tasted of his goodness, knew what comfort and 
happiness was to be had in him, and yet did forsake him. If thou thinkest 
thou hast tui'ned the gi'ace of God into wantonness, he did much more. 

If thou sayest, thou hast sinned against abundance of kindness and mercy 
received from God, and yet that immediately after that some great favour 
received, thou hast fallen into some gi'eat sin ; so did he, and much more, 
for God had obliged him to him by all the highest ties of friendship. God 
had made Adam his darling and especial favourite at his first creation ; had 
raised him out of nothing but a little before, out of the same dust the rest of 
the creatures (which sprang forth of the earth) were taken out of ; breathed 
into him an immortal soul, reasonable, which they want; set him next him- 
self, over them all in his throne : ' Have dominion,' says he, ' and subdue 
them,' Gen. i. 28; so as God might say to him as he did to David, 2 Sam. 
xii. 7, 8, ' Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over 
Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy 
master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the 
house of Israel, and of Judah ; and if that had been too little, I would more- 
over have given unto thee such and such things.' So God might have said 
to Adam : Did I not anoint thee king, gave thee a large dominion, and would 
have done much more also ? Wherefore hast thou despised the command- 
ment of the Lord, in doing evil in his sight ? If thou sayest, thou hast in 
thy sin made others sin, and to fall with thee, and hast carried others into 
the same rebellion, which is a great aggravation, as appears in Jeroboam's 
case, the great aggravation of whose sin was, that he made others to sin, 
1 Kings xiv. 16 ; why, the sin of Adam was much more, for he made men 
to sin, not only by his example, but he derived sin down to them; and he 
did what in him lay to condemn all the world ; and thousands are gone to hell 
for his sin, which sinned not so much as after the similitude of his trans- 
gression, Rom. V. 14. 

Wilt thou say, lastly, thou didst sin willingly and wilfully ? which is a 
great aggravation of sin also ; for as the more God's will is expressed against 
a sin, the greater it is ; so the more our wills are expressed in it, and for it, 
the greater the sin is too, insomuch as many make it essential to sin, that it 
be voluntary, and therefore so much the more sin, by how much more 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 39 

voluntary. Consider that this sin of Adam's was most free, most volun- 
tary, for the devil and his wife were but external means, could not have 
necessitated him to it ; and the devil could not have necessitated them unto 
it ; and so much the more free it must needs be, by how much he had no 
sin within to incline and sway his will to it, no principle for Satan to work 
on, as we all now have ; so that as Paul, being a regenerate man, complains 
to the lessening of his sin, Rom. vii. 17, it is ' not I, but sin that dwelleth 
in me,' Adam, on the contrary, might truly say. It was not sin dwelling 
in me moved me to it, but mine own will only. 

And yet thou seest that, immediately after the commission of this great 
sin, God offered him mercy ; and so he doth thee, if thou wilt lay hold on it, 
and turn to God, as indeed he did. Learn this, and remember it, that as 
you must not think you shall be received to mercy the sooner for the small- 
ness of your sins, so neither be denied it the more for the greatness of them. 
They are not simply your sins, though aggravated with all these circum- 
stances, that keep you from mercy, but your impenitency, hardness of heart, 
going on presumptuously, and saying in your hearts, as they in the begm- 
ning of the next chapter, Rom. vi. 1, ' We may continue in sin, for grace 
will abound.' And let me now turn my speech, and work upon your hearts, 
since the mere guilt of your former sins shall not hinder you from believing, 
and repenting even after Adam's example. Let me expostulate the matter 
with your impenitence and unbeUef, and aggravate it by the consideration of 
his example. You have gone on many years in hardness of heart, and a 
course of rebellion, but so did not he. He immediately, after he had en- 
tered into that rebellious course, upon a proclamation of pardon, relented 
and came in, and laid his weapons down. You have had thousands of pre- 
cious promises of mercy (he had but one) to win your hearts ; proclama- 
tion of pardon after proclamation, that he that runs may read and understand 
them, but so had not he. God let fall but one promise, and that an obscure 
one too ; yet as Benhadad's servants, 1 Kings xx. 33, watched when any 
word should fall from Ahab, that should give them intimation of the least 
of his inclination to pardon, they greedily catched at it, even so did he. 
Adam and Eve having but one promise, and hearing it but once, yet believed 
and repented, though they had no other of mankind before them that gave 
them example or hope that sinners should be received. Now great is the 
force of examples, which, as they illustrate rules, so they confirm precepts ; 
non mimis docent, qiiam pracepta. Therefore former examples help to draw 
in the heart, as well as promises, as in Paul's conversion; but now you 
have not only the example of your first parents' faith, but millions of 
examples of as great sinners as yourselves, hung out by God, as patterns 
and flags of mercy to toll ' you in. Neither need you go to fetch them from 
former ages ; you have some walking in your streets who have been as great 
sinners as you, who j^et have obtained mercy. 

If you object and say, God himself preached to Adam, but so he doth not 
to me ; I answer you, as Peter doth, 2 Pet. i. 19, speaking of the Scrip- 
tures and salvation off"ered in them : though, says he at ver. 17, ye heard 
not God's voice from heaven, which we heard, yet we have as sure a word 
of prophecy ; you have his hand for it ; and you that will not believe when 
Moses, the prophets, and apostles, and ministers, call you to repentance, 
would not, if Christ should come down and preach to you. 

What shall I say more to you ? If you wiU not lay hold on mercy thus 
ofiered, notwithstanding your sins, and repent as Adam did, you shall be 
damned, and so was not he ; yea, and with a greater condemnation than he 
should have been condemned withal, because your means are greater. 



40 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD. [BoOK it. 



BOOK 11. 

An unregeuerate mans guiltiness before God, in respect of that corruption of 
nature with wJdch all mankind is infected, and the whole nature of every 
man is 2>olluted and depraved. 

That which is bom of the flesh is flesh. — John III. 6. 



CHAPTER I. 

The words of the text explained — An enumeration of the several errors concern- 
ing original sin. — Pelagius denied that there was any such thing. — Pighius, 
and some of the schoolmen, though they acknowledge some guilt to accrue to us 
from Adam's flrst sin, yet deny any corrujjlion of nature to be derived from 
it. — The p>apists make it wholly to consist in the want of original righteous- 
ness, excluding concupiscence from being any part, and consequently deny 
what they call the motus pvimi, to be sins. — Others say that this corruption 
hath not infected all the facidties of the soul. — To refute these errors, several 
propositions asserted and proved. — That to every man born into the world 
there is more derived than the guilt of Adam's first sin. — That there is a 
corruption inherent in his nature. — That this corruption is the predominant 
2irinciple of all his actions. — That man's nature is thus totally corrujjted, 
demonstrated. 

My scope in choosing tliis text is to proceed in discovering the abounding 
sinfulness of man by nature, whereof aheady I have shewn you out of Rom. 
V. 12, the spring and source at which sin first entered upon all mankind, 
' by one man,' and ' one ofience :' by Adam our first father, whose first sin- 
fulness we, as his heirs, appointed by a just and necessary covenant, do 
inherit, as we should have done his righteousness, the particulars of whose 
debts, and the immense vastness of them, I have begun to search into, out 
of the 20th verse of the same chapter, and shewing the abounding sinful- 
ness of that sinful act and ofience, whereof I proved we were all guilty, 
which was tbe spring and flood-gate at which sin entered. 

The next thing which in order I am come to, is to sound that abound- 
ing gulf, bottomless sea, and lake of that corruption and sinfulness of nature 
within all our hearts (the miserable vessels and cisterns of it), this first act 
of sin, as the original spring and source, through the channel and conduit- 
pipe of natural generation, empties itself into and determines in. 

For as I intimated before, and this scripture will more fully inform us, 
we are arrested not only as guilty of that lirst cursed act which he person- 
ally performed, and so in regard of it ai'e termed sinners, and exposed liable 
to God's wi'ath, but also as guilty of an universal, total, sinful defilement, 
spread over all faculties of soul and body, containing in it a privation or 



Chap. L] in respect of sin and punishment. 41 

want of all good, and an inclination to all evil (which our Saviour Christ 
here, and the Scripture elsewhere, calls flesh), which is traduced unto us by 
birth and fleshly generation, ' that which is born of the flesh is flesh,' and 
which infects all mankind, even all that is said to be ' born of flesh,' all that 
is in man : ' that which is born of the flesh is flesh.' 

And that this is Christ's meaning here, appeareth by the coherence of the 
words, for his scope is to convince Nicodemus of the necessity of regenera- 
tion, whereby a man is to be made, and all in man, * spirit,' or ' a spiritual 
man,' as the word spirit may be interpreted : 1 Cor. ii. 15, ' But he that is 
spiritual judge th all things, yet he himself is judged of no man ;' and a man 
is thus made spiritual by the work of the Holy Ghost. ' That which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit;' and he convinceth him by this reason, because all 
that is born in man by the first birth is nothing but flesh, that is, a thing 
contrary (as the opposition to spirit shews) to that which the Holy Ghost 
works. It is a mere lump and mass of sin inhering and sticking in man's 
nature, as you shall hear afterwards when I come to open what this flesh is. 

Before I do that, let me present to your view a link and chain of the con- 
trary errors about original sin, with the doctrines and deductions I shall 
make hence, which will evidently refute those errors, as being diametrically 
opposed unto them. 

All W'hich errors have not been so much in going too far, or in making too 
great a matter of it, but diminishing and extenuating it rather, thereby to 
make way for the extenuating withal, more or less, according as this is ex- 
tenuated, even of the superabounding grace of Christ ; for as long as that 
stands true that is said, Eom. v. 20, that the more man's sinfulness 
abounds, the more God's grace superabouuds, grace being but the remedy 
or medicine of sin, so long it will be charged on those that extenuate and 
lessen man's natural sinfulness, that so far as they do extenuate it, they ex- 
tenuate and make void, and take from the grace of Christ; for he that lessens 
the disease disparageth the virtue of the medicine. 

View but the errors in their several degrees of detracting from it, begin- 
ning at the lowest step or stair. 

First, Pelagius at one stroke dasheth out all the debt, and says that we 
stand bound to God for nothing by reason of it. He denies any communi- 
cation of the guilt of Adam's fact, or corruption of nature thence traduced, 
and says that all the harm Adam did was to bring in a bad example, which 
we all follow, and in no other sense did sin enter upon the world. Suitable 
to which conceit of man's sinfulness is that of Socinus, concerning Christ's 
righteousness and grace through him, that all that Christ did was to give a 
good example, and to shew the way to heaven. 

Secondly, Pighius and some few of the schoolmen they further acknow- 
ledge guilt and binding over all to death by reason of being guilty of the first 
sinful act indeed ; but corruption of nature thence traduced, they acknow- 
ledge not. That look as the papists do acknowledge sanctification or in- 
herent righteousness, but without Christ's righteousness imputed, and so 
diminish from the abounding of grace, so, on the contrary, these aclmow- 
ledge condemnation indeed for Adam's oflence, but without inherent 
coiTuption conveyed, and so detract from man's corruption and sinfulness. 

Thirdly, Some other more secret entrenchments upon the boundless limits 
of God's grace, acknowledge indeed a true and real imputation of the guilt of 
Adam's sin, yea, and also a want of original righteousness, a corruption also 
and disease of nature inherently derived, which is here called flesh, yet they 
circumcise the sinfulness of it, as you shall hear afterwards. 

FourthUj, The papists, though they further acknowledge in this point more 



42 AN UNEEGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

than those others, viz., that that corruption which is thus in us is a sin, yet 
half the debt they strike out of the account; for making it only to consist in 
the want of original righteousness, they cut off the grossest and greatest part 
of it, denying concupiscence to be a part of it. 

Fifthly, Both they and others do exclude some of the faculties of the soul 
from being infected with it, making fewer debtors in man obliged to death 
by reason of it than indeed there are : so to maintain their detraction from 
tbe sanctifying grace of Christ in conversion in this, as in the former they 
did from the justifying gi-ace of Christ. 

Against all which, in my following discourse, I shall (God assisting) 
oppose and make good these several propositions, diametrically opposite. 

Against the fu-st, that which hath been delivered out of Rom. v. 12 may 
suffice. 

Against the other, out of this text, and other scriptures compared with it, 
take these ensuing conclusions. 

I. That there is something inherently derived to us by birth, called here 
flesh, which is more than simply the guilt of Adam's sinful act committed 
by him. 

II. Which I will prove to be a corruption of our nature ; which, put to- 
gether with the former, contradicteth Pighius his error. 

III. That it is properly a sin ; which contradicts the third error. 
And in shewing the great sinfulness of it, that it is, 

IV. More than a want of righteousness, and also a positive inclination to 
all evil ; which is against the fourth error. 

V. That also it is seated in each particular faculty of soul and body : 
' That which is born of the flesh is flesh,' there is not one thing in man but 
is infected with it ; which is opposite to the last error. 

I. The first is that, by birth, there is more derived than the guilt of 
Adam's sin, something else that sticks in our natures ; for it is here said, 
' that which is born of the flesh is flesh ; ' and for the meaning of the 
words, when he says of flesh, he means, of man after a fleshly manner; but 
by the latter, is flesh, he means not flesh and blood, the substance of man, 
but inherent corruption. For as in the next words, ' that which is born of 
the Spirit is spirit,' spirit, which is the thing begotten, and differs from 
the Spirit which is the begetter, and notes out the new creature of holiness 
wrought in the soul, and inherent there, and therefore is called ' the seed 
of God remaining in him,' 1 John iii. 9, so likewise flesh notes out 
inherent corruption, which is derived by generation, which also is evident 
from Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other.' Flesh and 
spirit there are put as two inherent qualities, conveyed by these two several 
births, and so are there opposed ; I say, inherent qualities, sticking in 
man's nature ; for the flesh is said to have works or fruits, in Gal. v. 19 : 
' Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these : adultery, for- 
nication,' &c. Whence it appears that this flesh is a rooted thing in man's 
nature, whence operations flow, as buds from a root, which though they be 
transient, yet the root sticks in the earth ; and so it is as to this flesh in 
man's heart. 

Secondly, The scope of Christ shews it, for it is to shew what need, yea, 
necessity, there is of regeneration, which is nothing else but a working of 
new spiritual dispositions in the whole man, called here spirit, without which 
no man shall enter into heaven ; for says Christ, ' that which is born of the 
flesh is flesh,' whereby therefore he must needs mean the clean contrary to 
the spirit of holiness, which is to be wrought in the soul. Now, then, if 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 48 

only a guilt from Adam was derived, and no corruption inherent in the soul, 
we should need only justification, which is properly a doing away of the 
guilt of sin ; but Christ says there is a work of regeneration also required, 
which is a renewing the nature of man, making it of flesh, spirit, regenera- 
tion being a work upon the soul ; therefore flesh notes out a corruption 
sticking in the soul. 

'Thirdly, The manner of the predication here used shews it ; for flesh is 
predicated of man (as he is first born) in the abstract, which if it noted out 
only the act of Adam's sin, could not be. 

So tbat the first doctrine I propound in these terms, which I will severally 
explain, is this, 

That in every man's nature, that is born into the w'orld, there is a mass 
of corruption that inheres or sticks in him, which is the principle of all his 
actions, whence they proceed; yea, which is in some sense the nature of man, 
as being the predominant quahty, which is in all, and guides all. 

And this is directly contrary to the error of those that say Adam's sin is 
only conveyed. This I will particularly explain. 

1st, I say it is corruption; for so this, which is called here flesh, is called 
in Eph. iv. 22, ' the old man, which is corrupt,' &c. Now, then, corrup- 
tion must needs be of something which was good before ; and even so it is, 
God made man righteous, now he is depraved and defiled, his nature is 
corrupted; and instead of being a living body, he is now become as a dead 
body, that hath in it nothing but corruption and putrefaction. I fu'st call 
it corruption, because it is a distinct thing to prove it to be a sin, which I 
will shew afterwards, against such as deny concupiscence to be a sin. 

2dly, It is a corruption which I say sticks or cleaves to a man's nature, 
for so it is said to do expressly, to ' dwell in a man,' Rom. vii. 17, 18. 
* Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in vie. For I 
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) divelleth no good thing : for to will is 
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.' So a 
man hath not only acts of sin which are transient, which but come from him 
and so away, but he hath a root and spring of sin dwelling and residing in 
him, and not only adjacent to him, but inhabitant in him; it is not -n-a^a- 
•KiilMivov, rra^d/iiirai , but i>, o/xoDua, a/xa^Tia, peccatum hahituns ; and not only 
so, but encompassing about, and so to be resisted on all hands : Heb. xii. 1, 
' Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great cloud of wit- 
nesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 
us.' It is svjreoidTaTov afj:,aPT!av, peccaluni facile circumsta)is. Now all this 
implies more than acts. 

3dly, It is a corruption which is the principle, predominant of all his 
actions, whence all his works proceed, as appears from Gal. v. 19, ' Now 
the works of the flesh are manifiest, which are these: adultery, fornication,' 
&c. The flesh is said to have works and fruits, as being a root in man's 
nature, and so it is called: Deut. xxix. 18, * Lest there should be among you 
a root that beareth gall and wormwood ;' Heb. xii. 15, ' Lest any root of 
bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby may be defiled.' A root it is 
which brings forth gall and wormwood, that is, bitter fruits of sin, and which 
is therefore said to be an energetical thing, which works in our members, 
and brings forth fruit to death : Rom. vii. 5, ' For when we were in the 
flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, 
to bring forth fruit unto death.' Bitter fruits : Jer .ii. 19, ' Thine own wicked- 
ness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee : know 
therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken 
the Lord thy God,' &c. Grapes of gall, and clusters that are bitter: Deut. 



44 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

xxxii. 32, ' For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of 
Gomorrah : their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.' 

4thly, I say, there is a bundle or mass of this corruption, and therefore 
it is called a body that hath multitude of members : Col. ii. 11, 'In whom 
also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting 
ofi" tlie body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.' It is a 
hody of the sins of the flesh, of abounding dimensions, a body that hath 
inwards and outwards, gross and more sensible dispositions to fleshly lusts, 
that war in the members, and also secret entrails of atheism, contempt of 
God, distrust and hatred of God, not discernible to a man, till God's Spirit 
doth cut this anatomy up. And so also Solomon says of it, that there is a 

* bundle of folly in the heart of a child, till the rod fetch it out,' Prov. xxii. 15. 
There is a pack or bundle wrapped up in his heart, a pack of rotten and^corrupt 
wares which sticketh there; for the rod, through God's Spirit working, is said 
to fetch it out; and this in the heart of a child, even before the pack be opened, 
and all the wares be brought to light by actual sins ; for they are said to be 
bound up there till then ; and therefore Augustine says, ImbectUitas mem- 
hroriim in/antinm innocens est, non aninms iiifaiitimn. Yea, and this in the 
very conception ; therefore David says, Ps. ii. 5, ' Behold, I was shapen in 
iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me. ' He means more than 
barely a guilt of Adam's sin, for he says, he was conceived in sin, which 
notes out more than Adam's one sin, spoken of in Rom. v. 18. And that 
he means sin sticking to his inward parts, appears by the next words, 

* Thou requirest truth in the inward parts ;' as if he had said, I have not 
only committed this sinful act of adultery, but there is even in my inward 
parts sin sticking from my very conception ; whereas * thou requirest, 
Lord,' says he, * in the inward parts, truth;' and David's scope is to con- 
fess the spring from whence that his great act of sin sj)rung, even from the 
sin wherein he was conceived. 

5thly, This corruption is, as it were, the very nature of man, and there- 
fore is predicated in the abstract, and implies more than an ordinary quality, 
even such an one as doth explain what the very nature and definition of man 
is ; for it is not said to be fleshly, but flesh, as if it was a thing that doth 
ingredi essentiam et deflnitionem, as if divinity had found out another and a 
further definition of man, that philosophy falls short of. Philosophers define 
man to be mdmal rationale, Christ defines him to be flesh, that is, sin and 
corruption, contrary to grace, this being his very nature, as divinity con- 
siders him now as fallen. And in that it is made the definition of man's 
nature, as it were in the abstract, it argues it is a thing inherent in us. 
But to enlarge a little on this notion. 

1. Definitions are taken from things which are insita vaturd, bred in 
nature ; none but essential properties are ingredients in definitions. 

And 2. Definitions are taken from the most predominant qualities where 
the essence is unknown; so flesh or sinful corruption being a more predomi- 
nant principle in man's nature than reason itself, for it doth not only guide 
all, and even reason itself (as reason doth all in a man by way of influence), 
but which is more, it resides in all of a man, which reason doth not. It is, 
as it were, another form in man's nature, tota in toio ; therefore, says he, 
' that which is born of the flesh is flesh.' It cleaves to all the faculties as 
the seat and sulyect of it, whereas reason hath a seat by itself in the soul, 
distinct from other faculties, though it rules them. 

Yea, and 3, which is more, this corruption it is so essential and predomi- 
nant, and so universally diflused and seated in the whole man, that tbere is 
a mutual predication, as it were, between man and it, aud both in the 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 45 

abstract. And as here you see man's nature, and all that is in it, is call<3d 
Hesh, so, Eph. iv. 22, this corruption is called the man, ' put off the old man ; ' 
that is, not the substance of man's nature, because then Christ had not 
assumed the same nature with us ; and besides, can a man run away from 
himself, or put off himself as he doth his clothes ? No. Therefore by the 
old man is meant the corruption that we have from Adam, called therefore 
old, and the old man, because it is seated in, and guides, and is the nature 
of the whole man, for so it follows, 'which is corrupt,' &c. It is also a 
corruption you see this old man is which is born by the first birth, and there- 
fore also a thing sticking in a man, else why is it said to be put off, as being 
res adjacens, and hanging about him? Therefore also,! Cor. iii. 3, to be 
carnal and to be a man is made the same thing, ' Are ye not carnal and 
fleshly, and walk as men ? ' that is, according to your kind and nature, and 
those carnal properties that stick in you ; not that this corruption is the 
substance of man, for then Christ, being without sin, should be irgcovff/o; ; so 
that this first deduction is every way clear out of the text. 

Now, that man's nature is become thus corrupt, and turned flesh, and a 
bundle of folly and corruption, and that it is their nature, 

I will give you, first, some demonstrations of it ; secondly, reasons. 

I. The first demonstration is taken, 

1. From experience taken from all mankind. 

First, All men sin from their youth. The first act that discovers reason in 
a child hath sin also mingled with it. Take any child and observe him, and 
watch him when the first springings forth and dawnings of reason begin to 
appear, and they are corrupt ; they express reason only in sinning, as in 
readiness to please themselves by doing harm to others, or excusing them- 
selves by lying, and in pride of apparel ; and also their natural inclination 
to revenge is seen, because they are often quieted by seeing the thing beaten 
that hath offended them ; hence the poet of the child, Irani colUrjit, et ponit 
temere. 

And this the Scripture, upon God's general observation, tells, Gen. viii. 21, 
that they are evil from their youth, from the first thought to the last, which 
argues it is nature in them. If the tree be known by the fruit, much more 
by the first fruits. 

Secondly, All men sin continually ; not only their first actions are such, 
but all are continually such, which shews it is nature, for quod convenit semper, 
est natnrale ; and this God upon the like experience says. Gen. vi. 5, that 
their ' thoughts were evil continually.' 

Thirdly, It is thus not with a few, but with all men, not one excepted, 
which argues it to be a nature also, for quod convenit omni, est naturale ; and 
so. Gen. vi. 12, it is said that ' all flesh hath corrupted their ways.' 

Fourthly, They do all this of their own accord, as the devil is said to sin 
of his own ; they slide into these actions sine impulsore, without example or 
precept ; therefore Solomon, the wise searcher into the cause of things, 
found the original of all iniquity to be this, that they of their own accord 
' sought out many inventions,' Eceles. vii. 29. So likewise in the Proverbs, 
' A child left to himself puts his mother to shame,' Prov. xxix. 15. You 
need not teach him to sin, but only leave him to himself, and he will soon 
shame his mother. Now things that are not natural must have teachers and 
practice before we can learn them ; as take a man that did never swim in his 
life, and he must be taught to swim before he can do it. Though there is in 
man some remote power to it by nature, yet use must be added; but take 
a beast, or take a little whelp, and throw him into the water, and he will 



46 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

swim presently, because nature hath taught him. Even so it is in the soul 
to anything which is more than nature, it must have a teacher. 

Fifthly, And not only thus left to themselves do they run into evil, but 
the jMndus et impetus naturcB can hardly be restrained by the best means 
that art or education can aflford. That which cannot be restrained is natural ; 
Natiiram expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit:* if it be bred in the bone, it 
will never be got out of the flesh. Since you see also that sin is natural, for 
it cannot be expelled, all good means of education, admonition, &c., will not 
keep your children from sinning. Though you should bray a fool in a 
mortar, yet he would be a fool still. Indeed, Solomon saith, ' the rod of 
correction will drive it out ; ' but it is not in the means themselves, but in 
the blessing of God upon them, and sanctifying them to that end ; all which 
shews that it is natural, even as the natural spring which is the fountain of 
all these corrupt actions. 

2. This is confirmed also by testimonies, that man' by nature is corrupt. 

1st, By the testimonies of the Gentiles themselves, who knew this out of 
observation and experience, and yet they wanted the light of the law and 
gospel to tell them that ' whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh.' 

So ^sop compared nature to a garden, that is, mater vitiis, virtiitibus 
noverca ; and Plato, lib. ii. de Rep. homines naturd malos esse, et adduci non 
posse, ut jiistitiam colant. 

2dly, All the world do suppose so much, for there are several offices in 
the world that imply so much by general appointment ; for to what end are 
magistrates appointed in all kingdoms and in all ages, if there had not been 
this corruption of nature to be bridled and restrained ? 

Again, upon this supposition that nature is corrupt, all nations made their 
laws, which were not only to restrain the corruptions then in act and raging, 
but to be left as legacies to posterity, as remedies and medicines, which they 
would not have done had they not conceived the nature that they propa- 
gated unto them to be hereditarily corrupted. Medicina supponit mprbum, 
physic was not found out before diseases ; multitudo legum et medicorum 
cegrotam arguit rempublicam, et immensa ilia volumina legum, quid nisi 
publicce corruptionis tabulm ? 

If you should come into a town, and see many physicians there, you would 
presently conclude that it were a diseased place, or else what should so many 
physicians do there? So if you see so many laws and offices to suppress sin 
and corruption, this argues, cegrotam esse rempublicam, that the government 
is sicklj'. And in that they were made and appointed for after-times, it 
must needs shew that they did presuppose it should be to the end of the 
world. 

Again, the calling of the ministry doth argue that men are corrupt, and 
that they will be so to the end of the world, in that Christ hath ordained 
ministers to the end of the world. Now the calling of the ministry is for 
no other end but to watch over men's souls, to exhort them, &c., and by all 
means to keep them from sin, and to beget men to God by the immortal 
seed of the word, which argues^ that men are corrupt, for in heaven there 
shall need no preaching. 

3dly, The law of God given to us by God, sheweth us no less, for the 
law is not given to a righteous man, 1 Tim. i. 9 ; for man being righteous 
at first, was a law to himself; he had no law written, but only the law writ- 
ten in his heart ; and therefore the laws given to us are tabulce nostra corrup- 
tionis, tables and ensigns of our corruption ; and in that also the law is 
given negatively, as that, ' Thou shalt have none other gods but me ;' ' Thou 

* Horatius. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 47 

shnlt not make to thyself any graven image ;' * Thou shalt not take the name 
of the Lord thy God in vain,' &c. : this shews that man's nature falls cross 
with the law, and is opposite to it, for every negative is founded upon an 
affirmative. Therefore, because man's nature is turned cross to God's law, 
therefore the law is turned cross to it ; and the Lord saith. Thou shalt not 
do this or that, which argues that man's nature is wholly corrupt, and so 
apt to do contrary to that which the law commands. 

4thly, The gospel also tells us as much ; for, 1, Christ was made like to 
us in all infirmities but sin : Heb. iv. 15, ' For we have not an High Priest 
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all 
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin' (speaking of his human nature). 
2. The gospel ofiers Christ to you, not only to justify, but also to sanctify 
you; and therefore it is said, 1 Cor. i. 30, 'But of him are ye in Christ 
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- 
fication, and redemption.' From whence is plainly inferred, that all men 
by nature are corrupt ; for if the gospel reveal Christ, not only to convey a 
blessed righteousness, whereby we may appear holy and righteous before 
the Lord, but also an inherent righteousness to sanctify our nature, then the 
first Adam brought upon us, not only the guilt of his sin, but also the cor- 
ruption of our nature, and. there is this reason for it, because as it is, Rom. 
V. 13, the first Adam was a ' type of him that was to come,' so that, if the 
second Adam brought righteousness imputed and inherent, then the first 
Adam brought not only guilt, but the corruption of nature also. 

Again, in that Christ is made unto us sanctification, it argues thus 
much ; for if there were no corruption, what needed sanctification ? And 
what need infants, that cannot commit actual sin, to be said to be sancti- 
fied from the womb, as some are ? What need it, I say, if there had been 
no defilement ? 

Again, the remedy must be proportioned to the disease ; and if only 
Adam's sin were conveyed to us, then our justification only were sufficient ; 
but there must be sanctification also, and therefore there is a defilement of 
nature also. And therefore the sacraments of circumcision and baptism 
were ordained even for infants ; and baptism is called ' a washing away of 
the filth of the flesh,' in respect of this natural corruption, 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
All which argues that all men by nature are wholly corrupt. 

Therefore we are hence to take notice, that we are all, as we came into 
the world, corrupt, and our nature is defiled. What is grace, then ? It is 
not only an imputation of the righteousness of Christ, but as you look to be 
saved by Christ's righteousness, so you must look also to get inherent right- 
eousness from Christ, for every remedy must be proportioned to the disease ; 
and therefore if you look to be justified by Christ, you must be sanctified 
also ; and thou that lookest to be saved by thy good works, I tell thee thou 
must have grace within, a root within, which the stony ground wanted ; thou 
must have oil in thy vessels with thy lamps, which the foolish virgins had 
not. Therefore consider whether thou hast a new frame of heart within, and 
art made a new creature. 



CHAPTER IL 

What are the reasons or causes of the corruption of man's nature. — That 
Adam's nature icas presently depraved by the commission of his first sin. — 
That if Adam's first act of sin had an influence to corrxipt his nature, it 
hath tlie same influence to deprave ours, we being guilty of the first sin, as 



48 AN UXREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

veil as Adam himself was. — How mans soul, which proceeds not from the 
parents, but is created by God, comes to be corrupted by sin. 

Now, to shew you the grounds why our natures are thus corrupted, and 
not only the guilt of Adam's offence conveyed. 

First, If Adam's nature was stained and corrupted with an inherent cor- 
ruption by the act, then must ours also, if we be guilty of it as well as he, 
by an equal and necessary covenant. The proof of this consequence I 
will prove anon ; but Adam, by the commission and guilt of that first 
actual sin, had, and that necessarily, his nature thus stained and cor- 
rupted ; which proposition I will first prove, the truth of the other being 
built upon it. 

1. iJe facto, That his nature was thus thereby corrupted, and the image 
of God extinguished, it appears by what is spoken of him, as the effect and. 
immediate consequent following on it ; and this by a sensible alteration 
which Adam found in himself, for he found himself naked, and that not only 
in body, to cover which he sewed two fig-tree leaves, as Gen. iii. 7, ' And the 
eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they 
sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.' But he found 
himself naked in soul also : ver. 10, ' And he said, I heard thy voice in the 
garden ; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.' For it 
was such a nakedness as made him afraid of God's wrath, exposed him to it, 
which his bodily nakedness did not ; ' I heard thy voice in the garden ; and 
I was afraid, because I was naked.' Now nakedness is the want of some 
garment which a man should be clothed with ; now if you would know what 
garment it was he wanted, see Col. iii. 10, ' Put on the new man, which is 
renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' He speaks 
here expressly of the image of God, wherein man was fii'st created ; and 
likens it to a gaiTnent, as the phrase putting on implieth. Now, in Gen. 
i. 26, it is said indeed of Adam, that he was created in God's image, clothed 
with it as with a garment ; and now you see he is stripped of it, he is be- 
come naked, naked in soul, and therefore afraid of God ; and so nakedness 
is used for the want of God's image we were at first created in : 2 Cor. 
V. 2, 3, ' For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with 
our house which is fi'om heaven : if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be 
found naked.' We shall be clothed with glory, if we be found clothed, viz. 
with grace, and not naked. Nakedness is taken for the want of the image 
of God. Neither was Adam only naked, as stripped of this robe of God's 
image ; but. Gen. v. 3, you shall find him clothed with an image, which in 
opposition to God's (wherein at first he was created) is called his own 
twice ; and in the same words, as in the other place. Gen. i. 26, says God 
twice, ' Let us create man according to our own image, our likeness ;' there 
in Gen. v. 3, it is said of Adam, as in opposition, that he begat Seth in his 
image, his likeness ; which image of his, therefore, is differenced from 
Christ's image : 1 Cor. xv. 47-49, ' The first man is of the earth, earthy ; 
the second man is the Lord fi-om heaven. As is the earthy, such are they 
that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are 
heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also 
bear the image of the heavenly.' Adam's image is here distinguished from 
the image of Christ as a diflering thing, as much differing as earth and 
heaven : whereas otherwise, the image which God created Adam in at 
first, is the same which we have from Christ, as appears by Col. iii. 10, 
for the new man is called the image which God created man in at first. This 
you see, de facto, was the immediate consequent of the first sin in him. 



Chap. II. J in respect of sin and punishment. 49 

2. In reason it could not be otherwise, but that that first offence should 
corrupt his nature thus, and deprive him of God's image ; for an act of sin, 
or transgression of the law, though it be a transient thing, yet by whomso- 
ever it be committed, it hath a permanent effect and consequent, and leaves 
behind it a depravation of God's image, and an inherent defilement and cor- 
ruption ; and though it comes out from the soul, yet it casts defilement into 
it : Mat. xv. 18-20, ' But those things which proceed out of the mouth 
come forth from the heart ; and they defile the man. For out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, 
blasphemies : these are the things which defile a man ; but to cat with un- 
washen hands defileth not a man.' Those evil thoughts which come from 
the heart do defile the man, Christ says, do leave a stain, a corruption, a 
defilement behind them. And this I take to be the evidant meaning of that 
place, Rom. vi. 19, 20, ' As ye have yielded your members servants to un- 
cleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members 
servants to righteousness, unto holiness.' The apostle here brings a most 
effectual motive why men should not serve sin, for, s:iys he, the more you 
serve it, the more you are brought into bondage by it, for every act of service 
you do to it makes your natiu'es more prone to it, fills them with all iniquity 
(for that is the meaning, neither can there be any other, of ' serving iniquity 
unto iniquity'), a new and further stain, and impression, and defilement 
being left upon the soul by every act, as the fruit, consequent, and efl;ect 
that every sinful act ends in ; whereas in serving righteousness, as the con- 
trary, you do not only thereby do that whereof the end is eternal life, but 
increase holiness still in your hearts, every act making the heart more holy, 
and so every sin the heart more sinful : therefore, ver. 22, he says, the 
'fruit is holiness,' besides, 'the end everlasting life.' So that Adam com- 
mitting that act of iniquity, he did not barely commit that single act, and 
there to be an end, but iniquity was the fruit of it, iniquity defiling, cor- 
rupting his heart, and bringing the whole man in bondage into sin, by stain- 
ing his nature with a proneness to all iniquity. So, 2 Peter ii. 19, ' While 
they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of 
corruption : for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in 
bondage.' This is a rule which all victors observe, that if they overcome, 
they bring in bondage, clap irons and bolts upon a man ; so, says he there, 
doth sin and corruption. When a man's heart hath been overcome and 
foiled by one act of it, it brings all into bondage, casts out that which ruled 
before, and chains the heart to sinful practices for ever after by evil dis- 
positions which it engenders in it. So that Adam's heart being overcom^ 
by that act, his nature was corrupted thereby, and chained to all manner of 
lusts and pleasures. 

But you will say, though indeed custom in sinning may thus change 
Adam's heart, expel grace out, and defile it, as the prophet says, Jer. xiii. 23, 
that being accustomed to do evil, makes the heart defiled as the blackmoor's 
skin, spotted as the leopard's. But will one act do it ? 

I answer, yes ; one act of sin expels all grace, and leaves a proneness or 
bondage to all sin in the heart. 

1. Because the punishment of the least sin is, that a man shall lose all 
grace, and that his nature shall be brought into bondage by it, as Gen. ii. 17, 
' That day thou eatest thou shalt die the death,' all manner of deaths ; not 
death temporal only : that was not then fulfilled; nor of eternal in hell : for 
that follows upon the temporal ; but death spiritual, whereby the soul is 
deprived of spiritual life, and become dead in sin. As a man that commits 

VOL. X. D 



50 AN TINKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

a murder, or an act of high treason against the king, hath his goods and 
life taken from him, so Adam, for that one act of rebellion, wherein he 
committed high treason against God, deserved to have all grace taken from 
him, as indeed he had, Eom. iii. 23, ' For all have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God.' 

But, 2, this is not all ; for this one act of sinning did not only deserve to 
have grace taken away, and to have nature coiTupted, and so taken away 
as a punishment, but it did also by a physical energy expel it, not only by 
a penal, political consequence, but by a physical, causal consequence, even 
as a stab a man gives himself causally separates the soul and body, and 
leaves the carcase a dead thing, or as cold in water expels heat in fire. 

For (1.) it separates betwixt God and a man. Now, as the soul is the 
life of the body, so was God the life of Adam's soul ; and grace in him was 
but the light of God, as the sun shining in his heart, as the beams of the 
sun do in the air, and as lumen est imar/o lucis, so grace in Adam's heart was 
the image of God. Now, as whatsoever comes but between the sun and the 
air, may be said truly to extinguish the light in the air, by cutting the beams 
off from their head, out of which they>anish, so sin coming between God 
and Adam, extinguished the light and life of grace in his heart, and left it 
nothing but sin and a lump of darkness. * 

(2.) It was not only the cause interposing, and so depriving him of God's 
image, but expulsive, as one contrary expels another ; for contraria mutiw se 
expeUunt. Now, every act of sin is contrary to holiness, and it is said to be 
enmity against God and his law : Rom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is 
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be.' If sin be contrary to God's law, so by consequence it is to his 
image ; for the image of God was the lav/ written in Adam's heart. And to 
the same intent it is said, Rom. vii. 23, * But I see another law in my mem- 
bers warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin which is in my members.' It wars against the law of the 
mind, that is, the image of the law in the mind; the least act of sin dot'.i 
so, and the habit but by the acts ; and so Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lustet i 
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are coutriiry 
the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ;' the 
one and the other, and their acts, ax'e said to be contraiy. 

Ohj. But you will say. One contrary expels not another, unless it be 
stronger ; as Christ says, ' The strong man yields not up the house, unless 
a stronger than he comes.' 

Ans. It is true ; but know, that one act of sin is stronger than all created 
grace and holiness in itself, and therefore overcoming the heart, the will, in 
which grace was, expels it. Take all other contrary acts, and they weaken 
their contrary habits, but do not expel them , lut one act of sin not only 
weakens grace, but expels it, for it is stronger. See the strength of the 
power of sin above gi-ace in itself, \\\ the accusing power. Suppose Adam 
had lived in the state of holiness thons'^nds of years, and served God per- 
fectly all that while, one act of sin would have marred all his service, and 
condemned him ; he had lost all as if it had never been. Now, upon the 
same ground it hath as much power to expel grace, and therclore it is called 
'the old leaven,' whereof a little leavens the whole: 1 Crr. v. 6, 7, 'Your 
glorying is not good. Ivnow ye not that a little leave i leaveneth the whole 
lump ? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye miy bo a new lump, as 
ye are unleavened.' It is called the old leaven, because it was that which 
leavened Adam's heai't, and ours from him, expelling grace out. 

If you ask. Whence hath sin this power ? 



Chap. II. | in respect of sin and punishment. 61 

I answer, from the law: 1 Cor. xv. 55, *0 death, where is thy sting? 
grave, where is thy victory ?' From which lav/ grace too in him had its 
strength to justify ; and which law, whilst Adam kept in every part, he kept 
grace in his heart ; hut if a man breaks it in one, he breaks it in all, and so 
that original conformity to the law in a man's nature is expelled, and he 
made prone to olieud in all : James ii. 10, ' For whosoever shall keep the 
whole law, and yet oft'end in one point, ho is guilty of all ;' for as grace was 
held by keeping it, grace must be lost therefore by the breach. 

But, you will say, according to this, grace in a regenerate man's heart 
would be extinguished by every act of sin, whenas it is called the seed that 
remains: 1 John iii. 9. ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for 
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 

I answer, there is not the same case of Adam's grace and a regenerate 
man's, for the strength of Adam's grace was only the law and a legal cove- 
nant, and one breach of it is stronger than all grace given and held by that 
covenant ; but the strength of a regenerate man's grace is the gospel, a nesv 
covenant, backed with the strength of Christ, the power of God : 2 Cor. 
xii. 9, ' And he said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength 
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in 
my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.' Grace is there- 
fore made sufficient and strong enough in time to overcome sin and all 
thorns in the flesh, not because in itself it is stronger, but because God's 
power joins with grace, which grace is there called weakness ; and this 
power which joins with grace, sin cuts us not off from the derivation of it, 
because it cuts not off a man from Christ, that is the spring and fountain of 
grace: Rom. viii. 38, 39, ' For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, &c., shall be able to separate us from the Jove of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Nothing is able to separate us from the love of 
God and Christ. 

For that other proposition, that if Adam's nature was thu? corrupted by 
that act, then must ours, we being guilty of it as well as he ; the conse- 
quence stands upon a treble reason, the one of which is a degree to the 
other, and either enough to prove it. 

First, If it were no more than that Adam was the person representing 
all mankind, what befell him by virtue of anything done 'by him wherein he 
represented us, must befall all as well. Now in that act (as I formerly 
shewed) he represented us all. To give you an instance of this : they say 
that when the devil appears in any shape, representing the person of the 
witch with whom the covenant is made, look what either mischief the devil 
then doth, the witch is said to do it ; and look what hurt seems to befall the 
shape he takes on him, cutting off a member, &c., the same mischief he hath 
power to execute on the witch herself. This hath been related b}' the confes- 
sions of witches, and this is done by a covenant. So now Adam being by a 
just covenant the representative person of all mankind, look what he doth 
they are said to do, and what hurt he sustains by any act he represents us 
in, we sustain also ; as your burgesses in parliament house, if they will do 
such acts whereby the privileges of subjects are infringed and lost, they lose 
not their own rights only, but those of the countries they represent also. So 
Adam being the representative of all mankind, had the privilege and great 
charter by which we all hold our grace ; and he doing this act whereby he 
lost his own, lost ours also. And this reason will hold : suppose we had 
been all alive then, and never in his loins, but had been immediately created 
with him, and had personally all severally had grace in our hearts, yet he 
representing us thus, and having broke the great charter, the law, though but 



52 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

in one thing, all had been void, all the rich endowments of grace we held by 
it might and would have been taken from us. 

But add to this, secondhj, that our nature was in him, that he had all 
our stock cemmitted to him, and we to have it paid and derived to us at the 
day of our births ; then since he by this act lost all grace, lost all at one bad 
throw, suppose in that throw he had not represented us, yet his loss had 
been our loss, as the spending of a prodigal father, or feoffee in trust for 
some under age, is the loss of the children and young ones also, and they 
are undone by it ; for nihil- dare potest, quod in se non habet, nothing can give 
■what it hath not. We might have sued him, indeed, but recover nothing 
we could, for as ex nihilo nihil fit in philosophy, out of nothing comes no- 
thing, so where nothing is nothing can be had in law, but the king himself 
loseth his right. 

Add to this, thirdly, that vre -were to have our natures from him by 
natural generation, concerning which God had given this especial law, that 
everything shall bring forth according to its kind ; and God had given this 
power to Adam before he fell, * increase and multipij^' in all which multipli- 
cation of his the law of nature would have taken place, siniile generat simile, 
like begets its like. As his nature before that act had God's image on it, so 
we should have had it conveyed by virtue of that law, so now, on the coe- 
trary, he having contracted a corrupt nature, deprived of grace and filled with 
sin, we must have the same image by the law of nature, though we suppose 
the other considerations cut off. John iii. 6, that which is born of the 
flesh must be flesh ; and. Gen. v. 3, Adam ' begat Seth in his image and 
likeness ;' not only the image of him for substance, but for qualities also, 
therefore both added ; for res dicuntur similes vel dissimiles d qualitutihus, et 
earum privationihus, things are called like or unlike from their qualities and 
the privations of their qualities, and therefore, 1 Cor. xv. 48, such as was 
the earthly man Adam, such are the earthly of him. He speaks there not 
only of him as the conveyer of the guilt of the fact, but also of the likeness 
of his nature in regard of the qualities of it, for he says such. Now that notes 
out and imports a likeness of qualities. Things are denominated such or 
such from their qualities : res tales dicuntur a qualitatibus. And to this the 
Scripture refers us when it argues the case even from the law of nature : Job 
xiv. 4, ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one.' Every 
root bearing fruit according to its kind ; he speaks it to this very purpose, 
that because our nature is derived to us from our parents which are unclean, 
therefore ours must be so also. 

So that now join all these reasons in one, and it is a threefold cord to 
pull on this consequence. If it were no more than that we are born of him, 
it were enough, especially seeing he received that grace as a common stock ; 
but most of all because in that act of sinning he represented us, for indeed 
that is the main, principal, radical reason ; and therefore seeing that act 
extinguished grace (as I have proved), we still being guilty of it, and wrapped 
and involved in the guilt of that disobedience as soon as conceived, there- 
fore that efiiect which it had in Adam it hath now in us. 

And though indeed the Scripture ascribes it to natural generation often, 
as here in John iii. 6, it is therefore flesh, because born of the flesh, yet 
that is but the instrumental, accidental cause of it, quod arfit virtute princi- 
palis arjcntis, which acts by the virtue of the principal cause, namely, Adam's 
sin, which carries in it and convej'^s with it the power of that curse which 
God gave against Adam, ' The day thou eatest thou diest ;' and on the day 
we are born and become sons of Adam, that curse seizeth on us, and is 
applied to us by natm-al generation, which makes us men. And therefore 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 63 

you shall find that it is the guilt of that sin which is that which corrupts all 
men's natures, and makes them sinful to the end of the world : Rom. v. 19, 
* By one man's disobedience many were made sinful.' By natural genera- 
tion you are made men indeed, as by the principal cause, for vis proli/ica 
unites soul and body, yet it is the guilt of that one offence that makes men 
sinful to the end of the world. For there he speaks not only of conveying of 
it, for being ' made sinners ' signifies more, implies inherent corruption, and 
by the context it appears, for ver. 12, 13 says, not only ' all had sinned,' 
but ' sin was in the world,' that is, in all mankind, as in a subject. And 
then at the end of that discourse comes in this general conclusion, Rom. 
V. 19, ' For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by 
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.' So that it is Adam's 
sin that hath an influence into all men's hearts at their births to make them 
sinful, both to be sinners and sin to be in them. 

Generation, indeed, I say, is a means to convey it, because Adam's sin 
seizeth but upon us when we come to be men, for it is said to have ' passed 
upon all men,' Rom. v. 12 ; and because generation makes men men (so 
Eve, Gen. iv. 5, ' I have gotten a man from the Lord,') though God creates 
the soul, and therefore the man begotten is said to be from the Lord in a 
more especial manner than other creatures, yet so as the parents get the 
man, homo rfenerat hominem ; for there is a power of uniting and joining soul 
and body together in semine, which the parents transmit. Therefore the 
depravation of our nature is ascribed to generation, because it presents a fit 
subject for Adam's sin to work on, and to deprive of righteousness ; yet still 
sj as that it was the first of sin extinguished it in Adam, so it is the guilt of 
it deprives us of righteousness, and it is that makes sinful men. 

But you will say. Though, indeed, thus it deprived Adam, because he 
personally then committed it, and it passed actually from him, and so might 
have such an effect, yet being long since past, how can it have the same 
effect ? We may conceive how Cain and Ishmael might be poisoned by it, 
being nigher the fountain. 

I answer, by a similitude taken from the second Adam, whose righteous- 
ness, though long since past, and his death past but once for all — as in 
Heb. ix. 14, 26, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience 
from dead works to serve the living God ;' ' But now once in the end of the 
world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself — yet 
the power and force of his blood and righteousness hath a real influence for 
ever into men's hearts to sanctify and regenerate. So also Adam's sin, though 
long since committed, hath an efficacy to make men sinful to the end of the 
world. 

But you will say. As to Christ's blood and righteousness, that hath such an 
effect, because there is an applier of the power, the Spirit, which works in 
men's hearts by virtue of Christ's death, purchasing a right for him to work, 
which Spirit hath real power in him, and is existing to do it : ' That which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit,' John iii. 6. But what then is the applier, is 
the agent, that so works by virtue of Adam's sin ? 

I answer, there need none but only the guilt of that sin imputed, for that 
naturally cuts the man off from God, who is the fountain of grace, as the sun 
is of light, and comes as a cloud between, so as grace cannot be derived as 
otherwise it should ; it comes as an impediment to hinder the glorious in- 
fluence of God's image. As I shewed the act did in Adam, so the guilt of 
it doth the same thing in us ; therefore it is said, Rom. iii. 23, * All have 
sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' By glory of God is meant in 



54 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

general but that life of glory which sin cuts a man off from, so as he cannot 
come to see the gloiy of God, sin separating. And also the image of God 
is called the glory of the Lord, 2 Cor. iii. ; which image God would make 
to shine into the man as soon as he is born, but that this comes in, ' he hath 
sinned,' and that as a bar keeps him short of it. This, then, is the reason 
why we are not bom in God's image in holiness, ' All have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God;' so that, suppose the soul was created holy, and 
then united, yet when it is united, this sin separates it from God, as it did 
Adam, and so it falls short of his glory, as the air doth of light when a cloud 
comes. Or, consider it created at the same instant when it is united, still, 
though God produeeth the soul, yet the union making it guilty of sin, bars 
that influence of the glory of God. 

Neither is this depriving it of this glory a punishment, which God as an 
agent inflicts, or hath any physical influence in working, but it is a coming 
short, as the air doth of light when a cloud intercepts it; the sun causeth 
not the darkness, it would give light, rather it causally doth that; so God 
works not this privation of original righteousness, but Adam's sin stops the 
passage of it, so as it works it as a cause, which though it exist not in the 
act of it, yet in the guilt before God it ever remains, and therefore hath al- 
ways this effect to bring us out of his favour, to separate us from him, and 
upon their separation necessarily follows this want of righteousness, as death 
follows on the separation of soul and body. 

But you will say, Original corruption is not only the want of righteous- 
ness, but a positive pravity, a vicious disposition. 

I answer, it is true it is so, yet so as that positive pravity is a consequent 
of that privation. Look as when the soul is separated from the body, then 
death follows, which is a privation of life; and the corruption of the body 
follows upon that, which sends forth noisome stiuks (which Christ's body, 
though it tasted of death, doth not, for it saw no corruption, Ps. xvi. 10), 
so in the death of the soul, this want of righteousness is necessarily accom- 
panied with positive corrupt disposition, which put forth noisome, stinking 
vapours, actual sins, yet so as the cori'uption is originally inherent there as 
the cause, and as a part of original sin. 

Lastly, You will object, If sin imputed thus extinguisheth righteousness, 
how came it that Christ, that had Adam's sin, and all the sins of the world 
laid on him, yet it had not this eflect ? Wherein lies the difl'erence '? And 
yet it separated him, as appears from his crying out in that manner, Mat. 
xxvii. 46, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' 

I answer, 

1. You must distinguish between imputation voluntarily taken, and in obe- 
dience to God (as Christ did, and therefore only underwent the punishment 
of being made a curse, without sin, to satisfy for sin), and the guilt passing 
necessarily as this doth, which therefore works this effect, Rom. v. 12, ' Sin 
passed upon all.' 

2. Though Christ was made by imputation sin, yet so as he could not be 
said to have sinned in us; but we having sinned once, God laid on him the 
iniquity of us all : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray: we have 
turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all.' But Adam's sin is therefore imputed, because we were considered 
as those that sinned in him: Rom. v. 12, 'Wherefore, as by one man sin 
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned.' And therefore though this imputation of sin 
wrought a separation of the light of God's countenance, the light indeed 
from Christ, yet not the heat and influence of grace ; as metals under 



Chap. III.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 65 

ground, though they are separated from the light of the sun, yet not from 
its influence. 



CHAPTER III. 

This corruption of nature is not onhj a misery aud a punishment, but a sin, 
which renders us r/uiUy in the sight of God ; proved to he so by scriptures. — 
As also because our corrupt nature is contrary to God's holiness and his law, 
proved to be sin also from the effects of it. 

I come now in the next place to shew further, that what is meant by flesh 
in John iii. G is not only a corruption, but such a corruption as properly is 
a sin, which God looks upon as sinful, and which makes him therefore to hate ^ 
and loathe us for it. 

But you will say, What need there any such distinct question be made of 
it ? Is it not a granted old truth, a principle every child learns, even acknow- 
ledged by the papists, before baptism, that it is a sin ? 

But indeed the truth is, there is a rotten generation of divines, sprung up 
in this age, which do flatly deny original corruption to be a sin. Acknow- 
ledge they do a guilt of Adam's sin, and a corruption thence derived ; but 
that corruption, they say, is only to be considered as the punishment of the 
first sin, but in itself not properly a sin; malum triste indeed, but not malum 
culpa': our misery, but not our fault. 

Now, we will prove that it is properly a sin, and so accounted by God. 

First, The Scriptures call it not only a sin, but a whole body of sins of the 
flesh: Col. ii. 11, * In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
made without hands, in putting off" the body of the sins of the flesh, by the 
circumcision of Christ.' He speaks there of corruption of nature, and he 
calls it a body, that is, a lump, a real subsistent thing, consisting not of one, 
but many sinful members, ' a body of sins ;' and he speaks of this flesh which 
is spoken of in John iii. 6, for he adds, ' a body of sins of the flesh.'- And 
of original corruption too he speaks, for it is that which was put off by cir- 
cumcision and baptism : Col. ii. 11, 12, ' In whom also ye are circumcised 
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the boJy of the 
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ ; buried with him in baptism, 
wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of 
God, who hath raised him from the dead.' Now, both those sacraments 
were administered to infants, in whom therefore this body of sins is. 

Secondly, The confession of godly men guided by the Spirit of God, in a 
sense of their own vileness, have acknowledged it to be so ; we may take 
their confessions in this case for truth, for they were from the Spirit. 

St Paul, in Rom. vii., doth not only cry out of this indwelling corruption 
in him as a misery (though so he complains of it under that expression also, 
as at the last verse), but also cries out upon it as a sin: Rom. vii. 17, 18, 
* Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I 
know, that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing : for to will 
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not.' And 
he speaks of it as that which is the cause of all the evil actions he did : ' It 
is not I,' says he, ' but sin that dwells in me ;' he means corruption of nature 
inherent in him. For, 

1. He makes it the root, whence actual sins do spring ; it is sin that does 
it, says he. And the flesh is made such a root also : Gal. v. 19, ' Now the 
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: aduHery, fornication, 



56 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoQK II. 

uncleanness, lasciviousness ; ' for actual sins are there called works, ' works 
of the flesh.' 

2. Because he says, ' Sin dwelling in him.' Now an act is a transient 
thing, corruption only is that which dwells in and cleaves to the heart. 

Thirdhj, In the next words he calls it expressly //csA ; for giving the reason 
of this, he says, ' In my flesh dwells no good thing ; ' so as that which he 
calls sin direlling in the former verse, he calls y7<?67i here in this 18lh verse. 

Fourthhj, He says, there was no good in him ; a privation therefore it is 
of all good and grace, and therefore a sin ; for, ^j>7iYt//o est carentia entitatis. 
dehitcc inesse, it is a want of something in the subject, which ought to be there. 
If, therefore, this good ought to be there (else it is not a privation of it), 
then it is a sin, for it ought to be there by the law of God. 

Fifthly, Observe that St Paul speaks this confidently, not as a man, being 
, so far out of conceit of himself, as he might speak worse of him&elf, than 
was cause, but he knew what he said: ' I know,' says he ; he lets others 
alone to dispute it, he knew it to be so, and this by woful experience. 

Lasthj, He speaks it in a proper, not a metaphorical, sense, for he spake 
in the bitterness of spirit, in bitterness of heart, by way of complaint, when 
men use to speak plainly, therefore his meaning is, that [it] is properly a sin. 

Ohj. Ay, but you will say, St Paul spake this of his nature, as now cor- 
rupted, when he was now a grown man; but the question is of our nature, 
as it comes from the womb. 

Ans. Let us therefore see what David says in his confessions ; you use to 
take men's confessions on the rack, as he was now on the rack, and there- 
fore likely to speak plainly: Ps. li. 5, ' I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin 
did my mother conceive me.' And speaks he this of the guilt of Adam's sin 
only, or of corruption of nature also ? Sure of corruption of nature. 

For, 1, it is argued from his scope and design; for he being to humble 
himself the more for his murder and adultery, confesseth the cause to be sin, 
the sea whence these streams came, to be original corruption. 

2. The next words shew, by the opposition that he speaks of, inherent 
corruption ; for he adds, ver. 6, ' Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward 
parts ; and in the hidden part thou sbalt make me to know wisdom ; ' that 
is, whereas thou requirest, that not only my action, but that my nature, my 
inward parts, should be sincerely holy, I was conceived in sin ; and so my 
inward parts were tainted with it from the womb. And by truth there he 
means grace and sincerity, as opposite to a corrupt heart, as in 1 Cor. v. 7, 
' Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are 
unleavened : for even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us : ' where grace, 
the new lump, is opposed to the ' old leaven of wickedness,' that is, original 
corruption, which is the ancient leaven, which we have from the old man, 
with which our natures are soured and leavened. 

3. And, in the third place, not only confession of godly men, but the law 
of God condemns it, which argues it to be a sin. Now, that which is con- 
trary to what God requires, certainly is a sin, that none will deny; for God's 
law is just, and therefore the unconformity to it is unrighteousness, but 
original corruption is the contrary to what God requires ; for God you see 
* requires truth in the inward parts ; ' but this corruption of nature is the want 
of it, and therefore the contrary to what God requires should be in our nature, 
and therefore a sin, and this is David's reason whereby he proves it to be 
a sin. 

Yea, 2dly, it is contrary to grace, and therefore a sin. For, 
1st. One contrary is known by another, contraria contrariis cognoscuntur. 
Now, that which is here called fiesh, is contrary to holiness, and therefore 



Chap. HI. J in respect of sin and punishment. 57 

truly and simply a sin : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, for 
they are contrary.' By spirit is meant grace, and these are not so ej/icienter, 
as producing contrary effects, hut furmaliter, in their very nature and being 
so ; for, therefore, they lust one against another, says the apostle, because 
contrary ; tit se res hahet in operari, it a in esse, as things are in acting, so 
are they in their essence. And is not flesh a sin then ? 

2dly, If it be contrary to holiness and grace, then it is contrary to the 
law of God ; for what is holiness but the law of God written in the heart, 
the real living law ? Kom. vii. 23, ' But I see another law in my members, 
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the 
law of sin, which is in my members.' It is called the ' law of the mind,' 
contrary unto which is that original corruption, called therefore the ' law of 
the members, warring against it.' It doth not only put forth contrary acts, 
but it is in itself a contrary law ; and therefore it is said, Rom. viii. 7, 

* Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be.' Here the flesh, or carnal mind, is 
said to be a thing which is not subject to the law of God ; for why ? It is a 
flat law warring against it, and yet the mind of man ought to be subject to 
it, else the apostle would not challenge it, and blame it, for not being sub- 
ject ; and this he speaks of in the nature of it, not only in the efl'ects of it, 
for he ;says it cannot be subject, which implies an opposition in nature, a 
contrariety there. Now, certainly, whatsoever is contrary to the law, and 
is not subject to it, and yet ought to be, is sinful, for sin is only a trans- 
gression of the law : 1 John iii. 4, * Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth 
also the law ; for sin is the transgression of the law.' Sin is a not- subjec- 
tion to the law ; yea, and whatsoever creature sets up a contrary law to the 
law of God, is an enemy to God. Now this flesh is a contrary law, written 
in the mind, which is more than simply an act of rebellion ; and therefore 
the heart of man, in which this law is written, is an enemy to God, because 
there is a kingdom of sin, and laws of sin, set up within a man against God 
and his law, and therefore the apostle says in the same Rom. viii. 7, it is 

* enmity to God ; ' and then God must needs be an enemy to it, and hate it. 
Now God hates nothing but sin. 

Obj. But you will say, A thing that ought to be subject to the law, and 
is not, transgresseth the law indeed ; but how will you prove it ought to be 
subject ? 

A71S. 1. Why doth else the apostle blame it for not being subject ? 

Ans. 2. Why else doth he call it enmity against God, but because it ought 
to be subject, and is not ? That whereas there ought to be the law of God, 
subduing the whole nature of man to God, there is a contrary law subjecting 
it to sin. Now for one to set up contrary laws to those of his prince, and 
so not to be subject, is greater enmity than simply to commit but an act of 
rebellion. 

Obj. But you will say, Doth the law of God require and command that my 
nature should be holy ? 

Ans. 1. Yes ; he expressly requires it, in Lev. xi. 44, 45, ' Be holy, for I 
am holy,' says God ; now his nature is so, therefore ought ours to be so too. 

Ans. 2. The law of God reacheth to all that is in man : Heb. iv. 12, ' For 
the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the 
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart.' The law of God reacheth to soul, spirit, and understanding : so in 
1 Thes. V. 23, 'And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly : and I pray 
God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the 



58 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' God sanctify you wholly ; that is, he 
■works grace in your whole man, and keeps your spirit, soul, and body, 
blameless. Mark it, if nature ba not wholly sanctified, it is malum culpa;, a 
thing blameworthy, and therefore it is a sin. 

Obj. But you will say, Upon what ground doth God command our nature 
to be holy ? 

Ans. God having made our nature holy at first, commands it should be 
preserved so ; and he might well do so, for grace was a talent given to keep 
and to increase. Now, in Mat. xxv. 24, we find that God exacts his talents, 
and requires them with advantage, much more the same again. Mat. xxv. 
24-27, ' Then he which had received the one talent, came, and said, Lord, 
I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, 
and gathering where thou hast not strawed : and I was afraid, and went and 
hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord 
answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest 
that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed : thou 
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers ; and then at my 
coming I should have received mine own with usury.' So looking on the 
grace he bestowed on thee, he may say, AVhere is the grace I bestowed, &c. 
Adam cannot deny but that he lost it, through his own default, and therefore 
that loss was a sin in him ; and then of us, who are acknowledged guilty of 
his act ; for Adam, in eating the forbidden fruit, was as one that should 
willingly eat a poisoned apple, forbidden him to eat, in which case he com- 
mitted two distinct sins. 

1. In eating an apple, forbidden him particularly, suppose not poisoned. 
But, 

2. In destroying himself also, knowing it would poison him. 

Ohj. But they object, the loss of grace was inflicted only by God as a 
punishment of his fault, and therefore not a sin ; as if a man for putting out 
one eye himself hath another eye put out by the judge ; the loss of the 
latter is not his fault that he is wholly blind. 

Ans. 1. It is false that it is merely as a punishment inflicted by God as 
by an external hand, as appears by the former grounds laid. I have shewed 
you that sin doth expel grace after a natural manner, as one contrary expels 
another ; so as this corruption was a natural consequent following the act, 
as death doth upon a stab, or strangling a man's self; the sin itself did it, 
not God merely inflicting it as a punishment. 

Ans. 2. If it were a punishment, yet some punishments are both sins and 
punishments. 

(^hj. But they object that every sin is voluntary, but this corruption of 
nature (though indeed he committed the act willingly) befell him not willing it. 

So I answer, that it was volltum in causa, willed in its cause ; as he that 
hates wisdom is said to love death, he loves it in the cause of it, Prov. viii. 
86, for simply of itself no man loves it, no more did Adam will this corrup- 
tion, or intended it in sinning, but yet he willed that sin which he knew 
would bring this upon him. 

Lastly, If Scripture, godly men, law, and all should not hold proof, the 
etfects would argue it to be a sin. 

See what the apostle says of it, Gal. v. 19, that ' the works of the flesh 
are manifest;' that is, that the works of it are such notorious sins as none 
can deny them but to be such ; and if the fruits of it be such, then reason will 
tell us, though Christ had not told us, that 'the tree is known by the fruit :' 
Mat. xii. 33-35, 'Either luakf^ the tree good, and his fruit good; or else 
make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt : . for the tree is known by his 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punisument. 59 

fruit. generation of vipers, how can yc, being evil, speak good things '? 
for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out 
of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things : and an evil 
man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.' This corruption is 
called an evil treasure, out of which evil actions are produced ; and if they 
be evil, then the tree is evil, and that eodem genere, in the same kind. 

Obj. But they object that of James, 'Lust conceived brings forth sin,' 
James i. 15 ; that is only called sin (say they)%vhich is brought forth by it, 
but it is not so in itself. 

Ans. 1. Thence I argue the contrary, that it is a sin, and ejusdem natiircE, 
of the same nature with what is brought forth, for every thing begets in its 
own likeness, and are ejusdem speciei, of the same kind ; simile general simile, 
like produceth like. If, therefore, that which is begotten be a sin, then the 
lust also. 

Ans. 2. That lust is made to be a sin in ver. 14, in that it tempts men 
to sin. Now, what tempts to sin is sinful ; therefore, ver 13, it is denied of 
God, as abhorred of him, it being a sin to tempt to evil, and it is made all 
one to tempt to evil and to be tempted to evil. 



CHAPTER IV. 

An inclination and pi-oneness to all sin is in evet-y mans nature. — What are the 
causes which make every mans nature inclined to all -sins? — The impression 
of Adam's sin on all equally. — The mind of man having lost the sight of its 
true happiness, wanders, and seeks its happiness in a thousand false shapes. 
— If all men have all lusts in them, ivhat is the reason that smne men are so 
far from being inclined to some kinds of sin that they have some contrariety 
in their temper to them f — And how it is that a man who hath all lusts in his 
nature is inclined to one sin more than another?- — The reason why men equally 
corrupt in their natures are not equally ivicked in their lives. — Why alt men 
do not commit the sin against the Holy Ghost, 

Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concu- 
piscence. — Rom. VII. 8. 

The general parts of man's inherent corruption thus despatched, as a 
coronis to the second part of this discoux'se, there is one thing to be added 
more to make this complete. Every man is prone to all sin, and hath all 
sins in him. 

As a ground for this I have chosen this scripture, where you have an 
instance, without exception, of one of the best unregenerate men that ever 
was in the world, Paul, who saith of himself that he was, ' as touching the 
righteousness of the law, blameless,' Phil. iii. 6, and in whom, when regene- 
rate, the grace of God was more strongly than in any other, mortifying his 
lusts and corruptions ; and yet he tells us here that he, by woful experience, 
found that all concupiscence was wrought in him. So that, whether he 
speaks of himself as regenerate or unregenerate, either is enough to convince 
us that the best of both have all lusts in them. But in this verse he seems 
to speak of his former estate, and time past of unregeneracy, these words 
being an exposition of his meaning of those words, ver. 5, ' whilst in the 
flesh;' that is, whilst unregenerate, as appears by Rom. viii. 9, 'But ye are 
not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you ;' 
where being in the flesh and in the Spint are opposed. And it is all one 



60 AN UNEKGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

phrase with being in drink and in love ; that is, overcome of both. ' Whilst 
in the flesh,' saith he in Rom. vii. 5, ' the motions of sins, which were by 
the law,' &c., which is a marriage phrase, that is, evil lusts stirred up and 
begotten by the law, as children by husband and wife, he comparing the 
heart to a woman, and the law to an husband : Rom. vii. 2-4, ' For the 
woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long 
as he liveth ; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her 
husband. So then if, whileWier husband liveth, she be married to another 
man, she shall be called an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is 
free from the law ; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to 
another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law 
by the body of Christ '; that ye should be married to another, even to him 
who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.' 
Which law begets motions to sin, which because it would seem very harsh 
to lay such a bastard brood at the law's door, and so this objection would 
arise, that then the law is the cause of sin, therefore he denies it, ver. 7, 
' What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had not 
known sin, but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law bad 
said. Thou shalt not covet.' Though he says, withal, that it did discover 
sin to him, ' But,' saith he, ver. 8, 'sin, taking occasion by the command- 
ment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin 
was dead.' Which distinction is the same with that which we use in logic, 
causa per se, et causa per accidens. Sin took occasion by the command- 
ment, that is, the law was but the occasional accidental cause ; in the same 
sense that the sun, shhiing upon a dunghill, elevates the vapours, might be 
said to be the cause of all the stinking vapours in it. The sun is not the 
cause, for the vapours were there before ; the sun doth only stir them up, 
and itself remains pure. Or else, look as physic, that stirs the humours 
which lay in the body, it puts in no new, for it is an antidote against them, 
and would purge them out if nature were strong. And in this sense it is 
that the law is said to work all concupiscence, which yet was in the heart 
afore. 

The point, then, which this text affords, being thus opened, is, that all 
concupiscence is in every man's nature. Sin, he says here, that is, original 
sin, wrought all concupiscence, and of that we are partakers all alike. 

Even the very heathens, the most divine of them, the Stoics, had some 
light into the truth. So Seneca out of them. Omnia in omnibus vitia sunt* 
And, lib. 5, Et cuindi omnes, et ambitiosi et irnpii.f And they give this 
reason, because, vitia sunt conjuncta, they are tied of a knot, and hang on a 
string ; there is a concatenation of them. As in falsehood, iino absurdo 
data, mille sequuntur, so in practice, one sin brings all with it : James 
iii. 16, * For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil 
work.' It is his rule, where envying and strife is (he instanceth but in 
that one, yet) there is confusion, axaTaarao'ia, all out of order, and every evil 
work, that is, his mind is apt to run into every evil work. And the reason 
of that assertion is, because that which is the cause of one sin is the cause 
of all, namely, self-love ; that having the highest room in the heart, is 
advanced into the throne of God's glory in the heart, being the next heir, 
when grace was deposed, and became lord paramount in the heart ; and that 
putting thee upon one sin, puts thee upon another, as occasion is to satisfy 
itself. First, sets afloat one lust, pride, and then another, envy, &c. : 2 Tim. 
iii. 1-4, ' Men shall be lovers of themselves.' And what then ? It is the 
general, and these that follow are its army : ' Covetous, boasters, proud, 
* Seneca Benef. lib iv. p. 320. Ed. Lipsii, Antwerp, 1632. t Itid. lib. v. p. 388. 



Chap. IV. J in rkspect of sin and punishment. 61 

blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural 
affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those 
that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than 
lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.' 
No one sin can be, but where self-love is predominant ; and where it is, it 
will put us upon any sin, break all bonds of nature, to parents, disobedient 
to them, as it follows, and of friendship, unthankful; and of grace, too, unto 
God, unholy, &c. And thus self-love, as gotten within the throne, is the 
ground of all lusts ; as all affection is seated in love, so sin in self-love. 

2. There are three demonstrations of the truth of it. 

(1.) That which is universally contrary to every branch of the law of God, 
is universally prone to all sin. Now whence is it that we oppose anything, 
but because we are desirous of its contrary, and look upon that as an 
hindrance to our desires ? But the sinfulness of man's nature is in all 
things contrary to the law ; as the text shews, that the law wrought all con- 
cupiscence. So as, tain late quam patet lex in prohibendo, conciipiacentia in 
appetendo ; concupiscence is of as large extent in desiring as the law is in 
forbidding. No duty commanded, but man's nature riseth against it; no 
law forbidding sin, but our nature opposeth it, and will not be subject : 
Rom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' It would be subject to 
nothing ; yea, the light of the law is withheld in unrighteousness, because 
it opposeth man's unrighteousness : Rom. i. 18, ' For the wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, 
who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' 

(2.) That which is universally contrary to all grace, and the acts of it, is 
prone to all sin. Now, Gal. v. 17, it is said, ' the flesh lusteth against the 
spirit,' viz., in all the lustings of it; no good motions come, but our natures 
damp it ; no good duty we perform, but our nature lames it and deads it, 
and fights against the exercise of the heart in it. Enmity to grace is still 
founded on proneness to sin : Acts xiii. 10, ' And said, full of all subtilty 
and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, 
•wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? ' Full of all 
readiness to evil, and an enemy of all righteousness, are joined there ; and 
so in Col. i. 21, ' And you, that were sometimes aHenated, and enemies in 
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.' Enemies, having 
their minds set in evil works, so that enmity to grace proceeds from a prone- 
ness to sin. 

(3.) There is no sin, but one man or other hath been by nature inchned 
to it : Rom. i. 29-32, ' Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
•wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, 
deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without under- 
standing, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerci- 
ful : who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such 
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them 
that do them.' He says, the Gentiles were ' filled with all unrighteousness ; ' 
filled, even as trees with fruit. If not every particular man, with every one 
in some part or other of his life, yet there was no cursed fruit of unricrht- 
eousness, but had appeared in some one or other man's life among them. 
Now there can be no reason given why any man should be naturally prone to 
any sin, but the same reason may be alleged why another man must be also ; 
for we have all the same nature, we are all begotten in the same imaf^e. 
Gen. V. 3. And therefore, Prov. xxvii. 19, ' As face answers to face in 



f)2 AN UNREGENERA.TE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

water, so the heart of man to man ; ' that is, as a man looking in water 
(which was the looking-glass of elder times), as the same lineaments and 
parts of the face in water answer to the real face, so the heart of man to 
man, there being the same image we are all begotten in. And therefore the 
word of God, which speaks against all sin, is resembled to the common 
looking-glass of mankind, James i. 23, that represents every man's face to 
him. And as the parts of the face in every man are one and the same, so 
here in this case too ; and therefore you shall find in Rom. viii. 9, where 
the Scripture speaks of the general corruption of all men's nature, and says, 
• all are under sin.' To prove it, he quotes places where particular corrup- 
tions of particular men are but mentioned ; as of Doeg out of Ps. cxl. 3. 
And what is spoken of the Jews, Isa. lix. 7, which the apostle brings as 
instances to prove the common corruption ; and so manifestly implies, that 
the same sins that are in one, are in the nature of all, Rom. vii. 9 to 18. 

Let us next proceed to the grounds and causes of it ; for all truths are 
more clearly represented, and more amiable, when we see them in their 
causes, and growing on their own stalks. 

1. Adam and Christ are the only common roots of all sin and grace : 
Rom. V. 14-21, ' Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even 
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, 
who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also 
is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead ; much 
more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, 
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that 
sinned, so is the gift : for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but 
the fi-ee gift is of many oifences unto justification. For if by one man's 
ofiience death reigned by one ; much more they vrhich receive abundance of 
grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 
Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation ; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all 
men to justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were 
made sinners, so by the obedience by one shall many be made righteous. 
Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound : but where sin 
abounded, -grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto 
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by 
Jesus Christ our Lord.' And now in ver. 14 Adam the one is made the 
type of the other. Therefore look as Jesns Christ is the fountain of all 
grace, so is Adam the fountain of all sin ; for Adam is made a type of 
Christ in that respect, Rom. v. 14, and in respect of conveying his image, as 
Christ of his : 1 Cor. xv. 49, ' And as we have borne the image of the 
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.' Which maxim, as it 
should have held of the pure state of Adam, so it doth of his corrupt state ; 
and as Christ conveys all gi-ace to those that are begotten of him, then if 
Adam be a type of Clu'ist, he must convey all sin to those that are of him. 
Now Christ hath all fulness in him : John i. 16, ' And of his fulness have we 
all received, and grace for grace.' And 2 Peter i. 3, ' According as his 
divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godli- 
ness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.' 
Here Christ is said to give us all things belonging to life and holiness. Then 
for Adam, we in like manner receive of him sin for sin. And Jesus Christ 
needed not to convey all grace, except Adam had conveyed all sin ; for 
grace is nothing but the remedy for sin ; and if there were not so many 
sores, there needed not so many plasters ; for every particular grace 
heals but a particular sin. The remedy needs be no larger than the 



Chap. 1Y.] in respect of sin and punishment. 63 

disease. And therefore it is that it is called a body of sin ; Adam's imago 
is so named in Col. iii. 5 : ' Mortify therefore your members which are 
upon the earth ; fornication, uncleanness,' &c. Horn. vi. 6, * Knowing this, 
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be 
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.' Why is it called a 
body of sin ? Because it consists of many parts, which in that place of the 
Colossians are called members ; and if any one member were wanting, it 
could not be an image entire, but imperfect. 

2. If we examine the reason Vfhj our nature is inclined to sin, all is and 
must be resolved into this, that it is the impression of Adam's first sin that 
made Judas's nature inclined to covetousness, the disciples to pre-eminence. 
Now Adam's sin hath the same and like impression upon all men's hearts, 
and therefore they are all prone to all these ; for the influence of it is not as 
the influence of a voluntary, but a natural agent, which always works od 
vltiimon potentia, and therefore conveys the same image to all that it doth 
to any, because it works to the utmost of its power. And indeed there is 
this difference between the first and second Adam, that Christ, though he 
conveys all grace, yet not to all ahke for degrees, nor to all at a certain time, 
because his Spirit works it as a voluntary agent, when and how far he will : 
John iii. 8, ' The wind bloweth where it Hsteth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit.' And it is communicated out of grace 
as a gift : Rom. xv. 15, ' Because of the grace that is given to me of 
God.' But with Adam it is otherwise, for it is said to enter upon the world, 
Rom. V. 12, via necessitatis, in a way of necessity, as a thing which cannot 
be kept out, and therefore hath equal and ahke impression upon all men's 
hearts. 

3. If we consider the state every man's soul is left in by nature, we shall 
find that it must needs be prone, and apt, and ready for every sin. For, 

1st, It hath lost its right way to happiness, and can never find it, and hath 
lost also its true guide, and so now walks in darkness, and knows not whither 
to go, and so is apt and exposed to be led any whither. Therefore conver- 
sion is called turning a sinner from the error of his way : James v. 20, ' Let 
him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.' And unregene- 
rate men are called darkness : Eph. v. 8, ' For ye were sometimes darkness, 
but now are ye light in the Lord.' And of such it is said, John xii. 35, that 
'he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes.' And yet still the 
soul is bound for happiness, and is inquiring the way : ' Who will shew us 
any good ? ' Ps. iv. 6. Therefore, being thus wildered, any lust that pro- 
miseth to conduct it to happiness (as all do, therefore called 'deceitful lusts,' 
Eph. iv. 22), it is content to follow, willing to take any guide, being like a 
wildered man in the dark, apt to follow any false fire, and to try every path, 
if finding not true happiness in one, it tries another. Men by nature are 
become children, as in regard of the doctrine of truth, so in regard of the 
way to happiness ; and therefoi-e apt and ready to be carried away, and 
tossed to and fro with every wind of temptation, as the apostle intimates 
Eph. iv. 14. For this see also 2 Tim. iii. 6; speaking of * silly women,' he 
says, they are ' led away with divers lusts ; ' that is, taking any lust to be 
their guide. And because they find this or that lust leads not into the 
right way, therefore they try another; and when they find that brings them 
not to their journey's end, therefore they take another, and so are led by 
divers lusts, and indeed by any. And so in Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves 
also were sometimes foohsh, disobedient,' &c. You shall find this reason I 



64 AN UNREGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

give now : men, saith he, are fools, avoriroi, injudicious, not able to discern 
what is the way to happiness ; and if they do, yet are disobedient and will 
not take it, and therefore are TrAavt/j/xsvo/, wanderers, and so therefore apt to 
take any lust for guides, and so serve divers lusts and pleasures. Now man 
having lost the right course God set him in, Eccles, vii. 29, seeks out many 
inventions ; and every lust is a new projector ; the heart not knowing whither 
to go, and being deceived by every one, is still fit for any new invention that 
shall be suggested to it. 

2dly, As the understanding hath lost its true guide, so men's lusts are 
become boundless, being once turned out of their right channel, namely, 
God, and the pleasures in him. When man's desires did all run into God, 
then that channel was big enough to hold them ; but now they seek current 
in other channels of sin, and the creatures, which are still too shallow, and 
not able to bound them. The pleasure of no one sin can do it, nor all plea- 
sure of sin can put bounds to our desires, but they will still overflow ; and 
so they still are seeking new currents, and fare prone to any wickedness ; 
as water you know is, which of all elements is hardliest kept in bounds. It 
is Isaiah's comparison, chap. Ivii. 20, ' But the wicked are like the troubled 
sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' So as by 
reason of the vastness of man's desires, he is still apt to new things, so that 
the same reason that is given why materia prima appetit omnes formas, why 
the first matter desires all forms, namely, because its appetite can be satisfied 
with no one form, but there is a privation and emptiness still ; and there- 
fore it still seeks new, till it meets with the form of the heavens, as our 
philosophy doth inform us (and I make but an allusion of it), which fills and 
satiates it. By the same reason is the soul of man apt for the pleasure of 
any sin, because still none is able to fill it. 

3dlv, Whereas men's desires are thus boundless, there is nothing but the 
law, and conscience possessed of that law, left to keep them in compass, and 
keep them from overflowing, as a mighty bank opposed against them. But 
so it is that the knowledge and conscience of this law doth by accident make 
these lusts swell higher, as a dam doth a river ; and men having broke one 
part of the law down, they are apt to break down another. For as it is in 
James ii. 10, 11, ' For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend 
in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, 
said also. Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, 
thou art become a transgressor of the law.' He that breaks the law in one 
point is guilty of all ; that is, by the same reason he will break all as one, 
so as, but that God says, as to the sea. Stay thy proud waves, still wicked- 
ness would in every man's heart and life overflow, and fill the earth with 
violence. 

But there are many difficulties and objections against this truth, that 
Adam's sin should convey his image alike unto all, and that all should have 
all concupiscence in them. 

1. As that some sins some men are not inclined unto; as some not to 
drunkenness, yea, they have an antipathy against it. 

2. There are some sins contrary one to another, as prodigality and covet- 
ousness ; and it is impossible a man should be inclined to contraries at once. 

3. There is some one sin which every man is inclined unto more than to 
others, and therefore not to all alike. 

4. Some men are naturally more wicked than others. 

5. Then all should be prone to commit the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
For answer to these, though Adam's sin hath the same and alike influence 

into all, yet it finds not the same subject to work upon. It lights not upon 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 65 

alike constitutions either of body or mind, and therefore, accordingly, hath 
not like effects ; for quicqnid recipitur, reoipitur ad modain recipienlk, what- 
ever is received is received according to the qualification of the receiver. 
For neither are the constitutions of men's bodies nor of their souls alike, 
which two are the weapons or instruments of all sin : Rom. vi. 13, 'Neither 
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin : but 
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' And hence it comes 
to pass that some men are naturally more wicked than others, and that 
some are prone to some sins that others are not prone unto, or not so 
much as others. 

1. The constitution of sinners' bodies is not alike, which several constitu- 
tions are the tinder and fuel for sins to work in : as choler for anger, melan- 
choly for settled wrath and repinings, sanguine for uncleanness, excess, 
and intemperance ; so some are strong to drink, others are not. But now, 
though the soul must have instruments and organs, and a temperament of 
the body to which it is confined to work by, yet because the first, and 
original, and chief subject of all sin is the soul, therefore it is said ' the 
soul of sinners shall die.' And for this cause therefore it is now apart in 
hell punished for all sins, without the body, till the day of judgment, for till 
then the body is not. It is the indweller in the house, that receives lust in 
at the windows of the eyes, at the wickets of the ears, &c. Therefore every 
man is radically still inclined to all these, be the constitution of his body 
what it will, suppose never so indisposed to any of these sins; so as put 
that soul into another body, it would be as notoriously inclined to them as 
any other man is. As philosophers say of a man that is born blind, that 
there is in him a jjotentia prima, a first power of seeing in his soul, as well 
as of hearing, only the organ or instrument of sight is defective; there 
wants potentia secwida, a second power. So the devil, who is father of all 
sin : 1 John iii. 8, ' He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil 
sinneth from the beginning ; ' John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the 
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do : he was a murderer from the 
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the 
father of it.' Yet the devil, wanting a body, he is not inclined to intemper- 
ance and uncleanness, as men are, and yet he delights in our commission of 
them ; witness his incubi and succuhi. So old men, whose bodies are dry, 
yet dehght in unclean fancies, and envy the pleasure of adulterers ; their 
hearts go with them, and they delight in those who do such things : Rom. 
i. 32, ' Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such 
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them 
that do them ; ' which argues the mind is that way disposed when the body 
is not. 

Again, 2, the size of men's souls is not alike for the strength and large- 
ness of their parts. Some men's understandings are greater, and their affec- 
tions and stomachs larger, and hence they naturally come to be more 
wicked, though original sin be alike in all. For the more wit there is with- 
out grace, the more wickedness is there too, and accordingly one devil comes 
to be worse than another, as they are said to be : Mat. xii. 45, ' Then goeth 
he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, 
and they enter in and dwell there.' Put the same quantity of poison into 
wine and into water, it will work more violently and poison more speedily in 
the wine than the water ; though the poison be tie same, yet tne spuits tuat 
set the poison a-work are more in the wine. 

VOL. X. E 



66 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK 11. 

Men of lower understandings are given to lusts of body, but men of higher 
understandings to civility and formality, and a desire of honour and applause ; 
and still the more excellent the creature is, the finer food it desires. Chame- 
leons live upon air, and some men's lusts live upon more sublimated objects, 
out of their wisdom contemning base lusts, and seeking for excellencies in 
other things of an higher nature. And hence comes that great diversity 
that is in men's lives, though Adam's sin hath the same influence upon all 
men's hearts. 

3. Some men have their sins drawn out more than others. Thus there 
are many lusts in children which do not shew themselves whilst they are 
children, yet when they are elder they do. Some men's callings draw out 
their sins more, and the objects that they are conversant about sets their 
lusts on working, which is called a season of temptation : Luke viii. 13, 
* And these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation 
fall away,' which is when there comes a fit object to draw out their heart. 
John xii. 4—0, ' Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, 
which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred 
pence, and given to the poor ? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, 
but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.' 
The ointment sold for three hundred pence was a fit object to draw out 
Judas his lust. So Josh. vii. 21, ' Achan said. When I saw among the 
spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and 
a wedge of gold of fifty shekels' weight, then I coveted them, and took them, 
and behold the}' are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver 
under it ;' and that drew out his lust. And it is for this reason holy Agur 
prays so, Prov. xxx. 8, 9, * Remove far from me vanity and lies ; give me 
neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me : lest I be 
full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord ? Or lest I be poor, and 
steal, and take the name of my God in vain.' So that several dispositions 
are drawn out according to our several conditions. And hence it was that 
John Baptist (Luke iii.) instanceth in this particular sins of their callings, 
and he says to the soldiers, * Exact no more than your due.' And the people 
that were covetous, to them he saith, ' He that hath two coats,' &c. The 
pharisees were oppressors, and sought honour one of another. Now because 
poor men have a shorter tether and compass than great men, therefore it 
may be they have no occasion to have their lusts drawn out ; whereas 
naturally they are as proud and as ambitious as other men, as covetous as 
other men, though their lusts do not appear for want of opportunity, for, I 
say, usually men's lusts are drawn out according to their callings. 

4. God restrains men's lusts, either by wisdom, as is said of Haman, that 
he restrained his, Esther v. 10. Yea, many times one lust restrains 
another, Eccles. iv. 8. ' He restrains himself ' (speaking of a covetous man), 
* and bereaves his soul of good.' One lust eats up another; yea, sometimes 
and often God doth restrain by the immediate work of his own Spirit, by the 
gift of continence ; for there is a spirit put into every man by nature of 
moral virtues, by which the Lord restrains the corruptions of nature. And 
though naturally men are filled with all unrighteousness, and every lust is as 
a hole to let it out, yet God oftentimes stops and plugs up the holes as he 
pleaseth, that they may not run out at every hole. God doth not broach 
every lust in every man, yet so as in some man or other all corruption is 
broached, some in one and some in another, and in all the barrel is no less 
full. And though there be a sluice to keep in the water, though there be a 
less stream, yet there is nevertheless water ; even so, though lusts be re- 
strained, yet there is nevertheless corruption within ; so that God's restrain- 



OhAP. IV.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 67 

ing of men's lusts is no argument to prove that therefore they have not all 
sin in them. 

5. God broacheth sin in a methodical manner, making one sin the punish- 
ment of another: 2 Thes. ii. 9-12, 'Even him, whose coming is after the 
working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all 
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received 
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause 
God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; that 
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in 
unrighteousness.' Rom. i. 21-24, 28-32, ' Because that, when they knew 
God, they glorified him not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, 
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, 
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made Hke to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, 
and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, 
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between 
themselves. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not 
convenient : being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, 
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, 
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors 
of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant- 
breakers, without natural aftection, implacable, unmerciful : who knowing 
the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of 
death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.' And 
sometimes when one lust is let out, and a man gives his heart full scope in 
that, then it may be God lets out another to restrain that. 

6. Corrupt nature is not in every man capable of committing the sin 
against the Holy Ghost, unless there hath been some further qualification 
added that makes him capable of it, as enlightening, &c., yet there is the 
seed of it in every man's nature ; but a man never commits that sin without 
having first had supernatural light, against which he hath sinned, which 
light, therefore, except a man have, he is not capable of committing 
that sin. For it is not bare knowledge required to it, but knowledge with 
assent ; not yvuxsig, but s-Trlyvuaig : Heb. x. 26, * For if we sin wilfully after 
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins.' Therefore Christ says to the pharisees, John ix. 41, ' If 
ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; but now ye say, We see ; therefore 
your sin remaineth ;' that is, that great sin against the Holy Ghost, which 
some of them did commit. 

7. Whereas it is said that one lust is contrary to another, and therefore 
men are not prone to all sin ; I answer, that though men are not inclined' 
unto every sin at all times and on all occasions, yet at several times they 
are drawn out to them. Oftentimes men that have been most prodigal in 
their youth have proved most covetous in their old age ; and yet it may be 
said of such that radically they are inclined to both at once. As now, take 
a man that hath the disease of an ague upon him, or when his fit begins, 
there is heat and cold rooted at the same time in the disease ; there is a 
radical disposition to violent heat and violent cold, which is rooted in the 
nature of the disease, but yet they cannot be let out both together, but suc- 
cessively, first the cold fit, then the hot fit. So take a man inclined to 
covetousness and prodigality, and they cannot both break out at once. So 
a man that is ambitious, sometimes he bows to the basest of men. And it 
is often seen that by fits these contrai'ies are let loose. 



68 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [EcOK II 

Lastly, "Whereas it is objected, in some men there is an antipathy against 
some sins, as Saul hated witches, and Julian the apostate hated drunkards 
and plays, &c., and therefore all are not inclined to all sins ; I answer, this 
antipathy is not moral but physical, either because their bodies will not bear 
it, or for some other incommodity they find in it ; for we see that Sauljwent 
to witches in a strait, whereby it appears that he did not hate the sin as it 
was a sin. 



CHAPTER V. 

That since there is so great a corruption in our natures, ire should be very earnest 
to have it purrfed out. — What is the way and means by which we may be 
purified. — If this corruption be not only a misery, but a sin, we must not 
think it enonyh to make sad complaints of it, but we must in a more special 
manner humble ourselves for it in the sight of God. — Since all kinds of sin 
are in our nature, tee should watch and pray that we fall not into tempta- 
tion. — All that are enlightened by the gospel, should take care that they do 
not sin against the Holy Ghost. 

If it be a corruption which is inherent, sticking in and cleaving unto our 
natures, a defilement made connatural to us, as all things are we have by 
birth ; — 

Use 1. The use may be of exhortation,' to purge and cleanse ourselves, 
and our natures daily from it ; and this concerns all, especially regenerate 
men. I say, to purge yourselves, for if it were no more than that it is a 
corruption and a defilement that is in you, this naturally calls upon you to 
throw it out. What is there that belongs to thee that hath any filth in it, 
but you purge and cleanse daily : your hands and outward parts, because 
they contract dirt daily, you daily wash and cleanse them ; your clothes you 
wear about 3'ou, that do but hang on you, you daily wash, brush, and rub 
them ; your houses you live in, which are not so near you as your clothes, 
you sweep and garnish daily; nay, your streets you walk in, and that you 
tread upon, you yet cleanse weekly ; and all these because they contract a 
filthiness and defilement. Let me say to you all, as our Saviour Christ 
doth, Luke xi. 39, 40, ' Now do ye pharisees make clean the outside of the 
cup and platter ; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. 
Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without, make that which is 
within also ?' Do you make clean the outside of your cups, &c., and suffer 
your inward parts to remain full of filthiness and corruption ? The other 
are external things, and contract but an external filthiness, which yet Christ 
says defiles not a man, Mat. xv. 20. But this which is in thy nature is in- 
trinsecal, and there by birth, and a rooted filthiness in thee, which con- 
tinually casts out mire and dirt : Mat. xv. 18-20, ' But those things which 
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. 
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, 
thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies : these are the things which defile a 
man ; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.' So that these 
pollutions light not on you by accident, and externally cast on you, as dirt 
on your clothes, &c., but spring up in your hearts, and these defile the man 
indeed ; as Christ says, these make thee a filthy, loathsome, and abominable 
person ; these make your minds and consciences defiled, Titus i. 15 ; and 
these lusts also make you abominable : Titus i. 16, * They profess that they 
know God ; but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 69 

and unto every good work reprobate.' Will you not, then, purge them ? 
This, therefore, is a use proper to the first doctrine which I have handled, 
and so the Scripture enforceth it, using that metaphor of purging, 1 Cor. 
V. 7, as having relation to the working out of that inward corruption which 
sticks in us by nature. So David, having acknowledged the filthiness of 
his nature by birth, and the uncleanness of it : Ps. li. 5, ' Behold, I was 
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ;' he cries out 
upon it, ' Purge me with hyssop, and create a clean heart within me,' ver. 7. 
And so Paul, in the place before cited : 1 Cor. v. 7, ' Purge out the old 
leaven,' says he. Look, as leaven is a corrupt tainture and sourness in the 
dough, so is there answerably a corruption in the soul, and this ab orifjlne, 
from your birth, from the old Adam, which, because it is a corruption, 
therefore purge ; for that is a metaphor hath still reference to corruption, 
mingled or blended with something which is good in itself, but spoiled whilst 
that is in it, because it is the old leaven that hath been there so long, and 
therefore there is so much of it, and is now so deeply rooted. Therefore 
go about speedily to cast it out ; it is high time to begin : Jer. iv. 14, 
* Wash thy heart, Jerusalem : how long shall thy vain thoughts be in 
thee ?' "Thy filthiness hath been there long enough : an old sore that hath 
festered, and was from thy nativity, and thou never didst dress it yet, never 
purged or washed it yet ; and so after a long expectation, God says, Jer. 
xiii. 27, * I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of 
thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the field : Woe unto 
thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ?' 
God thinks it long that you should all be filthy from the womb, and never 
so much as once go about to cleanse you. And, therefore, methinks you 
hearing this doctrine, that there is such a corruption and filthiness in your 
natures, the next thought you should have about it should be, I am indeed 
thus from my birth ; oh when shall I begin to purge myself ? 

And it being a corruption of thy nature, a filthiness of flesh and spirit, as 
it is called, 2 Cor. vii. 1, which sticks both in soul and body, seated princi- 
pally in the heart, out of which all defiled things come, therefore, I say, be 
sure the thing thou principally labourest to cleanse be thy heart and thy 
natural disposition. It is a folly to purge the streams of thy Ufe, and ne- 
glect the fountain whence all springs. Cleanse that which is within,' says 
our Saviour Christ, ' and then that which is without will be clean also,' Mat. 
xxiii. 26. ' Thou blind pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup 
and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.' Take a sow and 
cleanse her from her mire without, yet her swinish disposition remaining, 
she cannot be said to be clean, but a filthy creature still, because it is her 
nature again and again to wallow in the mire, 2 Pet. ii. 22. There are a gene- 
ration of men purge themselves from the grosser filth of outward evils, and 
think that is enough ; but let them consider that this corruption is inherent 
in their natures, and though their outward mire be washed off, and they 
leave gross sins, yet they may be filthy swine still ; and therefore Solomon 
says, ' There are a generation that are pure in their own eyes, who are not 
washed from their filthiness,' Prov. xxx. 12. Cleansed they were from 
something others are defiled with, how else could they be clean in their 
own eyes, as gross sinners are not ? but yet their original corruption and 
filthy natures still remaining, from which they were not washed, they are 
not clean. 

But you will say. If it be my nature, how can I be purged of it ? 

I answer, it is not the substance of thy nature, but a corrupt defilement 
cleaves to it ; for in the phrase of purging there is impHed a separation of 



70 AN UNBEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

some filthiness from something that is good, for that which is nothing but 
naughtiness and filthiness cannot be said to be purged ; for as election is out 
of a mass refused, so purging from a mass that is good ; and so all the things 
which this phrase is drawn from and alludes unto implies thus much, as the 
' purging out of leaven,' 1 Cor. v. 7. The leaven is one thing, and the sub- 
stance of the dough another, which is good : so that allusion, Mai. iii. 3, 4, 
' And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver : and he shall purify the sons 
of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may off"er unto the 
Lord an ofiering in righteousness. Then shall the offerings of Judah and 
Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former 
years.' There is something which is naught mingled with what is good, 
dross with the substance of gold, and the purging is the severing of these 
two ; and as the gold hath a faces mingled with it, which it hath from its 
original as it comes out of the womb of the earth, so the nature and sub- 
stance of man hath, since the fall, a dross and inherent defilement, which is 
mingled and incorporated with the soul. I may say so without absurdity, 
for it is a body of sin and death : Rom. vii. 24, ' wretched man that I am ! 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' Now, therefore, this 
purging is not the taking away of any of the substance, or what is created 
by God in the soul, but only the defilement. The purges which physicians 
give carry away something that is good with the bad humours, and the fire 
that consumes the dross causeth some of the gold to perish, and therefore, 
1 Peter i. 7, faith is said to be much more precious than gold which perish- 
eth, when it is tried in the fire, for some of the gold perisheth, but not a 
shred or grain of thy fixith ; and so this purging takes nothing away but only 
the corruption, not a jot of the substance which God created perisheth : Isa. 
xxvii. 9, ' By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged ; and this 
is all the fruit to take away his sin ; when he maketh all the stones of the 
altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall 
not stand up.' The prophet speaks of this purging, which I now exhort to, 
as it is wrought by affliction : ' by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged ; 
and this is all the fruit to take away the sin,' that is, all it takes away im- 
pairs not the substance of thy soul ; so that when I say it is a purging of thy 
nature, my meaning is, it is a severing the corruption which now is in thee 
by nature from the substance of thy soul, which God made. I exhort you 
to purge out nothing else ; for, my brethren, you have a substance made by 
God, endued with natural faculties, all which are good, and sin is the spoil 
and corruption of them, as the dross is the spoil of the gold and silver, if it 
be not severed from it, as ill humours are the spoil and corruption of the 
body, if they be not severed from it and purged out. And therefore that 
should be a motive to you, to purge yourselves from this filth, because it is 
the spoil of that which is good in thee. God loseth a creature, a noble 
creature, by reason of it, and this is an argument Christ useth, Luke xi. 39, 
40, why they should wash their hearts as well as their cups, ' Did not God, 
that made that which is without, make that which is within also?' namely, 
their hearts. Their hearts were of God's making, and it is the corruption 
which spoils the creature that God made, and destroys it. Now, therefore, 
purge yourselves, and wash your hearts as well as your cups ; for why 
shouldst thou suffer that which is naught to spoil that which is good in thee 
for want of purging it out? Thou hast a good wit, it may be, which God 
hath made ; a wisdom and a large understanding. Is it not pity it should 
be spoiled ? Why, thou art born with a corruption cleaving to it, which, if 
thou severest it not, will be the spoil of it that it shall be good for nothing, 
but, as silver when the dross is in it, is fit to make nothing of, but crum- 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 71 

bles and breaks.^ Titus i. 15, be baving said tbat men's minds and con- 
sciences arc defiled, be adds, vcr. 10, tbat tbey are 'reprobate to every good 
work' ; and tberelbre now (Jod sball be forced to reject tbeui, and to destroy 
tbe creature tbat be batb made, if tbou wilt not purge out tby delileuient 
from tbee. Jei*. vi. 30, wben be laboured to purge tbem and tbey would 
not, it is said, ' Reprobate silver sball men call tbem, for tbe Lord batb 
rejected tbem.' Tbougb tbere was a substance wbicb was good in tbem, 
wbicb God migbt regard as bis creature, yet, tbeir dross remaining, be could 
have no use of tbem ; tbey being reprobate in tbemselves to every good work, 
God would reject tbem also : as a vessel wbicb a man cannot get tbe tilth 
out of be dasbetb against tbe walls and breaks : 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' Tbere are 
vessels of honour, and vessels of dishonour ; if a man purge himself, he 
shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and 
prepared to every good work.' 

Observe, first, that tbere are vessels of several sorts, and the clay and 
fashion is from God, the potter. Now, bow come some to be vessels of dis- 
honour, tbat is, of damnation, and wrath, and confusion of face ; some of 
honour and glory, namely, salvation ? for so honour is taken, Rom. ii. 10, 
Why, sa3's tbe apostle, ' if a man purge himself, tben he shall become a vessel 
of honour,' for all have a defilement in them by nature, none become vessels 
of honour but those tbat purge tbemselves ; and why ? Because none else can 
God emplo}' in tbat honourable employment of his service, for so a man be- 
comes sanctified and meet for his master's use. God caunot use tbe other 
about his business, no more than you can do with an unclean vessel to drink 
in, and so he is fain to lay you aside as vessels wherein be bath no pleasure : 
Hosea viii. 8, ' Israel is swallowed up: nov7 shall they be among tbe Gentiles 
as a vessel wherein is no pleasure ; ' and not only so, but to break you in 
pieces like a potter's vessel, Ps. ii. 9, so tbat unless you mean to lose all 
that is good in you, aud lose God a creature, purge yourselves from all filthi- 
ness of the flesh and spirit. Only be sure to make thorough work ; and 
above all, endeavour to purge corruption out of thy heart aud nature, as well 
as out of tby actions, for, take what pains thou wilt to purge thyself from 
gross actions, thou sbalt still be reckoned a filthy person, as one that hath 
no part in Christ: John xiii. 8, ' If I wash thee not, thou bast no part with 
me.' Thou art but an outside, as civil men be who purge themselves from 
adultery, &c., but within are full of uncleanness, &c. ' Jerusalem,' says 
God, Jer. iv. 14, ' wash tby heart. How long shall thy vain thoughts 
lodge within thee ? ' Not tby hands only, and the outward converse, but tby 
heart and the evil tboughts must be purged ; and therefore says David, Ps. 
Ii. 7, 'Create a clean heart within me.' Apprehending his corruption, it 
would not content him to be kept clean from wallowing any more in un- 
cleanness, but he rests not till his heart be wasbed from the defilement he 
left behind in it, and from those unclean fancies, the impression of that sin 
renewed in him day by day. And therein lies the difference of hypocrites 
and believers, the foolish and wise virgins, as they are called. Mat. xxv. 2. 
Virgins tbey are both called, as keeping themselves undefiled from some cor- 
ruptions and adulterous practices which others are given to. And so virgin 
is used in opposition to the Romish whore : Rev. xiv. 4, ' These are they 
which were not defiled with women ; for they are virgins. These are they 
which follow the Lamb whitbersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from 
among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.' Only the 
wise virgins purify their hearts as well as their bands ; but the foolish, though 
virgins in regard of being clear from common whorings aud adulteries of the 
world, yet their hearts were unclean within, their folly lying in this, that 



72 AN UNEEGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

they purged the streams and not the fountains, which is a vain and foolish 
labour ; so therefore Christ calls pharisees fools : Luke xi. 40, ' Ye fools, did 
not he that made that which is without make that which is within also ?' 
And therefore you shall find that difference between true believers and tem- 
poraries in 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and 
precious promises : that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, 
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' And 
2 Peter ii. 20, ' For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world 
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse than the beginning.' 
There is a riddance in both of defilement, but the one is said barely to 
escape pollution, ra /xidcificcTa, the other corruption through lust ; the one 
inward, the other outward, the mire external only, for so 2 Peter ii. 22 in- 
terprets it, comparing them to swine ; but the other are cleared from internal 
pollutions, for, on the contrary, they are to be partakers of a divine nature. 

Ohj. But you will say, How shall I get this corruption out, seeing it is in 
my nature ? Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can a blackmoor change his skin ?' This is my 
skin, the natural dye which I brought with me into the world ; or, ' Can a 
leopard change his spots ? ' Though they be but spots, yet how shall I be 
able to get them out ? 

Ans. I indeed confess there is nothing in nature can do it ; there is no 
creature, that is simply a creature, can do it. A toad cannot empty itself of 
poison, because it is incorporated into it, so neither canst thou empty thyself 
of sin because it is incorporated into thee ; it is blended in thy nature, and 
there is nothing but that which is contrary can expel a contrary. Now, there 
is nothing contrary to sin in thee ; yea, there is no creature can do it for 
thee : Jer. ii. 22, ' Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and take much 
soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before thee,' &c. Take all the soap in 
the world, such as you use to wash your clothes with, and it will not do it ; 
yea, take all your legal sacrifices with which they did use to purge and ex- 
piate sin, and it will not do it : Heb. x. 1—4, ' For the law having a shadow 
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with 
those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers 
thereunto perfect. For then would the}' not have ceased to be ofi'ered ? be- 
cause that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience 
of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins 
every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should 
take away sins.' There the apostle saith, sacrifices could not purchase sin, 
for if they could (saith he) they would not have been offered every year, but 
would have ceased, because they that were once purged should have no more 
conscience of sin ; and therefore (he saith) ' it was impossible that the blood 
of bulls and goats should take away sin,' yea, if all the world had been 
offered for a sacrifice it could not have done it. Again, the law of God 
could never do it (though this be a help to our nature), yet it could not 
purge sin ; it might indeed break us all to pieces, it might bray thee as in a 
mortar, and yet thou wouldst be a fool still, thy folly would not depart from 
thee, Prov. xxvii. 22. Therefore, Rom. viii. 7, where, having spoken of this 
corruption in the former chapter, he saith the law could not free a man from 
it, in that it is weak through the flesh. All this will not fetch corruption out, 
as if you should take wheat and beat it to pieces in a mortar, yet it would 
continue to be wheat still though it were broken ; so, though the law might 
break thee to pieces, yet thy corruption would still remain in thee. 

What way, then, is there to purge it ? You shall see in the next words: 
Rom. viii. 3, when ' the law could not do it, God sent his Son.' God sent 



Chap. V.] in respect op sin and punishment. 73 

one from heaven on purpose to come down to do this office here upon earth, 
to be a refiner, to purge men from their sins, Mai. iii. 3. Jesus Christ hath 
his work here upon earth ; and as men have their several employments, so 
hath Christ his, to purge and purify men from sin. And there is not one 
of this employment in heaven and earth but he, and those that he purifieth 
are the sons of Levi, all Christians, who are by him ' made kings and 
priests unto God the Father,' Rev. i. 6 ; and these he purgeth, and fetcheth 
the dross away, that they may ofier to the Lord offerings of righteousness, 
and acceptable sacrifices. Therefore, if you would be purged, and have your 
dross fetched oflP, here is a refiner, and here is fuller's soap, Mai. iii. 2. 
Bring hither therefore your filthy souls, he can purge them ; there is nothing 
else can do it, for it is his proper business ; he was sent of purpose to do it. 
As if you would have some great work done, that never a man in England 
can do it, you would send for a tradesman beyond sea ; yea, even when 
there was not one upon earth could do it, God sent to heaven for his Son 
to come down to purge away sin. 

Obj. But how doth he do it ? 

Aus. He doth it, Jirst, by his blood ; there was nothing else could do it. 
It is that which purges your consciences from dead works : as Heb. xi. 14, 
' How much more shall' the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit 
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to 
serve the Uving God ?' There is in every part of our nature a mass of cor- 
ruption, a bundle of folly, Prov. xv. 22. But how shall that be got out ? 
See 1 John iii. 8, it is said there, that Christ appeared ' to destroy,' to untie 
' the works of the devil.' He is the fountain opened for a separation of sin 
and uncleanness, Zech. xiii. 1, to purge and purify the sons of men, and it 
is his blood that doth all this. 

Again, secondhj, this power he communicated by his Spirit. When this 
refiner, Mai. iii, 2, and the fuller's soap, that is, his Spirit, does join, then 
such a man is purified indeed ; therefore the Holy Ghost is compared to tire, 
which purgeth the heart from all the dross which we brought with us into 
the world. He is this fuller's soap, and there is^none hke it in the world ; 
and if the Spirit seize upon the heart once, he will purify it thoroughly. 
Therefore do you as David did'; when he saw he could not do it of himself, 
he went to God for the assistance of his Spirit : ' Purge me, Lord,' saith 
he, Ps. li. 7. So, 1 Peter i. 2, this work is attributed to the Spirit. In 
1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through 
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another 
with a pure heart fervently.' 

Thirdly, The Spirit is conveyed to us in the word ; therefore the apostle, 
1 Peter i. 22, they had ' purified their souls in obeying the truth.' If thou 
wouldst be pure in heart, be frequent in the word ; therefore our Saviour 
saith, ' You are clean through the word that I have spoken to you ; ' for the 
Spirit goes with the word, and that washes and purifies the heart. But you 
must be sure you obey it then ; therefore it is said, they purified their 
hearts in obeying the truth. It is not enough to hear a sermon, but you 
must eat it down, take in what it commands, and then it will purge your 
heart. Ps. cxix. 9, ' Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his ways '? By 
ruling himself according to thy word.' Take the word and digest it, squeeze 
the juice of it into thy heart, and it will purge thee from all contrary cor- 
ruption. 

Fourthly, Of all parts in the word, the promises have the most virtue in 
them, they do purge most of all : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given to us 
exceeding great and precious promises : that by these ye might he partakers 



^•l AN UNBEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world 
through lust ;' 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these promises, dearly 
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all hlthiness of the flesh and spirit, 
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' Do but thoroughly di'ink down the 
promises, and they will purge thy heart. 

Fij'tkly, God giveth power to some graces to do it. 

As, 1, faith is a special means to purge thy heart. Acts sv. 9, for it brings 
home the promises so to thy heart, as it is purged by them ; as when a man 
comes to consider of his privileges, that he is the son of God in Christ, 
2 Cor. vi. 18, and also considering, that if he be the son of God, then he 
must be like him. Now knowing that God is pure, this makes him labour 
by all means to purge himself; so likewise when the soul considers, I have 
a new husband, now I am married unto Christ, and therefore I must labour 
to be pure. So likewise when the soul by faith considers, I am now the 
temple of God, and he walks in it, and therefore I must not make it a den of 
thieves : 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, ' What ! know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye 
are not your own ? For ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify God 
in your body, and your spirit, which are God's.' And indeed, ' holiness 
becomes his house for ever,' Ps. xciii. 5. 

2. The Lord gives his power to hope: 1 John iii. 2, ' He that hath this 
hope purities himself.' So that, hast thou a hope ever to come to heaven ? 
Then thou wilt fall to washing and scouring of thy nature. By this you see 
how you may be pure : go to Christ, bathe in his blood, pray for the Spirit, 
obey the word, squeeze out the juice of the promises, and these will be 
excellent helps to purge your hearts. 

And there are certain times when this is to be done. 

Especiall}', 1, young men they should do it : ' How shall a young man 
cleanse his ways ?' Ps. cxix. 9 ; ' Remember thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth,' Eccles. xii. 1. God speaks not to old men, there is not such a place 
to them in all the Scripture where God salth so to them ; therefore set about 
the work betimes, and take the best opportunity. It is good to purge the 
body in the spring, it is good to purge the kingdom in the spring of a king's 
reign, and it is good to purge the heart in the spring of thy youth, before 
old age come upon thee. 

2. Again, when God stirs thy heart at the hearing of the word, or with a 
good motion of his Spirit, then it is good purging. They say it is good purg- 
ing in a rainy day, because then the humours are stirring, and they will go 
away the easier. Now there are times, Ezek. xxiv. 13, when God comes to 
purge you. Oh then do you fall a cleansing of yourselves ; for God would 
then purge you, would you but join with him. Yet it is the Spirit that 
must indeed do it after all : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing ye have purihed your 
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the 
brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.' 

Obj. But what is it to purge yourselves ? 

Ans. It implies three things. 

First, To loose thy heart from sin. As if you would purge a cloth, you 
steep it in the water to loosen the defilement of it ; if you would purge 
silver, you put it into the fire to loosen the dross from it ; if you would 
purge the chaff from the wheat, you thresh it first, that you may loosen it ; 
so if you would purge sin, you must labour to loosen it from the heart ; 
therefore it is said, that Christ came for this purpose: Zech. xiii. 1, ' In that 
day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.' Christ was to come 



CUAP. V.j IN RESPKCT OF SI>. AND PUKISHMtNT. 75 

to work a separation from sin and uncleanness ftLou wast bound up in the 
band of iniquity, and Christ came forth to loose the band, and to untie thee 
from it, when it was incorporated into thee : 1 John iii. 8, * He that com- 
mitteth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For 
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the 
works of the devil.' He came to untie the band, and to destroy the works 
of the devil. 

Sc'co)ulhj, Purging implies a taking away of the dross ; for it is but a folly 
to put the gold into fire, if you let the dross lie upon it and keil it again ; it 
is but a folly to thresh the wheat, if you do not winnow and fan it, and 
thoroughly purge the floor. Even so you must do in this ; you must purge 
out the corruption, for this is ' all the fruit' of purifying, ' to take away the 
sin : ' Isa. xxvii. 9, * By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; 
and this is all the fruit to take away his sin ; when he maketh all the stones 
of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and the 
image shall not stand up.' This is to purge yourselves from sin, to lay it 
aside, as it is James i. 21, ' Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and super- 
fluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which 
is able to save your souls.' For it is but an excrement ; if naughtiness 
could have an excrement, sin should be it. And there is this scum in you 
which must be boiled out, Ezek. xxiv. 11, 12 ; you must not let it boil in 
again, but you must fetch it out; even as merchants do in boiling and scum- 
ming of new wines, so must you, when the scum of your corruptions rise, 
you must purge it out. 

Thirdly, You being purged, you must keep yourselves pure from the pol- 
lutions of the world, and not so much as touch the unclean thing : 2 Cor. 
vi. 17, ' Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith 
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you.' And 
being once purged, you must walk carefully, even as a man walking in a 
miry lane, that you do not spatter yourselves again. John xvii. 15, ' I 
pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldst keep them from the evil.' 1 John v. 18, ' We know that whosoever is 
born of God sinneth not ; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, 
and that wicked one toucheth him not.' Thou hast put on thy clothes, and 
washed thy feet, and wilt thou wallow in the mire again ? 

Obj. But how shall I get it loosened and purged, and what shall I do to 
keep it clean ? 

Ans. To get it loosened, 

First, Get a dislike of sin. As if we would loosen two friends that are 
knit together in a common bond of friendship, the only way is to get a dislike 
of one another, and then they will soon part. So to loosen sin, get an ill 
opinion of it ; which that you may, consider what the word speaks against 
it, and think of sin as it speaks of it, and it is able to engender in thee 
an ill opinion of sin ; therefore hear the word much, read it much, digest 
it much. 

Secondly, Humble thyself much for sin, get thy heart broken and melted; 
for it is said of Joshua, that when he humbled himself, his heart melted at 
the word. Now, when you put gold into the fire, when it is melted, you 
may easily take the dros's from it. So you may deal with your corruptions: 
James iv. 8, ' Draw nigh to God, and "he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse 
your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' But 
how shall they so do ? Verse 9, ' Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep : let 
your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.' 

Again, that you may purge sin. The special means is, to labour to 



76 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

strengthen the inward man ; for there is in every man vis ejectiva, an expul- 
sive faculty, to expel and purge out corruptions. Now, vphat is the reason 
that any man dies, but only because this power is not strong enough to cast 
out the deadly humours ? Even so to purge out sin, thou must strengthen 
the inward man, labour to get grace, as faith, joy, hope, to strengthen and 
make the inward man more lively ; for sin is but an outward man, an excre- 
ment which the inward man will soon shake off, and purge it out, even as 
nature doth a scab ; for all grace purgeth the heart, and maketh it to cast 
out corruption, therefore labour to purge it out. 

Use 2. When thou hast purged out thy sins, keep thyself clean. I have 
read a story of a fuller and a collier, and as fast as the fuller purged his 
cloth the collier fouled it again, because they lived both in one house. Even 
so is it with us, by reason of the nearness of the flesh, and the regenerate 
part in us, and therefore it is the harder to keep ourselves clean. But that 
thou mayest, 

First, Keep thyself from evil thoughts, for they defile the man : Mat. xv. 
18-20, ' But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from 
the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil 
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 
these are the things which defile a man : but to eat with unwashen hands 
defileth not a man.' The more thou entertainest these thoughts, the more 
thy heart will be corrupted. 

Secondlij, Keep thyself from evil speeches, because * evil words corrupt 
good manners,' 1 Cor. xv. 33. Thou canst not gargle them in thy mouth, 
but some of them will go down. 

Thirdly, Take heed of ill company, for that will defile the man. In the 
time of the law, if a living man touched a dead man, he was unclean. Take 
heed therefore of conversing with dead men, for it will defile thee; as when 
thou hast prayed, and taken pains with thy heart, and brought it into some 
good frame, when thou comest into ill company, they will cool thee again. 

Fourthhj, Take heed of all occasions of evil abuse of things lawful, even 
they also will make thee impure, because it is a means to draw out the im- 
purity of thy heart; therefore if thou be defiled, as Titus i. 15, 'Unto the 
pure all things are pure : but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is 
nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.' Then all 
those things that draw out the corruption of thy heart, though they be things 
lawful, yet use them not, for often by lawful recreations men gather defile- 
ment, even as a man by telling of money defileth his hands with it. 

And also, to stir you up to this duty, consider these motives : 

1. Unless thou purge thyself, thou hast no part in Christ: John xiii. 8, 
* Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him. 
If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.' If Christ have not washed 
thy heart, thou hast no part in him. Christ was made fit to loose sin in us, 
therefore if sin be not dissolved in thee, thou hast no part in him. 

2. This purging distinguisheth a godly man from an hypocrite. An hypo- 
crite washeth the outward man : Pi-ov. xxx. 12, ' Though they are pure in 
their own eyes, yet they are not washed from their filthiness.' But now a 
child of God washeth his heart; therefore if thou wilt have comfort by this 
distinction, labour to purge thyself, and to get the core of sin out. 

3. Without this thou shalt never see God : Ps. xxiv. 3, 4, ' Who shall 
ascend into the hill of the Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ? 
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; who hath not lift up his soul 
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully;' only he that hath clean hands, and a 
pure heart, shall be received into God's tabernacle. Now, thou art impure. 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 77 

and dost thou think ever to come to God ? No ; God will have no such come 
to him. 

4. For outward blessings, till thou purge thyself, God will not many times 
bestow them upon thee. It may be God hath a heart to do it, but thou 
hast an impure heart, and therefore canst not receive them: Ps. Ixxiii. 1, 
' God is good only to such as have clean hearts.' He knows if he should 
give thee outward blessings they would defile thee. I will shut up all there- 
fore with that exhortation, James iv. 8, ' Draw nigh to God, and he will draw 
nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; and purify your hearts, ye 
double-minded.' God will never draw nigh unto you unless you purge 
yourselves. But how shall we do it ? He tells you in the next verse, ' Be 
afflicted, and mourn.' Go to Christ, bring faith with you ; go to Christ, and 
desire him to purge thee; labour to drink down the word deep into thy soul, 
and this will be a means to purge thy heart; and for all this thou wilt not 
be clean. Mark, with what God concludes all the Scriptures, ' He that is 
filthy, let him be filthy still,' Rev. xxii. 11. As if he had said, Go and see 
what will come of it, see who will have the worst of it ; but this know, that 
when God comes to purge thee, and thou wilt not, he will never strive to 
purge thee more: Jer. vi. 30, God would have purged them, and they would 
not ; therefore ' reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath 
rejected them;' and then thou wilt be found at last to be a vessel of wrath, 
and so wilt be dashed in pieces. Therefore think this seriously with your- 
selves : If I be found in my natural defilement, not purged, the Lord will 
dash me to pieces, and I shall never be found a vessel of honour fit for my 
Master's use. Therefore labour to be earnest to be in Christ, that purify- 
ing virtue may go out from him, and thou mayest bring forth fruit in him: 
John XV. 2, ' Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and 
every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
fruit.' And then God will purge thee ; and the more thou drawest to Christ, 
the more purging thou shalt have, and the more God will cut off the old 
branches of sin in thee. 

Use 3. If this corruption be not only a misery befallen our nature, but 
also truly and properly in itself a sin, then let me exhort you, in a true and 
thorough sense of it, not only to cry out and complain of it (as men use to 
do of miseries), but in an especial manner to humble yourselves for it, when 
you come into God's presence. 

1. I say, to be truly and thoroughly sensible of it ; for otherwise you can 
neither truly complain of it as a misery, nor be humbled for it as a sin, of 
which corruption and distemper of nature yet the most men have been and 
are (like men in a mortal and deadly sickness) insensible. So far were some 
of the Stoics and heathens of old, and atheists of these times, from thinking 
it a misery, as consequenter natures vivere was with ihem fceUcltatisJinem attin- 
gere, to live according to nature was to attain the end of happiness, like brute 
beasts, following the swing of nature and corrupt reason, as the truest guide 
to happiness; whence haply it was that some in the primitive times thought 
fornication and uncleanness could be no sin (because it was an action so 
agreeable to nature), no more than in beasts, w'hich do according to their 
kind. And indeed where nothing but nature itself sat the judge upon itself, 
we need not wonder at so favourable a sentence. But in those among us 
Christians who have had the true glass of God's word to discover the de- 
formity and depravation of their natures unto them, I do much more wonder 
to hear them bolster themselves, and lay the foundation of their hopes for 
heaven in the goodness and sweetness of their natures, smoothness and 
ingenuousness of their dispositions ; yea, and that so far as to put it into 



78 AN UNREGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

the balance against the exorbitancies and gross enormities of their lives, 
thinking their actual sins will not damn them, their inclinations being so 
good and towardly. 

Others, if further convinced, so as not to justify themselves by the false 
supposed goodness of it, yet so as at least to excuse themselves by the bad- 
ness of it, which they are forced to acknowledge, laying all upon the devil 
and their natures ; it is their natural inclination and disposition to do so, 
and we are all flesh and blood, and what other can be expected of them ? 
This is their talk ; so far are and were all these sorts of men from laying it 
to heart and being truly sensible of it. Better shall it fare with those more 
ingenuous heathens, who were not only sensible of this disease of nature, but 
complained of it as a woful misery. So Tully, lib. ii. de Rep., as quoted by 
Augustine, lib. iv. contra Julian.* laments the miserable condition of mankind. 
Quern natiira noverca in lucem edidit, corpore undo, fragili, infirmo, animo ad 
molestias anxio, ad. tiinores hitmili, ad labores dehili, ad libidines proclivi, in 
quo divinus ignis sit obrutits, ingenium et mores. But yet all this acknow- 
ledgment ended in a mere complaint, and that not in particular so much, 
bewailing it in themselves (which only humbles), but in the general, as the 
common condition ; neither, indeed, was it so much an humble complaint of 
this misery, as a proud expostulation and upbraiding of nature, that is, the 
God of nature, as a stepfather, for making them so as they thought ; 
which acknowledgment, though it might humble them in regard of their car- 
riage one towards another, as considering they were subject to the like 
miseries other men were, yet it brought them not upon their knees for it 
before God, but flushed them rather against him ; and therefore com- 
plain they did (as Titus Vespasian f when dying), that the frame of nature 
should so soon be dissolved by death (God's sergeant and executioner), not 
considering that it was originally set wrong, not by God, but their own de- 
fault, and so went continually wrong, insomuch that God was provoked to 
break the workmanship that he had made, considering it would not be 
mended. 

Others among us Christians there are acknowledge it not only a misery, and 
themselves miserable men in particular in regard of it, but also humbly 
acknowledge it before God, as a misery that not he, but they in their first 
fathers have brought upon themselves ; so as, indeed, their natures are 
justly thus corrupted, and therefore humbly sue to him for pity and deHver- 
ance, as beggars do to those that are able to help them, as maimed persons 
do to a physician. 

Use 4. But yet, my brethren, in the fourth place, that which I am to ex- 
hort vou to is not only to be thus particularly sensible of it, and so to com- 
plain of it, and that not only as a misery that is justly befallen you, as the 
just debt of the first sin you are guilty of, but further than all this, to lay it 
to heart as a sin, and accordingly to humble yourselves before it as low as 
hell, with a heart broken, confounded, and a mouth put in the dust ; for it is 
one thing so far to be humbled for it, as a man that hath brought himself 
into miserj-, and so laments himself, and so sues out to God for help and 
pity, or as a wounded patient doth to the physician, and another thing to be 
humbled before God for it, as a traitor before his prince, or a guilty person 
before his judge, so as to acknowledge that, though that cursed root of 

* See the Citation afore in Book I. 

t Deinde ad primara statim mansionem febrim nactns cum inde lectica transfer- 
retur, suspexisse dicitur dimotis plagulis ccelum, multumque conqusestus, eripi sibi 
vitam immerenti : neque enim extare ullum suum factum poenitendum excepto dun- 
taxat uno. — Suetonius in Vita Titi Vesp. c. 10. 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 79 

original corruption had never sprouted forth into actual sin, yet it, and him- 
self for it, did deserve to be stubbed up, and to be cast into hell, merely 
because it was naturally so poisoned and embittered, and envenomed with 
such dispositions as are truly sinful and hateful in God's most holy and all- 
seeing eye. 

Now thus to humble a man's soul for it contains four things in it. 

1. To be particularly sensible of the evil and misery of it, for no aflfection 
stirs to anything, be it good or evil, till we apprehend it so ; as not love, so 
not grief, and sensible we must be of it. This particularly, not barely as the 
common condition of all mankind, for that keeps men rather off from 
humbling themselves. We think ourselves to be the more excused, as from 
thankfulness for mercies others have a share in, so from the guilt of sins 
which are common to others. Therefore, I say, a man must be particularly 
sensible of it, that though all the world complain not of these wounds and 
festered sores we brought into the world with us, yet let us Iny them open 
befoi-e the throne of God from day to day, as if no man else in the world 
had the like bad nature to ours. 

2. To be humbled requires such a sensible acknowledgment and laying 
open of this misery as to have a man's mouth stopped, and nothing to say 
for one's self by way of excuse how it befell us ; and therefore that to be 
truly humbled is expressed by being confounded, and not able to open the 
mouth any more : Ezek. xvi. 63, ' That thou mayest remember, and be con- 
founded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when 
I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.' 
The heathens, therefore, though sensible of it, were not humbled for it, be- 
cause they complained of nature for bringing them forth so ; and indeed, if 
we apprehend we are fallen into misery, and not through our own default, 
we think we deserve pity and help, and complain of those that afford it not. 
But to be humbled is not simply to be sensible of and complain of a misery, 
and to seek and cry out for help, but to complain of ourselves, through 
whose default it is befallen us, and that justly. And then the creature be- 
gins to be humbled before God, for then, though God be of a pitiful nature 
and ready to help, yet our misery being befallen us by our own default, we 
then apprehend him not bound by the laws of pity to succour us, but that 
he may justly say, You may thank yourselves for it. Now, all must confess 
their original depravation as a thing befallen them, wherein they have no- 
thing to say by way of excuse ; and though, indeed, none can help it or avoid 
it (for we are born so), yet it comes by our default, sinning in Adam ; and 
therefore the apostle, Eom. iii. 19, speaking of the general depravation of the 
natures and lives of all mankind, as there he expressly out of Ps. xiv. doth, 
from ver. 10 to 19 ; says he, ver. 19, ' that every mouth may be stopped,' 
have nothing to say. Why, I am thus unrighteous, and that there is no fear 
of God before my eyes. 

But yet, 3, this is not all ; for simply to acknowledge a misery which needs 
pity, delivering us from it, suppose befallen us justly, doth not thoroughly 
humble or bring the creature low enough before God, as now it ought to be. 
But when the creature shall come in and acknowledge this corruption, not 
only a misery but also a sin, and that therefore he needs not only pity, be- 
cause this befell him through his own default, but that he deserves wrath 
instead of mercy, as being his sin, that it is not only deservedly befallen 
him by reason of the guilt of Adam's sin that he cannot rid himself out 
of, but also that in itself it deserves a worse misery, eternal death. And 
thus also should all mankind humble themselves before God for this corrup- 
tion : Rom. iii. 19, * Now we know that what things soever the law saith, 



80 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, 
and all the world may become guilty before God.' All the world, in regard 
of a natural righteousness spoken of before, even children and all ; all the 
world must become guilty, that is, in their own acknowledgment, before God, 
not only have their mouths stopped (if it were a misery so they might be), 
but also that they are guilty, that is, as signifies in the original, subject to 
the wrath and judgment of God. Therefore, Eph. ii. 3, speaking of that 
natural corruption brought by nature, he says, ' By nature we were the chil- 
dren of wrath,' that is, by reason of the corruption of our natures, which he 
there speaks of ; for, as Whitaker well observes, he brings it after he had 
described the corruption in their lives in the former words, as the cause 
whence that sprung. And having spoken of both in ver. 1 in general, in 
these words, ' dead in trespasses,' that is, sins actual deserving death, and in 
sins, namely, of natural corruption, 1, he shews particularly the trespasses of 
the lives, ver. 2, 3 ; and, 2, adds the other part of their sinfulness, which 
was the cause of the corruption of their natures. They were by nature the 
children of wrath ; that is, not only deserving wrath in regard of their lives, 
but also of their very natures ; for to be a child of wrath is to deserve wrath, 
as Judas is called ' the child of perdition,' John xvii. 12. 

4. But in that true and kind humiliation which I exhort you to, there is 
a fourth thing required, not simply to judge and acknowledge a man's self 
subject to wrath for the sin, but to look on a man's self with loathing and 
detestation for it ; for you shall find humbling a man's self so expressed : 
' They shall loathe themselves for their sins,' Ezek. xxxvi. 31. Were this 
corruption simply a misery that had befallen them, though justly, yet if it 
were no more, one would not loathe himself for it, no, no more than a man 
doth his own fiesh, though full of boils and diseases. He hates not his 
flesh, because he looks on those diseases as a misery only befallen it ; 
neither to be humbled, for it is merely to apprehend that wrath due to it 
as to a sin, for that may be, where no love of God is, out of self-love ; but to 
humble thyself for it, is to look upon this disease, and even to hate thy 
own self for it, to look upon it as God doth, not only as a thing that 
deserves his wrath, but which he abominates, cannot endure to have any 
communion with, as contrary to him and his law ; and so now to look on 
thyself for it with the same eye, to account thyself not only a guilty person, 
but a filthy, loathsome, abominable, vile person, contrary tq God as a crea- 
ture, which, if God would not, thou couldst find in thy heart to destroy. 
And thus Job humbled himself for the corruption of his nature, Job xlii. 6, 
having seen, ver. 5, the holiness of God's nature : ' Now mine eye hath seen 
thee,' says he ; and then reflecting his eye upon himself, his filthy nature, 
he abhorred himself; for in regard of this corruption, a man is not only a 
miserable person in God's eye, — Rom. vii. 24, ' Oh wretched man that I am ! 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' and so he is the object 
of pity, — but man is a sinful creature, and so an object of wrath, Eph. ii. 8, 
yea, an abominable person : Job xv. 16, ' How much more abominable and 
filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water ? ' He is the object of 
hatred and loathing ; he speaks there of man in regard of original native 
corruption ; for, ver. 14, he saith, ' What is man, that he should be clean ; 
and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous ? ' 

And now to press this on you, having shewn what it is to humble your- 
selves for it. If you have cause thus to humble yourselves, loathe and 
abhor yourselves for anything, then much more for the corruption of your 
nature. Single out the grossest sin that ever thou hast committed, which 
hath brought thee lowest on thy knees, and hath cost thee most sighs and 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 81 

sobs, which thou hast drenched and watered with most tears, and compare 
it but with the evil disposition of thy heart and nature, which was the root 
that cursed fruit grew on; and whereas thou hast bestowed a thousand tears 
on the one, thou hast cause to shed millions of tears for this, and to wish 
indeed that thy head were a fountain of tears, Jer. ix. 1, to weep day and 
night, because thy heart is a ' fountain of sin,' that casts out filth both day 
and night, Jer. vi. 7. 

Consider, 1, that actual sin was but a bud sprung from this root; that 
the cause, this gross sin but the effect ; the grossest sin that ever thou 
committedst, simply considered, is but the effect of thine inbred corruption. 

But this is not all ; I may add, compare it with many, I dare not say all, 
thy gross sins, simply considered, as fruits out of this root and stalk they 
grew on, and thou hast as much cause to be humbled for the badness of thy 
nature as for them : though indeed thou shouldst do well to put both 
together, and humble thy soul for thy actual sins the more, because they 
are the offspring of so cursed and hateful a mother ; and for the corruption 
of thy nature, because it is the mother of so cursed a brood. And if thou 
sayest. Why, but my actual sins are infinite in number, surpassing my 
knowledge, more than the sands ; so is the wickedness of thy heart and 
nature past thy knowledge : Jer. xvii. 9, ' The heart is deceitful, and despe- 
rately wicked above all things : who can know it ? ' an abounding depth, 
which thou canst never guage the bottom of. 

And that thou mayest see this to be true, view it, 1st, in the general 
nature of it ; and 2dly, in the particular parts of it. 

First, In the general ; consider, 

1. That it is the root, yea, the mother of all those thy actual sins, the 
womb from whence they sprang, and where they were conceived. The 
apostle rips up the womb of it when he says, ' "When lust hath conceived, it 
brings forth sin,' James i. 15. Though temptation and occasion may be 
the midwife to help to bring sin forth, yet this is the mother ; and therefore. 
Gal. V. 19, 20, he says that adultery, fornication, &c., all that cursed cata- 
logue he there musters up, he says they are the fruits of the flesh, that is, 
of inherent, native corruption ; that is the root, these the fruits. So Christ 
also calls it the evil treasure, out of which all sins are brought, the treasure 
or mine whence they are all taken : Mat. xii. 35, ' And an evil man out of 
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.' Not that they are ready 
minted, but in the ore or bullion, as it were ; yet so as no sin is brought 
forth that hath not its materials there, for it is brought forth out of that 
treasury. And if it be thus the mother-root and treasury of all sin, have 
you not cause to be humbled for it as much, as simply for all other sins ? 
Doth not Paul set out the foulness of the ' love of money,' by calling it 'the 
root of all evil ' ? 1 Tim. vi. 10. Is not this much more odious, that it is 
the root, as of all other, so of covetousness itself; that bitter root spoken of, 
Heb. xii. 15, that bears all the gall and wormwood that grows up in our 
lives ? Take any poisoned root, and you will find the least piece of it hath 
as much strength of poison in it as all the leaves and branches. Of every 
action, yea, of all actions, it may be said, thou bearest not the root, but this 
root bears thee. The sea hath more waters in it than all the rivers that 
come from it, and infinitely more dirt at the bottom of it than it casts forth. 
Now unto this doth Isaiah compare original sin in comparison to actual : 
Isa. Ivii. 20, « But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, 
whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' 

And if it be the mother, then as the devil is therefore called ' that wicked 

VOL. X. F 



82 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

one,' xar' i^oyj,v, John viii. 34, because he is the father of sins, all sins 
being called his works, 1 John iii. 8, there, in a higher demonstration, the 
great blame will be cast upon the mother of all sin, by how much it is more 
near and intimate (as to our hearts), the cause thereof, nourishing, breeding, 
cherishing of them more than Satan doth. As Rome being the mother of 
fornication, all nations being drunk with her cup, and therefore shall be 
rewarded double : Rev. viii. 24, ' In her are found all the blood of the slain ; ' 
yea, and the souls of men ; so shall this sin be arraigned at the latter day 
to have been the great whore and mother of fornication, in whom shall be 
found all the sins that ever thou didst commit. Yea, as Christ to his glory 
shall present himself, and say, ' Lo, here I am, and the children thou hast 
given me,' so at that day, after that all thy sins have been set in order 
before thee, as Ps. 1. 20, then shall this great beldame be brought in with all 
her blood ; and then cursed shall be the womb that bare them, and those 
lusts which as paps did give them suck. 

A mother it is, that conceives and brings forth often, yea, without a father, 
which other mothers cannot ; so as the devil shall not need, neither doth he 
indeed tempt us to every sin we commit. This womb is never barren, but 
fruitful of itself; neither is it the mother of all only by succession, or alone 
hneal descent, as Adam is accounted the father of all mankind, and Eve the 
mother of all living ; but every sin comes immediately out of the loins of this 
mother. David lays his adultery and murder upon his being born in sin. 
It is the great traitor, that hath a hand in every treason to the end of the 
world ; though I confess it is much more increased, and the treasury is 
enlarged by custom in sinning ; yet so, as Paul says, when any sin is com- 
mitted, it is that sin that dwells within him that doth it, even this inherent 
corruption : Rom. vii. 20, ' Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I 
that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' And though indeed God punisheth 
often one sin with another (as Stapleton objects), yet so as still this is the 
sin by which and for which we are so punished, the immediate cause of both; 
and inclines us as well to that sin which is the punishment, as it had done 
to that other sin for which this punishment is inflicted ; only God, in letting 
out corrupt nature, observes a method, broacheth one after another, but this 
sin inclines us alike immediately unto all. 

But, 2, this is not all thou art to consider in it for the humbling of thee. 
It hath not only been actually the cause of all the sins thou hast committed, 
but virtually, and radically, and potentially, it is the seminal root of millions 
more, even of all manner of sin, which thou never actedst, God restraining 
thee, so as thou hast seen the least part of the villnny of it. And indeed it 
is caiLsa xmiversalis mahntm, the universal canse of all evils, even as God is 
of all good, not only because he is the cause of all the good that is, but 
because he is potentially the cause of millions of worlds which lie in his 
power to create ; so this potentially is the cause of new worlds of sins. So, 
though it can act but one sin at a time, yet potentially it would and might 
inchne thee to any other sin, and might hale to contrary lusts at once, so as 
when we sin there is still more in nature than can be acted. Therefore, 
Mat. xii. 34, a man that is wicked is said to speak out of the abundance of 
the heart, which argues there is still more in the heart — an abundance there 
which the mouth speaks not ; — so actual sin is brought out of that treasury, 
ver. 35, and there is far more store in the treasury and warehouse than 
brought out into the shop. Yea, I say, look not only on thine own sins, but 
go out into the world and view all kinds of sins ever acted (as indeed the 
lives of men have been a comment on this text), spoken of Rom. i. Wliat- 
ever the word forbids they are all in thee virtually, for the sin of thy nature 



Chap. V,] in bespect of sin and punishment. 88 

would be the like cause of them all. For as when he wondered that Saul 
prophesied, one that stood by said, 'Yea, but who is the father of them?' 
1 Sam. X. 11, 12. His meaning was, wonder not at him, but consider that 
it is God who is the fether of the prophets, who is able to make these stones 
to prophesy. So do I say, when thou seest so many villanies that thou 
never committedst, I ask, but who is the mother of them ? Even the same 
m-iginal corruption that is in the sect.* So as multi Marii in urto Casare, so 
nndti Judtc in uno peccato. As there are many Caius Mariuses in one Cassar, 
so there are many Judases in one sin, that sin of thy nature. But a pair of 
shears went betwixt thy nature and theirs. If the sins in the world be not 
enough to inform thee, go down to hell ; this sin is the image of the devils, 
they ai*e but wild ones, we are tame by God's restraint, yet both of the same 
kind. 

Use 5. If it be so, that every man, by the corruption of his nature, is in- 
clined to all sin, then * watch and pray that you fall not into temptation,' 
Mark xiv. 38. For if thou hadst but one lust, viz., love of money, then 
shouldst thou, as the apostle speaks, have temptations enow, even many 
foolish and hurtful lusts : 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, ' But they that will be rich fall 
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root 
of all evil : which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, 
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.' Now, it will be much 
more so when thou art addicted to all lusts. My brethren, the world is full 
of snares, and men walk upon them. To some men their table is a snare, 
to others credit, lust, &c., and therefore no wonder if men fall into tempta- 
tion and a snare. It is said sin compasseth men about, Heb. xii. 1, so 
that, let a man go which way he will, sin will be sure to meet with him : yea, 
whatsoever we put our hands to, recreation, meats, &c., they are all defiled 
whilst the heart is defiled, and thy corruption runs out to every creature 
thou usest. The heart dasheth against no object, but thy lusts, like sparks 
of fire out of a torch struck against a post, do in multitudes fly out. There- 
fore, trust not thine heart ; fear in all thy ways lest sin meet thee. There- 
fore, watch in prayer, for thine heart hath a thousand chinks for flies to come 
in at. Take heed in good company that thou be not presumptuous, and in 
bad company that thou be not scandalous. In prosperity take heed lest thy 
heart be full, and thou deny God, and in adversity lest thy heart run out 
into unlawful courses. Vv^^hen thou art at a feast put thy knife to thy throat, 
&c., Prov. xxiii. 2. If thou walk in the street, make a covenant with thine 
eyes, lest lusts steal in. Job xxxi. 1, for lusts are apt to be drawn out in 
every one of these things. In a word, watch in all things, as 2 Tim. iv. 5 ; 
keep thy heart up as thou wouldst do a man given to company from his old 
companions : if he get but out, he then flies out into all excess. So will thy 
heart, there will be no stopping of it. Keep it up, and let it not slip the 
collar, for thou wilt not easily get it in again. Pray also to the Lord not to 
give thee up to temptation, for thou being filled with all unrighteousness, if 
God do but take away his hand from the hole, there is no lust but will be 
apt to leak out. Labour also to get all grace stamped upon your hearts, as 
you have all sin there ; and arm yourselves with resolution against every sin, 
as 1 Peter v. 9, for he that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city without 
walls, any temptation may break in. And if a breach be made, mend up 
the wall again as soon as you can, for it is as the breach of waters which is 
not easily stopped. And if you would not fall into sin, be still in the exercise 
of some grace, and then, saith the apostle, you shall never fall. 

* Qu. 'thyself ?-Ed. 



8-i AN UNREGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

Use 6. If it be so that there are the seeds of all sin in us, then you that 
have light take heed that you do not sin against the Holy Ghost. The Gen- 
tiles indeed are not capable of it ; but you that have the Spirit of God mov- 
ing your hearts in the word, that have received the hnowledge of the truth, 
take heed lest you sin wiUingly : Heb. x. 26, 27, ' For if we sin wilfully after 
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery in- 
dignation, which shall devour the adversaries.' Which is the sin that David 
prays against : Ps. xix. 13, ' Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous 
sins : let them not have dominion over me.' He calls it the great offence, 
a sin greater than presumptuous sins, for against them he had prayed in the 
words afore. And doubtless where the gospel is much preached, and many 
are converted to Christ, many fall into this sin, and more do than we think 
of. Therefore, you that are of younger years, whom God deals with, and 
convinceth you of his ways, of the truth of them, and of the sincerity of the 
gospel, take heed how you resist these motions, for though this resisting be 
not the sin against the Holy Ghost, yet it is a fearful step to it. And know 
this, when God comes to thy bedside morning and evening, talks with thee, 
persuades thee of the truth and goodness of the ways of grace, and thon 
refusest, thou sinnest against the Holy Ghost, though thou dost not commit 
that sin which we usually call the sin against the Holy Ghost ; but such sins 
are a step to it. 

Take heed also how thou speakest against the people of God, contrary to 
thy own knowledge and conscience, for those dogs that will out of wanton- 
ness fall upon sheep, when they have tasted their blood, will kill them in 
earnest. So there is many a man that will begin to speak against the people 
of God for some other end at first, but at last God may give them up to the 
malice of their own hearts ; and so thou dost not only run into inevitable 
danger, but there is the sorest punishment of all other belongs to thee : ' How 
much sorer punishment,' &c., Heb. x. 29, and therefore it is said, Mat. xxi. 
40, 44, ' The Lord will come and miserably destroy those wicked men ;' and 
ver. 44, ' Whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken ;' that is, ordi- 
nary sinners that rush against Christ shall be broken by him ; ' but on whom 
this stone shall fall,' that is, he that shall out of malice sin against Christ (for 
that sin is nothing else but revenge against God, that is the form of it), ' he 
shall grind them to powder.' As if a glass fall upon a stone, it will be broken, 
but if a rock fall upon it, it will grind it to powder. I speak not to discourage 
any ; but as the apostle, fearing lest some would be discouraged at the de- 
livery of this doctrine, said, Heb. vi. 9, so say I, ' We are persuaded better 
things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

A (jcneral division of the corruption of man's nature into the several paHs of 
it, a privation of all goodness, and an. inclination to all evil. — That there 
is in man fallen, an emptiness of all that is good, proved ; and that all the 
faculties vf his soul are void of that righteousness which ought to be in them. 

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 
But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while ice ivere yet siymers, 
Christ died for us. For if, when we irere enemies, we were reconciled to 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 85 

God by the death of his Son: much more, being recgnciled, we shall be saved 
by his life.— lio^.' V. G, 8, 10. 

I have demonstrated the greatness of the sinfulness of the natural inhe- 
rent defilement in man, which is here called flush, of which I have dis- 
coursed more generally, and but comparatively only, both as compared with 
our gross sins ; or, secondly, as compared with all a man's other sins. 
Now we M ill consider it in the parts of it, more absolutely as it is in itself. 
It is our present business to view and cut up and anatomize this body 
of sin, which, viewed in the Inmp and gross only, seems not so ugly ; 
which anatomy is either into the more general parts of it, which express 
the nature of it, as it is in all the faculties ; or, secondly, into the particular 
parts of it, as it hath diversely corrupted each faculty, as it is darkness in 
the understanding, lust in the will and aflfections, &c. And so I shall cut 
up every particular vein, and let you see what corrupt blood runs there ; in 
each severally. 

Now the more general parts of it, which express its general nature, are (as 
they are usually dissected by divines) two. 

First, A total and utter emptiness and privation of all that righteousness 
and true holiness which God first created in man, and which the law of God 
requires. 

And, secondly, a positive sinful inclination to all that is contrary to grace, 
namely, a proneness to all sin, of what kind soever, which any law of God 
forbids ; which positive sinfulness is divided into two parts : 1, the inordi- 
nate lustings of the faculties after things earthly, fleshly, sinful ; 2, an en- 
mity unto God, and unto what is holy. Or, if you will, you may quarter 
this our inherent sinfulness into four parts, and that according to the sec- 
tion of the most curious anatomist, the apostle Paul, as it is to be seen 
Rom. V. ver. 6 to 11, where, to set forth the greatness of the love and 
grace of God in Christ, he aggravates the disease of our natures and condi- 
tion, of which grace was the remedy ; for, as the greatness and desperate- 
ness of the disease commends the remedy, so ' God commends his love' 
(they are his words, ver. 8), ' in that whilst,' Jirst, ' without strength,' 
secondly, ' ungodly,' ver. 6, thirdly, ' sinners,' ver. 8, yea, * enemies,' ver. 9, 
' Christ died for us.' 

"Which may seem to import out four degrees of the corruption of their 
natures and lives, for whom Christ died, especially of their natures, as the 
first of them, ivithout strength, implies; which gradation plainly compre- 
hends the full distemper of man in the general nature of it. And these 
degrees may come under our former division, wherein are distinguished the 
corruption of nature into that, which is (1.) privative, which the apostle's 
words, unyodly and ivithout strength, import ; (2.) the positive part of it, 
which includes, 1st, the inclination and disposition of sinners to all evil ; 
2dly, enmity to God, and all that is good ; but we will take them as the 
apostle hath set them down, in so many several degrees of our sinfulness. 

The first and lowest degree is weakness, dadivn'a, which implies want of 
power and ability, as to help itself, and to come out of that condition, so 
unfitly* to be used in the service of God ; for, 1 Cor. xv. 43, the same word 
is used to express a dead carcase, that is buried and sown in weakness, so 
as that dead trunk is unable to stir, and is unfit to be used any way, and is 
fit for nothing but to be buried ; so are we as ' dead in sins and trespasses,' 
Eph. ii. 1, so as we could stand God no way in stead, nor help ourselves, 
but were fit for nothing but to be buried in hell, which is our own place. 
* Qu. ' unfitness '?— Ed. 



86 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

The second is ungodliness, as being wholly cut off and estranged from 
God, and all the life of grace, which was the cause of our impotency ; and 
as there is not one spark of grace left, so there is an awkwardness and un- 
appliableness to what is good, yea, a renunciation, denying of what is good, 
as well as a weakness and unfitness for it ; both which, as being primi- 
tive,* I make the two parts of the first general head, viz., an emptiness of 
all good. 

The third degree is, that they are sinners. As they have nothing in them- 
selves which leads them to God, or which can be employed for God, they 
are thereby also become prone and inclined to sin, and nothing else ; for 
sinners properly notes out one in whom the habitual disposition to sin 
prevails. 

The fourth degree, which is further than this, is, that they are enemies, 
and that is in their natures too, ' enemies in their minds,' Col. i. 21, as 
fighting against all the means that should deliver them out of this condition, 
opposite to God and all godliness, in themselves irrecoverable. They are 
not simply such as are ungodly, and so will do nothing for God, or without 
strength, as unable only, but enemies to him and all his ways. 

And both these last are positive acts, and so to be reduced as the parts 
of the second general head. 

The first branch of inherent corruption is an emptiness of whatever is 
holy and good in the several degrees of it. Rom. vii. 18, that which is here 
called flesh, is an emptiness of all good and grace ; and is not this a great 
accusation laid to the charge of our natures, if it can be proved that there is 
nothing good in them, not a spark or dram of the least godliness, or grace, 
or power to do any good ? Hath not this cause to humble a man, and pull 
down all the fly-blown conceits of ourselves, that by nature thou hast nothing 
in thee which should make thee acceptable in the eyes of God, but that thou 
art a lump of terra damnata, as the chemists call it, namely, that which is the 
dross of their distillations, out of which they have distilled all that is good 
or useful, or rather, to use the Scripture comparison, cursed earth ? Heb. 
vi. 7, 8, ' For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, 
and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth 
blessing from God : but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, 
and is nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned.' Cursed earth, I 
say, which hath not one good seed in it, able to bring forth nothing but 
briars and thorns, not one good herb meet for the dresser's use ; this is 
nigh to cursing, and the end of it is to be burned. Our natures are like the 
basket of rotten figs, as God compares the Jews, Jer. xxiv. 2, 3, which were 
bad, and very bad, as they could not be eaten, good for nothing but to be 
seized on as bad wares, and openly burned ; for you use to preserve nothing 
but that which hath some goodness in it ; neither would God destroy infants 
and damn them for ever, if there was any goodness in them. As in Isa. 
Ixv. 8, a vine that hath but one cluster of grapes on it, * one says. Destroy 
it not, for there is a blessing in it,' some good and blessed thing which it is 
a pity to have destroyed. And so likewise, in 1 Kings xiv. 13, because 
Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, had ' some good thing in him towards the 
Lord his God,' therefore God had a care of him to keep him from the evil 
that was to come, and brought him to the grave in peace. Ay, but thou 
hast no good thing towards the Lord thy God in thee, and therefore thou 
hast cause to judge thyself not worthy to live, and mayest wonder that thou 
wert not destroyed ere this ; and it may humble thee, for nothing lifts up 
but an opinion of some goodness in one ; and, therefore, the contrary may 
* Q,u. 'privative"? — Eu. 



Chap. VI. J in respect of sin and punishment. 87 

bring thee as low as nothing, to reckon every creature in their kind better 
than thyself ; for they retain most of their native goodness which God put 
into them, and are good for those ends they were at first appointed ; but thou 
(to use Christ's comparison) art as salt whenas it hath lost all its savour, 
and is fit for nothing but the dunghill, because, though it hath a being still, 
yet it hath lost its goodness to that good end for which it was appointed. 
And so thou, being at first seasoned with grace, whereby thou shouldst have 
glorified God, which was the adequate end for which thou wert created, 
having now lost that seasoning, art now good for nothing (though thou hast 
a being in thee still), for, honum et finis convertuntur, nothing is good far- 
ther than it tends to its end ; and so far as it is unfit for its end it is said 
to grow naught. Now thou art by nature altogether unserviceable for God, 
to glorify him ; and therefore all that is in thee is naught ; yea, and as thou 
hast cause to humble thyself, and think ill of thyself for this, so also to hate 
thyself; for we naturally love nothing but what is good. 

Now to prove and make this good unto you. 

First, Consider that one place, Rom. vii. 18, ' For I know that in me 
(that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing : for to will is present with 
me ; but how to perform that which is good I find not.' Says St Paul, ' In 
me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing,' that is, no grace ; for the 
goodness he there speaks of is a spiritual goodness, opposite to sin : ver. 17, 
' Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' And St 
Paul speaks this of his unregenerate part, which he calls flesh, and though 
he being regenerate, and having another / in him, as he says in the 17th verse, 
which gave ground to that blessed distinction, ' In me (that is, in my flesh) 
dwells no good thing,' as implying that there was something in him that was 
not flesh, that had some good thing in it ; yet take a man as born into the 
world, and not born again, and he is nothing but flesh : ' That which is born 
of flesh is flesh,' that is, there is not that thing in him which is not flesh, 
and therefore there is no good at all in him. And therefore. Job xi. 12, he 
is called ' empty or hollow man,' as it is in the original, and in the margin 
so noted; void and empty of all wisdom, much more of spiritual wisdom, 
grace, and goodness; and this by birth, for it is said, that he is ' born as 
empty of it as a wild ass's colt.' In the next words, he is a mere empty thing 
in respect of any good. And answerably the apostle speaks, Rom. iii. 10-12, 
* 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 
out of the way, they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that 
doeth good, no, not one.' There is none righteous, none that hath the least 
spark or part of righteousness or true wisdom; for, ver. 18, he says, ' The 
fear of God is not before their eyes,' which yet you know is the 'beginning 
and first step to wisdom, Prov. i. 7, that is, to grace and righteousness. 
And if you will see reason for it, 

1. Adam lost all grace and goodness by his fall, and therefore we too, and 
so our natures must needs be brought forth stripped of all. Now if Adam 
did not lose all grace at his first sinning, then it must have been with him 
as with a regenerate man now in the state of grace when he sins, of whom 
the apostle says, ' The seed of God remains in him,' 1 John iii. 9. And if 
so, then Adam needed not to have been born again, and so nor we, if any 
such seed remained, which was not wholly expelled ; for to be born again is 
to have the immortal seed put into us, 1 Peter i. 23, and Christ says, there- 
fore we ' must be born again,' that is, by a new work of the Holy Ghost. 
We must have this seed sown anew in us, because we are nothing but flesh, 
which flesh hath no good in it ; and therefore it is said, the new man must 



88 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

be created again, Col. iii. 10, which is renewed in knowledge after the image 
wherein God created him at first, as having now in his corrupt state wholly 
put it off, as was the condition of Adam after his fall ; who says of himself, 
Gen. iii. 10, that he was naked, as having lost every piece of that image, and 
so had no goodness to cover him, as I proved afore. 

2. If Adam, then we all by nature have not the Spirit of God dwelling in 
us, and then we have no gi'ace, not the least spark dwelling in us ; and so 
e contra, if we had the least grace, then also we must have the Spirit dwelling 
in us ; for as the sun maintains light, so the Spirit, grace ; and as, take the 
sun out of the world, and all the beams of light vanish, so take the Spirit 
away, and you take all grace away also, for he is the * Father of lights,' and 
* God of all grace.' Now what saith the apostle ? Rom, viii. 9, ' You are not 
in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you.' And 
so if the Spirit of God dwelt in us by nature, then (according to the apostle's 
argument; by nature we were not in the flesh ; but so we are all in the flesh, 
and in the gall of bitterness, as a fish in water, even flesh itself. For being 
in the flesh is used to express our natural estate, as Rom. vii. 5, ' For when 
we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work 
in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.' Whilst we were in the 
flesh, that is, whilst we were unregenerate in our natural condition, and 
therefore during that state the Spirit of God dwells not in us. And in Jude 
19, speaking of carnal men, he says, they are ' sensual and have not the 
Spirit,' that is, dwelling in them; and if so, then no good thing, no grace 
dwells there. 

And if this be true, have you not cause to humble yourselves for this 
nature of yours, as above measure sinful '? For it is not a bare negation of 
grace that is in you, but an emptiness and privation, which is carentia en- 
titatis dehitcE inesse, the want of a goodness which you ought to have ; for 
this grace which thou wantest ought to be in thee, and that not only by the 
mere law of nature, as the power of seeing ought to be in that eye that is 
born destitute of it, but it ought to be there by the law of God, which re- 
quires that all grace should be in thee, and that you should be filled with 
grace, and abound therein, enriched with every grace, and nothing wanting. 
But now in thy nature there is not any one kind of grace, nor any one 
degree, no, not the least ; and therefore thou art to humble thyself, as in this 
respect guilty of as many sins as there are graces and degrees of graces 
wanting, for the want thereof is a sin, be it but of the least. If that servant 
was condemned that did not increase the talent given him, though he brought 
his master his own again, Mat. xsv. 24, how much more thou who hast lost 
it all ! especially seeing every grace is so precious a talent, which God gave 
man at first, and no creature else. As faith is called * precious faith,' 
2 Peter i. 1, so love may be called precious love, which also he gave him as 
a token of his dearest love, as his image and picture to remember him by. 

Yea, and further, look how many parts and branches of graces there were 
at fii-st implanted, and they are innumerable, so many sins art thou guilty 
of. Now there are innumerable graces : 2 Peter i. 3, ' According as his 
divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godli- 
ness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.* 
There is a bundle of them, all things belonging to godliness ; he speaks of 
them as of many, these many, several limbs of that glorious image. And 
Christ tells us, that a good man hath a ' good treasure ' in his heart. A 
treasure notes out variety and abundance ; yea, look how many several 
branches there are of the law affirmative, look how many several duties God 
requires, so many several graces there are, for grace is but the law written 



Chap. VI.] m eespect of sin and punishment. 89 

in the heart. So many sins art thou to humble thyself for, in that thou 
wantest all these graces through the ungodliness of thy nature. 

And now as for these particular parts of it before mentioned, wherein this 
emptiness consists, first, a want of strength ; secondly, ungodliness ; I will 
speak something of them, though not much. 

First, You see it is a want of strength to anything that is good, uoknia, 
which word being taken from a dead corpse, as the word is used, 1 Cor. 
XV. 43, may well befit us, in regard of this emptiness of all that is good. 

For, 1, it is not only the weakness of men in a consumption or sickness, 
that have some life or strength, though joined with much feebleness, for this 
is said of regenerate men, Heb. xii. 12, 'Wherefore lift up the hands that 
hang down, and the feeble knees.' Strengthen the hands that hang down, 
as unable to stir to what is good, and the feeble knees, which is spoken of 
such as were regenerate men, that had some strength, yet feebleness joined 
with it. That as a man that is weak, and yet hath some life, yet through 
weakness is scarce able to stir, or when he comes to raise himself, falls down 
again in a swoon ; such may be the case of regenerate men, that have some 
lite, as being indeed more than flesh, as was the case of St Paul, Rom. 
vii. 18, ' To will is present with me ; but how to perform I know not,' not 
having strength wherewithal, for ' in my flesh dwells no good thing,' that is, 
no strength to do any good. 

Neither, 2, is it only as the weakness of a man out of joint, all his bones 
being displaced, though this also is most true : for, Gal. vi. 1, when a man 
ialls into sin, set him in joint again, says the apostle, xocra^-l^iTs, for that 
fall breaks all, and so weakens a man for whatever is good. 

But, 3, it is as the weakness of a dead man, for so the word aGkviia is 
used, 1 Cor. xv. 43, and so we are said to be dead in sins, Eph. ii. 1, not 
having the least principle of life to stir to what is good.* 

Yea, 4, it is not only a want of an active principle to stir, but also a want 
of a passive fitness, an unwieldiness and unfitness to be used or employed. 
So it is with a dead man, and so with us ; therefore it is said of us, 2 Cor. 
iii. 5, ' Not that we are sulficient, oux 'iTtavol sa/xiv, of ourselves to think any 
thing as of ourselves ; but our sufiiciency is of God.' Ujjapt, unfit for to 
think anything, it is not only a want of sufficiency, as if we had strength, 
but only so weak as it were not sufficient ; but, further, it is inidonietas, 
inaptitudo (as Beza reads it), an unwieldiness to it. Therefore we are said 
not to be meet vessels till this corruption is purged out, for God's use, to 
be employed for him : 2 Tim. ii. 21, ' If a man therefore purge himself from 
these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's 
use, and prepared unto every good work.' And in Ps. xiv. 3, and E,om. 
iii. 12, we are said to become unprofitable, rty^^tt(J)&7i6a.v, unfit for use ; and 
in the Hebrew of the psalm it is, spumce instar putruerunt, as Beza observes, 
become even as putrefied froth. Froth in itself is unfit for anything, much 
more putrefied froth, which until sweetened can be put to no use. Or, as 
the prophet compares us, Ezek. xv. 3, 4, we are hke the wood of a vine 
which you cannot make a pin of to hang anything on, so nor of our nature, 
but we are ' reprobate to every good work : ' Titus i. 16, ' They profess 
that they know God ; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and 
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.' And this the word 
dadiviia plainly imports. 

Secondly, A second and further degree of emptiness of good is, that our 
natures are ungodly. As the other notes out an impotency and weakness to 

* See bis exposition on Eph, ii. 1, in vol. i. of bis works, [Vol. II. of this 
Edition — En.] 



90 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

any good in general, agreeable to any part of the law, this more particularly 
aa unability and averseness of mind to sanctify God (for whom and by 
whom are all things), either in our hearts or lives; so that suppose we have 
strength to do any good things, tending to the good of ourselves and others, 
to be good subjects and good commonwealth's men ; suppose we had strength 
and heart to all duties of righteousness to men and ourselves, and do them 
as exactly as ever Adam should have done, and should give our bodies to be 
burnt for the common good (as some of the heathen Romans sacrificed their 
lives for the good of their country) ; yet, as St Paul says of wanting charity, 
' it is nothing,' so may I say, we still being without godliness, may truly be 
said to be empty of all good, and all this to be nothing. For as God him- 
self is said by way of eminency to be only good, — ' There is none good but 
God,' Mat, xix. 17, (for no creature is good olherwise than as it hath a derived 
goodness from him), — so indeed nothing in man can be said to be good, un- 
less it ariseth from a principle of godliness in us, which springs from God, 
and tends to him again. Therefore is that distinction made, 1 Kings, 
xiv. 13, ' And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him ; for he only of 
Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good 
thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.' Abijah is 
said to have ' some good thing in him ; ' but how ? ' Towards the Lord his 
God.' And oppositely it is expressed of Israel, Hosea x. 1, 'Israel is an 
empty vine, he bringelh forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude 
of his fruit he hath increased the altars ; according to the goodness of his 
land they have made goodly images.' Israel is said to be an empty vine, 
whenas yet in the next words it is said to have brought forth fruit to itself; 
how then empty ? Because, though it was fruitful, yet it was not fruitful to 
God, as those are who are united to Christ: Rom. vii. 4, 'Wherefore, my 
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ ; that 
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, 
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.' So let what goodness soever be 
in thee, either of ingenuousness of nature, or parts of wisdom or moral 
virtues, as Hosea vi. 4, hypocritical Ephraim is said to have goodness in 
him, as empty ears of corn on the house-tops are called corn, yet if godli- 
ness be wanting, which is as the kernel in the husk, a man is empty of 
goodness still; and the reason is, because finis et bonum convertuntur, all 
things that tend to any end receive goodness fi'om their end they tend to. 
Now God was the immediate adequate end for which our nature was made, 
viz. to sanctify him ; and therefore if that be wanting in thy nature which 
should carry thee on to him as the end, then all thy nature ceaseth to be 
good, notwithstanding that any other goodness, serving for other subordinate 
ends, may seem to be in it. 

Now I Will but in brief explain to you what this ungodliness is, which I 
will do, 

First of all, in the general. 

Secondly, In the particulars. 

I. In general. It is a want and emptiness of those dispositions and 
abilities in our natures, whereby once we were enabled and inclined to 
sanctify God as God. 

1. I call it a want of that which once we had, for otherwise we could no 
more be called ungodly, than the stones can be termed blind. And there- 
fore at the first God planted in our natures such dispositions, whereby we 
were inclined thus to sanctify him, which he planted in no creature else 
except the angels. But as in the body, to the other members it is necessary 
there should be an eye to behold things without itself ; so besides, among 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment.- 91 

the rest of the creatures it was requisite that there should be some made, 
that might behold God in all his works, aud sanctify him in all, which men 
and angels were made to do. Therefore I express what this ungodliness is 
a want of, namely, to sanctify God as God ; for so, Horn. i. 21, ♦ Because 
that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were 
thankful,' &c. It is expressed, ' they worshipped him not as God ;' for 
as if we do not fear, reverence, and honour a king as a king, we dis- 
honour him ; so if we do not so sanctify God as we ought to do, we do it 
not at all. Now, then, God is sanctified as God when ho is known and 
exalted above all, in all the faculties of soul and body : Ps. xlvi. 10, ' Be 
still, and know that I am God : I will be exalted in the earth ; ' that is, 
conceive aud apprehend of me as I am in myself, with such thoughts as are 
lit to be had of my greatness, holiness, majesty, &c., and accordingly exalt 
me above all, set me up above all things in your desires, fears, loves, and 
rejoicings, and as a commander of all, as your chiefest good and chiefest 
end. When you do so, then you sanctify him as God. 

Now because the mind and heart of man is no way able, nay, utterly unwill- 
ing to do this, therefore we are by nature ungodly persons, without religion, 
and therefore also without God in this world : Eph. ii. 12, ' That at that 
time ye were without Christ, being aUens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without 
God in the world.' As a blind man is said to be without the sun, because 
he sees it not, or an evil servant without a master, when he is not disposed 
to love, fear, or do anything in reverence to him ; so now are we so cut off 
from God every way, and estranged from him, as Col. i. 20, that it is with 
us as if there were no such God in the world, and it is thus with us as to 
every faculty. So the apostle Paul, applying that place of the psalmist to 
this corruption of man's nature, Rom. iii. 11, 18, 'There is none that under- 
standeth, there is none that seeketh after God. There is no fear of God before 
their eyes.' He says, there is none of them who either understands God, 
or seeks after him, or fears him; neither, first, are their understandings 
capable of such sanctified thoughts as are to be had of him ; neither, 
secondly, are their wills capable of being moved to set the man a-work to 
seek after him ; neither, thirdly, will his affections be stirred with sanctified 
fear, or love, or joys in him ; for if any affection was apt to stir, it would 
be fear. Now, he says, that the fear of him is not before their eyes ; so as 
all faculties are empty of this ability to sanctify God at all as God, till God 
by his exceeding precious promises iu Christ makes us again partakers of a 
divine and God-like nature, 2 Peter i. 4, and by a new covenant makes us 
new hearts to be able to know him, Jer. xxxi. 33, 34, and xxiv. 7, and puts 
his fear into our hearts, Jer. xxxii. 40, for by nature there is none of these 
there, but we are lumps of all ungodliness, and every faculty, we see, is 
empty of all good. 

II. And for particulars, it were infinite to go over all the ungodliness in 
the nature of man. 

1. For the speculative judgment and understanding is so far corrupted 
and darkened as it would of itself, if left to itsell, think there is no God: Ps. 
xiv. 1, ' The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' Fools, not idiots, 
but all unregenerate men (for he speaks there of the universal corruption of 
man's nature), having sayings in their hearts, there is no God. And if 
such thoughts be dispelled by light put into corrupt nature, as Rom. 
i. 19, 20, by God himself manifested out of the creatures, his eternal power 
and Godhead, yet by nature they are but as men groping in the dark. Acts 
xvii. 27, and the wisest of them confessed but an unknown God, ver. 23 ; 



92 AN UNBEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

and though men have this glimmering light, yet they became vain in their 
imaginations, Rom. i. 21. If not thinking him, as the Gentiles did there. 
Acts xvii. 29, like the creatures, yet their hearts are filled with under-con- 
ceits of him, they know him not as God, limiting his power, as they did, 
Ps. Ixxviii. 41, ' Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the 
Holy One of Israel.' How did they limit God ? Why, by lessening his 
power: ver. 19, ' Yea, they spake against God : they said, Can God furnish us 
a table in the wilderness ? ' And though they saw he smote the rock, ver. 20, 
yet ' can he give bread also ? ' thought they. Unregenerate men secretly deny 
God's providence : Hosea ii. 8, ' For she did not know that I gave her corn, 
and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold,' &c. Unregenerate 
men are not able to see that it is God who is the great householder of the 
world, that layeth in all the provision which the earth bears : or else they 
deny his omniscience, saying, as they in Job xxii. 13, 14, • Thou sayest. 
How can God know ? can he judge through the dark cloud ? He walks in 
the circuit of the heavens,' &c. 

And if these conceits be dispelled in the speculative part, as in us that 
know the word, yet unregenerate men knowing God notionally, sanctify him 
not in their thoughts, according to their knowledge, for they think not of 
him daily : Ps. x. 4, ' God is not all in their thoughts.' Men spend the 
dearest of their thoughts on honours, pleasures, riches, but God is not 
found amongst all their thoughts ; and though they can I'emember and think 
of everj' toy and trifle that belongs to them, — ' Can a woman forget her 
ornaments,' as things she cannot be without ? ' but my people have forgot 
me days without number,' Jer. ii. 32, — yea, and if the thoughts of God will 
needs come in and thrust themselves upon them, yet the thoughts of him 
are but, as Ahab spoke to Elijah, 1 Kings xxi. 20, ' Hast thou found me, 
mine enemy ? ' So they wish they could forget God, because he damps 
their mirth. Rom. i. 28, they like not to retain God in their knowledge ; 
or they say (as it is in Job), ' Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge 
of thy ways,' Job xxi. 14. 

2. For their practical judgments, those whereby their lives are guided 
and steered, it is most certain, that however they profess they know him, 
yet they deny him, Titus i. 16. Deny him they do in their works, and there- 
fore first in their practical judgments, which is the court where all acts are 
first passed ere they come forth to action ; and so those that can discourse 
of God and all his attributes, are yet utterly ignorant of him : Jer. ii. 8, 
'They that handle the law' (open it and expound it, and God in it), 
yet ' knew me not.' There are certain fixed principles which the whole man 
is guided by, contrary to what else he knows of God ; and there are sayinga 
in the heart, that there is no such God as the word describes him to be. 
Thus in Ps. x., what is the reason that is there given whj'^ a wicked man 
doth persecute the poor ? ver. 2 ; curseth and deceives, speaks lies, ver. 7 ; 
and secretly lies in wait to murder the innocent, ver. 8, 9. Why, ver. 11, 
' He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he will never see it.' And 
would men else commit sins in secret, which they dare not do before men, 
if they had not this principle as most certain in their hearts ? And so in 
Ps. 1., the hypocrite who knew God well enough in his speculative under- 
standing, ver. 16, yet, ver. 18-20, is full of theft, adultery, evil speaking 
and slander ; and what is the reason ? ' Thou thoughtest I was a God like 
thee,' that would approve of thy ways and courses, and as one who delights 
in the same ways himself. They imagined God like themselves, and by 
this principle they walk from day to day, and think their estates to be as 
good as the best ; and this is the reason why men are secure and careless, 



Chap. VI.] in rkspect of sin and punishment. 93 

and settled upon the lees of all kind of sins, and grow old in them : Zeph. 
i. 12, ' They are settled on lees ; and say in their hearts, God will neither 
do good nor evil.' Though indeed men speak not this, nor profess this, yea, 
know the contrary, yet this is the rule they go by, and therefore men grow 
old in sin, secure and fearless. 

And in their wills and aflections they are utterly taken off from him ; 
seek him the}'^ will not, to inquire for him, Zeph. i. 6, much less draw nigh 
to him, as unto their chiefest good : Zeph. iii. 2, ' She drew not near to 
her God,' but can be content to live estranged from him from the womb, 
Ps. Iviii. 3 ; and go a whoring from him, Ps. Ixxiii. 27 ; after their lovers, 
and after them thej'' will go, Hosea ii. 5 ; loving of pleasures, even every 
vanity, rather than God, 2 Tim. iii. 4 ; forsaking God, Jer. ii. ; though a 
spring, and that of living waters, that offers itself as a spring, and is per- 
petual ; and they are so averse from God, as they will rather dig for water, 
for muddy water, and that in broken cisterns, than come to this spring, 
contemning all the goodness that is in him, and having empty pleasures in 
this life to live upon, as it is in Job xxi., spending their days in wealth. Sec, 
ver. 13. They say to God, * Depart from us ' (we are well enough), ver. 14 ; 
'We desire not the knowledge of thee or 'thy ways,' whereby we may 
come to enjoy thee, ver. 14 ; for ' what is the Almighty,' what excellency or 
goodness is there in him, ' that we should serve him ? ' that is, what worth 
is there in God that might allure us to serve him, and what advantage would 
it be to us if we should pray to him ? What good is got by our acquaintance 
and fellowship with him ? And as they contemn his goodness, so also his 
greatness and power ; and as they care not for his friendship, so neither for 
his hatred and all he can do unto them. Therefore, Ps. x. 13, they are 
said to contemn God; and Ps. xxxvi. 1, their daring to offend him shews 
as much, proclaims to all the world, that ' there is no fear of God before 
their eyes.' They say so in their heart, saith David, ' there is no fear of 
God before their eyes;' and I cannot but judge so, saith he, for the thing 
speaks it. When men dare swear and be drunk, lie, whore, and break Sab- 
baths, contemn the saints, and do thus from day to day, it speaks in all un- 
godly men's hearts that there is no fear of God before their eyes. They fear 
not to offend him to his face, when their consciences tell them he looks on. 
Thus they are said to sin to God's face. Gen. xiii. 13 ; they sinned before 
Jehovah, as it were before the presence of a judge, yea, hardening them- 
selves against his fear ; and if they may be brought to fear or seek him (as 
out of self-love they may), yet it is not for himself: Hosea vii. 16, they 
' return, but not to the Most High.' Fear his goodness they do not, and for 
himself they do not seek him, as godly men are said to do; and if they do 
draw nigh to him, yet it is out of flattery : Ps. Ixxviii. 34. ' When he slew 
some of them, then they sought him,' ver. 36, but they did but flatter him. 
They seek not his friendship for itself ; ver. 87, ' their hearts were not right 
with him ; ' so as, though ' they draw nigh with their lips, yet their hearts 
are far from him,' Isa. xxix. 13. It is not out of a delight in his goodness 
and holiness, so as to take him to be their portion : Job xxvii. 10, ' Will 
the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty?' And though men may 
seem to delight, as Isa. Iviii. 2, ' they take delight in approaching to God,' 
out of a carnal sweetness they find in his mercy, &c., yet it is no such de- 
light in God, as considered in his holiness and purity, and therefore they 
continue not to do so long. ' Will he pray always ? ' saith Job. And why 
not always ? Because he delights not in God, Job xxvii. 10. And for doing 
him any service, first, they cannot if they would : Rom. vii. 8, ' They that 
are in the flesh cannot please God.' Serve him they may with a form of 



94 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

godliness, but not in the life and power of it : Josh. xxiv. 19, they thought 
they could, but Joshua tells them they could not ; for he is a holy God, 
whom nothing but holy and spiritual service, out of a pure heart and single 
eye, will content. Jer. iv. 21, But these are wise to do evil, but to do 
good know not how to go about it: if they could, yet they would not, for 
they have no hearts for anything but for sin : Jer. xxii. 17, ' But thine eyes 
and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent 
blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it.' And though in some 
fit they take up resolutions to serve God, as in Deut. v. 29, yet even then 
God doth complain they want hearts to set seriously to it, and therefore are 
soon weary. Amos viii. 5, ' When will the Sabbath be gone,' or prayer be 
over ? They will not always pray, Job xxvii. 10. And take them out of 
their fits, and they desire not to hear of their duties, or to come nigh any 
ordinance wherein God is manifested, as in Job xxi. 14, ' We desire not the 
knowledge of thy ways.' 



CHAPTER VII. 

The ohjections ansicered icJdch are made agamst the doctrine : 1. That those 
excellent qualities and endovmients of mind ivhich are in men unre{ienerate 
evidence that their natures are not destitute of all good. 2. That there are 
in the natural conscience of men principles of good directing theyn, and in 
their ivills some inclining dispositions to what the law of God commands, and 
therefore that man's nature is not utterly empty of all goodness^i — In answer 
to the first, that though there is a natural goodness in such endowments, 
yet heing seated in the corrupt nature of man, they are tainted and infected by 
it, uhich spoils all that goodness which otheruise is in them. — In answer to the 
second objection, that the light <f natural conscience hath not the same real 
goodness as the laiv hath, hut is only a picture and sJiadoiv of it ; that those 
principles of morality and honesty in the conscience do not result from nature, 
hit are owing to a higher cause ; that God, for the preserving of order in the 
tvorld, hath instilled them into man ; and that this is a common benefit of 
his mediation. 

We have seen how full of ungodliness the heart and nature of man is. 
Now against this truth there is much objected, how that much good may be 
found mingled with the natures of men unregenerate. I will ascend in the 
objection by degrees. 

Ohj. 1. Not only many excellent abilities and endowments of mind con- 
cerning things natural and political (which I will not much insist on, yet 
mention), such was the wisdom of Ahithopel, whose counsel in matters of 
state was as the oracle of God, 2 Sam. xvi. 23. Such is still in manual 
trades, whereof wicked men have been inventors, as Cain and Tubal-Cain, 
the first inventors of tillage and working in brass, &c.. Gen. iv. 22. All 
which being gifts from God, for he teacheth men direction to till the 
ground, Isa. xxviii. 26, 28. They plough (as I may allude to it) with his 
heifer, and his spirit fills men with wisdom to work on brass, which was 
Tubal-Cain's invention ; and he gives wisdom to statesmen to rule mon- 
archies and kingdoms, 1 Kings iii. from 9 to 13. All these, I say, being 
gifts from him, must needs be granted to be good : ' Every good and per- 
fect gift comes from above,' James i. 17. These, therefore, are good, and 
yet they have place in wicked men's hearts. 



(^HAP. "VTL] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 95 

Ayia. But the answer to this is easy, and therefore I will not insist on it, 
namely : 

1. That indeed these are good thinf^s, and are therefore ornaments to corrupt 
nature; but yet they are good only, but as every creature is said to be good, 
1 Tim. iv. 4, with anatural created goodness, butwhichreacheth no higher. Now 
many such good things we grant to be in men, though devils by nature, as the 
substance and faculties of their souls ; and so these good endowments which 
are superinducted and infused by the Spirit of God for the good of men, 
whilst these live in societies together, without these several endowments the 
world could not stand, nor a city be inhabited. But when it is said there is 
no good in the nature of man, such a goodness is meant as, in Rom. vii. 12, 
is attributed to the law, which is there said to be 'just, holy, and good ;' so 
that a spiritual holy goodness is denied to be in man's nature, such as might 
make us acceptable to God. We deny not but there is much natural 
created goodness, such as is in other creatures, which yet God hath no pleasure 
in, when they are not found in the way of righteousness, that is, joined with 
holiness and righteousness. * He hath no pleasure in man's legs,' Ps. 
cxlvii. 10, that is, by a synecdoche, in no outward enjoyment of body or 
mind ; they are all but as gold rings in a swine's snout, as Solomon speaks of 
the beanty of the body without grace, Prov. xi. 22. So these beauties of 
the mind are but as pearls in a toad's head, and so lose their excellency, or 
are but as flowers stuck on a dead corpse. 

2. So as though in themselves these endowments have this natural good- 
ness in abstracto, or abstractedly considered, as they are in their own nature, 
yet take them in concrete, as they are seated in a corrupt mind, they are 
unclean and abominable things in the sight of God. For why ? All these 
gifts are poisoned and infected, yea, and make the source of sin the greater, 
and to work the more strongly. As wine when it is poisoned, though the 
wine be good, yea, and good against poison, yet when poison is in it, it adds 
strength to the poison, and makes it work more violently and speedily ; so 
all wisdom and good gifts that are in them make them the more wicked. 
The wisdom of the flesh is ' enmity against God,' Rom. viii. 7. God there- 
fore looks upon all these as things that make his enemies stronger against 
him ; and therefore you that are scholars, and have good gifts, natural and 
acquisite, yet you wanting grace, these make you so much more abominable 
in God's eyes. God looks upon you as stronger enemies, and so you will 
prove ; as Agur says of himself, having gifts in him, Prov. xxx. 2, that he 
was by nature ' more brutish than any man,' than others that had not so 
large parts. The finest, freshest tempers are aptest to take the plague or 
small-pox, and be fullest of boils and sores when these diseases doth take 
them, and the purest clothes take gi-eatest and deepest stains ; so the finest 
and most acute wits are capable of the fullest* and greatest sins. Do not 
then think that God will spare thee for them ; thou thinkest it pity so fine, 
so green a wit, having such workmanship bestowed upon it, should be 
burned ; nay, but thy green wit makes the fire the hotter. 

Ohj. 2. But yet the objection which in this point presseth us most is, 
that in man's nature there are not only such things as these which are natu- 
rally good, but which seem to participate of a higher kind of goodness, even 
a conformity in some measure to the law ; and such a kind of goodness is 
found both in men's minds and wills. 

Ans. 1. In the mind and conscience there are principles and seeds of 
divine light and of the truth of the law sown, which have the same efl'ects 
in them that the law hath : Rom. ii. 14, ' The Gentiles do by nature the 
* Qu. ' foulest ' ?— Ed. 



93 AN UNREGENEFvATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BoOK II. 

things of the law, and shew the eifect (or work) of the law written in their 
hearts.' For doth the law condemn sin ? So doth this light, and fights 
against it. Doth the law take part with what is good ? So doth this also, 
and cannot be bribed or hired to do otherwise ; so that eadem prastat officia, 
this li,t(ht hath the same efiects in the heart which the law hath, as appears 
from Rom. i. 18, ' For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteous- 
ness.' It is called truth, and that such as OTp])Oseth. unrighteousness, and 
therefore men imprison it ; and it is not a principle of natural truth only, 
whereby we know the works of God, but such as whereby we know the 
divine truth, and many parts of the will of God, and therefore it must needs 
be good ; for verum et bonuni, truth and goodness, are twins. What is true is 
good ; yea, and look what kind of truth anything hath in it, such a kind of 
goodness. Now this being more than natural truth, must needs have more 
than natural goodness in it ; having the truth of the law in it, it must needs 
have the goodness of the law, and so be holy as the law is, and just and good. 
2. There is in every man some part of this truth ; it is in all more or less, 
both in good and bad ; for the wrath of God is said to be revealved against 
all men for detaining this truth. The Gentiles had it written in their hearts, 
Rom. ii. 14, and therefore some holy thing is in the nature of man. Yea, 3, 
as it should seem by nature also ; for he says, ' the Gentiles do by nature 
the things of the law,' &c. And Jude 10, speaking of ungodly men that sin 
against their light grossly, he says, they ' corrupt themselves in things they 
know naturally ; ' that is, commit such foul sins (for that is to corrupt them- 
selves, Deut. xiv. 15, 25) as are against the natural knowledge of their 
minds. And doth not nature teach you the contrary ? says Paul, 1 Cor. 
xi. 14. Yea, 4, this abides there, dwells there, for it is written in their 
heart; so as Augustine* saith, Non ipsa iniquitas delet, sin razeth it not out. 

2. Answerable to these sparks of truth in the mind, there are also inclina- 
tions, dispositions, stamps, and impressions upon the will to some good, 
conformable to the law, that same h(pvla, bona indoles, the philosophers 
observe and'speak so much of, those good dispositions, of ingenuity, modesty, 
love to those that love them, as Christ says of the Gentiles, Luke vi. 32, the 
characters of which appearing in the young man, made Christ love him, 
Mark x. 21 ; and these are indeed not transient, but habitual dispositions, 
as was of justice in Cato, of whom it is said, Cum recte fecerit, aliter facere 
non j)otuit ; and therefore continency, as a common thing to good and evil 
men, is called a gift, 1 Cor. vii. 7. 

This seems to be a great difficulty, for much of this is true which hath 
been spoken ; it requires therefore a large digression to give answer there- 
unto, for which we will consider and inquire into these four things concern- 
ing this light of conscience and moral virtues. 

I. What kind of goodness is in their true and proper nature, abstractly 
considered. 

II. Their original and spring, whence they came to be in man's nature, 
whether as the endowments of nature, so as they may justly be called ours. 

III. Their manner of inhering in man's nature, how entertained therein ; 
for qnicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modiun recipientis. 

IV. Tlieir manner of working therein, whether their acts be properly and 
truly good. 

All which will clear the point, that there is no such good dwelling there 
as seems to be objected. 

I. Take this light at its best, abstractedly considered in its own true, 
* Lib. ii. Confess. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 97 

naked, real, abstracted nature and essence ; and though I acknowledge it a 
creature of God's, and therefore good with a natural kind of goodness, yet I 
deny it to be good with that kind of goodness which the law hath in it, Bom. 
vii. 12, whatsoever hath been said to the contrary notwithstanding. 

To examine which, let us have recourse to the places alleged. We shall 
find, and it is observable to this purpose, that the apostle calls not this 
light, Rom. ii. 15, ' the law written in the heart,' but only ro t^yov toD v6/moj 
y^azrov, ' the written work of the law ; ' that is, something which produceth 
many effects, which the law also hath, but yet it is not of the same nature 
•with the law, for it is proper only to the works of regeneration to have the 
law written in the heart ; that is, such a Hght and disposition which hath 
the same holy and spiritual nature that the law hath, as grace in a godly 
man's heart is said to have ; therefore, Jer. xxxi. 33, ' But this shall be the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel : After those days, eaith 
the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their 
hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Thus to 'write 
the law in the heart,' is said to be from the new covenant, &c. To illustrate 
this by a similitude (which, though it doth not omnibus quad rare, as none 
do, yet will explain the thing), we see that in some beasts that are sagaciores, 
of quicker fancies, there are some things more than sense, which are umbrce 
rationis, as we use to call them, as in elephants, &c. Yea, also, quondam 
umbra of some virtues, as of chastity, &c., both which are so called, be- 
cause by virtue of these they do many works of reason and above sense ; 
that is, the same things which reason in men produceth ; yet these shew not 
a true principle of reason written there, but only rd sf/a, the works of rea- 
son ; that is, some effects answering to it. So in men's unregenerate minds 
there is extant also umbra legis, a shining and glimmering of the law, a light 
that is the image of it, as lumen est litcis, as splendour is of light, or which 
rather we may call the picture of it (the true real light of which is only 
written in the regenerate), whereby they do rd rou vofMv, things of the law, 
that is, some things about the law, or which the law commands, the out- 
wards of it ; or as Beza hath it, eadem officia prcestat, qua legis sunt facit : 
as it forbids sin, so doth this light ; as it condemneth for sin, so also doth 
this light condemn them for sinning. 

Now, to prove that this light that is thus in them is but as it were a 
shadow or picture of the law, and therefore not of the same nature with the 
law, that word used, Rom. ii, 20, is observable : ' An instructor of the 
foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the 
truth in the law.' Speaking of the light of the law in a learned Jew, being 
unregenerate, he says he hath ,w6p<pojsiv, a form of knowledge, and of the 
truth of the law, which, as it signifies the system of the law in his brain, or 
the object of his knowledge, so also doth withal intimate the slightness of 
his knowledge for the kind of it, that it is but a form, a picture, an idea of 
it, and this he speaks of in comparison to the real thing itself and power of 
it ; for so in 2 Tim. iii. 5. the word f/^o^ipajsig is used, and this so in respect 
of those answerable tinctures and impressions of piety and virtue which in 
the objection are said to be in the will. * Having a form of godliness,' says 
the apostle, ' but denying the power of it,' that is, the thing itself, and the 
powerful effects of it. As that goodness which is in their wills is there said 
to be but a form and picture of true godliness, so in this place of Rom. ii. 
20 the light in their understanding is said to be but ' a form of knowledge.' 
The word is the same. Now if the light that is engendered and lighted, as 
it were, immediately from the law itself, be but /iop^wrr;;, a picture of the 
truth, then much more is the weak divine light of nature, that is but a weak 

VOL. X. G 



98 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

resemblance or shadow of the law. And that it is no more, and not of the 
same real nature with the law, appears by the weak effects of it, for in ver. 
21, 22, 23 all this knowledge did not enable them to keep the law, but they 
broke it notwithstanding. But though it should be granted to do the same 
things which the law doth, yet the powerful energy of it is wanting, which is 
to sanctify the heart, which, when the real Ught of the law itself, the truth 
itself, comes into the heart, it doth sanctify : John xvii. 17, ' Sanctify them 
thi'ough the truth : thy word is truth.' But here the very conscience itself 
it is seated in remains (as I shall shew more fuUy afterwards) still impure : 
Titus i. 15, ' Their consciences are defiled.' And this is not said of it in 
part only (as if in part only it remained defiled), for it is spoken in opposi- 
tion to a regenerate man, whose conscience remains defiled but in part, but 
this wholly ; whereas, had it a real contrariety to sin, as grace and true 
holiness hath, — Gal. v. 17, 'These are contrary,' — it could not come to 
reside in man's nature till sin were in part mortified, and the conscience 
purified by grace, which in an unregenerate man it is not, for both this light 
and those moral dispositions are symbolical with our natural defilement, and 
are compatible with it in the conscience not yet emptied of sin. 

Obj. If it be objected that this light fights against sin as an enemy, 
and likewise men's unrighteous natures against it, and therefore they are 
contrary, 

I ansuer, that it being but the picture of the law, it is contrary to sin, 
representative, representatively, not essentialiter, essentially. It hath a verbal 
testimonial contrariety in speaking against it, but not a real natural con- 
trariety to work against it, as one contrary doth against another, so as to 
expel and overcome sin, for it is but the form of truth, it wants the power 
of it. And no wonder that though it be not the real law men yet hate it, 
for as grace makes a man hate the appearance of sin, so sin hates this 
shadow and appearance of truth and goodness ; as it is said of the panther, 
that it hates a man so deadly that it seizeth and preys not only upon a man 
but the picture of him. This ground thus laid, the answer to the former 
objection is clear ; for whereas, Rom. i. 18, it is called truth, I expound it 
by this Rom. ii. 20, that is, but as it were a form of the truth, the picture 
of the truth which was in the heart of our fii-st parents. And if you ask why 
hath it the same name, I answer, because that pictures used to have the 
same name given them that the persons they represent have. You say, that 
is the king, that the queen, speaking of their pictures, and therefore I ac- 
knowledge in the same sense it is said to be truth, wherein also it is 
called goodness, but being but the form of truth it is also but the form of 
goodness. And so, Hos. vi. 4, the hght tinctures of good that were wrought 
in Ephraim, which yet soon vanished, are called goodness : ' Thy goodness 
is but as the morning cloud,' &c., yet is really but the umbra of it thus 
expressed ; not but that these moral dispositions and hght of conscience are 
a real thing created by God, but that, being compared with the light of a 
regenerate man's mind, they are but the picture of it, as aurichaJchum is a 
real metal, yet but the resemblance of gold, and so called false gold. 

And whereas it was objected that it is more than simply natural truth, and 
therefore hath more than a natural goodness as other creatures have ; — 

I ansuer, confessing it hath, but yet still falling short of the truth and 
goodness that is in the law, and pure light of conscience in a godly man ; 
for as in a picture there is a double truth and goodness, the one natural in 
the colours which are laid on, when they are true and good, and the other 
artificial as it is a picture, which is by so much the more said to be true and 
good by how much it is more like him it was made for, but yet it cannot 



Chap. YII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 99 

be said to have the goodness which is in the man himself, so this form of 
truth hath not only a natural goodness which is in all creatures, but also a 
further goodness which you may call moral, or what you please, so you do 
not attribute the goodness of holiness to it, which is attributed to the law, 
whereof this is but the picture. And consider withal, what things of the 
law they are the resemblance of. As pictures represent but the outward 
lineaments, so this but the letter of the law ; not the law itself comprehen- 
sively taken, but rd tou v(iimj\j, some things about the law, outward acts, and 
such light reacheth no farther. Therefore that Jew Paul speaks of he says 
was partaker of the ' letter ' of the law, Rom. ii. 27, as the Gentiles only of 
TO. Tov vo/xou, that is, the outward rind of the precepts of it, in what is to be 
done for the matter, the corpse of it, as I may so speak, for, 2 Cor. iii. 6, 
the law is said to have been to them only the ministration of the letter, and 
therefore St Paul says of himself, that when he was a pharisee, Rom. vii. 6, 
that he ' served God according to the oldness of the letter, not in newness 
of the spirit.' Now, the letter of the law, severed from the spirit of it, can- 
not be said to be holy or good in that sense the law is (tor, ver. 12, ' the 
law,' says he, ' is holy, spiritual, and good '), no more than the body of a 
man can be said to be living when the soul is gone, for when the perform- 
ance of any duty is severed from the right end, and from right motives, to 
God, it is but ' bodily exercise, not ' godliness,' 1 Tim. iv. 8, and therefore 
this light not directing unto, nor expressing the spirit of the law, and not 
exciting a man upon right motives, nor raising up all in man to God, it is not 
so much as the picture of the holiness of the law, but only of the letter, which, 
severed from the spirit is not holy, for the law is not totum homogeneum, but 
heterogenenm, consisting of letter and spirit, body and soul, and therefore quic- 
quid dicitur de toto, iion dicitur de quallbet 'parte, what is said of the whole to- 
gether is not said apart of every part. And suppose it did express the 
inwards of the law, yet still it is but the picture comparatively with the light 
in a godly man, which Christ calls ''the light of life,' John viii. 12, that is, 
the living real spiritual law, whereas the other is but dead and lifeless, and 
can be said no more to be holy than the letters wherewith the holy and 
spiritual law was wi'itten in upon the stones can have that name, which 
comparison the scripture seems to allude to : Jer. xxxi. 32, 33, ' I will take 
away the heart of stone ' (alluding to the stone the law was written in), * I 
will write the law in your hearts, and make them hearts of flesh,' sanctified, 
altered, and made spiritual and holy as the law is. 

Or, suppose it be the real law, as it may seem in troubled consciences it is 
by the real effects of it ; Rom. vii. 9, ' For I was alive without the law once ; 
but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' When it kills 
and condemns, yet this is only the literal effects of it ; so as still these effects 
may be called but literal effects, and occasional effects of it, for it is the 
letter that kills ; the holy spiritual effects of it are to raise the heart up to 
God, to sanctify the heart, and these this light wants, 2 Cor. iii. 6. 

Therefore, to conclude, this light of conscience and those moral disposi- 
tions are no more acceptable to God, or good in his sight, than a Jew in 
the letter was to him, Rom. ii. 29. When the spirit in him was wanting, 
his praise is of men, not of God, and therefore, as the exposition shews, was 
not approved of by God. Nay, further, these appearing good dispositions,, 
in regard of the persons they are in, may be said to be abominable : Prov. 
xxi. 27, ' The sacrifice of the wicked ' (because a wicked man) ' is abomin- 
able,' much more * when he brings it with an evil heart.' 

Use. These truths, though they seem but notions, yet they much serve 
and tend to practice ; for do not these acts of enlightened and natural con- 



100 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

science deceive many therefore to think they have grace ? Many, because 
they have been troubled for sin, therefore conceive their estate good, or 
because conscience checks and fights against sin, so as the light which God 
sets up as a candle to ' search the chambers of the belly,' Prov. xx. 27, to 
find out their sinfulness, occasionally deceives them ; but let them consider 
that this argues no holiness or sanctification, for you see it falls short of it. 

But especially men do think their estates good, if they follow their con- 
science in anything that is right ; but consider that we may do so, and yet 
not be holy men ; for the sampler cannot be better than the copy; no man's 
actions are better than his light which is the rule of them ; they may be, 
and are, worse. The light itself you see is not holy, suppose your actions 
were framed exactly to it, as some think St Paul's were, by that speech. 
Acts sxiii., yet as he did sin in all he did, for all he kept to the rules of his 
conscience, yea, he says, he was the greatest of sinners ; so may you be. 
Therefore content not yourselves with that light, and practice answerable, 
as civil men do, but get the light of life, the law written in the heart, and to 
be transformed in your minds, to prove what is the acceptable will of God ; 
get the newness of the spirit, that you may serve God, who is a Spirit, in 
spirit and truth. 

And for those shows of moral virtues, consider, you may be garnished 
with them, and swept by the light of conscience from gross sins, and yet 
remain empty of grace ; as it is said in the parable, Mat. xii. 44. And 
therefore many that trusted in them are in the end given up to gross sins, 
and then all these washy, slight virtues, not being rooted in the heart by the 
the Spirit of sanctification, are washed off; for, Luke viii. 18, it is said, 
* From him shall be taken away that which he seemed to have.' 

II. Having discovered that this light of natural conscience falls short of 
true holiness in the nature and kind of it, let us, in the second place, inquire 
into the tenor of its conveyance to us, whether as a legacy bequeathed by 
nature, or as a mere endowment bestowed from some other good hand, 
pitying our poverty and nakedness. And herein that the mind, and the 
faculty in which this light is received, is a natural faculty, and an appurte- 
nance of nature, must not be denied ; but yet whether this light itself be in 
man as an appurtenance that goes by the tenor of nature, with our natures, 
as the faculty of the soul, and corruption or flesh now doth, is questioned 
by some ; yea, and they are denied to be so much as the ruins of the former 
image left unextinguished by Adam's sin, so to be derived to us by birth, 
and the right thereof, and it may be some more than probable demonstra- 
tion of it. 

First, That the experience both of the partiality of this light in all, and 
the unequal division and distribution of it to Adam's posterity, may seem 
to give in some evidence to this, that it is not of nature's inheritance, but 
moveable, and so lost, and restored again by a new gift. 

For if it was left as relics of the former image to be derived to us, as unex- 
tinguished by Adam's sin, 

1, What reason can be given why there should be left a light to see some 
kind of sins to be sins, rather than to discern others, which are as gross ? 
Jude 10, it is said of evil men, that ' they speak evil of things they know not ;' 
and ' in what they know naturally, they corrupt themselves,' which implies 
they know but some things naturally, and others not. Now there can be no 
reason given why Adam's sin extinguished light concerning some sins, but 
the same reason may as strongly be urged, that it is of itself a ruined and 
razed out light concerning all sins, if, de novo, it was not some way repaired. 

2. Why are these sparks of light so unequally shared and parted if they 



Chap. YII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 101 

had been left in Adam's soul to have been derived to us ? Some of the 
heathens had more, as Socrates, some less ; some are in a manner as brute 
beasts, others have more noble and elevated minds. Other gifts of know- 
ledge and understanding in the mind, being personal, may therefore come 
to be unequally distributed ; but this light, if it was natural, and left as the 
ruins of the former image, it would surely be much more alike in all than 
we see it is ; for Adam begat in his own image, that is, of what was left in 
him, Gen. v. 3. 

Second! I/, The Scriptures may further incline us thus to think, as that place 

(1.) In the 3d of John, ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; ' that is, 
all that is derived to man by virtue of his birth is possessed and filled with 
nothing but flesh and corruption, both substance and faculties ; so that if 
those sparks of literal light (as I choose with the Scriptures to call it) be 
more than flesh, as is objected, and will easily be granted, then I atfirm that 
they are not derived, as raked up in the ashes of our nature, and so by birth, 
but struck in by some external hand, which fetches this fire from heaven, as 
of old the poets feigned, which discovers the nakedness of our grandmother 
Eve's nature, and grandfather Adam's, to the full and utmost ; so that now 
take the faculties of the soul, with their bare birthright-dowry only, and 
there is not only no good thing that is holy, but not so much as these 
shadows of what is good derived to us as native indwellers ; but as nature 
brings us forth naked in our bodies, and covered all over with menstruous 
blood, so (as the allusion is in Ezek. xvi. 5) also in our souls it would not have 
left so much as those fig-tree leaves, either of literal light or moral virtues, to 
cover us withal : ' That which is born of the flesh is flesh.' 

(2.) That phrase, Rom. ii. 14, proves the same thing, where this light is 
said to be written in men's hearts, for writing is opus artijicis, non naturce, a 
work of art, not of nature. These characters are written, not bom with us ; 
we by nature have but ahrasas tabulas, tables in which everything is razed 
out ; it is the new work of some second hand hath took the pains to write 
them there ; and therefore the Syriac calleth conscience tira, from a word 
that signifies fonnavit, plmvit, hath formed or drawn anything in picture, 
because it is the table on which these principles are written. 

And if the question be. By what means this light should come to be de 
novo derived unto us ? 

(3.) For a third ground, let us consider that place, John i. 9, where he 
says, that Christ ' enlighteneth every man that comes into the world.' To 
understand which place, let us view the frame of the chapter, from ver. 
1 to 15. 

First, He shews what Christ is in himself and in his person. 

Secondly, What he is and hath been in his dispensation towards the world. 

1st, Before the fall, what he was both to all creatures, they were made by 
him, ver. 3 ; especially to man, that life and light of grace which was in man 
in innocency was from him, ver. 4. 

2dly, What he is to men since the fall. 

First, When that light in man and the image of God was extinguished and 
turned into darkness, he is become the hght of the world, and shines into 
that darkness which else would want all light : ver. 5, ' And the Kght shineth 
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not ; ' so as all light is now 
from him, renewed and dispensed by him, which he shews more particularly, 
going over all the degrees of light which now shines to men. 

(1.) That common light in all mankind: ver. 9, 'He is the true light, 
that lighteth every man that comes into the world.' 

(2.) That especial light of the knowledge of the law and gospel, which he 



102 AN UNKEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

had dispensed to his own kinsmen and countrymen the Jews, ver. 10, who 
yet received him not. But then, 

(3.) In those that did believe he comes with a further light than both 
these : ver. 1^5-17, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld 
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and 
truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the 
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ ; ' yet so 
as even that natural light (which I may so call in comparison of the other) 
* which lighteth every man that comes into the world,' ver. 9, is also from 
Christ, the second Adam, as a fruit of his mediation ; here we light all our 
lights, which otherwise would be caca hmiina, but blind lights. 

Now, that that speech is spoken of that common light vouchsafed to all 
mankind appears, 

1. That he says not only in general, that it is a light that ' enhghteneth 
every man,' which is general enough, but further adds, ' which cometh into 
the world ; ' that is, every man that is born into the world ; and this is in 
opposition to that saving light, which only those that are bom of God receive, 
ver. 13. 

Then also the series of those three degrees of light afore mentioned, argues 
this to be meant of common light vouchsafed to Jews and Gentiles. 

2. He speaks of this light as restored by him since the fall in man's nature 
corrupted ; therefore, 

First, When he speaks of the light given man in innocency, he says in the 
time past, ' He was the light of men;' but now of this light he speaks in the 
present tense, which shines and enlighteneth. 

Secondly, That in verse 5 he says this light shines in darkness, not com- 
prehending or embracing it. It is evident he speaks of man's nature now as 
corrupted, and not as created at first, nor as I'egenerated by grace, there being 
nothing but darkness covering the deep heart of man, as once that deep. Gen. 
i. 2, till Christ says, ' Let there be light,' by a new work, and as a common 
print* of his mediation. 

Thirdly, That this is spoken especially of that light whereby we understand 
bonum et malum, good and evil, and not of that only whereby we understand 
verum etfalsum, truth and falsehood (though I think it true of that also), 
appears in that it is such a light as the darkness of man's sinful nature com- 
prehends or receives not, but labours to avoid, as discovering their darkness 
unto them (which it doth), not the knowledge of natural truths. 

Fourthly, This light must either be understood of light in natural truths, 
or moral, or both. If of that in natural, then I argue, If light of under- 
standing to discern of other things be from Christ, then much more to descry 
those which are moral ; and hence now it comes so unequally to be divided 
and dispensed to men that ' come into the world,' as all common benefits of 
his death are ; and yet the Scripture for all this calls it natural, as in Rom. 
ii. 14. St Paul expresseth it in opposition to that other light which is vouch- 
safed from the preaching of the word, which is not a privilege vouchsafed to 
all, as this is to every man that comes into the world ; and therefore that 
term of natural light is distinguished from the other, as being in men want- 
ing the light of the word, left to mere nature, and as being the common 
privilege to men, and ' every man that comes into the world.' 

And of this light, brought thus de novo into the dark lanthorn of man's 
* Qu. ' fruit ' •?— Ed. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 103 

mind, may that place be understood, Prov. xx. 27, where Solomon says, that 
* the spirit that is in man is the candle of the Lord, searching the chambers 
of the belly,' or the heart, — so it is in the original, — which is not meant of the 
natural faculty of reason in common, for it is described by a peculiar office 
of looking and searching into a man's own heart ; and therefore surely it 
peculiarly means this light of conscience, whereby a man reflects upon him- 
self. And the meaning seems to me to be, that whereas a man hath many 
rooms or chambers in his soul, several faculties, upper and higher rooms, 
understanding, will, and aflections, and all filled and taken up with some- 
thing or other ; all which rooms now are in the state of corruption, Adam 
having left them in the dark, and as bare walls ungarnished; so also with- 
out light, though not in regard of seeing what is done within them, in ordlm 
natura, that is, materially, what thoughts and desires are there (for so a 
man differs from a beast, 1 Cor. ii. 12), but in regard of what is good or 
evil in those thoughts and desires in ordlne moris. And thus though a man 
had a reflecting faculty left, as in order to the first, yet in regard of discern- 
ing the good or evil of what was done or acted in these chambers, a man 
should be still in darkness, if God did not set up a candle of a seminal light, 
a spirit or disposition inspirited, therefore called spirit ; as Job xxxii. 8, 
' There is a spirit in man, and this is the inspiration of the Almighty which 
gives understanding,' that is, quickness and abihty, which is as a candle of 
the Lord's, not innate, but brought in anew, as such lights that are by a new 
inspiration from the Almighty. 

Fourthly, To evince that these are not the appurtenances of nature derived 
by birth, let us consider the end for which this light is appointed, and brought 
thus in by Christ ; and thus it may seem to be (as also moral virtues are) a 
means to curb and restrain, control and rebuke, corrupt nature, and the 
swelling forms of it. It is not there as a native inhabitant, but as a garrison 
planted in a rebellious town by the great Governor of the world, to keep the 
rebellion of the natives within compass, who else would break forth into pre- 
sent confusion. In the 14th Psalm, David, speaking of the corruption of 
man by nature, vers. 1-3, after this question, Whether there be not some 
knowledge to discover their evil doings to them ? yes, says he, ' have they 
no knowledge,' ver. 4, 'which eat up my people as bread?' Yes; and 
therefore, ver. 5, ' they are often in fear,' God having placed this there to 
overcome them with fear, and by that to restrain them from many outrages 
against God's people, whom in their desires, and sometimes practice, they 
eat up as bread. Therefore this knowledge is put in as a bridle to corrupt 
nature, as a hook was put into Sennacherib's nostrils, Isa. xxxyii. 29, to rule 
and tame men, and overcome them with fear. That as it is said of the horse 
and the mule, Ps. xxxii. 9, David there compares our nature, for the out- 
rageous fury of it, if left to itself, without this understanding as the bridle of 
it: 'Be not as the horse, and mule, that have no understanding; whose 
mouth,' says he, ' must be held in by bit and bridle, lest they come near 
thee ;' that is, kick and fling, and hurt thee. So would man's nature, there 
would be no Ho with them, no man could come near another. If they had 
no knowledge, they would eat up one another, and the church, as bread : 
but there is their fear, says he, that is, thence it comes to pass they are kept 
in awe. God puts in knowledge and conscience as a bridle ; which, as a 
bridle that curbeth a horse, is no part of the nature of it, it being to break 
its nature ; so also this infused light ; only by nature we have a tender part 
or faculty of mind, as a horse hath a mouth which is sensible of the guides 
of this bit or light when God holds the reins hard, as sometimes he doth. 



104 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

First, You have seen how this light of conscience, suppose it had been de- 
rived by nature, yet it is not holy. 

But, secondly, that it is not only not holy, but that it is not there from 
nature. 

III. Now, consider what inherency this light hath in the mind, or what 
entertainment it hath, and you will see it cannot be said to dwell there. It 
never becomes naturalised, as I may speak, in man's nature, into a subject 
suitable to it; but as it is a stranger by birth, it hath a stranger's entertain- 
ment, and is not admitted or incorporated into the society of man's heart ; 
not enfranchised, or as a naturalised free denizen, only it crowds in there by 
force of arms, and so holds residence ; for it comes thus to judge and reprove 
only, and men entertain it, as the Sodomites did Lot, saying. Gen. xix. 9, 
* Tliis fellow comes in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge.' Nay, the 
heart of man deals more unrighteously, imprisoning it in unrighteousness, 
yMTiyJi), Rom. i. 18, aflbrding it not a dwelling-house, but a prison, to be 
in ; so as it dwells not there, but is imprisoned rather. The Scripture tells 
us that the darkness in man receives it [not], John i. 5 ; nay, puts it away, not 
willing to entertain it: 1 Tim. i. 19, ' Holding faith, and a good conscience; 
which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck.' 
'Ac7W(Ta/i.3vo/, putting away a good conscience, so as it cannot properly be 
called theirs, it being neither from nature, nor owned by or received as a 
nature in their hearts ; whereas true grace and light in a godly man, though 
it be not in him by nature, is made a new nature in him ; therefore he being 
partaker of it, is said to be ' partaker of a divine nature,' 1 Peter i. 4, 
there being such a connection between him and grace and the light of it, as 
is between natural dispositions and the subject they are in. But it is not 
so in an unregenerate mind, as to the light that is in it, and therefore for 
all this light the conscience still remains defiled ; for as it takes away no in- 
herent sinfulness, but restrains it only and curbs it, so it cannot be said to 
dwell there. 

IV. Suppose this light had such an admittance, and was naturalised, yet 
by that inherence or admittance it hath in the subject of natural conscience 
it would be defiled, for, Titus i. 15, 'Unto the impure all things are 
impure, because their minds and consciences are impure.' Mark it, he 
instanceth in the best part of them, their conscience, which defiles all that 
come near it, as well as any faculty else, and worse, for, as in the old law, 
if an unclean thing did but touch a thing, otherwise in itself clean, yet it 
was defiled by it, Hag. ii. 14. So (says God) are this people, and therefore 
all that belongs to them ; so now in the present case, if this light but comes 
into their consciences and becomes theirs, it is polluted. And indeed nature 
in other things shews as much, for, qiiicquid recipitur, recijiitur ad viodum 
reciplentis. What is more pure than the hght of the sun, which shines on a 
dunghill and is not defiled, because it admits of it not at all ? But if it shines 
on a thing that can receive it, as on a red glass, it presently is dyed red, 
the shine of it hath the tincture of the glass; so this light, either it is beaten 
back by the darkness which receives it not, and then it is not theirs, or if 
it be received, yet their conscience being impure, it becomes impure ; there- 
fore. Mat. vi. 22, the eye of man, that is, which is in man, which gives light 
to the whole and is his guide, is called evil, and darkness, that is sinful, 
though mixed with some light : Mat. vi. 23, ' But if thine eye be evil, thy 
whole body shall be full of darkness.' 

Use 1. See then the mercy and goodness of God and Christ now to the 
darkened condition of man ; consider, he lights a candle, and holds it there 
in your hearts for you to see to work by, without which a man would be as 



Chap. VII. ] in respect of sin and punishment. 105 

a horse and mule, yea, as a wild ass, Job xi. 12, so man is bom ; which, as 
it is the most stupid of creatures, empty of those shadows of reason other 
creatures have, so are we of those shadows of goodness, and therefore of 
ourselves we would be wild and ravenous, eating up one another, but that 
God hath put a bit into our tender part, our consciences. All fierce crea- 
tures have still some tender part left, without which they could not be ruled, 
as a horse a mouth to put in a bit, a bear a snout to put in a ring, else none 
might come near them ; so hath man a conscience. And that which shews 
God aimed at the good of mankind in it appears by this, that the light of 
those principles which tend most to the preservation of mankind are most 
deeply impressed and set on, as against murder, for which, of all sins else, 
their consciences use most to trouble them, &c., insomuch as Dionysius 
Halicarnasseus says that within the walls of Rome, for 020 years, none were 
found killed by a private hand ; and therefore this sin and the guilt of it 
alh'ights the conscience most, because it is most against the good of mankind. 

And consider, if God had not put this viceroy into the heart, what villanies 
would the world be filled with ! Our case would be as the case of Israel when 
they had no king — ' Everyman did what was good in his own eyes,' Judges 
xvii. 6. — So, if there was not this king and viceroy, this garrison in man, 
whose voice is vox Dei, every man would do what is good in his own eyes ; 
but God hath put it in to tame men, and hereby cuts short even the spirit 
of princes, takes ofi' their edge and fury, Ps. Isxvi. 11, by terrifying their 
consciences. Hereby Herod's malice against John was restrained, for he 
feared him being holy, Mark vi. 20 ; hereby God kept Abimelech from de- 
filing Sarah, Gen. xx. 

tlse 2. See the corruption of man's nature, that admits not, but as it were 
by constraint, so much as of the light of conscience, though it be but a pic- 
ture. As it is one of the utmost expressions of holiness, to * avoid the 
appearance of evil,' so it is a sign of the sinfulness of man's nature to hate 
the appearance of God. As the hatred of the panther is argued to be 
greater because it seizeth not on a man only, which other beasts do, but it 
will seize also on the image of a man, which no other beast will ; so it argues 
the wildness of man's nature, that it hates not the law and grace only, which 
is the image of God, but even this truth, which is but the picture of this 
image. 

Use 3. Is the light of conscience a work of Christ ? Then take heed how 
you deal with it. It was put into you if possible to keep you from hell, 
or that you might be kept from sins, and so have the less punishment ; but 
it occasions the aggravation of all your sins by men abusing it. But con- 
sider, that to imprison this truth in unrighteousness, what a sin it is, Rom. 
i. 18, which men do when they will not sufier it to break forth into practice. 
Of all Herod's sins this is made the greatest, that he put John in prison, 
who preached to him to instruct him, Luke iii. 20. And so this is that 
which God took so heinously at the Gentiles' hands, and for which his wrath 
is therefore to be revealed against them, that they imprisoned the light of 
their consciences, Rom. i. 18. And if to resist the power of a magistrate 
is to resist the power of God, then to resist the conviction of conscience, 
which is placed as a viceroy for the good of them that do well, and to be a 
terror to the wicked, is to resist God, for the judgment of conscience is the 
Lord's. And this also is to change the truth of God into a lie, for a man's 
actions being the interpreter of his mind, when that truth which is within is 
not discovered in our actions, we tell a lie ; and though things done errone- 
ously are sins, and therefore errors and ignorances were sacrificed for in the 
old law, yet if against light it is much more sin ; and yet how do men sin 



106 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK II. 

even against light till they be past feeling, as those in Eph. iv. 18, 19, who 
lived in unnatural uncleanness, oppression, contrary to the common light of 
nature, which, therefore, is made the aggravation of their sinfulness, Jude 
10, to ' corrupt themselves in what they know naturally.' Therefore God 
gave them up to reprobate minds, not discerning good and evil, Rom. i. 28, 
and in the end they do act as brute beasts (as in that place of Jude), so that 
there is not a principle to work upon by the word, and their light is taken 
from them, and they are left in the dark and carried hoodwinked to hell by 
the devil, as he that is in the dark knows not whither he goes. And you 
that have been troubled in conscience, and know the bitterness of sin, and 
yet fall to sin again, though your consciences have broke forth again upon 
you as much as ever, take heed how you go on. Though at present your 
consciences may be drunk and asleep, and the light imprisoned, yet know 
that this light will one day break prison and rage, and as a madman that 
when he is awake is more mad than when he lay down, so will your roused 
conscience be more terrifying than ever. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The second part of original corruption, enmity unto God, and to all that is 
good. — We became enemies to God, violating all obligations which were 
upon us to love and serve him. — This enmity is in our natures and hearts, 
and shewn also in outward acts of hostility. 

'And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked 
works, yet now hath he reconciled^' — Col. I. 21. 

We have seen how our natures by sin are deprived of all good. We are 
now to consider the positive part of original corruption, which hath two 
especial branches. 

1. An averseness, contrariety, or enmity unto God, which follows upon 
our aversion from him. We are not only turned from God, but turned 
enemies against him. 

2. An inordinate conversion from God to the creatures, and the pleasures 
of sin as their chiefest good and their utmost end, which is in Scripture 
expressed unto us by lusts. 

So the apostle reduceth the whole to these four degrees, Rom. v., that we 
are dead men, without strength, ungodly, sinners, enemies. The privative 
part being despatched, this, therefore, now remains to be as the conclusion 
more amply treated of, to make this first general part of this discourse entire, 
and the total sum of our iniquity full. 

Now, first, for explication of this enmity in man's heart and nature against 
God, there is a twofold enmity found amongst men, one against another, 
the like proportion unto which holds here, one directly and setly intended, 
the other indirect and by way of resultancy. 

1. Direct and intended, when a man's aim is to ruin or to oppose and 
vex such a man. Or, 

2. Indirect, when a man doth that which provoketh, or tends to diminish 
from another, when yet a man hath no such direct aim against bis person, &c., 
in his thoughts that do carry him on to it. Which double kind of enmity 
is exempltied by men's ofiences against states or princes set over them. 

Thus, 1, those are enemies that maliciously and setly plot and contrive 
treason, ruin, &c., in an hostile way. 



Chap. VIII. J in respect of sin and punishment. 107 

And, 2, those are enemies, too, that do contrary to the laws, to the de- 
clared will of a prince or state. So with us, a felon that stealeth for his lust, 
yet is to be arraigned as one that acted contrary to the king's crown and 
dignity, though he should plead he never aimed at the king, or intended to 
diminish aught from him, yet doing what is contrary to his law, on which 
his sovereignty is stamped, he is arraigned and condemned as an enemy to 
the king. 

Now of that first kind of direct and set opposition against God, none are 
found to be guilty but the devil, who is called the enemy, the adversary ; or 
men that sin against the Holy Ghost, whose sin is direct revenge against 
God, and who do despite to the Spirit of grace. But that indirect and implied 
enmity is common to the nature of man, and is the subject of this discourse. 
Let no man, therefore, think to shift, and say, I am an enemy to God ! 
God forbid ; I never in sinning aimed at hurt or injury to him, I had him 
not in my thoughts ; but if there be an indirect enmity, it is charge enough 
to justify the accusation. Men are executed and put to death by a state, 
as well for acts against law, which do involve the honour of the prince, as 
for acts of open or secret hostility. So as men are children or servants of 
the devil, either, 1, directly, that give up their souls to him, as witches ; or, 
2, that do his work, though their aim is not to serve him as their father ; 
and yet because they do his lusts, Christ termed them such : John viii. 44, 
' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.' 

Now I lay this for a fundamental maxim all along this discourse, that all 
that are not for God, or are against that which his law and will is for, &c., 
are enemies, and justly so accounted. God is so great, so sovereign, that 
if thou pleasest him not, he accounts thee an enemy ; if thou beest not sub- 
ject to him, thou art a rebel. As kings, yea, favourites, thinking theni- 
selves so great, that if any be not wholly theirs, if any way not for them, if 
any man veils not, stoops not, their spirits rise against them as enemies, as 
Haman's did against Mordecai, Esther iii. 6 ; and so, in like manner, ' Art 
thou not king ?' says Jezebel to Ahab, 1 Kings xxvii. 7, and therefore 
judged it an affront to him to be denied anything. In like manner. Am I 
not God ? says the Lord. K there be any averseness of spirit shewn to 
kings, it is interpreted enmity, because their greatness expects all should 
serve and be subject to them. Now the greatness of God is such, as it ne- 
cessarily and justly draws this on with it. Hence the carnal mind is said 
to be enmity against God : Rom. viii. 7, 8, * Because the carnal mind is 
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.' So that 
not to please God, not to be subject to his law, to be any way strange or 
averse to him, nay, not to be for him, is enmity ; yea, and enmity against 
him. Thus Christ says, ' He that is not with me is against me.' And, 
Rom. i., those that ' glorified God not as God,' ver. 21, are termed ' haters 
of God,' ver. 25. 

This being premised, I come to [open the particulars of this enmity of 
ours to God. 

First, In the degrees of it. I shall need to seek no further than the 
words of this text in the Epistle to the Colossians, (it being fuller to this 
purpose than any other scripture I meet withal), as noting out unto us three 
degrees and grounds of this enmity, wherein it consists ; in that, 1 , 
estranged ; 2, enemies in minds ; 3, in evil works. For whereas there are 
three, and but three, grounds of all friendship among men ; when, 1, there 
are certain mutual ties and bonds of relations, by which two are obliged and 
tied together in friendship, as husband and wife, father and child, &c. ; or, 



108 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

2, there is likeness of mind, which is indeed the soul and life of all true 
friendship, for all friendship is grounded on likeness {simile (jaudet simili). 
S. The third ground of friendship is mutual expressions and manifestations of 
that good will and agreement of minds, by kind offices of friendship, without 
which no friendship can long endure, but dies and goes out, as fire without 
fuel to feed it. Now all these three, when they meet together, must needs 
make up the entirest friendship that can be, even a threefold cord twisted, 
which cannot easily be broken. 

But now (if you observe it) you shall find in the text three grounds of 
this enmity, directly answering to these three of friendship (for friendship 
and enmity being contraries, they have answerably contrary grounds, contra- 
riorum contraria est ratio). For, first of all, in the word alienated, dmrjXXo- 
T^iuiji,svoi, or estranged, there is implied, that we are obliged to God by some 
bonds of friendship, and that yet we are fallen off from him, and entered 
into league and friendship with some other, so as he is thereby provoked ; 
for the apostle makes it the first degree of this enmity. Secondly, instead 
of agreement in mind and good will, there is an eiunitij, a contrariety in the 
mind. Thirdly, instead of kind offices of friendship, which should be tokens 
of that good will, as love, &c., there is nothing but evil works arising from 
the mind, every one of which contains in it enmity and contrariety against 
God ; and therefore all these meeting in one, as they do here, must needs 
likewise argue the enmity full. 

And, Jirst, we are therefore enemies, because by nature estranged ; for 
notwithstanding God hath bound all men to himself at their first creation in 
Adam, but especially all us that live in the visible church, by all the nearest 
and strongest bonds of friendship that are to be found on earth ; yet we 
have forsaken him, and live estranged, and have sought out other friends 
contrary unto him. And if this is enough to provoke men to enmity, much 
more God ; yea, and by how much nearer the bonds are, the greater enmity 
ariseth upon the breach. None are greater enemies, when fallen out, than 
those that have been most obliged and nearest friends ; and this is the first 
degree, which I will further explain. 

1. Mankind should, by that estate they were created in, have enjoyed a 
most holy and blessed communion, familiarity, and intercourse of acquaint- 
ance with the great God of heaven and earth, as may appear by some pas- 
sages betwixt God and Adam, Gen. ii. 19, 22, 23. Sure I am, that to all 
us that live in the visible church, God offers acquaintance daily, notwith- 
standing that our first breach in Adam, who, when he heard God's voice, 
walking in the garden, Gen. iii. 8, 9, hid himself, as one who would not 
have been spoken withal. God would yet be acquainted with us all ; for to 
that end serve his ordinances ; his word, wherein he speaks unto and woos 
us ; prayer, wherein he would have us draw nigh to him. But we, besides 
that estrangement of our forefather, are estranged even from the womb : Ps. 
Iviii. 3, ' The wicked are estranged from the womb ; they go astray as soon 
as they be born, speaking lies.' And at last we come in our hearts to say 
with those in Job, ' Depart from us, we will not have the knowledge of thee 
or thy ways,' Job xxii. 17. Acquaintance in this kind refused, provokes 
men that are but equals, much more God, the infinite God. Yea, my breth- 
ren, every sin committed is made the deeper act of enmity by reason of 
this bond broken by it. See how David takes a wrong from one that had 
been of his acquaintance, more heinously by far than if he had ever been a 
professed enemy : Ps. Iv. 12-14, ' For it was not an enemy that reproached 
me, then I could have borne it ; neither was it he that hated me, that did 
magnifj- himself against me, then I would have hid myself from him. But 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 109 

it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We 
took sweet .counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.' 
Had it been mine enemy, I could have borne it, says he ; but it was thou, 
my familiar friend, my equal ; we took sweet counsel once together. A 
wrong from such a person David could not brook. Had we indeed been 
created enemies at first, God would not have regarded our estrangement, nor 
our wronging him, for no other could have been looked for ; but you have 
heard it was otherwise ; and yet he and we are not equals, there is an infi- 
nite disproportion ; and yet this is not all. For, 

2. God being the great King of heaven and earth, obliged us to him as 
his especial favourites, at our first creation, above all the inferior creatures, 
raising us up out of nothing, and out of the same dust they were taken out 
of; he breathed into us an immortal reasonable soul, which yet they want, 
and set us next himself in his throne over them all. Yet Adam, his favom-ite, 
and we in him, disobeyed him, in that which was God's especial charge to 
the contrary, in eating the forbidden fruit. How infinitely more are kings 
incensed if their favourites prove traitors than if inferior subjects are so ? 
And is not God provoked so too the more by these many favours abused by 
us ? Yes, certainly. See how heinously he took David's adultery at his 
hands, more than he would at the hands of an inferior subject, because he 
was his especial favourite: 2 Sam. xii. 7-9, 'And Nathan said to David, 
Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king 
over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul ; and I gave thee 
thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee 
the house of Israel and of Judah ; and if that had been too little, I would 
moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou 
despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast 
killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy 
wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.' Did 
not I anoint thee king ? says God ; gave thee the house of Israel and Judah ? 
and would have done much more for thee. Wherefore hast thou despised 
the commandment of the Lord in doing evil in his sight ? Was not this 
now just our case in Adam in eating the forbidden fruit ? and in our own 
particular too whilst unregenerate, breaking and despising all those holy and 
righteous laws which God hath given ? 

And 3. By creation we were all the sons of God, as Adam is called, Luke 
iii. 34. For God stamped his own image on us ; therefore we were his sons 
when others but his creatures. Yet Adam, our forefather, fought like a 
rebellious Absalom to disthronise God ; that he should be as God was his 
temptation to sin, Gen. iii. 5. We set up other gods, making our bellies, 
that is, every earthly vanity, as a god, Philip, iii. 18, 19. And this rebellion 
of ours, as children against God our Father, the breach of this bond pro- 
vokes to deeper enmity than the violation of any of the former : 2 Sam. 
xvi. 12, when Shimei cursed David, Oh, says he, ' if my son seek my life, 
how much more may this Benjamite ? ' And God takes it so too at our hands 
very heinously : Isa. i. 2, ' Hear, heavens ; and hearken, earth : I have 
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.' This was res 
inaudita, a thing unheard of; and therefore he complains to these senseless 
creatures of it. 

4. We w re by the law of creation espoused unto God in some respect : 
Jer. xxxi. 31, 32. ' Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make 
a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not 
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I 
took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my 



110 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord,' 
God speaking of the old covenant, the covenant of works ; and so Adam's 
covenant is involved, he sa^^s, ' though I am an husband to them.' He 
therein shews, by what he was to the Jews, what he was to Adam then. 
But as Adam's heart at first ran a-whoring after an apple, so ours, whilst 
unregenerate, after every vanity. We are lovers of pleasures, riches, credit, 
&c., more than of God ; and therefore doth the Sci-ipture challenge us as 
adulterers and adulteresses, as James iv. 4, ' Ye adulterers and adulteresses, 
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever 
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.' We are called 
adulterers, as those that had forsaken our first husband (as God is called, 
Hosea ii. 7, by the church), and had entered into league with the world, and 
other strange lovers, as it follows in both those places. Adultery, we all 
know, is the breach of the marriage knot, which being the nighest tie upon 
earth (as both the first and the second Adam's speech doth testify : ' For 
this cause shall a man forsake father and mother,' &c.), therefore the breach 
of this knot causeth the deepest enmity; so it is with men : ' Jealousy,' saith 
Solomon, Prov. vi. 35, 'is the rage of a man.' Jealousy, as you all know, 
is that enmity which ariseth from the breach of the marriage knot, as it also 
is taken there, as'appears by the former verses. And this jealousy is rage ; 
the deepest that can be, more than anger, fury, or wrath. It notes out 
unpacifiedness ; for it follows, ' He will not spare in the day of vengeance ; 
thouch thou givest him many gifts, yet he will not rest contented.' And God 
is ' a jealous God ; ' so he styles himself, and takes this breach of our mar- 
riage bond as heinously, and more, as he hath reason, than men: Jer. 
iii. 1-3, ' They say. If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and 
become another man's, shall he return unto her again ? shall not that land 
be greatly polluted ? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet 
return again to me, saith the Lord. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, 
and see where thou hast not been lien with : in the ways hast thou sat for 
them, as the Ai-abian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with 
thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness. Therefore the showers have been 
withholden, and there hath been no latter rain ; and thou hadst a whore's 
forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.' You, says he, if you put away a 
wife, and she becomes another man's, will not own her again ; ' but thou 
hast played the whore,' &c. As if God had said. Judge betwixt me and you. 

1st, Consider that God did not put us off, but we forsook him first, freely 
and causelessly. God offered no wrong, no unkindness. 

2dly, Nay, there could not be any jealousies or suspicions (which often 
arise among friends) ; for God is not subject to the least shadow or appear- 
ance of turning. God shall clear it at the latter day, as he doth Jer. ii. 5, 
'What iniquity have you,' or your forefather Adam, 'found in me ?' Did I 
forsake you first ? or could it be conceived that I was glad to be rid of you ? 
No ; it was on your part free, on my part causeless ; and your enmity to me 
is so continued. Nay, 

3dly, This was at first, and is continued still at the persuasion of God's 
utter enemy, and ours, the devil. One word, nay, a lie of his, prevailed more 
than all these cords of love. 

And so much for the first degree, noted out in the word alienated, namely, 
that we have broken all the bonds of friendship whereby we were obliged ; 
both of acquaintance, the nearest bond of friendship civil ; of favourites to a 
prince, the highest bond in friendship political ; of children to a father, the 
nearest in friendship natural ; of a wife unto her husband, than which there 
is no greater obligations. 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 1 VI 

All relations of friendship may be reduced to one of these four; and these 
instances are, suinma in quolihet genere, et refjulce reliquorum, the hij^hest in 
each of these four, and the measures of the rest. Neither were these bonds 
bare resemblances, but real, and which God useth to express the nearest 
obligation between us, and which yet cannot express it. God looks upon us 
as obliged to him by all these bonds ; as those that should be to him as his 
spouse, children should carry themselves as his especial favourites, friends ; 
and therefore in every act of sinning, he will charge the breach of all these bonds 
upon all our consciences : Rom. vii. 2, 3, * For the woman which hath an 
husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth : but if the 
husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, 
while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called 
an adulteress : but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that 
she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.' The apostle 
expressly says, that a woman once married is bound to her husband as lono 
as he and she live, and if she become another man's she should be in every 
act called an adulteress. Now not only in this tie of marriage, but in all the 
rest of their bonds betwixt God and us, it is true that time can never wear 
them out. God [never dies, nor we, but are immortal ; therefore these 
relations hold, and whilst we sin, are daily broken, and we do therefore con- 
tinually provoke him to enmity. 

Secondly, But yet, in the second place, there is a further ground and degree 
of a far deeper enmity betwixt God and us, for there is an internal contra- 
riety and enmity in our minds, which is deeper than the former. For as in 
friendship outward relations, ties and bonds are but the body of it, it is 
inward good will that is the soul and life, and that must join hearts together. 
Therefore a friend is called, Deut. xiii. 6, * a man's own soul,' and reckoned 
as sometimes nearer to men than all relations. The other externals of 
friendship are but as solder or lead that joins glasses together that is 
quickly melted ; and so it would be with these if this inward good will doth 
not animate them. And therefore, also, by the rules of contraries, it is so 
in causing enmity ; though the breach of outward relations doth deeply pro- 
voke, yet we see it true amongst men, that when notwithstanding them, 
they perceive a secret good will continued to them in the party offending, 
they are ready to pass by, and so pardon such wrongs ; yea, and so doth 
God, for notwithstanding his children who are regenerated, are more deeply 
obliged and engaged to him than all creatures, men, and angels besides ; yet 
because even when they offend, they bear inward and secret good will to God 
for all that, doing what they hate, what they approve not, and grieving they 
should offend God whom they love above all, God therefore passeth by, and 
putteth up abundance of injuries, as he did in David, accounting him a man 
according to his own heart, that is, a faithful friend to him, notwithstanding 
many outward breaches of the nearest bonds that could be. But now in 
men unregenerate, there being not only an external breach of such near 
bonds of friendship, but also an inward enmity, contrariety, that fills the 
mind, it must needs most deeply provoke, for it is full enmity indeed. 

I will open this as a second and further degree. God created us at the first 
in his own image or likeness, both in mind and will ; which image consisted 
in an agreement of mind, liking and approving that holiness he did, and 
also choosing it in our wills, embracing it in our affections ; whence good 
will did arise betwixt God and us. And when two minds agree thus in 
virtue, Aristotle says, it makes up perfect friendship, he making 6/xov6ia. and 
hvoicx^ meeting in virtue, to be the strongest ground of friendship, and to be 
the essence of it. And so this being an argument between God and us about 



112 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK 11. 

holiness (for the image of God in us is created after God in holiness and 
righteousness, Eph. iv. 24), it must needs be so too. But now, on the con- 
trary, there is an enmity in the mind, we neither in mind or judgment 
approving that holiness, nor in our w-ills choosing it ; but we in both liking 
and following the clean contrary, namely, every sin and evil work, for to 
that purpose is the phrase used in the text emphatically, ' enemies in the 
mind, in evil works,' therefore enemies in our miads, because our minds are 
in evil works ; which phrase implies that the mind is wholly set upon and 
inclined and disposed unto evil. As when a man is said to be in love, that 
is wholly taken up with it, given to it. Like phrase unto which also is that, 
aninuis est in patinis, his mind is in his dishes ; even so that phrase used 
here, the mind in evil works (as it is in the original), for every evil work, as 
you shall hear anon, contains direct enmity against God in it ; therefore 
now, I say, this must make perfect enmity. And further to confirm it, that 
there is this enmity in the mind, in men unregenerate, in Acts xiii. 10, it is 
said of Elymas (and what is true of one wicked man in regard of his nature, 
ot which we now speak, is true of all), that he was an enemy to all right- 
eousness, and full of all readiness unto evil, as the word padiov^ylag signifies, 
an enemy in his mind to all righteousness, because his mind was prone, 
ready and set to all evil ; so that the same reason is given for that his 
enmity, which is here in Col. i. 21. And Simon Magus also (after the same 
manner of phrase used in the text) is said to be in the gall of bitterness : 
Acts viii. 23, ' For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in 
the bond of iniquity.' Which phrase implies that his whole heart, and the 
frame of it, is steeped deeply, and seasoned in works which are as gall to us, 
viz. enmity against God, for he is rather said to be in this gall, than it in 
him, to shew that bis nature is only full of it, and abounded, and was over- 
come by it ; as a man is said to be in the water, when he is drowned in it, 
or in drink, when he is overcome with it. 

I might be large in running over all the faculties, and shewing how this 
enmity resides in them all. 

As first of all in the judgment, the reasoning and understanding part of 
the mind, of which principally the text speaks, h biavoia, which implies that 
all the thoughts, reasonings, and devisings which are within the mind of man, 
are against God and his ways, and altogether for sin and evil works which 
are enmity against him. And is not that argaed to be deadly enmity, whea 
there is nothing but plotting, devising, and using one's wits against another? 
Yet each is this here ; yea, in these reasonings lies the strength of the 
enemy, by reason of which the inferior faculties are encouraged, backed, and 
maintained in their opposition. And therefore, 2 Cor. x. 5, he compares 
these reasonings in the mind of man unto high forts, bulwarks, or towers, 
strongholds which are cast up to maintain and hold siege against the know- 
ledge and obedience of Christ. 

Neither, 2, is the will free of this enmity ; for though indeed the will is 
not mentioned directly and expressly in the text, but only the reasoning part, 
yet it is not because the will is free, but rather because that, of all other 
faculties, the understanding might be least suspected ; seeing wicked men in 
their reasonings, in the speculative understanding, are for the truth often, 
and against evil works, though again in the practical (which the apostle 
means here) it is clean contrary with them. All enmity lies principally in 
the will, and even common people when they express enmity, they call it 
ill-uill. And so in John viii. 44, lusts of enmity and malice against God 
and Christ (of which Christ there speaks), and which he calleth the devil's 
lusts, are made acts of the will, both because they are called (as in the devils 



ClIAP. "VIIL] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 113 

they are found) lusts. Now, in the devil, lusts are inclinations and acts 
principally of the will, as also because Christ saith there of the phariseos, 
* You are of your father the devil, and his lusts ye will do.' The word in the 
original is %Xsti ironiv ; and answerably wicked men are said to be haters of 
God, Rom. i. 30, Exod. xx. 5. 

Yea, 3, it is seated in the whole man, and whatsoever is in man, as may 
appear by comparing these two scriptures : John iii. 6, ' That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' 
Rom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' In the first, Christ 
says, * what is born of the flesh is flesh.' In saying that which is born, &c., 
he shews that there is not that thing in man which comes of fleshly genera- 
tion, but it is wholly tainted with flesh, sin, and corruption, even the will 
and all parts. And in Rom. viii. 7, you may see what the nature of this 
flesh or corruption is, and what it brings with it to every faculty. It is said 
to be enmity against God, pgov)),a.a aa^nhg. Some translate it the wisdom 
of the flesh, because that indeed is principally meant ; but the word doth in 
the signification generally extend itself to the several acts of each faculty 
tending towards this object, as I could shew by other scriptures. So that the 
meaning of the Holy Ghost is to shew how that every act of every faculty, 
understanding, will, and afiections, all which are tainted with flesh, are 
enmity against God. It is said so in the- abstract, because it is in the very 
nature of the flesh, in each faculty, to be so ; even as it is the nature of a 
wolf to be at enmity with a lamb. 

And so much likewise of the second ground and degree of enmity ; it is 
inherent in the mind, and in every faculty thereof. 

Thirdly, Now did this enmity lie and rest there only, and break forth no 
farther, nor manifest itself in acts of enmity, it were less full. But as Aris- 
totle makes it a condition of true friendship, iit sit manifesta nee otiosa, that 
it be manifested by expressions of love, or else it is idle, worthless friendship ; 
so likewise to make up the measure of this enmity full, it remains that I 
shew the manifestation of this enmity in the mind in regard of evil works 
mentioned in the text, and which the mind, as you have heard it, is set on 
and wholly given unto. The mind of man unregenerate doth bring forth 
nothing else continually but evil works, which do contain in them direct and 
express enmity against God ; every sinful act contains in ifc enmity against 
God. That forenamed place, Rom. viii. 7, is express for both, where it is 
said that (p^ovri/xa aa^xog, that is (as I said before), the least stirring, desire, or 
act of any faculty, even the wisdom of a man, the best and purest act the 
mind brings forth, the wisest thought an unregenerate mind thinks, is enmity 
against God. And so, Isa. iii. 8, their doings are said to be ' against the 
Lord,' and to * provoke the eyes of his glory,' for (besides that every sin is 
aggravated by being the breach of all bonds) it contains a further and directer 
enmit}'- in it, as both these places do imply ; for it is denominated to be 
enmity in the abstract, which doth imply that it is in the nature of it, and is 
said to provoke the eyes of his glory, as being against him. Now let us exa- 
mine the reason given there in the following words, and it will appear so, 
for therefore the apostle says, it is enmity against God, because it is directly 
against God's law, and will not be subject. And because some men may say. 
What is this to God ? he is one thing, and his law another ; it touches not 
him. Yes, verily, -and that exceeding nearly, in a double respect. 

1. Because upon every moral law of God his sovereignty, his prerogative 
royal, is enstamped and engaged in it. His being God and sovereign Lord lies 
at the stake ; for the law is enforced upon that ground, ' I am the Lord thy 

VOL. X. H 



114 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK 11. 

God.' So the commandments begin, he commanding us, as he is God, and by 
his divine authority, to submit to those laws : the main end and intent of all 
those laws being, that men should acknowledge God's sovereignty over them. 
Now, therefore, in this case the breach and thwarting of the least of these 
with full consent of mind and will, is flat rebellion, a gainsaying his sove- 
reignty, a direct and immediate opposing his prerogative royal, denying him 
to be God. And therefore, Titus i. 16, they are said in works to deny him. 
Now we all know whatsoever is done thus against the sovereignty of a king 
is an act of high treason ; whatsoever doth flatly deny the king to be king is 
open rebellion. And therefore every evil work may well be said to be against 
God, and to provoke the eyes of his glory, for it debaseth, tendeth to impair 
and entrench upon his prerogative royal, his glory, and sovereignty. But 
this is not all ; it is flat enmity, hath some contrariety in the nature, form, 
and essence of it, to God's most holy and pure nature. Because, 

2. God hath enstamped his own image on his laws. For God's laws, 
especially his first command, is but the copy and extract of God's most holy, 
righteous, and blessed will, and many of the commands are the copy of his 
most holy nature, as that of his first command, as such which he in his 
nature is inclined to will and command ; and therefore his law is called holy 
as he is holy, and being written in the heart doth renew us in his image. 
"WTiatsoevev act, therefore, is done against this law, and hath a contrariety 
thereunto, hath in the nature of it a contrariety unto the nature of God ; 
which, my brethren, being so, and the mind of man unregenerate continually 
producing such acts, needs must this enmity be deep in this regard. But, 

3. This indirect enmity (as I may so call it) which is terminated in the 
breach of the law, proceedeth in the end to more immediate and direct acts 
of enmity against God himself, and breaketh forth into such at last, as occa- 
sion is given from collateral enmity ; it launcheth out unto direct enmity 
against God, and all that would bring us to him. For although man's nature 
at first in sinning aims but at pleasure, and not to injure God (only it is 
against him, as being his Sovereign, who hath commanded the contrary), yet if 
God come to discover his offence taken at these their sins, then corrupt nature 
is apt to shew itself in a direct enmity. So that as by reason of every evil 
work there is an enmity taken up by God against us, so also further, when 
God goes about to reclaim us herefrom, to discover his sovereignty and dis- 
pleasure against us, then there ariseth further active enmity in us against 
him. If light comes from him that these our works are evil, then presently 
we hate the light : John iii. 19, ' And this is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their 
deeds are evil.' If God makes himself known to us to be our Lord and King, 
we like not the knowledge of him : Rom. i. 28, ' And even as they did not 
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate 
mind, to do those things which are not convenient.' If he discovers himself 
to be our judge that threateneth us for these courses, then we hate him : 
Prov. viii. 36, ' But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul ; all 
they that hate me love death.' Wisdom, that is, Christ, that would reclaim 
men from sinning, says. If they refuse him they hate him, and love death. 
It is spoken consecutively, for in sinning they love that which causeth death, 
and so in sinning too they do that which will produce hatred of God, and end 
in it when he comes to reckon with them. We either slight him or hate 
him ; either we contemn his judgments, or wish he were not. If he punish 
us, our hearts rise against him as against an enemy, and murmur as Cain's 
did, and accordingly we quarrel with all such means as might reduce us into 
subjection to him. 



Chap. IX. ] in respect of sin and punishment. 11 { 



CHAPTER IX. 

Some considerations propounded wliich do more evidence how great the enmity 
of man's nature is against God. — 2'hat it is uninterruptedly continued. — 
That it is implacable. — That it is an universal hatred against God, and all 
that hath any relation to him. — We should try our state, by examining our- 
selces whether ice continue enemies to God or not. — What are the signs by 
ivhich it may be known / 

Unto all this we may add three considerations more concerning the mani- 
festation of this enmity in the mind, and you shall see the depth, length, and 
breadth thereof, abounding in all three dimensions, even above measure. 

First of all, it is continued without interruption even from the very begin- 
ning of a man's days, whenas the mind of man begins to put forth any acts 
at all : Jer. xxxii. 30, ' For the children of Israel and the children of Judah 
have only done evil before me from their youth ; for the children of Israel 
have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the 
Lord.' They have only provoked me to anger from their youth by the 
work of their hands ; they had done nothing else from the very beginning. 
And as it is said of Jerusalem in the following verses, that that city had been 
a provocation to him from the very first day that it was built, so it is true of 
every man unregenerate, that from the very day wherein he was born he hath 
been a provocation unto God by the works of his hands. And I pray you 
consider it, the deadliest enemy that ever was, was not always plotting, act- 
ing, and practising hostility ; there is a truce sometimes, a laying down of 
weapons, by reason of other employments. Ay, but this enmity never 
hath a cessation of arms, and hereby appears the length and continuation 
of it. 

Again, secondly, it is so deep an enmity that is thus seated in the mind, 
as no time, no means that can be used, no persuasions or threatenings, can 
of themselves reconcile them, or wear this enmity out, until God doth extend 
his mighty power and slay this enmity, &c. And why ? Because it is seated 
in the mind, in nature, as in Rom. viii. 7 it is called enmity itself, which is 
not, nor cannot be, made subject. It is in the nature of the corrupt mind to 
be an enemy to God, as it is in the nature of a wolf to be an enemy to a 
lamb ; and therefore nature so remaining, it will never yield unless it be 
changed. Men may be enemies to one another and yet reconciled, because 
it is not seated in their natures, but only occasioned (it may be) by some 
outward occasional difference and variance, as appears in suits of law be- 
twixt man and man, which therefore composition will end ; and the cause 
being taken away, they prove as good friends as ever. Ay, but this enmity 
will never be at an end unless God changeth the mind ; no composition, no 
parley or treaty of peace can end it. Nay, a man cannot endure to hear of 
ending it, but falls out with all the means, the word. Spirit, and light of 
his own conscience that persuades him to it; shunning, hating, resisting all 
means of ending it ; hating to be reformed, Ps. 1. 17 ; hating even recon- 
ciliation itself; casting all God's laws behind their backs, as it is there 
expressed ; that is, dealing with all the persuasions and messengers that come 
from God to treat about the peace, even as Jehu did with those which came 
from Jehoram, saying, ' What have I to do with peace ?' And all this with 
a deep inbred pride and stubbornness in the mind and will, scorning to yield 
or stoop, Ps. X. 4. Insomuch as God is said, James iv. 6, to resist, to 
withstand, avrirdaeirai, or jostle him, even to throw him down to hell. 



IIG AN UNREGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

Lastly, It is an universal hatred in regard of the manifestation of it, mani- 
festing enmity against God, and all his friends that stand in any relation of 
nearness to him continually, as it meets with any of them, or as occasion is 
offered. 

1. An enmity to God, there being ever and anon reasonings in the dis- 
coursive part that there is no God ; denying, or despising, or abusing all 
that the mind knows of God ; his grace, turning it into wantonness, Jude 5 ; 
despising the riches of his goodness and long-suffering, Rom. ii. 4 ; mocking at 
his omniscience in such thoughts or words as these : ' Tush, God sees it not ' ; 
Ps. X. 11, 'He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten : he hideth his face, 
he will never see it.' And if the understanding be convinced, yet desires 
arise in the will. Would there were no God ! And is not that deadly enmity, 
thus to reason against God's being ? or knowing that he is, to abuse him ? 
or wishing the destruction of God ? Rom. i. 30. The Gentiles are therefore 
called haters of God, because ' when they knew God, they glorified him not 
as God' in their heart, ver. 21, 25. 

2. Again, it is an enmity to all the friends of God. Let him send 
prophets, and after them his own Son crucified ; let him dispense to them 
the preaching of tbe gospel, and that as the only means to reconcile them ; 
yet they hearing this, out of the hardness of their hearts, turn ' enemies to 
the cross of Christ,' as it is expressly said, Philip, iii. 18, 19. Let the Lord 
deal with them by his Spirit, and that about their own eternal good ; as if 
he came as an enemy, they resist him evermore, and all his good motions : 
Acts vii. 51, 'Ye stiff-necked and uneircumcised in heart and ears, ye do 
always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye.' By the light 
of their consciences the truth they detain, and that unrighteously, like an 
enemy in prison : Rom. i. 18, ' For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in 
unrighteousness.' If God speaks to them by his faithful ministers, ' mine 
enemy,' say they, ' hast thou found me?' as Ahab said to Elijah, 1 Kings 
xxi. 20. And as he said also to another prophet, ' I hate him, for he never 
prophesies good to me,' 1 Kings xxii. 8, so do they say of God. Doth he 
send his children among them ? There is an ancient enmity sown betwixt 
these and them : Gen. iii. 15, ' And I will put enmity between thee and the 
woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' And this enmity manifests 
itself in all indignities and injuries. 

Use. Because the apostle makes this as one especial character and brand 
of an unregenerate estate, to be enemies unto God, the use shall be of trial 
and examination of our estates hereby. Now, it is certain that we all, even 
that profess ourselves Christians, are born enemies as well as Gentiles, for 
we came all from Adam, from whom descends this enmity, as you have heard 
before. And howsoever men may think and carry the matter outwardly in 
their profession, yet the Scripture tells us, and the latter day will find it so, 
that God hath but few friends in the world, and whole swarms of enemies 
that lie and lurk even in the visible church, u-zivavTiou:, underhand adver- 
saries, Heb. X. 27, whom nothing but the word applied and their own con- 
sciences can accuse and find out ; yea, and the worst enemies are those of 
God's own household. And this one consideration added to the former, 
namely, that we are born enemies in our minds, and that it is sealed in our 
natures, may make even the best of us to look about us, and to suspect our 
estates, for hereupon it will necessarily follow that it is not all the privileges 
'outward which we Christians have above Gentiles that can alter our estates, 
for we are born such, even such enemies to God as a wolf is to a lamb, 
enemies in our minds. As, therefore, take a wolf when it falls first from the 



Chap. IX.] in respkct or sin and punishment. ' 117 

dam, put it into a lamb's skin, keep it up in the fold with the sheep, let it, 
if it be possible, feed off the same food with the sheep, tame it, do all what 
you will, it remains a wolf still, and therefore an enemy unto a lamb ; neither 
will ever a lamb and it be reconciled till either that wolf becomes a lamb, or 
the lamb a wolf. Just so, take one of us when we are new dropped from 
the womb, give us a Christian ear-mark (baptism) ; bring us up in the same 
visible church with others ; put us into a Christian coat, the profession of 
Christianity ; let us feed and partake of the same word and sacraments with 
others ; nay, let us by all these means seem outwardly never so much tamed, 
civilised, outwardly and formally conformable to good duties ; yet still we 
may remain, as Christ saj's, ' inwardly ravening wolves :' Mat. vii. 15, ' Beware 
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they 
are ravening wolves.' We are still where we were, unless there be a further 
work to change the nature ; and not only such an one as proceeds from good 
motions and moral persuasions of the word and Spirit, for what can these 
barely work, when we are of ourselves such irreconcileable enemies in our 
minds as hath been delivered ? A treaty of peace argues not reconciliation, 
nor will in this case ever effect it. But it must be such a work as the all- 
powerful arm of God hath a hand in, slaying this enmity, and changing the 
bent and frame of the mind, naturally set on evil works, unto the contrary 
good, by putting in new principles, friendlike dispositions unto God and all 
his ways. And, my brethren, if this be wanting, we remain still in the gall 
and bitterness of our natures, as Peter told Simon Magus, Acts viii. 23, for 
all that it is said he was baptised, believed, wondered at what he saw the 
apostles do, was conformable to Christian duties, for he was a helper with 
Philip, as it is in the 13th verse ; and all this while he was an undiscovered 
enemy. And, as I said before, that until the nature of a wolf be changed, 
and it be made a lamb, or a lamb a wolf, they can never be reconciled ; so 
neither God nor we enter into a covenant of reconciliation till either God 
become such an one as we, which is impossible, or we become partakers of 
the divine nature, and be thus inwardly changed in some measure into his 
image. ' Can two walk together,' saith the prophet, ' and not agree ?' Amos 
iii. 3. Surely no. And whereas many will further plead, and say, that 
they could never perceive any such matter ; that either they were enemies 
to God in mind, they never meant him hurt, but they have loved him, 
feared him ever since they can remember ; neither can they perceive that 
God is an enemy to them, but loves them, clothes them, feeds them. They 
taste of his kindness daily, and therefore they have good cause to think that 
there is mutual love between them. But for answer to this I would have 
men further consider, as for this dealing of God towards you, that God is 
exceeding kind to his enemies, as our Saviour saith, Mat. v. 45, making the 
sun to rise on the good and bad, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust ; 
and therefore also he bids us be kind to our enemies. And also, as it is in 
Job xxxi. throughout, God forbears with, yea, and heaps abundance of bless- 
ings on one that is his utter enemy; yet it is but as the king reprieving a 
condemned traitor, letting him enjoy his lands and livings, but reserving 
him still, as it is at the 30th verse, to the day of wrath. Therefore, all 
these are no arguments of a man's reconciliation through Christ. 

If any are discovered here to be such, let them not stand out still shifting, 
and pleading Not guilty, but deal plainly with their own souls, and lay it to 
heart, that they may seek out for peace betimes. And let this one considera- 
tion move them, that it must and shall be confessed one day, at the day of 
death, or in hell ; and then they will confess it, with this addition, that they 
were enemies to themselves in that they confessed it no sooner, whilst recou- 



118 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

ciliation was offered. It were better for a traitor to confess at the bar, when 
he hears of a pardon, than at the gallows. 

The first sign cf being enemies and unreconciled to God, is strangeness to 
him, and unto the life of God. Strangers to God are yet enemies ; for ye 
see that being estranged is made a degree of enmity in the text, and in Job 
xxii. 21, 'Acquaint thyself with him' (says one of Job's friends to him), 
* and be at peace ;' implying that whosoever is at peace with God must be 
acquainted with him. Strangeness indeed between two that never were 
familiar friends breeds not enmity, it is not a sign of it ; but if you see two 
that once were familiar and acquainted now to walk aloof one fi-om another, 
and though they have occasion to meet often, yet to can-y themselves strange 
one to another. Surely (you say) they are fallen out. And so if you see man 
and wife live asunder, never come at, speak of, or seem much to care for one 
another : There is a breach certainly, that is your next thought. Why, so 
it is here, for God and we once were acquainted. Let me apply this now. 

1. Is God a stranger to your thoughts ? That whereas every trifle, 
learning, credit, riches, pleasures, and cares of the world, thoughts of these 
things, plotting for them, are very familiar with you, the first that call you 
up in a morning, take up your minds, converse with you all day, and lie 
down in your bosom at night ; but as for God, thoughts of him, or contriv- 
ings how to please or to glorify him, are little or ' not in all your thoughts,' 
as it is spoken of a wicked man, Ps. x. 4 ; or if the thoughts of him chance 
to come in, yet it is not welcome as the thought or sight of a friend is, but 
as of a judge, or as of a master that comes in on the sudden upon a negligent 
servant, and you wish he was further off'; then are you strangers to God. 

2. Or are you strangers to those more special duties in which communion 
is to be enjoyed with him ? Why is it you are so strange ? The truth of 
it is, you are enemies. Can you go whole weeks, months, and never speak 
to him by secret and intimate prayer, so as to take him alone, as you would 
do a friend, into a corner, and there pour out your heart before him, and tell 
him all your secrets ? Or if you do ' draw nigh to him with your lips,' yet 
are not * your hearts far from him' ? There are millions that could never 
yet say that God and their hearts were brought together in a sweet close, 
nor do know what it means to talk with God as a friend, as Moses did. Such 
are strangers. 

3. Ai'e you strangers to and from the life of God ? as it is made the note 
of a wicked man, Eph. iv. 18. There is a blessed, holy, and spiritual life 
which God and Christ are the fountain of, which they live ; as it is said of 
Christ, Rom. vi. 10, ' For in that he died, he died unto sin once ; but in 
that he liveth, he liveth unto God.' A life which all the saints and angels 
live in heaven, not depending on what is here in this world ; and it is begun 
in a Christian here : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life ; and 
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Now, try and search thy- 
self what objects are thy affections most quickened and kept up in life with : 
omnis vita gustu ducitur. What dost thou savour and relish ? Are you 
utter strangers to such a spiritual life ? It may be a life natural, of eating 
and drinking, maiTying and giving in marriage, &c. ; or it may be a life of 
reason, fitting you to converse with men ; or further, a formal life, in regard 
of religious duties, in the letter of them ; as Rom. vii. 6, ' But now we are 
delivered from the law, that being dend wherein we were held ; that we 
should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.' But 
have you an inward life of gi'ace, influences and comings-in, from recourses 
to and communions with Christ (as Paul says he had, Gal. ii. 20), quick- 
ening you in all these, and above all these, as that which you reckon your 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 119 

life, more than all these ? If you want it, you are strangers to the life of 
God. 

4. Lastly, you are enemies to God if you be strangers to the things of 
God, his graces, converses with a soul in secret, which God gives his friends 
and children as love-tokens : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have received, not the 
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God.' God hath many secrets which 
he makes known to them that are his friends, John xv. 15; and Ps. xxv. 14, 
' The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; and he will shew them 
his covenant.' But now when we hear experimental discoursings of such 
near and intimate dealings of God, as how he draws the heart to believe ; 
when we hear of change of heart, of regeneration, of the new birth, &c., 
and of the signs of these made plain to us out of the word, do we hear and 
entertain them as strange, or as known things to us ? Or do not our hearts 
think the same that the Athenians said of Paul's doctrine ? Acts xvii. 20, 
* For thou briugest certain strange things to our ears : we would know 
therefore what these things mean.' So do not our hearts think secretly of 
such sermons. What mean these things? these being strange things to our 
ears : * I have written to him the excellent things of my law, but they were 
counted as a strange thing,' as God in the prophet complains, Hosea. viii. 12. 
All this argues we are yet strangers, and therefore unreconciled. 

A second note of enmity to God, is not only this strangeness mentioned, 
but too much inward entire affection to or friendship with the world. The 
Scripture makes this enmity with God, though men think not so : James 
iv. 4, ' Know ye not,' says James there, ' ye adulterers and adulteresses, that 
friendship with the world is enmity with God ? ' By icorld there he means 
not only the corruptions of the world, or the sins of it (as Peter calls them), 
but the things of the world, such as are in themselves the good blessings of 
God, as honour, riches, credit, learning, &c., as appears by the foregoing 
verses ; for he speaks of such things as men ask, and use to receive at the 
hands of God. And whereas men might say. These are the good blessings of 
God ; and to love them and rejoice in them, will God take this so heinously? 
Yes, if it be inordinate. He tells them it is adultery spiritual, for of that he 
speaks : ' ye adulterers and adulteresses.' Is it not adultery in a wife to 
cleave in her heart unto, to delight in, and converse with, as with a husband, 
not only one that is an absolute enemy of her husband's, but one whom her 
husband otherwise respects and loves ? Potiphar loved Joseph well, for he 
gave him charge over all things in his house ; yet whenas Potiphar's wife 
enticed him to adultery, Joseph tells her that though his master had com- 
mitted all things else to him, and kept nothing back but her, whom he 
reserved to himself; and therefore see how incensed Potiphar was, but upon 
the opinion that he would have defiled her. Adultery breeds the greatest 
enmity. It is not the having these, or the using these things, that is a sign 
of enmity ; it is the very phrase by which the apostle expresseth himself, 
allowing us the use of the world: 1 Cor. vii. 31, 'And they that use this 
world, as not abusing it ; for the fashion of this world passeth away.' Upon 
occasion of this was founded that ancient distinction of tUi and //•««, tising 
the creature, but enjoyimj God. Not the lordship of the world, but the 
friendship of the world, breeds the quarrel, and is the enmity. You may 
use these things as servants, not as friends, reserving and keeping your 
hearts to God alone as to your husband. Aristotle says that -joXu^iXla, 
cannot stand with true friendship, that is, a man cannot have many friends 
in an entire and true amity ; but friendship is always but between two. As 
you cannot serve, so nor be friends unto God and Mammon too. If a master 



120 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

will not bear it, a friend much less. It is a sad speech which concerns us 
all to look to, that in 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, neither the things 
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is 
not in him.' He professeth to speak not of gross sins only, but any vanity 
in the world, the things of the world ; and he is peremptorily conclusive in 
it, to pronounce the love of the Father not to be in that heart which affects 
and delights therein more than in God, or in whose heart love to God pre- 
vails not over love to them. Now, if an husband observes his wife to take 
all her care for another man, and that she is always speaking of him, and 
glad to hear from him, and jolly in this other's company, but in his own 
little, or coy to himself, or glad when she is out of his company ; but in- 
ordinately delighting in the other's, conversing whorishly with him ; this 
breeds jealousy and enmity. Let us look to our hearts, and judge betwixt 
God and them. 

A third note whereby they may be discovered to be enemies, is not being 
subject to the law of God. So Rom. viii. 7, a'carnal miud is therefore there 
said to be ' enmity against God; because it is not subject to the law of God.' 
In Luke xix. 27, Christ calls those his enemies, that would not have him reign 
over them, that is, that would not be subject unto his laws. And the reason 
is, because God's sovereignty lies at the stake, and is despised, God giving 
every command as he is God and sovereign Lord. And again, he that lives 
not by his laws, lives by the laws of sin, as they are called, Rom. vii. 21. 
He is subject to the devil, God's enemy, lives a subject to his kingdom, and 
this is open and manifest enmity to God. Now in the first verse carnal men 
are said to be married to the law of God, Rom. vii. 1, 2. At the first 
creation the law and man's heart were as wife and husband, and the knot 
still holds ; but there is a hellish life now between them, for his heart, as the 
lawful wife, ought to be subject, but his heart will not. The law commands 
something that is clean contrary to his heart's lusts, and it will not submit 
if it were to die for it. The law urgeth upon his heart the Sabbath, strictly 
to be kept in thoughts, words, and actions ; it is death to his heart to be 
kept thus in, it will out and find its own pleasures that day. I might in- 
stance in a great deal more. I refer myself to men's consciences ; doth not 
the law by the light of your consciences urge some duty upon you, be it 
private prayer, &c., which you will no way be subject to, cannot endure to 
hear of it, wishing that commandment scraped out, or that you had never 
had the knowledge of it ? crying as they in Job xxi. 14, ' Depart from us, we 
will not the knowledge of thy laws.' And though the heart be convinced, yet 
it will not yield, but secretly says, as they in the prophet, * What the will 
of the Lord is, we will not do.' So as the law in some particular finds not 
a tractable, loving, obedient wife of their heart, as grieving for ofiending in 
the least particular (as it doth find a regenerate man's heart to be), or as 
standing out in nothing ; and therefore the law begets not on their hearts 
unfeigned and constant desires to obey in all things, strong purposes, daily 
strivings, mournings, which at last should bring forth obedient perform- 
ances, as it doth in a regenerate man's heart. But it begets stubbornness, 
rebellion, hating to be reformed, the more eagerness of lust to the contrary 
of what the law commands. So it is in the 5th verse, the motions of sin 
which were by the law brought forth fruit unto death. It is a marriage 
phrase, implying that the law begat stronger desires to sin, and that which 
the law forbade ; these were the children which were begotten by the law on 
his heart, as a woman is said to have children by her husband. 

A fourth note of a state of enmity is daily and willingly harbouring, 
nourishing, fostering, and maintaining of one of God's enemies in practice or 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment, 121 

fancy, openly or secretly. Not only he that commits high treason is a 
traitor by our state constitution, but also he that wittingly or willingly (for 
otherwise unwittingly a good subject may) houseth or harbouretli a traitor, 
and continueth to do it, let proclamation say what it will to the contrary, 
and gives loving welcome and entertainment to such an one that is an enemy, 
as if he were a friend. In John xix. 12, the Jews accusing Christ under the 
notion of a rebel and an enemy to Caesar, when they saw Pilate but willing 
to release him, they terrify Pilate with this state axiom, ' If thou lettest 
this man go, thou art none of Caesar's friend ; ' nay, we know that if one be 
but a suspected person, if in this case a man harbour him, he shews himself 
no good well-wilier to a state. Let us now judge betwixt God and our own 
souls. Every sin is a proclaimed enemy to God by his word, yea, and to be 
our enemy also, as Peter says, which fights against our souls, 1 Peter ii. 11, 
* Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from 
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' Is there now any such sin which 
we know to be a sin (for that condition must be added, as I said before, a 
true subject may harbour a traitor unwittingly), be it covetousness, pride, or 
any inordinate pleasure ; and do we house it, make it our sweetest com- 
panion in our daily thoughts, and that which lies next our hearts, in whose 
converse and enjoying of which we spend many an hour with sweetest con- 
tentment ? He that doth this is an open and convicted enemy. Nay, I go 
farther, is he but a suspected person ? Are they suspected by thee to be 
sins ? and yet dost thou, without examining of them, thoroughly entertain 
them friendly, and receive them into thy heart and life ? It is no good sign. 
Nay more, do we stand with them all in terms of enmity, at daggers' drawing 
as we use to say ? And if you come within me, I will kill you ; and if they 
do get in (as sin dwells in the best), yet do we complain of them, bring them 
forth before God as we would a traitor or enemy, arraign them, accuse them, 
and say, Lord, here is an enemy both of mine and thine, a cursed Achaii 
that troubleth all in me, that would shroud itself under my roof, and thinks 
there to have entertainment ? But stone it. Lord, and let Israel stone it, 
let eveiy sermon fling a stone at it, let every prayer knock it down. Do we 
deal thus with our known sins daily, or as oft as we are assaulted ? Or, on 
the contrary, do we hide them, as the woman did the spies in the bottom of 
the well, covering them with strawy pretences ? If we let these enemies of 
God's go thus, we are argued to be none of his friends. 

The last note of enmity to God, is enmity to the children and ways of 
God. And what surer note or sign can there be of direct enmity and fight- 
ing against God, as it is termed, Acts v. 39, than an enmity thus born in 
heart, or manifested in word or actions against anything that seems to be of 
God's side, or to take his part, or that stand in any relation of friendship or 
Hkeness with God, be they either his ways, his children, or his ministers ? 
These men bear the devil's colours, stand in the forefront, and therefore are 
more easily discovered, this being one of the farthest degrees and most 
apparent sign of enmity that can be ; for many, though fallen out with 
another, yet still love well enough his servants, his wife, his children, his 
friends. But as love is argued to be the stronger, the more it is difi"used 
{propter quern alia dilvjlmus, ipse magis amaticr : he for whose sake we love 
other things besides him, is more beloved of us), so is it in hatred. It is 
argued that he is greatly and deeply hated, against whose person we do not 
bear only direct hatred, but collateral also, it falling upon and extending it- 
self to all that are any way near him for his sake. As they say of the 
panther, that therefore it is the deadliest enemy to mankind of any other 
creature, because it will prey even upon the very image and likeness of a 



122 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

man, which other beasts will not do, though there are many will seize on 
man himself. 

Men have indeed the name of holiness in their mouths with a seeming 
reverence ; but yet still the reality of it, the power of it, the thing itself, can- 
not be endured by them. So long as it is wrapped up in a bundle, viewed in 
the general, men profess they love it ; but break it up, come to the par- 
ticular duties of it, and then they cannot away with it ; or, in the abstract 
they love it, but in the concrete, as it resides in any particular subject or 
person, they hate it. Set the picture of a lamb to a company of wolves, and 
they will never stir at it ; but let a living lamb come, they tear it presently. 
So let a living saint come among these haters of godliness, a holy man 'in 
the concrete, their hearts rise presently, then they rage, storm, and speak 
all manner of evil of him, as it is in Mat. v. 10, 11. And is it not for the 
same reason they do so, which Christ gives there, viz. ' for righteousness' 
sake ' ? 

I know there are few or none so wicked to persecute any, as knowing 
them to be Christ's, and under that notion (that is peculiar to those that 
sin against the Holy Ghost), yet it is that which is from Christ which men 
do persecute ; for it is he who lives, prays, speaks in holy men, that ap- 
pears in all that is good in them ; and therefore Christ will say to them, as 
to those at the latter day, that were ignorant of it, ' Inasmuch as you did 
it to one of these, you did it to me.' Men see not Christ now ; but did 
they know him, they would not oppose such as are any way like him. • But 
when he shall appear, and men shall know what strain he was of, men will 
confess that they hated and persecuted him, in persecuting his saints. 

There are yet a third sort of men that lie in the enmity of their natures, 
and in an unreconciled estate, living in the visible church, who are not only 
much restrained, and bite their enmity in, but who, by means of an inferior 
work of the word and Spirit of God upon their hearts, are brought to seek 
unto God for friendship, yea, and do much for him in outward actions, 
side and take part with his friends ; and yet their hearts being unchanged, 
the cursed enmity of their nature remaining unkilled and not taken away, 
they lie still in the gall of bitterness. For instance, look to those in Ps. 
Ixxviii. 31-37, ' When he slew them, then they sought him ; and they re- 
turned, and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was 
their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did flat- 
ter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues. For their 
heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.' 
It is said that they sought the Lord early as their Redeemer, whilst he 
was a-slaying of them ; yet they did but flatter him with their mouths, &c. 
A flatterer, you know, difi'ers from a friend, in that he pretendeth much 
kindness, yet wants inward good will, doing it for his own ends. And so do 
many seek God, that yet he accounts as enemies ; for they seek him whilst 
they see themselves in his lurch. 

Now it is harder to discover these than the former, because they pretend 
much friendship, and externally (it may be) do as many outward kindnesses 
as the true friends ; as flatterers will abound in outward kindnesses as much 
as true friends, nay, often exceed them, because they may not be discovered. 
Now if none of the former signs reach to them, nor touch them, then there 
is no better way left than to search into the grounds of all they do, and to 
examine whether it proceeds from true, inward, pure, and constant good- 
will, yea or no, or self-respects? As now when we see an ape do many 
things that a man doth, how do we therefore distinguish those actions in 
the one and in the other ? Why, by the inward principles from whence they 



Chap. IX. j in respect of sin and punishment. 123 

spring, by saying, that they proceed from reason in the one, but not so in 
the other. If, therefore, it can be evinced, that all that any man seems to 
do for God, comes not from good-will to him, it is enough to convince 
them to be persons unreconciled ; for whenas all outward kindnesses and 
expressions of friendship proceed not from friendlike dispositions and pure 
good will, but altogether from self-respects, it is but feigned flattery, even 
among men ; and when discovered once, it breeds double hatred. And 
there is much more reason it should do so with God, because he being a 
God that knows the heart, to flatter him it is the greater mockery ; for that 
is it which chiefly provoketh men to hate such as dissemble friendship, be- 
cause there is mockery joined with it. Now that God accounteth every one 
that doth not turn to him out of pure good will a flatterer, is plain by these 
words, in Ps. Ixxviii. 36, 37, ' Notwithstanding, they did but flatter him, 
and dealt falsely in his covenant ;' yea, and Christ saith, Mat. xii. 30, that 
' he that is not with him is against him.' If men's hearts be not inwardly 
for God, and with him, as a friend would be to a friend, in their actions, 
he esteems them against him. ' Thy heart,' says Peter to Simon Magus, 
' is not right before the Lord,' Acts viii. 22, and therefore he tells him, he 
was ' still in the gall of bitterness.' 

But thinkest thou, man, that art guilty of these things, that thou shalt 
escape ? to use the apostle's own words, Pi.om. ii. 3, ' And thinkest thou this, 
man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou 
shalt escape the judgment of God ?' No ; God, that is a righteous God, and 
judgeth every man according to his deeds, shall render to the contentious, roig 
i^ s^idsiag, that is, those that have contentiously dealt with him, and carried 
themselves as enemies in opposing him and his, according to their deeds 
(they shall have enough of it) ; he ' will render indignation and wrath, tribu- 
lation and anguish,' to every such soul. Are men strange to God, and care 
not for him, will not be acquainted with him now ? The day will come he 
will carry himself as strange to them ; and when a good look from him 
would be worth a world, he shall angrily say, ' Depart from me, ye workers 
of iniquity, I know you not,' Mat. vii. 23. Will men stand out, and will 
not submit to his most holy, just, and righteous laws, but will live hke rebels 
and lawless persons, and not be subject to him ? Upon their own perils be 
it. Let them hear their dooms pronounced by Christ's own mouth : Luke 
xix. 27, ' These mine enemies, that would not I should reign over them, 
bring them hither, and slay them before my face.' He will see execution 
done himself. 

Are men friends of pleasure also more than of God, as the apostle speaks 
of the world, or any thing in the world, as James speaks, adulterers and 
adulteresses ? Then, as it is said, Prov. vi. 34, ' Jealousy is the rage of a 
man ;' and it is the rage of God more than anger, it notes out unpacified- 
ness ; ' Will he spare in the day of his vengeance '?' Is it not said, Ps. 
Ixxiii. 27, ' Thou hast destroyed, Lord, all those that go a-whoring from 
thee.' He speaks of it as of a thing already done, because God would 
assuredly do it, and therefore it was as good as done. 

Are men nourishers and maintainors of any sin, that they know is a pro- 
claimed enemy of God in his word ; sparing, cherishing that that God hates, 
and which he hath in his word appointed to destruction ? Let them but 
hear what the prophet says to Ahab in the like case, for the letting go of 
Benhadad, and apply it to this purpose : 1 Kings xx. 42, ' And he said unto 
him. Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man 
whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, 



124 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK II. 

and thy people for his people.' Because thou hast let one go, that the 
Lord had appointed to destruction, therefore thy life shall go for its life. 

To conclude : Are men enemies to the children of God ? You touch the 
apple of his eye. You had better have a millstone hanged about your 
necks, and thrown into the midst of the sea, than to have offended one of 
these little ones. Every scoff, wry look, rising in thy heart, when God 
shall charge it on thy conscience, will sink thee down, down into the bot- 
tom of hell. In Zech. xii. 2, 7, he compares the church unto a burden- 
some stone ; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, 
though all the earth should be gathered together against it ; and unto an 
hearth of fire ; and wicked men that oppose them, unto wood, and a sheaf, 
thinking to quench that fire ; but that fire shall devour all the people round 
about. 

Or, do men oppose the word of God ? Let them know that it is an ar- 
moury and storehouse of weapons, that God hath in readiness to revenge 
all disobedience : 2 Cor. x. 4-6, ' For the weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; cast- 
ing down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obe- 
dience of Christ ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, 
when your obedience is fulfilled.' It hath enough of its own to revenge 
its own quarrel. 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 12{ 



BOOK III. 

The corruption of marl's whole nature, and of all the faculties of his soul In/ 
sin ; and first of the depravation of the understanding, which is full of dark- 
ness and blinded, so that it cannot apprehend spiritual things in a due 
spiritual manner. 

And the very God ofj)eace sanctify you wholly : and I pray God your whole 
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. — 1 Thes. V. 23. 



CHAPTER I. 

The ivords of the text explained. — That all the faculties of the soul, even the 
mind, are ivholly corrupted, proved from the expressions concerning it in 
Scripture, and from the equal extent both of sin and grace. 

These words have no coherence or dependence with the foregoing, for the 
conclusion of the epistle doth begin with them. They are a prayer for the 
working and perfecting that sanctification in them unto which he had ex- 
horted, and which God had begun to work. Concerning which yoa have 
these things. 

1. The author of this sanctification, God, to whom Paul prays to work 
and perfect it. And in prayer believers use to suit their invocation to God, 
according to the nature of the blessing they seek for. James i. 5, * If any 
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,' ver. 17, ' the Father of lights.' So 
if we pray for mercy and comfort, then we are to call upon God, as the Father 
of mercies and God of all consolation, as Paul doth, 2 Cor. i. 3, ' Blessed be 
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and 
the God of all comfort.' Yet still we are to use such expressions, both as 
motives to move God out of his fulness to bestow what we ask, and as a 
strengthening to our own faith. And accordingly here in the text, when 
Paul asks sanctification at God's hands, he looks up to him as ' the God of 
peace.' Sin is nothing else but a disorder and confusion of all the powers of 
our souls, whereby they are turned rebels, and will not be subject to God : 
Rom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' And these powers of our 
souls are also turned enemies one to another. Hence there is in our souls a 
confusion, an axaraffT-atr/a, James iii. 16, so that lusts war in our members. 
James iv. 1, ' From whence come wars and fightings among yo.u ? Come 
they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members ? ' Whereas 
now sanctification puts all into their right order again, and so causeth peace ; 
and that kingdom where it comes, and is set up, is peace and righteousness : 
Rom. xiv. 17, ' For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but right- 
eousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' As the end of other king- 
doms is by laws to put subjects in order, and to bring them to and to keep 



126 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

them in peace, so it is the end of grace and righteousness also ; therefore he 
desires God to shew himself such a God, a God of peace, in sanctifying them 
throughout more and more, by putting all the powers of the soul into their 
right fi-ame and order. For so, 

2. You have expressed the subject of this sanctification in its full extent, 
not themselves only, but everything in them ; expressed first in general, 
not simply to sanctify you, but throughout, o/.otO.uc., which is more than 
6>.o;, for it seems to signify not only totus homo, the whole man, but totum 
hominis, the whole of man, all in man ; also it signifies sanctifying them to 
the end o'/.og Ti/.og. Then, secondly, he expresseth the subject of this sancti- 
fication, particularly by an enumeration of the particular and chief parts of 
which man's nature consists, ' spirit, soul, and body ;' for as the whole man 
is usually divided into soul and body, which division, to be true, death proves, 
so he divides that -which we call the soul into soul and spirit, which division, 
to be right, the word of God makes good : Heb. iv. 12, ' For the word of 
God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' Piercing to the 
dividing of soul and spirit. By soul he means those inferior faculties and 
powers of the mind, the internal senses and afi'ections, fancy, anger, desire, 
&c., which, being the more gross part, common to beasts ; and the other, 
beino more sublime, viz. the judgment, conscience, &c., these he terms 
spirit. Even as those more sublime, active, nimble parts of the body which 
run in our bloods and cause all the motion in us, we call spirits, in compari- 
son of the rest of the body, though they are parts of it ; so this more sublime 
part of the soul, wherein we partake with angels, is called, in comparison of 
the other, the spirit of the mind : Eph. iv. 23, * And be renewed in the 
spirit of your mind.' Where it is put for a part of the mind, and not for 
anything superadded, as, I confess, sometimes spirit is taken for those sparks 
of moral light and \nrtues in the conscience and will. But here spirit signi- 
fies that natural power of the mind which is the strength and quintessence of 
it. Neither, thirdly, doth he content himself with reckoning thus up all the 
parts in a threefold division, but because every one of these contain many 
particulars in them, as the spirit hath in it the understanding, memory, 
judgment, conscience, &c., the body many members ; therefore to shew that 
all m every one of these are to be sanctified, he adds another word, ' that 
TOur whole spirit,' 6/.oxX7;5ov, tola sors, every portion of it, as it signifies, 
which words are as full as can be imagined to express that the whole man, 
bodv, soul, and all, and everything in man, is to be sanctified and restored ; 
the'want of which integrity that ought to be in them all, he says, is a sin, 
and blameworthy, therefore he adds ' that they may be kept blameless.' So 
that there are two doctrines which naturally and principally arise out of 
these words. 

Obs. 1. That every part and faculty of soul and' body in a man un- 
sanctified are wholly and throughout corrupted and defiled, for else they 
needed not sanctification. 

Ohs. 2. That true sanctification is also universal. 

And these two doctrines may be proved by the same reasons. But I shall 
(as my method leads me) speak only to the first. 

Now, as I have shewed before, that this corruption is universal in regard 
of all sin, or that all sin is in every man's nature, so now I am to prove that 
this con-uption is in all parts of our nature ; for this is a difiering conside- 
ration from the other, as it is one thing to have all diseases, and another 
thincT to have all parts diseased, which may be so by but one disease. 



Chap. I.J in eespect of sin and punisument. 127 

1. We have a clear proof for this from the testimony even of the pharisees 
themselves, who though they were much corrupted in judgment, in regard of 
discerning into' man's corruption, thinking and teaching lust to be no sin, 
rot it may seem there was in them a relic and glimpse of the total coiTup- 
tion of every man's nature, by a speech which they cast out concerning the 
man born blind : John ix. 34, ' They answered and said unto him. Thou 
wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us ?' Thou wert alto- 
gether, oXoc, bom in sin. This indeed they seem only to apply unto such, 
whom in their birth God had branded with some defect, as he had this man with 
blindness, yet we may justly take it from those extenuators of corruption, as 
a remainder of that truth which from their forefathers had been derived to 
them, but which they had corrupted, and limited only to such, as unto whom 
some mishap had befallen in their birth. Now I cite this to prove, not that 
men are born in sin, but that the whole man, oXog, is so. 

2. We have plain scriptures which evidence it. 

1st, It is called ' the old man.' Why ? Because it overspreads every 
part in man ; it is not called the old understanding only, or old will, but the 
old man, because all the powers and parts that go to make a man are tainted 
with it, and therefore all things do become new, when a man is regenerated : 
2 Cor. V. 17, * Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature : old 
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;' that is, all 
in a man's nature. All things were old, corrupted, and naught, and there- 
fore all becomes new. And to this purpose it is observable (which is 
observed by some) that the Scripture, speaking of the subject of this corrup- 
tion, speaks not as of the person of men only, but of the faculties in man, 
as implying not totus homo, the whole man only, but totum. Jwmims, all that 
is in man : Gal. iii. 22, ' But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, 
.that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that be- 
lieve.' The Scripture (says he) hath shut up all, rd -Trdvra, all things under 
sin ; so that the word implies not only all men, "Travrsg, but all things in man. 
So likewise Christ expresses it, John iii. 6, ' That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' He doth not only 
say, that he that is bom of the flesh is flesh, but that which is bom of the 
flesh is flesh, to ysysvrifievov, there being not that thing in man, who is bom 
of flesh by fleshly generation, but is corrupted. And therefore, 

2dly, We find all parts in man termed flesh. So the mind of the most acute 
knowers (for of such he there speaks) is termed, Col. ii. 18, ' Intruding into 
those things which he hath not seen, vainly pufied up by his fleshly mind.' 
It is a mind of flesh. And answerably that wisdom, whereby in our walk- 
ing we are guided, is termed wisdom of the flesh : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our 
rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and 
godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have 
had our conversation in the world.' Nay, the conscience, which seems least 
to be corrupted, is yet said to be defiled : Titus i. 15, ' But unto them that 
are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure ; but even their mind and con- 
science is defiled.' And now these are the noble parts of the spirit ; 
and as these, so the will is of the flesh also: Eph. ii. 3, * Among whom also 
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling 
the desires of the flesh and of the mind.' It is m ^sXri/MaTa 7r,g cdoxo;, xai 
ruv hiawiujv, the wills of the flesh and of the mind. And in another scrip- 
ture the will of the Gentiles is flatly opposed to the will of God : 1 Peter iv. 
2, 3, ' That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the 
lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our lives may 
suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasci- 



128 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

viousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banqueting, and abominable 
idolatries.' Where the apostle persuades them to live no longer 'to the 
lusts of men,' which, ver. 3, is interpreted ' working the will of the Gentiles,' 
but to the will of God. And our afifections also are called the lusts and 
passions of the flesh : Gal. v. 24, ' And they that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh, with the afi'ections and lusts.' And 1 Peter ii. 11, ' Dearly beloved, 
I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which 
war against the soul.' And these make up that which in my text is called 
soul. And last of all, the flesh or body is said to be corrupted and filthy, 
as well as the spirit or soul ; so 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these pro- 
mises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh 
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' And sin is said to reign 
in the body : Eom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, 
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof ; ' which is taken as distinct from 
the soul, for it is added mortal, which the soul is not. And if we look on 
all the members of the body, they shew their corruption, they being fit 
weapons for unrighteousness, even all the members of the body. The eyes 
are full of adultery : 2 Peter ii. 14, ' Having eyes full of adultery, and 
that cannot cease from sin : beguiling unstable souls : an heart they have 
exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children.' The tongue is a 
world of evil : James iii. 6, ' And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ; 
so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defileth the whole body, 
and setteth on fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire of hell.' 
The feet are swift to shed blood, and the throat an open sepulchre : 
Eom. iii. 13-15, ' Their throat is an open sepulchre : with their tongues 
they have used deceit : the poison of asps is under their lips ; whose mouth 
is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood.' To 
conclude, they are said to be full of all unrighteousness, full of all readiness 
to evil : Acts xiii. 10, ' full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of 
the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the 
right ways of the Lord ? ' He doth not speak of the fulness of actual sin, 
as a tree is said to be full of fruit, as the phrase is used, Eom. i. 29, ' Being 
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, mali- 
ciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers.' 
But here in Acts xiii. 10, the fulness is understood, tanqnam plenitudo vmis, 
as a vessel is full of liquor. Elymas his soul and body was full of readi- 
ness to evil, which denotes inward dispositions thereunto. Neither doth he 
(as there he speaks of it) call it a fulness in regard of all the parts of un- 
righteousness only, for that is after added besides, ' full of all unrighteous- 
ness ;' not only all readiness to evil, but full of all. And therefore in this 
regard onr depraved nature is compared to a corrupt tree, whereof we know 
both root, and branch, and bark, and all to be poisoned if the tree is so : 
Mat. vii. 17, 18, ' Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but 
a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth 
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' And so is 
every sprig and faculty in man that brings forth any act or motion, as fruit, 
be it the understanding, will, &c. ; all is corrupt, bark and body, and all. 
And this sin in our nature is called a^a^r/a hvi^lsrarog, that which begirts 
all our faculties : Heb. xii. 1, * "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed 
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and 
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race 
that is set before us.' Now for the reasons and demonstrations of this truth, 
that every part in man is corrupted and infected by sin, and so ought to be 
sanctified. 



CuAP. I.] IN RESPKCT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 129 

First, In general. The dominion and extent of power, both of grace and 
sin, are commensurate; and their dominions are of equal compass; and whore 
they come they give laws to every member and subject that which is within 
their dominions, for both are said to reign, and both are of a spreading 
nature over all. Grace is compared to leaven, because it leavens the whole 
lump : Mat. xiii. 33, ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a 
woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.' 
And sin and corruption of nature is compared to leaven also : Gal. v. 7-9, 
' Ye did rnn well ; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth ? 
This persuasion cometh not of him that called you. A little leaven leaveneth 
the whole lump.' 1 Cor. v. G, 8, ' Your glorying is not good. Know ye not 
that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ? Therefore let us keep the 
feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness ; 
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' Grace, where it 
comes, comes in as life, and as the soul doth into the body, and informs all 
in that body it comes into, and accordingly we see all parts to live in a living 
man; and, on the contrai-y, this corruption of our nature is as death, which 
is as general also as life, for it is the privation of it. And habitus et pri- 
vatio vcrsantur circa idem, the habit and privation belong to the same sub- 
ject. But, 

Secondhi, More particularly to demonstrate this. If habitual grace and 
sanctification was seated in every part of the first Adam, and of the human 
nature of Christ, and begins to be in every faculty of a regenerate man, then 
is every faculty by nature corrupted. The consequence is strong, not only 
for the reason before given in general, that grace and sin are of a hke extent, 
but more particularly it may be demonstrated from them severally. 

1. If grace begun reacheth to every part of a regenerate man, then did sin 
before corrupt all ; for that sanctification is but the restoring of every part 
to its health and integrity again. Now, if any part were whole, it would not 
need the physician nor cure. 

2. That sin is thus seated in every part, may be proved by experiment, 
drawn from the state of a regenerate man. We feel that there is a combat 
against the work of grace in every part ; darkness and unbelief in the under- 
standing fights against light and faith : ' Lord, I beHeve, help my unbelief,' 
says that poor man in the Gospel, Mark ix. 24. Grace in the will fights 
against sin in the will ; the flesh in the will lusteth against the spirit in the 
will : Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye 
cannot do the things that ye would.' I say, in the will ; for the apostle 
infers from what he had said, that thence it was that they could not do the 
things which they would. It is not a fight of one faculty against another, 
but of the same faculties against themselves, and this through the whole man. 

3. The consequence is also strong, that if the grace which was in Adam, 
when innocent, did reach to every part of his nature, then that sin, after he 
had fallen, hath the same extent; for the corruption of our natures is but 
the privation of that grace which was in him, and therefore is in every part 
wherein that grace was. Privatio eat in eodem sahjecto in quo habitus : pri- 
vation is in the same subject wherein the habit was before. 

4. The consequence is strong too, that if in the nature of Christ grace was 
in every part of it, then sin is so in our natures ; for the end of Christ's 
assuming and sanctifying our natures was to condemn sin in the flesh : Rom. 
viii. 3, ' For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned 

VOL. X. I 



130 AN UN'EEGEXERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

sin in the flesh ;' that is, by sanctifying onr nature in his person, and by 
the righteousness of that his nature he takes away the sin of ours, and there 
was no part of that his nature which he sanctified to any other end : John 
xvii. 19, * And for their salies I sanctify myself, that they also might be 
sanctified through the truth.' And in this Romans viii. says the apostle at 
verse 2, ' The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free 
from the law of sin and death.' He had complained in chapter vii. of a law 
of sin in his members, which would be there to his dying day ; now, says he, 
my comfort is that a contrary law of grace and life was in Christ to take away 
the guilt of it. So that every part in Christ being sanctified with a law of 
life, was to take away the law of sin in eveiy part of us. Now, it remains 
to be proved that every part of human nature in Adam and in Christ was 
sanctified, and also that every part of it in a regenerate man begins to be 
made holy. This I demonstrate two ways. 

First, You shall see how the one follows from the other, so as if it be true 
of any it is true of all. 

Secondly, I will give the general reasons for it. 

1. I say, the one follows necessarily upon the other : for, 

1st, If every part in a regenerate man be sanctified, then every part of 
human nature was sanctified in Adam, and e contra; for it is the same image 
that is restored and created anew which was created at fii'st, only with this 
difi'erence (as one observes), Adam was oXug, sanctified, but not oXonXug ; 
but we, though not oXuic, that is, wholly and perfectly, j-et &/.o-£Xi?, that is, 
to the end. Now, that every part in a regenerate man is sanctified, appears 
by that common experiment, which yet is peculiar to regenerate men, that 
there is a combat in every part between flesh and spirit, seated in all the 
faculties, as I proved before. 

2dly, If every part of human nature was sanctified in Christ, then it is so 
in us, and e contra ; for he took flesh to sanctify ns: John xvii. 19, ' For 
their sakes I sanctify myself;' and Heb. ii. 11, 14, 17, ' For both he that 
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one : for which cause he is 
not ashamed to call them brethren. Forasmuch then as the children are 
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; 
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto 
his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.' It is 
said of Christ and us there, that he who sanctifieth and we that are sancti- 
fied are of one, that is, of one nature in every part ; for, ver. 17, we are said 
to be like in all things. He took our nature, and every part of it, to sanctiy 
it, that we might be made partakers of his sanctification, and so might be 
of one, agree and be alike to him ; and that there might want no part in his 
sanctification, he wanted no part of our nature. And even in this sense we 
may understand that scripture in Eph. i. 23, of Christ's fiUing all in all ; 
he fills all in all his children from his own fulness. Now he is full of grace 
and truth : John i. 10, ' He was in the world, and the world was made by 
him, and the world knew him not.' And he took our natures to sanctify 
them, and therefore all he took was sanctified ; therefore he is called that 
holy thing : Luke i. 85, ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing, 
which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.' 

2. Now, I shall assign the reasons which may evince that grace was and 
is seated in Christ and Adam, in and through every part of them, and so 
ought to be in us. 



CUAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 131 

1st, Because God hath made all in man to glorify himself, not as other 
creatures only, hut by shewing forth those virtues and graces which he 
stamped on man above all other works of his hands : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Glorify 
God in yonr body, and spirit too ;' Ps. ciii. 1, ' Bless the Lord, my soul; 
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.' God therefore gave abili- 
ties at first to man thus to glorify God in his whole soul ; for as we cannot 
love him till he love us, so neither can we glorify him unless he implant in 
every faculty holiness and grace lirst, whereby we have abilities to do so. 

2dly, The whole nature of man, and every part of it, in its pure and right 
constitution, was made subject to the law of God, and therefore was entirely 
holy. And therefore thus was the entire nature of Adam and of Christ con- 
stituted, for indeed if anything had been in Adam and Christ not subjected 
to the law, it had been enmity to God ; for that is the reason which the 
apostle gives of the carnal mind's being enmity against God : Rom. viii. 7, 
' Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be.' But now there being nothing of 
this enmity neither in Adam, while innocent, nor in Christ, no part in them 
was lawless. And this is evident too from the word of God's judging every^ 
creature in man : Heb. iv. 12, 13, * For the word of God is quick and 
powerful, and sharper than any two-eged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discemer 
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that 
is not manifest in his sight : but all things are naked and opened unto the 
eyes of him with whom we have to do.' And everything in man which is 
thus tried and judged by the word, ought to be agreeable and subject to it 
in its first original frame. And it is yet more clearly proved if we consider 
that when Christ declares the sum of the law, he reckons up all in man : 
Mark xii. 29, 30, ' And Jesus answered him. The first of all the command- 
ments is. Hear, Israel ; The Lord our God is one Lord : and thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.' Lest 
anything should be left out, Christ adds, icith all thy strength. If this, then, 
be the law, as Christ says it is, then this law was originally written in the 
whole soul, and every part of it, in Adam, and so in Christ too, of whom it 
is said, that the law was in his heart, Ps. xl. 8. And w4iat is indeed the 
sanctification of the understanding and will but the writing of the law there, 
which God promises to do under the new covenant? Jer. xxxi. 33, ' But this 
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel : After those 
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in 
their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' Now, to 
write the law in the heart, is to put such dispositions in whereby a man may 
live according to it. And thus the law was written on all in man in his pri- 
mitive condition ; and now, alas ! since his fall, the contrary law of sin is 
written upon all in his heart. 

3dly, God hath made and ordained spiritual objects and acts for every 
faculty of soul and body, and therefore he gave to Adam at first answerable 
spiritual dispositions in all his faculties, for between every faculty and its 
object there must be a suitableness ; and as the natural man receives not 
the things of the Spirit, for, says the apostle, they are spiritually discerned, 
1 Cor ii. 14, so neither can any faculty, if not sanctified, be in a spiritual 
manner carried to or be conversant about spiritual things. Therefore if God 
did provide spiritual objects /or all in man, then surely he put spiritual dis- 
positions into all those powers of his soul. Now, that God did provide 
spiritual objects for every faculty, is easy to be demonstrated by all the par- 



132 AN UNREGKNERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [EoOK III. 

ticulars. For the understanding, there are things of the Spirit; for the will, 
spiritual good things; for conscience, spiritual motives, &c. 

4thly, God made all in man capable of glory, therefore he made everything 
in man holy; for since God would glorify all that is in man, so that even so 
much as our bodies shall be ' made like his glorious body,' Philip, iii. 21, 
all in man must therefore be sanctified ; for indeed no vessel is capable of 
glory till it be prepared, Rom. ix, 23, and made meet, Col. i. 13. And 
therefore since the understanding, will, memory, and all shall be glorified, 
all these powers of the soul must be first sanctified. And therefore now 
grace and holiness being introduced into every faculty of the soul, shews 
that all in man is infected with sin, since the disease and the remedy are of 
equal extent. 



CHAPTER II. 

Arrfuments to prove that not only the inferior powers of the soul, but the supreme, 
the understandinci and mind, are corrupted. — TJuit tlie mind itself is called 
flesh as well as the other. — Arguments from reason further to evince it. 

It is not only the inferior powers of the soul which this plague of sin hath 
seized, but the contagion hath ascended into the higher region of the soul. 
It is this supreme, sublime, and noble part (which is not to be found in 
beasts), the understanding, judgment, and conscience, which the apostle in 
this 1 Thes. v. 23 means by spirit, as needing renovation and sanctification, 
as much as the lower faculties in man. And in this sense spiiit is also taken : 
1 Cor. ii. 11, ' Fur what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit 
of man which is in him ?' Where sinrit of man signifies the knowing and 
discerning part in man ; and in the same meaning it is to be understood 
when it is distinguished from soul, as here in this 1 Thes. v. 23, and in 
other places. 

Since I design to shew how all the several faculties of our souls are by sin 
depraved, that which I am to begin with is the highest and noblest of them 
all — the spirit of man. And this, then, is the first proposition I will prove. 

Prop. That the most supreme, most spiritual facult}- in man's mind, the 
understanding power of man, is corrupted, and needs renewing. 

This is a doctrine had need be proved, because to a carnal understanding, 
not enlightened by the word, this hath always been, and is, the greatest 
paradox. So it was to the heathen philosophers, and to many of the school- 
men also, though called Christians ; who, though indeed they did acknow- 
ledge dregs to lie at the bottom of the aftections in the lower part of the soul, 
which sometimes, when stirred and joggled by outward temptations, do mud 
and corrupt the mind ; yet that sublime and noble faculty, according to their 
opinion of it, was in itself most pure, and the clearest of all the rest. And 
therefore they say, Reason did still direct, advise, and persuade us to the 
best things, and was in itself a pure \-irgin. And thus the pharisee also 
judged: Rom. ii. 17-19, 'Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the 
law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the 
things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law ; and art 
confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them 
which are in darkness.' They boasted they knew God's will, and were confi- 
dent because they were guides to the blind, a light of them in darkness ; 
therefore, of all things else, they thought least that their understandings were 
Corrupt and blinded : John ix. 40, ' And some of the pharisees which were 



Chap. II ] in respect of sin and punishment. 133 

with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also ?' When 
they heard Christ speaking of blindness even in them that see, said these 
men, ' Are we blind also ?' Of all the imputations else they wondered at 
this the most ; and indeed when blind reason, which thinks it sees, is judge, 
it is not strange that this corruption of the understanding should be a won- 
der to it. For reason being the supreme faculty of all the rest, which 
judgeth all else, and is judged of none but itself, by reason of its nearness 
to itself it least discerns itself. As a man's eye, which though it may see 
the deformity of another member, yet not the bloodshot that is in itself, but it 
must have a glass by which to discern it. And so, though even corrupt 
nature discerns the rebellions of the affections and sensual part of man by its 
own light, as the heathens did, and complained thereof, yet it cannot discern 
the infection and defilement that is in the spirit itself, but the glass of the 
word is the first that discovereth it ; and when that glass is also brought, 
there had need be an inward light of gi'ace, which is opposite to this cor- 
ruption, to discover it. And therefore the Holy Ghost doth most of all 
inculcate this depravation of the mind, and express it with the greatest em- 
phasis. When he would shew how impure unbelievers are, who yet profess 
that they know God, says he, 'Even their mind and conscience is defiled,' 
Titus i. 16. They least of all suspected these parts (which are not flesh) 
to be tainted, because they know God and have some light in them. There- 
fore now, in opposition to this their conceit, he mentions only the mind 
and conscience as being impure, and that with an emphasis, vmA \hZ'., %ai 
(!vi/:!d/]aig, ' even their mind and conscience is defiled.' And there is almost 
no place where he speaks setly of the corruption of nature, but vcv; or 
didvoia comes in, and is sometimes alone mentioned and put for all the rest: 
so Eph. ii. 3, 'Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.' _ Eph. 
iv. 17, 18, 'lliat ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the 
vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated 
from "the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the 
blindness of their heart.' Col. i. 21, ' And you, that were sometime alien- 
ated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he hath reconciled.' 
Enemies, h tyj havola, in the mind ; and so, when he speaks of renewing, 
he exhorts them to be renewed in the spirit of their mind,' Eph. iv. 23. 
He instances in that for all the rest. 

Now for the proof of the spirit of the mind being depraved in man, besides 
those places that speak of the particular corruptions of it, which I reserve 
till I come to treat of them, I will name but one or two places more which 
speak of the corruption of the mind in general. 

1. We find that flesh is attributed to this as well as to any other faculty. 
The understanding, the natural understanding of man, is called flesh and 
blood : Mat. xvi. 17, ' Flesh and blood hath not revealed this,' says Christ. 
You may know what faculty he speaks of by the act which he ascribes, or 
rather denies to it, revealinq, which is proper unto the light of the mind. 
And now this light and acumen he calls flesh, that is, corruption, as well a? 
any other. And heresy also, which is seated in the understandmg, is yet 
said to be a fruit of the flesh. Gal. v. 20. This evil fruit grows upon that 
branch or faculty, which is indeed the top branch of all the rest, and yet it 
is not so high but flesh or corruption, as ill sap, ascends and comes to it ; 
and therefore all the wisdom of it is called fleshly, 2 Cor. i. 12 ; and itself 
is termed mind of the flesh: Col. ii. 18, 'Vainly puffed up by his fleshly 
mind.' • • i 

Nor is it privatively corrupted only with ignorance, but positively also 
with corrupt diseases, habitual evil dispositions: 1 Tim. vi. 4, 5, ' He is 



134 AN UXREGENERATE MAX's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

proud, knowing nothing, but doating about questions and strifes of words, 
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of 
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth,' &c. He doth not only say 
their minds are destitute of the truth, so as they assent not to wholesome 
doctrine, but he says their minds are corrupt, sick, and diseased, vo/ruiv, sick 
about vain questions, longing for them as a diseased stomach doth for any 
trash. And this distemper of the mind the apostle in another place calls 
an itch after fables : 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4, ' But after their own lusts shall they 
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall turn away 
then- ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.' And 2 Tim. ii. 
25, 26, ' la meekness instructing those that oppose themselves ; if God per- 
adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth ; and 
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the de^dl, who are taken 
captive by him at his will.' The apostle there speaking of the repentance 
of those who opposed the gospel, he calls that their repentance, dvarri-^uaig, 
a recover}^ out of not an ordinary sickness, but perfect frenzy, unto health 
and sobriety, which shews that the mind was diseased and frantic before, 
and that this was the cause of its opposing the truth. 

2. As I have proved this infection of the mind by sin from Scripture, so 
now I will demonstrate it by reasons. 

1st, If the spirit, and judgment, and higher faculties of the soul, were not 
corrupted, but only the inferior ; if not the spirit, as well as the soul of man, 
was depraved, then the image of the devil in the proper lineaments of it 
would not appear in wicked men ; then his chief and main sins would not 
be found in them, which yet they are. If we consider this great evil one, 
Satan, he is a spirit, and hath no sensual or bodily lusts, either of unclean- 
ness, drunkenness or gluttony in him, but his wickedness is 'spiritual 
wickedness,' for which reason the hellish powers of darkness have that pecu- 
liar name given them : Ephes. vi. 12, ' For we wrestle not against flesh and 
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.' And 
why is the wickedness of the devil called spiritual, but because it is rooted 
in a spirit, and all his sins are seated in his understanding and will ? What 
is the devil's great sin but pride, the womb whereof is chiefly the under- 
standing ? And this sin of pride was the devil's condemnation and ruin : 
1 Tim. iii. 6, * Lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation 
of the devil.' It was this pride which fumed up into the devil's head and 
made him reel out of heaven. Of such sins as these men are also guilty, 
and prone to them as well as the devils. Our proud contentious wisdom is 
called devilish : James iii. 15, ' This wisdom descendeth not from above, but 
is earthly, sensual, devilish.' And all that envy, malice, lying, and dissem- 
bling, which though in the will, yet are rooted in the understanding, are in 
this scripture mentioned by the apostle as bearing the same devilish resem- 
blance. And these, and such like lusts which are in wicked men, Christ 
calls the lusts of their father the devil : John viii. 44, • Ye are of your father 
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. When he speaketh a he, 
he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it.' When the 
devil tells a lie, he speaks it of his own, as being an act of the mind against 
'!tself. And so blasphemy, and all blasphemous thoughts and expressions 
concerning God, are said, as well as all other vain thoughts, to proceed out 
of our hearts: Mat. xv. 19, 'For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, 
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.' These 
blasphemies, as they are acts of the mind, are more agreeable to the devil's 
sins than murders, fornications, &c. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 135 

2dly, lu the first sin of our first parents (whereby onr natures became 
tainted) the judgment and uuderstanding had a great, if not the first and 
main stroke ; and, thei'efore, if by that act sin entered on our natures, the 
understanding, which was so deeply guilty, deserved to be punished and 
wounded us deeply as any other. Now examiuc what was the main object 
which drew on that sin, and which was aimed at in it ; it was an apprehended 
excellency in the understanding ' to know good and evil,' that they might, as 
the}"^ conceived, be like unto God ; and the original of their being deceived, was 
in listening and assenting to the devil rather than God ; for twice when the 
apostle speaks of that sin, he expresseth it as an error in judgment, as their 
being deceived : 2 Cor. xi. 3, ' He beguiled Eve through subtlety ;' that is, 
his wit deceived her. Their sin, therefore, consisted primarily in error : 1 Tim. 
ii. 14, ' And Adam was not deceived ; but the woman being deceived, was in 
the transgression.' iSo that the woman's being deceived, may seem to have 
been the first wicket which let sin in ; or, if it be not so, yet, however, it is 
mentioned as the main cause and subject of that first sin ; and from this 
deceit it was, that corrupt opinions of God were engendered in their minds, 
to imagine foolishly that he envied them a happier estate, as I have before 
shewed. Now, then, if the understanding was (as it appears to have been) one 
of the chief, if not the chief party in this sin, then certainly that act of the 
understanding was the cause of that corruption which is in us ; and there- 
fore this faculty must needs be much, if not most corrupted ; this faculty 
must receive one of the greatest wounds, and be punished with one of the 
greatest losses. For if God said, ' The soul that sins shall die,' then that 
faculty in the soul, which you see sinned mainly, must die, that is, must 
lose the life of holiness which was in it before. The schoolmen's reason why 
the body is most corrupted, was, because that sin is conveyed by bodily gene- 
ration, not considering that this was only the conduit-pipe ; but Adam's first 
sin was the spring and cause ; and therefore the corruption of the faculties 
is to be measured by the stroke which the parts and faculties of his soul had 
in it. Her eye, indeed, and taste, helped forward the act ; for she saw the 
apple to be good and desirable : Gen. iii. 6, ' And when the woman saw 
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
tree to be desired to make one wise ; she took of the fruit thereof, and did 
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.' But now the 
lust of the understanding, and the deceit therein, had first poisoned all, or 
a mere apple could never have so enticed them, but it was conceived to have 
virtue in it to give the knowledge of good and evil ; the devil candying it over 
with such a specious appearance ; and hence it was that the apple became so 
alluring. Therefore if it be the influence and punishment of Adam's sinful 
act which causeth that corruption of nature which is in us, as I«have proved, 
then, in a just and meet punishment, those faculties must needs be mainly 
corrupted in Adam, and so in us (though indeed his sin corrupted all in 
him, and in us too), that had the greatest stroke in his sinning, which I 
have proved his understanding to have had. 

3dly, If we consider the nature of grace, and of sin, and how they are 
expressed to us in Scripture, as being both of them of a spiritual nature, it 
is evident that therefore they must have the most spiritual subject. They 
are not as dregs and lees that go down to the bottom, but as light and dark- 
ness which swim above, and are in the finer and sublimer parts of the soul, 
and mostly possess and lodge in its higher regions ; for, indeed, as it is reason 
that renders us capable of sin, and of grace, which brutes are not, rea- 
son, therefore, is the chief seat of them both. We find also, that grace is com- 
pared to hght, as corruption (which is the privation of it) to darkness. Thus 



136 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

even the state of grace is called light, and the state of nature, darkness : 
Eph. V. 8, ' For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the 
Lord.' As he calls grace light, so them he calls the children of light, that 
being the principal and prevailing principle in them. And the strength and 
power of sin also is said to lie in darkness, which is opposite to this light : 
Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and trans- 
lated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.' That from which we are deli- 
vered is called the power of darkness ; and the kingdom of Christ, into which 
we are translated, is called light : ver. 12, ' which hath made us meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' And that the power of 
sin lies in darkness, is clear from this, that the strength of a man lies in 
wisdom and reason, and grace animating that reason : Prov. xxiv. 5, ' A 
wise man is strong ; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.' So now 
corrupted reason, which is darkness, is the strength of sin ; and the cause 
why the devil rules so in men, is from the darkness of their minds : Eph. 
vi. 12, ' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principa- 
lities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
spiritual wickedness in high places.' And when the apostle would express 
how opposers of the truth are recovered out of the devil's snare, he puts it 
upon their having repentance to acknowledge the truth : 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26, 
' In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradven- 
ture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that 
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken 
captive by him at his will.' When they have lu-dvoiav, a changed mind to 
acknowledge the truth ; when they have found the way out of those thick 
mists of darkness with which they were covered, and in which the devil kept 
them ; when they a\,av7:-^o)6iv, are recovered out of that disease, lethargy, 
and indeed frenzy of the mind, and, like the prodigal, are come to them- 
selves again ; then the devil's snare is broke, who before, through their igno- 
rance, blindness, and madness, did what he would with them. Now if grace 
be light, and sin be darkness (and, indeed, what is the life of grace and 
glory both, but light ? and sin and hell, but darkness ?), then they have 
their principal seat in that faculty to which light properly belongs, as to 
the understanding it doth ; from which higher part of the soul, as from a 
sun above, it might difluse its influence and heat to all the lower faculties. 
And if the understanding power of man be the subject of the light of grace, 
it is also of the darkness of sin, since both light and darkness belong to the 
same faculty, according to what our Saviour says. Mat. vi. 22, 23, ' The 
light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be 
full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how 
great is that darkness ?' Which proves my assertion, that not only the 
lower, but the nobler faculties in man, the understanding and mind, are 
depraved with sin. 

4thly, If we consider that the production and increase of grace is said to 
be a work wrought and transacted in the understanding, and first beginning 
there, then certainly it follows that this faculty is mainly, if not principally, 
corrupted. But now the work of grace is expressed to us : Acts xxvi. 17, 
18, to be the ' opening the ej^es, and turning men from darkness to light ;' 
and so when men are raised (whether by a new life, from the death of sin, or 
by an awakening out of a sinful backsliding, I will not now dispute), what is 
the life which comes into them? Ephes. v. 14, 'Wherefore he saith. Awake 
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' 
And indeed the life of grace is originally nothing but light ; John viii. 12, 



CUAP. II.] nc RESPECT OP SIN AND PUNISllMKNT. 137 

'Then spake Jesus again unto them, sayincr, 'I am the light of the world : 
he that Ibllowcth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life' 
As grace there is called the light of life, so answerably in those words : John 
i. 4, 'In him was life, and the life was the light of men.' Light is inter- 
preted to mean that grace which we had in innoccney ; that whereas Christ 
is said in ver. 3 to have given all things being, so to man he gave that life 
and image which he had in himself as second person. ' In him was life, and 
the life was the light of men,' so that the life of grace is principally light ; 
and if so, the understanding is one of the chief vitals, the priinwn vlccns, 
that which first lives, as the heart is in man ; and therefore the death of sin 
is also mainly seated in the understanding ; as this is the first faculty which 
is quickened by grace, so it was the first that died by sin. And this is one 
of the first faculties which is enlivened, and by means of it the rest have life 
produced in them ; and therefore when the apostle Paul exhorts to put off 
the old man still more, and to put on the new — that is, to get the whole man 
changed — he puts this in between both, as the means of both, ' Be renewed 
in the spirit of your minds :' Ephes. iv. 22-24, ' That ye put off concerning 
the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the de- 
ceitful lasts ; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; and that ye put 
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holi- 
ness.' And when he exhorts us to be transformed, which meaus that the 
frame of our whole man should be changed, he directs how it is done, viz., 
by the renewing of the mind, that so we may prove (or in true judgment 
allow of) the will of God : Rom. xii. 2, ' And be not conformed to this 
w-orld : but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may 
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God ;' which ex- 
presseth thus much, that when the mind is once wrought upon and renewed, 
there is a conformity to God wrought in the whole soul, as, ' If the eje be 
single, the whole body is full of light,' Mat. vi. 22. Not that barely the 
light doth the work by filUng all our powers, but the Holy Ghost by that 
light changeth the whole man. As the heavens by their light convey their 
heat and influences, so heat and life, and quickening in the will and affec- 
tions, are conveyed into them by the light of the mind. If, then, the reno- 
vation must thus necessarily be begun in the understanding, then certainly 
that faculty of all other is primarily and most deeply depraved. 

Sthly, This will also appear, if we add to all the former this consideration, 
that the main and proper end of one of the offices of Jesus Christ, for which 
it was appointed, is to cure the defects of the understanding. He hath but 
three offices, king, priest, and prophet ; and as a prophet his office is to 
work on the understandings of men, and to heal the defects in them. As a 
prophet he removes our ignorance, and therefore is called a teacher : Mat. 
xxiii. 8, 10, ' But be not ye called rabbi : for one is your Master, even 
Christ ; and all ye are brethren. Neither be ye called masters : for one is 
your Master, even Christ.' The word is 6 xa^jj/Tj^'/^;, doctoror teacher. 
And as Christ is a teacher to instruct our blind and ignorant minds, in him 
are therefore * hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' Col. ii. 3, that 
he might dispense them to us. And the same apostle in another scripture, 
reckoning up the main benefits which we have by Christ, puts in wisdom as 
one and the first : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption.' Well, and if we consider too all the instructions, reproofs, 
and doctrines in the word, what are they but as so many plasters which 
Christ lays to our heads to cure our diseased judgments, and by healing them 
to heal all the other faculties ? All those wholesome words are principally 



138 AN UxXEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

applied to the understanding, as to that part in us which is as sick or most 
sick of any, and by that they work on the other. 

6thly, It is the defect and pravity of the mind which is the original and 
root of all sin in the other powers of our souls ; nay, a corrupt understanding 
IS the immediate cause and first mover in most sins, and the prime subject 
of many, and those the greatest sins, and therefore certainly it is deeply 
corrupted. 

1. The darkness of the 'understanding is the author of that rebellion 
which is in the will and aftections, for therefore doth the will and sensual 
appetite seek out so inordinately the pleasures of sin, because the mind is 
ignorant of God, knows him not, and so is a stranger to him, and can have 
no fellowship 'odth him ; for it is ignorance of God estrangeth us from him, 
since all fellowship and friendship is grounded upon knowledge, and all 
friendly intercom-se is chiefly transacted by the help of it, and therefore rea- 
sonable creatures are only capable of friendship, which beasts are not. That 
we may then have communion with God, the knowledge of him is necessary ; 
and accordingly the first and main thing which God doth, when he enters us 
into the covenant of grace, is to teach us to know him : Jer. xxxi. 33, 34, 
' But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; 
After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, 
and write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people. And they shall teach no more everj' man his neighbour, and every 
man his brother, sa3-ing, Know the Lord : for they shall all know me, fr'om 
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will for- 
give their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' It is ignorance 
therefore which keeps men from fellowship with God, and want of that fel- 
lowship makes every faculty in man shift for itself, hunt and seek about in 
other things, in the pleasure of sin and variety of lusts, to find that happi- 
ness and delight which the blinded soul cannot see or discern to be in God. 
Men are therefore estranged from God, because they know him not, and then 
they are abandoned to all manner of sins: Eph. iv. 17-19, 'This I say 
therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gen- 
tiles walk, in the vanity of their mind ; having the understanding darkened, 
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, 
because of the blindness of their heart : who, being past feeling, have given 
themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.' 
Mark, it is said that they are ' alienated from God through iguorance, be- 
cause of the blindness of their hearts,' and thence it follows that 'they gave 
themselves over to lasciviousness.' 

2. The darkness of the mind is not only thus negatively (as depriving the 
soul of the knowledge of God) the root of all sin, but it is positively the 
immediate cause of most con-uptions in men's lives. Thus Paul mentions 
fleshly wisdom as tlie cori'upt principle by which men lead their lives, and 
as the main opposite principle unto grace : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing 
is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, 
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conver- 
sation in the world, and more abundantly to you-wards.' There is a fleshly 
practical wisdom which enables men to do much mischief, and therefore 
wicked men are said to be wise to do evil : Jer. iv. 22, ' For my people is 
foolish, they have not known me ; they are sottish children, and they have 
none understanding : they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no 
knowledge.' And indeed this carnal wisdom is the cause of the greatest 
part of wickedness in the world : Isa. xlvii. 10, ' For thou hast trusted in 
thy wickedness : thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy 



Chap. II,] in respect of sin and punishment. 139 

knowledge, it hath perverted thee ; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, 
and none else besides me.' What practices do corrupt opinions put men 
upon ? How do they hold them in the snare of the devil ? How do cor- 
rupt principles in the practical understanding secretly steer men, and do all 
covertly, and with underhand dealing, when yet the contrary principles keep 
a noise in the conscience and speculative part ? Corrupt reasonings and 
false judgments of things are the chief movers and actors in all our sinnings : 
Eph. ii. 3, ' Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, 
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; 
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.' They are said 
to fulfil the wills of rujv diaiioiojv, of the miud, of the reasonings, as well as of 
the flesh, the sensual part. And really thus it is with men, that though 
they are convinced in their speculative understandings that there is a God, 
and that it is best to serve and worship him, &c., yet there is a corrupt 
principle in their practical judgments which will deny and renounce all this, 
and act contrary to it ; and men will still walk in the vanity of their minds, 
Eph. iv. 17 ; that is, vain principles are their guide. 

3. The understanding itself is the subject of many sins, and the chief 
transactor of them, and though usually they affect the will also, yet they are 
seated there principally. As pride hath its chief place in the mind, and there- 
fore the apostle Paul describes it by a being putted up with a fleshly mind : 
Col. ii. 18, ' Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, 
and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not 
seen, vainly putted up by his fleshly mind.' So idolatry, heresy, blasphemy, 
hypocrisy, infidelity, evil surmisings, seeking after credit, and praise, and 
glory, which is an aerial thing, a sublimated object of the understanding ; in 
fine, all inordinacies after any excellencies, of which the understanding only 
judgeth, all these sins are principally seated in it ; and all the evil thoughts, 
wicked devisings, sinister and hypocritical ends, which set unregenerate men 
on work in all their ways, these are all seated in the understanding. And 
these sins are both the great swaying sins in men's lives, of longest con- 
tinuance, of mightiest strength and of highest guilt ; which I add, to shew 
the deep corruption of the understanding, and as motives to mortify them, 
having them in our eye, searching them out, and also humbling ourselves 
for them. 

1st, These sins in the understanding are the most swaying of all other ; 
they are of a larger extent and compass, and a man hath more occasions to 
please them than others, and therefore they command most, and bear the 
greatest sway in a man's life. As to instance in one of them, credit and 
glory of a name, a man seeks to uphold it, and is mindful of it continually ; 
yea, for the sake of it a man will abstain from many a gross sin, and some 
attections and lusts are starved to feed and nourish this, and it keeps other 
sins under ; and, in short, acts a part in every thing, whenas other lusts do 
but occasionally, and at some times exert themselves. 

2dly, These sins in the understanding are the strongest of all other. The 
strongholds which exalt themselves are sins seated in the mind, and there- 
fore called reasonings, which exalt themselves against God : 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, 
' For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to 
the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every high 
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into 
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' And, therefore, these 
sius are the strongest holds, because they are founded in the reason, which 
argues for them, defends and justifies them, when other lusts have no shew 
or colour of reason, and have little or nothing to say and plead for them- 



140 AN UXRKGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

selves. When Christ was here on earth, what was the strongest lust which 
kept men from coming to him and believing ? It was pride and vain glory. 
What was it they stuck at most ? Disgrace, and renouncing the credit of 
their learning, and foregoing hopes of preferment and wealth, and abandon- 
ing the correspondency of their friends by losing their esteem. Here it was 
they stuck most, and all these are sins of the understanding. 

3dly, These sins are of most continuance. When the body decays and 
the temper alters, other lusts wither, but not these in the mind and spirit, 
which are as green and fresh in old age as in youth ; ay, and as men grow 
in years, Ihese sins grow more strong and lively in them. 

4thly, These sins are of the deepest guilt, for, corruptio optimi est pessima, 
the best things corrupted became the worst of all, as a stain is worse on a 
fine cloth than a coarse. And, therefore, as the understanding is the most 
excellent part: in man, and the very spirit of the soul, and the image of God 
is chiefly wrought there, so the corruption of it is worse than that of the 
other faculties : ' If the eye be dark, how great is that darkness,' Mat. vi. 23. 
And besides all this, it is in these sins of the mind that we resemble the 
devil, whenas in other sins we are only like unto the beasts. 



CHAPTER III. 

Tlie difference betiveen the natural defects in men's minds, caused bij the fall and 
sin, and those which are spiritual defects. — That men's natnrai imperfections 
in understanding and reason would hare been much greater if they were not 
healed by the common goodness of God to men. — Y^et, notwithstanding, how 
deficient men are in the knowledge of ciril and natural things ; and therefore 
they must be much more so as to such which are spiritual. 

Having proved in the general that even the spirit of man, or his more 
sublime part, the understanding, is defiled, I now come to shew, in the par- 
ticular, instances wherein this corruption of the mind doth consist. To make 
the way clear to my discourse, I premise these two propositions. 

Prop. 1. There is a diff'erence between the wounds and natural defects 
which the fall of Adam hath given the mind, and the sinful defilements 
which it hath contracted from his fall. 

For as in the body there are many defects which in themselves are miseries 
indeed, but not defilements, and which may humble a man as punishments 
but not as sins ; such are lameness, blindness, &c. ; so in the faculties of 
the soul, and in this of the understanding especially, besides the defilements 
of it, there are many wants, imperfections, and weaknesses, which simply in 
themselves considered may rather be thought miseries than sins, as weak- 
ness of memory, ignorance in human sciences, &c., the principles whereof 
Adam had, who gave names to beasts according to their natures ; and we 
should have inherited them from him. That you may understand this fur- 
ther, consider that Adam's mind (as the best of men's minds also now are) 
was enriched with two several endowments: 1, the sanctifying light of the 
law viritten in the heart, whereby he knew God, and how he ought to serve 
him; and, 2, much other additional knowledge and wisdom, which should 
seem as handmaids unto this former, and attend upon it, as knowledge in 
the nature of the creatures, which God gave also to Solomon, an heart as 
large as the sea, and as many notions in it as sands on the sea-shore, all 
which, though sanctified, as being guided and ordered by the other, yet was 
not (as simply in itself considered) sanctifying knowledge. Now therefore 



Chap. III.] in ukspect of sin and punishment. 141 

the understanding of man since the fall hath answerablj received two wounds. 
It is not only stripped of that sanctifying light utterly and wholly, but those 
rich hangings and adorning attendants are gone too ; and therefore they are 
repaired since the fall by two several remedies, viz. gifts, and the grace of 
spiritual knowledge ; gifts of knowledge and wisdom you shall find where 
grace is not. Thus the heathens had the imperfections of the mind repaired 
in natural and civil knowledge as much as we. And unregenerate men also 
have spiritual gifts : Eph. iv. 8, ' He led captivity captive, and gave gifts 
unto men ; ' Ps. Ixviii. 18, * Thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the 
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.' But these 
gifts are not grace, for they heal not the mind nor rectify the crooked and 
perverse dispositions of men ; as Solomon says, Eccles. i. 15, ' That which 
is crooked cannot be made straight.' And there is grace and sanctifying 
light where these gifts are wanting, and therefore the absence of them is not 
a sin, for many of those whom God chooseth and sanctifieth want these rich 
endowments of the mind, which are as the handmaids to the great mistress 
of all — grace ; and where that is not, they all signify nothing to the real 
purpose of our salvation : 1 Cnr. xiii. 1,2,' Though I speak with the 
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sound- 
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, 
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, 
so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing.' 

My intent is not to run over the defects in naturals which are in the mind, 
so much as the defilements of it in regard of spirituals ; and we shall follow 
herein the example of Scripture, which takes notice of the defilement of the 
conscience, and mind, and memory, but not of the natural weakness of them : 
Titus i. 15, ' But even their mind and conscience is defiled.' Now it is 
these wants that are healed by sanctification, into which we are to enquire, 
and for the healing of which the apostle prays in this, 1 Thes. v. 23, and 
the healing of which are essentially necessary to salvation. 

The use of this proposition laid down may be to ease the complaints of 
many poor souls, who have the defilements of their spirits more healed than 
the defects and imperfections of them ; who have weak memories, shallow 
understandings and capacities, and meaner gifts than other men ; and who 
yet have more of that knowledge wherein the image of God consists. Col. 
iii. 10, than those other men have who excel them in wisdom and gifts. 
Though they be fools in worldly wisdom, yet they err not in the way of holi- 
ness : Isa. XXXV. 8, ' And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall 
be called the way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it 
shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.' 
And, indeed, if we look to the purpose of God's election, he hath not chosen 
the wise, but the foolish things of this world : 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, ' For ye see 
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not 
many mighty, not many noble, are called ; but God hath chosen the foolish 
things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.' And if so, 
what though thou hast natural defects in thy mind, why shouldst thou be 
cast down ? Thou mayest have a weak memory, perhaps, yet if it can and 
doth remember good things as well or better than other, then it is a sanctified 
memory, and the defilement is healed, though the imperfection of it is not ; 
and though thou art to be humbled for it as a misery, yet not to be dis- 
couraged, for God doth not hate thee for it, but pities thee ; and the like 
holds good, and may be said as to the want of other gifts. 

As a godly man who hath grace may be defective as to these gifts, so 



142 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III, 

■wicked men may have the imperfections of their understandings more healed 
by gifts than a godly man, and yet the defilements of them, which are opposed 
to sanctification, may still remain utterly untaken away ; and thus unre- 
generate men may exceed those who are sanctified, as to such gifts : Luke 
XV. 8, ' For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the 
children of light.' They are said to be wiser in their generation than the 
children of light ; that is, than those who have a sanctified light in their 
minds. Yet consider the distinction there put, which is, that they are but 
■wiser in their generation ; that is, in their kind and sphere ; and this is no 
more than what is common and usual ; for every creature in its own kind 
may have a farther insight into a thing than another, which is yet more 
noble, hath. Thus many beasts, in sight, and smell, and taste, and fancy, 
put down and exceed a man ; as an eagle excels us in sight, an ape in taste, 
and dogs in smelling; yet a man hath reason, which recompenseth and over- 
balanceth all. And thus, wicked men in their kind, that is, so far as their 
generation reacheth, which is common to both, and in such gifts which both 
partake of, may exceed the godly ; but yet these are children of light in the 
Lord, though not in the world ; and the other are children of light in the 
world, but darkness in the Lord : Eph. v. 7, 8, ' Be not ye therefore partakers 
■with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord': 
walk as children of light.' Such ungodly men, who have such gifts and eminent 
parts, are as the crocodiles, which, according to the report of them, are 
quick-sighted on land, but dull-sighted in the water ; so tliese are quick and 
sharp-witted in all things hut what belong to their peace. 

Projj. 2. These wounds and defects of the mind in natural and civil 
things, if searched to the bottom, and considered what they would be, if not 
healed in most men, more or less, by especial gifts from God, will appear to 
be very great. 

Most of that light which men have in them is a borrowed light from God, 
and more than nature, now fallen, hath bequeathed and left us. And, indeed, 
that portion which, as sons of Adam, we may claim as derived to us by 
virtue of that first law still in force, increase and multiply, whereby we are 
men, would be found exceeding small, did not God, pitying us out of his 
abundance, add to our stock de novo, and help us to trade with it. If there- 
fore we reflect how little of natural light at tho most we have, and how much 
of that little is helped by superadded gifts from God, we shall find our loss 
as to these natural abilities to be great, and our remaining stock to be very 
little and inconsiderable. It is true, indeed, we have, and must have, under- 
standing and reason ; for this being the difference between us and beasts, 
without it we could not be men : Ps. xxxii. 9, ' Be ye not as the horse, or 
as the mule, which have no understanding ; whose mouth must be held in 
with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.' Without understanding 
we could neither be capable of sin, not obnoxious to punishment for it, nor 
sensible of any guilt ; and therefore sin doth not deprive us of all under- 
standing, since (as Prosper* assigns it as a reason) that faculty concurs to 
the commission of it. 

It is also true, that as to other creatures, according as they have objects 
proportioned for them, God hath given answerably an instinct to know and 
discern what is good for them in their kind ; so to men also God hath given 
to know the things of a man, in order to the upholding their natural and 
civil being in this world ; and therefore a wisdom in their generation is pro- 
per to men as such. And how far these common fundamental principles of 
reason should reach, and be improved, it is hard to determine. 
* Prosper, lib. iii. de vocat. Gentium. 



Chap. III.] in respkct of sin and punishment. 143 

That Adam's sin hath not tho same influence into all men's understand- 
ings, which it hath into theirs who are born fools, it is not as if these idiots 
were more guilty of Adam's sin, and more obnoxious to the curse and mis- 
chiefs of it than others, but that in those who have the remainders of a 
natural light, and use of reason, the works of God might appear, in fitting 
them at least for civil business and employments of the world ; and thus 
our Lord Jesus Christ speaks and argues in the case of the man born blind : 
John ix. 2, 3, ' And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, 
this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ? Jesus answered, Neither 
hath this man sinned, nor his parents : but that the works of God should 
be made manifest in him.' 

But, however, let us view the understandings of the wisest men in natural 
or civil things, which belong to the present life; let us sound and fathom them 
to the bottom, and we shall find that all is exceeding shallow, and that they 
are but clung bladders, not blown to the wideness for which they were made 
to stretch. If we consider the knowledge of nature, how short-sighted are 
the wisest of men in it? Solomon, who excelled all others in wisdom, who was 
the great dictator in natural philosophy, who discoursed from the hyssop 
on the wall to the trees of the forest, 1 Kings iv. 33, yet when he comes to 
sum up the reckoning, he puts this at the foot of the account, that what is 
wanting cannot be numbered : Eccles. i. 15, ' That which is crooked cannot 
be made straight ; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.' He 
who was so wise, saw that the defects of his knowledge overpassed all 
arithmetic, and yet he had notions as many as the sands of the sea, 
1 Kings iv. 20. 

If we consider the knowledge of those things which are necessary to the 
maintenance and support of man's life, or to the upholding of civil govern- 
ment, which are good for man's body, either in physic or diet, or which are 
for the increase of his estate and credit, or which are necessary for the com- 
munities of mankind to settle order and government among men, how 
ignorant are the wisest of men in all these ? Solomon says thus in the 
general : Eccles. vi. 12, ' For who knoweth what is good for man in this 
life, all the days . of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow ? for who 
can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun ?' What is good fur 
man (says he) in this life ? He doth not speak of the world to come, but 
the present. And common experience proves Solomon's assertion, for those 
who have most extended their wits to the preservation of their healths, have 
destroyed them by errors and mistakes. Those ways which the wisest of 
men have pitched on, as the nearest and shortest cuts to riches and honours, 
have proved the loss of both : Eccles. ii. 13, 14, ' Then I saw that wisdom 
excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. The wise man's eyes are 
in his head ; bnt the fool walketh in darkness : and I myself perceived also 
that one event happeneth to them all.' Though indeed wisdom exceeds folly, 
as much as light doth darkness, yet one event happens to all, and the wise 
are poor and disgraced as well as fools ; and to what end and purpose then 
is the wisdom of the greatest and bravest men ? 

And after all, the most of that knowledge unto which men attain in these 
things fore-mentioned is from a new gift of God. They cannot understand 
and manage so much as husbandry without his instruction, but it is God who 
teacheth them discretion, how to order their corn in sowing and threshing 
it : Isa. xxviii. 24-26, * Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ? Doth 
he open and break the clods of his ground ? When he hath made plain the 
face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, 
and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye in 



14i AX UNREGENEPvATE man's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

their place ? For his God dolh instruct him to discretion, and doth teach 
him.' Tims the knowledge of the nature of things, and of the application 
and use of them in profitable inventions for human life, is the gift of God, 
which the old world did acknowledge when anything which is now common 
among us was first invented ; for they honoured them as gods who found 
out ploughing, &c., sowing, music, &c. And this gave occasion to the 
idolatry of those times, who worshipped the authors of such inventions, as 
thinkintr them more than men, and that it was some especial divine assistance 
enlightened them in it. 

And if thus in natural and civil things men's minds were so defective as 
to need God to help their wit and invention, much more great must be the 
deficiencv of man's understanding in things moral and divine and the aids 
from God more apparent which supply those defects. If we reflect on the 
heathens, what was the light which the wisest of them had ? It was mostly 
in duties of the second table of God's law; and they had but little prints of 
knowledge concerning the duties of the first table, and those soon blotted or 
worn out: Rom. i. 21, 28, 'Because that, when they knew God, they 
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their 
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. And even as they did 
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate 
mind, to do those things which are not convenient.' And of those prints 
which they had of this first table of God's law, if you ask how they came to 
be set upon their minds, the apostle tells us they were written: Rom. ii. 15, 
* Which shew the work of the law written in iheir hearts, their conscience 
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else ex- 
cusing one another.' And how were they written, but by God's own finger, 
as he writ the law on the tables of stone ? The knowledge of God which 
they had it was manifest in them : Rom. i. 19, * Because that which may be 
known of God is manifest in them : for God hath shewed it unto them.' 
And how was it manifest ? Why, God had shewed it to them, and that not 
only materially, by creating the world, though that be the means instanced 
in, but also by teaching them to read in this great volume of the creation, 
and learning them to spell his eternal power and Godhead out of that book ; 
as the printer, who barely prints a book, doth not manifest to all men what 
is in it; but it is what the master, who teacheth to read and understand it, 
doth. And so God in this case doth the like ; and therefore the wisdom 
which the wisest of the heathens had, is called the wisdom of God : 1 Cor. 
i. 21, 'For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew 
not God, it pleased God by the fooHshness of preaching to save them that 
believe,' 

But now if you bring the sharpest understandings to read and apprehend 
the things written and revealed in God's other book, his word, they cannot 
do it without a supernatural light and assistance. And there is want of this 
light to teach men to know these truths, even in a speculative and notional 
manner, such as unregenerate men may have. For was not the mere narra- 
tion, the bare story of them, foolishness to the heathen, because they had 
not this light to enable them to do so much, as mere reading amounted to ? 
as 1 Cor. i. and ii. Was it not matter of derision to the Athenians ? Acts 
xvii. 32, ' And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some 
mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.' And 
why ? Because though they heard these things, yet their quick wits, not 
enli'Thtened by the Spirit, could not apprehend them. And therefore the 
Scripture is said not to be of private interpretation : 2 Peter i. 20, ' Know- 
inf^ this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpreta- 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 145 

tion;' i.e. no private understanding, nor the sharpest wit, if not assisted by 
the Holy Ghost, can understand them, for their meaning cannot be explained 
without help of the public secretary of heaven who wrote them at first : 
2 Peter i. 21, ' For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' And 
when Christ himself was the preacher, he opened their understandings that 
they might understand the Scriptures, for without this his preaching was not 
enough: Luke xxiv, 45, 'Then opened ho their understanding, that they 
might understand the scriptures.' Though we attain to knowledge of the 
letter of the word, and of the meaning of holy writ, as unregenerate men 
do attain other knowledge ; yet we could not gain this but by gifts dispensed 
upon Christ's ascension, which qualify men, not to be apostles only, but 
teachers and interpreters of the word : Eph. iv. 8, 11, ' Wherefore he saith, 
When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto 
men. And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers.' And if it be said. May not men 
understand the historical matters of fact laid down in the word, as well as 
they understand other histories, by the strength of their natural wit and 
reason ? I answer, yes, they may, but yet not so as to apprehend the design 
of the sacred story, or the holy use for which it was wrote, to instruct men 
in it, which is the chief mind and intent of the Holy Ghost. This they 
cannot understand without supernatural assistance ; or if they could com- 
pass in their thoughts, the meaning of the history of the Bible, and those 
discourses which, by way of illustration, run in the golden veins of the Scrip- 
tures concerning natural things and political, wherein much of Job and of 
the Proverbs is spent, yet they can never penetrate the spiritual mysteries 
of the gospel. These are the things of God, which he hath peculiarly given 
to his children, and they are above the reach or capacity of the minds of 
other men : 1 Cor. ii. 9-12, ' But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto 
us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit 
which is of God ; that we might know the things which are freely given to 
us of God.' The inward work of the Spirit, and the mysteries of free grace, 
are such things which the wisest of men cannot understand so much as in 
the letter of them. Thus Nicodemus could not imagine what the new birth 
should mean : John iii. 3, 4, * Jesus answered and said unto him. Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
dom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he 
is old ? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?' 
No ; the vision of all these things is become as the woixls of a book that is 
sealed : Isa. xxix. 11, 12, ' And the vision of all is become unto you as the 
words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, 
saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I cannot ; for it is sealed : 
and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying. Read this, I 
pray thee : and he saith, I am not learned.' What though you deliver it to 
one who is learned, and ask him to read it, yet he cannot, and why ? Because 
it is sealed, and no one in heaven or earth is worthy to open the seals of 
these hidden and closed treasures of grace, but Christ alone, and without his 
key no man can come to know them. Or if an unregenerate mind could be 

VOL. X. K. 



146 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

supposed to arrive so far as to know them and understand their meaning, 
yet they can never assent to them without a work of the Holy Ghost on the 
soul : 1 Cor. xii. 3, * And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but 
by the Holy Ghost.' He speaks it of common gifts : ver. 1, ' Now concern- 
ing spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.' He shews that 
the very changing of their opinions, that they should think the gods whom 
they before worshipped to be no gods, and assent to this, that Jesus was the 
Lord, that even this was from the power of the Holy Ghost, without whom 
they could not have attained to so much. And yet farther, if the under- 
standings of men were filled with all this light, and needed not any new 
assistance to the attainment of all knowledge, not only natural, civil, and 
moral, but divine and spiritual also in the letter, yet still the defilement, the 
corruption of the mind might remain, yes, and doth continue in men who 
are enlightened in all these. So that suppose in none of these the mind had 
received any wound or darkness, so as to need no new light, or suppose that 
a man hath received all this knowledge from the Holy Ghost, yet there is a 
farther knowledge required than all this, which till it be wrought, the under- 
standing may truly be said still to be defiled and blind, and to know nothing 
as it ought to know. 



CHAPTER IV. 

What are the sinritual wants and defilements in men's understandings, which 
can be healed only by true regeneration. — They cannot have a spiritual dis- 
cerning of spiritual things. — This proved from Scripture, which expresseth, 
not only that such things are hid from them, that they have something over 
their eyes which hinders the sight, but that there is darkness in the eye of 
the mind itself. 

Having discoursed of those natural wounds which the understanding hath 
received by the fall, I now come to treat of the spiritual wants and defile- 
ments, which are healed by true sanctification, saving and spiritual know- 
ledge. 

1. The first spiritual defect in man's understanding, is that blindness and 
inability to know and discern spiritual things spiritually, as a regenerate man 
doth : 1 Cor. ii. 14, * But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned.' You know what spiritual things are, 
viz., the things which God hath revealed by his Spirit for your peace, those 
things which are necessary for you to know, if you be saved : Luke xix. 42, 
' If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
belong unto thy peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes !' There they 
are called the things belonging to our peace. Now to know them spiritually, 
is, in brief (to express it to vulgar capacities), so to know them, as to know 
the true way of making our peace with God by them. Thou mayest know 
them so as expressed to others, and be afiected with them also, and yet make 
no application of them to thine own use, good, and benefit, and then thou 
dost not spiritually understand them ; for so to understand them is to know 
them, as they are in themselves, and in that true and full manner, and to 
that end they are revealed by the Holy Ghost in the word ; and therefore 
we do not spiritually discern the nature of these things, if we do not see the 
true, right, particular way wherein we may come to salvation by them ; be- 
cause that was the mind of Christ and of the Holy Spirit in revealing them. 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 147 

Now, then, to see sin and a man's own sinfulness, so as to be thoroughly 
humbled for it, and to have the heart broken off from all sin, and from put- 
ting any trust in himself ; as Job and Paul had a sight of it, with such an 
effect of it upon them : llom. vii. 13, 14, ' Was then that which is good 
made death unto me ? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, 
working death in me by that which is good ; that sin, by the commandment 
might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual : 
but I am carnal, sold under sin.' This is to see it in a spiritual manner, 
and to behold the excellence of Christ, and the necessity of his righteousness 
with such an eye as he doth, who accounts all but dross and dung in com- 
parison, and seeks to be found in him, not having his own righteousness, as 
Paul did : Philip, iii. 8, 9, ' Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I 
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may 
win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which 
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteous- 
ness which is of God by faith.' This is a spiritual knowledge of Christ. To 
know the promises of free grace and mercy, so as to see the way fully open, 
for himself or any such poor sinner to have a share in it ; this is spiritually 
to discern the infinite riches of free grace ; to see the strictness of that holi- 
ness which God requires ; to approve that good perfect and acceptable will' 
of God ; to know how we are to serve him in all duties, in such a manner 
as God, who is a Spirit, and who is infinitely holy, commands ; to see good 
and full reason for an absolute necessity of doing this ; to see beauty, excel- 
lence, and happiness in performing it. This is to know the law as the saints 
know it : Rom. vii. 12, 14, ' Wherefore the law is holy, and the command- 
ment holy, just, and good. For we know that the law is spiritual : but L 
am carnal, sold under sin.' Now such thoughts and apprehensions as the- 
saints have of these things unregenerate men cannot have, their under- 
standings being so blind, as they do not and cannot enter into them. This 
blindness and utter inability to discern spiritual things is the first subject of 
my discourse, which I am to explain, and prove to you, and you will the bet- 
ter apprehend what it is, if first I lay open the several degrees of it,, accord- 
ing as the Scripture sets it forth to us. 

(1.) The Scripture tells us that spiritual things are hidden from the eyes- 
of men who are in their natural condition : Luke xix. 42., ' If thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 
peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes.' Mat. xi. 25, ' At that time^ 
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,, 
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast re- 
vealed them unto babes.' They are hid, i. e. they are as far from our finding 
out as things are which are on purpose laid aside in places where our eyes 
can never come to spy them or find them out ; so as, suppose a man had a 
mind to find them, and know them, yet he might search to eternity and 
never light on them, unless God revealed them. Thus speaks Christ to 
Peter, Mat. xvi. 17, * Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona ; for flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' There- 
fore they are called the wisdom of God, and not only so, but in mystery too : 
1 Cor. ii. 7, ' But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hid- 
den wisdom, which God had ordained before the world unto our glory.' They 
are such a mystery, which is as far from our ability to find out, as the thoughts 
of the most deep-hearted men are ; which instance the apostle useth to illus- 
trate it in ver. 9-12, ' But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God 



148 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto 
us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit 
of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit 
iwhich is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us 
d)f God.' Ay, these deep things of God's heart are farther from a natural 
jnan's search and scrutiny than the deepest thoughts of the wisest man on 
■earth are : for, what says Solomon, who best knew wisdom, and the utmost 
extent of it ? That though the heart of a man be deep, yet a man of under- 
"Standing may fathom it : Prov. xx. 5, ' Counsel in the heart of man is hke 
deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.' He instanceth 
there in the thoughts of a man, because of all things in the world they are 
'most unsearchable. But though these may be searched into, yet what man 
can penetrate the counsels of God's heart? Eom. xi. 34, ' For who hath 
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ?' And upon 
this he breaks forth into that great exclamation : ver. 33, ' Oh the depth of 
•the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are 
his judgments, and his ways past finding out !' But though this is a great 
•degree of spiritual blindness, that men are unable to make the fu'st disco- 
•very of 'the things of God, and it may be easily granted that they are so ; 
yet you will say. When these spiritual things are once published, and made 
known and common, and laid before men's eyes, as in the Scriptures they 
;are, then a man is able to discern them. Therefore, 

(2.) Consider what farther the Sciipture says in this matter. It not only says 
'that men sit in darkness, bu± (to leave all under expressions) it tells us that 
we are darkness itself: Eph. v. 8, 'For ye were sometimes darkness,' &c. 
^ow, a man who is in the dai'k, especially if he carry darkness about with him 
■too, though the thing he looks for be laid just before him, not concealed, but 
brought out, yet he is unable to see it. For that which makes all things 
manifest is light, says the apostle : 1 Cor. iii. 13, 'Every man's work shall 
be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed 
by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.' And 
hinien est actus perspicid, saith philosophy. But now he doth not say, we are 
in the dark, but darkness. There are some creatures which, though they be 
in the dark, have an innate light by which they can see things, as cats have; 
but we are not only in the dark, but darkness itself. God hath put into the 
mind of man wherewith to see .other things, a light which philosophers call 
inteUectus ac/ens, which doth irradiate those images that are received from the 
senses, so as a man carries a candle in his head, and not only an eye able to 
see, which they call intelleetus jMssibiUs. But as to spiritual things we want 
this, and instead of a. light we cany darkness in our heads, which must be 
dispelled by nev/ light, brought in over and above the propounding and pub- 
lishing of the object: Acts xiii. 41, 'Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and 
perish : for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no 
wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.' Paul having plainly and 
openly preached to them Christ, and the gospel, and forgiveness of sins in 
the former verses, thus concludes his sermon with this caution, that they 
should h.eware lest that came upom them which was spoken by the prophet, that 
though they should have eternal life and salvation set before them in a clear 
light, yet they should perish because they did not believe it. Therefore it 
is not bare declaring or propounding the things of the gospel that will serve 
the turn, for these men heard it preached and published with the clearest 
evidence. The gospel, though preached never so plainly, may be still hid to 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin ani> punishment. 149 

them which are lost : 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4, ' But if onr gospel be hid, it is hid to them 
that are lost : in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them 
which believe not, lest the light of the gloriou's gospel of Christ, who is the 
image of God, should shine unto them.' And, indeed, as to see with bodily 
eyes, it is not only necessary that an object be before us, but that we have 
light also shining into the room where we are, so it is not enough that wo 
have the truths of the gospel rationally proposed, but it is also needful that 
a light shines into our minds to illuminate them. Who hath not experience 
that a spiritual reason and argument which convinceth a man to-day, yet 
shall not have the same effect upon him on the morrow, though as strongly 
urged ? And why ? But because a new light is required to set it on. Thus 
a man looks comfortably upon his graces and evidences for heaven to-daj', 
but the next day, or perhaps but an hour after, he sees nothing but darkness 
and discomfort; and though he doth recal his former thoughts, jei he can- 
not see things as he did before. What is the reason ? Because that light 
which before made his graces and evidences visibly apparent is now with- 
drawn, though the eye of his mind be the same, and the object where it was. 

(3.) Consider that if the object is propounded, and light shine round a man, 
yet if his eyes be shut or closed up he is not able to see anything. There- 
fore the Scripture, to shew a further degree of our inability to discern spiri- 
tual things, says that men have veils, scales, and films before their eyes. 
The dirt and muck of this world doth not only, by being daubed over them, 
hinder the sight, but the god of this world hath blinded them lest the light 
should shine into them : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' In whom the god of this world hath 
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious 
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' And veils 
are over their hearts too, that as we say of the eye that it is blood-shot, so 
we may of the heart that it is sin-shot. This veil was over the Jews' hearts 
when Moses was read : 2 Cor. iii. 14, 15, ' But their minds were blinded : 
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away, in the reading of 
the Old Testament : which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this 
day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.' Though at the great 
turning of that people unto Christ this veil shall be taken away, ver. 16, 
* Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.' 
The falling of the scales from Paul's eyes at his conversion was a type of 
opening the eyes of his mind, for upon them there was an hard film too. 
There is upon the minds of men a 'jrui^uaic, or callousness : Eph. iv. 18, 
' Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God 
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their 
heart.' The world is 'rruoMoig, and there is this foreskin of flesh upon the 
eye to be cut away. 

(4.) Consider that the Scripture seems not to rest here, but expresseth the 
weakness and incapacity of the mind to know spiritual things to be yet greater. 
One (as you know) who hath a veil and scales before his eyes, to be restored 
to his sight, needs no more than to have them removed, as Paul saw well 
enough when his scales were fallen off. And why ? Because he had an 
eye under those scales which still retained the faculty of seeing. But, indeed, 
and in truth, there wants a power, an ability, and faculty in the minds of 
unregenerate men to see and discern spiritual things, which power must 
therefore be created anew. Our understandings must not only have the 
scales of sin removed, but a new eye must, as it were, be put into them. 
Now, though art may remove the scales, yet it can never make a new eye 
when it is once put out ; and we are not as one that hath contracted blind- 
ness by a film or skin over the eye, but we are born blind, and so are in- 



150 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

curable by all the arts of reason. We have our blindness from the womb, 
and to heal such an one is a miracle indeed, John ix. 32. It was never 
heard of from the beginning of the world that one born blind received sight, 
because the organ of sight is wanting, and there must be a new creation of 
an eye in such a man, which is a work that none but God can do. We are 
not yet to think that this defect of sight is the same in a man as in a stone, 
&c., for a man hath an understanding, which, without renovation, may have 
some apprehension of spiritual things ; but to know them spiritually, to see 
them as they ought to be seen, and are to be seen, the best mind unrenewed 
is incapable. And therefore there must be a new disposition put in, which 
is to the understanding as the organ of the eye is to the faculty of seeing, 
which elevates and enableth it to see that which of itself it hath not a power 
to discern. The Scriptures accordingly call conversion not only a turning 
from darkness to light, and opening the eyes : as Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open 
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,' &c. But 
conversion is also expressed as giving us eyes to see : Deut. xxix. 4, ' Yet 
the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears 
to hear, unto this day.' And in another place it is styled giving us an 
understanding : 1 John v. 20, ' And we know that the Son of God is come, 
and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.' 
He hath given us an understanding that we may know him, ha ytvuiaytwixiv. 
1. It is not natural, for it is a gift, and that proper only to some, as it is declared 
to us by Christ himself: Mat. xiii. 11, 'He answered and said unto them. 
Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, 
but to them it is not given.' So in 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have received, 
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might 
know the things that are freely given to us of God.' 2. That which is given 
is not barely light, but btdvoia, an understanding to know, which imports not 
an act only, but a power and ability to produce acts of knowledge, for other- 
wise those words, /ra ytvm%oiiJ.iv, 'that we may know him,' would not have 
been added ; for if by the former hawia he had not meant the faculty of 
knowing, but only the act, then his sense would be, he hath given us to 
know that we may know, which would be a tautology. 

So that now this want and defect in the mind is not of light external only, 
or a denial of revealing the objects themselves, but it is the want of an in- 
ward ability ; and the deficiency is in the understanding itself, as is plain 
from what Paul says : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' The natural man 
(saith he), that is, one that hath but natural abilities and is not regenerate, 
and made a spiritual man, as they are opposed one to the other ; this natural 
man doth not receive the things of God. Now, since the understanding is 
made as a window to let in all that comes into the soul, all the beams of 
knowledge, whence is it that spiritual things have not admission ? "Why, 
because there is a stop, and that stop is in a deficiency of the understanding, 
that it cannot receive them. 

The defilement, then, of men's understandings is an utter blindness, and 
want of the true spiritual knowledge of spiritual things. You must only 
remember, and take this along with you, that this blindness is only in regard 
to spiritual things, and such spiritual things as are peculiarly possessed and 
enjoyed by the saints, and freely given them of God ; for these things, and 
the spiritual disceVning of them, are appropriated by the apostle to them in 
1 Cor. ii. 12, 14, 'Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 151 

the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things which are freely 
given to us of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned.' He says, the natural man receives 
them not. What things are they which he doth not receive ? Such as are 
spiritual, and peculiar to believers, such as God's free grace and love in 
Christ, such as Christ and his righteousness, such as all those blessings of 
the covenant of grace which Christ hath purchased, and which accompany 
an interest in him, such as the work of grace and regeneration, and how we 
may serve God acceptably in that state ; these are the objects which we 
mean, and in respect to which we say, the understandings of unregenerate 
men are utterly blind as to the spiritual knowledge of them. 

But if spiritual things be more largely extended to comprehend all things 
whatever which are revealed in the Scriptures by the Spirit, as the wrath of 
Gcd against sin and sinners, the outward acts of sin forbidden by the law, 
the many discourses, moral or natural, which are laid down in the word of 
God, and run in the veins of it, and which fall under the common sense and 
light of conscience ; of all these an unregenerate man, without any new 
creation in his mind and judgment, may have a knowledge by the assistance 
of the common light of the Spirit, who wrote the Scriptures, and hid these 
treasures in those mines. There is yet this difference, that an unregenerate 
man hath only the notion of these things, without the warmth or life, or 
knowing how to make use of them ; but a believer hath both. 



CHAPTER V. 

The reasons why an unregenerate man cannot spiritually discern spiritual things^ 
because there is so great a disproportion between the object and the faculty ; 
because an ability to know such things was part of the image of God in 
Adam., which being lost utterly by sin, cannot be restored but by a renewing 
of tlie mind itself in regeneration. 

I have explained how defective the mind is in the apprehension of things 
which are spiritual. I shall now assign the reasons why things of such a 
nature cannot be conceived nor discerned by a man in his unregenerate 
condition. 

1. The first reason may be drawn from the vast distance and difference 
that there is between the object and the faculty. The things ai'e spiritual, 
and so above the reach of mere nature, and the man without grace is purely 
natural, and if so, he hath then but natural abilities ; and therefore there 
must be an addition of an higher power, to raise the understanding to con- 
ceive of them in that manner as they ought to be apprehended. For, 7iihil 
agit idtra suam spheram, nothing acts beyond the sphere of its activity ; and 
therefore what is natural cannot mount up to spiritual things, they being so 
much above it. And besides, it is an axiom which holds good even in 
nature, that between the object and the faculty there must be a proportion ; 
and it is for this reason that bodily eyes cannot see and discern a spirit in its 
own spiritual nature, unless it be clothed with some bodily shape, because 
there is no proportion between a body and spirit. Though indeed a bodily 
eye may be elevated, and helped to see that which is afar off and out of 
sight, as by optic-glasses we do, and Stephen's eyes, by extraordinary optics, 
saw Christ in heaven. Acts vii. 53, yet still it must be a body which is so 
seen ; but that bodily eyes should see a spirit, unless presented in some 



152 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK III. 

bodily shape, this cannot be. No more can a man's understanding, being 
but natural, see spiritual things, there being not only a vast distance between 
them (as Solomon says of wisdom, that it is above the reach of a fool : Prov. 
xxiv. 7, ' Wisdom is too high for a fool ; he openeth not his mouth in the 
gate ;') for this might be helped ; but there is a disproportion in the very 
nature of the things themselves, because those which are spiritual are of a 
higher sphere and order of beings, and therefore there must be higher prin- 
ciples than what are purely natural to understand them spiritually, i. e. in 
their native life, and colour, and lively representation, as spiritual. Clothed 
they may be under similitudes, and pictured out, and by this help a natural 
man may view them. And Christ, expressing the mysteries of grace by such 
sensible metaphors, says that he spake earthly things to them, as conde- 
scending in his way and form of speech to their earthly minds and appre- 
hensions: John iii. 12, ' If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe 
not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?' The things 
themselves were spiritual and heavenly, for he had been discoursing of re- 
generation ; but he calls them earthly, because he expressed them by such 
similitudes as here in this chapter he represents to Nicodemus that change 
of nature which the Spirit of God works under the notion of a new birth : 
— John iii. 3, ' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God,' — which Christ did to assist the understanding of Nicodemus in this 
matter. And the apprehensions of godly men are helped by such representa- 
tions; but they farther penetrate the deep and mysterious nature of the 
spiritual things themselves, whilst others look no further than the picture, 
the outward shape and colour which is laid over them ; but the things them- 
selves in their heavenly nature they never see, nor can see. If I speak 
earthly things (says Christ) you hardly understand them, as Nicodemus did 
not, much less will it then be possible to understand those which are 
heavenly (as Christ argues there), i.e., in an heavenly manner, or spiritually. 
And really in that Paul, 1 Cor. ii. 14, puts in so carefully this distinction 
between natural and spiritual, this argues evidently a new power to be re- 
quired in the natural man that may be suitable to spiritual things. Nay, he 
doth not only name a different object materially, i. e., spiritual things, but a 
different act about such objects, and the formal manner in which they are to 
be apprehended, which is spiritually : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' 
This gi'eat difference, then, not only in the objects but in the acts, infers a 
difference between the faculties or powers, for potenticB distinguuntur per actus 
et ohjecta, powers are distinguished by their objects and acts; and as a 
natural faculty exerts natural actions about natural objects, it is a spiritual 
faculty which is conversant in a spiritual manner about spiritual things. 

2. That a man remaining in his state of nature cannot duly understand 
spiritual things, is also evident from this reason, because such an understand- 
ing is part of that image which was lost in Adam, and utterly lost, and there- 
fore cannot be in any man till it be restored, and he be renewed in his mind. 
As Adam could not have had it at first, if God had not created it, so now, 
being lost, it cannot be in any man till it be anew created in his mind : Col, 
iii. 10, ' And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after 
the image of him that created him.' The new man is said to be created after 
God's image, 'iig hmyvuaiv, in knowledge, or unto knowledge, so that there 
must be a new creation of an understanding power, that we may know God 
and spiritual objects. Now if those sparks of knowledge which are left in 
human nature, and are struck into it before any renovation, were of the samg 



Chap. V.J in respect of sin and punishment. 153 

kind, and gave an ability to know God, and the things of God, as we ought, 
then there would need no more but adding new fuel to these sparks by 
bringing new objects, and throwing them in to enkindle them, and make 
them blaze. But the apostle says plainly, that there is need of a new 
creation, and therefore that knowledge or power of knowing which regenerate 
men have is not of the same kind with those little sparks which glimmer in 
unregenerate men. Yea, and therefore Christ, when he would assign a 
reason of Nicodemus his ignorance, and withal shew an absolute need of 
the new birth, he plainly asserts an impossibility of ever seeing God without 
it : John iii. 3-7, ' Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old ? can he 
enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born ? Jesus 
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born again.' Christ affirms a 
man not regenerate, to be so far from entering into the kingdom of God, 
that unless new dispositions be conveyed into his mind, he is incapable of 
seeing it. For, says he, that which is born of the flesh is but flesh ; and 
what is spirit must be born of the Spirit. Now by spirit is meant a new 
radical power in the soul, from which actions proceed, and on which fruits 
do grow : Gal. v. 17-22, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the 
spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; so 
that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led by the spirit, 
ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which 
are these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witch- 
craft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy- 
ings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like : of the which I tell 
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such 
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is 
love, joy, peace, long-sufiering, gentleness, goodness, faith.' Flesh and 
spirit are there opposed as two opposite principles, producing contrary 
efiects, and bring forth such difi"erent fruits as those there mentioned. _ Now 
flesh is a principle rooted in a natural man, and therefore so must spirit he 
too in one who is spiritual. And being such inward radicated principles, 
they clog and obstruct one another's actions, as contrary habits use to do, 
that you cannot do what you would. And that this spirit is new powers 
put into the soul, is evident also from this, that acts are ascribed to this 
spirit, and there are fruits of the spirit enumerated, as well as of the flesh. 
Now in the soul there is nothing but either acts, or habits, or dispositions. 
A new act is not that spirit which is new born in a man, for all acts come 
from the Spirit, and therefore presuppose it ; and therefore it must be a new 
principle and root, and power put in. 

Now, therefore, for a man to be born again in his understanding, is to 
have such a spirit, that is, a new principle of spiritual knowledge wrought 
in his soul, which if he want, he cannot see God's kingdom, or the things 
which belong unto it, for they are spiritual and heavenly, and require an 
heavenly spiritual eye. Yea, and this may be added, that if that which is 
called spirit be wrought by regeneration in any faculty, it is in the under- 
standing, for that is part of the reason of its name ; why it is called spirit ? 
that it is seated in the spirit of the mind, and that this is renewed : Eph. 
iv. 23, ' And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.' 



154 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 



CHAPTER VI. 

An ohjection propounded, If unregenerate men know nothing of spiritual things, 
how is it then that the Scripture speaks of their knowing them, and sinning 
against the light of them? — The answer to it. That they know nothing as 
they ought to know it. — That it is but a false knowledge. — That it may be 
said. That seeing tliey do not see ; and understanding, they do not understand; 
they are yet ignorant, in comparison of that clear knowledge which the re- 
generate have. 

I intend further to proceed in clearing and explaining the blindness and 
ignorance which is in the mind of unregenerate men, and will shew what 
kind of knowledge of spiritual things it is, which a natural understanding 
wants, that I may prove wherein the true sanctification of the soul consists. 
And this I intend to do by framing an answer to an objection which is ready 
to stick in men's minds, and is commonly brought, and so is obvious, and 
lies in our way. And the answering it will be a second way and course of 
demonstrating this truth. 

Obj. The objection is this : ' Have all the workers of iniquity no know- 
ledge ? ' as the Psalmist says, Ps. xiv. 4, ' Have all the workers of iniquity 
no knowledge ? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon 
the Lord,' And are they ignorant not only of those things revealed, which 
are contained in the law, but also of the truth of things revealed in the 
gospel ? How is it then that the apostle speaks of those who sin wilfully 
after they have received the knowledge of the truth ? Heb. x. 26, 27, ' For 
if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, 
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for 
of judgment and :fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.' 
Which there is meant of the gospel revealing the blood of Christ, and the 
fruits and benefits of it, as appears by their sin against it : ver. 29, ' Of how 
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who bath 
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the cove- 
nant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite 
unto the Spirit of grace ? ' Doth not Peter also speak of those who have 
known the way of righteousness, who yet turn from that holy commandment ? 
2 Peter ii. 20-22, * For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world 
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again 
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the 
beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of 
righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy com- 
mandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according 
to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and the sow 
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' Are there not those who pro- 
fess they know God as much as those who are sanctified, and yet deny him in 
works ? Titus i. 16, ' They profess that they know God ; but in M^orks they 
deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work 
reprobate.' They profess all the truths, ways, practices, that godly men do, 
and yet have their minds defiled, and are called unbelievers. Are we blind 
also ? say the Pharisees with wonderment : John ix. 40, 41, ' And some of 
the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, 
Are we blind also ? Jesus said unto them. If ye were blind, ye should have 
no sin : but now ye say, We see : therefore your sin remaineth.' They 
thought they were able to see into the highest or deepest mysteries as far 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 165 

as any other men. Yea, doth not Paul make a supposition of a separation 
between understanding all mysteries, and having all knowledge, and yet 
wanting grace, and having no charity ? And doth not experience evince 
thus much ? 2 Cor. xiii. 1-3, ' This is the third time I am coming to you. 
In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. I 
told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present the second time ; and 
being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all 
others, that, if I come again, I will not spare : since ye seek a proof of 
Christ speaking in me, which to you- ward is not weak, but is mighty in 
you." ; 

Ans. The answer unto this objection will farther clear and evidence this 
great truth of which we are discoursing, viz. the inability of an unregenerate 
man's understanding to apprehend spiritual things. 

1. Therefore in the general, let us but consider, as a foundation of what 
follows, that the Scripture acknowledgeth indeed as much as hath been ob- 
jected, and yet withal tells us, that seeing, they do not see, and hearing, 
they do not hear ; speaking of understanding these mysteries of the kingdom 
of heaven, which are the spiritual things that we speak of: Mat. xiii. 13—16, 
* Therefore speak I to them in parables : because they seeing, see not ; and 
hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is ful- 
filled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and 
shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For 
this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
their eyes they have closed ; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, 
and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should 
be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they 
see : and your ears, for they hear.' In which words our Saviour makes 
both these, viz. seeing spiritual things, and yet an utter blindness as to the 
true discerning of them, to be consistent in the same persons, and to stand 
very well together. We have to the same purpose another Scripture in 
Isa. xiii. 18-20, ' Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who 
is blind, but my servant ? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent ? who is 
blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant ? Seeing many 
things, but thou observest not ; opening the ears, but he heareth not.' Who 
is so blind as my servant ? says God, and he who is perfect, having all 
knowledge at his finger's ends, and so is able and ready to express it unto 
others, and can by outward instruction be an instrument to open their ears 
to hear what he himself hears not ? And seeing many things, says God, yet 
thou observest them not, i. e. thou indeed seest them not to any good pur- 
pose. So that none are more blind than they who have the most knowledge. 
But you will say, This is a riddle ; how can these things be ? Why, truly, 
in no way can these things be reconciled, unless it be acknowledged that 
there is a knowledge of spiritual things which unregenerate men may, and 
do attain to, and yet that there is a knowledge of the same things, which, 
without a change of their minds, they can never acquire : which knowledge, 
because they want, therefore they are said to be blind. As it is said of the 
Samaritans, that they feared God, and yet it is spoken of the same men, that 
they feared not the Lord : 2 Kings xvii. 32-34, ' So they feared the Lord, 
and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, 
which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the 
Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they 
carried away from thence. Unto this day they do after the former manners : 
they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their 
ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commandeth 



156 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.' Now what is the reason, 
that what is in appearance contradictory, is thus asserted of them, but be- 
cause that fear of God, which was truly so, was utterly wanting in them ; and 
that fear indeed which they ought to have had, they were absolutely destitute 
of? So also it is as to the knowledge of spiritual things, which in some sort 
an unregenerate man may have, and yet know nothing of them, as they 
ought to be known by him, to a saving purpose and effect. 

That you may see this more fully in the general notion of it, consider what 
the Scripture says in this point, as it makes that knowledge which unregene- 
rate men have to be no knowledge, in comparison of that which they want: 
llom. iii. 10-12, ' 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 out of the way, they are together become unprofitable ; 
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.' The apostle there speaking of 
the general corruption of mankind, doth as truly say, there is none that 
understandeth, as that there is none who seeketh after God, and as that 
there is none who is righteous ; so as you may as well say, an unregenerate 
man is capable of true righteousness, as of a true understanding of spiritual 
things. The apostle James answerably distinguisheth between a dead and 
living faith : chap. ii. 17, 18, ' Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, 
being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works : shewme 
thy faith without th}' works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.' An 
unactive faith is dead, and it is a working faith that is alive ; so there is a 
knowledge, which, in comparison of working knowledge, that influenceth the 
heart and life of a man by its convincing clearness and evidence, is as a dead 
eye compared to a living one, which is only equivocally called an eye, but 
is not really and naturally so. The eye of an unregenerate mind is a dead 
eye, which, though it may have the semblance of inward light in it, yet it 
is really dull and dead; and it is only the living eye of an understanding 
spiritually enlightened, which hath in it the light of life of which Christ 
speaks : John viii. 12, ' Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am 
the light of the world : he that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness, but 
shall have the light of life.' And now, upon all these accounts, it is no wonder 
if the dead knowledge of the unregenerate is reckoned as none, in comparison of 
the other living knowledge. This knowledge of the holy man is emphatically 
called so, as if the other was none at all ; this getting away deservedly the 
name : Prov. ix. 10, ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom : and 
the knowledge of the holy is understanding.' It is spoken there with an 
emphasis : the knowledge of the holy is understanding, as if that of other 
men was to be reckoned as none. And, indeed, since all their knowledge 
doth not arrive to the right end, but they miss of that salvation and happi- 
ness which the spiritually enlightened attain, it may be said to be nothing but 
blindness, wandering, and error. Thus God says of those who entered not 
into his rest, that they err in their hearts, and have not known his ways : 
Ps. xcv. 10, 11, 'Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and 
said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, and they have not known my 
ways : Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my 
rest.' Well, but more particularly. 

(1.) This first the Scripture tells us expressly, that though unregenerate 
men know never so much, yet they know nothing as they ought to know it : 
1 Cor. viii. 1-3, ' Now as touching things ofi'ered unto idols, we know that 
■we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And 
if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he 
ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.' If 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 157 

a man bavo all knowledge, and it makes him proud, he knows nothing as ho 
ought to know it. The reason why he is not humbled by his knowledge, is 
because his knowledge is faulty, it is not such as it should be ; for if it 
were such it would humble his heart. Now, because there is w-anting iu 
such a man the knowledge which ought to be, therefore the Scripture and 
God reckons it as if it were not at all. 

(2.) The Scripture calls that which an unregenerate man hath, a false 
knowledge, in comparison of that which he ought to have : 1 John ii. 3, 4, 
' And hereby we do Imow that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, 
and the truth is not in him.' He that saith, I know him, and keeps not his 
commandments, is a liar, i. e. if he says he knows God, and is not wrought 
into the obedience of what he knows, that man lies. Now, he could not be 
challenged with a lie if his knowledge was true ; for therefore he lies, because 
he says he knows God, when in deed and in truth he doth not. Therefore 
James calls that faith which consists only in such a knowledge as this, a dead 
faith : chap. ii. 17, ' Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.' 
It is not therefore dead, because it works not, but therefore it works not, be- 
cause it is dead. And why is it dead, but because the spirit, the life, the 
animating form of knowledge is wanting ? As a dead eye is said to be an 
eye, yet equivocally and improperly in comparison of a living eye ; so hath 
this false dead knowledge that name given to it very improperly, for true 
knowdedge hath eternal life joined with it : John xvii. 3, ' And this is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent ;' Ps. cxix. 144, * The righteousness of thy testimonies 
is everlasting : give me understanding, and I shall live.' Give me under- 
standing, says he, i.e. such as is in deed and in truth such, and I shall live. 
The true effects of knowledge are wanting therefore in that which unregenerate 
men have, and this is sufficient to argue it to be false. If one should bring 
you a stone, and tell you it is a loadstone, and yet it wants the essential 
property of the true to draw iron after it, you would reject it as a counterfeit 
one, not but that it is true stone, yet it is not a true loadstone. Or if one 
should bring a drug to you, and you find it works not, nor stirs in you when 
you have taken it, you would say that it was not true and right. Thus in 
knowledge, that is a true knowledge of things spiritual, which draws the heart 
after it, and works in and upon that heart. And, therefore, so immediate 
is the connection between true knowing and doing, that the one is put for the 
other : Jer. xxii. 15, 16, ' Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in 
cedar ? did not thy father eat and di-ink, and do judgment and justice, and 
then it was well with him ? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; 
then it was well with him.' Speaking of the obedience of good Josiah, * He 
reheved the oppressed,' &c. Was not this, says God, to know me ? Thus 
he puts knowing for doing. And so there is a hearing and a learning which 
draws the heart to come unto Christ : John vi. 44, 45, ' No man can come 
to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him : and I will raise 
him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets. And they shall be 
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath 1 earned of 
the Father, cometh unto me.' Every one that hath heard and learned of the 
Father, cometh unto me ; and this hearing and learning is the Father's draw- 
ing. Such is the effect of true spiritual knowledge, which the knowledge of 
the unregenerate wants, and therefore is defective in the essential property 
of uue knowledge. 



158 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The difference between the knowledge that an unregenerate man hath of spiritual 
things, and the knowledge of one regenerate. — That it doth not consist only 
in degrees, or in the addition of a greater measure of knowledge to one than 
to the other, nor in that the knowledge of the one is speculative, but of the 
other practical. — Though this is some part, yet it is not the whole of the dif- 
ference. — Reasons assigned for it. 

Now, then, from all that hath been discoursed in the preceding chapter, 
it is apparent that there is a difference, and a great one too, between that 
knowledge which is in an unregenerate man, whose understanding and judg- 
ment hath not received any light from heaven, and that knowledge which is 
in a man whose whole spirit is sanctified ; yea, and so great and vast a 
difference, as the one is said to be no knowledge in comparison of the other. 
That therefore which remains for me to do, is to shew you this their differ- 
ence, and wherein it lies ; and this not only in the effects of them, which are 
more apparent, but in the causes, principles, and nature of them, which 
make them to differ, and from which you shall see how those differing effects 
flow. Let us a little inquire into them. 

1. Some say that the difference between sanctifying knowledge, and that 
in the minds of men unregenerate, lies only in degrees of knowledge, and 
not at all in kind, i. e. that both are of the same nature, and have the same 
acts and objects, but the one is a greater knowledge, and the other less ; as 
heat in water is the same kind of heat that heat in fire is, but hath not the 
same degree ; for fire is more intensively hot. As therefore heat in water 
may be boiled up to so high a degree as to expel the form of water, and bring 
in the form of fire, so may, and is (say they) the knowledge in an unregene- 
rate man, when converted, actuated so far, and made so intense, as it expels 
sin and darkness ; and thus having attained to a certain degi-ee, that proves 
sanctifying now, which was not so before. And so even in this sense, unre- 
generate men may be said to be blind, because they want that degree of 
knowledge which a man sanctified hath ; as a man that can see, yet not very 
well, is called purbfind, though not stone-bliud. And thus the apostle calls 
him blind, who is ^u-uwra^wi', that neither doth nor can see afar off: 2 Peter 
i. 9, ' But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and 
hath forgotten that he was purged from all sins.' Now, indeed, this differ- 
ence between them is true, but it is not all. It is true, indeed, because 
a regenerate man, when converted, knows all he did before, and, moreover, 
hath a farther degree of knowledge added ; a more full, strong, intense degree 
of knowledge than he had before when unconverted ; he hath now a more 
complete conviction ofjthings, whereof himself was not, and no other man is, 
so fully persuaded. But yet this is not all ; for if the difference lay only in 
adding more degrees of knowledge, then why is a man that hath many 
reasons in his mind to convince him of such a truth or practice, yet uncon- 
vinced and unconvei-ted ? Why is not his heart wrought on effectually, 
whenas one that hath perhaps one motive or consideration impressed on 
him, yet is wrought on powerfully by it ? As is the case of many a poor 
Christian, who hath not so many notions of the truths of the gospel, nor can 
discourse so readily of them, nor say so much for himself as the other mere 
speculative Christian, and yet his will is more moved by what he knows, and 
his heart affected more. Therefore certainly it is not simply an addition of 
more degrees that doth the business, as if it were the same case ; as in 



CbAP. VII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. lo9 

physic, that though the taking of twenty grains of such a drug may not work, 
yet if one or two more be added, it will. There is a faith (Christ tells us), 
and so consequently a knowledge, that the least grain of it, even as small as 
a gi-ain of mustard seed, is powerful to save : Mat. xiii. 31, 32, * The king- 
dom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and 
sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but when it is 
grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the 
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.' Such is the nature 
of grace, and so of sanctifying knowledge too ; and therefore the difference 
between that and common gi-ace and knowledge consists not only in degrees ; 
there is the smoking flax, which though it breaks not forth into fire, yet is 
true grace, and shall get the victory : Mat. xii. 20, ' A bruised reed shall 
he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judg- 
ment unto victory.' And there is a knowledge, which though it hath more 
light, yet it hath not heat answerable to cause a smoke, which the other hath, 
which argues a farther difference than what is merely gradual, and that dif- 
ference to be in the nature of the knowledge itself. 

2. A second difference assigned is taken from the several and differing 
seats and parts of the understanding, in which the knowledge of the one and 
the other is said to reside, and take possession of ; so as the nature of their 
subjects being diverse, they are said in this respect also to be different. It 
is in short thus : the knowledge which unregenerate men have, though it be 
a habit in the mind, yet it is fixed only in the outwardmost and upper part 
of the understanding, into which all things knowable do come, and may 
come, vphose oflice is barely to take a view of things, and contemplate them, 
and there is an end, and it hath no more to do. This we call the specula- 
tive understanding, or barely knowing knowledge. But, then, besides this, 
there is another room or part of our understanding, whose office it is to 
judge of the goodness of all things, which you know so as to move your 
wills and affections to the things which you apprehend and esteem best for 
you, and to guide you in your actions. This is called the practical under- 
standing, or working and affecting knowledge. Now, they say, that into this 
part of the understanding in unregenerate men, the knowledge of spiritual 
things never enters, and it receives them not, but they are shut up only in 
the other. But now in a regenerate man the knowledge of spiritual things 
is chiefly seated in the practical understanding, whose office, privilege, pre- 
rogative, and place it is to guide and steer all. And this is the reason why 
the one barely knows these things, and the other knows them not so* as to 
be affected with them ; for though an unregenerate man's speculative eye be 
opened, yet his practical eye is shut ; and so seeing, he sees them not ; but 
in a regenerate man God opens both eyes, that he sees them fully to all 
purposes. To clear this farther, I thus express it : in your judgments there 
are two several courts kept, and two judges in those courts. The office of 
the one, viz. that which sits in the speculative court, is barely to inquire 
into the truth of things, and their goodness, only in the general, and to 
examine this merely in comparing truth with truth, by notional principles of 
reason, and so to go no further. As an angel hath an understanding power 
to judge intemperance and uncleanness to be evil and sinful, as well as men 
do, or as they themselves do know pride to be so, but yet they barely know 
this, for they are uncapable of inclinations or affections to such vices ; so 
a gentleman hath an understanding capable of knowing the mystery of a 
trade, as well as he who lives upon it ; but yet this doth not direct him to 
work on it, or to live by it. Now, besides this general court which takes all 
* Qu. ' knows them so ' '? — Ed. 



160 AN UXP.EGEXERATE MAn's GUILTIXESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

things knowable into consideration, there is anotlier court kept by another 
judge, the practical understanding, whose office it is to inquire, what of all 
the things a man knows is best for him, on which to spend his chief inten- 
tion and aflections. 

And that by which this judge measures things, and the rules by which he 
goes in examining them, is what is most profitable, or pleasant, or fittest for 
me upon all occasions and actions, and accordingly passeth sentence; which 
sentence all the rest which is in a man stands unto, and puts in execution. 
Now, then, to apply this to the thing in hand : take an unregenerate man, 
and in him the judge of the first court, viz. his speculative understanding, 
or knowing knowledge, which inquires but into the truth of things, may be 
enlit'htened with much knowledge of those which are spiritual, and be in- 
formed of those notional rules of tnith whereby to judge aright of the ways 
both of sin and grace, and to pass this sentence also, that the ways of grace 
are best, and that this is a certain truth, and that the ways of sin are worst; 
and that to swear and be profane, to steal or to be drunk, to lie or cheat, do 
deserve death, and bring damnation. But then when any particular practice 
of a sin, and a bill about it, comes to be read in the second court, where the 
practical understanding sits judge, whose office is to examine what is best 
for him to be done, whether to commit such a sin, or to practise such a 
duty; this judge being judge for the man (as the other was for the truth), 
and examining all by principles of pleasure, &c., self-love being the pleader 
and swayer of this judge, rev?rseth the sentence of the former court, and 
passeth one quite contrary. We have an instance of the judgment and sen- 
tence which the first judge and court pronounceth in Rom. i. 32, ' Who, 
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are 
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do 
them.' We have an instance of the sentence of the other court in Rom. 
ii. 1, ' Therefore thou art inexcusable, man, whosoever thou art that 
judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for 
thou that judgest dost the same things.' He that passed the former judg- 
ment and sentence against such wicked practices, yet doth the same things. 
Now, before he acts thus, there must first be a sentence passed, for the un- 
derstanding must assent to every action of a man ; and therefore now the 
other judge, or part of the understanding, being corrupt, gives a verdict 
clean contrary to the first, viz., that he may do those things which by his 
first speculative judgment he had condemned, and thinks he shall escape : 
Rom. ii. 3, ' And thinkest thou this, man, that judgest them which do 
such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of 
God ■? ' So that by reason of these two several judges in a man he con- 
demns himself in what he formerly allowed : Rom. xiv. 22, ' Hast thou 
faith •? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not 
himself in that thing which he alloweth.' But now in a regenerate man 
here is the difiereuce, that both these judges are enlightened and informed, 
and ao one and the same way in their sentence, and an act passeth against 
every act of sin, and for the performance of every known duty in both courts; 
and so this man is aftected and stirred, and hath the knowledge in the active 
and working, which the other hath not. Though often in an unregenerate 
man the judge of the practical-, court may pass a sentence to forbear a sin, 
or to do a ^ood duty, yet it is extorted by the clamour and importunity of 
the conscience, which is the judge of the other court ; as the unjust_ judge 
did the poor widow right in her cause, and pronounced sentence in her 
favour, beinc moved by her importunity, though otherwise he cared not for 
Tioht or wronc : Luke xviii. 4, o, ' And he would not for a while : but after- 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. IGl 

ward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man ; yet, 
because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lost by her continual 
coming she weary me.' 

But though there be much use of this distinction, yet this is not all the 
difference between one and the other. There are indeed two such distinct 
acts and offices of man's understanding, though it is all but one faculty, in- 
somuch as many who know things speculatively know them not practically 
at all ; as many scholars. They are like physicians, who know by the rules 
of physic that such meat is ill and unwholesome, and yet will follow the rule 
of pleasure, and eat it, if delicious, though hurtful to the health. So that 
indeed to have the mind and understanding practically enlightened, is a 
new and distinct work of the Holy Ghost, which all have not, who yet have 
much knowledge. But yet this is not all the difference between the know- 
ledge of a regenerate and unregenerate man. 

1. Because even flnregenerate men have their understandings practically 
wrought on by spiritual things, i. e. they have a working light, an affecting 
knowledge set up in them, to cause them to do much, as well as to know 
much : 2 Peter ii. 20, * For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the 
world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they 
are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with 
them than the beginning ;' and Heb. vi. 4-6, ' For it is impossible for those 
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were 
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, 
and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them 
again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God 
afresh, and put him to an open shame.' They are said to be enlightened, 
and to taste, i.e. with such a knowledge as lets in a taste of the powers of the 
world to come, though this be a distinct and further work than barely to teach 
men to know them. 

2. Because if herein lay all the difference, then at least one part of the un- 
derstanding might be said as fully to be sanctified in an unregenerate as a 
regenerate man, seeing the speculative understanding in both the states hath 
but the same light, the difference being only in the practical ; whereas the 
apostle prays here, in 1 Thes. v. 3, that the whole spirit be sanctified. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

That there is a vast difference between the knoivledge of a man unregenerate, and 
that which a holy soul hath of spiritual things. — It is demomtrated, and the 
causes of it assigned. 

We must search out some greater and more distinguishing difference be- 
tween the knowledge which unregenerate men have of spiritual things and 
that of the regenerate, than any before mentioned. We must find out such 
a difference as may make it appear, that though an unregenerate man know 
never so much, whether speculatively or practically, yet there is a knowledge 
of both these sorts in one sanctifyingly enlightened, which he utterly wants. 
We must inquire out that there is a difference even in their speculation of 
spiritual things, as well as in the working or practical knowledge, and that a 
new habit and principle of regeneration must be infused into our understand- 
ings to produce true knowledge in both kinds. 

1. As to the speculative knowledge, that there is a difference, I demonstrate 

VOL. X. Ii 



1G2 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

thus, and withal assign the causes of it. Where there is a different represen- 
tation of the thing to be known, there is a different knowledge of that thing. 
For example, if a man be represented to us but in his picture, though never 
so lively, or if we have a description of his good conditions but by hearsay 
only, it is a faint, dead knowledge, and vastly different from what we have 
when we behold and are acquainted with the man himself, as we all see by 
experience. And there is a plain reason of it, for the cause by which we come 
to have the knowledge of things is this, that there is a likeness, a similitude, 
a resemblance, and image of the thing which we know brought to our minds, 
and imprinted there; as it is thus in seeing things, so in knowing too. Now, 
therefore, as those resemblances, species, and shapes of things formed and 
drawn in our minds do differ, so must our knowledge also. But the image 
or resemblance of the man, which my mind takes of him when I see himself 
and am acquainted with him, is of another kind from that which my mind 
took of him when I saw but his picture, or heard him described by another, 
the one being called s^wcies propria, his own proper representation, the other 
species alicnn, a foreign and borrowed one. To apply this, then, to the pur- 
pose in hand ; such and so great a difference is there between a regenerate 
man's knowing and viewing spiritual things, and an unregenerate man's 
knowing thera, though he be never so much enlightened, for the images, the 
likenesses, the resemblances, the representations of them do differ in this 
manner before said. For the ideas or images, which in a regenerate man's 
understanding be formed and fashioned, are taken, and begotten from the pre- 
sence, real representation, and sense of the things themselves as really, truly 
in their native proper being, and spiritual hue, and shape presented to them, 
as things bodily are to the eyes of your bodies ; which they are not to any 
unregenerate man in the world ; but the most enlightened among them have 
them only by hearsay, or by some exact picture drawn of them. So God in 
his holiness and purity was at first known to Job only by what he had 
heard of it, but afterward by his own sight : Job xlii. 5, 'I have heard of 
thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth thee.' It was not 
a knowledge engendered barely by hearsay, but by God's revealing his face, 
and the beauty of his holicess to him, which humbled him. God also, in 
his fatherly love and kindness in Christ, is only thus known : John vi. 45, 
46, ' It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. 
Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh 
unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, 
he hath seen the Father.' No man hath seen the Father but he who is of 
God, i.e. who is regenerate, and taught by him. And such a real represen- 
tation of those deep thoughts of God in pardoning as a Father, those bowels 
of mercy hanging out in him, a natural man never saw as the regenerate do. 
Thus also Jesus Christ and his righteousness, which is his glory, are repre- 
sented in a real true manner to a believer : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with 
open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' It 
is beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, not in a representation taken 
from a bare picture, but a real image of the person as that in a glass is, and 
which represents his glory in that manner as no picture can describe it. So 
that he is said to reveal himself to a man : John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my 
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that 
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will mani- 
fest myself to him.' And he is also said to dwell in our hearts by faith : 
Eph. iii. 17-19, ' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye 
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 



Chap. YIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 1G3 

what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might he filled with all the ful- 
ness of God.' By this means we are truly acquainted with him, and have 
real communion with him, as a man hath with his friend. And as to the 
work of grace, a regenerate man knows it not only by hearsay, as you see the 
picture of an herb in some herbal, but he beholds grace growing in the gar- 
den of his own heart. Thus Christ, speaking of grace and regeneration in 
John iii., expresseth himself: ver. 11, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not 
our witness.' We testify (says he) what we know, and have seen, whenas 
temporaries see but the counterfeit of these things in their hearts. They 
have but a ' form of godhness,' not ' the power,' 2 Tim. iii. 5, and therefore 
know not what the real thing means ; and therefore their apprehensions of it 
must needs be differing from those of a believer, who sees and feels it in 
himself. Now, if you would know the reason of this difference in the pro- 
ductive causes : 

1. A regenerate man hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him, which a 
man unregenerate hath not ; that Spirit to whom all things are continuallj 
present, though absent from us ; and, therefore, he dwelling in the man, can 
set those things before him. He who calls things that are not, as if they 
were, can also present to us things absent, and represent them as they are.. 
Nor can he only do this, but also open our eyes and put a principle into us 
to behold those things which he placeth bare and naked to our sight. This, 
is an art peculiar to himself, which no angel nor creature can imitate. The 
devil, indeed, shewed Christ the glory of the world, and fancy in men asleep 
paints out things to them, but still they represent not the things themselves,. 
but only the pictures of them ; but now the Spirit of God reveals the glory 
of Christ as in a glass : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' Beholding as in a glass,' says he,, 
• the glory of the Lord.' And it is by the Spirit of the Lord this is done,, 
for it follows ' As by the Spirit of the Lord.' And so God is said to reveal 
these things by his Spirit : 1 Cor. ii. 9-12, ' But, as it is written. Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath 
revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit seareheth all things, yea,, 
the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save 
the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man,, 
but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the worlds 
but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are 
freely given to us of God.' The things God hath prepared, — ^justification, 
adoption, sanctification, glory, — all these are prepared from everlasting, 
which things eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into 
the heart of a man, that is, a natural man, for he opposeth him to us icho love 
him. Now, his meaning then is, that there is such a revelation, such a 
species, form, and image of these things in their minds (who love God, and 
have them revealed by his Spirit), as their eyes never saw, nor ever came 
into their minds who are natural men. That is, the species propria:, the true 
proper images of the things they never received, however they may have 
them from other men's reports. Their eyes may see them, as so described, 
and their ears hear them, as so reported, and they may see them too by the 
pictures drawn by the Holy Ghost, and represented by him in the Word of 
God; for the Holy Ghost in so doing (as in enlightening of temporaries) deceives 
them not, as a painter doth not who draws the true picture of a man ; yet 
still the spiritual, living, and real manner of presenting these things to the 
mind the Holy Ghost vouchsafes to none but unto those who love God, and 



161 AN UXREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

€0 are regenerate ; it is to them and them only this favour is conferred. These 
things, as to this manner of discovering them, are hid from the wise and 
prudent of the world, and revealed only to babes, for to them only it pleaseth 
the Spirit of God to manifest them : Mat. xi. 25, 26, ' At that time Jesus 
answered and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, be- 
cause thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
them unto babes. Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.' 

•2. A regenerate man hath a new principle of faith infused into him, which 
one unregenerate wants ; and by this faith he hath a sight of spiritual things 
which the other hath not. It is the light of this faith which, as it gives sub- 
sistence to things hoped for, Heb. xi. 1, so it elevates and helps out our 
sight to see things which are otherwise invisible, which principle the unre- 
generate wanting fall short in the sight of them. They, wanting this new 
eye, cannot receive the real representation of them, as a sore eye cannot bear 
to behold the sun in its glory. It is therefore made a difference between 
l)elievers and others, that they are able to behold with open face the glory of 
the Lord, which others cannot, 2 Cor. iii. 18. And to the same purpose 
Christ speaks, when he says that the world cannot receive the Spirit : John 
xiv. 17, ' Even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him, for he dwelleth 
with 3'ou, and shall be in you.' He means as to the business of knowledge ; 
' The world ' (says he) ' cannot receive him, for it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him,' nor these his effects, nor real representations of spiritual 
things. 

From what hath been discoursed we may make these deductions or in- 
;ferences. 

1. Then unregenerate men may truly be said to want the real knowledge 
of spiritual things, and to want even that true speculative or knowing know- 
ledge, which is to be had of them. For knowledge of a thing by hearsay, or 
by the picture of it, beside that it is often subject to error and misconceit, 
since the likeness which our minds frame to themselves from such represen- 
tations proves other than the thing itself is indeed and in truth, when we 
iCome to see it ; and hence there are such misconceits and mistakings of the 
work of grace in unregenerate men's minds. But I say, besides this, if we 
could suppose the conceptions and thoughts answerable to the description 
given, or the picture drawn, yet this knowledge, compared with that which a 
man hath when he seeth the thing itself, may be said to be no knowledge. 
In ordinary speech no man saith he knows a man when he hath but heard 
of him, and hath not seen him, nor is acquainted with him ; so, nor can they 
be said to know spiritual things who have seen but the pictures or descrip- 
tions of them. For they do not know them spiritually (as the apostle says, 
1 Cor. ii. 14), that is, in a manner answerable to their natures, and as they 
are to be known ; that is, in their native colour, and hue, and proper like- 
ness, so as to form such conceits in our minds of them as are homogeneal, 
and proportioned to the things. 

2. Hence it also appears, that there is something known by a godly man 
concerning spiritual things, w'hich is not, nor can be known by any other, 
nor yet can be expressed by himself to another. And the reason of it is evi- 
dent ; for let a man see the liveliest picture that is, and the best description, 
and afterward see the man so pictured or described, he then seeth some- 
thing which he saw not before, and something, too, which could not be pic- 
tured nor expressed ; so that there is a difierence, for something remains 
unknown in the thing which cannot be drawn in the picture ; as something 
there is in fire which cannot be painted, viz., the heat ; something in the 



Chap. VIII,] in respect of sin and punishment. 1C5 

snn which cannot be delmeated, viz. the light and glory of it, which no 
cjlours are bright enough to resemble ; something there is in man which 
can be represented iu no picture, viz. his soul and Hfe ; nay, something in 
his countenance cannot be drawn, viz. some peculiar lively features ; so 
that still there is something wanting in the picture which is supplied by the 
sight of the thing. Now, then, answerably there is something in God, and 
Christ, and in the work of gi-ace, which all the expressions of the tongues of 
men and angels, all openings of Scriptures do not, and cannot make known, 
unless the Spirit strike in with his art, and use all these as glasses to repre- 
sent the things to you, as he doth to the saints. The native glory of them 
goes beyond expressions, which all fall short of the life; and yet a man, 
who hath seen the things, can but use the hke expressions, if he would go 
about to describe them (which expressions, one who hath not seen the 
things, may use as well as he), but yet he knows more than he can express. 
Now, therefore, if it be asked (as often it is). Is there so great a difference 
between one knowledge and the other ? why ! then express it to us, let 
us hear distinctly what it is ; what is it you see, which we do not ? 
what have you apprehensions of, which we are not able to conceive, as well 
as you ? To this what answer can a regenerate man make, for he seeth 
what cannot be painted or described, and therefore to make it known to the 
other man, he must lend him his eyes, for nothing else will be able to make 
him see it ; as, for example, there are two talking about a country, whereof 
the one hath seen a map of it, knows its situation, fashion of things, cus- 
toms, &c., or hath heard all these described as fully as can be expressed ; 
the other hath travelled through the country, and seen all its cities, cus- 
toms, and fashions with his own eyes. If he that never travelled should 
say, what is it you know which I know not ? the traveller is able to express 
nothing to him which he hath not heard, and is able to relate ; but yet that 
traveller is very well assured that there is a great deal of difference between 
his knowledge and what the other hath, and that he knows something which 
the other doth not, nor can know, unless he went into the country as he 
hath done. Thus also a man hath heard a lesson in music, which he may 
prick out to another, with all the grounds of it, but yet unless he hath heard 
the tune sung, which another man hath, there is something of which he is 
ignorant about the music of it, which that other man knows, which yet he 
cannot express to him. Thus, likewise in spiritual matters, there is a new 
name given which none knows but he who receives it, Eev. ii. 18 ; that is, 
there is something in it which he cannot express to another, for if he could, 
then that other might know as well as he. And thus, too, when the apostle, 
1 Cor. ii. 14, 15, speaks of this differing knowledge, * the spiritual man,' 
says he, ' discerneth all things, and is discerned of none ;' that is, what he 
knows none can enter into the secret of. He knows all that others can, but 
what he knows further, they cannot, nor can he express. 

3. Hence it comes to pass, that the knowledge which a godly man hath 
of spiritual things is an evident, infallible, satisfying knowledge, but it is not 
so in others. 

(1.) It is evident, because he sees the things themselves, which leaves a 
true living likeness of themselves in the mind. Faith, therefore, being the 
subsistence of things hoped for, is also the evidence of things not seen, Heb. 
xi. 1. The sight, then, of a real true thing leaves an evidence behind it 
that it is true. Christ having a real true body appeals to the judgment of the 
senses to testify that it was so. What though a man's eye may be deceived 
by apparitions, and in dreams things are so lively painted out in our fancies, 
that men think they see, and hear, and eat ? yet this prejudiceth not, but 



166 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

that a man who eats true meat knows infallibly he is not deceived. Sure I 
am, says the man born blind (when his eyes were opened), John ix. 25, 
that ' whereas I was blind, now I see.' Other men may think spiritual 
things to be true, because of their fine and exact coherence, and the whole 
system of them is so fair a story ; but a godly man knows them to be true, 
and gives a certain infallible assent to the story, whereof he is an eye-wit- 
ness, for he sees the things done and acted in his own heart : 1 John v. 20, 
* And we know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understand- 
ing, that we may know him that is true : and we are in him that is true, even 
in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life ;' 1 John 
ii. 3, 4, ' And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his com- 
mandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his command- 
ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him ;' and you have (says the 
apostle) ' Christ crucified before your eyes,' Gal. iii. 1. 

(2.) It is a satisfying knowledge. When a man sees but pictures of 
things, or but by hearsay, the mind is not satisfied, but desires to see fur- 
ther, as the queen of Sheba did, when she heard of Solomon's wisdom, 
1 Kings X. 1, 6, 7 ; one who hath seen but the pictures of anatomy is not 
contented till he sees a real body cut up ; one who sees a country described, 
is not satisfied in his knowledge till he hath travelled through it. When a 
man sees the things, then, and not till then, doth his mind rest satisfied. 
Though he may desire indeed to see more about them, yet he is satisfied 
that this is the true thing itself which he sees and knows, he is assured that 
grace can be no other thing than what he sees and feels it to be. And 
though he may come to have greater degrees of knowledge, and to see more 
into it, yet still he shall find it to be no other thing than what at present he 
apprehends it to be. So then he seeth into the farthest end and meaning 
of the word of truth, which another doth not : 2 Cor. iii. 13, ' And not as 
Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not 
stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.' 



CHAPTER IX. 

The uses of the doctrine. We by this see hotv malignant an evil sin is, which 
infects the whole man, and how great a work regeneration is, which cures and 
restores a soxd so totally depraved, — That it deeply concerns us to search into 
our hearts, that we may know the evil which is in us. 

We have seen that the whole nature of man is depraved by sin, and that 
the direful contagion hath not only fallen on the lower animal faculties, but 
hath ascended to the higher, the mind, and understanding. Now the uses, 
and practical improvement we may make, are these. 

Use 1. Is all and every part in man corrupted ? This gives us a sad dis- 
covery how great an evil sin is. You account that a very malignant disease 
which reacheth but to one member, if it spoils it, or makes it useless ; if it 
lames but a joint, or takes away an eye. How much greater, and more dan- 
gerous is this spiritual disease, which extends itself to all that is in man, and 
vitiates his whole nature ! It is therefore compared to such bodily diseases, 
which spread over all the parts, to a leprosy (for by that it was typified in 
the ceremonial law) that goes over all the body. You account that a poi- 
sonous creature, and loathe it, which hath poison but in one part, as ser- 
pents have it only in their stings, and vipers in their teeth, so as when they 
are taken out, the rest is not poisonous. But this poison of sin hath soaked 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 167 

all, and pierced through every part of us. It is in our souls, as the soul is 
in the body, as it were tola in toto, et tola in qualihet parte, the whole of sin 
is in the whole soul, and in every part too. If we look but to one part, the 
tongue, James says of it, there is a world of evil in that little member : James 
iii. 5, C, ' Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. 
Behold how great a matter a httle fire kindleth ! And the tongue is a tire, 
a world of iniquity : so is the tongue amongst our members, that it detileth 
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire 
of hell.' How many worlds hast thou then in thy whole man, which, though 
in itself is but a little world, yet contains in it many worlds of sin ! If thy 
tongue hath in it so much evil, what hath thy will, thy understanding, thy 
desires ? These are more active than that little part of thine, though it be 
so moveable. They never lie still, but are always working. They have 
more distempers in them than are in all the parts of thy body, which, ac- 
cording to physicians' reckoning, amount to so vast a number. If there are 
(as they say) three hundred several diseases incident to the eye, there are 
more in the eye of thy soul. Look inward, then, and sagaciously search out 
all those noisome distempers, which are in all thy faculties, and loathe thyself 
at the sight of them. 

Use 2. If the whole soul be infected with such a desperate disease, what a 
great and difficult work is it to regenerate, to restore men again to spiritual 
life and vigour, when every part of them is seized by such a mortal dis- 
temper ! How great a cure doth the Spirit of God effect in restoring a soul 
by sanctifying it ! To heal but the lungs or the liver, if corrupted, is 
counted a great cure, though performed but upon one part of thee ; but all 
thy inward parts are very rottenness : Ps. v. 9, ' For there is no faithfulness 
in their mouth, their inward part is very wickedness ; their throat is an open 
sepulchre, they flatter with their tongue.' How great a cure is it then to 
heal thee ! Such as is only in the skill and power of God to do. And the 
universal medicine he makes use of is the gospel, by which all the diseases 
of the soul are healed : the blind, the lame, the deaf, and all other are re- 
stored by receiving the gospel : Mat. xi. 5, ' The blind receive their sight, 
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are 
raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.' 

Use 3. Be you all exhorted to search into your own hearts, and make it 
your most inquisitive study to know the variety of corruptions which are 
in them. 

This is an use as proper to this doctrine as any other, and this I premise 
to all that is to follow in the discovery of the corruption of our nature, that 
in all the rest of the particulars, you may have this use in your eye. And, 
indeed, that you may know what is in man, and so have an exact knowledge 
of yourselves, is the principal design for which I fixed on this subject ; and 
therefore, in all that I shall say in the prosecuting it, I desire you to keep 
this use in your sight, and to search still in your hearts, as any particular 
corruption is discovered, to find whether it be in you, or not. I thought 
best to premise ere I go any farther, and the rather do I set you on work thus 
beforehand, with some general directions how to inquire into your hearts, 
that having first tried what work you can make of it yourselves, you may be 
better able to understand the discoveries of particular defilements, which 
hereafter I shall make, you having first taken a view of such particulars in 
your own hearts, which will make them good, and evidence the truth of 
them to yon. And here it may be truly said, that of all discourses, and dis- 
coveries," they are the most difficult, which are concerning the inward work- 
ings of grace and sin. As no study is more hard than anatomy, which 



168 AN UNEEGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

disconrseth of the parts of man's body, unless a man hath seen first some 
body cut up, and then none is more easy, certain, and evident ; so also it is 
in an anatomy lecture of the soul, and heart ; and therefore the figures I shall 
draw and cut of the understanding, will, and afiections in the following dis- 
course, will be difficult to understand, unless you withal, as T shall go along, 
look inward to see in your own hearts those several parts of coiTuption, which 
the pictures, though never so well drawn, will otherwise but darkly represent. 
To do thus, will perhaps be a work very difficult to some, who never yet were 
acquainted with themselves, who have had their eyes turned outwards all their 
lives, and never turned them inward to look into their hearts. I remember 
Julius Scaliger hath a saying, that there be two things in philosophy, which 
do conceal, and hide themselves from man's understanding. Ens primum, et 
Materia prima. The first being, or God, and the first matter of all things, 
or that chaos, and confused heap. Gen i. 1, out of which all things were 
made. The one is incomprehensible, /)ro/)?er summam suam p)erJectionem, by 
reason of his infinite perfection ; the other is unperceptible, propter summam 
suam imperfectionem, because of its greatest imperfection. This is true in 
divinity also, and as to our present purpose, that God and a man's heart 
are things most unsearchable : God, because of the infinite purity that is in 
him : Rom. xi. 33, '0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know- 
ledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past find- 
ing out !' How Httle a portion is heard of him ? says Job : Job xxvi. 14, 
' Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him ? 
but the thunder of his power who can understand ?' And the heart is un- 
searchable, because it is a vast deep chaos of all confusion, and disorder, and 
hath bundles, Prov. xxii. 15, yea, worlds of folly in it ; Jer, xvii. 9, ' The 
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know 
it ?' None but God that made it, who is greater than our hearts, and yet 
he hath appointed means, whereby we may be helped to know, and search 
them, which I shall now enumerate. 

1. God hath put a Ught of conscience within you, which, though it is in 
every man by nature, yet it is a candle set up, and Hghted at the sun, which 
' enlightens every man that comes into the world :' John i. 9, compared with 
Prov. XX. 27, ' The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the 
inward parts of the belly.' The chambers of the belly some read it. So 
that, as in a man's body, when cut up, you find several rooms prepared for 
the various animal offices, vital, natural, &c., as in anatomy we see, and these 
distinguished by several partitions, as the midrifi", the diaphragm, &c., 
thus is it also in the soul of man, where there are spirit, soul, understand- 
ing, will, afiections, &c., as so many difi"erent chambers. Now that light of 
conscience God hath placed in these dark rooms, to manifest all that is in 
them ; and though he hath framed your bodies so, as there is not a case- 
ment made to see through it what entrails and inward parts a man hath, yet 
he hath made one for the soul : 1 Cor. ii. 11, ' For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him ?' 

2. Because this light of natural conscience is very dim, and by it you can 
discern bat very little of what is in your hearts, therefore God also hath 
given you his word, which is a quicker discemer of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart : Heb. iv. 12, ' For the word of God is quick, and powerful, 
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discemer of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart.' It divides between soul and spirit, and 
cuts the heart open, so as to make a nice and accurate dissection, and shews 
everjthing that is in it, and all that is done there. It is the most sharp 



Chap. IX.] in eespect of sin and punishment. 1G9 

anatomising knifo which can be used, as it is compared in Heb. iv. 12. 
It hath the key of knowledge, as Christ calls it, rriv xXiiha. r^; yi/wffsw;, and 
the lock for which it is made is man's heart, of which the several faculties 
are the wards. And as it opened Lydia's heart, it opens all ours, and 
discovers what is within ; as the apostle speaks of prophesying, that it hath 
such an effect : 1 Cor xiv. 24, 25, ' But if all prophesy, and there come in 
one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged 
of all : And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so falling 
down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a 
truth.' 

3. Because natural conscience, enlightened by the word, is not enough, 
therefore God farther renews in his children the spirit of their minds, Eph. 
iv. 23, as to put off, so to discern the corruptions of the old man, which are 
in him through lusts. The spiritual corruptions whereof, which are essen- 
tially contrary to the spiritual workings of grace, are not, nor can be dis- 
cerned, by any other eye than one so renewed. It is the spiritual man which 
discerneth all things, 1 Cor. ii. 15. Conscience, indeed, discerns the gross 
defilements of the soul ; but itself being defiled, Titus i. 16, and muddied 
like muddy water, you cannot see your face distinctly in it, so as to descry 
the less perceivable blemishes. 

4. Because this renewed spirit also is but imperfect, and therefore dim- 
sighted, and indeed the light of conscience, and of the word, and of the 
sanctified soul too, all put together, of themselves can do little or nothing 
without the light of God's Spirit, therefore God hath appointed his own 
Spirit to be in us, to search our hearts : Jer. xvii. 10, ' I the Lord search 
the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and 
according to the fruit of his doings.' And for this reason David, when he 
had done all that he could, calls upon God to try and search him. And 
when the light of this spirit enters in but at a cranny of the soul, it mani- 
fests those defilements in it which were before unseen ; as the sunbeams 
shining into a dark room, shew those little dusts or motes in the air which 
were undiscerned ; nay, the chairs and stools in it could hardly be seen 
before. 

Now, having all these helps, set upon the search of your hearts and spirits. 
Though they be desperately wicked, and every part corrupted, even the spirit 
itself, which should discern and pass judgment on things, yet you have 
superior aids whereby you may be sufliciently assisted. Keep your hearts 
and consciences pure from gross defilements, else it will be impossible to 
find out spiritual corruptions of the spirit and judgment, into which yet we 
are first and chiefly to inquire. If a looking-glass be dirty, little can be seen 
in it, but if it be rubbed clean, and kept clear, we may discern the least 
spots. Make further use of the Hght of the word to discover what is in you. 
The apostle Paul, though he could not but discern grosser lusts, sensual 
lusts ha him by the light of nature, yet by that help alone he could not 
perceive those which were spiritual, till the spiritual light of the law came 
and manifested them, and he saw not how all concupiscence was in him till 
then : Rom. vii. 7-9, * What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God 
forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known 
lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occa- 
sion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. 
For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once : 
but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' Grow in grace, 
and increase in the light of it, and be sure to keep that quick-sighted. If 
you do not grow in grace, you will not be able to see perfectly and clearly, 



170 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK III. 

2 Peter i. 5-9. But a man increasing in grace, and walking in the Spirit, 
will be able to see the least mote of sin that flies up and down in his heart, 
which another man, though regenerate, yet if he arrive not to such a growth 
and spiritual walking, will not see. Pray for the Spirit of God also to help 
you. Because Laodicea was deceived in the knowledge of her heart and 
state, she is counselled to take eye salve, and to anoint her eyes with it : 
Eev. iii. 17, 18, ' Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, 
and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and 
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me 
gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that 
thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; 
and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.' When Job 
was sensible that he knew not all of himself which he ought, he goes to God 
to instruct him : Job xxxiv. 32, ' That which I see not, teach thou me ; if 
I have done iniquity, I will do no more.' And last of all, be diligent and 
constant in this exercise of searching your hearts ; the more you exercise your 
eyes, the quicker they will be in seeing. Use light, and have light. Exer- 
cising of the spiritual senses produceth an habit of discerning good and evil : 
Heb, V. 14, * But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even 
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good 
and evil.' 

But further to instruct you in this duty and art, I will shew what it is to 
search the heart, and teach the skill of cutting it open, and rightly anato- 
mising it, and what in every faculty is especially to be searched for. The 
true searching of the heart I thus define : It is a reflex act of the mind and 
conscience renewed, whereby a man, assisted by the light of the word and 
Spirit, doth discern, and judge of the spiritual good and evil that is in his 
heart, and in every faculty of it, both severally and jointly together. 

1. It is a reflex act. of the mind, wherein the mind looks inward and comes 
home to itself. For in the direct acts of the mind, a man is carried out to 
things without himself ; but this calls in his thoughts to view his own soul. 
And this is one of the chiefest excellencies of the reasonable creature, wherein 
it doth so much transcend beasts, that it is able to turn its eyes inward, 
and judge of its own thoughts and desires, what they are, and to what they 
tend. This, 1 say, is proper only to man and angels : 1 Cor. ii. 11, ' Who 
knows the things of a man ?' the spirit of a man doth this, but not that 
which is in beasts. This, of all acts, is also the noblest, and in the exercise 
of it consists man's honour and wisdom. As in mathematics, a circular 
figure is better and stronger than any other, because it returns into itself, so 
that every part bears up another, so reflex thoughts, returning in upon our- 
selves, are wiser, stronger, and safer. In this too the image of God much 
consists, I mean that image which is in the natural faculties of the soul, that 
as God doth know himself, we also are able to know ourselves. 

2. I add, of the mind renewed and assisted. For though every man hath 
this reflecting power in him since the fall, yet it is dimmed and weakened 
more than other direct acts, which are yet dim enough ; and therefore we 
know all other things better than ourselves, and of all else we know least what 
is done in our own bosoms. The heathens, therefore, could say that y\/o}9i 
ciauTov, was of all other the hardest lesson. Man, by sin, becoming like the 
beast which perisheth, has lost this ability, whereby he was chiefly distin- 
guished from the brutes, more than any other. When man had God's image 
of holiness, he understood God and himself best of any other, but now, alas, 
it is the least part of his knowledge ! You shall see a poor soul, mean in 
abilities of wit, or accomplishments of learning, who is ignorant in all things 



Chap. IX. j in respect of sin and punishment. 171 

else, who knows not how the world goes, nor upon what wheels states turn ; 
who yet, being renewed and assisted by the Spirit of God, knows more clearly 
and experimentally his own heart, than all learned men in the world do 
theirs, and knows more of grace and sin in it. And though the other may 
better discourse philosophically of the acts of the soul, and the dependence 
of them one on another, yet this poor man sees more into the corruptions of 
it than they all. 

3. I add, ivherebij a man knows the spiritual good or evil in the heart, for 
that is the object to be searched into. It is not only what his thoughts and 
purposes are for the matter of them ; for ask any man, and he can tell you 
what he thinks at any time ; but there is a further thing to be looked into : 
the good, or evil, the frame, the temper, the inclination of all either to sin 
or to godliness. We are to feel the pulse of the heart, and to discern by 
its beating whether it be sound or diseased, and with what particular dis- 
temper it is most aifected. And herein lies the great and difficult work. 
Any man's pulse tells him that his heart beats, and he may feel whether the 
motion be orderly or irregular, but it is a physician's skill to guess at the 
disease, and know the temper of the blood by it ; and it is a Christian's skill 
to know and judge the like of his soul and spirit. Now the word, when it 
searcheth the heart, reads not a philosophy lecture upon it, but shews the 
evils whicn are in it. It is not the nature of the heart simply, and the 
dependence of one faculty on another, but the wickedness and deceitfulness 
which God there points out to be known, Jer. xvii. 9, 10. 

4. I add, in every facultij, for then thou seest thy sins in their causes, 
when thou seest from whence every sin hath its rise in thee, from whence 
its first motion is, wherein its strength lies, and how sin carries things within 
thee. How it runs through thy understanding in devising, projecting, and 
approving of it, through thy will in consenting to it, through thy affections 
which are inflamed with it, till at last it works in the members to execution. 
Then thou knowest how sinful thy heart is, when thou seest how all the 
several wheels in it turn still to evil, and how one wheel moves another, so 
that thou sinnest with a joint concurrence of them all to the wicked action. 
And in all this it especially concerns thee to search out the pollution of thy 
spirit, of thy understanding, judgment, and will ; how far they are guilty in 
the commission of the sin, which will serve to aggravate or lessen the sin so 
much the more as they are found to have a greater or lesser hand in it. 
For as the sins of princes are greater than those of other men, because they 
are their rulers, so are the sins of these superior faculties of a higher guilt, 
because it is their duty, and they are placed, to guide the rest. And it 
concerns thee the more to be strictly inquisitive into these sins, because of 
all other they most conceal themselves, and as their operations are more 
strong, so with less noise, as poison works more strongly in the head than 
the stomach, though it be perceived more there than in the head. Inquire 
thou into the sins of these ringleaders in thee ; and as in case of treason, 
the state, the government inquires most after the plotters and contrivers of 
it, so look thou not so much to the members of the body, and the lusts which 
war in them, as unto that corrupted judgment and will in thee that devised 
the means to satisfy those lusts, which fed them with thoughts and fancies, 
which were privy to the first contrivance of the treason, and gave way, and 
consented to it. The lusts which war in the members are but weapons, 
instruments, Rom. vi. 19. You must therefore look to the higher powers 
of sin in the soul, to the throne of unrighteousness there, whose agents 
those lusts are. 

If a man would rightly understand a state or a commonwealth, it is not 



172 AN TJNBEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

euough to know and view what proclamations come out, what decrees, and 
orders are made, what factions are in it, what transactions of alfairs, what 
armies raised, &c., for this all in a kingdom know; but he who would be an 
exact statesman must also know what passeth at council board, what the 
consults and deliberations are, what was the design of such acts and procla- ' 
mations, and to what end they were made, what ends such or such a potent 
faction hath, with what colours they hide their secret intentions, and into 
what principles of state all may be resolved. This is so to understand a 
state, as few do, and for want of this knowledge how amiss do vulgar capa- 
cities judge of public actions. Thus also if you would understand the state 
of your souls, you must diligently and especially mark what passeth at 
council board in the understanding, the sight of which is enough to amaze 
us, if we saw but by what devilish principles and atheistical consultations all 
is guided and swayed, and into which our actions may be resolved, what most 
base, and filthy ends rule us, and what petty, slight, foolish motives we have, 
what ungodly reasonings and deliberations pass through us, and how con- 
trary to the rules of conscience, which notes all, as God's sworn secretary, 
and how all is overruled by our corrupt reasonings, let conscience say what it 
will in opposition ; I say, if we saw all this, it would amaze any of us ; and 
this is that which I mainly intend to shew in the following discourse, when 
I shall come to particulars. This is indeed to search a man's heart, and 
to know it, for the wickedness of it lies especially in deceitfulness, and that 
deceitfulness consists in the juggling tricks of the mind, which are least dis- 
cerned by us. 

5. I add, in each of these faculties apart. For when the apostle speaks of 
the word's powerful searching the heart, how doth he express it ? As 
' dividing between the soul and spirit : ' Heb. iv. 12, ' For the word of God 
is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even 
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and 
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' The meaning of 
which phrase I understand thus, that the soul and spirit is divided, when we 
consider them apart, and severally, when we remark what evil is in the spirit 
apart, and in the soul apart; that is, in the judgment and affections. They 
join in the action, and the influences which they have are intricately involved 
and twisted in every act which comes from us ; but this is the way to untwist 
them, viz, to dissever, and to view apart what a man's thoughts, reasonings, 
motives, and devisings are in such a business, which thoughts, reasonings, 
&c., the apostle there calls the marrow of the action. Then after this view, 
what the desires, or fears, or inflammations of passions are by which thou 
•wert acted in the doing it, which are but the bones of it, and are indeed but 
guided and acted by those ends, reasonings, and conclusions, which the heart 
made. And, accordingly (as you see), the apostle instanceth only in the 
intents and thoughts, which are acts of the understanding and will. And 
so at the day of judgment, what is it God will bring to light ? Not passions 
so much, and actions (though these also shall be manifested), as the counsels 
of the heart : 1 Cor. iv. 5, ' Therefore judge nothing before the time, until 
the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall every man 
have praise of God.' Passions are but the veins and arteries, in which our 
intentions and ends, as the blood and spirits, do move, when the mind, 
which is as the heart itself, hath by reasoning and agitating things in itself, 
hatched, and forged those designs and ends, as the real heart doth spirits 
by motion. Take an affection which you have stirred, and examine it, and 
you will find a reason of it, a meaning of it, and that there is some end acts 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 173 

it, and stirs in it. And it is the end also which makes an action good or 
bad ; and as God is said to look to the meaning of the spirit in us, Rom. 
viii. 27 ; that is, to every sigh, groan, and desire, so also to the meaning of 
flesh in us, what our carnal ends and motives are ; therefore we should look 
most especially to them. 

Now, as you are to divide thus between soul and spirit, thoughts, intents, 
and passions, and to view them apart, so you must also view them jointly and 
together in every action, and consider not only what aflfections you have, which 
may deceive, but consider withal what thoughts, considerations, motives 
ever stirred them up, and moved in them ; then you know the heart aright. 
Do not simply look to your thoughts, but see what motives prevail with the 
heart, and stir the will, and afiections, and what motives or suggestions put 
in by conscience, or the word, lie as dead drugs, and work not. This is to 
search the heart. So if thou mournest for sin, search the spring of thy 
sorrow, and look what consideration moved it in thee, and do so likewise in 
other thy actions. 

I do speak this before you all, that all deceit lies in this, either men view 
their hearts undivided in the gi'oss, and do not divide between soul and spirit, 
or else they view them only apart, and not in that dependence, or at least 
concurrence the one hath with the other. They look upon good affections 
as on Ezekiel's wheels, and because they turn outwardly to good, they rest in 
them, not seeing, nor so much as inquiring, what spirit moves within those 
wheels, what motives, intents, considerations, act and inform them. The 
truth is, the heart is a maze or labyrinth, and if you would find the way 
into all its windings, you must be guided by a clue or thread drawn through 
them all. And when you view any action, you must go through understand- 
ing, will, and affections, and not only see that they concur to it, but the 
manner of their concurrence ; search the chambers of the heart, not only 
one room to see what is done there, and what thoughts and fancies are in 
the outward room (which is a room that all come into, both good and bad), 
but from thence go into the privy chamber, and hear what principles, say- 
ings, dictates, reasonings you are guided by, what resolutions you fix on, 
what aims you have. Then go down to the affections, and view how they, 
as agents, act their parts, and see all this time how conscience is imprisoned 
as in a dungeon, Rom. i. 18, being withheld in unrighteousness, while they 
act all in the dark : 1 Cor. iv. 5, ' Therefore judge nothing before the time, 
until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of dark- 
ness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall 
every man have praise of God.' He calls the counsels of the heart the 
hidden works of darkness, and whilst conscience is thus imprisoned, it may 
call, and cry till it be hoarse, but it shall not be heard. 



CHAPTER X. 

That the error of the pa]nsts is by this doctrine evinced, who place sin only in 
the lower faculties of the soul. — That we should be sensible of the defects 
of our minds, and if ice have any natural endowments of soul, we must 
praise and thank God alone for them. — We who have the discoveries of the 
gospel, and a sjnritual light to discern the things of it, should much more 
bless God. 

As we have not only proved this corruption to have overspread the whole 
soul, but in particular have demonstrated that the superior faculties are 



174 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

in a high degree infected, and have also shewn wherein the depravation of 
the understanding consists, let us now farther consider what practical infer- 
ences and uses this doctrine will afford us. 

Use 1. We see, then, how great an error it is of the papists, and some 
others, who assert that the higher parts of the soul are not touched nor 
tainted with sin, but they thrust it all down to the inferior, and to the sen- 
sual appetite ; and they answerably interpret the combat between the flesh 
and spirit, which is spoken of in Rom. vii. 23 and Gal. v. 17, to be but the 
rebellion of the senses, and animal appetite against reason, the one of which 
(they say) is meant by flesh, the other by spirit ; and as thus they make the 
conflict to be between soul and body, they answerably place the whole or 
greatest part of religion in bodily worship. All their acts of mortification 
are to keep under the body, whilst the soul lies neglected, as not needing 
any remedy or help. But we have not so learned Christ, nor so little know 
ourselves ; and therefore as we feel our superior faculties depraved by sin, we 
most of all are humbled for, and strive against the spiritual corruptions of 
our minds, such as ignorance, unbelief, atheism, pride, darkness of appre- 
hension, and dulness of heart and aflections in the ways and worship of 
God, and hypocrisy, and base selfish ends, by which we find ourselves apt 
to be swayed and biassed in our best actions ; we find not only sensual lusts 
warring in our members, but atheism against the knowledge of God, dark- 
ness against divine light, and unbelief against faith. It is true, indeed, sins 
of the understanding are least discernible, for the law in our members is 
more clamorous and impetuous, and sensual things do more sensibly affect 
us ; but yet the other sins of the mind, though more stilly, and with less 
noise, yet do more constantly assault us and prevail. It is true also of the 
combat between flesh and spirit, that it is less sensible in the superior facul- 
ties of the soul than in the inferior ; because, not only grace, but the light of 
nature and conscience make resistance against the lusts of our senses and 
fleshly appetites, but natural conscience doth not oppose the spiritual lust- 
ings of the mind. It doth not check pride, unbelief, selfishness, &c., as it 
doth drunkenness, adultery, and other lusts of the flesh ; but yet it is in the 
combat between sin and grace in the mind, and understanding, and will, that 
a godly man's courage and resolution against sin most shines, and his vic- 
tory over it shews most illustrious ; and it is also for those spiritual wicked- 
nesses in the mind that a godly man is most humbled. And as he also 
professeth that it is not bodily worship which can take away the guilt of sin, 
so neither can the keeping under and torturing the body only, cast out the 
powers of sin. You may pray, and cry your eyes out, but sin will not flow 
out with your tears ; you may fast down all your spirits and flesh, and yet, 
though bodily lusts may hereby be lean, yet pride and hypocrisy may grow 
the fatter. The papists shew also their corruption in this, that it is all their 
care and business to keep people in ignorance and darkness, and such a prac- 
tice is suitable to their corrupt principles and errors, which by this means 
they may maintain undiscovered, as darkness hides all things. But we who 
love and teach the truth, are also for light ; and so far are we from thinking 
ignorance to be the mother of devotion, that we reckon it among the daugh- 
ters of sin, and account grace to be spiritual light in the mind, as well as 
holiness in the heart and affections. We open to the people the treasures 
of divine knowledge, and we exhort men to seek it, since without it the 
heart cannot be good, as Solomon speaks: Prov. xix 2, 'Also, that the 
soul be without knowledge, it is not good ; and he that hasteth with his feet, 
sinneth.' 

Lhe 2. Let us be sensible of all those before-mentioned defects and im- 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 175 

perfections of our understandings. Hast thou parts, and learning, and know- 
ledge in natural or civil affairs, or hast thou spiritual gifts ? know whom 
to thank for them. They grew not out of thy corrupt nature, which is too 
vile and base a soil to produce any thing that is good, but it is God who, 
out of his bounty and riches of goodness, hath endowed thee with them ; 
and he holds the candle to thee whilst thou readest and understandest, for 
so the mind of man is called : Prov. xx. 27, ' The spirit of man is the candle 
of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.' What doth Agur 
acknowledge with much humility, though he was a teacher of others ? Prov. 
XXX. 2, ' Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the under- 
standing of a man.' * I am brutish since I was a man' (as some read it), 
' and have not the understanding of a man by nature.' It is God who in- 
spires a nobler, quicker spirit into some, and from thence ariseth the differ- 
ence of men's understandings : Job xxxii. 8, ' But there is a spirit in man ; 
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.' Wisdom 
goes neither by greatness of birth, nor the advantages of education, for great 
persons may have wise men about them, to inform them, who yet are not 
able to instil into them wisdom, nor can make them wise : Job xi. 12, ' For 
vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt ;' and 
a wild ass's colt is the most indocible creature of all other. Neither doth 
wisdom come merely by age and experience : Job xxxii. 9. ' Great men are 
not always wise : neither do the aged understand judgment. There is a 
spirit in man, and an inspiration of the Almighty, which giveth him under- 
standing.' View but your own pictures in fools, and tell me what hath put 
the difference between you and them. If you say a various temper of body, 
it is true, indeed, it hath a hand in it, but yet what fogged the oil in them, 
which should have afforded fuel to the light of mind, so that the candle 
burns blue in them ? What was it produced that cloudy temper in them ? 
Was it not Adam's sin ? Why might it not have had the like effect on thee ? 
It was God only that gave thee finer blood and spirits, that the light of thy 
mind might burn more clear and bright. And if you think temper is the 
only cause of this difference, do but look on Nebuchadnezzar, a great and 
wise king, and yet how soon is his heart changed from a man's to a beast's ! 
Dan. iv. 16, ' Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart 
be given unto him, and let seven times pass over him.' And so he was 
driven from men, as not having reason enough to converse with them. And 
what was his case might be thine, for that which befalls one man for sin, 
might befall all by reason of the first sin. But God was graciously pleased 
not to deal thus with men, though he might justly have done so ; and as 
though he might annihilate men for sin, and take their beings away, yet he 
doth not, no not in hell. So neither doth he take away their understand- 
ings, no, not from the devils ; for how, then, should they be punished with 
the sense of his wrath ? And yet that punishment, which is inflicted, is a 
destruction of their well-being, and therefore is called destruction, though 
their being still remains. So in this life God deprives not men of their under- 
standings, for how then should they be men ? Yet because they want the 
goodness of understanding, the holiness of it, therefore they are often in 
Scripture said to have no understanding : Isa. xxvii. 11, ' When the boughs 
thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set 
them on fire ; for it is a people of no understanding : therefore he that made 
them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them 
no favour ;' Rom. iii. 11, ' There is none that understandeth, there is none 
that seeketh after God.' 

In the mean time, it is a great obligation that lies on those who have parts 



176 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

to employ them for God, who preserves them when sin might have taken 
them utterly away, And this may humble men too, who are most proud of 
knowledge, and are pulied up, whenas it is not their own, but borrowed from 
God. Much of man's wit now depends upon the right tempering of the 
dust, with which he is clothed, and so is but a flower of the grass, which 
each man lays down in the grave ; for the compass of understanding with 
which men shall arise into the other world is from another account. And 
this should also teach men to depend on God for their knowledge and 
learning, and the increase of them, for alas, they cannot secure to themselves 
all their wit or learning. The parts of their mind are as subject to decay 
as the beauties of the face, and may be wasted and lost as well as them or 
their estates ; and indeed men who presume on them, or who use them not 
for God, we see ordinarily bereft of them, and prove fools and sots in the 
end, or at least they die despised and forgotten. 

Use 3. Raise your hearts unto thankfulness to God by all these steps 
which follow. 

1. Bless God, that he hath brought thee to those times and places where 
the gospel is preached, and the great truths of it are laid open and made 
plain to thee. This is one mercy, and a great one, for without such a dis- 
covery thou couldst never have found them out. God made trial of the 
utmost men's wits could do for some thousands of years among the Gentiles, 
but they bewildered themselves in their inventions : 1 Cor. i. 21, ' For after 
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased 
God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.' They had 
quite lost themselves in all their vain inquiries, and therefore (says the 
apostle) after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, 
he set out the gospel to be preached, to reveal, what they could not search 
out. They had, indeed, some knowledge of God, but yet even that was not 
their own, but a borrowed wisdom received from God. God indeed aflbrded 
them some light to grope after him : Acts xvii. 27, ' That they should seek 
the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not 
far from every one of us.' But they were so far from knowing God by all 
this wisdom, that by their abuse of it they were put further ofl", and became 
vain in their imaginations, and did not glorify God as God ; and so with all 
their wit they were but fools : Rom. i. 20-22, * For the invisible things of 
him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead ; so that they are 
without excuse : Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not 
as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and 
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they be- 
came fools.' This would have been thy case, and thus it would have been 
also with thee, if God had not made the light of his gospel to shine for thy 
better direction. It is then great goodness that God hath revealed himself 
so clearly and fully to men in his word, and 'tis a great mercy to thee that 
thou shouldst ever come where these great truths, and of such high concern- 
ment to thy soul, are spoken of, and preached. God hath not dealt thus 
with every man, nay, not with every nation, as be hath with thee ; but when 
he leaves kincrdoms, whole multitudes of people together, to sit in sad dark- 
ness, thou standest in his light. 

2. Bless God, if he hath farther given thee an insight into these truths 
by enlightening thy understanding, which (as hath been discoursed) was na- 
turally "dark, and blind, and had no spiritual discerning. If thou beginnest 
to conceive of things spiritual better thnn others, or than thyself did some 
time ac'o, it is God^who hath put a new light into thy mind, and it is a gvtat 



CUAP. X.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNI3UMENT. 177 

merc}', which thou shouldst, with the hij^hest praises, acknowledge. For 
remember that in thyself thou art but darkness, as all other men are whom 
God hath not enlightened, as he hath thee ; and, therefore, many, who, though 
wiser than thee in the world, and attentive hearers also, yet understand not 
60 much as thou. The first ground in the parable which received the seed 
of the word : Mat. xiii. 4, ' And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way- 
side : and the fowls came and devoured them up ;' what was it but such 
hearers, who do not understand ? ver. 19, ' When any one heareth the word 
of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then conieth the wicked one, and 
catcheth away that which was sown in his heart : This is he which received 
seed by the way-side.' And the most hearers are such, who do not so much 
as conceive in the general notions, the truth of spiritual things. They can- 
not conceive that there is such a thing as regeneration, much less what it 
is, as was the case with Nieodemus. There are those who walk in darkness, 
though the light shines round about them, who are ignorant under all the 
means of knowledge, because of the blindness of their heart, and therefore 
they walk in darkness, and know not whither they go : John xii. 35, ' Then 
Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you : walk while ye 
have the light, lest darkness come upon you : for he that walketh in dark- 
ness, knoweth not whither he goeth.' If thou seest light in the Lord, bless 
him for those eyes which he hath given thee, whilst he hath denied them 
to others. 

3. But now if God hath proceeded farther in mercy toward thee, and not 
only hath revealed these truths to thee, and not to others in other places, 
and times, and hath given thee a new light w^hereby thou seest those things, 
which thyself saw not before, though thou wert an auditor, and heardest 
them before ; but if God hath gone farther, and renewed thy mind also, and 
put in a new principle to see things aright, to see thy misery, so as to be 
truly humbled for it, to see Christ, so as to prize him above all the world, 
to see what the truth is in Jesus ; i. e. what that truth of grace, and regene- 
ration is which Jesus requires of thee, and to see this in thy own heart too ; 
for this thou hast farther cause to be thankful. Thou canst now say, I 
know God and Christ, and am not deceived, for he hath given me an under- 
sta'ding on purpose to know him, so as no wicked man knows him : 1 John 
V. 20, ' And we know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under- 
standing, that we ma}' know him that is true : and we are in him that is 
true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.' 
This is a higher mercy, and favour bestowed on thee, and therefore greatly 
bless God for it. For though thou mightest have had a new light, whereby 
thou mightest have come to see things which thou never sawest before, yet 
thou mightest not have had a new' understanding. They of whom the apostle 
speaks in Heb. vi. 4, were enlightened anew indeed, but yet they were not 
renewed in the spirit of their minds, for that is proper only to the godly, 
who never fall away ; it is peculiar to them alone, as to have a new light, 
and new objects, so to have a new eye. 

Use 4. See and admire the great and wonderful work which God effects 
in regenerating our natures. How great and difficult is the work of grace, 
wherein Christ must not only be at the trouble, and cost of purchasing, by 
his blood, truths to be revealed, but he must send his Spirit to reveal and 
bring them to light, and then he must be at the cost to set up a candle by 
which to read them, and when all is done, he must find yqu eyes with which 
to read. And then he must also take the pains to teach you himself; he 
cannot set under-ushers to do this office, but when you have eyes given, you 
must be all taught by himself too. 

VOL. X. M 



178 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK III. 

If the knowledge thus of spiritual truths be not in any manner in us, no 
not so much as a power to receive these things savingly into our minds, then 
certainly the work is God's, and wholly his. Men think, indeed, that to 
subdue their affections and to curb their lusts, a great and mighty power is 
necessary, but as for knowledge they think that they have at command 
enough of it, and more than they can tell what to do with, and that it is 
sufficiently easy. But consider that to make thee able to know spiritual 
things savingly costeth God as much as any other work that passeth on thy 
soul, and therefore Paul in every epistle prays for it. Thus he prays for the 
Ephesians, chap. i. 16-18, ' Cease not to give thanks for you, making men- 
tion of you in my prayers ; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that 
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the 
glory of his inheritance in the saints.' Thus he prays for the PhiHppians, 
chap. i. 9, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more 
in knowledge and in all judgment.' Thus he prays for the Colossians, chap. 
i. 9, ' For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray 
for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will 
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.' And therefore, whenever thou 
goest to God in prayer hereafter, forget not to ask this eye-salve of him : 
Rev. iii. 18, 'I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou 
mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that 
the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thy eyes with eye- 
salve, that thou may see.' What is that but his Spirit to anoint thine eyes, 
that thou mayest see things aright, and judge of things that differ '? Re- 
member that Christ is a prophet for thee as well as a king and priest, and 
that when all his benefits are reduced but to four heads, wisdom is put in as 
one, and one of the chief also : 1 Cor. i. 80, 31, 'But of him are ye in 
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption : that, according as it is written, He that 
glorieth let him glory in the Lord.' 



Ch.VP. T.l IN RKSPECT OP SIM AND PUNISHMENT. 179 



BOOK IV. 

Of that corruption which is in the practical judgments of unrciianerale men. 



CHAPTER I. 

The nature of practical knowledge explained. — The different jadrfments tohich 
men nuregenerate and regenerate have of spiritual things. 

I HAVE proved that the mind and understanding is corrupt ; that it is dark 
as to any apprehensions of the things of God ; I have explained -wherein 
this blindness consists, and what are the causes of it ; I have described the 
difference there is between the speculative knowledge of a godly man and 
of one nuregenerate ; it now remains that I should plainly draw the lines 
of difference that is between the practical judgments, or working knowledge 
of one and the other concerning spiritual things. This is necessary to be 
done, because men whose minds are not renewed by the Spirit of God have 
some kind of judgment or practical knowledge about divine ti'uths, which yet 
doth not arise to that knowledge which the regenerate have, and also because 
that the chief end of these truths, if known aright, is to operate on our hearts 
and to set them a-work. 

Now herein, that I may carry things clearly before me, it is necessary that 
I lay open to you, 

First, In general the nature of that kind of knowledge which we call prac- 
tical, that is, which works in and upon a man's will and affections by what 
we know; and then, 

Secondly, Come particularly to shew the difference which is between this 
kind of knowledge in one who is savingly enlightened, and another who is 
not. 

First, In the general, to explain what practical knowledge is. It is said 
to be so in two respects. 

1. Then knowledge is practical, when it affects, moves, and stirs the will 
and affections to the thing which it knows. I put in this, to the thing which 
it knows, to set one difference between it and barely knowing knowledge. For 
in speculative knowledge our minds are wholly taken up and delighted with 
the bare knowledge and speculation of the thing ; and though the knowledge 
may and doth affect us, for it produceth such a pleasure, yet not the things 
which we know. But when we know things in that manner as that our wills 
and affections are moved and stirred to the things themselves, as well as to 
the desire of or delight in the knowledge of them, it is called practical know- 
ledge. Or, 

2. It is called practical when it is such a knowledge as is able to guide, 
manage, and direct our wills and affections, and other faculties in us, in the 
practice and exercise of such actions, whereby we may come to enjoy the 
thing which we desire. To give an instance by which this may the more 
fully be cleared to you ; — 



180 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

A man may liavo learned the art of music, and know how songs are made, 
and all the rules of harmony by which they arc composed, and he may be 
much delighted with this knowledge, and yet not have a mind to have a 
lesson played, nor be much affected if he hear one, but he rests satisfied 
barely in the knowledge of the art itself. This now is a bare knowing 
knowledge. 

Another man, who knows not so well the art of music, yet when he hears 
a lesson he understands the harmony, and is pleased and much affected with 
it. This now is a practical knowledge, an affecting knowledge, because by 
it his affections are carried to the thing itself perceived. 

But yet, thirdly, it is a new business to teach this man, thus affected to 
music, the art of playing upon an instrument, and to instil into him such a 
knowledge and fancy as may guide his fingers aright to play a lesson which 
he understands, the art of which consists more in knowledge than in nimble- 
ness of fingers. This also is a farther degree of practical knowledge. 

Now, to apply this to things spiritual, 

A man may have the whole frame of divinity and of spiritual truths in his 
head, and yet they may have no influence on his heart. He may have a 
form of knowledge and yet feel no power of it : Rom. ii. 20, ' An instructor 
of the foohsh, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge, and of 
the truth in the law.' lie may have a pattern of wholesome words, 2 Tim. 
i. 13, and yet have no experience of the things signified by them. Nay, he 
may be much delighted with such knowledge, and not have his heart affected 
with the things themselves which he knows in divinity. Though he knows 
what the true nature of love to God is, and of hatred of sin, yet his heart is 
not excited to love God or to hate sin. Though he knows Christ and grace, 
yet he doth not love, nor desire them, nor dehght in them. Now this is a 
mere knowing knowledge. 

But when he hath such a knowledge, as both works upon his mind and 
will, and stirs them and inflames them to those things which he knows, and 
makes him earnestly desirous of the attainment of God's favour and love, 
and of Christ's righteousness, &c. ; and also sets him a-work, and guides him 
in those practices, ways, and means which God hath appointed for the 
attaining of them, sach as faith and repentance, so as he knows how to 
do them, and how to frame himself and all in him as instruments in the 
practice of them ; both these kinds of knowledge are called practical 
knowledge, and the one of them you may call affecting knowledge, and the 
other guiding knowledge. And you shall find in Scripture such a knowledge 
spoken of as causeth you to love the things you know according to the worth 
of them. Thus, there is a knowledge to love the things which are excellent : 
Phil. i. 9, 10, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and 
more in knowledge, and in all judgment ; that ye may approve things that 
are excellent ; that ye may be sincere, and without offence till the day of 
Christ.' And there is a knowledge, too, which guides you in doing such 
duties, whereby you may attain those things which are excellent, as is plainly 
supposed in Jer. iv. 22, ' For my people is foolish ; they have not known 
me, they are sottish children, and they have none understanding : they are 
wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.' There is a know- 
ledge implied in this text to do good. 

Now, unregenerate men may and do come to have such a knowledge of 
spiritual things as affects them with the things which they know, as thoso 
hearers which are represented by the stony ground in the parable, received 
the word with joy : Mat. xiii. 4, 5, 20, 21, ' And when he sowed, some seeds 
fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up : some lell 



Chap. I.] in rkspect of sin Aii.) punishment. 181 

upon stony pkces, where they had not much earth ; and forthwith they 
sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. But he that received 
the seed into stony places, tlie same is he that heareth the word, and anon 
with joy receiveth it : yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a 
while ; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by 
and by he is offended.' And they have also such a knowledge which directs 
and acts them in many holy practices, as Herod, enlightened by the preach- 
ing of John the Baptist, did many things : Mark vi. 20, ' For Herod feared 
John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him ; and 
when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.' It is then 
needful to inquire into the difference of this knowledge, as it is in a person 
regenerate and one who is not so. 

1. I will begin to examine the difference in that knowledge which affects 
them with the things that they know. And, 

First, In general, I will assign the reasons and causes how and why we 
come to be affected with the things which we know, by our knowledge of 
them. There are two things concur to this. 

1. We are tlien ntlected with the things which we know, when we look 
upon them and consider them not only as good, but as things of which we 
are persuaded that they are good for us, and that they concern ourselves, 
and make for our own ends, purposes, and desires. Observe it in your own 
hearts when you will, and you shall find that you pass by many things, which, 
though you know to be good, yet you regard them not ; but when your mind 
lights on anything which it apprehends suitable to your present purposes 
and desires, then you are affected with it, and presently seize on it. As 
it is not every stone, though a good one, that will move, and draw the iron 
after it, but the loadstone only, because it hath a particular affinity, likeness, 
and sympathy unto iron in nature, and that stirs the iron presently ; so is it 
as to the objects of the mind. It is not what is good, but what hath a suit- 
ableness to our thoughts and desires, and what we apprehend to be best for 
ns, which stirs us. The devils know the blood and death of Christ to be the 
only remedy against sin and its guilt, and the only means to purchase the 
greatest good ; but because this is represented to them no way in relation 
to them, nor as concerning them at all, therefore they are not moved at the 
news of it ; so that practical knowledge is such as convinceth and persuadeth 
the mind that a thing is good and best for us. But, 

2. If besides this conviction by reason, there accompany this persuasion 
a real taste, relish, and sense of the sweetness, goodness, and worth of the 
thing which we apprehend good for us, let in at our understandings, so as we 
really find, taste, and perceive it to be so, then we are stirred and affected 
indeed with it. And where this is wanting, though there be a large convic- 
tion that the things are good for us, yet since this is but from bare and naked 
apprehensions taken up from others, without our own tasting them to be so, 
this conviction, though it may breed some lazy desires and faint wishes in 
ns, yet none of them so strong as to be lasting. And therefore we shall find 
by experience that if two things, whereof one hath less goodness, be presented 
to us, yet if we have a real taste and sense of the goodness of it let into the 
soul, it moves us more than the naked relation or consideration of that thing 
which is of greater worth, whereof we have not a taste; as the sight or taste 
of a piece of the meanest bread stirs an hungry man's appetite more than 
the empty narrations of the greatest feast. And therefore still you will find 
that all the reasons and motives which sway with you, and effectually move 
you, may be resolved into some principle or conclusion whereof you have had 
a real sense and taste, and all the reasonings built thereon move in the force 



1P2 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAIs's GUILTINESS EEFOEE GOD, | BoOK lY. 

and power of it. And the reason of this is, because indeed nothing moves us 
but reahties, for our wills and affections are real things, and full of weight ; 
and therefore it must be a real taste of the goodness of things -which moves 
them, and not mere notions, and pictures, and empty descriptions of things 
by words. Such as is the cause, such will be the effect ; and therefore a 
mere notional knowledge will not work really upon us, but notionally only. 

That knowledge, then, which works upon us, hath a taste and real sense of 
the things known joined with it. And indeed God hath placed wisdom and 
understanding in men to supply that office to the will and affections whicli 
the tongue doth to the appetite and stomach, to take a taste of things, and 
to relish their sweetness, and to discern what goodness is in them, and so 
to admit and receive them. To be wise, therefore, and to taste, are signified 
by the same word in the Latin tongue, viz. sapere, and so in the Greek too 
some have translated <p^on7v, to savour or taste; in Rom. viii. 5, ' For they 
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are 
after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.' Some interpret the ^Aord (p^o-joZoi, 
do taste, savour, or relish the things of the flesh. And Elihu, speaking of 
knowing things, says that the ear tries words as the mouth tastes meats : 
Job xxxiv. 3-4, ' Hear my words, ye wise men ; and give ear unto me, ye 
that have knowledge : for the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat. 
Let us choose to us judgment ; let us know among ourselves what is good.' 
And so taste and knowledge are joined together in Psalm xxxiv. 8, ' taste 
and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' 
And tasting, and being enlightened, are also put together : Heb. vi. 4, 5, 
' For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted 
of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have 
tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ;' that is, 
who are so enlightened as also to take in a relish of the goodness and sweet- 
ness of the things. This only is to be added, that there are some things 
whose goodness our understandings taste immediately, as the pleasures of 
the body, which yet, because the soul (where judgment hath its seat) receiveth 
them in, therefore the soul by the understanding judgeth them good, and so 
may be said to taste them, and this is scievtia gustus, a knowledge of taste. 
There are other things ^^hich the judgment itself immediately tasteth, as 
honour, credit, revenge, &c., and finds a sweetness in these, as our senses 
do in other objects. And the reason why God hath given the mind this 
power of tasting things is, because otherwise it could not come to know the 
sweetness of things as they are in themselves ; as a man cannot be said to 
know truly the sweetness of meat unless he hath tasted it, because till then 
be knows it not with that sense which is made to receive the sweetness of 
it, and discern it, and make report of it to the rest. So a blind man is not 
said to know colours, unless he apprehend them as they are to be apprehended 
by their proper sense, which is sight; and so the understanding tastes its 
objects as well as the senses do. 

Now, then, to apply all this unto spiritual knowledge, as there is a good- 
ness and sweetness in spiritual things, even the greatest, so this is no way 
to be tasted but by means of the understanding, neither is the soul ever to 
purpose eflected with them till it tastes their goodness and sweetness : 
1 Peter ii, 2, 3, 'As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, 
that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that fhe Lord is gracious.' 
We are there said to desire, if so be that we have tasted how good the Lord 
is, or otherwise our desires are not stirred. And so the apostle Paul prays 
for the Philippians, that love may abound in them, so as to approve the 
things which are excellent, and with affectation to discern things that differ ; 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 188 

and how was this to be ? In spiritual knowledge and sense, for the word is 
doxifjbdl^iiv : Philip, i. 9, 10, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound 
yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment ; that yc may approve 
things that are excellent ; that ye may be sincere, and without oflence, till 
the day of Christ.' ' In all judgment,' i.e. in all sense ; that is, as truly and 
really to perceive the goodness of things spiritual by a true and proper sense 
and taste, as senses have perception of their objects. And therefore also 
that knowledge which a regenerate man hath of good and evil is called exer- 
cising of his senses : Heb. v. 14, ' But strong meat belongeth to them that 
are of full age, even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised 
to discern both good and evil.' The word is didx^itsig ; and so the sight of 
God is joined with a taste of his goodness in Psalm xxxiv. 8, ' taste and 
see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' It is 
of this kind of knowledge too that Christ speaks to the woman of Samaria : 
John iv. 10, ' Jesus answered and said unto her. If thou knewest the gift of 
God, and who it is that saith to thee. Give me to drink; thou wouldst have 
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.' ' If thou knew- 
est,' saith he, 'the gift of God,' i.e. the water of life, which is known as 
water useth to be by the taste and sweetness of it, ' thou wouldst have 
asked it.' To this purpose also Solomon speaks in Prov. xxiv. 13, 14, 
' My son, eat thou honey, because it is good ; and the honey-comb, which 
is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul : 
when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation 
shall not be cut off.' The knowledge of wisdom is both a sweetness at the 
present, which revi-ards it, and hath an expectation of a future good, of which 
it shall not be disappointed. Thus likewise in Isaiah the prophet, speaking 
of that excellent spirit of wisdom wdiich is in Christ, expresseth of him that 
he shall be of a quick scent or smell in the fear of the Lord : Isa. xi. 3, 'And 
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord : and he shall 
not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his 
ears,' as it is in the Hebrew. And the apostle, speaking of spiritual things, 
expresseth that they have a savour which goes along with them : 2 Cor. ii. 14, 
' Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and 
maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.' 



CHAPTER IL 

How far m.en unregenerate apprehend and judge the goodness of sjnritual things. 
— How far it all comes short of the knowledge and judgment vjhich a holy 
soul hath of them. 

These things in general being premised, I now come more particularly by 
the application of these generals, to inquire out the true difference of this 
affecting knowledge as to spiritual things in the regenerate and unregenerate, 
so as to discern wherein true sanctifying knowledge, as it affects the heart in 
a different manner from any other, consists. 

1. Let us examine how far unregenerate men apprehend and judge spiri- 
tual things to be good. 

2. How far they judge them good for them. 

8. How far they taste them and their goodness. 

1. How far do unregenerate men apprehend and judge spiritual things to 
be good ? It cannot be denied but that they may in the general apprehend 
spiritual things to be good, and the best things too. This much is implied 



184 AN UXREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

in that heathen speech of Medea in the poet, That she saw and judged other 
things to be better than what she practised.* And Balaam's magnifying the 
blessed state of the righteous, evidently argues the same thing : Num. xxiii. 
10, ' Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part 
of Israel ? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
like his.' Now, the apprehension of that good which manifests itself in 
persons truly godly, and how happy they are and shall be, may aflfect wicked 
men with such thoughts and wishes as Balaam had, to envy and desire their 
condition. And so, on the contrary, they may judge and esteem the ways 
of sin the worse ways of the two, when in the general they are compared 
one with the other, and yet choose and practise them for all that ; knowing 
the judgment of God, and that what they do deserves death, and therefore 
that the things are evil, yet they will do them : Rom. i. 32, ' Who knowing 
the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of 
death, not only do the same things, but have pleasure in them that do them.' 

Yet this, for difierence sake, is to be added even concerning their appre- 
hension of the goodness of these things in the general, that it is one thing 
to assent unto that goodness, which is said to be in and is spoken of things, 
whilst it is no otherwise represented than in a bare general proposition, and 
another thing it is to assent to their goodness when the things themselves 
come to be presented in real performances and enjoyment. An unregene- 
rate man may, and oftentimes doth strongly assent to all the goodness which 
is, or can be said of spiritual things, whilst it is but represented in a mere 
notion, and in expression of words propounded in the abstract, but when 
thS things come to be acted or enjoyed, he is unable to apprehend them as 
good. It is thus too in other instances, for take the veriest coward in 
the world, and commend, and set out true valour to him, and tell him what 
noble and heroic actions the great commanders of the world have done, and 
what a glorious thing it is to imitate them ; he assents to all that is thus 
said, or can be said of them, and as truly joins in magnifying all as the 
noblest spirit doth, yea, and his spirit is much raised with this fair idea of 
heroic virtue, wishing that he were like them, and might have the honour of 
such achievements. His mind is elevated and stirred by the representation 
as well as the noblest spirit ; but let him be brought into the wars, and let 
the least of the like brunts and encounters in which those heroes were en- 
gaged look him really in the face, his apprehensions, and esteem of the 
excellence of valour, and of the glory of a conqueror, sinks and falls, and 
vanisheth into base thoughts of saving his skin whole, though it be with 
shame. Such difference is there between our apprehension of the goodness 
of things conceived in the abstract notion and mere idea, and our thoughts 
of the same things when they come to be acted. As the man in the fable 
who wished for death, but when death came to him, really appearing, he 
wished him gone again. 

To apply this now to our present purpose. Take an unregenerate man, and 
he will acknowledge the holy duties of the law to be good. To sanctify 
the Sabbath in the strictness of it, to have our speeches savoury, to pray 
with our families, to contemn the world, to deny ourselves, to be patient in 
afflictions ; such dispositions and actions as these, whilst viewed and con- 
ceived in mere abstract propositions, and in the notion, as you hear of them 
in sermons, are accounted most amiable, excellent, and worthy ; and so they 
are acknowledged, and you resolve to do them ; as wholesome and good laws, 
when propounded in parliaments, and viewed only as they are yet in black 

* Meas aliud suadet, virleo meliora proboque, 
Deteriora sequor.— Ovid. Metamorph. lib. vii. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 165 

and white, are assented to and applauded. But when any of these holy 
practices come really and particularly to be done hy you, or when they 
appear in the lives of others in the concrete, any of you who are unregene- 
rate want light to see, judge, or acknowledge them to be good and excellent 
indeed and in truth; and though to the notional abstract goodness of them, 
as barely in the thesis, your consciences may and do still assent, yet to the 
real goodness of them they do not, but they hate it, and fly in the face of 
it, or account it folly and madness, and accordingly despise and vilify it. 
Thus, also, when the blessed condition of the saints, and heaven, and the 
glory of it is painted lively, and set out to men in a quick representation, 
and so they apprehend in the notion and idea all those glorious things which 
are spoken of that city of our God, who desires not, as Balaam did, to 
die the death of the righteous, if they might but go thither ? But were it 
possible that an unregenerate man should be admitted into heaven, admitted, 
if I may so speak, but upon trial and liking, as some monasteries admit 
their novices ; yet, when once those pure and undefiled beams of light, which 
kindle joy that passeth understanding in the spirits of just men made pure 
and perfect ; when once, I say, those beams should come to be darted upon 
the eyes of his understanding, and by those windows be let in upon the rest 
of his soul, he would not be able to behold them, he could not endure them, 
but would seek to shun them, more than the night owl doth the day. 

2. But if they could assent to their real goodness, as well as they did to 
it when appearing in the notion only, yet unless they be able to apprehend 
it thus to be truly good /or them, that knowledge works not to any purpose. 
Though a sore eye may have sight enough to judge the light in itself to be 
good and amiable, and that it is a pleasant thing, yet it cannot judge it so 
lor itself, for it vexeth it ; so suppose an unregenerate man could assent 
that indeed spiritual things, when really represented, were the best, yet he 
could not judge that they were the best for hira. Though upon considera- 
tion he may think, that to draw near to God, and to live upon communion 
with him affords the truest pleasure, yet his heart being carnal, and so not 
having any gust of this spiritual pleasure, he cannot judge it to be the best 
for him. Bat David's heart and sense being spiritual, he could say really : 
Ps. Ixxiii. 28, ' But it is good for me to draw near to God : I have put my 
trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.' It is as if he 
should have said, I account it my present happiness, and what is best for 
me now to do, and I can wish no other happiness than to live in the pre- 
sence and enjoyment of God day and night. But no unregenerate men have 
such thoughts and judgment, of which we have an instance in Balaam, whose 
heart being carnal, and his wisdom sensual, though he judged the state of 
the righteous better in itself than his own, yet for the present, while he could 
in this world enjoy the pleasures of sin, he desired it not, because indeed 
he knew not how he could find at present more comfort in that condition of 
the righteous, than in the pleasures of sin and wages of unrighteousness : 
2 Pet. ii. 13-15, 'And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they 
that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime : spots they are and blemishes, 
sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you ; 
having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin ; beguiling un- 
stable souls : an heart they have exercised with covetous practices ; cursed 
children : which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following 
the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteous- 
ness.' When Balaam indeed should die, and must then part with all these 
things in this world which he loved and admired, which are but for a season, 
and must then receive death, the wages of all ; it is then he desires the death 



186 AN UNTvEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

of the righteous and to possess their happiness : Num. xxiii. 10, * Who can 
count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel ? Let 
me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.' 

Now the reason of all this is, because a man judgeth those things best for 
him which are most suitable those dispositions with which his spirit is 
seasoned, and which most answer his present desires, purposes, and aims. 
For that happiness which we find in things ariseth from their suitableness 
to us, and not merel_y out of the goodness of the things themselves. There- 
fore, though we may apprehend the things in themselves best of all ; yet, if 
we do not perceive them suitable to us, we cannot judge them good for us, 
as the cock in the fable, who preferred a barley-corn before a diamond, be- 
cause that he could eat, but the other could not feed him. Thus a man who 
is sick, though he knows that solid meat is sweeter and better to a man in 
health, yet he cannot judge it to be so for him, as long as his palate remains 
vitiated, and his stomach distempered. Now the Scripture tells us that the 
wisdom of all unregenerate men is thus depraved: James iii. 15, ' This wis- 
dom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devihsh ;' that all 
their perception and judgment is seasoned with nothing but flesh, and so 
vitiated: Rom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is enmity against God : for 
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' And now then 
it is no wonder if they judge the things of the flesh to be better for them, 
because more agreeable to their corrupt senses and appetites. 

Obj. If now it be further asked, and the case put, and query made, That 
though indeed a man unregenerate cannot apprehend spiritual things as good 
for him in the condition wherein he is, yet knowing, that to one whose soul 
is restored to health and grace, spiritual things are better than the pleasures 
of sin, he maj therefore judge that so they would be to him, if he was once 
renewed in his mind; and from this judgment of the thing, he may come to 
be set on work to seek, and desire it. As a man that is sick, though he 
cannot now judge meat to be best for him while he is so, j-et he may judge 
that in health it may be so, and so desire to have it, -when he shall be re- 
stored to that condition. 

Ans. To this I answer, It is true that such a notional apprehension and 
conviction he may have which may thus work, yet it is not strong enough 
so to afiect him as to overcome the difficulties, and to sweeten the use of 
the means, by which they ma}' obtain that good, as in a regenerate man it 
doth. For, though in the general and abstract notion, they apprehend all 
which is mentioned in the objection, yet really and truly they do not affect 
the thing itself, for when the means of gi'ace come to be used, which should, 
as physic, restore them to that health, their judgments disapprove, and dis- 
like even them, and they do not, nor cannot judge it best to use them con- 
stantly, and diligently. That phj'sic which should expel the noxious humour, 
and recover them, they cannot get do^vn, though they should die for it, be- 
cause their palates and their stomachs are both against it. In a word, though 
they conceive spiritual things to be tru3, and good, and some desires of pos- 
sessing them ma}' be stirred, yet when come to the point, and must use 
means to obtain them, then upon the trial, it appears that all their appre- 
hension, and judgment, doth not, nor cannot really affect them to purpose ; 
for their minds disallow, disapprove, distaste, and fight against all the means 
of their own recovery, or of the acquisition of these desired good things, and 
both their palates and stomachs, their judgments and wills, rise against the 
means and workings of grace in them, and cannot but do so. They cannot 
be brought to get the healing physic down, or to keep and retain it, though 
they know that otherwise they must die. The wisdom of their flesh is 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 1S7 

enmity against Goil, and his law, and bis grace, and all the means of it, 
Rom. viii. 7; and therefore, this wisdom is death, because it thus resists the 
means of life. Thus, they cannot judge the use of the means to be good for 
them, when really they come to use them ; nay, the very light and workings 
of the Spirit of God in their reasonings, their reasonings oppose : 2 Cor. x. 
4, 5, ' For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and 
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring- 
ing into captivity every thought to the obedience to Christ :' And what is 
the cause why they do thus ? Because nothing can judge, and judging, 
desire the destruction of itself, and therefore abhors any mixture of its con- 
trary ; and therefore flesh, and corrupt nature, which possesseth the judg- 
ments of men unregenerate, cannot pass such a sentence, as to judge the 
state of grace better for it, so as to set him efi'ectually on work to seek it, 
and to admit of it, for that would be to the ruin of itself. As though water 
be a baser element than fire, yet when fire comes to change it into itself, the 
form of water will hold its own, and make the utmost resistance, and cannot 
but do it ; so it is in this case too. 

A stronger instance of what I have said cannot be given than is to be found 
even in a man regenerate, who, though he hath grace begun in him, and 
knows, not notionally only, but tastingly and really, the pleasm-es of that 
state to be greater and better than those of sin, yet still so far as he is un- 
renewed in his judgment, and the spirit of his mind, so far doth that fleshly 
mind approve the ways of sin as best, and the ways of grace as of less worth, 
and the renewed part in his mind fights against the means of grace in a man's 
own heart, and disallows of them as if they were not best for him. How 
much more then must his mind, and judgment, who is nothing but flesh, and 
who never tasted that the other state is better, and who never came in that 
full manner to assent unto this indeed, that the estate of grace is best for 
him, how much more, I say, must his judgment and heart fight against 
these things. 

3. Last of all, though notionally an unregenerate man may be convinced 
that the other state of grace would be better for him, yet because he wants 
a judgment of taste of the betterness of it, he cannot strongly be aftected to 
it, so as to leave those things of which he hath always had so sweet a taste, 
in exchange. To prove this we need go no farther than the' instance of the 
young man in Mat. xix. 16-22, ' And, behold, one came and said unto him. 
Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life ? And 
he said unto him. Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, 
that is God : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He 
saith unto him. Which ? Jesus said. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt 
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal, Thou ^halt not bear false witness. 
Honour thy father and thy mother : and. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself. The young man saith unto him. All these things have I kept fi-om my 
youth up : what lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him. If thou wilt be perfect, 
go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have trea- 
sure in heaven ; and come and follow me. But when the young man heard 
that saying, he went away sorrowful ; for he had great possessions.' He 
had a great conviction of the goodness and excellence of salvation, and he 
notionally knew it better than all the world, and not in itself only, but for 
him if he could attain it, and therefore he comes earnestly to make the ques- 
tion. What shall I do to be saved ? and he comes with a seeming resolution 
to do anything which Christ should enjoin ; but yet, when it came to the trial, 
he would not buy his eternal life so dear, as at the price of all that he had 



183 



AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 



ia the world, because he had not such a real taste of the pleasure and sweet- 
ness of that life as might prevail on him so to do. He had not (I say) such 
a lively sense of it, as should be sufficient to sweeten the means (which yet 
he inquired for) that were necessary to obtain it ; but he knew, and relished 
really the goodness of his worldly enjoyments, and possessions, which was 
the reason that he could not find in his heart to forego them, and that he 
preferred them above that salvation, whose delights he had never yet really 
experienced. From this cause it was, that all the apprehensions and desires 
which he had of eternal [hfe], though they wrought on him a little, yet in the 
issue came to nothing : ' he went away exceedingly sorrowful, for he had great 
possessions,' which he loved better, and judged better for him than salvation 
itself. For it is not bare conceits, and notional apprehensions of things 
absent not yet attained, which can sway more, or affect us more, than the 
real tasting of present pleasures which are to be foregone. Our wills and 
affections being realities, and things full of weight, it must be a real appre- 
hension and sense that can move and stir them. 

Object. But it will be further objected that it is said of those who fall away, 
:ind therefore were never regenerated, that they are not only enlightened, but 
that they taste the world to come : Heb. vi. 4, 5, ' For it is impossible for 
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of 
God, and the powers of the world to come.' They have tasted the good 
word of God, i. e. the goodness of those things which the word reveals. 

Am. To this I answer, that there is a twofold goodness of the things 
represented in the word, which is revealed to us therein. The one is the 
good which comes by the things, the other is the goodness of the things 
themselves. For as other things, so those which are spiritual too, have an 
intrinsecal, essential, proper goodness and excellency in their own nature, 
severed from all the outward conveniences which proceed from them and 
accompany them. Thus, iu friendship, there are the personal good qualities 
and conditions of the man, and there are besides some outward benefits 
which may haply be gotten by his friendship, as promotion to some desired 
and expected honour and dignity, or freedom from some feared evils, or some 
other ends and use which a man may have of his friend, wherein he may 
stand him in stead. Thus also in marriage there are the personal excellen- 
cies of the wife,* her beauty, and the goodness and amiableness of her nature 
and carriage, and also her virtues and graces which are inherent in her per- 
son ; and there is also her portion and dowry, and the advantageous alli- 
ances which come with her. And so now to speak to the present instance, 
as there is the sweetness of the meat itself, and the sweetness of the sauce 
which it is served up in, so in the word spiritual things are with a double 
goodness propounded and revealed to us. There are the good things which 
come by Christ through believing, as freedom from hell, pardon of sin, peace 
with God, and a happy condition spoken of and promised with it, and we 
are told that we cannot have one without the other ; but besides this, there 
is also the internal excellence, the personal worth, the glory of the things 
themselves, the proper goodness of them conceived in their spiritual nature. 
Now, since the word sets out both these kinds of goodness to us, an unre- 
generate man may taste of the one but not of the other. They may relish 
the sweetness of the sauce with which they are dished up, but not of the 
meat itself. In sin, there is the bitterness of the sauce, that is, the direful 
effects and concomitants of it : horror of conscience, shame, fear of punish- 
ment, and the threatenings and the miseries with which God hath dished 
sin up to all those who shall eat the fruit of their doings ; and this bitter- 



Chap. II.] in ukspkct of sin and ruNisnMiiXT. ISO 

noss of sin wicked meu may and do taste : Jer. ii. 19, ' Thine own wicked- 
ness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall rejjrove thee : know there- 
fore and see that it i? an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the 
Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.' 
But wicked meu never see nor taste the evil that is in sin itself", nor are they 
sensible of it nor moved with it. They see not nor abhor that evil in sin 
which God and holy men do, which puts their mouths out of relish with it 
for ever. For when that bitter sauce is not tasted by the unregenerate, 
when they have not the sense of those bitter efiects in sin, but the same siu 
of which they were afraid and shy before is presented in the pleasure of it, 
without its former tasted bitterness, they fall to it as eagerly and as much as 
ever. In spiritual duties, likewise, there is peace of conscience which ac- 
companies the performance of them, and hence the thoughts of men mav 
excuse and pacify guilty fears upon the doing of a duty, as well as accuse 
upon a neglect of it, or the commission of a sin : Rom. ii. 15, * Which shew 
the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing 
witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one 
another.' Now, this sauce of good duties which satisfies the gnawing worm 
of conscience, an unregenerate man may rehsh, but to the meat itself, the 
goodness of the holy exercise, he hath no mind nor stomach. But Christ, on 
the contrary, delighted in the holy work itself, and found a sweetness in it : 
John iv. 32-34, ' But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know 
not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought 
him ought to eat ? Jesus saith unto them. My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me, and to finish his work.' Nay, farther, those who are not true 
and real believers on Christ, though they find a sweetness in his benefits, 
yet they see not his own proper excellencies, nor delight in his personal 
goodness. God sets out to us in the word, in and with Christ, freedom 
from hell, discharge from the guilt of sin, and the pardon of sin, which is as 
the sauce to the bread of life and heavenly manna, Christ himself. Now, 
those who never arrive to true faith and holiness, having their mouths em- 
bittered wdth the nauseous sauce of sin, may find sweetness in Christ as to 
these good efiects mentioned, and yet have no pleasing sense of his excellent 
person, of the joys of communion with him, that relish of his love, which 
the church, in Cant. i. 2, says is better than wine ; of that taste of the goou- 
ness of God in himself, of which David so much speaks of: Ps. xxxiv. 8, 
' taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in 
him ;' and Paul intimates, when he says that we do not only rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God, but in God himself: Rom. v. 2, 11, ' By whom also we 
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.' 

Now, in a word, to shew you the reason of this difi'erence, I need only 
present to you this consideration, that there is in an unregenerate man a 
principle of self-love, which seasons his palate, and his judgment, and there 
is nothing more in him ; but in a person regenerate theie is more, there is 
a new divine spiritual power of discerning spiritual things put in, and super- 
added both to his judgment, and to the self-love in his heart. Now% then, 
that principle of self-love makes men unregenerate capable of tasting the 
goodness and sweetness of the sauce ; that is, those motives and arguments 
which in the word are drawn from the good or evil which we all get by 
spiritual things ; but there being a farther goodness and sweetness in the 
things themselves, which is of a more transcendent nature (for they are 
good not only because they bring us such benefits v/ith them, but they are 



190 AM UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

first SO in themselves, and as they tend to glorify God) to relish this aright, 
a principle beyond all that is natural in men, a principle that is congenial to 
God, and his things, and so suited to them, is requisite. Though this is to 
be added, that a regenerate man having self-love, yet rightly tempered, tastes 
of both these kinds of sweetness, which spiritual things aiford, for both meat 
and sauce were made for him. 

From hence also it will now appear by way of inference or deduction, 

1. That even the affecting knowledge of an unregenerate man, which may 
a Uttle stir and warm his heart, is not that true knowledge of spiritual things 
which he ought to have, because he knows not that true, internal, proper 
goodness which is in them, which is indeed to know the thing as it is to be 
known, which also is the apostle's meaning when he says that they are 
spiritually discerned : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,' i. e. in that spiritual 
goodness and worth which is in the things themselves. For as it is in 
affections, so it is in knowledge, that they are not said to be true unless 
they be suitable to the nature of those things which we affect ; thus to love 
a man only for some advantage I may have from him, to love a wife for her 
portion, or to satisfy lust, is not love, it is not said to be true love, because 
it is not agreeable to that which in all these ought principally to be beloved, 
viz. their personal goodness and qualities. Thus neither is our knowledge 
true, unless we know that in the things, which is principally to be known of 
them, for till then the thing is not known as it is. As therefore we shewed 
that unbelievers in their speculative knowledge of spiritual things could not 
be said truly to know them, because they know but the pictures, not the 
things themselves ; so, practically, they know them nof, when they know 
affectionately only the accidental goodness which comes by the things, and 
not the true proper goodness of the things themselves. 

2. It may be inferred, that because they do not taste the proper goodness 
of spiritual things, or because they have [not] a tasting knowledge of that 
<70odness, therefore in this respect also they cannot be said to have true 
knowledge. For here again, unless a thing is known by that knowledge 
which is proper to it, it is not known tnily. A man cannot be said to know 
the sweetness of meat who wants the power of tasting it, because he is not 
able to know it with that sense which God hath appointed to receive it, and 
to make report of it to the rest. A man cannot be said to know music, and 
its charming harmony, who knows only the composure, but never heard a 
tune, because the hearing is the sense which God hath made the judge of it. 
And so though you may know there is a farther goodness in spiritual things 
than what only comes by them, yet if you taste not of that goodness also, 
you may be said not yet to know it, because you want the inward spiritual 
sense, which is homogeneal to them, which is proper to know, and judge of 
them, and which God hath appointed for that office. 



CHAPTER III. 

That men nnreqenerate are utterly destitute of that wisdom, and holy skill to do 
qood, which men reyenerate have. — Wherein this wisdom or holy art consists. 
— Proved that ungodly men want it. 

Having thus discoursed of the first part of practical knowledge, which 
influenceth men with affections to spiritual things, and haviog assigned th^ 



CnAP. III.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 191 

difference of this knowledge in those who arc nnregenerate, from that which 
a sanctified mind hath, let us now consider the other part, which guides 
men in the practice of holy duties, which is called wisdom to do good as 
well as to love what is good : Jcr. iv. 22, ' For my people is foolish, they 
have not knowTi me ; they are sottish children, and they have none under- 
standing: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.' 
That we may the better understand this, we must in the general consider 
that to new and holy obodience two things are required. 

1. That our wills, and affections, and the other powers in us, which are 
as instruments and tools to be employed in it, be made fit for such a busi- 
ness and work ; that they be made fit to pray, and to hear, and to sanctify 
the Sabbath, and God's name also in the worship of him, &c. : Eom. 
vi. 13, ' Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness 
unto sin : but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are ahve from the 
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' Their 
being instruments supposeth a fit disposition in them for such an use, and 
this fitness, readiness, and preparedness to be used in such services is their 
proper sanctification. 

2. Besides this fitness in them, there is required in the mind or judg- 
ment, wisdom, and skill to manage, turn, and wield these weapons right in 
the practice of holy duties, which is called wisdom to do good, and is neces- 
sary to direct us in the doing it. And by it we walk exactly, not as fools, 
but as wise: Eph. v. 14-17, ' Wherefore he saith. Awake thou that sleepest, 
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' ' See then that ye 
walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because 
the days are evil.' ' Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the 
will of the Lord is.' There is a light which we are to receive from Christ, 
needful to instruct us how to take our steps in due order ; there is a wisdom 
required to know how to guide our feet, and to walk : Eph. v. 8, ' For ye 
were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord : walk as child- 
ren of light.' And this is called practical knowledge. I will make the 
thing more clear by some easy example : if a man would fence aright, he 
must not only have fit weapons which are not too heavy for him, and which 
are of a fit fashion to be used, but he must have skill also to know how to 
be able to M'ield them, wherein lies the main of that art. If a man should 
go to play on an instrument, it is not necessary only that he should have a 
hand which is nimble, and quick, and apt to move fast, and to fall readily 
on such stops, which readiness is gained by use and exercise, and to this 
answers the sanctification of the will and affections ; but he must have the 
art and skill also imprinted on his fancy and understanding, which may still 
upon all occasions guide those fingers aright, else he can never play well. 
And the excellency too which men attain in their several trades comes from 
the excellency of their fancies. Thus, in sanctification there is a holy art, 
and skill implanted in the mind to direct the will and affections in all the 
acts of obedience ; and this we call practical knowledge. 

Now to this skill two things concur. 

1. To know all the rules, and fashion, and manner of doing things aright. 
As when a man takes an apprentice he gives him rules, and shews him how 
he should handle those instruments with which he is to work, but yet this 
is not knowledge enough; for a scholar who skills not a stroke of the mecha- 
nical work, and knows not how to turn his hand in it, may learn presently 
all the rules, and yet be as far off the knowledge of the trades as any other. 
Therefore, 

2. There is required a practical skill, a sleight, and cunning in the fancy, 



192 AN UNREGSNERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

and in the exercise of the hands, which use makes perfect. There is neces- 
sary such a practised art to know the ditference of wares at first sight, or to 
know how to guide the hand in such or such businesses, and to use tools 
proper for the work. 

That we may make application of all this to the purpose in hand. The 
difierence between the practical knowledge which is in a regenerate man, and 
one who is not so, lies in this, 

1. That an unregenerate man wants the skill and holy art to perform reli- 
gious duties, though they may know all the rules of practice as fully as the 
other : James iv. 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doth 
it not, to him it is siu.' 2 Peter ii. 20, 21, ' For if after they have escaped 
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, they arc again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end 
is worse with him than the beginning. For it had been better for them not 
to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to 
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.' Rom. ii. 20, ' An 
instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of know- 
ledge and of the truth in the law.' Isa. Iviii. 2, ' Yet they seek me daily, 
and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and for- 
sook not the ordinance of their God : they ask of me the ordinances of jus- 
tice : they take delight in approaching to God.' But a godly man, besides 
the knowledge of the rules and ways of righteousness, knows how to walk in 
them ; he hath a particular skill and art of holiness (which an unregenerate 
man wants), as a farther art infused into him to guide his heart in all the 
parts of a godly behaviour, and in the several passages of duties. He hath 
a skill to discern the difference of good and evil, as he finds or meets with 
either of them in his heart and life : Heb. v. 14, ' But strong meat belong- 
eth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their 
senses exercised to discern both good and evil.' He can distinguish true 
and good wares from those which are false, real genuine holiness from what 
is seemingly so, but counterfeit. Indeed, men as to all human faculties or 
arts, get by use a skill in them, besides the rules which they have learned ; 
but this art of holiness is not acquired by custom or exercise, but God puts 
it into a godly man's heart, as part of his stock, the first day that he con- 
verts him, though he may, and doth gain more of it afterward by exercise ; 
so that, though he learns not more rules of holy living than he knew 
before ; yet his skill in praying, or in the performance of any other duty, in- 
creaseth, and this proves it to be a distinct thing from the mere knowledge 
of the rules themselves. As for prayer, let a man have never so many rules 
in his head, yet all these canuut help him to make an acceptable prayer ; but 
there is a farther skill required, called a spirit of prayer, which God only can 
infuse : Zech. xii. 10, ' And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they 
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him 
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one 
that is in bitterness for his first-born.' Rom. viii. 26, ' Likewise the Spirit 
helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what we should pi'ay for as we 
ought : but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which 
cannot be uttered.' We know not how to pray as we ought ; we cannot 
make a prayer, nor so much as frame one petition ; but it is the Spirit who 
teacheth antl helps us, by giving us this skill, and he alone. And so for the 
love of God too, though we may all know the rules about it, yet we are ig- 
norant of the skill how to produce such an act of love, and turn the will in 
it, and guide it aright, till it be taught us by God : 1 Thes. iv. 9, ' But as 



Chap. III.] in kkspect of sin and punishment. 193 

touching brotherly love, yc need not that I write unto you ; for ye yourselves 
are taught of God to love one another.' And if we cannot love one another 
without being thus instructed, much less can wo love God himself; and 
therefore read through the Psalms, and you shall still find that David hath 
recourse to God for this particular practical skill, though he knew rules 
enough already ; and he asks of God to bestow this art upon him, as being 
the peculiar prerogative of God's people : Ps. xxv. 4, 5, ' Shew me thy ways, 
Lord ; teach me thy paths. Load mo in thy truth, and teach me ; for 
thou art the God of my salvation : on thee do I wait all the day,' He prays 
for instruction : ' Shew me thy ways,' says he. Now, what teaching means 
he ? To have the rules of godly walking only revealed to him ? No ; but 
to have a skill to walk, and to order his steps in his particular actions. 
' Lead me in thy trath' (says he), in the way that I should choose, as thou 
teachest thy saints, and them only, to do : ver. 12, ' The meek will he guide 
in judgment ; and the meek will he teach his way. What man is he that 
feareth the Lord ? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.' 
They only have this secret, and all others are ignorant of it : ver. 14, ' The 
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; and he will shew them his 
covenant.' And their light is such as guides them in all their walking : Luke 
i. 78, 79, ' Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring 
from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and 
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.' God doth 
imprint this skill in every servant and apprentice which he takes, and he 
doth not so to any other. It is in our indentures that he should do so, for 
he hath bound himself by covenant : Jer. xxxi. 33, ' But this shall be the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, saith 
the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, 
and will be their God, and they shall be my people.' And it is a skill which 
all the ministers can never teach you. Our preaching may read lectures to 
you, and fill your heads with rules, which you may be able to teach others 
too ; but the right art of doing duties according to those rules, none can 
teach you but God. This particular skill, or wisdom to do (for as all practices 
of trades lie in a skill of the mind, so doth this also), all unregenerate men 
want : Jer. iv. 22, ' For my people is foolish, they have not known me, they 
are sottish children, and they have none understanding : they are wise to do 
evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.' They are wise to do evil ; 
they have working heads that way, and are perfect masters of that sleight 
and cunning, but to do good they have no practical knowledge at all ; and 
that I take to be the meaning of the phrase, Titus i. 16, ' They profess 
that they know God ; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and 
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.' They profess to know 
God, and so how to fear him, but are to every good work aoax//a,o/ ; that is, 
* void of judgment,' for so the word signifies, and in that meaning it is taken : 
Ptom. i. 28, ' And even as they did not like to retain God in their know- 
ledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which 
are not convenient.' 'Eig db6-/.ifiov vovv, or to a mind void of judgment, were 
they abandoned. The apostle, in Titus i. 16, shews the variousness or dif- 
ference of their knowledge, from what is in a man godly, that though it be 
of practical things, yet it is not a practical knowledge, which is able to guide 
them. And it is the meaning of the Holy Ghost, in Eom. xii. 2, ' And be 
not conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind, that ye may prove what is thn,t good, and acceptable, and perfect will 
of God.' Our minds must be renewed, he to ho-/j[j,dtiiv, to prove and to make 

VOL. X. N 



194 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

trial of the will of God, and to try how well we can do it. And that a man 
may know the thing, and all that belongs to its nature and use, and yet be 
ignorant to do it, we have a common instance ; for a man may have all direc- 
tions how to temper such a potion, and what drugs should go into it, but 
to discern what drugs are good, and to have the skill to temper them 
rightly together, is quite another thing, and there is more required to it, for 
a physician, who can do the one, is unable to do the other, and therefore an 
apothecary's business and work is very different from his. Thus now, 
though you may know all the parts of a prayer, and what is to be put into 
your petitions, or thanksgivings, to render them acceptable, yet to know how 
to temper j'our prayers right, to discern true spiritual desires, which may be 
put in, and to distinguish them from such as are carnal and unlawful in 
your hearts, which, if mingled with the prayer, would spoil it, this is a dis- 
tinct art, and is a true Christian's skill. A man who never was at sea, nor 
saw a ship in his life, may know all the art of mariners, and rules of navi- 
gation, which may carry a man on any voyage, for he may learn them at 
home by his own chimney, and yet he would want that skill to guide a ship 
which a poor sailor hath, who knows not so many rules as he. Thus a man 
may be learned in divinity, and know all the rules of a Christian's duty 
and practice, in all conditions of life, and yet when he comes to put these 
rules into action, he may be at a loss how to steer his course aright in any 
one of them. 

Ohj. But you will say, Do not nnregenerate men know how to pray, &c. ? 
Whence is it, then, that they can pray with apparent fervency, and can so 
freely speak their minds in prayer? Why, they put me down quite (will 
many a poor soul say) in zeal, and readiness of expression, and therefore 
they know how to make prayers, as well as to give rules. 

Ans. I answer, there are two things in every duty : the inward work and 
outwork, the inside and outside of it, bodily exercise, as the apostle calls 
it, and godliness, which is the carnage of the heart in the duty. The first is 
but little available, it is the second that hath the force and virtue in it : 
1 Tim. iv. 8, ' For bodily exercise profiteth little ; but godliness is profitable 
unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is 
to come.' There is in a duty, as in the law which commands it, the letter 
and the spirit. There is in the law the outward part of it, and the inward 
spirit, and life, and form of it : Eom. vii. 6, ' But now we are delivered from 
the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in new- 
ness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.' And there is in a duty 
the external performance, which is the oldness of the letter, and the life and 
warmth of the heart, which is the newness of spirit. Now to have gifts 
and skill to perform the outwork, is nothing in comparison ; but the great 
and difficult art is to guide the heart aright in prayer in a spiritual manner, 
so as God, who is a Spirit, may accept it. This skill all nnregenerate men 
in the world want, for they have but a form of godliness, which is no more the 
thing itself, than a picture is a man. Therefore the apostle says in Rom. 
xii. 2, that we must be renewed to know that good, acceptable will of God ; 
TO ayaShv, that good, to know it, i. e. to be able to make such an experiment, 
and trial in performance as to produce a prayer that shall be acceptable to 
God, which no unregenerate man can do. They may put in materials, as 
drugs, M'hich are good, but they spoil all in the tempering, minghng no 
spirits with them. Or, as a painter may have skill to draw the picture of a 
man, but still it is but the outside ; the inward veins and nerves are not visible 
in his piece; or though he may figure them, yet he cannot paint the spirits, 
much less the motions, turnings, and affections, the various postures and 



Chap. IV.J in eespect of sin and punishment. 195 

carriage of the soul in any action, for he wants that divine skill, that plas- 
tic or formative art, whereby God framed us in the womb, and drew and 
limned all these. Thus an unregenerate man may shadow out all the externally 
appearing parts of a prayer, but the inward vital parts he cannot form ; the 
life, and the heat, and the several motions of the soul praying in faith, he 
cannot draw, for he wants the art of the Spirit of God, who doth all this in 
a godly man's heart, when he prays. And therefore, to be able to produce 
such an acceptable piece of work is ascribed to knowledge and light in the 
soul, which is made peculiar to believers, as being the work of the Spirit ini 
them : Eph. v. 8, ' For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light 
in the Lord : walk as children of light ;' Heb. xii. 28, ' Wherefore we re- 
ceiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we' 
may serve God acceptablj', with reverence and godly fear.' The word 
acceptabhj still is used, and this acceptable service chiefly lies in aholy skill 
to manage the mind and heart of a man in the performance of every duty ; 
and this skill is a peculiar light which unregenerate men . have not, and 
therefore know not how to produce the spiritual secret motions of good 
duties, or the carriages of a man's spirit in them. 

It is not enough neither to play the holy lesson, and to strike all the 
strokes with all the graces nimbly and quickly ; but it is requisite to have 
skill to choose out good and true strings, suitable holy affections, and to have 
an ear to discern when they jar or are flat, being not wound up high enough 
(which God's ear regards and takes notice of), and accordingly to tune the 
heart aright. This art is- proper only to . a holy soul, and one unregenerate 
is entirely defective in it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Tl vat wicked men, wanting this true uiadom, are fools. — This demonstrated hy' 
considering the nature of wisdom, of all the parts of which ungodly men are 
f roved to he destitute. 

Unto you, men, I call ; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple,, 
understand wisdom; and, ye fools, he ye of an understanding heart. Hear, for 
I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall he right 
things.— Vbo\. VIII. 4-6. 

Here are some called fools, and a proclamation is made to them, and it is 
a word so disgraceful as I make no question, that there are many here, who, 
thinking; as they in Jer. viii. 9, ' Are not we wise ?' will be desirous to know 
who are meant. Unto all of us in our state of nature, wisdom proclaims 
this, for her voice is to the sons of men, ver. 4. Because men regard and 
matter it not to be called fool by one who is not wise himself, therefore, 
that they maybe obhged to regard what is declared of them, wisdom itself is 
brought in as making this declaration: ver. 1, * Doth not wisdom cry, and 
understanding put forth her voice ?' Wisdom, with her own voice, proclaims 
us all to be fools. 

Ohs. The words, then, of the text afford us this observation, both of our- 
selves and other men, that all by nature, or in the state of nature, are fools. 
This is the next thing of which I am to discourse, in discovering how de- 
praved men's judgments are by sin, that their minds are emptied of all true, 
solid wisdom, and are filled with nothing but folly. This is here asserted 
of all men in general ; and it is easy to prove, by induction of particulars, 



196 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

that those, who, of all others, think they have reason to be excepted out of 
this catalogue, are yet included in it. 

1. Learned men, and those who are the most skilled in human know- 
ledge, and so are accounted the wisest, as they make wisdom their profession, 
yet they are termed fools ; and it is asserted of them also, that in the end 
they prove themselves no otherwise : Rom. i. 21—23, ' Because that when 
they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but 
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory 
of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and 
to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.' 

2. If we consider the most politic and wisest statesmen, who can rule 
and overturn kingdoms by their wits, yet all their deep wisdom is but folly, 
and comes to nothing : 1 Cor. ii. 6, ' Howbeit we speak wisdom among them 
that are perfect ; yet not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this 
world, that come to nought.' 

3. If we look on the most civil sober-carriaged men, who live free from 
the grossest sins, and profess religion, and who are virgins, free from common 
pollutions, and can pray and preach, yet these wanting grace are termed 
foolish virgins, Mat. xxv. 3. 

But again you will ask, What wisdom doth he speak of, and mean, and 
imply that we want, when he thus calls us all fools, for there is much 
wisdom acknowledged in many other places of Scripture to be in unregene- 
rate men ? 

1. They are wise enough in their generation : Luke xvi. 8, ' And the 
Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely : for the 
children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light ;' 
that is, they are wiser in their kind of wisdom, but it is not the best wis- 
dom. As the crocodile is quick-sighted on the land, but dim-sighted in the 
water, so they in earthly things are wise enough, but this their worldly wis- 
dom is foolishness in God's account : 1 Cor. iii. 19, ' For the wisdom of 
this world is foolishness with God : for it is written, He taketh the wise in 
their own craftiness.' God speaks this upon his own knowledge, for he 
knows their thoughts are vain ; they think godly men to be fools : 1 Cor. ii. 
14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for 
they are foolishness unto him; neither can be know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned.' But God and his saints know them to be so. Now, 
all wisdom is to be measured by God's wisdom, for prmnim in quolibet genere 
est mensura reliquorwn, the first in every kind is the measure of all the rest, 
and God is primarily and originally wise : 1 Tim. i. 17, ' Now, unto the King 
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only vise God, be honour and glory for ever 
and ever. Amen.' Therefore what he esteems foolishness is certainly so. 

2. They are wise enough to do evil, Jer. iv. 22, but ' to do good they 
have no understanding.' A man who can speak well to men, or hath a 
notable cunning head to contrive and bring about any villany, because his 
wit lies that way, is yet very dull in any matter of religion, and is utterly 
ignorant how to pray, or to do God any service which is required of him : 
Ilom. vi. 19, ' I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of 
vour flesh:: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, 
and to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to 
righteousness unto holiness.' 

3. They may be so wise as to know much in matters of salvation, when 
yet they are not wise to salvation, which is the true wisdom recommended 
to us by one who very well knew what it was: 2 Tim. iii. 15, 'And that 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 197 

from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make 
thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.' 

And now, again, you will ask. How came we thus to be all fools ? The 
answer is easy and ready, we were all born so : Job xi. 12, ' For vain man 
would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt ;' which of all 
creatures is the most dull and stupid. But, what ! were we all made thus ? 
No, certainly. We are not fools of God's making, for he created us in his 
image, which especially consists in knowledge and true wisdom : Col. iii. 10, 
* And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of him that created him.' How, then, hath man, who at first was 
wise, become a fool ? Why, truly, Adam, our great-grandfather, played the 
fool by sinning, which is the greatest folly in the world : Prov. v. 22, 23, 
' His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holdea 
with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction ; and in the 
greatness of his folly he shall go astray.' And so Adam befooled himself 
and all his posterity. Ay, but you will say, many, though they play the fool 
once, yet they become wiser by it. It is true they do so, if they have any 
wit left ; but Adam by sinning quite lost all that he had, and that justly, for 
his sin was in coveting to get more knowledge than was meet for him. He 
would have been as a God, and so he was justly punished with the loss of 
what he had, and aiming at the shadow he lost the substance. But you will 
say, Foolish fathers beget wise children, and therefore, though he was a fool, 
it will not follow of course that we should be so, I answer, yes, it will, 
because that wisdom was given him as a stock and treasure, to be kept for 
us all, and so losing it we of consequence lost it also. 

But that we may farther and more particularly demonstrate unto you the 
folly which is in wicked men, let us consider what true wisdom is. 

1. Wisdom is more than knowledge, and then folly is more than ignorance, 
and many are witty who yet are not wise. The apostle makes this distinc- 
tion between wisdom and knowledge : 1 Cor. xii. 8, ' For to one is given 
by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by the 
same Spirit ;' where by word is meant utterance, and by knowledge a man's 
being conversant about the truths, or falseness of things, but wisdom is con- 
cerned about their goodness or profitableness. That is wisdom's property 
to inquire into, and discern what is best and most advantageous ; and that 
not in the general, but what is so to a man's self. It is the part of a pru- 
dent man (saith Aristotle) rightly to consult about those things which are 
good and profitable to himself. So that as knowledge enlargeth itself to all 
truths, and to whatever may be known to be good in the general, wisdom 
contents itself with those things which are profitable and useful ; so Job 
speaks of wisdom as that which will make a man profitable to himself: Job 
XX. 2, ' Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be pro- 
fitable to himself?' As also Solomon advises a man to be wise for himself: 
Prov. ix. 12, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou 
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.' That is, if thou have grace and true 
wisdom, it will guide thee, as all true wisdom doth, to such things only as 
tend to thine own good and benefit, and thou wilt be wise to thyself. Now, 
though unregenerate men have never so much knowledge, yet because it 
enlightens not to discern what is good and profitable for them, but their 
lusts carry them to what is hurtful and pernicious, or which profits not in 
the latter end, therefore they are called fools : 1 Tim. vi. 9, 'But they that 
will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' There we see 
foolish and hurtful lusts are joined together, as being one and the same. 



198 AN UNREGENERATE MANS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

2. It is not things less profitable, or good for some particular ends only, 
that true wisdom seeks out for and inquires after, but that which is the 
chiefest good, the general universal good, which contains in it all true hap- 
piness, and will stand a man in stead at all times, and upon all occasions. 
This is true wisdom, to search out and pursue such a good as this. Thus 
(Ai'istotle says) he is absolutely a prudent man who reasons and acts about 
a common or general end or good, but he who only exercises himself about 
a particular one, is only prudent in some sort or certain kind. A man may 
be a wise soldier, able to lead an army, but that being but a particular end 
and good, he may be a fool in other things. A man may be wise to get 
riches, or to screw himself up into preferments, which are things profitable 
for a man's self, but yet these serving only for a particular end, and whilst 
a man is in this world, for they avail not at the day of death, therefore even 
such a man proves himself a fool in the end, that he made no better nor 
more lasting provisions for his happiness: Jer. xvii. 11, 'As the partridge 
sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ; so he that getteth riches, and not 
by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be 
a fool.' But now grace and godliness are profitable for all things, and that 
also at all times : 1 Tinu iv. 8, ' For bodily exercise profiteth little : but 
godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, 
and of that which is to come.' Whether we die or live, whatever condition 
we are or may be in, grace will render us happy. This, therefore, is the true 
wisdom, to seek grace, and the love and favour of God above all things ; 
this is true wisdom, and therefore called wisdom unto salvation, 2 Tim. iii. 
15. Take, therefore, the poorest Christian, the most ignorant and simple 
man, one who is a mere fool in all manner of worldly business, yet if his 
mind be exercised in seeking after the chiefest good, and busied about that 
one thing necessary, the saving of his soul (which one necessary thing Christ 
calls the better part : Luke x. 42, ' But one thing is needful : and Mary 
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.') He 
is become truly wise, though otherwise a fool. Though he is a fool, he shall 
not err in respect of holiness, when God teacheth him : Isa. xxxv. 8, ' And 
an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of 
holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those : the 
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.' Solomon, on the con- 
trary, was a wise man, and used his wisdom to find out what was that good 
for the sons of men, and he went over all pleasures here below ; but, however, 
he was befooled in it, and he laid hold on folly in doing so : Eccles. ii. 3, 
* I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine (yet acquainting mine 
heart with wisdom), and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that 
good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the 
days of their life.' The philosophers also spent all their brains in seeking out 
the chiefest happiness for man, but because they missed it, placing it some 
in riches, some in pleasures, some in honours, &c., therefore herein they 
are proclaimed fools : Rom. i. 22, ' Professing themselves to be wise, they 
became fools.' 

3. True wisdom, as it finds the true and most general good, so it directs 
to the best means for the attainment of this end ; therefore Solomom says 
that wisdom is profitable to direct : Eccles. x. 10, ' If the iron be blunt, 
and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength : but wis- 
dom is profitable to direct.' Now, what are those means? To believe in 
Christ in the first place, and to love and fear God, and to live in holy obe- 
dience, and to serve him sincerely. And to make use of these means was 
the conclusion to which Solomon's wisdom in the end came : Eccles. xii. 13, 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 199 

* Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God, and keep his 
commandoieuts : for this is the whole duty of man.' And accordingly, God 
himself tells us that this is wisdom and understanding, to keep the statutes 
which he hath given to us: Deut. iv. 5, 6, 'Behold, I have taught you 
statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that je 
should do so in the laud whither you go to possess it. Keep therefore and 
do them ; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the 
nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation 
is a wise and understanding people.' And so in Eph, v. 17, ' Wherefore be 
ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.' Prov. 
xxviii. 7, ' Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son : but he that is a companion 
of riotous men shameth his father.' He who knows the ways of wisdom, 
then, is convinced of the necessity of Christ, of regeneration, of faith in 
Christ, and to be strictly holy, and such an one is wise. But he who is 
ignorant of these, and would search out other means of his happiness, is 
a fool. When Solomon would find out the true causes of folly, and wherein 
it consists, for that is the matter of his search, in Eccles. vii. 25, * I applied 
mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason 
of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and mad- 
ness :' when I say he would find out the original and nature of folly, he 
says, ver. 29, * Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; 
but they have sought out many inventions.' That is to say, Man hath been 
80 foolish as to seek other means to be happy than what are appointed by 
God, and so are only true, and right, and ett'ectual. 

4. That wherein especially wisdom consists, is when a man is enabled to 
choose that best end and good, and the fittest and most successful means 
to obtain it. The chiefest part of prudence lies in a due application to work, 
not only to consult, for this wicked men can do, but to judge what is best 
to be done, and to set about the doing it in the properest manner. Thus 
Solomon says, Prov. xiii. 10, ' Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge : 
but a fool layeth open his folly.' A wise man worketh or dealeth with 
knowledge, that is, orders all his actions and works by it, and keeps- himself 
to this as his rule : Prov. xv. 2, ' The tongue of the wise useth knowledge 
aright : but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.' And so we are 
commanded to walk exactly according to rule : Eph. v. 15, ' See then that 
ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.' The word is d-AoifSuig, ex- 
quisitely, exactly, so as not to swerve a tittle from the rule. A wise man 
is enabled with skill to walk according to his pattern, but a fool now cannot 
keep himself to any pattern. Now, then, because all wicked men walk not 
according to the rule of the word, but reject God's commandments, therefore 
they are said to be utterly destitute of all true wisdom : Jer. viii. 9, ' The 
wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken : lo, they have rejected 
the word of the Lord ; and what wisdom is in them ?' And therefore wis- 
dom cries to men as being fools, and reproves them for not choosing the 
fear of the Lord : Prov. i. 20, 22, 29, ' Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth 
her voice in the streets. How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? 
and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? For 
that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.' 



200 AN UNKEGENERA.TE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

CHAPTER V. 

In xoliat particulars the foJhj of unregenerate men consists. — That they are un- 
capable of considering of things. 

Having thus described to you, only in the general, wherein true wisdom 
consists, I will come to some particulars wherein this folly of wicked men, 
or their want of wisdom, consists and discovers itself. 

1. It consists in an unability to consider of things. 

(1.) In an unability to reflect and consider on their own ways and estate. 
Fools cannot turn the eyes of their minds inward, but as Solomon says, they 
run through the ends of the earth : Prov. xvii. 24, ' Wisdom is before him 
that hath understanding ; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.' 
As beasts and madmen, children, they make no inward remarks on them- 
selves, but pass over their times without reflecting upon the griefs or joya 
which they have had. Their thoughts being dispersed and scattered cannot 
be called in and home to themselves, to consider their condition, and to be 
intent on it. For still as wisdom is wanting, the reflecting power is wanting 
also. It is made one particular of folly not to consider what it doth: Eccles. 
V. 1, ' Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more 
ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools ; for they consider not that 
they do evil.' And truly, such folly is there in the hearts of the unregene- 
rate, their eyes look outward only to things abroad in the world, but they 
call them not in to view their own actions and estates, and seldom or never 
enter into any serious consideration of them : Jer. viii. 6, * I hearkened and 
heard, but they spake not aright : no man repented him of his wickedness, 
saying. What have I done ? every one turned to his course, as the horse 
rusheth into the battle.' They are madmen, and when they turn to the 
wisdom of the just, then, and not till then, they come to themselves, as the 
prodigal did. And indeed the chiefest part of wisdom lies in knowing a 
man's self; and he would be a fool, who minded all business which passed in 
the world, whilst he neglected his own. 

(2.) A fool is uncapable of considering the issues and consequences of 
things, and what will come of such ways and courses which he takes, and 
what will be the end of them. Providence and foresight is the chiefest part 
of wisdom : Prov. xxii. 3, ' A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth 
himself: but the simple pass on and are punished.' A wise man knows 
the paths of drunkards, whither they lead, and that he who lays hold on a 
whorish woman takes hold on hell, and that in choosing sin he chooseth 
death : Prov. viii. 36, ' But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul ; 
all they that hate me love death.' And he knows that to walk in the high 
ways of wisdom, is to depart from hell beneath ; but a fool, he knows not, 
nor considers this : Deut. xxxii. 28, 29, * For they are a nation void of coun- 
sel, neither is there any understanding in them. Oh that they were wise, that 
they understood this, that they would consider their latter end !' Foolish 
man will not consider his latter end, and what condition he will be in at the 
day of death and judgment. An adulterer who is led away, like a fool, by 
his lust, never thinks what will be the sad consequences and bitter fruits : 
Prov. vii. 21-28, ' With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with 
the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an 
ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks ; till a dart 
strike through his liver ; or as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not 
that it is for his life.' But a wise, godly man sees things in the causes, and 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 201 

foresees tho effects ; he sees the punishment in tho sin, whilst a foolish, 
wicked people never consider it, and know not the judgment of the Lord : 
Jer. viii. G— 9, ' I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man 
repented him of his wickedness, sayincj, What have I done ? every one turned 
to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Yea, the stork in the heaven 
knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, 
observe the time of their coming ; but my people know not the judgment of 
the Lord. How do you say. We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with 
us ? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen of the scribes is in vain. 
The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken : lo, they have re- 
jected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them ?' 

(8.) A fool is unable to consider fit times, and seasons, and opportunities 
wherein things fall out to him, or are to be done by him. Indeed, to con- 
sider circumstances is the chiefest thing in which wisdom consisteth, as it is 
said of the wise men, that they knew the times : Esther i. 13, ' Then the king 
said to the wise men, who knew the times, for so was the king's manner 
towards all that knew law and judgment.' Ungodly men then are fools, who 
know not the times of their visitation, who do not apprehend when it is the 
day of grace, and when a time of salvation comes : Jer. viii. 7, 8, ' Yea, the 
stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the 
crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming ; but my people 
know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the 
law of the Lord is with us ? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen of 
the scribes is in vain.' The judgment of the Lord ; that is, the season of 
faith, repentance, and conversion, the season of averting God's wrath and 
vengeance from them ; this they know not ; but when God calls to fasting, 
weeping, and mourning, they run out into all excess of riot, and this is their 
great misery: Eccles. viii. 6, 7, ' Because to every purpose there is time and 
judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth 
not that which shall be : for who can tell him when it shall be ? ' But he 
who is wise shall know time, and judgment, and so be safe. There are 
times wherein heaven is offered to them, as there was a time M'hen the king- 
dom might have been settled on Saul ; but they regard them not, as he did 
not consider and discern his opportunity, and so lost it: 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14, 
* And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly : thou hast not kept 
the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee ; for 
now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. 
But now thy kingdom shall not continue : the Lord hath sought him a man 
after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over 
his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded 
thee.' It was his folly made him not discern it. But be who sees his time, 
and opportunity, and strikes in with it : Prov. x. 5, ' He that gathereth in 
summer is a wise son : but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth 
shame.' And therefore an ant is reckoned a wise creature, but the unre- 
generate are fools in neglecting their season of grace. Thus also they know 
not the proper season of duties, when to pray, and when to hear, &c. They 
know not that in the first place they should seek the kingdom of God, and 
then next in order mind their worldly affairs, and follow their callings : Mat. 
vi. 33, * But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and 
all those things shall be added unto you.' They therefore act all things 
rashly, and confusedly ; and this is made the property of a fool ; when he enters 
into the temple, and should hear, then to fall a-reading, or praying, this is 
the sacrifice of a fool, because out of season. 

(4.) A fool is unable to make use of a rule in any particular case. Give 



202 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

rules to them, and see what ahsurdities they will commit. Bum vitant vitia, 
in contraria cnrrunt. While they avoid one error, they run into others of 
the contrary extreme. You cannot by any direction teach a fool to make a 
cross. Thus let an unregenerate man have never so much knowledge and 
instruction, yet he is not directed by it in his particular course, to bring forth 
actions pleasing and acceptable to God ; as though you give a fool the exactest 
relations of a way, yet when he comes to make use of them, and to take his 
journey, in every turning or by-lane he mistakes and bewilders himself: 
Eccles. X. 3, ' Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wis- 
dom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.' A fool when 
he walks in the way, all his instructions fail him ; he may tell the way, and 
give it to others, but how to take it himself he knows not. Thus an ungodly 
man, though he is instructed by the word, what the way is wherein he should 
go, yet he will miss it, for he wants the Spirit of God to say to him on all 
occasions, This is the way, walk in it, which is promised to those whom God 
loves, and takes care of: Isa. xxx. 21, 'And thine ears shall hear a word 
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to 
the right hand, and when ye turn to the left ; ' and as Solomon says, the 
■wisdom of the prudent is to know his way : Prov. xiv. 8, ' The wisdom of 
the prudent is to understand his way : but the folly of fools is deceit,' not 
the way in general only, but his way, wherein he should steer his course. 
And answerably the apostle exhorts us to walk exactly, Eph. v. 15, dx^ilSuig, 
according to a rule. It is not wisdom to understand the will of the Lord 
only, but to be able to walk by that rule ; for a man may get rules, and yet 
not know how to turn his heart or hand to them. 

(5.) A fool is stupid, and insensible, and lays not anything to heart. 
Fools cannot have strong or serious thoughts, for they cannot be intent on 
anything, and therefore they are always merry, and will laugh even at the 
wagging of a straw : Eccles. vii. 4-6, ' The heart of the wise is in the house 
of mourning : but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better 
to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. 
This also is vanity.' The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, to 
sorrow upon every great and just occasion ; but if a fool lays anything to 
heart, they are trifles, the loss of a bauble, or a foolish word spoken ; but 
tell them such a friend is dead, or that the Spaniards are on the coast, and 
they art not all moved. Denounce threateniugs to an adulterer or drunkard, 
and they will soon shake them off, and the most terrible things spoken in the 
word of God sink not at all into them, but they pass on till they are punished 
at last: Prov. xxii. 3, 'A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: 
but the simple pass on, and are punished.' They will lay the loss of trifles 
to heart, but not the loss of God's favour. They will be troubled for petty 
matters, whilst they are not concerned at God's anger, nor the suflerings of 
his people, nor the miseries and ruins of the churches of Christ abroad. 
They do not weigh, nor ponder in their minds, but forget the afflictions of 
Joseph, drinking wine in bowls : Amos vi. 6, ' That drink wine in bowls, and 
anoint themselves with the chief ointments : but they are not grieved for the 
affliction of Joseph.' When God comes with armies into their country, or 
wastes it with fire, or a plague, still they are careless, as those in Isa. xhi. 
24, 25, ' Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Isi-ael to the robbers ? did not 
the Lord, he against whom we have sinned ? for they would not walk in 
his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath 
poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle : and it 
hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not ; and it burned him, yet 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 203 

he laid it not to heart.' And indeed it is no wonder that they lay not God's 
judgments to heart, who make light of sin, that deserves, and brings them : 
Prov. xiv. 9, ' Fools make a mock at sin : but among the righteous there is 
favour.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

That another particular wherein their follij is manifest is in their false jud/j- 
ments. — They deceive themselves in the estimate they make of thinys and 
actions. 

2. The second main thing wherein the folly of unregenerate men consists 
is their false judgments. In judging and esteeming of what is good and 
profitable for themselves, they are deceived by many false rules. And folly 
or false judging of things is called in the general by Christ, and Paul, judging 
according to the appearance, xar' o-^iv ; that is, according to what things 
outwardly seem to be : John vii. 24, ' Judge not according to the appearance, 
but judge righteous judgment.' And by the apostle it is styled judging, Kara, 
'jtooGU'Trov, according to the first show and semblance of things, the first blush and 
view of them : 2 Cor. x. 7, ' Do ye look on things after the outward appear- 
ance ? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself 
think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.' And again 
it is called by Christ judging, -/.ara edexa, according to the flesh : John 
viii. 15, 'Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man after the flesh ; ' that 
is, according to the outward bark and rind, not piercing into the marrow, 
nor searching the soul of the thing within, the inward virtues and qualities. 
Christ speaks upon occasion of their judging of him by his outside, because 
they saw him clothed with flesh, and hidden under the poor appearance of 
a carpenter's son, encompassed with the same infirmities that men are, 
overcast with disgraces, and soiled with poverty, therefore thought of him 
but as of an ordinary man, and were otieuded at him and his followers. 
And Paul also, in that 1 Cor. x. 7, speaks to the Corinthians upon occasion 
of their false judging of preaching, which they estimated by flaunting and 
outward eloquence ; and because Paul's preaching was rude, and not hand- 
somely dressed up, though full of the depths of wisdom, they contemned 
him. Thus an unregenerate man foolishly judges according to the outward 
face of things, and so is deceived ; as a countryman, who sees the sun, and 
thinketh it to be no bigger than a platter, whenas it exceeds the earth in 
magnitude; he judgeth according to appearance, and not by rules of art, and 
so is mistaken. Now the false rules by which men are guided in thus judg- 
ing are many. 

(1.) They judge those things best for them which are present before them, 
and may presently be enjoyed, though but a while, and are so inconsiderate 
as to prefer them to those that are afar off, and out of sight, and but in 
hopes, though infinitely better, and of eternal duration. They are so foolish 
as to prefer the devil's and the world's present pay above all God's promises, 
and his recompence of reward. They act thus merely out of folly, for wisdom 
only enableth a man to see and apprehend the goodness of things afar oti' and 
out of sight ; but fools, and children, and beasts look only to what is before 
them, and present in their view. Take a child, and look what he hath in 
his hand he will hardly be brought to part with it for all your promises, and 
hopes given him of something better, unless you present it before him to ex- 
change with him, for he wants wisdom to judge of the goodness of what he 



204 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

sees not. Hence also it is always one fruit of folly and weakness to be im- 
patient, and that it cannot stay for a thing, wisdom being wanting to content 
and quiet the mind till the thing for which it longs is come ; hence you see 
children and fools, whom nothing but present things will satisfy, cry till they 
see and enjoy what they would have. So this same 7iow, the present time, 
sways all unregenerate men, as it swayed and prevailed with Esau : Gen. 
XXV. 30-32, ' And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that 
same red pottage : for I am faint : therefore was his name called Edom. 
And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, 

1 am at the point to die ; and what profit shall this birthright do to me ? ' He 
had a sense of nothing but what might satisfy his present needs and desires, 
and as for his birthright, he thought he should have no use of it till his 
father's death ; it was a thing to come, and a type of heaven, and so he sells 
it. Thus do wicked men sell heaven, and purchase to themselves eternal 
destruction to enjoy present pleasures, or to avoid present sulFerings : 2 Tim. 
iv. 10, * For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and 
is departed into Thessalonica ; Crescens to Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia.' 
There lay the motive and inducement : he had present offers and oppor- 
tunities of riches and preferments, though with the shipwreck of a good 
conscience. Whereas grace enableth a man to bear present inconveniences, 
and to forbear present pleasures, looking to things to come ; so says Paul, 

2 Cor. iv. 16-18, ' For which cause we faint not; but though our outward 
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, 
but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are tem- 
poral ; but the things which are not seen are eternal.' For this cause (says 
he) we faint not ; though our outward man perish, though our credit decays, 
our estate consumes, and our strength wastes, yet it is well enough with us 
as long as the inward man is renewed. He judged not according to the 
appearance and outside of things, and therefore though he suffered afflictions 
at present, yet he saw a glory beyond them attending him, and that these 
light afflictions wrought for him that far more weighty glory, while he looked 
not at the things which are seen ; thus he judged. There is the reason of 
all ; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen (says he), thus we judge of our afflictions, and of the glory 
which is to come. And after this rate he speaks also in another place : 
Rom. viii. 18, ' For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' 

(2.) Fools are misled to judge of things by the easiness or difficulty of 
attaining them, and they prefer things easy before those which are hard and 
difficult. Fools are presently discouraged if you tell them of bugbears in 
the way, and so are idle and sluggish, and will not stir: Prov. xxvi. 13-15, 

* The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way ; a lion is in the streets. 
As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. 
The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom ; it grieveth him to bring it again 
to his mouth.' A slothful man is loath to bring his hand to his mouth, and 
every slothful man is a fool: ver. 16, ' The sluggard is wiser in his own 
conceit than seven men that can render a reason.' But wise men, knowing 
wisdom to be their strength, are not discouraged with difficulties, but dare 
attempt and venture on great things : Eccles. vii. 19, * Wisdom strengtheneth 
the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city ;' Prov. xxi. 22, 

* A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength 
of the confidence thereof.' Now, to apply this to the purpose, unregenerate 



Chap. VI. J in respect of sin and punishment. 205 

men, because the way to bell is easy, tbey go with the stream of their own 
hearts, and the rest of the world, and they sail thither with a fair wind, and 
need not row much against the stream, and therefore tbey choose this as the 
easier way ; but the way to heaven being difficult, and disgraces, scotl's, the 
enmity and rage of the world, calamities and sufi'erings, being in that way, 
they say a lion is there, and danger, and they will not stir a foot thither, 
Prov. xxvi. 13. They therefore decline those ways all that ever they can. 
They say the cities are all walled which lie between them and heaven, and 
that there are great and armed enemies to stop them in their passage. 
Thug they will say to themselves for discouragement, speaking as the spies 
did to discourage the Jews from going into Canaan : Num. xiii. 28, ' Never- 
theless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, 
and very great : and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.' There 
are such great lusts to be overcome (says the man to himself), which will 
require much battering, and much prayer and fasting must be used to cast 
some devils out ; and some lusts are so sweet that there can be no such thing 
as parting with them, some are so strong that there is no throwing them ; 
this is impossible to be done, and it is hard to require it; as the disciple said 
to Christ, when he told them that they must deny themselves all things for 
his sake, ' These are hard sayings.' They will therefore content themselves 
with a common care of serving God, so much as they can perform with ease, 
and as will stand with their lusts. And as for strictness of sanctifying the 
Sabbath, praying privately, and constant keeping down every lust, and fight- 
ing against it, and watching over the heart at all places and times, these are 
hard sayings to them, which they cannot bear, and so they are diverted and 
put ofi' from such holy ways, and condemn such strictness as impossible to 
flesh and blood. This is their folly ; for wisdom is too high for a fool, and 
so he lets it alone as a thing out of his reach, Prov. xxiv. 7. 

(3.) Fools judge of things by their outward adornings, and as they are set 
out to show, those to be the best men who have the gayest clothes. As 
children fancy such books to be best which have the most gays in them, and 
those the best horses which have the most bells and trappings, so do unre- 
generate men judge of themselves and others. Thus they judge of other 
men ; let a man be never so holy, yet if poor, or disgraced in the world, or 
if he hath not great parts, they despise him : Eccles. ix. 15, ' Now there 
was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city ; 
yet no man remembered that poor man.' If the Messiah, if Christ himself, 
come among them, yet if clothed as a carpenter's son, and meanly attended 
but by fishermen, though he speaks as never man spake, and act as never 
man did, yet they are ofiended at him. Our Saviour, speaking to this false 
opinion had of him and his kingdom, says, The kingdom of God comes not 
with pomp, so it is in the original, fj^ira cragar^jfl/^o'swj, but it is within you : 
Luke xvii. 20, ' And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the king- 
dom of God sh6uld come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God 
cometh not with observation.' So they think, too, them the happiest men 
who are most rich : Ps. x. 3, ' For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, 
and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.' They judge them 
most happy who have an afliuence of earthly good, who have fair wives, who 
have preferment or applause in the world, &c. Thus they will judge of 
sermons by the floridness of the words, thus they will judge of the preacher 
by his voice and way of delivery, and that he who makes most noise hath 
most eloquence, and that a discourse is best which hath most flashing, 
flaunting wit, as the Corinthians judged of their teachers, 2 Cor. x. 7. 
They judged according to appearance ; and because Paul was weak and rude 



206 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

in utterance, because lie had not a majestic presence and lofty way of speak- 
ing, they regarded him not : 2 Cor. x. 10, * For his letters (say they) are 
weight}^ and powerful ; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech con- 
temptible.' They prefer a tinkling cymbal, him who makes a fine noise 
before him. How far is such a vain spirit from the wisdom of a man godly, 
who as one who comes to a feast regards not the music but the meat, so he 
comes to a sermon not to please his fancy but to feed his soul ! And in all 
other things unregenerate men glory in vanity, and an empty show, as fools 
do in a new gay coat or in a rattle, or anything which makes a noise. They 
rejoice in the applause of the world, in a good bargain, a fair house, more 
than in a good ministry ; in the glory of their town and the state of their 
magistrates more than in the holiness, grace, and gifts of their ministers. 
Thus they have the property of a fool, which is made to consist in glorying 
in outward things: 2 Cor. xi. 16, ' I say again, Let no man think me a fool: 
if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.' 

(4.) Fools judge of things by the quantity, and not the quality and worth 
of them. Thus they use to do both as to magnitude and multitude, gi'eat- 
ness and number of things. If you ofler a fool, or a child, a small piece of 
gold, and a bigger one of silver, or two or three pieces of silver, he will 
choose that which is biggest, or most, not what is most valuable. Thus do 
unregenerate men judge by greatness ; look which way the great ones, the 
rulers do go, look what opinions they hold, what judgment they are of, or 
what courses they take, the same they therefore approve. And as they 
judge of men thus, so also of their own performances. They think for the 
length, and breadth, and bulk of their duties to have them accepted : Isa. 
i. 11, ' To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith 
the Lord : I am full of the burnt-ofierings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; 
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.' 
When they imagined by reason of the number of their sacrifices to be 
favourably received, to what purpose (says God) is your multitude of 
sacrifices ? 

(5.) Things that are in appearance and show like each other, though in 
worth and virtue difi"ering, a fool cannot distinguish. Brass and gold, be- 
cause both glister, and look of the same colour, both are alike to him. And 
thus is it with unregenerate men, who taking common grace for saving 
grace, because there is a likeness, civility and good nature for the holy 
divine nature, checks of conscience for the combat of flesh and spirit, judge 
that they are well enough as long as they find these things in themselves. 



CHAPTER VIL 

Their foil y also appears in the ill choice ivhich they viake of things.' 

We are next to consider men's folly as discovering itself in the choice of 
thin<^s. They are very earnest and eager in the pursuit of what is of little 
or no importance, but neglect that which is the main and greatest concern. 

1. They choose to do unnecessary things in the first place, and neglect 
those which are most necessary, and put them off to the last. Is not this 
the part of a fool ? If a man should go to London to get a pardon, or about 
some great suit at law, and should in the first place spend the most or 
chiefest of all his time in seeing the lions at the Tower, the tombs in West- 
minster Abbey, or the streets and buildings of the city, or in visiting friends, 
and put the other off to the last, would he not be a fool ? Christ, who was 



Chap. VII.] in REsrECT of sin and punishment. 207 

wisdom itself, judged it folly in Martha to be busy about many things, and 
to neglect the main, that one thing necessary. It is not necessary to bo 
rich, or learned, or great, though we have cause to bless God if we obtain 
them ; but God's favour, and Christ, and grace are absolutely necessary ; 
therefore, says Christ, * first seek the kingdom of God :' Mat. vi. 33, ' But 
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these 
things shall be added unto you.' So he, as Wisdom, directs us. 

2. He is a fool who chooseth to commit his happiness to uncertainties, 
rather than the greatest certainty which he might have. How foolish is that 
man, who makes a bankrupt a feoffee in trust for all his estate, who can 
give him no security, but is likely to break and run away, when he might 
have good security for all ? Thus do all unregenerate men, who trust in 
uncertain riches, in their credit and preferments here, as their happiness : 
1 Tim. vi. 17, ' Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not 
high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth 
us richly all things to enjoy.' What is the counsel which the apostle kindly 
gives us, that we should not trust in uncertain riches, which have wings, 
and are like to fly away to-morrow, but in the living God, who gives us all 
things richly to enjoy ? There is a double opposition, riches are not all- 
sufficient, but God is he who gives all things, and that richly. Or if they 
were sufficient, yet they are uncertain ; but God is the living God, This 
accordingly is a motive made of establishing a sure covenant : Isa. Iv. 3, 
' Incline your ear, and come unto me : hear, and your soul shall live ; and 
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of 
David.' I will (says God) make an everlasting covenant with thee, even the 
sure mercies of David, which will never fail thee, as all other things will, 
which have wings, and will leave thee in the lurch. 

3. He who provides not for all conditions, and all times which he is to 
run through, will be found to be a fool in the end, and he to be the only 
wise man who doth so. Therefore Christ called the rich man/oo/, because 
he thought indeed whilst he lived he should do well enough, having goods 
for many years ; but suppose thou, diest this night (says Christ) what a mis- 
taken, disappointed fool wilt thou be ? Then he is proved a fool indeed : 
Luke xii. 19, 20, * And I will say to my soul. Soul, thou hast much goods 
laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But 
God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee : 
then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ? ' And so to 
the same purpose is Jer. xvii. 9, 10, ' The heart is deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked : who can know it ? I the Lord search the heart, 
I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and accord- 
ing to the fruit of his doings.' However a deceitful heart may flatter him, 
and make him presume that he is happy in a present prosperous state of 
things, yet when God comes to try him, and to make a change in his con- 
dition, he will prove him to be a poor deluded fool. But he is called a wise 
man, who makes provisions against all events. Thus, that steward is said 
to have done wisely, who made himself friends, that when his master should 
turn him out of doors, might receive him : Luke xvi. 8, ' And the Lord 
commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely : for the chil- 
dren of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.' 
He did wisely (says Christ) in his generation. And I say to you, make you 
friends here of God, and Christ, and the saints; spend thy strength, money, 
credit, and all for them ; that when you fail they may receive you, that you 
may be welcome to heaven when you are turned out here : ver. 9, ' And I 
say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrichteous- 



208 AX UXREGENERATE MAN's GUILTrSESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 

ness ; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.' 
That when you are turned out of house, and home, you may have still a 
refuge, come what will, and can come ; that when the tower of your earthly 
greatness, and the magazine of your riches is taken, you may have God as 
a strong tower to run to, and be safe : Prov. xviii. 10, ' The name of the 
Lord is a strong tower : the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.' Thus 
a regenerate, man is truly wise, who provides a refuge, which will serve him 
at all times, and in all estates, and so he can never be miserable. Though 
all things be overturned, he will still fall on his feet, whenas another man 
ventures his all in a false and deceitful bottom. 

4. He who hath not the wit to choose a small present inconvenience to 
avoid a greater for time to come, is a fool ; and he who can suffer a small 
one, thereby to prevent a greater, is a wise man : 2 Tim. ii. 3, 7, ' Thou 
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Consider what 
I say ; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.' Endure hard- 
ship here a while (says he), labour a while, and sow, expecting reward after- 
ward; and because wisdom only enableth to do this, therefore he adds. The 
Lord gire tJcee understandinf/. This course Moses took, who chose to suffer 
rather than sin : Heb. xi. 24-2G, ' By faith Moses, when he was come to 
years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather 
to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin 
for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ gi-eater riches than the 
treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.' 
But wicked men who love sin, who regard iniquity in their hearts, choose 
iniquity rather than affliction : Job xxxvi. 21, ' Take heed, regard not ini- 
quity : for this bast thou chosen rather than affliction.' He shrinks at a 
scoff' rather than at being damned, and can be content, and suffer himself 
to be jeered out of heaven, and hissed out of paradise. 

5. He who in his bargains exchangeth away precious things for trifles is 
a fool, and indeed you use to call such fools' bargains, and a fool and a child 
are easily cheated. Well, thus do men sell their time, which is their money 
given them to purchase eternity, and they sell it for things unsatisfying, 
they sell themselves for nought : Isa. lii. 3, * For thus saith the Lord, Ye 
have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.' 
They sell their right in heaven for a mess of pottage, as Esau did : Heb. 
xii. 16, ' Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for 
one morsel of meat sold his birthright.' And they sell themselves, as Ahab, 
to work wickedness. The pleasures of sin are their wages, and they are 
content to sell their souls, and all to enjoy this world. '\Miereas he who 
made over all he had to buy the truths of salvation, that inestimable pearl, 
is called a wise merchant-man : Mat. xiii. 45, 46, * Again, the kingdom of 
heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls : who when he 
had found one pearl of gi-eat price, he went and sold all that he had, and 
bought it.' But a fool (saith Solomon) hath a price in his hand, and no 
heart to it : Prov. xvii. 16, ' Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool 
to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it ?' He hath a good bargain 
offered him, and as it were pinned to his back, and yet passeth it by. Fools 
are easily cheated, and so is a man who hath no grace, by the devil. If he 
hath heard a sermon, and comes home with his heart fuU-fi-aught with rich 
pearls and treasure, and full of the precious motions of God's Spirit, the 
devil comes and pats worldly cares in his head, and steals the world away, 
and so cheats him : Mark iv. 15, 19, ' And these are they by the way-side, 
where the word is sown ; but when they have heard, Satan cometh imme- 
diately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts : and the 



Chap, VIII.j in respect of sin and punishment. 209 

cares of this world, and the dcceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other 
things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.' 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Their folly is also evident from the event and issue of all their actions. 

The folly of wicked men is not only manifest in their false judgment and 
inconsiderate choice of things, but it is clearly apparent in the event and 
issue of all their actions, which proves them to be fools in the end : Jer. 
xvii. 11, 'As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not, so he 
that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his 
days, and at his end shall be a fool.' 

1. He who doth all things in vain, and so that he will certainly lose all 
his labour, is a fool. It is for this reason the apostle gives the Galatians 
that title, because they went about to invalidate and frustrate all their labour 
in receiving and understanding the truths of the gospel, and all their pains 
in suflfering for the sake of them : Gal. iii, 1-4, ' foolish Galatians, who 
hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes 
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you ? this only 
would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by 
the hearing of faith ? Are ye so foolish ? having begun in the Spirit, are 
ye now made perfect by the flesh ? Have ye suffered so many things in 
vain, if it be yet in vain ?' And thus do all unregenerate men, not profane 
ones only, who take pleasure in sin, and bring forth fruit whereof they have 
reason to be ashamed, — Rom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye then in those 
things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death ; ' 
— but the best of them, who profess religion, and do many duties and 
suffer much for Christ, and have lamps, and seem to watch for the coming 
of our Lord, yet they lose the end of all their labour, and all proves vain for 
want of doing a little more or going on a little further. They fall away at 
last, wanting grace in the heart, and therefore those virgins who had not oil 
in their lamps. Mat. xxv., are called foolish, because though they waited the 
bridegroom's coming, yet they had not grace nor principles in their hearts. 
So to those, too, who tell Christ that they did many things in his name, yet 
all is in vain, because they did it not to him. In vain are all your new 
moons and observances, says God to those in Isa. i. 13, '14, * Bring no more 
vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me ; the new moons and 
sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even 
the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul 
hateth : they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them.' And 
themselves complain that they were diligent in their religious performances, 
fasted, &c., to no purpose : Isa. Iviii. 3, ' Wherefore have we fasted, say 
they, and thou seest not ? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou 
takest no knowledge ? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, 
and exact all your labours.' What was it rendered all their duties unavail- 
ing ? Why, they retained their old sins, which spoiled all. Such a fool 
was Herod, who, upon John Baptist's preaching, did many things gladly, but 
lost all for an Herodias. Such a fool was Jehu, who, though he had a zeal, 
yet spoiled all his work for want of doing a little more. Such a fool was Joash, 
who walked in all God's ways many years, and yet made shipwreck in the haven ; 
and a small matter it was which turned him from following the ways of God, 

VOL. X. o 



210 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, |BoOK IV. 

in which he had made so good a beginning; he was moved only by the flat- 
teries, bowings, and cringing of his wicked courtiers to him : 2 Chron. xxiv. 
17, 18, ' Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah and made 
obeisance to the king : then the king hearkened unto them. And they left 
the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols : 
and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.' Such 
fools are they too who run in a race, and yet, for want of dieting themselves 
or horses, or taking a little more pains, lose it ; but the fipostle Paul is so 
wise as to take care to do his business effectually : 1 Cor. ix. 24-27, ' Know 
ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize ? 
So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery 
is temperate in all things : now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, 
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly : so fight I, 
not as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my body, and bring it 
into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I 
myself should be a castaway.' He also who begins to build, and is not able 
to finish, is called a foolish builder, for all his work and charge is but in 
vain. Thus those who set out fair in a profession of religion, and do many 
things, but go not on to perfection, of all fools they are the worst. For 
others, though in the issue they are wretched, mistaken fools, yet whilst 
they live here they enjoy the pleasures of sin, and are beloved of the world. 
But these forbear the most sins, and endure much at men's hands, and are 
hated for their profession of religion, which yet doth them no good, but 
proves vain in the end. They are like those who have bestowed much cost 
in a sickness, and yet die at last for want of expending a little more, which 
would save their lives ; or they resemble those, who, after having been at 
great charges and trouble to commence and carry on a suit at law, yet starve 
their cause and lose it, because they will not be at the expense of a little 
more money in it. 

2. He is a fool in the event, whose supposed happiness proves his misery. 
Thus is it with the wicked ; and God, who delights to confound the pride and 
glory of men, makes them wise and happy the backward way, as men say of 
gains : Isa. xliv. 25, ' That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh 
diviners mad ; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge 
foolish.' God makes all their boasted knowledge foolishness ; and when they 
use all wits and counsels to make themselves happy, misery and sorrow is 
the efiect. God makes their own counsels and ways to be their ruin : Prov. 
V. 22, ' His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be 
holden with the cords of his sins.' Prov. i. 32, ' For the turning away of 
the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.' 
Those courses whereby they thought in their great wisdom to advance them- 
selves are turned against them. Thus, when Jeroboam thought to secure 
his usurped kingdom, by setting up golden calves at Bethel, they proved his 
ruin : 1 Kings xii. 26-30, 'And Jeroboam said in his heart. Now shall the 
kingdom return to the house of David : if this people go up to do sacrifice 
in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people 
turn again unto their lord, even unto Eehoboam king of Judah, and they 
shall kill me, and go again to Eehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the 
king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them. It is 
too much for you to go up to Jerusalem : behold thy gods, Israel, which 
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el, 
and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin : for the people 
went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.' Thus Ahaz, when he 
thought that he did right in sacrificing to the gods of Syria, acted to his de- 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 211 

straction, as well as of all Israel : 2 Chron. xxviii. 23, ' For ho sacrificed 
unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him : aud he said. Because the 
gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they 
may help me : but they were the rain of him and of all Israel.' Men by 
lying aud unjust dealing bring themselves into greater straits, and do but 
steal a card whereby to lose the whole game. They by their own subtle 
wicked tricks oftentimes so besiege themselves that they cannot escape : Hos. 
vii. 2, ' And they consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their 
wickedness : now their own doings have beset them about, they are before 
my face.' You who plot against God's ministers shall be taken in your own 
nets, aud God will confound you, as he did all your forefathers, and your 
great-grandsire Satan, in all their plots. He thought by crucifying Christ 
to have been quiet, and that very thing proved his undoing. Thus, whilst 
you dig to undermine the godly, the earth falls on your own heads. The 
Egyptians thought themselves wise in following the Israelites through the 
Red Sea, for they were on foot and themselves had chariots, and so they 
thought that God must destroy the Israelites also if he brought the sea in. 
But wherein they dealt proudly and presumptuously, God was above them. 

3. He who is led with vain promises is a fool that feeds himself with what 
is not. Now, even in matters of the world, wicked men are apt to do so. 
They hearken to everything but God's word, and believe anything which will 
pretend to shew and direct them unto a happiness here : Ps. xlix. 11-13, 
' Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their 
dweUing-places to all generations ; they call their lands after their own names. 
Nevertheless, man being in honour abileth not : he is like the beasts that 
perish. This their way is their folly : yet their posterity approve their say- 
ings. Selah.' And yet thus in other things, too, they believe their own 
vain hearts in all that they tell them : Prov. xiv. 15, ' The simple believeth 
every word : but the prudent man looketh well to his going.' They will 
believe every word which makes for them, nay they will promise themselves 
safety, though they go on in those sins which lead apparently to ruin : Deut. 
xxix. 19, 20, ' And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, 
that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk 
in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst : the Lord 
will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall 
smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book 
shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.' 
They will speak peace to themselves when kingdoms are a-destroying : Jer. 
vi. 14, ' They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people shghtly, 
saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.' They promise themselves 
riches and honours, and that they will go to such a city and get wealth, 
when combustions are in the world, and God is bringing judgments on the 
earth. They promise themselves the continuance of their pleasures : Isa. 
Ivi. 12, ' Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with 
strong drink ; and to mon-ow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' 
And for all this they will trust their own word ; and then they will take any 
slight evidence for heaven, and believe that every good word, and any work 
of civiUty and moral good deed, give them a sufficient title to the place. 

We are next to consider what efi'ects this folly produceth in the hearts of 
unregenerate men, which indeed are innumerable. 

1. They are ashamed of nothing. Though you expose the unreasonable- 
ness of their doings, and shew how senseless they are in all their actions, 
yet they care not ; though you make it appear that in the whole conduct of 
their hves they are void of true wisdom, though you expose them dressed up 



212 AX UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, TBOOK IV. 

in their fools' coats, yet they have not the wit to discern it. They boast of 
that with which they are deservedly reproached, and make their shame their 
glory. Thus men will triumph in their sins, and glory in having been drunk 
themselves, or in having made others so. They will boast of their deceiv- 
ing and going beyond others. They will glory in their oaths as a genteel 
accomplishment, and swear, and say they will swear. Thus they declare 
their sins as Sodom : Isa. iii. 9, ' The show of their countenance doth wit- 
ness against them ; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. 
Woe unto their soul ! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.' And 
what is their shame they publish as their glory, so far are they from being 
ashamed of those things which should cover them with blushes : Jer. vi. 15, 
* Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination ? nay, they 
were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush : therefore they shall fall 
among them that fall : at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, 
saith the Lord.' 

2. They are self-willed. Reason being down in them, wilfulness and ob- 
stinacy ariseth in its room. They are resolved in their lewd courses, and 
will be wicked only because they will : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father 
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do : he was a murderer from 
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth Tin] him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : fur he is a liar, and the 
father of it.' Prov. ii. 13-15, 'Who leave the paths of uprightness, to 
walk in the ways of darkness ; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the 
frowardness of the wicked. Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in 
their paths.' 

3. They are inconstant in all their actions, and, as fools, are driven some- 
times this way, sometimes the other, as every wind turns, or a various 
humour prevails : Eccles. v. 4, ' When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer 
not to pay it ; for he hath no pleasure in fools : pay that which thou hast 
vowed.' What in a good mood they purposed, in another humour they 
resolve against, and will not do it ; and as it is folly to do thus, God hath 
no pleasure in such fools. When they have taken up purposes, they after- 
wards meet with some reason or other, of which they never thought, to make 
them alter them. They in one moment purpose to repent, to turn to God, 
and lead another course of life, which the next moment they forget, or mind 
it not. Thus as fools, semper incipiimt vivere, are always beginning to live 
well, but never do it, but are unstable in their ways : James i. 8, ' A double- 
minded man is unstable in all his ways.' 

4. Unteachableness is another property of fools. They are always un- 
teachable ; therefore it is said, Prov. v. 23, ' He shall die without instnic- 
tion, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.' Not that instruc- 
tion is not given him, he dies not without it in that sense, but because he 
will never take it ; and it is the greatness of his folly makes him do so. 

It is one degree of wisdom to take good counsel, though it be a farther 
degree to be able to give it ; therefore, Prov. xii. 15, ' He that hearkeneth 
to counsel is wise. But a wicked man will not hearken to counsel ;' not to 
what God says, and the word says, nor what the rod of affliction says. He 
knows not the meaning of blows neither (as fools and beasts do not), and 
therefore he is incorrigible : Prov. xvii. 10. ' A reproof entereth more into a 
wise man, than an hundred stripes into a fool.' He also is as little sensible 
of mercies : Deut. xxxii. 6, ' Do ye thus requite the Lord, foolish people, 
and unwise ? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee ? Hath he not 
made thee, and established thee ?' Nothing will reclaim a fool ; bray him 
in a mortar, his folly will not depart from him. 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 218 

5. Confidence in his own way is the mark of a fool. He thinks not only 
God's way folly, 1 Cor. ii. 14, as seeing no reason of people's desiring spi- 
ritual sermons, and the sincere milk of the word, nor of all the spiritual 
practices godly men live in, but accounts their lives madness. But they are 
also confident in their own way, thinking it good : Prov. xiv. 16, ' A wise 
man fearelh, and departeth from evil ; but the fool rageth and is confident.' 
A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil ; that is, seeing what will be 
the issue of such courses, being told of it he forbears, as David did, when 
Abigail met him ; but a fool rageth and is confident ; that is, is distempered 
in his passion, and resolute in what he will do, and goes on ; for it is said 
at the twelfth verse, * There is a way which seemeth right unto a man ; but 
the end thereof are the ways of death.' Persecuting Paul is therefore said 
to be mad against the church, i. e. confident as mad men are ; and madness 
is but the excess of folly. 

6. Fools still follow their own minds as their guides in all they do ; for 
wisdom being wanting, which should be the guide, they must needs follow 
the next principle in them, which is their lusts and desires ; and look what 
they have a mind to do, that they will do, and will please themselves in all, 
and are unable to deny themselves, for they want reason to put into the 
balance something that might overrule their passion. Therefore, all the 
delight of a fool is to discover his heart ; he poureth it out, for he follows 
his own heart in all his actions : Prov. xv. 2, ' The tongue of the wise useth 
knowledge aright ; but the mouth of fools poureth out foohshness.' Prov. 
xviii. 2, ' A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may 
discover itself.' He hath no delight in understanding but to discover his 
heart ; that is, to follow his own human inventions. Therefore fools are 
always self-willed, and so are wicked men also. They follow their lusts in 
all, and are unable to deny themselves of petty foolish desires ; in matters 
of greatest consequence for the church or place he lives in, he will not deny 
himself a petty desire and end ; that is, a foolish one, and which he himself 
is ashamed to manifest to others, shall sway him more than a thousand per- 
suasions and reasons. They will rather hazard kingdoms, their estates and 
families, than not have their will and lusts, as their malice on a man they 
hate, &c. That foolish king would rather lose his kingdom, life and all, 
than submit to the king of Babel ; because, forsooth, the Jews would mock 
him ; and how many hazard their souls upon the same ground ? So Herod 
values it not to cut John Baptist's head off, and what was his reason ? A 
foolish one ; his oath's sake, and for their sakes about him. Fools are also 
self-willed, for, reason being down, will is up ; so 1 Tim. vi. 9, ' But they 
that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' They will be 
rich, and so commit many foolish lusts ; run into base ways of saving or 
getting money,'"ridiculous to all that know them.. The lusts of their father 
they will do : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts 
of your father ye will do : he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a 
lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and the father of it.' Did they 
but follow 'reason as their guide, their wills might be wrought off; but they 
follow their lusts, and so are obstinate in their ways. 



214 AX UNBEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IV. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The uses of the preceding doctrine: That all men should examine themselves, 
whether the signs of this folly are not in them, and consider the misery and 
danger of such a condition. — How we are to become wise. 

Use 1. The first use is to all men in the estate of nature, that they would 
try and examine themselves by all that hath been spoken, whether they do 
not find in themselves hitherto all want of this true wisdom, and hitherto 
to have been fools. Let this be the beginning of wisdom in you, and the first 
fruit of it, to consider your estates, which fools do not ; and you that never 
yet knew yourselves to be unregenerate, but your ways are right in your own 
eyes, of all fools you are the worst. There is more hope of a fool than of 
such, as Solomon says, Prov. xxvi. 12, ' Seest thou a man wise in his own 
conceit ? there is more hope of a fool than of him.' 

1. Consider the misery of that condition ; for whilst thou art in it, God 
can take no pleasure in thee ; he delights not in thee : Eccles. v. 4, ' When 
thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it ; for he hath no pleasure 
in fools : pay that which thou hast vowed.' God hath no pleasure in fools, 
and therefore will not communicate himself nor his secrets, nor give his 
Son in marriage to them, unless they become wiser; for who that is wise 
would keep company with a fool, or marry a fool, or tell his mind to a 
fool? 

2. Consider the danger of being in that estate, and of dying a fool. Know 
that M'hilst thou art such thou canst never enter into heaven, and hast no 
portion in that inheritance there ; for fools inherit not, neither by God's 
laws nor man's ; and though you hope to go to heaven as well as the best, 
yet this conceit of yours puts you but into a fool's paradise, for heaven is a 
paradise was never made for fools. Honour is not seemly for a fool, says 
Solomon : Prov. xxvi. 1, ' As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest : so 
honour is not seemly for a fool,' much less is heaven, and to be a king, 
seemly for him. That is not all ; but if thou art a fool, hell and destruction 
is a-preparing for thee, and thou art fit for nothing else : Prov. xxvi. 3, ' A 
whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.' That 
is fitter for him than honour ; hell than heaven ; nay, God will, instead of 
delighting in thee, rejoice and laugh at thy destruction : Prov. i. 22-26, 
' How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and the scorners de- 
light in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? Turn you at my reproof: 
behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words 
unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my 
hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and 
would none of my reproof : I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock 
when your fear cometh ;' as thou didst make sin a sport, God will make thy 
torment a sport to him. 

Use 2. Of direction how thou art to become wise. 

1. Apprehend and acknowledge that thou art a fool, 1 Cor. iii. 18 ; that 
is the first lesson wisdom teacheth a man, that so he may be wise. Appre- 
hend thy condition ; go not on as a fool, gaping and being careless, and 
thinking thy ways right when they are not. What says Agur, a wise man, 
when converted ? Prov. xxx. 2, * Surely I am more brutish than any man, 
and have not the understanding of a man.' And so Paul, for all his wit and 
learning, confesseth that he was foolish in all his ways ; that all his ways 
were folly : Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves also were sometimes foohsh, dis- 



CUAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 215 

obedient, decoivcd, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and 
envy, hateful, and hating one another.' 

2. Go to God to give thee wisdom to turn thy heart : if any man lack wis- 
dom, let him go to God for it : James i. 5, ' If any of you lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God, that givcth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it 
shall be given him.' 

3. Go to God in Christ, and for Christ, who is made wisdom to us as well 
as all other things : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' Bat of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of 
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
demption' : therefore, Isa. ix. 6, he is called ' the mighty Counsellor.' As 
we became fools in Adam, so we must recover our wits by Christ, and by 
being born of him ; and it is of all cures the greatest to cure one who is born 
a fool ; therefore go to Christ, for none else can do it. 

4. Turn to the wisdom of the just. Luke i. 17, it is said, that John 
turned men to the wisdom of the just : ' And he shall go before him in the 
spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, 
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people pre- 
pared for the Lord.' Do thou turn to the wisdom of the just, /. e. frame 
thy opinions according to the word, and the opinion of holy men ; lean not 
to thy own wisdom and carnal understanding, thereby to judge of the ways 
of God, or trust not to the opinions of carnal man ; but come in, and sub- 
mit thy judgment to the wisdom of God, and of good men. He that is a 
fool begins then to be wise, when he, apprehending himself to be a fool, will 
listen to what wisdom speaks. Frame, then, thy judgment of the work of 
grace, and of holiness, and of the worth of grace ; and what the way to 
heaven is, by what God says, and what thou seest wise, and holy men pro- 
fess and practice. What says God ? Isa. viii. 19, 20, ' And when they shall 
say unto you. Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards 
that peep and that mutter : should not a people seek unto their God ? for 
the living to the dead ? To the law and to the testimony : if they speak 
not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Do thou 
go to the law and to the testimony, and lean to the commandment ; think 
upon all occasions, and in all straits. My wisdom is to stick close to it, 
and if I go astray, it is the greatness of my folly. Those ways carnal rea- 
son sees no reason for, yet do thou take God's judgments for them, and 
bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. Know that the Scrip- 
tures are only able to make thee wise unto salvation ; take, then, their coun- 
sel, as David did : Ps. cxix. 24, ' Thy testimonies also are my delight and 
my counsellors.' Take God's judgment in what is best for thee ; if he will 
have thee poor, be content : lean not to thy own wisdom, as Solomon says, 
Prov. iii. 5, ' Trust in the Lord with all thine heart : and lean not unto 
thine own understanding.' Take also the judgment of holy men as to spi- 
ritual things, for they have had experience of them, and therefore ought to 
be believed in their own art : Prov. ix. 10, ' The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom : and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.' 
Isa. XXXV. 8, * And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be 
called the way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall 
be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.' 
And do thou justify wisdom too, and stand up in defence of its ways. Mat. 
xi. 19. 



216 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, TBoOK V. 



BOOK V. 

That reason in man being corrupted by sin, useth its strength and force to advise 
and contrive the satisfaction of his lusts; ivhence it is that reason, which should 
have acted for God, now acts for sin and lusts. 



CHAPTER I. 

Lf}, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright ; but they have 
sought out maiiy inventions. — Eccles. VII. 29. 

Now I am next to speak of the corruptions of reason itself, and to discover 
to you what great assistance, and manifold and several concurrences and 
orders, it gives to the power and kingdom of sin within us. 

And indeed, however we may think that reason in us fights against and 
opposeth our lusts, yet the truth is, that but for carnal reason sin would 
not know how to do ; for as reason of state doth all in kingdoms, so fleshly 
reason in us. No man sins, no man goes to hell, without reason. 

Now the assistance reason gives to sin is double. First, As a counsellor, 
to advise to, and plot for the acting of it and satisfying its desire, which out 
of this text we shall speak to. 

Secondly, As a protector and defender of the power and kingdom of sin, 
against all the assaults and invasions that the word and knowledge of God 
might make against it. This corrupt reason doth, by gathering to itself 
many carnal pleas for men's bad courses and estates, as also by gathering up 
together all the discouragements and objections against the ways of grace 
that ever it can, as out of the 2 Cor. x. 4 we shall have occasion more 
largely to insist on, he there comparing reasonings, Aoy/ff/x&is, to the strong- 
holds that are in a kingdom to defend it, where all the weapons and armoury 
lies ; and so indeed in reason doth the utmost strength of sin consist. 

Now,_/7rsf, concerning that counselling and plotting assistance which reason 
affords. This text mentions it, and indeed lays the fault and the blame of 
the wickedness that is in man's heart to the reasonings and inventions that 
are therein, and thereby chooseth to express their corruptions and the causes 
of them. 

The word translated here inventions, which indeed are acts of reason, is 
the same with that in ver. 25, which they have translated reason, and the 
Septuagint translate it '/.oyi<sij.b-ji, and most Latin interpreters ratiocinia, 
reasonings. The word in the Hebrew is jniJ3U?r7, which signifies a cun- 
nicg artificial invention, as the same word is used 2 Chron. xxvi. 15, and 
his scope you may see to be to give the reason and cause of those many 
villanies in men's lives, and to see the depth of them ; I saw all men cor- 
rupted, and I searched out the reason and cause of that folly and wickedness, 
and depth of villany discovered to be in them, and it all lies in invention, in 



Chap. I.j in respect of sin and punishment. 217 

wily, cunning wickedness ; and (says he) this I found, that though God made 
man upright in the image of God at first, yet now being fallen, and deprived 
of that image, and so of that blessedness in communion with God, like 
sharks cast oflf by their friends, and cut short of that inheritance they were 
ordained for, they live by their wits, and that reason which they have left 
they use in manifold and several sinful practices. It loads them into many 
crooked ways and by-paths, * they have sought out many inventions.' 

Now for the proof of this I will give you but these arguments. 

1. Man, you all know, is a reasonable creature; and as he himself was 
principally ordained for action, so to help him therein reason was principally 
given him to guide and steer him. So that as God works all things accord- 
ing to counsel, — Eph. i. 11, * In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, 
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things 
after the counsel of his own will,' — so as he hath a reason for everything he 
doth, though he manifest it not,— Job xxxiii. 13, ' Why dost thou strive 
against him ? for he giveth not account of any of his matters ; ' — so also man 
being created in the image of God, doth work all things according to counsel 
also, and useth reason in all, such as it is, for that is part of that image of 
God which is a likeness to his essence which is not razed out. 

And therefore, 2, now man is corrupted, reason still remains and is used 
in all. For sin hath not made man a beast, he useth reason in all his sin- 
ful actions, otherwise they would not be sins ; and therefore, in man now 
fallen, the estate of nature is called a kingdom, though of sin, as truly as 
the other is a kingdom of grace. And every king must have his privy 
councillors to advise, and plot, and manage his affairs ; and such is reason 
now unto sin, as well as once it was to grace. For sin, as it enters upon the 
same territories and possessions which grace in Adam once had, so it keeps 
up the same form of government for substance, and turns out no officers, but 
all keep their former places. Our affections and members are as the com- 
mon soldiers and people: so Rom. vi. 19, ' I speak after the manner of men, 
because of the infirmity of your flesh : for as ye have yielded your members 
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield 
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.' Our lusts are as 
laws, and axioms of state ; and reason, who was sole privy councillor afore, 
and master of all the ports and strongholds, keeps his place still. Only as 
sin hath gained the rest to be for it, all our lusts to be laws of sin, all our 
members to be weapons of unrighteousness, so reason also to be a counsellor 
and plotter for sin, and which is as true and faithful to that wicked purpose 
as ever it was before to God. And therefore, Ps. Ixxxi. 12, to give a man 
up to his heart's lusts is all one as to give him up to his own counsels : Ps. 
Ixxxi. 12, ' So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust : and they walked 
in their own counsels;' and the lusts of sin are therefore called the lusts, r^g 
diam'ag. Eph. ii. 2, ' Wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the 
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,' even of reason and 
that discoursing faculty within us. 

And in the 1 Cor. iv. 5, the counsels of the heart are there mentioned as 
those things which shall especially be discovered and judged at the latter 
day : ' Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make mani- 
fest the counsels of the heart ; and then shall every man have praise of God.' 

Now reason is gained to be for sin. 

1. By reason of that blindness I have discovered to be in it, to discern, 
and taste of the goodness of things spiritual, so to know them as to make 



218 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

deeper impression of their goodness, than the pleasures sin propounds ; and 
thus knowing no better, it must be for them. 

And, 2, by reason also of that unbelief even of those first principles of grace 
and godliness, which it should have recourse unto in all our actions, and 
should reason from them. 

Now, the fii'st office of reason is to advise and counsel upon all occasions 
what is best to be done. With it a man's heart always adviseth, and unto it 
are brought all deliberate actions to have reason's approbation, and broad 
seal to them, ere they pass to execution ; and though indeed it hath lost the 
power of sole propounding, which in the estate of grace it had, no aflfection 
stirring without it, yet all motions still must have their grant from it, ere 
they get act into execution. 

But self-love being the viceroy, lord paramount in this kingdom of sin 
(for when God was deposed from being our utmost end, ourselves succeeded 
as next heirs), therefore now the main and chief principle, that practical 
reason which guides us in our actions (for of that we speak), is self-love, and 
all the power and force that reason hath is turned and bent to advance and 
set it up, to maintain and uphold its prerogative. And now, then, that 
self-love is made a man's utmost end, and is the lord paramount and chief 
governor in this new erected kingdom of sin, therefore reason now must 
needs be guided by it on all occasions. Therefore that reason which now 
we consult with and employ when we crave to do anything, that practical 
reason (for of that I speak ; not of that reason whereby we dispute, but of 
that reason only which is to and for a man's self), all the force, counsel, 
and strength reason hath in us, bends itself that way. And this brings me 
to the third head. 

That, 3, self-love being now become man's sole and utmost end in all he 
doth, God being deposed, and ourselves having succeeded as next heirs, 
and so are become ourselves lord paramount, and king in this kingdom, 
therefore it must needs gain for itself all that reason that is in us which is 
called practical, whereby we are guided in our actions, whereof we now speak. 
For the definition of practical reason that guides us is that which reasons 
for some end ; for as we work always for an end, so the reason which guides 
us in working must reason to and for that end.* Therefore self-love being 
made our utmost end, all the reason we have in us (whereby we do any- 
thing) is wholly turned for it, and hath its eye on it, as the mariner on the 
compass, whereby to steer, it reasons wholly for it, and to it, and from it. 
For that which is a man's end is thit which always sways a man's reason 
when he comes to do anything, so as by this means sin hath gained all the 
reason which is in men 



CHAPTEPw 11. 

Hon' reason affords all assistance to the encouragement of sin. — By what prin- 
ciples it is herein acted, and what motives it uselh. 

These grounds being laid, you shall see the corrupt dealings of reason in 
us, how it affords all its assistance for sin ; and first we will see what prin- 
ciples reason is most effectually guided by. Now the first office of reason 
is to advise and counsel upon all occasion what is best to be done, for with 
it the heart adviseth upon all occasions, and unto it are all deliberate actions 

* Idem est ultimus finis ad rationem practicam, quod prima principia ad rationem 
speculativam. — Aquinas, 1, 2, qu. 90, art. 3. 



Chap. II.j in respect of sin and punishment. 219 

brought, to have reason's approbation and broad seal set to them. Now, 
therefore, when we come seriously to advise with reason what is best to be 
done, whether we should do this or that, refuse this or choose this; to what 
principles hath reason recourse in the advice it gives ; doth it go to the prin- 
ciples of the word, and make them its counsellors, as David did, Ps. cxix. 
lOi, 105, to see whatit judgeth of such an action or cause, or do the rules, 
the motives, the persuasions thereof prevail with reason ? No ; because 
God is not a man's end, nor do we believe the principles of his word ; but 
reason now, as corrupted, looks and adviseth with a man's own heart, a;jd 
considers what ends, what present desires or occasions a man hath ; look 
how things do suit with our present occasions, or conduce to our own ends, 
and seem to please our present desires, those corrupt reason, and fleshly 
■wisdom jutlgeth best. And these principles are the new inventions which 
men have sought out. So that as the holy wisdom of God, whereby he doth 
all he doth, looks into himself for the reason of all his actions, and to nothing 
out of himself; and therefore he is said to work all according to the counsel 
of his own will, his holy ends being the principles his wisdom is wholly 
swayed by in all, so as his will is the rule of all reason ; so reason now 
having set up a man's self for its end, it looks for the reason of everything 
in itself, and judgeth not those things to be best which are best in them- 
selves, but which are best for himself and his corrupt desires, and the pre- 
sent constitution of his heart and condition. 

As therefore whilst God was a man's end, as in the state of innocency, or 
when he becomes a man's end, as in the estate of grace, then all the parti- 
cular directions God espresseth his will in become laws and principles to 
consult with in all a man's actions, which he is sure never to swerve from ; 
and then all the motives w^hich are drawn from God, which the word lays 
down to persuade us, become efiectual reasons to move us to anything, for 
they had all reference and relation to that first principle reason looks to, God 
being his utmost end. Now, on the clean contrary, a man's self being become 
his utmost end, look how many corrupt desires he hath to be satisfied and 
pleased, look how many by-ends he hath whose turns are to be served, too 
many principles he hath which corrupt reason, fleshly wisdom, hath an eye 
unto, according to which it guides you, and counsels you in all your actions. 
If the things you are to do be suitable to them, it adviseth you to put them 
in execution, to set upon them, and also all motives drawn from pleasing 
your lusts and ends become strong reasons, efi"ectual arguments to persuade 
you to do anything. So that now, I having told you that all true principles 
of godliness are extinguished, you see the principles and reasons which a 
man in his actions is guided by, are lusts, and by-ends, and motives drawn 
from them. These are the principles you go by ; with these reason consults, 
from these reason argues upon all occasions, when anything is to be done 
by us. And therefore, in Ps. Ixxxi. 12, to be given up to their lusts, and 
their own hearts' counsels, are all one, because reason in all consults 
with lusts. 

To make this clear to you by instances out of the word. 

1. If riches be a man's end, what principle is that his reason in all his 
actions consults with ? Paul tells you it : 1 Tim. vi. 5, * Perverse disput- 
ings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain 
is godliness : from such withdraw thyself.' They suppose that gain is godli- 
ness ; that is, they lay that for a rule, a principle, that they advise with, 
and have recourse to, and frame their actions by ; however men do not 
profess so much, yet this they lay for a ground, this they truly think and 
believe ; whereas, says the apostle, there is another principle we are guided 



220 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

by in all estates and conditions, that godliness is great gain. Now this 
principle being laid in the heart, when in a matter of unjust gain a man 
comes to advise with his reason whether it be better to obey God than get 
money, whether it be better to increase godliness or his estate, to forsake or 
leave otf some practice of godliness or lose his estate, his heart supposing 
gain better than godliness, because it suits with his desires and disposition 
of his heart more, this being his principle, he lets godliness go, as the 
young man in the Gospel and Demas did. Now there is the like reason of 
honour, pleasure, &c. 

So also if a man be to profess godliness, and sees he must take up some 
religion, what principles doth reason consult with, how far be shall shew 
himself in the cause ? Why he consults with his own ends : Eccles. vii. 16, 
' Be not righteous over much ; neither make thyself over wise : why 
shouldst thou destroy thyself? ' In the loth verse he had named a shrewd 
temptation that stumbles many in the world : ver. 15, 'All things have I 
seen in the days of my vanity : there is a just man that perisheth in his 
righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his 
wickedness.' They see a righteous man perish in bis righteousness, 
trodden down and oppressed, and a wicked man that prolongs his days in 
his wickedness, and it is a means to save him. Two conclusions are drawn 
thence, the one by corrupt reason, the other by the Spirit. What principle 
doth carnal reason then gather from it ? It is this : take heed, be not righteous 
over much, nor over nice, nor wiser than the rest of the world, says flesh ; 
why the principle which reason guides him by is to preserve himself whole 
by taking a moderate course, destroy not thyself; he thinks that too much 
religion would destroy his credit, &c. The other opposite conclusion the 
Spirit draws : ver. 17, ' Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish : 
why shouldest thou die before thy time ? ' So that the principles men advise 
with are themselves and their own ends. 

So when a man hath his enemy in his power to hurt him, the principle 
carnal reason consults with is quite different from what godly reason is 
guided by. 

When David had Saul in his power, what was David's principle his rea- 
son consulted with ? 1 Sam. xxiv. 6, ' And he said unto his men, The Lord 
forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to 
stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.' 
The Lord forbid that I should do this thing; how shall I do it, and sin 
against God ? for God was his end. But what was Saul's principle, which 
he would have consulted with in the like advantage ? If the question had 
been asked whether it had been best in such a case to kill David, what 
would Saul have thought ? ' If a man find his enemy, will he let him go well 
away ?' Saul thought in his reason he were a fool that would do it. This 
was a principle in his heart he should have gone by. 

So for pleasing men when they command one thing and God another. 
This was the principle the apostles in their hearts stuck to and reasoned 
fi-om : it is better to obey God than man, Acts v. 29 ; but when the Jews 
were to move Pilate to crucify Christ, when he knew him to be a righteous 
man, what principle do they work upon, and /rom what do they draw their 
reason to move him ? John xix. 12, ' And from thenceforth Pilate sought to 
release him : but the Jews cried out, saying. If thou let this man go, thou 
jirt not Caesar's friend : whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against 
Cfesar.' If thou lettest this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend ; they knew 
that was an argument to carnal reason which would prevail. 

And therefore, now, if you are to move a carnal man in any business, 



Chap. II. ] in respect of sin and punishment. 221 

would you speak reason to him so as to prevail, you must speak to save lust, 
to save the end that he hath in his aim and purpose ; for they are the prin- 
ciples in his heart, and what is drawn from thence is effectual to move, else 
not. Thus when Balak would persuade Balaam to curse the people of God, 
what reason doth he use ? Numb. xii. IG, 17, ' I will promote thee to very 
great honour ; ' and ver. 37, ' And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not ear- 
nestly send unto thee to call thee ? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am 
I not able indeed to promote thee to honour ? ' Am I not able to promote 
thee to honour ? He speaks reason to him that suited and was agreeable. 

So when the Jews consulted among themselves what they should do with 
Christ, what was the prevailing reason and argument to put him to death ? 

1. Say they, ' The inheritance shall be ours,' Luke xx. 14. 

2. Say they. All will believe in him, and the Piomans shall come and take 
away our place and nation, and so we must lose all : John xi. 48, ' If we let 
him thus alone, all men will believe on him ; and the Romans shall come and 
take away both our place and nation; ' and so in John vii. 4. Christ's carnal 
friends there urge a carnal rule they went by of credit to move him to preach, 
John vii. 3, 4"; and thus, too, when any man turns to God, what reason and 
arguments doth he find his heart stick at most, what principles doth his 
reason argue from ? I shall be cast out of the synagogue, says one ; that is 
the reason moved some not to profess faith in Christ : John xii. 42, ' Never- 
theless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him ; but because of the 
Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the syna- 
gogue.' I shall lose my friends, says another; my preferment, says a third; 
and these are reasons with them why they should not turn to God. And on 

. the contrary, we see by experience that the motives out of the word, and 
which are reasons drawn from the principles thereof, move not, because we 
believe not those principles ; but reason hath other it looks unto and con- 
sults with, viz., its own corrupt ends, and those motives having no connec- 
tion with such ends, therefore they move not, are no arguments to them, nay, 
they are foolishness : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; ' that is, he sees no 
reason in them, because the principles they are drawn from are not believed, 
for reason is that which sees the dependence and connection of one thing 
with and from another. 

But, 2, this is not all that reason doth, but when a man hath pitched upon 
an end to be acquired, reason is farther employed to invent and to look out 
for such fit means whereby those ends may be accomplished. Sin could do 
little if it were not for the help of reason ; for as the speculative understand- 
ing, when a thing is propounded to be proved, invents and starts up mediums 
and notions to prove it, so the practical is set on work to find out ways and 
means, and to consider what will best conduce to such an end. And this 
ofiice of corrupted reason is especially meant here in this place the devices 
and arts of the heart, to bring sinful enterprises to pass ; fur he here means 
nets and snares to catch men ; and these inventions are many, they are 
infinite, not to be numbered. Insomuch as the way of a serpent is on a 
stone, so is the way of a man with a maid, full of infinite plots, Prov. xxx. 19 ; 
and herein corrupt reason is exceeding witty, ' wiser in their generation than 
the children of light.' How ready was the wit of a woman, Jezebel, when 
Ahab himself knew not what to do, how rational to take away, to get in 
Naboth's vineyard, to plot his death ; but that would not be enough, for had 
he been simply killed, his son would inherit, but if he should die as a traitor, 
then his goods should be forfeited. See how she plots it: 1 Kings xxi. 9, 10, 



222 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

' And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on 
high among the people ; and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear 
witness against him, saving. Thou didst blaspheme God and the king : and 
then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.' 

How witty was Joseph's mistress, and sudden to invent a way to be re- 
Yen<7ed on Joseph, when he left his coat with her, to turn the enticing to 
adultery upon him ! 

How subtle were Daniel's enemies to plot against him when he stood in 
their way ! They knew they could charge him in nothing but in the matter 
of his God, and they knew him constant in prayer ; therefore got this con- 
fii-med by the king, that whosoever put up any petition to any but the king 
should be put to death. 

What an invention was it that Simeon and Levi had to accomplish their 
revenge upon the men of Shechem for the rape of Dinah, to have them all 
circumcised first, that so when they were sore they might fall upon them ! 
Many and infinite are the inventions of corrupt reason to do mischief. 

3. Our lusts use wit and reason to make compositions of pleasures for 
them, to mingle a spiced cup of many sweet ingi-edients, artificially com- 
posed, to improve creatures to the uttermost ; so Solomon used not only his 
power, but his wit also, to make inventions to please himself: Eccles. ii. 
4-9, ' I made me great works ; I builded me houses ; I planted me vine- 
yards ; I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all 
kind of fruits ; I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that 
brin^eth forth trees ; I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born 
in my house ; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above 
all that were in Jerusalem before me ; I gathered me also silver and gold, 
and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces ; I gat me men- 
singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical 
insh-uments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than 
all that were before me in Jerusalem : also my wisdom remained with me.' 

4. Reason serves our lusts in discerning the fittest opportunity of accom- 
plishing our lusts and ends ; so Herodias did, who had watched how to do 
John a' mischief, Mark xvi. 19, but finding Herod in a good mood, and so 
large in promising to give whatever was asked, she takes the opportunity of 
craving John Baptist's head ; and it was suddenly thought of, for straight- 
way the maid came in again, ver. 25. So, Prov. vii., the adulteress takes 
the opportunity of her husband's being abroad; so, Mat. xxvi. 16, Judas 
sought opportunity to betray Christ. 

■•5. Men have inventions to conceal their sins. So had Joseph's brethren 
by his coat, to conceal their selling their brother, and inventing a cunning 
lie with it ; so had David in making Uriah drunk, to conceal his adultery. 
As men have arts to cover the deformities of their bodies, so also of their 
souls. Therefore their wicked ends in sinning they strive most to conceal. 



CHAPTER III. 

That mans reason, which should direct him in his actions, is depraved, and 
therefore misguides him. 

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they have 
done abominable ivorks ; there is none that doth good. — Psalm XIV. 1. 

I have discovered unto you the folly which is in men's hearts. The next 



Chap. III.J in respect of sin and punishment. 223 

which both these words and my scope (which is to go on to lay open the 
corruption of man's heart by nature) pi-esonts to be spoke of, is the vain 
reasonings which accompany that folly. 

Now, when I speak of the vain reasonings of man's mind, understand me 
not to intend the reasonings or discussing and arguing of things in their 
speculations, which in their speeches, and discourses, and writings they dis- 
cover; for these are often right and true, though yet therein there are and 
may be infinite errors, which the mind of man is subject to. Witness all 
the errors which the most of the world are divided and carried away with, 
which are infinite to reckon up. Only let this in the general be said and 
acknowledged, that look what errors and vain reasonings any man's mind 
engenders, or is taken with, the same every man's mind would be if left to 
itself, there being no more privilege to exempt or free it from being prone 
to any error, or false reasoning in judgment, than to any sin or error in 
practice. 

But I will limit myself to those false reasonings which men are led aside 
by, and misguided in their practice, and in their ways and courses; for in 
these it is certain that every man is guided by some reasoning or other, 
though a false one ; and the cause of all errors in the life is some error in 
the heart : Ps. xcv. 10, ' Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, 
and said. It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known 
my ways.' It is a people do err in their hearts, for the practical understand- 
ing hath its reasonings as well as the speculative. 

Now, all reasonings and discourses of the mind are made up of two things: 
1, some general principles or general axioms which the mind takes for granted, 
and into which all its opinions, and apprehensions, and reasonings of things 
may be resolved; 2, conclusions and consequences derived and drawn out of 
them, and founded on them. 

Answerably are those vain reasonings (whereby he is misled in his course, 
of which only I speak) made up, and consist of vain and erroneous principles, 
and unbelief of the true ones, which are the foundations of a godly course ; 
which principles, contrary to the true, are the grounds of all theii* evil courses 
and ways. 

Secondly, They are made up of false arguments, collections, and deduc- 
tions, which their minds gather to themselves to strengthen them in their 
evil courses and estates. 

Now, as a foundation to speak of the first, I have chosen these words, as 
wherein you have the axle-tree whereon all wickedness is founded and turns : 
a fundamental error in the first principle of all piety, which is to believe 
there is a God, and what manner of God he is, which the fool here spoken 
of doth not only not believe, but there is a positive principle and grounded 
apprehension of the contrary, a saying in the heart there is no God. 

And by the fool here spoken of is not meant some particular man only, 
but the psalmist's scope is to describe the general corruption in all mankind, 
for so he goes on : Ps. xiv. 1-3, ' The fool hath said in his heart. There is 
no God. They are corrupt ; they have done abominable works ; there is 
none that doth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children 
of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They 
are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doth 
good, no, not one ;' and so it is quoted by the apostle, Rom. iii. 10. And 
he places unbelief and error in this main principle, as the foundation of all 
that corruption that follows, and therefore puts it in the fore-front ; and 
though it be but one of those corrupt principles his mind by nature is 
poisoned with, yet it is a most principal and fundamental one ; for as God 



221 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

is the foundation, and prop, and shorer up of all being in the world, so 
that there is a God is the main pillar whereon, in the heart, all religion sub- 
sists. And therefore these words will fitly serve as a bottom to a general 
discourse of that unbelief of all the first principles of godliness, and contrary 
false principles which are in the minds of all men, whence all errors in their 
life proceed. 

To this purpose the doctrine I raise is : 

Obs. That there is in the hearts of all men a secret unbelief of the very 
first principles of true godliness ; and not only so, but contrary sayings and 
dictates of the heart, which are the foundation of all corruption in their lives. 

I will both explain and prove it. I will premise but these two considera- 
tions to make way. 

1. That as in all matters of knowledge there are always some common 
and general truths, which are as a few seeds of light, which, when sown and 
received into the mind of them that begin to learn, do multiply in such 
becfinners' understandings, and increase into many other notions. Thus 
scholars find it in all sciences and arts they learn, that they meet with some 
general truths, which virtually contain all particulars; and so also the apostle 
tells you it is in the doctrines of religion, and you find it so, that there are 
certain principles of the doctrine of Christ: Heb. vi. 1, ' Therefore, leaving 
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection ; not 
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith 
towards God.' Now, as it is so in the matter of the knowledge of religion 
and the form thereof, so also in the matter of the practice and power of it. 
There are some general principles which, if they have true and sound root- 
in" in the heart and practical understanding, they do mould and frame anew, 
and have influence into all their actions, one of which the apostle clearly to 
this purpose intimates : Heb. xi. G, ' But without faith it is impossible to 
please him : for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he 
is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.' ' He that will come to God ;' 
that is, part with sin, and all the world, and all things in it, and join him- 
self in covenant to obey him alone in all things, there are two principles, says 
he, must be riveted into his heart first, viz. 1, that God is ; 2, that he is a 
rewarder of them that seek him. 

This you may also see in popery and the mystery of iniquity. 

There are certain principles both of the doctrine and practice of it, cer- 
tain principles of the doctrine of antichrist and of the oracles of Satan (I call 
them so in opposition to those of Christ), which if admitted and acknow- 
ledged, you thereby at once acknowledge all particulars in popery to be 
true. Those principles are two : that the church cannot err, and that theirs 
is the true church ; for then all that church teacheth must be assented unto 
as true. 

So also in the practice of their religion, entertain but into your heart an 
opinion of merit, and justification by works, &c., and it will set all in a man, 
if thoroughly believed, to abound in all the practices which their religion 
dictates, such power and influence hath one small principle in men's hearts 
upon all their actions. But now, on the contrary, Luther, seeing the heinous- 
ness of sin, and thereupon the inability of all in him to justify him, this 
principle being laid and once admitted, he altered all his opinions and prac- 
tices : such power hath one principle laid in speculative or practical under- 
standing to alter a man's judgment and course. And thus now auswerably 
is it. In the power and practice of sinning in men's hearts and lives, for 
which, though there is little reason can be brought, yet the practical under- 
standing wanting faith in some principles, and being poisoned secretly with 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 225 

the contrary, henco come all, and proceed all, the aberrations of men's hearts 
and lives, and into those they may be resolved. And as all kingdoms have 
fundamental laws, which are as the bases, and props, and pillars on which 
all other laws do rest and spring, as we see ours hath, and as all states have 
certain common axioms of state they guide all their counsels by, and frame 
and cut out all their projects unto, and which they never cross or swerve 
from ; so hath the kingdom of sin also fundamental principles, whence all 
wickedness flows, and on which the laws of sin are founded, which, when 
they are once overthrown, the kingdom of sin is dissolved, so that as the 
foundation of all coming to God is a belief that God is, and that he is a 
rewarder of those that seek him, so, on the contrary, the foundation of all 
departing from God is unbelief of this and such like principles. So says the 
apostle : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an 
evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.' 

And, secondly, this is farther to be added, that those first and common 
principles of piety and godUness come not to have interest and power in the 
heart till they be believed, for that is the only right and true way of appre- 
hending them ; for they are all things not seen. For who hath seen God at 
any time ? So as to be convinced fully there is a God, it must be done by 
faith, so says the apostle in that place in the Hebrews, you must believe, as 
that God is, so that he will reward those that seek him. You must have 
faith to rivet this thoroughly in your minds, for it is a thing not seen, it is 
to come ; and so that there is a judgment for wicked men is a thing not seen, 
but to be believed by faith. 

So, then, those which are thus the first and common principles of all true 
piety, are no way apprehended truly but by faith, which is, as the apostle 
says, the evidence or conviction of things not seen ; and though they may be 
and are known without faith, yet the heart is not persuaded of them till faith 
comes in ; for as the principles of arts and sciences are not to be proved by 
reason, but are such as the mind at first propounding assents unto, for else 
reason would have no bottom to rest on, so these first practical active prin- 
ciples of piety are not apprehended by reason, neither are they evident to 
the mind at the first blush, for they are things not seen, and therefore if the 
heart do truly assent to them, faith must be wrought, which as an optic 
glass may represent them and make them visible. For who hath seen God 
at any time ? And that he will reward those that seek him, and with how 
great a reward, is a thing to come, not yet seen. That he will render ven- 
geance to all that do evil, who sees it, nay, who sees not the contrary ? For 
all happens alike to all, Eccles. ix. 3, and therefore the heart of man is full 
of evil. Now, therefore, though there is some knowledge of these things 
which may be wrought in the minds of men, yet if these principles become 
active, and guide them in their lives, they must have faith to rivet and 
• fasten these common known truths in them : Heb. xi. 6, he must believe 
that God is, &c. He must have faith to assent to that, if ever it draws his 
heart to him. 

CHAPTER IV. 

That the reason, ivhereof man so much boasts, is so cormpt and false, that the 
first principles of religion are not really believed by him. — The demonstra- 
tions of it. 

Now, that which I am to demonstrate is this, that these common first 

VOL. X. P 



226 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

principles are not believed by men ; but the heart is more thoroughly per- 
suaded of the contrary, that men say in their hearts there is no God. Though 
the text instanceth only in that, yet it affords bottom to discourse of all other 
the like principles, for this is the chief of all the rest, and the other depend 
on this. 

So that the unbelief of the heart, and the false principles of it, is that I 
mean to treat of ; and I will first prove that there is in the hearts of all men 
by nature this unbelief, and then 1 will explain what it is. First, I will give 
you demonstrations, then reasons of it. And fii'st, demonstrations drawn 
from experience. 

1. We find that when a godly man, or any other, hath any new, serious, 
strong, convincing demonstration come into his mind, that shews him more 
fully and clearly there is a God and a day of judgment, he shall find some- 
thing in the heart that entertains such a new thought as a strange thing, as 
we use to do such things we were in suspense of afore. That, as the Athe- 
nians said, when Paul preached God and Christ to them, ' Thou bringest 
strange things to our ears,' so you may, if you search your hearts diligently, 
hear them thus "whispering, when in secret your hearts are confirmed in a 
real manner in any of those common truths. This may seem to be the 
meaning of Ps. Iviii. 10, 11, ' The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the 
vengeance : he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a 
man shall say. Verily there is a reward for the righteous : verily he is a 
God that judgeth in the earth,' when there shall be, says the psalmist in the 
10th verse, an evident demonstration of God's vengeance on the wicked, 
and the deliverance of the godly by some hand upon them. This new de- 
monstration shall have this efi"ect. So that a man even carnal, and others 
shall say, Veril}' there is a reward for the righteous, and doubtless there is a 
God that judgeth the earth. They are two common principles, and com- 
monly received in the notion, yet when there comes to be a real demonstra- 
tion of them indeed, men begin to believe it as if they had not believed it 
afore ; for so it comes in as a resolution to a doubt, a determination of a con- 
troversy, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth. 

2. When any man is converted to God, and comes to God upon these 
common principles, yet these common principles, which all take for granted, 
he learns over anew, as if he had never believed them, as if he had learned 
nothing j'et, or at least not as he should do, he is fain to begin at Christ's 
cross-row again, to learn his catechism, that old former persuasion that there 
is a God, and a Christ, and a day of judgment, he finds not to be a founda- 
tion sure enough of a godly life, but he lays every stone anew. He estab- 
lisheth his heart in these truths afresh in another manner, for though he 
knew the same things afore, and had some persuasion of them afore, and 
never doubted perhaps, or called them into question, because they were 
generally received by others, yet now, when these shall be made the gi'eat 
beams in the building, and bear the weight of all a godly life, when a man 
builds all his hopes, ways, and concerns on them, he sees the former per- 
suasions before to be too weak and rotten, which afore he saw not, because 
they were not put to any stress. Set pins in a wall, and let them hang 
never so loosely, yet if you hang no weight on them, they will seem to stand 
as firm as any, whenas yet the least jog would shake and throw down. So 
these principles were barely believed in the notion, and then they seemed as 
firm in their hearts as in the godliest man's heart ; but when a man comes to 
part with all his pleasures upon the hopes of pleasures in heaven, to give up 
all his riches for treasures there, when this weight comes to be hung upon 
his persuasions and belief of these truths, he sees he must get them riveted 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 227 

in, and fastened in by a new principle of faith, and so he believes all these 
over anew. Though the things believed are the same, yet the ratio credendl, 
the ground of believing (which is the form of faith), the reason and medium 
of apprehending the truth, is new. But now, when ho is converted to God, 
the ratio credeiuli is a light from the Holy Ghost presenting them really to 
him, and as from God, which faith only apprehends, and which in certainty 
exceeds all the other. The other are but a sandy foundation, this Hght only 
is the rock, and therefore though in Rom. i. 19, 20, the apostle affirms that 
the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation, — Rom. i. 19, 
20, ' Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for 
God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the 
creation of the world arc clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that they are without 
excuse,' — ^}'et in Heb. xii. 5, G, he says that all these are further and anew 
apprehended by faith when a man comes to God : Heb. xii. 5,6, 'By faith' 
Enoch was translated that he should not see death ; and was not found, because 
God had translated him : for before his translation he had this testimony, . 
that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him : for 
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of' 
them that diligently seek him'.' By it a man must apprehend anew that the' 
worlds were made, and that God is, and is a rewarder of them that seek him ;: 
for the other knowledge would not be enough to persuade the soul etfectu-- 
ally to come unto God, and to livo to him. 

3. When God leaves any man to the doubtings of his own ■ heart, and; 
darlmess of it, he finds he calls all these former principles of truth intO' 
question, and cannot by all arguments find his heart established in them. 
How many men, when converted, are exercised with doubtings whether there 
be a God, or a Christ, or a world to come ? For when a man begins to- 
believe in earnest, and to make these principles the grounds of a^ godly life, 
then the darkness of the heart discovers itself, and not before ; and the devil 
stirs it up, knowing that hereby he undermines the foundation, llbw., I say, 
these doubts were there always ; only now they are discovered, and' if' these- 
discover themselves in a man after he begins to believe, as usually they do, 
then much more did they lurk and reign in the heart afore ; and how much 
more are they in those that have no faith to establish their hearts at all ? 
When the shadow of the persuasion of these things was in the heart, 
unbelief fought not with, it ; but when the true substance of things hoped 
for comes in,, then unbelief is up in arms, and a man finds all those sha- 
dows vanish. 

Now there would not be room, nor place, nor entertainment for such 
objections, and though thrown in by Satan, yet they would not stick, unless; 
there was much unbelief, much matter to work upon. 

4. Though such doubts in the mind do not actually appear above ground, 
nor muster themselves in the field, yet the stronger any man grows in faith, 
the more he complains of unbelief: Mark ix. 24, 'And straightway the 
father of the child cried out, and said with tears. Lord, I believe ; help thou 
mine unbelief.' For a man finds these doubtings hke pioneers under ground 
at work, when all is fair above. Atheism and unbelief are of all corruptions 
the most secret, and discovered only by the true apprehension, and thorough 
belief of the contrary ; and therefore the strongest Christians, and as men 
grow in grace, they discern these most. Therefore, surely these are the 
fundamental bottom corruptions of all in a man's heart. As it is the clearest 
light of the truth which discovers the foundation of an error, and the lines 
where error and truth part, so it is the clearest faith that discovers unbelief; 



228 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

and if faith thus discovers it, then surely it is in all men's hearts, though 
they see it not. It is for want of faith that the generality of men think they 
have so little unbelief ; whereas if men would build upon nothing but sure 
earth and firm faith, they would find all the earth above ground to be but 
made earth, that would crack and sink presently. 

And as the strongest Christians complain of it, so did Christ still of all 
else complain of this concerning his disciples. you of little faith, says 
he : Luke xii. 28, ' If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the 
field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven : how much more will he clothe 
you, ye of httle faith ?' and if ye had but as much faith as a grain of mus- 
tard seed, says he : Mat. xvii. 20, * And Jesus said unto them, Because of 
your unbelief : for verily I sa}' unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mus- 
tard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place, 
and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.' He speaks 
it often in case of doubting the power of God, and not of justifying faith 
only ; and so to Mary he says, if thou wouldst believe but the power of God : 
John xi. 40, ' Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst 
believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God ?' Thus God also complains of 
his people : Num. xiv. 11, ' And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will 
this people provoke me ? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all 
the signs which I have shewed among them ?' God speaks it in case of doubt- 
ing his power to subdue their enemies. Now, then, that which God, and 
Christ, and strongest Christians complain of, is certainly in men's hearts. 

5. If all these speak it not, yet look upon men's lives and actions, and 
the carriages of their hearts in time of trial and temptation, when their be- 
lief in these principles is put to the stress. 

Look upon men's actions, which are the most true interpreters and com- 
ments of their hearts, as David says: Ps. xxxvi. 1, 'The transgression of 
the wicked saith in my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes ;' that 
is, it evidently argues it. However they profess they fear God, and think 
they do, yet their wickedness argues there is no fear of God. So I say, 
men's actions argue there is no faith of the first principles, either of pro- 
mises or threatenings, which is the meaning of that place, Titus i. 16, ' They 
profess that they know God.; but in works they deny him, being abominable, 
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.' Thej^ profess they 
know God, and believe him, but in works they deny him ; that is, to be that 
God they seem to believe he is, and in works they do it, because their works 
argue they do so ; and those works proceed from something within which 
denies it ; for a man is most serious in his constant action, quicquid opera- 
tiir, operatur ut est, as it is in being, so is it in working ; therefore, if 
there was not a real principle within them which denied God, their works 
would not be the works of atheists ; for upon the belief and granting of 
such and such principles, such and such conclusions necessarily follow. 
They do so in other things, as God argues : Mai. i. 6, 'A son honoureth his 
father, and a servant his master : if then I be a father, where is mine 
honour ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord of hosts 
unto you, O priests, that despise my name : and ye say. Wherein have we 
despised thy name ?' If I be a Father, where is my honour ? that is, if 
you believed this heartily, as you profess you do, and as other children 
believe these and these men to be their parents, you would demean your- 
selves to me accordingly ; you would ask my blessing every day, and call 
me Father morning and evening ; you would have recourse to me as to a 
father, trust me in straits and difficulties as a father. So if you believe I am a 
master, then where is my fear ? How dare you daily do contrary to what I 



CUAP. IV.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 229 

command, and that when conscience tells you that you do so ? If a master 
says, Go, his servant goeth; if Come, he cometh ; but you leave undone what I 
command, and slight me in all. Certainly you do not believe that I am your 
master, for then obedience of consequence would follow ; for to other mas- 
ters, whom you seriously make account to be so, service and observance doth 
follow ; a servant doth fear his master, says God there. In a like manner God 
speaks : Jer. v. 21-2-1, ' Hear now this, foolish people, and without under- 
standing, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not ; fear 
ye not me, saith the Lord ? Will ye not tremble at my presence, which have 
placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree that it can- 
not pass it ; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not 
prevail ; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it. But this people 
liath a revolting and a rebellious heart : they are revolted and gone. Nei- 
ther say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth 
rain, both the former and the latter in his season : he reserveth unto us the 
appointed weeks of the harvest.' Fear you not me ? Will you not tremble 
every time you think of me ? who have placed the sand for the bound of the 
sea, &c. ; you say you all believe this ; why, then, says God, will you not 
fear me ? And so, says he, when you consider that I am he that feeds you, 
and clothes you, and give you rain, and provide for you ; that could when I 
would restrain the rain ; will you not love and serve me ? But, says God, 
you have rebellious hearts ; neither say you. Let us fear the Lord who gives 
us rain. To fear him is indeed a natural conseqaence upon it, and they 
would do so if they believed it indeed, and in earnest, that they depended 
on him for all ; for others, you see, who do so depend upon you, do fear and 
regard you, and therefore if you apprehended it indeed, you would fear me. 
But he tells them they were a people without the understanding and belief 
of this, ver. 21 ; and that, seeing they did not see, that though they had 
some light into these principles, yet indeed they did not believe them, and 
see them by faith, as Moses saw God, and the saints see him, for therefore 
they believe not, says Christ, because they see not with their eyes : John 
xii. 39, 40, ' Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again. 
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart ; that they should not 
see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and 
I should heal them.' 

6. So also, that in times of distress, when the anchor should stay the ship 
as in a storm, that then men's hearts fail them, though confident afore, this 
is a demonstration of a natural unbelief in them. When troubles approach, 
or great ones threaten, then men are afraid, and their hearts an-e moved as 
the leaves of trees. Thus was it with the disciples : Mark iv. 40, ' And he 
said unto them, Why are ye so fearful ? How is it that you have no faith ?' 
It was want of faith. Why are you so fearful ? How is it you have no faith ? 
Did not the Messiah go with you ? It was because they believed it not, that 
they were so afraid, that their hearts fainted, as Jacob's did for the same 
reason : Gen. xlv. 26, ' And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is 
governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he be- 
lieved them not.' Thus Mary, who could believe that Lazarus should rise 
at the latter day, and all men else, yet that her brother should rise now pre- 
sently, she knew not how to believe it ; he might not have died, indeed, she 
thought ; but he was now four days dead, and stunk : John xi. 23, 24, 32, 
39, ' Jesus saith unto her. Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto 
him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Then 
when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his 
feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not 



230 



AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 



died. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that 
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh ; for he hath been 
dead four days.' Her faith now failed in this time of extremity ; so also 
men can in their health believe the salvation of their souls, and can trust 
God for salvation, it being a thing they are not presently to enjoy ; but let 
them be in a small worldly strait, they distrust God in itj and let them come 
to be sick, then when their trusting God for salvation comes to be present, 
they are as doubtful of that as anything else. 
Now the reasons of it are, 

1. Man's nature will believe nothing but what if sees ; so Mark xv. 32 : 
' Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and 
believe. And they that were crucified with him, reviled him.' John vi. 30, 
' They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may 
see, and believe thee ? What dost thou work ?' Now the first principles 
are not seen, as no principles of arts and sciences are to be proved, for then 
reason would have no bottom to rest on. And so now these first practical 
principles of piety not being apprehended by reason, nor sight, therefore 
faith must be wrought, which is the evidence of things not seen. God is out 
of our sight ; who hath seen him at any time ? his judgments are out of sight : 
Ps. X. 5, ' His ways are always grievous ; thy judgments are far above out of 
his sight : as for all his enemies, he pufleth at them.' Hell and heaven men 
see not. But you will say, that the apostle expresseth that his Godhead is 
clearly seen : Rom. i. 20, ' For the invisible things of him from the creation 
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, 
even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that they are without excuse ;' and 
wrath revealed from heaven : ver. 18, ' For the wrath of God is revealed 
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold 
the truth in unrighteousness.' I answer, that all those glimmerings are not 
of force enough to overcome the contrary darkness ; no, nor can the word of 
God itself do it, till faith comes with its optic glass, and makes them real, 
and evident, and puts them out of question, so as if ever they become 
active to guide our lives, they must be apprehended by a new principle. 
Therefore it is written, Heb. xi'. 6, he that comes to God, must have faith 
to believe even that God [isj, which yet is clearly seen so far, as to leave men 
inexcusable. 

2. These being such transcendent things above our thoughts, there is a 
dulness in man to believe them, and we cannot raise our thoughts so high. 
It is called a slowness of heart in us : Luke xxiv. 25, ' Then he said unto 
them, fools, and slow of heart to beheve all that the prophets have spoken !' 
Insomuch as Christ says, John v. 43, ' I am come in my Father's name, and 
ye receive me not : if another shall come in his own name, him ye will re- 
ceive ;' if another come in his own name, him you will receive, any but me 
you would accept. Wisdom is too high, too far above, so out of reason's 
reach, to believe it as it is to be believed, so that though the folly that is in 
us makes us believe every vain promise else of our hearts, every fable, — 
Prov. xix. 15, ' The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man 
looketh well to his going,' — we will not believe fiii-m and solid truths. 
Wisdom is too high for a fool, and men are loath to extend their eyesight to 
see so far off"; it wearies and dulls them, and therefore though we see, we 
can scarce believe, though signs be wrought : John xii. 37, ' But though he 
had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him.' 

3. These spiritual truths are contrary to a man's heart, and ways, and 
course. Now self-love being in the mind and understanding, it keeps it off 
from assenting to what it apprehends evil to itself. Now to beheve there is 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 231 

a God, and a bell, &c., are contrary to it. For he is a judge, and therefore 
men like not to receive the knowledge of him, and believe him not : Rom. 
i. 28, ' And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God 
gave them over to a i*eprobate mind, to do those things which are not con- 
venient.' So 2 Thes. ii. 12, this reason is given why they believed not, 
because they had pleasure in unrighteousness ; 2 Thes. ii. 12, ' That they 
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in un- 
righteousness.' As love makes us credulous, 1 Cor. xiii. 7, ' beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,' we 
beheve good of those we love, so self-love renders us incredulous ; there- 
fore Christ says. Though I tell you, you will not believe : Luke xxii. 67, 
* Saying, Art thou Christ ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, 
you will not believe.' 

4. Unbelief was the chief of man's first sin. Their first miscarrying was 
not believing God's word, and therefore they especially wounded our nature 
with unbelief ; and faith being extinguished, the contrary principles have 
come to possess the mind : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' In whom the god of this world 
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glori- 
ous gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' 
Satan hath power to blind their minds with contrary principles. 



CHAPTER V. 
What are the principles of godliness which a wicked man believes not. 

Now the main principles of a godly life which the heart of man believes 
not, and the contrary principles to them, which do sway and prevail with 
the heart, are sundry and diverse. 

1. We naturally believe not that there is a God, but the contrary. For 
this I produce not this place only, but the tenth psalm, where we have the 
same truth laid down, yea, and that as the spring and source of all those 
villanies and oppressions which there are reckoned up. He speaks in that 
psalm of great and potent oppressors and politicians, who see none on 
earth greater than themselves, none higher than they, and think therefore 
they may impnne prey upon the smaller, as beasts use to do ; and in the 
fourth verse this is made the root and ground of all, that God is not in all 
his thoughts : Ps. x. 4, ' The wicked through the pride of his countenance 
will not seek after God : God is not in all his thoughts ;' the words are 
diversely read, and all make for this sense. Some read it, ' No God in all 
his crafty presumptuous purposes;' others, 'AH his thoughts are, there is 
no God.' The meaning whereof is not only that among the swarm and 
crowd of thoughts that fill his mind, the thought of God is seldom to be 
found, and comes not in among the rest, which yet is enough for the pur- 
pose in hand ; but farther, that in all his projects and plots, and consulta- 
tions of his heart (the first reading of the words intends), whereby he 
contrives and lays the plot, form, and draught of all his actions, he never 
takes God or his will into consideration or consultation, to square and frame 
all accordingly, but proceeds and goes on in all, and carries on all, as if 
there were no God to be consulted with. He takes not him along with 
him, no more than if he were no God ; the thoughts ol him and his will 
sways him not. As you use to say, when a combination of men leave out 
some one they should advise with, tlaat such an one is not of their counsel, 



232 



AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 



is not in the plot, so nor is God in their purposes and advisings, they do all 
without him. But this is not all the meaning, bi;t farther, all their thought 
is, that there is no God. This is there made the bottom, the foundation, 
the groundwork and reason of all their wicked plots and injurious projects, 
and deceitful carriages and proceedings, that seeing there is no God or 
power above them to take notice of it, to regard or requite them, therefore 
they may be bold to go on. That whereas Solomon says in tbat very case 
there is a higher than the highest regardeth it : Eccles. v. 8, ' If thou seest 
the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice 
in a province, marvel not at the matter ; for he that is higher than the high- 
est regardeth, and there be higher than they.' They think not so, ver. 11 
of that 10th Psalm, ' He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten ; he 
hideth his face, he will never see it.' 

Enemies on earth he sees none can do him any hurt ; all his distressers 
he puffs at them, and then vainly imagining that there is no God^ he thinks 
that he may go on presumptuously, for, says he, I shall never be removed ; 
and tell him of God's judgments, why, if there be no God, what need he fear 
any ? he is far enough out of their gun-shot to reach him, they are far out 
of his sight : ver. 5, ' His ways are always grievous ; thy judgments are far 
above out of his sight : as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.' That is, 
he sees them not, as we do not things that are high and far above us, and 
he, wanting faith, which is the optic-glass of things not seen, he believes 
them not ; and that he believes this great fundamental error that there is no 
God, you may see by all his thoughts and ways, they declare that he thinks 
there is no God ; that this is the sum verdict they give in, they speak and 
declare so much. And if this principle be laid in men's hearts (as you see it 
is), then no wonder that they are so wicked, for if there be no God, there is 
not, nor can be, any sin, and then no judgment, and then men may do what 
they will. Q^iod lihet, licet his. As when there was no king in Israel, every 
man did what was good in his own eyes ; so when men think there is no 
God, their own lusts are their laws, and riches and preferments their gods, 
and gain in all these is all their godliness. 

Or, 2, if men be sensible there is a God, and so come to have some re- 
spect to him in their actions, yet all those glorious attributes wherein he 
hath represented himself to us, as principles of our obedience to him, they 
believe not, in deed and in truth ; and this is the ground also of all their 
impiety. 

(1.) They believe not really that he is a God omniscient, and sees and 
regards us in all. Though men profess this, yet when they come to commit 
secret sins their hearts think not so, for contrary thoughts are the ground of 
their impiety. And this very thing God, who searcheth the hearts, hath 
revealed to us ; the ancients of Israel, the rulers in Israel, — Ezek. viii. 
9, 10, 12, ' And he said unto me. Go in, and behold the wicked abomina- 
tions that they do here. So I went in, and saw : and, behold, every form of 
creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of 
Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about. Then said he unto me, Son 
of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the 
dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery ? for they say. The Lord 
seeth us not ; the Lord hath forsaken the earth,' — who know God and all his 
attributes, they sacrificed in secret to idols, whilst they professed the true 
God openly. And what is the cause of this ? God gives this as a reason, 
* For they say. The Lord seeth us not.' That thou shouldst commit un- 
cleanness in secret thou wouldst not do afore a child, or tell that He thon 
wouldst not have discovered or known, is it not from this principle embolden- 



Chap. V.j in respect of sin and punishment. 233 

ing thee, God sees me not ? Would Gebazi have told that lie which he did, 
if he had believed the spirit of his master went with him ? Would men in 
secret lay plots to overturn churches, and states, and societies, to oppress 
God's people, to advance themselves, if they believed God to be wiser than 
themselves, or that he did see them, and delighted to shew his wit in con- 
founding them ? Isa. xxix. 13-3 6, 'Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch 
as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their hps do honour 
me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is 
taught by the precepts of men : therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a 
marvellous work amongst this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder ; 
for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the 
prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their 
counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say. Who 
seeth us ? and who knoweth us ? Surely your turning of things upside 
down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay : for shall the work say of him 
that made it. He made me not ? or shall the thing framed say of him that 
framed it. He had no understanding ?' God speaks there of those that did 
profess him and call upon him, ver. 13 ; wise men whom God would con- 
found in their plots, ver. 14 ; the wisdom of the wise shall perish, for, ver. 
15, they digged deep to hide counsel from the Lord ; their gunpowder 
plots and underminings are in the dark, and they look round about them, 
and they discern none that sees them, and therefore they say. Who sees us 
and who knows us ? Ps. x. 11, ' He hath said in his heart, God hath for- 
gotten : he hideth his face, he will never see it.' Ps. xciv. 7, ' Yet they say, 
The Lord shall not see : neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.' 

(2.) If men believed the greatness and sovereignty of God, and power of 
his wrath, would they fear the fury of the oppressor daily, as God complains, 
Isa. li. 12, 13, them that can kill but the body, yea, that cannot do that 
neither long or often, for he is one that shall die, and then have no longer 
powder to hurt, and he before may have his horns cut short, may be blasted 
and wither as the grass, and his spirit cut short, so as where now is the fury 
of the oppressors ? wilt thou fear him, says God there, and doest thou forget 
the Lord thy Maker, who hath power to kill body and soul, who dies not ? 
fearest thou not to fall into the hands of the Hving God ? Isa. li. 12, 13, ' I, 
even I, am he that comforteth you : who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid 
of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass ; 
and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, 
and laid the foundations of the earth : and hast feared continually every day, 
because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy ? and 
where.is the fury of the oppressor ?' If thou didst believe his greatness, thou 
wouldst fear him, for what dost Ihou fear the oppressor ? If thou hadst but 
as strong and deep apprehensions of his power over thee, as thou hast of a 
powerful enemy, thou wouldst not fear a poor weak man more than God. 
But that thou forgettest thy Maker, thou wouldst not do it ; for if one greater 
than thy oppressor comes, that is able to oppress both him and thee, thou 
would slight even him, whom but now thou fearedst, and sUght him as much 
as thou didst God before. 

(3.) Men do not beHeve he is so great and terrible a God as they profess 
him to be. For would they then come with loose, irreverent, scattered, and 
careless thoughts into his presence, and offer the sacrifice of fools, if they 
believed he were in heaven and they on earth? That is, that there were such 
a distance and infinite disproportion between God and them, would they 
offer the blind, the lame, such prayers as neither their understandings are 
intent upon nor their affections ? If they believed he were so great a king. 



234 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

and his name so dreadful, they would not come into his presence so negli- 
gently ; you would not do thus to your governors, says God : Malachi i. 8, 
* And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the 
lame and sick, is it not evil ? offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be 
pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of hosts.' That is, 
if you believed my greatness, as you believe their power and sovereignty over 
you, you would bring other hearts and sacrifices into my presence. 

And in Ezek. v. 3, God puts them in mind of his greatness, to rectify this 
their slighting of him, implying therefore necessarily thereby, that the want 
of the belief of this was the cause of their careless and irreverent worship : 
Ezek. V. 3, ' Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them 
in thy skirts.' 

So also in Isa. li, 13 (as I shewed under the last head), the reason why 
men fear the fury of great men, when they oppress them, or command one 
thing, and God another, is because they forget his greatness and believe it 
not. ^ Who art thou, says God there, who fearest the fury of the oppressor, 
who is yet but a man, who can therefore but kill the body ? and a mortal 
man too, that must die as well as thou, and it may be before thee, or who 
however hath no longer power after his death to hurt, and whose power may 
be blasted ere he dies ; or if not, yet his fury may cease towards thee, and 
his spirit be cut short ; for says God there, ' Where is the fury of the oppres- 
sor ?' that is, thou seest it comes to nothing often, and that all their threats 
vanish ; why is it then, says God, thou forgettest me thy Maker, who there- 
fore am able to destroy all that is in thee, both body and soul, for I made 
both, who am the great God who hath stretched forth the heavens, &c. '? 
When I tell thee I am he that comforteth thee, and will back thee, and bid 
thee not fear, ver. 12, how comes it thou fearest them more than me ? 
Is it because thou forgettest me and my greatness ? for therefore he puts 
them in mind of it ; and that it is so it is evident. For if one whom thou 
apprehendest greater than thy oppressor, who is able to overrule and oppress 
both him and thee, should but say as much as God doth, thou wouldst 
dread thy former oppressor no longer ; and therefore this shews that thy fear- 
ing him is because thou behevest not God's greatness. 

(4.) If they beheve that God doth see and is able to punish, yet men 
think him a God slack, and careless, and regardless of then- ways, and not 
so certain, and sure, and just ^an avenger as they profess he is ; that is 
another principle in their hearts, which is a ground of their impiety : 2 Peter 
iii. 4, 9, ' And saying, Where is the promise of his coming ? for since the 
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of 
the creation. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men 
count slackness ; but is long-suflering to us-ward, not wiUing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance.' God deferring his coming 
to punishment, Peter says that God herein is not slack, as men count slack- 
ness, implying that men indeed think so, and they interpret his long-sufler- 
ing slackness ; and they say in their heart, God will neither do good nor evil, 
as if he regarded nothing : Zeph. i. 12, ' And it shall come to pass at that 
time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that 
are settled on their lees ; that say in their heart. The Lord will not do good, 
neither will he do evil.' Hence they think that they may do what they will 
for all him, for as they look for little good from him, but only in the 
creatures, so they look for little hurt from him ; he will do neither, say they. 
And hence now their hearts come to be set upon evil : Eccles. viii. 11, 
' Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore 
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' This principle 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 235 

is not only the ground why they venture upon many evil acts again and 
again, but of a bent and resolute and fixed purpose in mind still to go on in 
evil courses, so in Ps. x., when the sinner had often sinned, and had heard 
nothing of it, he thought God regardless ; He hath forgotten it, saith he, 
Ps. X. 11, and as he hath done so he will do, and he will never requite it, 
he minds not these things. 

(5.) Men tbink in their hearts that God is like to them, that if he be such 
a God of judgment as it is said he is, certainly it is to those that are difl'er- 
ent from him ; but certainly he is a God of the same mind and judgment 
with us ; and look what pitch of obedience and religion pleaseth us, pleaseth 
him also. He is not so strict as men make him : so Malachi ii. 17, they 
reasoned and put this dilemma on him, which strengthened them in their 
courses : Mai. ii. 17, * Ye have wearied the Lord with your words : yet ye 
say, Wherein have we wearied him ? When ye say, Every one that doeth 
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them ; or, Where is 
the God of judgment ? ' They say, every one that doeth evil is good in the sight 
of the Lord, that is, though a man doth evil, i.e. is given to some ill course, 
be a worldling, or a drunkard, or a swearer now and then, yet God is not so 
strict a God as you make him, he may be in his favour for his good meaning, 
for God looks to the heart. Or if not so (for it is a dilemma), Where is the 
God of judgment? that is, either he is a God thus favourable, or else not 
such a God of judgment, so holy, and so severe as you prophets make him. 
For we see not, nor find him to be so ; where is the God of judgment ? 
The truth is, you have wearied him, says the prophet, that is, tired out his 
long- sulfe ring which he hath been exercising all this while ; so inPs. 1. The 
very ground and spring of that profaneness and lewdness in the hypocrite's 
heart and life (who thought though he was an adulterer and a slanderer, yet 
he pleased God by his sacrifices), was this thought (says God), that I was like 
to thee : Ps. 1. 21, ' These things hast thou done, and I kept silence : thou 
thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself : but I will reprove 
thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.' That is, thou thoughtest 
me a God, who, if he were to live and converse on earth, would suit himself 
with thee, justify thy courses, and approve all well. 

(6.) Men naturally believe not the word of God, neither the promises nor 
threatenings of it. It was the ground of the first sin that ever was com- 
mitted. Hath God said you shall die ? Gen. iii. 1, he made a question of it 
to her, and she began to stagger, because [she sawj a creature subsist, and 
yet call God's word into question, and therefore she thought she might eat 
and live also. And as it was the ground of the first sin, so of all ever since ; 
for if men believed the word, and writs we serve upon their consciences here 
out of the word (when they know themselves), as they do the writs that come 
out of courts, and attachments from the king or others, it would make them 
fear, and tremble, and put a stop to their courses. Would the swearer be 
so loud if in earnest he believed God will not hold him guiltless that takes 
his name in vain ? Would men be covetous, be fornicators, drunkards, &c., 
if they believed that the wrath of God comes upon such ? 

The rich man in hell, Luke xvi., whose brethren lived in the bosom of 
the church, and heard Moses read and preached, and all the promises and 
threatenings which in Deut. xxviii. and elsewhere are made, yet he feared 
they would come to hell. Why, says Abraham, they have Moses and the 
prophets to tell them, and testify to them aforehand, a cloud of witnesses 
more likely to persuade than if one should come from the dead. But they 
would not be persuaded, the rich man thought, by them, for he had woful 
experience of it in himself; for when Abraham says, ' Let them hear them,' 



236 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

nay, says he, ' but if one come from the dead they would repent.' Nay, 
says Abraham again, * if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither 
will they be persuaded by one rising from the dead.' The reason men 
repent not is because they are not persuaded. Luke xvi. 31, ' And he said 
unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be 
persuaded though one rose from the dead.' The word is 'KnodriGov-ai. That 
same word is used to express the persuasion of faith whereby we believe 
things are : Heb. xi. 13, ' These all died in faith, not having received the 
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth.' Having seen the promises afar off, they were first persuaded, that 
is, of the truth and reality of them, and then applied and embraced them. 
Now, then, his brethren would not so much as be persuaded of the truth of 
the threatenings, and Moses and the prophets would not sink into them. 
Thus Christ also tells the Jews : John v. 40, 47, ' For had ye believed 
Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote of me. But if ye believe 
not his writings, how shall ye believe my words ?' Ye believe not Moses 
his writings (says he), not in earnest, so as to be guided by them. The 
cause of all the murmuring in the people of Israel so often, and that they 
hearkened not to his voice, and despised the promised land, was, they 
believed not God's word, nor the truth and faithfulness of it : Ps. cvi. 24, 25, 
' Yea, they despised the pleasant land ; they believed not his word ; but 
murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord,' and 
they in Heb. iv. are made a type of all unregenerate men, who believe not 
the promises of heaven, for still you shall find their unbelief there mentioned ; 
and they failed not only in the application to themselves that they should 
not enter, but of the truth itself, the seriousness of God's meaning in it, as 
appeared by the story. You know who it was, even wicked Ahaz, who 
refused a promise and a sign when it was offered him, Isa. vii. 10-13. The 
reason was, he was loath to take that course of trusting and depending upon 
a promise to go that way to work; he not only distrusted, but refused God's 
bond, would not take it, though God offered a sign and seal to it. And as 
for promises, so for threatenings, how do men slight them ? Jer. xvii. 15, 
' Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now;' as also in Isa. v. 19, 
' That say. Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it : 
and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we 
may know it.' A parallel place to it, let him make haste that we may see 
it, they speak it in a daring, desperate, unbelieving manner; he hath threat- 
ened long, let him come, we would fain see it once ! Thus that oppressor, 
too, in Ps. X. 5, behaves himself; as for God's judgments, of all else, he 
fears them least, they are far out of sight, so as he cannot see them ; and if 
he doth, they seem small as stars do, he cannot believe they are so great. 

(7.) Men believe not that there is a world to come, wherein evil men shall 
be punished and godly men rewarded, nor a day of judgment, nor a resur- 
rection. You think you believe all these things well enough, they are in 
your creed. Martha, she professed she knew her brother should rise in the 
resurrection of the last day : John xi. 24, ' Martha saith unto him, I know 
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day,' but yet Christ 
saw her faith staggering in the truth of this in deed and in truth, else he 
would never have after that profession posed her so in her creed, and cate- 
chised her again in this general article. Whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me shall never die ; believest thou this ? ver. 25, 26, * Jesus said unto her, 
I am the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth on me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall 



Chap. V.j in respect of sin and punishment. 237 

never die. Believest thou this ? ' She had said it even now, and yet Christ 
asks her again if she believed it, though, had she believed it, she would not 
have thought her brother could not be raised now, because he stank. Christ 
tells her that she did not believe it, as he had said and intimated to her, 
ver. 40; yet she had some faith. How much more is this true in wicked 
men, whose not believing the world to come is the cause they take out 
their fill here ! That speech of the Jews, Isa. xxii. 13, ' Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we shall die,' is interpreted and applied by the Holy 
Ghost to the resurrection : 1 Cor. xv. 32, ' If after the manner of men i have 
fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not ? 
let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die.' Because they denied that in 
their hearts, and any life hereafter, therefore they thought it was best to take it 
out here, and that it was folly to do otherwise. Thus also the rich man 
did, who is put in mind of this his atheism in hell : Luke xvi. 25, 'But 
Abraham said. Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good 
things, and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is comforted, and thou 
art tormented.' Remember thou receivedst thy good things in thy lifetime; 
that is, all the good things thou didst look for or expect. And he acknow- 
ledgeth as much, in that he would have Lazarus go, and testify to his brethren 
that there was another world, and a place of torment. He knew the want 
of belief of this brought him thither, and therefore prescribes it as a remedy 
to prevent their coming ; and this in like manner in Mai. iii. 14 is made the 
cause of their neglect of holy duties and seeking God : ' You say it is in vain 
to serve God, and what profit is there in keeping his ordinance ? ' There is 
no reward for the righteous, nothing to be got by it ; they could see none 
here, and much less did they look for any hereafter, what good will it then 
do us ? say they, and now therefore we call the proud happy, say they, and 
the presumptuous they carry the world afore them, and for whom the world 
was made, seeing happiness is only to be had here, and that wicked men 
are advanced, ver. 15 ; and they seeing this, they said in their hearts there 
is no reward, and thought there was none to come neither. And yet they 
scarce discerned their unbelief of this future state (as many speeches are to 
be interpreted), for they said, wherein had they spoke against God: ver. 13, 
' Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord : yet ye say, What 
have we spoken so much against thee ? ' 

And that this is a principle in men's hearts that guides them thus, and 
that also upon the same ground, is evident by that of Solomon in Eccles. ix. 
He had shewn in chap. viii. how that the wicked are rewarded with the work 
of the righteous, that the righteous are unprosperous, and e contra, and in 
ver. 2 of chap. ix. ; how here one event was to all: Eccles. ix. 2, 'AH things 
come alike to all : there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to 
the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth, and 
to him that sacrificeth not : as is the good, so is the sinner ; and he that 
sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.' And he says there was no greater 
evil than this, for the event and issue of this God's dealing was, that thereby 
the hearts of the sons of men was full of evil and madness whilst they live, 
and it is the occasion they go so many of them to hell when they die ; and 
why ? Because God's dealing thus engenders such thoughts as these, that 
whilst a man lives there is hope indeed of some good and happiness, but in 
the world to come there is no recompence to godly courses^ which they ex- 
press by this proverb, that a living dog is better than a dead lion: ver. 4, 
' For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope : for a living dog is 
better than a dead lion ; ' that is, the meanest condition of men here is better 
than the best hereafter, so as they had rather be a rustic clown now than 



238 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

a king in heaven ; they have no knowledge of hereafter, and knowing they 
shall die, think it is best taking it out here. They believe there is no reward 
hereafter, unless it may be to be spoken well of for a while ; they saw that, but 
no other, and that is soon forgotten, and therefore they are set upon evil here, 
and here they prepare only for this world, and this though they know they 
shall die; not young men only, who may hope to live long, but old men also, 
when they know they cannot live long, and have a foot in the grave, yet they 
are most worldly. Whence is it ? Is it not from this principle, that they 
think not of any reward beyond this world, which God's dealings confirm 
them in ? I have known those persons who have had this distinct thought 
in their minds, that let them but have their pleasure here, and let God keep 
heaven to himself, so he would not damn them ! Thus that cardinal said thai 
he would not lose his portion in Paris for that in paradise ! 

Did we believe but these first principles, as we do other things of like 
nature in this world, we would be other men ; did we believe there were 
another world after this, in which we must live for ever, as all profess they 
do, men would not take up their rest here, they would not lay out all their 
money, that is, their endeavours, time, and care, upon the settling and assur- 
ing a happy condition here, and spend no thoughts or time to provide all 
necessai'ies and friends in the world to come. We see that men who believe 
they shall shortly go into another land, send their goods thither, and care 
not how things go at home, as you do not when you know you are to remove 
into another house, and your landlord hath given you warning. And yet 
now God gives you warning by sickness to dislodge from this world, why do 
you not then look out for another house and better habitation ; why are your 
thoughts and care still employed to repair the decayed house which you are 
leaving ? But the truth is, men believe it not ; so Solomon tells us, Eccles. 
iii. 21, * Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit 
of the beast that goeth downward to the earth ? ' which is not the speech of 
an atheist, but of Solomon complaining that none believe it or know it, but 
think all befalls a man and a beast alike. Men's works shew that they do 
not heartily beheve death and judgment ; for if men did believe the short- 
ness of their time to get grace in when they are old, as men believe the 
shortness of the time when the sun grows low, they would not defer to make 
their calling sure. Did men believe that all the seed they sow to the Spirit, 
all the prayers they make, and good they do, will come up again in a full 
crop of reward at the great harvest of the world, and that as they sow they 
shall reap, as husbandmen do believe when they cast their corn into the 
ground, thsy would sow fewer sins, and more good duties, and more good 
speeches ; but men think all cast away because it comes not up presently : 
Mai. iii. 14, ' Ye have said. It is vain to serve God ; and what profit is it 
that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before 
the Lord of hosts ? ' If men believed that in parting with credit, wealth, 
&c., they should have an hundred-fold; as they believe if they put their 
money out, and venture it with such a company, they shall gain half in half ; 
if men believed this as the other, they would certainly venture all for heaven ; 
if men believed evil times were coming, and that these times would cause 
judgments (as you beUeve winter will come when summer is gone, and so 
lay up provision, and provide winter suits)^ you would provide for such a 
great and terrible day. 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 239 



CHAPTER VI. 

Some objections answered. — In ivhat sense it may he affirmed that all wicked 
men are atheists. — That wicked men are wanting in giving a heart-assent to 
the first principles and fundamental truths of religion, as well as they are 
defective in the application of them to themselves. 

There are some objections which may be urged against the truth of the 
doctrine which I have deUvered, which I now come to answer. 

Obj. If these sayings were in men's hearts, then all men should be heretics 
and atheists ; and besides, do not all profess the contrary principles, yea, 
and not only so, but assent to and contend for all those particular truths 
which are deduced out of them, and zealously defend all those branches of 
our religion which spring from them ? 

To all which I briefly answer : 

First, Whereas you say all should be heretics, I answer, that there is a 
twofold atheism and heresy, one direct and professed, conceived and ex- 
pressed in so many words contrary to these principles, and there are few 
such : but then there is an atheism is indirect, and manifested but by way 
of consequence, when that is yielded to by the heart, which overthrows what 
a man hath owned and assented to in his mind ; and so many deny God in 
their works : 2 Peter ii. 1, * But there were false prophets also among the 
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall 
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and 
bi'ing upon themselves swift destruction.' So as what in words they yielded 
unto, they in deed and in truth deny again. We may say in this case as 
divines do of papists, who, though in words they do profess Christ and 
assent to all the articles of the creed, yet withal they admit and hold such 
opinions to uphold their cursed practices as do deny him to be come in the 
flesh : 1 John iv. 3, ' And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ 
is come in the flesh is not of God : and this is that spirit of antichrist, 
whereof you have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in 
the world.' And therefore their assenting to this truth, that Christ is come 
in the flesh, doth not free them from being antichrists, and to be justly called 
so, yea, and as justly as the Jews are, for they do strip him of all the ends 
he came into the world for. Thus, though men assent to this truth in direct 
terms propounded, that there is a God and a world to come, yet seeing they 
yield to such courses as cannot stand with a true assent thereto, therefore 
they may be termed atheists and heretics in that sense, as the papists are 
called antichrist, who are they that in Rev. xi. 1 are to tread down the holy 
city forty months, and possess the outward court of the people, that is, the 
profession of the church. They are notwithstanding called Gentiles : Rev. 
xi. 2, ' But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it 
not ; for it is given unto the Gentiles : and the holy city shall they tread 
under foot forty and two months.' 

And whereas, second, it is said men profess these principles, I answer, 
there is such an assent given to these truths as shall cause a man to profess 
them ; for that you do, being carried away with the common cry of all those 
you live amongst ; as they believed for the saying of the woman, John iv. 39, 
so you take them for granted, and never question, being brought up in them, 
and taught to say so, and because they are universally received ; just such 
an assent it is as the Turks have to their Alcoran, and therefore as they, so 
we profess these things as true. And look, as the stream riseth no higher 



240 AN UNKEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

than the fountain, so doth this assent, as it is engendered by common 
opinion in men's minds, so it ariseth to common confession. But now when 
a man shall be put upon all those practices, which are the necessary conse- 
quences of those principles, to alter all a man's course and life upon these 
grounds'that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of those that seek 
him, herein men fall short, for these principles have not interest enough in 
the heart to prevail so far. 

And therefore, tJdrdhj, as from common opinion and general consent men 
receive these principles, they do in like manner assent to all the branches of 
religion which spring from them, to all the consequences of speculation and 
doctrine which are thence deduced, and think them true for their concatena- 
tion, and linking together, and harmony, and correspondency one with 
another, and so out of those principles contend for them, and accord to them, 
reason for them, and say if these be true, then are these likewise. As many 
mathematicians do for Copernicus's demonstrations, which were framed and 
reared upon this, that the earth moves and the heavens stand still, wherein 
yet he makes all the phenomena of sun, moon, and stars good upon that 
supposition, and yet the first principle itself, not being fully believed nor 
proved and evidenced to a man's mind, but the contrary, a man would not 
venture or hazard much upon the truth of them all ; no more will men for 
the truth they profess they believe, because they stagger in their belief of the 
principles themselves, which are to be apprehended by faith, and then all 
that are built on them are so too. But otherwise men will not die for them, 
and hold them fast as their lives, and part with all for them ; nor do they 
frame their lives to them, so as though they yield to all the consequences of 
them, of speculation and doctrine, yet not of practice, which those put them 
upon. 

Ohj. 2. But you will, in the second place, further object, that men will 
say, they have laid their ears to their hearts, but yet they never heard them 
say so, they never had such distinct contrary thoughts come into their minds. 
Surely, if there were such principles and sayings, which do thus guide all 
their lives, they should know them ; but, on the contrary, thoughts that there 
is a God &c., do often fill their minds, and are frequent with them, and come 
in when they are about to sin. 

I answer, that men may verily think they believe these things, and per- 
ceive no contrary thoughts, and yet indeed do not believe them ; nay, the 
contrary sayings shall yet be the chief engines that do turn their hearts about, 
and all the wheels of them. 

For, first, there is a clear instance of it in John v. 45-47, ' Do not think 
that I will accuse you to the Father : there is one that accuseth you, even 
Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have be- 
lieved me : for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall 
ve believe my words ?' The Jews they thought they beUeved Moses well 
enough, for Christ says they trusted in him, and thought his writings the 
word of God, so as they put confidence in them ; yet, says Christ, it is evi- 
dent you do not believe his writings, for you would then believe me also, but 
because that cannot stand with your lusts and greatness you will not do it : 
verse 44, ' How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and 
seek not the honour that cometh from God only ?' The consequences, there- 
fore, of believing Moses' writings they yield not unto, as indeed wanting true 
belief of them and of their truth. 

And, secondly, you must know that these principles of atheism discover 
not themselves in direct opposite thoughts much, which you may take notice 
of, for they say little to the contrary of the great truths of religion, but work 



Chap. YL] in respect of sin and punishment. 241 

underhand to the contrary. You hear them not disputing against the truth 
in the schools of your speculative understandings ; no, there the word of 
God is heard, and they arc silent there, but at the court of the heart thoro 
they plot and act, and procure all acts that pass, all a man's deeds to be 
clean contrary. These possess the ears of the will and afiections, and so slily 
guide all and carry all afore them. And herein lies the very depth of the 
heart's deceitfulness, which, Jer. xvii., the prophet says no man can know. 
They say in their hearts there is no God, — it is added, in the heart, to note 
out the secrecy of it. Why, but you will say, if they be so prevalent we 
should know and discover them. I answer, the heart is deceitful, who can 
know it ? 

For, thirdly, yet further to clear this to you, you must know that the first 
principles whereby our minds are guided in judging of things, are seldom or 
never drawn out into actual thoughts by themselves, so as you may view 
them alone. And if in anything the heart's deceitfulness is discovered it is 
in this, that all things should be thus carried in the heart, and yet the chief 
agents and principles never appear. 

For, first, those first principles wherewith our minds being fully possessed 
are guided by them, are seldom or never drawn forth, and formed into ex- 
phcit, distinct, actual thoughts, so as to consider them apart by themselves ; 
and yet implicitly they have a hand in all a man's actions, so as a man 
hence comes seldom to take notice of them. For example now, this is a 
common principle, even children are guided by it, that the whole is greater 
than one part ; therefore, bring half an apple to a child and a whole one to 
choose, and he takes the whole and refuseth the half, his mind being guided 
by that principle ; and yet he hath not that thought drawn out by itself, that 
the whole is bigger than the half, therefore I will choose it ; yet that is in 
his mind that doth it. So now this is a principle that all the world in 
sinning is guided by, that there is no God ; but the meaning is not that 
when men sin, they have such an actual, explicit, distinct thought by itself; 
no, and yet but for such an one in the heart men would never sin. Even, 
also, as men that speak Latin, the rules they make it by they seldom think 
of them, and yet one that heard them would say, surely their minds are guided 
by such rules in all. So when men produce such deformed actions of sin 
and wickedness, though they have not this thought still in their eye and 
view, there is no God, &c., yet he that sees their actions would say that all 
these actions argue such principles to be in their hearts; they are inbred 
there, and by them men are guided in all, so as if you would resolve all your 
actions into their first principles, you would say it were so. So when in 
Ps. X. 4 it is said, as some read it, that ' all his thoughts are, there is no 
God,' the meaning is not that he actually thinks explicitly of nothing else, 
but virtually all his thoughts are so. So as these principles are as a spring 
in a watch, which moves least itself, yet the force of it doth all. Movet, 
quum ipsmn sit immobile. 

And, secondly, as first principles move thus unseen, so the acts of unbelief 
also ; for as the acts of faith are most secret, and yet most strong and power- 
ful, so are the acts of unbelief. Faith being the bottom and foundation of 
all graces, it lies like an anchor under water, or as a foundation under ground ; 
as it is of things not seen, so also itself is a thing least seen and discerned, 
and is mostly seen but in the effects, and so therefore it is distinguished and 
discovered to us in the word. How many do believe, and yet we discern 
no faith in them ? How do we walk by it, live by it, pray, preach, work in 
our callings by it, so as all good works are the fruits of it, and yet we have 
not distinct, immediate thoughts of justifying faith in all thest. Nothing so 

VOL. X. Q 



242 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTKs'ESS BEFORE GOD, lBoOK V. 

secret as the acts of faith. What ado is there among godly men what should 
be that act that justifies, and what should be the ground of it, &c., and yet 
all have it, and yet it is not discerned. Now as it is in the bottom grace of 
all the rest, so it is in the bottom corruption of all the rest, unbelief; it is 
the root of all, and therefore it is under ground. It doth all, hath an influ- 
ence into every action, hud yet we discern it not ; but we see such a thing 
is in our hearts rather by the effe(;ts than otherwise, as we do faith also. 
And the bottom of corruption is much less discernible than the foundation 
of gi-ace, for grace is light and discovers itself, but corruption is darkness ; 
and if the heart be deceitful, who can know it ? Then, certainly, what lies 
at the bottom of all is least discernible, and so unbelief doth. 

Why, but you will say, We have many distinct thoughts to the contrary, 
viz., that there is a God; many considerations which aim to curb us, be- 
cause there is a God and a hell. 

I answer, 1. That, as in a believer, there often come in a thousand ob- 
jections against his faith, and his heart is filled with doubting thoughts, and 
to his thinking with nothing else, when yet secretly faith works in all its 
actions against them, and the acts thereof, which are not discerned, do pre- 
vail with his heart still to go on to obey God, and cleave to him, and to fear 
him, more than all those doubts that keep a noise can prevail to the contrary. 

I have told you of an estate of men, who walk in darkness and have no 
light, yea, souls that will complain that they call all into question, whether 
there be a God, or the Scriptures be true, or themselves in God's favour ; 
and they have no thought in view but such as causes them to doubt of all 
these, and yet even they walk more closely with God in such an hour than 
when they are freed from all these, and thereby they shew that they believe 
these truths, even when they seem to deny them, which they could not do, 
but that faith and the principles of it work the most strongly in them. When 
faith says least it often doth most. 

So, on the contrary, in men whose hearts are filled with many convictions 
from the light of nature and the world that there is a God, and a hell, and 
such thoughts glare in their eyes, yet secretly the unbelief of all these pre- 
vail, and have a greater hand in their hearts, and they by reason of the other 
more glaring light discern it not. 

But you will say. How can these two stand together in the heart ? I 
answer 3'ou out of this psalm : this you may see in this very psalm, the 
psalmist confidently afiirms, that wicked men say there is no God, you see 
in the first verse. Now, because men would object and say. How can that 
be ? Have not men knowledge that there is a God, and many serious thoughts 
about him ? Yes, says he, ver. 4, 5. He makes there the objection him- 
self, and says they have, and that such knowledge as awes them and terrifies 
them often ; there is their fear, for God was in the generation of the just. 
So even the Gentiles knew God, when yet they glorified him not as God, 
and therefore the apostle adds, that the fruit of all this was only to leave 
them without excuse. So that though there be such light and sparkling 
thoughts in the mind, yet it is not so powerful as the contrary darkness and 
unbelief, which doth not onh' stand together with it in the same heart, but 
prevails more than it; and still they are corrupt for all that, the one, viz. 
the knowledge of the principles of the truth, only so prevails, and wins but 
so much ground as to give warning of the contrary detestable falsehood, so 
as they shall be without excuse, and therefore it speaks loudest, for it can 
do nothing else but speak, but the other doth all, and gives laws to the man. 

But you will ask, May two such contradistinct principles be in the mind 
at once ? 



Chap. YI.j in kespect of sin and punishmknt. 243 

I answer, yc3 ; j'ca, and the psalmist himself affirms so much in this four- 
teenth Psalm ; for whcnas ho had said in the first verse, that the fool says 
in his heart there is no God, ho notwithstanding, by way of prevention of 
this \QYy objection, grants that they have knowledge, and many sad and 
serious thoughts and apprehensions of God and his wrath; so verses 4, 5, 
' Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? who eat up my people as 
they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. There were they in great fear: 
for God is in the generation of the righteous.' Have they no knowledge ? 
There is the objection. Yes, says he, there is their fear, for God is in the 
generation of the just ; that is, God discovei's himself to their consciences, 
not in his works only, but in his people, whom they oppress, and in his 
ordinances, which in their congregations they are conversant about, and that 
fears and awes their consciences often ; yet so as still this knowledge doth 
not exclude, but that in their hearts the contrary principles remain still, and 
sway them, whence all their corrupt actions spring. For according as these 
two contrary principles have place in their hearts, accordingly have they con- 
trary effects in their hearts also ; for these principles of atheism, having the 
chiefest interest, and being deeplier rooted, do still guide and sway all in 
the heart ; but the other have not that firm rooting in the heart, so as to 
sway all in it, yet prevail so far as to make them without excuse, Rom. i. 20, 
and to awe them in their evil courses, to which end they are placed there. 
And because these contrary serious apprehensions of the Godhead cannot 
prevail, therefore they are more clamorous than the other, and seem to be 
more busy, and make most noise, being opposers of the other, and con- 
testing against them, and yet are oppressed by the darkness in the heart, 
and therefore do seem to cry loudest. 

If, then, there be in the heart such unbelief of these first principles, then 
when any man is converted to God, a man must have a new work of faith 
wrought in him, a new peculiar light from God whereby to apprehend and 
to assent to these first principles anew, as if he had never yet believed them. 
You that live in the bosom of the church, you take all these things for 
granted, and think you need learn them no more, you having learned them 
at first ; but I tell you, when faith once comes into your hearts, these 
ordinary common things you knew before are all new to you, and you give 
a new assent to them. So says the apostle : Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cometh 
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that 
seek him.' And what kind of faith doth he speak of there, wherewith he 
that Cometh to God must believe those generals ? He speaks of that faith 
which is peculiar to God's elect, whereby the just do live, to work which is 
a work of power as great as to create the world. This I prove to you by 
the coherence and scope of the apostle. In the 10th chapter he had said, 
at the 38^h and 39th verses, that the just do live by faith, and that they 
that want it do draw back. But we are not such ; for, says he, we are of 
them that believe to the saving of the soul ; and then after a general de- 
finition of it, he shews what acts this faith puts forth, he tells you that by 
this saving faith we do not only believe in Christ for salvation, but by it we 
also believe the world was made, ver. 3 ; by it we believe that God is too, 
ver. 6. 

But you will further object, that it is not unbelief of the generals and first 
principles that wicked men fail in or want, which is the cause of the corrup- 
tion in their lives ; for James says of him that hath no works, that he believes 
there is a God, and so do the devils : James ii. 17-19, ' Even so faith, if it 
hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say. Thou hast faith, 
and I have works : shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew 



214 AX UNREGEXERATE MAN's GUILTIXESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God ; thou 
doest -well : the devils also believe, and tremble.' But they fail in not ap- 
plying by faith these generals, to believe and rest on God as their God. 
They uelieve there is a hell, but they fail in not believing and applying the 
threatenings to themselves that they shall go thither ; as in Kom. i. 32, 
' Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things 
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that 
do them ;' Piom ii. 1, * Therefore thou art inexcusable, man, whosoever 
thou art that judgest : for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest 
thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.' He knew in general 
the judgment of God, but thought he should escape it. 

For answer, many things are to be considered and laid together. 

1. That indeed it is most true, that besides a bare, naked belief of the 
generals, special faith and application is to be made, and therein lies the very 
life of faith, whereby I believe not only that there is a God, but I believe in 
God. It is the papists' error to think otherwise, and therefore there are 
three things required to faith : (1.) to understand the promise ; but that is 
not enough, that they know them; but (2.) it is necessary to assent to the 
truth and goodness of them ; and (3.) then to embrace them or apply them 
to themselves : Heb. xi. 13, ' These all died in faith, not having received 
the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, 
and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
the earth.' For as ere any conclusion can be drawn in reasoning, there 
must be a major and a minor proposition, so to make up the act of faith, and 
to bring forth those holy fruits which are the consequences and conclusions 
of it in men's lives, that faith may be a working faith, it is necessary there 
be an application of generals to themselves. 

2. It is also true that wicked men do more commonly and more easily give 
some kind of assent to the generals, as that all such and such threatenings 
are true, when they cannot endure application, no, not the thoughts of it, 
but self-love comes between, and shelters the blow with self- flattery, and 
some forced shift or other, to exclude itself out of the general ; and therefore 
James expresseth their faith rather by the general than otherwise, to believe 
there is a God, &c. ; for without application such generals work not, yet 
wicked men do fail in the belief of the general. For, 

8. Though that applying act of faith is necessarily required, and is a far- 
ther thing, yet it is the truth and strength of our assent to the general that 
hath the great influence into our lives, to draw forth such conclusions of 
practice. My meaning is, it is the belief of the general which hath the chief 
stroke in setting men a- work. For as in reasoning the chief weight of the 
conclusion depends on the major, and the truth of it, though a minor is re- 
quired, so also here in the working of faith, though application of generals 
is necessary, yet the main thing that stirs the heart is the particular appli- 
cation. But yet though that applying special act of faith is required neces- 
sarily, and is to be added to the general, yet still it is the strength and truth 
of my belief of the general, that hath the main and great influence and stroke 
in the heart to set it on work, and which draws out the application ; even as 
the conclusion, though it depends upon the minor proposition, yet especially 
on the major as the foundation of it. Yea, and the strength of my appre- 
hension of the truth and goodness of God, and his promises in the general, 
is partly, nay, mainly, the cause of the particular act of application, and 
much helps to draw the heart to seek God, and to trust him ; yea, and the 
cause why men come not truly in to seek and serve God, is because they 
fall short in believing his goodness, mercv, and wrath, such as indeed they 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 245 

are in the general notion of them, Hob. xi. 6. Therefore what says the 
psalmist ? Ps. ix. 10, ' And they that know thy name will put their trust 
in thee : for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.' Those 
that know thy name — that is, truly apprehend and believe what a gracious, 
just, merciful, powerful, all-sufficient God thou art, and able to make them 
happy — they will trust in thee. And the reason men do not is, the}' fail in 
the general knowledge and faith of this ; therefore the name of God, /. e. 
the mercy that is in him, is the main ground of faith, because mercy and 
redemption is with him : Ps. cxxx. -1,7,* But there is forgiveness with thee, 
that thou mayest be feared. Let Israel hope in the Lord : for with the 
liOrd there is mercy, aad with him is plenteous redemption.' Did men 
believe it strongly enough, as they did who said, ' We have heard that the 
kings of Israel are merciful kings,' they would put ropes about their necks, 
and submit themselves. 



CHAPTER VIL 

That the truth of faith assentiiiff unto the first fjeneral principles of reHgion, 
ivhich wicked men irant, hath a great infiicence on practical godliness, where 
theg are sincerely and heartily believed. 

That the truth of faith believing things in the' general hath the main 
influence, may many ways be evidenced. 

1. There is something in that which the papists urge, namely, that the 
Scriptures usually express saving faith by that act of it whereby we believe 
but the generals ; though they make use of it to a wrong end, namely, to shew 
that to believe things in the general, without application, is enough to salva- 
tion, which is most false. But yet thus much may be thence gathered, that 
general faith hath a great influence in believing, and the workings of the 
heart ; so Peter's faith is expressed by a belief in the general that Jesus was 
the Son of God, and Christ tells him that was the rock he would build his 
church upon: Mat. xvi. 16, 17, ' And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou 
art Christ the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto 
him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas : for flesh and blood hath not revealed 
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.' So in Acts viii. 37, ' And 
Philip said. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he 
answered and said, I beheve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' So 
Christ catechiseth Mary in the belief of the generals : John xi. 26, ' And 
whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou 
this ? ' and she expresseth her faith again in this : ver. 27, ' She saith unto 
him, Yea, Lord : I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which 
should come into the world.' For their firm, and strong, and full assent to 
these generals was a great cause of coming and cleaving to him, and follow- 
ing of him ; as our best divines interpret these speeches. 

2. We find by experience that when men come to make use of their faith 
in any particular business, weakness of assent to the general, and doubting 
of the greatness of God's power and mercy in the general, is secretly the 
thing as much stuck at as anything else. So David called the promise itself 
into "question, 'AH men are liars,' Samuel and all. Thus when they were 
put to it for victuals, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness ? say they, 
Ps. Ixxviii. 19, * Yea, they spake against God : they said. Can God furnish 
a table in-the wilderness ?' So also when that man did not believe that there 
should be such plenty of corn, why, says he, if God should make windows 



2i6 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS liKFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

in heaven it could not be : 2 Kings vii, 2, ' Then a lord, on whose hand the 
king leaned, answered the man of God, and said. Behold, if the Lord would 
make windows in heaven, might this thing be ? And he said, Behold, thou 
shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.' 

And, on the contrary, we find that in difficulties, that which chiefly bore 
the stress, hath been belief in general, though not excluding the other. So 
in Abraham's faith, after he beheved God's willingness to make good the 
promise of Isaac and of Christ in him, he considered God able to do it : 
Rom. iv. 17-21, ' As it^is written, I have made thee a father of many nations ; 
before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth 
those things which be not, as though they were : who against hope believed 
in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that 
which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he 
considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years 
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb : he staggered not at the 
promise of God through unbelief, but wa=; strong in faith, giving glory to 
God ; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to 
perform.' A God that quickeneth the dead, that is especially noted. There- 
fore Christ also asketh the blind men, whether they believed his ability to 
heal them : Mat. ix. 28, ' And when he was come into the house, the bhnd 
men came to him : and Jesus saith unto them. Believe ye that I am able to 
do this ? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.' He put that question, because 
he knew it stuck most there, yea, and when men are afflicted with the greatness 
of their sins, that mercy which whilst they saw not the heinousness of sin 
they presumed so much on, now they stick at, as thinking their sins greater. 
So Cain did : Gen. iv. 13, 11, IG, ' And Cain said unto the Lord, My 
punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out 
this day from the face of the earth ; and from thy face shall I be hid ; and 
I shall be a fugitive and vagabond in the earth : and it shall come to pass, 
that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And Cain went out from the 
presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.' 
We find that still as new convictions of things in the general come in, that 
still as they are enlarged, and a man hath farther insight into them, accord- 
ingly a man's heart is affected and set on work. When a man comes to have 
large apprehensions of the greatness of God (as Job had when God revealed 
himself), of the day of judgment, of eternity, these mightily carry on the 
heart, thou^'h I confess never without ap]Dlication, for I do not exclude it. 
When Moses saw God, and when Job saw him, and when Isaiah saw his 
glory, this sight made great impressions, and as those apprehensions were 
enlarged, so were their hearts also. Thus also the more convictions of 
God's mercy in pardoning a man hath, the more is special faith strengthened. 
So as I say belief in the general hath that great and strong influence upon 
our hearts and actions. 

4. Hence it is certain that unregenerate men fail in their assent to the 
general, whereby they believe the greatness of God's mercy and all-suffi- 
ciency, and of his wrath, and not only in applying these things to them- 
selves. Though therein I confess they mainly fail also, for self-love steps 
in and flatters them they shall escape, and with shifts of distinctions wards the 
blow. 

For, 1, if they believed there were a hell and another world, and the vast- 
ness of eternity, and greatness of God's wrath, and of God himself, as they 
seem to do at least, they would not trust to such slender grounds why they 
think they shall escape ; it would make them willing to have their estates 
searched to the bottom, it would make them wary, and fearful upon what 



Chap. VII. ] in respect of sin and punishment. 247 

bridge they ventured to pass over that dreadful lake, whereinto if they fall, 
they are plunged all over for eternity, and they would not venture on the 
rotten grounds of civility and formal performances, which breaks and cracks 
in the midst in the end under those that trust to them. 

If they believed a world to come, which within few years they must enter 
into, as Noah believed that within an hundred and twenty years the flood 
should come, it would make them fearful, as it did him, and move them to 
prepare an ark, as he did, though so long before : Heb. xi. 7, ' By faith 
Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, pre- 
pared an ark to the saving of his house ; by the which he condemned the 
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.' But as they 
believed not the flood, so nor do men now another world ; or if they believed 
there was a heaven (which if they so seriously thought they were not 
ordained for hell, they do withal believe was prepared for them), if, I say, 
they did know and believe in the general but the least part of what they 
profess they know of it, what manner of men would they be in all holiness ? 
Which argues their belief fails in the general ; yet had they but the devil's faith, 
they would behave themselves otherwise, for they tremble when they think 
of God, but these do not. 

The second demonstration that they fail not in the application only, but the 
general, is, that when the application is made as clear to them as the general, 
yea and more, yet they are not moved, but deny the conclusion. Come to 
drunkards or adulterers that live in their sins, ask them if they believe, 
that no such shall inherit the kingdom of God till they be washed and 
sanctified, — 1 Cor. vi. 9-11, ' Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not 
inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor 
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor efieminate, nor abusers of themselves with 
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extor- 
tioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you : 
but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,' — and ask them if such be 
not some of them, and you are not yet washed, but wallow in these sins as 
the sow in the mire, and this application is so evident as it cannot be 
denied. Now the conclusion must necessarily follow, unless there be a 
failing in the assent of the mind to one of those propositions. Now, the 
application that they are so is undeniable, therefore the most fault and fail- 
ing is in not believing the general, viz. that all such shall go to hell, till 
they be washed ; neither do they assent to the greatness of the misery of 
men there in hell. 

But you will object, that James, describing the faith of the unregenerate, 
says they believe in the general. Thou believest that God is ; so do the 
devils, and tremble : James ii. 19, ' Thou believest there is one God ; thou 
doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.' I answer, (1.) It is true 
that men do ordinarily more easily give some kind of assent to the generals, 
than make application to them, for that is a further and a harder work to flesh 
and blood, as appears in all the threatenings, to which till they be applied 
they seem to assent, and therefore James chooseth to express to us the 
common faith of men, by general belief without application. Yet, (2.) That 
general faith is not true, and such as it ought, for he tells them, it is a dead 
faith when it works not. Were it a living, true, assent to the general, it 
would not lie in the brain, and not stir at all, but it would work some way. 
For even the faith of devils works trembUng, which thine doth not : so ver. 
20, know, says he, thy faith is a dead faith, it works not : ver. 20, ' But wilt 
thou know, vain man, that faith without works is dead ? ' The fault is 



248 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

not only that it is a general faith, but that it is but a dead faith. And 
therefore, (3.) You must know, that those acts of belief in a regenerate man, 
whereby he believes there is a God, that the promises and threatenings are 
true, though but in the general do spring from a new work of faith, from the 
same work and habit that justifying faith doth spring from, because that root 
that the other belief springs from is dead, therefore it brings forth no fruits, 
no works ; but in a godly man there is a living root and faith, therefore in the 
Heb, xi. 6, when he says, he that comes to God must believe that he is, what 
faith speaks he of but that faith which is peculiar to God's elect, whereby the 
just do live ? Which I prove by the coherence and scope of the apostle, from 
the 38th, 39th verses of the 10th chapter, where he had said the just do live 
by faith, which faith those that draw back have not, and wanting do draw back, 
but we are of those that believe to the saving of the soul. He speaks then 
of living, saving faith, and then, after a general definition, wherein he shews 
you that all things to be believed are the object of it, he instances : (1.) Iii 
believing that the world was made, ver. 3 ; (2.) that God is, ver. 6. So 
that the eye of faith stands us not in stead only to see Jesus Christ, and to 
apply him and the promises of salvation, but even also to help us to believe 
as we ought the very general principles laid down in the word, to believe that 
there is a Jesus Christ, and a God, and such promises, for it is faith where- 
by we live, and so whereby we perform all the acts of spiritual Hfe. 

And as it is an act of life to see and discern our meat, and to discern the 
goodness of it as well as to eat and digest it, so it is an act of spiritual life 
to beheve in general that God is, and that his promises are true, as well as 
to apply them : Heb. xi. 13, ' These all died in faith, not having received the 
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth.' By faith they are said (1.) to have seen the promises ; and that is an 
act of faith ; (2.) to have been persuaded of the truth of them, and both 
these are but general acts, whereby they believed that there were such pro- 
mises, and that they were true ; and then, (3.) they embraced them, that 
is, laid hold of them for themselves, joined their souls to them, which is 
that special act of faith, yet so as the other two were branches of the same 
root, acts of the same faith, and where 'the first two are in truth, they are 
also. 

But you may object against this truth, that there are common notions in 
the hearts of all men, apprehensions enough that there is a God, so as to 
assent to it, as by the hearing of the word, so by seeing his works, wherein 
the characters of his eternal godhead are clearly seen and evidently appear : 
Kom. i. 20, ' For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world 
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even bis 
eternal power and Godhead ; so that they are without excuse.' What need 
is there then of a new work of faith to convince men of it ? or how can it be 
the object of faith, seeing faith is of things not seen ? 

For answer. Even the schoolmen* themselves do acknowledge, that though 
it may by reason be proved there is a God, and though it is clearly seen, 
yet that these must be apprehended by faith also. 

1. Because those common notions implanted in man's minds, though these 
sparks be much increased by addition of many reasons and arguments out of 
God's works and word, and made a great blaze, yet they are not of force to 
expel the contrary darkness that is in the heart, and atheistical principles of 
unbelief, which are engendered there. Now that they cannot expel it, is 
evident, for unbelief is a corruption in nature, and therefore is rooted out by 
* Aquinas seciuida secundre. — Qii. ii., Art. 4. 



Chap. VII. J in respect of sin and punishment. 249 

nothing but by its contrary faith ; till therefore that peculiar work and light 
of faith comes, the other prevails not. The other is but of force to make 
men inexcusable, as it did the Romans, Rom. i. 20, but to take away the 
evil heart of unbelief, which causeth us to depart from God, this light of 
nature, though never so advanced, cannot. But he that comes to God, and 
is drawn to him, must believe that he is, by a new act of Aiith. 

2. Though Adam saw God in his works and extraordinary revelations 
more fully than all mankind, by those common notions and all the helps 
added to it, can do, yet for all that he principally saw God by a spiritual light, 
if not of faith, yet such as was over and besides the other. So as suppose 
there had been no creature made but himself, no vestigium or footstep of 
God to be seen in anything, yet by faith immediately he would have known 
and apprehended him, so as though Adam could have proved by reason 
that the world was made by God, j'et he first believed it above and beyond 
reason. For God intended faith to be, though not the sole, yet the great 
and principal hght and means to apprehend these things by, and only added 
the other as helps, to add some more weight to the balance, when faith 
had first cast it ; that faith might give a reason of things, he appointed the 
other as starlight, to accompany the greater light of faith. Now then, though 
there be in the heart common notions put in by God, whereby to see and 
argue out of his work and words that there is a God, yet the main light is 
wanting; and till that light Adam lost arise in the heart again (as it doth, we 
being no less complete, in the second, as in the first Adam), the natural 
dai-kness of the heart is not expelled, but men stray and depart from God, 
an d know not whither they go ; and all the light that is or can be added to 
the common notions in a man's natural estate, all the arguments that are 
brought into the mind out of God's word and works, are but as so many 
stars in a dark night. Though there be many of them, yet they dispel not 
the darkness till the light of faith come. 

An evident instance of this we have in ecclesiastical story, where a whole 
council of bishops laboured with a philosopher to convince him of the first 
principles of religion, and they could not by arguing convince him of them ; 
but a poor man standing by, after all rehearsing them in a bare narration, 
God giving him a new principle of faith, he assented immediately. 

And whereas it was in the second place objected, that faith is the evidence 
of things not seen ; and therefore if the Godhead be clearly seen by the light 
of nature in his works, it is not the object of faith : I answer, 1, that God 
is of himself invisible, and what the world was made of, the apostle tells 
you, is not seen: Heb. xi. 3, * Through faith we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the word of God, so that ^things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear,' only God hath made himself visible two 
ways. 

1. The one more mediately in his works, and to the light of nature, 
which is more dim, and weak, and brokenly, and but by way of arguing by 
consequence. So as there is yet a necessity of seeing him farther and more 
clearly by faith, and immediately, as revealed in his word, whereby we see- 
ing him who is invisible (as it is said of Moses : Heb. xi. 27, ' By faith he 
forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king : for he endured, as seeing 
him who is invisible '), we see by a farther light that there is a God, and 
how great and glorious, and thereby have that insight into him which 
the light of nature, coming both to his word and works, could never have 
attained. 

2. I answer, that though the same God is evidenced by these common 
principles, and further the word to them, yet the ratio form alis credcndi, which 



250 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

is the form and essence of faith, is not the same, i. e. the ground of believ- 
ing it and manner of representing it is not the same in the one and other. 
As those that never saw the king, but have read his proclamations and seen 
his palace and attendants, believe there is a king, but yet not after that 
manner that courtiers do who stand before him, and see his face every day, 
such diflference is there between the assent of the natural man out of the 
word and works, and of a believer, that there is a God. Believing Moses by 
faith saw God who is invisible. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Uses. — We should employ nil our wit and reason for God. — What need 
we have that Christ should he made wisdom to iis. — How useful rational 
gifts are in the church. — We should not wonder at the springing up of here- 
sies. — We shoidd not harbour nor give them entertainment. 

Use 1. If carnal reason in us is thus gained to take sin's part, to be for 
it, and helpful to it, let us consider, then, what a great engagement it is on 
any of us who have wit and parts, and abilities of mind, to turn to God, 
that they may not be used against him. If men of wit and learning are not 
good, they will have more sinful inventions than other men. Thus a traitor, 
if he be witty and politic, proves the most dangerous. Reason, as it makes 
you capable of sinning (for beasts, by the want of it, are limited to a few 
objects), so it enlargeth affections to sin, and assists to find out means for 
the accomplishment. Thou who art a cunning, witty sinner, wilt in hell 
curse thy brain, as well as thy heart, for ruining thee. It was Solomon's 
wit which undid him ; and knowledge perverteth many men : Isa. xlvii. 10, 
' For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness : thou hast said. None seeth me. 
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee : and thou hast said 
in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me.' 

Use 2. By this corruption of reason thus perverting men's minds, and 
turning their best wisdom into folly, we see how much need we have that 
Christ should be made wisdom to us, that we may be truly wise to purpose, 
to all the ends of our salvation. We are naturally fools ; and it is that rea- 
son to which we trust, of which we so much boast, and in which we pride 
ourselves, which befools us. Would we be cured of this our folly, we 
must go 'to Christ for instruction, for his being wisdom to us is the only 
remedy which can help us against the] vain and foolish reasonings of our 
own hearts. 

Use 3. Is reason in men so much depraved, and all its acts turned to a 
wrong way and use ? We see, then, how useful in the church of Christ such 
gifts are that are rational, and which may encounter with the carnal reason- 
ings of wicked men ; which reasonings, because they are the strongholds 
wherein they fortify themselves, there are but two ways of opening the gates 
upon them, either to break them open, or to pick the locks, and make a new 
key to the wards. Now answerably there are two gifts in the church. 
There are some sons of thunder, who come with a mighty wind, and carry 
all before them, and break open the doors of men's hearts ; others they go 
about to pick the wards, by convincing them, and beating them from their 
strongholds. If you would catch rabbits, you find it necessary not only to 
• lay nets, but to get them out of their holes ; if you would catch fish, you 
do not only lay nets, but beat with poles, to drive them out of their lurking 
places in the banks. Thus to catch men's souls also (aa Christ says he 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 251 

would make his disciples fishers of men), it -s needful not only to use mo- 
tives and exhortations, but by strength of arguments to drive them out of 
those carnal reasonings wherein they conceal and strengthen themselves. 

Use 4. We see what need ministers have of the almighty assistance of 
God in their preaching ; considering that they are to encounter with, and 
overthrow, so mighty and potent an enemy as carnal reason is. Christ 
told his disciples that thoy were to bear witness of him when he was absent : 
John XV. 27, * And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with 
me from the beginning.' They upon it began to be full of sorrow : John 
xvi. G, 7, ' But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled 
your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go 
away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I de- 
part, I will send him unto you.' For they thought it an impossible task for 
them, poor, ignorant, fishermen, to overturn the world, and to persuade men 
that their estates were naught, and to believe in a crucified man absent whom 
they saw not. This v/as a story which the Athenians hooted at as ridiculous ; 
but for their comfort he tells them that his Spirit should accompany them, 
to convince the world of sin, &c. ; to convince, that is, to overcome their car- 
nal reason, and gainsaying, for so the word signifies ; and this as he brought 
it in for the comfort of the apostles, so of all ministers to the end of the 
world. It had been folly and madness else for any man to have attempted 
to be a minister. But such extraordinary help had the apostles from Christ, 
that it is said men could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he 
spake : Acts vi. 10, ' And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the 
Spirit by which he spake.' As he had wisdom to convince them, so if he 
had not had the Spirit to have gone with it, they had resisted ; for while we 
bring reason only Reason can oppose it. Let us weave our nets never so 
close, a cunning iJifeked man will find holes to get out at ; except the Holy 
Ghost comes down and stops all. We have need of much wisdom to know 
men's starting holes, as Saul said concerning David : 1 Sam. xxiii. 22, 23, 
' Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt 
is, and who "hath seen him there : for it is told me that he dealeth very 
subtilely. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking-places where 
he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will 
go with you : and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will 
search him throughout all the thousands of Judah.' Thus, too, the hearts 
of men are very deceitful and cunning, and ministers have need of a great 
deal of wisdom to search out all their windings and turnings ; and this they 
can never do, unless the wisdom of the Spirit of God assists them. 

Use 5. We may hence derive a demonstration for the truth of our reli- 
gion and profession thereof. There is no truth of the gospel, but all the 
reason in a man is against it ; and yet we see carnal men are forced to stoop 
to it. It is contrary to their wills, and contrary to their reasons; and it is 
a question which is strongest in them, and yet they yield. Jt is. an argu- 
ment whereby Paul proves his apostleship, that the weapons of our warfare, 
says he, are not carnal, but mighty through God : 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, * For the 
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pull- 
ing doMTi of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing 
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing .into captivity 
every thought to the obedience of Christ.' We do not war after the flesh, 
that is, we do not take in the help of carnal reason, and what may please the 
flesh, and draw it in as a party to join with us, as all other false religions do, 
as Mahometism, which accommodates itself to the dispositions of all sorts, 
and so allures them ; and as popery also doth, which strokes and pleaseth 



2'j2 an unregenerate man's guiltiness before god, [Book V. 

corrupt nature ; but the gospel goes clean contrary, and crosseth it, and yet 
prevails and conquers where it comes, which is a sign God is with it. There- 
fore, says Paul, our weapons are mighty through God, which appears in this, 
that they cast down strongholds ; and so when you shall see a man that is 
wise, strong, and hath much to plead and say for his carnal natural estate, 
that could vie learning and civil righteousness and outward privileges with 
the proudest ; when you shall see such an one come and have all his books 
(that I may so allude) in the market-place, and make open profession that 
he was deceived and misled, and that he yields to the power of religion, 
which the wise of the world account foolishness, it is a mighty demonstra- 
tion of the truth of the gospel. When a man who had wit and parts, and an 
opportunity of rising by them, renounceth them all for Christ, it is a great 
evidence of the truth and power of religion ; why else doth Paul so often tell 
the story of his conversion, how strong he was in the other way, and could 
have said as much for pharisaism and the Jews' religion as the best of them ? 
He was not a fool in that sect, for be profited in it more than any, and he 
was strong in his way, for he thought verily he ought to persecute the gos- 
pel of Christ, and yet God turned him. And this amazed them all ; they 
knew not what to say to it, that so strong a town as this should yield, and 
be forced to do so. It half persuaded Agrippa to come in and yield up his 
keys also, and Festus had no put-off but this, ' Too much learning hath made 
thee mad,' says he to Paul. And it was on this account that Paul so 
triumphs, where are the disputers of this world with all their reasons ? 
1 Cor. i, 20, ' Where is the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the dis- 
puter of this world ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ?' 
And thus did Luther triumph, when he said that that pen should strike off 
the pope's triple crown from his head. ^ 

U^e 6. Let us not be offended if heresies arise, and o^ositions against 
the truth, and those backed strangely too, seeing there are such mighty rea- 
sonings in their hearts. Some opinions in popery a poor believer would 
think so gross, that surely nothing could be said for them, as worshipping 
of images, justification by our own righteousness, and merit of good works ; 
who that hath a clear eye of faith, and hath seen his estate, could imagine 
any thing could be found out to colour such gross errors as these ? But 
yet read Bellarmine, read the Jesuits, and what fair tales do they tell for 
themselves ; that as the Scripture foretold, they have not only delusions, 
but strong delusions : 2 Thes. ii. 11, ' And for this cause God shall send 
them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie ;' such delusions as 
catch not fools and silly women, but the great and the wise of the world ; that 
it is foretold by Christ that, if possible, the elect should be deceived : Mat. 
xxiv. 24, ' For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall 
shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they shall 
deceive the very elect,' should probabilities be brought. And so likewise semi- 
Pelagianism, how strongly is it backed ; popery being but childishness to it ! 
What armies of places of Scripture cunningly perverted, what reasons, what 
harmony is there in the plot of it, what depths, though depths of Satan ? as 
the apostle says : Rev. ii. 24, ' Bat unto you I say, and unto the rest in 
Thyatira, As many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known 
the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden.' 

Use 7. We may from hence see the mighty wisdom of Jesus Christ, who 
knows all these reasonings, and will fully silence and confute them all at last, 
which all the learning, all the wit this world hath, could never do ; still it is 
said of Christ that he knew their reasonings: John vi. 61, 'When Jesus 
knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth 



Chap. VIII.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 253 

this offend you ?' Luke v. 22, ' But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, 
he answering said unto them. What reason ye in your hearts ?' How did 
he nonplus the pharisees when he was here on earth, that thoy would ask 
him no more questions ! The enemies of the gospel think to outface up, 
and to outreason us, and think they have the victory, hut at the latter day 
he will come on purpose to convince all the^ world, Jude 14, 15. He will 
then at once cut asunder all controversies, and easily decide them, and dis- 
cover the secret intents and reasonings of the heart. Then he will answer 
all men's cavils and objections against his ways and his children, whose lives 
they thought to be madness and folly. Then he will convince them that 
their estates were naught, that they are justly damned, which now they will 
not acknowledge, and he will then send them to hell convinced, and will so 
silence them that they shall not have a word to say ; and though they now 
cavil at the word, yet then they shall have nothing to reply against him, but 
shall be struck perfectly dumb: Mat. xxii. 12, 'And he saith unto him, 
Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? And 
he was speechless.' And then Christ will deal by reason with them, and 
not with power only, and therefore their judgment is called but rendering a 
reason : 1 Peter iv. 5, ' Who shall give account to him that is ready to 
judge the quick and the dead.' It is in the original. Wicked men now think 
strange at the saints, as seeing no reason for what they do, and are strength- 
ened in their own ways, thinking reason to be on their side, therefore they 
shall have a reason at last sufficient to answer all theirs : Isa. xli. 21, 
* Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith 
the king of Jacob.' Job xxxviii. 3, ' Gird up now thy loins like a man ; for 
I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.' 

Use 8. Is to search into your hearts, to find out this unbelief, which is the 
ground and bottom of all corruption in you. When you look on your lives, 
you see gross sins committed ; when you look into your hearts, you find 
strong lusts up and warring in your members ; and it is well you see them, 
and find any contesting against them. But how durst these lusts be so bold, 
unless they were secretly backed and encouraged by the supreme power, viz. 
the atheistical principles in the heart, which are the abettors of them. 
Therefore dig, and search still into your hearts, and resolve all into their 
first principles, and you will find it true that atheism and unbelief are at the 
bottom. And this know, the more you see this experimentally true, the 
more you gi'ow in grace. To see that lusts are sins is not ordinary, but to 
see these springs and abettors of all lusts is a degree further. And also 
take notice of the deceitfulness of your hearts, which lies in this, that there 
should be so much seemingly in it for these principles, and yet the contrary 
do all. So now every stud in this building must become new; these main 
foundations must be laid new, viz. to believe that God is, that he is merci- 
ful, that he is all-sufficient, that his promises are true, all things must be- 
come new. Nature brings not one stud that is able to bear the weight of a 
godly life ; none of the old will serve, and he only is converted to God who 
experimentally hath learnt over the articles of our Christian profession. 

Use 9. Let us be humbled for this atheism and unbelief which by nature 
is in all of our hearts. Of all corruptions what can be greater? Therefore it 
is called the evil heart of unbelief: Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed, brethren, lest 
there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living 
God. Of all traitors we account Jesuits the worst, because they deny the 
king's supremacy, and indeed the very opinion is treason, and therefore the 
law is against them for their very profession. Now, Titus i. 16, ' They pro- 
fess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and 



251 AN IJNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK V. 

disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.' Such is unbelief that 
denies God, so that unbelief in effect says there is no God, or, at least, 
denies his just and royal titles. Now, indeed, although you profess not so 
much with your mouth, but come to church and profess all we would have 
you, 3'et this in your hearts do shew, as there are church papists and 
Jesuits, so there are church atheists. I find that for the atheism in men's 
hearts, God expresseth himself most provoked and weary of the sons of men. 
So, Mai. ii. 17, 'Ye have wearied the Lord with your words ; yet ye say. 
Wherein have we wearied him ? When ye say. Ever}' one that doth evil 
is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or. Where is 
the God of judgment?' You have wearied me, saith the Lord, and yo say. 
Wherein have we wearied him? Why, says he, search your hearts and you 
shall find, for you say. Where is the God of judgment ? So your words 
have been stout against me ; you say, It is in vain to serve the Lord ; that 
is, you believe not that there is a God who is the rewarder of him that seeks 
him. So also Isa. vii., when Ahaz would not trust God, and take a sign and 
promise of him, what says the prophet ? vor. 1 3, ' It is a small thing for you 
to weary men, but will you weary my God also ?' It tires out his patience 
exceedingly. It is called speaking against him : Ps. Ixxviii. 19, ' Yea, they 
spake against God : they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? ' 

Use 10. You may hereby see how little nature brings to the great work of 
grace, and what a distance is between the one estate and the other, for if we 
believe not the first prhiciples as we should, but must have a new principle 
to apprehend them with ere we come to God, then there is an infinite inca- 
pacity of the work of grace ; for if you go to teach men any science, if they 
deny the first principles, there is no hope, contra ncgantem prlncipia non 
est dhputandum. Now we deal with hearts that secretly do deny the principles 
on which all our motives and persuasions to hoHness are grounded, and 
so rooted by denying them, that, till by a new work of faith they appre- 
hend them, we shall never work upon them. 

There are two principles in the heart at once, that there is a God, and 
that there is none ; and accordingly there are differing conclusions and 
efi'ects, and that according to that interest and place they have in the heart : 
the one is rooted in corrupt nature, namely, that there is no God, and there- 
fore you see all actions swayed by it ; the other, viz. that there is a God, is 
put in to give warning as a prophet, and to make them without excuse, and 
is weak, and hath no power, stroke, nor authority in the heart, which listens 
not to it, it endeavours to extingaish it. So as if a man come to be con- 
verted, a new principle of faith must bo wrought to apprehend these things 
strongly and powerfully, so as to prevail against and overcome the contrary, 
or else the heart is never changed. 

Use 11. Are there any here troubled with thoughts of atheism, with 
objections against the truth of Scripture, and of our religion ? Wonder not 
at it : think not therefore your case desperate, or such as no man's is, for I 
tell you all men by nature are atheists, and that doth but discover itself in 
thy haste which lies hid in all men's hearts. For every sin a man commits 
ariseth from such a principle, and they discover it in their works, but in 
thee it discovers itself in thy thoughts. To thee this devil of atheism takes 
a shape and appears to afi'right thee, but in other men this devil rules and 
reigns in their hearts and lives. He only appears not to them, that is all 
the difference. 

Others profess there is a God, and find no doubts in them, but shew they 
believe it not in their lives. Thou professest thou canst not believe there is 
a God in thy thoughts, yet look to thy course, and thou shewest that thou 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 255 

believest there is one (for usually the devil troubles none with those thoughts 
but such as have true faith wrought), for dost thou not walk fearful of sin, 
or of omitting of any duty ? Art thou not careful to come to every ordi- 
nance ? Why, if thj' heart did not secretly believe there were a God, and 
strongly too, these considerations would not come from thee ; and therefore 
let such look to their lives and practices, and not to the inward exercises of 
their spirits. 

Use 12, If the heart be. thus possessed with atheism and unbelief, take 
heed of admitting doubts, and sufl'ering them to lie unanswered in the heart, 
for they secretly weaken faith, and back and strengthen the other party. 
Men's hearts are apt to gather doubts from the dispensation of things in the 
world, that all falls alike to all, that the wicked prosper. David had well 
nigh his faith struck up with this objection : Ps. Ixxiii. 2, 3, ' But as for me, 
my feet were almost gone : my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was 
envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.' But make 
known such doubts, and get answers to them, for in suffering them to har- 
bour in the heart you conceal Jesuits that deny the king's supremacy. 

Use 13. We may see what need there is of coming often where God is 
known, into the assembly of the saints, where he is spoken of, worshipped, 
and served, for God appears in the generation of the just, in their lives, 
speeches, and in his ordinances, so that if an unbeliever comes in he is con- 
vinced God is among them : 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25, ' But if all prophesy, and 
there come in one that believe th not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of 
all, he is judged of all : and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; 
and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God 
is in you of a truth.' Let us pray often, and meditate often, and renew 
acquaintance with God, for all these leave deep impressions of a God upon 
the mind behind them. Let us observe his providence in the world, and 
see, and study his wisdom, power, &c. For all these are means to strengthen 
in us the principles which are contrary to atheism and unbelief. 

Use 14. If any of you be free from such thoughts, bless God ; for such are 
in thy heart God might hold thee to thy catechism, to thy ABC, all thy 
days, that when thou shouldst be taken up with thinking how to serve and 
please him, and how to make it sure that he is thine, that so thou mayest 
be going on to perfection, God might exercise thee and suffer thee to be 
posed and nonplussed, and to stumble at the principles, whether there be a 
God or no ; so he doth deal in many a soul ; and believe it, there is matter 
enough in thee for this. 

Use 15. Wonder not if men in time of trial forsake the truth, and that 
they are such children, tossed to and fro with every wind of error, willing 
to embrace every opinion, and assent not to wholesome words. Consider 
they assent not in deed and in truth to the first principles ; and if they be 
not riveted into them, how should they stick to the truth, whenas all truth 
hangs on them ? 



25G AN UXREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, ^BoOK VI. 



BOOK VT. 

The vanity of thoughts, being an instance of the abounding sinfulness in one 
facuUij of the soul, the cogitative; ivherehj the sinfulness of the rest may be 
estimated. 



[This Book, with a few verbal alterations, was published by the author as a 
separate treatise, under the title, ' The Yanity of Thoughts.' In that 
form it is given in the present edition. Vol. III. p. 507, and is therefore 
omitted here. — Ed.1 



CUAP. I.J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 257 



BOOK VII. 

Tlie corruption and defilements of conscience. 

Unto tJoe pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and un- 
believing is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. — 
Titus L 15. 



CHAPTER I. 

The conscience is false in tlte performance of its office. — -It indulgeth some sins 
though it be severe against others. — It tells a man but part of his duty. — It 
is very scrupulous of observing its own traditions, while it neglects the insti- 
tutions of God. — It urgeth only carnal motives. — It invents arguments to 
jitstify a sin. 

If there be anything good in man it is his conscience, which yet the apostle 
pronounceth defiled. How: the light of natural conscience hath no true 
goodness in it I have before shewn,* and how all the acts of it fall short of 
grace, I have in another treatise, of the differences between natural con- 
science and true grace, demonstrated, t Now here only I shall shew the 
positive defilements of conscience in some particulars, and shall frame the 
demonstration from the false and corrupt carriage of it in its office, and 
abuse of its power committed to it, which power, though it be from God (as 
the authority of all magistrates is), yet being seated in and committed to a 
corrupt and defiled faculty, as conscience is here in the text said to be, it 
proves false to God, and though it be from God, and is his ofiicer, yet it is 
not for him, nor true to him, as it ought, and as true grace is, which is 
God's image. 

1. Conscience is exceeding partial in its office, in winking attand indulg- 
ing some sins, which are favourites of the heart, and great with, it, when it 
will be exceeding strict and severe against those of the lower sort and rank, 
and by a show of justice and severity against them, colour its countenancing 
of those other. Thus we find Saul's conscience exceeding strict in a matter 
of the ceremonial law : 1 Sam. xiv. 34, ' And Saul said, Disperse yourselves 
among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, 
and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat ; and sin not against 
the Lord in eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man 
his ox with him that night, and slew them there.' But his conscience never 
scruples to eat God's people as bread (as David speaks, Ps. xiv. 4), to kill 
fourscore and five of God's priests, to seek the blood of David, an innocent 
man ; his conscience, though so squeamish in other things, yet never strains 
at all this, though he is rebuked for it by his own son again and again. The 

* Book II. chap. vii. of this Discourse. 

t Which belongs to the Discourse of Eegeneration and the New Creatuje in MS. 

VOL. X. R 



258 AH UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

Pharisees, they also mightily pretended conscience : Mat. xxvii. 6, 'And the 
chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them 
into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.' And yet it was the same 
money which these hypocrites gave unto Judas to betray that blood. Thus 
conscience, which is God's vicegerent, and betrusted with the execution of 
his laws, as to some of them will be very severe, in others lax. It ought 
to be as God's mouth, and speak truly and faithfully ; but on the contrary, 
it is like those priests of whom God complains : Mai. ii. 7-9. ' For the 
priest's lips should speak knowledge, and they should seek the law at his 
mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed 
out of the way ; ye have caused many to stumble at the law ; ye have cor- 
rupted the covenant of Levi, saith tbe Lord of hosts : therefore have I also 
made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have 
not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.' It is partial in the 
law, and will become a judge of the law, not a judge according to law. It 
will urge the statute against some sins, and turn them out of their places, 
but it will not look on the statutes which are in force against other sins, but 
wink at them, and suffer them to hold their places still. Thus a mere 
natural conscience will be partial in its actings, when grace and a sanctified 
conscience will not do thus, but urgeth the law indifferently, and judgeth 
impartially, and will let no sin escape. We trust, says Paul, that we have 
a good conscience, for we desire to live well in all things : Heb. xiii. 18, 
' Pray for us : for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing 
to live honestly.' 

Now the reason why a natural conscience is thus unequal is, because of its 
defilement ; it is out of order, and humorous, as a stomach which is longing 
and craving for some kind of meat, and loathes other, though wholesome. 
And why doth it so, but because it is foul, or custom makes conscience to 
be thus unequal ? When a sin hath never been committed by a man before, 
conscience will fly in the face of a man for it ; but a sin which a man prac- 
tises every day, and with which conscience is made familiar, it will let alone, 
and never trouble the man for it. And on the contrary, a duty which a 
man hath customarily performed, if he neglect it, conscience will much 
trouble him for it ; but as to one which hath been long neglected, it will be 
quiet. Many such reasons may be given of these false and partial dealings 
of conscience, and God acting men's consciences by a common providence, 
gives them more scope for one sin than another, as he sees cause, and 
therefore some men make no conscience of swearing, talking lewdly. Sabbath- 
breaking, &c., when yet they will startle at murder, stealing, adultery, and 
perjury. But now in the government which God exercises over a godly 
man's conscience, his vicegerent is punctual to exercise the whole of its 
commission, and will check the man for every sin ; God's design being to 
save him from all sin, and to have an uniform obedience from him. 

2. The corrupted conscience is partial in telling a man what is his duty, 
and herein it is unjust to God as well as in the former instance. For it will 
be content, and let a man alone quietly, though he neglects the greatest part 
of that obedience and service which he owes unto God. It will wink and 
take no notice, nay, is well enough satisfied, though God hath but half his 
due. It is like that steward who was so unjust to his master, that when an 
hundred pound was owing to him, bid the creditor set down fifty, and crossed 
the debt when but half of it was paid. Thus conscience will excuse a man 
of half the debt due to God, and accept the payment of a part for the whole. 
If the man prays, and performs the ceremony of that service, conscience will 
be contented, though he do it never so lazily, and in a most careless and 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 259 

perfunctory manner. It will be content with the mere bodily service, though 
the soul hath little or no part in it ; and therefore though God's name is not 
sanctified in the performance, yet it will excuse and give an acquittance for 
the payment of the duty. If the man hath but prayed to-day, it is no great 
matter how he did it, and his conscience gives him a discharge of having 
done the work. Thus they in Malachi offered the lame and the blind, and 
yet their consciences were never troubled for being so defective : Mai. i. 8, 9, 
' And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the 
lame and sick, is it not evil ? offer it now unto thy governor ; will he be 
pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of hosts. And 
now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us : this hath 
been by your means : will he regard your persons ? saith the Lord of hosts.' 
Nay, they wondered that they should be charged with despising of God, or 
any neglect of him : vers. 6, 7, ' A son honoureth his father, and a servant 
his master : if then I be a father, where is mine honour ? and if I be a 
master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, priests, that 
despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name ? Ye 
offer polluted bread upon mine altar ; and ye say. Wherein have we polluted 
thee ? In that ye say. The table of the Lord is contemptible.' Now God 
reckons this a great corruption in conscience, and therefore he calls them 
deceivers and cheaters who dealt thus with him: ver. 14, 'But cursed be 
the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth 
unto the Lord a corrupt thing : for I am a great King, saith the Lord of 
hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.' This kind of con- 
science Saul had, who destroyed only the lean kine, and yet pleads that in 
doing so he had done the will of the Lord,, and thought he deserved a dis- 
charge : 1 Sam. xv. 9, ' But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best 
of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the failings, and the lambs, and all 
that was good, and would not utterly destroy them : but everything that was 
vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.' Now what is the reason that 
conscience acts thus deficiently in its duty ? Why, truly, it is because its 
light falls short of God's glory and holiness, and therefore thinks anything 
good enough for him, and that a small matter will serve him. It was upon 
this principle that the Israelites thought they could serve God sufliciently 
well ; for they imagined they could perform the outward service, and thought 
anything would please. No, says Joshua ; he is a holy God, too holy for 
you to please with such your services : Joshua xxiv. 19, 21, 'And Joshua 
said unto the people. Ye cannot serve the Loi'd : for he is an holy God ; he 
is a jealous God ; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. And 
the people said unto Joshua, Nay ; but we will serve the Lord.' 

But now a good conscience is faithful to God, and will refuse such broken 
and cracked pieces for payment, and calls for whole money, for a whole 
sacrifice, entire services, and spiritual lively prayers. It knows that the law 
is spiritual, and the light of a good conscience is spiritual too, and therefore 
calls for spiritual sacrifices ; and though it may give allowance for failings, 
as God himself doth, yet it will have good and current money, and God 
must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, or else it accounts not the duty 
done. 

3. A corrupted conscience will be often exceedingly scrupulous of its own 
traditions and the traditions of men, when it is lame and negligent in things 
which the word enjoins. It will be exact to keep a man to its own private 
edicts and orders, when it lets the public statutes be broken. Thus the 
pharisees were very nicely wary of eating with unwashen hands, when they 
laid aside the commandments of God, as Christ tells them : Mark vii. 6-9, 



260 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

' He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you 
hypocrites, as it is written. This people honoureth me with their lips, but 
their heart is far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching 
for doctrines the commandments of men. For, laying aside the command- 
ment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups : 
and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them. Full well 
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.' 
And thus persons popishly aflected, prefer holidays before the Sabbath, and 
account to eat flesh on a Friday a greater sin than uncleanness. Thus hy- 
pocritically scrupulous were the Jews, who would not at the time of the 
passover's approaching enter into Pilate's hall lest they should be defiled : 
John xviii. 28, ' Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judg- 
ment : and it was early ; and they themselves went not into the judgment 
hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover.' Yet 
this was a thing which was never forbidden even by the ceremonial law, 
which doth not make the coming into any heathen house a defilement ; 
and yet when they scrupled this, which was never prohibited, neither by the 
moral nor ceremonial law, they made no conscience of shedding the innocent 
blood of Christ. And thus you shall see men now to be very scrupulous 
about the observance of any old order or human custom, or anything which 
they have vowed to perform, or in the practice of which they have been edu- 
cated, whilst they will not be much careful about the neglect of the great 
things of the law ; and thus they will act out of a principle of conscience also. 
They will take more care not to eat before the sacrament than to prepare 
for the receiving of it. Thus conscience is exceedingly corrupt, in taking 
exactly its own taxes and impositions, whilst it suffers God's customs to be 
stolen. 

4. A corrupt conscience will make use of arguments drawn from self- 
interest and its lusts, and urge carnal motives to persuade the man to do a 
good action. It useth not right, but fleshly means, to make the duties of 
religion pass freely, and to get them currently down. Whereas, it is the 
ofiice of a good conscience not only to perform the holy action, but to stir a 
man to do it upon holy grounds and reasons ; not only to propound duties 
as God's commands, but to offer motives from God to persuade us to dis- 
charge them. But now a corrupt conscience, though it proposeth a right 
thing to be done, yet presseth the doing it from wrong principles and argu- 
ments ; and though the matter is good, yet it gets the enemies' voices to bear 
and carry it out. That God may have his due, it gathers his rents, but yet 
forceth the payment of them by violent courses ; it frightens the man to 
give in his arrears by threatening to sue* him out to an arrest ; it drives 
him on to his duty only by terror, and representing God as cruel or a tyrant, 
which wrongs God as much as if the dues were not paid. For even in com- 
mon converse among men, when the thing moved for a man migjit be a kind- 
ness to him, yet the motioning of it for him may be in such a manner as to 
do him a real injury. It may be moved upon considerations so prejudicial 
as to make him wish that it had never been propounded, and to move him 
to choose rather that he had not objected than to get it so. The motives 
may prove disadvantageous^ when the thing to be done would be a kindness. 
It is in this manner that a corrupt conscience wrongs God, by urging us to 
do our duty to him by carnal arguments, by such reasons only as stir and 
prevail with corrupt nature, by urging us with fear and trouble of mind, with 
the shame and miseiy which will unavoidably follow, if such a sin be com 
mitted, or such a duty is not done. It will make use of or strike in with 
such reasons as these only, to keep us from a sin, or to put us upon the 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 261 

duty ; or if it propounds other arguments, as the glory of God, and consider- 
ations drawn from his love, yet it offers them but for fashion's sake. For 
it being its office to propound what is suggested to it, it may and doth some- 
times lay such reasons as these before the man, yet for show rather than so 
as to prevail. Look as a pci-son interested, who promiseth to propound and 
recommend many to a place of office or trust ; some he offers to the choice 
but faintly, and as knowing beforehand that they will not please the com- 
pany, and as such, too, that he is not hearty for ; but when he comes to 
others, he not only propounds them, but presseth earnestly and zealously for 
them. Thus conscience will put in holy and spiritual motives among the 
rest, but the stress and emphasis is put upon those which are carnal, which 
will work with flesh in the man. Spiritual motives are like wooden ordnance, 
brought out for show only ; but those which are charged and let off are such 
as are suited to corruption, and whose bullets will pierce, and strike, and 
sink into self-love, and the heart is not moved till their force eomes. And 
the reason is, because conscience being corrupt itself, these arguments are 
most suitable to it. These arguments of the law it understands well enough, 
and therefore as men use such reasons as are suitable to their brains, and 
which they naturally invent, and of which they are apprehensive ; so natural 
conscience will not employ spiritual arguments or motives, because it natu- 
rally doth not engender them, and not suiting its mould, they seldom come 
in ; but the carnal motives and arguments do, and these weapons it can wield 
when the other are too strong and heavy for it. And it finds also, that 
having to do with flesh, nothing but such agreeable motives will take with it, 
and therefore directing its speech to the heart that it may prevail, it speaks 
in the flesh's language of reward or punishment. In a word, a eorrupt con- 
science always deals by way of bribery or flattery, or threatening, and there- 
fore is corrupt, though the duties which it propounds be good. 

5. As conscience useth motives drawn from some lusts or other in the 
heart to enforce its injunctions, and to make them to be obeyed, so to gratify 
these lusts again, conscience will join with them to colour and countenance 
such actions, which are done chiefly out of lusts and ill ends. Some con- 
sideration of conscience or other will be found out to help them, and make 
them out to be acts of conscience. So when Herod was about to commit 
that great sin of killing John the Baptist, which he did chiefly to please 
Herodias and those who were with him, and that against his conscience too, 
yet conscience itself strikes in to help the action forward, and seeing his sin- 
ful will would have it done, suggests his oath to him as a thing to be made 
conscience of. And therefore it is said that he did it for his oath's sake : 
Mark vi. 26, 'And the king was exceeding sorry, yet for his oath's sake, and 
for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.' He made con- 
science of his promise and oath, forsooth, in it I Thus conscience joined 
with his lusts to help forward a wicked act against conscience. Thus also 
Saul's conscience told him that he ought not to sacrifice till Samuel came, 
and yet to please the people he did it, because they began to be scattered 
from him: 1 Sam. xiii. 11, 'And Samuel said. What hast thou done? And 
Saul said. Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that 
thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered 
themselves together to Michmash.' But yet conscience would come in with 
some consideration which might warrant it, and he would pretend at least 
that he could not find in his heart to go to war before he had prayed : ver. 
12, ' Therefore, said I, the Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal, 
and I have not made supplication unto the Lord : I forced myself therefore, 
and off'ered a burnt offering.' So that now, if conscience can but find out 



2G2 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

some little consideration to humour and please it, it will be satisfied with 
the act, and gives its warrant for it, though it be gross, and though sinful 
lusts are the actors and managers of the whole affair, so to combine and join 
in acts of higher treason against God. 

6. Corrupt conscience will be bribed to find out arguments, and to plead 
(which is yet more) in justification of actions utterly unlawful. And is not 
that a corrupt judge which justifies the wicked ? This is conscience, which 
not only like a corrupt lawyer may be feed and hired to plead an ill cause, and 
find out some law or other for it — as they who crucified Christ would not 
do it without a colour of law : John xix. 7, ' The Jews answered him, We 
have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the 
Son of God' — but it is an ill judge which is bribed to give sentence for a 
wicked cause to justify it. Thus all true judgment is ruined, when it is 
swayed and carried wholly by affection : peril otime judicium,, cum res transit 
in affectum ; and hence men call evil good, and good evil : Isa. v. 20, ' Woe 
unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, 
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.' And 
we see in many instances that conscience, by reason of the defilement which 
is in it, is ready to prove the lawfulness of a sinful action by false argu- 
ments, when the heart is once inclined to the sin. Thus a man newly 
come out from heathenism, and having his heart yet touched and warped 
toward his former idols and idolatrous practices, and bearing some reverence 
to the rites of his old superstition, would comply with the Gentiles in a part 
of their worship (as eating in the idol's temple), though not in the whole of 
it. And though eating things sacrificed to idols in the very temple was as 
flat idolatry as could be, and proved to be so by the apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 
X. 14, 15, yet some, to hold a fair correspondency with the heathen, or to 
avoid persecution, would find out some shuffling reason or other to maintain 
their doing so. What arguments did their consciences find out, that an 
idol was nothing in the world, and that therefore whatever they did about it 
was but frivolous and insignificant : 1 Cor. viii. 4, ' As concerning there- 
fore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we 
know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God 
but one.' But some did stumble at the practice, as having a conscience of 
the idols, and so being convinced that what they did in respect to it touched 
upon idolatry, 1 Cor. viii. 7. And yet, as for those persons, their consciences 
were apt to be confirmed in such a practice by the example of others, and 
they were ready to join with any argument that might give them confidence 
to do it. This the apostle refers to, 1 Cor. viii. 10, ' For if any man see thee 
which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the con- 
science of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are 
offered to idols ? ' And if, when conscience is only weak, it may be thus 
defiled and perverted, much more when it is wholly corrupt, as in wicked 
men, much more will they take encouragement from any invented reasons of 
their own, or example of others, to practise that to which they are inclined, 
and will strive to fashion their opinions to their lusts, and mould them 
answerably ; and therefore a corrupt conscience is afraid to have more light 
admitted into it for its better information, whereas a godly soul gives itself 
up to God to be instructed by him. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 263 



CHAPTER 11. 

That conscience is cornipt in respect of that false peace which it speaks to a 
man when there is indeed no peace to him. It soothes a man always with 
thoughts of peace, without first f/ivinfi him any trouble of mind. — It speaks 
peace, not from. Christ's blood, and riglUeousness, but from its own righteous- 
ness and good works. 

Another eflfect which natural conscience hath in unregenerate men about 
what is good, and which bears a resemblance to what is in the regenerate, is 
peace of mind, and excusing themselves. We will now examine what the 
actings are of unregenerate men's conscience in this respect, and make it 
appear to be greatly corrupt in doing this its office. 

1. It speaks peace to the man when there is no reason or ground for it, 
and when there is no solid peace in the soul, as God says there is not in 
any wicked man : Isa. Ivii. 21, ' There is no peace, saith my God, to the 
wicked.' And therefore though the depraved conscience may calm, and lay 
asleep the disquiets and tumults of the mind, yet this peace of natural con- 
science is rather a not being troubled than true peace, ease rather than 
peace. Thus a man in debt thinks all is well if he hears of no suit entered 
against him, no sergeant to attack him, no writ out for him ; but all this is 
only quietness from being troubled, not peace with his adversary. But a 
godly man's conscience is not only at peace, but it hath peace with God 
through faith : Rom. v. 1, ' Therefore, being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' A godly man's conscience 
receives an acquittance (which it hath to shew) from Christ's satisfaction, 
and God's receiving the atonement : Rom. v. 1, 11, compared, ' By faith we 
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And not only so, 
but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
now received the atonement.' But an unregenerate conscience never received 
this, nor can the ungodly produce such an acquittance, and indeed they never 
seek after it. 

2. It is not a peace that comes after a war, after an apprehension of their 
being enemies unto God, and then reconciled to him through Christ. No ; 
but they usually have always been at peace, and know not what spiritual 
trouble of mind is. Thus Paul, when in the highest malice and persecution 
against the church, was undisturbedly at rest in his own mind, having never 
apprehended what it was to sin against God, nor the greatness of his wrath : 
Rom. vii. 9, 10, ' For I was alive without the law once ; but when the com- 
mandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which 
was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.' All their peace is but a 
stupid security, such as they had in Hosea vii. 2, ' And they consider not 
in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness : now their own doings 
have beset them about, they are before my face.' 

3. As it is quietness rather than peace, so the eflfects of it answerably are 
rather negative than affirmative ; and though they are not troubled at the 
thoughts of God, nor with the sad apprehensions of his justice and wrath, 
yet all this doth not cause them to rejoice in God. Their false peace of 
conscience doth not bring in their greatest comforts, as true peace in a godly 
man doth : Rom. v. 11, ' Having peace with God,' says he, ' we joy in God.' 
And 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, 
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the 
grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abun- 



264; AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

dantly to you- wards.' A godly man's peace in the thoughts of God's favour 
brings him in abundance of joy. I use to say, natural conscience is a killing 
witch, not an healing one ; though it can give real troubles and wounds, yet 
it can never afford inward healing joys. The letter kills, says the apostle ; 
the power of it that way is real, and greater than to make alive : 2 Cor. iii. 6, 
' Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament ; not of the 
letter, but of the spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' 
It bath more power given it to destruction than to edification. It gives 
such torments when it accuseth, as all the good or evil things in this world 
cannot counterpoise. But the comfort which it gives in excusing is weak, 
and faint, and negative only. It keeps the heart quiet, that it may enjoy 
outward comforts of life without disturbance, and that is all the comfort 
which it affords. 

4. The peace wliich natural conscience pronounceth is not from the true 
foundation, from reconciliation with God by Christ's blood, and justification 
by his righteousness, but it derives its peace and quiet from doing, from 
good works, from some duties performed. It builds it-s peace upon these, 
because it is satisfied, and pleased with doing what is required. It gives 
you a quietus est, upon the plea of your own righteousness, and having done 
what the law demands. This was the peace and satisfaction of mind which 
the young man had, who pronounced peace to himself from what he had 
done : Mat. xix. 16-20, ' And, behold, one came and said unto him. Good 
Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ? And he 
said unto him. Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one, that 
is, God : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith 
unto him, Which? Jesus said. Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. 
Honour thy father and thy mother : and. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself. And the young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept 
from my youth up : what lack I yet ? ' Thus a natural man will not fetch 
his sentence of discharge from the court of faith, but of works; but a regene- 
rate man derives his comfort and joy from believing : Rom. xv. 13, ' Now 
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that j-e may 
abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' And faith, having 
first sprinkled the blood of Christ on the conscience, purgeth it from 
the guilt of sin : Heb, ix. 14, • How much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God,' Heb. xii. 24, 
• And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprink- 
ling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.' It is the voice of that 
blood in the conscience which speaks those good things to a man, and 
sprinkieth the conscience itself, and purgeth it from dead works, even those 
which the man trusted in before, ere the conscience can speak true peace. 
But natural conscience speaks peace out of its own court as a judge, whereas 
it should pronounce it but as a witness, which having received the sentence 
out of the court of faith, may then set its hand to it, and confirm it. It 
may indeed out of its own court excuse a man in regard of such a particular 
fact, as Abimelech's conscience did : Gen. xx, 4, 5, ' But Abimelech had 
not come near her: and he said. Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous 
nation ? Said he not unto me, She is my sister ? and she, even she herself 
said. He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart, and innocency of my 
hands, have I done this.' But it cannot justify the man, as Paul says, 
that though his conscience knew nothing of evil by him, but judged him 
to be as touching the law blameless, yet he professeth that he was not 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 2G5 

hereby justified, but he waited for that sentence out of another court 
of free grace, and to be pronounced on the account of Christ's satisfac- 
tion, and of his rii^hteousness, and God's imputation of it, and faith's 
receiving, and applying it : Philip, iii. 4-9, ' Though I might also have 
confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof 
he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock 
of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews ; as touching 
Ihe law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the 
righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to 
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for 
whom I have sufiered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, 
that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own right- 
eousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, 
the righteousness which is of God by faith.' 

CHAPTER III. 

That a natural mans conscience is very corrupt, and plays false in the resist- 
ance which it makes against sin. — What conflicts between the light of con- 
science and lusts nnregenerate men may have. — The difference of this from 
the conflict in a godly man's heart against sin, set out as to the causes of the 
combat, the quarrel itself, and the issue of the fight. 

I come now to those other effects of a natural conscience which have ex- 
ceeding much affinity with the most inward workings and efiicacy of grace 
itself in the heart of the regenerate. 

1. A natural conscience causeth an inward conviction, combat, and strife 
ia the heart against sin ; it fights against it, and raiseth a reluctancy and 
displicency of it. Thus Darius was displeased with himself for his ill and 
unjust act in condemning Daniel to be cast into the lions' den : Dan. vi. 14, 
' Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with him- 
self, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him ; and he laboured till the 
going down of the sun to deliver him.' Thus Herod too was troubled for 
his rash oath, and found a reluctancy in his conscience to the murder of 
John the Baptist : Mat. xiv. 7-9, ' Whereupon he promised with an oath 
to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of 
her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the 
king was sorry : nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with 
him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.' Now, unregenerate men 
finding in themselves such an opposition against greater and more enormous 
crimes, they vainly imagine that this is the true conflict between flesh and 
spirit in them, and take it for that renowned battle (and it is indeed the 
most renowned battle in the world that ever was fought), which is said to 
be only in a regenerate man; and we find it recorded, Rom. vii. 21-23, ' I 
find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For 
I delight in the law of God after the inward man : but I see another law in 
my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.' Gal. v. 17, ' For the 
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these 
are contrary the one to the other : so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
would.' And so like are the impressions of these two contrary principles, 
that unregenerate men reading these two chapters are presently ready to 
fancy that they find the very same within them. And yet a sensible differ- 



2G6 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

ence there is, wliich the experience of all saints finds, especially they who 
before conversion have had active, busy consciences, which have striven 
with them, and fought many a stout battle in their hearts. And yet when 
that new principle of grace hath come into the field, they have found the 
course, and order, and array of the fight clean altered from the former. 
Like unto Hebekah, who found two children sensibly fighting in her womb, 
they cry out in a surprisal of astonishment, ' Why am I thus?' as she did. 
Gen. XXV. 22, ' And the children struggled together within her : and she 
said. If it be so, why am I thus ? And she went to inquire of the Lord.' 
She wondered at it, and was amazed what it should mean, as never having 
heard that any other women bearing children were so affected, who, though 
they might feel children stir in their womb, yet not two together so as they 
did. Thus when godly men come to have experience of two contrary wills, 
two contrary lustings about the same object, such a division in the heart as 
cannot be matched or paralleled by any instance else, they wonder at it, and 
inquire into the meaning of it, as she did. And this they often perceive even 
in their first quickening, when grace begins to spring within them. Such an 
instance Austin gives us in the story of his own conversion,* where, speak- 
ing of what he felt in his heart when he was first turned to God, and of the 
differing and divided pulse of his heart towards sin, which he found in the 
first symptoms of his conversion, his words are memorable to this purpose : 
I found (says he) two wills : the one the old will, which I had before to sin, 
the other a new will ; the one carnal, and the other spiritual, which fought 
within me one against another, and by their discord divided my soul ; and 
so (says he) I understood by my own experience that which I had read 
before, viz. the manner how the flesh lusteth against the spirit. He had 
such a new experiment of the manner of it as he never had before. 

And how to set out these two battles, and the differences of them, would 
require a large field of discourse. To shew you the difference in respect, 

1. Of the causes, 

2. Of the quarrel, 

3. Of the combatants, 

4. Of the issue and event of the contest, 

5. Of the continuance of it ; — would make a large story, and you have 
it from others. 

1. As that first, that in the conflicts of conscience in unregenerate men, 
conscience, which is but one faculty, fights against all the other faculties, 
which are wholly for sin. But in the fighting of spirit against flesh in a 
godly man, the seat of the war and battle is in every faculty of the soul, and 
all faculties are divided between themselves as it were into several armies. 
Thus light in the mind fights against darkness there, and grace in the will 
against the remainders of sin in it. 

2. The natural conscience in men unregenerate fights but against the out- 
ward wings of the army of sin, against gross sins; but grace fights against 
the whole army, and all the battalions of it, against the whole body of sin, 
and against all sins of what kind soever ; it fights not only against some great 
reigning lusts, hot against both small and great, against all inward corrup- 
tions, and against spiritual lusts as well as grosser defilements. Though this 

* Voluntas aiitera nova, quse mihi esse coeperat, ut te gratis colerem, fruique te 
vellem, Deus, sola carta jocunditas, nondum erat idonea ad superandam priorem 
vetustate reboratain. Ita duse voluntates meae ; alia vetus, alia nova; ilia carnulis, 
ilia spiritualis, confligebant inter se, atque discordando dissipabant animam meam ; 
sic intelligebam meo ipso experiraento id quod legeram, quomodo caro concupisccret 
adversus spiritum, et spiritus adversus carnem. — August. Confess, lib. viii. cap. v. 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 2G7 

indeed is to be added concerning this diflference, that the combat is most dis- 
cernible (even in regenerate men) in regard of conflicting with grosser evils 
and lusts, though it be as strong and as real in regard of spiritual lusts. 
Thus poison, and the blood and spirits fight as strongly in the head and 
brain, though the contrariety of them is more discerned in the stomach, 
where it makes a man more sensible and sick. And therefore Paul, when 
he would represent this combat to the sense and experience of a Christian, 
and so as he might most clearly discern it in himselF, he points him to view 
it in the law of his members lighting against the law of the mind ; which he 
calls so, because, though that tight is as to all lusts, yet especially those of 
the members, bodily lusts. 

3. Divines make these two combats, viz. that in an unregenerate man's 
conscience, and that in a sanctified heart, to differ in the event. In this 
combat grace ordinarily gets the victory whenever any set battle is fought ; 
but in that fight between natural conscience and a corrupt heart, the weapons 
of conscience are in the end blunted, and beaten back to its own head, and 
the victory goes on sin's side, which is all the difference Arminius seems to 
acknowledge. 

4. These two combats difi"er as to the continuance of them. This of grace 
against sin lasts all a man's life, and grows stronger and stronger on grace's 
part, as the house of David waxed stronger and stronger, but Saul's house 
weaker; but the combat of conscience ceaseth in the end, and as God's 
Spirit leaves off striving with men, so doth conscience also. Thus con- 
science is like a person who lives in a bad society, where the government 
sways the worse way ; and who, though a long time he contested, yet being 
but one man, and overborne by numbers, he is wearied at last, and sees he 
can do no good, and so is quiet. Thus conscience in unregenerate man is 
at last overpowered, by all the other corrupt faculties and affections which 
are against it, and so it is beaten clear out of the field, and men in the end 
are all given up to a reprobate or injudicious mind ; for so the word aSoxz/xo; 
signifies : Rom. i. 28, * And even as they did not like to retain God in their 
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which 
are not convenient.' 

5. When the act of sin comes to be done, then the reluctance which natu- 
ral conscience causeth doth cease, and the will is not only overcome to do 
it, but overcome by it. Though, whilst the sinful act was in consultation, 
and the object afar off, there might be oppositions raised, yet when the lust 
and the object come to embrace each other, then the will is wholly drawn 
out and allured, and sets itself to work out all the pleasure which it can out 
of the sin. All the impressions of unwillingness which conscience makes are 
before the act comes to be done, and are seen in the sad reflections after the 
commission; but when the thing is to be done, the will comes wholly oft" to 
it. As a man who is to do a kindness for another, though perhaps at first 
he somewhat sticks and deliberates, yet when he doth it, he doth it heartily, 
without any reluctance ; his heart is wholly in it, and he doth it as a kind- 
ness ; so doth the will to gratify a lust come oft" entirel_y and fully to it. And 
therefore in regard of the act itself, and the instant time wherein it is com- 
mitted, unregenerate men are said to sin with full consent. And therefore 
they are said to be overcome by their corruptions : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' For ii 
after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge 
of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and 
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' For 
though they strive a while, yet in the issue, when the sin is to be acted, they 
perfectly consent, and are so overcome, and their hearts subdued to the lust, 



268 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

and they therefore may be said to fall totally into the sin. But in a godly 
man, the inward strife continues even in the very act of sinning, and there 
is an inward man in the heart and will which is never overcome ; and there- 
fore the apostle Paul, in the description of this combat in Kom. vii., useth 
the present tense when he speaks of the opposition of both combatants : ver. 
15-17, ' For that which I do I allow not : for what I would, that I do not ; 
but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent 
unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin 
that dwelleth in me.' It is not I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me ; 
i. e. at that present time when I do it ; shewing that in the very act, when 
it is doing, and comes to execution, there is a will resists, and a reluctancy 
iu his renewed nature. There is an / which can say that it had no hand 
in it. 

6. The opposition which conscience makes, though it restrains the act, 
3'et it weakeneth not the inward power of the lust by a contrary lusting. A 
man standing with a cudgel in his hand over a dog who hath meat set before 
him, though he may keep every member of him in awe from stirring towards 
it, yet he cannot abate his hunger, nor lessen his desire to it ; and so it is 
here in this case. And the reason is, because the government of conscience 
is extrinsecal, forced, and tyrannical. Though it be a principle within a 
man, yet it is extrinsecal in its working on the will and afiections, for it 
stamps not on them any inward natural inclinations to what it dictates. 
Therefore the power of its government is seen in restraining outward acts, 
and gainsaying inward lusts, and speaking against them, but never raising 
up au army of contrary desii'es against them ; but so grace doth, being an 
intrinsecal natural principle in the desires themselves. The combat is there- 
fore especially expressed by contrary lustings : Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh 
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are 
contrary the one to the other : so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
would,' And so the desires of the flesh are weakened by contrary desires 
in a godly man. Conscience, indeed, by terrors damps the desires of sin, 
and also by checks, it may divert desires which rise, and keep them from 
parleying with their objects ; as parents may restrain, lovers from speaking 
together, but their loves they cannot abate or quell, or put contrary desires 
or antipathy into them. Thus conscience, though for a time it may keep 
the will and the lust from holding a correspondence, yet it cannot produce 
in the will an hatred of it, or averse inclinations to it. 

7. In the combat where grace is, this opposition in desires, and this 
weakening of desires to sin, may be discerned in and from the very first 
rising and setting forth of the desire ; but in the other, the lust springeth up 
in its full strength, only conscience meets it in its march, and diverts it or 
drives it in again. But where grace is ever at the first rising of a lust, the 
will breaks itself into a contrary and opposite desire, that watches the desires 
of sin, and benumbs them, and fore-slows them in their proceedings. To 
clear this difterence further by a similitude or two. 

(1.) When you throw a bowl out of your hand that hath no bias in it, 
though it runs never so directly to the mark, yet a contrary bowl may meet 
with it and beat it back again. Or rather a bowl that wants a bias to order 
its motion, may be diverted, or stopped, or fore-slowed by an impediment 
which it meets with after it is thrown out of a man's hand ; and so may a 
natural man's desires and lusts after they arise, and are cast out by the will 
with its full force, meet with considerations of conscience, which it, being 
watchful, opposeth against them, and so those desires may be diverted or 
taken ofi". But in a regenerate man's will, there is an inward and innate 



Chap. III.] in rkspect of sin and punishment. 2G9 

bias, by which the desire put forth is hindered at its first setting out, that it 
cannot move so fully as else it would. The desire carries with it a contrary 
bias attending upon it, that corrects and slackens it at its first setting out, 
all the way throughout. Thus hath the renewed will a contrary bias, which 
puts forth a contrary act to retardate the desires of sin, ere checks of con- 
science meet with them. 

(2.) Or secondly, more plainly, a man throws a round hoop out of his 
hand fairly, and directly, and with all his strength, which yet running from 
him may, by some rub it meets with, be stopped, or fall, or come back again, 
when it was thrown out of his hand with his full strength. But if at the 
same time that a man casts it from him, if, as it is going out of his hand, he 
gives it a contrary jerk, and impresseth a contrary impetus upon it towards 
him, there being two contrary motions impressed upon it by the hand which 
casts it forth ; as it will go forth of itself some small distance, so it will come 
back again of itself; for the hand, as it threw it out, pulled it in again. So 
when the will of a regenerate man puts forth a desire to sin, yet at the same 
instant the same will retracts it, and puts forth a contrary desire, so as the 
other is lamed and corrected in its first rising, and therefore often comes 
back again by reason of the contrary desire which it carries with it. The 
inward bias brings it back again. It hath ever a contrary impression stamped 
upon that desire to the sin which weakens it. And this is • one affection 
which Paul expresseth that he found to be in his heart in this combat : Kom. 
vii. 21, that when he would do good, evil was present with him. As his 
will sent forth desires to good, so the same will as readily and as instantly 
sent forth desires to evil which hindered that good ; therefore he says it is 
then present when I would do good, and so on the other side when his will 
exerted desires' to sin, it had contrary desires to good, which hindered him 
from sinning with a full will. The same will thus breaks itself into contrary 
motions, contradictory each to other. 

And the reason how this comes to pass is, because grace and sin, as they 
dwell in the same will, and not in several rooms, but the same, and are con- 
trary, and never mix, so they are alike active, and never rest. And there- 
fore, no sooner can a lust creep out of its hole, but a contrary act of grace 
is put forth with it. It is up in arms as soon as sin, and as soon comes 
forth into the field. It is present with the man then at the same time, and 
sets forth with it, and from its first setting out opposeth it. And hence 
lusts are often called back again, not so much by the opposition which con- 
science makes, meeting with them, as by the contrary desires sent out after 
them, and with them, by the will. 

8. Lust may be most furious, and commit most outrages, when the natu- 
ral conscience is strongest, and most up in arms, and makes the stoutest 
opposition, as in those who sin against the light of conscience, and against 
the Holy Ghost. When conscience is most loud and clamorous, their lusts 
yet rage most and go against it. Conscience and lust may be both up 
together in an unregenerate man ; but now, on the contrary, in one regene- 
rate, so much as grace is up, so much lust must needs be down ; as in two 
scales, by how much the one is up the other is depressed. And therefore, 
when grace is kept up, and a man walks in the Spirit, he fulfils not the lusts 
of the flesh, that is, falls not into outward acts of sin : Gal. v. 16, ' This I 
say then. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.' 
And the reason which the apostle gives is this, because grace and corruption 
are opposite as two contraries : ver. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the 
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the 
other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' They lust one 



270 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

against another. And therefore when grace is in its heat and courage, and 
the army of it kept in its array, those impressions which it makes prevail, 
and must needs do so. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

What is come both to the strivings of natural conscience against sin, and the 
conflict of grace against it in a regenerate man. — To fl.nd out the true differ- 
ence between them, we must consider the cause and ground of the quarrel, and 
the weapons with ivliich it is managed. 

Though all these things, and many more, be true, yet that we may come 
more narrowly to search out the immediate and fundamental difference be- 
tween the combat of grace against sin, and that which only natural conscience 
maintains against it, I will first shew what is common to both. 

1. This must be yielded and granted as common to both, that not grace 
only, but natural conscience also, when the pulse thereof beats strongly, may 
and doth cause a commotion and a combustion against an act of sin in the 
whole man. The whole man may be disquieted, disturbed, and moved 
against it. For a passion of fear, a passion of horror (which kind of storms 
conscience can raise about sin), we find in other things do move and make 
impression upon the whole man, and cause a quelling, a recoiling, and a 
faltering to be in the whole heart, when a man is about to do a thing. And 
such a disturbance may conscience raise in the whole man, when a man is 
about to commit some kind of sin, as in the case of murder, and the like, 
when horror seizeth upon the whole man. 

2. And natural conscience may create this disturbance in the will as well 
as in other faculties. It may cause a great unwillingness to commit a sin ; 
not only a remissness, but a displicence and reluctancy, and heart-rising 
against it, so as the man shall not sin with a full consent of will. Thus 
Darius was displeased with himself for the injustice and wrong which he did 
to Daniel : Dan. vi. 14, ' Then the king, when he heard these words, was 
sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him ; 
and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.' Thus Herod 
was exceeding sorrowful, and grieved that he should put so holy a man as 
John the Baptist to death : Mat. xiv. 9, ' And the king was sorry : neverthe- 
less for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded 
it to be given her.' And grief hath always a renisus vohmtatis, a resistance 
of the will to accompany it. For when the understanding is strong against 
a thing, it doth cause some stand in the will, and a bearing of it back more 
or less, that a man cannot be so fully willing as else he would. There is no 
sin which any man commits, but some inconveniences present themselves, 
and they will take somewhat off from the will's eagerness. 

3. This commotion which conscience makes shall be intense and great ; 
it will strike up the drum, especially when conscience is awakened, and cause 
as great an alarm, as great an uproar, clamour, and noise, and hurley burley, 
as grace shall do. 

4. Conscience will not only alarm the man before, but also in some 
measure in the very act itself, and while it is doing, so as the impression 
which is made upon the whole man, and on the will, shall not be worn out, 
but continue in the commission of the act. So as all the will is not over- 
come by the sin and the pleasure of it, but bears off, and is grieved, and 
abates something of that full delight which would otherwise be in it, and 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 271 

which, if his will was wholly and altogether in the sin, he might find. Thus 
it was in Herod, who when he gave command for the above-mentioned murder, 
was exceeding sorrowful. So as these are not to be assigned as the exact 
diflerences of this combat, for that there may be a conviction in the whole 
man against sin both in an unrcgenerato and a holy soul. 
In what then shall be put the true difl'erence '? 

1. The ground of the quarrel against sin is to be considered. As it is not 
dying which makes a martyr, but the cause, so not every resistance against 
sin argues grace, but the ground and cause of it. Now what is the cause of 
this war in a gracious heart, you shall know best if you search into the 
thoughts and consultations of the leaders, for they set the armies on fighting. 
Observe diligently, therefore, what thoughts run through thy understanding, 
and what apprehensions they are which thou hast about sin that cause this 
ado in thy heart. Observe whether thy first thoughts be of the evil of sin 
in itself, the foolishness, the heinousness, the contrariety of it to God's 
holiness and his law ; the unkindness which is in it to God and Christ, the 
injury and wrong that is in it to God, who is so good, both in himself and 
to thee. Observe whether thy quarrel against sin begins principally upon 
such thoughts as these ; or is the original of thy being angry with sin, the 
inconveniences which attend upon it in this world or in that which is to 
come ? Do the threatenings annexed to the law and the wrath of God as 
oifended, only occasion this commotion ? Then though this opposition to 
sin be in the whole man, yet it is not the combat of grace. 

2. As the ground of the quarrel is thus narrowly to be searched into, so 
the weapons also with which they fight, i The motives and arguments which 
are used by the leaders to stir up the heart against sin are to be considered. 
Motives drawn from self, and proportioned to self, are the weapons which 
strike and pierce through the whole man ; and though the whole man be 
moved against sin, yet when it fights but with such weapons, I may say the 
weapons of its warfare are carnal, which awakens and rouses self in a man, 
and then that stirs and moves the whole army. 

3. This commotion in unregenerate men is maintained wholly by logical 
disputes, and arguments, and motives to work the heart against sin, and 
while the pleading lasts, the heart is exasperated a little, but no longer ; it 
is only while the combatants are in the field. But the heart-rising, and 
opposition of a godly man, though it be whetted and sharpened by such 
arguments, yet it hath a farther principle, and that is, a natural inbred an- 
ticipation, an innate, habitual contrariety and enmity, which M'orks in the 
man at the first view of a sin ; as a commotion is wrought in a lamb at the 
sight of a wolf, or in a lion at the crowing of a cock, and is natural and 
real. And therefore it is quick and up when a man is taken on the sudden, 
and before he musters up thoughts or arguments, his heart riseth at the first 
view of the sin. Yea, and therefore sometimes when motives drawn from 
heaven and hell, and many such considerations, would not have been efi'ectual 
to keep a man from a sin, yet then this inward antipathy withholds him, 
Christ backing it in the heart ; so that a man can say, I cannot do it, not 
so much because of such and such considerations, but because I cannot, for 
my renewed nature will not let me. As a man loves out of sympathy beyond 
what reason suggests, so he hates out of antipathy too. There is a seed 
within which cannot sin, a seed from Christ which hath an enmity to sin, 
the seed of the serpent : 1 John iii. 9, * Whosoever is born of God doth not 
commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he 
is born of God.' Gal. v. 17, * For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other : so 



272 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' And we have an instance in 
Joseph, who, by reason of grace in his heart, could not do that sin to which 
he was tempted : Gen. xxxix. 9, ' There is none greater in this house than 
I ; neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art 
his wife : how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ? ' 
There is a seed within that cannot sin. And thus Paul asserts of himself 
and others regenerate : 2 Cor. xiii. 8, ' For we can do nothing against the 
truth, but for the truth.' / cannot do such a hohj duty, is the voice of nature, 
but I cannot sin is the voice of a divine nature in a man ; I must not sin for 
these or these reasons, is the voice of reason and conscience ; I viust not si)t. 
works in the heart of a natural man ; but the holy nature's / cannot sin, acts 
in one regenerate. It is the voice of the new nature in him, like to what 
was in Esther, when she said to Ahasuerus, Esther viii. 6, * For how can I 
endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people ? or how can I endure 
to see the destruction of my kindred ? ' A GTo^yri, an innate pious affection 
wrought in her this cannot, a not being able to bear it. A man may have 
many reasons not to murder his enemy, because he must not do it ; but a 
man cannot kill his child, he cannot find in his heart to do it, for a father's 
nature withholds him. And it is said of the regenerate part, that it cannot 
sin, as of the sun, yet it cannot mingle with darkness, as of the fire, that it 
cannot but resist water, as God cannot lie ; so his image remaining, such 
cannot sin, 

4. In an unregenerate man terrors of conscience, and impressions of 
wrath, and the smart of sin felt in the conscience, or the inconveniences by 
which a man hath been hurt, or with which he is threatened in his thoughts, 
those fight against the pleasures of sin in him. But in a godly man delight 
in the law, and in God, and communion with him, and the impression of 
the sweetness which he hath tasted therein, fights against and countervails 
the pleasures of sin. And therefore Paul, speaking of this combat, puts it 
upon delighting in the law : Rom. vii. 21, 22, ' I find then a law, that, when 
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God, 
after the inward man.' And so Solomon says that knowledge, when it is 
pleasant to a man, keeps him from evil : Prov. ii. 10, 11, ' When wisdom 
entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discre- 
tion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.' When the holy 
man is tempted to sin, his having recourse to thoughts of God, and of his 
love, and his own duty, and what communion he hath had with God, bring 
a fresh present delight, which fights against the delights of sin, and so puts 
the heart out of taste that it cannot relish it. 

5. Conscience works this commotion in unregenerate men by the way of 
fear, but grace works it by the way of hatred against sin. Accordingly Paul 
says of himself, Rom. vii. 15, ' For that which I do, I allow not : for what 
I would that do I not ; but what I hate that do I.' And there is a real and 
sensible difference between fear of sin and hatred of it. And you will dis- 
cern it if you have recourse to the temptation in which you have been when 
fear seized on you, and to that temptation when hatred of sin rose in you ; 
you will find that both fear and hatred stir the whole man, but differently. 
If a man hath on a sudden a sword drawn with the point bent toward him, 
this stirs up fear, and that causeth a commotion in the whole man to avoid 
it ; but bring the same man to a place where so many toads are, and this 
causeth a commotion in the whole man to eschew them ; but the commotion 
is difterent from the other, for it is out of an inward loathing and abhorrency 
which he hath of them. Now, thus differently affected are natural men and 
godly men about sin when presented to them. Men whose consciences ai'e 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 273 

not enlightened, or have not been scared, they can handle the sword when 
in the velvet scabbard, but when conscience presents death in the point of 
it, and draws it out of the scabbard, this causeth fear, and that fear raiseth 
an inward perturbation in the whole man. But now such a fear is not all 
the cause of that reluctancy which a godly man finds in his heart against sin, 
but there is an inward dislike and loathing, and irreconcileable hatred. He 
hates sin, and would always do so, and carefully avoid it, though the conse- 
quent misery, and torment, and hurt which it doth, could be separated from 
it. As though a man thinks and knows that the toad cannot sting him to 
death, nay, that it cannot any way hurt him, if the poison could possibly 
be taken out, yet he would hate it out of an antipathy. The lion is moved 
at the crowing of a cock, and yet the cock cannot hurt him ; yet he is moved 
and shudders at it, because he hates the noise. Or, to express it by another 
similitude, a child sees a fired coal, there is a commotion of fear when his 
little finger shall but come near it ; but if it be brought to a toad, there is a 
commotion of hatred. Thus, whilst conscience views fire in the coal, the 
flames of hell in the sin, when any strong temptation carries on the heart to 
it, there is a commotion of fear in and near the acting of the sin, but this is 
difi'ering from the commotion of loathing and hatred which a godly man hath. 
For fear is but a passion, and soon over, and the conviction of sin raised by it 
is as transitory, and the combat against sin, therefore, ceases as soon as the 
fear is blown over. But hatred is constant, and though it works more stilly 
and calmly, yet more strongly, and is more lasting ; and such is the convic- 
tion of regenerate men. Hatred works against all or any having to do with 
sin, against all dealings with it of what kind soever, so as not to touch it, 
nor so much as to see it, as a man cannot endure, not only to handle, but not 
to look on a toad. But a man who is but afraid of a coal can endure to see 
it, though he cannot bear to carry it in his hands ; and thus unregenerate 
men can roll sin in their thoughts, view it with pleasure in their unclean 
fancies, and act it in imagination, though their conscience works against the 
outward acting of it. And when the fire is gone out of it, then they can 
bear to touch it. When the sense and smart of sin is out of their consciences, 
then they can freely and boldly defile themselves with it. As familiarity 
with the most savage wild beasts, as bears and tigers, will take away the 
fear of them, though at first a man was afraid, so a man by degrees, wear- 
ing ofi" the fears and horrors of his conscience, grows bold with those sins at 
which he first trembled ; after a while he is familiar with them, but where 
there is a hatred of sin in the heart this familiarity increaseth hatred, and 
therefore a man's spirit in the end riseth most against those sins into which 
he oftenest falls. 

6. And hence, sixthly (which will afford another difference, or at least 
help us to discern the former), natural conscience will cause a conviction in 
the heart against sins which a man's own self is to commit, and the guilt 
whereof will redound to his person, because self-love stirs up fear, and that 
stirs the man. But grace will work as great an heart-rising and commotion 
against the sins of others, the guilt whereof will not redound to him. For 
sense of guilt is from conscience of a man's own, not of another's sin, though 
indeed conscience, out of pride, or because of the reflection which it makes, 
that the sin becomes his, if he doth not tell the man of it, may make a man 
reprove another for sin. But grace riseth against sin in others, and is afraid 
lest another should offend, swear, blaspheme, &c. He is afraid of oaths in 
others as well as of blasphemous thoughts in himself, and he loathes them as 
much. He is one who fears an oath : Eccles. ix. 2, ' All things come alike 

VOL. X. s 



274 AN XJNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIL 

to all : there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked ; to the good, and to 
the clean, and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacri- 
ficeth not : as is the good, so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth, as he that 
feareth an oath.' An oath startles him as if a piece of ordnance were let off 
behind him. Thus Job feared the sin of his sons as well as his own : Job i. 5, 
' And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job 
sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered 
burnt-offerings according to the number of them all : for Job said, It may 
be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did 
Job continually.' Thus Lot's righteous soul was vexed at the abominable 
sins of Sodom : 2 Peter ii. 7, 8, * And delivered just Lot, vexed with the 
filthy conversation of the wicked : for that righteous man dwelling among 
them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with 
their unlawful deeds.' And the reason why a regenerate man is afraid of 
the sins of others as well as of his own, is because his fear of sin, arising 
from the hatred which he bears to it, which is general to sin as sin, and not 
as his sin only, he is therefore afraid of the sins of all men as well as of his 
own. 



CHAPTEE V. 

What great difference there is between that regret to sin which unregenerate men 
have under convictions of natural conscience, and tJiat unv-illingness to sin 
which is in a godhj man. 

That I may farther clear the difference between the strife which is in a 
regenerate man's heart against sins, and opposition which only natural con- 
science makes, I come now to consider what is that unwillingness to sin, 
which men unregenerate may express to have, and how much it is different 
from that inward aversion which a godly man hath to sin. 

The will is the especial centre and seat of this war, and, therefore, it is 
expressed by lusting : Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, 
and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; 
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.' And the more the will is in 
a sin, the greater is the aggravation. This, therefore, is made the aggrava- 
tion of Ephraim's sin in the matter of Jeroboam's calves, which he com- 
manded them to worship, that they went willingly after this wicked command- 
ment : Hosea v. 11, 12, ' Ephraim is oppressed, and broken in judgment : 
because he willingly walked after the commandment. Therefore will I be 
unto Ephraim as a moth ; and to the house of Judah as rottenness.' And 
it is urged against the pharisees by Christ, that they would sin : John 
viji.. 44, * Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye 
will do;: h,e W9.s a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, 
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of 
his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it.' And so as a heightening 
of their guilt who apostatize, it is said, that they sin wilfully after the 
knowledge of the truth received .: Heb, x. 26, ' For if we sin wilfully after 
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins.' 

Now in regenerate* men there may be some strife in their wills against 
sin, so as their wills may bear off, and they have some remissness and reluc- 
tancy, as in Herod and Darius ; so as it may be truly said there is some 
* Qu. ' unregenerate ' ? — Ed. 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 275 

unwillingness, by reason of conscience, in many sing. When, indeed, con- 
science is past feeling, then wicked men sin with greediness, and their will 
are wholly let out in the sin, and yet not before : Eph. iv. 19, ' Who being 
past feeling, have given themselves owr unto lasciviousness, to work all un- 
cloanness with greediness.' But to clear this farther to you, 

1. Consider that there is a double unwillingness, or aversenoss, in the will 
to things presented to it, as also a double willingness, for the distinction is 
applicable to both, and' therefore we will use one part of the distinction of 
the one, and the other part of the other. 

(1.) There is a willingness perse, i.e. a direct, innate, full inclination, 
and going out of the will to a thing suitable to it, when the will is of itself 
carried to an object for itself. 

(2.) There is an unwillingness per accUens, an accidental unwillingness, 
indirect, and by the by, when there is som« inconvenience annexed to the 
thing which we desire, which the mind apprehending is made less willing 
than otherwise it would be. Thus it was with the young man in the history 
of the Gospel, whose will of itself was fully set upon the world, and the plea- 
sures of it, as things which were suitable to him ; and yet when Christ told 
him that he could not enjoy heaven and them both together, this caused 
some sorrow and unwillingness in him, and took off his mind somewhat from 
them-, yet so as in the issue he followed the innate swing of his will and 
heart, though with some mixture of unwillingness ; but it was only an acci- 
dental unwillingness : Mat. xix. 21, 22, ' Jesus said unto him. If thou wilt 
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt 
have treasure in heaven ; and come and follow me. But when the young 
man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he had great posses- 
sions.' And thus a wicked man's heart is of itself fully for sin, wholly for 
sin, and the pleasures of sin, as suitable to his desires. Well, but there are 
inconveniences which attend upon sin, and which conscience represents as 
inseparable from it, the fearful consequences which follow upon it, such as 
shame, misery, hell, and damnation. This takes off the edge of the will 
somewhat,, that it cannot be so keen towards sin, and it makes a stand in the 
diverse motions of the will, which otherwise were going out to sin, with a full 
propension, and without any reluctancy. And so in wicked men there may 
be also some willingness to good, but it is so only accidentally, not for good- 
ness' sake, hut f r some pleasing con=:equences which follow upon it, which 
may candy and SM'eeten it, when for itself it is not hked. 

Now such a mixture of a direct willingness for sin, joined with some acci- 
dental unwillingness to it, makes not the combat of flesh and spirit, forthen 
the most of men would have it in them ; for there is no action which a man's 
heart is ever so fully for, but some inconveniences make him less willing ; 
and, indeed, all this may rather be said to make a man less willing than 
otherwise he should be, but not indeed, and really unwilling. Thus water, 
whose direct course and stream is to run one way, may have (as in mills) 
some bar, that stops,, and hinders, and takes off some of the stream ; but it 
turns it not the contrary way. 

And that this part of an unregenerate man's will, which is unwilling, is 
not against sin, appears by this, that he wisheth those inconveniences and 
impediments removed, that his will might fully and wholly pour out itself 
to the sin. He is vexed rather at the impediments than at the sin, and, 
thinks he, if there were no conscience, nor no hell, I might then sin freely. 

But now the combat in a godly man is occasioned between two direct 
wills, that which is of itself for sin, and that which is of itself, and directly 
against sin. He is like a needle between two loadstones, and there is an 



27G AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VII. 

inward incliiiation whieb carries him both ways, and therefore it is said the 
law of the members fights against the law of the mind, i. e. one inclination 
in him against another inclination : Rom. vii. 23, * But I see another law 
in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.' But unregenerate 
men, in all their loathness to sin, are but as iron, which is but by some 
external accident detained, and fore- slowed in its motion towards the load- 
stone ; and, therefore, notwithstanding this accidental unwillingness, they 
are still said to sin with a full consent, because they wish those inconve- 
niences removed, which make them unwilling. When the iron is detained, 
the hand which holds it shall find the inward drawing power, and the incli- 
nation as strong as if it were let go. Thus, though an unregenerate man is 
kept from sin, yet his inward bent is to it, and if the feared inconveniences 
were removed, the will of itself would be wholly for it. 

2. That the difference of these two wills, so directly contrary, may be 
more fully understood, we will compare these contrary motions of the will 
with all other diverse kinds of motions of it whatsoever which may be thought 
of, or which man is capable of. 

(1.) There may be in the same man two direct desires to contrary things, 
but then they are not seated in the same appetite, neither are they indeed 
contrary, but subordinate each to other ; as, for example, the natural appe- 
tite may crave meat when a man is hungry, when 3^et the reasonable appe- 
tite, or his will guided by reason, may be bent upon some business to be 
done, which shall put off his eating ; yet these are not seated in the same 
will, neither are they contrary, unless this natural appetite rebel, and make 
impressions upon the reasonable will, so as to hinder it in its desires ; for 
otherwise they are subordinate, as in Christ, when he was an hungry, and 
yet he refrained eating, because it was sweeter meat and drink to him to 
convert a soul: John iv. 31-34, ' In the mean while his disciples prayed him, 
saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat thai _ye 
know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another. Hath any man 
brought him aught to eat ? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the 
will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.' There were two desires 
in him, but yet subordinate, and not in the same appetite ; and so it was in 
Christ too, when nature abhorred death and shrunk at it, and yet he sub- 
mitted his will to God, eveia unto death. 

(2.) A man may have a mixed will to the same thing, i. e. he may be 
willing, and some unwilHngness be mixed with it, but then the one is only 
accidental. A man wills the saving of his goods directly, but a storm comes, 
and he throws them overboard to save his life ; this willingness to lose his 
goods is only accidental. Water running with a full stream in its natural 
coarse may be inteiTupted by windings, as in rivers, or stopped part of it, 
as in mills, so as the current is not so full and strong as else it would be. 

(3.) Or, thirdly, a man may have a divided will, and both directed to 
contrary objects. Thus Paul was divided between two, and was in a strait, 
and knew not what to choose. He had a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ, and a desire to stay here on earth, and to glorifj' Christ : Philip. 
i. 21-24, ' For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the 
flesh, this is the fruit of my labour : yet what I shall choose I wot not. For 
I am in a sti'ait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ ; which is far better : neverthelesss to abide in the flesh is more 
needful for you.' Yet these desires in him, though carried contrary ways, 
did not fight one against another, and therefore they were not truly contrary, 
but agreed in the same love of Christ being the ground of both ; so that he 



Chap. V.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 277 

did not in that manner desire to live with Christ, as withal that desire should 
rise up against the other, so as to wish it expelled, and not to be at all ; 
because, though the streams went ditforent ways, yet they had but one 
spring, viz. love to Christ, which was shewn different ways. The objects 
were incompatible, but the desires not contrary. It is like a stream dividing 
into two channels, and yet meeting in one at first. Thus also a wicked 
man's will is of itself carried to prodigality, and also to covetousness, that 
he is in a strait, and knows not which to choose, yet so as self-love is the 
ground and spring of both ; so that, to put all together, the same will may 
be carried to contrary objects with contrary acts, and to the same object 
with contrary acts. But now the two wills in a regenerate man are every- 
where directly contrary, so that he cannot do the things which he would, 
Gal. V. 17. 

[1.] There is not only a mixture of an accidental unwillingness, as in 
a man in a storm, who casts out his goods, but there is a direct unwilling- 
ness to sin. 

[2.] And this unwillingness is in the same will ; not in two appetites sub- 
ordinate, but in the same will contrary to itself; and there are two parties in 
it, which fight one against the other, as the law of the flesh and the law of 
the mind are said to do : Rom. vii. 23', ' But I see another law in my mem- 
bers warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin, which is in my members.' 

[3. J And these ai-e not contrary only in regard of two several objects, as 
a man may love covetousness and prodigality at the same time, but hate 
neither ; but they are two contrary acts one to the other, seeking to destroy 
each other. They lust one against another, says the apostle,^ and the one 
would destroy the other. A godly man hates not only the pleasures of sin, 
but hates his love of it, and abhors himself for loving it in any degree. 

[4.] Which is more, there are contrary wills directly thus contrary to- 
wards the same objects ; and then, says Aquinas, wills are contrary, when 
in eodem et circa idem, when in the same and about the same thing. To 
love the pleasures of sin for themselves, and yet to hate them at the same 
time, and to hate his very loving them, these are contrary acts about the 
same object. Here is not only a divided stream meeting in one channel, 
but a contrary stream running in the same channel, having two contrary 
springs, which would be a miracle in nature, a paradox which Aristotle 
would have hissed out of the schools, and it is a riddle indeed to all but godly 
men. Adam in paradise had experience of no such contrary acts, nor Christ, 
nor have the fallen devils, nor the angels in heaven, nor wicked men, though 
never so much enlightened, but only a godly man ; and therefore wonder 
not, if you understand it not, though it be told you, for there is no instance 
like it by which to make it plain. And the reason is because in no other 
case a man hath, as it were, two men, and two wills in him. Toward all 
other objects he hath but one self, but here he hath two, a new man and 
an old man, which have contrary wills. Bring two men to the same thing, 
and the one may hate it, and the other love it, for the same thing which 
each see in it, because they are two men ; and now a godly man hath as it 
were two men in him, and therefore hath such contrary motion in the same 
will toward the same thing ; and of such contrary motions no instance can 
be given in the will of any reasonable creature towards any kind of objects, 
but only in this will of a regenerate man, and in his will only toward sin 
and grace. 



278 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 



EOOK VIII. 

Of the incUnations and lusts which are in the irill and affections, after things 

fiesldy and sinful. 

That ^011 put off the old man, ivhich is corrupt in deceitful lusts. — Eph. IV. 22. 



CHAPTER I. 

The words of the text explained. — That, to complete the description of our 
natural sinfulness, the positive part, which consists in lusts, is to be con- 
sidered, as well as the privative, ivhich is the want of all that is good. 

Having despatched the first part of the positive original sinfulness of man's 
nature, which is the depravation of the mind in all the powers of it, under- 
standing, and thoughts, judgment, conscience, and reason, I come now to 
discourse of the corruptions of the will and affections, which are lusts, which 
that they are another part of the sinfulness of our nature, will appear from 
the words, and the coherence of them. 

For, first, the main thing here spoken of by the name of 'the old man,' 
is no other than the subject we have in hand, viz. that sinful nature of the 
old man contracted from his birth. 

And, first, that the sinfulness of our nature is principally and directly 
meant in that phrase, is evident out of this place. 

1. Because he opposeth it to ' the new man.' Now, by new man, as the 
apostle doth in ver. 24 explain himself, is meant that integrity, righteous- 
ness, and holiness of nature which is called God's image, like that created 
by God at first, and which renews not the outward life only, but the most 
inward room of the mind : ver. 23, 24, ' And be renewed in the spirit of 
your mind ; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in 
righteousness and true holiness.' Therefore that old man that is exhorted 
to be put off, by law of opposition, is meant that opposite corruption of 
nature that came in the room of it ; which must therefore be put ofi" (as he 
exhorts), that this may be put on ; which whilst it resides in the nature of 
man, it hinders his renewing, and the image of God from coming in. These 
two therefore are two contrary things, which are conversant about the same 
subject, to wit, man's nature. 

2. It appears from the scope of the words and their coherence, in ver. 21, 
* If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the 
truth is in Jesus.' He exhorts not to an outward reformation of their con- 
verse only, but to that truth and sincerity of sanctification, which the 
doctrine and power of grace in Christ teacheth, and worketh in all true 
Christians : ' If so be,' saith he, 'ye have learned the truth as it is in 
Jesus.' Which doth not, as other doctrines of philosophers, &c., teach you 
to put off the evils of your outward converse only, and to put on a new con- 



Chap. I.] in respkct of sin and punisument. 279 

versalioa over an oM nature, as a sheep's skin over a wolfish nature ; he 
that doth no more falls short of that truth of grace which Christ requires ; 
but it tcachoth principally to put off the old man, as the cause of all the 
evils in the outward converse ; and that is his meaning, when he saith, ' As 
concerning the outward converse, put off the old man,' without which it is 
impossible to reform the converse. Now if by the old man had been meant 
the outward converse only (as some would), his exhortation had fallen short 
of that truth of sanctihcation, to which he urgeth them ; therefore by old man 
corruption of nature must needs be meant, as a distinct thing from the former 
converse, and differenced from it, as the cause from the effect. And so, 

3. Where the same exhortation is used by the same apostle, it is evidently 
expressed, as in Col. iii. 9, 10, ' Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have 
put off the old man with his deeds ; and have put on the new man, which is 
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.' And there- 
fore it is so to be understood here ; for the one is an explication of the 
other, 

Secondh/, In the second place, that that sinfulness of our nature, con- 
tracted from our birth, is principally meant in that phrase, the reason of the 
name old man, as given hj divines, doth evidence. For sin is called the 
old man, because it is the image of, and contracted from, the first, and there- 
fore old Adam, as he is called in comparison of Christ, whose image the new 
man is : 1 Cor. xv. 45, 49, ' And so it is written, The first man Adam was 
made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. And as 
we have borne the image of the earthj^ we shall also bear the image of the 
heavenly.' It is the old man, because we have had it so long, even from our 
births, though also all the further corruption which it hath been a-growing to, 
and hath been added by actual sin, is also meant here, as the word (pSu^o/Mvov 
(as Piscator notes) implies ; for it is not said (pdd^rov, cormptum, but con- 
tinually corrupting, though all the parts of corruption it hath at first, and 
that in the whole man. 

Thirdly, For therefore it is called the old man, because it is seated in the 
whole man, it is spread over all the faculties and powers of man. 

Now, that whereby the apostle describes this old man to us is that part of 
its corruption which we have in hand, namely, inclinations to what is evil ; 
for if you ask, what manner of thing the old man is ? he tells you it is 
nothing but corruption ; and if you ask wherein this corruption doth con- 
sist ? he answers you. By this which is the most sensible part of it, which 
divines call positive, viz. inclinations to sin ; for that is his meaning, when 
he saith, ' It is corrupt in lusts deceitful.' 

The text thus opened doth discover to us that the corruption of man's 
nature is not merely privatively to be expressed, but also positively; that is, 
that man's natural sinfulness lies not only in that there is no inclination to 
what is good, but further, that all our inclinations are set wrong, and going 
out of the way which is good to what is evil, which is a further thing, and a 
distinct part, and that is all we mean by that we call the positive part. Now, 
that which I intend to do about this subject, is to prove and demonstrate 
these things concerning it. 

I. That to the full description of our nature's sinfulness, there are required 
to be considered these two distinct parts of it, a privative and a positive. 

II. That this positive part is nothing but lusts set wrong, inclinations 
aberring and inclining us out of the way, which I will shew to be truly and 
properly sins, and wherein their sinfulness consists. 

III. Then I will shew the exceeding great sinfulness of man's nature in 
regard of them ; — 



280 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOJi YIII. 

1. In regard of their extension, both in regard of subject and object, in 
that all the inclinations that are in all faculties are out of the way, and car- 
ried on to evil, and also that there is no evil which in man's nature there is 
not an inclination unto. 

2. In regard of their parts, which is an averseness in inclination to what 
is good, and enmity against it, as well as inclination to evil. 

3. In regard of its degrees : their inclination is not only a fitness to evil, 
but a readiness ; not only a readiness, but a greediness, &c. 

I. To begin with the first, which is the foundation of the rest, viz. that, 
to make up the full description, there are required to be considered two 
parts, a privative and positive ; that is, though indeed, take it metaphorically 
and abstractly in its own nature, it is but a bare privation, as all sin is ; and 
so to define it, it were enough to say, that it is a want of what is good; yet 
morally considered, and as in our natures and inclinations, which are a posi- 
tive subject, so there are two distinct evils to be considered in it, to make 
up the full description of it, that is, God looking on our natures and inclina- 
tion as corrupted, and reckons two distinct parts of sin against us there : the 
one is merely privative, viz. that our inclinations are not carried on to what 
is good, and that they are taken ofi" from him; the other as importing some- 
thing positive, which is the bent of these inclinations to what is evil. As, 
for example, he that labours to express all the moral evil that is in pride, 
and says no more of it but that it is a want of humility, would not express 
all, though indeed physically, or in genere entiuni, it is but a mere privation ; 
but this must be added, to shew the full evil of it in fjenere moraUam, that 
it is an inordinate desire of exalting himself, and affecting some excellency 
above his measure, which notes out a positive part, or rather an affirmative 
part, as being in a positive subject to a positive object. And therefore all 
the privations to which sin is compared, they are not mere privations, but 
privations evilly disposing the subject they are in. As when it is compared 
to leaven, the old leaven : 1 Cor. v, 6, 7, ' Know ye not that a little leaven 
leaveneth the whole lump ? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may 
be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.' Leaven is not only the want of that 
right savour which should be in bread, and is naturally in it, but also a 
positive sourness, which affects it, and makes it unsavoury. And as that is 
physically thus, so is original sin morally ; for you shall find the Scripture 
(which is the best herald to quarter out the coat of the old man, which is to 
be put off) displaying the evil of it into these two several quarters and parts. 
So if we look on those places which in general speak of it, Rom. iii. 9, 10 
— he speaking of that common sinfulness that is in all, as those words 
imply, * all under sin,' and this both in their natures, as infants in their 
natures ; and lives, if living to years of discretion — he describes it, 

1. Privatively. (1.) In their natures: that 'there is none righteous,' 
ver. 10. (2.) In their lives : ' there is none that understands,' &c., ' none 
that doth good ;' but are unprofitable, unserviceable, ver. 11, 12. 

2. And then positively also, ver. 13-15. In their natural inclinations, 
' open sepulchres,' full of rotten bones when opened ; their ' mouths full of 
bitterness,' and ' poison is under their lips.' As also James saith, chap, 
iii. 6, 8, that they are full of nothing but inclinations to ill (speaking then 
within them, when they do not speak outwardly), and active inclinations 
which are called a fire that man's nature is inflamed with, and which sets it 
a-work. And so ' their feet are swift to shed blood,' ver. 15, which notes 
out the natural readiness and aptness to run that way ; and therefore in 
their lives there is much positive error committed, which he also describes, 
' With their tongues they have used deceit.' And by the way, let me note 



ClIAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT, 281 

this unto yon, that the places the apostle here cites and applies to prove the 
common sinfulness of man's nature, and this even by birth (for he speaks 
of all), are yet, in the places where they are cited, some of them spoken but 
of particular men, now as corrupted by actual sin, Ps. cxl. 3. That of 
' poison is under their lips,' is spoken upon occasion of Doeg, and but of 
persecutors only; that out of Isaiah lix. 7, 8, of 'feet swift to shed blood,' 
is spoken but of the oppressors among the Jews ; which here I note only to 
this purpose (though afterwards I shall use it to another), to stop that cavil 
which some papists have raised against our divines, that many of those 
places they bring to shew the corruption of our natures are spoken only of 
men corrupted by actual sins. You see the apostle doth so argue, and well 
may we ; for all that wickedness which is acted by particular men, is but 
the expression of that sinfulness that is in all men. Col. i. 21. They are 
not only said to be estranged as from the womb, from the life of God, as in 
Eph. iv. 18, it is explained, but that their minds are become vain and set 
on evil works. They are said to be in evil works, to note out their inclina- 
tions to them, as a man is said to be in law.* 

And as thus in general, so the corruption of particular faculties is both 
privatively and positively expressed. (1.) Their wisdom : Jer. iv. 22, * For 
my people is foolish, they have not known me ; they are sottish children, 
and they have none understanding : they are wise to do evil, but to do good 
they have no knowledge.' To do good they have no understanding; but 
that is not all, they are wise to do evil. (2.) The inclination of the will and 
aifections : Jex\ xxii. 17, ' But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy 
covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for 
violence, to do it.' Thy heart and eyes are not but for covetousness and op- 
pression ; that is, the inclination and disposition is privately taken off from 
all things that are good ; but for covetousness, to that it is inclined strongly 
enough. 

For reasons and grounds of this truth : 

First, Consider that sin in general (consider it which way you will) hath 
two such distinct evils in it, and so wheresoever it is to be found, both an 
evil privative and positive, is to be found to make up the definition. 

1. Consider it as it is a wrong to God, as he is the cbiefest good. Or, 

2. As he is the supreme judge, and governor, and lawgiver; for sin wrongs 
both ways, and so answerably hath two definitions of it, and both definitions 
include these two evils in it. 

1. As it is a wrong to God as the chiefest good: Jer. ii. 13, 'For my 
people have committed two evils : they have forsaken me the fountain of 
living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
hold no water.' He defines it by two distinct evils in it: 1, a forsaking of 
God the fountain, &c., which is merely privative; and, 2, a digging of pits, 
&c. So the schoolmen also define it, that it is an aversion a summo bono, 
et conversio indehita ad minus boniim. And these are two twins, that in 
what womb soever the one is begotten the other is also. Though the one 
is a consequent of the other, and takes the other by the heel, yet they are 
never severed : no aversion from God, but joined with conversion to the crea- 
ture ; no conversion thus to the creatui-e, but is accompanied with aversion 
from God. 

2. Take it as a wrong to God as lawgiver. So it is called and defined, 
1 John iii. 4, dvo/xla, a transgression of laws. Now, every commandment 
of God hath two parts inseparably conjoined : an affirmative, this you shall 
do ; a negative, this you shall not do ; a precept and a prohibition. And as 

* Qu. 'love'?— Ed. 



282 



AN UNREUENERATE MAn's GUILTIxNESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK YIII. 



these always are conjoined in law, so in sinning, -which is the transgression 
of the law. There is no failing in a precept, but is joined with jarring 
against some prohibition ; for sin bidding contrary to law, hath two parts 
also in it as that hath, only the breach of the negative part of the law makes 
a positive part of sin ; the faihng in the affirmative part of the law makes 
the privative part of sin, as two men standing opposite, the one's right hand 
is against the other's left. Now, then, if sin, both ways considered, hath 
two parts, and there so conjoined, as where one is the other is also ; then 
original sin must have these two parts, since it is proved to be both a sin 
and a law. A holy law was written once in our natures, and now sin is 
written there : Jer. xvii. 1, ' The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, 
and with the point of a diamond ; it is graven upon the table of their heart, 
and upon the horns of your altars.' And as the law had two parts when 
written there, so sin hath now ; therefore the law of the members is called 
contrary to the law of the mind, i. e. the law written in the mind : Rom. vii. 
23, ' But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my 
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my 
members.' 

Seco)idhj, If we consider the subject of all sin, it is either our actions or 
our inchnations. Now, in our actions these two parts are distinctly to be 
considered, whence the distinction of omission and commission ariseth : 
James iv. 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, 
to him it is sin.' Mat. xxv. 42, ' For I was an hungered, and ye gave me 
no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink.' There omission of 
what they ought to have done is a sin. John viii. 34, ' Whosoever com- 
mitteth sin is the servant of sin.' Ps. 1. 21, ' These things hast thou done, 
and I kept silence : thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as 
thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.' 
Their doing what they ought not to have done is a sin. Now, if these two 
parts are found in actions, then also in our inclinations or natures, which 
consequence is proved by a double reason. 

1. Because action is the child of inchnation : James i. 15, 'Then when 
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death.' Sin is said to be conceived, and to bring forth. An 
act hath no sinfulness which it sucks not from within ; for what is in the 
effect is in the cause, especially if it is begot as a child then it must be in 
the same image. 

2. Because the first sin of Adam, which was a sin of omission and com- 
mission both, was the parent of original sin, as I have proved, and so begut 
it in its likeness. As it was an aversion from God, it left us turned from 
him ; as it was a conversion to the creature, it left us inclined to all acts of 
commission : for John viii. 34, ' He that commits sin is the servant of it.' 
It binds over his nature to its service by positive inclinations as indentures. 

Use. If there be two parts in sin, then consider that true sanctification 
must have two parts also, for sanctification is opposite to sinfulness. There- 
fore, if you have learned Christ, as the truth is in Jesus, you have learned 
first to put off the old man, and then to put on the new. And as in your 
natures, so also in your lives, it is not enough to cease to do evil, but we 
must learn to do well ; so in your hearts, it is not enough for a man to have 
good motions, but he must also have his lusts mortified. There is now a 
kind of half religion, a negative and dough-baked religion in the world, as 
the prophet calls it, which hath not two parts in it as sin hath ; as civil 
men cease to do any man hurt, but they set not themselves to do good duties. 
Many men when they have their consciences terrified, they have their lusts 



Chap. II.] in kespect of sin and punishment. 283 

deadecl for a while, but yet they have not their hearts quickened to tliat 
which is good. But such must know that if sin hath two parts, then sancti- 
tication must have two parts also, both in your natures and lives. You 
must not only cease to add sin to sin, but you must add grace to grace : 
2 Peter i. 5, 'And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue,' 
&c. And you must also have a justitiuatiou that hath two parts, for if the 
disease hath two parts, then so must the remedy have also, or else it will do 
you no good ; as if a physician should bring you a potion, and you drink but 
half, it would do you no good. Now, God hath appointed for a remedy the 
righteousness of Christ, not only his death to take away sin, but also you 
must have his active righteousness imputed for the cleansing of your corrupt 
nature. You must take down the whole potion, and a whole Christ, not 
only whereby he takes away sin, but also that we may be made righteous by 
him ; and if your sanctihcation and justification here hath not two parts, 
then in the world to come punishment will have two parts : as 2 Thes. i. 7-9, 
' When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, 
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
power.' There is a separation from the presence; of God ; there is the pri- 
vative part. You shall be kept in close prison, and have not so much as a 
drop of water or a beam of light ; and you shall be positively punished also 
by the wrath of God for ever. Therefore, get the whole remedy, be not con- 
tent only with this, to abstain from evil, but also to have your hearts carried 
on and inclined to God and his ways. There are many men have good 
motions in them, but yet the thorns grow up and choke them. There is 
vivification without mortification, and so they are in everything partial. 

CHAPTER II. 

This positive part of the sinfulness of nature is not the very substance of the 
soul, as Flaccus lUijricus asserted, but the corrupt lust of it. — These lusts or 
desires in man in his original frame were right. — Wherein consisted (heir 
rectitude. — That we should examine ourselves whether this be restored in vs 
or not. 

II. Having shewn by Scripture and reason that sin, in what subject soever, 
hath these two parts, privative and positive, distinctly to be considered, now 
it remains I should, in the second place, explain both what is to be under- 
stood by that which divines call the positive part of original sin, which con- 
sists in lusts, and to shew wherein lies their sinfulness, and to prove them 
to be sins. For the thing itself, what should be meant by the positive part. 
Some expound it to be the very substantial nature of man, turned or trans- 
formed substantially into the image of the devil ;* that as Christ is the substan- 
tial image of his Father, so our nature is the substantial image of the devil,t 
misalleging this text to their purpose, because it is called the old man, so as 
original sin is, according to you, the man himself. But this expression is most 
gross and absurd, for then it could not be said of Christ, as it is Heb. ii. 
15, 16, that he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of 
Abraham, and in all things was made like us, sin only excepted, as else- 
where it is expressed : Heb. iv. 15, ' For we have not an high priest, which 
cannot be touched with the feeling of infirmities ; but was in all points tempted 
* Flaccus lllyricus; Demonstrat essent. imag. Dei et diaboli, p C7. 
f Idem de peccato originali. 



284 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

like as we are, yet without sin.' Christ had been eripouffiog with us, not of 
the same nature, if the substance of our nature was sin, for he had none of 
that ; and whereas sin is called the old man, it notes out only that it is seated 
in the whole man, and covers it as a garment, and informs it. As that part 
of the stocking that covers the foot is called the foot, that which covers the 
leg is called the leg, so this, covering a man as a garment to be pat off, is 
called the man. 

But that which you see the apostle doth express this positive corruption 
by is iTidvfMiai t-Jjs acrarjjj, therefore it is not the substance of man's nature, 
but the lusts of it ; and those also not taken simply in their nature, but as 
having an dffar/j, or abberration in them, do make up that corruption of the 
old man, which makes the positive part of our sinfuluess. 

And whereas some have thought this but a part of that corruption, sig- 
nifying only the corruption of the will and affection as the proper seat of 
lust ; and also fit rather to express the actual motions thereof, which are 
usually termed lusts, than the radical inclination, and so think this to be too 
scant a word to express the positive part of sin ; I will therefore, first, shew 
that the word Inst is largely taken, and so to be understood here for the 
habitual inclinations, and that of all the faculties, understanding also ; and so 
therefore inadequately to express the positive corruption of the whole man. 

1. I say, by lusts here the apostle would have us understand the habi- 
tual inclinations and dispositions of the mind ; for though indeed ordinarily 
the word he used is taken for those first actual movings and desires of the 
heart towards some object it is inclined unto, yet here the apostle speaks 
not of the actual corruption of the old man only, so much as of habitual 
corruption, which is the root and spring of ail, as I shewed afore; and, there- 
fore, by these lusts here, in regard of which the old man is said to be thus 
habitually corrupted, must needs be understood the habitual inclinations and 
dispositions of the mind, which are the cause of all the actual stirrings and 
lustings of the heart, and the principle of them, as the poise or weights are 
of the movings of the wheels in a clock ; so that as all the faculties of the 
soul were made continually to move and stir, so there are several inclina- 
tions annexed to each of them, which are as weights continually to act them ; 
and their inclinations are here called lusts, as well as the first motions them- 
selves ; and so the word s'^nh/xia, in the general acceptation of it, is that 
whereby ^vftog (p's^srat siri is carried, or is apt to be carried or moved, to- 
wards something : James i. 14, ' But every man is tempted, when he is 
drawn away of his owm lust, and enticed.' There lust is made the principal 
of all the motions of the soul ; he calls it, being drawn or moved by his own 
lust, as a clock by its weights ; so that there is no act in any faculty, but 
some inclination or lust is the cause of it, for we can stir to nothing to which 
we have not an inclination. And so of all sins that bring forth death, 
ver. 15, as also of all the corruption that is in the world, 2 Pet. i. 4, lust is 
the womb and root ; so also all that is in the world is said to be lust : 
1 John ii. 16, ' For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the 
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the 
world.' 

2. By lusts here, he intends to signify and import all the positive incli- 
nations of what kind soever, which any faculty hath in it, to move or stir to 
whatsoever act it doth put forth ; for here he speaks of the whole man, as 
I shewed before ; and therefore lusts, as here taken, are the inclinations of 
every faculty in man, and therefore are not to be limited here to the inferior 
faculties — affections and will — but to the superior also — the understanding, 
memory, judgment ; which to be his meaning is evident, because, in ver. 23, 



Chap. II.] in rkspect of sin and punishment. 285 

speaking of renewing, and so putting off these corrupt lusts, he instances 
only in spirit of the mind, as implying that this is the seat of these corrupt 
lusts, as well as will and affections ; and, indeed, the Scripture is clear for 
this, for, Eph. ii. 3, where, first speaking in general of the corrupt inclina- 
tions and lustings of man's nature, in those words, ' Having our conversa- 
tion in lusts of the flesh,' that is, corrupt nature, he subdivides these lusts in 
regard of their subjects unto the wills, ^iX7i/j,ara, of the flesh, that is, the 
inferior part of the soul, the affections ; and tuv diocvoiuv, of the discoursing, 
reasoning, and thinking power ; for reason tells us that the understanding, 
memory, &c., have their inclinations or lusts to move, rather to this than 
that object, or against this towards that ; rather to think of some things, 
and entertain parley, and admit them to it, than other things. Whence 
comes this, but that the understanding hath its inclinations or lusts as well 
as will, &c. ? So Paul saith, 1 Cor. ii. 2, ' For I determined not to know any 
thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' And if the under- 
standing hath sins come from it, then also lusts ; for, James i. 14, 15, lust 
is the cause of all sin ; and so in Gal. v. 17, &c., heresies, sins of under- 
standing, are reckoned amongst the lusts of the flesh. 

3. Because all these positive inclinations which are in the soul to move, 
are in themselves, barely considered, good, created by God, as well as the 
faculties themselves ; for power of motion is a creature, and, therefore, so 
cannot be said to be a part of original corruption. Therefore, to shew you 
how they came to be a part of original corruption, and of the old man, 
he tells you, that now since the fall there is an aberration in all those incli- 
nations ; for he calls tiiem lusts, r^; aTruTrj:, that is, that they incline and 
set us out of our way, viz. that right way they at first were set in by God ; 
for, Eccles. vii. 29, God made them right, put a virtue into them to move us 
to him, as iron doth to a loadstone ; now these inclinations or lusts have lost 
their virtue, and so, though still they move us, yet i/c TYjg vdrri;, out of the 
way : and so, James i. 14, a man is said to be i^iX-/.6n,iw:, by his lust, 
drawn from what is right, God and all goodness ; and by the poise of these 
inclinations thus wanting, viz, that first virtue to guide them right, we are 
carried to all evil ; for sin is but an aberration, James v. 20, and in this 
regard they are said to be corrupt ; and so now these positive inclinations 
having this aberration in them, are said to be a part of the old man. 

Now follows the chiefest thing : and indeed the difficultest we have to do 
in the opening of this point, is truly to explain and represent unto us a 
description of those lusts of man, as set wrong, as they fully thus express 
all that positive sinfulness that is in man's nature. Three things are to be 
done in it. 

And, 1st, because sTidv/z^ia, lust, in a general and common acceptation, is 
used to express the desires and inclinations of man's mind in innocency, and 
as now renewed by grace, as well as the corrupt desires of the old man ; for 
it is spoken of Christ, Luke xxii. 15, ' And he said unto them, With desire 
I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer,' sTidv/xia. Its^u- 
/ATjffa. And, Gal. v. 17, the spirit is said to lust against the flesh ; and, 
therefore, for distinction's sake. Col. iii. 5, it is called an inordinate affection, 
and evil concupiscence, implying that there are good lusts as well as evil ; 
and so here it is sTr/^u/i/a/ a.'jra.rrig, implying there are lusts set right as well 
as wrong ; therefore it is necessary to shew you the nature of lusts in com- 
mon, as they are natural in a man's mind, considered as neither holy nor 
sinful, and the grounds of them. 

And, 2dly, having understood the common nature of them, because rec- 
turn est index ohliqui, we will inquire what was the rectitude of the lusts of 



286 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

man's nature at first creation, in the state of innocency, and wherein it con- 
sisted, and what was the ground of it. 

And then, Sdly, the way will be clearly laid to shew the crookedness, obli- 
quity, and warring of these lusts, spoken of here, when called rr^s aTrdrrig, 
and also the grounds of it. 

1. Lust in the common acceptation, as the genm of good and bad, rege- 
nerate and unregenerate desires, signify nothing but the inclination, power, 
or readiness of the mind, or any faculty of it, to move to some good thing 
ac^reeable to it ; so the word ^u/zog It/, a mind to a thing, doth import. 
For the mind of man, and all the faculties of it, being a most active thing, 
and ordained never to lie still, but to be conversant about something or 
other, as the heavens and spheres thereof in the great world ; so the soul 
(whereof the heavens are an emblem), and the several spheres thereof, do 
always move, and the mind, more nimbly than they, coursing from one end 
of heaven to another in an instant. Now the mind of man being thus active, 
must needs be full of inclinations or proneness thns to act ; for that which 
provokes it, and puts it on in any motion to any object, is a proneness and 
an inclination it hath to it ; for as the reason why a stone moves down- 
ward, is because it hath a propenseness and inclination downward, so in 
like reason that any faculty moves thus about any object, is from an inward 
proneness and inclination to such a motion ; for that which in beasts and 
dead things we call an inclination or instinct, in man, being a reasonable 
creature, we call lust ; so the proneness that is in the mind of man to muse 
and think upon truth, as agreeing with it, is lust, sTi^u/zia ; the inclination 
in the will to choose what is good, is i-^ridv/Mia. And the ground of this ac- 
tiveness, and, consequently, of those many inclinations in man's mind, is 
because man's mind was ordained to receive its happiness, comfort, and 
well-being from things out of itself : Ps. iv. 6, ' Who will shew us any good ?' 
Which that, therefore, it might attain, and continually preserve, it must act 
continually, and move towards some object or other agreeable to it, for its 
life and happiness was to come in by it ; and, consequently, it having all its 
well-being from conjunction with other things by action or motion, in itself, 
then, it must needs be nothing but lusts, inclination, and longing after some 
thing agi'eeable to it, which might still whet it on to action ; as the sto- 
mach having its nourishment and sustenance from what is agreeable to 
itself, you see in itself it is nothing but appetite, and so are all faculties, 
empty" beggars dependent ; God being only duTdo^Tii, both spring and cis- 
tern of his own happiness : and so you have what lusts are, and the grounds 
of them. 

The second thing to be explained is, wherein consists that rectitude or 
riiditness of these inclinations of mankind, wherein it was fu-st created, 
Eccles. vii. 29, and whereof this acraDj, wickedness, of the lusts of corrupt 
nature is the privation, and that is explained by three things. 

1. God being the chiefest good, in whom true and right happiness is only 
fi)und, and man's mind being created for God, then one part of that rec- 
titude of his lusts or inclinations was, that they were carried with the joint 
stream of them to him as their chiefest good and most agreeable to them. 
For he being indeed the chiefest good, in all equity and right he only was 
worthy to have all man's desires carried to him ; therefore the law, which 
is a rule that rectitude was a conformity unto, says, Luke x. 27, ' Love the 
Lord with all thy heart ;' and Mark xii. 33, sk rrig truvsasug, ' with all thy 
mind ;' and so with the joint stream of all, else they swerve from the rule 
which is most right and equal. And this may be added, seeing that even the 
law itself, and the inclinations we have, are from God, good reason they 



Chap. II.j in respect of sin and punishment. 287 

should be carried to God. So the apostle reasons, 1 John iv. 7, why our 
love should be bestowed on our neighbour, because love is of God ; and he 
commands it to bo thus placed above all upon himself. Yet this is not all, 
but further also, 

2. God being the chiefest good, must needs also be the chiefest end, for 
bonum et finis convertuntur. And man being a creature whose inclinations 
were to be swayed by some end propounded, therefore to this rectitude fur- 
ther there was required that they should be carried to him, not chiefly for 
the happiness that was to be had by him, but to glorify him as God, other- 
wise they had warped from that rectitude which was requisite in them, for 
the law saith simply, * Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, but thy 
neighbour as thyself;' of loving God there is no ref/ula, or rule. And also 
had it been for pleasure as the chiefest end, it had respected a creature above 
God, and that is unequal ; for all things are by him, therefore for him : Col. 
i. 16, 'All things were created by him, and for him;' iii. 23, 'And what- 
soever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men,' 

3. Whereas he was inclined towards other things besides God, yet his great 
and chief inclination was to God; for as God had made him under himself, 
as therefore he was capable of the goodness which was in God, so above all 
worldly creatures else he was lord of all, God making all for him as a sub- 
ordinate end, and therefore made him the last ; and therefore he endued him 
with such a nature as was so suited and disposed as it might receive and taste 
of all the goodness which God, as the stamps of his own goodness, had dis- 
persed over all the world ; yet still so as man was principally to regard God 
as his chiefest good, and also chiefest end. And therefore a third thing to 
be considered in that rectitude is a consequent of the other, that though his 
inclinations carried him to other things, yet in subordination to God, as his 
only chief good and utmost end, who made both them and him, and both 
for himself, he was so to desire other things as they are ordained for him. 
Now, they were ordained for him, but as to a subordinate end, and for him 
to receive but a subordinate good from them ; and therefore that first recti- 
tude must needs also lie in this, that he desired them in subordination to 
God, which subordination lies in three things. 

First, That his inclinations were carried to none of these with equal prone- 
ness or affection as unto his God, nothing being so good as he, and therefore 
rothing so suitable to him ; and therefore he inclined to nothing so much as 
unto God. And if his rectitude lay in making God the chiefest good, then 
he could desire nothing in comparison of him ; as David, Ps. Ixxiii. 25, 
' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I 
desire besides thee.' 

Secondly, His inclinations were carried to nothing contrary to God, or 
unto anything he would or did forbid, to no unlawful pleasure. Man in no- 
thing thwarted his law or command, which follows upon the other, viz. that 
he made God his chiefest end ; he inclined to nothing therefore that should 
thwart God's glory and sovereignty over him. 

And lastly, all his inclinations were carried to other things, only as helps 
and means to make him partake further of God, as all the goodness in the 
creatures were, that therein he might read and behold the goodness of God 
the more clearly and fully. 

1. For example, the speculative understanding of Adam in innocency (to 
instance in that which seems to have nothing of lust in it) was inclined to 
know God, and to think and muse of him as the prime and chiefest, fairest 
and only satisfying, object thereof. 

2. And this not so much for the pleasure of contemplation (which of all 



288 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

other is the sweetest), but chiefly to exalt, admire, and fall down before him, 
and adore him in every thought of him as his chiefest end. 

3. And whereas he understood, and was to think and study and view every 
creature, yet in subordination to him ; as, 

(1.) To think of nothing with that dearness, welcoming the contemplation of 
none of them so as of his God, as being the only fair object that ever his eye 
beheld ; though as God, so he, did see that all things were exceeding good. 
Gen. i. 31, yet as not worthy to be looked on the same day with God himself. 

(2.) Much less to entertain or hold interview in any liking with the thought 
that tended to his dishonour. 

(3.) And though other things allowed him to exercise his thoughts about 
them, yet to this end only, as means to let him see and know, and knowing, 
to love his God the more, to see him in all things, as in every creature then 
he did ; and to admire still his wisdom, power, &c., in all. 

The ground of this rec^Jtude. What was it carried his inclinations, and 
guided them thus right ? It was, 1st, the image of God stamped upon them, 
wherein at first he was created. Gen. i. 27 ; Col. iii. 10, ' And have put on 
the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that 
created him.' This active principle of motion, his inclination I mean, was 
touched with a magnetical virtue, or a divine nature, which bended thus 
unto God, as the virtue of the loadstone doth the needle unto the north, and 
so it is called a divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4. Now, this being the image or 
likeness to God, must needs carry all to him, as most agreeable to him; for 
shuile convenit, appetit, (laudet sbnili, every like delights and rejoices in what 
is like to itself. 

2dly, It being the image of God's holiness ; as Col. iii. 10, ' And have put 
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that 
created him ;' Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' It being thus the image 
of God in holiness, must needs carry all to him as the chiefest end, and for 
his glory principally. For what is God's holiness but this, that he makes 
himself his end ? And if this did not advance our inclinations also to this 
end, it were not holiness, nor could be called his image. And, 

3dly, It must carry the man to all other things in subordination to God ; 
for if this drew him out to God as his chiefest good, then it kept all in 
compass, from being drawn out to anything else equally as to him, and then 
averted all from what was contrary to his glory, which was man's utmost 
end ; and then turned him unto all things which subserved this end, thereby 
to glorify him the more. 

Use. Try then whether this rectitude be begun again in any of your hearts, 
yea or no : it being the same image renewed in a regenerate man in part, 
which was in Adam at first. 

1. If it be renewed in you, then all your inclinations and proneness of the 
soul will carry all to God as your chiefest good, and to fellowship with him 
as your chiefest happiness ; as David says, ' Whom have I in heaven but 
thee, and in earth, in comparison of thee ?' Ps. Ixxiii. 25. No thoughts will 
be so welcome as those about God, no hours pass with more contentment, 
than those wherein you enjoy fellowship with God. All your soul will be 
knit to him, as David's was : Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, ' Teach me thy way, Lord, I 
will walk in thy truth ; unite my heart to fear thy name.' But it will be 
out of joint, and so distempered ; it will be out of the centre of its rest, and 
so will gravitate, and be heavy and sad, as all things are that have a prone- 
ness downward ; or it will be as the needle in a compass, which, though 
joggled wrong, yet would still stand due north. 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 289 

2. If this rectitude of your inclinations be restored, then all within will 
act for God as the chiefest end. As you will desire to know nothing in com- 
parison of him, as St Paul says, 1 Cor. ii. 3, Philip, iii. 8, 9, so chiefly to set 
him up thereby ; the want of which was the Gentiles' sin, Rom. i. 21, and 
so it will elevate all your inclinations ; as, supposing that ho might have more 
glory by your separation from him, as the chiefest good, and so you lose 
that comfoi'table fellowship with him, yet this rectitude would sway all 
your desires to God's glory, as Paul's were : E.om. ix. 3, ' For I could wish that 
myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according 
to the flesh.' 

Lastly, Though your inclinations carry you to act other things whilst in 
this life, in callings and recreations, &c., yet so will grace and the power there- 
of sway all within in some measure, as when anything is propounded, though 
never so pleasant, that is contrary unto God, it will stir up such a kind of 
inclination or lusting against it, as you by sin have to it : Gal. v. 17, ' For 
the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these 
are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
would.' The spirit lusteth against the flesh : conscience will not only for- 
bid, and stir up fear against it, but grace will stir up inclinations, and those 
of hatred and dislike against it ; and though all be carried towards other 
things lawful, yet to this end, to advance God in all. In eating and drink- 
ing, and in all inchnations, we shall look that way ; for this end it will season, 
guide, moderate, and elevate them all to glorify God in all, as Paul says, 1 Cor. 
X. 36 ' Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
the glory of God.' 



CHAPTEE III. 

How our inclinations and desires lost that rectitude with which at first they 
were created. — WJierein the sinfulness of our lusts consists. — That all our in- 
clinations and desires are not onhj averted from God, hut turned to all things 
besides him, and carried out after them, as our chiefest good. — That we make 
ourselves, and pleasing ourselves, our utmost end. — 27uit loe delight in things 
contrary to (Jod, in things that are evil. — That we should take notice of the 
vileness and baseness of our natures in all this. 

If you ask me how our inclinations, pointed or touched with this rectitude, 
come to lose it ? this continued similitude may help to convey it to your 
minds, though not fully answering in all, as none do. God launched man 
into this world, as one of his navy-royal, though empty of itself of happi- 
ness, yet bound to that right haven where it was to be had, viz., God him- 
self : furnished to that end with an understanding as a factor, to deal for 
God even in seeking its own good ; with a will as a rudder, to be guided by 
the understanding, and so steer aright ; with an active principle to move 
itself without either wind or tide, if steered aright, to that port. To direct 
all in which voyage, God furnished him also with a needle and compass, his 
image or divine nature, informing all, still looking God-ward, as a mariner's 
compass doth northward, which had he steered by, he had certainly come to 
the true haven, and there rested for ever. But this merchant, apprehend- 
ing a possibility of making a better voyage at another port than this needle 
directed and pointed him unto, he jogs and moves the rudder of his will 
wrong, by reason that though that inclination at first had set it right, 

VOL. X. T 



290 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

yet go as it was moveable, and free to turn the other way, and so he did. 
As a punishment of which error, that needle lost its virtue, was deprived of 
God's image, and that rectitude wherein at tirst it was created, and now turns 
every way, as man's inclinations do, but only the right : and he now sailing 
by this which now whirls every way, arrives sometimes at the port of honour, 
sometimes of riches, as the needle turns, and his lusts, now set wrong, do 
guide him ; and though freedom of will still remains, so as he may turn the 
rudder this way or that way, yet so as never more unto the right ; and as 
such a needle and compass may be called deceitful, or r^c a^ar;;? ; so also 
are man's inclinations now in the same sense. But this is but a similitude. 

Now to shew you wherein this a^^rar?;, or aberration lies ; as I said before, 
it is easily discovered, if you review but wherein the rectitude lay. For con- 
ceive but the clean contrary to be now in them to that their first rectitude, 
and you have the main essentials wherein this aberration lies ; I say the 
essentials, because the aggravations of their sinfulness and aberration is after- 
wards to be added in the second place. I will first give you the entire 
description of the irrectitude of them, with all the severals of it set together ; 
which, secondly, I will take in pieces, and handle by themselves. 

First, For the entire description of it, it hes in this, that now all the in- 
clinations and lustings of man's mind are not only taken ofi', and clean averted 
from God, as their chiefest good and utmost end, but also are prone to be 
carried to anything besides God, as more agreeable to them, and as their 
chiefest good, yea, and to all things most contrary unto God, merely to please 
themselves, as their utmost end ; and which is more also, they^re prone to 
carry and move all in man's mind against God, and all that tend to reduce 
and bring them right to God again. This is the description of it in the 
gross. Let us view the parts of it, which are three, expressed in three words, 
aversa, conversa, adversa : aversion from God ; conversion to all things else, 
yea, to what is contrary to him ; and adverseness to all that might turn us 
to God again ; whereof one hangs and depends upon, and is a consequent of 
the other, as you will see afterwards. 

1st. All our inclinations now are turned away from God; and in this 
regard they are called ungodly lusts: Jude 18, ' How that they told you, 
there shall be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own 
ungodly lusts,' rojv da^iixv. So as now, when any inclination or lust stirs 
in us, it doth draw us away, as James says, chap. i. 14, or as in the original, 
B^iAKo/jAvog, draw out of its natural place appointed for it. Now, the natural 
centre of our souls, both when our greatest rest and dehght of mind was in 
God, as in our chiefest good, and the utmost end of all our actions and 
motions, was God, whom David calls his rest ; Ps. cxvi. 7, ' Return, my 
soul, unto thy rest ;' out of which now our inclinations or lusts draw and 
hale us, and cause us to depart from the living God,' Heb. iii. 12 ; to ' draw 
back from him,' Heb. x. 38. And then follows the other, which is OEXsa^o- 
/Mivo;, to carry us to some bait of pleasure elsewhere, as in James i. 14. 
And as the rectitude of our inclinations had two main pai'ts, to cany us to, 
and rest in God as our chiefest good and chiefest end, so these lusts turn 
us away fi'om God in both regards. 

1. From him as the chiefest good to be delighted in; so that place in Jer. 
ii. 13 is principally to be understood, forsaking God as the fountain of 
living waters ; for he is so called, as being the fresh continual spring of 
happiness and comfort. So that now a man cannot delight in him, nor in the 
thoughts of him, or communion with him, or anything that relisheth of his 
holiness, because now he wants that image of his that made us like him ; 
and so, gaudere simili, to rejoice in what is like. So that it may be said of 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 201 

all men what is said in Job xxvii. 10, ' Will he delight himself in the Al- 
mighty ? Will he always call upon God ?' 

2. They are turned from making him their chiefcst end. So doth that 
speech of men corrupted in Job argue, chap. xxi. 15, 'What is the Almighty, 
that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray untO' 
him '? ' Now, to serve him, is to make him our end in all our actions,, 
and to do all for his advantage and profit. Now they acknowledge no such 
service due to him in deed and in truth, though in words they may, Titus i. IG. 
For they have made profit and advantage to themselves their end, and there- 
fore serve God but to that end ; for it follows in Job xxi. 15, ' If we pray, 
what profit shall we have ?' 

2d. But this is indeed but the privative part of their aberration, and I shewed 
it when I handled the ungodliness of our natures. And we have now to do 
only with their positive aberration, which is the consequent of this, and 
which lies in two main parts, whereof the one is the consequent of the other. 

(1.) An inordinate conversion to other things, joined 

(2.) With a positive averseness or lusting against God ; for that is to be 
added as an appendix and consequent of the former. So that as the priva- 
tive part of our sinfulness had two parts, as I shewed out of Rom. v. 6, so 
also hath the positive sinfulness of our inclinations, in that we are called 
sinners, ver. 8; and also enemies, ver. 10 ; namely, as we have an inclina- 
tion to sin, so against what is good, which is th« second thing we have now 
in hand. 

First, then, to speak of the aberration of our lusts, not only as averted 
from God, but converted to other things inordinately, which is the fii'st part 
positive. That they were prone to be carried to anything besides God as 
more agreeable to them, and a chief good, yea, and to all things most con- 
trary to God, merely to please themselves as their utmost end. So that 
whereas, as I told you- before, man's inclinations, whilst right, are inclined 
to other good things besides God, created for man's comfort, yet so as, 

First, To nothing equally to him, making him still the chiefest good.. 
Now, many inclinations are carried to all those things rather than to him>. 
so as to make them their chiefest good. 

Secondly, Whereas before, though they were carried out to other things, 
they still made God the utmost end in all ; now they are carried out to all 
other things agreeable to them, to please themselves, as their utmost end. 

Thirdhj, And whereas they were carried out whilst right, only to good 
things, and in this subordinate manner also ; now they are carried out thus 
inordinately to things simply evil, such as God never created, but foi'bids 
and hates, viz. all manner of sins whatever. 

To demonstrate these three particulars to you. 

First, Man's inclinations are carried to anything but God as his chiefest 
good, and finds more pleasure in anything than in God ; why else is it said, 
2 Tim. iii. 2, ' For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, 
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy ;' that is, of 
pleasures which are to be had out of him, more than those which are to be 
had in him, as the opposition shews ? Why else is it said, Eccles. vii. 29, 
' Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright ; but they 
have sought out many inventions,' i. e. man having lost that rectitude which 
he was created in, he seeks out many inventions? which carries this meaning 
with it, that the soul being put ofl:' of God to delight in, is now fain to seek to 
go up and down all the world for pleasure ; yea, and so hard it is to come by, 
so unsatisfactory all vain things here below are ; and therefore are men so 
often put to shifts that they are fain to use their wits, as men tlat live a 



292 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

sharking life by their wits, to find out new inventions, to get pleasure from 
that which God never created; from envy, murder, &c., which he never 
ordained, nor came into his heart to ordain ; as he says of that invention of 
sacrificing their children to Moloch, Jer. vii. 30; and content they are to 
seek, and go all the world over, as the Israelites, for straw and stubble, for 
fuel for their pleasures, and will bring new strange inventions into the 
world rather than go to God, to the land of Canaan flowing with milk and 
honey. They are willing to dig for water all the earth over, as it is said, 
Jer. ii. 13, to look for comfort in the creature, where they are not sure to 
find it, rather than go to the spring and fountain where it is to be had. So 
long as they can have but an husk, though empty of the kernel of true 
happiness, yet, as the prodigal would have been contented with them, and 
not have gone home to his father, where was bread enough, Luke xv. IG, 
so also they will be satisfied with anything rather than go to God ; all which 
shews they are carried to anything rather than to God. Neither is there 
any comfort so poor, mean, and contemptible, which a man's soul will not 
stoop to, and inclinations prey upon it, rather than return to God. They 
will transgress for pieces of bread, Ezek. xiii. 19 ; they will leap like dogs 
at a crust ; they will sin even for old shoes : Amos ii. 6, ' Thus saith the 
Lord, For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away 
the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the 
poor for a pair of shoes ;' that is, they will do wickedly for trifling pleasures, 
things of no worth in comparison, so the Scripture speaks of them ; which 
shews that anything^ though never so mean, they prefer before God and 
happiness in him. 

And which is to be added as an appendix of the irrectitude to discover 
it, they are carried to these things as their chiefest good. So the rich man 
is brought in, saying to his soul, ' Go, take thine ease in thy goods laid up 
for many years.' As if he should have said, Here is all the comfort thou 
art lik-e to enjoy, and as many years as these last thou shalt do well enough. 
So also are the*^ epicures : 1 Cor. xv. 32, ' Eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
shall die.' As if they had reasoned thus, Take it out, whilst you may, as 
much as y-ou can, for you are not like to stay long by it; therefore these 
worldly enjoyments are called wicked men's dainties, Ps. cxli. 4, as being 
the sweetest bit they desire ; their treasure, Mat. vi. 19, as the choicest of 
things they care for ; their god, Philip, iii. 19, which they set up in that 
room, which God once had in them, to be the fountain of their happiness ; 
and therefore they are called, as idolaters. Col. iii. 5, Eph. v. 5, so adulterers, 
James iv. 4, as placing that aflection on the world, and things of it, that they 
should fix upon God as their husband chiefly to be dehghted in ; and they 
use that that is their chiefest good, which they ought to use as a servant 
only: 1 Cor. vii. 30, 31, ' And they that weep, as though they wept not ; 
and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as 
though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: 
for the fashion of this world passeth away.' This is the first part of that 
irrectitude in our lusts, which is, as Augustine* says, vtmdis velle fmi, to 
seek to enjoy chief happiness in those things we should but use. 

The second thing wherein the inordinate aberration of our lusts, in regard 
of their conversion to other things besides God, lies, is that as they are 
carried thus to them, as their chiefest good, so also merely for pleasure or 
self-love's sake as the utmost end ; which is an aberration from that mark 
they were first aimed at, and ordained to carry their actions to. For where- 
as God, the author of all, had made the soul for action, and ordained all its 
* August, de Trinit. lib, x. cap. 10. 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 293 

actions to his glory, as their end and pleasure (which accompanies their 
motions, when conversant about things agreeable to them), only as the oil to 
the wheel to further action, to make it move the more nimblj' and cheerfully 
about, without retardation and trouble ; and as sauce to ntir up appetite, and 
whet on a little our inclinations ; so as pleasure was but a subordinate thing 
to our actions and inclinations, as they also to God's glory. Now for 
pleasure to be made the ultimate end of all, what a confusion is this ! such 
an error as Solomon saw in states, Eccles. x. 6, 7, to exalt the servant to be 
above his master. Now, that our lusts are thus inordinate in regard of their 
end, also appears by that in James iv. 3, ' Ye ask, and receive not, because 
ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.' He challenge th 
them of an irrectitude in their lusts, not only in making the things of the 
world in the place of a husband, or the chief good, ver. 4, but in the end 
of seeking them. Ye seek amiss, that is, to a wrong end, to spend it on 
your pleasures; so the word in the original, sv raTc r,bova7g, and so it is in 
the margin varied, as noting out the final cause, as Beza notes, for s/c rdg 
r,hovag ; and Titus iii. 3, they are said to serve lusts and pleasures, pleasure 
being the business the lust aims at, and useth actions as the^bawd to bring 
them together ; and therefore the great aberration which God at the latter 
days shall punish (James v. 3, 5 compared) is, that they had lived in 
pleasure, aimed at nothing else in their lives but to please themselves, and 
to nourish their own hearts, and feed them fat ; and therefore the rule God 
goes by in punishing is this, so much pleasure, so much torment : Rev. 
xviii. 7, ' How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciouslv, so much 
torment and sorrow given her : for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and 
am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.' And why doth God go by this rule, 
but because pleasure is the utmost end which caused men in all actions to 
err? Now when I say, pleasure is made their utmost end, it is all one as 
if I should say, Thej^ make themselves their utmost end ; that is, all man's 
inclinations carrj' him to move, or to act nothing which doth not please him- 
self, advance and profit himself some way ; yea, and otherwise he hath no 
inclination to stir one jot, to bring any glorj' to God, or to do any man the 
greatest good in the world, otherwise than it some way reflects on himself, 
and for to advance himself; otherwise he cares not if all the world, God and 
Christ, heaven and earth, should perish, as Judas did not, and the devil doth 
not, whose lusts we have in us, John viii. 44 ; I say, it is self-love, and 
pleasing ourselves is that which guides all ; and indeed these two are all one. 
And 2 Tim. iii. 2, reckoning up a bead-roll of evils should abound in men's 
lives in the last days, that which he brings in as the captain of this army, 
in the beginning or forefront, that rules them all, and they stir not with- 
out his command, is self-love, ' men shall be lovers of themselves;' and that 
which he brings in as the captain's lieutenant at the end, is the ' loving of 
pleasures ;' so as you see they are all one, and have the same rule in the 
heart. And so predominant shall that end be in them to please themselves, 
that they shall break all bands of friendship, society, nature, grace, and do 
any mischief but to please themselves. As now, whereas men are tied in 
dearest bonds to parents, and to please them all they may, to whom they 
owe their lives, yet to please themselves they care not to become disobedient 
to them, ver. 2. And whereas nature ties us strongly to our children, to 
love them, and do them all the good we can, if so that at any time their 
good reflects not on ourselves some way, it makes us without natural afiec- 
tion, ver. 3. If we have bound ourselves never so strongly in covenant to 
others, yet if we shall receive such a damage by it, as is not helped some 
other way, in credit, &c., we prove truce breakers ; if tied in civil society, 



294 AN UNKEGENERA.TE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

and common bond of superiors, for good of the whole, we prove traitors 
■when it is for our advantage, so as no right or ties of obligation can hold us; 
and if we deal thus with men, we care not to blaspheme God, ver. 2, and 
live ungodlj, and despise those that are good, &c., for every man seeks his 
own things, Philip, ii. 21. And as true love of God seeks not its own, 
1 Cor. xiii. 5, so self-love only their own: Isa Ivi. 11, 12, 'They all look 
to their own way, every one to his gain.' And with this principle are our 
lusts now wholly guided and inspired, being indeed but branches of that 
great vena cava, and therefore are called our own ungodly lusts, Jude 18, as 
making God no longer, but ourselves, our chief end ; and therefore on the other 
side too, denying of ourselves, and mortifying our lusts, is the same thing. 

Now then, the third thing wherein the aberration of our lusts are turned 
to other things, lies in this, that they are carried out thus inordinately, even 
to take pleasure in things contrary unto God, which are simply evil, whereas, 
when right, they were carried out only to good things of this life, still in 
subordination ; but now there is an inclination not to make riches, honours, 
&c., our chiefest good, but that which.is truly and simply wickedness : 1 Cor. 
X. 6, ' Lusting after evil things ; ' 2 Thes. ii. 12, ' Pleasure in unrighteous- 
ness,' as envy, lying, murder, blasphemy, &c. So you read, James iv., that 
men's lusts carry them out, not only to good things of the world, as chiefest 
good, vers. 2-4, but ' lusteth,' ver. 5, ' after envy,' &c., that is, to repine at 
the good of another, as Christ describes it. Mat. xx. 15, our eye being evil, 
because God is good to another. So Rachel envied Leah, she being barren, 
Gen. XXX. 3, so that she would have her husband defile his maid, that Leah 
might not have all the children, though she still should have none. And as 
men repine at the good of another, so rejoice at the hurt also ; so Edom, 
Obadiah 12, rejoiced over Jerusalem in the day of their destruction; and 
Ezek. XXV. 6, stamped with the feet, clapped the hands, shews all signs of 
joy, and rejoiced in soul, and manifested all despite against the land of 
Israel. And a man comforts himself in revenging himself upon another in 
the gi-eatest discomforts ; so Esau, Gen. xxvii. 42, when disconsolate for the 
loss of his birthright, yet comforted himself that he would be revenged on 
Jacob, yea, and bears this long in mind ; as Edom, Ezek. xxv. 15, to 
destroy it for old or perpetual hatred ; 3'ea, and this also, when there is no 
real cause given : Ps. xxxv. 19, ' Let not mine enemies wrongfully rejoice 
over me, that hate me without a cause,' and would wink with their eyes if 
any evil befel him. In a word, the devil's lusts, as called so, John viii. 44, 
murder, malice to God and men, and that when when they do them no hurt, 
are in us ; ' His lusts ye will do,' they are called his lusts, because he onW 
takes pleasure in such things, and having no creatures to delight in as we, 
and having before had nothing but God, now turned from God, he hath 
nothing but simply mischief to delight in, which also men delight in : Ps. 
lii. 1, ' Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man ? the goodness 
of God endureth continually.' Wanting charity, 1 Cor. xiii. 6, and true 
love to God, they do rejoice in iniquity, and make it a sport to do mischief: 
Prov. X. 23, ' It is a sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of under- 
standing hath wisdom.' They love swearing and lying more than true and 
holy speeches : Ps. lii. 3, 4, ' deceitful tongue, that lovest evil more than 
good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness, and love all-devouring 
words,' ver. 4. Yea, and which is the highest that can be, men have dis- 
positions in them, would carry them to delight in sin as sin, because it 
ofiends God, not only because some pleasure or other cannot be had but by 
sinning, but svb hac notioiie, under this notion, because it provokes and 
angers the Lord. So they that sin against the Holy Ghost, they despite- 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 295 

fully sin, and cast a contumely on the Spirit : Heb. x. 29, ' Of how much 
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden 
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto 
the Spirit of grace ? ' This is called blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, 
Mat. xii. 31, 32, 'Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blas- 
phemy shall be forgiven unto men : but the blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word 
against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come.' And it is an endeavouring to put Christ to 
open shame, as in Heb. vi. 6, * If they shall fall away, to renew them again 
unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, 
and put him to an open shame.' Now to this sin we are all prone, else 
David would not have prayed to be kept fi'om it, as he seems to do : Ps. 
xix. 13, ' Keep me from presumptuous sins, so shall I be free from the great 
offence,' in the singular number, as noting out that sin which is above the 
sin of presumption, to which yet that is a step. 

Use. Take notice of the vileness and baseness of our natures, as thus 
guided by lusts, that we may become vile in our own eyes, and truly out of 
conceit with ourselves. We judge basely of those creatures that feed and 
delight only in excrements and filth ; of a swine, because it will rather eat 
dung than any food else ; of a dog, because he licks up his vomit ; of a ser- 
pent, because it eats the dust of the earth. Men that lived upon juniper 
roots, Job XXX. 4, he calls base and vile men, ver. 8 ; so, when we may go 
to the spring and fountain of living waters, to drink rather puddle- water, to 
eat dogs' meat, as the apostle calls all things in comparison of God, Philip, 
iii. 8, (!Kul3aXa, to eat dust, as earth-worms and covetous men do, and husks, 
rather than go to God, with whom there are rivers of pleasure and bi-ead 
enough, it argues a base nature. So for one that hath a fair husband, to run 
away with every varlet, and prostitute her body to all comers rather, shews 
her a base quean. But especially adding to this the self-love that is in us, 
that we should admire, and doat upon, and value our cursed selves above 
God, Christ, and all the world besides ; that we who were the other day 
mere nothing, and but lately admitted into the world, deserving to be kicked 
out and expelled the first day, should yet begin to prog only for ourselves 
the first hour ; regard none in it but ourselves ; take upon us, as if all the 
world, that had been made so long before we were, and shall stand when we 
gone, were only made for us ; and like ants or caterpillars in an orchard, 
caring not to spoil all the fruits, to lay up for and maintain a little mite of 
being, which is scarce crept into the world. And whereas we were admitted 
into the world, to be profitable to God and men, to use all our wisdom, &c., 
for this end, we have, and do employ it only to be profitable to ourselves, as 
Job xxii. 2, to seek our own things ; Philip, ii. 4, make ourselves the centre 
of all actions ; that whereas we should take but the set fee allowed us by 
God, and be content with our wages, and do service freely, and still think it 
is more than our work ; for us not to be willing to stir or do a jot of service 
for God or any other creature, but we must have a feeling,* an underhand 
bribe out of it ; not grind a whit unless we may have toll ; and being appointed 
but pubhc stewards in all the talents we enjoy, which in 1 John iii. 17 are 
there called ' this world's good,' not ours ; for us to employ it all only for 
our own advantage, and are sorry that any water should go by our mills, 
that any should share in the honours or pleasures of the world, otherwise 

* Qu. ' feeing ' ?— £o. 



296 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

than they might hold of us, or as some way they may prop up our estates 
and credits, or be shadows to add lustre to us ; yea, so as not to care to pull 
down others' credits and estates, to build up our own a little ; hence all the 
defaming, and oppression, and detracting from others that are in the world 
(as Nero, they say, did burn all Rome to make himself a large palace, and 
that he might have the credit of building it up again ; and he that set Diana's 
temple on fire, to get himself a name), not caring what inconvenience we put 
others to, to advantage ourselves never so little ; not to care though we set 
another's house on fire to roast but our own eggs ; or so we may have safe 
and sure, and easy standing to see, and to be seen in the world (like men in 
a crowd), we care not how sore we lean upon the shoulders of, and oppress 
those that are under us, and throw down those that overtop us, not willing 
to put ourselves to any inconvenience for another's good. If any public good 
be to be done, or any public evil hindered, which will endamage our parti- 
cular, contrary to Caiaphas's principle, we are too apt to say in our hearts, 
Better a whole people perish than that I should be prejudiced ; yea, if any 
good be to be done, wherein we have not an hand, or wherein we are not the 
chief, how sorry are we, and ready to hinder it, and speak against it, and will 
not draw unless we be the fore-horse, and have all the feathers and the trap- 
pings : yea, as Judas cared not to hazard the salvation of all the world, in 
the death of Christ (which, as I think, he then knew not to be the means 
of saving them), so he might gain but thirty pieces ; so also if we are poor, 
we wish all the world were so ; if we be despised, yea, if we perish, as one 
said on his deathbed, let wife, children, and all the world perish also. 
These and many more are the natural dispositions of self-love in us, which 
are most base and accursed ; and he that sees not his inclinations towards 
these, it is because he knows not his heart, but self-love hath blinded his 
eyes, and made him think too highly of himself, as Hazael said to the pro- 
phet, 'Am I a dog, that I should do this?' 2 Kings viii. 13. No, my 
brethren, grace only makes you profitable men, content to spend and to be 
spent, to let go your own sweetness and fatness for the good of others. Cha- 
rity seeks not her own, rejoiceth not in evil, is not envious: 1 Cor. xiii. 4-6, 
' Charity sufiereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth 
not itself, is not pufied up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
rejoiceth in the truth.' Therefore learn to esteem grace and good men 
highly, and regard corrupt nature and wicked men as vile and base, and rest 
not till you have a principle in you to deny yourselves, &c. 

3d. The third essential part, which goes to make up the arrdrri of lust, is 
averseness, enmity, opposition against God, and what might reduce us to 
communion with him again. We are not only thus turned to the creature, 
and what is contrary to God, but it is accompanied with an enmity to God : 
Job xxi. 12-14, ' They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound 
of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down 
to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us ; for we desire 
not the knowledge of thy ways.' They do not only spend their days in wealth, 
delight in timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the soimd of the organ ; but, 
ver. 14, they say to God, Depart from us. If God at any time present and 
offer himself, and the communion of himself to them, they put him away, 
they say. Depart, as one they care not for, as one they care not to have to 
do withal ; nay, cannot endure the knowledge of him ; we desire not the 
knowledge or sight of him, and that not of him only, but also not of his 
ways, or of anything that leads to him. And so, Rom. i. 28, ' And even 
as they did not Uke to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over 



Chap. IV.] in respkct of sin and punishment. 297 

to n reprobate mind, to do those things which <are not convenient.' They 
liked not, or thought it not good for them, ovx, sdo-/cifj,aaav, visum non fuit 
Us : they did not judge it good for them to return and receive God in their 
knowledge. And if this be thought not to argue averseness and opposition 
to him, thus not to endure the sight of him, ver. 80, it is expressly added, 
ver. 30, they hated God : there is not only an eHlnuujemcnt from God, cc'DjX- 
Xor^iojsvoi, Col. i. 21, but also enemies, and that not by outward unkind- 
ness, but in minds ; and not to God only, but to all righteousness. Acts 
xiii. 10, and not enemies only, but enmity, Rom. viii. 7, the wisdom of the 
flesh is enmity against God and his laws ; and, therefore, in a man's own 
heart they fight together: Gal. v. 17, * The flesh lusteth against the spirit,' 
for they are contrary ; so as all the lusts of the flesh are contrary against 
the spirit, as they are called : Rom. vii. 23, ' But I see another law in my 
members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
to the law of sin, which is in my members ;' i. e. a law, avrtari^aTimiMvov, fight- 
ing against ; neither is this enmity in our nature only, but our nature and 
all inclinations are said to be in it : Acts viii. 23, ' Thou art in the gall of 
bitterness ;' that is^ a bitter spirit against God and goodness. As a man is 
said to be in Ivvevf'iih that which he loves most, and is wholly taken up with ; 
so in the gall of bitterness, to that which he hates most of all things else. 



CHAPTER IV. 

What are the ar/gravations of our sinful lusts. — They make us Jit and ready for 
any sin. — T/iey are eager, greedy, and insatiate. 

Having explained the essential parts of this aberration of our inclinations 
and desires, it remains that I shew the aggravations of inordinacy in these 
several parts, which are necessarily to be added to them, to make the d-Trdrr], 
and aberration more fully appear. The aggravations of their sinfulness, in 
regard of the fii'st part, aversion from God, being treated of before, when I 
discovered that contrariety and enmity which is in ox;r natures to God, I 
will omit it here, and come to those which are proper to the second, viz. 
conversion to other things, and what is evil, which indeed is the first of the 
positive part of our sinfulness by nature. 

Now, the aggravation of the inordinacy of our inclinations, in regard of 
their conversion to what is evil, is expressed in these degrees of it. 

First, The first and lowest, and indeed least positive, evil that lust adds to 
our nature is, that in all the faculties and powers of the soul and body, there 
is a fitness to be instrumental, and employed about what is evil, rather than 
what is good, and therefore are they called members of the body of sin : 
Col. iii. 5, * Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; for- 
nication, uncleanness,' &c. And they are also called weapons or instruments 
of unrighteousness to obey lusts : Rom. vi. 12, 13, ' Let not sin therefore 
reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof: 
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.' 
Now, that which difierenceth one member from another, is a fitness or 
disposition to be employed about something that another is not, as the eye, 
that it is a fit organ for the soul to see with ; the hand, which is o^yavov 
ogydvMv, to apprehend and lay hold with ; which several fitness ariseth from a 
several fashion that is in them. And so also one weapon differs from another 
weapon or instrument, by reason it hath some peculiar fitness to be used in 
some employment, because of the fashion given, which another wanting is 



298 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

unfit for such an use, as a sword to fight with, a shield to defend with. 
And therefore Aristotle said, that an instrument is eV tsos h, it hath a 
peculiar fitness for some one thing. Now, then, when the apostle calls the 
faculties of soul and bod}', members of the body of sin, and weapons of 
unrighteousness, it implies that there is a peculiar fitness in them to be used 
in any unrighteous practice, and that if they be but drawn out and wielded, 
they are fit instruments for sin, and for nothing else ; that as grace moulds 
and casts our souls and faculties into such a fashion, that all are fit weapons 
for righteousness, sin doth so mould them, that they are fit instruments only 
for what is evil : Kom. vi. 17, ' But God be thanked, that ye were the 
servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine 
which was delivered you.' He calls it rv'^og hihayjig, vg ov -n-aPsoodi^TS, ' into 
which ye were delivered ;' so in the original, and in the margin. It was as a 
mould they were cast into, as vessels are, and so received such a fashion, as 
they were fit instruments for righteousness, ver. 13, and 2 Tim. ii. 21, made 
vessels meet for the Master's use, and prepared for every good work. So 
now our nature having been cast in old Adam's mould into his image, 
1 Cor. XV. 49, we are shaped and formed in iniquity, as our translation reads 
that in Ps. 11. 5, and so made fit for all iniquity, and reprobate, and unfit for 
every good work. That as a spade hath a fitness in it to dig in the earth, 
but is unfit to cut meat with, or the like honourable employment; so are all 
our inclinations and dispositions earthly members. Col. iii. 5, as being fit to 
be used in earthly and sinful employments, but unfit for heavenly. As there- 
fore David compares his tongue to the pen of a ready writer, in regard of 
fitness and preparedness to indite holy and good things, Ps. xlv. 1, to run 
nimbly and fairly as a well-made pen, so a wicked man's tongue he 
compares (for the fitness of it for mischief, to wound others in their good 
name) to a sharp and keen razor : Ps. Iii. 2, ' Thy tongue deviseth mis- 
chiefs ; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.' So he speaks of Doeg's 
tongue, in regard of the fitness of it to abuse men, by detracting from, and 
cutting oft' what is an ornament to a man, as hair is, Ezek. xiv. 7. Now, 
that which is said of the tongue is true of the rest of the members. 

iSecoiidhj, The second degree of the heinousness of these lusts is, that in 
them all there is an active readiness to what is evil, which is a farther degree, 
and more than simply an instrumental fitness to be used and acted ; for 
superadded to this there is a lively principle, a quicksilver activeness and 
readiness to what is evil. Acts xiii, 10, ' And said, full of all subtilty and 
all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt 
thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? ' It is said of Eiymas, 
that he was full of all readiness to work evil ; so it is expressly in the 
original, ecfdwvpylag, and in the fore-named place, Rom. vi. 18, they are not 
only called weapons of unrighteousness, but servants also, ready to act what 
is enjoined them upon all occasions, that always stand readily appointed to 
stir upon the least watchword given. Yea, and St Paul says, Rom. vii. 18, 
' For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing : for 
to will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find 
not.' Evil was present with him, even at his elbow, still oftering its service; 
so evil our inclinations are, still pushing themselves forward, when any evil 
is to be done, like unto that spirit, 1 Kings xxii. 21, when Ahab was to be 
tempted, one comes and says, ' I will persuade him,' And so, Rom. iii. 15, 
our feet are said to be * swift to shed blood,' ready to run, and that swiftly 
too, upon oppression's errand, or murder's errand; but when any good is to 
be done, we are ' slow of heart,' Luke xxiv. 25, and need goads to prick us 
on to it. When we are exhorted to any good, our ears ai*e dull of hearing : 



Chap. IV.] in bespkct of sin and punisumknt. 299 

Heb. V. 11, ' Of whom wo have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, 
seeing ye are dull of hearing.' Mat. xiii. 15, ' For this people's heart is 
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,' &c. The word is fw^eo/, i.e. 
which are heavy, and so they are opposed to such as are swill of hearing, 
James i. 19. 

Thirdly, A third aggravation* of their aberration is, that there is in them 
not only an active readiness to sin, but a powerful prevailing injunction to 
do a wicked action. Lusts do not only make all the faculties fit and ready, 
but with power and authority carry a man on to sin ; therefore sin is com- 
pared to a tyrant reigning in us, whereof the laws, in which the power of 
this tyrant hes, he calls lusts : Rom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin therefore reign in 
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.' Let it not 
reign. If you ask by what? he tells you, that you obey it in the lusts thereof, 
which therefore in Rom. vii. 23 are called expressly a * law of the members' 
carrying captive unto sin. For what is more powerful than a longing lust, 
coming with a strong mandamus into the heart, and with a spring-tide that 
bears all before it ? And therefore, 2 Peter ii. 14, they are said to have 
eyes full of adultery, it coming in like a full sea filling all the banks, flowing 
into the eyes, and overflowing there, so as the man cannot cease from sin ; 
neither is it compared to a strong tide only, but to a strong wind also. 
Wicked men are as clouds carried about with a whirlwind, and as empty 
clouds with a tempest, Jude 12, which are carried by reason of their light- 
ness irresistibly. 

Fourthly, A fourth degree of their inordinacy is an untainted greediness 
of sinning, which is in our lusts also : Eph. iv. 19, ' Who being past feel- 
ing, have given themselves unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness 
with greediness.' They give themselves to work uncleanness, all unclean- 
ness (that is, sin in general), with a rrXiovs^ia, as desiring to have their fill, 
to be stufled with it, as the word '^rXzovi^nv implies, come with full mouth to 
every act of sinning, as a thirsty man doth to di-ink ; so is the comparison, 
Deut. xxix. 19, desiring to swallow down all the pleasure that is to be had in 
sin at one gulp, if it be possible. And therefore it is also said of wicked 
men, Jude 11, that they go greedily after the wages of Balaam, they (^t'/Jj- 
6^mv, that is, effundunt corda, they pour out all, which is very emphatical. 
Ajid whereas the desires of grace are pure and peaceable, James iii. 18 ; 
lusts do war in our members, chap. iv. 1, ' From whence come wars and 
fightings among you ? come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in 
your members?' The soul is up in arms for anything it desires; when it 
would have anything, it musters up all its forces, carries out an army to con- 
quer the Helena or Golden Fleece of our desires. 

This appears, 

1. In that they carry us clean against reason. Rachel's desire of chil- 
dren was so violent, and so transported her, as against all sense she comes 
to her husband and says passionately, ' Give me children, or else I die,' 
Gen. XXX. 1, whenas, poor man (as he truly answered her), it was not in his 
power : ' Am I in God's stead ?' ver. 2. And so, 2 Tim. vi. 9, he that will 
be rich is led into many foolish lusts, to do things which even reason is 
against. So, how foolishly was Herod transported to promise a woman, 
merely for a dance, to give her the half of his kingdom 1 Mark vi. 9. 

2. Their greediness appears, that if one lust^be not satisfied, nothing else 
can please us as long as that fit lasts. Rachel, when she could not have her 
longing, she would in pet die in all haste, — ' Give me children, or else I die,' 
— though she had an husband was worth ten children to her. And so was 
it with Haman, Esther v. 11-13 ; all the honour and riches which he pos- 



SOO AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK YIII. 

sessed would not content him, so long as he was not revenged on a poor 
porter that would not rise to him. So Ahah, though a king, had his stomach 
took away to all other delights, because that he wanted one bit, Naboth's 
vineyard, which he coveted, 1 Kings xxi. 4. 

8. It appears in the unseasonableness of them. Men cannot stay, but 
must have them satisfied immediately. Hence men make haste to be rich, 
Prov. xxviii. 22, so greedy are they that they would presently be at the jour- 
nej'-'s end of their desires. And therefore the intemperancy of princes is 
noted out, Eccles. x. 16, 17, that they drink not in season, but in the morn- 
ing, so impatient and unseasonable are their desires, like eagles that haste 
to the prey, as Hab. i. 8 compares them, it being a greedy bird. Whereas 
the desires of grace are seasonable and patient : ' He that believes makes 
not haste.' And in Ps. i. 3, a godly man is compared to a tree which brings 
forth fruit in season. 

4. It appears in that the greater the difficulty is to attain to them, the 
more eager we are, so as the difficulty whets our desires for it, sets a greater 
price upon the thing desired. Amnon fell sick, and thought it hard to do 
anything to his sister, 2 Sam. xiii. 2 ; and this is noted to shew how his 
desire was the more whetted, by how much he thought it harder to compass, 
though with some hope. Let a thing seem to be concealed from us, and we 
long the more earnestly to know it ; as the pulling away of the bait makes 
fish greedier. 

5. It appears in that nothing can tame a Inst. Therefore, James iii. 7, 8, 
the tongue is called ' an unruly evil, which none can tame,' and so more 
fierce than any beastj for there is no beast but hath been tamed by the art 
of man; but no reason can tame this. Solomon, speaking of the vanity of all 
human knowledge, Eccles. i. 15, brings this in for one, that it cannot rectify 
the crookedness of a man's desires; nothing but grace can do it: James 
iv. 5, 6, ' Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain. The spirit that 
dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ? But he giveth more grace : wherefore he 
saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.' 

6. Yea, the greediness is increased by all the means we use to quell it, 
till God give more grace ; the more we are forbidden a thing, the more we 
long after it, luliinur in vetitum. The law, which was as water to cool the 
heat of ill desires, forbidding them, stirred them up in Paul's heart the more : 
Rom. vii. 13, ' Was then that which is good made death unto me ? God 
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that 
which is good ; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sin- 
ful.' The law prohibiting, makes our lusts more violent, as water cast by 
smiths on their forge makes the fire burn faster, or as the wind that blows 
out the fire one would think, doth but spread the flame, and stir it up the 
more. John told Herod it was unlawful to have his brother Philip's wife, 
and the more he loved her ; and therefore stolen bread and waters are 
sweeter than others, Prov. ix. 17, because we gain it in opposition to the 
command. 

Fijthli/, The last aggravation of the inordinacy of our lusts is unsatisfied- 
ness, which I make a further degree than greediness. For the lions and 
eagles, though greedy after their prey. Job ix. 25, 1 Peter v. 8, 9, where 
the devil is compared to a roaring lion drinking up all at a draught, yet they 
are soon satisfied, and lay not up what they leave, Mat. vi. 26. But we, as 
we are strong of appetite, which notes our greediness, so we can never have 
enough, know not to be satisfied: Isa. Ivi. 11, 12, 'Yea, they are greedy 
dogs which _ can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot 
understand : they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from 



Chap. V.J in respect of sin and punishment. 801 

his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves 
with strong drink, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more 
abundant.' That whereas the desires of grace are content with little, 1 Tim. 
vi. 8, with meat and clothes, with but convenient food, or a stinted portion, 
as the word signifies, Prov, xxx. 8, so it is in the margin, an allowance 
such as soldiers have, or birds by them that feed them, and they crave no 
more. Mat. vi. 26; the birds lay not up, only we enlarge our desires, as hell 
that cannot be satisfied, Hab. ii. 5. The ambitious man heaps up in vast 
fancies and desires, all nations ; and at ver. 0, the covetous man loads him- 
self with thick clay, takes not only what he needs, but loads himself. 



CHAPTER V. 
An inquiry into the grounds and causes of this heinous inordinacy in our lusts. 

Having thus largely shewn wherein the inordinacy or irrectltude of man's 
lusts does lie, both for parts and aggi'avations, now it remains that, as in 
the rest I have done, I should shew what are the true adequate grounds of 
all these several parts and degrees of their inordinacy or sinfulness specified, 
which I will manifest to you in their several order, by a few propositions 
linked together, as links in a chain, that so you may see how one thing 
follows upon another. 

Prop. 1. That all men have sinned, and are in their own consciences 
guilty of a wrong done unto God, and thereby obnoxious to his wrath and 
judgment. This now all the world yields to, and I have before proved it 
from Rom. iii. 19, every mouth is stopped at it, and becomes subject to judg- 
ment, as the word is ; and this all consciences apprehend, and look at God 
as an enemy, till reconciliation is apprehended by Christ ; if they know but 
God, they must needs do so, and then they can never make him their chiefest 
good, for what they make their chiefest good they must delight in above all. 
Now him whom they apprehend as an enemy, and are guilty of an injury 
done to him, they can never truly delight in; so as the gailt of sin will, if 
there was no more, take them off from God as their chiefest good, and if so, 
then also as their chiefest end ; for Jinis et honwn, the end and the good, can 
never be severed- And besides, if they apprehend God an enemy, whilst 
they do so, they cannot make him their utmost end, for none can make one 
that loves him not, the utmost end of all his actions. This is enough, if no 
more, to prove it ; but we will add, 

Prop. 2. As by the guilt of sin, man's nature is deprived of ability to 
make God the chiefest good ; so also of holiness, to make him the chiefest 
end. Rom. iii. 23, ' All have sinned, and so are fallen short of the glory of 
God ;' vaneovvrai, they come lag, reach not so high, as men that come short 
of a goal for want of strength. Of the glory of God, either fall short of seek- 
ing or attaining glory or happiness in him as the chiefest good, or desiring 
to bring glory to him as their chiefest end. Now, nihil ayit ultra suam 
sphccram, nothing acts beyond the sphere of its activity. Therefore being 
deprived of that power, they fall short, yea, even their judgments want a 
power to discern and know him aright to be the chiefest good ; as 1 Cor. 
ii. 14, they cannot know the things of God, they think them foolishness, 
they have thoughts that fall short in the judging of their chief good, and 
then, suppose no other defect, yet their inclinations cannot be carried unto 
him ; for iynoti nulla cnpido, there is no desire of what is unknown. Eph. 
iv. 18, ' Being estranged from God through ignorance.' Or if they could 



302 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

truly discern him to be the chiefest good, yet the guilt and consciousness 
which they have of his being an enemy, hinders him from being so to them, 
or yet they want a suitable principle ; but last of all they want a power to 
judge him so. 

Prop. 3. Though the soul is thus deprived of the glory of God, and so of 
ability to make God its chiefest good and utmost end ; yet (as you may re- 
member I told you before) the soul is an active thing, and so remains still 
for all this. It is as full of quicksilver as ever, for still it desires happiness 
and good: Ps. iv. 6, 'Who w'ill shew us any good?' Omnia bonum appetunt, 
says the philosopher. It is as full of active inclinations as the sea is of 
waves which cannot rest, as you have the comparison in Isa. Ivii. 20, but 
must roll to some shore or other. And this now discovers the ground why it 
is carried on to other things as its chiefest good, so continually and so inces- 
santlv ; for seeing these inclinations cannot find delight in God, it must needs 
go seek satisfaction somewhere else. So in the fore-alleged place, Eph. iv. 8, 
' Being estranged from the life of God through ignorance,' so as not to see 
this eternal good in him, what follows from it ? They give themselves over 
to sin with greediness ; every man would have his belly full, and of pleasure 
they must have a rrXiovi^ia. And estranged from God they are, and there- 
fore they cannot have it in him ; and so they go out to any unclean practice 
that will afford it, and therefore also ignorance is made the ground of lusts: 
1 Peter i. 14, ' As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to 
the former lusts in your ignorance.' The reason they lusted after vain things 
so was their ignorance of God, and inabihty to make him their delight ; as 
children that make counters and rattles their chiefest dehght, being ignorant 
of better things ; and the soul too must have something to play with as well 
as they. 

Prop. 4. As the soul, being deprived of ability to make God its chiefest 
good, still retains inclinations to some other by reason of its activeness and 
the inclinations that are in it, so also being deprived of ability to make God 
its chiefest end, the soul must still have some general end in the guiding of 
all these its inclinations, because it still remains a reasonable creature, which 
worketh always to and for an end. Now, what other can that prove to be 
but self-love, seeing it was the next subordinate end to God in man by 
nature, and is not extinguished by sin and the deprivation of grace ; but, 
on the contrary, when that former end, who is God, is took away and put 
down from its sovereignty, this must of necessity succeed, inherit, and 
possess all its rights, privileges, and prerogatives ; even as in a kingdom, 
when the first heir or elder is removed, the next brother or so succeedeth, 
who before was but a subject, though the next and first, unto the king. 
And therefore all that a man doth or can do now, the utmost end which 
guideth all, and to which all was directed before, when he was in his upright 
state, must needs be for the sake of self-love or pleasure, which is all one. 

Prop. 5. Self-love having got into our hearts, into that throne, and seat, 
and regality that God's glory once there had, which is now deposed ; and so 
having the' same absolute prerogative, and enjoying all the privileges that 
were annexed to God's crown and sovereignty over man's soul; it also comes 
to exercise the same jurisdiction in us which God's glory once likewise did 
and should, as being now the lord-paramount end of all the rest, and so 
plays all these sinful pranks in us that appear in our hearts and lives, and 
so "comes to be the sole, true, adequate ground of any sins which can be in- 
stanced in. For, as before, we making God our utmost end, as God makes 
himself his end, and so as he admires himself, his thoughts and actions, 
brings his -will to pass, and his counsel must stand ; so we also should have 



Chap. V.j in respect of sin and punishment. 303 

done, our wills being in tune to his ; so now by the same reason we come to 
admire and doat upon ourselves, seek to advance our own wills, and to make 
all stoop to us ; and so here you may see the ground of all the pride that is 
in us. Again, as then wo should have been zealous and tender of his glory, 
lest any creature should in the least measure derogate from him, or enjoy 
any good to itself which God's glory had not custom out of (for thus zealous 
is God of his glory), so now self is looking to have the same privilege, 
grieves that any should have any excellency we have not, or which may not 
add lustre to ours, or which may in the least measure cast a shadow on ours. 
Hence all the envy that is in us at the good of others, all grudgings, repin- 
iugs, distractions, rejoicing at the hurt of others, whereby that is removed 
that should stand in our light. As God making himself his utmost end 
destroys all his enemies out of the infinite love of himself, brings them into 
subjection, that he may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28, so we likewise desire 
and endeavour to do to all our enemies, and to get the victory, and to keep 
ourselves uppermost ; and hence all the revenge that is in us. And all these 
you see proceed from self thus advanced, as the adequate ground of them ; 
and so it may be said of all sin else contrary to the law, only I instance in 
these, because in lusts we seek pleasure out of good things created, and it 
is more apparent we do so from these instances. And in 1 Cor. xiii. 4, true 
love is made the ground of long-suffering, kindness to others, &c. ; therefore 
the opposite sins to all these come from self-love, which is opposite to the 
love of God. And so you see that other ground of that branch of our lusts, 
inordinacy, that they are not carried only to other things besides God as the 
chiefest good, but also to things contrary to God and the good of others. 

Prop. 6. Now self-love having got into the saddle, and having usurped 
all the power into its own hands, and establishing its own prerogative, and 
seeking its chiefest happiness in the creatures, and not being able to delight 
in God, it comes also to hate and lust against anything that would rob it of 
its happiness, and that labours to make it subject again, and to dethrone and 
depose it ; it hates it as an enemy to its prerogative and sovereignty, which 
is its utmost end. And therefore as a man by reason of this self-love loves 
all things that advance it, be they never so contrary to the law, so it hates 
what would any way hinder it ; and hence is its enmity against God, his 
law, his children, because all these would bring it down : 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, 
' For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to 
the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every high 
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into 
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' They would bring all 
into subjection again, and into captivity to Jesus Christ. As tyrants use to 
hate the lawful heirs to the throne, so we do God, and cannot endure to hear 
of him, as Saul could not of David ; therefore, Rom. viii. 7, the flesh is said 
to be enmity against God. And therefore if grace in our own bowels seek 
to set God up again, we fight against it, and set ourselves against it, as Saul 
did hate his sou Jonathan for taking part with David. And hence is the 
lusting of the flesh against the spirit. Gal. v. 17 ; and the motions of the 
flesh are as so many spears thrown to kill all motions of the Spirit in us. 
And if the law of God comes as a herald to proclaim God lord and king, and 
to threaten us if we will not be subject to him ; yet self-love, which is thus 
highly exalted, is of so great a spirit as it will never yield. The wisdom of 
the flesh is enmity against the law, and cannot be subject, Rom. viii. 7. 
And the same ground of quarrel is there in wicked men against godly 
men's lives, who being of God's party, the light wherewith they shine, con- 
demns them for traitors and usurpers, and tells them their works are evil ; 



304 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

and therefore they hate the hght, for their deeds are evil : John iii. 19, 
* Aud this is the condemnation, that hght is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were enl.' Yea, when 
conscience comes to apprehend God to be an invincible enemy, who will cer- 
tainly destroy us, — as it doth in those that sin against the Holy Ghost, who, 
Heb. X. 27, are said to receive and expect judgment, — then self-love thus 
advanced desires to be revenged on God all it can, and as an utter enemy, 
delights in what angers and provokes him, for the sin against the Holy 
Ghost is but revenge against God and his saints ; as the devil, when he was 
cast out of heaven, made war with the woman and her seed. Rev. xii. 13. 

Hence you may see grounds for all the several aggravations of this inor- 
dinacy of our lusts. 

1. That readiness to sin, for the soul remains still in itself active and 
nimble. 

2. Our lusts must needs have much power and force in us to cany us on 
to him, because they are the laws of this lord-paramount, self-love, which 
reigns as our utmost end, and gives all our desires their commission, and 
they all there fawn upon it, who having such power therefore, puts forth all 
the power the soul ha'oh in all its desires, so as quicquid viilt, valde vuU. 

3. The unsatisfiedness ariseth from the emptiness of those objects which 
lusts carry us out unto (such are the pleasures of sin aud the creatures) as 
their chiefest good ; aud withal the vast wideness of the soul, being made at 
first of such a size, as God only, not the creature, should be able to fill it, 
and widened also by Adam gaping to swallow a godship at once ; so all these 
pleasures satisfy you no more than a drop can fill a cistern. 

4. This greediness ariseth from the unsatisfiedness, for appetitus Jinis est 
irifinitus ; for the soul having so large a stomach, because it hath a large life 
of comfort to maintain, and these pleasures affording so little at once, the 
soul is as a man ready to perish with thirst, and hath only a sucking-bottle 
given him, whence he can suck but drops at once, which can scarce keep 
soul and body together ; and therefore it is so greedy and impatient, and 
would have all at once. 



CHAPTER vi. 

That there is no necessity of assertin/j orifiinal sin to be a positive quality in our 
souls, since the privation of righteousness is enough to infect the soul with all 
that is evil. 

These being declared to be the true adequate grounds of all the sinfulness 
that is boiled up to its greatest height in man's nature, then there is no 
necessity to sappose, as some have done, original sin to be in its own 
essence, and, as considered by the understanding, as apart from the soul 
which it is in, to be a positive quality come in the room of original righteous- 
ness, as heat into water when cold is expelled, to inflame and provoke it unto 
evil ; for if the bare deprivement of original righteousness from the soul, still 
supposed to continue active and desirous of happiness, and having still a 
principle of self-love left unextinguished in it, if this may be a full and ade- 
quate cause of all the sinfulness that is in man's desires, what need we feign 
and excogitate any positive quality superadded over and above, and besides 
all these, to whet and inflame the soul to evil ? There is no necessity of 
doing so, because, frustraflt per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora, it is 
frivolous to do that by many things which may be done by one; et entia non 



Chap, VI.] in kespect of sin and punishment. 305 

sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate, beings are not unnecessarily to be mul- 
tiplied. And this deprivation of righteousness, you see, is sufficient, but 
especially because that supposition draws on this inevitable and unanswer- 
able absurdity, that it must have in itself a true, real being and entity ; 
and if so, then it should have some goodness in it, for, ens et boniun con- 
vertitntur, every being is good, and must either be from God, and so he be 
made the author of it, who doth not so much as tempt to sin, and so sin 
should not be sin, for every crcatiu-e is good, 1 Tim. iv. 4 ; or else, in 
the second place, there might be some entity which held not of God in capite, 
whose name is I AM, and who is the fountain of all beings, John i. 3. 
Neither doth the affirmation of the contrary, as thus explained, put us upon 
the like absurdity, or enforce us from dissenting from any received truth 
among our divines. 

For, first, whereas it may be objected, that this is to deny what formerly 
I have assumed and proved, namely, that there is a positive as well as a 
privative part of man's sinfulness by nature, and therefore if sin be in its 
own nature but a privation, this is a contradiction, to make two such parts 
of it. 

I answer, That though sin in itself be but a bare privation or want of 
righteousness, yet as it is in our natures full of inclinations, which inclina- 
tions wanting righteousness become sinful, so it may be said to have two 
parts; for in the same sense that sin in our actions is said to have two parts, 
in the same sense it may be said to have in our natures. Now, in our 
actions it hath two parts, whereof the first is purely and merely privative, 
because it is negalio actus dehlti, the denial of an act which ought to have 
been done ; and, secondly, of commission also, which supposeth a positive 
act done, but implies and connotates withal a want of righteousness, which 
ought to have been in it, so that the sinfulness of both them is but a bare 
privation or want of rightecusness ; yet because it is in positivo, therefore 
the latter is called a sin committed or done, and so distinguished from the 
former. 

Now, to give the reasons to prove that sin in our natures hath two parts, 
though in itself it be but a want of righteousness. 

1. By reason of the want of righteousness, it may be said there are incli- 
nations in man, but not to good, which good because it ought to be in them, 
therefore those inclinations are sin. 

2. It may further be said, that those inclinations that are there are not 
good, for that they want that righteousness which should be in them, and 
therefore are called lusts rni uTarng, which is a further thing than the 
former, and which, because it notes out a positive subject, is called the posi- 
tive part. 

I will illustrate this answer by a similitude grounded on a Scripture 
expression, which calls our lusts, thus wanting righteousness, and making 
up this positive part, the body of sin : Rom. vi. 6, ' That the body of sin 
might be destroyed,' &c. And it is called members of it : Col. iii. 5, 
' Mortify therefore your members,' &c. This alludes to a natural body; that 
as a body is a part of a living man, so these lusts are a part of original sin, 
and so called flesh. Now, to speak properly, all life is formally and origi- 
nally in the soul only, as the fountain and source of it ; yet this soul being in 
a body, and informing it, the body is truly called a living part, which yet in 
itself alone considered is but a dead thing. So in like manner and originally 
the whole essence or nature of sin is expressed in a want of what is good ; 
but this privation being seated in positive inclinations, these inclinations, as 

VOL. X. U 



306 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

thus wanting righteousness, make a distinct part of that sinfulness, and so 
ansM'erably is called a body of sin, which inclinations also, as simply con- 
sidered in themselves, are good, and so far as positive ; but wanting right- 
eousness, are called sins ; and the like is said of habits superadded to them. 
And hence these positive inclinations, as thus wanting true righteousness, 
having all their power and force turned to sin, and against what is good, 
they may truly be called a law of the members fighting against the law of the 
mind, and so not to be privatively only contrary to grace, but positively 
also : Gal. v. 17, * For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other.' And so 
they are called flesh, and the acts lusts of flesh ; and hence also, because 
self-love exalteth all the power and force that is in us against what is good, 
and carries it on to evil, therefore the dethroning and deposing of self-love, 
and reducing it to its first order to make it subject to grace, is called morti- 
fication, and denying a man's self, as that new principle of grace put in, that 
is made king, is called vivification ; neither doth this make man in jnois 
naturalibus, for that is a notion that, in descending from the state of grace 
into a state of sin, cannot be imagined, seeing God created man upright, but 
he fell from that righteous state. 

And as for the increase of the same sinful habits, there is the like reason ; 
for so far as the act is good, there is increased an aptness to fall the same 
way again ; but that it should be more sinfully than ever is from a further 
elongation from God, and so from a further privation in that inclination, and 
from a consideration of the former pleasures of sin, which the man reflects 
on, and is more strongly allured therefore to do the same again. Neither have 
the papists any advantage by this, seeing their end and meaning in denying a 
positive part is but to affirm lusts to be no sin ; and our divines' meaning, 
when they contend for a positive part, is but to shew that lusts are sins, which 
is as well established by this doctrine as by any other, which therefore thus 
explained no way dissents from them, or gives way to the papists. 



CHAPTER VII. 

He who ivould tnily know the corruption of his nature must search into the 
lusts of his heart — How great a curse it is for any man to he given v.p to his 
lusts. — We should he very careful that ve are not in any degree indulgent to 
our lusts. — Arguments to move us, drawn from the inordinacy, heinous sin- 
fulness, and deceitfidncss of all our lusts. 

Use 1. That the apostle here, when he would express the corruption of 
the old man, says,. it consists in lusts; and when he would exhort to put off 
the old conversation, he exhorts to put ofi" the lusts thereof; hence learn, 
that he who would know the corruption of the old man and an unregenerate 
estate, must above all, and most of all, search into his lusts. It is indeed 
and will be some help unto you to take a survey of your actions, but you 
can never come to see how deeply and how abominably corrupted and 
depraved creatures you are, till God open your eyes to see your lusts, for 
the old man is corrupt through lusts ; and though the outwards of most men 
be exceedingly corrupt, much rottenness in men's speeches, their throats 
being open sepulchres, and full of bitterness and cursing, yet their inward parts 
are most corrupted, their inward parts are very wickedness : Ps. v. 9, ' For 
there is no faithfulness in their mouth ; their inward part is very wickedness ; 
their throat is an open sepulchre ; they flatter with their tongue.' It is in 



Chap. VII.] in respect op sin and punishment. 807 

the original, min, very wickednesaes ; that is, most wicked of all other. The 
ignorance of this sinfulness of inward lusts hath been the original of all 
errors and deceits that men have about their estates ; they were ignorant 
of their lasts, the}' knew not the inordinacy of them. Paul, who whilst he 
looked to his actions, and not to his lusts, thought himself blameless : Philip, 
iii. 6, ' Concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; touching the righteousness, 
which is in the law, blameless.' But when it was discovered unto him thai) 
lusts were sins, and that all concupiscence had been stirring in him : Rom. 
vii. 7- 10, ' What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, 
I had not known sin but by the law : for I had not known lust,, except the 
law had said. Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the com- 
mandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the 
law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once ; but when the 
commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, 
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.' When this was dis- 
covered to him, then he was proved to be the chief of sinners, and his sin to. 
be above measure sinful, as himself confesses ; such an alteration did the 
discovery of the corruption of his lusts work in his conceit and opinion of 
himself. And the main reason why the papists say lusts are no sins, is to. 
nurture men up in the opinion of perfection possible to be attained unto > 
because indeed it is possible to frame a man's actions so (at the least for 
some while) as outwardly not to. transgress the law in. appearance to them- 
selves and others ; but now if this was granted and, discovered, that lusts 
are so corrupt and abominable, they would find themselves to be paaatedi 
sepulchres, who inwardly are full- of dead men's bones, as Christ says of the 
Pharisees of old for the same reason : Mat. xxiii. 27, 2&, ' Woe unto you, 
scribes and pharisees,, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,, 
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's, 
bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous 
unto men, but within ye are full of hj'pocrisy and iniquity.' Could civil men, 
who are the world's saints, maintain a serious and good opinion of their 
estates so long together, if the devil did not keep them from taking any 
great notice of the corruption and inordinacy of their lusts ?' No ; it is im- 
possible they should. But men look only to their actions, and compare 
themselves with others' outsides, as the young man in the Gospel did : Mat. 
xix. 17-2Q, ' But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He 
saith unto him. Which ? Jesus said. Thou shalt do no, murder, Thou shalt 
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness, 
Honour thy father and thy mother ; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from 
my youth up : what lack I yet ?' ' I am not as other men,' said the 
pharisee also, in Luke xviii. 11, 12. He looked no further than his actions, 
as those words imply, whereas the old man in us is especially corrupt through 
lusts. To convince men of this, which is indeed necessary for us all to take 
notice of, viz. that we must judge of our corruptions and estates by what our 
lusts are chiefly, and not only by our actions, though there be enough in 
them to discover ofttimes to men, that there is no fear of God before their 
eyes, Ps. xxxvi. 1. When God would convince the world of the greatness 
of their wickedness and corruption. Gen. vi. 5, what evidence doth he bring 
of it ? ' God saw that the wickedness of the earth was great.' One would 
look now to have miu'ders, idolatries, blasphemies, and such gi'ievous crimes 
reckoned up to make good this indictment ; but mark what follows : ' Every 
imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.' Their 
inward lusts and corruptions are brought in, as making up that great heap 



308 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK YIII. 

of mischief for wliich God repented he had made man. And to convince thee 
yet more that this is the most certain and only sure way to know the sinful- 
ness of thy person and estate by, consider, 

1. If men look to their outward actions, they can plead they are not 
wholly and in all respects evil ; for even the heathen did m roD I'fi.u.ov : Rom. 
ii. 14, ' For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the 
things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto them- 
selves.' The worst of men are in some things agreeable to the law ; nay, 
some men might plead as the young man did, ' AH these have I kept from 
my youth ;' his actions, he thought, were all entirely good, if he should look 
no further ; but now turn thy eyes inward, and thou shalt find eveiT^ thought 
or imagination, desire or lust, which brought forth these actions, to be evil, 
and continually so, doing nothing for God, and out of a pure heart, but 
merely from self-love^ which is the great lust of all other ; and this now 
would have convinced my young man. And if a man come to see once that 
all the lusts, stirrings, and agitations of his inwards are only evil, then he 
will see, and not till then, that all his actions are so ; for every action is the 
child of some lust or other, and whatsoever lust brings forth is sin. There- 
fore, if you would know the corruption of the old man, look to your lusts 
within you. 

2. Consider that if a man's actions were sins only, and not his inward 
lusts, then the man would not be always evil; for if unregenerate men commit 
things directly contrary to the law, yet their actions are not continually such ; 
for there is much cessation of their outward actions when they are asleep, 
and at other times when alone; but now the lusts of their hearts are con- 
tinual ; for, as I said at first, our souls are always active ; and Gen. vi. 5 
says, that all their thoughts are only evil, and that continually. 

3. If all our actions were only and continually evil, yet there are and 
might be many sins which never appear in our actions : one man is no mur- 
derer ; another is no thief ; but now look into the inward corruption of the 
old man, and then thou shalt find, as Paul -confessed of himself, Rom. 
vii. 8, that all concupiscence hath been stirring in thee. And, as a godly 
divine said, there was never a day went over his head, but he felt inclina- 
tions against all the commandments stirring in him ; so haply might all of 
us say too ; but this would not appear in our actions. Therefore, still I say, 
if you would know the corruption of the old man, look to lusts ; for as 
there are more blossoms than fruit by ten times, so there are more lusts 
than actions. 

4. Consider that the strength of corruption lies especially in lusts ; so 
that suppose the multitude of our sins might as w^U be discovered in our 
actions, yet not the strength of them ; and, therefore, they are called the 
law of sin in the members : Rom. vii. 23, ' But I see another law in my 
members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap- 
tivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.' These are they which do 
maintain the war, and bring into captivity^ they are sins, Janizaries, or 
Pretorian bands, in which its force lies ; they have the strength of an army ; 
yea, they have not the force of an army, but of a law ; and a king may do 
more with one law than an army can with all its force ; and the power of a 
king lies in his laws, and by them he reacheth to the utmost of his domi- 
nions. Now he compares sin to a king : Rom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin therefore 
reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof;' let it 
not reign to obey it. In what ? In the lusts thereof, as the laws of sin their 
king. ' Neither give your members,' says he, ver. 13, * as weapons of 
unrighteousness.' If we commit a sin in our actions, the outward member 



Chap. VII.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 809 

is but a weapon, and the outward action is but the blow ; but the strength 
whence the blow came, and which wielded the weapon, was the lust within, 
which fights against the soul : 1 Pet. ii. 11, ' Pearly beloved, I beseech you, 
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from Heshly lusts, which war against the 
Boul.' It is these lusts which maintain the war. 

6. Consider as a man shall not otherwise know the strength, so, nor the 
heinousness of his sin, but by knowing his lusts. This appears, 

(1.) If we draw an argument from the former metaphor, in that it is called 
a law. Now one bad law in a commonwealth doth more mischief, provokes 
God more, than an hundred bad examples for outward acts. To frame mischief 
by a law, David brings in as the height of impiety, Ps. xciv. 20, ' Shall 
the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by 
a law ?' And so, on the contrary, when good laws are made in a state against 
swearing, Sabbath-breaking, &c., they are a great fence to a land, though the 
people be very wicked ; therefore, pray that good laws may be made in par- 
liament, and rejoice when they are made. A lust with a law is ten times 
more mischievous than many evil actions. 

(2.) A sinful action jars directly but against the law given, which saith, 
' Thou shalt not commit adultery,' and is therefore said to be done against 
God, because against his righteous law ; but the lust whence this action 
proceeds, directly and primarily, offers an injury to the person of God imme- 
diately; for the inordinacy of lusts lie in this,, as I have shewn, that a man's 
desires turn from God to the creature as the chiefest good, and so contemns 
the goodness and all- sufficiency that is in God, and pleasure in the creature 
comes into competition with God, in our lusts more immediately than in our 
actions ; in them we have usually but the law in our eye, but in our lusts 
we refuse God, and cleave to another; we choose riches, and forsake God. 
Now for a man to undervalue the person of a king, provokes him more than 
to despise his law, because he is nearer to himself than his law ; and to con- 
temn him as a man, provokes more than to contemn him in the relation of a 
king put upon him ; for kings are more sensible of contempts reflecting on 
their persons than their power. How provoking, then, is it to God, that he 
should be despised in his all-sufficiency and in all his perfections, in his 
essence ? And in a man's lusts choosing other things for his happiness, God 
is thus despised. God being conscious of his excellency, how highly must 
this provoke him ! 

6. Consider that sinful actions are committed by us, but for our lusts' 
sake, to satisfy them ; and therefore they are called, Eph. ii. 2, ' fulfilling 
the lusts of the flesh,' or ' doing the will of the flesh ;' so as the lust is the 
master, the action but the servant ; the lust is the whore, the action is but 
the bawd to bring the object and the lust together : Deut. xxix. 19, it is 
called ' adding drunkenness to thirst.' Men drink to satisfy their thirsty 
lusts : so that if the action be thus, as it were, ordained for the lust, then the 
lust is more sinful ; and therefore all corruption in the world is said to be 
in lusts, as the efiicient and final causes of them : 2 Peter i. 4, * Having 
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' 

7. Consider, a man cannot know the corruption of his person and estate, 
and his bondage to sin, but by his lusts, because many of the most heinous 
lusts that unregenerate men serve, and which keep them under the power of 
Satan, have no outward actions to vent themselves ; or if they are vented in 
any actions, those actions in themselves are lawful, such as emulation, &c., 
which vent themselves in men of understanding, and that not in vain 
fashions of apparel or speeches, proud and boasting or high looks, but in 
seeking outward excellencies, commendable and profitable to the church and 



310 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, |'BoOK VIII. 

commonwealth. And you know that Christ himself was preached out of 
envy ; and the pharisees received honour one of another, and therefore be- 
lieved not, John v. 44. Now that which causeth one to honour another is 
praiseworthy ; yea, and other lusts, of loving and seeking riches and bodily 
pleasures, though they vent in unlawful actions, in many men, as in oppres- 
sion, uncleanness, &c., yet most especially now under the times of the gos- 
pel, the devil is cast out of many, in respect of such gross sins, and the 
enormous crimes of the Gentiles vanish ; as the hobgoblins which were fami- 
liar with men in the time of popery, now when the light is come, no longer 
appear. Therefore now the lusts of men vent themselves in things lawful, 
by an inordinate aflection to them, as in the young man in Mat. xix. 22, 
who was in bondage to covetousness, and yet he had not got his goods un- 
justly, they came to him by inheritance, he having them so young ; neither 
did he, as is likely, put out his money to use, or oppress others, for Christ 
bade him sell, not restore, his possessions ; yet he doated too much on them 
to obey him. So eating and drinking, and giving in marriage, things na- 
tural and commendable, were yet, through men's inordinacy in them, the 
sins for which God brought judgment on the old world, because of the defile- 
ment of the heart in all these. 

Use 2. In that he calls them here lusts of deceit or error, and carrying 
men wrong, and in that they are so inordinate, as I have described ; then 
see what a curse and judgment it is to be given up to your lusts, to be led 
by them, as the phrase is, 2 Tim. iii. 6, and to walk after them, as Jude 18. 
Miserable and cursed guides, that lead men out of the way, Deut. xxvii. 18, 
and the more you follow them, the further you are from God and happiness! 
As a bark at sea without chart or compass, cable or anchor, tossed up and 
down by the merciless winds and waves, such is a man guided by his lusts, 
which Jude compares to winds, Jude 12 ; and James compares men to 
waves tossed hither and thither, James i. 6, and a man is liable to drown- 
ing and destruction at every gale, by hurtful lusts which drown a man in 
perdition and destruction: 1 Tim. vi. 9, 'But they that will be lich, fall 
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which 
drown men in destruction and perdition.' Exposed a man is to temptation, 
and so to all evil (as we pray against it in the Lord's Prayer), for lust is the 
great tempter of all the world, greater than the devil, who yet is called the 
tempter. When a man is tempted, he is drawn away by his lust : James i. 14, 
' But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
enticed.' Men fall into temptation; how? By hurtful lusts, 1 Tim. vi. 9. 
Thus exposed a man is to his utter enemies, for lusts fight against the soul, 
1 Peter ii. 11. Men think it their happiness to have their desires, as men 
in burning fevers desire to have drink when they will, which proves their 
death and destruction ; and therefore one whom God intend to destroy, he 
leaves to his lusts, as Hophni and Phinehas : 1 Sam. ii. 25, ' If one man 
sin against another, the judge shall judge him : but if a man sin against the 
Lord, who shall entreat for him ? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto 
the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.' Ps. Ixxviii. 
29, 30, ' So they did eat, and were well filled : for he gave them their own 
desire ; they were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was 
yet in their mouths ' (he gave them their desire, but it was their bane, for 
the wrath of God came upon them), ver. 31, ' The wrath of God came upon 
them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of 
Israel.' So Ps. Ixxiii. 7, * Their eyes stand out with fatness : they have 
more than heart could wish.' To those God meant to destroy, he gave them 
more than heart could wish. So Ps. Ixxxi. 12, ' So I gave them up unto 



Chap. VII.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 811 

their own hearts' hists : and they walked in their own counsels.' When 
God otlered them happiness in himself, — ver. 10, ' Open thy mouth as largo 
as thou wilt, and I will till it,' says God, — and they hearkened not, what was 
their punishment? Ver. 12, '1 give them up to their hearts' lusts,' says 
God. And let all this then warn us : 1 Cor. x. 6, * Now these things were 
our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they 
also lusted.' But now if God hath a mind to save thee, he will break thee 
oti'from all thy sinful desires, for thou shouldest certainly go to hell else: 
Isa. Ivii. 17, ' For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote 
him : I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his 
heart.' God was wroth for his covetousness, or indeed concupiscence, and 
smote him ; and when they yet went on, he meaning to save them, resolved to 
heal them : ver. 18, ' I have seen his ways, and will heal him : I will lead 
him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.' God there- 
fore often hedges up a man's ways : Hosea ii. 0, 7, ' Therefore, behold, I 
will hedge up thy way with thorns, and m.ake a wall, that she shall not find 
her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake 
them ; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them : then shall she say, 
I will go and return to my first husband ; for then was it better with me 
than now.' God often denies them the desires of their hearts, keeps them 
low and bare, to starve their lusts ; and though they ask, they shall not have 
what they would spend upon their lusts : James iv. 2, 3, 'Ye lust, and have 
not : ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and war, yet 
ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask 
amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.' 

Use 3. If the corruption of the old man doth principally consist in lusts, 
and these lusts be so inordinate and deceitful, then take we heed how we be 
indulgent to them, or any one of them; as a man then is, when either 
he admits conference and parley with the object of his lust, brings it and his 
heart often together, is loath to part with the interview of it, but could fix 
his eye still upon it, glanceth again and again ; or when he obeys it and 
satisfies it, and the importunity of it, or doth venture to try experiments, 
and to prove what pleasure is to be had in such a sin, as Solomon did in 
mirth : Eccles. ii. 1, 2, ' I said in mine heart. Go to now, I will prove thee 
with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure : and, behold, this also is vanity. I 
said of laughter, It is mad : and of mirth, What doeth it ? ' He gave his 
heart leave to play, as it were : ' Go to now,' says he, ' I will prove thee with 
mirth, and therefore enjoy pleasure ;' or which is worse, when a man takes 
thought to lay up provision for it, as that man in the parable : Luke xii. 19, 
* And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' When a man slips the 
collar of the heart, that is, takes off checks of conscience and good motions, 
letting his heart pursue a desired lust, with full mouth, as the hound doth 
the hare ; the pleasure the man will have, whether in beauty, riches, pre- 
ferment, or any of the pleasures of sin, carnal mirth, good fellowship, 
chambering, wantonness, unlawful recreations, and spending precious time 
away in them ; I say, take heed of them, for they are deceitful lusts, labour 
to get thy heart quit and rid of them. Put them ofi", says the apostle ; 
though the pleasures of them stick as close to thee as thy skin doth to thy 
flesh, yet get thy heart and them loosened, get them flayed ofi"; though they 
lie in thy bosom, yet give a bill of divorce to them. If any worldly excel- 
lency of learning and applause draw out thy heart, and as bird-lime and pitch, 
when it is touched, makes all within thee roap after it, as that which thou 
shouldest esteem thy excellency, get it loosened, get that fuller's soap spoken 



312 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK YIII. 

of, MalacLi iii. 2, to wash it off. Job would not let his hands cleave to any- 
thing : Job xxxi. 7, * If mv step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart 
walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands.' When 
thou art to deal with anything in the world, spit on thy fingers that they 
may not stick to it, that thou mayest use it as if thou usedest it not. Dost 
thou feel thy soul roaming and stretching itself above its compass, to great 
things, as David says, Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2, ' too high for thee,' and projecting 
ease, and a quiet life, in such and such a condition ? Cease not till thou 
hast got thy heart into Da\-id's temper : Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2, « Lord, my heart is 
not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I exercise myself in gi-eat 
matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted 
myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother : my soul is even as a weaned 
child.' Bring thyself to this temper, to be as a weaned child, that hath no 
great thoughts, you know, there is no great commotion in their heads ; yea, 
as a weaned child, that much regards not the dug it once so cried for. A 
soul that is quiet and still, cries not discontentedly if it hath not this and 
that toy presently ; and such a soul projects no great matters aforehand, as 
children do not, but hopes in and depends upon the Lord, as children on 
their parents : Ps. cxxxi. 3, ' Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth 
and for ever.' If beauty entice thee, or pleasure of uncleanness soak into 
thy inwards, as oil into the bones, and draws and tolls out thy heart, cease 
not confessing, cursing, bewailing it, till that base liquorish disposition of 
thy heart be worn out, and the inward neighings of it tamed and subdued. 
Dost thou feel thy heart shooting the sprigs of it into the earth, rooting itself 
in riches ? Oh get the earth loosened from it, and thy heart stubbed up ; 
take heed there be not a root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15 ; get thy heart new 
planted, and shot into Christ, rooted there : Rom. vi. 5, ' For if we have 
been planted together in the hkeuess of his death, we shall be also in the 
likeness of his resurrection.' Col. ii. 7, ' Rooted and builded up in him, 
and estabHshed in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with 
thanksgiving.' You that are more profane, and draw cart-loads of sin 
after you, of drunkenness, swearing, oppression, and other gross sins, with 
cords of vanity, as Isaiah speaks, — chap. v. 18, 'Woe unto them that draw 
iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope ;' i.e. with 
strong affections and long drawn out, fastened and chained to such base 
courses, — get those cart ropes cut, those affections dissolved from such cursed 
works of the devil, for thou earnest but loads of fuel for hell to burn thee 
with. To conclude ; when I exhort you to put off your lusts, my meaning 
is, you should get fatherless, motherless, wifeless, richesless, learningless, 
honourless, pleasureless hearts, and to keep them so ; to be to all things as 
strangers and pilgrims here, as Peter exhorts: 1 Peter ii. 11, ' Dearly be- 
loved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, 
which war against the soul.' That whereas sinful dispositions and inordi- 
nate desires would be daily and continually putting themselves forth in us, 
and moving us inordinately to pleasures of this life, we should abstain, that 
is, keep ourselves from the occasions, means of increasing or satisfying of 
them; and use all the pleasures and comforts of this life, only as baits in 
our journey, not so as to detain us any whit in our way. And this I will 
enforce at this time on you, from the inordinate sinfulness and deceitfulness 
of all these lusts, which is the argument here used by the apostle in my text. 
First, Every lust that is thus inordinate in the heart, it is in regard of 
God flat and plain idolatry ; so as so many lusts as thou nourishest, so 
many idolaters dost thou give toleration unto in the dominion of thy heart : 
Col. iii. 7, ' Mortify your earthly members,' &c. ; ' covetousness, which is 



Chap. VII. J in respect of sin and punishment. 813 

idolatry.' Now, by the reason that covetousness is idolatry, by the same 
reason is every other lust, which is a desiring pleasure in some creature, or 
act of sinning, rather than in God, as I defined it. And indeed so that 
place of Ezekiel is and may most properly be understood : Ezek. xiv. 4, 
' Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them. Thus saith the Lord God, 
Every man of the house of Israel that settcth up his idols in his heart, and 
putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to 
the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the mul- 
titude of his idols.' Setting up idols in the heart, that is, so many lusts. 
Yea, and the idols of men's hearts are in many things Avorse than the idols 
of their hands ; for, 

1. This idolatry in the heart is a punishment often of the other idolatry, 
therefore it is worse : Rom. i. 22-24, ' Professing themselves to be wise, 
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, 
and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, 
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between 
themselves.' Because they did worship idols, therefore they were given up 
to lusts, ver. 24. 

2. Because these idol-lusts in the heart stand surer, and more fastly fixed. 
Good governors have pulled down other idols ; but these they cannot, nor 
never could. 

3. Men are more inflamed with these idol-lusts, and mad upon them, 
which is made an aggravation of idolatry : Isa. Ivii. 4, 5, ' Against whom do 
ye sport yourselves ? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the 
tongue ? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, inflaming 
yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the 
valleys, under the clifts of the rocks ? ' In Acts xix. 24, and so on, you may 
observe Demetrius respected his gain, which was the idol of his heart, more 
than Diana his great goddess. His speech bewrays it : ver. 25, ' We have 
had much wealth by her,' says he ; and this he spoke to them of the said 
occupation, that made shrines for her, as knowing they would be therefore 
zealous, and make the loudest noise, in crying, ' Great is Diana of the 
Ephesians.' The other is but dead, painted idolatry, this real and lively, 
and hath men's hearts more. In the other external idolatry, men did usually 
bend but their outward man ; it had but their caps and knees, and this often 
for fashion's sake, and customarily. But lusts have the first-born of men's 
thoughts, their morning sacrifices, they are their dearest and darling delights ; 
and 'the fruit of their souls, not of their bodies only, is dedicated to their 
service. To these men send up, as ejaculations, many a hearty glance day 
by day all the day long ; to these men vow their happiest opportunities, their 
most precious times ; and vowing, are strict in performance too. ^ 

Secondly, As lusts are thus inordinate in regard of God, and injurious to 
him, so they are also wrongful to the creatures they are occupied about, for 
men's lusts abuse them and subject them to vanity : Rom. viii. 20-22, ' For 
the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him 
who hath subjected the same in hope ; because the creature itself also shall 
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and tra- 
vaileth in pain together until now.' Now, then, a thing is said to be vain, 
when it is not used to the right end for which it was ordained ; and the 
being used to men's lusts, makes every creature an abomination of desola- 
tion, setting it up in the place it should not, namely, in the room of God, 
and so makes it to lose its proper excellency. So that God who looked and 



314 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

saw every creature good, now looking on it again, sees they are all vanity ; 
yea, and the better any creature is, so much the more vanity, because it is 
the more apt to be doated upon and abused, to be made the more common 
whore to men's lusts, insomuch as the creature is said to groan (as if they 
were sensible indeed they would), that they should be pressed, not willingly, 
Rom. viii. 20, by the tyranny of men's lusts, to serve in war against their 
Maker, that they should thus by force be made idols. Were they sensible, 
how heinously would they take it 1 as Paul and Barnabas rent their clothes. 
Acts xiv. 14, when the people would have worshipped them. And men's 
lusts commit a rape upon the creature, for it is subjected to vanity unwill- 
ingly, forced to be the heart's whore, and thereby is defiled : Titus i. IG, 
* They profess that they know God ; but in works they deny him, being 
abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.' 

Thinlhj, If we regard the soul itself which fosters them, these lusts are 
most injurious towards it. Not only, 

1. In defiling of it, for it is spiritual adultery, James iv. 4; and as that sin 
is said to be a sin against a man's own body, making it one with a harlot, so 
every lust by the same reason is a sin against the soul, by making it one with 
the creature it lusteth after, be it never so base. 

Nor, 2, only in debasing the soul, by transforming and putting it either 
into the condition of a beast or a devil, as all lusts do. Those of the body 
make us as beasts, delighting but in those things they do ; therefore the pro- 
digal is said to have served swine, Luke xv. 16 ; and so in the poets, Circe 
is said to have transformed men into the shapes of brutes. Or men are 
turned into devils in the lusts of the mind, as being common to them also, 
and therefore are called lusts of the devil: John viii. 44, * Ye are of your 
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do,' 

Nor, 3, are these lusts injurious to the soul, only in that they rob a man 
of his own soul, and give it away to the creature that it lusteth after; there- 
fore, Hosea iv. 11, wine is said to ' take away the heart,' so as when a man 
comes to have an ofi'er of grace made him and of heaven, he hath no heart 
to bestow, as Solomon says : Prov. xvii. 16, * Wherefore is there a price in 
the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it ? ' For it is 
gone after covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; this creature, or that lust, lays 
claim to it ; but when a man turns to God, he then gets and recovers his 
heart again. 

But to let these notions pass, that which I mean principally to insist on is 
the deceit and cheat which lust puts upon the heart, which, as the word is 
translated, is the motive in the text why we should put them ofi', because 
they are ' deceitful lusts.' The chief and only reason that can be alleged 
why men are indulgent to lusts, is the pleasure that comes in by them; that 
which leads men out of the way in their desires is, that they love pleasures 
more than God. Now, if men's lusts therefore shall cheat and deceive them 
herein, in that wherein they are so much betrusted, and in that which is only 
hoped and expected from them, then they may be truly called deceitful, for 
they say none are deceitful but those that are betrusted, and on whom our 
hopes depend. To scan therefore for the present no other inconvenience by 
them, we will only consider and reason this point a little ; and in the first 
place, let us consider. 

First, As I told you in the definition of them, they take the heart clean 
off from God as their chiefest good, for whom, and to be filled with whom, 
the soial was first made, to live with him as the fish in the water; at whose 
right hand and in whose presence is fulness of joy and rivers of pleasure, 
and this for ever, for the soul to have drunk of: Ps. xvi. 11 and Ps. xxxvi. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 315 

8 compared, ' Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness 
of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. They shall be 
abundantly satistiud with the fatness of thy house ; and thou shalt make 
tliem drink of the river of thy pleasures.' In God, the soul was to have had 
fulness to satisfaction ; ' they shall be abundantly satisfied.' In God, the 
soul should have drunk rivers as without satiety, running always fresh and 
for ever, as never emptied, no, nor ebbing, but in full flowing tide always. 
And in these rivers did the soul once swim, till lust hooked the soul out with 
a bait of pleasure elsewhere to be had. Lust hath drawn the soul out of its 
proper element, as James says, chap. i. 14 ; yea, and it hath so took oli' the 
heart that it cannot live or find comfort in God, but would die if put into 
God again, unless lust be destroyed. And out of him thy soul must needs 
die also, as a fish out of the water, though it Hves a while, drinking in ini- 
quity, as Job speaks, yet that pickle will not keep thee long. Yet, 

Secondly, It enticeth a man with great promises, large hopes, as those 
seducers, 2 Peter ii. 18, speak great swelling words, whilst they are all 
vanity. Lusts swell and blow up a man's fancy and expectation, both to 
give full satisfaction, as Prov. vii. 8, 'Let us take our fill of love.' A ful- 
ness is promised, as also continuance, ' To-morrow shall be as to-day ;' yea, 
and they will increase in the enjoying, 'much more abundant' : Isa. Ivi. 12, 
' Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong 
drink, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.' Now, 
as you use to say, men have no greater enemies than expectation, so neither 
than pleasures, for if they prove not as we expected, they vex so much the 
more. If hope be deferred, it makes the soul sick, Prov. xiii. 12, much more 
hope frustrated. Now, lusts do strappado a man's expectations, hoist them 
up a huge height, and let them fall on the sudden ; for when a man comes to 
enjoy them, they are the poorest, emptiest things, that the soul, as cheated, 
begins to think,"What, is this all ? and so is vexed. Solomon, who saw men 
doat so much upon pleasure here, thought there might be something in it, 
and surely his expectation was raised high ; he thought he would try con- 
clusions : Eccles. ii. 3, ' I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, 
yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom ; and to lay hold on folly, till I 
might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they.should do 
under the heaven all the days of their life.' Well, see what was the conclu- 
sion : ver. 17, ' I hated life ; because the work that is wrought under the sun 
is grievous unto me : for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.' That all should 
prove so empty, this vexed him. And which is strange, though every time a 
man's lust is satisfied he finds he is deceived ; yet (which argues the greatest 
cheat and collusion in the world) a man's lust varnisheth the same worn, 
empty delights over again, sets a new gloss on them, that a man's expecta- 
tion is blown up again as high as ever ; and by either the change of the 
object, or addition of some new circumstance, a man is fooled to think 
that now he shall have something he never had yet, as Balak thought the 
change of the place would do such feats. Thus do our lusts gull us, and are 
still as empty, and still we are as much vexed that our expectation is frus- 
trated. But consider further, 

Thirdly, The thing which lust pitcheth us upon is but at the best too little 
for the soul, a drop to a cistern, that which is not bread : Isa. Iv. 2, ' "Where- 
fore do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? and your labour for 
that which satisfieth not ?' And which argues lust still to be a worse cheater, 
lust makes the creature more empty to us than it would be, for it is that 
blasts them all, and the guilt of it. It is that hath made them all vanity to 
us : Rom. viii. 20, ' For the creature was made subject to vanity, not will- 



316 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

ingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.' God 
filled the creature with comfort, but he, namely, man, by his sin and abuse 
of it, hath subjected it to vanity. It is the lust of man which steals God's 
blessing, yea, God himself out of it, who otherwise in the use of it would fill 
the soul with good things, but now they are mere husks, Luke xv. 16 ; the 
kernel is gone, and that husk too, the sin that covers it about, fills it with 
bitterness and cursings, adds some cross to it or other, so that all now is but 
a mere fashion and gaudy show: 1 Cor. ^ii. 31, 'And they that use this 
world, as not abusing it : for the fashion of this world passeth away.' As 
if the world was gone, and the case and show of it only left : Hosea iv. 10, 
Micah vi. 14, Hag. iv. 6. Prov. xxiii. 5, ' Wilt thou set thine eyes upon 
that which is not ? for riches certainly make themselves wings ; they flee 
away as an eagle toward heaven.' They are there called things which are not, 
and therefore wilt thou set thine eyes on them ? They are said not to be, in 
respect of that deceitful appearance or gloss which our fancies cast on them. 
Their goodness lies in conceit, which conceit comes from lusts ; and though 
lust makes them really less than else they would be, yet in opinion it makes 
them more, and so all proves deceit. It is common opinion hath raised tbe 
price of gold and silver, and for a while hath turned it up trump, and so it 
answers all things, as Solomon says, Eccles. x. 19. So look upon the mart 
of learning, it is common opinion in several ages that raiseth and cries down 
sometimes one strain, sometimes another ; and, accordingly, men have ap- 
plied theii" studies even against their natural genius and disposition to that 
learning, not which is in itself most useful and excellent, but which bears the 
bell away in the esteem of men. Therefore, that which in one place is in 
fashion is not in another ; strong lines in one, quotations in another. Yea, 
hence there is such variety in the same men, they leave the pursuit of old 
vanities and start up new. What once they pursued with greediness, now 
they regard not, because opinion is the clerk of the market. What is one 
man's paradise is another man's hell ; what one adores, another tramples 
upon and scorns, because of variety of opinions ; which argues that opinion 
and fancy is that which puts the gloss on things : 1 Peter i. 24, ' For all 
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass : the grass 
withereth,. and the flower thereof falleth away.' Here worldly things are 
compared to gi'ass ; and two things are said, here is the flower of grass, the 
gloss and beauty of it, and the grass itself; so there is the things of the 
world and the glory'of them, that is, the goodness substantial which is in the 
things, and the gloss that man's lusts put on them as varnish. Now, as the 
flower falls away and decays before the grass, so doth this varnish, and fall 
off before the things perish. And when we enjoy the things, and thus find 
them not to answer our esteem of them, then we are vexed. And, 

Fourthly, This fashion of the world is passing away, 1 Cor. vii. 31, whereas 
continuance is also by our lusts promised, yet the time is but short, which 
will divers ways appear. 

For, first, suppose the things and our lusts should continue a like time 
together, and be of like life and continuance, yet the time appointed at the 
utmost is but short, viz., the time of tbis Hfe. A man can enjoy the objects 
of his lusts no longer than in his mortal body, which is a motive the apostle 
useth why they should not therefore be served : Kom. vi. 12, ' Let not sin 
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ve should obey it in the lusts thereof.' 
The reign and dominion of sin is limited ; yea, and lusts have made the body 
thus mortal, hath crazed it and made it moulder : Rom. v. 14, ' Death reigns 
by reason of sin,' and hath no other title to its crown but what sin gives it. 

Yea, secondly, this short time is cut often so much the more short, by how 



ClIAP. VIL] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 317 

much a man follows and obeys his lusts : Eccles. vii. 17, * Be not over much 
wicked, for why shouldst thou die before thy time ?' for wicked men live not 
out half their days. And lusts shorten our days, not only meritoriously 
provokinf;; God to do it, to put out the candle before it is half burnt, as Job 
says, — chap. xxi. 17, ' How oft is the candle of the wicked put out ? and how 
oft Cometh their destruction upon them ? God distributeth sorrows in his 
anger,' — but also lusts do this efficiently, the abundance of fuel to feed the 
flame of lusts choking and putting out the candle. Intemperancy, the very 
name itself, signifies distempering the body, and dissolving its constitution, 
and so implies destroying a man's self. And indeed the throat hath killed 
more than the sword. 

Thirdly, The objects are taken away, and do often fail us before we be 
taken from them, and this also by the treachery of our lusts. And this many 
ways will appear, for, 

1st, God withholdeth many things from men which he would give them, 
but for their greediness ; therefore James brings in this as a reason why they 
obtained not, because they were too violent in desiring, James iv. 2, and 
would consume all on their lusts; so God always deals with his children, and 
often with wicked men, whom he crosseth in their desires : Jer. v. 24, 25, 
' Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that 
giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season ; he reserveth unto 
us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away 
these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.' God 
thinks much that his good creatures should be so basely employed, should 
feed such filthy lusts, and that more should be consumed and devoured by 
them than would serve twenty of his other poor creatures. Compare these 
two scriptures together : Haggai i. 6, 9, ' Ye have sown much, and bring in 
little ; ye eat, but ye have not enough ; ye drink, but ye are not filled with 
drink ; ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; and he that earneth wages, 
earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Ye looked for much, and, 
lo, it came to little ; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. 
Why ? saith the Lord of hosts: because of mine house that is waste, and ye 
run every man unto his own house.' Mai. iii. 9, 10, ' Ye are cursed with a 
curse : for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring je all the 
tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house ; and prove 
me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of 
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it.' You shall find whilst they, out of greediness and sparing, and 
fear of want, would not pay their tithes, and build the temple, that therefore 
God withheld a blessing : ' Ye looked for much,' says God, ' and it came to 
little ;' as if he had said, Ye were too greedy, and therefore I did blow upon 
upon it ; their only way, God tells them, is to bring in their tithes, and see, 
saith he, if I pour not out a blessing. 

2dly, If men have good things, yet they sacrificing them to their lusts, 
God is provoked to take them away ; your lusts make you forfeit your lease, 
and provokes God to re-enter : Hosea ii. 9, ' I will take away my corn and 
my wine,' because they were prepared for idols, ver. 8. God thinks much 
the creatures should be made co-rivals with him, and adored and loved in 
his stead ; and therefore, as he threateneth idols often, so men's pleasant 
things too, as being alike images of jealousy, as Ezek. xxiv. 25, which he 
represented to them, ver. 16, in taking away Ezekiel's wife : ' Behold, with 
a stroke I will take away from thee the desire of thine eye;' and if they ask 
thee what these things mean, ver. 25, say to them, 'I will take away the 
desire of their eyes, the joy of their glory, and that whereupon they set their 



318 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

minds ; ' God dealing therein as Benhadad threatened to do to Ahab : 1 Kings 
XX. 6, ' Yet I will send my servants unto thee to-morrow about this time, 
and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants ; and it 
shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their 
hand, and take it away.' If thou hast anything better than other, to part 
with which would even kill thee, take heed ; God loves to take that away 
with a stroke. If anything bring the adversaries in, lusts will do it : Lam. 
i. 10, ' The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things : 
for she hath seen the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst 
command that they should not enter into thy congi-egation.' Yea, the crea- 
tures themselves, as wronged and abused, will in the end cast you out: Lev. 
xviii. 26-28, ' Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and 
shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, 
nor any stranger that sojourneth among yon (for all these abominations have 
the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled) ; 
that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the 
nations that were before you.' They will spue you out with loathing and 
indignation ; that is, provoke God with their groans, mentioned Rom. 
viii. 22, to do it to revenge their quarrel ; as subjects when they are wronged 
cast out the tyrant, and unhorse him, because he rides them too hard. 

3dly, They do not only provoke God to do it, but even the very lusts 
themselves ; and the eager pursuit of them proves the instrumental cause of 
the loss of the objects they pursue. How many a man ^had come to his 
journey's end if he had not ridden too fast, and his lusts had not spurred 
him, and he laid the reins on their necks ? So in the pursuit of riches : 
Prov. xxi. 5, ' He that hasteth to be rich, cometh to want ; ' and so Prov. 
xxviii. 22, for either he entangleth himself in too much, and by labouring to 
grasp too much loseth all, or by too much dearness and falseness turns 
away his customers, which by moderate gains he might hold and increase, — 
light gains make the purse heavy — or runs into some unjust prohibited course, 
and so forfeits all to the law ; as Solomon says, Prov. xxviii. 20, ' He that 
makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent,' nor unpunished ; and whilst 
he flies greedily to his prey as a bird, he gets a bullet that kills him, viz., 
that same flying roll spoken of, Zech. v. 1-3, God's curse that fli^s into the 
thieves' and oppressor's house ; or else he is the rather made a prey to the 
hunters and Nimrods of the world, as those beasts are the soonest that have 
the costliest skins and furs on their backs : Prov. xiii. 8, ' The riches of a 
man are the ransom of his life ; ' being taken in a fault, he is condemned 
the rather to die, that his goods may be begged* or forfeited. That to be 
the meaning the next words shew, '^the poor hears not the rebuke' ; that is, 
a meaner man shall escape. So in the pursuit of learning ; if some scholars 
had been wormed of that greedy humour of vain learning, they might have 
proved scholars ; but they, through too much reading of variety of books, 
have ravelled and fazzled their notions, that they cannot bring out a right 
end of them, or know not where to begin or end, besides the making their 
spirits and bodies more inapt, and to be as tired jades, dulled, and not able 
to hold out. So the ambitious pursuit of worldly greatness and glory has 
been their ruin. Many have fallen in the climbing for venturing higher than 
the boughs will bear them, as Absalom did ; or have been pressed to death 
by others in crowding, and have lost their ambitious aim in the seeking it : 
Prov. XXV. 27, ' It is not good to eat much honey ; so for men to search 
their own glory is not glory.' The desire of glory is baseness, and casts a 
spoil upon it when discovered. As proffered ware loseth its esteem, so 

* Qu. 'bagged'?— Ed. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 319 

credit affected, like a shadow, it runs away from those that follow it ; fall 
down if you will catch it ; he that humbleth himself shall be exalted : Luke 
xiv. 11, ' For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted.' Or else if some men do attain to some 
height, yet it proves unseemly for them, and their parts are not able to 
manage it, and so it proves their shame : as Prov. iii. 35, ' The wise shall 
inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.' So also the greedy 
and eager devouring of pleasures is often the means, in the issue and event, 
to deprive men of the things they should have pleasure in : Prov. xxi. 17, 
' He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man.' Prodigal men having much 
by them lay all on the fire's back at once, and so come to a morsel of bread. 
So idleness also doth, and at last the slothful man is fain to work for his 
living, as the prodigal son did, and to be glad of husks. Last of all, God 
often useth the lust a man hath been most indulgent unto to be his ruin, his 
hangman and executioner ; so Absalom's hair was to him, and Dehlah was 
so to Samson. 

Fourthly, If the objects and we should remain, yet the lust itself gives us 
the slip before the thing is gone : 1 John ii. 17, ' The world passeth away, 
and the lusts of it.' Often when the thing remains, and when the lust or 
stomach is gone, the sweetness is gone ; for nihil interest num non habeas aut 
non concupiscas ; for it is all one as if we had not the thing if we do not 
desire it ; the stomach is the same to meat, without which the best meat is 
fulsome. 

For (1.) Often a man's mind changeth ; for fancy and opinion being the 
ground of lust, as a sick man's mind alters, so doth a wicked man's. His 
lust, which is his caterer and his keeper, with much cost, and care, and 
pains, hath procured and dressed such a dish, which he longingly called 
for, and ere it comes he hath no mind to it, but something else. A man's 
lust sends him as a lacquey to purvey such a pleasure, &c., and when that is 
obtained, or ere he is at his journey's end, it sends him upon some other 
fool's errand as oft ; yea, and the more curious a man is to please his lusts, 
the more froward, wayward, and delicate do they grow, and the harder to 
please; like cockered children, or men in consumption, when they have 
spent much *time in projecting and building some stately house, or have 
contrived some dish on which they might feed, before it is half finished, their 
delight in it is gone ; as soon as the dish comes on the table their appetite 
is palled. Solomon's great orchards and buildings, Eccles. ii., were in 
the end no more to him than woods and cottages are to others, Eccles. 
ii. 4, 5, 11. 

(2.) A little sickness, or old age, or a cross, make our lusts to vanish, 
though the objects remain, health being the salt to all blessings. In old 
age, Eccles. xii. 1, men come to say, ' I have no pleasure in them ; ' yea, a 
little affliction deadeneth a man's lusts, as the toothache vexeth more than 
the health of all the members doth delight. The affliction of an hour makes 
a man forget all pleasure, takes a man's heart from all, that all avails him 
nothing, as it did Haman, Esther v. 11-13. Nay, if one wayward lust be 
crossed (as his was), one ounce of sorrow spoils a sea of pleasure ; for, sefjnius 
bona qnam mala sentimus, we have a slower and duller sense of good than 
evil. 

Fifthly, In the end, when all objects shall be taken away, then the lust 
remains to a man's torment, as it will prove so in hell : Rev. xviii. 14, 'And 
the fruits that thy soul lusteth after are departed from thee, and all things 
which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find 
them no more at all.' All goodly things are departed ; they should seek 



820 AN UNBKGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOKE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

them, and find them no more at all. Then oh for a drop of water ! what 
would the wretched man give for it ? But a man shall he kept close prisoner, 
and starved to death, and a worse death (if hell were no more) could not be 
invented. 

Sixthly, Now, in the sixth place, let us inquire into the pleasure itself 
which men have in satisfying their lusts, and we shall find that men are 
infinitely cheated and deceived in it, which will many ways evidently appear. 

For, 1, lust pitcheth us upon taking pleasure in things the soul was never 
made for, in things which are unnatural to it ; not only in unnatural unclean- 
ness, spoken of Rom. i. 26, 27, but in revenge, in the hurt of others, in 
disgracing, oppressing others, and building ourselves up on other men's 
ruins ; wherein the pleasure therefore cannot be great, because these are 
objects not made for it, and is as if a man should find sweetness in his own 
dung, eat man's flesh, or (as in some diseases) eat ashes and clay, &c. For 
all pleasure ariseth from suitableness, and suitableness ariseth from God's 
fitting things at the first ; those naturally and most fully delight the soul, as 
that meat the palate, which natiu-ally was made for it. Now the pleasures 
of unrighteousness, the soul was not made for, therefore they are against the 
original genius of it, they are nothing but a wresting, and a forcing, and 
wringing it the wrong way ; and all distorted motions have more pain than 
pleasure to accompany them ; and therefore when a man sins his soul is 
put out of joint : Gal. vi. 1, ' Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye 
which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; consider- 
ing thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' Kara^r/^srs, the word is, set him 
right again. 

But, 2, suppose it carries us on to take pleasure in those things that were 
made to perfect the soul, as learning, knowledge, and which refresh the body, 
as the lawful comforts of this life, yet lust hath made these less pleasant to 
us ; for original sin and lust is a disease, a sickness and a distemper in the 
soul, as may seem to be the meaning of Solomon, where, giving a reason of 
that sorrow and vexation of men in enjoying outward things, says he, Eccles. 
V. 17, ' He eats in darkness all his days, and hath much sorrow with his 
sickness.' Men are not bodily sick all their days, but their minds are, and 
so they have much sorrow in the use of all, by reason of the .sickness and 
distemper of their afiiections, for indeed, rivere est agrotare, to live in our 
sinful state is to be always sick ; and therefore Christ must come with heal- 
ing in his wings, Mai. iv. 2, when grace is renewed, which is the health of 
the soul. And that it is a sickness is evident from the burning distemper, 
and violent aguish-fits of longing we are cast into, as Rachel was, when she 
impatiently said. Gen. xxx. 1, ' Give me children, or else I die.' It is 
evident from that thirstiness and calling continually for drink, as Deut. 
xxix. 19 ; that tossing from one side of the bed to another, that is, changing 
our stations, and conditions, and objects, and so thinking to ease ourselves, 
but not to cure ourselves. Now if it be so, then the pleasure is fulsome and 
unnatural also, by reason of our vitiated palate, a sick sweetness; and there- 
fore we think all beer bitter to us, that is, no creature can long please us ; 
whereas, were our souls in health, all comforts would be sweet and comfort- 
able, and if a man had experience of a month's health, he would find them 
so. But being led by lusts, falling into a fever, and also because the disease 
is fed, not the man, who consumes more and more, is weakened and eftemi- 
nated, for his restless endeavours to gratify his lusts, molUtiem et debilitatem 
inducunt, suck out the vigour of that spirit which should sustain infirmities. 
So that we are unapt to bear crosses, are more unuseful to others, and weak 
to help ourselves. 



Chap. VII. J in respect of sin and punishment. y:il 

8. If we examine the conception, the birth, and bringing up of all our 
pleasures in sinning, we shall find that they are begotten, brought forth, 
trained up in sorrow; and that this is much more than the pleasure. 

(1.) Because, unless there be some difficulty in attaining that we desire, 
we little care for a thing ; the more we are restrained by blocks in our way, 
by checks of conscience before (all which are painful to overcome), the more 
eager are we ; and therefore stolen meat is sweet, Prov. ix. 17, Quod licet 
ingratum est, quod non licet cpgrins urit : what is allowed us is ingrateful, 
what is prohibited more violently inflames us ; and the difficulty sets a price 
upon the sin. 

(2.) Sorrow is the womb in, and the matter of, which all our pleasures in 
sin are begotten. Pain is the sulphur of this blaze, the sauce to this sweet ; 
for the very desire, till satisfied, is a restless torture, it is but as the throb- 
bing of a boil, or the pain of the itch, which all men account a misery ; and 
satisfying is but the breaking of the boil, it is rather ease than pleasure. So 
the Stoics defined it to be indolence, and that that was the utmost happiness man 
could attain to ; it is only putting the arm out of bed to cool a little. And 
that this desire is a torture, is evident by Amnon, who was lean from day to 
day from the desire he had to Tamar, 2 Sam xiii. 2, 3 ; and by Ahab, who 
was sick for Naboth's vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 4. And therefore yielding to 
a lust, is x-ather the quitting ourselves of the torment of such a desire which 
is^^importunate, than any sweetness of enjoyment ; as the unjust judge yielded 
to the widow, to discharge himself of an importunate suitor. And without 
strong desire no pleasure is found, for this is in proportion according to the 
desire. To whom is meat sweet, but to him that is pained with hunger ? 
else it is loathsome ; so as all satisfaction of lust is but a remedy for pain, a 
privative pleasure rather than positive. And therefore our lusts put us to a 
great deal of pains to please them, not suffering men to sleep unless they 
have done mischief: Hab. ii, 13, ' Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that 
the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary them- 
selves for very vanity ? ' Men weary themselves for vanity, and take pains 
to do wickedly, whether in gathering riches, eating the bread of carefulness, 
&c., or in aspiring after glory and a name. Magnus labor magntR custodia 
famce, it is a great labour to preserve a great reputation. Credit is a costly 
building, which costs much the rearing, and much the keeping in repair. Or 
in pleasures, men tire themselves: the adulterer watcheth for the twilight ; 
men sit up late at cards and dice. Thus men are set to gather straw, as 
the Israelites by the Egj-ptians, with much care, as fuel and provision for 
their lusts. 

(3.) The pleasure in enjoying them is but the increasing'the desire, which 
you saw before was a torture ; and so as a man satisfying them makes him- 
self more pain, more work, his going of one errand to please a lust occasion- 
eth his being sent again, and still he is but the more weary. As drinking 
in a dropsy, though it seem to ease, yet it makes the thirst more; and so 
the man's vexation is more by the gratification of his sinful desires : he adds 
but fuel to the fire, and all his pleasures are baits, not meat, that do not 
feed the man, but the desires ; and the yielding to them encourageth them to 
be more boldly importunate. 

And yet, 4, these pleasures are but momentary, and die between our teeth, 
or slip like shadows from between our hands whilst we endeavour to grasp 
them; they are but a blaze of straw, crackling of thorns, Eccles, vii, 6; none 
of them are so long as one fit of an ague. If any of them are quick and lively, 
yet they perish in the very using : yea, and so small are they, as that the 

VOL. X. X 



322 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII. 

painful desire was more contentment to the man than the fruition, the wooing 
time more delightful than the enjoying ; for then the heart was fed with 
pleasing hopes of possessing some great good. 

And, 5, they leave the heart full of sorrows, like sweet-singing birds, which 
men endeavouring to catch, thrusting in their hands on a sudden, are left in 
the midst of thorns, and the bird is flown and gone. Biches have wings, so 
have pleasures : Prov. xiv. 13, ' Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and 
the end is heaviness.' Extrema gaudii luctus occupat, mourning still suc- 
ceeds joy, and that appears many ways. 

1st, Because the soul is left empty by them. The lust is satisfied, and the 
soul gets nothing, is not bettered by it, but is consumed and weakened 
rather. The disease is fed, and not the man; as no sick man is nourished by 
all the meat he takes; the soul is starved, the lust is only nourished. In 
the parable of the prodigal, the swine (that is, his lusts) eat up all the husks, 
he could not get so much as them. Thus they say the devil eats all the 
witches' food when he feasts them. In a word, all the satisfaction is but 
taking down wind into the body, Hosea xii. 1. Ephraim feeds on the wind, 
and Israel is a wild ass that snuffs up the wind, the desire of her heart, Jer. 
ii. 24. And this emptiness vexeth : Eccles. v. 16, 'And this also is a sore 
evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go : and what profit hath he 
that laboureth for the wind ?' This is a sore thing, to labour for the wind; 
and therefore the soul goes still bleating up and down, lowing for fodder, as 
starved as ever, like Pharaoh's lean kine. 

2dly, Because the lust itself and the soul find a burthensomeness and a 
loathsomeness in the end. It is not emptiness only, but fulsomeness ; for 
though a man is not nourished by them and so satisfied, yet he is cloyed 
and dulled with them, and then loathing comes, which is joined with sorrow, 
Prov. xxvii. 7. A full stomach loathes the honeycomb ; and so Amnon did 
loathe Tamar when enjoyed : prase7itium tcedio laboramus, the object when 
present becomes a burden, and oppresseth nature, for lust carries us to ex- 
cess, and excess is loathsome.', 

3dly, Because a man can never satisfy "one lust, but he must displease 
another. Prodigality and luxury bring forth shame and poverty with it, at 
the same time that it brings forth pleasure, or at least so as to take it by 
the heel. As in ministering physic to cool the liver, they spoil the stomach, 
&c., so a man in laying up for one lust starves another; in heaping up 
riches, he defrauds his soul of pleasures : Eccles. iv. 8, ' Yet is there no end 
of all his labour ; neither is his eye satisfied with riches ; neither saith he. 
For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good ? This is also vanity, 
yea, it is a sore travail.' This is a sore evil, to go with an empty belly to 
fill their chests ; as a man displeaseth one dear friend to pleasure another, 
and if he sits down he displeaseth both ; for every object a man is con- 
versant about, every lust comes about it, like so many swine to the trough, and 
all put their mouths in, and as some are pleased, so some are displeased ; 
so as, James iv. 1-3, they are said to war in our members one against 
another, to interrupt the free enjoying one of another, and all fighting against 
the soul, that stands in the midst, and receives all the blows, 1 Peter ii. 11, 
and is pierced through with many sorrows, 1 Tim. vi. 9. 

4thly, There is much sorrow mingled with them, because what we affect 
and desire, and do enjoy, we take care to keep, have perplexing fear of 
losing them, and grieve answerably if we do lose them ; so as riches, honours, 
pleasures increase, sorrows increase, for all these affections have pain joined 
to them : Eccles. v. 11, 'When goods increase, they are increased that eat 
them : and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 323 

of them with their eyes ? ' When riches increase, they will not suffer a man 
to sleep, as many clothes will not. Nabal's heart died for fear of losing what 
he so loved ; when the storm of David's anger was over, and the danger past, 
and when Nabal was got safe over the dangerous bridge, yet the conceit 
killed him. When the heart is rooted in anything it delights in, the loss of 
it tears out a piece of the heart ; therefore, Job xx. 15, God is said to tear 
and rake riches out of a covetous man's belly. David would have died 
rather than have lost his Absalom, so inordinate was his grief, because 
his love was so. Thus in regard of the things we desire and lust for, we 
are like children that are fond of a man, and cry if he but seem to stir; and 
then when that is gone we are most atl'ected with, we are vexed more than 
ever we were pleased by the possession of it, and cry. We are undone ! 
Stultus quod perdidit amat; we are as a fool, who then begins to prize a 
thing when he hath lost it. 

5thly, Because there is a sting left behind, the sting of conscience ; there- 
fore the gratification of our lusts hath more pain than pleasure in it, it bites 
as a cockatrice: Prov. xxiii. 31, 32, ' Look not thou upon the wine when 
it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright : 
at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.' It is a dart 
that strikes through the liver, that wounds the soul, and though the wound 
is not felt in hot blood, whilst the man is in eager pursuit of his lust, yet at 
night when he is cooled, then these wounds will ache and throb, and make 
him subject to the fear of death all his lifetime ; the sin will beat him at 
night, notwithstanding all his pains to commit it, as the taskmasters did the 
Israelites. Though men kindle blazes of pleasures, which yet are but sparks, 
and walk in the comfort of them a while, yet they lie down in sorrow, Isa. 
1. 11. And in hell, so much torment there will be, in proportion to the 
pleasures which men have had in sin: James v. 1, ' Go to now, ye rich men, 
weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.' Rev. xviii. 7, 8, 
' How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment 
and sorrow give her : for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no 
widow, and shall see no son-ow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one 
day, death, and mourning, and famine ; and she shall be utterly burnt with 
fire : for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.' Hear, and seriously 
consider this, you who have lived in pleasure, and nourished yourselves 
deUciously with sinful delights ; yea, and those things which have been the 
instruments of your lusts shall most be punished ; as Dives his tongue, 
which was the conduit-pipe of his pleasure, was now the vessel of his pain. 



32i AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUIMINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 



BOOK IX. 

Wisdojn in the hidden part, or practical ivi.sdom concerning original sin, 
founded on David's example and practice, Ps. li. 6. — That this sin is matter 
of rcpoitance as well as our actual sins, and how we are to he humbled/or it, 
and to repent of it. 

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts ; and in the hidden part thou 
shalt make me to know wisdom. — Psalm LI. 6. 



CHAPTER I. 

The errors of the papists, denyirvj original sin to he the object of repentance. — 
The opinions of Bonaventure, Estius, Suarez, and Bellarmine proposed and 
refuted. 

Every truth in our religion hath an lnTga^/g, an usefuhiess in it. The 
doctrine of original sin in both parts of it (the guilt of Adam's fact, and the 
corruption inherent) is an eminent truth, which our Christianity cannot want, 
and therefore ought to have, and is fitted to have an i^yaala, an operation 
upon the heart of every Christian, answerable to the weight and moment of 
the truth, and therefore is not to lie by us as if it were a mere speculation. 
And whatever dispositions of heart others may have handled, as required of 
Christians towards God about it, I shall single out this of humiliation, con- 
trition, or brokenness of heart for it. For if it be sin, and our sin (proprium 
peccatum, though not propriir fiperationis), though not of our own committing 
or operation, and whereof yet the guilt ariseth unto us, we may be sure that 
a serious humiliation and submission of soul is requisite for it ; for humilia- 
tion and sin are relatives in their kind, even as faith and Christ are, and so 
far as it is sin, and our sin, it is meet we be humbled for it. 

To evince all which you have here David's practice and example set afore 
you in this treatise ; and ere I come to the clearing thereof, I do by way of 
preface give the reader a brief scheme of those practical errors (and not so 
much about the doctrine of original sin itself), which men, professing them- 
selves divines, have uttered about the exercise of repentance for it, and if 
any, what it should be. Among many it hath been made a set and solemn 
question. Whether any repentance and humiliation at all is required of Chris- 
tians for original sin (whether it be the guilt of Adam's first act of sin, or the 
corruption) ; and at best, the most allow so slight a displacency for it (for 
so they mince it), as truly it is scarce worth the owning by God. I shall 
spread their opinions before you ; for it is no small advantage towards the 
understanding the truth, to have a view of the errors about it, or faUings 
short of the truth, and that in their several sizes and proportions lesser and 
greater ; it makes us both value the truth the more, and better discern it, 
when we perceive where truth and errors part. 

First, Not to insist on the Socinians' doctrine and practice, who wholly 



Chap, l.j in respect of sin anl» vunishmknt. ;'325 

ami utterly deny this sin in us in any part of it, and therefore no wonder if 
thoy put it not into their confessions, and teach men not to do so. 

Secondly, As for the Arminians, they (the old ones, I am sure, did) acknow- 
ledge the imputation of Adam's act to be our sin, but the corruption inherent 
to be only a punishment of that sin, and so not a sin distinctly considered ; 
but withal they teach that all that accrues to us, as sin in it, is so taken 
away by Christ the second Adam, and so universally, even to^the heathens, 
as well as those that are baptized among Christians, as that they arc all 
quitted of that sin (when of no other without repentance) ; but this they 
say, whether men repent or not, it shall never be laid unto men's charge, 
so as we need not trouble ourselves more about it. 

Thirdly, As for the papists, they grant the imputation of Adam's act as of 
a sin, and also original corruption inherent to have been a sin afore bap- 
tism, and so to all unbaptized ; but aftirm withal, that baptism is appointed 
to take away all the sinfulness or guilt that may redound from either act or 
corruption ; and what is left of inherent corruption, after baptism, is not a 
sin in them, or to them, but a wealmess, a physical corruption ; as a disease 
or any other infirmity in nature, but not a moral evil. And then for actual 
sins after baptism,' they have set up that invention of penance (as they call 
it), or repentance, to be a sacrament for the forgiveness of actual sins ; the 
mystery whereof is to necessitate all men to a confession unto, and absolu- 
tion by, a priest for such sins, as baptism is a sacrament for the taking away 
original sin. So that this of penance, &c., is God's ordinance (they say) for 
taking away the guilt of actual sins only of a man's own committing; and so 
by this doctrine they do quit those that are baptized, and their consciences 
wholly of original sin (as a sin). And thus they think themselves complete 
Chi-istians, and to have a full provision made for both, as to the forgiveness 
both of original and actual sin ; what between the one remedy of baptism 
and the other of repentance. And they are so intent upon magnifying this, their 
sacramental repentance for men's own actual sins, that they load not men's 
consciences at all with repentance or humiliation for original sin, as having 
been sufficiently removed by baptism ; they put over this sin wholly unto 
that ; so as that comes not within the compass of any confession that is to 
be made either to a priest for absolution, nor of a repentance before God ; 
and this is a great mystery of their religion. 

Bonaventure,* the best of all the ancient schoolmen, yet speaks leanly and 
flaccidly as to this point ; his determinations are, 

1 . That all men grown up are not bound to a detestation and repentance 
fur this corruption ; because, says he, all men do not know they have such 
corruption in them, and so are not obliged to any act, no, not of detestation ; 
so he speaks about it. A good church it is in the meantime, that so crieth 
up the efficacy of baptism, to take it so generally away, as it judgeth that 
the priest needs not instruct their penitents grown up of the evil of this sin. 

2. For them that are grown up and know it,t he says (1.) It is meet, in- 
deed, and fit that this sin should displease them, that they should have a. 
displacency, not a contrition or brokenness of heart for it ; for afterwards it 
follows, that he is not bound to afflict himself for it ; and (2.) that displa- 
cency neither is but only congruous, not necessary ; (3.) that it be done but 
in the general (as it is common with all others of mankind, or in the lump 

=1= Lib iv. Cent, distinct, xvi. p. 2. Specialiter quantum ad adultos, qui se habere 
nesciunt, et quantum ad hos non oportet quod aliquis actus detestationis adveniat. 

t Qiiantnni ad tales qui sciunt, congrnum est quod displiceat non in speciali sed in 
general!, sed non est necessarlum. And, after that, Quod non tenetur sc affligere.— 
Bonavent. ibid. 



326 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS I'.KFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

and gross with all other sins), but not in special, as his own particular con- 
dition. 

Only I confess Estius corrects him,* for it is so small allowance out of 
Aquinas, as being too short, and says, debet haheri, that a man ought to have 
it ; and yet how he corrects himself in this afterwards, I shall shew. 

And for Aquinas himself,f he restrains repentance propria et principali- 
ter, properly and principally, unto mortal sin committed by a man's self, 
as the object of it ; but as to original sin his words are. Repentance is 
neither principally appointed for it, because the sacrament of penance is not 
ordained for it, but baptism rather ; nor proj)erbj, because it was not com- 
mitted by our own wills, &c. And yet take repentance largely (says he) for 
any kind of detestation of a thing past, so it may be termed repentance for 
original sin. Thus he limits it unto an act of detestation only, and that but 
such as amounts to any kind of detestation of a thing past, which is amiss ; 
which is as little as may be, and at best but as much as nothing for it, and 
that for the present, unless humiliation [for] inherent corruption dwelling 
in us be performed also by us. 

SuarezJ, one of our acutest new schoolmen, says, 1, Kon videtur esse apta 
materia virtutis jpcenitenticc, that original sin seems not fit matter or object for 
the ^-irtue of repentance. So that it is not for that grace so much as to be 
conversant or'exercised about it, but as for their sacrament of penance or 
repentance. This sin, iiidlo modo pertinet ad materiam illius sacramenti, it 
doth no way belong to the matter of that sacrament ; and therefore contri- 
tion for it is not required at all of these penitents afore their absolution. 

And the most I can get of him is, 2, that if w-e consider this virtue of 
repentance, as it is a mere simple affection, and a piece of justice which we 
owe to God, as original sin is a state of injustice to God; and so considered, 
we may have such a kind of repentance for it. And so far he bountifully 
grants ; hoc modo non est iiiconveniens ohjectum ejus ampliari etiam ad orirfi- 
nale. So taken, it is not inconvenient (forsooth) to extend it to original sin 
as its object ! 

And again, 3, Posswmis dolere eu quod hnmanum genus in prima parente 
Deum offenderit, we may be grieved that mankind did offend God in their 
first parent, which is all one with Bonaveuture's in generali, that in general 
we may exercise a displacency about it, but not in special, that is, particu- 
larly for our own persons, which yet we are to do, and lay it to heart, as if 
none else had been guilty of it with us. 

And, 4, in his close he adds of that also, that this may be done by con- 
sidering it speculatively, so as thereby to express an affection to God. 

But, 5, afterwards he professedly says, there is no commandment given ns 
either to mourn for it, or be displeased thus at it (for of those two acts he 
had spoken afore). Nay, he adds, ncc dari oportuit, nor ought any such 
command to have been given. 

And, 0, he gives this professed reason, Because as that sin was commit- 
ted but by the will of that one man Adam, so it was satisfied for by the will 
(or willing obedience) of Christ alone ; and as by generation natural it is 
contracted by us, so also by regeneration in Christ (which with them is done 
once for all in baptism, unto all baptized) it is blotted out ;§ and so (as we 

* iEstius. lib. iv. Sent, distinct. 16, § 6. 

t Tho. Aquinas, ter. par. qucest. 84, art. 2, ad tertium. 

J In tertiam, par. iv., disp. ii., sect. 1, de objecto materiali, torn. xiv. Oper. 

§ Negat esse neccssarium, ac merito, quia nullum datum est de eo prajceptum, nee 
dari oportuit, quia sicut unius Ada; voluntate commissum est, ita unius Christi volun- 
tate pro illo satisfactum est : ct sicut generatione naturali contrahitur, ita ctiam per 
regenerationem in Christo deletur. — Siiarez, ibid. Originale pecctitum etiamsi (rem 



Chap. I.j in respkct of sin and punishment. 327 

nse to say) it lightly comes, and it as lightly goes. And thus they pass it over 
and wrap it up. 

Nay, 7. He concludes, Nihilominus* &c., that notwithstanding all those 
liberal gi-ants he had made about it, of displacency, &c. (which you have now 
heard), yet it is not a necessary matter or ground of any such acts ; nor, to 
speak practically (says he), is it an zise/ul matter (of repentance) to correct 
men's manners, which are the proper ends of repentance. Thus he. So 
as, in fine, they plainly lay aside all kind of repentance about it, as of no 
nse at all, in the exercises thereof. 

As for Estius, for all his debet hahcri, he, not\?i'ithstanding, in his close 
about it, comes ofl' thus,f — in answer to an objection made out of Austin, 
that that damnable original sin is to be laid to heart, amended and corrected 
in a man, — Not (says Estius) either because every man did it for himself, 
nor because he ivas born in it, or that he hath it (in him), nor unless the case 
happen to be that a man sinfully delays the grace of regeneration, and wil- 
fully remains in corruption, and will not be freed from it by regeneration. 
And so to do, is the sin of a man's own will, which is severely to be re- 
pented of. So that, indeed, Estius puts all upon this : in case a man delays 
repentance, and will not be freed by it from that state of corruption, so indeed 
he is to repent, and for so doing, for that is always a sin of his own will ; 
but still so as take original corruption simply, and as inherent in him, he 
flatly affirms he is not bound to repent or be afflicted for it, either because 
he was born in it, or because he hath it, that is, that it is in him. 

Oh how slightly, slenderly, leanly, and dilutely do these men speak of, and 
pass over, one of the greatest matters, and of the greatest concernment to 
mankind that ever was in the world ! Brethren, love and value your reli- 
gion. Let us take part rather with Paul, who in the conclusion of his dis- 
course about that corruption (which they after baptism deny to be a sin), we 
find to have been so infinitely pressed at the sense of it, that he cries out, 
' miserable man that I am ! who shall deliver me ? ' &c. And the misery 
he there intends and complains of, is the above-mentioned sinful sin, as that 
•which all along from verse 14 in that chapter he had so bitterly complained 
of ; and yet Paul had been baptized many years afore he writ this epistle. 
And if any say, he speaks in the person of an unregenerate man, we know 
that multitudes remain such after their being baptized. Fall down likewise 
let us here with David, who long after his circumcision (which our baptism 
succeeds) thus bewailed the corruption of his nature, and bitterly lament and 
humble ourselves for this sin, as we shall see that here he did, with an ecce, 
a behold, upon it : ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 
mother conceive me.' 

And truly the greatest grounds I can find in Suarez or Bellarmine, or any 
of them, is, first, that the object of repentance properly is actus proprius, an 
act done by a man's self; and that in rigour repentance is only retractatio 
facti prateriti, the recalling with sorrow and grief a fact that is past, which 
must be supposed a man's own : pcenitet et facto torqneor ipse meo. Whereas 
(say they) neither of these two parts of original sin are committed or con- 
speculative considerando) possit esse materia seu objectum alicujns odii pertinentis ad 
pcenitentiam, &c. 

* Nihilominus non esse materiam necessariam, neque praetice loquendo moraliter 
utilcm ad corrigendos et emendandos mores, qui sunt proprii fines virtutis Pcenitentiffl- 
Suarez ibidem. 

t Augustinus docet corripiendam esse in homine originem damnabileai ; non quia 
earn quisque sibi fecit, neque quia in ea uatus est, aut eana habet, nisi forte culpabi- 
liter gratiam regenerationis distulerit, &c, — Estius ibid. lib. iv., Sent, distinct, vi. 16, 
§ 6, ad finem. 



32S AN UXKEGENERATE MANS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

tracted by a man's own will, and so come not under the case of repentance. 
And, secondly, that there is not, nor can be, any inorsus conscientlm, sting or 
sense of conscience for this sin, such as for our own actual sins. One of 
these so expresseth himself, Nemo in se reperit morsurn conscienticR j^ropter hoc 
peccatum : No man finds in himself any sting of conscience for this sin. Ego 
nunquam semi, I never felt any, says he, &c. 

As for refutation of these opinions, I shall say little. David's practice, 
and what follows in the treatise itself, will be sufficient for this ; yet I shall 
premise here some few things thereto. 

First, I would bring both papists and those others unto Acts ii. 37, 38, 
' Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto 
Peter, and to the rest of the apostles. Men and brethren, what shall we do ? 
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift 
of the Holy Ghost.' Here we find those Christian converts newly stricken 
with the sense of sin, and as yet unbaptized ; and to the end they might be 
baptized by the apostles, are exhorted to repent of their sins : ' Repent, and 
be baptized for the remission of sins.' Now, I would demand whether or no 
they were not herein exhorted to repent of every sort of sin that was to be 
forgiven them, and the forgiveness whereof was to be sealed up by baptism? 
And so, whether they were not here commanded to repent in common of their 
original sin as well as of their actual, in order to that sealing up of forgive- 
ness of one as well as of the other ? 

And from thence my argument lies thus : 

That all those sins, the forgiveness of which baptism upon repentance was 
the seal, of all those sins (that is, indefinitely, of any sort or particular of 
them) they were to repent in order to that forgiveness. But these original 
sins (if sins either of them) were sins, whereof baptism upon repentance was 
the seal of their forgiveness, as well as of their own actual. Ergo, 

The proof hereof lies upon this, that these things are made of like extent 
by the apostle: 1, sins to be repented of in order to forgiveness, &c. ; 2, for- 
giveness of those sins upon repentance ; 8, baptism sealing up that forgive- 
ness on repentance. There is no sort of sin that was to be forgiven but is 
alike indefinitely exhorted to be repented of, and baptism to be administered 
to seal up the forgiveness thereof ; for this exhortation is general, or at least 
indefinite, and reacheth to all sorts of sins that are to be forgiven. And who 
shall make the exception or difierence, that some sins need not be repented 
of in order to forgiveness, but others must, since the apostle makes none ? 
In like manner when Christ, preaching the gospel, exhorted to repent and 
believe, surely his intendment was, that our repentance for sins should be 
as extensive as our faith for the forgiveness of them. If, therefore, we are 
to exercise acts of faith for the forgiveness of all dr any, then acts of repent- 
ance also. Who shall distinguish where God and Christ do not ? 

If any say. It is not requisite that every sin that is to be forgiven should 
particularly be repented of, the answer is, True, if it be understood upon this 
ground, or with this caution, that a penitent cannot de facto know or recall 
every particular sin of his through weakness ; yet so as j'et the duty lies 
upon all, or any, indefinitely, one as well as another, especially any one sort 
of sin as well as another (about which the question is), and so as still every 
one sin is capable of a true repentance as well as another ; so as it must not 
be said of any that he needs not repent of such or such, that yet are acknow- 
ledged sins, and for which forgiveness is necessary. 

And this argument from Acts ii. comes the more home unto the papists ; 
for, according to their doctrine, baptism is principally intended and ordained 



Chap. I.J in respect of sin and punishment. iJ29 

for the forgiveness of original sin, and the taking of it away as a sin. So say 
they. And therefore say I, the apostle, according to the rule of adequation, 
must be supposed to exhort these men, now grown up to riper years, to the 
repentance of this sin, in order to their being baptized, above any other. 

Nor will the instance of infants, that they are not bound to repent of this 
sin in order to forgiveness at baptism, and yet have it forgiven, obstruct this; 
for these converts were aduUi, men grown up and come to knowledge. And 
this rule in Acts ii. was given principally for what concerned them, and such 
as they, viz. men of riper years when baptized ; and so such were and are 
obliged to repent of it. 

If it be farther said, that however their original sin being upon baptism 
forgiven them, and that forgiveness sealed up thereby once for all, that there- 
fore these men were not obliged any more to repent of that sin, being so sealed 
up and forgiven ; and therefore not we, seeing it was done away once for all 
when we were baptized infants ; — 

The reply is, that their actual sins committed afore their repentance and 
baptism were then forgiven as well as their original, and the forgiveness of 
them sealed up as well as this of original ; and surely they will not affirm 
that these converts were not obliged nor needed any more at all to repent of 
their actual sins after that forgiveness at baptism ; especially if they look a 
verse or two back, and consider that crucifying of Christ was one of the sins 
they are there exhorted to repent of, and were pricked in their hearts in order 
unto forgiveness. And will they say they needed not to repent of that sin, 
because forgiven at baptism, whenas St Paul, that had that sin forgiven at 
his baptism, yet cries out bitterly, ' I was a persecutor and injurious,' long 
after his baptism. 

Secondly, A second answer is, that both others, and the papists, do in 
these assertions bring up the highest antinomianism, and proclaim themselves 
as much such as any are in the world ; for these assertions are founded upon 
this supposition, that if a sin be once forgiven by God, we need no more 
repent of it or lay it to heart. The papists' doctrine holds all men in sus- 
pense about the forgiveness of actual sins, but peremptorily teacheth that this 
original sin is forgiven for ever, and pretend to have the assurance thereof, 
when not of the forgiveness of the other, and from hence exact not a repent- 
ance for this in persons baptized ; so that look wherein they judge an abso- 
lute forgiveness to be, therein they are as perfect antinomians as any. And 
what reason of difference can be given why original sin, once forgiven, should 
never more be humbled for, but actual sins must ; and why the absolution 
of a priest in their penance should not absolve them from actual sins (pen- 
ance being to them God's ordinance) as effectually as the other ordinance, 
baptism, doth from original ? 

Besides, is not this unkind and disingenuous, whether in papists or whom- 
soever, that this sin forgiven by God, and remembered by him no more, 
should therefore be forgotten by us ? Shall a man run away with the for- 
giveness, and pass it over thus, so as not to concern himself about the sin 
forgiven any more ? Shall not this sin (if it be a sin, as they confess) abound 
in our sense and apprehensions, to the end that the grace of forgiveness may 
abound much more? Rom. vi. Which grace (if this sin, according to the 
proportion of sin in it, be not laid to heart) is utterly lost, deeming it but, 
as we do, a common pardon of coui-se, of which there would be forgiveness 
whether we repent or no. However, it should have a due regard from us 
when we repent of other sins, though pardoned, to humble ourselves for that 
also, it being proper unto us, that is, every one of us who are personally 
guilty of it, as if none other had been guilty of it with us. Assurance of 



330 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

forgiveness quits us not, nor dischargeth us of confessing and humbling our- 
selves. We are to humble ourselves the more because pardoned : so Ezek. 
xvi. 63, * That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open 
thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee 
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.' And though here the pro- 
phet mentions only what we have done, yet there is the same reason of what 
we are or have been, or of what may be counted sin, and for which God is 
pacified towards us too, as well as any other sin ; there is every way the 
same reason for both. We are to put our mouths in the dust for ever for all 
sins for which God is pacified, especially when we feel the venom of a sin (as 
in this case it is), like a cup of poison drunk by us, still working in our 
bowels, and continuing so to do until death, which it brought into the world, 
fetcheth us out. 3 

These things I have cast rather into a preface, than to insert them into the 
body of the discourse itself (though there they might have had a fit place), 
because I aim at the benefit of the common sort of Christians, whom such 
a narrative of others' opinions do often deter and divert from reading any 
farther. 

I should likewise here answer those fore-mentioned grounds why they deny 
original sin to be a fit matter of repentance, which Bellarmine also mani- 
festly atfii'ms, namely, 1, because repentance is properly only of an act done 
by a man's self; and, 2, because there is not, nor can be any morsus con- 
scientue, sting or biting of conscience for this sin, especially for Adam's fact 
imputed (so say they). But because the answers to these are more proper 
ingredients into the very practice and exercise of our souls about it, I have 
remanded them to a due place in the discourse itself. 



CHAPTER II. 

The exjwsition of the text proved, that David expresseth humiliation and repent- 
ance for his orif/inal sin, and that he humbles himself in the sense of his 
guilt by the imputation of Adanis Jirst sin, and the sinfulness of his own 
nature. 

Behold, I was broucfht forth in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive 
me. Behold, thou desirest tndh in the inward parts ; and in the hidden part 
thou hast made me to know wisdom. — Ps. LI. 6, 6. 

My intended subject is the demeanour and exercise of an humbled penitent 
soul in point of original sin towards God. It is not the doctrine of original 
sin (of which I have already discoursed), but what humiliation and repentance 
the soul, convinced of it, is to put forth about it. And truly it is an useful 
point of practice as any other, and conducing greatly to glorify God, which 
yet is much out of use, I fear, in the private intercourses of Christians between 
God and their own souls, which therefore I shall endeavour to revive in your 
spirits. 

My ground and warrant for this is David's frame and exercise of spirit 
here in these two verses, this being the most proper scope of them, and this 
the eminent penitential psalm of all the other seven, in the common repute 
of antiquity; and wherein David as a penitent, upon occasion of this murder 
and adultery, and other gi-oss actual sins, humbles himself deeply for this 
his original sin as the cause and spring of all ; and therefore I do found the 
treating hereof upon this his practice. And that I may with more advan- 



Chap. II. j in respect of sin and punishmknt. 831 

tage urge and direct you in and to this exercise of spirit and soul about it, 
and lay a sure and proper foundation for my whole discourse concerning this 
the practical part (as I style it), I shall in the first place open the ^Yords, and 
David's heart as it lies enclosed in them, the sum of which I reduce unto two 
principal heads, to which I add a third. 

I. David's confession of this sin, or David's brokenness of heart for it; by 
opening which I shall clear that the scope and intention of his soul was 
deeply to humble himself for this sin, &c. 

II. David's own reflection upon God's working this in him, and having 
discovered and set upon his soul this sin, he blessing God highly for this in 
the close of that his confession in those words : ver. G, ' And in the hidden 
part thou hast made me to know wisdom.' 

III. There is a third head serving to open the words, which is, that whereas 
there are two parts or branches of original sin ; 1, Adam's first transgres- 
sion imputed; 2, inherent corruption thence flowing; I shall give some 
account that each of these are included distinctly in the words, according to 
the opinion of some interpreters, which will make the exposition of these 
words complete, and will also aflbrd a foundation for two parts concerning 
each of these, which I have propounded to myself to handle in this discourse, 
as in the sequel will appear. 

I. First, For the clearing of the first of these heads. Some would elude 
this place by saying, it is his mother's sin, supposed to have been in her in 
the act of generation, which he confesseth here, and not at all any that was 
his own, in which by her he should have been conceived. Whereas, on the 
contrary, 

1. All his acknowledgments in that psalm run upon his own iniquity; his 
heart was filled and possessed with his personal sins. So all along hitherto, 
* mtj transgressions,' ver, 1; *»«?/ iniquity,' and ' 7ny sin,' ver. 2; 'I ac- 
knowledge my transgressions, my sin is ever before me,' ver. 3 ; ' Against 
thee, thee only have / sinned,' ver. 4. And shall we think that here he 
diverts to the sin of his mother, when he was in the full heat and career of 
confessing his own ? 

2. His grief for his own sins was so intense, both afore these words and 
after, as must needs leave little heart for him to run out upon his mother's 
sin, and leave off the pursuance of his own. He is not in Jeremiah's or 
Job's frame, to curse the day of his birth, and his mother that brought him 
forth. No ; we find him too deeply broken to do so. And to what purpose 
should it be for him to say, My mother sinned in conceiving me, whilst he 
lays so deeply to heart his murder and lying with another man's wife ? What 
had his mother's sin in conceiving him to do with his having committed the 
murder of Uriah, and defiling his wife Bathsheba ? 

3. Nor did his mother sin in that act of conceiving him more than in other 
actions the godly do, and as indeed in all actions we all do. He might have 
said that in eating and drinking, whereby she nourished him in the womb, 
she had sinned, as well as in this of conceiving him. His mother was a 
godly woman, as that speech shews : Ps. cxvi. 16, ' Lord, truly I am thy 
servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid ;' and he the 
issue of lawful marriage, whereof the bed was undefiled, Heb. xiii. 4, yea, 
sanctified, 1 Cor. vii. 14. And shall David, then, upon occasion of defiling 
another man's wife, and begetting a bastard, or a child unclean, reflect upon 
his parent's lawful act, yea, an act sanctified by God ? No. Besides, David 
was now at the bottom of hell, acknowledging his sins, ver. 3, and it is 
utterly contrary to the genius of such a soul to mention the sins of others in 
such a case. 



332 AN UNREGENEHATE MANS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

Secondly, If it was his own sin he so cries out of, then certainly his having 
himself been conceived in sin, and so his own conception-sin and birth-sin 
(which we call original sin) was it which he so much bewails, and it could be 
no other ; and take our doctrine about it, which teacheth it is derived by 
conception, &c., and there could not be more manifest words to signify it. 

And that this should be his very heart and meaning is every way so con- 
gruous. For, 

] . It holds some order and equipage with foimer confessions in other 
psalms. He had confessed the sins of his youth in Ps. xxv., and here the 
grosser acts of his more elder years. He had said, Ps. Iviii. 2, that ' the 
wicked go astray from the womb ; ' and here himself goes farther, and de- 
scends to the source of all : ' JJehoId, I was brought forth in sin,' yea, and 
* conceived in it,' &c. 

And, 2, that upon occasion of these so foul miscarriages, he takes a new 
survey of the sins of his whole life, and examining himself to the bottom, 
should arrive at this ; even as in going along by a river, we come at last to 
the well-head, the fountain of all those streams, so here. And this is natu- 
ral and coherent, and there was a full rise for this ; and it is no other but 
perfectly correspondent with what the apostle long after instructs us in. Col. 
iii. 9, even to join inherent corruption and its deeds together, as cause and 
effects. Ajid David speaks apparently to the like puqDose; here this I have 
done (in the former words), for thus I was conceived in sin, and behold, 
these deeds are the cursed issue of that sin. He j'okes, you see, the old 
man and his pranks together ; yea, upon this examination of the^niatter, he 
found this the cause of these, and of all sins whatever. And therefore, 

3. He sets, you may observe, the behold upon the matter of this confes- 
sion above all the former. He sets not the behold upon those actual sins, 
or his this have I done ; yea, he translates the wonder from off his having 
committed these, although so foul sins, and puts it over the head of this his 
conception-sin, as that which bears the account of all ; and so it is as if he 
had said. No wonder if I have thus foully transgressed, having the principles 
of these and all sins in me ; the wonder rather lies in this, that I have not 
formerly so sinned, and filled my life with such defilements. 

Thirdly, The issue and close, in his inserting and intermingling the con- 
fession of this sin with that of those grosser sins, was every way suitable and 
becoming a broken soul, which I shall farther draw out in these four parti- 
culars, which will both help us to take up what David's heart was in, and 
also discover this, wherein the very practice or exercise of a penitent soul 
consists as touching this sin. 

1. It was thereby to humble himself gi*eatly, and therebj' the more for 
those actual sins, by joining this and those his deeds together. His scope 
was not to extenuate the matter in those actual sins, which the next verse 
clears, as Calvin hath observed, but to aggravate and aggrandise them ; and 
it is as if he had said to God (for unto God it is he utters this and all the 
rest), I have been guilty of this evil which I have done in th}' sight, this my 
murder and adultery, as likewise of infinite other transgressions in the course 
of my life, but above all, I humble myself for this my conception-sin. For 
I that have committed these grosser evils, am further in my nature a mass 
and lump of all sin, altogether corrupt, and would of myself have committed 
those, and all sins else, as other men do, and am ready (if left to myself) to 
commit a thousand more such like. And if we do further attentively con- 
sider the great import of his behold, affixed upon this sin's head, and not 
upon those other of his grossest sins, it will promptly and pregnantly give 
us to understand how deeply sensible his soul was, and how greatly humbled 



Chap. II. ^ ix respect of sin and pumshmlnt. 833 

for this sin above the other. We may observe how he forbore to set it over 
his confession of those his actual sins, though the grossest, hut reserves his 
behold for this. He said not, ' Behold, this evil have I done,' ver. 5, but, 
' Behold, I was conceived in sin,' &c. He says not, ' Behold, /, David,' a 
king, that have received such and such mercies from God, who would have 
given me more (as God told him), who had that entire communion with him, 
and graces from him, I, even I, have done this evil. No ; he keeps it in till 
he came to this, and then his heart could hold no longer : * Oh, behold, I 
was conceived in sin.' His debasement was at its auf/e here. And to whom 
is it he utters this behold / What, to man ? No; his meaning is not to call 
on men, q. d. Oh, all ye sons of men, behold ! That is but liis secondary 
aim, arising out of his having penned it, and delivered it unto the church ; 
but when he uttered it, it was to God, or rather afore God, and yet not as 
calling on God to behold, for that needed not. David had elsewhere said, 
' God looked down,' &c., ' and beheld the sons of men,' when speaking of 
this very corruption. He therefore knew God beheld it sufficiently; but he 
utters it afore God, or, as spoken of himself between God and himself, thereby 
to express his own astonishment and amazement at the sight and conviction 
of this corruption, and at the sight of what a monster he saw himself to be 
in the sight of God in respect of this sin. It was a behold of astonishment 
at himself, as before the great and holy God ; and therefore it was he 
seconds and follows it with another behold made unto God : ' Behold, thou 
requirest truth in the inward parts.' And it is as if he had said in both, Oh, 
how am I every way overwhelmed, whilst with one eye cast on myself I see 
how infinitely corrupt I am in the very constitution of my nature ; and with 
the other eye I behold and consider what an infinite holy God thou art in 
thy nature and being, and what an holiness it is which thou requirest. I 
am utterly overwhelmed in the intuition of both these, and am able to behold 
no more, nor to look up unto thee, holy God ! 
This is the first particular, humbling himself. 

2. His scope is to clear God. So in the coherence with verses 4 and 5, 
* Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that 
thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou 
judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother 
conceive me.' I have done this evil ; I who have such a nature, conveyed 
together with my very being, which, Lord, will utterly clear thee, that 
when thou comest to judge, thou mayest be justified, who art an holy God, 
temptest no man to evil, and hadst nothing to do with these sins of mine ; 
but it was I myself alone, out of the proneness of my nature and birth-sin, 
who have done these evils, it was my own lust that tempted me. And this 
the scope of ver. 6 doth farther shew : Behold, thou requirest the contrary, 
truth, that is, holiness in truth, in the inward parts. 

3. In the third place, he being upon the fresh guilt of these actual sins 
upon his knees suing forth a pardon, he confesseth this conception-sin with 
them, to the end to obtain his pardon for his actual sins, and this also alto- 
gether. He who is suing out of a pardon of special grace from a prince, and 
hath the liberty to draw it up himself, will be sure to put into it all and 
every one of his crimes, one as well as another. And prisoners at the 
bar do desire to have all indictments brought in, to the end they may be 
thoroughly discharged. And in the like manner David here confesseth this 
his birth-sin upon occasion of these his other sins ; and not only in respect 
of the influence and causation specified, which that first sin had into these 
acts, but that it being a great sin, a sin still remaining in him, comprehen- 
sively takes it in to have it pardoned with the rest. That as the apostle in 



331 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

a doctrinal way, Col. ii. 13, first specifying the sin of the uncircumcision of 
their flesh, which they were born in, together with all other actual sins, 
comprehensively concludes of all, that God had forgiven them all their tres- 
passes : ' And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your 
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all tres- 
passes ' ; so doth David here in a practical way, in his suing out a pardon 
for sin ; and it is as if he had said. Lord, take in and forgive altogether, 
both the old man and his deeds together, the whole of my sinfulness, root 
and branch. And this comprehensive intention of his, all those vehement 
loud cries for mercy, both before these words and after, in the following, do 
manifest. (1.) Before, 'have mercy,' &c., saith he, ver. 1; 'Wash me 
throughly,' ver. 2 ; that is, both inside and outside, the guilt and stain, 
the acts of sin and the inward corruption. (2.) The word after, ' Purge me 
with hyssop, wash me, make me clean ; ' and he is principally therein in- 
tent upon the sin in his inwards ; for, ver. 6, he sets another behold upon 
this, ' thou requirest truth in the inward parts,' which is spoken in a perfect 
relation to the matter of this his confession, in ver. 5, ' Behold, I was 
brought forth in iniquity.' 

4. His scope is to provoke and to whet his soul on to seek true inward 
sanctification, or a new frame of spirit, such as is seated in the heart, and 
not in acts only : ver. 10, ' Create in me a clean heart ; for thou requirest 
truth in the inward parts,' and I am wholly corrupted there, which new 
creation, without the sight of original sin, a man will never do, nor come to 
understand the necessity of. Compare with this Col. iii. 6-10, ' For which 
things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. la 
the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. But now ye 
also put off all these ; anger, wi'ath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communica- 
tion out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off 
the old man with his deeds ; and have put on the new man, which is renewed 
in knowledge after the image of him that created him.' 

II. The second head I propounded for the opening this text, was David's 
own reflection thereupon in the close, in these words, ' And in the hidden 
part thou hast made,' or ' makest me to know wisdom.' 

Which in plainer words is, his blessing of God, who had upon this occa- 
sion of his murder and adultery discovered this first sin unto him, had set 
it upon his heart, and had humbled him for it more than ever ; and also it 
is a recommending the knowledge of this, and the demission of our souls 
for it (according to this his own experience and example), as of a great and 
deep ' wisdom in the hidden,' and shews the high valuation and price 
David puts upon this discoveiy of God's to him, and setting on of this sin 
upon him. 

Our translators read it in the future tense, ' Thou shalt make me know' ; 
but multitudes of other translators * in the time past or present, ' Thou 
hast made,' or, ' Thou makest,' &c. For it is a known rule, verbs of the 
future tense are in Hebrew often put to import the preterperfect or present 
tense. 

Now, of those interpreters that read it in the time past, ' Thou hast made 
me,' &c., the most of them do carry the drift unto this, that David should 
still proceed on to heighten those his gross sins, and that it is a new aggra- 
vation of them as to this sense. That I whom thou hadst instructed in the 
most secret wisdom of matters of godliness, and made me wiser than my 
teachers, should yet thus sin against such and so much light ! 

* So Calvin, Hildersham, Vatablus, Pagnin, Tremelllas, Hammond. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 835 

But Piscator, in his annotations on this psalm, puts this sense upon it,* 
that David should bless God for having made him to know this special wis- 
dom in this hidden thing or matter, and had brought the knowledge thereof 
home, as a point of saving wisdom, to the hidden man of his heart, so as to 
see fully and clearly this native corruption as the cause of all sin, and on 
that account to cause him lay it to heart ; and that God had made this dis- 
covery, and this his deep humiliation for it, to be the issue of those foul sins, 
in such a manner as he had never been sensible of it before ; and so, that 
withal his scope should be to commend the wisdom herein to all men else. 

And truly, to me this gloss and interpretation of it seems very fair and 
genuine, both because that other of aggravating his sin comes in after an 
interruption, and so remotely, whereas this latter comes in in immediate 
coherence with, and upon his confession of original sin, and indeed is the 
close of that part, and so seems rather to belong thereto, as this interpreta- 
tion doth make it to do. 

And upon many other accounts it seems very apt and congruous. 

For, 1, this is in itself a great point of wisdom ; for ' The heart of man is 
deceitful, who can know it?' says the prophet, Jer, xvii. 9. And, therefore, 
to have a divine light in the hidden man of the heart from God, who alone 
must and doth give this, experimentally to see into and guage this gnlf, 
must needs be an eminent part of wisdom. And indeed it is to dive into 
and arrive at the bottom of true humiliation, and fathom the utmost depth 
of sin ; it is also in itself an hidden thing. There are two hidden wisdoms : 
the one of that in God's heart towards us in Christ ; the other, which is 
next to it, as Christ said of the second table, is to know what is in our hearts, 
and to have a thorough and bottom light into the sins thereof, into the inward 
rooted spiritual contrarieties therein unto grace and holiness, and that truth 
in the inward parts which God requireth. 

And, 2, it is, when made operative, a practical wisdom in us, and then it 
is that knowledge that doth become a wisdom, whereby a man's soul is 
broken and made contrite, and all a man's affections stirred at the sight of 
it ; and it proves also as true a sign of grace, and piece of the wisdom of the 
just, as the Baptist calls it, as any other ; yea, and David seems to esteem 
it so ; for having had this insight and illumination about this sin, as the 
issue of those his sins, he took it as a pawn and a good handsel that God 
would do him good, and vouchsafe all those other mercies, which in the 
following verses he pursues after, namely, of God's washing, purging, re- 
storing him, creating in him a clean heart and a right spirit, &c. ; in that 
God had begun so good a work in him as this was, that therefore he would 
perfect it. 

3. It were easy to shew how this wisdom lays the foundation in the soul 
for its seeking justification through faith by Christ alone ; and that the soul 
that is deeply convinced and instructed in this, will never be quiet in any 
other thing but Christ's righteousness. How also it directs and points the 
soul unto that which is the true spiritual sanctification, and worshipping of 
God in spirit and truth, and not to rest in any outward, moral, formal, yea, 

* Per sapientiam in occulto intelligit agnitionem vitiositatis naturae, unde nascitor 
animi demissio coram Deo — Piscator in locum. 

Alting also in his preface to his discourse about this sin in his Theologia Elenchtica, 
loco vii. Psaltes ille Regius, Ps. li. v. 8, prsedicat ut rarum ac singulare Dei beneficium 
quod occultam illam sapientiam ipsi revelare fuisset dignatus. Sapientiam vocat ag- 
nitionem naturas corruptae ejusque vitiositatis, quffiinde a primo conceptu atque origine 
inhaeret. Occultam dicit, quia licet per omnes partes diffusa, et variis motlbus et actioni- 
bus sese prodat, vix tamen, aut ne vix quidem, observetur ac deploretur. — Alting, 
Theol. Elenct. loc. vii. 



33G AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOO, [BoOK IX. 

or imperfect work on the heart ; for such a soul sees by its contrary what 
truth in the inward parts God requireth. And look how deep the sense of 
this is, so high will our aims and desires rise, both after what, and what 
manner of grace it is wherein true sanctification lieth. The conviction of this 
also being grown into a wisdom, perfectly lays the creature at God's feet, as 
is David here, and causeth it to justify and clear God and condemn itself; 
it cuts ofif also all opinion of what a man is apt to think he is of himself, 
and in his own ability, for any good as of himself. 

Lastly, It is no wonder that David should thus highly value it ; for, bo- 
sides the former consideration, it is also a wisdom rare, especially in the 
Old Testament ; and perhaps himself had not so intensively and thoroughly 
considered this sin before now ; few in comparison had arrived at this, or 
were sensible of it. And as David the father, so Solomon the son expresseth 
a like value for it, as a singular point of wisdom : Eccles. vii. 29, ' Lo, this 
only have I found, that God hath made man upright ; but they have sought 
out many inventions.'^ 

I beseech you therefore carry this home with you, that to see into, and 
to be sensible of, and humble one's self deeply for this conception-sin, even 
to a Behold, is an eminent point of wisdom. It is not the knowledge of the 
doctrine about this sin; you may have that and perish, and not be humbled; 
but it is the wisdom of it in * the hidden man of the heart,' as some understand 
it, or in this ' hidden thing,' as others, practically seated in the inward man, 
so as to be aifected and acted accordingly. This is the wisdom I mean, and 
do exhort unto. I have therefore set this as the title over this discourse, 
which urgeth and directs unto this : ivisdom in the hidden. This for the 
second head in the exposition. 

Obj. It hath been said by some, that David confessed this for himself in 
particular ; and what is this to the rest of mankind to argue, that therefore 
they all are so conceived in sin ? &c. 

Ans. 1. Because, as th^ apostle saith of himself and all the Jews, ' W 
were by nature children of wrath as well as others;' that is, all others of 
mankind. The argument therefore holds good from David, Paul, and the 
Jews, to all others. 

2. Because the Holy Ghost, by the same apostle, hath since pronounced 
the very same of all, ' in whom all have sinned,' Rom. v. 12 ; yea, having 
first quoted words out of our psalmist for the universal overspreading of this 
corruption over all mankind, not one excepted, Rom. iii., from the 10th 
verse to the 18th, he concludes, ver. 19, ' Now we know that what things 
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law ; that every 
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.' 
And ver. 23, ' All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ' they 
were created in. 

3. How otherwise can it be supposed David's case should be a singular 
case ? Yea, or how should himself come to know that this had been his 
peculiar condition at his conception, if he had not measured himself at that 
common standard and rule of all mankind else, as in the word of God he 
found the condition of all mankind to be set out in the conviction, of which he 
applieth and speaks of it himself ? I may say, as they to our Saviour, though 
to a different sense, What special sin, before his conception, had he more than 
any others committed ; or his parents, in begetting and conceiving him, that 
he should be born in sin, not others ? 

III. The third head I propounded to complete the exposition, and as in- 
troductory to the two following parts of the discourse, is, that whereas there 
are two parts of original sin, 



Chap. II. j in bespecx of siiN and punishment. 'd'dl 

1. The first act of disobedience imputed to us ; 

2. Inherent corruption thence flowinjT. 

That truly I could not pass over in silence, what, in searching into David's 
meaning in these words, I found in Piscator's Annotations, viz. that David 
should have had each of these two distinctly in his eye in this his confession, 
ver.5, which I read thus, * Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin 
did my mother conceive me.' 

That here are two distinct sentences, wherein he makes confession of this 
his original sin, and diflfering in the words of them, that is manifest. 

For, 1, there are two words used to express the sin hereof, by p")^ and 
hilDn ; ^^^^ there are likewise two different verbs, '<rhb')'nt translated m the 
first sentence shapen, and ^jriDH' translated conceived. 

2. In the first sentence, the verb ^'pn <ioth signify, and is by divers* 
rendered brought forth or born, which word sometimes denoteth simply the 
first bringing forth of any creature into being or existence ; for it is used of 
God's forming the earth in the beginning, Ps. xc. 2, and also to express the 
beginning of a man's being : Job xv. 7, * Wast thou made before the hills ?' 
And again, sometimes the bringing forth by the dam with pains, as Job xxix. 
2-4, Ps. xxix. 9, and of a child by its mother, Isa. xlv. 10. 

And being thus understood in this comprehensive meaning, it imports 
both (1.) That David, from the very beginning of his being, or having been 
brought forth into being, even the first moment wherein he existed a man or 
son of man, that it was together with iniquity or in sin. (2.) That from 
the birth, or when I was brought forth with pain by my mother, it was with 
the guilt of iniquity together with it. Now Piscator, f though indeed he 
takes the latter sensejof that word, yet understands this first sentence, ' I was 
born or brought forth in iniquity,' to be especially intended of (the first part 
of original sin) the guilt of Adam's fact, Quam admisl in lumbis ejus. And 
then the second sentence, ' I was conceived in sin,' he takes to intend in- 
herent corruption ; and if so, then in the first saying David doth confess, 
that as soon as he was made a man, or son of Adam, by union of soul and 
body together, that he was also made a sinner ; as Rom. v. 19, speaking of 
Adam's fact in that chapter, the apostle doth in terminis affirm of all men. 
And that then further, David should likewise point to the time of his birth 
into the world, when he was visibly brought forth a man, and owned to be a 
man, from which time, therefore, all men do generally date their being men. 
And thus accordingly David enters his name into the canon -register of 
mankind, as if he had said, born into this world David a sinner, when his 
mother brought him forth with pain, which was a manifest token of her bringing 
forth a sinner, ' born to sorrow, as the sons of fire that fly upward' ; those sor- 
rows also having been laid as a curse on her for her share in tempting Adam, 
the first man, unto that first act of iniquity, which brought sin and misery 
upon all her and his posterity. This as to the first part of original sin, out 
of the interpretation of the first clause or sentence, ver 5. 

Then that second sentence which follows, ' And in sin did my mother con- 
ceive me,' or ' warm me,' may and doth as fitly, and in as special a manner, 
refer unto that inherent corruption or vitiosity of nature, which the apostle 
terms the sin that dwells in us, Rom vii. 17, contracted from our guilt of that 
first act of sinning, which seizing on us at the beginning of being man (as was 
said) defiles our nature, as the guilt of that act did Adam's ; X and so that 
word, ' my mother warmed me,' expresseth both (1.) his mother's first con- 

* See Hildersham on the words. ♦ See Piscator, ibidem. 

t See Piscator's Scholia on Ps. li. 5. 

VOL. X. Y 



338 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

ception of him, by wliich he was made a son of Adam ; and also (2.) her 
nourishing him all that while in the womb, in which signification the word 
is used, Gen. xxx. 38, 39, 41 ; and thus taken, it doth most properly and 
more especially respect that part of original sin, corruption of nature in- 
herent (as that which was the sin he was conceived in, and thus warmed), 
which word imports not only how, at the first moment of conception, that 
small tare or seed, that had the reasonable soul shot then into it, became the 
seat of corruption from that instant; but, as Calvin* indigitates it, was 
nourished and fostered whilst we lay in the womb ; that is, that corruption 
was still extended, and did go on to leaven and ferment that mass or bulk 
still as the child did grow bigger and bigger in the womb. And look as the 
soul diffuseth itself more and more, as the bulk of the members do increase, 
so withal original corruption. And this interpretation brings forth this notion 
with it, that look as the body and soul, by conception united together, grow 
more ripe and mature, and the members, organs, and faculties of the soul 
more fitted to bring forth actual sin, so together with that gi'owth (though 
the growth itself is natural) this inherent corruption was, whilst in the womb, 
diffused and enlarged, and grew up with it towards a ripeness and ability 
for actual sin, against the time of the buddings and springings forth thereof. 
And the words being understood in this latitude of sense, do comprehend 
the whole that may be spoken of this original sin ; as, 

1st, The parts of it : 

(1.) Guilt of Adam's fact ; and, 

(2.) Inbred corruption. 

2dly, For the time when he was made, or else declared guilty of these : 

1. When he was made a man, or brought forth into being, or being man ; 
which, 

2. Was at his first conception, that then he became guilty of both these ; 
yea, and, 

3. Continued guilty of the act, and the inherent corruption did withal 
grow greater all along the time he was warmed in the womb ; and then, 

4. When at birth with pains he was openly and visibly to men found to 
be a man, and owned as such ; and thus the whole of time, and the progress 
of it from first to last, is intended and involved. 

And this for the third head of exposition. 

So, then, from the words thus fully opened and interpreted, do arise two 
main assertions to be prosecuted, the last whereof is the main I aim at. 
The first merely doctrinal, viz. that there are two parts of original sin : 

1. A guilt of the act in Adam and Eve's loins ; 

2. The inherent corruption thence contracted and growing up to a vigour, 
as the body and soul do increase, &c. 

The second is wholly practical, or the use of the doctrine of these two, 
viz. that a penitent soul, in humbling itself for sins and confessing of them, 
should take in his sinfulness of original sin in both these parts, as matter of 
humiliation to him ; for David, we see, with a Behold, &c., hath an eye to each 
of these in his confession here, according to interpretation given. 

For the first of these assertions, my scope is not to prosecute it largely, it 
being merely matter of doctrine ; nor yet should I have founded the two 
following parts of this treatise, viz. for a distinct humbling ourselves for each 
of these apart, merely and alone upon this text, or the latter head of expo- 
sition now given (although I think it most genuine), did not other scriptures 
in the New Testament more expressly and clearly set forth both these as 

* Mihi videtur propheta significare velle foveri nos et calefieri in peccato quamdiu 
in visceribus matrum latemus. — Calvin on Ps. li. 5, upon that word. 



Chap. II. J in respect of sin and punishment. 339 

distinct parts of that our sinfalnoss ; and that being so clearly in a doctrinal 
way done, I have proposed this interpretation coraprehending both (being not 
alone in it), and this text as a ground for these two parts of our humiliation, 
the fii-st for the guilt of the one, the second for the existency of the other in 
us, after David's example here, the interpretation being suitable to the ana- 
logy of faith, and our common doctrine about original sin. And yet it -will 
be necessary for me briefly to add some further evidence of these two out of 
those other scriptures. 

1. We all have the guilt of the act of Adam from him : Rom v. 12, ' In 
whom all have sinned,' or, ' In that all have sinned,' for in whom should 
they have sinned but in him, that one man specified in the forepart of the 
verse ? Infants and all, who in themselves he denies to have sinned, ver. 
14, ' after the similitude of Adam's transgression;' that is, by actual sin, 
yet had sinned in him. And in what act of his, but that one offence of his, 
which ver. 15, 17, 18 indigitate, rl 'Tra^oLiTruiiJjcc, that total ruin of his in that 
fall, or sin in eating the forbidden fruit : from which one offence, when it 
was consummated or finished, both sin and guilt, or judgment, as ver. 12, 
16, entered and came upon all the world of mankind unto condemnation, 
and thereby they were made or constituted sinners, ver. 19. Nor speaks he 
these things in that place of inherent corruption derived, but of our being 
made sinners, whence condemnation and judgment came upon us, as justifi- 
cation doth from Christ's obedience, as the parallel is, ver. 16, 18. And look 
as he treats of our sanctification by Christ in the sixth chapter, apart from 
this of justification by Christ's obedience, which he doth in this fifth chap- 
ter apart ; so in the like method he speaks of the inherent corruption, or 
sin that dwelleth in us, that follows upon the guilt of this disobedience, apart 
likewise in chap. vii. 17, and so on. And the word he useth to express our 
being made sinners by that one offence, ver. 19, as also made righteous by 
Christ's obedience, is not a word serving any way to express the impressing 
any qualification inward, whether of corruption or sanctification, but to con- 
stitute (as the word used there) which notes out the act of an external power 
or authority whereby a man is made such or such, and so comports with a 
forensical constituting us sinners or being justified, or pronouncing us guilty, 
and this alone ; so as the derivation of the guilt of that act is the sole scope 
of what the apostle speaks of there, and of this of David also in the first 
sentence here, Ps. li. 5. 

2. But there is a second thing from Adam also conveyed with, and by 
reason of the guilt of his fact imputed to us, and that is his sinful image, or 
mass of corruption inbred and sticking in our nature, which is styled Adam's 
image, Gen. v. 3, in perfect opposition unto that image of God consisting in 
holiness (as Eph. iv. 24), which God created man in, as in Gen. i. 26, 27. 
And bring unto all these places that speak of both, Col. iii. 9, 10, and the 
apostle's own interpretation gives light to all ; whereby we may easily see 
that what in Gen. v. Moses termeth ' Adam his image,' that the apostle in 
Col. iii. styleth the * old man,' as being derived from the old man Adam, 
though to an infant but new born. And, on the contrary, God's image he 
created man in, which Moses speaks of. Gen. i., the apostle terms * the new 
man,' in these words, ' After the image of him that created him,' namely, at 
first, in Gen. i. 27. Which places thus together compared, evidence not 
only an inherent corruption (called therefore the man) overspreading our 
whole man, called therefore the man, to be in us, but also that we have it 
from Adam, called therefore the old man, as that which is that his image, 
Gen. v., which he begat in us, contrary to God's image he was created in. 
And in these places he speaks not of the act of Adam's sin, as in Rom. v. he 



310 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

does, and not of this corruption there at all ; and so these are the two dis- 
tinct parts of our original sin. 

As iu the last head of the foregone exposition we found two distinct parts 
of original sin confessed by David, ver. 5, which we have briefly confirmed 
from other scriptures, so answerably thereunto I shall divide this practical 
discourse about this sin into two parts. 

First, The first discussing what humiliation or repentance is due from us 
for our guiltiness of the act of Adam's sin imputed. 

Secondly, The second, what humiliation or acts of repentance we are ob- 
liged unto for that inbred sinful corruption which is derived therefrom to us, 
and dwelleth in us. 



CHAPTER III. 

A discussion premised, By what principles m a converted man's heart he comes 
to be convicted of the ffuilt of Adam's fact, and how far the conscience may 
be and is made sensible of it in true converts. 

As for the act of Adam's sin made our own by imputation : ere I come to 
set out the particular acts of humiliation or repentance about the guilt of 
this, first, it is necessary for me to clear and remove those grounds of objec- 
tion specified in the first chapter, whereupon the schoolmen and others (who 
do elevate and diminish repentance for this guilt) do chiefly build, which I 
there mentioned to be chiefly these two. 

1. That repentance properly is only actus inopirii, of and for an act of sin 
done by a man's own self. 

Paenitet et facto torqueor ipse ineo. 

Whereas this sin was perpetrated by Adam, and not by ourselves personally. 

2. The second is, that there is not, nor can be, any sting or regret in the 
conscience of any man for this sin, nomorsus conscientice, 2iS for a man's own 
actual sin there is. 

The removal of these, as also the clearing the truth hereabout, is best per- 
formed by a discussion. By what principles in a convert's heart his soul takes 
in and comes to be convicted of this guilt ; and it is necessarily introductory 
unto those acts of humihation which are to follow such a conviction, that we 
treat this point fii'st, how and by what man is convicted thereof. 

And the discussion hereof is not now by us to be managed by handling 
and proving the doctrinal truth of the imputation of this sin to us (this my 
discourse supposeth that here, as they also do, though something I have 
spoken to it in the last third head of exposition), but I being upon the clear- 
ing the practical part, &c., my business is to find out the practic principles 
in a convert's heart by which the Holy Ghost (working upon a man's soul) 
makes him apprehensive and sensible of this guilt, and in what sense, or how 
far, even conscience is or may be struck with it. 

And first, I here grant that there is no sting or morsus of conscience for 
the act of Adam's sin imputed ; that is, the soul can never be tormented 
with this thought, 1 have done this act myself. This is granted ; and the 
apostle affirms it, when setly speaking of our guilt of this sin, and that in- 
fants who die sinned in him, yet ' not after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
gression,' Rom. V. 14, 80 as there is not neither a worm begotten in con- 
science after the similitude of Adam's torture about it, whose conscience had 
this to say to him, which ours do not. This I myself have done, and have 



Chap, lil.j i;> itbsi'Eci of sin and punibumknt. cill 

destroyed all others by it ; all which I speak a3 of the guilt of 'the act of 
Adam's sin. 

Yet, secondly, the soul is capable of a conviction of judgment that that 
sin of his is our sin as truly as any other ; that it is pwprium peccatum, 
though not proprice operatlonis ; it is our own proper sin, though not of our 
own proper acting and operation, and of this the soul is capable to be con- 
vinced. And that which is proper for me to beat out in this practical 
handling of it, is what manner of conviction this is, and how, or by what 
principle in man, it is effected. And my return is, that partly by faith in 
the word, and partly from the equity and justice of its being reckoned unto 
us, by virtue of the law of nature. 

1. By faith on the word of God, which hath revealed it, and affirms it; 
which faith and word may and do bring it home even to our consciences ; I 
say to our consciences ; for if faith brings home and applies Christ's blood 
to our consciences, and purifies our conscience from the guilt of all sins, if 
the blood shed by another (Christ) purifieth and dischargeth the conscience 
from the sins perpetrated by a man's self, insomuch as that conscience re- 
ceives a quietus est from another's fact sprinkled upon it, as we have it ex- 
press, Heb. ix. 14 ; then why should not conscience also take upon it the 
sin of another, when the word of God so plainly chargeth us, and the just 
and righteous God pronounceth and says that every man is guilty of it, and 
lays it at our doors, as well as any other sin never so much our own '? And 
thereupon, why should not conscience own it as well as any other sin, and 
admit this word of condemnation from the mouth of God, as well as it joy- 
fully receives and takes into itself the word of justification : as Rom. x. 6, 8, 
* But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in 
thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down 
from above. — But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, 
and in thy heart ; that is, the word of faith which we preach.' It is the 
same God our lawgiver, who ' hath power to save and to condemn ' (as the 
apostle speaks), whose word it is in both, and both spoken from him unto 
that principle in our consciences which is the seat or receptacle of all the 
guilt of sin, as it is of the pardon thereof. And if conscience be that faculty 
which is absolved from all sin that is any way our own, then also it is that 
faculty that takes in its discharge from this ; for the Scripture mentions that 
faculty, at least principally, to be the receiver of acquittances from the guilt 
of all sorts of sins for the whole man. If, therefore, conscience be capable 
to apprehend an absolution from this sin when that it is pardoned, then 
surely it is and was first capacitated to take in conviction of a man's being 
guilty thereof, yea, and of trouble for it ; only as the word of God chargeth 
it, so conscience receives it ; and though the word of God chargeth it not as 
a sin of a man's own committing, and therefore answerably conscience hath 
not this sting, to say, I myself committed it, yet the word applying it as a 
man's own sin, conscience may and ought so to apprehend it, and be pos- 
sessed of its guilt accordingly ; for conscience is that principle in man which 
answers to the holy law of God in respect of sin chargeable upon us ; and 
what the law says it says to conscience, which is its subject, and ' under 
the law.' 

2. Especially when the sentence of the word is seconded and confirmed by 
the equity and justice of the law of nature ; whereby I mean, not that law 
which the Jews would have accused God of, that every child should bear the 
sin of his father, which, by two prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God doth 
renounce ; but that which the prophet Isaiah had before in a special manner 
declared of our first father : Isa. Ixiii. 27, * Thy first father hath sinned, and 



842 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

thy teachers have transgressed against me.' He being created the head and 
source of the nature of all mankind, and by the law of nature, or the law of 
his and our creation, and that made and enacted before he had sinned ; and 
by which law it was that he had by creation the image of God's holiness to 
convey to us ; if he had stood till he had put forth our nature by propagation 
out from him, and set it running in its course, he, by the equity of the same 
law (which indeed was the common law, as I may term it, to beasts and 
herbs, to bring forth in their kind. Gen. i. 11, 24), must beget in his own 
image of sin, if he fell and did sin ; and therefore he was naturally and ne- 
cessarily constituted the representative of them all, in respect of the first act 
of sin he should perpetrate ; and the guilt thereof must naturally, in the sense 
given, be devolved to them, or else that part of the law of nature and crea- 
tion, viz., to convey his own sinful image as sinful, had not had the same 
fulness of equity in its fulfilling, as that other part of conveying the image of 
God as an holy image should by the law of creation have attained. For it is 
evident, that nothing but the guilt of an act of sin could cause that image of 
sin to be sin ; and as not in Adam himself had that privation of holiness been 
a sin to him, had it not been he had been guilty of an act of sin first that 
caused that privation, so neither in us had that inherent privation of holi- 
ness become a sin, had we not first been made sinners in th*e imputation of 
that first sinful act of his. But of these things I have treated more largely 
before. 

As there are two things concur in a godly man, unto our knowledge and 
conviction, that this world was made by God : fij-st, that we know this by 
faith, as Heb. xi. 2 ; then, secondly, by the light of reason, viewing the work- 
manship of God therein, as in which the attributes of his Godhead are clearly 
seen, &c., Rom. i. 21, which doth confirm a godly man's faith therein, and 
may alone serve as a conviction, even to a heathen that hath no knowledge 
of the word, which is the apostle's scope there ; so is it here, only with this 
difference, that the light of mere nature perhaps would never have attained 
to the knowledge of the imputation of our first father's act of sinning, if the 
word had not first revealed it, according to that of Solomon : Eccles. vii, 29, 
* This only have I found' (namely, in the word of God by Moses) ' that God 
made man upright, but they,' &c. ; yet so as being once revealed by the word, 
there may be discerned an equity in it, according to the very primitive law 
of our creation, recorded in that Gen. i. And by this means may conscience 
itself be possessed of it, as of that which is a man's own sin, and accordingly 
lay it to heart, though not with this sting, that I in my own person did it, it 
can never rise to a facto torqueor ipse meo. Yet take conscience in this large 
sense, that it is a knowledge together with God, so as to know that God 
knows and judgeth we are guilty so and so ; and thus may our consciences, 
through the conviction of those means mentioned, be made conscious, or to 
know with God this our guilt, and answerably lay it to heart. I still urge, 
if Christ's blood shed for us, and not by us, may speak (in our consciences 
as well as before God) better things, &c., as the apostle affirms, Heb. xii. 24, 
then why may not Adam's sin, committed by him, and not by us, when 
brought hence and charged upon our souls by God, cry and speak bitter 
things in our consciences, according as the guilt thereof deserveth, as well as 
of any other sin, though still that voice, I myself did it, can never be heard 
in it ? For consider how that the parallel in that place is made between the 
sin of Cain, which was acted by himself ; and on the other hand, of what 
Christ did for us, and on our behalf : both which are in this common, that 
the one cries, and in the conscience too, as well as the other. Both speak, 
only the things they cry are opposite. Abel's blood cried terror and ven- 



Chap. IV.J in bespect of sin and punishment. 343 

geance in Cain's conscience, and Christ's blood speaks peace, but both in 
conscience ; and therefore the echo of it is termed the answer or plea of a 
conscience made good by Christ's death and resurrection : 1 Peter iii. 21, 
* The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the 
putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience to- 
wards God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' And it is observable, that 
in that same chapter it may be found, that a good conscience is termed both 
that kind of testimony in conscience, which ariseth from the consciousness 
of a man's own well-doing ; — so in ver. 16, ' Having a good conscience ; that 
whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil doers,' &c. ; — and then again, in ver. 
21, of a conscience purified and pacified by Christ's death and resurrection 
(compare Rom. iv. 25), is termed a good conscience also, as that which hath 
within itself, strengthened by Christ's resurrection, to appear before, and 
plead before God for its justification. And acts of conscience, and voices in 
conscience, these both are, yea, and towards God. 

I have insisted the more upon this argument, both because it assoils the 
greatest difiiculty and most specious objection that the schoolmen and others 
go upon, why it is not, nor can be (say they) matter of our repentance for it, 
because it pertains not, as they say, unto the conscience, as also because this 
hitherto said lays a foundation for our demonstrating, — 

What kind of acts of repentance, according unto Scripture acceptation of 
repentance, we may and ought to put forth, and exert upon this conviction ; 
which is the main subject of this discourse. 

CHAPTER IV. 

What are the acts of repentance which loe are to exercise concerning our guilt 
of Adam s first sin. — We are to judge oiirselves guilty, and to condemn 
ourselves for it.- — We should also bewail the misery of that condition into 
which it hath brought us. — And toe must also acknowledge our own share in 
the guilt of it, with the greatest sorrow and grief. 

These things having been premised as introductory ; and we now taking 
it for supposed, that a soul is convicted thereof by the operation of the Holy 
Ghost ; I proceed on to set forth those penitential acts which do and are 
to follow upon this conviction. 

And hereunto I must yet go farther, and premise this short aviso also in 
the general, that I take and understand repentance, not in the vulgar accepta- 
tion that heathens and commonly mankind take it only in, which we know 
is properly of what a man's conscience hath an inward remorse for, as having 
been perpetrated by a man's self; but we are to inquire into such acts of 
repentance as, according to the Scripture's acceptation of repentance, we find 
set forth to us therein, that may be applicable to the thing before us,_ or 
which the soul may and ought to put forth upon the conviction of this sin; 
and thus even Bellarmine * himself acknowledgeth, that repentance (in this 
argument) is to be understood by us. 

Repentance in the Scripture sense hath two principal parts. 

1. Looking backward to an act of guilt as gone and past : 

2. Looking forward to time to come, in turning unto God for the future, 
upon the consideration of such a guilt that is past. 

Let us now inquire what acts of repentance of either sort, which are truly 
penitential, are applicable to our guilt of Adam's fact that is past. 

* Non tam sequenda est etymologia in nomine pcenitenticB, quod usu3 Scripturap in 
vera significatione verborum assequenda. — Bellarmine de Pcenitentid, lib. ii. cap. vii. 



3i4 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

A soul convicted of this guilt as its own sin, thongh not of its own com- 
mitting, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, may and ought, 

First, To judge itself for this sin, or pronounce a sentence of condemna- 
tion upon itself for it ; and we find repentance is expressed in Scripture to 
us, to be an act of judging ourselves, that we be not judged with the world : 
1 Cor. xi. 31, 32, ' For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not 
be condemned with the world ;' as also 1 Peter iv. 6. And the reason why we 
are thus to judge ourselves for this act is, what God judgeth us for, we are 
to judge ourselves for also before him, for in so doing we do but take part 
with God, and conform our minds unto his judgment and will, and thereby 
also prevent God's judging of us, as in the place last cited. And that God 
judgeth us for this sin, there is this express scripture, Rom. v. 16, 'The 
judgment is by one unto condemnation' ; and ver. 18, 'As by the ofi'ence 
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the right- 
eousness of one [the gift of righteousness*] came upon all men unto justifica- 
tion of life.' Where (1) by CMe came judgment, ver. 16, he means, that 
one first ofi'ence of Adam, ver. 14, whom he calls ' him that sinned,' as in 
the words afore : for that One is opposed unto ' Many ofiences ' that are 
pardoned, in the following words of that verse. (2) By those words, 'judg- 
ment came upon all men to condemnation,' he manifestly means, that upon 
Adam's so sinning, there issued forth from God, the judge of all the world, 
ii judgment, pronouncing all men criminally guilty of sin, which ended and 
determined in a sentence of condemnation unto death, as the demerit of 
that guilt in them.f And that this judgment unto condemnation (xg//ia s/g 
Kardz^ifia) is to be understood, appears ; for, 

1st, Judgment is mentioned as the cause, and condemnation as the efiiect, 
even as one's being judged guilty or crimical first, is the only cause of a 
sentence of condemnation unto death ; and it is guilt of a sin that only is 
the cause of condemnation. 

2dly, By its opposite, these are paralleled in the words following, ver. 18. 
Wherein, 1, the righteousness of one, namely, Christ's righteousness acted 
in and by himself, is opposed unto that one ofi'ence of Adam that personally 
sinned. 2, Judgment, or xg/^a, on us by that one sin is opposed to justifica- 
tion, or God's accounting us righteous, and so imports God pronouncing us 
guilty or sinners by that one ofi'ence. 3. Condemnation, or xarax^z/xa, is 
opposed unto justification of life, and so a condemnation unto death is there- 
by intended, and that death such as is opposite unto that life, which follows 
upon justification, and therefore eternal death, as the other is eternal life. 
Now what guilt God as a judge pronounceth on us, in and by virtue of that 
one ofi'ence, and sentenceth death thereupon, that we as poor guilty creatures 
ought to take upon ourselves, and judge of ourselves (as in ourselves) there- 
by. And, 

Secondly, We are to judge ourselves so far, as that an act of fear and 
trembling before our holy God should arise in our souls that profess to fear 
this God (one of whose characters it is, to tremble at God's word, Isa. 
Ixvi. 2), for it, as for any other sin, especially in souls in their first conver- 

♦ Compare for this insertion ver. 16. 

t Et non inquit sicut per iinum hominem pcccantem, ita est et donum. Nam judi- 
cium quidem ex uno in condemnationem, gratia autem ex multis delictis in justifica- 
tionein. Ex uno ergo quid, nisi delicto ? Quia sequitur gratia, autem ex multis 
delictis. Dicant isti quomodo ex uno delicto in condemnationem, nisi quia sufficit ad 
condemnationem etiam unum originale peccatum, quod in omnes homines pertransiit. 
— AiKjustine ad Valcrium, lib. ii. c. xxvii. page 184; torn. vii. ; Op. Ed. Far. 1571 ; 
and epistle Ixxxix. page 83. torn, ii, Oper. 



Chap. IV. j in respect of sin and PUNISHMEiNT. iiii) 

sioDS. So far as the hammer of the law may break the heart with threaten- 
ings for any other sin, so far for this also, at least so far as Christ gave 
command : Mat. x. 28, * I say to you, my friends, fear him that can 
destroy body and soul in hell.' For the Scripture hath not said in vain, 
Eph. ii. 3, that we are ' children of wrath by nature,' that is, by reason of 
the guilt of this birth-sin, God is not in jest but in earnest with us whilst 
he speaks it. And as it is said of the magistrate, Rom. xiii. 8, ' Be afraid * 
(for having done evil), * for he bears not the sword in vain,' so God is not 
wrathful for this sin in vain. For whatever sin we are obnoxious to wrath 
for, we are to fear before God in that respect, as having deserved it at his 
hands; and therefore we are to humble ourselves before that God, and 
humbly to seek pardon for the averting or turning away of that wrath for this 
sin as well as for any other sin. Yea, and the conscience of the best is capable 
of chastisements of wrath, or withdrawings by God for this sin, though but 
imputed. For if Christ having our sins made his, but by his voluntary 
assumption and God's imputation, yet was made to cry out, Mat. xxvii. 4G, 
'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me'?' surely for the guilt of 
this act so justly imputed, we might fear that God might deservedly separate 
us from himself for ever. 

Thirdly, We may lament and bewail ourselves for it, and the woful con- 
dition that ourselves and all men are under by reason of it, and for the 
consequents thereof that come upon us and them. It is eminently observable 
that there was a solemn bewailment hereof, as in a common concernment to 
mankind, traduced and delivered down to the very heathens that were of 
Japhet's posterity, for three thousand years after and upwards. Thus the 
Grecians in Oryiis Bacchi, bruising serpents, and carrying them on their 
heads, used to cry, EVA ! EVA ! which pointed clearly at that mischief 
the serpent and Eve did us, in his first tempting to, and her eating the for- 
bidden fruit ; the serpent beguiled her, and his head was to be bruised. And 
for the proof of this old heathen custom, we have several testimonies, as of 
Demosthenes, Virgil,* Propertius, and Catullus. And besides, Clemens 
Alexandrinus,t that lived in heathenish times a while, gives this account of it : 
They set out, being crowTied with serpents, and howling out the name of 
Evah; and adds this interpretation of it, that Eve, by whom sin'or error, 
and all kinds of evils flowing thence, have followed in the world, is hereby 
lamented by them. And so Plutarch | in the life of Alexander the Great, 

* . . . . Evantes orgia circum 
Ducebat Phrygias. — Virgil, JEneid, lib. vi. v. 517. 
And so Propertius — 

Egit ut evantes Dux Ariadna chores. — 

Lib. xi. page 172, Ed. Jos Scalig. Par. 1577. 
And Catullus, page 50 — 

Evoe bacchantes Evoe capita inflectentes. 
And a little after — 

Pars sese tortis serpentibus incingebant. 

f A/ovuiroy fiaiyoXr,i o^yiaZ,ov<ri Bax^", af^otfayia rri> hoofiaviay ayovTE;, Ka) rtXiirxavfi rat 
x^itavDftlas Tut ipovuv aviffTtfiftivm this oip'.ffn I'T oXo\vZ,ovris 'Ei/av, Ewav iKi'ivnv, iihf V ■xXa.yn 
TizonxoXiuSnin, xai ffn/jtilov o^y'iuv Baxxixu* ofi$s iffTi ririXia-fiivos. ^^ Avrixa yovn *«''* '"'" 
ax^ifin ruv E/3^a/<uv ^<uv>i» -o ovo^a mZ Evia ^a(rvvo/iiyoy i^f/.tiyiCiTai o^/; *l 6riX'.'a. — Clemens 
Alexandiimis Admonit. ad Gentes, poge 9, ed. Paris, 1629. 

: Plutarch in Vita Alcxandri, page 1221, Ed. H. S. And in the same manner the 
ceremony is described byNonnus; Dionj^s. lib. ix. page 25G. — Ed. Lubini ; Hanov. 
1605:— 

U^urn x^i^yriiyTit xara Xi"'' V^^i if^ayra, 
IvftTXoKDy tiXlxoti; S« i^axuy Tt^i iJvXaxa fiiTf>r,y, 



346 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

reports how Olympias, Alexander's mother, performing these Bacchanalian 
rites, of si; n,iy(xKov; ^noorjdsig efilXziro roT; ^idsoig, that is, she did wind great 
tamed serpents ahout the Thiasi or mystical fans of Bacchus. And these 
things though they did blindly, the first impress of the true intent of it being 
worn out, yet in that the practice was thus continued in these so ancient 
mysteries of worship, argues, that in times nearer the fall (as in Japhet's 
time, the father of these, when the memory of this was fresher), it was in- 
tended for a bewailing that first sia and fall, and the miseries and evils 
which the sin of Eve by the serpent's malice brought on all mankind. Yea, 
and fm-ther, the Right Reverend Archbishop of Armagh is bold to cast in this 
conjecture, as touching that great fast of the Jews, so called by way of 
eminency, celebrated among them but once a year, which was the day 
wherein the high priest (the type of Christ, our second Adam, his entering 
into heaven for us) went into the holy of holies with the propitiatory blood 
and incense ; which day he conjectures to be the very day anniversarUy 
that the first Adam fell and sinned in, and whereon he was driven out of 
paradise. His words in the second page of his Chronolog}' I shall give you : 
— ' It is very probable that Adam was turned out of paradise upon the 10th 
day of the world, answering to our first of November (according to the 
supposition of the Julian period), upon which day also, in remembrance of 
so remarkable a thing (as in all reason, says he, it should seem), was 
appointed the solemnity of expiation or atonement, and the yearly fast 
spoken of. Acts xxvii, 9, termed more especially by the name, the fast ; 
wherein as well strangers as home-born people were commanded to afilict 
theii- souls with a most severe intennination (or threatening) that every 
soul which should not afilict itself, should be destroyed from amongst bis 
people. Lev. xvi. 29, and xxiii. 29.'* Thus he carries it, that that fast had 
a special and eminent aim, reflection, and eye at Adam's fii'st sin, and his be- 
ing turned out of paradise ; when this sin was expiated by Christ's blood, and 
the other Adam's fall repaired and made up by our high priest's entering into 
paradise, heaven itself (which illustrates the parallel of the two Adams). 
And so, according to his notion, the duty of that day took into it, not the 
sins of all the year past only (as Heb. x.), but this great sin especially, as the 
flood-gate that fii-st let in all other sins ; and therefore their souls were to be 
humbled for it, as well as any other sins whatsoever. And these notions 
and interpretations about the pi'actices both of Jew and Gentiles in their 
sacred mysteries, do serve to that which is my proposal, that as a bewail- 
ment of this sin and fact was held up thereby both among Jews and Gen- 
tiles (and both laid together, do somewhat conduce to confirm this conjec- 
ture about either) ; and even in that very Levitical law, all strangers were 
commanded to afflict their souls, as well as they of their own country, as the 
word is, Levit. xvi. 29, as both therein concerned ; that, therefore, it is our 
duty to lament it, and to be humbled for it. 

Fourthly, The fourth act is, to make a confession of our guilt in this sin, 
and to humble ourselves with spiritual mourning, and godly sorrow for our 
share in it, which is yet a farther thing than to bewail ourselves for the 

* Por the foundation of his conjecture, why the first day of the creation began 
October 23, and so that this fast being appointed the 10th day after, and so on the 
4th day anniversary after man's own creation ; for this I refer the reader unto his 
Chronology, the first two pages of it, and his epistle prefixed to the Chronology. But 
then the Sabbath (upon which day that both men ami angels stood, the argument is 
strong from Exod. xxxi. 17), and if so, there were but two days more between that and 
the fall, supposing it on Nov. 1. These falling so near together, and all things so 
suiting in the three, makes it -very probable that day to have been the day of man's 
fall, and of the Jewish fast. 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 847 

miseries it hath brought upon us. The heathens did bewail the miseries 
that flowed from it, but they knew not the cause, nor the imputation of the 
guilt thereof; but we that are enlightened by the word, and convicted hereof 
by the Spirit, ai*e in this manner to mourn for it, as well as any sins of our 
own. Let Suarez and other papists excuse themselves by a speculative affec- 
tion expressed to God, or grieving that mankind offended God in their first 
parent (as in the preface I cited him), that is, in the general condole one an- 
other for it, as we say, as a common condition ; and yet he speaks that but 
with a possumus dolere, we may thus grieve, that is, if we list, or have a 
mind to it, as if it were a matter but left at our liberty, which we also may 
let alone.* But we have not learned old Adam thus. I say, practically we 
ought to do it, and with application to ourselves in particular, as if no other 
in the world were guilty of it but ourselves ; for this maxim doth and will 
follow us throughout all these acts to be exercised, that it is prnprium jjcccatiim, 
our own sin, though not proprur opemtionis, of our own proper committing ; 
yea, this is also our first sin. And it will everlastingly follow from thence, that 
then we are to lay it to heart in particular as our own, and to mourn prac- 
tically, particularly, and truly, and properly, for our guilt of it. David, we 
see, when he was in his month (as I may with the prophet so speak, of 
the juncture of time wherein he penned that 51st Psalm), puts his mouth in 
the dust before God : Behold, I was brought forth in this sin, and I was con- 
ceived. He mentions not all mankind ; he loads himself with it, / and /, and 
puts the confession of it among the rest of his own actual sins, and seeks a per- 
sonal pardon for it afresh together with the rest ; yea, and the load thereof, 
together with the rest of his own actual sins, did contribute to work that 
brokenness of heart in him, which, as a sacrifice, he presents unto God, 
ver. 17, for all the sins he had before confessed, one as well as another (of 
which more specially afterwards). And certainly if the Jews were to afflict 
their souls on that their fast-day for their sins, and that that day was chosen 
by God for it, the day whereon Adam committed this sin, the significanc-y of it 
was, that they should afflict their souls for this sin, in relation to the com- 
mission whereof that day was singled out. And the condition requisite in 
that fast was, that every man should afflict his own soul in particular for his 
own sins, and therefore for this sin, as well as any other sins of his in parti- 
cular, yea, for this specially as the foundation- sin of all the rest, which the 
intent of the day minded them of. However, to be sure this afflicting their 
souls was to be done for all the sins which Christ (who was typified out by 
the high priest) should procure the pardon of by his sacrifice and interces- 
sion in heaven ; both which acts of high-priesthood were performed by the 
the high priest, as in a shadow of Christ, whilst the people without were 
afflicting their souls for all or any of those sins, which by that sacrifice were 
expiated or interceded for that day. And if the common Jew, out of igno- 
rance, omitted to do it for this sin, yet, however, it teacheth us (of whom, in 
their worship and significancies hereof, they and these were types, and upon 
whom the ends of the world are come), it teacheth, I say, us, that know 
and are enlightened, to take upon us the guilt of this foundation-sin, and 
which we expect to be, and to have been expiated and forgiven by the blood 
of Jesus, carried into the holy of holies by him, and his there interceding 
for us. It becomes us, I say, and it is our duty (whilst we stand on earth 
without) to afflict ourselves for this sin, if we look for pardon for it, as of 
any other. 

* Speculative considerando et possumus dolere, quod humanum genus in primo 
parente Deum offeuderit. — Suarez in loco supra citato. 



iilS AN UNREGKNKEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

Now what was it, or is it, to afflict our souls for any sin, but a particular 
laying it to heart, as being our own, to mourn and to be in bitterness for it? 
Thus, James iv. 9, * Be afflicted, mourn, and weep,' are there joined to- 
gether. And this is not to be done by us only before God, but with sorrow 
according to God : as in 2 Cor. vii. 9, ' Now I rejoice, not that ye were 
made sorrow, but that ye sorrowed to repentance : for ye were made sorry 
after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.' He 
speaks of what kind of mourning is to be for all sin, according to God (so in 
the original) ; that is, according to God's concernments that are found to be 
in a sin, and reflections upon him in that sin, which have cast dishonour and 
a shadow upon the glory and honour of God any way. And upon search 
we may find many high and great ones of such reflections upon God to have 
been in the substance of that first act of Adam's sinning, that did touch 
nighly upon God (whereof I have summed many before''), as that it was a de- 
posing God, a jealousy that God envied and kept them from happiness in for- 
bidding that fruit, &c. There are infinite many of such in that first sin that had 
a malign aspect unto God ; and for these we ought to mourn, if we will mourn 
at all. And truly, if we consider how in this place to the Corinthians (ere 
wc go off from it) that it was but the sin of one man among them, and so 
originally (as I may so speak) but another's sin, which yet had occasioned 
and broached that godly sorrow in them, upon the apostle's having reproved 
them for, not having done it, 1 Cor. v. This sin, though the sin of another, 
committed by one of their society, yet they, as being one body together with 
him, ought to have laid it to heart, and to have mourned for it as committed 
amongst them ; yea, and that they should have done also, under the con 
sideration of God's concernment therein, according to God, which respect 
had unto that man's sin as their own, that passage in ver. 10 doth clearly 
point at, ' you have approved yourselves ' (by that their mourning) ' clear in 
this matter,' viz., about that man's sin committed amongst you ; although 
also this his sin had likewise become their own sin by their having omitted 
to mourn for it, as their duty was to have done, as in the former epistle he 
had told them: 1 Cor. v. 2, • Ye are pufied up, and have not rather mom-ned,' 
&c : by defect of which they had involved themselves in the guilt of that 
man's sin, which otherwise had singly remained his own, though now in that 
7th chapter of the second epistle they had, by a godly sorrow for it, approved 
themselves clear and sincere in that matter. 

Now, to bring this somewhat farther home to the point in hand, I urge it 
thus : 

If the sin of one man, committed in a body and society of men in church 
relation, was to be the object of confessing it, and mourning by the whole of 
that body, and each person of it, both publicly and privately, which if they 
had not omitted to have done had not become their sin (the like in many 
cases holds about the sins of a nation), then much more this first sin ought 
to be the object of our mourning, this fii-st sin committed by our first father 
and head of mankind, to which we all had that near relation (which our 
dinnes out of the Scriptures use to urge), and which sin becomes ours, not 
by a mere omission of mourning for it as having been the sin of an ordinary 
parent, but even by our being involved in the very acting and perpetration 
of it by our first father, and so as the fact itself becomes our own sin. This 
was not the Corinthians' case ; the Corinthians did not sin in the incestuous 
person's sinning, as we all are said to have done in that one man Adam.t If, 
therefore, these Corinthians found that relation of theirs in that fact, and 
that concernment of God's dishonour in it, and his interest, such as they 
* Book I. chap. iv. -f Rom. v, 12. 



Chap. lY.J ix respect of sin and puNiSiiMENr. yiy 

moarned according to God for it, and ought so to have done, then certahilv 
thou being convinced that this act of Adam's is thy sin (on the account fore- 
specified), and then coming before God to afflict thy soul for other suis of 
thine ; and being to deal with God about sin, and all sin, and this being thy 
sin, which thou art sensible that (as in thyself) thou standest guilty before 
this holy God for, then surely thou art to mourn for it. For how are we to 
deal with God about any sin which occurs to our thoughts, and which we 
are found guilty of before him ? Or how to manage ourselves in his pre- 
sence under the apprehension of our guiltiness thereof, but by falling down 
before him, and to put our mouths in the dust, with a true and bitter humi- 
liation for it '? And therein (if it be our sin) to search out the aggravations 
of it, and what the concernments of God are in it (and in this sin we may 
find many), as matter of this humbling, and to move us to mourn according 
to God, and all this to the end to return an honour to God by our debase- 
ment of ourselves, and in confessing the aggravation of it, deeply breaking 
our hearts, and causing them to mourn. And in this case, it is not only as 
the mourning of a traitor's sou for his father's having committed such or so 
high a treason against his prince and country, as hath brought ruin upon 
both, but as of one who is enwrapped in the very act of his father. Thus 
here it is reckoned thy treason as well as thy father's, by thy being in Adam's 
loins, as the first father and head of mankind. The like reason whereto 
holds not of any other father and child, as not of any national or church- 
relation since. 

I add this further, to set this duty home upon our hearts, of mourning for 
this sin, drawn from the Corinthians' instance ; that it being our own sin 
already, whether we mourn for it or not, by our neglecting to mourn for it 
■when we ought, we incur the guilt of it anew, and so draw a double guilt 
thereof upon ourselves, as the Corinthians also did. And I can conclude 
with this, that as we are and do receive Christ's righteousness, when im- 
puted through fixith, with joy, Rom. v. 1, 2 and Rom xv. 13, and are filled 
with joy and peace upon our reception and laying hold of that his right- 
eousness as ours ; so surely may we by conviction apprehend ourselves 
guilty of this sin imputed, entertain the apprehension of it with like godly 
sorrow. 

Fifthly, A fifth act is contrition or brokenness of heart, which is indeed 
the top and highest disposition and act in repentance ; and therefore David, 
of all other, specifies and presents that to God, 'A broken and a contrite 
heart, God, thou wilt not despise,' in this 51st Psalm, ver. 17, and he 
speaks it at, yea, and as the very close and winding up of all his confessions 
and mournings (for the rest of the psalm is a prayer for the church) ; and 
certainly coming in thus, as that which he breathed forth as his last sigh, 
ultinms singultus, and as a deposition left with God at his farewell, and his 
breaking ofi" all his confessions (unto which brokenness of heart hath an 
immediate relation), it must needs include all and every of those sins he 
had been confessing afore in the psalm, as those for which and at the men- 
tion of every of which his heart had been a-breaking and a-melting all along; 
and having now his full load, his heart so broken as he could go no farther 
on in that strain, he therefore makes a stop there, and diverts to another 
key. And what then, shall we leave out of the comprehension of this his 
brokenness, that sin which he had confessed, ver. 5, ' I was brought forth 
in iniquity ' ? &c. Certainly no ; nay, his heart breaks to an Elah, to a 
BeJiold in that, to a jSo^dsia, a crying out (as Heb. iv. 16 the word is) when 
he came to that sin ; and if any would go about to exclude and except this 
as having no part or share in breaking his heart, he must give a reason of 



350 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

difference (and it had used be a great one) why, he having confessed this 
among those other sins, it yet must be understood that his broken heart 
only was for and had an eje to those other sins, not this. David's heart (I 
beUeve) felt not nor found any such distinction. I pray, therefore, take this 
in with the rest, both this of his birth-sin, as those of his own committing, 
for he had equally confessed both, yea, that original sin with a Behold 
above the rest ; take it, I say, into your thoughts, and be convinced that the 
f uilt of the act of Adam's sin is as just and full a gi'ound and matter of true 
brokenness of heart, truly and rightly understood, and according to the 
Scripture notion, as any other guilt. 

True contrition and brokenness brings the creature unto nothing in itself, 
in its own humblings of itself, it causeth it to descend, as to the dust of death 
and hell, so even to nothing. In Isaiah, chaps. Ivii. and kvi., a broken and 
a contrite heart is set in full aspect to the infinite highness, sovereignty and 
greatness of God. So chap. Ivii. 15, ' Thus saith the high and lofty One 
that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy 
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,' &c. And the 
humble and contrite heart there, imports an heart made in the deepest 
manner apprehensive and sensible of its infinite distance from God as God, 
and of its own being emptiness and nothing, both as a creature at its best, 
and as a sinner at its worst. This heart (in Isaiah) is made low and 
humble in both respects, as well before God as the high and lofty one, as 
before God as the holy one ; and a soul when brought low in both these 
respects is the fittest match or companion to choose for God to fill and dwell 
in ; and both these (besides whatever else) doth that poverty of spirit cause 
which Christ made the fii'st promise of blessedness unto, Mat. v. 3. For 
what is that poverty, but a mere and perfect emptiness in a man's own view, 
and depression of spirit '? 

Now, the conviction and sense of a man's being guilty of this first sin, 
brings a man's soul to this nothingness in some respects more than any other, 
sin in regard of both these. 

1. That it doth this in respect of his being made a sinner by it, the heinous- 
ness of this sin (set forth by many enhancing circumstances) above any other 
will shew ; which I here insist not on. 

2. That the recognition hereof should humble and bring the soul to a 
nothingness, as we are creatures, before this high and lofty one, is manifest 
upon such considerations as are more proper to the guilt of this sin than to 
any other sins of our own committing, since we have been first made sinners 
by this first sin. For he that will to the full humble himself for this sin, 
must first put himself, in his faith and the supposition of his mind, into a 
state of perfect holiness and righteousness, by considering himself to have 
been such once in Adam. He must first understand himself to have been 
exactly and completely holy and righteous, and also to have stood and con- 
tinued such, as Adam was, and did unto the very moment of his sinning ; 
and then may the soul say, Oh, but yet I fell and sinned in him. Look as 
when we come to be justified by God, we are to look upon ourselves as un- 
godly persons, as, the apostle says, our father Abraham did long after his 
conversion, Rom. iv. 5, even after his having been made godly thereby ; 
which tendeth to the deepest emptiness of ourselves, that God should for 
ever justify [usj as such, that is, as ungodly ; and this we are to do, because of 
ourselves we are such, having been such once, though now we are and have 
been upon a new grace truly sanctified. Just thus when thou comest to 
humble thyself for this sin (that thou mayest thoroughly do it, and to the 
bottom) look (on the contrary) first upon thyself, as once to have been so 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 351 

and so perfectly upright and holy, by and from thy creation. And then 
thereupon thy considering how thou didst fall from that condition, •will more 
effectually read to thy soul those humbling lectures and admonitions, to 
annihilate thee, or bring thee to nothing as a creature, than any other of thy 
sins since. 

1st, It will humble thee not only for the sinfulness of that act, but also 
for the mutability, vanity, fickleness, and unstability of thee in falling from 
such a perfect state, the most perfect that man by creation was any way 
capable of. 

2dly, It will instruct thee, that if thou thyself had been in Adam's stead 
when he was thus in perfect holiness (as he was in thine and all the world's 
stead), that thou wouldst have served him and us all so, even as he served 
us (or rather God), and have fallen as foully and as ruinously as he did. 
Thou wilt easily therefrom conclude it with thyself, by taking the measure 
from that standard, that if the holiest man that ever was (but the second man 
Christ, personally united to the Son of God), chosen out by God on purpose 
as the perfection of his creation, eldest born of the sons of men for strength 
and ability to stand, betrusted with his own and aU mankind's interests and 
future happiness, &c., if he thus failed, that even so should I have done, wilt 
thou think. God, I see, might truly say, as in Job, I can put no trust in any 
of my creatures standing on their bottom. Nor could I (mayest thou say) 
have any confidence in myself by which to have undertaken to stand, if I 
had been set down in Adam's cii'cum stances, and with his apprehensions 
about me, more than he did. And this will instruct a man whoUy to give 
up his creature estate to God. And this is a great lesson ; yea, 

3dly, The consideration of this will teach and instruct thee, as never to 
put confidence in any free-will grace, that is, grace committed to the conduct 
and menage of man's free will ; so nor in renewed grace, that is, if God should 
now set us up again upon a new stock, make us as holy as we were at first, 
and then leave us to a creature-like management of ourselves (such as at first 
we had), we should fall with all that our new repair and stock of holiness, it 
would not keep us a moment ; and in this emptiness and nothingness of our- 
selves, the guilt of the first act of sin perpetrated by a pure creature (as Adam 
was) instructs us in such a manner as no other sin of our own, now when 
we are corrupted, would or could have taught us ; for that was acted out of 
pure freedom, or rather arbitrariness of man's will, as not then biassed or 
inclined unto evil, but furnished with the contrary ; whereas now our wills 
are spoiled and corrupted by that sin, and have a weight depressing them, 
and a bribe in their right hand ; so that we now sin, tempted by our own 
lust (as the apostle says, James i. 14), as well as out of a freedom of will. 



CHAPTER V. 

AU these acts of repentance are mingled with faith in Christ, and have a ten- 
dency to excite and increase it. — That the sense of this sin hath, more than 
any other, an influence to move vs to Christ, since hereby tve are convinced 
of our weakness, and mutability, as creatures, as ivell as of our guilt as sinners, 
that so ice may seek a remedy in Christ for both. 

All these fore-mentioned acts, especially the latter, of spiritual mourning and 
contrition, are mixed in the heart of a soul truly penitent, with strains and 
veins of faith upon free grace, and Christ, for pardon and justification from 
this guilt, as well as any. Nor indeed is that saving repentance for any sin 



352 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOO, [BoOK IX. 

that flows not from, or at least is not accompanied with, the hopes of, and 
seeking of pardon and forgiveness for that sin a man repents of. We see 
therefore how this exercise of spirit is here intermingled in this psalm with 
these confessions, ' Wash me, purge me with hyssop,' which had Christ's 
blood in it, according to the Levitical type, to sprinkle the conscience withal. 
Hyssop was used as the instrument of sprinkling both water and blood on 
them that were any way unclean, whereof we read, Exod. xxiv. 7, 8, with 
the blood of calves ; and Lev. xiv. 6, 8, with the blood of birds, in case of 
the leper; and Num. xix. 6, 18, with the ashes of an heifer. The mystery 
of all which the apostle hath led us into, Heb. ix. 19, ' Moses took the blood 
of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled 
all the people' ; and, ver. 13, 14, he interprets it thus : * If the blood of 
bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti- 
fieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more shall the blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal Spirit ofiered himself without spot to God, purge 
your conscience from dead works?' &c., thereby signifying our justification. 
Now, the sprinkling of the blood and water, by hyssop, &c., dipped therein, 
in case of the leper, Lev. xiv., was more specially intended of cleansing us 
from our original sin, both by Christ's blood in the way of justification, and 
by water, in the way of sanctification ; for that sin needeth both, sanctifica- 
tion to cleanse us from the filth or blot inherent, and justification from the 
guilt. And the leprosy more properly pointed unto that birth-sin, since that 
noisome disease often was conveyed by birth, and always noted out that in- 
herent corruption, which as a sin and a leprosy is in us, contracted first by 
Adam's fact, and by birth derived as a native disease. Now, David therefore 
confessing himself unclean in respect of his birth-sin, and having Christ's blood 
in his eye, as well as those other sins, pertinently therefore cries out, 'Wash me 
thoroughly,' ver. 2 (for that sprinkling on the leper was done seven times, 
Lev. xiv. 7, a number of perfection), and ' purge me with hyssop,' &c., 
ver. 7, ' and I shall be whiter than snow ;' for the leper was cleansed by 
the sprinkling of blood, from scarlet wool dipped in it, as well as hyssop. 
Lev. xiv. G, 7, whereby the crimson guilt of this and other sins was done 
away ; and, as the prophet speaks, ' Though they were as scarlet, they shall 
be as white as snow; though they be red hke crimson, they shall be as wool.' 
So, then, together with confession and repentance, we must remember to 
mingle acts of faith, as David did. And truly those fore-mentioned acts, 
specially of contrition, &c., for the guilt of this act, do both prepare forfurther 
acts of faith, and are to be accompanied therewith. 

First, Such a brokenness prepares for going out unto Christ, perhaps in 
some respect more than any other sin. For, 

1st, It letting us to see our mutability and nothingness as creatures, &c., 
(as was noted), this disposeth the soul both to value, and go out of itself 
unto Christ. 

1. As an head of union, by whom we are fixed and made stable as crea- 
tures, and shall one day in heaven become immutable through our relation 
to him as to an head. And, 

2. To have recourse unto Christ as a redeemer, to cleanse us from the 
guilt and power of sin, both which do so distinctly make up the faith we 
ought to act on Christ in regard of this our original sin. 

2dly, It serves (by the parallel of the two Adams) to help souls more 
clearly to understand the right way of our justification, and how it is distinct 
from being sanctified, namely, by the righteousness of another, Jesus Christ 
the second Adam, imputed to us, over and above our having sanctification 
inherently wrought in us by him. This we shall come more distinctly to 



Chap, V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 353 

understand, when the soul hath been once made thoroughly sensible that the 
sin of the first Adam comes upon it for condemnation, over and besides 
inhei-ent corruption of nature therewith contracted. The one serves to give 
light to the other, although in the conveyance they infinitely differ, the one 
being received by faith and regeneration from Christ, the other comes upon 
men traduced by natural propagation. I have known some souls, who 
having been, in the work of humiliation upon them, first powerfully con- 
vinced of both these sinfulnesses from Adam, and particularly of the just 
imputation of Adam's fact by God to them, who yet in seeking how to be 
saved (as they in Acts ii.), did not at first so clearly understand the way of 
faith on Christ's righteousness as distinct from sanctificution (on which 
sanctification they had too much rested, as if that were to be their justifica- 
tion in the sight of God), have, after they came to listen to the doctrine of 
justification by Christ's righteousness imputed by God, and through faith 
alone laid hold on and received, and had it more fully opened to them, they 
have been wonderfully helped to apprehend and take this in from their fore- 
gone conviction of the imputed guilt of Adam's sin, yea, and have had their 
hearts the more encom^aged to go out of themselves to God and Christ for 
this righteousness of justification, by the parallel which that afforded to this 
other, as in Rom. v. 19 the apostle hath set them together, ' As by one 
man's disobedience, many were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one, 
shall many be made righteous.' For if the things themselves compared do 
illustrate each other, as by the apostle's so having done appears, then also 
in the apprehension and understanding of any soul that considers them ; 
for, uti res sunt in esse, ita in cognosci. For a soul to think, I will go to 
that God, who, as by a just act he hath accounted me and us all sinners in 
Adam, in whom all have sinned ; so he may and will, out of free grace 
through Christ his righteousness, justify the ungodly, and make us the 
righteousness of God in him ; and why not me ? 

And other sins which a man in his own person hath committed, though 
they may and do let a man see a more need of Christ, and so press forward 
his soul to go unto him, and may serve to the schoolmaster's part to whip 
us to Christ, in respect of sight of need ; yet they no way conduce to instruct 
us in the way of faith, or going to Christ for justification in that manner, as 
the conviction of this of Adam's sin doth, as hath now been specified ; nay, 
the voice of those sins in the conscience cries aloud to the contrary, * The 
soul that sins shall die,' and bear its own sin itself. Thus much as to what 
our sense and sorrow for original sin makes way for and helps forward faith 
in Christ for justification. 

Secondly, As to free grace, or the mercy of God justifying of us freely 
through Christ's blood, which is also the object of faith, we ought, upon the 
conviction of and humiliation for this sin, to lay ourselves at the footstool of 
God's throne of grace, seeking pardon to take away the guilt of it, as David 
doth in this Psalm li. verses 1, 2, together with his other sins. Men are apt 
to think with themselves that God in justice, accounting Adam's sin unto 
them, should, as it were, oblige him (being a God so merciful) to pardon it; 
and to that purpose some in their writings have not spared to express them- 
selves. But if it be a sin, and our sin, we must be beholden to grace to 
forgive it ; and God in justice might condemn us for it, though we had no 
other sin. And this is an essential and inseparable property or character of 
grace, to be free, and so to justify freely; as Rom. iii. 24, ' Being justified 
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.' And 
therefore in the apostle's following discourse, about our guilt of this very 

VOL. X. Z 



354 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

act of sin, in chapter v. he subjoins, verse 1, that it is by an abundance of 
grace, and of the gift of grace, whereby this sin, together with the many 
other of our own, came to be pardoned, and we justified ; and therefore the 
same grace that must exert itself to pardon other sins, must be freely ex- 
tended and put forth by God for the forgiveness of this also. 

But of this part I shall have occasion again to speak in the conclusion of 
this part of this discourse. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

That act of repentance, which is a turning from sin unto God, is to be exercised 
about this our original sin, and in what manner. 

There is a second, and the main part of repentance, which looketh forward 
unto time to come, and is a turning to God from sin, being thereto provoked 
by sorrow for sin past or present. Thus, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11, ' For godly 
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of : but the 
sorrow of the world worketh death. For, behold, this self-same thing, that 
ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what 
clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what 
vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge ! In all things ye have 
approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.' Godly sorrow maketh 
repentance, which respects time to come. 

It is then next to be considered, what conviction of this act, with sorrow, 
may be provocative to a soul apprehensive of it unto a turning unto God, as 
well as sorrow for any other sin. 

To this I give a general assertion or two. 

1. That the main of repentance lies in a turning to God out of a state of 
sin. This the Scriptures do most insist on. Acts xxvi. 18, 'To turn men 
from the power of Satan' (who in their state of sinning is said to have power 
over them all their life long ; that is, whilst they continue in that estate, 
Heb. ii. 15) ' unto God,' as the termimts ad quern. And it is certain, that 
initial repentance is not merely from an act, but from a state of sinning. 
Now, if it be duly considered, it is that guilt of the sinful act of our first 
parents that brought us into, and had conjunct with it a state of sin. And 
as by faith we enter, or have our first ' access into the grace wherein we 
stand,' Rom. v. 2; that is, the state of grace; so oppositely, ver. 12 and 18, 
it is said, ' sin entered,' which entrance was by that first sin, and the guilt 
of it, and together with that its entrance it was that we entered into a state 
of sin, and we were first made sinners by it, ver. 18, and so made sinners, 
as to be under a state or dominion of sin and death : ' Sin reigns unto 
death,' ver 21. Yea, and it was this sin that shot that first bolt upon you, 
whereby you were and are irrecoverably shut up under sin, without any 
possibility of recovery. Other actual sins, yea, inherent corruption, do but 
keep you in that estate ; but it was this sin first brought you into it. If 
therefore the great conversion of a soul at first be from out of a state of sin 
unto God, then surely it is a turning from this sin, not only as conjunct 
with this state, but as the original hereof. 

2. In general. That a man may be provoked, by the conviction, &c., of 
his guilt of this sin, to turn unto God, as well as by any act of his own 
committing. To this purpose let it be considered, that this sin is our own 
as well as any other. And if so, then if a man's soul be once possessed of 
it, that this sin of Adam's is also his own sin, and withal of the heinousness 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 855 

of it ; then why should not this man, out of the sense of his guilt hereof, 
turn unto God, and against all sin whatever, as well [as] upon the sense of 
any sin or sins of his own committing ? for both are sins, and both are his 
own sins, though upon a diflerent account. 

To illustrate this yet the more, I will but make this supposition (which 
for illustration's sake I may), that any son of Adam come to understanding,, 
could be supposed guilty of no other act of sinning, but this imputed on& 
from Adam ; or, it' this should not be admitted, I will make another, which 
will be as serviceable to my purpose : suppose that any such convert's mind 
Avas wholly take i up with the conviction of, and poi'ing upon his guilt of 
that one sin, so as at that present he had not in his actual thoughts and 
meditations any other actual sin of his own (and this is really supposable, 
and may be a convert's case), and so he were at that present wholly upon 
such penitential acts for that sin alone as have been set out, viz. of judging 
himself, sorrowing according to God, &c. I would in this, case but demand, 
whether this conviction and sorrow, detestation of himself for this sin, as 
sin, and as his own sin, and a most heinous, horrid sin, joined with seeking 
after, or a sense of the pardon of it, might not, ought not, would not work 
and stir up in him a spiritual turning unto God against all sin whatsoever ? 
Certainly, yes; yea, and I shall shew, it may naturally work all those effects 
of repentance which the apostle says that godly sorrow had wrought in those 
Corinthians, 2 Cor. vii. 11 (of which by and by); for still where there is the 
same ground of like repentance, there may follow and arise from thence the 
same effects. 

You will say, There is this difference in the case (over and besides that 
consideration, that a man committed it not himself), that in ease of other 
sins, a man is provoked to repentance, because he is capable to commit that 
sort of sin again, and so says with himself, and specially resolves against 
that particular sin, to commit that no more of all his abominations, as the 
prophet's words are. But thus no man can say of this sin of Adam's eat- 
ing the forbidden fruit ; it was done but once, and put to the trial but once, 
yea, the command forbidding it ceased, and was upon the fact at an end. 
For answer, 

1. Adam himself, or Eve, if they were alive, were not capable of such a 
special repentance for that sin, who yet were the persons themselves who had 
committed it (whom yet all will acknowledge to have repented in the con- 
sideration thereof, and perhaps more than of any other sin else committed 
by them, because turned godly, and made penitents by God himself). For 
why ? The commandment was instantly void ; yea, and if this reason which 
is objected hold, we must say, that whilst they were alive, they in this sort 
never did repent of it as to time to come (which is that part of repentance 
we were now a-speaking of), nor never could. What, then, was their 
repentance for it as for the time to come ? Even to say and resolve with 
themselves. We will through grace sin no more against any command of God 
whatever, that either God hath or shall give us, especially not against any 
such command that is made a trial and symbol of obedience in so signal a 
manner as this was. And unto such a repentance for time to come may the 
soul of every son* of Adam, bowed down under his guilt of this sin, and deep 
sense of God's displeasure, taken at it, and manifested against it, find all 
sorts and provocations. Thus in general. 

But, further, 2, suppose there be some particular sin which bears the 
appearance or likeness to that first act, which a man's soul hath formerly 
fallen into, and that this be his case (and like sins unto that, for the sub- 
stance of the act, there are many), by occasion of which his soul hath been 



356 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

forews-rned in a signal manner to take heed above all other of sinning with 
such a person or in such a thing, which are as the forbidden fruit unto that 
man ; and the commands of God against it have been in a singular manner 
set home upon his soul, and so have become as syml)olical commands to 
him as that was to them (and some such singular commands and special 
acts of sinning, every penitent hath or may have before him in his eye), may 
not I say such a soul, upon the intuition of his guilt in that act of Adam's 
eating that so forbidden fruit, is positively and really moved and provoked 
to turn unto God, in resolving with a true and efficacious repentance, both 
in general against breaking any of God's laws for the future, but above all 
against any such like transgressions, or breaking any such trying commands 
of special obedience set him, even because in Adam he did otiend in the like? 
May not such a soul, in the depth of his depressments, and lying in the dust, 
efficaciously reason himself (as the apostle's word upon another occasion is, 
Rom. vi.) unto such a repentance as hath been specified? and the more, by 
how much he may consider how heinously God took that sin, cursed the 
earth for it, whereby also himself and every man is polluted and accursed 
that comes into the world, by considering with himself, I was involved and 
concerned in all this, and thereupon to say, Surely if I were guilty of no 
more actual sin but this alone, it should be a sufficient motive against all 
sin, which, by God's manifested distaste at this sin, I see he infinitely 
abhors ; and wliilst his thoughts are thus seriously working in himself, let 
any particular sin come into his thoughts, and he will, in this fresh sense of 
this first sin, abominate it. But these are but generals, though perhaps 
sufficient to set our meditations and exercises of our souls a-work this way^ 
and lead us the way into more particular acts of repentance from hence. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The sorrow and repentance which we should have for original sin, more ampli- 
fied from the effects which godly sorrow ivroitght in the Corinthians. 

For godly sorrow worheth repentance to salvation not to he repented of : but 
the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing, 
that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, xvhat carefulness it wronglit in you, yea, 
what clearing of tjour selves, yea, wliat indignation, yea, what fear ^ yea, what 
vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what leveuge! In all things ye have 
approved yourselves to he clear in this matter. — 2 Cor. VII. 10, 11. 

I shall endeavour to make a farther essay upon all those particular acts of 
repentance, which are set out to have been the efiects and consequents of 
godly sorrow in those Corinthians, if we understand that passage of what 
repentance was wrought in them, for that part of the guilt which themselves, 
as a church, had contracted, and for which he had reproved them in the 6th 
chapter of his former epistie, as those which had not mourned; which occa- 
sioned this their repentance here, -as ver. 6 informs, and therefore that 
personal repentance for themselves must be taken in as there intended, and 
hath also been before animadverted. And so understood, I shall attempt to 
go over all those particular effects there specified, and demonstrate that they 
all may as naturally flow from a true godly conviction and sorrow for our 
share in the guilt of Adam's sin, as upon the guilt of any personal sin of our 
own committing. The apostle's words are these : ' Godly sorrow worketh 
repentance,' ver. 10 ; and the effects thereof do follow : ver. 11, ' For this 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 857 

self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort,' or ' for God,' 1, ' What 
carefuluess wrought it in you ;' yea, 2, • what apology,' 'Ac&Xoy/av, or plead- 
ing for yourselves ; 3, ' what indignation ;' 4, ' what fear ;' 5, ' what vehe- 
ment desire;' 6, 'what zeal;' 7, 'what revenge.' These are spiritually 
natural effects of godly sorrow for any grievous sin, and acts of repentance 
relating unto time to come ; for as Bellarmine well says, There cannot be a 
true sorrow of heart for a sin that is past, but presently there doth arise a 
purpose not to sin for the f\itare. 

In going over these, I shall couple those of them that are more symbolical 
and congenial one with another, and so shortly speak of them in the force of 
what hath been hitherto said. 

The first couple shall be care and fear, both which respect avoiding sin 
for time to come, that we fall not into the like. 

1. Care. Let any soul but view the transactions of Satan with Eve, and 
hers with Adam, and how easily that their feet slipped, and they turned thither 
(as the psalmist's phrase is, Ps. Ixxiii. 2), and were eternally lost and gone, 
and let that soul withal but interest himself in that act of Adam's first sin, 
and he may find it gives him as great a monition of watchfulness as any of 
his own sins are like to do against all temptations of Satan, not so much as 
to listen to them, or to any other motions of sin. 

2. What fear. Fear imports a earefulness arising from the sense of a 
danger, against security or confidence in ourselves. There is no instance 
•will prompt more heedfully for ever to stand npoa our guard than this of 
Adam's sinning ; for if thou hast put thyself into Ad im's case and condition, 
&c., thou wilt consider how, though thou hadst in him a fulness of perfect 
holiness, and nothing vi'ithin to tempt thee, that yet thou then didst fall in 
him, and he that was so completely armed then fell, and thou in him ; how 
much more then now, when thou hast so little of grace to preserve thee, and 
so much of corruption to tempt thee, may it cause thee to work out thy sal- 
vation with fear and trembling ? ' Let him that standeth take heed lest he 
fall,' is a natural lesson from hence; and ' Put on the whole armour of God, 
that ye may be able to stand,' &c. And this is holy fear and jealousy of our- 
selves. This for the first couple. 

A second pair or couple are indir/natiori and rerenrje. 

The first speaks a throwing away of sin in a chafe : ' What have I to do 
any more with idols ?' as Ephraim, Hosea xiv. 9. Or such an indignation 
as Asaph had at himself : Ps. Ixxiii. 22, ' So foolish was I, and as a beast 
before thee.' And if ever any sin (take the consequents of it) would raise 
up indignation in the heart of one supposed guilty of it, this will, to think 
how triflingly the whole world was lost and cast away, myself and all man- 
kind, at one throw, for less than a mess of pottage. Oh this shews what we 
are at best, even but creatures ; and this is our creation grace, on which a 
man would not venture the smallest piece of a soul, much less the blessed- 
ness of all mankind. We are apt Qnough, indeed, to have our spirits fume, 
at Adam and Eve (as no question, they repenting, did against themselves) 
for so great an unworthiness, that man in honour should so easily become 
a beast that perisheth, yea, a devil. But the indignation I call upon thee 
for is of another kind, to which purpose put thyself into Adam's case, and 
first think with thyself, If I had been in his stead, I with my creature free- 
will grace should, vice versa, have served Adam so, and lost all for myself 
and him, even as he did. And then again, think also that this act of his 
sin is thy sin, and this will both turn thy indignation against thyself, and set 
thy heart to be more resolved against all sin for time to come, for any sin 
as well as that of eating the forbidden fruit, if it had been committed by 



358 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

them, would have done it. I will never trust creature grace or free-will grace 
more, for this foul failure of it in him. ' what indignation !' 

The second is revenrje. There is a question among the schoolmen,* 
whether repentance be only an act of love to God, or withal an act of justice, 
or doing a justice unto God again, by way of recompence for sin, as it is a 
wrong and an injury to him, by endeavouring what in us lies to destroy the 
injury done to God, and restore unto God his right ? Thus they. This 
notion they would put upon repentance's revenge, with an intention thereon 
to found a compensation, a satisfaction made unto God by repentance (such 
as the creatures can make), and withal thereby to make up a reconciliation 
with God again, injuriam resarciendo, by making God amends. Thus they 
philosophise. Yet sever this notion of theirs from this blasphemous affront 
given unto the satisfaction of Christ alone made for us, instead of which they 
would set up their satisfactions in penances, &c., and understand this ana- 
logically or similitudinarily, and there is a revenge a penitent soul takes of 
itself for sin, or rather upon sin ; and there is an endeavour to make God 
an amends, that by how much a man hath the more sinned, by so much the 
more he would be obedient, and do contrary unto what formerly he hath 
done ; which you see to have been in Paul, who had been so violent in per- 
secuting the church; in the woman of Nain, &c., Luke vii. 87 ; and in the 
Christians at Ephesus, that burnt their books of curious arts, &c.. Acts xix. 
19. And such a revenge is not simply intended as against ourselves (we 
leave that to the papists), but against our sins ; and those not simply as 
having done ourselves such mischief, but as against God ; for as it is sorrow 
to God, or for God's interest, from whence this revenge here ariseth, so as 
there is a revenge done on sin for God's sake, wherein the penitent soul can 
rest satisfied with nothing but the utter destruction of it, for that revenge 
doth always import. Jealousy is the rage or revenge of a man : Prov. vi. 
34, ' For jealousy is the rage of a man ; therefore he will not spare in the 
day of vengeance.' 

Now, as to this of revenge against sin thus understood, how it should be 
stirred up in us, by the consideration of our guilt of that act of Adam's sin, 
or upon what thing or sin this revenge should wreak or vent itself? That is 
the query. Upon that act of sin past ? That cannot be ; and to revenge 
ourselves upon some lawful liberty that holds an appearance to that of their 
eating the forbidden fruit, in the contemplation of this sin, is easily imagin- 
able. 

I shall only say as to this point these two things : 

1. If a man would have hatred stirred up to purpose against sin (which is 
the ground and provocative of revenge), let him view but sin in that glass of 
Adam's fall, and consider but how heinously God took it, and how highly he 
was displeased at it, and hath shown it in the miserable consequents of it, 
so as never the like, it being the spoil of all his workmanship, which in the 
end of the sixth and seventh day he was .so refreshed withal, and a turning 
the whole wheel and way of the old creation (of man especially) into a con- 
trariety unto him for ever. 

There are two great glasses to view the deformity of sin in : the first in 
this of Adam's fact in paradise ; the second in that of Christ's sufiering 
for sin upon the cross. God laid upon him the iniquities of us all, revenge 
being thus stirred up. 

2. Wouldst thou be revenged for this mischief done to God and thee, &c., 
and know where and how, in a proper way, to point and direct the sword's 
point of thy revenge against it ? Then look as David when he would study 

* See Bellarm. 1. ii. de Poenit. c. 7, and Suarcz in 3, Tom. iv. disp. 2, sec 3. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 859 

how to shew a kindness unto Jonathan who was dead, and so out of a 
capacity, or the reach of a kindness himself (as the act of this sin also is to 
ours), yet as David inquired, • Is there any left of the house of Saul, that I 
may shew kindness to him for Jonathan's sake ?' 2 Sam. ix. 1. And they 
told him he had a son Mephibosheth, ver. 3, &c. Thus say I, wouldst thou 
be revenged for the loss, not of thy two eyes only (as Samson, Judges xvi. 
28), but for the loss of the whole image of God, &c., which was ' created in 
knowledge,' &c., as the apostle speaks ? I say, wouldst thou be avenged for 
this and other mischiefs on this sin ? Look first if there be any of its brood 
left behind it, whom thou mayest fairly wreak thy vengeance on. And for 
that thou needest to go no farther than thine own heart ; behold a whole 
body of sins, all sorts of lusts therein, that are the brood it hath left behind 
it, that sin was the father of, besides all the actual sins which are begotten 
by it, the grandchildren of that grand sin ; and if these be not large enough 
to satiate thy vengeance, thou hast the sins of all the sons of men thou cou- 
versest with, that come within thy cognisance, to endeavour to extirpate 
these in them by all ways and means wherein thy duty lies. These are all 
of the same stock and lineage, and descended from this root, and cousin- 
germans to thine own sin. But if thou thinkest these too remote and too 
far ofl;' in kindred, look upon thine own children who came out of thine own 
loins, and all the sins in them, which are all nearer akin unto that corruption 
in thyself, and next unto thine own. In all these thou hast field enough before 
thee for revenge to forage in. Only first begin this thy revenge at home ; 
thou hast enough to satiate thy hatred upon there. Slash and cut, arid, 
spare not ; hew and cut down, and lay the axe to the root of the tree. ' Oh 
what revenge !' But on a revenge hereon I shall enlarge when I come to 
the acts of repentance for inherent corruption. 

There is a third pair or couple, what desire ! what zeal ! Those latter 
fruits of repentance do, to be sure, spring from pure love to God. What 
desires to be rid of sin and to be holy, which are the best fruits of thy grace 
in this life ? And then thy sense of the guilt of this act of sinning will put 
thee upon hungering and thirsting after righteousness, especially that right- 
eousness of that other Adam, Christ, of which by and by ; and it will stir 
desires also after the favour of God, for this was the first sin that separated 
betwixt God and thee. And zeal is but love and desire, and other affections 
intended.* Desire is smoke, and zeal is flame. And for a man to consider, 
I am guilty of the first sin that ever was committed in the world, and one of 
the greatest that ever was or will be, this may well provoke him to desire, 
and to say, That was the alj^ha of my sins ; would to God that which I com- 
mitted last might be the omega. Again, did I bring sins enough into the 
world, even of the guilt of that sin, if I had added no more, to have found 
me work to repent of as long as I have been or am to be in the world ; yea, 
to find me work enough of that kind, if I did nothing else ? And shall I sin 
any one sin more ? Oh, if it were possible, not so much as one ! Oh what 
desire, what zeal should this provoke us to ? 

There is one thing more in that text, 2 Cor. vii., a single seventh, which 
will not so well yoke with any of the other, a clearing ourselves, or apology 
in defence of ourselves ; and what may that be supposed to have to do with 
our sense of the guilt of this act ? We will be ready to say, that of all sins 
else we can the best apologise for this, and clear ourselves, and wash our 
hands of that, and plead in defence of ourselves. It was the sin of another, 
and not our own ; qiice nonfecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco. That which I did 
not can hardly be styled mine. This was Adam's fault indeed, in seeking 
* That is, stretched or intensified. — Ed. 



360 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

to excuse himself, by laying his sin on his wife, yea, at God's door. Gen. iii. 
which Job alludes to, chap. xxxi. 33. But as to the Corinthians clearing 
themselves for that personal share of theirs in that sin (which the apostle 
had reproved in these Corinthians, 2 Cor. v. 3), that true godly sorrow which 
their hearts were yet bedewed with, and had brought forth, this apology 
here was joined with a putting their mouths in the dust, and a taking shame 
and guilt to themselves, to the utmost grain of weight it will bear. The 
word here used is an apology, or pleading for pardon and forgiveness, hav- 
ing first taken a sin upon us ;* for, as I observed before, true faith is always 
intermingled with repentance which is evangehcal, yea, and causeth it ; and 
the more it is made sensible of its sin through its working, the more it puts 
the soul upon further exercises of faith, and to seek after the attainment of 
fresh assurance of forgiveness. This apology the apostle terms elsewhere, 
the ' answer' or speakings ' of a good conscience,' when through faith the soul 
is enabled to plead Christ's resurrection for the justification of itself, 1 Pet. 
iii, 21, which is done, whilst a penitent soul approacheth with fresh and 
louder cries the throne of grace for God's absolution and forgiveness, and 
clearing of them to their own sense, for a sin repented of and sorrowed for ; 
as we saw in David, who, though God had, by the prophet's outward message 
sent him, declared he had forgiven his sin, 2 Sam. xii. 13, yet David's soul 
must hear God himself speak that word over anew to his own soul ; and 
therefore you heard of his pleadings and apologies for mercy and pardon, 
out of Ps. li. 7. 

I shewed before, out of Kom. v. 25, that it is and must be the free grace in 
God, that only must quit and discharge us of the guilt of this sin, as well as 
from any other sins ; yea, and an ' abundant grace' it is to forgive that sin, 
as well as the many of our other ofiences, ver. 15, 16. Unto which, as to 
that other of David's, I add, as I then said, two more scriptures to confirm 
this. And it is very observable, that in so many places, take them all, where 
this srn is spoken of, God's free grace in pardoning and saving is eminently 
spoken of also, as to the forgiveness of them. 

The first is Isa. xliii. 27, ' Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers 
have transgressed against me.' There you have this disobedience of Adam 
laid to their charge to humble them, as generally, says Calvin, interpreters 
expound it, and not their forefathers, as to their birth, because he speaks of 
some one father singly and eminently, which that v/ox^ first father indigitates, 
and who was the primo prbniis, the first- first, whose sin also was so famed 
and notorious, and the cause of all sin, as Adam is the common father of all; 
but withal free grace to pardon that and all other their sins, is not far off, 
yea, had been aforehand set down in ver. 25, * I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will remember them no more :' 
a scripture which speaks mere free grace as amply and as loudly as any 
place whatever, and speaks it not under the language of that redemption from 
captivity (though including it), but of blotting out transgressions, and re- 
membering them no more, which is made the proper language of the cove- 
nant of grace unto the elect out of mankind. And so he speaks to the godly 
of that nation personally, and he instanceth in such sins, as they might other- 
wise think thej' least needed pardon for, not their own personally committed 
by themselves, but first that guilt common with them to all mankind, com- 
mitted in Adam ; and then their public guilt, in respect of the relation of 
their priests, who were the intercessors for them to God, and yet had styled 
these thy sins in ver. 25, which you are to be humbled for, as for your own, 
every one of you. And lo, says he, I am he that blots out these and all 
* See Dyke on Repent, chap. xiv. 



Chap. VIII.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 3G1 

other thy transgressions * for my own name sake,' that if, freely; and it must 
be my grace which must forgive these thy sins, as well as any other of thine 
own, and therefore look up unto me, 'I, even I, am he' that pardoneth them. 
Neither canst thou find out, saith God, or enter on any plea or apology (as 
the word is here) for pardon, but this alone of my name, which I have so 
long ago proclaimed unto thee, ' The Lord gracious,' &c. Thus in ver. 20, 
' Put me in remembrance ; let us plead together ; declare thou that thou mayest 
be justified :' justified for those guilts, whicla are thine but by imputation, as 
the first sin of thy fore-father, or national relation, as the sin of thy teachers. 

The second scripture added is Eph. ii. 1, 5, 'Ye were dead in sins and 
trespasses, and by nature children of wrath :' and they were by nature, or 
born dead, as well in respect of the guilt of their first father Adam's dis- 
obedience, being condemned in him, Kom. v. 18 as of inherent corruption. 
But what then is it he points them unto alone, whereby they had obtained, 
or were to obtain, pardon and salvation from ? Ver. 4, 5, ' God, who is 
rich in mercy, &c. when ye were dead in sins, hath quickened us together 
with Christ, by grace ye are saved.' 

And thus much for 'the first part of this discourse, the humbling ourselves 
for our guilt of the act of Adam's disobedience. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

What sorrotv and repentance we should have for the other part of onr/inal sin, 
viz., the corruption which is inherent in our natures. — We must consider it 
as the cause of the greatest and most heinous sins which we commit, and 
which give us the highest occasion of mourning. — That every act of sin is of 
so much the deeper guilt, as the corruption of our nature doth more vent itself 
in it. — That the corruption of nature doth set us farther off from. God than 
any actual sin whatever. — That this is more near and intimate to thy soul 
than all thy actual transgressions. 

I now come to the second part of the discourse, touching inherent corrup- 
tion, and what exercise of repentance, mourning, or whatever acts else we 
are to put forth about it ; which corruption is the fruit of that sinful act of 
Adam, and is inherent in our nature, which is called, Rom. vii. 20, ' the sin 
that dwelleth in us.' And this we may take for a certain rule, whatever 
acts may any way become genuine, to humble ourselves for the guilt of that 
first sin of eating the forbidden fruit, they will prove more direct and proper 
to be put forth as concerning the inherent corruption in us. For this is our 
sin, not by imputation, but by indwelling in us ; even as leprosy derived 
from the parents (no matter how they came by it) is as properly the son's 
leprosy as it is the father's. And there needs no dispute about it, whether 
a man's leprosy be by derivation from his parents, or by a man's self con- 
tracted ; however, it is his own leprosy. And accordingly, as to the convic- 
tion of this to be our own indwelling sin, we are but to look into our owti 
bowels (though we need spiritual light to discover it with unto the bottom, 
yet), there is enough of its corruption boiling up every day as doth or may 
testify this to our consciences. 

I propound for my method in this these two things, which you may call 
parts or heads of this ensuing discourse. 

I. The great sinfulness of this sin of inherent corruption dwelUng in us. 

II. The acts of repentance which we are to exercise about it. 

I. I begin with the first, the sinfuhiess of this inherent corruption. It is 



362 AN UNREGENKRATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

not of sin in general, which I have elsewhere set forth,* but the sinfulness 
that is in this inherent corruption of nature we brought into the world with 
us, and which is increased in us, and remaining to this day in every one of 
our souls. 

I shall take two courses to manifest the sinfulness of this unto you. 

First, In a comparative way. 

Secondh/, Consider it singly and 'simply in itself. 

First, The comparative way is double. 

1st, Single out the grossest actual sin thou hast been guilty of in thy life, 
take any one particular gross sin that thou thinkest lies heaviest upon thy 
conscience (as such are most apt to do), yet that corruption thou broughtest 
into the world with thee, that mass and body of sin thou hast in thy nature, 
gives thee more cause in many respects to be humbled for that than for any 
one gross sin, be it what it will. 

2dly, Compare it with all actual sins whatsoever, and take them and 
abstract them from this root of inherent corruption, and it may prove a 
question whether of the two we should be most humbled for. 

First, Single out the grossest act that ever thou committedst, or perhaps 
hast heard of to have been committed by any (the special poison of the sin 
against the Holy Ghost excepted), and that inherent corruption of thy nature 
in many respects doth exceed it. To this purpose, 

1. Consider that if it were no more than that it was the cause of that 
actual sin, this is sufficient to render it more heinous ; and the virtue whereby 
anything is produced is stronger in the cause than in the effect. Now that 
gross sin, whatever it be, was but the bud of that as the root ; and take but 
a little of a poisoned root, and extract the spirit of it, and it hath more 
poison in it than any of the branches. The notion of this I shall after- 
wards carry down to the other, the second head, of comparing it with all 
actual sin. 

2. Consider that the evil of any gross sin, or the greatest part of the sin- 
fulness of it, will be found to lie in this, according as the evil disposition 
and venom and poison of thy nature did vent itself in that action more or 
less, and fills that action, the wickeder it is. According as the tide flowing 
from that sea fills the channel more or less, so doth the sinfulness of that sin rise 
up more or less, and so it is that corruption, wherein specially the guilt lies 
in every such action. And thence it is that actions, gross and great for bulk, 
are often less sinful in the eyes of God than smaller actions, because less 
filled with the evil disposition of the heart. And this the philosophers them- 
selves acknowledged that an evil notionf done, ex pravd dispositioiie, an act 
proceeding from a rooted habitual disposition, was worse, and more to be 
punished than another, though outwardly as bad, if but done out of some 
sudden passion, as they call it. Witness that sentence of the Athenian 
judges, who condemned a boy to death but for tearing out, in a cruel manner, 
the eyes of a few crows and partridges, as being (though for the act but small) 
the evidence and indicium, of an habitual cruel nature. And God himself 
judgeth of men's ways according to the dispositions of their hearts let out in 
their ways ; for which read that speech in Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings viii. 39, 
' Render to every one according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; ' 
which, though intended principally of God's acceptation of the contrary good 
actions of holy men, yet as a general, holds of evil actions also, and much 
more, because there is a demerit in them which is not in the other. We 
see he says not simply ' according to their ways,' but as growing on this 

* Discourse of the Aggravations of Sin. [Vol. IV. of this edition of his Works . 
—Ed.] t Qu. ' action '?— Ed. 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 863 

stock, their hearts, from whence their actions sack or draw up more or less 
poison. And we find elsewhere God himself joining his testimony to this 
maxim in Solomon's prayer, and confirming it, and answering to it : Jer. 
xvii. 10, * I the Lord search the heart, to render to every man according to 
his ways.' He joins the heart and the ways together ; he compares how 
much the action savours of the must of the vessel, and doth taste of it, that 
he may know how to measure forth a portion of punishment to their out- 
ward ways and actions, according as he sees and judges how far, more or 
less, the action was steeped in the sour liquor of their original corruption. 

8. A third thing is, that the evil disposition of thy nature doth farther sever 
and set thee off from God, than simply an actual sin doth. And that is the 
me isure of more or less sinfulness, by how much the sin doth more or less 
separate from God : Isa. lix. 7, * Your sins have separated between me and 
you,' therefore the more they separate the more is the sinfulness. Now this 
corruption of nature makes a greater elongation of thee from God than an 
actual sin doth, be it the grossest. The leprosy was the type of it in the 
old law ; it was that only that separated a man from God and from the con- 
gregation all his life ; and it signified not an act of sinning so much as in- 
herent corruption, which is a disease in the soul, as that is in the body. 
You have it. Numb. v. 2, 3, and if he were a king, yet he was to be sepa- 
rated if a leper, 2 Chron. xxvi. 21. Now that inherent corruption doth 
more separate than an actual sin doth, the reason of it is, because a con- 
trariety in nature breeds always greater distance, yea, enmity, than simply 
an act of hostility, or mere outward acts of injury. You see this in the 
creatures that have contrary qualities, which we call antipathies, in their 
dispositions ; and merely out of a contrariety of nature, they are greater ene- 
mies than others that do one another actually more harm. Let a swine or 
a mastiff tear and rend us, as Christ says, yet we can endure the sight of 
them, the presence, yea, we can afterwards stroke him ; but let a serpent 
appear, where there is a contrariety in nature, or a spider appear, you see 
how mightily it works in the spirit of one that hath an antipathy to these 
(as man hath) at the first view or sight of them. Now inherent corruption 
is such a contrariety in thy nature unto God, it is a contrariety in the way 
of an antipathy. Transient acts of sinnings are indeed said to be against 
the Lord, but the inward disposition of their nature hath and is a contrariety 
in nature itself, and so is deeper and stronger ; so this flesh is said to be 
enmity to God in the abstract, Rom. viii. 7. It is contrar}' to holiness, as 
it is in God's nature : whatever God hates, it loves ; and whatever God 
loves, it hates. 

4. Consider, thou hast more cause to be humbled for the sinful dispositions 
in thy nature than any of thy actual sins, because there is a nearer union 
between sin and thy soul, in respect of this inherent corruption, than by 
thy action singly considered. An act of sin hath not so near a kindred or 
alliance to the soul as inherent corruption hath. You read in Micah vi. 7, 
that the measure of sinfulness lies in the relation it hath to the soul of a 
man : ' Wilt thou give the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul ? ' there- 
fore the more it may be said to be the soul's sin, the more sinfulness is in 
it. And further, there is this in reason for it, that the nearer union we have 
with sin, or our hearts have with it, the farther we are separated from God. 
Now, that this union is nearer, I manifest by one or two things. 

(1.) This is the relation of subject and inherent quahty. Thy soul is the 
subject, and the sin an inherent quality in thy soul. It dwells in us, as the 
apostle says ; it is not an act passant from us, that bears but the relation of 
an outward effect unto its cause. 



3G4 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

(2.) The union that is between sin in thy nature and thy soul, is such as 
between the matter and form. The soul is as the matter unto this sin as the 
form, as the body is the matter which the soul informs; for we account that 
to be the form which acts, inspires, moves, informs, and guides the matter. 
Hence this corruption is called a man's self; thou and that corruption that 
is in thee are called by one name, flesh, in Scripture : John iii. 6, ' That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh,' and all the actions of the whole man are 
attributed to it. But now the union between thee and thy action hath but 
the relation of the tree and the fruit, the parent and the child : Rom. vii. 5, 
* For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, 
did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death ;' James i. 14, 15, 
' But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and 
enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.' 

5. Consider that in a sinful action but a work of thine own is spoiled and 
marred, which thou shouldst have produced in a shape more agreeable to the 
law, the pattern for that action; but by the sinfulness that is in thy nature, 
God's workmanship is spoiled, his image defaced, a frame and principle of 
working which he produced and ' formed for his glory,' as the prophet, Isa. 
xliii. 21 ; or * created at first to good works,' as the apostle speaks, Eph. 
ii. 10. 

Again, 6, consider that particular gross sin thou hast committed is but a 
particular transient breach and transgression of some one commandment. 
Now, look on an act of cruelty and injustice, in what kind soever, suppose 
the greatest that can be perpetrated by a state, or the supreme power, and 
it is far less heinous than if there were a standing law enacted by them to 
authorise such an act. And now take the grossest sin that ever thy soul 
committed, and there is a standing law in thy nature that hath force in thy 
members to bring forth a thousand thousand such acts ; and by virtue of it 
they may be brought into act until that law be recalled, that is, thy nature 
changed. So that still suppose the grossest act that may be, if in thy nature 
there be as wicked a law to authorise it, and to bring it into execution, and 
that also a standing law, it is an invincible proof that thy nature, in respect 
of being such a law, is more wicked than any grievous act of sinning, even 
the most grievous whatsoever. And this consideration far exceeds the first ; 
for thy corruption was not only the cause of such an act, but the cause as a 
law is, which is extant still, to be the cause of ten thousand more, as occa- 
sion and temptation is. 

Yea, 7, consider that action was but one transient breach of some one 
particular command, but the corruption that is in thy nature hath not only 
a particular law to enforce that kind of particular sin again, over and over, 
but it is a contrariety to the whole law in every tittle of it. And look how 
many laws God hath in his word, so many contrary laws sin hath in thy 
heart. Rom. vii. 22, 23 compared — ' I delight in the law of God after the 
inward man : but I see another law in my members warring against the law 
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my 
members' — doth confirm both of these two last assertions. There in thy 
heart the devil's commandments are written, contrary to God's written in 
the two tables, explained by Moses and the prophets. Now, the Holy Spirit 
by David hath said, Ps. cxix. 96, * I have seen an end of all perfection, but 
thy law is exceeding broad ;' as much as to say, the particulars thereof are 
infinite, there is no end of it, as the same David speaks of God's know- 
ledge. If therefore thou hast as many laws of sin in thee as there be laws 
of God, how above measure must thy nature be sinful! 



CUAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 3G5 

Again, 8, consider that that gross sin was committed haply but by some 
one member, used as a weapon and instrument of unrighteousness; but this 
sin of thy nature is spread through all, and thereby all parts and members 
are made weapons ready formed, fashioned, and sealed to be employed in 
the service of sin. This, as concerning acts of sin, you have in Rom. vi., 
the other in multitudes of scriptures ; as when this sin is styled ' the man,' 
' the old man,' a whole entire man, ' a body of sin,' ' from the crown of the 
head to the sole of the feet,' the sin that ' encompasseth us round,' Heb. 
xii. 9. And if one member, the tongue, be arraigned to be the seat of ' a 
world of iniquity,' what is the whole and every member and faculty of soul 
and body? And thus much for the first branch of this comparative way, 
viz. comparing the sinfulness of corrupt nature with any one particular act 
of ginning, the grossest. 



CHAPTER IX. 

That there is more guilt in the sin of our nature, than in all our actual 
transgressions put together. 

I now come to the second head, the comparing of our inward corruption 
with all our actual sins put together. Truly some have affirmed it in their 
writings. Dr Sibbes, in that which he hath printed himself,* that it is worse 
than all our actual sins. So, then, at least it may prove a question, whether 
of the two hath the greater sinfulness ; and so which of the two (take actual 
sins abstractly considered from this root) thy soul ought to be humbled for 
most. And I alone have not started this query unto the discussion, though 
I confess I had, long before I saw that of his, enlarged upon this head in ser- 
mons upon original sin. 

I shall proceed in this point : 

I. By way of explication or stating of it. 

II. By the demonstration of it. 

I. For explication. When I say the question is. For whether of these two 
as apart considered we should be humbled most, or whether has the greater 
sinfulness ? 

1. I grant we must allow a far greater enlargement unto the confessing of 
actual sins, and a far larger humiliation for actual sins ; we must insist on 
them more, which the apostle's pattern instructs us to, by viewing the first 
and third of the Romans. In the first he speaks of actual sins, and spends 
a whole chapter thereupon, and that as in the Gentiles, as in the second 
chapter he insists upon the sin of the Jews ; and in the third speaks of this 
corruption, and there he narrows his discourse about it, he doth that briefly. 
And the reason why we should do so is plain : actual sin is original sin, 
drawn out in words at length (as I may so say) ; but original sin by itself is 
our sins but in figures, yea, but as in semine, though it summarily contains 
all. Our humiliation therefore should extensively be super- exceedingly more 
for actual sins, but intensively our souls should be as deeply humbled and 
stricken for this of our natures as for those others. 

2. Our humiliation and confession of the sin of our natures, should be 
commixed with that other of actual sins. Original sin should be either laid 
first for a foundation, or actually carried along with us in the confession of 
actual; or at least virtually supposed, though not always expressed, as that 

* Soul's Conflict, V. 2, 6. "We shoiild look upon it worse than any, nay, than all, 
the impure issues of our lives together. 



366 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

which is conjunct with every one of our sins ; it is to be, as it is, the burden 
of every sin. 

3. Every actual sin, to be sure, in a man unre^enerate, increaseth the 
corruption of nature (there is, or may, perhaps, a question be raised, whether 
in a man regenerate or no, because grace is an ' incorruptible seed,' and 
therefore habitual sin is not in the totality of it augmented in such an one 
by an act of sin, the seed of God keeping an habitual possession of what 
room in the soul it hath gained, though the operation is obstructed and 
weakened for the present) ; but in an unregenerate man, every actual sin in- 
creaseth a farther corruption of nature unto some degree. It is a root, and 
roots grow under ground, as much as the branches do in bulk above ground ; 
and corruption in the heart increases, as actual sins increase ; Kom. vi. 13, 
19, ' Yield not your members servants of iniquity, unto iniquity ;' but on 
the contrary, ' have jouv fruit unto holiness.' The fruit of doing things 
holily, is to be made more holy ; and the fruit of doing a gross act of sin 
(of which he there speaks, or of such that have dominion), is to be made more 
sinful, and to enlarge corruption unto a greater degree of it. Hence a wicked 
man's sinfulness, and corruption of nature, is improved to a wonderful in- 
crease, in comparison of what it was simply by nature. When, therefore, I 
in this comparative set it with all actual sins, there must a few abatements 
or considerations be made. 

The first, that I do not restrain it purely and only to what corruption of 
nature you had at first, but withal as it is increased, and so complexly cor- 
ruption of nature as it now is grown up in us ; for the indwelling sin, in 
Paul's sense, is the whole stock of it, new or old. 

The second is, that we take corruption of nature, as distinct from actual 
sin, to consider that apart with all its cursed augmentation. Original sin 
is the first stock, the old stock ; but all the increase put to that first stock 
makes up the present whole stock, as merchants speak in companies. 

Yet, thirdly, so as though the first stock be less in degree, yet still in kind 
it is one and the same. 

Fourthly, It must be allowed, or considered also, in a man truly regene- 
rate, that the power and dominion of both original sin at first, as also of 
what has been added, is abated unto what it was whilst a man was unre- 
generate. Now it is the whole of thy wickedness, first and last, that is 
found dwelling in thee, and that for which I now exhort you to be humbled. 
4. There are many respects wherein actual sin hath the greater guilt, as 
being the fruit and product of our wills, which original sin is not, and there- 
fore the Scripture insists more upon them. Yet this I must say, that this 
of corruption of nature hath its respects also wherein it exceeds, and we 
are to give due weight unto everything in either. But this I shall after speak 
unto in answering objections. 

II. I come next to the demonstration of it, which consists in this, that 
take that inherent indwelling corruption, both original at first, and the incrense 
of it (and unto the first original stock, all the increase is to be attributed and 
put upon the account thereof). Take that, I say, apart from all actual sins, 
and there are many respects that do aggravate the fulness of it above that of 
actual sins. As, 

1. Original and indwelling sin is the universal cause of all sin, of every 
one as well as any, and in that respect hath more sinfulness in it than all 
the acts of sin. put together. I say, in that respect it is a cause, and an 
universal cause. This is a true rule, the virtue of things is stronger in their 
causes than effects. A little of a venomous root, if boiled, is found to have 
more poison in it, and to infuse more thereof into the liquor, than many 



Chap. IX.j in respect of sin and punishment. 3G7 

bunches, or fruits, or leaves of that root. But when a thing is an universal 
cause, this rule holds much more. The sun, you know, is an universal 
cause of warmth, and life of plants, and cheering the earth, &c. ; it hath the 
virtue of all plants in it, and much more. And why ? Because it is an 
universal cause. You have heard of other similitudes, perhaps, to express 
this thing by. 

As, first, this hath been one similitude, that the fountain hath more of 
water in it (take it as it runs, first and last, and all the water that feeds it 
and maintains it) than the streams. I add this scripture : ' Jer. vi. 7, ' As 
a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness.' Yet 
you see in a fountain but a little water bubbling up, when the fountain hath 
all the water in the sea to maintain it and its streams ; and so hath more 
water as in the cause than all the streams. 

If that be not enough, take the similitude of the sea itself ; that to be sure 
hath more water in it than all the rivers that come from it at first. Now 
look, Isa. Ivii. 20, ' The wicked are like the troubled sea ;' they have a sea 
of wickedness in them, which doth continually cast up mire and dirt of actual 
sinnings. The sea is the universal cause of all waters that are above ground, 
or under the earth, or of the vapours that fall from the heavens above. In 
like manner it hath been said, there is more of fire in fire itself, than in 
sparks. Now I will but give a scripture for that too : Hosea vii. 6, 7, * They 
have made ready their heart Hke an oven : their baker sleepeth all the night ; 
in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.' He compares them unto a 
fiery oven, in respect of their inward lusts (not only in respect of that burn- 
ing lust of adultery, but of other lusts also, as when the tongue is said to be 
on fire of hell, James iii. 6), and so the heart is as an oven set on fire with 
hellish fire that first came from hell. And there is a thousand times more 
fire in the oven than in the sparks that fly out of it. 

Now then, that inherent corruption in thy nature is the universal cause of 
all sin, I will give you some scriptures for that. Mark vii. 20, 21, I think 
an express place for it ; others pitch on that in Matthew, I on that in Mark : 
* He said (namely Christ), That which cometh out of the man defiles the 
man ; for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adul- 
teries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivi- 
ousness, an evil eye (that is, an envious eye), blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 
All these evil things come from v^dthin, and defile the man.' 

Wherein observe, 1. The heart within, out of which all proceeds, is 
evidently corruption of nature within, inherent there ; and the reason is 
plain, for he speaks of that principle within, out of which the very first-born 
of actual sins do arise ; for he speaks expressly of evil thoughts, which are 
the first-born, and it must be the inherent habitual corruption from whence 
they come. These are the mohts privio primi, the very first motions, as we 
call them. Therefore corruption of nature is meant by the heart within as 
the cause of them ; and under this general of evil thoughts, the most inward 
purposes, ends, and counsels are comprehended. 

2. You may observe it is spoken of all sin, and not only of evil thoughts, 
or inward sins, the smallest ; but his instances shew that all sins, outward 
acts which are the greatest, as adulteries, fornications, murders, blasphemies, 
&c. Now if all evil thoughts and gross sins do arise from that heart within, 
then that is the cause of all. Christ's instances hold clearly forth that 
division which takes in all, even the all of evils that defile the man. 

The second scripture is Rom. vii. 13, * Was then that which is good 
made death unto me ? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, 
working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment 



368 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

miglit become exceeding sinful.' He styles it aiiaDTuXhc aixaoTia, sinful sin ; it 
is a good interpretation given here by some to call it sinning sin, as an epithet 
given it, and you cannot call it by a worse name than its own, idem picedicatur 
de seipso. But further, I judge it hath a more special respect to its being the 
cause of sins, or as it is a working or worker of sin ; and that he speaks it of 
original sin and inherent corruption, plainly and eminently, as it is distinct 
from acts of sinning, which he there arraigns as the cause'of all sin, appears, 

(1.) That it is called the working sin, the pragmatical operative sin ; so 
in the words before, ver. 8, * Sin wrought in me all concupiscence,' and so 
is made contradistinct unto sins wrought, which are actual sins (and sins of 
concupiscence are the inward sins, and the first-born of original corruption, 
James i. 15) ; and he plainly says it was the cause of all that concupiscence ; 
and he doth not mention outward acts, for as in respect of them he had been 
according to the law, or outward acts of it, blameless, and yet all the outward 
acts which concupiscence brings forth, this sinning sin is the cause of ; of 
which afterwards. 

And then (2.) afterwards, ver. 20, he manifestly (as interpreting what this 
sinful sin was), putting all sin upon the indwelling sin in our nature : 'It 
is not I, but sin that dwelleth in me.' His inward man, with the inherent 
grace that was in it, could say, It is not I, but sin ; the contrary sin that 
dwells in me. 

And this was it that was the great humiliation to our apostle at his 
conversion. This sinning sin, above all else, humbled him. This was it 
was in his eye, xa^' 'jTrsptoXriv, above measure sinful ; and this, because it 
was the cause of all sin. 

This is argued also from the comparisons the Scripture sets forth in. 
It is compared both to a root and to a mother ; and what improvement 
we may make of that to humble us we shall see by and by. 

First, It is compared to a root. There is no fruit, no, not on the top 
branch, never so far oif the root, but it partakes of the root ; and the 
root is the cause of all that fruit that grows upon the tree, as well as the 
branches that brings them forth. This nature and experience shews there 
is no fruit but doth grow from its proper root; and it holds true in all 
fruit, both good and bad : they all have their root in their kind, without 
which nothing can be brought forth. Our Saviour Christ, having com- 
pared himself to a root, and then to branches, John xv. 1, 2, says upon it, 
' Without me ye can do nothing,' ver. 5 ; and Hosea xiv. 8, ' From me is 
thy fruit found.' And thus may original sin say of our hearts, and of all 
our sinful fruits, Without me you bring forth nothing. And that the Scrip- 
ture compares this inherent sin to a root, look Gal. v. 19, ' The works of 
the flesh are manifest, which are these,' &c. Flesh, you know, is inherent 
corruption, which fights against the spirit, and adultery, fornication, un- 
cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, &c., these are the fruits there specified; 
but the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, &c. These are two roots 
(says he) contrary in their nature one to the other ; and this the metaphor 
of fruit on the one part shews : ' The fruits of the spirit are,' &c. As all 
gracious acts are fruits of the spirit of regeneration in us, so, on the contrary, 
all the villanies in the world are fruits of the flesh, as the root. I might 
shew the same from Heb. xii. 15, ' Looking diligently lest any man fail of 
the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and 
thereby may be defiled.' That root of bitterness is an unregenerate person, 
in whose heart corrupt nature or inherent corruption remains in its full 
strength and vigour unmortified, and bringeth forth gall and wormwood, as 
the phrase in Deut. xxix. 18 ^whence this speech is taken by the apostle) ; 



Chap. X.] in respect op sin and punishment. 869 

and both being compared with that other apostle's expression, confirms it, 
whereby he sets forth Simon Magus his remaining still in the power and 
state of original corruption : Acts viii. 23, * I perceive,' says Peter to him, 
* that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity ; ' that is, 
thou continuest in thy native corruption, and in the bond of iniquity, which 
hath thee under servitude and dominion ; which is that which brings forth 
the gall and wormwood that is in all men's lives, and is the root of it ; as 
before. 

CHAPTER X. 

We are to he humbled for this sin, as the original of all our sins, as that which 
tempts us and draws us to sin, more than the devil doth. — [t produceth such 
sins in us, unto which the enticements of sense and Satan s temjUations could 
not extend any influence. — Tins sin of our nature is always fruitful, to bring 
forth evil incessantly. — To humble ourselves for it, ice are to consider that our 
evil nature might have produced more evil than it hath done, and that it hath 
that sinfulness in it, which will be productive of all our sins to come. 

Let us now improve the consideration hereof, to humble ourselves as to 
this sin. If but one lust, or but one branch of original corruption, when it 
becomes a root of evil, is so cried out upon by the apostle, — 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, 
' The love of money is the root of all evil ; which while some coveted after, 
they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many 
sorrows ;' — if he brands one lust with this, as the height of its aggravation, that 
it is the root of all evil ; as the apostle James in like manner doth strife and 
contention, — ' Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil 
work,' — then have you not cause to be humbled for that root, which is an 
universal root of all sins whatsoever, of any kind thou didst ever commit ? 
It may be said of this universal corruption, as to all other sins whatsoever, 
that they bear not the root, but the root them, Rom. xi. 18. 

Secondly, It is compared to a womb, and mother of all (and we shall see 
how that may be improved to our humiliation also). The place is James 
i. 14, 15 : ' Every man is tempted,' says he, ' when he is drawn away of his 
own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 
sin ; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.' To open this now, 
is my pm'pose in hand. 

1. By lust here, that conceiveth and bringeth forth, inherent corruption 
and original sin is meant, because it is that which is the conceiver. Con- 
ception, you know, is the first production of a living creature into being. 
Now the very fu'st conceptions of sin, that are productive of outward acts, 
are attributed to this sin of lust ; and the first drawings on, or enticing 
motions and suggestions (which are the first acts of our actual sin), are all 
attributed to this lust, so as that which is the conceiver is not actual sin, but 
inherent sin, that sin in the womb, whereof all other sins are conceived. 
And that it is compared to a mother, that is clear ; for he speaks both of con- 
ception, and of bringing forth. Temptation, and occasion, and the devil, and 
wicked companions, may be as the midwife to help to bring forth, but this 
is the mother. 

Then again, in the second place, it is the immediate mother of every such 
sin ; neither is it the mother only by descent, as in a succession afar off, as 
Eve is the mother of all living, as gi-eat great grandmothers are of children 
that never lay in their own wombs, only they beget these that bring forth 
others ; but this is the immediate womb itself in which all lay. Stapleton 

VOL. X. A a 



370 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

objects, that it is not the cause of all sin, because one sin is punished 
with another ; yet so as still this is the immediate cause of both, the sin by 
which and for which we are so punished ; and this is that which inclines us 
as well to the sin the punishment, as it did unto the sin which is the meri- 
torious cause of that punishment ; only God is pleased to give up or let forth 
that inherent inclination, actually to bring forth that whereby another sin is 
punished in way of a curse, and which else he would not have given the heart 
unto. Only in letting out corrupt nature, God observeth a method, and lets 
out one lust after another, as the curse of a former, yet so as inherent cor- 
ruption is the cause of both the one and the other. 

3. It is the principal cause or tempter. Although there be other causes 
of our sinnings also, yet this is the chief; and therefore that alone is men- 
tioned, so as though the world tempts, and the devil tempts, yet they tempt 
but as tempters that are without us, and propound but the objects. But 
this is a pondiis natura;, it is the poise and swing of nature ; and all things 
move as from a natural weight or poise weight within them. In Heb. xii. 1, 
he speaks of this sin in saying, ' Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin 
which doth so easily beset us.' Amor mens pondi(s meum, says Austin, what 
my love is, that is my weight that sways me. Stones move downward, air 
upward, as their poise is. 

The demonstration of this its causation of sinning may be amplified by 
these farther particulars, whereby we may discern that no sin is to be ex- 
empted from its efficiency. 

1. That many times it begins to be the mother of sins, and draws us away 
ere ever the devil or the world do tempt us, or the actual knowledge of the 
law provokes us to it (of whose provocation of corrupt nature to sin you 
read, Horn, vii.), as it is seen in infants, who begin to sin before the devil or 
world can tempt them, in envy, frowardness, &c, ; they go astray from the 
womb, being drawn aside only by the natural pondus of their own corruption : 
Gen. vi. 5, ' God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart 
was only evil continually from his youth up.' In which place original sin 
is compared to a mould, which casts and shapes within itself all and the very 
/igmenta or conceptions of the heart, into such or such a sinful fashion ; and 
it is from their youth, yea, infancy. Children bring forth sin before they 
bring forth teeth or hair, and then when they are incapable of Satan's sug- 
gestions, or of outward temptations from the world. 

2. In that it is the cause of such sins, as neither the world nor devil can 
reach to tempt us to, no, not after we are grown up to reason. My brethren, 
you that are spiritual Christians find such sins and contrarieties in you unto 
what is good, such secret reluctancies, damps, heartlessness unto what is 
holy, as arise from the mere enmity, deadness that is in your natures unto 
what is good : ' I find a law,' an inward disposition, ' that when I would do 
good, evil is present with me.' You find mere spiritual oppositions present, 
that oppose spiritual motions and inclinations to good, from their first rising, 
and are up in their warrings against you as soon as the good motions are. 
These last rise as do the other ; they are purely pure spiritual motions, as 
ingenuities unto God, strains of love towards him ; these rise, and the con- 
trary motions to check and resist them are up in arms as soon. And as 
the heart grows more spiritual, so corrupt nature will be sending forth its 
contrarieties against the holiest actings of grace in the heart towards God, 
and not damping them only, but contradicting them, and as a weight pulling 
them down to the earth when they offer to arise, and, besides, will be mixing 
self-interest with the good. Now these contrarieties are neither from Satan 
nor from the world ; the devil hath not power to know such, because they 



C;iAP. X.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 871 

secretly and closely work, and are transacted in the spirit of the mind ; and 
beside, the devil could not be so quick in contrary suggestions, for these 
oppositions rise in the same instant with the good ; the law of the flesh is 
still contrary to the law of the mind, and sends out its acts and dictates even 
as soon as the other. This Paul was sensible of in Horn. vii. 21 : ' When I 
would do good, evil,' saj's he, ' is present with me.' He complains there of 
the corruptions of his heart. And not in these cases only, but take all or 
any kind of sin whatever, and it is a mother that could conceive alone of 
itself, within itself. The mother earth (as we call it) must have seed cast 
into it for many kinds of fruit : all animal creatures have their male and 
female that must concur to their procreation ; but actual sin needs not to 
have a male to be a father. This female womb is sufficient to bring forth all 
conception, though now, when fallen, there was no devil to tempt ; it is 
seed, and womb, and prolific virtue, and all. At first, indeed. Eve had not 
fallen if the devil had not tempted her ; nor could Adam have eaten the for- 
bidden fruit, but that both the devil indiscernibly and Eve both did tempt 
him. But now we should easily fall into sin though the devil were absent ; 
although he also is by God's curse let loose upon us as the tempter, and is 
in many respects termed the father of lies ; hut this mother could and would 
conceive without a father. Nay, 

3. It is so pregnant of wickedness that even the good and holy law made 
known to it provokes it to conceive the sin that is contrary to it, and there- 
fore the law is compared to an husband : Rom. vii. 5, ' The motions,' or 
passions, ' of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring 
forth fruit unto death.' But in so doing the law is but a mere occasional 
cause-mover unto sin, as it is in the following eighth verse of that chapter : 
this inherent ' sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all 
concupiscence.' It was this sin was the sole worker directly, the command- 
ment but indirectly ; that when the commandment, by the light and motion 
of it, would still beget good upon the heart, this sinful wicked womb, enraged 
thereby, doth, uteiino furore, bring forth the clean contrary. 

4. It is a womb that is never barren. By a continual ploughing and sow- 
ing of the earth, jou may get the heart of it out, and then it must lie fallow 
a while before it will bi'ing forth again. Other mothers of animal creatures 
bring forth children to such or such an age, but then cease childing, yea, 
and live a long while after and have no children ; they have when old done 
teeming. But this, the longer it lives and continues, and the more sin it 
brings forth, the more it may,, unless the Lord takes away the dominion of 
it by grace : Job xiv. 7, 8, says he, ' There is hope of a tree, if it be cut 
down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not 
cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof 
die in the ground ; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth 
boughs like a plant.' I know he applies this similitude otherwise, but I 
apply it to this, take sin when it is old, it will bring forth ; if a scent of water 
come near it, if temptation come, it presently sprouts again. 

5. Some females and mothers go long with their brood before they bring 
forth, and carry it long in their womb to ripen it ere it comes to the birth, 
as a woman goes nine months, an elephant three years ; and the stronger 
the creatures are the longer they go, and the weaker they are the sooner they 
bring forth, as mice, &c. But this sin brings forth presently ; Hosea vii. 6, 
' They have made ready their heart like an oven, &c., their baker sleepeth 
all the night, in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.' You go quietly 
to bed, and in all appearance free of such or such a lust and sinful disposi- 
tion stirring ; but you wake in the morning with some base lust or other 



B72 AN TJNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD., [BoOK IX. 

that hath overgrown the heart in the night. Like Jonah's gourd, it grows 
up in a night, nay, in a moment, upon occasion of temptation. 

6. This womb brings forth continually. It was the excellency of the tree 
of life of the new Jerusalem, Bev. xxii., that it brings forth fruit every month ; 
but this is a conceiving and hatching of evil every moment, and never hath 
any interruption of conceiving one sin or another : Gen. vi. 5, ' God saw that 
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that everj' imagination of 
the thoughts of the heart was evil continually.' It cannot cease from sin. 
How oft is this spoken of wicked men in the Scriptures ! 

And shall not these things deeply humble us for this sinning sin that is 
such a mother, and the mother of all sin, and which hath a far nearer and 
more intimate causation, and deeper hand in all sinniugs than the devil has ? 
that is, as to us, and as in us sin is \vrought. It is true, the devil hath the 
denomination of being that evil one, xar' sfop^r/i', and the tempter, and the 
father of lies, John viii. 44, and so of all other sins ; and all sins of ours are 
by descent from him. And in 1 John iii. 8, all sins are called his works, 
' He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the be- 
ginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might 
destroy the works of the devil.' The devil is thus called the first father of 
sin, both because he was the first that brought up that cur-sed invention of 
sinning, the firtt founder and original of sin ; and in that respectcalled the father 
of gin, as the first inventors of music and working in brass are termed the 
fathers of them that do follow them in those trades. Gen. iv. 20, 21. As 
also, further, for that influence and hand he hath upon us, in causing us to 
sin by continual tempting of us. And it is true that the guilt which redounds 
on him personally is far deeper for his tempting us, than what falls to our 
share, who are the tempted, for acting what he tempts us to. But the sin 
of 'him therein is proper to himself, and he shall answer for it all at the last 
day ; when the angels shall be judged, he must bear the load of it. And it 
is moreover true that there is a guilt lies on us, both on the father's side 
and on the mother's side, and we are to humble ourselves for both ; on the 
Other's side for our entertaining his temptations, and thereby espousing his 
interest (as sin is his more than ours), and thereby making ourselves chil- 
dren of the devil, as Christ speaks; and again, John viii. 44, 'You are of 
your father the devil, and his lusts you will do,' though we httle discern it, 
and mind it not. 

But yet there is this difference between what guilt descends upon us on 
the mother's side from what on the father's. That this mother is the inward, 
immediate, natural cause of all sia in us ; Satan is to us but the outward 
cause and mediate, and cannot tempt us, and persuade our wills but by and 
from the native corruption that is indwelling ; and the descent of sin from 
him to us is accordingly but outward, not as from a natural father; his father- 
hood is but political, and by a metonymy, and we, as it were, but his adopted 
children only, not natural. Yea, that guilt of our yielding unto him in his 
temptations must be laid upon that very indwelling sin that is in us. That 
mother inwardly falls in love, and closeth with the outward temptation of 
this cursed father, so as the great blame of all will lie upon this mother, 
without whose being allured and enticed this father would not allure or per- 
suade us. It is the mother, the mother, our corrupt wills that betray us, 
and yield us to this father ; and therefore Christ lays the blame on us and our 
lusts, that we are of our father the devil. And the apostle devolves our 
guilt in being tempted upon our own lusts : * "When ye are tempted, ye are 
tempted of your own lust,' James i. 14 ; that is the tempter far greater than 
the devil. This sin of your mother is naturally yours, and all the cursed 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 873 

children she brings forth in you are her natural children, and she is your 
very nature and intrinsic constitution. And when you sin by her tempta- 
tions, you may be said to sin of your own, as well as the devil doth of his 
own malicious propension, as Christ speaks of him. It is in and by the 
womb of this mother that sin is conceived within you ; in that womb it is 
fostei-ed, and by the strength of it it is brought forth ; and the sinfulness 
therefore hereof is properly yours, in that the mother of it is in you, even as 
the devil's guilt in your sins is properly his. Oh, therefore, above all humble 
yourselves for this, that you carry such a mother or womb of sin within 
yourselves. You read of Rome (whose guilt is next the devil's), what a 
heavy punishment in Rev. xviii. lies threatened against her when she is to 
be destroyed : ver. 5, ' Her sins have reached up to heaven, and God hath 
remembered her iniquities : reward her double according to her works.' 
And what is the reason of all this ? What is it puts God upon this ? Look 
chap. xvii. 5, you see the title of her accusation to be ' Babylon the great, 
the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.' The mother of all : 
they came from her by genealogy and descent, and are maintained by her to 
this day. All nations were made drunk with her cup, and in her are found 
the souls of men, as there : and chap, xviii. 2-1, ' In her was found the blood 
of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.' 
And for this her being the mother of all, the mother of abominations, you 
see what a doom she is adjudged unto. If we should remain in our natural 
condition, and be found therein, then shall a bill and indictment of all the 
actual sins be read. Yea, but where is the mother of them all ? and what 
sin will God judge and reward most ? Even your original indwelling sin. 
This, this is the mother of abominations, the great beldame, the great witch 
and whore, in whom will be found all the sins that ever thou hast done. 

And that you may enlarge, and make the meditation hereof more pungent 
and impressive by another parallel contemplation, though utterly contrary, 
look, as Christ at the latter day, when he comes to judge, what will be his 
glory then ? Even this, he shall present himself, and all saints about him, 
and say to his Father, ' Lo, here am I, and the children which thou hast 
given me.' And then again, ' All their fruit is found in me,' and all their 
graces, and all their righteousness. So, if thou be found unregenerate, then 
to thy everlasting confusion shall all thy sins be set in order before God and 
thine own conscience, as inPs. 1. 20, and this great beldame shall be brought 
forth with all her brood. Lo, here are all the children which this great 
mother and my cm'sed will have brought forth together, and they will judge 
this great whore as she stands in relation to her children ; and it shall be 
said, Cursed be the womb that bare you, and the paps that gave you suck ; 
and because God will pass this judgment as concerning us then, let us there- 
fore, accordingly, judge ourselves in this manner beforehand, that we be not 
condemned with the world ! 

There be other weighty considerations might be added and enlarged upon 
to exaggerate the sinfulness of this sin, in the like way of comparison as 
hitherto hath been used. 

As, first, that thou art not only to make the comparison with all thy sins 
actually past and done hitherto, and to make that the sole measure of thy 
humiliation for the iniquity of it, but further, both from what actual sins this 
thy corrupt nature might have brought forth, but hath not, as also from what 
itself (if left to itself) may and would bring forth for the future. This hath 
two branches, 

1. What it might have brought forth, but hath not. 

2. What it may, and would of itself, for the future. 



374 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

These, althougli they admit distinct considerations, yet they have this com- 
mon to both, that God measures not the sinfulness of this sin only by the 
acts it hath produced, but by the potentiality of it, or the power it hath to 
produce, if left to itself. Will you take but an instance from God ? We 
don't measure God's power by what he hath done, or will do, but by all he 
can do; we consider entia possibilia, things possible to be done by him; w'e 
say, though God doth not will, or do all things, yet he is omnipotent, and 
accordingly do adore him for it. And here divines rightly say that there is 
scientia simpUcis intelUgentiai in God, a knowledge whereby he views thou- 
sands and thousands of millions of worlds and creatures he never did nor 
will bring forth ; and that there is scientia visionis, a foreknowledge of what 
he pui'poses to do ; ' Known to God are all his works from the beginning,' 
Acts XV. 18. Thus also there are a world of sins thy heart did never bring 
forth, which yet it might and would have done if left to itself. In this sin 
they are as in the seed ; and God knowing this, reckons accordingly, as the 
instance of the men of Keilah shews, 1 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12, where God, upon 
David's inquiry, telleth him what the men of Keilah would have done, even 
delivered him into Saul's hands, though they never did. 

This premised, I come to the two branches mentioned. 

1. Thou art to measure the iniquity of this sin by what thou mightest 
have committed, if thou hadst been left to the swing of thy sinful nature and 
inclinations. And for a right estimate of this, cast thine eye upon all the 
sorts and kinds of sins committed in the world by any other of the sons of 
men, and not only upon what thyself hath hitherto acted. In Rom. i. you 
have a black catalogue of sins, which read over, it is but a comment on this 
text, the sin in thine own heart. And why? All sin in the world is through 
lust: 2 Pet. i. 4, 'Having escaped the corruptions which are in the world 
through lust.' All the corruptions in the world are through this original and 
inherent lust, and thou hast the same that are in the hearts of any in the 
world, and therefore wouldst perpetrate the same. There went but a pair of 
shears between thy nature and others; thy heart is made of the same stuff: 
it wrought all concupiscence in Paul ; indeed not outward acts, for in those 
respects he professeth a blamelessness ; but by the same reason it brought 
forth concupiscence towards any acting, it would have brought forth the out- 
ward act itself in him. It is a great thing to be considered that the stoics 
should discern this, and that Seneca* should thus utter it, Omnia in omnibus 
insunt vitia, all vices are in all ; Sed omnia in omnibus non extant, but all are 
not extant in all ; Et cupidi omnes, et maligni omnes, et ambitiosi omnes, et 
vitiosi, we are all covetous, ambitious, malicious, vicious, &c. 

Again, consider, that though thou canst act but one sin at once, sensu 
diviso, yet in the nature of this corruption there is an aptness to act a multi- 
tude of sins sensu composito ; nay, contrary sins would thy heart, thy root, 
carry thee to, and any other sin as well as what thou didst commit. Consider, 
moreover, what it hath been that kept thee, and that it is from God's re- 
straining of thee that thou hast not committed infinitely greater and more 
grievous sins : as the case of Abimelech shews. Gen, xx. 7, 9, and the last 
verses compared. God acknowledgeth a kind of integrity, in that he did 
not know Sarah was another man's wife ; yet adds, ' For I kept thee,' or 
' restrained thee,' and in that God punished him for what he had done, ver. 
18, it argues that God's meaning was, Had I not restrained thee, thou 
wouldst have done it, although thou hadst known her to have been another 
man's wife. Besides, take any act of sin that ever thou didst commit, yet 
still there is more evil in that sin in thy nature, than ever thou didst draw 
* Lib. iv. de Benef., page 320. 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 875 

forth into act : ' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,' Mat. 
xii. 34. There is more in the heart than the mouth utters : also, ver. 35, 
it is styled ' the treasure of the heart.' Now, there is far more treasure in 
the warehouse than is vended in the shop ; and so no man ever pours forth 
all his sin. 

2. The second branch respects sins for time to come. Thou art at pre- 
sent to humble thyself for this sin, as which hath that sinfulness in it, as 
will be the productive concurrent cause, with thine own will, of all the sins 
thou shalt yet commit ; yea, and take this sin, in the prepense inclinations 
of it, to be such as would produce far greater and more grievous sins than 
as yet thou hast committed. 

My brethren, there is to be this difference between our humiliation for 
actual sins, barely considered as such, and for this indwelling sin as it relates 
to our actual, that we are not obliged to humble ourselves for any supposed 
actual sins, considered abstractly as actual, until they have been actually 
committed by us ; and so in that respect a man is only to view what sins 
are already past ; for as simply considered actual, they are not in themselves 
actually hitherto existent, and so are as if they were not. Nor do I know 
but God may out of restraining grace keep me from committing such or such 
sins ; but that is God's doing and merciful prevention, and not mine. But 
the case will prove otherwise, if I will look upon this root sin within me, as 
it stands in my heart, in a readiness to commit any sin in this respect. I 
may say of it, that an infinity of sins to come are potentially existent in it 
as in the root ; as we say of flowers in winter time, that although there be 
not a rosebud growing on the rose tree, yet we say that in the root there 
are many rosebuds that will come into existence in summer. And thus, as 
God in his heart, through the infinite foreknowledge which is therein, sees 
thoughts afar off, and so views what that root will produce, thus we may 
see, in the principles of our own sinful hearts, though not what individual 
sins they shall be which our wills will commit, yet that an infinity of sins 
will one way or another sprout forth from out of our hearts, if not cut off by 
death, or otherwise restrained and prevented. And as they are there at 
present, as in their root, so we are to humble ourselves at present for the 
sinfulness of that root, as that which will bear them and bring them forth. 
I say, at present we are to do thus, for it is that indwelling corruption at 
present remaining in thee, which will be the cause of them ; and therefore 
humble thyself at present in the forethought of this. And God that sees our 
thoughts afar ofi", and things to come as if they were, he says of thee at pre- 
sent, The root of all these is there in thee at the present, and he loathes thee 
for it ; and therefore do thou at present humble thyself before that God who 
thus sees and judges. And like as we adore God's power, not only for what 
creatures he hath actually produced, or works of providence we see he hath 
brought forth, but for his power that can bring into being infinite worlds 
which he never means to make ; and we measure and esteem him omnipo- 
tent, in respect unto those that possibly he could produce, as well as for 
what actually he hath made or doth make ; in like manner are we to humble 
ourselves, not only for the potentiality of this sin in sinning, in respect unto 
what sins we have already acted, but what we shall, yea, even for new worlds 
of sinnings our nature would put forth and exert. Nor art thou to measure 
the sinfulness hereof by what in probability, according to the course hitherto 
held, thou art likely or art subject to commit, but by sins thou didst never 
BO much as dream of, or imagine thou wouldst commit. It would be a de- 
ceiving rule to go by, if thou judge of this only by what hitherto this sin 
hath brought forth. No; this womb breeds monsters, and extraordinary 



376 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK IX. 

births of sinnings, which thou thoughtest impossible to have been in thy 
nature to produce. Did Hazael think his nature would turn so barbarous, 
so cruel as it did ? ' Am I a dog to do this,' said he unto the prophet, so 
inhuman ? Little thought Peter, that that heart of his, so resolved to stand 
by Christ, as he judged it to be, when he said, ' If all forsake thee, I will 
not;' he could not have imagined that ever it would have been so profanely 
vile and unchristian as to deny his endeared Lord and Saviour thrice, and 
at one of those times with such horrid oaths and execrations, whilst his 
Lord was in the room, and present, and overheard him, as he was man. 
Did David ever think he should perpetrate adultery, and add murder 
thereunto ; that that heart that was once in such an holy frame, and so 
magnified God for his covenant and promise made, 2 Sam. vii., should hatch 
and contrive within itself such abominations ? 

I might here yet further add, that thou art not to judge of the potentiality 
of this sin, and what for the future it might produce, by what thou wouldst 
or mightst in this life only commit, but by what unto eternitj^ thou wouldst 
commit, if we could suppose thy life extended thereunto. This womb would 
never cease teeming, but gi'ow still more and more wicked unto everlasting 
ages without end. 

If all these be not perspectives clear enough to discover to thee this ex- 
panse or extensive sinfulness of this sin in the propense inclinations of it, as 
either by what thine own individual sins have been, or in the several sorts 
or species and kinds of sins that have been found in their varieties in the 
hearts and lives of mankind from the beginning of the world to this day, 
then go down to hell and compare thine own nature with what is the genius 
of the devils themselves. Thy nature is but the image of theirs in a smaller 
letter. All the difference, and that but in this life, is, that we are tame 
devils through God's mere restraint, but they wild outrageous devils, wild- 
fire and gunpowder, left to the full swing and the utmost career which the 
violence of their lusts do carry them to. Now, it is certain we have the 
seeds and capacities of sinning all the sins they headlong run into. This in 
respect of our souls. And we are, besides, inclined to many more sorts of 
sins than they are addicted to, as all the lusts of the flesh, seated in the 
body and outward man, which in the body the soul is subjected unto, besides 
those other proper to the soul itself, together with those spirits. Satan hath 
in his nature no lust of uncleanness, adultery, drunkenness, &c., so as thy 
nature hath all manner of sins the devils have, and a multitude of other sins 
besides, to outvie them on that account. 

And all this heavy charge I have laid unto this sin, the mother of sins, is 
not to be understood as spoken of a matter or thing distinct from yourselves, 
which is the case of all actual sins ; yourselves are one thing, and your actions 
another. Yea, but this sin I have aggravated all this while, is no other 
than your veiy selves ; and so all that hath been said of it is all one as to 
say that yourselves are thus sinful, and are in verity this very sin. Indeed, 
the substance of you diflers from this sin inherent as subject and adjunct ; 
and thus logically you may (if you please) distinguish yourself from this sin ; 
but know that theologically, or (which is more) in God's holy sight and 
esteem, this sin is thyself, as I said at the first entrance. It is in Scripture 
language (which is God's) the very definition of a man's nature : ' That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh.' It is a regenerate man only is able to 
say, ' It is not I, but sin that dwells in me,' and so distinguish himself from 
it, for he hath a divine nature which is himself. An unregenerate man must 
take it wholly upon him, that it is, he himself, and say of it, It is I, as the 
seventh of the Romans hath distinguished them. , 



CUAP. I.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 



BOOK X. 

Tliat this state of gicilt and natural corruption is the condition of all men 
unreyenerate, though they make an external profession of Christianity. — A 
discovery of the several sorts of such men, both the ignorant, the profane, 
and the civil and the formal Christian. — And an answer to all those pleas 
by which they excuse, justify, or flatter themselves. 

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to 
the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every 
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing 
into captivity every thotight to the obedience of Christ. — 2 Cor. X. 4, 5. 



CHAPTER I. 

As the strength of a kingdom consists in having places of defence, or forts built 
to keep) out an enemy from conquering it, so the strength of the kingdom of 
sin in unregcnerate men consists in those arguments ivith lohich they defend 
their minds and hearts against all the forces ivhick are brought out of the 
word to convince them of the misery of their condition. 

Having thus discovered how great the sinfulness of man is, both on the 
account of Adam's first sin imputed, and of the corruption of nature, and 
how both these are matter of humiliation and repentance, that which next 
lies in order before me is to prove that this guilt and sinfulness abides upon 
men, and that it is a sad wretched condition in which all the unregenerate 
(as long as they are such) continue. And to prove this, it will be sutficient 
to shew how vain and frivolous are all those pretences and pleas by which mea 
would endeavour to shift off this condemnation from themselves, and to make 
out (if they could) their case to be good and safe, though it is extremely 
miserable and dangerous. 

For this end I have chosen this text, and, indeed, if we can but cast down 
those strong holds wherein men fortify and defend themselves against all con- 
victions of their sin and danger, they will then easily be conquered, for the 
strength of the kingdom of sin consists mainly in that assistance which the 
corrupt reason of man draws up for its defence. The strength of all king- 
doms lies in two things, 

1. In a wise and able council, to advise, direct, and project its affairs. 

2. In strong and potent preparations for war, and defence against all 
foreign enemies, without which no kingdom can subsist. 

The kingdom of sin answerably hath both its council, as hath been shewn ;* 
and also it hath within itself great strength, and many forces for war, botli 
offensive and defensive. The strength of other kingdoms for war lies in two 
things : 

* Book VII. 



378 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

1. In moveable armies, which are led out into the field, whereby they 
make excursions on their enemy's dominions, carry the peopb away captive, 
waste and spoil their territories by open force and violence. And answer- 
ably such kind of forces hath also the kingdom of sin against the kingdom of 
grace, viz., lusts, which do war in the members ; inordinate afiections, which 
do carry us captive to sin, and which do make inroads upon that grace that 
is in us, using our members as weapons of unrighteousness, and winning 
ground upon the spirit ; and these the apostle speaks of in the sixth and 
seventh chapters of his epistle to the Romans. 

2. The strength of other kingdoms lies also in places of defence, as forti- 
fications and castles, &c. And such also hath this kingdom of sin, strong- 
holds, and forts, and castles built and cast up, and fortified with much 
ammunition, and that of a double use. They are both as places of refuge 
for their fleets and field armies to retire to, and find shelter in, and also for 
defence against a foreign invasion, so that if an army comes in they are able 
to hold out a siege. Till all these be taken, a kingdom is not overcome, and 
they stand and hold out last. 

Now of these this text, you see, speaks, and tells us that the kingdom of 
sin in us hath great and strong holds, which are indeed carnal reasonings and 
proud high thoughts. The word is 7Jiyi(j[ioi, ratiocinia, reasonings ; and so 
it is in the margin of your Bibles, which reasonings he also tells you are 
built on purpose for defence in a time of war, to be used against the weapons 
of our warfare, who are ministers of the gospel ; and in these reasonings and 
high thoughts the strength of sin, and of all sinful courses and practices, in 
themselves weak and indefensible, do especially lie. As rabbits, though a 
weak generation of animals, yet are strong in their holes which they make 
in the rocks. These strongholds of sin, I say, are reasonings in the under- 
standing, for they especially oppose the knowledge of God, and therefore the 
ammunition within these holds must needs be reasonings and acts of know- 
ledge. These adversaries are matched and fitted with the same kind of 
weapons as those w^ho come against them are provided with, for as the 
weapons of our warfare are spiritual, spiritual wisdom out of the word of 
God and the knowledge of God, so the inhabiters and possessors of these 
strongholds are reasonings of carnal wisdom, and knowledge opposite there- 
unto. 

These holds have high towers also of pride, for self-love, being king in un- 
regenerate hearts, will not yield or bend in the least, and therefore it is not 
strength of reason only makes them hold out, but a proud spirit also. 

If you please, we will give another exemplification to clear this to you. As 
the kingdom of popery and the doctrine of it, which is the devil's gospel, by 
which to advance antichrist, and to bring all into subjection to him (as ours 
is God's gospel, the wisdom of God in a mystery to set forth Christ, and to 
bring all in obedience to him) ; I say, as in this system of popery there is an 
exact model of all the carnal reason which sin and the devil hath, and con- 
tains the quintessence of it, so there doth appear a double use and specimen 
of carnal reason in it. 

1. In that all the opinions of that kingdom of darkness, and all the parts 
of the man of sin are so contrived as they all serve as maintainers of wicked 
ends and lusts, and to the advancement and profit of the pope and his clergy, 
there being no one point wherein they difier from us, but is some way ser- 
viceable to such ends, so as carnal reason hath first shewed its depth in 
inventing, framing, and raising such a frame of religion, and therefore it is 
called a mystery of iniquity : 2 Thes. ii. 7, ' For the mystery of iniquity 
doth already work.' But, 



Chap. II. j in respect of sin and punishment. 379 

2. Carnal reason hath not shewed its strength only i n the inventing and 
finding out such an image of religion, but it hath as fully played its part in 
inventing shows of reason to uphold all these opinions, whereby this king- 
dom is fortified with strong arguments out of Scripture wrested, and philo- 
sophy abused, and is defended with strong pleas of universality, antiquity, 
and the hko, so as a man rooted in the truth would wonder so much could 
be said for such gross opinions ; j-ea, and they do deceive many strong under- 
standings amongst them, so as to believe that great lie, 2 Thes. ii. 11. 

Thus likewise is it in the mystery of iniquity in man's heart, which ad- 
vanceth sin and lusts against God, as popery doth the pope and his clergy 
against Christ. There is a like double demonstration and discovery of the 
strength of carnal reason in this matter. 

1. In advising for, and plotting so many ways to attain our corrupt ends 
and desires, so as there is no consultation, no desire of the heart, but what 
tends to this end. 

2. That wherein it shews itself most witty, and draws out its depths, is 
in finding out strong reasons to itself and others, to defend these sinful 
courses and ways ; in inventing carnal pleas to justify its state, excuses to 
extenuate sins, and those seemingly strong too, and specious exceptions and 
calumnies against the ways and the people of God, so as a man would wonder. 
These reasonings are the strongholds that the text mentions, with which we 
are to encounter. 



CHAPTER II. 

The great hindrance of the vmrlc of conversion is the pleas wherehj men justify 
themselves in an unreyenerate state. — How quick-witted men are to invent 
such carnal reasonings. — Whence it is that they are so. — Hoio olstinately 
they adhere to such sinful pleadings for themselves, and the causes of being 
so. — That these reasonings are various in men, according to their different 
understanding, temper, or state. — That they are in some strong, in othem 
more weak. 

The first set of men in whom we are to beat down these strongholds are 
the ignorant and profane ; and if we come to such to convince them of the 
danger of their natural condition, we shall find them to set on work all the 
wit and reason which they have, to evade or resist the conviction. If we 
deal with them about their ways and states, and examine what hopes they 
have for heaven, we shall still find they will have something to say for them- 
selves, with which to put us ofi", and to salve the sad and deplorable circum- 
stances of their own condition, notwithstanding all that we can say to the 
contrary. Shoot the word at them, and they will have some ammunition 
with which they will shoot again against what is said, and the lowest and 
poorest men will have something to oppose herein. The meanest cottage 
hath some of these strongholds as well as walled towns, ignorant and profane 
men as well as men of knowledge and civil behaviour. They will tell us, 
though they know little or nothing of religion, that yet they have a good 
meaning, that there are none but sin as well as they, that their hearts are 
good, and they hope well. Thus publicans and the most profligate sinners 
will have something to say for themselves, as well as proud pharisees. _ 

And if we consider the difficulty of the work of conversion, what is the 
great hindrance of it but these false deluding pleas in men's hearts ? 
Whereat doth conversion stick most, that notwithstanding all the motives^ 



380 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

exhortations, or threatenings which we use, yet the wills of men are not 
turned ; and for all our trying such variety of keys, yet the bolts of their 
wills shoot not ? Why, there are false reasonings in their hearts, which, as 
wrong wards, hinder the key from turning ; and though the key be fitted 
to many of the wards in them, and we bring answers to many objections, yet 
if the key stick at some one that we light not on, the man is not converted. 
Ask any man that is converted to God what it was hindered him a long 
while from seeing his miserable condition, and from being humbled and 
parting with his sins, and he will tell you that either he had some carnal 
objection stuck in his mind against the ways of God and the people of God, 
which were long a-beating down, or else he thought his estate to be good 
enough, or not so bad as it was represented to him : that his sins were not 
so great in his eyes as they were magnified to him by ministers, and that 
he imagined his evidences for a better life and heaven to be fair enough ; 
and that he still had pleas and excuses to avoid the force of all that could 
be said against him ; and if as to some instances he was convinced, yet the 
conviction was not thorough, but his heart had still some stronghold which 
made him stand it out ; or that, ere be yielded, his flesh debated things 
fully, and brought many objections, many pleas for itself; and that he 
thought not that sin had had such strength on its side as he found it had 
when the forts were yielded up. What is the reason also why civil men, 
who are in themselves in a nearer proximity to the kingdom of heaven than 
those who are openly profane (as Christ said to him in Mark xii. 34, ' Thou 
art not far from the kingdom of God'), yet are hardliest of all convinced, con- 
verted, and brought home to God ? What is the reason of this ? It is be- 
cause carnal reason hath more strength in them than in others ; the strong- 
holds are better fortified in them than in profane men, and they have stronger 
and more specious arguments to plead why their state is good and safe. 

If we consider the forces which the word of God prepares, they are fitted 
to invalidate such pleas and pretences of carnal men. It doth not speak 
daggers and swords only, it doth not only shoot off cannon and discharge 
volleys of threatenings against sin and sinners, to conquer the kingdom of 
sin by mere downright blows, but it hath weapons suited to repel and beat 
down carnal reasonings, pleas, and excuses. And a great part of the 
ammunition of the sanctuary consists of such weapons wherewith to con- 
vince wicked men, to confute their pleas, to reason it out with them; engines 
to countermine their secretest deceits, and to batter down their strongest 
objections. Now if the word hath so much preparation of this kind, as it 
hath, then surely much of the opposition in men's hearts against conversion 
to God lies in such reasonings, pleas, or excuses ; for otherwise, these wea- 
pons of the word would be altogether needless. If you saw a king prepar- 
ing not swords, but engines of battery, and instruments for mining, you 
would say, Surely he means to sit down before some fort or fenced town, 
for his preparations are not for a field battle, but for a siege. So here in 
this case it is likewise. 

Now the true grounds and reasons how and why the heart of man comes 
to engender and hai'bour, to cleave and stick unto such carnal pleas and 
reasons, are, 

1. From the vastness and largeness of reason, which is so large a faculty 
as it is able to invent some fair gloss and cover for the foulest and most gross 
enormities, and to make good appear to be evil, and evil good. We see this 
by experience ; for let a man have never so bad and unjust a cause, yet some 
colours and pleas will be invented for it, and something the man will find in 
which to wrap it up cleanly ; as Micah speaks, Micah vii. 3, ' That they may 



CUAP. II.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 881 

do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh 
for a reward ; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire : so they 
wrap it up.' The most foul and gross opinions, dissonant to the light of 
nature, as killing of kings, breaking faith with heretics, equivocation, &c., 
are defended, and reason is able to invent much for them, and whole books 
have been written to make them good. Though the actions of kings and great 
men are never so enormous, yet their flatterers and abettors have tongues to 
iile and smooth them, as the prophet's comparison is, Isa. xxx. 10. As press- 
ing h'ons can smooth the greatest wrinkles in cloth, so can their tongues do 
as to the most deformed actions. And therefore it is hard if the profanest 
liver, who is in the worst estate before God, cannot find something to speak 
in his defence ; it is hard if his reason, quickened in his own cause by self- 
love, and whetted and sharpened so much the more, cannot find something 
to plead for himself. If a corrupt lawyer's reason can find out shifts and 
quirks for another's cause when naught, much more will he do it if the cause 
is his own ; for here in this case self-love will be active to sharpen invention, 
and to make the power of mason more intense. 

2. If the heart is thus able to invent specious arguments to justify or 
excuse itself, it is as apt to adhere and cleave to such pleas which it frames, 
and to take them for good reasons, and to hold to them rather than unto 
what the word brings to convince on the contrary ; for such self-love and 
self-flattery will incline the mind, and sway and bend it that way. For the 
stream of the heart being, in the current of it, for evil courses only, unto 
them it would run whether it had anything to plead for them or no ; and 
therefore when it shall hear or think of anything that may be said to justify 
snch courses, or to extenuate sin, or to free them from obligation to strict 
holiness, the heart willingly assents to such specious shows of argument, as 
if they were real and solid truths, because they all make for it, and for its 
great design of continuing in sin. Accordingly, the reason which is given 
why so many under popery embraced that doctrine as truth is this, that they 
had ' pleasure in unrighteousness,' and therefore embraced such opinions 
which suited to their lusts, and easily assented to such doctrine : 2 Thess. 
ii. 9-] 2, ' Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of un- 
righteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the 
truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them 
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; that they all might be 
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.' 

3. For any man to think that his estate is naught and damnable, and 
that his courses are such as cannot stand with a state of grace, is the harsh- 
est opinion that any man can entertain of himself; and as a man would 
preserve a good opinion of himself with others, so with himself also, and 
would also keep up a hope of the future happiness of his condition ; for 
otherwise the thought and opinion of the contrary would not only hinder his 
comfort, but sink him into discomfort, which is the death of the soul ; and 
therefore the apostle Paul, when he speaks of his being convinced of his 
sinful wretched state, he says that he died; Rom. vii. 9-11, 'For I was 
alive without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived, 
and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to 
be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived 
me, and by it slew me.' Now, as dying men catch hold on anything to 
help them, or as a man sinking snatcheth at anything that may keep him 
up above water, so do carnal men, whose souls would otherwise sink into 
and under a desperate opinion of themselves, and therefore they are glad 



382 AN tJNEEGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

of any the slightest reasons or pleas that can but speak peace to them. 
And, 

4. Upon this motive the corrupt heart keeps reason off from examining 
into these shallow and empty grounds of its hopes, and wicked men hate the 
lifht which would discover things to them : John iii. 19, 20, ' And this is 
the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth 
evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be 
reproved.' And, on the contrary, they are glad of any show, pretence, or 
plea, which may make for them. 

5. There is a pride of heart which resolves not to yield or to be subject 
unto the word, but is obstinate to maintain its cause, be it right or wrong, 
and to hold out the siege to the last ; and, accordingly, tbe man sets all his 
wits on work, to find out reasons to maintain itself with, and to fetch the 
suit about again and again, and to put in new answers and new replies. The 
man resolves never to be nonplussed, or to lay down his cause, whilst any 
thing may be pleaded. 

Now, concerning these reasonings, I would have two things to be con- 
sidered in the general. 

First, That they are in several men many and diverse, eo as it is an end- 
less work to speak of, and unto them all. The heart of one man engenders 
still upon occasion, and finds out millions of them; and we see that there is 
no end of multiplying them, as there is not of writing books. Corrupt 
reason will still find something to say; and when one hold is battered down, 
it seeks for and builds new ones. As rabbits, if let alone and not catched, 
dig new buiTOWs when their old ones are stopped, so do carnal men also in 
this case, if God's Spirit doth not catch them, and subdue and convert them. 
Now, if one man's heart will find out many of these shifts and devices, what 
variety must needs be hatched, hammered, and sought out in the hearts of 
divers men ! As reason itself is a vast faculty in every man, so it is of a 
different mould and fashion in several men, and that is a reason to one man 
which is not to another, and that shall be a plea and a shift which one man 
will stick to, for the putting off the conviction of his sinfulness and miserable 
state, that another sees nothing in, and will not make use of it. If men's 
fancies and lusts are diverse, then their reasonings are so too. And besides, 
as the condition of their states, as their opinions which they have drunk in 
are diverse, accordingly are their carnal pleas various. The pharisees in 
their times had excuses which are not now current in the light of the gospel, 
no, not among carnal men. Profane men have pleas which civil men slight, 
and civil men have pleas which temporary believers build not on, and igno- 
rant men have i^leas which men of light and understanding see through. 

Secondly, It is to be considered that the carnal pleas and reasonings in 
some are more slight and easily refuted, but in others they are stronger. 
The pleas which some have, which by reason of their ignorance and willing- 
ness to be deceived they yet stick unto as most true, are exceeding weak and 
silly, and scarce worth the naming, much less the pains to confute them. 
For instance, the Jews therefore thought God their father, because they 
were lawfully begotten, and not of fornication, John viii. 41 ; but in others 
these wicked arguings are stronger. For, 

1. As reason itself is stronger in some men than others, so corrupt 
reason also is abler to invent stronger reasons and pleas for itself; and 
strong delusions are in stronger understandings, and much stronger holds 
are built by able men than by others who are rude and unlearned. And, 

2. As the light of the word wins ground upon a man's reason, and batters 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 383 

down slight works, and makes a man desert them, so much the stronger 
tbrtitications will the man's heart be still building up against the word ; for 
to a man of much light weak pleas will not serve any longer. Therefore the 
strongest carnal reasonings, though the sweetest, are in those who are en- 
lightened and have knowledge. For as in a kingdom they use not to build 
forts at all, till they hear of some enemy which may invade them ; and the 
more ground the enemy wins, the more they will be sure to fortify the forts 
which are left, and to build them up stronger, as the more weak ones are 
taken from them ; so it is here in this case, for the heart begins not to 
build up any fort till the word or some light comes to make an invasion. 
Therefore the Gentiles who wanted the light of the word, had but weak ex- 
cuses and pleas, and none, or very little fortification was in them, though 
some such excuses were found among them, as some light they had : Rom. 
ii. 15, ' Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their con- 
science also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or 
else excusing one another.' They made some apologies for themselves, as 
the word aToXoyou/iJi-wv implies. But now till the v/ord comes to urge ob- 
jections against a man's state, he hath no need to make an apology for him- 
self; but as light increaseth, the more need there is of strongholds, whereby 
the heart may stand out against it, and accordingly the heart builds them, 
and therefore the more men are enlightened, with the stronger delusions will 
they strive to deceive themselves. 

3. The more common graces men have, wanting true grace, the stronger 
carnal reasons will they have to justify their states ; and accordingly the 
holds of a civil and moral man are better fortified than those of one that is 
profane. And therefore the apostle in Rom. i., dealing with the Gentiles, 
mentions none of their carnal pleas; but when he comes to the Jews in chap, 
ii., he spends it in taking away their cavillings. And further, one who hath 
a common work of the Spirit on his heart, by the preaching of the gospel 
(as the second and third ground in the parable of the sower. Mat. xiii., had), 
hath stronger pleas, reasonings, and deceits in him, than a civil man. A 
civil man hath had the pleas, excuses, and grounds of the deceit of a pro- 
fane man discovered to him to be weak ; and one enlightened by the gospel, 
and who hath good motions in him, discerns the civil man's reasonings for 
himself to be weak, and sees how he is deceived, and therefore he will in- 
vent stronger wherewith to defend himself. So as it is harder to convince a 
man who is in a civil condition, than one who is profane, for he hath more 
ammunition with which to make resistance, than the other hath ; and for the 
same reason it is harder to convince a temporary believer than a civil man, 
because their pleas are stronger, which the common work of the Spirit oc- 
casioneth in them. 



CHAPTER III. 

What are the general heads of arguments frormvhich men draw reasons for the 
safety and tvelfare of their state, though they continue in their natural con- 
dition. — The pleas which the ignorant and profane make for themselves 
considered and answered. 

Since the pleas and apologies which unregenerate men make either to 
excuse or justify themselves, are so man}^ and various, and some are more 
weak, and others stronger, and it would be too large a work to treat of all 
the particulars, I will therefore reduce them to some general heads, and 



884 AN UNREGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

instance but in some of tlie strongest of them, as a test of the rest, and 
which are common among us, to whom the word is preached so clearly. 
And first, I will shew you in general, the topics or heads of argument from 
whence false reason argues, aud whence it fetcheth its strength. I will lay 
open the several shops and forges where it sharpens its weapons. 

1. The first head or topic whence men fetch pleas to justify their ways 
and estates, &c., is common proverbial speeches, which having been minted 
out of the evil treasure of men's hearts, and stamped with common authority, 
pass for current among men, and which they use in defence of themselves on 
all occasions. Thus men will defend their covetousness, or excuse their 
deserting of a public good cause, when it is difficult or dangerous ; they 
will justify themselves in doing so with this ordinary saying. Every man 
for himself, and God for us all ! So they will vindicate their carelessness 
or licentiousness in the conduct of their lives, with that other known 
common saying. If I be predestinated, I shall be saved ; if not, do what 
I can, I shall be damned. And so they will ciy too. Thoughts are free, 
that the}' may freely indulge themselves in vain thoughts, or unclean 
fancies. Or when the case is such that they must either sin or sufier, 
or if they perform their duty, they shall run the hazard of some evil or 
loss, they will very readily have it in their mouths. Of two evils choose 
the least. Many such sayings as these of the devil's minting pass 
among men, and strengthen them in evil. As the papists have their 
traditions besides Scripture, on which they ground their corrupt tenets and 
practices, so hath the world such wicked maxims as these with which to de- 
fend itself. The danger of such common sajdugs and instances of them, we 
have out of Scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 32. The apostle there brings in an ordi- 
nary atheistical speech which was used among the Jews : Isa. xxii. 13, 'Let 
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die,' by this to encourage them- 
selves to take out their fill of pleasure here. The apostle brings it in, 1 Cor. 
XV., as a proverbial speech. If there be no resurrection, then, says he, 
according to the common saying of wicked men, ' let us even eat and drink 
indeed, for to-morrow we die.' But to shew the danger of such naughty 
speeches, when once made common and so authentical, he adds, ' Be not de- 
ceived,' i. e. with such speeches, as many are, for ' evil words corrupt good 
manners,' i.e. such evil common proverbial speeches as these do much hurt, 
and have much influence to corrupt our lives, and are often used as means 
by men to strengthen and defend themselves in ill, he using a contrary pro- 
verbial speech then used to countercheck the other with. The Jews also 
had got an accursed proverb, whereby they did put ofi" all from themselves 
to their father's sins as the cause of their punishment, and so were not 
humbled, nor got any good by it : Ezek. xviii. 2, ' What mean ye, that ye 
use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying. The fathers have 
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?' thereby 
laying the blame on God and their fathers. This proverb carnal reason 
got by the end, and they used it upon all occasions, aud by it put off all the 
prophet's sermon, whereby he convinced them that it was for theii- own sins 
that they were led into captivity. And because this was a stronghold which 
carnal reason had recourse to, he therefore spends a whole chapter to refute 
it, with many reasons and answers to it. So they had another common say- 
ing too whereby their hearts were secured and strengthened to do evil : 
Ezek. xii. 22, 23, ' Son of Man, what is that proverb that ye have in the 
land of Israel, saying. The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Tell 
them, therefore. Thus saith the Lord, I will make this proverb to cease, and 
they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel : but say unto them, The 



Chap. HI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 385 

days are at hand, and the eflfect of every vision.' Because threatenings were 
not speedily executed, and they had heard many and seen nothing done, 
therefore they slighted all ; this did prevail, and was commonly used, and 
did much hurt. That in Job also, which Satan brings in, was a common 
proverb by which men were guided, viz. that a man would do anything ti) 
save his life : Job ii. 5, G, * And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin 
for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life,' ilc. The do.il 
thought that Job would have acted herein like other men, and therefore 
'touch but his life' (says Satan to God), ' and he will curse thee.' And 
thus men will excuse a sinful action, by saying, that life is sweet, and that 
it was done to save that, or their estate ; and who would not have done it 
besides me ? Thus Job's wife argues with him too from a common saying 
which wicked men had among them, * Curse God and die.' As if she should 
have said. Seeing God deals thus with thee, after all thy perfect walking, and 
this is the reward of all, let it now go and leave it. She used it as, it 
seems, the sense of a carnal proverb then in use, and proportioned to carnal 
reason, that since blessing God will do no good, thou hadst as good curse 
him ; for die thou must, however, and it connot be worse with thee. And 
therefore Job adds, ' Thou speakest as one of the foolish women ;' as if he 
had said. Dost thou speak as Job's wife, and one brought up in the know- 
ledge of God ? No ; this is the speech of an unregenerate woman, an 
heathenish speech, fit for none but the profane to use. And he confutes it 
by a suitable answer and reason : Job ii. 10, ' But he said unto her. Thou 
speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What ! shall we receive 
good at the hand of God, and shall we'not receive evil ?' Now all such kind 
of common speeches which are or have been used, carnal reason is glad of, 
and employs them to strengthen itself with them upon occasion, as inartificial 
arguments drawn from common testimony, 

2. Unregenerate men will argue and justify themselves and their practices 
from the common opinions which the world hath of things. As tradition, 
so universality is another head or topic which not papists only, but all 
wicked men, use to defend ill doctrines or actions. As faith looks to what 
the word of God judgeth of things, so carnal reason to what the world thinks, 
and from that draws reasons to justify itself, and is glad to entertain all such 
opinions as make for its wicked ways and courses. And therefore the apostle 
bids us not to be conformed to the world in this : Rom. xii. 2, ' And be not 
conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will 
of God.' He means especially that we should not be conformed to the world 
in our opinions of things ; for so the opposition implies, ' be transformed by 
the renewing of your minds, to prove what is the good will of God.' If the 
world commonly thinks such a practice lawful, accordingly the most praise it, 
and carnal reason will have arguments to persuade to it, and to defend the 
practice. I do as the most do (will an unregenerate man say), and am but 
in the same condition with the generality of mankind ; ' do any of the rulers 
believe ? ' or are they so precisely godly as you preach ? Thus if common 
custom, which passeth for a law, seems to countenance any practice, it is 
warrant enough for it ; nay, if but a book hath been writ for a vile opinion, 
and to defend a wicked action (as what sin is there almost which hath not 
had some abettors ?), men will thereby be encouraged, and make a defence 
for themselves ; and wicked men, who are not so knowing, will embrace the 
errors of those who are learned, with which to bear themselves out ; and 
their minds being corrupt, are presently apt to think such erroneous opinions, 

VOL. X. B b 



886 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

and in appearance so well defended, to be the truth. If the morality of the 
Sabbath, and the strictness of its observation, be questioned and disputed, 
profane men have enough wherewith to justify either their neglects of attend- 
ance on the worship of God, or then- unlawful recreations on that day ; and 
they are presently of the same opinion with those who use their wits to dis- 
annul the fourth command. So look what pitch or height in religion the 
most of the world applaud (as men generally judge civility, and moral 
honesty, and a formal way of serving God, to be religion enough ; and those 
who do so are the world's saints), such a pitch in religion is the standard 
by which they will measure themselves, and think it sufficient ; and what 
religion and piety above this, and more than this, is pressed on them (since 
it is by the world generally spoken against and condemned), shall by the 
carnal reason of man be scorned and neglected : Acts xxviii. 22, ' But we 
desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest : for as concerning this sect, we 
know that everywhere it is spoken against.' So that as the papists use uni- 
versality as an argument (which is on their side. Rev. xiii. 3) wherewith to 
defend themselves, so men unregenerate urge it, for their estates, that they 
are in the same condition with the most of other men ; and for their prac- 
tices, that they do but lire according to the common judgment and custom 
of the world. 

3. Profane men, who mind little or nothing of religion, will draw argu- 
ments to justify themselves from the observations of God's outward dealings, 
and of the dispensations of his common providence among men, which shines 
on the unjust as well as the just. As faith looks to what God says in his 
■word, so carnal reason interprets his mind by what is done in his works. 
Thus the papists plead prosperity as an argument for the truth of their 
church, and pass the judgment from the outward carriage of divine pro- 
vidence toward them. In the same manner those in the prophet argued for 
idolatry, and worshipping the queen of heaven, and justified themselves : 
Jer. xliv. 17, ' But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of 
our own mouth, to bum incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out 
drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, 
and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem : for 
then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.' When we 
burned incense to the queen of heaven (say they), we had plenty of all things, 
and our fathers and our kings did so. There are two reasons couched in it: 
1. The universality and antiquity of this their idolatrous worship. Will you 
condemn (say they) the practice of all our fathers and kings ? And, 2, their 
prosperity and success in such a wicked course. We have had plenty (say 
they) ever since, and we find this way of religion blessed, whereas we had 
scarcity when we served the Lord God. But Jeremiah in answer tells them 
that the ground of their scarcity then was their former idolatry, God thus 
afterwards punishing it. So some among us have argued for the popish 
religion. We then had plenty, and all things well, &c. So the hearts of 
carnal men will reason about their actions too. Look what actions are 
successful, them they will judge to be good ; but if they are unprosperous, 
though they have never so sure a waiTant out of the word for them, yet 
they will be apt to suspect them. Thus did that king argue for idolatry: 
2 Chron. xxviii. 23, ' For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which 
smote him ; and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, 
therefore will I sacrifice unto them, that they may help me.' He sacrificed 
to the gods of Damascus for this very reason, that because the gods of Syria 
helped them, therefore he hoped they would help him also, if adored by 
him. And after the same rate profone men will reason against pure godli- 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 387 

ness, and for a careless worship and religion : Look (say tlicy), those who 
are strictest have most crosses and troubles, and since they began to be so 
religious, and to follow sermons, they have not thriven as they did before ; 
but those who live as we do, God useth most kindly, and therefore surely 
they are most happy. Thus they bless those whom the Lord abhors. 
These are the ungodly who prosper, who look big upon it, and speak con- 
fidently, insomuch as through carnal reason it is a temptation to God's own 
people, who sometimes are stumbled at it, and half persuaded that the pros- 
pering side is the better; as David saith of himself, that his foot had well- 
nigh slipped herein : Ps. Ixxiii. 2, 3, ' But as for me, my feet were almost 
gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, 
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.' So, on the other side, when they 
at Malta saw a great danger befall the apostle Paul by a viper's coming on 
his hand. Acts xxviii. 3, 4, ' It is no doubt,' say they, ' but this man was a 
murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, vengeance sufiers not to 
live.' As many judge their estates to be good because they prosper in the 
world, so many are encouraged to go on in their evil ways because they have 
sinned again and again, and no evil hath come of it ; and therefore they think 
they may do so still safely. As faith argues, God hath delivered, therefore 
Jie will deliver ; so carnal reason argues. As God hath spared, so he will 
spare. And the heart of man upon this is fully set to do evil: Eccles. viii. 
11, ' Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, there- 
fore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' And, on 
the contrary, the people of God have many jealousies cast up in their hearts 
by carnal reason against their estates, and their being in the favour of God, 
from the outward carriage of God to them; as Gideon said. Judges vi. 13, 
' And Gideon said unto him, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then 
is all this befallen us ? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told 
us of, saying. Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt ? but now the Lord 
hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.' Thus 
many a poor soul is ready to say. If God had loved me, he would never have 
let me fall into so gross and scandalous a sin, or he would never have afflicted 
me, nor suflfered me to be tempted, as I have been. 

4. Unregenerate men will fetch arguments to justify their state from out- 
ward spiritual privileges which God has bestowed on them ; so those in Luke 
xiii. 26, ' We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught 
in oui- streets;' they thought because they had eaten and drunk with Christ, 
therefore they should certainly be saved. Thus the common professors of 
Christianity think that because they have been baptized, and live in the 
church, and have the word preached, and the sacrament administered to 
them, that therefore they are very good Christians, and shall go to heaven 
without any more ado. In this manner they in Jer. vii. 4 upheld them- 
selves : ' The temple of the Lord,' say they, ' the temple of the Lord are 
we.' And when our Lord Christ preached to convince the Jews of the 
danger of their state wherein they were, to silence their fears they had their 
relation to Abraham ready to plead : John viii. 33, ' They answered him, 
We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man ;' because 
they were Abraham's children, they thought they must necessarily be saved. 
After this rate Micah argued also, who thought that God would surely bless 
him because he had a priest in his house to be his chaplain : Judges xvii. 
13, ' Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, because 
I have a Levite to my priest.' Upon such outward privileges as these do 
carnal men rest, and judge themselves to be in God's favour because of them. 
The apostle cuts off all these pleas at once : Eom. ii. 25-29, ' For circum- 



388 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

cision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law : but if thou be a breaker of the 
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircum- 
cision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be 
counted for circumcision ? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, 
if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost trans- 
gress the law ? For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is that 
circumcision which is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew, which is one 
inwardly : and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the 
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God ;' Gal. v. 6, ' For in Jesus 
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision ; but faith 
which worketh by love.' Gal. vi. 15, ' For in Christ Jesus neither circum- 
cision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.' 

5. Another topic from which carnal men draw arguments to give a reason 
why the}' do not embrace the ways of true religion and godliness, is the out- 
ward appearance of things in this world. The profession of Christ and his 
gospel, in the purity and strictness of it, is, in external show, to a carnal eye, 
poor and low, and attended with mean circumstances, and therefore they 
think they have just reason to despise and neglect it. What kept the Jews 
from acknowledging Christ to be the Messiah ? It was the poverty and 
meanness of his outward condition, the lowness of his education, being bred 
up in an ordinary mechanical trade, and not at the feet of their Gamaliels 
and great doctors of the law. From this they furnished themselves with 
many arguments, which they objected as reasons why they would not believe 
on him : Mark vi. 3, 4, 'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the 
brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda and Simon ? and are not his sis- 
ters here with us ? And they were ofiended at him. But Jesus said unto 
them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among 
his own kin, and in his own house.' This was the matter of offence to them ; 
■whereas, if rightly considered, it was one of the strongest reasons which 
might have convinced them, for it argued his wisdom to be not from men 
but God, and that he was the great prophet foretold which should come into 
the world, and therefore he marvelled at their unbelief more than of all other, 
as expecting that among them (who knew him before by the prophecies con- 
cerning him, and who now saw such great things done by him), he should 
have been readily acknowledged ; that they of all others should have fallen 
down, and said that God is in him, and that he was more than a man. And 
therefore he takes occasion to assert and vindicate his divinity from that 
which the Jews objected against it : John vii. 15, ' And the Jews marvelled, 
saying, How Imoweth this man letters, having never learned ?' They there 
object that he was never brought up to learning, and thence he takes occa- 
sion to prove that his doctrine was from God : ver. 16, ' Jesus answered 
them, and said. My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.' So the 
barrenness of the place, both for religion and knowledge, where he was 
brought up, stumbled Nathanael, and had like to have kept him from' Christ : 
John i. 46, ' And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come 
out of Nazareth ?' It was, it seems, a rude and a wicked, ignorant place. 
So the meanness of his condition, that he was poor, and had not a hole to 
hide his head in, and that none but poor people followed him, this stumbled 
many ; and therefore, says Christ, ' Blessed is he who is not offended in me * 
because of this. For before he had said, ' The poor receive the gospel ;' and 
this he knew that many would be scandalised at, and that it would prove an 
invincible obstacle to their believing : Luke vii. 22, 23, ' Then Jesus, an- 
swering, said unto them. Go your way, and tell John what things ye have 
seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, 



Chap. HI. J in kksi'ect ok sin and punishment, 381) 

the deaf bear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And 
blessed is he who shall not be offended in me.' Though he doth there 
reckon up many miracles which he did, yet that the poor received the gospel 
he knew would stumble them more than all his wonderful works would per- 
suade them. And this indeed did oflend the pharisees, and they reasoned 
from it against him : John vii. 49, ' J5nt this people who knoweth not the 
law are cursed.' And are not now in these days many of those sharp arrows 
which are shot against God's people fetched out of this quiver ? And are 
they not spited, maligned, and despised, because of the meanness of their 
condition, and low appearance in the world '? 

(). Uuregenerate men, to defend their state, will argue from scriptures 
themselves, either misunderstood or misapplied. As there is no heresy so 
foul but in show produceth some scripture for itself, so there is no estate 
so bad but will have something out of the word of God wherewith to justify 
itself. The pharisees, who were most wicked and deadly enemies to Christ, 
yet thought from some scriptures that they should be saved, and that with- 
out Christ, misunderstanding the scope of Moses his ministry : therefore, 
says Christ, John v. 39, ' Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me,' i. e. they thought their evi- 
dence for heaven lay there, and as they by their glosses had corrupted them, they 
fancied that they spoke plainly, that by their doing they should live, being 
ignorant of the righteousness of faith : Rom. x. 3, ' For they being ignorant 
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, 
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.' And they 
were Abraham's seed, as they thought, to whom the promise was made, and 
on that account imagined themselves safe enough. Bat (says Christ) these 
-scriptures you have not searched, and compared one thing with another ; for 
if you had, you would find that they write of me. ' And that Moses in whom 
you trust,' John v. 45 (as they built all their mighty confidence upon sayings 
of his), he, if you rightly understand him, makes against you, ver. 46 ; and 
I desire no other judge than him, to whom you appeal. Yea, to such a 
degree of confidence were they grown, that they bring scripture against Christ 
himself: John vii. 52, ' They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of 
Galilee? Search, and look : for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.' They 
urge this, that out of Gahlee, from whence Christ came, there ariseth no 
prophet, for that in all the Scripture there was no mention of that country 
to be the place of g ny prophet, which yet was the place of Christ's abode ; 
but say they, ver. 42, ' The scripture saith that the Christ shall be of the 
seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem,' which had they searched 
into, as indeed they ought, they might have found to be the place of Christ's 
birth ; but they were loath to make inquiry, but took advantage from the 
place of his education, as if it were his country where he was born. And so 
they argue against Christ from Scripture, in John vii. 27, ' Howbeit, we know 
this man whence he is : but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence 
he is.' They herein had reference (as it should seem) to Isa. Hii. 8, ' ^Vho 
can tell his generation ?' which being spoken of his Godhead they apply to 
his manhood; 'And as for this man,' say they, 'we know whence he is,' 
which yet if they had known, they would not have said what follows : John 
vii. 42, ' Hath not the scripture said. That Christ cometh of the seed of David, 
and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was ?' So to this day, 
how many scriptures are alleged to justify men's sins and sinful states. 
]\Icn, to cloak their covetousness, will presently have that scripture in their 
mouths, 'He is worse than an infidel who provides not for his family,' 
1 Tim. V. 8. To quiet their hearts in delaying repentance, they will often 



390 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

repeat that scripture to themselves, ' That at whatsoever time a man turns 
to God, he will abundantly pardon,' Isa. Iv. 7. And therefore James says, 
chap. i. 22, that many hearers of the word make iraoakoy'iciimc,, false syllo- 
gisms, out of the word itself. And thus men fancy, too, that their lazy, good 
purposes and desires shall be accepted, because, say they, God accepts the 
will for the deed. Thus they also will flatter themselves that if their con- 
sciences do but check them when they sin, it is well enough, for they will 
abuse that place in Rom. vii. 17, and say, ' It is not I, but sin that dwelleth 
in me.' And thus the pharisees, because it was said in Moses's law, * A 
tooth for a tooth,' therefore thought it lawful to revenge themselves : Mat. 
V. 43, ' Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbour, 
and hate thy enemy.' And because they are bidden to love their neighbours, 
Lev. xis. 18, they, understanding neighbour for only a friend, or one who is 
not an enemy, thought they might lawfully hate their enemies. 

7. Carnal men will argue for their practices and state, from common prin- 
ciples agreeable to self-love, and from those proud, flattering conceits which 
they have of themselves, making self-love their judge ; for example, Cain, he 
reasons with God, ' Am I my brother's keeper? ' Gen. iv. 9. Self-love thinks 
that it is bound to look only to itself. And thus men will commonly say, 
Every man for himself, and God for us all ; we are to look only to ourselves, 
and every man to take care of one. And self-love thinks this but reasonable. 
So men think it equal too to cheat him who hath cheated them ; and so, though 
to wrong an innocent was esteemed a sin among the heathen, yet Cicero 
himself thought revenge to be laudable. Such as these Christ confutes. Mat. 
V. 38, ' Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth 
for a tooth.' They thought it lawful to revenge upon grounds of self-love, 
and that it was a duty to hate their enemies, ver. 45. So Simeon and Levi 
thought it just to take such a cruel revenge on the Shechemites because of the 
high abuse offered to their sister: Gen. xxxiv. 31, 'And they said. Should 
he deal with our sister as with an harlot ? ' and they thought it a good rea- 
son. Thus out of those high conceits which men have of themselves and 
their own cause will they argue, making themselves their own rule and 
reason. Thus the pharisees stood upon their defence : John ix. 40, ' And 
some of the pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said 
unto him, Ai-e we blind also ? ' What, are we blind also ? What ! we ? 
And this they did out of the high conceits w'hich they had of their own 
knowledge. And so they thought it was reason enougk to persuade the 
apostles to cease preachiogof Christ, that they would thereby bring innocent 
blood on their heads : Acts v. 28, ' Did not we strictly command you that 
you should not teach in this name ? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem 
with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.' As if 
they had said. What, will you accuse a whole state of murder ? Now all 
this, the apostle calls comparing themselves with themselves, not with the 
rule : 2 Cor. x. 12, ' For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or 
compare ourselves with some that commend themselves : but they, measur- 
ing themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, 
are not wise.' And yet by this way of judging will unregenerate men take 
the measure of themselves ; and therefore they think what is beyond that 
which they have must needs be hypocrisy, and censure those who are more 
strictly holy than themselves to be close and sly hypocrites. 

8. Others there are who do not deceive themselves so grossly, but have 
something of show and pretence, who will argue for the goodness of their 
condition from some rehgious duties and performances, or from some in- 
ferior common works of God's Spirit upon their hearts. This the young 



Chap. IV.j in bespect of sin and punishment. «3'J1 

man insisted on, Luke xviii. 21. Thus Jehu bears himself up : 2 Kings 
X. IG, ' And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they 
made him ride in his chariot.' And thus are those hearers of the word 
whom the apostle James describes, chap. i. 23, 24, &c., who, by the hear- 
ing of the word, had got some stamp and form of religion upon their hearts, 
though but an inferior work, and deceived themselves by reasoning from it 
that their state therefore was good : ' If any man seem to be religious,' says 
he, 7. e. to be hot and forward in duties, ' and refrains not his tongue, he 
deceives his own heart ; ' for he thinks his religion such as will save him 
when it will not, where a known sin is thus nourished with it ; and he 
deceives not others only, but his own heart. And it is from the external 
performances of duties that they plead unto Christ, Mat. vii. 22. They 
urge Christ much with what they had done, how they had prayed and 
preached in his name. Their own duties deceived them ; and in that they 
are brought in pleading them then, it argues that they were not gross hypo- 
crites, who had deceived men only, but who had deceived themselves, and 
thought they had such pleas as would be of force before God's tribunal, and 
therefore are brought in pleading them, which, if they had not judged them 
good and vaUd, they would not dared to have done. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The pleas which men who have only morality make for themselves. — They urge 
that they do not live in vicious courses; that they refrain from yreat and noto- 
rious sins ; that they are honest ; that they have some knowledge of the truths 
of the Christian reliyion, as well as make a profession of it. — What are the 
reasons that men are so ready to account any moral righteousness which they 
have to he grace. 

We are laying siege and battery to all those false pleas and carnal reason- 
ings (which the apostle calls * strongholds'), which all sorts of unregenerate 
men build up for themselves to maintain a good opinion of their estates. 
We having demoHshed those of the profane and ignorant sort, whose strength 
and force are but weak and small, have already sat down before the holds 
and forts of civil and formal Christians, whose number, as it is greater, so 
their fortifications are of more strength, and will hold out a longer siege. 
Their outworks, such pleas as are drawn from external privileges, which are 
more common to them and all other unregenerate men, we have already 
scaled and taken ; we will therefore now advance and set forwards towards 
the main strength and castle of defence ; which is in view, and for the outside 
of it towards men, a fair and goodly one, consisting of much righteousness of 
their own, founded and fortified much of it by nature, and then repaired and 
much enlarged by their education in the church ; and ere we begin to lay 
battery against it, let us take a general view of it altogether, and ' go round 
about it, and tell all the towers thereof,' and descry wherein the great 
strength of it doth lie. 

1. The greatest and eminentest tower belonging to it, is a negative 
righteousness, and outward abstinence from gross sins, so that they can- 
not be charged with the gross defilements of the world ; so said the pha- 
risee, ' I am no drunkard, no adulterer ;' they wallow not in the common 
mire, and so think themselves pure in their own eyes. * There is a gene- 
ration that are pure in their own eyes, though they be not washed from their 
inward filthiness,' as Agur saith, Prov. xxx. (which imputation, though these 



ci'J2 AN UNREGENERATE MANS GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

men would fasten and apply to others better than themselves, who are truly 
holy, yet it will be found that they themselves are the men the Holy Ghost 
there meant and aimed at) ; yea, they further say, that they not only abstain 
from such sins, but find no great inchnation thereunto ; yea, they utterly 
abominate such courses themselves, and are zealous against them to punish 
and reform them in others. 

2. The second is, much good both in their natures and dispositions, 
many virtues, which are likewise expressed in their lives in many actions that 
are good : as sweetness, candour, goodness, and ingenuity of nature ; meek- 
ness, kindness and love to those they live with ; pity to others in distress, 
honesty and integrity of heart in their dealings with men ; uprightness in a 
good and just cause. 

3. These, joined with keeping a good conscience, and doing out of con- 
science that which they do in secret. They say they would not wrong a man 
that trusts them, no, not in secret ; they say they are diligent in their call- 
ings, provide for their families, and careful in the places they live in, aim 
at the public good, and will be missed when they are gone. And though 
these be the most conspicuous parts of their righteousness, and which they 
most trust to, and therefore are denominated civil men, the denomination 
being from that which is most eminent in them ; yet to countenance this 
their honesty the more, and to set it forth and varnish it for grace, they 
plead they are not devoid of religion neither. Therefore they further plead, 
and say, 

4. We know the truth professed and taught amongst us, and we do assent 
to it, and do hate and renounce popery, and in our practice we conform to 
all holy duties publicly professed, and constantly we come to church, as all 
Christians ought to do, and are conversant in those holy duties with reve- 
rence, attention, and devotion (and if they have been more strictly educated, 
they do sometimes say prayers privately), and unto all this we add faith in 
Jesus Christ, looking to be saved alone by him. 

5. Unto all which goodness they put in many excuses for what they want 
into the balance to make it weight. It is true, saith such an one, I am not 
so scrupulous in every small thing as some are, as in petty oaths and vain 
speeches ; and what need I stand troubling myself with my thoughts, which 
are so various and infinite ? Nor do I much stick to take some liberty in 
some particular sin ; yet it is but my infiimitj', and all have their imperfec- 
tions ; and God will not be strict to mark all that is done amiss, nor there- 
fore need I be so. 

0. And, again, what though I have not found such a work in me, as 
some talk of, to see myself in a damnable estate, to have such heart-break- 
ings for my sins, and have not had such longings after Christ, and con- 
tempt of and parting with the world, nor such a relish of or running after 
sermons, and delight in duties ; I thank God I know no cause I have to be 
troubled, I never knew myself in a bad estate, I have been thus well dis- 
posed from my youth ; I believe in Christ as well as they do, though I do 
not keep such ado about him, in talking or thinking of him ; I do not remem- 
ber that ever I wanted him, for I believed in him ever since I can remember; 
I am sorry when I offend and sin, and do heartily ask God mercy, as that 
publican did, ' God be merciful to me a sinner.' And what though I am 
not so zealous nor so forward in many duties, as in talking of Scripture mat- 
ters everywhere where I come, or in teaching and praying, and repeating 
the word with my family, or confessing my sins, and mourning for them ; I 
have not such gifts as others have, but my heart is good, though I make not 
such a show ; and though I spend the chief of my time and thoughts upon 



Chap. IV. j jn respect of sin akd punishment. 531)3 

the world, and that all my care and desires, and chief delights, are taken 
up in getting wealth and honours, and learning, &c., yet I follow but my 
calling, and I take no unlawful courses to get wealth ; and he is worse than 
an infidel that provides not for his family ; nor do I spend time in unlawful 
pleasures forbidden in the word. Unto which and the like excuses I shall 
hereafter speak. 

This is in brief the model of that goodness, which, Hke another Babel, 
they themselves have built to climb up to heaven with, and are bold to set 
in competition with the truth of holiness in the most regenerate ; and, in- 
deed, it is no wonder if nature, having any righteousness of its own, stands 
upon it, and takes it for grace, without examining of it ; for surely, if out- 
ward favours from God lead them into such an opinion, and their privileges 
as living in the church (as was shewn) which are things external and with- 
out them, et qiKr mm fecimus ipsi ; if these, I say, do yet flush men in a 
good opinion of themselves, how much more any righteousness which is 
their own, and in and from themselves ! And therefore Paul, besides his 
outward privileges of being circumcised, reckons up as the chief thing he 
made account of, that righteousness which was his own, Philip, iii. 6-9. 
And if they esteem and magnify adherent, relative and sacramental right- 
eousness so much, then inherent personal righteousness must needs be 
much more extolled by them. A man's own righteousness in his own eyes. 
Oh, it must needs be gi-ace, be it never so Httle ; any abstinence from sin, 
any virtuous disposition, any religious devout performances : ' All a man's 
ways are clean in his own eyes,' saith Solomon, Prov. xvi. 2 ; which inti- 
mates two reasons : 

1st, In his own eyeSj that is, himself being judge. And therefore, till a 
man hath new eyes given him from the holy word of God, and be enlight- 
ened by a supernatural light accompanying it, which might represent men 
themselves to them and their condition, as it is set forth in the word, no 
wonder if they think well of themselves. Now these kind of men are never 
put out of conceit with themselves by the light of the holy word, revealing 
their spiritual sinfulness in their natural condition to them, to humble 
them. Though they hear it, and understand many things in a general man- 
ner, so far as natural understanding reaches, yet they have not had such a 
light as^to understand themselves by it, to see their own faces in it, as 
James speaks; and therefore are but of the first sort of hearers, who 
did not understand the word, that is, not with an applying or atiectiiig light 
as the other, the stony and thorny ground did; and, therefore, having 
but their own eyes, no wonder if their ways be clean in their own judgments 
and opinions. 

2dly. And again, because they look but with their own eyes, their natural 
light, so because they be their own nays, yea, even all their urtys, as Solomon 
speaks, so as even for the most of their wicked ways, they have some excuses 
and fair pretences to colour them, but much more their moral virtues, and 
righteous dealings, and good dispositions, their own righteousness, these 
must needs be high in their own esteem. Every man is apt to niagnify what 
is his own above the worth of it ; and by how much the worth of it is greater, 
by so much the more a man useth to magnify it. If men have children 
which are the fruit of their bodies, they doat on them, as the ape in the 
fable, that presented its misshapen birth to Jupiter. If men have parts or 
wit, whi<ih are the more noble and fair births of their brain, they much more 
admire them in themselves than in others. But above all, if corrupt nature 
comes to have any righteousness bestowed upon it, which is the noblest en- 
dowment of all other, oh then, out of question it may be grace ! And by 



394 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

how much more men had rather think well of themselves for righteousness 
and goodness than for any other endowment whatsoever, by so much are 
they yet made more prone to think well of their own virtues and performances 
rather than of any other excellency. And therefore Paul, in that inventory 
he gives in of w^hat was gain to him, and of most worth, we find no mention 
made by him of his learning, which in other regards he stood upon ; but he 
stands chiefly upon his righteousness, and virtues, and conformity to the 
law. And therefore the philosopher also made the practice of virtue to be 
man's chiefest good, so high an opinion hath nature of its own righteousness. 
3dly. And add to this, that to men fallen into such a state of general cor- 
ruption (as they hear all men are fallen into), any seeming righteousness and 
goodness must needs seem the more to them, to prize it in that respect, that 
they hear how corrupt mankind is. Beggars, w^e see how proud they are if 
they get an old suit to cover their nakedness, a little money, to shew that 
they have some, and this because they are beggars. So we the sons of men, 
that are bankrupts, and of whom the word says, that by nature we are alto- 
gether unrighteous, and that we are but flesh, wherein dwells no good thing; 
that we should have anything like goodness, it makes us the more conceited, 
and we think presently, surely it must be grace. So the church of Laodicea 
says. Rev. iii. 17, that she was 'rich, and increased with goods, and had 
need of nothing ; ' yet she was ' poor, and blind, and miserable, and 
wretched.' She had got some old rags of righteousness, some brass shillings 
and counterfeit pieces of good works and performances ; and how proud was 
she ! Therefore no wonder if men ' go about to establish their own righteous- 
ness' (as the Jews did, Rom. x. 2), if they advance it and set it up, if it 
passes and gets out for grace, and be thought worthy of that degree in their 
own thoughts. 



CHAPTER V. 

That all this mere morality in corrupt nature falls short of (/race, proved from 
the instances of those brave spirits among the heathen, in uhom those virtues 
shined, and yet they had nothing of the grace of God in them. — Proved also 
from the Jews, icho made their boast of the law and its righteousness, and 
u-ho yet, as inveterate enemies, opposed the grace of the gospel. 

Thus you have a description and general scheme of their strongest holds, 
consisting of natural and acquired righteousness, with reasons why men are 
apt to rest in it as true grace. We will now fall to battery, and ere we 
assault each particular apart, we will first answerably make a general assault 
on the whole, as thus viewed and set together. 

The state of the controversy is, whether corrupt natui-e, remaining still 
corrupt, be not capable of all this kind of goodness, and whether it falls not 
short of grace, which, if proved and detected once, convinces them of their 
estates ? This I will demonstrate both in the on and diort of it, shewing the 
grounds of it, and what principles there are in corrupt nature which do make 
it capable of all this; it still remains corrupt as towards God. 

And, first, for the on, that it is so. I will clear it by instances of those 
in whom all these have been found, whom yet we will acknowledge that they 
all wanted grace, which is a way of conviction Christ useth in the like case 
to convince the Jews of their false righteousness, wherein they rested, telling 
them that the Gentiles did the like, and that so do even pubHcans and 
sinners : Mat. v. 46, 47, * For if ye love them which love you, what reward 



Chap. V.J in respect of sin and punishment. 395 

have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? And if ye salute your 
brethren only, what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans so? ' 
Luke vi. 32, 83, ' For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye ? 
for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which 
do good to you, what thank have ye ? for sinners also do even the same.' 
And lirst, for moral virtues. 

1. Consider, that even in beasts the impression of many of those moral 
virtues, thus taken for grace, are to be found ; I say, the impression of 
them. For as in some beasts we use to say there are umhne rationis, sha- 
dows of reason, as in apes, &c., beasts which have quick fair eyes; so in 
others there are quccdam umbrce turn vitiorum cum virtutum : shadows as of 
vices, so of virtues, are to be seen in them • as in horses, of pride and 
revenge ; and in spaniels of virtues, of love and kindness to their masters ; 
and ' the ox,' says God, ' knows his owner ; ' so of diligence too in the ant, 
to whom God sends the sluggard ; so of faithfulness to their mates, in doves; 
of chastity and modesty, in elephants, who will not couple in the sight of 
others ; of requital of kindness, as in elephants too : so likewise in that lion 
who fawned on the slave who was cast to him to be devoured, remembering 
how that slave had pulled a thorn out of his foot formerly in the wilderness, 
as Gellius reports.* Now as God sends the sluggard to the ant, and the 
unthankful Israelites to the ox, to learn diligence and thankfulness, so I may 
send those that rest in such moral virtues to these beasts, to teach them not 
to boast of them, or rest in them. But it will be said that these want rea- 
son, and therefore these are no virtues as in them. 

2. Therefore consider, that in heathen men devoid of grace, all those 
virtues were found in as eminent a manner as in thyself. What, should I 
speak of Socrates, Cato, &c., and the rest of those philosophers, I could 
bring as large a catalogue of such, for examples of moral virtues of all sorts, 
as Paul doth of the worthies in the Old Testament, as patterns of faith, 
Heb. xi., but that (as he saith there) ' the time would fail me.' Only do 
but in general consider what the apostle saith of them : Rom. ii. 14, ' For 
when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things con- 
tained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.' 

3. Consider that in men sinning against the Holy Ghost, all these 
moral virtues were eminently found, as in Julian the apostate, who lived 
(after he had so sinned) as exactly according to the best rules of moraUty, 
as ever any man did, and was naturally just, sober, temperate, patient, &c. 
And though he sinned so highly in breaking forth into revenge against Christ, 
yet that his sinning did not extinguish these virtues in him ; but he con- 
tinued zealous against drunkenness and stage-players, &c. ; thinking indeed 
by that his exact life and zeal against such abuses to have countenanced 
heathenism, and set it up as a perfection in opposition unto Christianity and 
godliness, by shewing that even without Christ men might live unblameably, 
and therefore to prove, if he could, that there was no need of Christ to pro- 
mote a good life. But you will say, I find I live thus out of conscience, and 
do follow the guidance of it in these practices. 

4. Consider, therefore, that so did also these heathen ; for the principle 
from whence (as was mentioned) they did those things of the law, Paul 
saith, was the law written in their hearts: Rom. ii. 15, 'Which shew the 
work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.' 
And this is evident also in Abimelech, who pleaded to God, ' integrity of 
heart,' and God acknowledged it. Now integrity is a conformity with some 

•K- Gellius, Noctes Att. lib. v. cap. xiv. 



8SjG AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

rnle, so as that integrity of his was his following the rule of his conscience 
in the light thereof. And so Paul says of himself, when unregenerate, that 
what he did, ' he verily thought he ought ' to do it. Acts xxvi. 9. And so 
he did all out of such a conscientious respect. Yea, but you will say, though 
they might do things out of conscience dictating, yet not out of a disposition 
abominating the evil they shunned, as I do, for I abominate such courses. 

5. Therefore consider that even the Gentiles also did avoid many sins 
with such a spirit of detestation against them, 1 Cor. v. 1. That incest, or 
fornication, of that Corinthian with his father's wife, was such a crime (Paul 
says) * as was not once named among the Gentiles.' They loathed and 
abominated that and such vices, so that they would not so much as name 
them ; the speech and hearsay of such courses was odious to them. 

But you will say that these are heathens, but I join holy duties of God's 
worship to these, and I know God, and profess him and his worship, &c. 

6. So did the Jews, who had a form of the law, and made their boast of 
God : Rom. ii. 17-20, ' Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the 
law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and appro vest the 
things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law ; and art con- 
fident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in 
darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the 
form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.' Thej had the whole 
system of it in their heads, and not only so, but performed holy duties. So 
the pharisees made profession of God, and came to the temple to the ordi- 
nances, and this whilst they were in force, and owned by God as his public 
standing worship ; none abounded more than they in such duties, both 
public and private. 'A pharisee,' it is said, 'went up to pray,' &c., Luke 
xviii. 10, and yet they, many of them, sinned against the Holy Ghost, Luke 
XX. 19. That young man which Christ sent away so sorrowful and mourn- 
ful, says, he had ' kept all the commandments from his youth,' Mat. xix. 20. 
Yea, one of the scribes, Mark xii. 32, 33 (of whom Christ yet said, that he 
had not attained to the kingdom of God, ver. 31:), went yet further, for he 
discerned that a further thing was required than the outward performance of 
all such duties of God's worship, namely, an inward love to God with all the 
soul, and all a man's strength, which, says he, 'is more than all whole burnt- 
offerings and sacrifices.' So his speech is, Mark xii. 33, and Christ hath 
said too, ' Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes 
and pharisees, ye cannot be saved,' Mat. v. 20. Ay, but you will say. We 
l^rofess Christ also ; but the Pharisees did not profess Christ nor believe in 
him. For answer to which consider, 

1st. That those professors whom the apostle James speaks of, were negli- 
gent hearers, and such as said, they had faith, and that faith such as was 
joined with the practice of many things in the law ; yet still they neglected 
the main thing of the law, or some duties of it which they knew, as appears 
by that speech, ' If a man keep the whole law, and be guilty in one point,' his 
faith profits him not. As also by that other in the same epistle, * He that 
restrains not his tongue, his religion is in vain ;' so as they were obedient to 
the law in all other things, and were religious also, and devout, as those 
words imply. 

And, 2dly, though it be hard to give an instance of civil Christians in 
those primitive times, because persecution then kept out such as had no 
i'urther work upon their hearts, or ground of profession, more than educa- 
tion ; yet now in an established church, wherein religion is commanded by 
the laws of the land, there are and may be many which have no more but 
civility added to their profession of Christ. The name of infidel now is as 



Chap. YL] in respect of sin and punishment. 897 

odious as that of Christian was in the primitive times, and God working the 
same eifects in the church as out of it, he civiliseth men therein, as well as 
among the heathens, and yet often works no further. These civilised per- 
sons onl\' add the profession of Christ unto their civility, because they live 
in the church, as the pharisces did, and so professed God and Moses, yet in 
opposition to Christ, as indeed these two set up an outsvard owning of Chris- 
tianity and civility, in opposition to Christ and the power of regeneration by 
Christ, and an outward form of religion in opposition to the spiritual worship 
of God, as they in Timothy did, who set up a form of godliness that they 
might deny the power of it : 2 Tim. iii. 5, ' Having a -form of godliness, but 
denying the power thereof : from such turn away.' 

And, 3dly, though in the primitive times there were no such instances of 
a mere moral man's professing Christ for the reason aforesaid, yet we find 
those who, though they went further than this, and not only abstained from 
the pollution of the world (though a work from natural principles), but escaped 
them through the knowledge of Christ, yet had not true grace, for they fell 
away and apostatized : 2 Peter ii. 20-22, ' For if after they have escaped 
the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end 
is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not 
to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to 
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened 
unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit 
again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

What are the principJes from irhence all this virtue and vwral actions in iinre- 
geverate men do proceed. — Natural conscience. — A common work of the Spirit 
in restraininf/ grace. — Natural jiisdom, a principle of modesty and the fear 
of shame. — Good education, a common knowledge of the principles of religion 
by the icord preached, v hereby a natural devotion is stirred in mot. 

I come now to the hon, viz., to demonstrate to you those principles which 
in corrupt nature produce all this righteousness that civil men build upon, 
the discovery whereof will discover that all of it falls short of grace. 

1. There is by nature in men's* understanding and natural conscience, 
which hath many sparks of moral light concerning duties, both towards God 
and toward men, raked up in it : llom. ii. 14, 15, ' The Gentiles which have 
not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, their conscience 
excusing or accusing.' The Lord, seeing man's nature to be wholly cor- 
rupted, hath put a viceroy of his (viz., conscience) into their hearts, to rule 
and curb their spirits, which conscience he hath put into the very heathen ; 
which principle (as that place shews) is not only appointed merely as an 
overseer, or a witness against them, to take notice of the evil of their actions, 
but also it hath some stroke and power in men to restrain and cmb them from 
many sins, and to make them do many things agreeable to the law, for it is 
said, they are ' a law unto themselves ;' that is, suppose there were no laws 
of men to constrain or restrain them, yet the principle of conscience would 
and did make them do many things, and had the power of a law over them : 
and that it might be of force to carry them on thus, it hath, as a law, power 
to dispense both punishments and rewards, for it doth accuse them for evil, 

* Qu. ' men ' ?— Ed. 



398 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

and excuse them for good, as it is said there ; which two effects of it cause 
men to do much, as it had such an influence on the Gentiles, therefore it is 
said, they did the things of the law. It was not only a light to discover 
what to do, but so strong a convincing light as to cause them to do what the 
law required in many particulars. 

2. To back this light, and that the authority of it may be further obeyed, 
the Lord Christ, besides this, hath a work upon the wills of men, though 
remaining still corrupt, a work that is suitable to this light of conscience, 
and which makes them also in their wills and aftections somewhat more con- 
formable to the light of their consciences, stamping such impressions upon 
them as it shall become more easy for them to do what conscience dictates 
to them, to abstain from gross sins, to be temperate, just, and sober. And 
though indeed the will be left more to its corruption than the understanding, 
yet there are impressions from God upon it ; and look as conscience, in the 
light of it, hath a double effect, so suitably hath God upon the will also. As, 

1st, Whereas conscience doth check and rein a man in from many sins, 
the Lord comes also with a restraining work upon the wills of men, and 
takes off their hearts from being inclined to many sins. He bridleth up and 
tameth the wild and headstrong lusts of men, by allaying and driving in their 
inclinations to some sins, even as in like manner he did promise to do to the 
heathens about the Israelites' land : Exod. xxxiv. 24, ' For I will cast out the 
nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders : neither shall any man desire 
thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice 
in the year.' God promiseth there, that when the people should all go up 
to Jerusalem to appear before the Lord thrice in a year, that then none 
should desire their land. Here was a work of God's Spirit upon the hearts 
of the nations round about, yea, upon their wills, whereby he did take away 
their desire at such a time, when all the males were to go up to Jerusalem ; 
when otherwise there was a fair opportunity for them to seize upon their 
land, for they might know the set time of their going up, and so take their 
advantage ; but God undertook to take away the desire after it. So that we 
see there is a restraining work upon the wills of men who yet have not grace, 
whereby God doth rebate the strength of their inclinations to many sins ; 
such a work whereby he doth not only work by speaking instruction, as 
working upon their reason, or by terrors, &c., and so by this work upon their 
wills, as he did upon Balaam, and Laban, and Abimelech, warning them by 
niffht. No, that is not all, but he influenceth men by more real, silent, 
powerful, secret acts upon them, making their wills listless unto such an ob- 
ject, so that he restrains the inclinations of corrupt nature, as when he kept 
in the rage of the fire from hurting of the three children, Dan. iii. 27. The 
like work he wrought in Esau, when he came against Jacob, — he turned his 
heart to love him. It was not such a work as was upon Laban, for that to 
Laban was by a speaking act, warning him by night, which Laban was sen- 
sible of, and therefore says that God appeared to him ; but that on Esau was 
an undiscerned act in the working of it, jei efficaciously restraining his wrath 
acainst Jacob. And although that impression upon Esau's will was but for 
that one particular act, and so was transient, yet what God did to him and 
those others in these particular cases he may do and doth in some others for 
continuance, by the same kind of working, in a permanent gift, restraining 
sin, which men call a virtue. Thus Paul calls it the gift of continency, 
1 Cor. vii. 7; Mat. xix. 11, 12, where Christ says there were some chaste 
who were born so. And thus it may seem he dealt with Abimelech, not only 
restraining him by his conscience and acts of reason, but by a secret act and 
hand upon his heart, keeping his lust from the breaking forth of it upon 



Chap. YI.J in respect of sin and punishment. 399 

Sarah, though taken into his power and (as it is thought) into his bed : Gen. 
XX. G, ' I kept thee,' says God, that is, held in or kept back, as the word 
signifies, implying the impetuousness of his lust of itself; and 'I suffered 
thee not,' and agreeable to the Hebrew it is, non dedi, or non tradidi te tibi, 
that is, ' I left thee not unto thyself.' And this was such a work as Abime- 
lech discerned not till God told him it, that he might acknowledge it. So it 
it is, too, in Ps. Ixxvi. 10, * Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the 
remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.' The meaning is, take the enemies 
of the church, so much of their wrath as shall make for the good of the 
church and the glory of God, so much will he let out and suflfer them to 
manifest and vent, and execute it upon his people ; but the dregs of their 
wrath, the remainder of it, so much as will be for the hurt of his church, 
and not make for his glory, that he will curb and restrain, and will not suffer the 
dregs of it to be broached. Now, if he restrains some degrees of a lust in 
regard of the working of it, he can and doth restrain it altogether in some, 
and works so upon their wills, that the abstinence from such a lust shall be 
very easy ; and this he doth without putting in a new principle of grace, but 
b}' a common work of the Spirit upon the hearts and wills. 

2dly, God doth not only cut short their spirits from desiring too many 
evils, but works in them desires to many things morally good, and against 
things morally evil. 

(1.) He touches their hearts with many inclinations to what is morally 
good ; there is an impression made by God's Spirit upon their wills which 
doth incline'^ them to many things morally good, as to justice, temperance, 
and obedience to superiors, and piety to parents, &c., 1 Sam. x. 26. When 
God had anointed Saul, one of the smallest tribe and family, to be king over 
his people (whereas the hearts of men are naturally inclined as much to 
rebellion as to anything else, and men by nature are impatient to have others 
rule over them, especially such an one as was raised out of so mean a con- 
dition from among them), it is said that ' there went with him a band of 
men whose hearts God had touched.' The Lord, by a common work of his 
Spirit, did incline their hearts to be subject to Saul, he did put into them an 
habitual disposition of obedience to him. As the loadstone toucheth the 
knife, and there is a virtue left behind it, so God's Spirit doth touch men's 
hearts, and put into them many moral dispositions, as of obedience, &c. So 
he did touch the heart of Saul then, when David spared his life in the cave ; 
he was overcome with kindness, the text says he wept, he had an ingenuity 
in him, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16. By the like reason he toucheth men's hearts with 
a disposition of heroicness, as he did Saul's also, which is the meaning of 
that scripture, 2 Sam. x. 9. When he was king, he had another heart, and 
it was girded over with heroical and kingly dispositions, which for two years 
lasted in public aims for the good of his country, and often appeared in his 
following reign. The like is that put into children towards their parents, 
which the heathens called pietatem in parentes. So also he gave the Israelites 
favour in the Egyptians' eyes (a people who otherwise hated them), to lend 
them their ear-rings, which they might suspect they would carry away from 
them, Exod. xii. 35, 36. What a work was this ! And a like work is it 
when God makes men friendly to their neighbours, &c. So the barbarians, 
when Paul and all the men with him were shipwrecked, they kindled them a 
fire, and shewed them kindness, as the text says. Acts xxviii. 2. 

(2.) So he sets their hearts against what is morally evil. This we may see 
in Saul when he was king, 1 Sam. xi. 6. There was Nahash the Ammonite 
came, and would have subdued the people of Jabesh-Gilead, and would have 
this base covenant from them, that he might thrust out all their right eyes 



400 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

— a barbarous cruelty ! Now, Saul being their king, though a wicked man, 
yet the Spirit of God came upon him, and his anger was kindled greatly. 
God's Spirit wrought in that affection such a disposition, whereby he was 
exceedingly provoked with indignation of so inhuman a fact. There was an 
heroicness of spirit fell upon him, whereby he did detest such a fact, and his 
spirit boiled within him to revenge it, which was from God's Spirit. So 
Hazael, a heathen, had such dispositions in him, that he did then detest those 
cruelties that the prophet told him of, though they were wrought out after- 
wards ; but he then said, ' What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do 
this great wickedness ? ' 2 Kings viii. 13. He accounted him that should 
do so a dog, a beast, not a man, the basest and vilest of men. Yet con- 
cerning this let it be added, that this disposition is rather a looking at such 
courses as contrary to principles of humanity (as his speech implies) than 
as contrary to God. Men see a baseness, an inhumanness in them, which 
they are conscious to be in them, and so out of heroic generosity rather 
scorn them than hate them as sins. 

Now, if it be asked, How these can stand and be symbolical in man's 
nature, who is nothing but full of love to himself ? I answer. That though 
it be granted that this common work is a winning of some ground (as I may 
so express it) of self-love, that whereas a man loves none but himself, if 
corrupt nature be left to itself ; God by such dispositions elevates corrupt 
affections, so as self-love affords to others something of its love, and takes 
not all to itself, but lets others have a share in its affections, friends, and 
parents, &c., yet so as though it suffers others as sojourners to have some 
room in the heart, yet self is king still, and hath custom out of all. But as 
good nature is winning ground from self-love towards men, so grace is de- 
posing it, and subjecting it to God ; for till it be deposed, the kingdom of sin 
stands, though these virtues enjoy many boons and favours under it. So 
that we see there is a common work of the Holy Ghost upon men's wills, 
suitable to the light of their consciences, whereby he doth restrain men from 
much evil, and whereby he doth put in them some heroic dispositions to 
what is morally good, all which falls short of grace. 

Now for God's end in this work : it is, first, for the elect's sake ; and, 
secondly, that the world might stand. 

1st, For the elect's] sake it is ; and, therefore, we shall find. Gen. xx. 3, 
that God restrained Abimelech ; he did put into him an integrity of heart, 
that he did follow his conscience ; and also he restrained and kept him from 
Sarah for Abraham's sake; for that is the reason given: Ps. cv. 14, 15, 
' He suffered no man to do them wrong ; yea, he reproved kings for their 
sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed,' &c. It hath reference to that 
storv of Abimelech ; it was for Abraham's sake, and so for the seed of Abra- 
ham's snke ; because if men were left to the villany and wickedness of their 
nature, they would leave no man upon the earth, much more would they all 
fall upon the elect, and encompass the holy city. For their sakes, there- 
fore, that they may ' lead a peaceable life in regard of honesty and godU- 
ness,' God doth put such moral dispositions in men. And, 

2dlv, For the world's sake, for indeed without this the world could not 
stand," for the wickedness of the world would be so great that men would 
devour one another. Therefore as God doth give gifts to rebellious men in 
the church, Ps. Ixviii, 18, to build up the church, or that it may stand to be 
built up, so he gives men that live in the world, principles and virtues that 
may fit them to live in the world, that it may stand. And therefore in this 
relation thanks are to be given for all men, as well as prayers made for 
them : 1 Tim. ii. 1, 'I exhort therefore, that, first of all, suppUcations, 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 401 

prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.' And yet 
again, while men are thus respected by one another, and mutually by each 
other, by reason of these impressions made upon their corrupt nature ; yet 
lost ho that made the world should have no respect given to himself, nor the 
world be sensible of any duty they did owe to him, and so he should be 
clean shut out of the world, therefore he did not leave himself without 
witness ; but they should know there was a God, that even his enemies 
uiight have some respect to him, acknowledge him, and reverence himself, 
and do some offices of respect to him, as well as one towards another, there- 
fore he hath put some sparks of the knowledge of a deity into all men'a 
hearts, Rom. i. 19, 20. And withal, he hath implanted in their wills and 
affections some impressions of fear and reverence, as appeared in all the 
heathens, of whom some were naturally devout, as those women that yet 
opposed Paul : Acts xiii. 50, * But the Jews stirred up the devout and 
honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution 
against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.' They are 
called devout persons, which natural devotion is a third principle whereby 
self-love doth naturally acknowledge God as kiug, and hath a motive of 
doing some homage to him, and to acknowledge it due ; yet so as it is but 
as those kings, or free states, who, though the}-- may acknowledge another 
state their protector, yet live by their own laws, and dispose of all by their 
own authority, while they thus acknowledge some respect to another. And 
all these three principles, of conscience, moral virtue, and devotion towards 
God, are internal more or less in every man. 

But further, unto these God hath added some assistance to strengthen 
conscience in what it dictates, and to help forward the practice of virtues. 

As, 1, natural wisdom, which doth both assist conscience, and help to 
strengthen these moral dispositions, and assists against many sins. So 
Haman, though his revenge began to boil, and was ready to break forth, and 
he was exceedingly wroth with Mordecai, yet notwithstanding he was kept 
by his wisdom from present revenge, for he thought to a take fitter oppor- 
tunity for it afterwards : Esther v. 10, it is said, ' he refrained himself.' 
So Saul, his natural wisdom moved him to moderation, 1 Sam. x. 27 ; for 
though a band of men whose hearts God had touched, followed him, yet 
there was a company of the children of Belial, who said, * How shall this 
man save us ? And they despised him, and brought him no presents ; but 
he held his peace ; ' that is, Saul winked at this, and did not go about to 
revenge it, for his natural wisdom told him that it was best for him to be 
silent until he had made his party good. So as though there was no con- 
science, yet natural wisdom makes men abstain from many sins, because it 
will make for their credit and preservation of their name amongst men, and 
the like. Fleshly wisdom is a great principle by which the world is guided ; 
therefore we shall find that when Paul would clear himself, that his con- 
versation was sincere before God, he saith, ' We have not walked by fleshly 
wisdom, but we have had our conversation in the world, by the grace of God,' 
2 Cor. i. 12. He puts these two as contradistinct principles which guide 
men. Some carry themselves fairly, yet out of fleshly wisdom, which makes 
them subject themselves to duties, to conform themselves to religion, which 
makes them just, sober, and temperate ; but there was another principle 
beyond this in Paul : ' We have had our conversation not with fleshly 
wisdom.' Men see it is their wisest and best way, both for their own safety, 
and the preservation of the world, to be sober, &c. For all the laws of the 
second table are made especially for the good of men in their several rela- 

YOL. X. c c 



402 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

tions here in this world, and this makes men generally subject themselves 
unto them. 

2. The second assistance by which natural conscience is helped, is mo- 
desty, whereby men are ashamed to do evil ; this restrains as well as 
conscience and wisdom. God hath left shame to accompany the conscious- 
ness of the baseness of evil courses ; as in Hazael, who blushed when the 
prophet looked on him, 2 Kings viii. 11. ' It is a shame,' says the apostle, 
Eph. v. 12, ' to speak of that which is done of them in secret.' Hence 
sometimes the Gentiles did not so much as name such vile actions. This 
principle is yet left, as we see in Adam and Eve when fallen, who were 
ashamed. Gen. iii. This Tamar urged to Amnon, ' Thou shalt be a fool in 
Israel ; and I, whither shall my shame go ?' 2 Sam. xiii. 12, 13. Modesty 
and fear of shame is virtue's keeper, and overlooks corrupt nature, and keeps 
men from being notoriously bad. 

3. Education being added to all these is an help to civility, and to dis- 
pose men to religion ; for all these former principles men have by nature, 
and out of the church ; and, if so, we must not think God is less liberal in 
bestowing all these upon them who live in the church, where himself is to 
be worshipped, and where his elect hve ; he giving these gifts to these ends, 
that he might be acknowledged, and they live peaceable lives. And men 
having been brought up in such places where religion is professed, where 
such sins are punished ; and seeing the daily example of those amongst 
whom they live, to be against the practice of such sins, this doth mould 
many to the outward practice of godliness. Example hath a great stroke and 
sway amongst men ; therefore, saith Solomon, Prov. ii. 26, * Train up a 
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
it.' What made Paul a pharisee so strict ? He was brought up at the feet 
of Gamaliel, a pharisee of the pharisees ; this helped him exceedingly. Edu- 
cation hath a great stroke to carry us to evil or good. 

(1.) To evil. An example of this we have in Rehoboam. What made him 
so wickedly to cast off the counsel of the old men ? It is said, 1 Kings xii. 8, 
he consulted with those that were grown up with him. Those that he lived 
withal, and conversed with, had a great deal of authority over him, and 
therefore he took their counsel. 

(2.) To good. So in good families the power of education works much 
upon men : 2 Kings xii. 2, there it is said, that ' Jehoash did that which 
was right in the sight of the Lord, all the days that Jehoiada instructed him.' 
He having brought him up from eight years old, moulded him to a good 
conformity ; so that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all 
the while that Jehoiada lived ; but afterwards, as it was the force of com- 
pany, and example, and education, that carried him on, so when the cour- 
tiers came and bowed to him, and flattered him, he was carried away with 
that stream to idolatry. This good education, therefore, being added to 
light of conscience, and those impressions that God makes upon men's wills, 
and unto natural wisdom and modesty, doth prevail with men to keep them 
from gross sins, and to carry them on to holy duties. 

4. The hght of the word being added to all this, must needs work more 
upon the mere natural light in men ; for they, by living in the church, have 
the light of the word added to the light of conscience and moral virtues. 
This must have a greater power upon men, and though it doth not prevail 
to convert, yet at least they shall smell of it ; for when men shall find in the 
word of God the same things commanded and forbidden that natural con- 
science doth forbid or command, natural conscience comes to have more 
strength, and is the more backed ; for the word gives it a new and double 



Chap, VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 403 

commission, and fumisheth it with distincter and greater threatenings of 
hell, and promises of heaven, to persuade men to obedience. It furnisheth 
conscience with a new commission, and enlargeth it ; for it not only says 
the same to men that conscience said, but enlighteneth it further with many 
duties, which, when known, agree to the principles of conscience ; or, as 
conclusions further drawn out, to the principles of reason ; so, as the pha- 
risees had a form of knowledge of the law, Rom. ii., and answerably to that 
form of knowledge, the virtues in their wills are enlarged much also, and 
they come to have a form of godliness, 2 Tim. iii. And that this light of 
the word, or living where the ordinances are administered, do strengthen 
and help moral virtues, appears by the instance of the kings of Israel. Why 
were the kings of Israel said to be merciful above all the kings of the nations ? 
Because they had the ordinances. Therefore Ahab, though wicked, yet was 
a merciful man, because he was a king of Israel. 

5. Some particular ingredients in education, as the laws of men (which 
are part of education), do mightily help forward to civilize men. The re- 
spect to superiors doth keep men in awe ; so Esau was restrained, for he 
would have killed his brother, but he did put it off till the days of his father's 
death, and till mourning for him was past. What is the reason he did it not 
then presently ? The respect to his father, whilst alive, restrained him. 
Accordingly the apostle says, Rom. xiii. 4, that the magistrate ' bears not 
the sword in vain, but is a terror to those that do ill ;' so that the laws of 
men being added to the word, help exceedingly to civilize men, and are reme- 
dies to corrupt nature. 

6. And, in the last place, by living thus in the church, both assent is 
wrought to the truths delivered in the word, and also natural devotion is 
stirred up towards the true God in the duties of his own worship. 

1st, To assent to the principles of religion, is upon that ground wrought, 
so as to profess them. Thus, as they in John iv. 42, believed in Christ at 
the relation of the woman, so do men profess religion by a human faith. 
That which the papists say of believing as the church believes, might be 
brought up much upon the experience of this, that many, and the most, 
have no further ground of their faith than what this amounts to. Thus, 
when Mordecai was exalted, many of the nations became Jews also, and 
professed the same religion, Esther viii. 17. So there went, too, a mixed 
multitude out of Egypt, who afterwards fell off and murmured. And thus 
we see that men's opinions in all the churches are fashioned by the received 
profession among them ; as Lutheranism among Lutherans, and popery, 
where and when men are educated in it, as we see in private families 
amongst us. 

2dly, And thus is natural devotion stirred up towards the true God, and 
in his worship ; for as there is natural conscience in men, so there is natural 
devotion in them. The heathens had stamps and impressions of the power 
of God upon their hearts ; for it is said, ' That which may be known of God 
is manifest in them,' Rom. i. 19. There was and is a fear and reverence of 
a God in the heathen. Now, if men live in the church, where the true God 
is known, that natural devotion begins to be stirred and guided to the true 
Deity and worship ; yet so as it remains, for the principle itself, but mere 
nature, only directed to the right object, as being the God of the place and 
nation they live in. A pertinent instance to this purpose is 2 Kings xvii. 
24-41. There the heathens being removed by the king of Assyria from the 
cities of the Medes to the land of Israel, it is said, at the first when they dwelt 
there, they feared not the Lord, therefore he sent lions amongst them, which 
slew some of them. Upon this they send to the king of Assyria, to send 



404 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

them some of the priests that might teach them ' the manner of the God of 
the land ;' and the priests teaching them, they began to fear the Lord, 
ver. 41. Thus it is with men living in the church, they begin to fear the 
God of the place, and their devotion is stirred up to serve the true God, the 
God of the nation and church, and so to profess Christ, yet upon no other 
ground than if they lived in Turkey they would profess Mahometauism. It 
is natural to men to profess the god and religion of the country in which 
they are. If they lived under popery, they would profess the same ; and 
men living where the true fear of God is professed, the same natural devo- 
tion is stirred up towards the true God, but upon no other ground save 
natural principles. Thus Paul, Acts xxii. 3, was zealous towards God ; and 
80 those women, who yet opposed Paul, Acts xiii. 50, are called devout 
women. I yield indeed it is a work of the Spirit to cause men to assent 
that Jesus is the Lord ; as 1 Cor. xii. 3, ' Wherefore I give you to under- 
stand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed : 
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' But 
this is yet a common work, and reckoned there among those common gifts of 
healing, &c.; such gifts as are given to the rebellious also, Ps. Ixviii. 18. 
It was from education that Cain, though wicked, yet went out and sacrificed 
as well as Abel ; there was a fear of God upon his heart that carried him to 
this duty, j 



€HAPTER VIL 

Thmt the moral rir/hteousness oj unrecfenerate men proceeds from the fore-men- 
tioned pnnciples, evinced, because they are most strict about their duty to their 
neighbour, but nerjlect what they owe unto God. — That they abstain from such 
sins to which by their natural disposition they are not inclined, which it is 
easy for them to do whilst they induh/e themselves in other sins. — That they 
are more strict against those sins tvhich are forbidden and punished by human 
laws, and more zealous for those duties tvhich they enjoin. 

Now, let us make application of this, and examine whether the actions of 
civil men be not from these principles ; and that will appear, because they 
go no further than these may work, than the force of this will carry them ; 
and the streams not going higher than the fountain, it may be discerned that 
the fountain is but from nature. 

1. It appears that that civility that is in most men ariseth but from natural 
conscience, because the chief things they make most conscience of, are often 
but duties of the second table, and not of the first. The reason is, because 
the chief stamps left in natural conscience are duties of the second table, 
whenas the duties of the first were blurred and dimmed by the fall. Though 
the heathens had some devotion, yet tfce main impression of the law was seen 
in the duties of the second table, as honesty towards themselves and other 
men, justice in dealing ; and these are the freshest stamps which are left. 
I may compare civility to an old, ruinous monastery, where oftentimes the 
hall and the kitchen stand fair, but the chapel is ruinated, only here and 
there you may perceive a pillar or some ruins of it ; so in the castle of civi- 
lity, that part which concerns duties towards men stands fair, men are fairly 
sober, loving, and ingenuous; but that part that concerns duties towjvrds 
God is ruinous. Here and there may be found an old remainder, an old 
piece of a wall, a piece of a duty, something they will do;^ but the main 
duties, the great things of the law (which if grace had enlightened thy con- 



Chap. VII.J in respect of sin and punishment. 405 

science, thon woiildst make most conscience of), as private prayer, sancti- 
lying tho Sabbath, &c. these civil men regard not. And because they have 
the chiefest respect to good manners, and a fair behaviour among men, and 
to live like good citizens of the commonwealth, therefore they have the name 
of civil men. 

2. For the virtues thou hast, that they proceed from restraining grace, and 
a common work of the Spirit, appears by this. 

(1.) That thou wantestthe chiefest virtues and graces of the gospel. Though 
men be temperate, just, <fec., yet they know not how to deny themselves, to 
be broken in spirit for otiTending God, to be humbled under their natural 
condition, to walk in a sense of their misery, which are some of the chiefest 
graces of the gospel. Civil men know not what belongs to these gospel 
virtues, they want that virtue also to love their enemies, which Christ pre- 
scribes : Mat. V. 44, ' But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
despitefully use you, and persecute you.' Civil men want such evangelical 
virtues as these. And as one saith of humility, that it is not to be found in 
all Aristotle's ethics, so zeal towards God, and such graces as these, cannot 
be found in civil men ; whereas, if they had their graces from Christ, these 
would be most abundant in them. 

(2.) All those virtues grow in men alone spontaneously, which evidenceth 
that they proceed from nature. The earth brings forth daisies alone of itself; 
but if you would have herbs come up, there must be a seed sown. So these 
good dispositions of meekness and honest dealing, &c., you will find that you 
had them from your youth ; as the young man in Mat. xix. 20, who could 
say, ' All these have I kept from my youth.' But a man that hath graces 
from Christ, shall find a seed sown in his heart, and the work of conversion 
wrought by the word. 

(3.) These virtues grow not up to an increase, which evidenceth they are 
not grace, for that is of a growing nature ; but the moral man is just now no 
more than he was twenty years ago. But the graces of the Spirit grow ; a 
man grows more in zeal and love towards God. All graces coming from 
Christ are of a growing nature, whilst the other are as limbs in dead men. 
As dead members grow not, or as the parts of a picture grow not, so their 
virtues do not grow, which argues that they come not from Christ by the 
work of sanctification, but from a common work of the Spirit. 

(4.) It appears by this that all their goodness is but from nature, because 
all that abstinence from sin and vicious practices with which they content 
themselves is only such as they can perform with ease, and what nature in- 
clines them unto, or moral virtues facilitate to them, otherwise such sins as 
are discovered to be as great sins as those they make conscience of (if dear 
to them) they do not endeavour to abstain from ; and those duties which 
are above the sphere of nature, they inure not themselves to, though dis- 
covered to be as necessary as any other. Thus they pick and choose in the 
ways of God, and ofi'er sacrifices of what costs them nothing. They sacri- 
fice the lean sins, not the fat ; they only pare their nails, but cut not ofi" their 
right hands, shave the hair upon their eyelids, but pull not out their eyes. 
What comes alone and easily they will practise, as lazy apprentices in a 
trade, but what is difficult and out of the common road they set not their 
hearts unto. Their goodness, therefore, is not universal, as grace is, 

3. That all this moral goodness proceeds most from natural wisdom 
appears by this, that the consideration of fleshly wisdom guides them in 
their ways, and orders them. The good they do is fed and nourished with 
motives drawn from the world and worldly wisdom, and not such as are 



406 AN TJNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

taken out of the word, and upon those they exhort their children to good 
courses, if at any time they give good counsel. 

4. That they have that which is in them by education and modesty, &c., 
appears, 

1st. Because as to sins. What sins the law is most against, those they 
are most against, and they estimate sins as they are punished by the judges, 
as Job speaks, chap. xxxi. 11 ; but for other sins, as breaking the Sabbath, 
petty oaths, and the like, they slight, and count them nothing, though the 
law of God forbids them, if the laws of men be remiss in them. This argues 
that they have their religion but from the laws of men, because they estimate 
sins according as the law estimates them. 

2dly. The same is evident as to their religious duties, for they are cast 
into such a mould and pitch for the practice of them as the laws of men cast 
them into ; so much religion as the law requires, so much they profess, and 
no more. They perform public duties as they are members of a congrega- 
tion ; but take them in a private personal walking with God ; those things 
which the law of God requires and not men, they make no conscience of, as 
meditating on the law day and night, examining their hearts, &c. 

3dly. As for their assent to the principles of religion, they assent to all 
the articles of faith, and that all men are corrupt by nature, and that they 
must be justified by faith ; but it appears they have it from education, be- 
cause they have not experimentally found the truth of them in their own 
hearts. That a man's nature is so vile, they believe it in gross and in the 
notion ; but to have a work upon their hearts, to see in themselves what the 
word saith of corrupt nature, so as to be humbled by it, this civil men want 
and never see, which godly men do. So, who in all those great points of 
original sin, emptiness of all righteousness, and justification by faith, see all 
these things in their own hearts, they do not believe these only in general, 
but see all in the particulars of them, and have fetched the experience of 
them out of the fire, as Luther said of himself, that he thus drew out the 
doctrine of justification by faith. It is said by Christ, John vii. 25, • He 
that doth the will of my Father shall know the truth.' A man that lives in 
the church, and is truly converted to God, knows all the truths that the 
church professeth by doing of them. He doth not take them up in gross, as 
civil men do, but he finds them experimentally in his own heart ; he knows 
them by doing, as Christ saith of regenerate men, John iii. 11, ' We speak 
the things that we have heard, and testify the things that we have seen.' 
Godly men learn over all the principles of religion anew by their own experi- 
ence, and this civil men want, and therefore their assent to the principles of 
religion is but human, and such as they would have given to Mahometanism 
and popery if they had been brought up in it. 

5. And lastly, that their devotion which they have in holy performances is 
but natural appears by this, that all the duties they perform do not any way 
quicken or build up their hearts in grace. If, by all the ordinances they come 
to, their souls do not thrive ; if they go away as they came, and have no com- 
munion with God, it shews all is but natural devotion, because their hearts 
are not established with grace. That which the apostle says of the doctrines 
of men, may be said of the performance of duties by these men: Heb. xiii. 9, 
* It is a good thing to have the heart established with grace, and not with 
meats, which do not profit them that are exercised in them.' These men do 
not find their hearts inflamed with love towards God ; they have, indeed, 
been conversant in duties long, yet they have not found any communion with 
God in them ; their hearts have not been established and built up in grace ; 
they are like a dead body that hath much earth put to it, and yet grows not ; 



Chap. VIII.] in respect op sin and punishment. 407 

so nor do they grow by their performances, they are but bodily exercises to 
them. This diUerence of their performances from that which is truly graci- 
ous, Paul expresseth, Rom. vii. 6, ' We do not serve God in the oldness of 
the letter, but in newness of spirit.' He compares his former state and the 
performances thereof with that which he was now in, and with his present 
performances. Then he served God only in the oldness of the letter, as per- 
haps when he came to public exercises he was attentive to the letter, but 
there was not a newness of spirit to accompany the duties. So civil men 
serve God in the oldness of the letter, and their understandings go along 
with our sermons and prayers, but without a newness of the Spirit. While 
men serve God thus, it is nothing else but a mere outward conformity, by 
reason of the duties that are performed in the places where they live ; and 
this being the state of many men living in the church, the chiefest thing they 
rely [upon is civil righteousness, therefore they are called civil men, for 
denominalio est d majore. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

That these moral actions want the essentials of goodness. — That they are defec- 
tive in the manner of their performance, and not directed to their right end. 
— That they also are done without faith in Christ. 

Having thus spoken to the total model and compass of their estates in 
general, we will now single out each several condition apart, and hear and 
answer the pleas which they make for themselves. 

The first thing that blinds them and preserves them in a good opinion of 
their estates is the goodness that seems to be in many of their actions, for 
they hear out of the word that unregenerate men in the estate of nature are 
said to do no good, to^be altogether unprofitable, Rom. iii. 11, 12, and that 
an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, no more than thorns a bunch of 
grapes, or the thistles figs, and that every thought and imagination is evil, 
and only evil continually. Now with me (thinks such a man) I find it is not 
so, for I do good, and much good ; good to the poor, I give alms twice a 
week ; good to my family, I provide for them ; good to the commonwealth, 
by diligence in my calling ; and I perform many duties of religion that do 
glorify God. Will any man say that such actions as these are sins, or 
that I am altogether unprofitable, and that every imagination in me is con- 
tinually and only evil ? My actions testify the contrary. And can I imagine 
but that God will accept and regard what good I do, and consider it, who 
accepts the meanest services ? And here indeed they stick. So the phari- 
sees did ; they could not see but what they did was good, and so justified 
themselves ; and therefore it is to them that Christ spake those speeches, 
Luke vi. 44, that ' an evil tree could not bring forth good fruit.' And, Mat. 
xii. 34, ' How can ye, being evil, speak good things ?' He speaks in oppo- 
sition to their thought of themselves. This rose in Cain's stomach ; he 
brought a sacrifice to God as well as Abel, Gen. iv. 3, 4, and was as forward 
to do it as he ; and it was a sacrifice, for the matter of it, as good as Abel's, 
for the first fruits of the earth were commanded to be ofi'ered, as well as the 
firstlings of the flock, and he saw no reason but that his sacrifice should be 
accepted as well as Abel's, and his countenance fell when he saw it rejected. 
Now what it was that made him think much, you may perceive by God's 
reasoning with Cain, ver. 7, ' If thou do well, shalt thou not ^be accepted ?' 
Cain thought that he had done as well for his part as Abel for his, and God 



408 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

spealis tmto that secret reasoning of his, and tells him the fault lay in his 
sacrifice as it came fi'om him, that it was not good, for if it had been such 
he would have accepted it : 'If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted ?' 
So they, at the latter day, not only before man's tribunal but Christ's, seem 
to argue and plead what good they had done, as remaining, as might seem, 
and that there was some good in them which Christ might accept. And that 
they thus speak then argues that this is the great thing they stick at for their 
estates, which they have most satisfaction in. Mat. vii. 22, 23. And the 
reason why men are not wholly driven out of themselves, though they cannot 
deny themselves to be guilty of great and gross sins, is because that yet they 
cannot see but that many things they do are good, which bolsters them 
out against the other : but when they come to see not only their evil ways, 
but also their doings, which are not good, and that those doings which they 
thought to have been good are indeed void of that goodness which they 
imagined in them, then it is, and not before, they loathe themselves, 
Ezek. vi. 9. 

For answer and discovery of this false goodness these men imagine in 
themselves, 

1. If we find in many of them the quantity of this goodness, of which 
they boast, we shall yet find there is not so much to boast of, for usually 
the best part of civility lies most in negatives, as that I am no adulterer, no 
drunkard, as that pbarisee said, &c. ; but there is little affirmative goodness. 
Whereas grace is an active thing, makes a man zealous of good works : 
Titus ii. 14, ' Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' 
Grace works as strongh' in carrying on to good as in restraining from evil, 
for vivification and mortification are of equal extent ; and God will judge thee 
by thy works, not by thy abstinence from evil : ' Cease to do evil, learn to 
do well,' Isa. i. 16, 17, otherwise thou keepest the commandments as beasts 
keep the Sabbath, wherein thou art not only to rest and abstain from labour, 
— so the beasts do, — but thou must keep it holy. A man is truly accounted 
covetous, though he abstain from unjust practices, if he have his riches shut 
up, and he doth not lay them out in good works to himself, and the church, 
and his family. And'' in like manner, he is truly wicked, who, though he 
abstains from evil, yet is not zealous of holy duties. Two negatives make 
an affirmative in grammar, but ten thousand will not make one in divinity. 

But, 2. We will endeavour (through God's assistance) to convince such 
men that even those few actions, which, in their own eyes and others', seem 
so godly and glorious, are for the kind of them corrupt and abominable, and 
that in deed and in truth they do no good ; no, none in anything that ever 
they did. Their actions are not only imperfectly good, and in part tainted 
with sin (as a regenerate man's actions are, being as a good apple that hath 
some specks of rottenness in it, yet, that being cut out, the apple is pleasant 
and hath a good relish), but as they come from them they have no true good- 
ness in them ; are not as kindly apples a little corrupted, but as degenerate 
crabs, as wild grapes, as the Scripture's expression is, which are no way 
acceptable to God, or are for his palate. It is true, that if thou wert to be 
judged by man's day,* many things which thou dost would pass for current, 
and they could not but approve thee and reward thee for them. For what 
thou dost is good in the appearance and outside of it, and also good and 
profitable to men, and do applaud thee, so Rom. xiii. 3, 4. Men's works 
are called good in a civil respect when they are outwardly so ; ' Do that 
which is good,' though but externally so, ' and thou shalt have praise ' of 

* Qa ' law '—Ed. 



Chap. VIII. ] in respect of sin and punishment. 409 

magistrates and rulers, says he, ' who are not a terror to good works, hut to 
evil.' He calls them good works, when for suhstance they are such, and 
though they have by-ends the magistrate meddleth not with them ; but he 
that judgeth thee is the Lord, and God 'sees not as man sees,' 1 Sam. xvi. 
7 ; for man doth not nor can look any farther than ' the outward appearance,' 
but the Lord ' looks on the heart.' The pharisees, because men thought 
and spake well of them (who saw no more but their outward actions), there- 
fore they out of the flattery of their hearts thought well of themselves also : 
so says Christ, Luke xvi. 15, 'And he said unto them. Ye are they which 
justify yourselves before men ; but God knoweth your hearts : for that which 
is highly esteemed amongst men is abominable in the sight of God.' You 
justify yourselves before men (says he), and they had goodness enough to 
challenge man's judgment ; but God knows your hearts, whence all the good 
you do proceeds ; and consider (says he) that that which is in high esteem 
with men is often an abomination to God, and so, says Christ, are all your 
good works you boast of. But you will say, It is not only because men 
approve what I do as good, but my own conscience also, which is God's 
witness, and which knoweth the heart and things of a man, tells me so, and 
excuseth me. 

Therefore, consider 2dly, That many of thy actions may be good in the 
eyes of thine own conscience, when yet they are abominable before God. The 
heathen's consciences did excuse them : Rom. ii. 14, ' For when the Gen- 
tiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, 
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.' Had they had no 
other jury, they had been acquitted in many particulars. Titus, the emperor, 
when he died, flung open the curtains when he was to die* (when con- 
science useth to be most awake), and complained that he had not deserved 
to die, so fair and good were his actions in his own eyes. But God is greater 
than thy conscience, and thy actions may be good in thine own eyes when 
abominable in his. ' There is a generation (Prov. xxx. 12) that are pure in 
their own eyes, who are not yet washed from their filthiness ; nay, conscience 
itself in thee is defiled (Titus i. 15) and bhnd. But thou wilt say. My con- 
science looks into the law which I must be judged by, and finds my actions 
agreeable to the law in many things, and are they not good then ? 

Therefore, consider 3dly, That there are two parts of the law, inward and 
outward, the letter and the spirit ; whereof the one requires the precepts to 
be done, the other requires a right manner of doing them. This we find, 
Deut. vi. 25, ' This is your righteousness, if you observe all these command- 
ments, as he hath commanded us.' Mark it, not only to do the things com- 
manded, but to do them as he hath commanded you ; not only to hear, but 
to heed, says Christ, how you hear ; not only to give, but to give in sim- 
plicity ; if to shew mercy, to do it with cheerfulness, Eom. xii. 8. So ser- 
vants are to obey their masters with good will, as to the Lord, Eph. vi. 6, 7; 
and ministers are to feed their flock, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
mind, 1 Peter v. 2. 

Now, whilst thou regardest not the manner of doing what the law re- 
quires, as well as the thing itself the law requires, tbou leavest out the soul 
of that goodness which should inspire the action, and make it truly good. 
The Gentiles are said, Rom. ii. 14, only to do the things of the law, ra rov 
vofMov, not the law itself. But the law is then said to be fulfilled, 1 Tim. i. 15, 
when love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, can 
run to it; otherwise the work is but a dead work, from which the conscience 
must be purged as defiling it, Heb. ix. 14, as dead carcases did the Jews. 
* Suetonius in vita Titi Vespas. c. x. 



410 AN UNBEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEPOEE GOD, [BoOK X. 

There is the corpse of goodness in such an action, but the soul is wanting ; 
there is bodily exercise, but the power is wanting. But to give a more direct 
conviction that all their good works God reckons sins, this appeareth from 
Isa. Ixvi. 3, ' He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he that sacri- 
ficeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that offereth an oblation, as 
if he offered swine's blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol : 
yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their 
abominations,' where he parallels their sacrifices to the cutting off a dog's 
neck, or the killing of a man. 

But you will say. How can this be ? Seeing the things we perform are 
good for the substance of them, how came they to be sin ? I answer, though 
they be good, yet they are turned into sin, and become sin, as coming from 
such persons. Thus David speaks, Ps. cix. 7, ' Let his prayer become sin ; ' 
or, as the apostle says in another case, James iv. 17, ' To them it is sin.' 
If you ask how that comes to pass, I answer, first, in general, they receive 
both an external defilement from the estate of the person, and, secondly, an 
internal from the corruption of the soul ; they come as proceeding from hearts 
corrupted; both these are intimated, Titus i. 15, 'To the defiled and un- 
believers all things are defiled.' There is noted out, 1, that their state doth 
defile all ; and, 2, that the pollution of their minds also, whence all their 
actions proceed, do infect them ; for it is added, * their minds and con- 
sciences are defiled.' They receive an external defilement from the estate 
their persons stand in, which, being an estate of wrath and enmity, Eph. 
ii. 2, in regard thereof their persons are abominable, and therefore their 
works ; for as Abel's person was first accepted, then his sacrifices, Heb. 
xi. 4, so our persons must be accepted before our works come to be accepted. 
Natural men fall a-doing, and think their works should bring them into 
favour ; but that will never be till they get into Christ by believing, and till 
by this the state of the person is altered. If a traitor is condemned, all he 
doth is void in law ; as whether he seal a covenant, make a will, take an 
oath, or give in a testimony, it is all invalid, for his person is not good in 
law. Now they that believe not are condemned already, says Christ, John 
iii. 18 ; and indeed, such being enemies to God, their gifts are no gifts, du^a 
e^dpojv adu^a,. They say of some precious stones, that being put into a dead 
man's mouth, they lose their virtue ; so all the prayers of an unregenerate 
man, though in themselves good, yet in his mouth become sins ; and to the 
same purpose Solomon says, Prov. xxi. 4, ' The ploughing of the wicked is 
sin.' Neither have they only an extrinsecal, adjacent, relative defilement from 
the persons and their state, and their sinful other courses, who perform them, 
but there is also an intrinsecal inherent defilement in the works themselves, 
as they come from them, in regard of the principles themselves whence they 
flow, and which are the root of them ; thus in Titus i. 15. All things are 
not said only to be defiled to them, because their persons are defiled, and 
their state a state of unbelief, that they are defiled and unbelievers, but also 
because the very best principles whence these works should proceed, even 
their minds, and the highest and noblest acts of reason, and their con- 
sciences, which retain the purest and noblest principles moving men to good 
works ; all these are defiled and corrupted, because the nature of man, whence 
they proceed, is not yet purified and renewed by grace and holiness. For 
all the virtues they have do but gild and hide some corruption, they do not 
change and alter their natures. Now unless the heart be purified, wherein 
all our thoughts, and projects, and ends, and purposes, and motions (whence 
outward acts do flow), are moulded, unless this be purified, all that pro- 
ceedeth thence, must needs want all true goodness ; for the effect cannot be 



Chap. VIII.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 411 

better than the canse, nor the fruit better than the root. As Christ says, 
Mat. vii. 16, 17, ' Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? A 
corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit,' no, not one ; not only, not ordi- 
narily, or not many, but not one. For ho argues from nature, as a thorn 
cannot bring forth one grape, but all that grows out of it are briars and 
prickles, unprofitable things, and fit to be burned, so nar can corrupt nature 
bring forth any good unto God. And he instanceth in words, Mat. xii. 34, 
* How can ye, being evil, speak good things ? ' Why, there is nothing more 
easy than to speak well ; to think well, or to do well, is something difficult. 
Well, but Christ says, that they being evil, know not how to speak a good 
word. Yet the pharisees were often speaking godlily — as Christ says, ' do 
as they say ' — but though the words are good for the matter of them, yet 
their speeches, as they are theirs, are never good, for themselves are evil ; 
they may say good things, but they cannot speak good things. Every bite 
of a serpent is poisonous, because his nature is envenomed, not only when 
he bites to hurt, but he poisons the very meat he takes. Now the poison 
of asps is under wicked men's tongues, Eom. iii. 13 ; and though the 
words they take into their mouths may be good, as Ps. 1. 16, ' Why takest 
thou my words into thy mouth ? ' yet that poison in their hearts, and 
under their tongues infects them, as they are theirs, and to them they be- 
come poisoned and sinful. For as Job says, chap. xiv. 4, ' Who can bring 
a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one.' So the apostle speaks too, Rom, 
viii. 8, ' He that is in the flesh cannot please God.' As not his person, so 
none of his actions, though virtues morally good, and sparks of light may 
be added to that flesh and corruption that is in him, to abate the venom in 
the working of it ; yet because the man himself is in that flesh, so that he is 
overcome with it, and it is the main predominate principle in every action, 
therefore they all are poisoned by it. 

But suppose them without this positive defilement, yet these thy best 
actions in a privative relation are sins ; though coming from virtues and 
conscience, yet they are sins, because those good principles which must 
concur to make an action good are wanting in them. For sin being a pri- 
vation, the very want of those good principles that should have influence 
into the actions, leaves them sinful. For there is no medium between evil 
actions and good, as not between the estate of nature and grace. Therefore, 
says Solomon, Prov. xxi. 27, ' The prayer of the wicked is abominable, 
much more when he ofi'ers it with an evil mind ; ' though he should put no 
bad end in, yet it would be abominable, because his mind wants those good 
principles which should make good the prayer. Now, what says Paul ? 
1 Tim. i. 15, 'Love is the fulfilling of the law, out of a pure heart, and of a 
good conscience, and faith unfeigned ; ' all these must join to make up an 
action good. 

1. If thou wantest love to God, and aiming at his glory as the chiefest 
end in thy heart, all thou dost is not accepted : 1 Cor. xiii. 3, ' If I give my 
body to be burnt, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.' Faith must 
set love a- work, and love must set thee a- work, as it did set Mary, and Paul, 
and all the saints a-work. Love to men may set thee a-work, or to thy 
children, parents, &c., but if love to God did not, it is nothing. 

2. Thy good actions must flow also from a pure heart. The chiefest 
thing wherein grace exerciseth itself, and hath the most work to busy itself 
with, is within doors, in the heart ; perfect holiness cleanseth the spirit, the 
spiritual faculties as well as the flesh, which is the body, 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; but 
the civil man looks to outward actions only, and to keep them square and 
fair is his chief business. If he cleanseth himself from lusts of the flesh, 



412 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK X. 

that is, the body, yet he hath no great ado nor care of the lusts of his mind; 
and the reason is, because the eye of the conscience looks chiefly to the out- 
ward act, to such lusts as tend to gross acts, but not to spiritual lusts ; 
thus Rom. ii. 14, they are said to ' do the things of the law,' that is, tho 
outward part. And also natural wisdom and the laws of m( u, which they 
are guided by, look but to outward acts, and require no more ; but now 
grace, having most to do with God, contents not itself with bodily exercise, 
but frames the heart to inward purity and godliness, and there beg'ns its 
work. A limner that makes a picture, shadows out the outward parts only ; 
but nature, in making a living man, begins first to shape and form the most 
inward parts, the heart, the liver, &c. ; and so doth true godliness begin, 
Eph. iv. 22, He that knows the truth as it is to be known in Jesus Christ, 
bath put off not the conversation only, but the lusts. A godly man, he 
looks to God, and of all else, desires to approve his heart to him, and above 
all keeping, keeps his heart, Prov. iv, 23. 

^- -^^y good actions must proceed also from a good conscience, void of 
base ends, for the end is the form of the action, quod forma in naturalibus, 
id finis in moralibus. Now, then, when God is not chiefly aimed at, the 
form of goodness is wanting. But thou wilt say, Are not such ends as do 
respect men good, and therefore will they not make the action good, though 
God be not principally aimed at ? I answer. No ; for these ends, though in 
themselves good when subordinate, yet are evil when they are the chief, 
because then they are unto thee in God's stead, and usurp his place. All 
ends have their goodness, because they tend to God ; they hold their g od- 
ness of him, for God is only good, as Christ says ; therefore now when God 
is left out, they become evil ; as noblemen, though when they are subject to 
the king, they retain their nobility, yet if they go about to usurp his place, 
they lose it, and become traitors. Now, as kings are the fountain of nobi- 
lity, so God is of goodness ; and as usurpers may do many good things in 
the commonwealth, make good laws, &c., as our Richard the Third did, but 
yet because he did it as king, it was evil; had he done all as protector under 
that young King Edward the Fifth, it had been praiseworthy. Now, the 
reason why in these very actions, wherein we do good to men, we should 
principally aim at God, is, because though God made those commandments 
of the second table for the good of men, yet principally that in the obedience 
of them, his sovereignty might be acknowledged ; and so as in breaking of 
those we are chiefly said to sin against him (as David confesseth in the 
matter of murder, upon the person of Uriah : Ps. li, 4, * Against thee, 
against thee only have I sinned'), so also in observing them we must look 
higher than men, or else it is a sin. Thus, Eph. vi. 6, 7, servants are to 
* obey their masters,' doing all ' as to God, not men.' 

But you will say, I aim at God also, and have a respect to him ; and so 
indeed heathens had some respect to God also ; Cicero monet rempublicom 
administrandam, quo nihil gratius est Deo. So those wicked men too, Isa. 
Ixvi. 5, who cast out their brethren for God's name's sake, and said, 'Let God 
be glorified.' 

I answer, that is true they may have God in their eye also ; as when we 
do any other thing, we may take many considerations in by the by that are 
not the mark we fully looked at ; as the eye looks directly but at one thing, 
yet it doth look about and take in many things at once. Self-love may have, 
and hath often, such a respect to God, that it may be glad that God is like 
to be gratified and pleased by anything it doth; as there is no enemy (unless 
one that doth all out of revenge against his enemy), but will be glad if he 
pleasures himself, to enlarge it as a kindness to his enemy also, and make 



Chap. VIII. j in respect of sin and punishment. 413 

the most of it, and be glad that he hath pleasured him, and that he can say, 
I did this for you. But God is not mocked, but hath a curious eye, and he 
will be looked at directly, and not asquint. 

4. Last of all, all thy good actions must be out of faith, which engrafts a 
man into Christ. If thou art an unbeliever, let thy works be what they will, 
they are defiled to thee, Titus i. 15. To unbelievers to do things out of 
strength of virtue and conscience, signifies nothing, because it is not out of 
faith: Heb. xi. 6, 'Without faith it is impossible to please God.' Now, to 
be a believer is a great work, for it is that great work, the work of all works, 
' the work of God,' John vi. 44. When a man doth an action out of faith, 
he must renounce his own strength ; a man being humbled in the discovery 
of his former unregenerate estate, and so cut off from the wild stock he did 
grow in, from which root all his actions sprung, must be anew engrafted into 
Christ, and then his actions will be good and acceptable, else not. The 
apostle in Rom. vii. 1-5, shews how that in many unregenerate men, the 
law to which they ai'e married, and which hath power over their consciences, 
may beget many children, which outwardly are like the parent, conformable 
to the law in the ktter, serving God in the letter, but all such God reckons 
not as fruit to him ; therefore he says, ver. 5, a man must be divorced from 
the law as a husband, and that is done by a work of humiliution, and he 
must be married anew to Christy and then Christ by faith begets an holy 
and new offspring of holy duties, which are fruit to God indeed ; that is, 
which he accounteth fruit, relishing nothing but what comes from such a 
behever ; and this Paul instanceth in by himself when a pharisee, acknow- 
ledging, that though the law begat many good actions in him then, yet 
because he was not married to Christ, they were illegitimate. A man must 
also by faith fetch the strength of what he doth from Christ in the doing of 
it: John V. 4, 5, ' Without me ye can do nothing.' All is nothing if the 
strength we do it by be not fetched from Christ ; if from conscience, or the 
law alone, it is nothing ; and by faith thou must fetch acceptance through 
Christ's blood, therefore we are bidden to do all in the name of Christ. 

5. But last of all, if men would but narrowly observe and examine their 
best actions, and pry into the principles of them, as they are growing and 
budding forth, thence they might easily be convinced that they are evil. 
Tor, 

1st, When the good a man doth, he doth out of some corrupt lust directly 
{as much of the good many do ariseth thence), then there needs little ques- 
tion of it ; as when the devil confessed Christ, that his confession might 
discredit all other testimony of him ; when the pharisees made long .prayers 
■to devour widows' houses ; when they preached :Out of envy, Philip, i. 15 ; 
when such a lust wholly sets them a-work, and they choose doing good, as a 
iinans to accomplish it; as when Jezebel proclaimed a fast to colour Naboth's 
oeatb. Of such actions there is no question but that thay are evil. 

But, 2d]y, when the incitation of conscience, and the inclination of virtues 
carry men, as then doing this it may be doubted whether they be corrupt or 
no. For nothing, -says Bellarmine (and so imay others think too) is corrupt , 
but what proceeds from corrupt nature «,s such. To clear that even then 
such actions are <corrupt, take these considerations. 

1. We grant that corrupt nature left to itself, and if not assisted by these 
principles, would not have performed that good which it doth. Yet, 

2. That though it performs it from the bias of these principles, and left to 
its proper motion, it would not do any good without them, yet it may be 
said, that still as it is corrupt, so it hath the chief stroke in them. And so 
all the actions of men in an unregenerate estate are truly called fruits of the 



414 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

flesh, because that is the predominant, swaying principle, even as reason or 
the will is the predominant principles of a man, and have the great hand, and 
stroke, and sway in all human actions. I illustrate and express it by this 
similitude : self-love, which is corrupt nature, is (as I have told you), now 
since the fall, as the king, set up in all the faculties (as love to God was be- 
fore), so as it commands all, and hath all the strength of them, and all is at its 
command and beck. Now this self-love, if it had been let loose alone to it- 
self, would trade in nothing but what was directly evil, and what made 
wholly for itself, and would do nothing that is good, either in order to God 
or men. But God hath mingled with it the light of conscience, and some 
moral dispositions to assist it ; so that they all are as a company setting up 
a factory or trade (as strangers use to do in another dominion), whereof 
conscience is the governor for the good of the common interest, that self 
might not in men's actions wholly engross all, and so men be very devils 
here in this life. And yet these virtues and principles of conscience do still 
trade but as strangers in subordination to this king, self-love, who is not 
deposed fi'om his regency a whit by them. They attempt not to undermine 
his sovereignty, and to subject this self to God, but trade with the leave, 
and for the profit only of self-love. For in all their trading they hire and 
use its ships and vessels to traffic with, that is, those faculties whereof it is 
king, which it never lets to stir but for its own ends. They apply themselves 
unto, and still urge such considerations as suit one way or other with the 
reason of this state and self-love's ends. And though indeed they divert and 
hinder its trading with many gross evils, and obstruct its fetching pleasure 
thence, and on the contrary put it upon a trade with such things that are of 
some alliance to God, and which belongs to the kingdom of grace, yet so as 
they apply themselves therein to the profit of self-love another way, and in 
higiaer ends of pride, vain-glory, ambitious aims, &c., they sufier this self- 
love to take custom and toll out of all, otherwise it would never sufier them 
to trade, nor a ship to stir. I may illustrate this farther by the state- 
maxim of Haman against the Jews, who would not harbour them, nor suffer 
them any farther than they were for the king's profit; so that if they lived 
and thrived in his dominions, he must have a fee out of all their wares and 
all returns. Thus natural wisdom, that is the counsellor of self-love, which 
is the great king in man, seeing this king's profit advance, and the cofiers of 
many self-ends, and respects, and lusts, filled by such external morality, 
strikes in with conscience and these virtues, and forbids trafficking with many 
gross evils that are directly rebels to God, and makes use of these good 
commodities to fetch gain out of them, for his prince self-love. And so the 
man being debarred from enjoying other lusts (for he cannot trade with all), 
strikes in with conscience and these virtues, and makes use of them to please 
lusts of a higher nature, more state-politic lusts (as I may so call them), by 
following what they direct unto. Thus, though he suff'ers such virtues as 
good wares to be brought in, yet still for his own advantage ; so that all the 
actions that are done, 

1st, Are still principally the acts of corruption, because self-love remains 
still king, and only suff'ers them to be done ; but it is his strength and stock 
they traffic with. And so, 

2dly, Are positively corrupted, both because self-love never gives his 
warrant to have any good done, but to please a lust or an end some way for 
himself, which is corrupt. He must have a bribe and consideration out of 
all ; and ere a ship stirs, he considers what advantage will it be for me ? 
Then some lust, pride, or fear of hell steps out, and says, it is for me, and 
then he yields, else he would forbid the trade. So that a man doth look 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 415 

upon all the good he doth, as suitable to some lust, and so it becomes sin 
unto him ; for it is under that notion and consideration of being pleasing to 
some lust he doth it, or else not. And therefore Paul, whose trade of life 
was outwardly within the dominions of the law, and he was one of the sub- 
jects of it, and was according to the law blameless, yet he says, Eph. ii. 3, 
that his conversation was spent as well as any other in fulfilling the lusts of 
the flesh and mind ; and therefore that humbled him when he saw such 
lust in him, though he was moral and virtuous. If corrupt nature had no 
lusts but lusts of the flesh, then by abstinence from gross sins, &c,, it should 
be a loser ; but it hath lusts of the mind, which please carnal wisdom and 
reason, such as hypocrisy, the credit of goodness, and a thousand the like. 
Thus a man sees he may very well and profitably, and for the enriching of 
himself, use things that are good to please other lusts in things evil and for- 
bidden. Now that self-love should abuse these ^virtues and these checks of 
conscience, which are the good gifts of God, and should pervert their use for 
its own ends only, and so corrupt the virtues themselves to serve its turn, 
this makes the action exceeding sinful. As when it makes use of the virtue 
of just dealing, to grow into credit by it, and to get the name of being an 
honest man, and so by that means to climb into a place of preferment and 
trust. So when by their pity and Uberality men purchase to themselves a 
good name, ' Verily ye have your reward,' says Christ (Mat. vi. 2), of the 
pharisees ; if they pray, they pray amiss, says James ; why, because they 
pray for something to spend on their lusts, James iv. 2. And in this re- 
spect, that fact of Jehu, though done at God's command, and with assistance 
from God, of zeal and elevation of spirit above what else he could or would 
have done, is yet made and interpreted a sin of murder, Hosea i. 4. 

Last of all, if we consider not only the principles from which these actions 
proceed ; but the event to which they all tend, it will appear, that all the 
little good they do, and the duties they perform, do but make them take 
the more liberty in some sin : Jer. vii. 9, 10, ' Will ye steal, murder, and 
commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk 
after other gods whom ye know not ; and come and stand before me in this 
house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these 
abominations ? ' They came to God's house, and the performance of those 
duties emboldened them to sin, so as they did but compensare vitia virtutibus, 
make some amends for their vices by some*virtues which they practised. 
The harlot paid her vows in Prov. vii. 14, and so thought she might com- 
mit abomination. Thus as meat feeds but a sick man's disease, so their 
good actions do but nourish their lusts. They leave one sin to take it out 
in another, thinking God is not so strict. So, Isa. Iviii. they were said to 
fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. These 
performances encouraged their hearts to do all evil, so as they sinned under 
the protection of some duty, as the pharisees did, who devoured widows' 
houses under the pretence of long prayers. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Some objections answered. 

I shall now consider an objection or two which must be answered. 
Obj. If all these virtues in us, and all we have done by the strength of 
them be sins, then we had as good have been profane for the time past, and 



416 AN DNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

have omitted the good we have done, for all comes to one ; and so we had 
as good do for the time to come. 

Ans. 1. For the time to come. It is true that a man unregenerate, sins 
whether he does it or omits it : abstuiendu, quia non propter Deum ; et 
faciendo, quia contra legem. For if he abstains from sinning, it is not for 
God's sake; and if he commits the sin, he apparently offends against the 
law. 

2. But yet the sin is less, in doing the good thou dost, though in a wrong 
manner, than to omit it. 

For, 1st, to omit it, is peccatum per se, in its own natural evil ; but to do 
the good in a wrong manner, is but peccatum per accidens, accidently so. 
The one is absolutely and fully against the law, and both the spirit and the 
letter of it also ; but thy performance of it in a wrong manner, is but by 
consequence sinful, and is evil but as against the spiritual part of the law, 
which concerns the heart and the manner of performance ; and God's law 
requires both matter and manner to be good : Deut. vi. 25, ' And it shall be 
our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the 
Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.' 

2dly, The sin in the wrong performance lies not in the action primarily, 
but in the agent originally ; so that actio non est omittenda, sed tu corrigendus 
es, the action is not to be omitted, but thy sinful heart is to be amended. 
The fault is not in the matter which thou writest, but in thy pen and hand ; 
mend that, and get true skill of guiding thy heart according to thy copy, and 
all will be well. 

And, 3dly, the sinfulness of an action in itself materially good, proceed- 
ing thus from this corraption of man's nature, cannot loosen thee from sub- 
jection to that duty, which God's peremptory and indispensable command 
requires. Because thou hast lost grace and power to do things rightly, must 
God's command be of none effect ? If thou failest in the manner, thou art 
to be humbled for thy swerving from his law, and acknowledge thine in- 
ability to do otherwise ; yet still thou art bound to do thy duty. We say, 
where nothing is to be had, the king must lose his right, but it is not so as 
to God ; if there were no more in it but to acknowledge what is thy duty, 
thou art to subject thyself as far as thou art able, as unto the outward per- 
formance thou art in some measure able. 

4thly, Again, to perform it wrong is out of weakness ; Rom. viii. 3, he says, 
' The law was weak through the flesh.' Through the weakness of corrupt 
nature the law, though performed, could not justify, because that spoiled all 
man's actions by defects ; but to omit the law altogether is wickedness super- 
added to the weakness of nature ; the one comes chiefly from privative sin- 
fulness, but the other from positive ; the one comes from a defect in the will, 
but the other from a wilful neglect. 

And, 3, it is not all one to be profane, as to live in the external observ- 
ances of religion ; for in omitting these altogether, and running into vices, 
instead of the good thou dost : 1st, Thou makest thy sin of a treble guilt ; 
for to omit the duty wholly, is worse than to perform good in a wrong 
manner, and to be doing evil instead of both, is yet much worse ; for the 
soul being never idle but working, if thou ceasest to do good, it is certain 
thy soul is busy about mischief ; as the sea cannot rest, but it will cast up 
mire and dirt. In doing good therefore, though in a wrong manner, thou 
wert less ill occupied, because that doing good kept out doing worse ; and, 
2dly, though thou sinnest in abstaining from sin, as well as in doing it, yet 
in the one only, quia non propter Deum, because thou dost not refrain sin 
out of love to God, but in the other, because therein thou art a rebel against 



CUAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 417 

him. Now to be against God is worse than simply not to be for him ; as 
though it be treason in a subject not to take up arms for his prince, yet to 
fight against him is much woi'se. And thus, though Christ bade his disciples 
to let them alone who cast out devils in his name, and he would have them 
go on still rather: 'For he that is not against me, is with me,' says he, 
Mark ix. 40, that he meant this only comparatively ; for otherwise Christ 
says, * He that is not with him, is against him,' Mat. xii. 30, that is, he is 
in deed and in truth so. 

And then again for the time past, whereas thou imaginest thou hadst as 
good have done no good. 

I answer, no, it is not all one. For, 

1. Thou shalt be punished less in hell if thou shouldest die ere thou didst 
get out of this estate, which is Augustine's answer, though hereafter thou 
shalt have no reward for that imperfect good which thou hast done in thy re- 
generate* state (as Christ told the pharisees: 'You have your reward,' namely, 
all here, Mat. vi. 2), yet this will moderate and abate thy punishment. 

2. They are rewarded here. The pharisees you see by that speech of 
Christ were rewarded by men, who seeing the profit and benefit of much 
good which they do, reward them with love and praise again for so doing. 
They are also rewarded by magistrates, God's vicegerents, who bear not the 
sword in vain, but are a terror to those that do evil, and a praise to them 
that do well : Rom. xiii. 3, 4, • For rulers are not a terror to good works, 
but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? Do that which 
is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same : for he is the minister of 
God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he 
beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
execute wrath upon him that doth evil.' And, 1 Peter ii. 14, 15, ' Or unto 
governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil- 
doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, 
that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.' 
They are also rewarded by their own consciences, which so far excuse 
them : Rom. ii. 15, ' Which shew the work of the law written in their 
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean 
while accusing or else excusing one another.' Yea, they are rewarded by 
God; so Ahab was for humbling himself: 1 Kings xxi. 29, ' Seest thou how 
Ahab humbleth himself before me ? Because he humbleth himself before 
me, I will not bring the evil in his days ; but in his son's days will I bring 
the evil upon his house.' So those flatterers were rewarded also, Ps Ixxviii. 
36, 38, ' Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied 
unto him with their tongues. But he, being full of compassion, forgave 
their iniquity, and destroyed them not ; yea, many a time turned he his 
anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.' For their flattering seeking 
of God, God omitted their punishment temporal, and in that sense he for- 
gave their sin. And thus God dealt with Jehu : 2 Kings x. 30, ' And the 
Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which 
is right in mine eyes, and has done unto the house of Ahab according to all 
that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on 
the throne of Israel.' Now thus God doth, because he will reward his own 
gifts, for it is his gift to be chaste, as he told Abimelech he kept him. Gen. 
XX. 6 ; and so it is from God's gift that men are otherwise virtuous, and 
God loves to crown his own gifts in every kind, of what sort soever. And 
these virtues, Augustine often calls, Dei munera ; and so Paul says of con- 

* Qu. ' unregenerate ' ? — Ed, 
VOL. X. ■ D d 



418 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

tinency, that it was a gift, 1 Cor. vii. 7. And indeed God, who useth to 
overcome with mercies as well as judgments, and to be before hand with all 
sorts of men, will surely at least be as forward, and go as far in doing good 
to wicked men, as they shaJl be to do any good that may be serviceable to 
him or others ; yet therein also observing a proportion. For, 

1st, As God thereby hath an outward honour in an outward acknowledg- 
ment and subjection, as the action also an outward goodness, so God casts 
upon them outward rewards, as riches, honours, &c., so God had honour by 
Nebuchadnezzar's acknowledgment, Daniel iv. 36, 37. And God cast honour 
upon him again, in raising him up to his kingdom. They have outward 
kindness from God, for the outward kindness which they shewed him, and 
God deals with them as men deal with flatterers. 

But yet, 2dly, as he hath not their hearts, so they have not his, and there- 
fore he receives them not to himself. He deals not with them as friends, 
but flatterers ; but yet as he deals with his own people here in this life, so 
he deals with these in a fit proportion; that look if his own people sin, yet 
because their hearts are still for God, though an act of sin pass from them, 
and so an act of punishment passeth from God ; yet still his heart is with 
them, because their hearts are with him. So, on the contrary, God deals 
with the wicked, and he rewards them outwardly for their external acts of 
goodness ; but yet he doth not love them, because they love not him. 

3dly, As all their outwai'd performances are sanctified, i. e. good for the 
matter, but unsanctified for the manner, so the outward things which God 
bestows are like thereunto, good in themselves, as the actions of these men 
are ; but as their proud courses shew their actions to be evil in the issue and 
in the event, so in the eflect, these outward mercies appear to be given in 
wrath, as Saul was to the people of Israel. And so David saith of wicked 
men, that 'their table is made a snare,' Ps. Ixix. 22; it is a snare to their 
intemperance, and their blessings curses, as it is in the prophet Malachi, 
chap. ii. 2. I will only put in here a caution or two. 

(1.) That godly men, who are in covenant with God, must not expect this, 
that for their dead performances they should be rewarded here as the other 
are. So God would not release David, though he mourned and prayed, Ps. 
xxxii. 5, till he was inwardly humbled, and did confess his sin unto God. 
For, 

1st, Since more is to be had from the godly, God will not take brass when 
he may have gold ; he will have meet fruits, meet for them to perform, Heb. 
vi. 7, and in their kind ; but he looks for no better of the other than mere 
outward duties, and therefore rewards them accordingly, because they can 
do no better. 

And, 2dly, the outward mercies which God dispenses to his own children 
are given in pure, everlasting love ; therefore that which draws out that love 
in rewarding them must be outward good done in love from them. Till, 
therefore, they are kindly humbled, he will not deliver them, or leave a 
blessing behind, Joel ii. ; and so 2 Cor. vii. 14, for if he should, it might 
prove a curse. Yea, 

3dly, Seeing he may have better, he will rather punish them for doing no 
better. 

(2.) The second caution is, that God only rewards wicked men thus when 
their performances are serious, and done in a natural kind of integrity, as 
Abimelech's was, and as Ahab's humbhng himself was ; but if they be out 
of a wicked positively bad end done, as when Jezebel fasted to colour the 
taking away Naboth's vineyard, then they are not rewarded ; but, as Ahab 
in his posterity, they are threatened and accursed. And such perverse ends 



Crap, X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 419 

do heinously aggravate the sinfulness of such actions, which in outward ap- 
pearance are good : Prov. xxi. 27, * The sacrifice of the wicked is abomin- 
able ; how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind ? ' 



CHAPTER X. 

That all these virtues, and moral righteousness, are but some dark remains of 
the image of God in Adam, nhich is not tvlwlly defaced. — What a poor and 
despicable thing it is when compared with grace, demonstrated in several in- 
stances of a comparison between tJiem. 

To conclude, this pitch of honesty and religion, which the most rest in 
for grace, is but from those principles which divines call reliquias prioris 
imaginis, the relics of the first image defaced, which God hath put into 
corrupt nature lest men should be devils upon earth. It is but a blaze 
kindled out of the embers raked up in the ashes of corrupt nature, blown up 
and continued by education, which men think to please God with, as Nadab 
and Abihu did with strange fire ; which relics and imperfect pieces of the 
law, written by nature in men's hearts, they set together, and set it up and 
adore it as God's image. So as indeed they err the same error in the opinion 
about their own estate, which Pelagius in his doctrine did ; for the ground 
of his error was a mistaldng this moral goodness, and abilities of nature to 
understand and assent to the word, for true grace ; as appeareth in Augus- 
tine's disputes against the Pelagians ; and so do these men in their opinions 
concerning their own estate, and so do as dangerously err against their own 
souls as he did against the truth. And in this is the deep deceit of men's 
hearts seen, that all errors of doctrine, abstractly considered, which they, in 
their speculative judgments, often detest, they yet assume and take up in 
their practical judgments, to judge of themselves or others by. So men that 
deny justification by works, in the doctrine of it, do yet secretly trust to their 
own works. And indeed popery is natural to men, and so is Pelagianism too, 
namely, to take that in themselves for grace which Pelagius went about to 
establish in his heretical doctrine to be grace. And let me add this consi- 
deration here, that if much of such moral goodness, and these principles 
mentioned, had not been in nature, Pelagius could have had no ground at 
all for his opinions, nor would they have spread so as they did, nor have 
been so generally entertained. 

And so I come to a third sort of demonstrations, by comparing this glow- 
worm with the true and glorious image of God, in whomsoever it is to be 
found ; and so by bringing it to the true light, it will appear to be coun- 
terfeit. 

As, 1, let us view this true holiness, as it shines in the holy and spiritual 
law of God; for Adam being now fallen, and so that image extinguished, and 
never a pattern left by which to see what this image was, God therefore set 
forth a copy of it in his word, which now is the means of sanctifying of us ; 
and sanctification itself is but a writing of that law in the heart, and a con- 
firmation of the heart thereunto. And if civil men will but bring their pitch 
of obedience to this law, and compare themselves with the spiritualness of it, 
they will find that not only there is a defect in degrees, but of essential parts ; 
and that there are wanting the chiefest and eminentest parts of God's image, 
which are to the rest as the face is to the rest of the members in the body of 
a man, in which face there is more beauty and more of a man than in all the 



420 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

rest ; and they picture often the face for the whole man. These great and 
principal parts of holiness are wanting in unregenerate men, for that is holi- 
ness which is a conformity to the first table, the duties whereof are called 
the * great things of the law,' Hosea viii. 12 ; and which indeed are especially 
called holiness, as being made immediately for God, when the other are for 
man ; and the duties of the second table are called rirfhteo useless, of the first 
holiness, Eph. iv. 24, and so distinguished, Luke i. 75. These great things 
of the law which concern God and his service, are the least in their hearts, 
and so they have, perhaps, the legs and feet of holiness, yet the face they 
want. ' You tithe mint and cummin,' says Christ, Luke xi. 42, and ' pass 
over the love of God,' which Christ calls ' the great commandment,' Mat. 
xxii. 36. You shall find these men dead and heartless to such duties ; and 
the more spiritual the duty is, and tends to set God up in the heart, and so 
the more holy it is, the more averse their hearts are to it ; as to meditate in 
private, to digest the word, to search their hearts, to speak of God and his 
kingdom, &c. 

If a man should bring the broad seal to a patent, and you should find that 
the arms of England were left out (which is the chiefest of the three king- 
doms) or misplaced, and those of the other kingdoms set above it, you 
would say, surely this seal is counterfeit, and never had the impression 
from the king's true broad seal above. So all you that do boast of God's 
image, and yet the duties of the first table are in a great part left out, or 
slighted by you, in comparison of the second, you may say truly, this heart 
never came under the broad seal of heaven. 

2. And where else shall we find this image of God ? Even in Christ, who 
was the ' express image' of his Father, Heb. i. 3, and into whose image all 
true Christians are changed : 2 Cor. iii. 12, ' Seeing then that we have such 
hope, we use great plainness of speech,' and we receive of him ' grace for 
grace,' John i. 15 ; that is, all graces in their measure answering to his ; 
even as a father begets a child in his own image, limb for limb. Let these 
men, therefore, but compare their pitch with the virtues and practices of 
Christ, bring we then their counterfeit copy to this original, according to 
which all believers are renewed, and therefore are called upon * to shew 
forth the virtues of him who hath called us,' &c., in 1 Pet. ii. 9. And 
though no believer receives this image in the same pitch of degrees that 
Christ had, yet for kind and extent of essential parts, for the true grace and 
of this breed, all do receive it ; and then those parts which were most emi- 
nent in Christ will be so in a believer also. As in the child begotten by his 
father in his likeness, look what members are biggest in the father, are in a 
proportion so also in the child. 

But dare you that are civil men come to this pattern ? Do but read his 
story, view his steps, and what paths you find most in him. Was he a civil 
man only, and rested there as you ? It were blasphemy to say so. It is true 
he performed all you rest in, he followed his calling, and was obedient to his 
parents, yet neglected not his heavenly Father's business ; but, above all, 
took care for that, as he told his mother, Luke ii. 49. But this you neglect. 
He paid also tithes to Caesar, yet that was but a by-business, and therefore 
at the same time he called for God's due : Mat. xxii. 21, * To give to God 
the things that are God's, as well as to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,' 
because he that asked him that question, as they that sent him were proved 
justiciaries, who, whilst they rested in paying men their dues, and in a for- 
mal serving of God, neglected to give him that which was due to so great 
and holy a God. He came also to the pubHc ordinances ; in one evangelist 
it is said, It was his custom so to do, Luke iv. 16, it being the public wor- 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 421 

ship of the place. But was that all ? No ; he spent besides whole nights 
in prayer alone by himself. 

So, for moral virtues, they were all to be found in him, but yet all elevated 
and raised, and of a higher strain ; so that if you would have them go for 
signs to yourselves of a good estate, they must flow from union with him, 
and then they will be of another kind than mere moral virtues are, differing 
as much from those wild virtues in the heathens, and that grow in the ' moun- 
tains of prey,' as the psalmist calls the Gentiles, Ps. Ixxvi. 4, even as much 
as sweet-marjoram, or any the lilie herb that grows in the garden, differs 
from that which grows in the wilderness ; the one is a weed, the other an 
herb. And when men believe on Christ, then their meekness will not pro- 
ceed from a softness of nature, but from a heart first humbled, tamed, 
wounded with the wrongs done to Christ, and being overcome with his love 
pardoning, they will be meek towards others that wrong them. Thus, in the 
reckoning up those moral virtues of kindness, mercy, meekness, &c., shews 
the differing spring and kind in the elect from what is in others : Col. iii. 
12, 13, ' Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of 
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing 
one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against 
any : even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.' That speech, as the elect of 
God, is both a note of distinction for another kind of humility, that becomes 
the elect and beloved of God, than is found in others, and also is mentioned 
as that, the consideration whereof was to be the root and nourisher of these 
virtues in their hearts ; that considering God's electing peculiar love to them, 
out of which he was kind to them when enemies to him, and out of that 
love, long-suffering, forbearing them many years, bearing their bold and pre- 
sumptuous offences towards him ; that they, as those whom God had thus 
dealt with, would answerably carry themselves towards others, and so be 
merciful, not as men use to be merciful, but * as your heavenly Father is 
merciful,' Luke vi. 36 ; and so he goes om : Col. iii. 13, ' Forbearing one an- 
other ; if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so 
also do ye.' That is the spring of Christian meekness, and Christ he is the 
rule and measure of it ; so do ye therefore : Mat. xi. 29, * Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls. * Learn of me,' says Christ, ' for I am lowly and 
meek.' And, indeed, the meekest moralist in the world must learn a new 
kind of meekness from Christ. Thus, too, as to that love and sweetness, and 
ingenuity of nature to those we live with ; this, says Christ, the Gentiles 
have towards those that love them. But Christ's love will extend itself fur- 
ther, to the saints, as in David: Ps. xvi. 2, 3, ' My goodness,' says he, ' ex- 
tendsth to the saints,' to those that excel in virtue. Christ, indeed, loved 
the young man that was but civil. The text says, ' He looked on him, and 
loved him,' Mark x. 21. But how did his bowels work towards his poor 
sheep and children, and shewed his esteem of them more than of hfs kindred ? 
' He is my brother, and sister, and mother, that doth my Father's will,' 
says he, Mark iii. 35. Also that mercy and pity thou boastest of, if it were 
of the right Christian kind, would work and extend itself further than to 
bodily miseries that men are in. Thus Christ was affected for men's souls. 
He was good to the bodies of men, indeed ; he healed their diseases and fed 
their bodies, Mark ix. 37 ; but it was their souls he most compassionated, 
because they wanted spiritual food ; that, therefore, is expressly added, 
ver. 36. This drew tears from him when he wept over Jerusalem : Luke 
xix. 41, ' How oft would I have gathered thee,' &c. And to do good to the 
poor woman of Samaria, was better to him than his meat, and made him 



422 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK X. 

neglect his dinner. ' I have meat,' says he, ' you know not of,' John iv. 32. 
So that humility in him was not that proud humility of the world, which is 
indeed but courtesy, giving honour to others, expecting the like from them 
again, as Christ says of the pharisees, that they * received honour one of 
another,' John v, 44 ; but his was seen especially in not seeking honour 
but in God's way ; so John vii. 3-5, when his kinsfolks provoked him to do 
his great works, and shew himself to the world, ' My time is not yet come,' 
says he. This was seen also in denying his own will, and submitting to his 
Father: ' Not my will, but thine be done,' says he. Mat. xxvi. 39. So in 
emptying himself of his glory, and becoming of no reputation, Philip, ii. 7. 
To glorify his Father, he shewed his humility in the highest degree. Thus 
will all your moral virtues be raised, if Christ hath but touched them with 
that virtue that is in him. 

3. If we would see yet farther what is the true genius and strain of holi- 
ness, we must also search heaven for it, where it is in its brightness and 
perfection in the angels, and ' the spirits of just men made perfect,' who wear 
the parliamentary robes of holiness every day, to whom we are said, Heb. 
xii. 23, to be ' come,' that is, to enjoy in some measure the same life, and 
to be a-fitting for the same condition ; we now are a-making meet to be par- 
takers of that inheritance in light. Col. i. 12, but they there in heaven have 
the Spirit, the quintessence of holiness ; and yet those virtues which are 
eminentest in civil men would have no use nor exercise at all there. Of so 
little account are they in that place where holiness dwells and reigns, as 
there is no use of chastity (for ' they marry not, nor give in marriage,' Mat. 
xxii. 30), nor of temperance, nor just dealing, &c. These commandments 
are but for this world, and concern the fleshly part of man, as he is to reside 
here, which they therefore in heaven are not capable of; and therefore the 
spirit, the soul, the power of holiness must lie in dispositions, and duties, 
and performances, of a higher nature. These are but the sensitive part (as I 
may so speak) of godliness, and they are to the power of holiness that which 
the sensitive faculties are to the rational, which, when the body is laid aside, 
the soul hath no use of, so neither is there any exercise for such virtues in 
heaven. 

Therefore, consider that the holiness which thou must trade with in heaven 
must be begun here, without which no man shall see God ; and that the 
duties of the second table are but for this world. In which that thou 
mightest be fit in some measure to live orderly, God hath endued thee with 
such virtues, and hath given principles to fit thee for such a life ; but when 
thou art to go trade in another world, where holiness is only current, and 
nothing but what hath God's image stamped upon it will pass, think with 
thyself, what hast thou of holiness to carry thither, without which thou canst 
not see God. 

4. I may add unto this, in the fourth place, that we may see wherein the 
image of God chiefly consists, by considering wherein the spirit and power 
of wickedness consists. Now, the chiefest of the power of wickedness lies 
not in drunkenness, uncleanness, and such kind of profane courses, for then 
the devils should be less wicked than men, because they have not bodies with 
which to commit such sins ; and by the same reason the souls in hell now, 
and reprobate men after the day of judgment, should not be so wicked as 
now. But these all are more wicked, and therefore their highest degree of 
wickedness must lie in sins of a higher nature, and therefore such sins are 
called (Eph. vi. 12) * spiritual wickedness,' which are seen in the neglect 
and contempt of God, and the hatred of him and his saints. Now, there- 
fore, by the rule of contraries, it must needs follow that true spiritual holi- 



CUAP. XI.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 423 

ness must chiefly consist in the contrary to all these spiritual wickednesses, 
/. e. in loving God, fearing him, and in a fervent desire and endeavour]to 
approve ourselves to him in all our ways, and worshipping him with an holy 
worship, &c. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Where the nature of true holiness consists. — In what sense it is called the life of 
God, and the fjlori/ of God. — How far a mere civil righteousness falls short. 
— What excellence and praise may yet be allowed as due to it. 

We have discovered by comparative demonstration, that civil righteousness 
is not holiness. I now come to draw the last demonstration of the same 
truth, from considering what true holiness is, and what are the essential 
properties of it, common to it, wherever it is, whereby- it will appear civihty 
fulls short of grace. I will not instance in the spring-tides of holiness, but 
the ordinary streams and effects of it in their hearts, where it is in never so 
small a measure. 

1. Consider what holiness is. Peter tells us it is a divine nature, and 
Moses and Paul tells us that it is the image of God ; and both the expres- 
sions come to one and the same sense and import, that the nature of it is to 
be above all for God. As humanity is that in a man which makes him 
respect man, so godliness is that in a man which enableth him to respect 
God, and glorify him as God. It positively fits the heart to receive happi- 
ness from God, and actively makes and sets all in it a-work for him, there- 
fore it is set out to us in two expressions fitted to express the nature of it. 

1st, It is called the life of God : Eph. iv. 18, ' Having the understanding 
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is 
in them, because of the blindness of their heart.' 

2dly, And the glory of God : Rom. iii. 23, ' For all have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God.' 

That whereas God is the chiefest good of the creature, and ought to be his 
chiefest end. This, 

(1.) Puts a principle into the soul to make it live in God, as his chiefest 
good, and to make God his life, and therefore it is called ' the life of God.' 

And (2.) To make God his chiefest end, and so to live to him, and there- 
fore is called the glory of God, or to make the glory of God the prime end 
of life. Of both these civil men fail short as other natural men, as those 
places shew : Eph. iv. 18, Rom. iii. 23. 

1. They are ' strangers from the life of God,' and all their righteousness, 
or whatever is in them, ' falls short of the glory of God.' It is Paul's phrase. 

1st, Civility falls short of the life of God, and is a stranger to it. There- 
by men are, 1st, not fitted to walk with God. Nor, 2dly, quickened with 
life and comfort from him. 

(1.) Men are not by mere morality fitted to walk with God. Natural life 
fits them to walk with the creatures, and it takes in from them what comfort 
is to be had in them ; and moral virtues fit men to walk with men in all the 
relations they stand in towards men, as husbands to wives, to give them 
their due of love ; and as they are servants, to carry themselves to their 
masters so as to be faithful and obsequious ; and so as they are subjects, to 
give Cffisar his due, honour to whom honour ; and so as they are friends, to 
requite love with love ; and so as they are members of a commonwealth, to 
be profitable to it in a calling ; and so also to walk with themselves, so as 



424 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

not to wrong their bodies or healths by intemperance, nor their estates by 
riot or profane courses ; so nor their credits, neither by a flagitious and 
profligate way of living. But what is all this to God, in whose hands are 
thy breath and all thy ways ? Enoch ' walked with God,' and it is for that 
holiness fits a man for, and enableth him unto it. Thou art courteous to 
men, and walkest submissively and respectively* to them, but grace will 
make thee ' walk humbly with thy God,' Micah vi. 8, to have an eye and 
respect to him in all thy ways, to veil to him, and submit to him and his 
will in the whole course of thy life. Thou art kind to thy neighbour, but if 
unthankful to God, and not sensible of the kindnesses received, so as to 
render again to him all thou hast, what availeth it ? Thou art just to thy 
neighbours, and payest every man their due, and at their day, and in lawful 
money ; but when God's times of payment for worship comes, as on the 
Sabbath, and on morning and on evening times, to pray every day, thou then 
neglectest to pay thy dues, to humble thyself, and acknowledge God in all 
thy ways, and regardest not the duties which he requires at such times ; or 
if thou tenderest payment to him, yet thou carest not in what coin, but 
bringest anything, no matter how slight, dull, formal the performances are. 
Now, if thou wert just indeed, thou wouldst give as ' to Caesar the things 
which are Caesar's,' so ' to God the things that are God's.' Thou boastest 
of thy good nature, which sweeteneth thy converse with men, and them to 
thee, and thee to them ; but believe it, (frace is good nature to God, a blessed 
divine nature, which demeaneth itself and behaveth itself well towards God. 
Even as good nature makes thee carry thyself to thy friend, which is as thy 
own soul, or as to thy wife in thy bosom, so this divine good nature makes 
thee in love with God, and renders God pleasant to thee ; it makes thee 
ingenuous to him, to walk upon terms of friendship, to observe the laws of 
it as exactly as to men, to grieve when thou hast ofiended him, to be glad 
when he is pleased, to go and unbosom thyself to him. 

(2.) A man, notwithstanding morality and civility, remains a stranger to 
the life and comfort is to be had from God. This advantage, indeed, a man 
hath by it, that he placeth not his happiness in gross sins, as profane men do, 
in lusts of di'unkenness and uncleanness, which are neither profitable to a 
man's self nor others, but it raiseth his mind to place it higher, in carnal 
excellencies of learning, preferment, riches, &c., or the credit of personal 
endowments, and the exercise of them for the good of others, and in such 
things as are profitable to himself and others ; but still it raiseth not the 
heart up to God. The spring of his happiness, it may be, comes from a 
higher hill than other men's, but is still on earth ; he fetcheth it not from 
heaven, from that same river that runs from heaven in the conduit-pipes of 
the ordinances, as the word, sacrament, meditation, and conference about 
God and Christ, which makes glad the city of God ; he never tasted of the 
water of this spring, as Christ told the woman of Samaria, John iv. 10, 14. 
His virtues and natural wisdom set him a-work to trade in such wares for 
the attaining of happiness, and the comfort of his life, the return of which 
do prove profitable to the commonwealth and place he lives in, as if he traffic 
for credit (and the commodities that bring in credit must be things that are 
good and commendable, for they will never commend him else) ; or, if his 
business lies in the exercise of virtue, so far as there is sweetness in the 
excusings of natural conscience, this is the farthest step which he makes ; 
but he tradeth not with God for happiness and comfort out of the word. 
Civil men httle think that a godly man's chiefest delight lies here in this 
book of God ; yet David saith it doth, and so distinguisheth such a person 
* That is, 'respectfully.' — Ed. 



Chap. XI.j in respect of sin and punishment. 425 

from wicked carnal men, that * his deli^'ht is in the law of the Lord, and his 
meditation is therein day and night,' Ps. i. 2, A carnal man knows not 
what it is to be quickened by the word, and to be quickened by prayer, 
which is David's language upon all occasions, and therefore he can want the 
absence of God, and not to be troubled at it. But what says David, 'Thou 
hiddest thy face, I was troubled ;' for ' in thy favour is life,' Ps. xxx. 7. A 
godly man cannot live without it ; yea, ' thy loving-kindness is better than 
life,' says he ; and as in God's favom% so in God's businesses, his life lies. 
To see the church prosper, men to grow in grace, this is life to him, meat 
and drink to him. ' If you stand fast now, we live,' 1 Thes. iii. 8. That 
which is God's life is by a sympathy his life. Now, God's life is the enjoy- 
ing of his own blessedness, and so the enjoying of God's blessedness in* his 
life. The men of the world wonder men should keep such ado to find Christ, 
and be so sick when they want him ; they see no more in Christ than in 
another beloved. Cant. v. 9 ; and yet they were the * daughters of Jerusalem ' 
said thus, ver. 8, such as had heard of him, but saw him not as a believer 
sees him ; no, they know no greater crosses than in the loss of things of this 
world, nor taste no greater comforts. 

2. Holiness is called the glory of God, Rom. iii. 23, because it makes 
God a man's end, adopts all that is in a man for God, raiseth it up to be 
for him. Civility may so far prevail as to raise a man up to be for common 
good, and to have an eye at it, to put in an heroicness of mind for the good 
of men ; and so those who live in the church may have a zeal for that cause 
which is God's cause, as it is a common cause of the church, and as they 
profess it against the enemies of the church. Thus Paul was zealous for the 
religion he then professed ; and so the pharisees thought they did God good 
service when they cast the apostles out of the synagogues, John xii. 2, but 
they do not nor cannot make God their end. For as the principles of what 
they do is but nature, so the good they do at the best is but quatenus con- 
gruitjini naturali, as it agrees to a natural end. They may out of pity to 
their brother give alms to relieve him, or venture their lives for their coun- 
try, and for the religion of that party with which they join, as it is a common 
cause ; but to interest God in all that a man doth, this trial was that which 
the pharisees shunned when Christ would have brought them to it : John 
iii. 20, 21, ' For every one that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to 
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doth truth cometh 
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in 
God.' But one that is truly godly is willing to be searched, ' that it may 
be manifest his works are wrought in God ; ' which implies, both according 
to God's mind, and also that God is interested in them. Now this trial the 
pharisees avoided, for therein their righteousness fell short. 

And that God is not the end which men only moral and civil aim at, 
appears by this, that they are not for such duties, and truths, and causes, 
and persons, as tend to advance God, and set him up in the world. As duties 
of the second table are for the good of men, for these they are very zealous ; 
but those of the first, that tend immediately to the sanctifying of God, these 
their hearts are least in. 

Ohj. There remains an objection in the general to be answered, which 
civil men use to make when they hear such discourses as these against their 
conditions ; which is, that we utterly condemn and cry down all civility, and 
discourage men that are honest so far, that it is enough to make them pro- 
fane; for according to this doctrine, the one is in as good a condition as the 
other, say they. 

* Qu. 'is'?— Ed. 



426 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

Ans. I answer you, first, that look what worth is in it, I will and do 
acknowledge, and would have you to judge righteous judgment herein, and 
give it its full due in what it is good for. 

As, 1, that it is a good gift of God that men abstain from sins, and do 
any good. So God told Abimelech, Gen. xxvi. 6, ' I kept thee : ' and so 
civil men themselves are to acknowledge. For to that end God told Abime- 
lech he kept him, that whereas Abimelech began to boast of his own integritj', 
God put him in mind where he had it. And so Augustine, often in his fourth 
book against Julian, doth acknowledge these virtues to be Dei miinera, God's 
gifts. And so Paul tells us, 1 Cor. vii., that continency is a gift; but all 
this is but gratia gratis data, not gratia gratum faciens ; it is freely given by 
God, but it doth not render the person gracious. Grace I confess it is in 
this sense, both that God gives it out of his mere good, free, gracious, dis- 
position to one man more than another, for all men's natures are alike 
corrupt ; grace also it is in this, that it is a real favour in many respects 
unto them thus to restrain them ; for by this they escape greater punishments 
hereafter, and have rewards here. And therefore God told Abimelech of 
this withholding from sinning, as a favour he had done him, that he had 
kept him, for else he had been ' a man of death ; ' but yet, that it is grace 
unto salvation, as the apostle speaks, Heb. vi. 9, that is it I deny. 

And, 2, I grant further, that when a man hath grace once, then these 
gifts help him much in abstinence from sin, and to perform duties with ease ; 
they help the boat to go the further when the helm is guided right. So as 
a man shall perform duties of liberality to men, of piety to parents, of meek- 
ness and patience, the easilier. As some metals M'ill take the stamp better 
than others, so will some natures take more deep impressions of grace when 
the stamp is set on ; and so a man that hath a spirit of generosity and 
ambition, when satisfied,* will have larger aims for God, and easilier deny 
himself than a base and low spirit ; and therefore, next to grace, they are to 
be preferred even to learning, and all other gifts, even as the philosophers 
also did give them the pre-eminence. 

And, 3, I say further, that we are to honour it in them in whom we see 
it, as Christ looked on the young man and loved him, Mark x. 21. They 
are to be encouraged, and profane men are not ; but they are not to be 
encouraged for resting therein, and we are to be ready to do them good the 
rather for this their moral goodness. And so Abimelech, having been honest 
in the matter of Sarah, Abraham was to pray for him, and at his prayer, 
God healed Abimelech, by reason of his integrity, and also his family. Gen. 
XX. 17, 18. I grant there is a goodness in this morality for this world, 
though none for the world to come. It is good to human purposes, in ordine 
ad homines, for the benefit of men ; but not in ordine ad Deum, to the glory 
of God. Whereas grace, as Paul tells us, is good for all things, having the 
promises, as of this life, so of that which is to come : 1 Tim. iv. 8, ' For 
bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things ; 
having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' If 
you should bring me a brass shilling that is silvered over or gilt, if, indeed, 
you would put it ofi" for gold or silver I would deny it, and not take it ; nay, 
in such a case, I would take it and stamp it through, as false counterfeit 
pieces use to be. But if you ask me, if it be not good for something, I will 
grant you yes, the brass, the metal of it is serviceable for many profitable 
uses ; but if you will stamp the king's image on it, and have it go for coin, 
then I arrest you as traitors against the king's majesty. And it is a like 
case here, when you would have morality pass for God's image. 
* Qu. ' sanctified ' ?— Ed. 



Chap. XI.J in respect of sin and punishment. 427 

But yet withal, this I further add, I must say it, and say it again, that a 
man trusting in his morality, and looking no farther, is in the most dangerous 
condition to hinder him from repentance and faith that any man can be in ; 
and so, by consequence and accidentally, such a state is the worst, worse than 
profaneness itself. 

1. Because men that have civil righteousness of their own are ready to set 
it up in the room of Christ, and so dishonour Christ more by their right- 
eousness than profane men do by their sins.* This was the stumbling- 
block which all the pharisees broke their necks upon : Rom. ix. 31, 32, 
' But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained 
to the law of righteousness. Wherefore ? Because they sought it not by 
faith, but as it were by the works of the law ; for they stumbled at that 
stumbling-stone.' Rom. x. 2, 3, ' For I bear them record, that they have 
a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of 
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, 
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.' The apostle 
calls it a stumbling-block, when they setting up their own righteousness, 
would not submit to Christ, and therefore the publicans and sinners did go 
faster, and by greater troops crowd into the kingdom of heaven than the 
pharisees. 

And, 2, because these men, out of love to their own righteousness, are the 
deadliest enemies to the power of godliness, as those devout women in Acts 
xiii. 50, were to Paul, and Paul himself whilst in that estate unto the 
Christians ; and so those, 2 Tim. iii. 3, ' Without natural affection, truce- 
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.' 
The place is mistaken by interpreters, for it is not meant of temporary 
believers, for they honour those who are good; but of civil men. Those that 
have a form of godliness are the greatest deniers of the power, and despisers 
of them that are good. They are in love with these apish imitations of 
gx'ace, and bring it to God, and are enemies to them who discover it to be 
counterfeit, as they would be angry with those who should prove all their 
money, if they think themselves rich, to be false. 

And, 3, because they are the farthest off from coming into the state of 
grace. For whereas a man must be humbled, and part with his own 
righteousness ere he can truly come to Christ, they are the farthest off from 
that work of any other. As ignorant people are far off (as the Gentiles were, 
Eph. ii. 12, 17, because without knowledge of God), so these, because of 
the want of knowledge of themselves. As take a man that hath some wit, 
and is conceited of it, he is farther off from being a wise man than one who 
is more a fool. Solomon says, ' There is more hope of a fool than of him,' 
Prov. xxvi. 12. Why ? Because ere he become wise he must become a 
fool, as Paul tells us, 1 Cor. iii. 18, ' Let no man deceive himself : if any 
man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that 
he may be wise.' It is a double task to make that man wise, to shew him 
he is a fool, and then to give him wit. So here is the difference between 
profane and civil men, that though these last have something, that when 
grace is wrought will be more serviceable to grace than a profane man hath, 
and is in itself, comparing things with things, higher ; yet compare it with 
the working of grace, this man is farther off the working of it, because a 

* Crassailla vitia quae sunt contra secundam tabulam, adulteria, &c., leviora tamen 
sunt, si conferas cum sapientia et justitia, quibus pugnant contra primam tabulam. 
Candidus diabolus qui impellit homines ad spiritualia peccata, quae sese venditant pro 
justitia, longe nocentior est nigro, qui tantum ad carnalia impellit. — Lutherus Com. in 
J£pist. ad Gal. 



428 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK X. 

profane man will soon see himself wicked. But the publicans and sinners 
went faster to heaven than the pharisees ; yet, I say, there may be a 
greater nighness between the things, when yet there is a greater distance 
between the working of them, and bringing them together. Thus, brother 
and sister are nigher in blood, but farther off marrying each other 
than two strangers ; and thus two men upon the tops of two houses, oppo- 
site each to other in one of your narrow streets, though they are nigher to 
each other in distance than those below are, yet in regard of coming each to 
other they may be said to be farther off, for the one must come down, and 
then climb up again. Thus now a moral man, though he seems nearer to a 
state of grace, yet is really farther off; for he must be convinced of his false 
righteousness, and then climb up to the state of grace, to see himself as low 
and vile as the profanest man in the world, as every man when he is humbled 
doth. Besides, if it were so, that a man were only to be restored to legal 
righteousness, which man had in innocency, and to the acts thereof, then 
indeed there would be a great nearness between civility and it ; but as to 
evangelical righteousness, and that of faith, which is founded upon a denial 
of a man's own righteousness, a mere civil and moral man is at the greatest 
distance. 



Chap. I.J in respect of sin and punishment. 429 



BOOK XL 

That an unregenerate man is highly guilty, by reason of the nwnherless account 
of actual sins which he daily commits. 

All this have I proved by wisdom : I said, I will be wise ; hut it was far from 
me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out ? I 
applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out uisdom, and the 
reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and 
madness : and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares 
and nets, and her hands as bands : whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; 
but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold, this have I found {saith the 
Preacher), counting one by one, to find out the account ; tvhich yet my soul 
seeketh, but I find not : one man among a thousand have I found ; but a 
ivoman among all those have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that 
God hath made man upright ; but they have sought out many inventions. — 
EccLES. VII. 23-29. 



CHAPTER I. 

Tlie exposition of the words, 

I CAST not here into this account that unsearchable mine of our inherent and 
original sinfulness, which was inlaid as deep as the centre of our souls, from 
our conception and nativity. The survey is now only of those heaps of 
actual sinnings, which from and out of that mine are every day minted, and 
bear the image and superscription of sin stamped on them, and are ordinarily 
current in our hearts and lives. 

This distinction between actual sins as the effects, and inherent sin of our 
nature (which we call original sin), as also a state of sin, as the causes that 
do defile the whole of a person unregenerate, is so well known and received, 
as it need not be insisted on. It may suffice, that Christ doth exactly thus 
distinguish, in saying, ' An evil tree brings forth evil fruit,' which explain- 
ing, he applies to an * evil man' (there is his state), ' out of the evil treasure' 
(that is, of his natural and acquired inherent corruption as the causes) 
' brings forth evil things' (as the fruits). And our Saviour, by these evil 
fruits, professeth to mean as well evil thoughts, the immediate issues of the 
heart, as outward actings, whether in speech, as false witness, blasphemies ; 
or in outward facts, as murders, thefts ; in all which he particularly there 
instanceth ; and all these as distinct evils from the evil heart or treasure 
itself they all proceed out of; thus Mat. xv. 19. The apostles were like- 
wise careful to indigitate the very same as a necessary distinction, for us 
heedfully to observe in ourselves, whilst they speak one while of our being 
' dead in sin,' and the ' uncircumcision of the flesh,' Col. iii. 9 (as the state), 
and then besides of ' dead works,' Heb. vi. 1, * works of the flesh,' Gal. 



430 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

V. 19 (as the fruits thereof), and under that term of fruits expressly, ver. 22, 
as the opposition there sheweth ; as also when we read in them of an * old 
man and his deeds,' as Col. iii. 9. 

Although many other Scriptures presented themselves as texts or founda- 
tions unto that subject I have before me, yet I chose this ensuing. 

Solomon, the wisest of men, and whose large understanding had acquired 
and comprehended within itself as many several notions and matters of 
knowledge as there be sands upon the sea shore, 1 Kings iv. 80, after a 
long and sore travel, which by the conduct of that his wisdom he had per- 
formed, and passed through the vast regions of things knowable, and made 
the most exquisite search into all foreign parts of wisdom that lay out of 
himself, as the works of God in nature, providence, or that belonged to 
human societies and affairs, in all the kinds of them, he at last (as of the 
prodigal it is spoken) ' came home to himself,' and by a renewed work of a 
more thorough repentance descended into himself, and ' the chambers of the 
belly,' Prov. xx. 27, his own soul. 

And as the whole book of Ecclesiastes is a testimony of his repentance, 
and his being gathered to the church, so this one solemn paragraph, from 
ver. 23 to the end of this chapter, is a narrative to shew what this his last 
study had been, and how it first began, and had been continued by him in 
the search of his own, and upon occasion thereof of all mankind's sinfulness, 
which to be the mind of Solomon in these words will appear by the opening 
of them, which I reduce to these heads. 

1. The narration which Solomon gives of his coming off from the study 
of all other wisdom, and applying himself to this of sinfulness, in vers. 23-25. 

2. What is meant by the reason and account spoken, vers. 25, 27, 29. 

3. That it is the reason or account of his own personal folly and wicked- 
ness, which, in the first place and principally, he intended. 

4. He declares what had been the issue and success of that his new search 
and study, and the product he had brought that account unto, whether of 
his own or other's sinfulness, in vers. 26-29. 

1. In vers. 23, 24, he relates what had been the great inquisition of the 
former part of his life ; ' all this I proved,' that is, whatever before of know- 
ledge he had been ever exercised and versed in. All this that he had treated 
of in this book, even all, and the whole that lay within the sphere and capa- 
city of being known, * I proved by wisdom,' that is, I attempted in the most 
industrious way to comprehend, and exercised myself thereto, both by the 
improvement of all such inward principles of infused wisdom, given me by 
God extraordinarily, and those as accompanied and heightened by all out- 
ward advantages (which being a king furnished him withal), whereby to try 
all conclusions either of art or in nature. Yea, and I had, says he, set it 
down with myself as the mark of my life, as the eminent excellency I affected 
and resolved to attain a perfection in ; ' I said I will be wise,' finding myself 
empowered thereto by all those abilities and advantages to attain it. Well, 
but what was the issue of all ? but that after all this labour spent that way, 
he found how infinitely short he was from an arrival at it, or the compassing 
of it ; * but it was far from me,' and thereupon shuts up that pursuit of his 
with this advice to all adventurers and travellers after him in this kind : 
' That which is far off and exceeding deep ' {deep deep, as the Hebrew), ' who 
can find it out ?' thus ver. 24. 

Thereupon in ver. 25 he sets before all such, and all others, his own ex- 
ample ; how he had (though late first) betaken himself unto another kind of 
wisdom, more useful and necessary, which was the search into his own 
wickedness or sinfulness ; and together therewith, that which is in all man- 



Chap. I.J in respect of sin and punishment. 431 

kind. Thus ver. 25, 'I applied my heart;'* that is, I came or turned 
about, or converted myself and my heart from the former study unto this, 
namely, 'to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason.' 
But of what ? It follows, ' and to know the wickedness of folly, even of 
foolishness and madness.' The general mind of which is, that the subject 
of this, his new inquiry, had been the same which the great convert (the 
apostle, at his conversion), his thoughts were taken up withal, 'the above- 
measure sinfulness of sin,' as Rom. vii. 10, 13. So in like manner Solomon 
came to see the abounding of folly and madness, and saw wickedness upon 
wickedness, 'heaps upon heaps' (as the phrase is. Judges xv.), madness 
added to folly (madness being an excess of folly), and he went to sum up and 
search out the account of all. 

The Hebrew word being (as Jerome long since observed) ambiguous, and 
signifying as well the number or account as the reason of a thing ;f hence 
I take both to be intended ; and so that both the sum and computation, as 
also the reason or bottom-ground of all that wickedness, to have been the 
aim and mark of his so eager pursuit. 

And according unto these Wo acceptations of this one word, I make an 
answerable division of the words following to be, 

1. His study : to compute with himself the numerical account, that is, the 
infinite number and variety his sinfulness did arise unto, from ver. 26 to 
the middle of ver. 28. 

2. The rational ground, which gave bottom-light and discovery of the 
reason of that sinfulness, and innumerableness thereof, whether in himself 
or in all mankind, which is fully set down in ver. 29. 

I may term the one the arithmetical account, the other the logical ; and 
he pursueth the first in the former part, and closeth with the second in the 
last verse. 

There is a second division subalternate, and included in this first, as the 
more general. For whereas he says, ver. 25, he sought after the account or 
reason of wickedness, the next inquiry necessary will be the wickedness, of 
whom ? or whose it was that was the matter of this account ? And the 
answer hereunto causeth this other division of the words, as to the matter 
of the account taken, whether in the one or other sense. 

1st, His own: the sinfulness of himself in his former ways discovered now 
upon his repentance, and this chiefly. 

2dly, But together therewith, of that universal corruption of all mankind 
in both sexes. 

And these two you have interwoven and carried on in the following verses, 
namely, 1, the account of his own, vers. 26, 27, to the middle of 28; 2, the 
account and observation he made of others, chiefly in that which follows in 
the remaining part of vers. 28 and 29. 

I. He begins, and principally, with the account of his own sinfulness, and 
that was it which he professeth to have sought more directly after, and as 
for that of others, but as led into it by occasion of considering his own 
follies. And because this is a matter not insisted on (though cursorily 
observed) by interpreters, I shall therefore enlarge upon the proof of it out 
of ver. 26. 

* Circuivi ego, et cor meuin ad sciendum, &c. — So Arias Mont, et Tigurina editio. 
Converti me ego et cor meum. — So Piscator, Junius. 

t Ch'jshbon : quippe secundum Hebraei sermonis ambiguitatem, et numerum pos- 
sumus et summam, et rationem vel cocfitationem dicere. — Hieronimus in locum. 

Septuaginta Tijipas, which is calculus quo computatur. — Ita Drusius in locum. 
Sonat supputationem, subductionera rationis. — Mfrcer. Ratio pro computatione. — A 
Lapidi', Montanus, Pagnimis, Ferdinandus, ct alii. 



482 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN'S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

You may observe to this purpose in this 26th verse the saddest reflection 
made upon himself, and in that which had been the eminent failure and stain 
of his life, known to all, and noticed again and again in the story of him in 
the Old Testament : ' I find more bitter than death,' says he, ' the woman 
whose heart is snares and nets,' &c. He speaks not contemplatively, this ; 
but the most feelingly, and with the deepest sense he could bewail in it, ' I 
find more bitter than death ;' q. d. I would, if my time were mine own again, 
and afore me, to live over again, choose far rather to die than so to have 
lived. Bitterness is the most abhorred object that any of the senses have, 
and death is the extremity of things abhorred, and that it is his own sinful- 
ness that way, that circumstantial passage in ver. 28 confirms, that he had 
' not found one woman of a thousand ' (which is the exact number of his 
women upon roll, 1 Kings xi. 3), whom he had conversed withal, so pointing 
at himself. And further, he acknowledgeth this to have been a great efi'ect 
of God's displeasure on him, and punishment of other sins whilst he had so 
walked, in saying, * Whoso is good (or greatly accepted) in the sight of 
God, shall escape from her ;' that is, altogether escape, which he had not 
the favour from God altogether to do ; yet withal celebrating this special 
token of his having been beloved of God in this, that in the end he had 
escaped from her, through this his serious and true repentance ; and there- 
fore professeth to utter this and what follows as a penitent gathered soul 
unto the church again, ver. 27. For that that indigitation of his, thus says 
the preacher^ doth import so much, is enough known, that I need not insist 
on it. And ordinarily when it is brought in in this book (which is not 
often), it foreruns or follows some weighty matter of penitence, or of feeling 
experience in himself. Nor indeed can we imagine that when his heart was 
tender, as it was when he wrote this book, even as Josiah's in reading 
the book of the law, and that when he professeth to have given over the 
impetuous search after other wisdom, on purpose to convert his heart to 
attend his searching into wickedness and folly, that he should not princi- 
pally intend his own. And again, that speaking of a matter that came so 
near him, and so particularly home to him (as what he hereabout says of 
women doth), that his main scope should yet be to reflect upon the sins of 
others, and study them ; to observe the beams in others' eyes, and not first 
and principally those pearls (as one wittily said of David's love of Bath- 
sheba) in his own. In this case, could his principal aim be supposed to be 
only to declaim against and set forth the sinfulness of women, more than to 
lament his own in that particular ? Sure it is that he winds in the mention 
of them, and their wickedness that wound him in, but to exaggerate his own. 
It is certainly therefore his own account he intends. 

The most interpreters do dilute the true vigour and spirit that filled Solo- 
mon's heart in this so eminently a penitential passage, whilst they represent 
Solomon to speak but as an observator or animadverter of what wickedness 
he, as a stander-by and looker-on, had noticed to be in women, as if him- 
self had been no otherwise concerned therein. And they generally make no 
more of it. Whereas we find Solomon here ' in his mouth,' and a being * in 
bitterness and mourning,' as the prophet speaks, in a deep bewailment of 
his own follies. This learned Grotius easily perceived, choosing to leave 
this sole animadversion upon it : We have Solomon here brought in as one 
touched (or struck) with the conscience of his own miscarriages and evil 
actings, of which chiefly women were the cause and actors of him. Some 
few other interpreters there are that speak more fully to this aim, whom I 
need not name ; and many there are that have touches and glimmerings to- 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 433 

wards such a sense, which yet we find darkened and overcast again by their 
runnings out upon this other interpretation. 

But that Solomon's eye and aim in this sad passage was chiefly upon his 
own sinnings, there are many things hiid together do evince. 

I. That his sins with and by occasion of outlandish women, had been the 
eminent stain of his life is so known as it needs not to be insisted upon. 
The story of him doth again and again notice it, as 1 Kings xi. 2, that 
Solomon ' clave unto these in lovo ;' and long after he was dead, the me- 
mory of his example is revive 1, and that as a rare and singular instance for 
admonition : Neh. xiii. 36, ' Even him did outlandish women cause to sin.' 
How, then, can we imagine that himself here, not mentioning only, but so 
vehemently exclaiming against them as snares and occasions unto sin, should 
not intend his own sinnings with them, which the Scriptures so brand him 
with? 

And, 2. His own expression points us to that which after follows ; those 
very women of his, whom the story mentions to have been temptations to 
him. This that circumstance in ver. 28 shews, ' One woman of a thousand' 
(as the opposition there to one of a thousand men shews), ' I have not 
found,' which is the just exact number of his women in his seraglio upon 
record, 1 Kings xi. 3, as those whom he had conversed withal ; thus plainly 
pointing at himself and them. And then, 

8. It is the most generally received opinion that he wrote this book as a 
testimony of his repentance ; which, besides that the matter of it is a per- 
fect decrying of all he had formerly acted, as vanity ; the title also which 
he gives both the book and himself, so often repeated by him, ' Thus says the 
penitent soul gathered to the church,' shews, and which you may observe to be 
in the very next verse indigitated by him, upon this very occasion of search- 
ing into his sinfulness. And I call it his penitential mark (of which after- 
wards). Can we then imagine, that when his heart was tender, as in writing 
this his book it was (as Josiah's, in reading the book of the law), that he 
here coming, so setly, to speak of a matter that came, above all other, so 
near him, and so particularly home to him, as what here about women doth, 
that the chief intention of his mind should be upon the sins he had observed 
in these women, and not upon his own sins with them, and by reason of 
them ? Or that his scope, above all, should be to observe the beams in their 
eyes, and not first and principally those pearls in his own ? (as one wittily 
speaks of David's, calling Bathsheba a pearl in one eyej^'and his murder a 
bloodshot in the other). It is true, he exclaims against the sins of his 
women, but it is to exaggerate and lament his own. 

But these are but general evidences, though making this probable, if not 
more than so. 

II. Let us consider the particular words in the text: he that sounds into 
them with the fathoming line, may find and fathom a soul heavy loaden 
with the burden of sin, and drawing a deep water (as seamen use to speakj 
of the sensibleness thereof. Let us consider every word in it. 

1. And out of the sense of his own bitterness within himself, he utters this 
here, ' I find more bitter the woman,' &c. He says, indeed, the tvoman, but 
metonymically means, that together with them, the remembrance of his sins 
was bitter to him, the sins which they had been the means and causes of 
in him. Sin being once revived in the conscience, makes the remembrance 
of every person, place, thing, that minds him of it, bitter to an humbled 
soul. 

2. And sin I find more bitter. He speaks not contemplatively this, as men 

VOL. X. E e 



434 AN UNREGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

use to do their observations or animadversions of the sins of others ; but he 
speaks his own sense and personal experience, I find it to my cost. ' The 
heart knows its mm bitterness,' says the same Solomon, Prov. xiv. 10. It 
was the bitterness of his own soul that tasted the bitterness of his own sin, 
which his soul had wrought, not others. I may apply that of the prophet 
to him, ' His own wickedness corrected him,' and let him * know how evil 
and bitter a thing it was to sin against the Lord,' Jer. ii. 19. And with 
such a sense he speaks it (as the prophet Zechariah speaks of the Jews' re- 
pentance for crucifying Christ) ; he was ' in bitterness and in mourning, as 
one that is in bitterness for his only son,' Zech. xii. 10 ; or as of that famous 
penitent, who is said to have ' wept bitterly,' Mat. xxvi. 25. 

3. More hitter than death. It is one disposition of a repenting soul that 
truly feels the bitterness of sin, to say with itself, I had rather die, and die 
ten thousand deaths, than sin again as I have done. And to this effect Solo- 
mon expresseth himself here, 'I find more bitter than death;' which is 
too deep a speech for any but a penitent to utter, and then only in the case 
of his own sins. Bitterness is the most abhorred object any of the senses 
have ; and death is the extremity of things abhorred (unto which, therefore, 
bitterness is ascribed by way of particularity, 1 Sam. xv. 32) ; but here is 
a bitterness above that of death. 

4. Nor means he only bodily death, but the second death, hell itself. 
' Her end is more bitter than wormwood ; for her steps take hold on hell,' 
says the same Solomon, Prov. v. 5. And the wormwood that grows in and 
about the banks of that infernal lake (the wrath of God), was not so bitter 
to Solomon's taste as was his sin that grew out of his own heart. And a 
more sublimated property and affection of a genuine and spiritual repent- 
ance (and which is indeed proper to it) there is not to be found, than to 
taste a greater bitterness in sin than is in hell itself. Yet to this degree of 
soundness was Solomon's spiritual taste restored, when he spake this ; and 
it could come from no other than a true penitential frame and disposition, 
which he must be likewise in at that time whilst he was speaking of it. For 
it is one of the most raised evangelical affections an holy heart can exercise, 
as towards sin, that the apostle's pen could reach to express this by, airoarw 
yuuvTig tI cti/jjpoi', Rom. xii. 9, which words import, abhorring evil as hell, 
fi-om (rTi)|, and more than hell, says Solomon. 

III. The next words, ' whose heart is snares and nets,' ' whose hands are 
bands. 

Both which do make up but one continued sentence with the former words, 
and therefore are still necessarily to be understood that he speaks of what 
himself had found that sex, the women, to have been unto him : ' I find the 
woman more bitter than death, whose heart is nets,' &c. ; and therein shews 
wherein the bitterness he had found lay, namely, from the snares and nets 
wherewith they had seduced him unto sins. And though he seems to speak 
of the wickedness that was in their hearts, in saying, ' whose heart is,' &c., 
yet not singly or simply as it was immanent in them, or had been acted 
within themselves, but mainly, to signify how operative and potent they had 
been upon his heart, which those metaphors do principally import. These 
nets, though woven by their hearts, yet were to catch his heart, which, when 
framed once, they used as drags to draw him unto such sins as otherwise 
were against his heart ever to have committed. 

Moreover, by these nets and snares that ensnared himself, he doth not 
simply mean the inordinacy of his amorous affections towards them, or the 
sinful pleasures which had immediately flowed from those afiections and 
enjoyments (which yet the story first notes as the rise of that which now 



Chap. I.] in respect op sin and punishment. 435 

follows to be mentioned, in prefacing to that story, that Solomon * clave to 
these in love,' 1 Kings xi. 2), but chiefly his heart here was upon those con- 
sequential sins, which they, working upon that love, drew him into. And 
that is it which the following part of the story wholly insists on, as the 
dreadful eftects of those his loves. For it immediately follows in vers. 3, 4, 
' His wives turned away his heart,' namely, through that love; ' for Solomon 
went after Ashteroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the 
abomination of the Ammonites,' ver. 5. Not that he was an idolater himself, 
for in ver. 6, it is as by diminution thereof said, that ' he went not fully 
after the Lord ; ' implying himself forsook not the worship of the true God. 
But, vers. 7, 8, the matter of fact charged on him is, ' Then did Solomon build 
a place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before 
Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of Ammon. And likewise did 
he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense, and sacrificed to their gods, 
even of all the nations round about,' ver. 2. Note, /or them, not for himself. 
And unto this with their nets they drew him, and with their drags pulled 
him out of the element his heart was in, which was his life, the command- 
ments of God, ver. 10, the iniquity of which, and the aggravations of it, 
no tears of repentance could enough lament. That one circumstance (besides 
what]God himself doth aggi'avate his sin by, vers. 9-11, which I leave to the 
reader to peruse), I only mention, that he had built those idol temples upon 
an ' hill before Jerusalem,' so, ver. 7, as thereby even out-facing God him- 
self, such was the spiteful ambition of the devil. Of God who sat between 
the cherubims in the temple, built on the opposite hill Zion, insomuch 
that God could not ' look out of his holy place ' (as the phrase in the psalms 
is), but his prospect just before it must be these profane temples and their 
idols : Ezek. xliii. 8, ' Post by post ' exalted Christ and Belial. This fact 
came very far up to the open breach of the very letter of the first command- 
ment, ' Thou shalt have none other God before my face' (so in the Hebrew), 
yea, and against my face, as the original words will also bear. 

Moreover, how many persons, by his kingly authority, were set a- work to 
build those temples for those several gods of his several wives ? and so 
thereby he became guilty of so many sins to himself as there were persons 
employed by him, or actions of those persons about it, or assistants in the 
work ; as also in carving those images, adorning those temples or high-places. 
Also, at what an excessive cost and expense he must be supposed to have 
been at, not only to maintain so great a seraglio of seven hundred princesses, 
and three hundred concubines, and their retinue, 1 Kings xi. 3 ; but further, 
to build stately temples, high places, make provision for sacrifices, idol feasts, 
and then afibrd a liberal allowance to so many several idolatrous priests and 
devotaries for their several worships ; and all aggravated by this, that he 
thereby increased the taxes of the people, who, the story notes, had been 
sufficiently already burthened for the finishing of the temple, and his own 
houses and provisions, 1 Icings iv. 7, but ' the yoke grew more grievous ' by 
these new occasions, 1 Kings xii. 4. 

0, what is man ! that ever he that built the temple of God by God's 
special designment of him thereto, above all men else, yea, and rather 
than of his father David ; and who uttered and penned that first most excel- 
ling prayer at the consecration of it, 1 Kings viii. ; that that same man 
should be so bewitched as to build temples to devils, and that in such a 
place ! But it was these nets and snares drew him to all this. 

It hath been wondered at by some interpreters why Solomon, in the re- 
hearsal of all other vanities, as music, pleasant orchards, gardens, wine, and 
other the delights of the sons of men, in the first and second chapters, should 



436 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

leave out the mention of these his women there. But the reason may appear 
that he reserved his repentance for these sins that followed the inordinate 
love of them unto this, as a more peculiar proper place for it, thereby to 
make it the more singular and notorious, to that place, when he should more 
setly come to mention the account of wickedness and sin, and to express the 
work of humiliation upon himself for it ; which he accordingly sets out, not 
only as ' vanity of vanities,' &c., above all his vanities (these were terms 
too low to his sense to utter this by), but loads his sins herein with the 
worst of words he could, — folly, madness, wickedness : as also, that their 
temptations had been that unto his very soul what nets are to fishes and 
fowls, in which they are caught to their ruin, — ' she hunts for the precious 
life,' Prov. vi. 26, — or else what snares or toils are unto wald beasts, made 
to be taken and destroyed. Also, he compares them to bonds and chains, 
in which either enslaved captives or persons condemned to death are kept 
and reserved unto execution : instruments of death all, and of death unto 
the soul. Oh it is bitter (says he here), and reacheth to the heart (as the 
prophet adds), 'more bitter than death ;' and he means not the first death 
only, as I shewed, but hell itself. So that what the apostle speaks of 
covetousness, that it is not only a great evil in itself, but also ' the root 
©f all evil ' to some men, drawing on with it a world of other sins, as 
consequents thereof ; such was this one sin, the love of his wives, unto 
Solomon, which, besides and beyond what inordinacy was singly and alone 
in that way of sinning in and by itself, it proved a root of evil, of many, 
other evils to him, a mother of great abominations. He fell into tempta- 
tion and a snare, &e., but I shall have occasion again to parallel that place 
and this. 

IV. Those other two passages in the close of the verse, ' Whoso pleaseth 
God,' or ' who is good in the sight and face of God, shall escape from her: 
but the sinner shall be taken by her ; ' these may seem in the manner of his 
uttering them to be far remote from containing any penitential strain in 
them, and to be but merely two doctrinal aphorisms and monitories given to 
others of the sons of men as touching these sins. 

And yet, so taken, they express to this eifect, that a man's being given to 
such low, vile, and foolish lustings and ali'ections of this kind, is a more 
special token of God's severe anger and displeasure against that man, and a 
punishment from God of other preceding sins* and looseness of spirit in 
another kind, and a severer punishment by far than any outward judgments 
in estate, body, &c. This I understand to be the spirit and mind of those 
words, ' The sinner shall be taken by her.' Where, by sinner, I understand 
one that is and hath been by way of eminency such ; one that is guilty in 
other kinds of sinnings to some special degree, by giving way to other lusts, 
and not strictly or only to be limited to any mere unregenerate man ; and 
his purpose is to shew that there is usually a great displeasure towards any 
man from God by reason of former sins, that is entangled in such lustings 
as these, and this likewise so far as he is entangled in them. And those 
opposite words, ' Whoso pleaseth God shall escape ' (that is, altogether 
escape, or at least so far as to be kept from those inordinacies in this kind), 
do confirm this interpretation, signifying that it is both a singular special 
token of God's grace, favour, and acceptation of such a man ; as also that it 

* Et hoc quidem perniitti a Deo in poenam aliorum peccatorum. — Pineda invi.rha, 
num. 1. and nu7n. 4. See the li.li. English Aunotator. 
Meritis peccatoris tribuitur capi, &c. — Cajetmi in loc. 
Pcccator (i. e.) qui altis peccatis assueius est. — Pineda in verba, num. 4. 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 437 

is a special fruit and reward of former strict and exact walking,* the words 
well bearing each of these interpretations, of the first of which we shall have 
use afterwards. And though Solomon's case here was not utterly that which 
himself elsewhere speaks of: Prov. xxii. 14, 'A strange woman,' saith he, 
' is a deep ditch ; and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.' 
This, I say, was not utterly Solomon's case, for though they were outlandish 
woutien, yet they had been taken into his bosom as wives (inasmuch as some 
apply these two sentences of Solomon here ; the 1st, unto the blessing to 
have good wives, and to escape bad ; and the 2d, unto the curse of having 
evil wives), who though according to strictness of the law were to have been 
put away, as all strange wives were, Ezra x. 3, 19. But yet it would seem 
that there was a common apprehension and pretension among the Jews for 
the keeping of them, if they were wives already, as appears by that very in- 
stance in Ezra. , Nor yet had Solomon's person become such an abomina- 
tion to the Lord, as himself in the Proverbs speaks of God's love and grace 
reviving again towards him, as we shall see here also to be insinuated by and 
by. Yet, however, a grievous punishment and displeasure from God there 
was in it, to have left him thus foully to transgress in marrying them, and 
to cleave so in love unto them. And thus much as to the effect of these two 
passages, considered barely as they are doctrinal monitories. 

But, withal, it must be acknowledged that these two sayings do, to a great 
degree, set out what had been, and was, his own individual case, and indeed 
are an abstract of it. For, to be sure, he had not altogether escaped, but 
was taken by her, as hath been shewed ; so as if we understand them as 
doctrinal admonitions (as they are), yet thus much further must be granted, 
that they coming so home to himself, he could not have taken the matter 
hereof so much as into his thoughts, much less so deUberately into his pen, 
but, if not hardened, he must be affected with a deep sense of his own con- 
dition as a grievous sinner, in the uttering of them, as well as in the former 
words we have seen he was. It was a serious and solemn repentance there- 
fore which did thrust these forth here, as well as it had done the former. 

And that a true penitent should express and lament his own unhappiness, 
and also accuse, condemn, and lament himself, under a comparative view 
and consideration, made and taken of God's dealings towards others (whether 
of such as have been kept innocent, or otherwise guilty of the same enormi- 
ties), and so there-under to bewail himself the more, cannot be thought 
strange or uncouth unto any one that knoweth what the exercises of serious 
repentance are ; nay, it is most proper to the nature thereof. My meaning 
is, that for such a soul to bewail himself in such a way as this : ' There are 
others that, having walked closely and circumspectly with God, whom God 
hath and will keep from such or such miscarriages which I have run into. 
And 0, how happy are such ! For " he that pleaseth God, and is good in 
his sight, shall escape them." But, alas 1 I have not been such, nor so good 
in his sight, as to have had this favour from him ; but out of his just displea- 
sure taken at other sins, I, wretched I, have been left by him to these, as a 
punishment of those former sins : the sinner is and shall be taken.' And 
even such an one lamenteth the more for this, that God should have been so 

* Some interpreters do carry those words to the special grace and favour of God ; 
others to man's having pleased God greatly by holy walking, or that is become greatly 
beloved. Both Charus Deo, and quem JJeus bonum jndicat. (Mercer.) 

Quod unus capiatur, hoc quidem permitti a Deo in poenam aliorum peccatorum ; 
quod unus eflfugiat, illud tribui tanquam proemium aliorum bonoium operum et vitse 
sanctions. — Pineda. 

Quern Deus probat, et quo ille delectatur. — Carthwritus in loc. 



438 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

justly displeased at him, as in such a manner to punish him, and that he 
should give occasion to it more than others had done. 

It is certain that the church (or Jeremiah, or both), Lam. iii,, in her re- 
pentings there recorded, doth, in some like sort or strain, mournfully warble 
forth her own condition. She had begun (as here), ver. 1, to speak in her 
own person, /, and so carries it on all along, as therein grammatically speak- 
ing of herself, unto ver. 25 ; but then he turns the manner of her speech, and 
falls to utter the rest in the third person, he, setting down by way of doc- 
trinal maxims, what is the wont and guise of true penitent souls, as what 
others in her case used to do : ' He sits alone, and puts his mouth in the 
dust,' &c. ; and yet still she means herself in all these, and vents her own 
condition under these, as well as in the former she had done ; and thus 
doth Solomon here. 

And he that considers what was even now said, how near. all this came to 
Solomon's heart whilst he was writing this, may well grant that he here still 
continues to speak but his own experience, and but what he had full dearly 
learned, and upon repenting had laid to heart ; and that indeed he but wraps 
up and forms his own particular reflections of God's dealings with him, and 
of his towards God, into these two wholesome pills for others to take, from 
his p7-obatum est. So as I may say of it, repentance wrought this experience 
(or experimental review or recognition), and experience brought forth these 
axioms, and all as now grown out of his own heart, and he venting his heart 
thereby. 

But then let this further be added for confirmation of this, that his I find, 
in the preceding sentence, which leads on and gives aim to these words, 
doth evidently send down unto these following sayings a continued, though 
implied, application to himself; so as we may as well set a new 1 find, be- 
fore these words also (though but as understood) as well as himself had done 
to the former ; and then to be in effect as if he had said, ' And I find also, 
that he that pleaseth God, and is good in his sight, escapes her, but I have 
not been so good nor so happy.' 

In fine, upon all these accounts, methinks the pulse of Solomon's heart 
(for there runs a secret artery under the veins of these words) doth beat with 
a double motion therein. 

The first of a deep bewailment, as to this effect : Alas ! that ever I, who, 
at my very birth, was declared and owned by God to be his beloved, 2 Sam. 
xii. 25, and unto whom God had, when I was as yet young and tender, ap- 
peared twice, 1 Kings xi. 9, thereby to allure my heart unto him ; at which 
times also God commanded and forewarned me concerning this very thing, 
that I should ' not go after other gods,' ver. 10, thereby in a special manner 
admonishing me above all things, to look to and beware of that, and of all 
whatever that should any way lead to or be occasioned by it ; of which God 
also as expressedly foretold would be the certain event of marrying outlandish 
wives, * They surely will turn away thy heart tifter other gods.' Deut. vii. 3, 4, 
* And yet that I, wretched I, in the future progress of my life, should first 
prove so vain a sinner, as (finding I had all the freedoms and pleasures of a 
king in my power and within my reach, without control to enjoy) thereupon 
to give up my heart to a loose and inordinate use of all sorts of the de- 
lights of the sons of men lawful, to the utmost excess therein,* and so 
should thereby, through lusts running out unto, and intermixing with all 
these, so far provoke God, as in the end further to leave me to worser, and 
these more wild extravagant exotic affections, unto outlandish wives out of 
all the nations, &c. And that I thus, proceeding on through God's displea- 
* This he decries in the first and second chapters. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 489 

sure, from evil to worse, should be so enfettered and ensnared in their toils, 
as to be drawn by them to set up other gods, and the idolatrous worship of 
them, and build temples to them, &c. And oh, the displeasures of God 
against me this way shewn ! that he should be so provoked as to give up my 
soul from one sin to another, until it came to these ! This wounds my soul ; 
especially the more when, withal, I compare mine own wretchedness herein 
with others of the sons of Israel that have continued good in the eyes of the 
Lord, and pleased him by a strict and holy walking ; who have been and 
shall be kept from (yea, altogether escape) such gross sinnings as these, out 
of a special favour and respect which God hath unto them. but I, 
wretched I, have not been thus good, nor had the grace in my own heart, 
nor mercy from God, but have been caught and taken like one of the Ught 
fools and sinners in Israel. And thus sighs and waileth he. 

Yet, withal, there is a second secret motion and out-breathing a contrary 
way (as of man's heart and pulse there is), namely, a magnifying or cele- 
brating with joy the rich and free goodness of God towards himself, which I 
take to be the spirit that runs in the vein of these words, ' He that is good 
in the sight or face of God, shall escape her.' I find many interpreters to 
give the scope of that phrase, good in his sight,* to denote not scantily one 
that is good or virtuous in that particular or chastity, or good at large, but 
such an one whom God loves, favours, and who is the object of God's free 
and sovereign grace, out of which grace alone, God is moved within himself 
to deliver such an one, though formerly he had been addicted unto that kind 
of sinning from such entanglements and snares. The end why I allege this 
interpretation is, that Solomon hereby doth set forth his own case in this, 
as well as his sinful case in the foregoing ; and so that Solomon should have 
an eye to God's gracious dealings with himself, whilst he uttered this, * He 
that is good in the face or favour of God' tacitly signifying, that now at last, 
that love and grace, which at first had taken hold of him, as the Jedidiah, 
the beloved of the Lord, had now revived and flourished again towards him, 
had broke forth and manifested itself in an eminent degree of favour upon 
him, in giving him a serious, sound, and efi'ectual repentance, in the power 
and efficacy of which he was enabled utterly or clean to escape (as the 
apostle's word is, 2 Peter ii.) from out of these fetters ; and thereupon with 
joy, like an enthralled prisoner newly delivered, points to his gyves and 
chains, in the words foregoing, as if he had said. Now there my fetters lie, 
and here am I escaped through the infinite goodness of God. Thus much 
that conviction and sense of his own sins, and the dealings of God with him 
are intended by him in ver. 26. 

CHAPTEE IL 

That the infinite number of his sins is here the issue or product of his seeking 
to find out the account [ivhich was the fourth head propounded). — Some 
difficulties previously solved for the clearing that this is the scope. — TJie ele- 
gancy of his expressing that this account was numberless, by saying^ Behold^ 
this I find, &c., but I find not. 

The exposition of the foregoing verses hitherto hath been but preparatory 
to this, the subject in hand, which is specially contained in these words. 

* Bonus in facie Elohim. Divinae gratise tribuitur, &c. — Cajetan in locum. 

Qui est chants Deo. {Mercer.) Ex beneplicito gratuito. {Hugo.) Praesupponitur 
bonitas, gratia, complacentia, et beneplacitum divinum. {Ferdinandus). 

Potius qui faerit Deo gratus hoc habebit ei divina gratia quod evadat. — Pineda. 



440 AN uxekitExerate man's guiltiness before god, [Book XI. 

Wherein he sets down a second and further conviction, of which in the 
division t spake, which extends and comprehends the sins of his whole life. 
And this is that which is the grand account, and so styled by him the ac- 
count, and ushered in with the greatest solemnity : ' Behold, this have I 
found, says the preacher.' 

In the former, ver. 26, he insisted more especially upon the heinousness of 
guilt (which he found most bitter) in one particular way of sinning. But in 
this he proceeds on to the general account of the total ; and, as a convicted 
person, acknowledgeth a judgment of the whole debt, which he confesseth to 
be ' infinite, and past finding out.' 

That which we have gained by so enlarged an exposition of the former 
verse hath been this, that they were his own sins which he aimed to give 
the account of in all these verses, and that he speaks thereof as a penitent, 
which we shall carry along with us as his main scope into these 27th and 
28th verses, which now follows as a new text to be expounded; and "yet, 
further, that they concern his own sins and the sins of his whole life, as a 
penitent, will more abundantly appear in the opening of them in the next 
succeeding chapter, as also in the fourth. 

That which is my task in this chapter is to conflict with and break through 
some difficulties in the outward shell of these words, which the inward pith 
or sense given, as the kernel, is enclosed in. And unto any ordinary reader's 
first view and essay the outward expressions and manner thereof have a 
sensible hardness and crust in them. 

The difficulties are such as these, what the this I have found, points at 
and refers to, and whether that it centres and determines in I find not. And 
that there the full period is set to the whole sentence, and ends. Also the 
circumlocution, or his fetching a compass about to express himself, ' count- 
ing one by one to find,' &c., and that he should close with so strange a riddle, 
'But I find not,' when yet he had said, ' This I found.' These, and the 
phi-aseology and the contrivance of his speech about them, I must first over- 
come and settle. 

I choose to manage the assoiling of these, as also the whole exposition 
that follows, by way of queries, and then answers thereto (which I call as- 
s^ertions), orderly succeeding each the other, and so placed and disposed as 
the answer to the first query begets a second query, and then the answer 
unto that occasioned a third query, and so on, till they have brought forth 
the full meaning of the whole, and everything therein. And this course I 
shall hold both in this and the following chapters. 

Our first and fundamental query must be concerning the this; a small 
word, ' This have I found,' that meets us at the first. What that should 
refer unto ? 

The reason of this query is, because it is plain that of the account itself, 
he says. He found it not. 

The this, then, is not the account itself, and yet must be some great matter 
concerning that account, for it is prefaced with a behold, ' this have I found.' 

Ans. The Dutch annotators have bluntly given this brief resolve of it, I 
find nothing else but this, that as yet I find nothing, so making the this 
have I found absolutely to determine and centre in / find not ; and so his 
meaning to be this, that whereas he declared that he had applied himself to 
seek the account, ver. 25, he now makes this return of that his grand inquest, 
as the verdict of the jury of his pains and study impanelled and laid out 
thereon, to be a non inventus, a bill not found, as jurors use to speak. Thus 
making but I find [not] to be the very object or termimis, and the very this, 
which he says he found, and with that the whole sentence to end. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 441 

But I had this demur at their paraphrasing the sense thus, that the lan- 
guage would not bear it without an harshness. For if indeed he had said 
' This I have found, that I find not,' the language had been smooth and 
even, as for such a meaning ; but this but coming in between seems to have 
an exception against the bringing of these two sayings together, as to that 
sense. For to say, I have found, but I find not ; and to intend and mean 
I find that I find not, is incongruous and hobbhng in the way of speaking. 

But then that which now follows plained or smoothed the but or rub, in 
the way again unto the sense given. That is true, if these two sayings men- 
tioned had immediately followed one the other, there would have been that 
seeming harshness mentioned ; but we see there are many intermediate words 
do come between them, both after the first this have I found, which begins 
the whole sentence, and afore but I find not, which ends it. Those inter- 
mediate words are these, ' counting one by one to find out the account, which 
yet my soul seeketh,' and then follows, ' but I find not ' (the sense of those 
words being this, I have used my utmost diligence to find it, and do still 
seek after it). Now then, after all this, to close all with but I find not, is 
most congruous ; for by this the interposition of but, is occasioned by and 
relateth to those endeavours used as not arriving at what he aimed to find, 
and likewise serves to increase the wonder of his behold, &c., and yet withal 
still yokes weU enough these two sayings and the first and the last together. 
I say, take them, and all this between, together (and take in all we must, 
for they all concur to make the sentence complete), and then the language 
is round enough, and all runs in a fair and direct channel into this our in- 
terpretation given ; behold, this (upon trial) I have found, namely, this, that 
I have set myself by counting to find out the account, but, notwithstanding, 
I find it not. 

But besides, there are many versions render it and I find not, which trans- 
lation is yet more yielding and pliant to this our sense. 

And thus we may see, this I have found, though placed at the beginning 
remotely from the close, yet gently to roll down through all those inter- 
mediate winding passages, and taking them along with itself, to fix itself at 
last in / find not, as its terminus, and there rests. And so the whole of all, 
ultimately terminating in I find not, is that very this which Solomon in- 
tendeth here, and says he found. 

And thus this clause, in the sense now given, doth absolutely stand entire 
and clear apart from both the foregoing and the following words, as those 
which do make up a whole complete sentence within themselves, that we need 
not take in the next succeeding words, ' One man have I found,' &c. (as 
some would), to perfect them into an entire sentence. And we shall find 
(when it comes to be opened), even that succeeding sentence, ' One man 
among a thousand have I found,' &c., to stand out likewise, in the sense 
thereof, from this here, and to subsist on its own feet, as being another dis- 
tinct maxim of and within itself. 

And in the meanwhile, till we come to the opening thereof, there is this 
in the general that may aforehand serve as sufficient evidence, that these 
(my text) make one period or full sentence, and those succeeding words 
another ; even the order and conduct which Solomon observeth through- 
out the whole paragraph, which is this, that whereas in the first place he 
had shewn he had set his heart to search and seek the account, ver. 25, 
then in the rest that follows to the end of the chapter, he gives forth four 
maxims as the several issues and products he had experimented of that his 
search. And to the end that his reader might be able to discern them in 
their distinction one from another, he takes up this form of speech, ' I find,' 



442 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

or * I have found,' which he hath four times up, prefixing or affixing it anew 
to every one of those special maxims. Thus he begins his first particular 
return of account, ' I find more bitter than death, the woman,' &c., that's the 
first; and then begins this new and second one with, 'this have I found,' 
ver. 27, which endeth with a ' but I find not,' with which he perfecteth the 
second. He then, in Hke equipage of speech, gives out a third in the end of 
ver. 28, * One man have I found, but one woman I have not found.' Then 
a fom-th, which is the conclusion of the whole 29th verse, ' This only have 
I found,' &c., that is, this only to my full satisfaction, ' That God made man 
upright, but they,' &c. So as a this have I found, still parts every period 
as a mark of di^dsion ; and by repeating it thus four several times, ' I find,' 
or ' I have found,' he severs the materials of each of these sentences one 
from another, as we use to do by so many principal posts or studs, so many 
divisions or sets in a row or rail. And therefore we may conclude that these 
two sentences before us in vers. 27, 28, the one, my text, the other, ' One 
man have I found,' &c., having two new I founds set them, that therefore 
they speak of differing matters, as well as those other two clauses in vers. 26, 
29, ai'e generally acknowledged to do, these having the like posts or marks 
of separation set between them that those other two have. 

The attentive observation of these things, though but generals, concerning 
this passage (my text) now at the entrance, is a matter of great moment 
unto the true and right understanding of this text, and so of the rest of the 
whole paragraph. And look what scope or aspect interpreters do put upon 
the ' this have I found,' and what that should refer to ; that accordingly is 
made by them the hinge upon which their particular interpretations of all 
the rest that follows do turn, this way or that in their variety. And accord- 
ingly, that the this should refer and centre in I find that I cannot find it 
(which is the scope of it by me proposed), is, in like manner, the very hinge 
of that interpretation which I am now pursuing. 

A second query is, what should be Solomon's intent and plainer meaning 
to express himself thus in so strange a riddle, ' Behold, I find, I find not.' 

The answer in plainer words is, to shew that he found the matter of this 
account to be infinite and past finding out. And indeed the best commenta- 
tors, though they carry the this either to the wickedness of women, ver. 26, 
or both men and women, in the succeeding words, which I do not, yet they 
fall, in common, in with this general paraphrase or sense I now give, that 
Solomon's meaning was to express, that he found it was infinite. And in- 
deed the phrase itself, ' I find not' (especially as it is here coherenced), doth, 
by comparing other scriptures, import no less ; holding some lesser analogy 
in its drift and sense with that expression of the apostle (as it is translated) 
concerning the ways of God, "How unsearchable, &c., and his ways past 
finding out,' Rom. xi. 83. In like manner here, Solomon of his sinful ways 
(though bearing a far less degree of proportion for infiniteness), that they are 
past finding out. Or it corresponds with another like phrase used by the 
same apostle, ' passing knowledge ;' yea, and if we view these words in 
their coherence, you may discern that Solomon comes near in terms to both, 
and all of these of the apostle ; for in saying, ' I applied my heart,' 1, to 
' search,' and also sought ; 2, to ' know ; ' and 3, to * find this account' (all 
which you have in terminis, compare but vers. 25 and 27 together), and then 
for him to conclude, ' But I find it not,' is all one as to say, that upon search 
into it, I found it to be, 1, unsearchable ; and 2, passing my knowledge ; 
and 3, past finding out ; and so to be an account infinitely beyond all account 
I can give of it. 

And supposing (by what hath been said out of ver. 26, and shall be further 



Chap. II.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 443 

proved in the next chapter) that it is the account of his own sins he speaks 
this of, then it is the same thing in efiect which David his father had uttered 
afore him, though in other words, ' Who can understand his errors ?' or 
Jeremiah after him, * The heart, &c., who can know it ?' And in substance 
and sense, the very same which David useth of God's infinite thoughts of 
love and mercy in pardoning such au infinite multitude of sins ; ' Many are 
thy thoughts, God, to us- ward, they cannot be reckoned up in order to 
thee ; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be num- 
bered.' It is the efiect of what Solomon intends here of his sins, as shall be 
further shewn. 

1. This infinity, or surpassing his finding out, he further amplifies and 
exaggerates by setting out, 1, His pains and diligence used to find it, ' I 
applied my heart to search,' * to know,' ' to seek out ;' three words so mul- 
tiphed and put together, import utmost diligence, this in ver. 25. 2. Exact- 
ness in casting the accounts of it, * Counting one by one to find the account,' 
so in ver. 27 (even as arithmeticians do to bring their accounts to a balance). 
3. The continuation of his labours therein, ' Which my soul yet seeks,' that 
is, continues to do it. 4. By the vehemency his soul had in the prosecution, 
which my very ' soul seeks ;' and notwithstanding all this, ' I find not.' All 
these streams empty themselves into, and settle in this gulf, I find not, 
neither bank nor bottom. 

Unto which may be added the abilities of wisdom and understanding that 
Solomon was endowed withal ; so as one should think he had counters enough, 
wherewith he (if ever any) might have been able to have numbered them, 
having ' an understanding as large as the sands upon the sea-shore.' But 
his sins infinitely exceeded the sands in number (of which after), and passed 
both his, and all human understanding, and so his skill fell short ; he found, 
as Asaph says, it was ' too hard for him.' 

And therefore his arithmetic faihng him, he betakes himself to his rhetoric. 
For what could be greater and higher, than for the most renowned wise man 
that ever was, or will be in the world, and now anew made wiser by the 
hght of a serious and thorough repentance, properly directing and disposing 
him to the knowledge of sin, to make first so loud a proclamation, ' Behold, 
this I have found ;' and then exaggerating the matter (as hath been opened) 
by his pains in searching to find, &c., and all to shew that he valued the 
attainment of this above all other pieces of wisdom ; and all this to raise up 
and heighten the expectation of all who should read this, what it would be 
he should bring forth as the issue and product of this his search and finding. 
And then to come oti' with this, ' But I find not ;' what shall I compare or 
liken it unto, but the apostle's so solemn story of his rapture into the third 
heaven ? And then all the news he brings from thence, should be, that it 
was unutterable, and that he could tell nothing of it, was all he had to tell. 
This contrivance and circumlocution, and fetching the matter about, which 
Solomon useth, was such as no rhetoric or invention can mend, whereby to 
set out the surpassing infiniteness of this account. This as to the mind 
and unriddling of this riddle, I find, I find not, in the general intent of it. 

I now close this chapter, with adding this great observation out of all 
hitherto, that Solomon judged this to be a point of greatest moment and 
concernment for all men to know ; in that of all lessons else which from 
experimental repentance he had learned, he chooseth to leave behind him 
but this alone, or at least above all other, that upon his most exquisite 
search, he found his actual sins were infinite ; and to proclaim this with a 
behold, and the greatest solemnity, calling upon aU men deeply to consider 
it ; which point I shall enlarge upon afterwards. 



444 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK Xl. 



CHAPTER III. 

A larger confirmation of this interpretation given, and a fuller exposition of 
the words, by shewing that the matter of t/us account was of his own per- 
sonal wickedness, as a penitent; and not only that one particular sin, but 
of his whole life past and present. 

What hath been hitherto spoken concerning the way and manner of his 
speech used, and but in generals, must needs beget further desires more 
certainly and particularly to be assured this to have beeii his scope, and 
accordingly provoke to make a more narrow and thorough inquiry. 

What the subject matter or thing this account concerns should be ? 

And the answer thereto is, that the matter of this account, whereof he 
l^ronounceth this, * I find, I find not,' was, 

I. An account of wickedness. 

II. Of his own personal follies and wickedness, which, 

III. As a penitent he searched into, by self-examination, &c., and with 
repentance for them. 

IV. The wickedness, not of that one particular way of sinning only, but 
of his whole life past and present. 

V. That was the innumerable multitude rising up afore him in his search 
to such an infinity that caused him to say, ' Behold, this I have found, I 
find it not.' 

These particulars I shall endeavour to demonstrate, either out of these 
words themselves, or their coherence and aspect to the words foregoing or 
following after. And this by parts. The four Ikst in this chapter, and the 
fifth in the next. 

And this resolve comprehending many particulars, whereof some will oc- 
casion new queries to be drawn forth ; I shall therefore prosecute them in 
the way of query and answer (whereof the one will beget the succeeding), as 
I have begun, till the'y have all of them brought forth. 

I. To be sure it was the account of wickedness, some or other, either of 
himself or others. For after he had, in ver. 25, as his introduction, related 
how he was turned about, and had applied his heart to know, search, and 
seek out the account of wickedness, &c., he here the second time repeats 
and mentions this accoimt, and how de facto, and according to that resolu- 
tion, he had pursued the seeking of it. And this also, although it be but a 
general observation, yet conduceth greatly to fix the interpretation, and to 
bring it to an head, and strikes ofi' many other wide and wild interpretations 
♦hat are given of this clause, which otherwise I should not have indigitated. 

II. They were his own personal follies, sought out by him he intends 
this of. 

A late judicious commentator observing how the word translated, ver. 25, 
* the reason of things,' did signify the account (as was by me observed), and 
to be also the very same word that is translated the account here in ver. 27, 
and that addition of things not to be there in the original ; and withal, that 
Solomon in these words prosecutes the same account that he had spoken of 
in ver. 25, he thereupon paraphraseth the words of ver. 25 thus, Solomon 
applied his heart, or turned it about to seek wisdom, in taking account of 
himself, and seeking to know the wickedness of his own folly, and the foohsh- 
ness of his own madness. And so these words (says he) in ver. 25, ' The 
reason of things ' is better rendered, * the account of myself and ways.' And 
according to this premise, he interprets these words in my text, vers. 27, 28, 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 445 

of his own wickedness and folly ; thus he. And it is certain that if Solo- 
mon's own sinfulness be aimed at in that speech, ver. 25, then in this also. 
For it is evident it is one and the same account in both (which I shall urge 
by and by) which is confirmed by this, that ver. 26 (which comes betwetm 
this speech and it, in ver. 25, and so his main scope transmits from ver. 25 
unto this ver. 27), treats (as I have shewed) of the follies of himself, which 
he there bewaileth as a penitent. And the inference from thence will have 
a redoubled strength for this, that therefore much more he goes on in these 
words to speak of his own personal follies he had sought the account of, 
but found it was infinite and past his skill. I here add no more, because 
the whole of what follows in the very next succeeding third section does fully 
and directly serve to prove this head also. 

III. In a way of repentance and daily self-examination and search into 
them ; which appears by two characters. 

1. That he sets to his penitential mark or token when he comes to these 
words, and so upon the matter thereof, as being of a penitential nature. 
Behold, this have I found, says the soul that is by sound repentance gathered 
or returned to the congregation of the saints ; and says it, to testily his true 
repentance. This to be the comprehensive meaning of those words rendered, 
' Thus saith the preacher, ' I take so much for granted amongst Protestants 
as I will not detain the reader in a large proof of it. The word coheleth is 
a participle of the feminine gender, and therefore interpreters use to supply 
it with nephesh, which is of the feminine gender also ; and then it is all one 
as to say, < a soul gathered,' as implied thereby. And whereas in those other 
places of this book, where this title comes in, it is joined with a masculine 
verb, here alone the verb amorah, saith, is in like manner feminine, and so 
further serves to import his soul to be intended, which is yet further con- 
firmed by what doth immediately follow, ver. 28, ' which my soul seeks.' 
All which declar% that in this new stile and title Solomon intended his soul 
as the subject, as withal to shew how and with what a vehemency his very 
soul was in this matter engaged. And then again, the word coheleth signify- 
ing a being gathered to the congregation or the church ; it is inferred that 
therefore his repentance was withal as significantly connotated thereby ; for 
by no other thing is a soul truly gathered to the church (or ' added to the 
church,' as the apostle's phrase is) than by true and sound repentance ; and 
it is the soul that is the subject of repentance, and so still in Scripture it is 
attributed to it, as therefore here, when repentance is spoken of ; and it is 
as true that true soul-repentance is of and for a man's own personal sins, 
and therefore they must be intended. The words of the fore-cited right 
reverend annotator's paraphrase upon this word, are these: Solomon here 
added this clause (says he) to testify to the church his repentance, namely, 
• This have I found,' saith the soul, which by sound repentance is returned 
unto the congregation of the saints, which was before ensnared in the nets 
and bands of seducing women. To that special sin indeed he restrains it 
here, but I extend it to the sins of his whole life. 

I call this Solomon's penitential mark or token (proper to him in this his 
book of repentance) only in allusion, as in point of speech, unto that great 
apostle's apostolical terming that one of his mark or token set by him to all 
his epistles, 2 Thes. iii. 17. 

Now put but all these together : 1, an account spoken of, 2, an account 
of folly and wickedness, 3, which my soul yet seeks to find, 4, says the 
penitent soul. And what account else should this be supposed to be, other 
than the account of his own sins, and follies of his own soul ? And then 
by what other ways and means should it be, he did yet seek out that account. 



446 AN UNKEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

other than by self-examination and a daily searching into, and so computing 
of it? 

2. A second character that he speaks all this in a way of daily self-examina- 
tion and repentance, is that great vehemency wherewith his soul (as we find 
it here expressed by him) was carried out to find this account, together with 
his suitable diligence and exactness, or pains he professeth he had taken 
therein. And this will also as strongly serve to evince that they were his 
own sins he intended in these words. First, his vehemency and eagerness 
is thus expressed, 'which yet my soul seeketh ;' that is, the very whole of 
my soul, and the utmost intention of it, continues after the hottest and most 
eager pursuance of finding it, even to that very day ; which the word ' yet 
seeks ' argues. These shew that the matter of this account he looked upon 
as of greatest moment, and the finding of it to be a wisdom far transcending 
all other wisdom, which he had given over. Yea, and (which yet height- 
eneth this) that although he had found the very same discouragement in the 
pursuit of this which he had found in the study of all other wisdom, which 
for that very reason he professeth to have in a manner quite given over, vers. 
23, 24, because it was too deep for him, ver. 25, and given over to that end, 
to attend this new account or point of wisdom, yet still we see him, notwith- 
standing this discouragement, prosecuting this unto that very hour ; yea, we 
find his soul in a full career after it, panting and almost out of breath through 
ardency and heat of pursuit whilst he utters this. What must be or can be 
supposed to have made the difi'erence, but that he found this point of wisdom 
of infinitely greater moment, even such as his very soul and everlasting sal- 
vation was concerned in, and so deeply concerned, as he could never lay the 
study of this again down. For why ? He must have laid repenting down 
else ; for by the law of true repentance (whereof the studying to find out 
one's sinfulness is always a concomitant, yea, pre-requisite) he was daily 
engaged to this duty unto the end, to humble his soul greatly before God, as 
great sinners truly repenting use to do, and therefore daily to seek into this 
account, and to do his best to cast up that still ; and this although he still 
found he fell never so short of it, for that would but still serve to humble 
him the more. So as his But I find not the perfect account did not, ought 
not, could not discharge his soul from a yet of seeking to find it. Add unto 
this (which still increaseth the evidence on this hand), 2, that great dili- 
gence, pains, and exactness which he professeth to have continued in this, 
expressed in these words, * counting one by one to find out the account ;' 
which, whether it refers unto times spent therein (as Junius), semel atque 
iteriim, that is, once and again, or one time after another, as we use to speak 
when we would express sedulousness and industry, we say, still to be at it, 
and upon a thing ; or whether it refers to the things numbered or summed 
up ; how that he had told them over one by one. However, either the one 
or other, they each import his great diligence put forth in it. But the latter 
of these two speaketh further the most exquisite exactness, and how that he 
had been as curious and exquisite in his search, according to his power and 
skill, as any neat accountant (a merchant suppose) useth to be, who, to be 
sure to cast up a sum punctually, he doth it one by one, and contents not 
himself with a confused guess only. Even thus, says Solomon, have I en- 
deavoured to do, by a daily view of my fore-past actions, taken singly and 
apart ; yea, and I take actions in pieces, to find out their sinfulness. I have 
considered the principles of them, my ends in them, the motives, the aflfec- 
tions that influenced them, the circumstances that did accompany them, and 
have narrowly examined and searched into all these one by one. This is 
the second character. 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 447 

And unto these two, both first, so exact, and secondly, so vehement a soul- 
pursuance, it could not simply or mainly be the account of others' wicked- 
ness (to which most would carry it), nor can it be supposed to be that which 
should thus deeply have engaged, fired, and fixed him, but that a deep sense 
of his own wickedness awakening him should do it, and ought to do it. 
This the examples in the word, the nature of true repentance, and the ex- 
perience of all renewed souls after a relapse (as his case was) unto a fresh 
and deep repentance, do abundantly confirm. 

Here another query doth arise, that it being granted that he speaks this 
of his own sins as a penitent, yet whether not only of the account of that 
one species or kind of sinning by women, and the consequents thereof, be- 
cause he had alone insisted upon the mention thereof in ver. 26, this remains 
still a question. 

My return unto this is, that both that sort and the other, even all other 
sins throughout the whole course of his past, and also of his present daily 
conversation, were the object or matter of this penitential inquiry and ac- 
count here insisted on, which he, upon his renewed repentance, had pro- 
secuted with a continued examination and observation to that day. To go 
over these by parts. 

1. As touching those particular sins about women, &c., two things. 
(1.) It is certain that those are intended and included in a special and 
singular manner ; for he instances therein, and therein only, in the verse 
afore, as having been the chiefest of his sins, which useth always to be unto 
souls thoroughly humbled, the grand material of their repentance, and upon 
which they are wont to spend the strength of their sorrowful thoughts and 
tears, as being the imprimis of their account. We must necessarily, there- 
fore, judge that Solomon did bring down along with him, from the foregoing 
verse, the account of this sin into this his main account, ver. 27. 

(2.) It is as certain that that one rivulet or stream of sinning had afibrded 
so great a spawn and multitude of sins, as did alone amount to such an in- 
finity as might deserve those great words by which he exaggerates his not 
finding, &c. But then I would have it noticed withal, that if this had alone 
been intended, it still were a suflScient foundation for my design and purpose 
out of these words ; for if the transgressing of one commandment doth pro- 
duce and afibrd so large a reckoning, what will the breach of all the other 
throughout the course of a man's hfe amount unto, when every command- 
ment shall bring in their bills (as at such audits they use to do) ? But 
though we pass and allow that to have been his great imprimis, yet we may 
and must take into this account all the other, though perhaps lesser, items, 
which, being put together, do far exceed as to the number of them. 

2. As to that other part, that all the other follies of his life, past and pre- 
sent, were also the matter of his search and observation, to find out the ac- 
count thereof, upon this his revived repentance, &c. For this there are these 
competent evidences. 

(1.) The aspect or correspondency this speech holds in the matter of it, 
with that of ver. 25. Had, indeed, these words had reference only to ver. 26, 
they might have been limited by, and unto those his sinnings with women, 
and his meaning then to have been, That in his searching into that parcel 
or heap of sins, he found that alone to be infinite. But it is apparent that 
these words look higher, and hold a former and more elderly pre-acquaintance 
and strict connection of no less immediateness with those foregoing, viz., ' I 
applied my heart to know, and search, and find out the account of wicked- 
ness, and folly, and madness,' in ver. 25, which apparently speaks of wicked- 
ness indefinitely, yea, universally ; one kind of wickedness as well as another. 



448 AN UXREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

Well, and suitably unto that speech doth he here speak this, ' Behold, this 
I have found, counting one by one to find out the account, which yet my 
soul seeketh,' &c. It is evident 'tis the same account he speaks of in both, 
for the word in the original is one and the same in both (though there 
translated the reason, here the account). When therefore in these words he 
says he sought to ' find out the account ;' I ask, what account ? but that 
and the same, he says, he had took up a resolution to search into in ver. 25. 
And further, which strongly confirms this, he useth (in efi"ect) the same 
words to express his search after it in these words, which he had done in 
ver. 25. There he expresseth his purposed resolution by multiplying three 
words, to know, search, and seek, implying all diligence ; and in this he sets 
down his performance of that resolution, in terms equivalent as to the ex- 
pressing his diligence, viz., that he had ' counted one by one to find out the 
account,' and adds ' which yet my soul seeks ;' and there is but this difier- 
ence between what is said about it in both places, that in ver. 25, he speaks 
as of what his fixed intention and resolution at his first applying his heart to 
that study was ; but here in these he speaks of his performance after some 
progress made, and withal what the issueless issue or event of that perform- 
ance was, viz., ' But I find not ;' yet still so as what was the object matter 
of that account in the one, is one and the same in the other, even folly and 
wickedness, in both, of all sorts. The very looks and mutual aspects which 
both verses cast one upon another, are so direct, full, and broad, as none 
may or will deny that attentively eyes them both, specially in the original 
language. 

If therefore it were the search into his own wickedness and follies indefi- 
nitely and generally expressed, and not one particular way of sinning only, 
that had been the object of that his resolution there expressed at the first 
entrance into this discourse ; and that it were also the same, of which here 
he relates the prosecution ; then it is the whole of his sinfulness indefi- 
nitely considered, and the account thereof, and the issue of that account, 
which he here makes the return of. And the diflerence is but this, that in 
ver. 25 he shews how he had first set himself to the work, to ' search out 
wickedness,' &c., all sorts, one as well as another ; but here he relates how 
he had ' counted them one by one,' &c. 

2. The word account, itself here used, when it is set single and alone, with- 
out any addition of what it might be limited by, is still in Scripture put for the 
whole and general account of a man's sinfulness, which ovo/^aSTixug is styled 
tJte account, as being the grand or great account of all accounts ; even as the 
day of judgment is styled that day. And so the word account is used here, 
ver. 27 ; it is said alone, ' the account,' and no more ; he adds not of such 
or such a thing, and is therefore intended of all his sins. And likewise ver. 
25, ' to know the account,' is explained by saying, ' And to know the wicked- 
ness of folly' as being all one ; and that other phrase, ' one and one,' also 
favours this, which implies, as a descending to particulars, so his reaching 
after the comprehension of an universality, all or the whole, as Pineda* 
observes, or as we also say, one and all. And therefore it is not to be re- 
strained to the account of that one particular sinning, though that only was 
particularly forementioned for all the rest. 

(3.) This assertion is further strengthened from their coherence with the 
next succeeding words, * One man of a thousand have I found, but not a 
woman amongst them all ; ' of which although the main and substantial part 
of theii' scope be to declare what the wickedness of each sex was in them- 

* Numcrus iste binarius [unum et alternm] sijinificat unirersalitatem, coinprehenden- 
tein omaia. —Pineda in verba, et in tit. 2 prcejixo. 



Chap. Ill,] in respect of sin and punishment. 449 

selves, or as they stand in comparison one with the other in that respect, 
yet withivl, as casting back to the 27th verse ; this shadow issuing from the 
coherence with these foregoing passages about his own sins, as thereby 
shewing what influence either sex, in his conversation with them, had upon 
him, as they had been occasions, more or less, of sinning to him, which sins 
were now become matter of account and repentance to him. And perhaps 
a more close or sutficienter reason of his subjoining, so immediately, this 
succeeding passage to the former, will hardly be found out. It was to shew, 
that as they were corrupt in themselves, so coiTupters, as the prophet 
speaks, Jer. vi. 18, deceiving as well as deceived ; as the apostle, 2 Tim. 
iii. 13, enticing as well as enticed, that is, con-upter of him unto sin, Prov. 
i. 10, with James i. 14. And so the mind of that coherence is to insinuate, 
how that, upon the review of his own sins past, and account thereof, he had 
by sad experience found (as his word is) the generality of men he had con- 
versed with, to have been temptations to him ; scarce one of a thousand but 
had been so unto him, though comparatively the women, to an universality, 
had been much more. Which scope from the coherence is confirmed by 
this, that if his intent and purpose in uttering that latter part, ' Not one 
woman among them all,' was to shew how they had been such seducers and 
means of sinning unto himself (and this interpreters do very generally 
acknowledge and observe to have been his intent therein), then why 
should not the fore part, one man of a thousand have I found, have the same 
drift also ? 

If any will say, ay, but he mentions that about men with a difference of 
commendation rather. 

My reply is, that his commendation is but of ' one among a thousand,' 
which includes a more than implied accusation of all the rest of men, to 
have been even as women in this respect unto him. (To him, I say, and not 
only as corrupt in themselves, but enticers too, or infecters of himself with 
evil.) For to the same real intent and respect that he mentions that of all 
women, he doth also that of the thousands of men. Now it is evident from 
ver. 26, that in and unto that respect it is he repeateth this again here about 
the women ; only indeed he sets the eminent brand upon the women, and 
his sins occasioned by them in both places. Now if this be his general 
scope, then it will readily follow that his own sins, occasioned by his con- 
verse with men, as well as those by women, were those which he here had 
in contemplation before him, whilst as a penitent, he pronounced this in 
ver. 27 ; and therefore it is not to be limited to that one score of sinnings 
from women, but to be extended unto those from men also. And if so, then 
why not as generally to any other kind of sinnings, whether alone by him- 
self committed or with others ? All which now, as a penitent, he had cause 
to search the account of, to remember and bewail. 

III. As it was the account of the sins of his life past, so it doth take in 
withal a continued search into sins present, or those which daily passed him. 
For from the time of a begun or renewed repentance, the examination of 
daily sins useth to be a penitent's daily task. This that small insertion of 
one word, the particle yet, ' The account which my soul yet seeks,' doth im- 
port ; yet, that is, continually and unto this day,* from the first that I did 
set afresh upon this repentance work. And as he thus speaks of a continual 
exercise of his soul this way, so it may seem more rational, that he suitably 
should principally intend to shew his daily exercise to have been about his 
continual daily sinnings of what kind soever. And so about sins quotidian(R 
* Usque in banc horam. — Campetisis. 

VOL. X. F f 



450 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

incursionis, or which through the remainders of corruption do fall out and 
accompany one's ordinary conversation. And it is far harder to imagine his 
meaning to he limited to that one way of sinning mentioned ; as if he would 
signify how his mind had been taken up with the accounts of that extrava- 
gancy alone, rather than to suppose it was about all other sins generally and 
indefinitely, though began upon occasion of that, especially if withal it be 
considered, that he speaks this of a very narrow search and inquisition, 
whereas those his effeminate sinnings, and the consequences thereof, had 
been more gross and conspicuous, and came staring in upon him, his con- 
science being once awakened, whereas they are the leaven of quotidian cor- 
ruptions, that are apt to scape our observation and finding out, without a 
curious and more diligent inquisition into every corner of the heart, * to find 
out the account' of them, which he professeth here to have made. 

Yea, the mien, look, or manner of his speech (if viewed together with all 
the other lines and glances we have observed it casts) doth insinuate that, 
after he had made instance of that one way of sinning, apart, in the former 
verse, he should now proceed and rise up higher (for he speaks by way of a 
progressus), how that from thence he had been led into the account of the 
sins of his whole life one by one ; and thereupon did here give his estimate 
upon the total or universal view thereof. And unto this purpose it is some- 
what significantly observable, that but noiv it is, he affixeth his behold upon 
this ; whereas whilst he was upon bewailing those particular sins, ver. 26, 
he forbore it, and expressed his sense thereof, only in the language of 
' bitterer than death ' (or hell), &c., reserving his behold, and his this have I 
found, until now. And why ? because noiv he was upon the whole and total 
of his sinfulness, which rose up before his view, upon his searching into the 
account of it, to so vast and amazing a prospect (or rather retrospect) as 
that of the whole account of his whole life must needs be supposed to afford 
him, that being the great and infinite sum. This, the account of all ac- 
counts, and, as was observed, by way of singularity, so styled in the scrip- 
tures. 

The genuineness of the series and coherence that this whole interpretation 
doth give unto tbe wbole of these verses, the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, doth 
exceedingly illustrate the truth of this assertion. I may briefly paraphrase 
them thus, and draw this diagram through them ; as if Solomon had said, 
I did set myself to find out the account of folly and wickedness, and I began, 
and was first struck with a sense of what had been my bosom-lnst, my in- 
ordinate love to women, and in that one lust, and the issues thereof; and 
upon seiarch, I found many, many nets and entanglements, I had been held 
in, ver. 26, and thereby being awakened, I was from the view thereof carried 
on, and gently led into a casting up the accounts of my other sins whatever 
in my life ; and thereupon I found such swarms and troops came up before 
my own humbled soul, that if you ask me the account thereof, I can give no 
better, than only to say, * Behold, this have I found, that I find it not ; ' 
and this notwithstanding my utmost diligence, ' counting one by one,' and 
most ardent desires in the prosecution of it continued to this day, ' which 
my soul yet seeks.' Thus far Solomon. 

And in the last place, this draught or coherence of these verses given, 
doth as naturally comport with the method and order of God's working upon 
men in the experience of the most of true penitent souls, whether in their 
first or renewed repentances after a great relapse. In which the progress of 
God's dealing (as I shewed at the entrance to the exposition of ver. 26) holds 
usually this course, to begin to trouble a soul, for some eminent grosser mis- 
carriages, and from thence to lead them on to the astonishing discovery of 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 451 

all the rest, the whole of their other sinfulness, of what kind soever. And 
unto this, as God's method, the ordinary experience of most repenting spirits 
will likewise readly assent ; so as this interpretation every way approves 
itself in all these respects to be most genuine. 
V. Other interpretations briefly animadverted. 

It cannot therefore be that any matter of foreign knowledge, merely out 
of himself, or out of the sphere of his own proper concernment, should be 
the chief, much less the only subject of his search and studies here intended. 
Such as either, 1st, to find out the wiles, cunning devices, artifices, and 
deceits, &c., that are in women's hearts to enveigle and ensnare men ; nor 
yet, 2dly, his having observed how the wickedness of women doth com- 
paratively exceed that of men; and then, 3illy, how both had so far sui-passed 
his skill and wisdom to find out ; (which things many interpreters do carry 
the whole or main of the sense and coherence of these words unto). These, 
I say, cannot be the main scope, upon all the accounts forementioned. 

For, 1, it pitcheth Solomon's main scope upon too mean a subject for all 
this grand and solemn proclamation : (1.) ' Behold (but four .times used in 
this book) ; (2.) with this indigitation or emphasis. Behold this; 'this have ' 
I found ; who (3.) am the great preacher in Israel, and now a penitent soul. 
It pitcheth, I say, all these upon a poor low business, in comparison, a 
theme which philosophers and poets so abound in, and declaim upon, as all 
this about women's wiles, &c., is. 

Nor, 2, could he esteem that so great a point of wisdom, as to give over 
all other wisdom for the study of it. 

Nor, 3, was that a matter of so great moment as should deserve, yea, 
swallow up his most precious time and intention of mind to ' find out the 
account ' of, which he here professeth he had spent, and was engaged ' yet ' 
to spend upon it. 

There are two things which specially have occasioned this mistake. 
1. In that his ' searching one by one,' ver. 27, seems, in the first sound of 
it, to have respect to, and to be the same thing with his having found but 
* one of a thousand,' and among women, ' not one ;' and the one to answer 
to the other. Whereas in reality his counting one by one, ver. 27, is not a 
reckoning, studying, or counting of persons one by one, of either sex, but a 
counting of sins and follies, one by one, as its coherence with, and reference 
to ver. 25 manifestly shews ; as also to find out the account, ver. 27, is to 
find out the sum or account of the number of wickednesses, as Jerome says 
the word signifies. 

The 2d mistake, that the latter clause, ' one man have I found,' &c., but 
among women ' I have not found,' should answer unto, and be but a further 
explaining of those two foregone passages, ver. 27. The first, ' this it is I 
have found' (so there), namely, ' one man,' &c. (here) ; the second, 'But I 
find not' (there), that is, I find not one woman (here).* Whereas, besides 
that it is dilute enough at best, this gloss doth make the matter of these 
latter clauses to be, in whole and in all, but one and the same thing with the 
foregoing in ver. 27. Whereas it is everlastingly unimaginable that merely 
his finding out this maxim, but one man of a thousand, and his not finding 
one woman, &c., should be the sole object matter of so great an outcry about 
it, or be so great a matter, as that which in ver. 27, and the beginning of 
ver. 28, he doth make of what he there speaks of, as appears by what hath 
been exaggerated about it, and but now alleged ; yea, I may say, it is im- 
possible it should be the same. Therefore these two several sayings, the 
first and last, must necessarily materially difier. The first sayings, speaking 

* See Mercer. 



452 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

of one thing, viz. the caccount of bis own sins; the latter of another, viz. his 
observation of the wickedness in both sexes comparatively made. This in 
the primary intention of it ; and are so far from being in all, or in whole, 
the explication of the former, tbat it is no part of that account there, which 
was of sins properly belonging to himself, further than as in that secondary 
respect (which I mentioned) which riseth merely from its so immediate 
following after the former, that wickedness in both sexes had been accidental 
occasions of sinniugs and temptation to himself. But I shall expound those 
latter speeches apart by themselves by and by. 



CHAPTER IV. 

That it was the multitude of si?is was in his eye that made him to say, I find not. 

If any will yet make query (if perhaps after all this there be any need), 
what it was in his own sinfulness that Solomon found to be thus infinite ; 
for which query, because there may seem this ground, that there are two 
infinites in sin, one of greatness for guilt, the other of number and multi- 
tude, and so which of these should be intended might be yet a question ; 
but chiefly because the resolution gives further opportunity to confirm the 
very point or main of this my intended subject, I therefore shall give further 
answer thereunto. 

I easily grant the first of these two to be included ; for his sad bewail- 
ment in ver. 26, argues it, ' I find more bitter than death,' speaking of that 
one way of sinning by women. Yet still it was in a more eminent manner the 
number and the multitude of sins in his whole life, which he hath in his eye, 
in this 27th verse, that caused him to utter the infiniteness thereof by this 
unexpressing expression, ' I find not.' 

I. That his eye was upon the number, that phrase in the middle of the 
words, ' counting one by one,' argues ; for it most properly imports an hav- 
ing sought an account by numbering. And though the word countiny is not 
in the original, yet our translators understood that to be evidently impUed 
as the sense of that phrase, one by one, and so they choose to render it, 
' counting one by one,' and if that word counting should be left out, yet the 
phrase itself, one one, or one and one, or, as some, one unto one, as in num- 
bering by addition, or one and the other (all which are several readings which 
the original doth bear), still all comes to one as to our purpose ; for each of 
them properly concern numbering.* And further, one and one, or 07ie and 
t' other, are in ordinary plrrase of speech put to express, 1st, universahty, or the 
all of things, as we use to say, one and all ; and, 2dly, withal import a pai-ticular 
distinct view of things, and not in the gross only. In like sense we also use to 
say, one and V other, or, neither one nor f other, so noting forth particularity. 
And thus the mind of that passage, ' counting one by one,' proves to be this, 
that Solomon going about to find out the account of all and the whole of his 
sinfulness, had unto that end considered his sins distinctly and particularly, 
one and one, and not contented himself with a confused knowledge and sense 
of them, such as the generality of men have of their sinfulness, who use in 

* Ilia est simplex et genuina exponendi ratio, qiiam Hieronim-us, Albinus, Nicolaus, 
Lyra, et Hebrsizantes omnes sequuntur, ut unum et alterum referatur ad numerum. 
Rursus, nunierus (nempe iste Binarius), unvm et altervm, significet universitatem 
comprehendentem omnia. — Pineda in verba, et in titulo 2, prcefixo. 

Some read it copulative, xinum tt unum, Campensis ; unum et alterum, Vulgate. 
Others with prepositions, unam adunam, Symmachus; unumadaliud, pariendo scilicet 
grandem summam. — Hieron. in Comment, in locum, /^la tS fna, Septuagint. 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 453 

a slight and common reckless manner to speak of it, * We are all sinners,' 
and so pass it over, and think such a conviction sufficient; but it was not so 
in Solomon. This, then, is the first evidence, that it refers unto an account 
by numbering; or, which is equivalent in sense thereto, unto a weighing and 
considering all and each distinctly aud particularly. Now, if it were such an 
account by numbering, then it follows, that it was the superabounding 
multitude or number which did put the stand or set to his apprehensions, 
or which made him to say, ' I find it not,' as that which was infinite in that 
respect. 

But, further, and more particularly, it appears, if we either consult the 
words immediately afore, or if we consider what follows in the sum and con- 
clusion of all in ver. 29. 

II. The ivords afore. For although, as was observed, the heinousness and 
the dangerousness of those ways of sinning to his soul are the eminent 
things set out in ver. 26, yet there also a multitude and a variety of sinnings 
are intimated and connotated. And he begins even from thence to shew he 
had found many and manifold evils to be the concomitants and consequents 
thereof. This, those similitudes of nets and snares, and bonds, which he 
so cries out of, evidently import, and they signify not only that they were 
many, but manifold, variously wrought and interwoven contrivements and 
artificial webs of many threads, and engines of many links ; for such works 
of art and variety are nets, and snares, and chains. And he intends thereby 
to set forth his own seducements and entanglements, for multitude and 
variety, and what they had been to him. Aud thus, though he cries out 
of the bitterness or greatness of his sin in them, yet particularly in and 
by those expressions he further points to the multitude of temptations he fell 
into. 

And to illustrate this, I may pertinently reassume that scripture I did 
before but mention, and thereby anew set forth the mind of Solomon as to 
this, both these scriptures being in scope and expressions exceeding parallel 
each to other. It is, 1 Tim. vi. 9, ' They that will be rich, fall into tempta- 
tion and a snare, and into many and hurtful lusts, which drown men in 
perdition.' Thus speaks the apostle of the love of riches. And further in 
the following verse, in respect unto those many lusts, he styles it, ' a root of 
all evil.' There are many things in this the apostle's speech, that are 
parallel to Solomon's case, and unto his expressions here about it. The very 
phrases and allusions there are like and near of kin to these here, if we will 
but look round about the words ; as whilst he entitleth his sin, ' folly and mad- 
ness,' ver. 25, the apostle doth the same, 'foolish lusts.' Solomon com- 
pareth his temptations unto snares, in which beasts, made to be taken and 
destroyed, are caught; the apostle in express words useththe same metaphor. 
Again, as Solomon compares them to nets for fowls or fishes, so the apostle's 
phrase is, ' drowned in perdition,' even as fishes and fowls when caught are 
destroyed in boiling hot water, or such scalding liquor, so these in perdition. 
But that which I principally called in the help of this place for, was to shew 
that in Scripture-phrase a snare or temptation, when applied thus unto a 
bosom-sin, in such a case as this of Solomon's, implieth a many and mani- 
fold, yea, an innumerable company of sins, which it leads into, and which 
accompany it. For unto that purpose it is the apostle there useth the 
phrase, whilst he declares the danger of such a sin to be a falling into 
' temptation and a snare,' which he then further amplifies and explains by 
this, and ' into many foolish lusts ;' yea, and for the same respect terms it 
also, a ' root of all evil.' Now, let us but first understand Solomon, when 
speaking of his bosom-sin in respect of the consequences thereof, to intend, 



454 AN UNREGENERATE MAU's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

by snares, a many hurtful follies, which he had run into by reason and occa- 
sion thereof, and this according to the intent of the same Spirit, who wrote 
both the one and the other, in the Old and New Testament, and knows his 
own language ; and then it may be evident, that in like manner he here 
intended that this bosom-sin of his had been a root of many evils to him. 

And, then, if there were such a multitude of sins that sprung out of the 
womb of this one sin, which he had the apprehension of, in wi-iting ver. 26, 
it is then obvious enough, that in these next verses, in which he sets down 
the account of his whole life, together with these, that he intends to express 
an infinitely far greater number, which caused him with astonishment to cry 
out, ' Behold, this I have found, I find not;' and so, that this, of the multi- 
tude, is that very thing which he drives along in all. 

III. In the words after. If all this might not persuade that this was 
indeed his drift, you have Solomon himself, ere he takes ofi" his pen, inter- 
preting himself, in using the very same plain word, which the apostle inter- 
preted his meaning also by ; for in the centre and conclusion of the whole 
discourse (and which sums up the whole) he terms all these and other sins, 
the ' many inventions,' namely, which he himself for his share, and all man- 
kind each of them for theirs, had sought out to sin against God withal, and 
brings it in, in the conclusion, as that which had been one main thing this 
his account of folly throughout his discourse had run upon, and which he 
had in contemplation all along. 

I should here enforce this third and last evidence (for so in order it is), 
whiah may be extracted from that word many, as it stands in ver. 29, as 
that which is strongly pertinent to prove the numberless multitude of sins 
to have been in Solomon's eye, in these verses now expounded, and all 
along. But there lies a brief remainder of ver. 28, in my way first to be 
explained. 

One man among a thousand have 1 found, hut a woman among all those 
have I not found. Because these words lie as a seeming interruption be- 
tween that which I mainly am in prosecution of, namely, that third evidence 
from the many, ver. 29, I shall at present give but a brief account of them ; 
yet ^ome, to the end I may hold an equipage about this parcel of this scrip- 
ture, with what I have done in the former, which I have expounded, and so 
I shall this. 

The account hereof shall be : (1.) Of the occasion of their insertion ; 
(2.) Their coherence with the former ; (3.) To what purpose they come in ; 
and (4.) also the sense of them. All which will remove any stumbles that 
might arise from them, to divert from the sense of the foregoing words 
hitherto given. 

First, Let it be heedfully remembered, that they are utterly a new maxim, 
and no part of the sentence foregoing, or of the account there spoken of. 
This their having a new have I found given them, shews that, in common, 
having been used by Solomon as a mark or post of distinction given to four 
several complete periods (whereof this is one), to sever them each from other, 
in this paragraph. See the first resolve in answer to the first query above. 
Secondly, His insertion of it besides had a pertinent occasion and rise from 
the foregoing. For in his having, as a penitent, taken a view of the sins of 
his whole life past, he found, and could not but find, his own sins to have 
been complicate and interwoven with the sins of multitudes of others, both 
men and women, he having (being a king) had more occasion of access 
to, and so of converse with varieties of both sexes, more than any other 
man. And they generally having been occasions of temptations to him, and 
of his so much sinning, which he now with grief remembers, he therefore in 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 465 

remembering his own remembereth theirs, and so aptly subjoins his observa- 
tions about their wickedness also, after he had despatched and spoken that 
of the account of his own, in the foregoing words. 

Thirdly, His annexing it was to this end and further scope, to render his 
discourse and account about folly and wickedness the more complete, ^ For 
(1.), by the annexing of this he should as then have comprehensively spoken 
to the corruption of either sex, and so of all mankind, and given in a judg- 
ment thereof as well as of his own. And (2.) thereby further make a fair 
and advantageous introduction into that general and final maxim wherein he 
centres, ver. 29, which was to comprehend the demonstration of his own and 
all mankind's sinfulness: • God made man upright, but they,' &c., and there- 
fore full meet it was to insert this before. 

Fourthly, For the sense and meaning of the axiom itself, that will be cleared 
by putting, and then answering, a query ; the ground for which is this ; — 

That if his scope be asserted to be to set out the wickedness and madness 
in all the sons of Adam, this maxim seems to except some few of men from 
that general corruption : ' One man of a thousand have I found.' 

The answer whereunto will rise from the genuine sense of the words, which 
we shall arrive at, by considering them either, 

1st, Simply; or, 

2dly, As they are a comparative between men and women. 

1st, If we consider them simply, or how men and women are simply repre- 
sented by him, without comparison one with another ; and then their scope 
is that, 

1. As towards God, they are both and all universally corrupt; he supposes 
that here, for the next words do expressly affirm it : ' God made man ' (all 
men) 'upright' (in Adam), 'but they' (all of them) 'have sought out,' &c. 
And his father David had aforehand instructed him in two psalms, xiv. 3, 
liii. 3, that unto God's eye, who is said to ' look down from heaven upon the 
children of men ;' ' every one of them is gone back ; they are altogether 
become filthy : there is none that doeth good, no, not one.' So as in rela- 
tion unto God, they are all ' fallen short of the glory of God,' as the apostle's 
interpretation of these sayings is, Rom. iii. 23. It is not therefore his drift 
here to exempt any one man, no, not his one of a thousand, from his share 
in that common corruption and apostasy. But, 

2. His speech is to be understood as relating to the working of corruption 
in them, in the way of human converse, and intercourse of their relations, 
one to and with another, and so far as they are any way outward occasions 
or temptations to others of sinnings through mutual converse. And the 
reason is, for by what himself had had in converse with either sex, and by 
experience had /own J, as his word is, of either sex, to have been of damage 
to him ; on that occasion it is, and so with a great eye and respect thereunto, 
he utters this. 

3. He pronounceth the generality of men to be every whit as bad as 
women : never barrel (or basket rather, as Jeremiah's allusion is, chap, 
xxiv.) better, &c. For whilst he says but one man of a thousand, that is, 
of a great number, he concludes the generality of men under the same con- 
demnation he doth the universality of women, — all alike. Thus simply. 

2dly, As for his comparative considering them (in that so small difference 
of but one he had found), it is thus to be understood. 

First, Negatively, in two respects. 

1. Not in respect of grace, as if more men were godly, and comparatively 
fewer or none of women ; for, 

(1.) It holds not true either in the Old Testament or the New ; and that 



456 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

equal privilege, neither male nor female in Christ, &c., preferring neither 
before the other, as to that respect, cuts off all supposition of such a mean- 
ing here, 

(2.) Solomon, professing to utter this from experience, *I find,' &c. ; his 
judgment or verdict had been founded upon a partial and not competent evi- 
dence, if that should have been his meaning ; for as to women, his knowledge 
and converse had been most with heathenish idolatrous women, 1 Kings xi. 
And as to men, it was mostly with his own countrymen the Jews (and ' sal- 
vation was of the Jews' then, as Christ says, Jobn iv.). And therefore such 
a general sentence of such a difference between the sexes, as to point of grace, 
upon his experience of persons so unequally compared, as to that respect 
attested, had been notoriously incompetent, and liable to exception. 

(3.) This did no way pertain to his scope or design at first proposed, 
ver. 25, which was to search into folly, madness, &c., which is therefore the 
measure of that which follows, and according to the line thereof, this saying 
must be understood. It had therefore been a going out of his line to have 
pronounced what diflerence grace doth put ; this was no part of his cogni- 
sance. His general drift, then, must relate to the workings of corruption 
and madness, which may be observed to be in men and women comparatively 
in either state, whether of grace or not ; comparatis cowparandis, that is, 
comparing whether godly men with godly women, or ungodly with ungodly. 

2. As to persons. Nor is this sense (as not that speech neither in the 
former, ver. 26) about women to be limited unto the ' whorish women' only, 
for the Old Testament gives not heathenish wives that language, but of 
' strange wives,' &c. And again, in that sense to have said, he had not 
found one among a thousand of such, had been all one as to have said, I 
find not one good or virtuous woman among so many whores. But it is 
women in the general, as denoting that sex in distinction from men. This 
as to the negative. 

Secondly, Positively, *and so the difference intended respects, 

1. The outward breakings forth and workings of corruption in a visible 
manner, unto what such a man as Solomon or others may find (that is his 
word), that is observe in them. 

2. How that, in respect of visible breakings forth in human converse, &c., 
you may perhaps find a man, who by reason of a strength of wisdom, and 
deeper stamps of moral virtues accompanying it (which the masculine tem- 
per renders men more capable of), are in respect to a running out into a 
visible madness of folly, or an excess of folly (which is Solomon's measure, 
ver. 25), as disingenuities to reason, weaknesses of passions, humours (all 
which the female temper is universally, yea, and men generally, more prone 
and exposed unto). In respect, I say, unto these excesses, there may be 
found some of men, who is a* sober moderate sinner, and their corrupt 
nature so poised and attempered as they may be conversed withal more safely 
by their relations and associates, without affrication, or catching and con- 
veying the itch of any gi-eat distemper ; as also in relation to human societies 
and public f good. Such paragons of virtue were some among the heathen, 
as Fabritius, Socrates, &c., and some such Solomon had found among the 
Jews in his time, as Ethan, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, of whose 
excelling wisdom mention is made, 1 Kings iv. 31. 

3. Nor that rigidly neither, that none, none among women such ; for him- 

* Tolerabilem. So Clarins on the words, 
t Folitice probnm. — F erdinandus. 

Vinim cordatum et sapientem, fidelem et constat! tern. — A Lapide. 

Virum fidelem, cui tuto quis se credere possit. — Fineda. 



Chap. V.J in respect of sin and punishment. 457 

self sets out a virtuous woman in all respects, Prov. xxxi., but yet more 
rarely than among men, ver. 10. ' A virtuous woman who can find ?' Varum 
pro nulla rrjvitatur. 

The ground of this difference I will not insist on, which even philosophers 
have been much upon, inasmuch as virtue among the Romans had its name 
derived (a viro et cb viribus) from what excels in*'' men : et mulier quasi moUior. 
Women, their name from softness and weakness, their temper being as soft 
wax, not capable of a permanent virtue and stayedness, or as thin and slighter 
paper, wherein ink doth dijjhiere, run into stains, blots, passions, humours, 
whereas other is compact. Nor are the Scriptures altogether silent in taking 
notice of this reason of the difierence. Besides that place quoted in the last 
marginal note, that also in 1 Peter iii. 7, * Let the men dwell according to 
knowledge,' namely, as becometh men, by which the Holy Ghost attributeth 
wisdom and knowledge to the man, and wisdom is the governor of virtue, 
but then terms the woman ' the weaker vessel,' which even in innocency she 
was, and therefore noticed to have been first set upon by Satan, and first in 
the transgression. And now, in this fallen estate, weakness of sin being 
added to weakness of constitution, it makes the weakness comparatively 
greater. And Solomon here is not far ofi" from this whilst he thus expresses 
himself, ' One man (in the original it is an Adam) have I found,' &c. For 
an high paragon of virtue, wisdom, constancy, &c., is the nearest shadow 
(which some term the relics) of that image of uprightness (of which in the 
next verse) which Adam was created in ; even as temporary enlightenings, 
&c., which are in men not attaining regeneration, are the shadow and coun- 
terfeit of saving evangelical grace. 

Having thus cleared the way, I come now to the exposition of verse 29. 



CHAPTER V. 

Jhe exposition o/ verse 29, and that the imiltitude of sinnivgs is the centre of 
Solomon's discourse : ' Lo {or behold) this only have I found, that God 
made man ujiright, but they have sought out many inventions,' dc. — Shew- 
ing, in general, that this verse contains, 1. In the latter clause, a summary 
repetition of what in the former verses; 2. In the whole of it, a demonstra- 
tion of man's corruption, and vjherein that demonstration lies. 

The whole of my design upon these words is accomplished in two things. 

I. An exposition of the words. 

II. The third evidence aforementioned, which the word many, as it stands 
in this verse, gives, that the multitude of sins had been in his eye in the 
former verses also, unto which that epithet hath an aspect. 

The first in this fifth chapter, the other in the sixth chapter. 

First, The exposition. 

I. These words are the grand and final issue and conclusion, as generally 
all interpreters do acknowledge, discovering the soitrce, spring, and well- 
head of all the corruption which is in us all, whether himself or others, he 
had been discoursing of; which became him thus at last to add and set down 
as the coronis of the whole. And he magnifies the finding of it above all 
those other discoveries forementioned, and that upon a treble account. 1. 
As that which had humbled him through comparing his corrupt estate with 
that uprightness God had created us all in ; and, 2, which alone had satis- 
fied him, it arriving at the bottom ground upon which the follies of himself 
* See 1 Cor. xvi. 13. Shew yourselves men, be strong, are synonjmes. 



458 AN UNKEGENEKATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOBE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

and all men do come to be sin and wickedness, even because God made 
man upright at the first, their sin in that regard Ij'ing in their having devi- 
ated and swerved from that uprightness ; as also, 3, laying open the true 
rise of all that variety and multitude of wickedness men run into, even by 
being fallen from that integrity, which whilst they retained, they sought and 
enjoyed in that one thing, which was the true and their sole happiness, viz. 
in God ; but having lost, and ceasing to do so, they go astray, and wander 
in a thousand ways of error, and seek out new inventions to be happy by. 
And that Solomon was thus highly aflected at the discovery of it, as rising 
up to a perfect demonstration thereof, his words shew : ' This only have I 
found,' that is, this alone as satisfactory to my mind ; and to see things in 
their true causes and originals satisfies the mind of any wise and intelligent 
inquirer, as he was. He had descried afore that this wickedness was infinite 
for number, and universal for extent in all men, but that sight left him con- 
founded rather than satisfied : ' This I find, that I find it not,' and in that 
strain he speaks of that ; but this was it he acquiesced and rested in, * Be- 
hold, this only have I found,' &c. 

And that this verse should be a demonstration, giving the reason of the 
former, the current and series of his whole discourse, whereof this is the 
close, doth further shew ; for having at the beginning, ver. 23, professed to 
search the reason and account (using on purpose a word that signifies both) 
in the process of it, he first declares what he had by experience found as 
touching that account, tJiat is, 1, the numerical account, ver. 25 ; and then, 
2, in this 29th verse, at the end of all, he proclaims with a behold the 
rational account of what had gone before. 

And in course of speech we know it is usual, when one hath made a bare 
narrative of a matter, then to come in at the close with the bottom causes or 
grounds of what he had related before. And so hath Solomon done here, 
and it is as if he had said, As touching what I have hitherto spoken of, 
either mine or of others' sinfulness, I find this to be the source and rise of 
all, and specially of the multitude of sins in me and them, ' That man was 
made upright, but they have sought out,' &c. This, in general, that the 
whole verse contains a demonstration. 

II. More particularly, this last clause of the verse, that is, these words, 
* They sought out many inventions,' may be considered two ways. 

First, Singly and abstractly, from those immediate foregoing in the same 
verse, and so they are the summary of the drift, yea, of the matter of what 
Solomon had been discoursing of in all the verses afore, gathered up and 
contracted in other words. To demonstrate which, the chief matter of the 
former may be reduced to two heads: 1. Concerning persons; 2. Concern- 
ing things. 

1. The persons spoken of had been himself, women, men, and so the 
universality of mankind. 

2. The things were the folly, wickedness, &c., which he had descried 
in himself, and observed in them. And now, the total about both per- 
sons and things, he folds up in this final clause, ' They have sought out 
many inventions.' 1. The they comprehendeth the persons (himself in- 
cluded, as I shall shew) ; 2. Their seeking out many inventions, that com- 
prehends the things which had been spoken of, and concerning those per- 
sons, under new words, but to the same efiect. 

As, 1, what afore he had termed foily, wickedness, &c., in the general, or 
particularly had aimed at, in calling them nets, snares, &c., or whatever 
actual e\dl in any kind he had insinuated to be in men, women, or himself, 
these he, by a new-found name (and a word invented on purpose suitable to 



Chap. V.] in kespect of sin and punishment. 459 

the thing), terms inventions, and a seekivg out for them. And what are all 
actual sins, other than new-found inventions and turnings aside to wicked 
ways, digressions from that solo, single, upright way unto blessedness, which 
God at first instituted, directed, commanded, made and cstated mankind in, 
and under ? 

2, What he had insinuated of the abounding plurality of them, either 
under the similitude and expression of snares, bands (as hath been shewn), 
or in his I find, I find not, that here he more plainly declares by inserting 
the word many. This, for the first consideration of these words, abstractly 
considered from the other immediately foregoing in the same verse. 

Secondly, This clause is yet penned in such words, as if we take into 
them (as we must) those anteceding words, ' Man was made upright, but 
they,' etc., then they do as clearly contribute, together with the former, to 
the demonstration forementioued ; that is, do express the true and proper 
principles and original causes, how or from whence it comes to pass, or 
unto what and whom it is to be attributed, that such an overflow of wicked- 
ness hath invaded all, and each of mankind, unto the production of an infi- 
nity for number of wickednesses. And this multitude of them is made 
the more eminent thing or matter demonstrated thereby. And as to this 
purpose, 

1. The word they is not to be understood suhjective only, but causally also 
(it serves to both senses), and notes out not only that the persons of all man- 
kind are the subjects of this corruption, but further pointeth to them, as the 
causes thereof, as the opposition to God made, &c., shews. He lays it upon 
the they, that is, tliemselves, to be the authors of those inventions, and the 
multitudes of them, even as the prophet elsewhere, * Thy destruction is of 
thyself.' In like manner, 

2. Also the word inventions, as likewise that phrase, that they seelc out, 
are as aptly chosen forth by him, both to import the nature or quality of 
actual sinnings, what they are, seekings out, &c., as also most significantly 
to denote, in part, the bottom-ground or cause of all actual sinnings, and of 
their multitude. 

Thirdly, And thus considered, the demonstration or reduction of man's 
corruption into its right principles, is exactly set out both ways by Solomon 
here, negatively and positively, that so it might be full. 

1. Negatively : Removendo non-causam pro causa, by removing what guilty 
man, to excuse himself, is prone to cast all upon, and ascribe it unto, as the 
cause, even God himself, and God his making me such and such. No, says 
Solomon, it is the perfect contrary, ' God made man (even all men, the 
they) upright.' He thus first thrusts the imagination thereof away with both 
hands. Then, 

2. Positively : resolveth it into the true cause, ' But they,' &c. And the 
explication of that consists of three particulars : 

(1.) That they baving been thus originally made upright in Adam, but 
fallen from that state of uprightness, were now degenerated ; for in saying 
they were made upright; that is, at first indeed such, he withal insinuates, 
that alas, now they are not so ! as in that speech, Fuimus Troes, so we were 
once upright, — made so, but now become otherwise. And in saying made, 
he points to God's first creation of man, shewing what we were then made. 
And that word referreth not to what we are when born, as by generation 
since. He could not intend that making of us, when by generation each of 
mankind comes personally to exist, as if that then we were made upright ; 
for Solomon had learned otherwise of his father David,. 'Behold, I was 
^hapen in iniquity, and in sin conceived,' Ps. li. He here therefore sends us 



4G0 AN UNREGENEBATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

to their creation in Adam, of whom we read, ' In the image of God created 
he him ;' j^ea, and therefore he did designedly make choice of the word Adam ; 
for what is translated, ' God made man upright,' in the original is, ' God 
made Adam upright ;' and yet not Adam singly, but the woman also. For 
in the same Gen. i. 27, it immediate^ follows, ' male and female created he 
them,' namely, in that image he had afore spoken of. And thus, as in him, 
all those who were to come by generation, were first by creation made up- 
right ; go likewise in him they are degenerated, he being the first man that 
represented all both in his creation and fall, 1 Cor. xv. And thus Solomon 
full well, we see, understood to be intended in the story of Adam's creation 
and fall, and had found it (as his word is here) in the first and third chap- 
ters of Genesis. And unto this he points whilst he says, * Behold, this I 
found,' which the apostle doth more clearly both understand and express : 
Rom. V. 12, * By one man sin entered into the world, in whom all have sin- 
ned.' Yea, accordingly, many interpreters* have understood by that clause 
that follows, ' But they sought out,' &c., to be intended, in order, first of 
our first parents Adam and Eve, and their first sinning : they began the 
round. ' Thy first father hath sinned,' as Isa. xliii. 27, and withal thereby 
both our first parents became the fathers of these inventions (as the first 
inventors of arts are styled. Gen. iv. 20-22), as well as of us their chil- 
dren. Yea, and a learned criticf is bold to translate from the original these 
words, thus, ' They sought the inventions of the great or mighty,' that is, 
of the angels, ' great in power and might,' 2 Peter ii. 11. So running up the 
original cause in Solomon's drift yet higher, even to intimate that influence 
the old serpent had in this matter, whose inventions they were, cast in by 
him, which they, our first parents^, so greedily ran after and pursued. This, 
for the first part, or the demonstration fetched from the orir/inale originans, 
which I do intend no more at all to touch upon in this treatise. 

(2.) Hereupon the whole theij, the gang of all mankind, their posterity, 
being deprived of this uprightness through the forfeiture of these their first 
parents, they, out of their depraved wills and affections, seek out for happi- 
ness in all other things where they can get it, or imagine they may find it, 
even in anything but God, from whom they are ' estranged from the womb,' 
Ps. Iviii. 3. And all this the word seek out doth aptly and fully hold forth ; 
and this is a second cause goes to make up the demonstration of this gene- 
ral corruption. 

(3.) They also set their corrupted understandings or wits a-work to find 
out inventions for the supply of these desires of their wills, &c. And this, 
that word invention notes out as fitly, even that part or hand which the un- 
derstanding hath in sinnings ; and is answerably translated by divers, ratio- 
cinia, reasonings; by others, cor/itationes, ihonghis ; all denoting what in the 
intellectual part of the mind is the cause of sinning. And this is the third 
part of the demonstration here intended. 

All which put together do make up as complete a demonstration as per- 
haps will elsewhere be found in any Scripture about any subject whatever, 
in so few words. 

I may illustrate this by the condition of a vicious young spendthrift, that 
had sprung from parents of high and noble spirits, raised and elevated an- 
swerably to a mighty great estate and dignity, which having been, by a for- 
feiture of his parents, or otherwise, made away and gone, he yet retaining 

* See for this also the Chaldee Paraphrast. 
f Ludovicus de. Dien, Quffisierunt invention os magnatum. 

X Quod qusesivisse dicuntur, eo docere voluit, illas fraudes SatanjE avide ab illis 
arreptas fuisse — Carlhwritus in locum. 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 4G1 

an inbred greatness of mind and height of spirit natural to his breeding and 
ancestry. Concerning this man it may be said that the former fulness and 
height, though accidentally, and his present boggarliness directly, meeting 
and joined with an elevation of spirit continuing in the foundation of it for 
Uxrgeness of capacity and aspirings, the same, though now corrupted ; that 
all these complex together, concur one way or other directly or accidentally, 
and are the causes how and whence it comes to pass, that he affects to live 
at an height of pleasure and gallantry ; whenas yet having lost wherewithal 
to do it, suitably to what he had before, he is thereupon put to his shifts, 
and lives by his wits, his arts, and inventions, and so proves a mere shark, 
seeks out and useth a thousand tricks to maintain his riot and voluptuous- 
ness, at as high a rate as whatever he can rap or rend here and there, will 
any way possibly enable him to, so to keep up a livehhood (God-wot a poor 
one). Thus it is, in what Solomon here says of debauched man, fallen from 
his first uprighteousness. 

And thus much may serve for an exposition of this verse, in some corres- 
pondency to what hath been done that way upon the foregoing verses. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Tlie chief remark out of this verse, as to the confirmation of our sid)ject is, 
That the multitude of sinnings is the ultimate centre of Solomon's discourse, 
and the main conclusion which the demonstration in special falls upon ; 
and that, as rehearsed, out of the foregoing verses ; and wherein that de- 
monstration lies. 

It may be remembered how in the 4th chapter I reserved a third evidence, 
that the multitude of sinnings had been in Solomon's view and drift in 
vers. 26, 27, as that which might be fetched out of this verse, and the word 
many, &c., as it stands in the verse. And having now finished the expo- 
sition, I proceed to the prosecution of this evidence, which I shall do by parts. 

I. It is the ultimate centre and conclusion ; for he coucheth and brings it 
in with an emphasis at the very last in the final close of all, as aimed at to 
be demonstrated. And this to do was no other than what is usual in the 
course of ordinary speech, in the like case. After a large narration of a 
matter first made, when we come to the demonstration, then to tuck up the 
main thing of all had been spoken of and intended in a special manner to be 
demonstrated, in some one comprehensive and expressive word, and to in- 
digitate it at the very last with the demonstration itself; thereby to hold 
that thing up, in a special manner, unto the hearer's eye and observation. 
Just thus, I take it, and as unto such a purpose, doth Solomon insert this 
word, the many inventions, as that quod erat demonstrandum. 

II. In a special manner to be demonstrated. That the whole verse in- 
tendeth a demonstration of man's universal corruption, in the general (which 
had been before discoursed of), I have shewn ; and that this demonstration 
doth eminently, and in a special manner, fall upon this special thing, the 
multitude of sinnings, is also as evident. For, 

1. What is the pith and substance of this verse, other than this assertion : 
That man is departed from that rectitude or uprightness he was at first made 
in, and thereby left at a loss, and so hath betaken himself to other inven- 
tions, whereby to seek out for happiness elsewhere, and in other ways ? 
This is well nigh the very words of Solomon here. And then that from 
hence it is that the multitude of actual sins do spring ; and whence it comea 



462 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

to pass that men seek so many inventions, to an infinity, cannot be denied. 
And that therefore this was intended as the demonstration of it, for the 
reahty of the thing itself speaks it. If all intellectual natures would set 
their understandings a-work, they could not find out a more suitable and 
proper demonstration of this thing than this, and what else this verse yields 
and afi"ords. It may very well therefore and rationally be supposed, that 
this was intended by Solomon as the demonstration of this matter in a special 
manner. I shall choose to present this demonstration as appHed to this 
very thing in the words of another* commenting on the words, rather than 
in my own (who yet in other pieces of his interpretation is far enough ofi" from 
what I have driven) ; his words are these : Because man hath departed (saith 
he) from that one God, hence it is that he is after so many and various 
creatures ; and finding rest and satiety in none of them, he is continually 
thinking or imagining, and lusteth after another thing, and then another, 
everywhere seeking rest but finding none ; and therefore is tossed with a 
thousand thousand thoughts and desires. 

That which I chiefly observe as agi'eeing with my sense and Solomon's 
scope, as eminent in this passage- of his, is, that he fetcheth the rise of all 
from the singleness or oneness of that wherein man's uprightness at first 
consisted, viz. in uno Deo, in God, who alone is but one, that one universal 
good, one all-sufiicient object and fountain of happiness to man, and his 
will and glory the sole measure of man's uprightness ; and so it came to pass, 
all ran but in one current as then ; but that man departing, ab uno Deo, 
from this one only object of happiness, and that only way of righteousness ; 
hinc, hence it is (saith he) that now we are diffused, do wilder and scatter 
into the many, which is the main of the reason here indigitated by Solomon, 
though not the whole. 

III. As rehearsed and repeated, viz. as that which had been contained in 
the foregoing verses. For, 

1. That his design in this 29th verse was to give a demonstration of what 
he had before spoken of man's corruption, is manifest by what hath been 
opened in the foregoing chapter. And that also the same demonstration 
falls pat, and plum, and perpendicularly upon this, why the many, hath been 
now shewn. And therefore this may well be supposed to have had its part, 
yea and an answerable special portion and share in the matter pnd drift of 
those verses foregone, and so repeated as well as the other. Yea, it was 
shewn, that this last clause, ' But they found out many inventions,' was the 
breviary or repeated sum of what was before largely dilated upon. It is to 
the former as that point in a burning glass which contracts and draws to 
centre what had been more largely diffused. Now then that this word many, 
or both words, maiiy inventions, having both and each the special emphasis 
and indigitation in this breviary or repetition of the whole, each must needs 
be found and allowed to have had answerably a place and room, though it 
be in fewer and other words, in his foregone discourse. And in what pas- 
sage or passages thereof shall that of the many be so plainly found, as there, 
where our interpretation, vers. 26-28, have pointed and fixed it? 

2. Neither, I beheve, will there be a better account given why he should so 
electively, and to choose, single forth this adjective many to attribute that 
unto these inventions (thus at the close), rather than any other sad epithets 
and adjuncts, which might have presented themselves, if so be this had not 

* Quia ab uno Deo descivit, hinc in diversa et plurima distractus est, et mens ejus 
post creaturas varias vagatur ; curaque in nulla reperiat requiem, aliam semper et 
aliam cogitat et concupiscit, ubique quserens quietem et non inveniens ; quare mille 
cogitationum, &c. — Cornelius a Lapide in locum. 



Chap. VII.] in respect of sin and punishavent. 463 

been, above all other, the only most proper as to this very scope. For other- 
wise he might as well have concluded with saying, These cursed, hateful, 
crooked inventions, &c. (It is well known that our sinnings have names 
enough, and bad enough they might deservedly have been called by.) And 
even that latter of crooked inventions had been exceeding proper, as in an 
opposite respect to that vpritjlitness he said we were made in ; yea, and why 
should he not have B&id foolish inventions, having before termed them folly, 
ver. 25, or mad inventions, having there styled them madness ? or why not 
nicked, having called them inckeduess ? or bitter and grievous, having to his 
cost found some of them more hitter than death ? ver. 26. No, not one of 
these, or any other such appellations, do come into this his conclusion, or 
winding up of all ; but of all other the many must come in. And why ? 
But because it was that which above all other he had had in his aim in his 
discourse before, and for which reason he would now, above all other, draw 
his reader's eye and observation upon it, as mainly intended by him therein ; 
yea, and as set up and indigitated at the last, as the thing aimed at to be 
demonstrated ; which otherwise might certainly have been spared, and at 
the best was otherwise comparatively wholly foreign and extravasal to his 
scope, and remoter than any of the former mentioned. 

And, 3, for any to say that this, the ynany, was utterly a new thing, which 
he had been silent in before, and no ways touched upon, nor brought over 
from what before, were all one as to say, that whilst Solomon had gone about 
to give demonstration of what he had before spoken (and it is undeniable 
that he does), he yet ultimately did thrust in under it a new subject matter, 
and that as his main conclusion demonstrated, differing from what went be- 
fore, and so had not concluded ad idem, or to the same thing intended, which 
must not be admitted. 

It rests then, that it is one and the same thing both before spoken, and 
here demonstrated. And that both the universal corruption of men, as also 
the multitude of actual sins, had been both before treated of; and that the 
demonstration seals up as with a common seal both at once with one and the 
same impression. And so, in fine, if that the corruptions of men, &c., are 
m^ny, be that which is demonstrated, then, that they were many, is also a 
matter before treated of, and now anew rehearsed as the conclusion of the 
demonstration. 



CHAPTER VII. 

An ohjection by way of query, how Solomon himself, and his account of his own 
sins, in ver. 27, can be supposed, intended and included in his saying. They 
have sought out ? dx. Resolved. The final conclusion of all, confirming 
the whole subject.^ 

There is a query or objection that may perhaps deserve largely to be in- 
sisted on, for the removal of it ; it is, that Solomon according to our inter- 
pretation given of vers. 27 and 28, having intended only his own sins, and 
the account of himself ; but in this ver. 29, the many inventions he speaks 
of, belonging unto all mankind. How then can this be the repetition (in 
that respect), of what had been discoursed before, or refer unto that particu- 
lar passage of himself ? Also that Solomon speaks under the third person 
here, the they, and so but of others, as distinct from himself; and how then 
is himself aimed at and included in the they f 

The answer is made up of these four things put together : 



464 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

1. Though Solomon in that 27th verse, speaks but of his own personal 
account, yet he therein intended and proposeth his single instance as a com- 
mon example unto all mankind, whereby to warn and instruct all of them 
from that his experiment, to search into themselves, and that all and each 
of them would find, that the sins and account of each and every person of 
them also, was thus infinite, as he had found his own to be. And to set it 
home to them all, he likewise affixeth a behold unto it, thereby calling upon 
all to consider this, as alike concerned therein with himself ; nor doth he (as 
you may observe), afiix it unto the account of that particular way of sinning ; 
' more bitter than death is the woman,' &c., because all men's transgressions 
do not lie in that particular way. But when he comes to his general account 
of all sorts of actual sins through his whole life, in all other kinds of acts of 
sinnings, multiplied to such an infiuity, then it is he cries, Behold, &c., for 
that was it ; that was the like general concernment of all and every of man- 
kind grown up to years of manhood ; of which again more in the next 
chapter. 

2. And yet in those other passages which are concerning others, the mul- 
titude of their sinnings is at least implied, as the subject of his aim. As 
when in ver. 26, he lays to the women's charge that their hearts and hands 
were snares and bands, &c., which, how eminently it doth import multitude 
and variety, I have shewed ; and then, how fitly those expressions (which 
all interpreters understand of the arts and wiles of women) do correspond 
with this of inventions in this last verse, is obvious enough. And again, in 
charcino the generality of men in the last clause of ver. 28, to be as corrupt 
as women ; they in their kind and ways of sinning, even as women in theirs. 
His meaning therein still is, that in point of multitude and variety of sin- 
nings, as well as in other respects of sinning, it is, that they are much alike. 
So as he carrieth along in his aim, this of the many, as well as their- heinous- 
ness in sinnings, to the end to bring all at last into this general conclusion 
of his discom-se. So as we may take this as an undoubted premise, arising 
from these two last things mentioned, that whether he speaks of his own sins, 
or of others of either sex, this of the multitude of them is still to be taken 
in, and understood. , 

And then, 3, let us add to it that it was meet and requisite for him to 
utter this general conclusion of the whole matter in ver. 29, in the language 
of the they, and in the name of all others of mankind, rather than otherwise: 
and there, and thereby, to bring home the multitude of sins, and lay it at 
their doors, as well as he had done at his own ; because he had interwoven 
along (as we have shewn) the mention of their general corruption, as well as 
of his own. Yea, and in this, which was the close, he ascending nnto the 
original cause of all sin, and therein reaching to take in Adam and our first 
parents' sinnings, in whom Solomon himself, and mankind all had sinned, 
and thereupon how all then- posterity do follow them in the multitude of 
their inventions (as was shewn to be the scope), this made it congruous for 
him to frame his speech in that manner, as might best at once universally 
reach and take in all, even Adam and Eve, and all men downwards since, 
who were at first made upright in him. And thereupon, thus at last to 
express himself, They have sought out, was more adequate and congruous to 
such a general scope ; and it had been too naiTOw for him to have said, * I 
or we were made upright, but have sought out,' &c. His they doth better 
comprehend himself and them all. 

4. And yet in saying they, he is, in the coherence, himself sufficiently in- 
cluded ; nor doth he speak it of others, as apart from himself. For in that 
first part of his speech, 'God made man upright,' it is certain he intends to 



Chap. VII. J in respect of sin and punishment. 465 

include himself as well as any others of mankind ; and this other part that 
follows, * but tJteif,' &c.,must be taken as extensive as that former was, for it 
is the perfect opposite to it. Nay, he therein propounds the consideration 
of that original uprightness as that which himself took in to aggravate all 
his sinfulness fore- spoken of by ; as in like manner it also doth all man- 
kind's ; and the discovery of which, and comparing himself with which 
primitive integrity, with what he now was, this was the last and great ingre- 
dient into his humbling of himself, being added to that foregoing account, 
which he had given of so vast a share of wickedness in himself. And unto 
that end (one among others) it was he sets it down ; as well as that all man- 
kind might be humbled under the sense thereof, as himself had been ; and 
therefore in uttering it of all mankind universally, it is all one as if he had 
named himself, and had said, Thus /, and every man from Adam, even all 
whom God made at first upright, have sought out these many inventions. 

Let us therefore but, 1, allow Solomon's sins a due share in his intend- 
ment in the many, which we well may, because they had taken up the most 
in his foregone narrative, there having been three verses spent thereon ; 

And then, 2, let us take him in, as included and intended by himself 
among the they, the persons. 

And then, 3, withal allow him as eminent a proportion of special reflec- 
tion on his own sinfulness, whilst he yet speaks of the generality they and 
the many, in the intendment of him, who stands forth on the stage of this 
scripture, as the sole penitent in this confession, as an example unto all, and 
who was now humbled and self- condemned, and knowing more, many more 
sins, by himself than by all others, as all true penitents do : and who in the 
particular sense thereof did utter this (though expressed at last in a general 
confession in the name of all, yet including himself, whilst he utters it), and 
then we will all easily be satisfied, as to this objection made. 

The conclusion of this matter shall be : Let us now bring together these 
two sayings of his, that stood at some small distance each from other, as if 
they had not been acquainted with each other, which yet they may greatly 
be found to be, the one that of vers. 27, 28, ' This have I found, that seek- 
ing the account, I find not,' and then this other in the last conclusion of all, 
' They sought out many inventions,' spoken as well of himself as of all man- 
kind ; and then by bringing both together, that dark riddle we at first ob- 
served in Solomon's words, is unfolded ; for this last expresseth and brings 
to light in plainer terms, the reason why he had said, He found he could 
not find, namely, because they are many, an infinite multitude and variety 
of them. 

Which secret affinity and correspondency that is betwixt these two sayings, 
the vulgar translation upon the latter words helps forward the discovery of, 
in rendering the many the infinite, that is, for number ; whilst on the other 
hand the best commentators (as I observed) cast the same light of interpreta- 
tion upon that other saying in ver. 28, paraphrasing that clause ' but I find 
not,' to be all one as to say, ' It was infinite,' and infinite for number ; and 
so both agree in the sameness of language and sense. And by thus compar- 
ing both, we come to know what it was that made that account of sin, in 
ver. 28, to be infinite and past finding out, namely, the number and mul- 
titude which this word many, in ver. 29, suggests and supplies, and puts us 
out of doubt that to have been his intendment. All which arrives at the 
very point I have thus largely been steering unto, the subject that is to 
follow. 

VOL. X. G g 



4G6 AN UNBEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XT. 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

Two corollaries and monitories dravm out touching the suhject in ha/nd : — \st, 
TJmt the account of every mans actual sins is infinite and numberless as 
well as Solomon s. — 2dly, That /or every man to know and be convinced of 
the innumerableness of his sins is a matter of greatest weight and moment. 

The fruitful field of this one scripture, as it hath been opened, yields 
many -wholesome, though sour herbs, concerning conviction of sin, and 
humiliation for sin. And perhaps the most of what are the object matters 
of our sinfulness in true convictions, and also the most of the genuine dis- 
positions of heart in humiliation and repentance, might all, without straining, 
be extracted from hence alone. Many of both these may have been observed 
ah-eady, to grow above ground scatteredly here and there in the exposition, 
as it hath been given. I forbear at present to recollect them, or gather 
them up together into a bundle ; my scope is about this one particular as 
my subject. 

That the account of each man's actual sins, who is grown up to years, is 
infinite and numberless, as well as Solomon's was. 

I. Of each and every man. For it was one great scope of Solomon here 
to propose his own example in the case, with a behold and proclamation made 
to every man that should read this. And what, to that end only that they 
might know historically that the account of this individual person, Solomon, 
his sins, who lived so many thousand years ago, did amount to this infinity? 
&c. No, sm-ely, this was not all, or the main of his scope ; but that every 
man (and every man is called upon to behold it) should understand and con- 
sider what his own condition is, if he would but come to understand himself, 
and what his heart and ways aright are. Neither is Solomon's instance 
single or extraordinary in the case, or alone recorded for this thing; but the 
like verdict is given in, in the Scriptures, by a multitude of other saints 
greater than Solomon, of their own accord, as touching this innumerableness 
of their own sinfulness (which I shall in the treatise that follows add by way 
of demonstration of it). And surely both one and the other were written for 
the instruction of all others of mankind : and they therein set themselves out 
to us as general measures of what is of the like innumerable sinfulness in us 
all, in some proportion or other. 

But that Solomon should here, in proposing his own example, in a special 
manner have aimed at this, is evident. For, after his own example given, 
in his winding up at the last, ver. 29, he wraps up all of actual sinners 
under this same guilt in this very respect, ' they have sought out,' &c. And 
they imports not a mere indefinite, as that many of them have many sins, or 
that the whole bulk and body of them (take them all, collectively, together) 
have an infinity of sins amongst them ; but is partitive as well as imiversal, 
that all, and each one personally, for his own part and share, hath. And 
for the conviction of every such son of Adam, and for the humbling of every 
soul it is that he pronounceth this of them, having first propounded his own 
conviction (in the verses before) for an instance and example unto all the 
rest of the truth of it. 

And again, look as his forepart of that general conclusion, * God made 
man upright,' is true of every particular individual soul (as in Adam's crea- 
tion they were considered), so likewise this other part, ' they sought out,' 
&c., is true of all and each of such of mankind now fallen, that live to years, 
and are capable to behold and to consider it. 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishitent. 407 

II. Of actual sins. Which (1.) the phrase ' one and one,' ver. 27; (2.) 
' inventions,' ver. 29 ; (3.) and which ' they sought out,' or, which them- 
selves have acted, do all manifestly argue ; and this in a distinction from 
that body of original sin that is derived to all infants, and to themselves 
when such. I added, therefore, 

III. Of men (frown up, &c. For he speaks of them that seek out for 
themselves, and seek out inventions, and so act reason in sinning ; and the 
word iinriitioiis is translated by some ratiociida. And it is necessarily to be 
understood of such as are capable to behold and consider of this thing, and 
of all such ; and he twice calleth upon all such to do this : 1. when he 
pi'opounds his own example, ver. 27 ; and, 2. here again in this passage, 
ver. 39, and thereby in both calleth upon every man to lay his hand upon 
his own heart, deeply to consider and search into this. 

IV. That the many inventions imports an infinity of sins, as likewise his 
I find not, ver. 27, doth, I shewed before. 

There is one other observation : 

That for every man to know and be convinced of the innumerable number 
of his actual sins is a matter of greatest weight and moment. 

All the former streams do contribute to this assertion ; his solemnity of 
proclaiming it, beliold, Sec. ; his prefacing what his pains, &c., had been, set 
also before it, do fully argue this. But beyond all, that whenas he, a penitent, 
doth take on him to declare his best knowledge from, and what that utmost 
lesson of wisdom he had found in his searching this account should be, he 
should choose to single out this one thing alone as the great result of all, 'I 
find it is past finding out ; ' and to say no more of it, nor no other thing 
about the whole matter, what was this other than to declare that the great 
product of this his repentance was the mighty impression and sense which 
this thing, above all other, had left upon him, and had been experimentally 
learned by him ? And the mind thereof is, that if he were to leave upon 
record but one reflection or memorandum, which had been the fruit and 
result of his casting up this account, unto the rest of his brethren, the sons 
of men, it was and should be this, merely for the grand importance and 
usefulness of the knowledge of it ; which usefulness lies in these things 
following. 

1. Which himself gives, to awaken all sorts, both good and bad, to look 
about them, and seriously to consider what an infinite account, in point of 
sinning, they are all and each to give at that day, when every work shall be 
brought to judgment, whether good or evil, and therefore to set upon this 
great and absolutely necessary work of self-judging and humiliation for sin ; 
and to that end as diligently to ' count and cast up one and one to find out 
the account,' as himself had done. For that this was indeed a matter of 
such moment in his esteem, there is" this further remark at last set upon it 
by himself, in that he should shut up this his whole book of repentance with 
that very adriso and admonition now mentioned, chap. xii. ver. the last, he 
there reducing the conclusion of the whole matter of his aim in this book to 
two things : 1st, To ' fear God, and keep his commandments ; ' 2dly, ' For 
God shall bring every work to judgment,' that is the other. Hereby pro- 
voking all the sons of Adam, once created upright, and fallen in him, to 
search Into their ways, and turn unto the Lord ; and to continue so to do 
(as he professeth of himself here that he had done), and so by judgi)ig them- 
selves, to prevent their being judged and condemned of the Lord, who hath 
the accounts of all men in his divine understanding, though men cannot find 
out in this life the sum of them. 

2. The moment of it lies in this, that the searching into, and a true con- 



4G8 AN UNEEGENEKATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

viction of this innumerableness of sins, conduceth to, and helps forward all 
the gracious workings of the Spirit in us. (1.) It brings in the materials for 
the deepest humiliation, which when true and spiritual, is sensible of, and 
bewails as much the multitude of lesser sins, specially contrarieties to 
spiritualness, as the heinousness of greater, which, in the ensuing treatise, I 
shall shew. (2.) It prepares for faith, and an admiration of God's free grace ; 
for that speech, ' Where sin abounded,' Horn, v, 20, is manifestly spoken 
of sin's abounding in a true convert's sight and sense, as well as of its 
abounding in reality ; for he had said just before, * The law entered that sin 
might abound ;' that is, in the discovery of the abundance of it; for ' by the 
law is the knowledge of sin,' chap. iii. ver. 20. Now, the abounding there 
spoken of also refeiTeth to the multitude of sins, 'many offences,' ver. 16, 
and so his meaning must be, that where sin, thus in the sight and appre- 
hension of an humbled soul, doth abound ; there also, as it follows, in such 
an heart doth grace come to ' abound much more.' And it, by the law of 
opposition, must be understood to the same sense that sin's abounding was 
intended in ; and so that in such a convert's heart as saw sin much to abound 
in himself, that heart oomes answerably to apprehend the superinfinite 
abounding of God's free grace to him in pardoning. And in pardoning 
what ? but the multitude of sins, as in vers. 15, 16, he had said, that * the 
gift of grace had abounded to the pardoning of many offences to justification.' 
And so thereby comes to magnify and adore that pardoning grace the more. 
And then (3.), this sight of the innumerableness of sins conduceth to enlarge 
the heart unto new and holy obedience, and so to love much, because much 
is forgiven, Luke vii. For so much love there is, as there is and hath been 
apprehension of much forgiven. (4.) It wonderfully provokes unto prayer, 
and daily great outcries for mercy and grace, fSoyihia (as the word is, Heb. 
iv. ver. the last), ' Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord,' Ps. 
cxxx. 1, what depths ? of sins that came over his head, as it follows, ver. 3, 
' If thou shouldstmark iniquities,' &c. He himself had marked and observed 
so many ; as thought he, if God, that is greater than our hearts, shall mark 
and animadvert, and bring all that he knows upon me too, or upon others, 
' who shall stand 7 ' His being struck with the apprehension of this made 
him to cry out so, as there he doth. 



CHAPTER IX. 

That the jiidf/ment of their sivfulness at the ffieat day, as also often in this 
life before that day, hath the style of an account f/iven it in scriptures. — 
That the Scriptures do reduce this account unto two heads, tlie heinousness, 
and the multitude of sins. 

In the prosecution of the subject proposed in the former exposition, I 
shall begin to shew out of other scriptures that God's reckoning with men 
for sins, whether in this life upon repentance (as with Solomon) or at the 
day of judgment, hath very commonly the style of tlie account, or an account 
put upon it, which I shall briefly shew, not only to verify Solomon's use of 
the word in that sense, and my interpretation given, but further as being 
necessarily introductory unto the following discourse. 

I. That the judgment and work of the great day hath frequently the title 
of an account (even as Solomon's audit here held with God about his sins, to 
prevent his being so judged, hath), is evident both in the Old Testament and 
in the New, Ps. 1. (throughout which psalm, God's coming to, and process 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 409 

in judgment at that day is set out) in the close thereof, this account is signi- 
fied by a ' setting of sins in order before men,' ver. 21, which Solomon in 
the last chapter of this book termeth a * bringing to judgment every work,' 
&c. And in the New Testament it is styled, in terms synonimous to 
Solomon's expression, an account, or a ' giving an account of a man's self;' 
so Rom. xiv. 12, and that whether of the good done, all of which is reckoned 
•fruit to our account' (as Philip, iv. 17, the phrase is), or of the evil we 
have done or spoken : Mat. xii. 3G, ' I say unto you, that every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judg- 
ment ; ' and in the same style it runs up and down in the epistles, of an 
account, then to be made of whatever things had been committed to our 
trust. Hence of ministers it is said, they are those that ' must give an 
account' of the souls committed to them, Heb. xiii. 17. Also of others, 
• an account of their stewardship,' Luke xvi. 2. Hence Christ himself, who 
is appointed the judge, hath the title of cr^d? ov o Xoyog, ' to whom the account 
is to be given' (so in the original), Heb. iv., an account even unto every 
' thought and intention of the heart,' ver. 13, which title of his there is and 
may fully be explained by that, 1 Peter iv. 5, ' We shall give an account to 
him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.' 

1. Christ is God's great auditor or accountant for him, and is perfect in 
every man's accounts, ' ready,' hath them all before him, and at his fingers' 
ends (as we say), which in the same place, to the Hebrews, is thus expressed, 
' All things are naked and opened to him, to whom the account is to be.' 

Moreover, 2, the Scriptures, they are as books of this art of Christ's 
arithmetic, setting forth the rules and proportions by which this account is 
to be cast up, according to which we shall be judged at that day, John 
xii. 48. 

And, 3, our consciences, they are God's records or count-books (as we 
call them) for matters of fact, wherein the particulars are written, Rom. ii., 
and both these books are said to be opened at that day. Rev. xx. 12. 

4. Yea, and God's bringing men to see their sins in this life, upon any 
special occasions, is in like manner styled an account, as being preparatory 
to the account at the day of judgment, and indeed are but lesser days of 
judgment. And of this latter sort of reckonings is that parable to be under- 
stood : Mat. xviii., from vers. 23 to 27, ' Therefore is the kingdom of heaven 
likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.' Ver. 24, 
' And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed 
him ten thousand talents : but forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord 
commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, 
and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped 
him, saying. Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.' This 
account is not that final one at the latter day, or after death in hell (though 
some foregoing exemplar thereof), but such as God begins, as the phrase 
is, ver. 24, to hold in his church, which he calls ' the kingdom of heaven,' 
whilst some souls being arrested by the powerful ministry of the word, are 
brought in to God, as ver. 24, and are so far wrought upon thereby, as to 
acknowledge unto God their fore-passed sinfulness, and debts they have 
incurred, with deep conviction of conscience, and oftentimes with terrors 
joined thereto, and resolution for the future to make amends; for so it is 
spoken of this accomptant or servant brought in here, ver. 26 ; and there- 
fore is not that final great account. Which is further evidenced by this, 
that this account is that which men make to God through conviction and 
confession when they repent, and promise amendment, as this man did, and 
when God gives time and patience to them, upon trial of what they will do 



470 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

for the futui'e. Thus expressly, ver. 26 ; and besides, it is said, that after 
this, ' this servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, that owed 
him an hundred pence,' &c., and his cruel dealing with him you know and 
read, ver. 27, &c., w^hich argues this to have been transacted in this life, for 
at the latter day there is no room for such a supposition. And thereupon, 
and after all, it is that that other final account of this merciless servant is 
said to follow, ver. 34, ' The lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor- 
mentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.' So that this reckon- 
ing was but a forerunning account ; God's first beginning to account with a 
man, as that, ver. 24, expressly termeth it. 

And these accounts, either of them, first, that at the latter day, is not to be 
made only of the quality of the actions, but of the number also, even to a 
farthing, Mat. v. 26 ; as likewise that other in this life. Mat. xviii. was, for 
a sum is set down, * An hundred thousand talents.' 

And the reason why the Scriptures pursue this metaphor is, because, in- 
deed and in reality, our sins are considered not only as crimes committed 
against God, as he is judge of all the world (as all legal crimes use to be in- 
dicted as against the king), but further they are considered as so many debts 
against God as a creditor, who stands out of purse in point of honour, 
riches of patience, &c. Thus expressly, Mat. vi. 12 and Mat. xviii. 23, God 
is said cuvaoai \6yov, to compute with, as men do with debtors by mutual 
reckonings on both parts, and the balance of that man's account there reck- 
oned, is said to be ' ten thousand talents,' ver. 24, as being a sum of debts. 
And reckoned they are both by multiplication and addition. The phrase for 
the first is frequent in Job and the prophets, ' Thou hast multiplied thy 
abominations,' Ezek. xvi. 51 ; the other, by addition, is used of Herod's 
putting the Baptist to death, whereof it is said, ' He added this to all the 
evils he had done,' Luke iii. 7 ; and of all together it is spoken as of debts 
which do make up a total sum, and therefore are said to 'abound to account,' 
Philip, iv. 17. Thus much for the first assertion, as also to justify our in- 
terpretation of Solomon's using the word account unto this our sense, which 
in the exposition we so largely pursued. 

II. These Holy Scriptures do hold up before the consciences of men two 
main considerations about their sinfulness. 

1. The quality or heinousness of eminent sins. 

2. The multitude of sins, both small and great, cast up together into one 
sum. To the end that under these (as two general heads) we ourselves 
might know how to marshal and order our otherwise confused or rather con- 
founded thoughts therein. 

Like as the praise of the glory of God in his works is set forth by these 
two, ' Lord, how great are thy works,' Ps. xcii. 5 ; and then, • Lord, 
how manifold are thy works,' as Ps. civ. 24 ; and both set together are cele- 
brated, Job ix. 20, ' Who doth great things past finding out ; yea, and won- 
derful tvithout number.' Even so the sinfulness of man's dishonouring God, 
or of man's works against God. 

Eliphaz, seeing Job's miseries so extraordinarily to exceed the proportion 
of God's dealing with other saints, and knowing that the way to humble him 
was to make Job apprehensive of his sinfulness, he doth suitably, accord- 
ing to what his own apprehensions were about Job's condition (judg- 
ing that he was an unregenerate man), call upon Job to consider these 
very two things about his sinfulness, or these two heads of account specified, 
Job xxii. 5. 

1. Whether he had not been guilty of heinous sins. This in that first 
query, ' Is not thy wickedness great ?' His meaning is in a respect of 



Chap. X.] in eespect of sin and punishment. 471 

grosser crimes ; for he instancoth in the worst of sins towards man, both of 
omission, ver, 7, 9, and of commission, ver. 6. And then, 

2. ' Are not thine iniquities infinite ?' that is, for number. 

Then again David, Ps. xix., takes into consideration these two ; first, 
great transgressions, such as presumptuous sins, ver. 13 ; great, that is, for 
heinousness ; and then withal the known and unknown multitudes of other 
sins: ver. 12, 'Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from 
secret faults.' 

In like manner Ezra, chap, ix., in his confession, first humbleth himself 
for the multitude of their sins, ' Our iniquities are increased over our heads,' 
ver. 6 ; and then, ver. 7, for their sins that were most heinous, ' We have 
been in a great trespass unto this day,' that eminent sin of marrying strange 
wives. 

Our Saviour Christ (t^os ov o Xoyog) doth hi like manner speak of sins, 
some that are as camels for greatness, and some as gnats (that 
by troops in those hot countries used to pester travellers every step they 
took), also of beams and motes, likewise talents and farthings. Mat. xv. 26, 
Luke vii. 24 ; whereof the one signifies great sins forquahty, the other small, 
yet exceeding in number. 



CHAPTER X. 

The main subject of this ttvatise, viz. that the Scriptures set the value and 
balance of the account of men's sinfulness upon the multitude of their sin- 
nings. — The demonstrations of it; first from the judgments both of God and 
of Christ, either as they are judges in condemning men, or pardoners in for- 
giving. 

In those foregoing treatises about sins against knowledge, and the , rest of 
that kind, I have set forth some aggravations that render sins heinous ; I am 
now to speak of their number. 

And this, which is the main proposition, orderly follows the former, viz. 
that in Scripture -account it is the number or multitude which God sets the 
value of men's sinfulness upon, and for the most part of mankind doth ex- 
ceed the greatness of their heinous sins. And this doth clearly accord with 
Solomon's scope in this twenty- seventh verse. I shall give several demon- 
strations of it out of the Scriptures, as also reasons why God sets the chief 
value thereupon. 

The demonstrations hereof will arise and appear, if we take either: 1. 
God's own judgment declared in the case ; or, 2. Of men in their conversa- 
tions ; or, 3. Of saints themselves after their conversion, in the humblings 
of themselves before God, whose judgment in these cases rnay well be taken, 
as supposed to have been directed by^God therein, and to have judged right- 
eous judgment of themselves in so confessing and judging of themselves by 
the multitudes of their sins. 

The first demonstration of it is from the consideration, 

I. Of God's judgment herein, and of him considered; either, 1. As a 
judge, judging men for then: sinfulness ; or, 2. As a pardoner, justifying of 
sinners. 

1 . Of God as a judge. 

God himself, the 'judge of all the earth,' Gen. xviii. 25, did once cast up 
the whole world's accounts (after they had run out for 1656 years), and it 
was precursory to, and the semblance of the great day of judgment to come. 



472 AN UNREGENEBATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

Now what is it that God's own charge and indictment falls chiefly upon ? but, 
as Gen. vi, 5, * God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, 
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart w^as only evil con- 
tinually.' There were in that old world great sins for heinousness, circum- 
stantiated with deep aggravations, which are instanced in in that same 
chapter, as the apostasy of those that professed the true religion and purity 
of worship, &c. vers. 2, 4; as also that ' the whole earth was filled with vio- 
lence,' or oppression, ver. 13 ; and all aggravated by this, that the Spirit of 
God had striven with them in the ministry and example of Enoch, Noah, and 
others their godly ancestors, ver. 3. But yet the grand reckoning, which 
God the judge accounts great above all, and laid heaviest to their charge, 
was, that * every imagination of their thoughts were evil continually,' which 
was all one as to have said, that their smallest sins were infinite for number; 
and it is in that respect that he so complains, the wickedness of man was 
gi'eat, even in respect of number, through that constant, continual, and un- 
interrupted multiplication of them. And they are the smallest sort of sins 
he there mentions, imaginations and thoughts, which yet arose to a greater 
guilt than all their heinous iniquities ; so as the numerousness, though of 
smaller sins alone, is the greatness here spoken of, and the word for great 
in the original serves to that sense also, as is well known. 

He proceeded by the like measure in his account concerning the two cap- 
tivities, both of the ten tribes of Israel and of Judah, into Babel, as appears 
both by the threatenings before, and during that captivity, and after in the 
acknowledgments of that church. 1. In the threatenings before, and during 
the captivity, God by Ezekiel justifies his sentence pronounced, and the 
execution of that captivity then in part begun, chap, xvi., by this, thou hast 
multiphed thy fornications, ver. 25, 29, and vers. 51, neither hath Samaria 
(viz., lihe ten tribes carried away before), ' committed half thy sins' (he com- 
puted the number we see, as it also follows), ' but thou hast multiplied thy 
abominations more than they.' And these last quotations do involve that 
former captivity of the ten tribes of Israel as well as this of Babylon, and 
shews that the ten tribes of Israel had been cast out for the multitude of 
their abominations also. 

And, 2, after their captivity it is likewise put upon the same in the church's 
own acknowledgment ; Lam. i. 15, ' For the multitude of her transgressions, 
her children are gone into captivity,' &c. 

And this innumerable multitude it is, that when men's consciences are 
awakened once and convicted by God for sin, comes in upon them, and 
which they do profess themselves above all other most sensible of, as the 
cause of their punishment : Isa. hx. 11, 12, ' We roar hke bears, for our 
transgressions are multiplied before thee, and testify against us, and for our 
iniquities we know them,' God having set them in order before them. 

2. Of God considered as a pardoner. 

Consider God and Christ as pardoning. By which act of his we may as 
certainly estimate what rate or value he puts upon our sinnings as when he 
judgeth ; for as David, Ps. h., and the apostle after him, Kom. ii. : He 
pardoneth to the end he may be justified when he comes to judge ; and to 
be sure God's divine nature inclineth him to reckon in, and with himself, 
with as much exactness then when he pardoneth, as when he punisheth ; 
for he values his mercy, and the manifestation of it, at the higher rate ; and 
his mercy in pardoning is to be rated and exalted by what he pardons. Now 
we find that when he hath pardoned the greatest sinners, he hath not reckoned 
so much by the greatness as by the number, as that part of the account 
whereby he chooseth to hold forth to us the infiniteness of his grace in par- 



Chap. X.] in respect of sin and punishment. 473 

doning, nnd as that whereby he would draw forth onr love to him again for 
pardoning. Upon the occasion hereof, says Christ (and it was as great a 
speech as he that was the Word itself hath uttered), ' her sins which are 
many are forgiven, because she loved much.' And he says it, you see, upon 
this occasion of his pronouncing pardon to a grievous sinner, and adds, ' And 
to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.' In which latter words, he 
interprets what he means by the little and the much, even the many, or the 
number of sins. Thus Luke vii. 47. 

In like manner, when God would exalt Christ's righteousness to us, which 
is the price and ransom that was paid lor all (and therefore we may warrant- 
ably estimate the one by the other), that also is greatened, not by the mag- 
nitude so much as by the multitude of sins forgiven, which are mentioned 
on that occasion. Thus speaking of the excelling merit of his obedience, 
♦ the free gift and abundance of righteousness is for many offences to justifi- 
cation.' And again, the greatness of God's grace in conversion (when by 
any of us as an instrument, a sinner comes to be converted), is greatened, 
as by this, that it is the * saving of a soul from death ;' so, moreover, that 
it is the * hiding of a multitude of sins,' James v. 20 ; as thereby setting 
forth the greatness of that salvation ; and yet that sinner spoken of there 
was one whose sins were as heinous as sins pardonable can be supposed to 
be, even the sins of a professor backslidden and apostatised from the truth, 
ver. 19 ; and yet of the two it is the multitude there that alone is specified 
as the measure of his sinfulness, and thereby of magnifying God's grace in 
pardoning. 

I will here return unto and enlarge a little more upon the instance of that 
both great sinner and great convert so famous in the Gospel, upon occasion 
and for comfort of whom it was that Christ uttered that former speech, but 
even now related, * Her sins that were many are forgiven her.' And I place 
it here because it is a middling instance, which will aptly serve either this 
or the following demonstration, which shall be taken from new converts. 

In the Gospel you read of a woman without a name, dwelling in the city 
Nain, Luke vii., who washed Christ's feet with her tears, &c., which woman 
was none of the Marys in the Gospel mentioned, for she was neither she of 
the city Magdala, Mat. xv. 29, from whence that Mary called Magdalene had 
her appellation, and who was a woman of quality and riches, for she was one 
that ministered to Christ in his journeyings with all the train of his disciples, 
Luke viii. 23 ; nor was this woman that other Mary of Bethany, who yet is 
recorded to have done the like things to him, John xi. 2, who was the sister 
of Lazarus. I say, this woman was none of those two Marys, no, not the 
latter of Bethany (for which there is yet so much appearance), as would 
evidently appear, if we might without diversion insist on it, this alone suffi- 
ciently shews it, that this woman, Luke vii., was of another city, viz. Nain, 
vers. 7, 5, 11, and 37, and this matter of fact of anointing him, &c., was 
done by her in that city of Nain ; and though in one Simon's house, yet it 
was ' Simon the Pharisee,' Luke vii. 36, 39, 40, 44 ; but that other anoint- 
ing by Lazarus's sister, though in some circumstances it was like to that of 
this other woman, was acted in the house of ' Simon the leper,' and by that 
appellation diversified from that other, the Pharisee, and in another town, 
namely, in Bethany, Mat. xxvi. 6. This woman of Nain hath no other 
name recorded, but that foul and infamous one of her being ' a sinner,' 
known and notorious to all that city, as Simon's words do import, ver. 39. 
This as to her person. 

Now, observe her posture and frame of spirit, and what it is Christ speaks 
of her, and which makes to the pui-pose in hand. She comes humbled, 



474 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

standing behind Christ's seat, in a silent deep mourning, speaks not one 
word, weeping in such abundance, as served to wash his feet, so much as 
they needed being wiped dry, which she did with her hair, that hair she had 
sinned withal. Now, what was that in her sinfulness which Christ the par- 
doner takes notice of, and would have her carry home with her, and us all 
to consider ? ver. 48, ' Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee ;' yea, 
and he indigitates it, to shew that it was that also which had broke her heart 
so deeply, even the many, the number of her sins ; this Christ, that knew 
both what himself forgave, and the meaning of the spirit of her, doth himself 
enforce, and utter for, and concerning her. And that speech was at once 
both a comment upon her heart, shewing what it was in her sinfulness she 
wept so for, as also of his own heart, who considered well what and how 
much it was he pardoned, to declare which it was he made that whole par- 
able ; and it was the disproportion in number of her sins from those of others 
whom he pardoneth, which Christ considered in saying, ' Many sins are 
forgiven,' for he expressly put the difl'erence upon the comparison of number ; 
to her he forgave five hundred pence, to another but fifty, in saying, ' the 
one owed five hundred pence, the other fifty ;' and yet I trow her sins had 
been very great and heinous, for known and famed she was to all the city, 
vers. 37, 39, and what kind of sin it must be she was famed for, we may 
gather by what special kind of sins that sex was and usually is vulgarly in- 
famous for, and styled a sinner for ; as also by her repentance, she wept 
with those eyes which had enticed, kissed Christ's feet with her mouth, and 
wiped them with her hair (0 what revenge !) ; she yielding up all these, which 
had been weapons or instruments of her unrighteousness, now unto holiness, 
and to express and signify the brokenness of her heart ; and though those 
her greater creditors (I mean those sins), might and did arrest her first, yet 
it was the multitude in those her sinnings, and in all other sins, that now 
came in upon her upon occasion of that arrest, and so, both she, the sinner 
in her soul, and Christ the pardoner in his heart, doth put the much of her 
sinfulness upon the viany, as by his speech appears. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A second demonstration, taken from the judgments of saints of themselves in 
their confessions, both, 1. At their first conversions ; 2. In after- humhlings 
upon great occasions. 

A second head of demonstration we may take from the audit-books of the 
saints, and the calculations they have left upon record in their free and un- 
forced confessions. And truly their judgment herein may well be taken by 
us ; for though God is greater than their hearts, yet their judgment of sin, 
and of the proportions thereof, is mostly regulated according as God judgeth 
(that is, they in their measure), by the Spirit that ' convinceth them of sin,' 
as well as of Christ's righteousness, and what true holiness is, John xvi. 9-10. 
' The knowledge of the holy is understanding,' Prov. xi. 10, and especially in 
their estimate of sinnings and the rates thereof, into which even natural con- 
science sees very far, and is as ' the candle of the Lord, that searcheth the 
chambers of the belly,' Prov. xx. 27 ; but the Spirit's conviction goes and 
searcheth far beyond it. 

This estimate we may take either from the conviction of saints at their first 
conversions, or afterwards upon God's visitations of them for sin, and their 
deepest humiUations for both. 



Chap. XL] in respect of sin and punishment. 475 

I. The confessions of men converted. The greatest convert in the Old 
Testament was Manasseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii ; the greatest convert in the New 
was Saul,* and made by conversion one of the greatest apostles. 

1. Manasseh. He is commonly reckoned the greatest sinner that was 
pardoned in the Old Testament, whose transcending wickedness we may 
read, 2 Chron. xxxiii. from verse 2 to verse 11, and more largely, 2 Kings xxi., 
from verse 2 to verse 17. And his sins were of the deepest gi'ain, and most 
heinous nature that could be, as witchcrafts, dealings with the devil, heathenish 
idolatry set up in the very temple, in which God had said, ' I will put my 
name ;' yea, abominations ' above all that the Amorites did which were 
before him,' and causing Judah to * do worse than the heathen whom God 
had destroyed ;' ' shedding also innocent blood from one end of Jerusalem 
to the other.' But Manasseh, after all this, ' humbled himself greatly before 
God, &c., and prayed to him, and God was entreated of him.' 

Now, if we consult that prayer said to be his (which yet was perhaps but 
the collection of some broken parts of it let down by tradition, and set toge- 
ther by some other), though reckoned among Apocrypha, yet (as Junius 
says) is pious, and certainly expresseth the true sense of a deeply-humbled 
soul. Now, his confessions there run not upon the heinous part of his sins, 
as such, but upon the many : ver. 9, ' For I have sinned above the number 
of the sands of the sea : my transgressions, Lord, are multipHed, my trans- 
gressions are exceeding many ; I am not worthy to behold and see the height 
of the heavens for the multitude of my unrighteousness.' The prophet Isaiah 
had a little before compared the wicked to ' the raging sea that casts up mire 
and dirt,' for the tumultuousness of it ; and Manasseh, not long after, com- 
pares his sins to the sands of the sea (which the sea continually casts up), 
for the number of them. 

In the New Testament I exemplified this before in that great sinner and 
convert, the woman of Nain. 

2. That great convert and apostle that styled himself 'the chiefest of 
sinners ' and ' least of saints,' view we the account he gives of his humilia- 
tions at his conversion ; and though in one place he reckons up his talent- 
sins, ' t was a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious,' namely, to the saints, 
yet in another place, we find he reckons only those that were minutes, his 
farthing sins, as those wherein the multitude of sins is most conspicuous, 
viz. the abounding of all inward lusts and concupiscence in his heart, ' all 
manner of concupiscence,' Rom. vii. 8, and in verse 5 he mentions chiefly 
the motions or passions (as he there styles them for their violence) ; that is, 
of such sins as continually boiled and ' wrought in his members to bring 
forth fruit to death.' And it is the account of such sins which is the total 
he in that place gives, which yet he professedly speaks of to have been those 
which deeply humbled him at his first conversion, as in that other to Timothy 
he had done of his more heinous sins ; yea, in this to the Romans his intent 
is more setly to declare that special work of conviction of sin and humiliation, 
which at conversion is had by the law. 

11. Go we to saints after their conversion. 

God hath been pleased to enter into heavy reckonings with his best ser- 
vants after conversion, as with Job ; chap. xiii. 26, 27, ' For thou writest bitter 
things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth ;' 
and ver. 27, ' Thou puttest also my feet into the stocks, and lookest nar- 
rowly to all my paths ; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet ;' that 
is, exactly observest me, and settest an impression upon my conscience of 
the iniquity of my heels, speaking of himself in that expression of setting a 
* Acts viii. 1, and ix. 4, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' 



476 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

print on his heels, in the same kind of phrase as we use to do of one 
arraigned at the bar, where he hath been burnt in the hand. The like 
account we find raade by God with David, Ps. vi. 1 , 2, and xcviii. 4. 

Take we the holiest and best of saints we can pick and choose. Solo- 
mon's instance we have heard, but we will instance in greater and holier 
than he. 

Let Job first, who is one of God's three worthies in God's own judgment 
of men under the Old Testament ; I say, let Job first come in as the fore- 
man of this juiy to deliver the verdict, in the name of all men else that have 
been or shall be, though never so holy, chap. ix. 2, 3 ; a chapter wherein, 
if ever in the whole Bible, you will view a saint divesting himself of and 
throwing away his own righteousness, behold it there in Job, in the renun- 
ciation of which he comes not a whit behind that most humbled of saints : 
Phil. iii. 8, 9, ' I account all things but loss,' &c., 'not having mine own 
righteousness,' &c. Read that whole chapter of Job, and observe his deep 
expressions, first in verses 2, 3, ' I know it is so of a truth : but how should 
man be just with God ? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him 
one of a thousand ;' and then in verse 20, 21, * If I justify myself, mine own 
mouth shall condemn me,' (for I sin in every word, and my mouth would 
condemn me whilst I should speak it) ; ' If I say I am perfect, it shall also 
prove me perverse : yea, though I were perfect, yet would I not know my 
own soul ;' in which latter clause I understand the pulse of his heart to beat 
the same, if not deeper, than the holy apostle's did, when he said, ' Though 
I know nothing by myself, yet I am not thereby justified, 1 Cor. iv. 4 ; for 
Job, with a greater vehemency and indignation, professeth that, if he could 
suppose himself never so perfect, yet he would not ' know his own soul,' that 
is, as to its having any such perfection in it ; he would take no cognisance 
of it, he would not entertain one thought of it, nor cast a reflection or one 
look upon, or have the least regard thereto, that is, so as to stand upon it. 
It follows, ' I would despise my life ;' his sense wherein is, either that he 
would much more despise his former life, which had been so mixed with 
sin, or else, that if for the future he could continue in that perfection, he 
should despise even that also ; all which he speaks as in relation to his being 
justified thereby afore God, having once been a sinner against God ; for that 
to be his scope, his conclusion he lays in the 2d verse, which leads on the 
matter of that gallant chapter as the main argument of it, evidently shews, 
where he thus begins, * How should a man be just with God ?' Just, that 
is, justified at God's tribunal ; for otherwise, as to that other part of righteous- 
ness, of truth of heart, sincerity, and uprightness, whereby a man that is jus- 
tified is truly but imperfectly sanctified, we find him afore and after this to 
stand upon his points sufiiciently ; but, coming to speak of this righteousness 
of justification he knows not his own soul. 

Now, this premised, the words that I seize on, as to my purpose, are 
those in ver. 2, ' How should a man be just with God ? If he will contend 
with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.' And truly, if Job had 
known but any one action by himself, wherein wholly to justify himself, 
which he had found firm under him, and himself free from sin in it, he would 
have stood upon that too, as we may perceive by the stoutness of his spirit 
in those other intercourses betwixt God and himself which follow, wherein 
yet we only find that he pleads and insists upon the truth and sincerity of 
his heart in his actings, but nowhere doth he stand upon a freedom from sin 
in any one act. And what in this passage he acknowledgeth, he does it out 
of his having made a sad and experimental survey and trial of this matter : 
' I know it of a truth.' 



Chap. XI.] in bespect of sin and punishment. 477 

This phrase, one of a thousand, at first sound to English ears might seem 
but a diminution, and a speaking within compass, as we use to say, that is, 
as if in some acts, though scarce one of a thousand, that is, of many, when 
yet perhaps of twenty thousand, or a vaster sum, Job might have picked out 
some one to have stood upon terms with God about, and how that he had 
not sinned therein. But Job's scope and mind is absolutely and utterly to 
deny that he could in any one thbuj whatever, in his whole life, acquit him- 
self, and therefore falls down as deficient, and obnoxious in all some way or 
other. 

And, first, that the phrase, one of a thousand, should import thus much, 
a thousand being a perfect or periodical number, is put to express all, and 
any the greatest number that can be supposed, be it what it will be ; and so 
one of a thousand should be as much as to say, not one of all, or not one at 
all. Yea, saith Aquinas,* a thousand is put for an infinite number, for, as 
he observes, there being between one and a thousand no proportion, a thou- 
sand is therefore at random used to express a number numberless, an infinite- 
ness, such as a man's thoughts who hears it gives up the accounting of, as 
of a sum that is without bounds or limits ; and so it comes to this, that I 
cannot answer God one (no not one) of all the innumerable actings of my 
heart and life. And truly, if this import had not been in the phrase of those 
times intended, then it would follow, when, in the like tenor of speech, 
Christ in the book of Canticles is extolled by the spouse as the * chiefest of 
ten thousand,' her meaning must have admitted, or at least have left a sup- 
position, that yet perhaps one amongst twenty thousand might have been 
found to match him ; but her scope therein is to extol him absolutely, and so 
as to exclude and shut out the infinity of all other worthies or eminencies that 
have been, or can be supposed to be : so here. Or else, secondly (which I 
as readily judge may be the purport of that phrase and Job's intendment), 
that holy Job having upon this heavy afiliction, and at other times often 
before examined and viewed over his whole life as it were by thousands, that 
is, by parts and piecemeal, sometimes this and sometimes that heap of 
actions as they had been acting ; sorted as it were into several thousands, as 
several heaps of coin use to be ; and that he had sometimes singled forth 
this, then that week's actions, in every of which a man's soul or mind coineth 
thousands of smaller or lesser pieces, that is, of thoughts, affections, inten- 
tions, desires, and ends ; and that yet he should, upon the survey and issue, 
find that he could not find so much as one, no, nor one of those heaps of 
thousands that were wholly pure gold or pure silver for the substance of 
them ; but so as clip any of them where he would, yea, single forth what 
he had judged the purest out of any parcel, still he discovered some dross 
or false metal mingled in it, even in any one of them whatever ; or at least 
that that one was otherwise some way deficient, as in weight, &c,, some way 
or other rendered not perfect current. Yea, let us make these two further 
suppositions, that he had by choice singled forth some day or week wherein 
his heart had been kept, and wound up to the holiest and intensest frame of 
communion with God and holy walking. Or, furthermore, that he had by a 
yet more refined elective discretion or discernment, culled forth a thousand 
actions out of all the heaps, the million of milhons of his whole life, as hop- 
ing to have found some one at least of this last choice selected thousand 

* Inter unum et mille nulla est determinata proportio : millenarius nutnerus pro 
infinito sumitur; itaque significari nulla numeri specie aut mensnra exprimi posse. 
Which, although Pineda in Job ix. 3, num. 3, thinks this of Aquinus to be nimis 
aigutum in him, yet bis fellow Sanctius falls in with it. Si Deus mille, id est, infinita 
objecerit, qu« daranare vult ; homo aou habebit quod illoram uni possit honest^ re- 
spondere. — Com, in Job ix. 3. 



478 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

which he might have stood upon. No ; Job had experimented it in all these 
or the like ways so far and so often, and every way so much, as he is now 
confounded, and despaireth of any essays that should anew be made of this 
kind, and yields, therefore, as convicted in the whole, that he could not 
answer God in one of such a thousand, or all the thousand thousands of life, 
and professeth to speak this knowingly, and as one that had experimented 
it thus often, ' I know it is so of a truth.' And as Solomon said of his own, 
havincr experienced that all was vanity, * What can the man do ' (that way) 
' that cometh after the king ?' so, in point of justifying his actions, thoughts, 
or speeches, or any one of them, Who can come after holy Job ? of whom 
God pronounced a non-such. They can do no more than what hath been 
done already, but fall down all must, and say, We cannot answer thee, 
Lord, in one of all in our whole lives. 

If the objection be, that it is barely said that but * in many things we 
offend all,' and not in all and every action, 

Ans. It is true that we do not sin in all and every action, but then we 
must understand it, as the apostle there doth intend that speech, namely, 
that take such actions as for the matter and substance of the act, are such as 
are against the very outward letter of the law, as to speak evilly of others, 
or idle words, &c., and in that sense God forbid that it should be thought 
that saints do sin in all and every action, namely, such sins as these ; though 
in many actions, greater or smaller, even that are such sins, the saints may 
and are found to err and slip more or less. But that which we have been 
speaking of out of Job is, that in the best actions, yea, if we could suppose 
a saint never outwardly to sin in what is materially sinful, but always to 
think, speak, or do what is substantially holy and good, yet there is and will 
be that adjacent sinfulness found cleaving to all such actings, even to our 
sincerest affections and intentions ; or, at least, there is a deficiency of that 
holiness that should be in them, as will cause any holy man that shall com- 
mune with his own heart to cry out, ' I cannot answer thee, Lord, one of 
all.' And that is it which Job extends his speech unto. And it is apparent 
that that maxim, in the coherence of it, was uttered about such offences as the 
critical eye of men may observe in one another, to be sinful in the outward 
appearance of them, and so not of such as in the utmost extent are betwixt 
God and us, and which he observes in us, for the apostle's scope was thereby 
to refund the masterly arrogance of men that would take on them to censure 
others for any visible infirmity their censorious eye could discern. ' Be not 
many masters,' says he, ' for in many things we all offend,' though some very 
small ; and therefore be not thus prying and censorious in marking what ye 
may espy to be amiss in one another, for then every man must be continu- 
ally reproving one another. 

Next, David. 

There are two sorts of visitations from God, and discoveries of sin set 
upon the hearts of his people. 1. Such as are joined with wrath and dis- 
pleasure. 2. Such as are more gentle, and are sweeter illapses of light about 
our sinfulness. David had experience of each : he had many and frequent 
visitations from God by way of rebuke for sin, and sometimes such as were 
joined with wrath ; as Ps. xxxviii. 1, I Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath ;' 
verse 4, ' Mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as an heavy burden they 
are too heavy for me.' Such visitations usually are for gross and more hein- 
ous sins. But at other times he was visited with more mild and still rebukes 
and discoveries of his sins, which, as they are more calm, so prove more 
deep and thorough discoveries. Under the first, the soul is as the air in a 
storm, disturbed and muddied, in a hurry, and so sins are presented more 



Chap. XI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 479 

dimty and darkly, and with an horror ; but in the latter it is with the saints 
as in a sunshiny day without clouds, in the shine whereof the smaller moies 
and minutes of sinfulness are easily discerned through the pureness of the 
light let into, and quietness of the soul. 

Now at and upon such a time it was, whenas David's soul had been taken 
up into a holy contemplation and admiration of the perfection, purity, and 
enlightening power of the law, Ps xix. 7, 8, and so on ; in the midst thereof 
he cries out, ' Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me from secret 
sins,' And what was the matter caused him so to do, that is, thus to divert? 
That which befell him was, that whilst his mind was environed about with 
this admiration of the glory of the word and law, which now shone through 
and through his soul, the Holy Spirit did turn his eyes, and caused him to 
cast them down upon that rriv evTri^'laTarov a/xa^riav, Heb. xii. 1, ' The cor- 
ruption that surrounded him ;' and he having been first let into this clear 
surrounding light of the law (by which ' comes the knowledge of sin, Rom. 
iii. 20), he thereby saw and penetrated far, even to an infinite distance, into 
the deep chaos of his own heart, and far farther than ever he had done be- 
fore. And as when the sun shineth into a jakes in a clear summer's day, 
one's eye may discern thousands of small crawling creatures, vermin en- 
gendered in that filth, which else had, and at all other times do pass one's 
sight ; so here it fell out. As it did also with the apostle, Rom. vii., 'When 
the law,' says he, * came,' that is, a new and spiritual light of it, in upon his 
soul, he saw ' all concupiscence had wrought ' in him And thus it was with 
David ; such an innumerable company of sins appeared to him, as caused him 
abruptly to cry out, ' Who can understand his errors ?' And observe, that 
he utters not this of himself and of his own particular alone, as if he spake 
what he saw his own sins for multitude to be, though upon occasion thereof, 
but he speaks in the persons of all or any the greatest or most discerning 
saint or saints, that was or should ever be in the world ; and saith not only, 
who doth, or who shall understand his errors ? but who can ? 

And thus the rise and reference of this his speech from and with the fore- 
going passages in the psalm, may be understood to have been either, 1, that 
from a fresh prospect and view of all those sins, whereof he had in former 
times the conviction, all along in his hfe, by parcels, as they had been com- 
mitted, that now came to be represented together, and rendezvoused before 
him in one general muster ; and sometimes the Holy Spirit of God makes to 
his people's apprehensions, a quick, sudden, and large scheme and prospect of 
their forepast sins (as Satan did of the glory of the world), and upon such a 
view, these his sins might arise in his apprehension to such a vast heap and 
sum, as utterly passed all comprehension ; or else, 2, it may import such a 
discovery made to him of sins, which he had never descried before, but which 
by the light of that brighter beam that had now visited his soul, did appear 
to be an infinite number, and so that thereupon it was from this new experi- 
ment that he should infer and pronounce this, ' Who can understand his 
errors ?' And if this latter be intended, his inference and collection there- 
upon was very just ; for although he had digged deep into his heart before, 
yet now he had discovered a new mine. And in reference to this sense it 
may well be thought it was, that in the next words he terms them hidden or 
secret sins. Why, but because he had now discovered such as had been hidden 
to him, and never discerned before ? And thus by comparing his former con- 
victions and his new experiment together, he had the greatest reason to cr\' 
out, ' Who can understand his errors ?' for having but even now seen the law 
of God to be so perfect, and likewise all his former knowledge of sin to have 
fallen so short of what he now had anew attained thereby, he might well con- 



480 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

elude from thence, Oh, how am I still infinitely defective, and to seek in the 
knowledoe of myself! and might therefore think with himself, there may, 
yea, and there do yet lie hid a great multitude of sins behind, as utterly still 
unknown by me, as there had done afore, even swarms of hidden sins I 
never imagined to have been in me ; and thereupon to judge, I am yet as 
far off, or as far to seek as ever. Even as it is with a deeply knowing man 
ip point of learning, who, observing that the farther he wades into it, the 
farther off he is (as Solomon himself, in- Eccles- vii. 23, ' I said, I will be 
wise, but it was far from me') he therefore concludes, that the most of what 
he knows is but the least part of what he yet doth not know. Thus David 
here in point of knowing himself. And hence it was that he adds, ' Cleanse 
me from secret sins,' that is, that are as yet utterly secret to myself, which 
himself had never as yet been privy to, nor was ever like to be in this life ; 
which yet defiled him. 

So that it falls out in this our discovery of sins, like to what is made of 
the starri (under the numberless number of which the Scripture often express- 
eth any innumerable multitude), the multitudes of unseen stars are far more 
than the visible ones. Skilful astronomers have told the number of those 
that are visible, and yet the Scriptures tell us more certainly that the stars 
are so infinitely many, that it is an appropriate honour to God alone to know 
the number of them : Ps. cxlvii. 4, 5, ' He calls them all by their names.' 
The angels (though of heaven) are not able to make a dictionary of them ; 
and therefore this must be spoken in respect of stars that are unseen by us, 
which must therefore indeed be innumerable. That large tract, the milky 
way, that runs thwart the heavens, is discerned to be but a conglomeration 
of so many small stars, like a long causeway strewed thick with small sparks of 
diamonds, (the heavens Mald'mcB I call them, in allusion unto those thousand 
small islands that, like mole-hills or small tufts of earth, stand thick to- 
gether in the Indian Sea, and stretch out into a great length) which we can- 
not discern to be distinct stars by any several twinklings, and yet they cause 
that gleam. In like manner the Pleiades (or seven stars, as we call them, 
because no more ordinarily appear) are discovered to be in all seventy-two ; 
an heavenly septuagint of lights and sweet influencers, as God himself (Job 
xxxviii. 31) speaks of them. And thus it is with godly men's sins and their 
own discoveries of them, the secret or hidden ones (as David here terms them) 
do infinitely far exceed the known or those that are conspicuous, until their 
spiritual sight is elevated by some new telescope or fresh illumination of the 
Spirit, presenting them to their view ; and yet then that sight also falls 
infinitely short of what they are in an abounding of them in our hearts and 
lives. 

If we will further inquire what kind of sins they were, the apparition of 
which had at that time surprised holy David, and most amazed him with their 
multitude ; it appears they were of the smaller sort of sins, they were sins 
had cleaved to his tongue (which the apostle so complains of), and also the 
inward sins of his thoughts. Thus much his prayer (that was occasioned by 
this new sight of his sins) which followeth, shews, the malady is known by 
the remedy. Now in his prayer that follows thereupon, he instantly seeketh, 
* Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable 
in thy sight ; ' by the light of which coherence I gather, that it being the 
contrary holiness unto that abounding corruption which is found to be in 
speeches and thoughts, that was the thing he sought for, that therefore the 
secret sins he had now been thus convinced of had especially lain hid in these 
two ways of sinning, and had so exceedingly abounded in times past in him, 
and therefore he calls upon God for so special a remedy against these two, in 



Chap. XL] in respect of sin and punishment. 481 

these words, * Lord my strength and my Redeemer.' First, he calls upon 
God as a redeemer for the pardon of these sins past, as needing ' plenteous 
redemption ' for the multitude of them, Ps. cxxx. 7, 8; as also that he might 
be redeemed out of that corruption, the power whereof had and did incline 
him so much to sin in these two ways ; and then that his thoughts and 
speeches might for time to come be formed and framed, through God's 
strength and assistance, ' Lord my strength,' in such manner, as they 
might be ' acceptable to God,' which he had now seen to have been so 
abominable unto God ; for which also he abhorred himself. 

I shall but add to this instance that other in Ps. xl. 12, ' Innumerable 
evils have encompassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold on me, so 
that I am not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head, 
therefore my heart faileth me.' Which, whether spoken by David of himself 
only, or of Christ (for whom purposely some passages in the psalm were 
made, compare vers. 6-8 with Heb. x. 5-9), when God did 'lay upon him the- 
iniquity of us all,' or of both, the one in the type, the other in the antitype, I 
will here waive the dispute of; we will for the present understand it as spoken 
by David of himself. And then there is that obvious in it, which is full to 
oar purpose in hand, that it was the multitude of his sins which he intendeth, 
as appears by his multiplying expressions to set foi-th that multitude. 

1. He says they are innumerable : 'innumerable evils have encompassed 
me.' These evils were his sins, miseries, and troubles in his spirit for his 
sins; for in explaining himself he subjoins, 'My iniquities have taken hold 
of me.' The original is, usque ad non nunierum, multiplied till they surpass 
all number. 

2. He says they came over him, yea, over his head : circumdederunt super 
me, they besieged me. The allusion is to an army, that first besiegeth round 
about ; but, secondly, to such an army as besiegeth over head too, for what 
here is said to be super me, over me, is in Psalm xxxviii. 4 thus expressed 
(speaking of his sins), they ' came over my head,' which is an unheard-of 
way of besiegement, such as other enemies are not wont to. 

3. If you inquire the space and room they take up over our heads, or how 
high they planted their siege over his head (by which we may estimate their 
multitude), it is elsewhere told us that they are so many as are piled up, and 
reach as high as heaven, and so fill up that infinite expansum, over our 
heads. This addition we find Ezra ix. 4, '.Our iniquities are increased 
over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up unto the heavens ;' as if you 
could suppose an heap, which at first was but small, were yet so increased 
by being added to continually, that it grew so high as it reached up to heaven 
itself; thus here. Those spiritual wickednesses, our enemies the devils, do 
environ us over our heads indeed, and assail us, yet they are confined to the 
lower regions of the air ; but sins extend to heaven. 

4. No wonder then that if he says, ' I am not able to look up,' that is, I 
cannot know them ; for so those words thus translated / cannot look up, are 
rendered by most, et non potui ut viderem, I could not see nor descry them. 

5. He addeth an expression more familiar to vulgar ears, * They are more 
than the hairs of mine head ;' which, though in reality would seem far less 
expressive of a multitude than the former, for the hairs of any man's head 
may de facto be numbered by man, yet because proverbially it was used to 
set out any innumerable multitude, as that not one of a thousand you heard 
also was ; and this suiting best to popular ears, he therefore addeth it. This 
for the multitude of them. 

The effect hereof follows, * Therefore my heart fails.' It is not, you see, 

VOL. X. H h 



482 AN UNREGENEEATE MAX's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

60 mnch the beinousness of his sins is mentioned or insisted on, as the in- 
finite number be saw, and beyond what be could see, that has the therefore 
put upon it : ' Therefore my heart fails,' or sinks ; that was it which appalled 
him. He had compared them to an army, and it is the multitude in an army 
(when orderly set and well armed) that hath the terror in it, although also 
some Goliaths may be among the multitude. This we find in Scripture ; as 
1 Sam. xiii., ' The Philistines gathered themselves together, thirty thousand 
chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand of the sea for 
multitude,' ver. o ; which when the men of Israel saw, it is said ' they hid 
themselves in caves and in rocks,' &e., vers. 6, 7. 

Now, the day is coming wherein God himself will ' set thy sins in order 
before thee,' as Ps. 1., as an army in full battalia, or battle array. And how 
will thy heart, even the stoutest heart of any of the sons of men, sink when 
it sees the multitude of small sins, as the infantry, to be for multitude more 
than the sands of the sea ; and then great sins, as millions of chariots and 
horsemen, how wilt thou in that day call upon the rocks to cover thee, and 
the chffs to hide thee ! 



CHAPTER XII. 

The sense of this main assertion further stated, or how it is to be understood, 
that God puts the valour or chief balance of the account of tnens sinfulness 
upon the multitude of their sins. — Some reasons which, put all together, make 
a full demonstration of it. 

I. Unto what an infinite excess of disproportion for number every man's 
minute or small sins do abound unto, above the number of his heinous ones, 
both the Scriptures have shewn u?, and every man's conscience that is en- 
lightened must needs be apprehensive of. And reason also may inform us ; 
for as for outward gross sins (take them in the generality of men unregene- 
rate), and they are not always, and at all times, and comparatively but 
seldom, committed by them, through the power of restraining grace common 
to man : ' Those that are drunk are drunk in the night,' 1 Thes. v. 7, Acts 
ii. 15. So likewise the grosser acts of uncleanness, and other like crying 
sins, they be perpetrated but at times and by fits ; but as for smaller sins, 
they issue from us continually both night and day ; as clocks commonly 
sound and strike aloud but at hours, but the wheels and springs are going 
to and fro perpetually. Some men are so superlatively profane, Belials (as 
the Scripture calls them), as they may perhaps in this be excepted, such as 
sell themselves to work wickedness, who as some clocks strike every quarter 
as well as every hour ; but yet even in them the lesser sort of sins must 
needs be confessed far to abound. And the reason of either is, that the 
soul, the seat and subject both of original and acquired corruption, is in a 
continual motion ;* not only as it is a soul, but as it is a sinning soul, and 
is therefore, as such, compared unto such things as are in perpetual motion. 
1. A fountain that perpetually is a-running : Jer. vi. 17, 'As a fountain 
casts out her waters, so this city,' says God, 'casts out her wickedness.' 
Then, 2, to the sea, continually casting out sedge and foam : Isa. Ivii. 20, 
' The wicked are like the troubled sea ; when it cannot rest, it casts up mire 
and dirt.' The heart of man, as it is at all times, is compared to the sea 
for its tumultuousness; not in its sedate, calm condition, but when it is most 
disturbed with storms. The like Jude 13, ' Raging waves of the sea, foam- 
* Thales terms the soul ^i/<ri» airx/vsTci'. 



Chap. XII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 483 

ing out their own shame.' 3. To a wheel, the wheel of nature,* or the course 
of nature, James iii. 6, which is always a-running and in swift motion, as a 
wheel, you see, useth to be. The sense of the apostle is, that whereas the 
course of our corrupt nature runs it round fast enough of itself, for it is as 
a wheel, the tongue (of all members else the worst) often moves it faster 
than otherwise it would unto fiery evils (as he calls them), and whirls it 
about so hurryingly and so swiftly, that as wheels in mills and millstones, 
nimio motn ignem concipiimt, by too violent a motion strike fire, and inflame 
the mill they grind in, so here. See the words. f Hence it apparently 
follows, that some (though smaller sins) are continually a-bringing forth, 
the soul is and will be working. 

Now, this holding true of the most part or generality of mankind, the 
assertion may well be understood and supposed, that if the infinity of each 
of their smaller sins, in respect of number, be put into one scale, that they 
will ordinarily cast the scale against the heinous. And unto this assertion, 
in this sense understood, do many of the scriptures already alleged incline, 
and the reasons to be alleged do contribute very far to the confirmation 
thereof. 

II. Take a man's heinous transgressions alone, and the very number of 
them considered apart, in their multiplication and reiteration, doth provoke 
God more than simply or alone their single material heinousness, if that 
might be abstractly considered. This assertion the second and third reasons 
do, in the close of them in God's expostulation, how oft ? in the psalmist, 
and these ten times in Moses, manifestly shew. And indeed whether we 
take small sins apart, or great sins apart, that is, sins of any sort apart, the 
number of either doth in their several proportions cast the aggrandisement 
on them. 

But, III., there is this other state or sense of the assertion, that take the 
multitude of each man's sins (whether they be greater or lesser sins) as put 
together, the whole of them into one heap or total, considered barely in their 
number ; and prescind or abstract their heinousness, and consider that apart 
in a distinct account by itself; and as thus understood, it is that most of 
the scriptures alleged do so vehemently insist, and hold up before men's 
consciences, the multitude of their sins as so highly provocative against God, 
rather than the heinousness. And this sense is it the following reasons do 
principally concern, and this takes in the universality of mankind. This as 
to the true stating the assertion. 

And, lastly, it must be remembered that the following reasons do present 
themselves (singly considered) but as so many partial steps or degrees of 
proofs, and not each or any one making up an integral demonstration, but 
so as the second adds further strength and force to the first, and then the 
third unto the second, and so all put together make the demonstration com- 
plete. 

Reason 1. Multitude in any kind riseth to a greatness in that kind ; so 
that if we will first take and make the estimate, but from the general 
standard or measure of weight and greatness which in ordinary account is 
put upon any huge multitude of smaller things, whatever they be in their 
several kinds ; and then take a multitude of smaller sins in their kind, and 
by the same common rule of value, common to all things else in their several 
proportions, it must be acknowledged that an infinity of sins for number 
doth rise to an infinity of greatness, although thus merely weighed at that 
balance that is hung up in the common market-place of the world, to weigh 
all things whatever. This will appear by instances. 

* Tot r^i-^ov tH; yiAriu;. T^ox'! " verbo r^ix.^iv, to run. t Vatabliis. 



484 AN UNREGENEEATE WAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

Take the sands (unto which for number Manasseh's sins are compared) : 
we know how small each sand alone is, jet collectively and together, look as 
they arise to such a multitude as 'cannot be numbered,' Heb. xi. 12, so 
withal that multitude grows into such a greatness in all dimensions, as can- 
not be measured ; which expression the prophets use of them, as Jer. 
xxxii. 22. And sands, if they were but heaped up together, make also a 
weight as utterly insupportable. ' Oh, if my grief were thoroughly weighed, 
it would be heavier than the sand of the sea,' says Job, chap. vi. ; and there- 
fore sand in an heap is proverbially used to express weight as well as multi- 
tude, Prov. xxvii. 3. 

If we would further improve this illustration taken from sands, look as 
the sands that are within the sea, at the bottom of it, are they that make 
the many, and would (if cast into one heap) far exceed both in weight and 
number those other sands that are but upon the shore of the sea, or without 
the sea (unto which yet alone those comparisons of immeasurableness, &c., 
are in those places now cited made), so in like manner comparatively do our 
inward sins exceed our outward ; the outward are but as the sands on the 
sea shore, of which yet it is said the}' are uvapidf/.rjToi, 'without number,' 
Heb. xi. 12. 

Again, for another instance, take the sea itself. What is that vast heap 
and body ? it is but a gatheringt ogether of many waters, as in Gen. i. 10, 
and those waters but of innumerable drops. 

This universe, the world, how immense is it ! And yet some both ancient 
and modern philosophers say, it is altogether made up of, and but a con- 
geries of small atoms, motes, or dusts, locked and wedged into one another, 
and crowded together, which make up this greatness. Now apply but this, 
as we did that other, unto sins ; if the sins of one member (the tongue) do, 
when collected into a catalogue, make a 'world of iniquity,' James iii. G, 
then, when every idle word shall be put to account, as Christ says, oh 
then, what will the account of all other sins, both inward and outward, arise 
to, when the account of the tongue is but of which is merely outward, 
and that but in one member, which also lies still and stirs not half of a man's 
time, that is, when we are asleep or alone by ourselves ? 

And that which strengthens this reason as on the part of sins is, that 
every sin, even the least, hath an infinite sinfulness in it (as in the first 
treatise about sin I have shewn), and that though it must be affirmed that 
sins are not equal, but some exceed in malitid, in sinfulness, as they are 
more against knowledge, and partake more of the will, &c., yet all are sins ; 
and if sins at all, then objectively infinite ; even as though one devil is more 
wicked than another, Mat. xii. 47, yea, and the great devil is to be acknow- 
ledged more deep in guilt than many of his fellows (and for that cause let 
him enjoy the title of prince of devils), yet all the other are devils as 
well as he ; so in like manner these smaller are sins as well as the greatest. 
And as of that legion which possessed that one man in the Gospel, it might be 
perhaps affirmed, that if all the iniquities which they have perpetrated were 
put into one, they would match that great devil in point of wickedness ; so 
why may not a few smaller sins exceed some one that is very great, seeing 
the least is infinite in that fore-mentioned respect ? It is not in this value 
of sins, as it useth to be in coins ; there may be so vast a collection of brass 
farthings as will be (as to passing current) as much as a talent of gold comes 
to, but yet for the matter of them they are but brass, of another kind of 
metal ; well, but the smaller sins thy heart minteth, they are sins, and of the 
same species with the bigger, they are all transgressions of the law ; that is 



CilAP. XII. "' IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 485 

the apostle's definition common to them all ; and so each are like smaller 
pieces, of the same alloy with the biggest. 

And truly this ensuing parallel between sins and devils will give some 
further light into the illustration of the reason in hand, viz. why a company 
of smaller sinful acts should in value with God countervail, yea, exceed some 
one great one ; for look as in each and every such devil, there is by sin a 
spoil of an whole individual intelligent nature made by God to glorify him, 
which sin hath undone, and turned to the contrary, and at that rate, the 
sins in a few of the lowest rank of that black guard will amount into a 
greater loss and detriment unto God and his glory, than a far greater degree 
of wickedness in the greatest devil of all. For why ? In him alone, but one 
single intelligent nature is spoiled (though of a greater degree of excellency, 
and therefore now of a greater size of sinfulness) ; thus parallel it is in point 
of sin : a great iniquity in one act of sin, though of a great magnitude, is yet 
but the spoil of one act or action, whereas the sinfulness of many acts 
multiplied, though of a smaller sort, are the destruction of so many several 
acts of an immortal and intelligent soul, made to have glorified God in each 
and every of its actings And unto what an account might and would that 
have arisen unto ? And also unto what and how great an improvement and 
advance of an high contrary holiness and glorifying God might each of so 
many acts of such a soul have amounted to ? This we cannot imagine, so 
that though in positive iniquity one great sin doth far surmount what is also 
positive in many of a lesser degree, yet privatively, and in the way of diver- 
sion from, and exclusive of so many glorious acts as may be supposed might 
have been produced, in that respect, a few of smaller sins may be justly con- 
ceived to exceed the other. 

Reason 2. There is yet a more special and further peculiarity of reason 
which properly concerneth sins and crimes against God, that when they are 
multiplied to an excess of number, there should arise from thence, and by 
reason thereof, a superadded greatness of provocation and exacerbation in 
the breast of God against the sinner. In some other things, when they are 
many, it is but barely their aggregation' or collection together, which renders 
them great merely by cumulation (as we say), as in a heap of sands or stones 
gathered together, there is simply a bulk or moles thence arising, such as 
mere quantity atfords (and upon that account it was that the former reason 
only did proceed). But some sorts of things there are even in nature, the 
accumulation of which together in one bulk have thereby, besides the in- 
crease of their quantity or greatness as such, also a physical force and virtue 
wonderfully augmented thereby, and so virtually become stronger and more 
efficacious through the multiplication of them, and addition of one to the 
other. As take but as vast a company of the dusts of lime, and cast them 
into one heap, and let a little water be put to them, yea, often of themselves, 
how do they grow up into a vehement fire and burning heat, and over what 
greatness, or what, simply as an aggregated body, their lump ariseth to in 
respect of quantity. Now thus are sins to be further considered through 
their multitude to work in the heart of God an inflammation of wrath against 
the sinner, a provocation, as the Scripture styles it. In poisonous liquors, 
the matter is more evident. Besides what the continual addition of many 
drops will increase unto in single quantity, every drop superadds a new 
virtual strength of venom unto the whole mass it is put unto, which we see 
evident in their operation on men's bodies ; one new grain superadded to a 
many of the same kind causeth a working manifold as much as those former 
grains (though many more) would alone have done until that new addition 
came. We see it also in those doses or potions of drugs which physicians 



486 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

give for physic ; the adding of a little more of the same adds withal a mighty 
virtue and spirit to the whole. As this holds in things that have a physical 
virtue in nature, so in actions moral ; multiplication of them doth in their 
kind the very same. Thus the multiplication of injuries from one to another in 
men's hearts. That disciple who asked Christ the question, 'Shall I forgive 
my brother till seven times ? ' Mat. xviii. 22, judged that an addition of one 
injury (an eighth, suppose) more might justly have provoked beyond forgive- 
ness. Yea, a small injury heaped upon many preceding ones, revives the 
remembrance of all the former, and then they altogether work in the virtue 
thereof, and contribute a mutual difiused and increased strength one to the 
other. Men use to say. You have offered me such and such affronts already, 
but if you offer me one more, &c. And thus it is and must needs be in God's 
heart also. 1. The multiplying of sins do increase and have a provocative 
virtue or strength in them to stir the anger of the Lord : Jer. v. 6, ' Because 
tbeir transgressions are many, and their backslidings are strong ' (so in the 
Hebrew and margin) ; that is, their multitude increaseth a strong provoca- 
tion. And elsewhere, it is said to cause in the heart of God a great hatred, 
as it is in Hosea ix. 7, ' The days of visitation and recompence are come, for 
the multitude of their iniquity, and the great hatred ;' which is to be under- 
stood of that hatred which God's heart had from that multitude of their sins 
conceived against them, as well as meant of the hatred of their hearts against 
God in sinning ; for here it signifies their being an hatred to God, or of 
their being objects of God's hatred, which the same word and expression 
used in the very next verse shews, and is also commonly used in other lan- 
guages to express the object hated. Again, you find God reckons ' How 
oft have they provoked me ? ' Ps. Ixxviii. 40 ; yea, and the times of reiterat- 
ing the same sins as the cause of his being provoked, ' They have provoked 
me these ten times,' Numb. xiv. 22, which yet is but a definite number to 
express how infinitely many more. As likewise in Eccles. viii. 12, 'If a 
sinner sin an hundred times ; ' he reckons this number not definitely, but 
merely to shew how much continuation and reiteration of sinnings do pro- 
voke the patience of God, as both the 11th verse and the following speech 
there do shew. And, 2, in Scripture also you find that a new adding of 
further sins puts a new additional virtue into all the former, to set God's 
heart a-working against the sinner ; and therefore it is said of Herod, hav- 
ing spoken of his sins in the verse afore, that ' he added yet above all, that 
he shut up John in prison.' It is added in reference unto God his being 
provoked thereby. 

Reason 3. Add to this, when these sinnings have been committed without 
interruption or intermission, for many years' continuance, or for a long time. 
In that Gen. vi. 5, the Lord heaps up three things, as those which caused 
their very thoughts (though small sins) to have- been so highly provocative 
(1) that every thought (2) was only evil (3) continually. If they had been 
evil but now and then, as in greater sinnings it falls out, it had been far less; 
but that continually, though in small sins, this proved the heightening exag- 
geration. In other things this is also seen : ' As a continual dropping in a 
very rainy day, so is a contentious woman.' A continual contention, what 
a sore vexation proves it to a man's heart that lives with such an one. And 
such must needs be to God's heart the continual sinnings of a sinner. A 
continual ' contradiction of sinners,' though in never so small things, what a 
grating must it needs be ! This is a continued bearing up of a quarrel or 
contention with God ; for which cause God calls every sinner that continues 
in his sins a contentious person with him, and that is it increaseth the wrath : 
* Unto them that are contentious, indignation and wiath,' Kom. ii. 8. See 



Chap. XII. j in respect of sin and punishment. 487 

this in its contrary; how much continuing in prayer without ceasing or 
intermission prevails with God we often read, and the parable shews, Luke 
xviii. 1. And therefore the church makes an argument of it to God to over- 
come him with : Lam. iii. 49, ' Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, 
without any intermission. Till the Lord,' &c. Thus it fares in sinning. 
Yea, hence it is that the Lord allegeth from how long a sinner hath con- 
tinued thus to sin, ' This city hath been to me a provocation of mine anger 
and my fury, from the day that it was built unto this day,' Jer. xxxii. 31. 
And of the wicked, he counts up from how long they have begun thus con- 
tinually to sin : Ps. Iviii. 3^ ' The wicked are estranged from the womb; they 
go astray as soon as they be born.' To conclude this head ; if not to have 
' continued in all things to do ' what the law requires, and but to fail in any 
one, the smallest, duty brings a curse, forfeits all, Gal. iii. and Ezek. xviii. 24,. 
then, on the contrary, how will a sinner his having continued to transgress 
the law in all things some way or other, from his very infancy to this hour, 
provoke to an infinity ! 

Conclusion. I shut up this part of the discourse with this. All these 
things put together, no wonder if we find in Scripture all dimensions of 
' height, breadth, length, depth,' ascribed unto men's sins, even of particular 
men, and that in respect to their number. 

1. Hei/jht. How high, I shewed you afore. Ezra took the elevation of 
that : chap. ix. 6, having first said, ' Our iniquities are increased over oiir 
heads,' he adds, ' and our trespass grows up to heaven.' And in that 
coherence it evidently relates to the multitude of them, and is not only 
spoken in relation to that one great particular trespass of marrying strange 
wives, which they stood in the guilt of, for he distinctly after speaks of that 
particular, ver. 7. And both those his expressions, ver. 6, seem to be an 
allusion to that overflow of the waters at the general flood ; and yet of that 
it is but said, that ' the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upwards over the 
hills and mountains that were under the whole heavens.' But those sins 
were so many, as they prevailed and increased upwards to heaven itself. 

2. Depth. In that fore-cited place, Hosea ix. (the multitude of their sins 
havmg been first specified, verse 7), in the 9th verse, it is added, ' they have 
deeply corrupted themselves ;' Hebr., * They have deepened, they have cor- 
rupted.' And David, Ps. Ixix. 2, ' I sink in deep mire, where there is no 
standing ;' that is, so deep, as it hath no bottom. ' I am come into depths 
of waters ;' which is spoken of his sins, as verse 5, ' Lord, thou knowest 
my fooHshness, and my sins are not hid from thee.' Again, ' Out of the 
dc])t]is have I cried,' Ps. cxxx. 1, still spoken of sins, and also with a respect 
to the multitude of them : verse 3, ' If thou shouldst mark iniquities,' &c., 
and therefore oppositely pleads, ' There is plenteous, or a multitude of re- 
demption with thee,' verse 7. It was the number that made that depth. 

3. Breadth and length, or expanse, they ' cannot be measured ' for vast- 
ness and wideness of extent (as of the sands it is said), which accrues merely 
from their number, for it is added, ' nor can be numbered.' The words are, 
* that cannot be measured nor numbered,' Hosea i. 10, as also Jer. xxxii. 22. 
And if David says of the holy law, that it is so 'exceeding broad,' that there 
is no end or bounds of it, Ps. exix., then are sins of an exceeding breadth 
also ; for there is not a law in the book but there is a sin in the heart 
opposite to it : ' the law of the members ' in us is as large in commanding 
sin, as the law of God is in forbidding, Rom. vii. 21, 22, 23, 25. 

So as indeed there is nothing can match it in all these respects but that 
love and grace in God and Christ's heart (who also subdued these number- 
less iniquities by a plenteous redemption for them), unto which love of his 



488 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XI. 

all ihese dimensions also are attributed. Oh what then is ' the height, the 
breadth, the length, and depth of the love of Christ, which passeth know- 
ledge,' and prevails as far above all our sins, which yet reach unto heaven, 
as far as the heavens, and as the heavens do above mole-hills here on 
earth. God's coming to judgment is compared unto a vintage, Joel iii. 12, 
and such a vintage as for the abundance is like that of clustered grapes, 
which through their number, when pressed in the wine-vat, make the wine- 
press full, and all the vessels to flow over. This allusion doth God apply 
unto their wickedness ; ' their wickedness is great,' or ample, large, and un- 
measurable : ver. 13, * Oh the multitudes, the multitudes !' which doubled 
exclamation is spoken both of persons, and that but more remotely, ver. 12, 
but in the next coherence it is sins that are to be judged, ver. 13, and both 
at that day, ver. 14. 

If, therefore, thy heart be not moved with the heinous greatness of thy 
sins, even the least, but that seems small, add this to the consideration 
thereof, the number, ' Oh the multitudes, the multitudes, in the valley of 
decision ! ' But then withal, further, add to that infinite number of smaller 
sins thy heinous enormities also (whereof one, perhaps, is in weight as much 
as millions of small), but when you shall have put both together, to what an 
infinite guilt will the total rise up unto ! Therefore let every soul take heed 
of dying in their sins. 



Book XII.] in kespect of sin and punishment. 489 

k 



BOOK XII. 

An unregenerate man's gnillineaii by reason of the aggmvalions of his sinfulness. 



[This Book was published separately by the author himself, and is contained 
in Vol. IV. of the present edition, under the titles, 'Aggravation of 
Sin ; Aggravations of Sinning against Knowledge ; and Aggrava- 
tions of Sinning against Mercy.'^ — Ed. J 



490 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 



BOOK XIII. 

0/ the punishment of sin in hell. — Tliat the wrath of God is the immediate 
cause of that punishment. 

For we know him that hath said, Vengeance helongeth unto me, I will recom- 
pense, saiih the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is 
a faiful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. — Heb. x. 30, 31. 

Jn flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the gospel of our Lotd Jesus Christ : who shall he punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of hts 
power. — 2 Thes. i. 8, 9. 

What if God, loilling to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, en- 
dured with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ? — 
Romans ix. 22. 



CHAPTER 1. 
The subject and general division of the discourse. 

We have seen how sinful and guilty every man is in his unregenerate 
condition ; what last remains, is to consider the greatness of that punish- 
ment, which all this sinfulness deserves : a punishment so great that it can- 
not be comprehended by our thoughts, nor ever be sufficiently expressed. 
For what hell and destruction are, is a mystery, as well as what heaven is : 
and the true and proper notion or conception of either, are a riddle to the 
most of men. As ' eye hath not seen, ear not heard, nor hath it entered 
into the heart of man' (the natural man), * what God hath prepared for those 
that love him;' so, nor what God hath prepared for them that hate him. 
For it is the same, and no other punishment but that which is ' prepared 
for the devil and his angels,' as Christ says. And what it can be that 
should torment them, or be the immediate executioner of vengeance on them, 
the imagination of man, confined to worldly agents and instruments, cannot 
divine or take in. 

Other scriptures go metaphorically to work in setting out this punish- 
ment by things outwardly, sensibly dreadful. But these scriptures (of all 
other) that are my texts, do more plainly, and without parables, declare it to 
us, in its immediate causes, and from them do leave us to infer the fearfulness. 

For instance, other scriptures set it out to us as a 'prison,' 1 Peter iii. 19, 
large enough, to be sure, to hold men and devils : ' The wicked shall be 
turned into ,hell, and all the nations that forget God,' Ps. ix. 17. As also 
by their being retained in chains of darkness, 2 Peter ii. 4, where men 
must he till they have paid the utmost farthing. Mat. v. 26 ; where is no- 
thing but ' darkness, utter darkness,' 'blackness of darkness,' Jude 4, that 
is, an emptiness of all good, not a beam of light to all eternity ; also a ' place 



Chap. I.] in respect of sin and punishment. 491 

of torment,' Luke xvi. 28, where there is not admitted ' one drop to cool 
one's tongue,' in the midst of the most raging scorchings. Also, I find it 
elsewhere expressed by the most horrid punishments and tortures that 
were found amongst the nations, cutting men in pieces, dividing them in the 
midst {dixoro/j,r]i!ii, Mat. xxiv. 49, 51), tearing them in pieces, Ps. 1. 22 ; 
' cutting tuem up to the backbone,' Heb. iv. 12, 13 ;* ' drowning men in 
perdition,' 1 Tim. vi. 9, and that with 'millstones about their necks,' as 
Christ adds, Mat. xviii. 6, to make sure they never rise again ; also unto a 
being cast ' bound hand and foot,' Mat. xxii. 13, ' into fire,' to be burnt 
alive ; ' a furnace of fire,' twice in one chapter. Mat. xiii. 42, 49, 60 ; ' a 
lake of fire,' and so drowned over head and ears for ever ; a lake ' fed with 
a stream of brimstone,' which (of all matter that feedeth fire) is the most 
fierce ; then again, ' eternal fire,' and that never to be slacked or extin- 
guished. And you may with the Uke analogy go over whatever else of 
torment is most exquisite to outward sense. 

But these and all else you can imagine, are but shadows and similitudes 
(as I myself heard one upon the rack of terror of conscience cry out, in a 
like comparison, These are but metaphors to what I feel), and indeed unto 
what the thing itself is. As to say of heaven, there are rivers of pleasures, 
a city whereof the streets are of gold, the gates of pearl, and such like, they 
are but metaphorical descriptions ; for it is God himself that is the fountain 
of life. And oppositely it is said of the wrath to come, that ' God is a con- 
suming fire,' Heb. xii. 20. 

But these scriptures which I have read, they all speak essences, quintes- 
sences. And as hell is said to be ' naked before the Lord, and without a 
covering,' Job xvi. 16, so do these words lay hell open nakedly, not unto 
our senses, but to the understanding of us, and then they leave us to infer 
how fearful !. And although these scriptures consist of words that differ, 
yet they conspire together in the same scope and matter, viz., to set out 
damnation to us in the true and proper causes, and the real horridness 
thereof argued from those causes. 

I shall confine myself to two heads ; and in handling thereof, what the 
one of these scriptures is wanting in, the other will supply ; in what the 
one is dark, the other explains. 

The heads themselves I shall take as I find them in the first of these 
Scriptures, Heb. x. 31. 

First, That God himself, by his own hands, that is, the power of his 
wrath, is the immediate inflicter of that punishment or destruction of men's 
souls in hell. It is a ' falling into the hands of God.' 

Secondly, The dreadfulness of that punishment inferred and argued there- 
from : ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' 

Which two are the doctrinal parts of this discourse. 

For the first, that God himself is the immediate inflicter, &c. 

For exphcation. We must distinguish how that God perfoi-ms two parts 
herein : 1. Of a judge, to give forth the sentence of his authority. 2. Of an 
avenger, a party injured and provoked, and, as such, the inflicter. My scope 
in this distinction is, that we may, in reading the scriptures that speak of 
this punishment, know how to put a difference, and not transfer the whole 
ot God's agency in this matter unto that of sentencing it as a judge only. 
And besides that many scriptures do apart shew this distinction, there are 
some that still carry along with them both these agencies, or hand of God in it 
together, and yet as distinct ; the one under the term of wrath and vengeance, 

* See for this the interpretation hereof in the Child of Light, &c., p. 49, 50. [Vol. 
III. of this edition. — Ed.] 



492 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

the other under the notion of its being a judgment, the judgment of God 
and the judgment of hell-fire,* as Mat. xxiii. 33. Thus first the text Heb. 
X. terms it somewhile ' vengeance and fiery indignation,' ver. 80, 27 ; then again 
judgment, as ver. 27, ' a fearful looking for of judgment,' and ver. 30, ' the 
Lord will judge,' &c. The like, Kom. ii. 5, 8, 9, where all is reduced in like 
manner to these two, God's righteous judgment, and his wrath and indigna- 
tion treasured up. Also, 2 Thes. i., ' The righteous judgment of God,' vers. 
5,6, there is the sentence, and ' destroyed from the glory of his power' as 
the inflicting cause, ver. 9 ; likewise Rom. ix., as sovereign Lord he shews 
s^ovsiav, authority in this punishment, ver. 21, and then as the immediate in- 
flicter, wrath and rh dui/arov, the ' power of his wrath,' ver. 22. That speech 
of our Saviour about this matter, one evangelist, Luke xii. 5, records it, 
' Who is able, 'E^oufy/r/v 'i^ovra, to cast into hell,' namely, as a judge who casts 
a malefactor into prison. The other. Mat. x. 28, * Who is able, Tov buvd- 
[livov, to kill the soul, and to destroy body and soul in hell.' Noting thereby 
that he useth his intrinsic power and force as the inflicter. 

I shall be large in handling and proving this latter, as a great truth, con- 
cerning which I further premise, that I would not be understood to exclude 
other miseries, as inflicted by creatures used as God's instruments, accom- 
panying this; but that which I contend for is, that principally and eminently 
above all such, it is the wrath and indignation of God himself, working im- 
mediately in and upon men's souls and consciences, that is intended in 
these and other scriptures. This is the subject of the first section of this 
discourse. 

And let it be noticed now at the entrance, that the same scriptures and 
reasons that shall be brought to prove this in this first section, will be found 
again to serve as new arguments by way of inference, to set out and infer 
the latter also ; that is, the dreadfulness of it, as vN-ill appear in the second 
section. 



CHAPTER IL 

The first sort of proofs from Scriptures : first, those three prefixed as the texts. 

Let us first see what the Scriptures speak more directly to this great point. 

Heb. x. 28-31, He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two 
or three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be 
thought xoorthy, who hath trodden tender foot the Son of God, und hath counted' 
the blood of the covenant whereioith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and 
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace f For we know him that hath said. 
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saitn the Lord. And again. 
The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands 
of the living God. 

In order to the proofs from hence, observe the occasion of the apostle's 
mention of this punishment here, to be his having treated of the highest sin 
and kind of sinners, the sin against the Holy Ghost. By the occasion of 
which, he gives us to understand what for the substance is indeed the recom- 
pence of all manner of other actual sins, small and great ; the punishment 
being in solido, one and the same to all, though with a vast difierence of de- 
grees. And therefore it is said unto all that are found wicked at that day, 
whether of greater or lesser proportions and sizes of wickedness, ' Go into 

* Quid a justo Dei infligitur. — Gerard de inferno, sect. 30. 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 493 

fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' The devil is the greatest of 
pinners, yet all go with him into the same torment, that is, for suhstance the 
same. And upon the like ground, what is here spoken b}' way of cminency 
concerning the punit^hment of these, the highest sort of sinners of the sons 
of men, is true of all others, there being but one common lii-e or punish- 
ment, in the subatsnce of it, for all. 

2. Observe the manner of his setting forth the dreadfulness of that punish- 
ment to us. It is only by way of insinuation ; for seeing he could not ex- 
press the soreness of it, he thought fit to suggest only who is the immediate 
author and inflicter of it, and so leaves it to our thoughts to infer how dread- 
ful it is ! This is general. 

To argue the point in hand out of this text, let us take these things along 
with us. 

1. You see he here brings in the great God, as an enraged enemy, chal- 
lenging the execution hereof to himself. This ' vengeance belongeth to me,' 
or, as Rom. xii. 19, ' Vengeance is mine, I will recompense ;' as if he had 
said. Let me alone with it. 

2. In that when he would set out the severeness of this punishment (which 
is his professed aim, ver. 29) as infinitely exceeding all those kinds of cor- 
poral deaths in Moses' law, he inferreth the soreness of this from God him- 
self as the avenger. ' We know him that hath thus said, Vengeance is mine,' 
that is, what a great and powerful God he is. The saints only know God by 
faith in himself and his greatness, as Heb. xi., and that so as no other men 
in this life do. And by what we know of him, and the apprehensions we 
have of him, we cannot but forewarn what that punishment must needs be, 
when God himself shall thus solemnly profess himself to be the avenger. 
It is argued, you see, both from what this God is, and from that knowledge the 
saints have of him. They, and they alone, know him in his love, and have 
tasted and found that his immediate ' loving-kindness is better than life ;' 
and from the law of countraries, they know that his wrath must be more bitter 
than death. They are able to measure what he is in his wrath, by what he 
is in his love. And some of the primitive saints, especially the apostles, who 
* had the first fruits of the Spirit,' knew and had tasted how good the Lord 
is in his love, by immediate impressions of it on their souls, in communion 
■with himself. The like tenor of speech has that in 2 Cor. v. 11, ' We know- 
ing the terror of the Lord.' It is termed Ids terror, as noting out that which 
is proper to him and his greatness, in his being able to punish and destroy 
sinners. 

Moses, who in the Old Testament had seen the glory of God the most 
immediately of any man (and was therein a type of Christ), was thereby 
made sensible of this very thing as touching this punishment, and therefore 
complains in the very like language, Ps. xc, ' Who knows the power of thine 
anger?' lamenting how the generality of men did not know it, because 
indeed they knew not God. But we, says the apostle, have known him, &c. 

3. And thereupon he further calls this punishment a falling into God's 
hands. That very phrase often notes out immediate execution, as in ordi- 
nary speech it doth. When a father or a master threatens a child or a young 
servant, already corrected by other hands at their appointment, yet when 
either would threaten more severely, they will say. Take heed how you fall 
into my hands, or come under my fingers, when they mean to correct them 
themselves. 

4. And then that the apostle thereupon infers from this the dreadfulness 
thereof even from this, ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God.' 
Reason tells us that the soreness of any torment, the fearfulness of any 



494 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

death, ariseth from the power, force, violence, or efficacy of that which is 
the immediate agent or cause inflicting it. As why do we argue burning or 
dying by fire a more terrible death in respect of torment than drowning in 
water ? But that fire, being the immediate agent or instrument applied to 
that execution, hath a more fierce and violent working than water hath, 
which despatcheth a man more easily. Now, therefore, the fearfulness and 
soreness of this punishment (and that with difi"erence from that by creatures, 
compare for this vers. 28, 29) being here argued, that it is a falling into 
God's hands ; and we knowing this withal, that he is in himself able to work 
by his tierce wrath more powerfully and exquisitely upon the reasonable soul 
of man sinful than all created agents whatever, and the soul itself being also 
capable of such a working upon by him ; this doth strongly argue his own 
immediate execution by his own hands to have been intended. 

5. In ver. 27, he termeth the immediate cause inflicting this punishment 
a ' fiery indignation devouring the adversaries.' Indignation or wrath is of 
some intelligent nature provoked. And whom should this refer to ? or whose 
indignation can it be supposed but of this God, ' who himself (as the apostle 
expounds, and comments upon it) ' hath said, Vengeance is mine, saith the 
Lord ' ? And this indignation is called fiery, because it works as fire ; is in 
tormenting like to fire; or as a flaming sword, red hot, when it is made the 
instrument of one's death, which wounds and kills, and doth torment with a 
superadded anguish. For the further opening of which I shall at present 
only say two things. 

(1.) That God compares himself in this respect unto a devouring or con- 
suming fire in this very epistle : Heb. xii. 29, ' Our God is a consuming 
fije.' There are two creatures which God assimilates himself unto in con- 
trary respects. 1. To light, as often, and * God is love,' 1 John iv. ; and 
both these are spoken of him in respect of what he is to the saints in glory. 
Light is of all creatures the most comfortable, and ' in his light it is we see 
light.' And the state of glory is therefore termed ' the inheritance of the 
saints in light,' Col. i. The second is to fire, and this on the contrary in 
relation to what he is to men in hell. And the parallel runs upon what he 
is immediately unto both, by analogy of reason. Of all creatures, fire is the 
most dreadful, the most raging, subtle, and piercing in its operation ; and 
so God in his wrath must be understood under that similitude to be, and 
therefore it is his wrath is termed ' fiery indignation.' 

(2.) Those words in their coherence are an allusion to those extraordinary 
punishments executed under the old law. For in ver. 28 he enforceth his 
argument (the scope of which was to aggravate this punishment as a minori) 
from the instances of those punishments that did befall men that died for 
despising Moses's law. Some of them we read were destroyed by fire, and 
therein he more especially refers us to those examples of Nadab and Abihu, 
who ' perished through fire,' Lev. x. 1, 2, where the very words the apostle 
here used to set out this punishment by are used by Moses, and so more 
evidently shew the allusion to be made thereunto. ' There went out fire 
from the Lord, and devoured them,' says that text ; and yet he argues from 
thence the surpassing soreness of this punishment above that from that fire, 
though it were a fire even from heaven itself that killed them. But more of 
this hereafter. 

I come, secondly, to that other scripture, 2 Thes. i. 8, 9, ' in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance of them that know not God, and that obey not the 
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.' 
Where it is to be observed, that though he mentions ' flaming fire,' and the 



Chap. II.] in respect of sin and punishment. 495 

ministry of his mighty angels, which accompany Christ's appearing, yet he 
clearly resolves the ultimate and immediate cause of wicked men's destruc- 
tion into the immediate presence and glory of Christ's power : ver. 9, ' Who 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction//om the presence of the Lord, 
and from the (jlory of his power.' So as herein is set forth, 

First, The punishment. 

Secondly, The causes of that punishment. 

1. For the punishment, there is, 1st, the nature of it ; it is termed de- 
struction ; 2dly, the duration of it, everlasting destruction. 

2. The causes of it ; from or by ' the presence of the Lord, and the glory 
of his power.' That particle acrd, which we translate from, is causal, im- 
ports the efficient cause, as in all those salutations, ' grace and peace //owi 
the Father, and from Jesus Christ,' it doth, Rom. i. 7, 2 Cor. i. 2, that is, 
as from the fountain, the principal and sole authors and efficients of grace 
and peace. And thus the word is used in multitudes of places else. And 
accordingly we find in other scriptures also that God and Christ are the im- 
mediate causes of peace. Thus 2 Thes. iii. 16, ' Now the Lord of peace 
himself give you peace,' &c., and chap. ii. 16, 17, * The Lord Jesus himself 
comfort your hearts.' Now, on the contrary, when in like manner he says, 
' Everlasting destruction /ro??/. his face, presence, and the glory of his power,' 
it may and is to be understood the Lord himself, personally by his own mere 
presence, and by the strength of his own power, inflicteth their destruction 
forever: they die by no other hand. This particle /rom (as in speech we 
often use it) hath led some from the true intent of the apostle. They there- 
upon supposing this the meaning, that they are punished with destruction 
from the presence, that is, out of the presence of Christ ; as if this were the 
fulfilling that speech of Christ, ' Depart from me, into everlasting torment.' 
This, though it be true of this destruction spoken of here, in respect of 
Christ's local presence, consider him as he is man ; yet, as Slater upon the 
place well says, to him that attentively considers the words, the causes of 
destruction are held forth herein. For, 1st, he says not simply, or alone, 
that they are punished //-o^/i his presence, but further adds,//-owt the glory of 
his power, the same particle a.'jro, oy from, being therefore in common to be 
applied to the one as well as the other. Now the intent of the latter, from 
his glorious power, cannot note forth that they were punished out of, or from 
ivithout his glorious power, as in respect of absence, but the contrary, that 
the presence and efficacy of it is to be that which is the author of their 
punishment, so that it imports nothing less than absence, or a withdrawment 
by God, or a throwing them out of his presence ; but positively an efficiency 
or energy put forth by him, and so carries with it the relation and influence 
of an efficient cause. If indeed he had added, instead hereof, either from 
his glory, or from his blessedness, unto that other from his presence, it might 
have carried both unto poena damni, the punishment of loss ; that is, to note 
out what they had lost, and wanted the communication of, and so their ex- 
clusion from the participation of God's face and blessedness (which is more 
ordinarily termed his presence), and together therewith had noted out an 
exclusion also of this sense which I argue for ; but his saying also /rom the 
glory of his power, manifestly notes power put forth in execution, and in- 
flicting that destruction, and glorifying himself on them thereby. 

And, 2, further know that the word here used is not potestas, as of a 
judge, that is, authority, whereof John v. 27, ' The Father hath given the 
Son of man authority to execute judgment;' and in relation unto which, in 
ver. 5 of this chapter, he had termed it, ' The righteous judgment of God ;' 
but the word is /ff^:)?, which signifies inward personal strength, vigour, rohur, 



496 AN UN-REGENERATE MAx's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

such as a crlant hath in his own liinba.* And, therefore, when their destruc- 
tion is said to he from his power, as thus denoting personal strength, the in- 
tendment must needs be to denote a putting forth of that strength which is 
in himself to destroy them. Parallel with that in Rom. ix. 22, ' What if 
God, willing to shew his wrath, and make his power known, on the vessels 
of wrath fitted to destruction ; ' of which anon. 

Yea, and 3, even this other phrase, destroyed from his presence, doth like- 
wise as fully close with this sense, to note the efficient cause of their destruc- 
tion. The word in the original is, from his face, d-zb toS crgoffwTou : now 
God's anger and wrath is as well, and very frequently expressed by his /ace 
in Scripture, as his favour useth to be ; for the face as well holds forth anger 
and wrath, as favour and grace. Thus Lev. xx. 6, ' I will set my face 
against that soul, and will cut him ofi";' that is, I will put forth mine anger 
to destroy him. And Lam. iv. 26, where it is translated ' the anger of the 
Lord,' in the Hebrew, and in your margins it is, ' the face of the Lord.' 
As there is ' the light of God's countenance,' in which * is life,' so the 
• rebuke of God's countenance, at which we perish,' Ps. Ixxx. 16, even as 
the wax is said to melt ' at the presence of the fire,' Ps. Ixviii. 2, and often 
elsewhere. 

So, then, to be destroyed /rom his face and presence, is all oije as to say, 
from his anger and tvrath. And we have both exegetically met in one scrip- 
ture : Rev. vi. 16, * They said to the mountains, Fall on us, to hide us from 
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ;' 
and suitably this destruction here, in 2 Thes. i., is said to be both from God 
and Christ, even as the happiness of heaven is immediately from the pre- 
sence of God and Christ : Rev. xxi. 23, ' And the city had no need of the 
sun, neither of the moon to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light thereof.' Thus, on the contrary, is it in hell; 
and so at the day of judgment it is ' the face of God,' and ' the face of the 
Lamb,' that the wicked most of all do dread, as that which is the inflicter of 
their torment. 

As for any objection from those words, ' in flaming fire,' &c., I shall an- 
swer it afterwards. 



CHAPTER IIL 

The passaqe in Bom. ix. 22 explicated, only so far as concerns the execution. 
— Several particulars in the words that shew the power of God's wrath to he 
the inflicting cause, and immediately inflicting this punishment. — An expli- 
cation of a fourth scripture. Bom. ii. 8, 9, added, for the confirmatton 
of all. 

What if God, toilling to shetu his wrath, avd to make his potver kno^vn, 
endured itith much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction / — 
Rom. IX. 22. 

I shall insist on this passage but so far as respects the execution of this 
destruction in hell, after much long-sutfering past, and not to touch at all 
upon anything of that point of rejection from eternity, whether intended or 
not. But that the words should respect the execution in hell (which is the 
point only before us), I take that as clear, and much for granted. And the 
reason is, because it is the glory of heaven, which in the next words the 
* Ipsa vis naturae per se considerata. — lllyricus. 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 497 

apostle joins with it, and sets by it, as parallels illustrating each the other : so 
ver. 23, ' And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the ves- 
sels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory :' in heaven, namely. 
The only thing which by the way I observe is, that the sin of the creature 
is that which prepareth or fitteth the creature for the execution of this 
punishment ; and a difference may be observed in this (though otherwise a 
parallel), as put in cautiously by the apostle, that God himself prepareth the 
saints to glory, ver. 23 ; but the other are fitted, that is, by themselves, unto 
destruction, ver. 22, ere he destro3'eth them. 

The point before me is, that God's wrath and his power are to be the im- 
mediate inflicters of that destruction. There are several particulars in the 
words, which, taken singly, might perhaps be sufficient to prove this, but, 
laid all together, will become a strong eviction thereof. 

1. That God's wrath and his power, or the power of his wrath, are spoken 
of as the inflicting or executing causes, is evident ; for it is a power of effi- 
ciency here spoken of, as whereby God produceth this destruction, as a cause 
doth its proper effect ; and accordingly he is said to make known and shew 
his power and wrath therein, like as the force and virtue of an efficient cause 
is made known and demonstrated, in and by the effect it produceth. And 
so is spoken to the same effect with what, in chap. i. 20, he had said, that 
his ' power and Godhead' is ' clearly seen from the creation of the world,' 
and ' understood by the things that are made.' He that is, 6 b-jvarog, ' the 
mighty one' (as the blessed virgin thei'e, by way of eminency, styles him), 
Luke i. 49, is said to ' shew strength with his arm,' ver. 51. And here, 
' to make known,' to huvarhv avroii (a word suited to that other), his ro x>osse, 
or what is possible to be done by him. It is then a power of strength, and 
energy, or efficacy, with his own hands and arm, and that according to the 
utmost of his ability, as the word imports. And so the power here spoken 
of is an inflicting power, that works and effects this destruction ; and not 
that of authority only, or a power of liberty to do as one pleaseth, as the 
potter with the clay ; for that kind of power he had before ascribed to God 
in this matter, in the foregoing verse, which this word here is distinct from. 
And this is one step ; unto which add, 

2. It is his power joined with his wrath ; that is, the power of his wrath, 
or his wrath in the power of it. For thus Moses, the man of God, Ps. xc. 
11, had long afore put them together, when he speaks of this very wrath in 
hell, of which here the apostle doth. For after he had, 1, set out the time 
and condition of man in this life, ' The days of our years are threescore years 
and ten,' &c. ; and then, 2, ' we fly away', so expressing death, and our go- 
ing into another world ; then, 3, follows, ' Who knows the power of thine 
anger?' as that which succeedeth and seizeth after death upon the most of 
mankind dying in their sins. The apostle here mentions power and wrath 
apart ; but Moses there maketh power an attribute of his wratla, and so con- 
sidered, it hath a double meaning, and both serving our purpose : 1. That 
wrath stirs up his power, and draws it out unto this execution ; and there- 
fore wrath is the first of the two here mentioned. Yea, further, that it is his 
power, as it becomes heated, inflamed, and intended* by wrath, that inflict- 
eth this ; and as a man in his anger strikes a greater blow, so may God be 
supposed to do, when represented as thus smiting in his sore displeasure. 
And 2. That God's very wrath and anger, if but shewn and revealed by him 
to men's souls, hath such a power in it, that that alone is enough to destroy 
them. The nearest resemblance that the Scriptures make of this wrath is 

* That is, ' stretched ' or ' intensified.' — Ed, 

VOL. X. II 



498 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

that of fire (of which anon), and that as fire melting wax by the very pre- 
sence of it. As therefore when we would express the power of fire, we say, 
the power of the heat that is in the fire, that thus melts and consumes, &c., 
its heat being in itself so fierce and vehement a quality, that when but applied 
it thus works ; so here it is the power of his wrath, if it be ' kindled but a 
little,' that destroys, if but made known once or discovered. And as in the 
text, it is a shewing his wrath, and thereby his power in destroying is made 
known. It is but his being angry, and shewing it. And this is the great- 
ness of God, that his very wrath discovered, should have this power ; and 
how receptive the conscience is of it, I shall after shew. As ' in hislfavour' 
(if but manifested to men's souls) ' is life,' Ps. xxx. 5, so, in his anger, when 
discovered by himself, there is death. If the 'wrath of a king' be 'as 
the] roaring of a lion,' and ' where the word of a king is, there is power,' 
then what is the ten*or and power of the wrath of the great God, that 
alone strikes dead ! And thus understood, it is an argument of itself 
alone, that the power of his wrath doth speak an immediateness of God's 
execution. 

A second particular is, that that which makes God willing, by reason of 
sin, to execute this, is thereby to obtain a glory unto his power by shew- 
ing his wrath. So as that although he hath already shewn his power in 
creating the world at first, and upholding it by the word of his power, and 
other effects, that yet over and above, and besides all this, he takes the 
advantage of sin to shew, as the riches of his mercy in saving from sin, so 
the greatness of his power another way, namely, in destroying for sin. And 
accordingly, in that 2 Thes. i. 9, there is a peculiar glory attributed unto 
that power of his, from or by which men are destroyed, ' punished from the 
glory.' says that text,' of his power,' or from his power, giving a demonstra- 
tion, or shewing his glory therein ; that is, unto that end, that it might be 
known how gi-eat and powei-ful a God he is in himself, by the judgment which 
he executes, as the psalmist speaks. 

Now then from hence, ere we add the other two particulars, the argument 
riseth thus : that if God should execute this by creatures only, and not im- 
mediately by himself, he attained not the full of this his end, and that upon 
a double account. 

1. Because, when all had been done that could have been by his power- 
ful arming and setting on of creatures to punish the sinner, jxt still him- 
self being able to give a gi-eater demonstration of power this way, if himself 
would take it in hand, and the soul of man being fully capable of his imme- 
diate workings upon it, and sin also deserving it, and the wrath of God 
being first or last to come upon impenitent sinners to the uttermost, there- 
fore until this demonstration were given, he had not made a full proof of 
his power, which the apostle here professeth to be his aim. 

And, 2, in* that after all other instances and demonstrations of power 
given in creation, miracles, in conversion of souls, that is, take his creating 
part in it, &c., all which he hath done immediately himself, without the in- 
tervention of created influences, that he should, last of all, be willing to give 
forth anew, or shew forth his power afresh in this work also, and yet should 
not then give a demonstration of like immediate power, but execute it only 
at second hand by creatures alone ; this would fall short, and hold no pro- 
portion with that power already shewn forth in those fore-passed works. 
And then this being the last, or one of the last, after all his other works 
ended, purposely to shew forth his power in, it had not been such a'demon- 
stration of power, as in his last work (wherein he professeth to shew forth 
any attribute) he useth comparatively to give. For still his manner is, in 



Chap. III.] in respect of sin and punishment. 499 

the shewing forth of any attribute, to give greater demonstrations thereof 
in his latter works than in the former ; of which more afterwards. 

Add this to it, which heightens the argument, that the apostle specially 
singleth forth this attribute of power, and by way of eminency mentioneth 
it in speaking of this punishment, as that attribute, whereof God is willing 
to give fullest demonstration in this work, above any other attribute, or at- 
tributes in himself therein. In all the great works of God, some one special 
attribute hath still the honour given it, as being in a way of eminency put 
forth : as in man's salvation, ' mercy and grace,' Eph. ii. 9 ; in man's glori- 
fication, 'riches of glory and mercy,' as here, ver. 23. But look down 
into hell, and it is his power which (as here in difference from those other) 
is said to be the predominant attribute that he would shew! forth, and 
which appeareth there. And the comparing of these two, salvation and 
damnation, as the}-^ stand in an opposite parallel, this in ver. 22, and the 
other in ver. 23, doth confirm this observation, taking in withal that other 
passage in 2 Thes. i. 9, where they are said to be punished ' from the glory 
of his power,' which manifestly gives the glory unto his power in this work, 
above any attribute. His sovereignty is seen in salvation as much (if not 
more) as it is in destruction : ' I will have mercy on whom I mil,' &c. But 
his power or omnipotency, that is said to be seen in destroying for sin. 
Whereof perhaps one reason is, because there is shewn in this, a duplicated 
power, a contrary stream of power running cross and thwart in its effects in 
this. For at the same instant (and that lengthened out for ever) God sets 
himself by his power to destroy the creature utterly, in respect of its well- 
being ; -whilst yet again, on the other hand, as great a power is requisite 
to uphold it in being and sense, and to prevent its sinking into its first no- 
thing, or from failing before him, in respect of being to bear it. And in 
respect to continue the creature to be, &c., and to endure the weight of 
God's power in wrath, to be dry stubble in a flame never consumed, this is 
more than for God to create. This puts the great God upon a double ex- 
pense of power. 

A third particular, in this Rom. ix. 22, that contributes to this is, that as 
the cause inflicting is termed the power of his wrath, so the miserable sub- 
jects hereof are denominated ' vessels of wrath,' even as on the other side 
those saved are termed * vessels of mercy.' Common use of speech tells us, 
that vessels ordained to be filled with such or such materials have their de- 
nomination from that matter they are ordained to contain, 'and are filled 
withal. You say this is a vessel of oil, that a vessel of wine. These here, 
you see, are said to be vessels of wrath. If you demand whose wrath ? 
God's. * What if God, willing to make known his wrath.' Now as touch- 
ing its opposite here, vessels of mercy, all will acknowledge that when it is 
spoken of as in relation to heaven (as here it is) it importeth souls, their 
being set apart to be immediately filled with the love and mercy of God ; 
that as God is love, so that they, as vessels, swim in that ocean for ever, 
that they dwell in God immediately, and are filled with fulness of him. 
And why should not then this other, of being vessels of wrath, be intended 
in the same sense also, and that sense be urged accordingly ? especially 
seeing it is evident that one scope of the apostle here, was to make a parallel 
between the eternal glorification of the one, and eternal destruction of the 
other, and accordingly between what are to be the causes of them. And 
if so, the law of this parallel will also carry it to this, that as the saints in 
heaven have an immediate participation of God, that likewise in hell there 
shall be oppositely an immediate participation of God's wrath. In heaven, 
they are not said to be vessels of mercy because God shews them mercy 



500 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTIKESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

only by created benefits or gifts bestowed, or because they haye God's 
mercy communicated by creatures (though it must be affirmed that there 
is a confluence of these), but because God himself appears all in love, 
mercy, and kindness to them. 

And it is not nothing, that according to the same analogy of speech, unto 
this particular, in multitudes of scriptures in the New Testament, this de- 
struction is fmiJja6Tix,Mg, by way of singularity, eminency, and simply styled 
wrath, and the wrath of God. And so it bears away that denomination 
from all other punishments by creatures (except that by magistrates in God's 
stead, and who bear the image of God, Rom. xiii. 5), so bearing the name of 
its immediate cause. 

The Baptist he began that style in the New Testament, — ' the wrath to 
come,' Mat. iii., — by way of distinction from all that is executed in this life. 
And the whole New Testament afterwards much useth that phrase. As 
when the day of judgment is styled 'the day of wrath,' Ptom. ii., and else- 
where. It is equivalent to say, ' a child of hell,' Mat. xxiii. 15, and 'a 
child of wrath,' Eph. ii. 3; to say, ' fitted to destruction,' as Rom. ix., and 
' ordained to wrath,' 1 Thes. v. 9 ; to say, ' damnation hasteneth,' 2 Peter 
ii. 3, and ' the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,' Col. 
iii. 6. As in like manner, on the contrary, ' saved from wrath,' Rom. v., 
' delivered from wrath through Christ,' 1 Thes. i. 10, is all one, and ' saved 
from death and hell,' elsewhere. And this is usually termed the ' wrath of 
God ;' so John iii. 86, Col. iii. 6, and Eph. v. 6, Rom. ix. 22. 

That which I would observe from both is, that according to the general 
analogy or common speech in all languages, the punishment, as the efiect, 
bearing the denomination of that which is the immediate instrument of the 
principal agent in that punishment (thus the torture by the rack is called 
the rack ; whipping, the rod ; so in deaths, crucifying was termed the cross ; 
hanging, the gallows ; thus it is in the punishments which men execute) ; 
that in like analogy of speech, this punishment should so generally be termed 
wrath, and the wrath of God, by way of eminency and difi'erence from all 
other forerunning effects of wrath, executed by creatures in this life ; this 
still strengthens the former notion, that is indeed the wrath of this God itself, 
in a way of eminent difference from what by creatures he doth in wrath pour 
oijt, that is the inflicter of that punishment. 

I shall for the close of this cast in one Scripture testimony more, both to 
confirm this interpretation of wrath given upon Rom, ix., and the whole of 
the point in hand. It is 

Rom. ii. 8, 9, Indirination and wrath, tribulation and anguish unto every 
soul of man that doth evil, &c. 

I observed afore from the second verse of this chapter, how that this punish- 
ment was termed both the 'judgment of God,' ver. 2, as denoting God to be 
the judge, and also 'wrath,' as of God the avenger. Now, in these words, 
ver. 8, 9, the apostle pursueth the latter more fully, when he says, ' Indig- 
nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every soul of man.' These are 
two pairs or conjugates of causes and effects: 1, 'indignation and wrath,' 
as the causes ; 2, ' tribulation and anguish,' as the two efiects ; and that on 
the ' souls of men,' which are the vessels of this wrath and indignation, and 
subjects of that tribulation and anguish thence arising. And truly his 
instancing in the soul, which, though it often signifies the whole person, yet, 
here seems purposely done, as being that in or of man, which alone is imme- 
diately capable of this indignation and wrath of God, and the impressions or 
effects of anguish therefrom, and is the proper seat of that anguish and tri- 
bulation ; and that phrase of wrath, its being said to be ' treasured up,' in 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 601 

the 5th verse, suits this. For what is the treasury or magazine thereof, but 
the heart and bosom of God himself, in which it lies hid, as treasures use to 
do in some secret place ? Even as the saints' life is said to be * hid in God,' 
Col. iii. 3, compare Deut. xxxii. 24. 

I shall but further superadd that noticed saj-ing of Luther (which, out of 
deep experience of the wrath of God in his soul, at his first humiliation and 
conversion he had learned), The wrath of God is hell, the hell of devils and 
all damned spirits. 

CHAPTER IV. 

That this immediate wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto vs under the 
similitude of fire, and fiery indi/jnation. — The examples of persons devoured 
by fire in the Old Testament, shadows of this jmnishment by the immediate 
wrath of God. — This the fire ivherein the devil and his angels are tormented. 

There hath been nothing more divertive of the thoughts of men from 
apprehending, or so much as imagining God's immediate wrath to be a cause 
of that punishment in hell, than that the Scriptures do so often make men- 
tion of fire, &c., as the instrument thereof, and so men's conceptions do 
terminate therein, and go no further. 

But I shall rather on the other hand make an argument of it, namely, 
that indeed the Scriptures do set out this immediate wrath of God under the 
similitude, resemblance, and representation of fire, and that sometimes, when 
hell-fire is spoken of, the wrath of God is intended thereby. 

Unto which I yet preface this, that I must not, nor dare I say that there 
is no material fire in hell ordained for punishment to men's bodies, but that 
it is rational, that the body having sinned as well as the soul, it should have 
a meet recompence of reward suited thereto, as well as that the soul should. 
But yet so, as either of them have this meted out to them, according to their 
vastly difi'ering share, and hand, and acting which they had in sinning ; in 
which the soul is always the principal actor, and in some sins the sole agent 
and subject. To be sure, in heaven there is a confluence of created excel- 
lencies, suited to the bodies of saints, made spiritual, as well as God him- 
self, the happiness of their souls ; ard sure I am that, on the contrary, it is 
distinctly said of each apart, that God destroys * both body and soul' in 
hell. Mat. x. 28 ; and accordingly each of .them, with a punishment suited 
unto each. 

The passage of Scripture unto which the gathering will be of several 
others, for the proof of this my present assertion (which is the subject of 
this chapter) is that of our apostle in the 28th verse of this Heb. x., a little 
atbre my text ; he there setting forth the judgment to come, in the causes 
and eflects of it to be, 

A ' fiery indignation, devouring the adversaries.' 

I did but touch upon it before, when I drew out other arguments from 
this text, but then reserved a fuller handling of this by itself. 

The original hath it, the indignation of fire. But indignation is in and 
from the heart of an intelligent person provoked, which is God, as the text 
shews. Grotius therefore interprets it, ' the anger of God,' but adds, 
' putting forth itself by fire.' I suppose he means by corporeal fire, as its 
instrument. But why not rather the anger of God himself, devouring hia 
adversaries as fire, and so to relate to the manner of his anger its working, 
as represented under the similitude of fire, seeing God himself is in this 
epistle styled a consuming fire, which interprets this ? 



502 AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

And in tliis expression oi fiery indignation which devoitreth, he hath par- 
ticular reference unto those, of all other the most extraordinary judgments 
upon Nadab and Abihu: Lev. x, 2, '(There came out fire from the Lord, and 
devoured them.' They are in terminis the very words of the apostle here ; 
and we may take in also (that so we may have two witnesses too, to con- 
firm this our interpretation of the apostle's allusion) ' That two hundred and 
fifty princes perished by fire from the Lord in the rebellion of Korah,' Num. 
xvi. 35. This as for what examples is referred unto. 

Now, to raise up our thoughts unto how much a sorer punishment the 
fiery indignation that remained for those gospel adversaries should be, he 
suggests how transcendently the gospel exceeds the ministration of Moses's 
law, in these words that follow: ' He that despised Moses's law died without 
mercy under two or three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, think ye, 
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and 
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an 
unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of gi-ace ? ' M oses's law 
(the old covenant, as joined with the law ceremonial), was sprinkled or 
consecrated with the blood of beasts, chap. ix. 19-21. But the gospel of 
the new covenant, and the persons enlightened thereby, have been sanctified 
by the blood of the Son of Grod. If, then, such an extraordinary fiery judg- 
ment befell the despisers of this Moses's law, thus sprinkled, &c., what fiery 
indignation proportion ably must it be that shall befall the treaders down, 
both of the book, covenant, and sacred blood of Christ ! And in this lies 
the weight and strength of the apostle's argument. 

That maxim of the judicial law which is annexed, that despisers ' died 
without mercy under two or three witnesses,' is brought in for that grand 
circumstance's sake, whereby the apostle heighteneth both the iniquity of 
those persons destroyed by fire, who sinned before many thousand witnesses, 
the whole congregation of Israel ; as likewise this other far transcending 
guilt of these adversaries, who had renounced Christ and his blood only, 
before the whole world and Christian church. So chap. vi. 6, it is said they 
did put the Lord Jesus to an open shame, and they are the same persons 
whom he threatens this against here, and speaks of there. 

But still, by what surpassing proportion may we estimate, or suppose (as 
the apostle calls us to do) how much this fiery indignation is sorer than that 
outward devouring them by fire. It is certain that Moses's law, and that 
sprinkling with beasts' blood, &c., which he argues from, held but the pro- 
portion of types, figures, and shadows ; but the new covenant, and Christ's 
blood, &c., of the substance and reality comparatively to these. Then in 
like manner, his intent in proposing these examples of judgments by fire, 
was as of those that hold the proportion but of a type, a figure of this fiery 
indignation that is to come upon the treaders down of the blood of Christ. 
For indeed a mere bodily death, the sharpest (as those by fire were), is but 
as the shadow of death, unto the second death (the thing intended here), 
which is utterly another kind of thing. 

In Heb. x. ver. 1, he says of the good things of the gospel, that what the 
law held forth were but the shadows of those good things to come, as Canaan 
of heaven, chap. iv. &c. ; the like, Col. ii. 17. And why may it not be also 
said, that as all the good things under the law, the best were but shadows 
of those good things to come, so that the highest and worst of outward evil 
things executed then, were in like manner but shadows of those evil things 
which the gospel brings to light, as the punishment of sin? And we may 
see in his succeeding discourse in this same chapter, how he, having first in- 
stanced in the good, he after instanceth in the highest of evil, in these words 



Chap. IV.] in respect of sin and punishment. 503 

I am upon, vers. 27-31. And in like manner the like extraordinary judg- 
ments then are expi'essly said to have ' happened to them as types ;' so in 
Greek* and margin, 1 Cor. x. 11 : types not merely monitory of hke events, 
but withal prefigurative of punishment of an higher kind, &c. What death 
could be outwardly sorer than to be destroyed of serpents ? ver. 9, and those 
fiery too. Num. xxi. G, the effects of whose stings are described to be as 
dolorous as being burnt alive. f But under the gospel, sin and the law, and 
so God's wrath, these as the substance are set out to be the sting of that 
death to come, 1 Cor. xv. 55. Again, ver. 10, ' destroyed of the destroyer.' 
Who was the destroyer then ? Angels : so Heb. xi. 38. And what destruc- 
tion or destroyer under the gospel is it that is typified out by these ? Even 
God himself, who, as by Christ, is said to ' kill the soul,' and ' destroy body 
and soul in hell.' So, ere the apostle took off his pen from prosecuting that 
argument, in the very same chapter he in full effect says as much, in setting 
before them how it was God's power and wrath, instead of those other de- 
stroyers, with which sinners have now to do. Ver. 22, * Do you provoke the 
Lord to jealousy ? are you stronger than he ?' I might confirm this notion 
from other types, 1 Cor. xv. 44, 45. This forelaid ; — 

To approach nearer to our purpose in hand, there are two things fui'ther to 
be done. 1. As touching the type itself, what kind of fire that was which 
devoured them ; and the manner of their deaths. 

The fire was another manner of fire than this our elementary common 
fire. This was fire from heaven, and therefore said to be a &refro7n the Lord 
that devoured them ; it was such a fire, as blasts of lightning are, which 
strike, and blast, and shrivel the spirits of a hving body in an instant, which 
is evideat by the manner of their deaths. The Hebrew doctors say of it, 
that it was a fire which burnt their souls, not their bodies ; their meaning is, 
their bodies were not consumed or devoured by it : for Lev. x. 5, it is said, 
They carried their bodies and coats into the tent, as untouched. It was 
therefore such a fire (as lightning is from heaven) which useth to strike, and 
lick up men's spirits in an instant, when yet in the mean time it consumes not, 
breaks not so much as skin or flesh, which our elementary fire preys first and 
most upon. It was therefore a far subtiler fire than culinary or kitchen fire, 
which suitably served as the fittest and nearest type of this fiery indignation, 
and of the vengeance which it executes. And this was but the shadow. 

The second is, What the substance answering to these types should be ? 
This I shall set out by two things : 

1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery indignation ? It is 
the immortal souls of men. These are the fuel which this fire doth prey upon. 
As to the truth of the thing itself, I need not insist on it ; but the analogy 
of that as the shadow, and this as typified thereby, that is the matter afore 
me. Let it be considered, that the death and destruction of the immortal 
soul in man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by 
such a devouring (as Moses's word is) or hcking up the vital and animal spirits 
that run in the body, when yet the body itself remains unburnt ; thereby 
demonstrating that it was such a fire as struck immediately at that which is 
the fountain of hfe itself in the body, and at that which is the bond, the t;i/i- 
culum, the tie of union between soul and body ; for such are those spirits. 
And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the body. 
There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of nature, to 
have borne a resemblance so near to shadow forth the immortal soul, as those 

* 'fif iv Tv-jtii, rudiores imagines perfectioris. 

t See Lucan, of the effects of the' stingiugs by African serpents upon Cato's soldiers, 
lib. ix. 



504 AN UNBEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

spirits running in man's blood and arteries do, which some aflBrm to be the 
very animal and vital soul in man. Sure I am, they are as the oil whereby 
life is preserved and fed ; and in the blood is the life, says Moses, our best 
interpreter in this. Neither doth this shadow hold a similitude in this par- 
ticular only, but in another like case as evidently. The pouring forth of the 
blood of the beasts that were sacrificed under the old law was particularly 
ordained to signify Christ his ' pouring forth his soul unto death,' as Isaiah 
speaks ; as well as in general, that the sacrifice of these beasts did typify 
forth Christ's sacrifice in the whole of it. And this was as near a represen- 
tation of that particular as could any way be made, by what was corporeal 
in beasts, or else in the whole creation (for a sacrifice of mankind, or the 
blood of men, God liked not to be made to him in his worship) could pos- 
sibly have been found to pourtray it forth. 

The second thing is, that the substance shadowed forth by that fire was 
no other than the indignation or wrath of the great God himself, which is 
termed fiery indignation here. 

For proof of which, I insist not, that some shim thereof this shadow itself 
doth cast, in Moses his saying again and again in terminis, that ' a fire /row 
the Lord,' &c., which hath a great emphasis and resemblance of this in it. 
But for proof I ask. 

First, Where shall we find, or how shall we imagine any created fire so 
to exceed that fire from heaven, recorded in that story ; and so far exceeding 
it as the substance doth a shadow, or such as should melt down immortal 
souls ? You may sooner invent or imagine a fire so much comparatively 
hotter than that of the sun itself (which is the contract of fire and light), 
and so much exceeding it, as should be able to shrivel up this sun into a 
burnt black coal, as to imagine any such created fire, so transcending this 
of lightning from heaven, as shall thus devour reasonable souls and immor- 
tal spirits, that in the substance of them (as being spirits) do bear the image 
of God. In what furnace will you think to find such a fire ? Nowhere but 
in the bosom of him who hath here said. Vengeance is mine, even of God 
himself. 

2. To confirm this. What created fire can be conceived more subtile or 
powerful, than the angels themselves are conceived to be ? whom, as Heb. i. 
7, out of the Psalms, the apostle compareth to flames of fire, that is, in our 
European language, to lightning. Now then I ask, when Christ says. Mat. 
XXV. 41, 'Go into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels' (shewing 
that man's punishment shall be from the same hand that the punishment 
of those evil angels is), what fire can be supposed such, that can work on 
angelical natures, who themselves have power over fire ; of fire of lightning 
from heaven, as in Job's case was seen. None other but that, which, as the 
apostle resolves us (if we will rest in it), that ' our God is a consuming fire,' 
Heb. xii. 29. So that consideration, the state and condition of the devil, I 
cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive speech of Luther's, Im Dei 
est infenius diahnli et omnixim damnatonim, it is the wrath of God that is the 
hell of the devil, and of all the damned : for there can be no other fire in 
which the devils can be tormented. Outward washings may as soon reach 
conscience, as Heb. ix. 9, 1 Peter iii. 21, as such created fire to torment an 
angel. 

3. Let us consider other scriptures, which, as I said, do gather about this, 
to give testimony to this interpretation. 

First, That of the prophet Isaiah, chap, xxxiii, 14, ' The sinners in Zion 
are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the h}T)Ocrites : Who among us shall 
dwell with the devouring fire ? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting 



Chap. IV.J in respect of sin and punishment. 506 

burnings ?' I shall afterwards have occasion to take notice of this scripture 
by way of use. In the mean time, observe, that it is God himself who is 
meant by this devouring fire here ; for in a smart and quick retortion (and 
it is a most elegant one), the prophet gives answer, ' He that walketh right- 
eously, and speaketh uprightly, he shall dwell with him' (whom you, that are 
hypocrites, so much dread, and have cause enough to do so) ; with him shall 
an upright man dwell, who is, and will be unto you, in the state you are in, 
a devouring fire. And thils they are reproved, and taught what it is to be 
hypocrites, by the opposite condition of the upright, and the differing event 
of being such. And further, that it is God himself there the prophet in- 
tendeth, as with whom the upright should dwell, the words following do 
also shew : ver. 16, ' He shall dwell on high' (namely, with that ' high and 
lofty One, that dwells in the high and holy place,' &c.). Do but punctually 
compare that Isa. Ivii. 15 with this here ; likewise ver. 17, ' Thine eye' (0 
thou upright soul) ' shall see the King in his beauty ;' that is (as Christ 
says), ' the pure in heart shall see God.' The result is, that the same God, 
who appears all in flames, and as a devouring fire, unto hypocrites in hell, 
is all light and beauty to the upright in heaven. Like as unto a sound and 
vigorous eye, ' it is a pleasant thing to behold the sun,' as Solomon speaks, 
but to sore eyes it is a terror. 

Add to this Ps. xxi. 8, 9, ' Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies, 
thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them 
as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger : the Lord shall swallow them up 
in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.' This the Chaldee paraphrast 
interprets of the fire of hell ; and so you have all meet to interpret this fire 
to be meant of the wrath of God himself. 1st, God a consuming fire, 
Heb. xii. 29 ; then, 2dly, God himself to be that devouring fire, Isa. 
xxxiii. 14 ; and, 3dly, his wrath interpreted to be that fire by the psalmist. 
And lo, how these all meet in this one saying, ' The fiery indignation that 
devours the adversaries !' which the apostle himself also interprets of God 
himself afterwards, ' We know him that hath said. Vengeance is mine ; and 
it is a fearful thing,' &c. 

Particularly for that scripture, even now cited, Isa. xxxiii. 14, if we con- 
sult the context, the occasion of bringing in that horrid outcry, * ^\Tio among 
us,' &c. (as interpreters agi-ee), was that the prophet had set forth in the 
verses before, that most wonderful and prodigious slaughter of the king of 
Assyria's host, when an hundred fourscore and five thousand (as 2 Kings 
xix. 35) were in one night destroyed by an angel. And thereupon the pro- 
phet, in this passage, is to be understood either to have related what an im- 
pression of dread this so unparalleled a judgment had made upon, and struck 
the hearts of the hypocrites in Zion with ; as that which had made them to 
cry out thereupon, ' Oh how then shall we dwell with everlasting burnings ?' 
that is, with God himself ; for they may well be supposed to have reasoned 
thus with themselves : If one angel, that is but a ministering spirit to God, 
is able to blast and consume such a multitude in one night, how shall we 
have to do with God himself, who is that infinite immense devouring fire, 
and all those angels but as sparks, and his ministers ? And so, according 
to this meaning, themselves are brought in, speaking by the prophet, as the 
men of Bethshemesh did upon the like judgments : 1 Sam. vi. 20, ' Who is 
able to stand before this holy Lord God?' Or else those words may be sup- 
posed to have been the prophet's own meditation and use of instruction, 
deduced from that example ; which he uttereth, as forewarning the sinners 
in Zion to consider, that if God be so terrible in the judgments he executes 
by others, his angels, who are flames of fire, how will you endure to dwell 



50G AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

with God himself, and have immediately to do with him for ever, who is a 
devouring fire and everlasting burnings ? &c. And our Saviour's speech is 
not remote fi-om this of Isaiah, when, speaking of hell, it is the ' fire pre- 
pared for hypocrites,' says he, Mat. xxiv. 51. Even as here Isaiah pro- 
fesseth to speak this of, and unto the hypocrites in Zion, as the persons above 
all others forewarned when hell is threatened. Again, as in Isaiah, God 
himself is called the devouring and everlasting fire, so here in the text, his 
wrath is termed ' fiery indignation devouring.' And the word translated 
adversaries here, falls out also to be a word deciphering hypocrites or false 
professors, ii-svamovg, under-hand enemies, who are also said to look for, in 
their trembling consciences, this fiery indignation ; even as of those hypo- 
crites Isaiah also speaks, as being the expectants of hell. And again, our 
apostle, chap. xii. 29, ' Our God is a consuming fire.' So as upon several 
accounts it is, that God himself and his wrath is, more eminently, that fiire 
in hell the Scriptures sometimes speak of. 

If it be objected out of my text, 2 Thes. i. 8, 9, is it not said, * He 
Cometh in flaming fire with his mighty angels ' ? Will he not then use cor- 
poreal fire, as also the might of his angels, and both as instruments of his 
execution, and their destruction ; and to that very end mentions the might 
of his angels ? 

I answer, 1, This fire here is not mentioned as that which is the cause of 
their everlasting destruction, but as that which is a concomitant of Christ's 
appearing ; and also a forerunner or harbinger to that judgment he comes 
to pronounce sentence of, whereof the destruction that follows is the final 
execution. Judges use for terror, and for a demonsti-ation of their autho- 
rity, work, and otfice they are employed in, to have visible instruments of 
death carried before them, as ensigns of their power; a company of hal- 
berds, or the like, for their guard to go before, and environ tlaem round ; 
which yet are not to be the immediate instruments of the execution of male- 
factors itself, but accompany their persons at the examination and sentence. 
And as to this or the like use, is this guard of angels, and of flaming fire 
mentioned, to be understood to serve ; both these referring evidently unto 
that his appearing. ' Who shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels in flaming fire,' but not spoken of, as the causes of the destruction 
itself that follows. 

The angels further serve to gather men from'all the four corners of the 
world. Mat. xiii. 41, 42, to hale and bring them before the Judge ; and after 
sentence to cast them into the place of torment, called thei*e a furnace of 
fire ; but not of their making, but God's. They do but deliver them into 
the dreadful place, wherein execution is acted and performed. 

2. This fire which he appears with is to burn up this visible world, as a 
fore-running sign, to shew the fierceness of the fire of that wrath which shall 
after prey and seize upon the invisible world ; that is, men souls and devils 
for ever. Not that men's souls are to be burnt up with no other fire than 
what the world is burnt withal, but that which burns the visible world, is an 
example and demonstration of that other fire that is kindled in his auger, 
that shall in the end ' burn to the bottom of hell,' Deut. xxxii. 22. This as 
to what may be objected out of that place. 

3. I deny not from other scriptures a created fire in hell. Let but that 
also be allowed which some of the ancients also speak of, that there is a 
double fire there : one inward in men's souls, another outward. Gerson 
aptly applieth that place of the psalmist fore-cited, Ps. xxi. 19, unto that of 
this inward fire, ' Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven ; the Lord shall 
swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.' The tire of 



Chap, v.] in respect of sin and punishment. 507 

an oven is a fit'similitude of a fire within, as into which fire is put to heat 
it, and the heat made more intense by the cavity or hollowness of the place. 
Whereas, to be cast into a furnace of fire, as Christ speaks, or into a lake of 
fire, as Rev. xix., xx., xxi., imports a fire without, into which the matter or 
persons to be burnt are cast. " 

And thus much for bare Scripture testimonies. Many other there are 
which might be collected to confirm this, but are scattered in several parts 
of this discourse in a duer place. 



CHAPTER V. 

A second sort of proofs. — Demonstrations from instances both ofivicked men and 
holy men, who have felt in tJiis life impressions of God's immediate wrath. — 
And that such impressions are evidences of what, in the fulness, is in hell. 

A second sort of proofs are demonstrations from instances in Scripture, of 
persons in this life, who have felt impressions of this wrath of God in their 
souls, upon God's rebuking them for sin. And these instances of experience 
upon record, being added to those foregone Scripture testimonies, will serve 
as ruled cases, joined unto maxims in law, alleged both of them for the proof 
of one and the same thing, and will give yet more clear demonstration what 
is meant by "wrath, and what hell is in the fulness of it, and, being joined to 
the former, do altogether give an abundant evidence of this great truth. 

I say, 1, of men in this life. And if any should deny the truth hereof, 
or that which we have been prosecuting, themselves, perhaps, ere they die, 
may be made miserable examples, verifying of both, and out of their own 
woful experience, live to confess and acknowledge the truth herein ; for God 
doth in this life single out some, both of his children and others, to whom 
he gives a taste what the one should for ever have undergone, but that 
Christ did it for them, and of what the other must undergo for ever without 
repentance ; whereof those instances that follow are undeniable evidences. 

And, 2, these terrors ai-e wrought by God's immediate hand, and from 
immediate impressions and representations of his wrath, made by him on 
their souls, and to their consciences ; for, as God puts joy into the hearts of 
his children in this life, by the immediate light of his countenance, as Ps. 
iv. 6, ' Lox'd, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us ;' and verse 7, 
' Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their com 
and their wine iucreaseth ;' and again, ' Whom though we see not, yet 
believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious,' as the apostle 
speaks of those primitive saints ; even so when he is pleased to rebuke 
man for sin, he doth the like, in a way of contraries, on men both good and 
bad ; correcting them, by and with anguisbments from the like immediate 
stroke of his own anger. God is the Father of all sphits, and of the spirits 
of his own children upon a double creation. And if the fathers of our bodies 
corrected us, Heb. xii. 9, and had power to do it with bodily punishment, by 
bodily instruments, do we think that our souls, which lie naked befoi'e God, 
Heb. iv. 13, are not as immediately subject and exposed to his correction, as 
a ' Father of spirits' ? and if so, that then he may and doth sometimes choose 
to correct even his own children with no other rods but of his own, which are 
the immediate emanations, streamings, and dartings of his own displeasure, 
which, when they feel, they wax pale and wan, and wander up and down 
like unto ghosts in hell, as if they were cut ofi' by his hand ; and that those 
anguisbments which either of these feel are from God's immediate hand 



508 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

alone, those that have felt the smart thereof do readily acknowledge, for it 
is not in the power of any creature to strike so hard a stroke. 

And you shall hear some of themselves by and by, speak out so much, 
whilst they were under the present sense thereof. These things premised. 

There are two things to make this demonstration complete. 

First. The instances themselves of persons in this Ufe, on the evidence of 
which the main stress lies, for the proof of the assertion. 

The second is, that such immediate impressions of divine wrath are evi- 
dences of what kind of torment it is, which in the fulness of it befalleth men 
in hell, and that both proceed from the same immediate cause. 

The instances are of two sorts, that so we still may have under two or three 
witnesses this word established. 

First, Of good and holy men. 

Secondly, Of bad and wicked men. 

1. For instances of holy men, there are divers of them. As of Job, see his 
complaints ; chap. vi. ver. 2-12, ' The arrows of the Almighty are within 
me, the poison whereof drinks up my spirit : the terrors of God do set them- 
selves in array against me. Oh that it would please God to destroy me ; 
that he would loose his hand and cut me off.' Which, with other passages 
in that chapter, I shall after open at large. Again, chap. xiii. 24, 26, 'Thou 
boldest me for thine enemy, thou writest bitter things against me, and 
makest me to possess the sins of my youth ;' also, chap. xvi. vers. 12-15, 
' God, he also hath taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set 
me up for his mark. His archers compass me about, he cleaveth my reins 
asunder, and doth not spare ; he breaketh me with breach upon breach, he 
runneth upon me as a giant.' I shall here only single out that of Heman, 
which is a most full one, and alone sufficient, and reserve the explicating 
that of Job's case wholly unto the setting forth the dreadfulness, which is 
the subject of the second section. 

Heman complains at the third verse of that Ps. Ixxxviii., ' My soul is full 
of trouble,' &c. And what was the matter of that trouble, and the inflicting 
cause thereof? Ver. 7, 'Thy wrath lies hard upon me, and thou hast 
afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.' Those words, thy ivratli lies hard, 
&c., others read, sustains itself, or hears up itself upon me, which is as if a 
giant should with his whole weight stay himself upon a child. ' And thou 
hast afflicted me with all thy waves.' The waves of that immense ocean of 
wrath (for unto such waves he again compares these terrors in ver. 16, 17) 
he says they came over him continually, and overwhelmed his soul, as bil- 
lows of the sea wallowing and tumbling upon a Jonah cast into them. And 
vers. 14-16, he sets out his condition such as wherein there was not only 
a privation of God's favour, and that God seemed to reject his soul as if he 
never meant more to look upon it, or regard it : so ver, 14, ' Why castest 
thou off my soul?' But further, positively, ver. 15, 'I suffer thy terrors;' 
and ver, 16, 'Thy fierce wrath goes over me, thy terrors have cut me off.' 
The blows which God gave his soul were so hard and sharp, that to his feel- 
ing they not only wounded or cut into, but cut off his soul at every stroke. 
The like follows ver, 17, and this put him into the condition of men in hell. 
' I am free among the dead,' ver, 5, that is, of that society, number, and 
company ; and as one of them that are ' cut off from thy hand,' or, as the 
margin renders it, ' by thy hand.' All which are as if he had said. They are 
not the strokes of creatures I feel, or of thine anger as conveyed by creature 
distresses, but of thine own immediate hand, and such as those that are in 
hell itself do feel from thee. These are notes and degrees beyond, and 
higher than the Ela of dolours from or by the hands of creatures, though set 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 509 

on by God. They are strains of another key, the doleful air of which doth 
sound another hand and stroke (purely divine) that did immediately strike 
upon their heart-strings that spake these things. These are the resound- 
ings of blows and strokes which God's own immediate hand gave upon the 
bare spirit of one wounded by him ; he that attentively listens to them will 
soon perceive and esteem (as they said) this man stricken and smitten of 
God himself. Creature distresses give a far less report. 

But that it was God's own immediate hand is more plainly by himself ex- 
pressed, ver. 16, ' Thy terrors have cut me off,' and ver. 15, ' While I suffer 
thy terrors I am distracted, and ready to die from my youth up,' as in the 
same verse. Thy terrors, so he termeth them (he speaking to God), or the 
terror of thee; that is, 1st, from thee efficiently, and from thy hand setting 
them on; and, 2dly, of thee, as arising in me from and with dreadful appre- 
hensions and thoughts of thee objectively, and of thy sore displeasure repre- 
sented to my soul by thee. And so God's terrors are every way set forth in 
distinction from distresses from creatures, or such as are made mediately by 
or from creature-afflictings, although they also be from God. Thus, in like 
phrase of speech, it is appositely said, 1 Peter iii. 14, ' Be not afraid of their 
terror;' he speaks it of men that were persecutors and threatened the saints. 
Their terror, objective, that is, the terror of them, or that terror which the 
apprehension of their power, greatness, strength, threatenings, &c., may 
possibly work in you. In a like sense thy terror here is spoken of God. And 
the other great apostle, speaking of this ultimate punishment of hell, he in 
like phrase termeth it ' the terror of the Lord,' 2 Cor. v. 11, that is, that 
terror which is peculiar and proper to him, in and to the souls of men, who 
is the terrible God (as he styles himself in Moses), and, says Nahum, ' Who 
can abide, or stand in the fierceness of his anger ?' 

There are, further, two effects which Heman there relateth, of this his 
having suffered these terrors, or that befell his spirit whilst these terrors were 
upon him. 1. That he was continually ready to die ; the wrath that lay on 
him was so heavy as it even well nigh thrust his soul out every moment, and 
made the spirit to fail. And, 2, it made him not himself (as we say), put 
him out of his right mind. ' V/hilst I suffer thy terrors I am distracted ;' 
for the intention of a soul taken up with, and extended by the wrath of God, 
is such, and is wound up so high, as the string is ready to crack. You 
usually term this in such persons deeply wounded trouble of conscience (but 
that is more common), whereas this dispensation requires a higher word; it 
is indeed the wrath of God, or the terror of God in conscience, making it as 
a fiery oven within itself, as the psalmist speaks. This for the instances of 
good men. 

A second instance is of bad and wicked men. What was it caused Judas 
to hang himself ? The prophecy of the psalmist, and the apostle's refer- 
ence to it, have resolved us, that it was the curse or wrath of God enter- 
ing into his soul. The psalm is the hundred and ninth, which was penned 
on purpose about him ; the apostle's reference and application is in Acts i. 
20. In the psalm it is said, ver. 18, ' as he loved cursing,' that is, sin, 
which is that accursed thing before God, so ' the curse of God came into his 
bowels (or inwards) like water, and like oil into his bones,' and filled all 
within him full of anguish and torment ; and so was fulfilled that saying, 
' indignation and wrath,' namely, of God, caused 'tribulation and anguish' in 
his soul. The simihtudes or allusions there are elegant : that as there are 
spiritual oils which men's bodies being anointed withal, they soak into the 
bones, &c. ; they cool, refresh, and repair spirits and strength, and allay 
fervent heats and pains, into which more inward parts, other medicines, 



510 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

more crass and druggish, cannot soak or come. In the way of a contrary 
virtue or effect, he compares the curse of God on his soul unto a spiritual 
oil, of a piercing, penetrating violence, that strikes in as quicksilver, into the 
bones and nervous parts, and fills them vpith unsufferable torments. He 
compareth also this curse, and the effects of it, unto such painful diseases as 
are caused by sharp corroding waters in the bowels, as of the gout in the 
bowels, which when it possesses those inwards, is mortal and intolerable. 
The apostle's allusion elsewhere is correspondent to both these of the 
psalmist, when he says. The word of God (through the power of the Spirit) 
is a ' savour of death unto death ' in some men's hearts, as * of life unto hfe,' 
in others, 2 Cor. ii. 16. The meaning whereof is, that look as venomous 
and sulphurous vapours and damps in mines and caverns, arising out of the 
earth, do strike up such scents or smells as often kill, by extinguishing the 
spirits of those that descend into them, such exhalations of hell and wrath 
doth the Spirit of God, by the word preached, exhale and draw forth, and 
cause to ascend in some men's consciences, which gives them the very scent 
of hell itself. They are the savour or odour of death aforehand, unto death 
and damnation, and so are vapours of the same kind, out of the same mat- 
ter that is laid up in the mine or treasury itself, as those out of the earth 
use to be. 

The second thing requisite to be added for the completing the demonstra- 
tion is, that such immediate impressions of divine wrath in this life are 
sure and certain evidences, I say not as to what persons, but of what kind 
of torment it is, which in the fulness of it befalleth men in hell, and that 
both do proceed from the same immediate cause. This needs not much pro- 
bation, for the instances afore given carry their own evidence with them of 
this thing to any intelligent reader. And this general reason for it will 
readily occur to any one's thoughts, that surely God will not punish them in 
hell with a punishment of a lesser sort or kind (for we speak not now of com- 
parisons of degrees) than what his dispensation reacheth forth unto some 
men in this life, — for that is the proper day and time and season of wrath, 
and of the fierceness of his wrath, — in which the fruits of their own doings 
are every way in their full ripeness and maturity to be returned to them ; 
and these inflictions in this life are but the buds and blooms that precede, 
yet both from the same root and cause. Now to be punished by God's 
wrath but mediately, through the force only of created instruments, &c., as 
of material fire, or the like (if that were all the punishment there), this were 
certainly by a lower kind or sort, than to be punished immediately from the 
wrath of God itself, as will abundantly appear in the second section, when 
I shall set out the dreadfulness of such a punishment. 

But let us particularly weigh the instances themselves, as we have singly 
and apart delivered them. 

1. Those dispensations to wicked and bad men, as Judas, &c. 

2. The same as they are exemplified in good and holy men, as Heman, &c. 
And either of them will afford an argument for the proof of this proposi- 
tion in hand. 

These direful impressions of God's immediate wrath, when they do befall 
wicked men, what are they to them ? Not only pledges or fore-runners of 
that punishment to come (for such all sorts of afflictions are unto wicked 
men), but further, these are spices and grudgings, and lesser intermitting fits 
of those future fiery, burning, and continued calentures and fevers ; yea, ear- 
nest-pennies of hell, and so of the same kind with what in full men shall 
there receive. 

As we use to say and speak of those glorious joys, which some saints afore- 



Chap. V.J in respect of sin and punishment. 511 

hand have the privilege to partake of, that they are pure drops of those rivers 
of pleasure, flowing immediately from the same fountain of life : so we may 
as confidently say of those breakings forth of wrath upon wicked men's souls 
here, that they are the sippings of that ' cup of wrath without mixture,' (as 
the llevelation distinguisheth it from those in thiS life, Rev. xiv. 10), whereof 
the wicked must * drink the dregs,' though it be to eternity, unto the bot- 
tom. And therefore we may make a true and warrantable measure of what all 
such men are to look for in hell, by what some few of them do partake of here. 

And the argument is strong every way, from the one of these unto the 
other. For as heaven and hell are parallel in a way of contraries, as out of 
Romans ix. 22, 23 hath been shewn, so those unspeakable glorious joys, 
and these contrary extraordinary horrors and anguishes, on the other hand, 
do hold parallel also, in being (in their several kinds) prehbations and tastes 
of what is to come in the other world. And in this very posture and ten- 
dency doth the apostle set these two dispensations together in this life, in a 
parallel way (as in Romans ix. he doth the other), whilst in the same scrip- 
ture, 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16, he compares those joys, common in those times, in 
them that are saved, to the breakings forth, at the opening of the gospel, as 
of spikenard, of ' a sweet odour or savour of life unto life' (namely of the life 
to come) aforehand, sensing* their souls with some of those perfumes that are 
fetched from that country, and only grow there ; and on the contrary such 
also he declares those precursory savours or odours of death in their kind 
to be, which do arise from the threatenings of the same word in horrors upon 
many that perish, which he pronounceth to be the very evaporations of that 
' lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death,' in styling them the 
odour or ' savour of death unto death ;' so speaks he. These men often 
smell the scent of hell in their consciences, and the spirits of it do strike up 
into their souls. The very ashes and smoke of that Vesuvius or Etna of hell 
(I allude unto the last words of Deut. xxxii. 22) do fall upon them, which 
lighting upon men in this life, do, as those ashes of the furnace (Exod. ix. 
8, 9, 10) miraculously did, they cause sores and blains upon men's con- 
sciences. And however, if the apostle did therewithal intend the more com- 
mon dispensations by the word, and so both the ordinary and extraordinary, 
of which we now speak, yet still take and compare those extraordinary joys 
in the one, as a savour of life, with the extraordinary horrors, that are the 
savour of death unto the other, and in their proportion there is still the like 
reason of both, as to the matter in hand; and an alike presignificancy in 
either of those two eternal estates. 

Again, that each of these are alike by and from God, and by his more 
immediate hand dispensed. This I take from Philip, i. 28, and submit the 
interpretation of it : where, exhorting Christians unto an holy courage and 
confidence in their appearings, for the cause of Christ, before their persecu- 
tors' tribunals, ' In nothing be terrified by our adversaries,' says he. And 
upon such a bold undauntedness on their part, two effects, he tells them, do 
often follow ; and both from God alike, as two wonderful contrary efiects. 
First, in themselves, God elevateth and raiseth up that their confidence of 
faith into a glorious assurance and taste of heaven and salvation, whither 
they are a-going ; so, in these words, * which is a token to you' (yourselves) 
' of salvation ;' but, on the contrary, which is ' an evident token' (namely, 
in their persecutors' consciences) ' of perdition,' if they repent not, ' and 
that' (namely, both these eff'ects) ' of God.' 

Two things I observe : 

1. That these two contrary efi"ects run parallel still, and that in order to, 
* Qu. ' censing ' ? — Ed. 



512 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

and of tlieir being tokens either of salvation or perdition, as in that other 
place, 2 Cor. ii. And so that as the joys put into the hearts of these con- 
fessors are the 'first-fruits of the Spirit,' Rom. viii., and therefore of the 
same kind with what fruit and harvest they reap in heaven ; and thereupon 
also a spirit of glory is said to ' rest upon them ' in such a case, 1 Peter 
iv. 14 ; it being itself initial gloiy, and the fii-st-fruits of glory, in a way of 
glory. Thus, on the contrary, those terrors God strikes their adversaries' 
hearts wdthal, are like tokens and evidences of hell, no other than the suburbs, 
the first-fruits of hell, and shadow of death. 

And, 2, I observe (which is that for which I quote it) that both these ex- 
traordinary effects are alike wrought in the hearts of either, by the same or 
hke hand, namely, impressions from God. The apostle therefore adds dcro 
Tuu y.oivou unto both, ' and that of God,' he being the immediate author of 
the one as well as of the other ; and both unto a like, though contrary, pur- 
pose. And the reason why God thus often takes that season and occasion 
to put forth his immediate power in the consciences of either at such a time 
is, because his glory is in no passages of providence in and upon earth so 
hicfhly interested and engaged as upon such trials, wherein both his truth 
and children are brought to the bar at once, and therefore is then pleased 
to discover something more than ordinary (though secretly) in the spirits of 
men : ' Have they no fear,' says the psalmist, ' that eat up my people like 
bread ? ' one would think so, they look so big, and fall to so heartily to de- 
vour them. Yes, says the psalmist, answering it, ' there were they in great 
fear.' Tliere ; that is, upon such an occasion, at such a time. And yet the 
same psalmist tells us that there was no cause of fear (compare for that Ps. 
xiv. 4 with Ps. liv. 4), that is, not from creatures. What was the matter, then, 
or whence comes this great fear ? ' God is in the generation of the right- 
eous,' says the psalmist ; thence was their fear, and ' that of God.' So the 
apostle in that very case. God takes part with his children, and so strikes 
and terrifies their adversaries' souls, as he comforts theirs. And this is to 
them an * evident token,' and as the first baptisms, washings, or sprinklings 
• of that perdition ' which their souls will be everlastingly drowTied in (as the 
apostle's allusion is in Timothy) if they turn not. 

The truth and real-verification of both these so immediate effects by God 
and from God (he as with a double-edged sword striking contrary ways at 
once), multitudes of instances of both kinds the story of the martyrs doth 
relate ; and particularly in the examples of those persecuting emperors 
Galerius and Maximinus, as Eusebius hath recorded them. Insomuch as that 
lamentable outcry in the sixth seal, Rev. vi. 16, ' Which the kings of the 
earth, and mighty men' (the persecutors) are brought in so loudly uttering, 
in ' saying to the mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the wrath of the 
Lamb,' Mr Mede and others have appHed (as the time and order of the 
visions of that prophecy require) unto those great persecutors in the Roman 
empire, whom authentic antiquity hath related to have been terrified and 
struck with horror by God and the Lamb, in prodigious extraordinary ways 
of confusion ; and those terrors, such as stories have related them, as were 
the liveUest representations of that great day of wTath, ver. 17 ; and are 
therefore set out under the notion thereof, as having been to them the very 
imperfect beginnings of it. This for the argument from the instances of 
wicked men. 

II. The argument is as strong, though not so direct, from the instances of 
holy men. 

For, 1, this dispensation to them is not only an argument in common with 
other afilictions of this world, in their being a ' manifest token of the judg- 



Chap. V.] in respect of sin and punishment. 513 

ment of God,' 2 Tlies. i. 9 ; and that therefore a sure and certain judgment 
is to come upon the wicked, as he there argues. But this kind being a judg- 
ment of a spiritual nature (as immediate inflictions of wrath are), and pro- 
perly belonging unto souls as they are the subjects of the other world, it 
argues therefore upon a more proper account, that the punishment to come 
is of the same kind therewith. And such they must needs be, unless we 
will suppose that God whips his own children in this world wdth scorpions, 
but wicked men in the other world, but as with rods in comparison of them. 
For it must be acknowledged that these, God's own blows, from his own im- 
mediate hand, are sorer, and cause wounds of a deeper blue than what are 
given by him through creatures. Surely God hath not laid up gentler rods 
for the wicked in hell than he puts in use towards his children : ' Have I 
smote them as I smote thee ? ' Isa. xxvii. 7. 'I will correct thee in measure,' 
Jer. XXX. 1 ; not so them. The equity of those ruled cases (which the reader 
may consult), Jer. xxv. 15, 16, 17, 28, 29, Luke xxiii. 31, and 1 Peter iv. 
12, 17, do hold in this, and give us warrant in like manner to argue, that if 
his own children do drink of so bitter a cup here, then surely you, the wicked 
of the earth, shall much more drink of the very same. And these scriptures 
alleged, and the strength of this our inference, are all resolved into that of 
Ps. Ixxviii. 8, ' In the hand of the Lord is a cup, whereof the wicked of 
the earth shall ' (finally) ' drink the dregs.' And the force therefore lies in 
this, that if such kind of judgments and fiery trials as these (I allude unto 
that speech of the apostle), thus falling upon their spirits from God himself, 
do begin at some of ' the household of God,' then ' where will the ungodly 
and sinners appear ? ' For his own people do but begin in this cup to them 
who are to drink the dregs, whereof themselves have but the droppings. 

2. This dispensation of impressions of wrath, when it doth befall either 
the godly |or the wicked, although there are difi'ering ends and purposes 
from God towards either ; yet as they are one and the same in substance 
(as other afflictions are), so also they meet in this one and the same issue, 
namely, to be an evidence and demonstration what hell itself in the extremity 
of it is. For as in the wicked they are imperfect testimonies of what they 
shall undergo, to the end they may repent, so in the godly they are evidences 
of what they have deserved, in common with those and all wicked men ; and 
to shew that they are alike ' children of wrath, even as others,' Eph. ii. 1 ; 
also unto them, they are sensible experiments of what they should have 
undergone, but that Christ hath saved them from the wrath to come, that 
so they may be thankful, and love much. And many other holy ends there 
are ; yet still so as these contrary lines do centre in this, that hell is pre- 
Ubated and tasted by the one as well as the other. 

But for a clear eviction that these terrors in the godly are no other than 
the very shadow of death, or vive and lively resemblances of what men feel 
in hell ; hear what themselves say of it, whilst under the sense thereof. 
First Heman, for all the rest, while you find him as with his mouth put in 
hell, into the very dust of death, bemoaning himself thus, Ps. Ixxxviii. 5, ' I 
am free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the gi'ave, whom thou re- 
memberest no more ; and that are cut oft' from' (or by) ' thy hand.' When 
he says slain, it is in language the same which Christ useth of that execu- 
tion, Luke xix. 27, ' Slay them before me.' And the whole of it is all one 
as to say, My condition is Hke unto a man's that is in hell, and in some 
respects the same. Not that it had the same consequents, all efi"ects of 
despair that wrath hath upon the damned ; but in respect it is God's hand 
that inflicteth it, and also the same wrath itself he felt. And David, who 

VOL. X. K k 



514 AN UNREGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

had experimented them, expressly terms them ' the pains and sorrows of 
hell,' Ps. xviii. 5, and cxvi. 8, and elsewhere. And Jonah says the like 
whilst he was in the whale's belly for his rebellion against God ; compare 
for this Heman's speeches, Ps. Ixxxviii. 6, 7, 16, 17, with these of Jonah, 
chap. ii. 2, 4. And so you have out of their own mouths this assertion 
verified, and the consequence we have insisted on confirmed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A third sort of proofs from reasons : — 1. God's justice. — 2. Avenging wrath 
otherwise not satisfied. — A demonstration added. 

I come now to the reasons of it, which will shew the necessity of this 
course, namely, of God's taking it into his own hands. It might be won- 
dered at that the great God, having an host or army of creatures ready to be 
his avengers, should, over and above what they might do, himself set his 
hand to this. But God and Christ are so far from esteeming this a staining 
of their glory, as earthly judges think it would be to execute any themselves, 
that this being a trophy of regaining honour debased by the creature, they 
account it a part of their glory. Thus God here challengeth it to himself, 
' Vengeance is mine,' as a glory he would not give to any other. And Christ 
is so far from accounting that he ' staineth his raiment with their blood,' 
Isa. Ixiii., as that he glories to ' tread the wine-press of his Father's wrath 
alone.' He glories in it. 

There are two reasons drawn from the final causes of this punishment, 
which makes this dispensation necessary: 1. It is for the glory of his 
justice ; 2. It is an act of avenging wrath, retributing vengeance. Which 
two do centre in this as a third, that it is to be destruction to the persons it 
falls upon as the issue of both ; all which can never be attained but by an 
execution made by God's own immediate wrath. 

I shall found these reasons, as I did the other proofs, upon what I find 
foundations for in these very texts I have chosen. 

1. It is an act of justice ; so in this Heb. x., ' I will repay ; ' and 2 Thes. 
i. 6, 'It is a righteous thing in God, To dlxaiov dvai-odovvai, to repay again,' 
or recompense, and ver. 9. 'OiTivsg dixrjv Tiacuaiv, who shall 'pay or lay 
down a punishment justly sentenced,' which in Heb. ii. 2 is called a 'just 
recompence of reward ; ' and Rom. vi. 23, the wages or reward of sin. And this 
is the last payment, and all that for ever, sin in them, or God for sin, shall 
have, and therefore that whereby the glory of God is to be fully recovered. 

2. It is an act of avenging wrath, as in both these places is expressed. 
Let us see what evidence of reason each of these apart do afford, much 

more put together. 

1. Justice. Concerning that the assertion is, that if there be a satisfaction 
made for man's sin unto God's justice, but so far as it may be attained upon 
the creature to be punished in hell, God himself will set his immediate hand 
to it ; and justice reqtiires this, 

(1.) I say, a satisfaction, so far as may be attained upon the creature that 
hath sinned, and which is to be the subject of this punishment. I put this 
in, because otherwise it must be afiirmed of Christ alone, that he gave full 
satisfaction unto God's justice, in whom there was svdsit,ig diKaiooffvvrjg Qiod, 
a ' manifestation or demonstration of God's justice for sins that were past,' 
Rom. iii. 25 ; yet still, as although a full satisfaction can never be had from 
or upon the creature (therefore in hell they always suffer), yet God doth 



Chap. VI. J in respect of sin and punishment. 515 

recover what can be had, and payeth himself out of them as far as it will 
go; as those phrases, ' pa3'ing the utmost farthing,' Mat. v. 26, and, selling 
them, and all they had, to make money thereof. Mat. xviii. 25, do shew. 

(2.) In this case that which justice will require unto any tolerable equit- 
able satisfaction in this punishment is, that as exact a proportion be observed 
as possibly there may be, and as the subject is capable of. The justice of 
God, as it is ' according to truth,' so exactness and equity ; and the work of 
God is perfect in every kind, and performed in due weight, number, and 
measure, but above all else, where justice is professed. You may hear justice 
speak in Isaiah, chap, lix., * Accordiv/f to their deeds, accordingly he will 
repay, recompense to his enemies.' There is an accordiiuj and an accordingly 
to that, so as all due measures and rules of proportion every way shall be 
observed. Which measures being set out in this matter will evidently 
demonstrate that God's immediate hand is necessarily required thereto. 

[l.J Let the demerit of sin be weighed. And for that in the general, I 
refer unto the first of these treatises of the heinousness of sin, and we shall 
find, that although the crasser part of sin is an inordinate lusting after, or 
enjoyment of things created, or sinful comforts in creatures, yet that the 
great and foundation-evil of it lieth in an aversion or turning off from God, 
and therein and thereby there is a reflecting upon God an immediate slight 
or undervalue, to an infiniteness of dishonour and contempt cast upon his 
goodness, blessedness, that is to be had in him ; as also to his sovereignty, 
prerogative, supremacy, holiness, &c.., which are shewn forth and laid at 
stake of every of his laws, whereof sin is the transgression. Now if indeed 
it could have been supposed that sin were nothing else but that gross and 
crass part spoken of, the enjoyment of creatures, then a punishment by crea- 
tures only, might equivalently have been even with that its obhquity of debas- 
ing its own excellency unto creatures ; but it being an immediate reflection 
upon God himself, none can fill up the proportion of a meet and full punish- 
ment, which justice doth require for this, but God himself. I may make use 
of Eli's speech : 1 Sam. ii. 25, ' If one man sin against another, the judge 
shall judge him and revenge it ; but if against God, who shall entreat for 
him ? ' thus he. And upon the same or like ground of reason, I infer^ if one 
creature wrong another, a creature of the same kind can revenge it. If a 
man shed man's blood, so far as it is wrong to the bare creature, ' by man 
sball his blood be shed ; ' so says the law in relation to man's day in this 
world; but if man sin against God, who shall recompence it when God's day 
comes wherein he is to be glorified ? None, so as to give satisfaction to his 
most exact justice, but God himself. 

Yea, further, if we retained to that opinion of many learned men, that 
Adam's enjoyment of God for ever, in that holy estate of innocency, should 
have been of God, but as manifested in and by creatures and his holy law, 
and not as in himself or as in heaven, &c., yet this would not serve for a 
rule whereby to estimate or make proportion, that therefore this punishment 
should oppositely be only from God by and through creatures. For what- 
ever his enjoyment should have been, whether of God mediately, or of God 
as in himself immediately, I dispute not ; yet, to be sure, when God was 
cast ofi" by him, or is by us immediately and directly reflected upon, even 
God as God, which is that whereby every man's sin is heightened, in Rom. 
i. 21, the meaning whereof is, that God as in himself is debased by sin. 
So that, as the apostle says in the like case, Rom. v. 15, 'Not as the ofi'ence, 
so is the free gift.' On the contrary, upon the like ground, not as was tbe 
case or merit of Adam's righteousness, so is the demerit of sin ; and so, nor 
of punishment. Because there is so transcendent an undueness, yea, an 



516 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

injury done to the great God himself by the creature in sinninw, over and 
above the proportion of all created grace or obedience. For all obedience 
was due, and all man's reward in obeying was from the mere goodness of 
God, which he and his obedience and all depended upon ; and so the pro- 
portion thereof is no way to be looked at, either as the measure of the evil of 
sin, or of what is to be the punishment thereof. Sin, we are sure, is so great 
an evil, as no mere creature, but Christ God-man, and his obedience or suffer- 
ing, could have satisfied God for in the behalf of another. And why may it 
not also be said, that as none but he, that was subjective God, could satisfy 
God for the demerit of sin, committed against God ohjectire, so that sin is 
such an evil as cannot, in the sinner himself, be thoroughly punished unto the 
satisfaction of justice but by God himself efficiently ; that is, God to be the 
inflicter thereof immediately ? 

[2.] A second equitable rule of proportion, that justice, requiring the full- 
est satisfaction that may be had, will exact, is, that the principal author and 
actor in the sin should principally bear the punishment. This not only 
vengeance (which is the second topic) doth in a more eminent manner aim 
at and affect, but justice doth call for it also ; the justice both of God and 
men. Now the principal in sin is known to be the soul of man. Which I 
shall urge when I come to show how vengeance also seeketh to wreak itself 
thereon. That which serves to my present purpose (which is this, that in 
the point of satisfaction, to be made unto God's justice, it is most proper for 
God himself to punish sin in the soul) in order thereunto, is, 

1st, To inquire what it is in the soul or spirit of man, which God, when he 
comes to deal strictly and downrightly, as a judge of men's souls, hath prin- 
cipally to do withal ? All must acknowledge that it is conscience that hath 
to do with God as a judge ; for it must be that in man, which is the most 
proper seat of the guilt of sin, which guilt is the obligation unto judgment 
and punishment ; and this to be men's consciences, the Scriptures hold 
forth, and every man's ovm soul feels. Hence also to be purged from an 
evil conscience, is all one, and to be perfectly acquitted from the guilt of sin. 
And for God no more to remember our sins, or to be atoned with us as a 
judge, is all one as to say that we on our parts have no more conscience of 
sins, Heb. x. 2, 3, 10, 11, 17, verses compared. Conscience is that part of 
the soul, whereby God as the judge, arraigueth every man. It is the hand 
which a guilty soul holds up at God's bar for all the rest of man, and is God's 
witness within man against himself, Rom. ii. 15, and that in order unto 
judgment, as follows in ver. 16. 

Again, 2dly, I inquire, when it shall come to the execution of the punish- 
ment sentenced, what is it in the soul or spirit of man that is most directly 
and naturally capable of anguish and torment, and what that part is, which 
God may most properly strike a man's soul in, when he would rebuke him 
for sin ? Certainly, still a man's conscience. All beasts have one tender 
part above any other that most grieves them if smitten. This, in guilty man, 
is conscience. We see it in Cain and Judas, God burnt them both in this 
hand ; in the hand of conscience in this world. 

Ha^^ng by these two enquiries stated the principal, both in guilt and in 
being the seat of the execution, I shall for the proof hereof, as also in order 
to the clearer making forth the argument before us, namely, that justice re- 
quires God's immediate hand, &c., I shall in a more ample manner set 
together these five ensuing assertions. 

1. That conscience and tlie intellectual, or understanding power in man's 
soul, are God's enriaqee, and the principal in a double respect : 1st, con- 
science is responsible for the whole in man ; or, if you will, principal in the 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 517 

obligation, as being that which, by its own acknowledgment of a judgment 
made imto God when he shall come to judge, binds over itself, and with 
itself, the whole soul for the payment ; and upon that account is to be 
reckoned the chief obligee : and therefore the execution is justly to be served 
upon it, and through it upon the whole soul. 2dly, If we take in together 
with conscience, the nnderstanding part in man, the intelU(/eutia, or the 
spirit of the mind in the summity of it ; that is really to be accounted also 
the principal, in respect of its share in the very acts of sinning, so as justly 
the guilt of every act is refunded upon it as the principal actor. For it is 
betrusted by God with the steering and management of the whole soul, with 
the conduct of it as the general. By reason of that light God at first 
seated in it, it was appointed for ever to be the guide and leader of the will 
and aflections. And therefore God justly requireth the account, or the de- 
fiiults and miscarriages of the whole, at its hands. According to the inquiry 
of those rules declared concerning rulers of the people : Jer. v. 4, 5, 
' These have known the way of the Lord,' &c. As also from that other Uke 
to it, given forth touching the priests, and which we find so often inculcated 
iu Ezekiel, ' I will require their blood at the priest's hands.' And all these 
founded upon one and the same common ground, common unto conscience 
with these, namely, conscience and knowledge there being the guides ; and 
yet, in that conscience gives but an ineffectual weak warning against sin 
(which should powerfully sway the whole) and the spirit of the mind, or the 
practic understanding, doth still wickedly give secrect consent unto sin, &c. ; 
hence therefore that denunciation in Ezekiel holds, that God will ' require the 
blood of the soul at his hands ;' although the soul (the will and affections) 
do perish too, in their iniquity, as it is there spoken. And, for this cause 
it becomes justice to punish this chief agent and offender, or this great 
minister of state in sinning, and to make these the seat of the execution, 
above any or all other faculties. 

2. It will furthermore agree with the rules of justice, yea, it will be a 
special trophy unto justice, to have sin itself in the guilt of it, made as far 
as possibly, to be its own tormentor and instrument of the highest punish- 
ment in and unto the soul that hath sinned. There is no sword like unto 
that, will justice say, to slay a sinner withal. It is of all other the most 
proper and exquisite way of punishing. For the sinner to eat (for ever) of 
the fruit of his own ways, and to be filled with their own devices, and their 
iniquity to slay them, Prov, i. 32. This is the justest and highest doom 
which wisdom itself can invent, or God's power execute. The very same 
doth Jeremiah also speak, chap. ii. 19, ' Thine own wickedness shall correct 
thee : know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou 
hast forsaken the Lord thy God.' Certainly for the sinner to feel, in the 
most intimate and immediate manner that may be, the bitterness of the guilt 
of sin, and to find that that, above all other punishments that can be inflicted, 
is the sharpest and severest, this is a transcendent strain of justice indeed. 
Now this is most exquisitely accomplished through that proper capacity which 
conscience and the intellectual part in man have as to this very thing. And 
in their being the seat of the guilt of sin, they are thereby further fitted to 
become the vessel or receptacle of this the highest punishment. This is in 
a great measure verified by that in Isa. lix. 11, 12, ' We roar all Uke bears.' 
And what was it that caused this ? ' For our transgressions are multiplied 
before thee, and our sins testify against us, for our transgression are with 
us,' they dwell with and possess us, and we possess them ; as Job also speaks, 
♦ And as for our iniquities, we know them.' It was their very knowing of 
their sins, as set on by God, that made them thus roar, which is the loudest 



518 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

and wildest tone of grief and note of insufferable torment. And observe, 
how that that knowledge had two things in contemplation, which caused the 
roaring. 1st, Sin, together with the wrath of God, ' our transgressions are 
multiplied before thee.' And so they had God in their eye as a judge, which 
those words shew, * We look for salvation, but it is far from us,' ver. 11 ; 
and, 2dly, ' They testify against us.' This was the accusation of their own 
consciences themselves. So as it was conscience which was the seat, the 
habitation as it were, where these two took up their dwellings, continually 
quartered upon and possessed. Jeremiah says the same, to ' see and know 
how bitter a thing it is to sin,' &c. And though these scriptures speak not 
immediately of hell, yet they do clearly point out to us what and wherein the 
most exquisite punishment of sin lieth, and by what effected, namely, 
knowledge of sin and wrath, whether it be in men in forerunning anguish in 
this life, or hereafter in hell in the fullness of it. 

3. It is not, nor can it be the mere spiritual evil that is in sin, as sin is 
sin, and an opposite to true holiness, and as it stands in a contrariety to the 
holiness and goodness of God ; that is not it which men in hell shall spirit- 
ually know and see, so as to lay to heart the evil thereof in that respect. 
No, for that is the peculiar effect of grace, and proper to the saints, even as 
to see the beauty that is in holiness as it is holiness, likewise is — it is there- 
fore sin in the bitter effects thereof only, whereby souls still remaining wholly 
sinful (as those in hell do), can come to know this bitterness of sin. 

Now, to prosecute this ; the evil of sin is not sufficiently or perfectly felt, 
no, not in the effects of it, by the conscience of a sinner (so as it may be), 
until it be felt in that which is the highest, and most transcendent, and pro- 
per, most immediate and first-bom effect thereof, of all other. And that is 
no other than the wrath and indignation of the all-powerful God. For that 
his wrath shall break in upon the sinner, and so considered, it is the most 
proper effect of all other of the demerit of sin, God being stirred up and pro- 
voked thereunto by sin. ' Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy ? ' 1 Cor. 
X. 22. The like, Jer. vii. 19. Sins are as a heap of charcoal, wicked 
men's consciences the oven, and God's wrath the fire. Let this fire be put 
into this coal, and let both meet in a guilty conscience, and it instantly be- 
comes a fiery oven within itself. And as concerning all other punishments, 
I may say it, that all other, of what kind, or from whomsoever, although they 
are all the effects and deserts of sin, according to that in Jeremiah : ' Thy way 
and thy doings have procured these things to thee, and this is thy wicked- 
ness' ; as it follows therein, Jer. iv. 18. Yet still these are all of them de- 
ficient, and fall short in representing unto the heart and conscience the 
demerit of sin, even so far as by the effects it may be known, and the sonl 
yet further is capable to feel. But if once the wrath and indignation of the 
great God come into the soul and conscience, this, when felt, doth bear some 
answerable proportion, as an efi'ect, unto so great an evil as sin is, which it 
hath deserved ; and when revealed unto and impressed upon the sinner's con- 
science, it hath also the fullest dimensions of such an evil (even to the sinner 
also), as sin justly deserveth, as far as any way the creature is capable. 
Then it is that the sinner feels and takes in the evil of sin, not as in second- 
ary outward effects only (and such all other punishments whatsoever are in 
comparison to the wrath of God, and therefore fall short), but in this case 
it feels immediately the demerit of sin, in that which is the cause, the only 
cause, the highest cause of all other secondary punishments which sin hath 
also deserved, whereof it also is the cause. And this dispensation of im- 
mediate wrath riseth up unto the exactest demonstration of the evil that is 
in sin, which any way from effects can be made or given unto the creature. 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 519 

4. Of this immediate wrath (as it is an evil of punishment), the conscience 
and intellectual part in man's soul is not only capable to be made the vessel, 
the receptacle thereof, but it lies immediately exposed unto it. It is bare 
and naked unto him with whom we have to do, Heb. iv. 13, as in respect to 
(rod's knowledge, so of God's punishing, as I have elsewhere shewn. Con- 
science is an open door or inlet ; or as an open window is to the sun, so is 
it to God, for him to come in at any time, that whenever God will but 
take upon him to perform and execute the part of a judge and avenger, a 
conscience that is guilty, lies exposed nakedly and barely unto his anger, to 
receive the strokes and impressions of it. For I ask. What is God's justice 
against sin, but his just anger against sin (as Rom. iii. 5, the original hath 
it) ? And what is a guilty conscience, but that in man that is naturally 
suscipient or apprehensive of it ? And these two are suited as faculty and 
object, and are (as it were) made one for the other ; there needs no third or 
other thing (if God but please to hold forth his anger, and apply the corro- 
sive to the sore, so this unto the soul) to convey his own displeasure by ; 
conscience hath an ear to hear what God will speak, without any medium to 
convey the voice. Look as faith is a principle peculiarly fitted to take in 
God's free grace, and Christ's righteousness, such is conscience (when 
guilty) unto God's wrath, immediately susceptive of it. If God will but set 
a man's sins in order before him, and withal say unto conscience, I am angry ; 
yea, look but angrily, and present himself as such ; then conscience instantly, 
like the sensible plant, is struck, shrinks, and falls down. For if God be 
angry but a little, as Ps. ii. 12, and rebuke us in his anger, Ps. vi. 1, then, 
at the very rebuke of his countenance we perish, Ps. Ixxx. And it is most 
certain that God can reveal his anger to the soul immediately, as well as his 
favour. And what is this punishment we are speaking of, but the revelation 
of the righteous judgment of God, revealed, as before others, so principally 
to a man's own soul ? as ver. 9. And what is that judgment, but God's 
judgment expressed, as in sentencing, so in shewing his anger and wrath 
against sin ? as the whole stream of that Scripture shews. It is therefore 
the wrath and face of God and the Lamb, when discovered, which a guilty 
conscience flies from, Rev. vi. 16. That, as Luther says. Animus sibi male 
consclus j)otins ad diaholum ipsumferretur, quam ad Deum accederet ; it had 
rather be brought before the devil, and see his face, than see God's. Terror 
of conscience, what is it, but all one with God's wrath in conscience ? See 
it in its contrary. Peace (which we call peace of conscience), which pass- 
eth understanding, is rather denominated the peace of God which passeth 
understanding, Philip, iv. 7, than peace of conscience, although conscience 
be the subject pacified, and whose peace and quietus est it is. And in like 
manner, terror is styled the terror of the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 11. And these 
things may perhaps aff'ord as true a light towards the understanding of that 
maxim of the apostle, Rom. ii. 8, 9, indignation and wrath (viz. of God), 
tribulation and anguish unto every soul (as the seat of their anguish), of 
man that doth evil, as any other ; and withal shew how it comes to pass, 
that this tribulation is executed from that wrath, even by the reception of 
conscience. For of conscience also the following words, ver. 15, do there 
speak, and that as in order unto judgment, ver. 16. 

5. I add, as a corollary from this, that conscience, though it be thus 
naked and open to God and his wrath, yet it is so great a secluse, so fast 
and privy a cabinet, so intimate a power and principle in and unto the soul 
itself, and so entirely reserved unto God himself, who is the Lord thereof, 
as it is not immediately subjicible to, or to be broke open by, creatures ; no, 
not those who are superior spirits to it, either angels or devils ; they are not 



520 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

able to terrify the conscience, until it hath been first made raw and tender 
by God. God only made the heart, and God only knows the heart, and 
God only can come at and strike at the root of the heart. The devils or 
angels can come but into an outward room, the fancy, and cast in images 
thereinto ; the fancy being the soul's looking-glass, wherein it vieweth its 
own thoughts, and Irom which it takes ofi" into itself the species that are cast 
in there. Also they may stir bodily passions (both which I have elsewhere 
shewn), but they cannot enter into the closet of the soul. God only is 
inthnior intimo nostra, as the ancients express it ; God only is greater than 
our hearts, as the apostle expresseth it. Conscience is a book so fast clasped, 
as it is God's prerogative alone to open it, which he then at that day will 
do ; and thereunto that likewise may be applied, ' He openeth, and none 
shuts ; and he shuts, and none opens.' That speech holds as true of con- 
science, as of any other thing. And as it is a book which he alone can 
open, so in which he alone can write over every man's sins, not with ink, 
but with wrath, which, like aquafortis, every letter of it shall eat into the soul, 
according unto that in Job, ' Thou writest bitter things against me, and 
causest me to possess the sins of my youth,' Job xiii. 26. Let no man 
therefore imagine that devils are the g.reatest tormentors of men, or of their 
consciences in hell ; or if any would affirm it, I would demand, who it is 
that torments the consciences of devils themselves ? Certainly none but 
God. They now believing there is a God, do tremble ; but in hell they 
fear him, and for ever have to do with him. And it is as sure, that the 
same God, with whom those spirits and their consciences have for ever to do, 
the consciences of men shall also. 

And as for all other mediate or outward ways of judgments executed, in 
which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven but as at the second hand, 
take the sorest and severest of them that ever God executed by creatures ; 
yea, suppose all of the several kinds of providential judgments (I call them 
such which are executed upon men in this world aforehand), -which God hath, 
as judge of all the world, in his riding circuit through all ages since the fall, 
revealed his wrath from heaven by, against all sorts of unrighteousness of 
men (as the apostle, speaking of these judgments, says in Rom. i. 18), sup- 
pose, I say, they were let fly upon any one sinner all at once, yet would they 
not reach or touch that man's conscience, further than as God should, over 
and above the efficacy of them, strike the conscience itself with his anger and 
displeasure, revealed more or less by himself therewith. And although in 
all such judgments, his goings forth are as of a judge, and he accompanies 
such judgments more or less, but as with some ordinary light and glimmer- 
ings of an angry deity, yet his coming as a judge upon men's consciences, 
at the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (as if 
he had never revealed his wrath before), this is another manner of coming, 
and shewing himself a judge indeed, rendering indignation and wrath upon 
the souls of men ; and of that judgment it is the same apostle in the second 
chapter treats, as of that other in the former. 

And I may say of all the former, in comparison to this latter, that they 
all are but as the batteries of the out-works, and as bullets shot against the 
walls in a seige, which may indeed terrify the inhabitants, and make them 
tremble, Deut. xxxii. ; and so these the soul, as by remote efiects in the 
suburbs of it, Eom. ii. But the latter is as shooting in of grenadoes, which 
have been laid up with him in his treasm-y, carrying fire from thence in 
them, the fire of his fierce and sorest indignation ; and these himself alone 
ran shoot into the inwards of men's souls. And this is as shooting fire into 
the very magazine, into that which is the most inward in the soul, and forti- 



Chap. VI.] in respect of sin and punishment. 521 

fied against the entrance of all created powers ; the magazine where all the 
gunpowder lies, that is, the guilt of a man's sins ; so as there needeth 
nothing else to blow up all. If his wrath doth but touch, it takes and sets 
fill on fire. 

Yea, give me leave upon the same ground, and by the like reason, further 
to say, that all the material fire in hell, by which the soul shall and will 
suffer, by way of a compatibility (as it is termed), or suffering by and with 
the body an unspeakable torment, and this for the sins a man is guilty of ; 
yet these flames nor these punishments (taken materially, and abstracted 
from this revelation of God's wrath), would not break into conscience, not 
until God did therewithal break in with the fire of bis wrath, and make the 
conscience and intellectual spirit of the mind a fiery oven within itself, as 
the psalmist expresseth it in Ps. xxi. 9, almost in these very words. 

This being the state of matters between God the judge of all, and the souls 
and consciences of sinners, as touching that due and equitable punishment 
for sin, and the execution thereof, which men's souls are capable of, I shall 
now complete the reason why the justice of God should move him to be 
willing ; yea, and that there is in respect unto divine justice a kind of requi- 
siteness (if not necessity), for the great God to take this course, to punish 
the sinner by the revelation of his own immediate wrath ; and this I shall 
do, by gathering together what hath been said, from which the arguments 
for both these two assertions that follow lie fair. 

1. That God for his justice' sake should be willing; for conscience being 
the principal engagee obliged unto God as a judge, and the understanding 
power in man the eminent transgressor, and both lying so naked and im- 
mediately exposed unto God's wrath, and capable to receive the revelation 
of it, an anguish made thereby in his soul is the most proper, natural, 
suitable reward unto sin, to pay the sinner home in his own coin, as also the 
Biost ready, direct, and short way for God to take. 

If therefore we suppose justice be left to have but its free and full course, 
if justice (according to the prophet's language, and God's own rule and 
direction given unto us) run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty 
stream, in its proper natural channel, and so as to fall into that most capa- 
cious vessel or receptacle that is in man to receive it ; again, if divine 
justice hath a will to put and lay its charge and execution where principally 
it is to be laid, even against the principal, whether in the obligation for sin, 
or in the guilt of the act of sinning ; or if it be deemed that divine justice 
will take a recovery where the fullest and fairest advantage lies, and recover 
his principal debt of that which is the principal debtor, and from that in 
man which is capable to afford the most due satisfaction and punishment, 
as being that which is the treasury of all the guilt of sin, and most exqui- 
sitely capable to suffer, and thereby to make fullest payment for all : then 
we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreak his just anger, and 
in his wrath to break forth upon the conscience and intellectual faculty of 
the sinner in hell, by the immediate revelation of his wrath, and that upon 
all the accounts forementioued thereby to punish it. And we may well sup- 
pose that his justice is willing to do this, because ' God is' (as the psalmist 
with an emphasis) 'judge himself,' Ps. 1. 6, and judgeth for himself, Prov. 
xvi. 4, and for the recovery of his own glory, and revelation of his righteous 
judgment. And this course of immediate wrath being a way above all other 
so natural, so ready, so direct, so compendious, and so suited to the demerit 
of sin (as hath been shewn), we may well think that God will be rather will- 
ing to shew his wrath (as the apostle speaks) this way (if we could suppose 
there might be ano^ber), because this so falls in with, and agrees unto the 



522 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

rules and proportions of justice fore- mentioned, which are most near and 
sacred to him. 

2. The second assertion, that it is also requisite, yea, necessary (I speak 
it, as in relation to justice attaining its ends). For all mediate punishments 
executed by creatures being deficient, as unto that wherein the very essence 
of this punishment lies, they all not reaching the inwards of the spirit of the 
mind and conscience ; and seeing that without God's wrath revealed there- 
with by God himself, all such punishments would not complete the justice 
of God in a punishment in any tolerable measure suitable : then if justice 
will have its perfect work, and bring its suit against the sinner unto the 
ultimate issue, it is requisite God himself put his immediate hand to the 
execution, otherwise this work of justice will not be perfect (as yet every of 
his works in their kind are said to be), and so he should not only fall short of 
satisfying his justice, but also by not doing that towards it which is in his 
power to do, and which he is Lord of, he should not in any tolerable measure 
content it. Especially if we further consider, that when all is done that can 
be, this punishment will not arise to a perfect satisfaction (for the creature's 
punishment will not afford it, and therefore it doth for ever suffer), but only 
unto what may be had out of them towards it. I shut this point up there- 
fore with this, that if God be judge himself, he will do this work himself, 
which none else can perform for him, and without which all else would be 
utterly imperfect and defective. For, upon what hath been afore argued, I 
may say of all other punishments and punishers, although set by God upon 
a man, what the apostle says of those legal ordinances, though instituted by 
God for his worship, that they could not make the service perfect, as per- 
taining to the conscience. So, nor all outward torments, take them alone 
without God's wrath accompanying them, they cannot make a perfect or 
complete punishment as pertaining to the conscience. 

And all this also shews one sufficient reason of difference, why earthly 
kings and judges leave the execution of traitors and offenders wholly unto 
others, because they have no more power, as in respect of execution, to in- 
flict a condign punishment than other men ; but others can do it as ex- 
quisitely, and their justice be as fully satisfied thereby ; but it is not so 
here. And for these causes God is so far from staining his glory thereby 
(which other judges would esteem to be so) as that is the only way fully to 
recover his glory. And so much for that argument drawn from satisfying of 
justice, 

A second reason is drawn from satisfying of vengeance, or avenging wrath 
as against enemies, which heightens justice. Thus in many places in the 
Old and New Testament, Deut. xxxii., Rom. xii. 19, 2 Cor. x. 6, Rev. vi. 10, 
in which last place God is styled both a judge and an avenger ; ' judge and 
avenge,' say the saints there. A judge most commonly doth acts of justice 
in the behalf of others ; but an avenger is one that doth, or seeks justice in 
his own cause, and in his own behalf and interest ; therefore the next a-kin, 
seeking the life of a murderer, was termed an avenger of blood. Now God 
is more nearly concerned in this, than any creature can be, in what may 
concern vengeance in them for whatever injury. This is therefore poena 
vindictcE, as of one enraged and provoked ; patience having been abused, as 
Rom. ix. 22, and so is turned into fury. 

Now there are two properties of vengeance, from whence I argue this, 
being put together. 

First, That it is the property of revenge to vent itself upon that which is 
principal in the injury, and to make that the vessel of its wrath; it will never 
be satisfied else. Now that is the soul of man, which is the chief seat and 



Chap. VI.] in kkspect of sin and punishment. 523 

subject of the corruption of sin, the chief cause of the act proceeding from 
thence, and that in which the guilt arising from both doth principally abide. 
The body is but instrumental in what the soul doth ; yea, and in some, and 
the greatest sins, the soul hath the sole and immediate hand. This soul 
therefore, which is the chiefest vessel of sin, must be the chief vessel of 
wrath. ' Indignation and wrath upon every soul of man that doth evil,' Rom. 
ii. 8, whereof this undeniable instance is given by God, that the soul is it 
that sutlers for the whole man until the resurrection, as the instance of the 
rich man shews ; and it must be no less an immediate sufi'erer, although 
not the alone sufierer ; but much more, after the day of judgment, unto 
eternity. 

A second thing which vengeance affecteth is, that the person that wrought 
the injury die by the hand of himself, that is, the avenger : It loves to do 
that w^ork itself. And this especially holds good in this cause of God, and 
seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing vengeance, he comes to be 
glorified, rendering vengeance from the glory of his power. 

I need not go about to form up any argument from hence, for these two 
things, especially the latter, do speak home unto the point, and, being added 
unto what hath been spoken in the former head of justice, maybe sufficient. 
There is a third thing which (as I said) both divine justice and vengeance 
do conspire in, and that is, the utter destruction of that which is the principal 
offender (which is the soul), it is the nature of vengeance to work the de- 
struction of that it is set against. And in this case of sin, God's justice 
also doth the same; the demerit of sin is such, as it exciteth vengeance to it. 
And therefore in both these places which are my texts, destruction is men- 
tioned as the issue and product of this revenge and wrath. So in 2 Thes. 
i. 6, 7, * to render vengeance on them, who shall be punished with everlast- 
ing destruction.' And Rom. ix. 22, ' to make known the power of his wrath 
on those vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.' Destroyed they shall be, 
though not in regard of being, for they are to be vessels of wrath, and there- 
fore to be still kept whole, in respect of being, else they could hold no 
wrath ; and that is another property of vengeance, to have the party made 
sensible of its misery, and that his enemy is even with him ; and therefore 
God upholds their being, but destroys their souls in regard of well-being. 
Now that is never, till it be stripped of every comfort, and every corner of 
the soul be filled with misery ; for if any corner be empty, it is not de- 
stroyed, it will not die. 

Now, this third or last thing doth of itself afford at least a demonstration, 
ab efectis, from the event and effects of this punishment, that therefore it 
is God's immediate hand that inflicts this punishment; which demonstration 
is to be added unto the former reason, which was drawn from the causes of 
it. For I argue, asking this question, What is able to fill the soul of man 
with good or evil ? The soul, which was created in so large a capacity as 
to be filled with God, and with none but God himself, he only is able to fill 
the vast comers of it with either. Creatures like itself may affiict and tor- 
ment it much, especially whilst in the body, so much as to cause it to desire 
death and a being out of the body, but the soul they are never able to 
destroy. The soul is a castle so strong built, as it can bear the assaults of 
all its fellow- creatures, and sustain itself and not sink into destruction. 
Nothing can destroy the well-being of the soul but God's power ; for it is 
said. They may kill the body, but God only can kill the soul. And else, ac- 
cording to that argument of Christ, ' Fear not them that can kill the body only,' 
&c., they were to be feared as God himself is, if they could kill thosoul as God 
can do ; for Christ says, God is therefore to be feared, and only to be feared, 



524 AN UNEEGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

because he can destroy both body and soul. And he redoubleth it with an 
emphasis : ' Fear him, yea, I say unto you, Fear him,' Luke xii. 5. Indeed, 
one evangelist says, ' Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast 
into hell,' which expresseth no more but an act of authority to sentence and 
cast into hell as the judge doth into prison. Yet the other evangelist puts 
it upon this, because he is able to kill the soul, and that only he is able to 
destroy both body and soul in hell. He says, not barely to cast into hell, 
as by way of authority, but adds, kills and destroys in hell when they are 
cast thither ; for God is both judge and avenger, and therefore if it be 
destruction, it is evident he only can and must do the execution. And, 
therefore, in the text, 2 Thes. i. 8, 9, their being punished with everlasting 
destruction is attributed to the glory of his power. These are some of the 
reasons of this great point. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A fourth sort of additional confirmations, drawn from the harmonies that are 
between it and other divine truths. 

I shall in the last place cast in some harmonies, or congruities and cor- 
respondencies, which this holds and makes up with other divine truths ; and 
in such harmonies and concords, there is much of reason, at least to con- 
firm, if not demonstrate, truths in divinity. 

1. To begin where I left. Hereby it comes to pass, that as the souls of 
men and other spirits were immediately made and created by God, who is 
therefore in a peculiar respect, and with an opposite distinction to the fathers 
of our bodies, said to be the Father of spirits, and the God of the spirits of 
all flesh, so that their last termination or end should be into and by his 
immediate hands also, this makes up a congruous and suitable dispensation. 
That look as they receive their first being from him, likewise they should 
return to him, as Ecclesiastes speaks, as to their sole and immediate author and 
creator ; and so receive from him, as a Father of spirits, their portion at his 
immediate hands. And man's ultimate end, either way, is called their por- 
tion, Ps. xi. 6, Mat. xxiv. 51, whether it be in blessedness, as their inheri- 
tance out of his love, or misery as the wages of their sin. And thus hereby 
God himself is made the end, and the beginning or terminus, the Alpha and 
Omega of souls, to whom be glory for ever ! 

2. Thereby also there comes to pass an answerableness and a proportion 
held between the two conditions of heaven and hell, which the apostle seems 
to make the ultimate aim and determination of God's counsels, unto which 
all in this world are but preparations, as he calls them. Thus Rom. ix. 22, 23, 
for the shewing forth of his ovra immediate glory : ' What if God, willing to 
shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long- 
sufiering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction : and that he might make 
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore 
prepared unto glory?' 

3. And thirdly, also, it is said, that after that Christ the judge of all, hath 
delivered up his administration and kingdom unto his Father, then God 
should become all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 28 ; not in respect of being, that is, 
not as if the being of all things shall return into God again, as some have 
wickedly dreamed, or that God's blessed being and the creatures should 
become one ; that can never be. It is a contradiction to say a creature 
made out of nothing should come to be of itself ; and such God in his being 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 525 

is, but all in all in respect of immediate dispensation. And so look as to 
the vessels of mercy, he will then be all in all, so that they shall not need 
the light of the sun and the moon, &c. (that is, the comfort of any creature, 
though all created excellencies in the spirit and quintessence of them shall 
be there), why should it not be also meant that the same God, which makes 
up a parallel, seeing men's sins deserve it, shall be all in all in hell too, in a 
contrary way to the other ? 

4. And the rather this may be thought, because when God shall have 
caused this visible world to pass away, the earth and the heavens we now 
behold, as some judicious divines have inclined to think from Job xiv. 12, 
and other scriptures, either by turning them into nothing or into their first 
chaos ; and so there being none, that is, of this old word left, but pure 
heaven and hell, which are as two spiritual places or worlds, and therein 
these two sorts of creatures rational, either those who are wholly spirits, as 
angels good and bad, or the spirits of men, whose bodies are raised spiritual 
and so fitted for that other kind of world, both of which are capable of 
happiness or woe from him ; that then these two sorts of intelligent natures, 
God and they being left thus alone, the brutish part of the world being done 
away, should have to do with him for ever immediately, either in a way of 
wrath or blessedness. And so God shall be all in all in eiiher worlds ; and 
this is to be the final ending and catastrophe of all. But these I urge not, 
but only mention. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The dreadfulness of this 'punishment argued from all and eo h of the particulars 
treated of in the former chapters. — That it is a falling into the hands of God 
immediately. — That it is the destruction of the soul. — That it is for the glory 
of God, and the manifestation of his power. — That it is satisfaction of God's 
justice and avenging wrath. — The dreadfulness of it argued also from, those 
instances of good and bad men, their having suffered those kinds of terrors in 
this life. — And lastly, that it is a falling into the hands of the living God. 

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. — Heb. X. 31. 

The second thing at first propounded to be handled, was the dreadfulness 
of this punishment. ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God.' Which being an inference from the foregoing words, and not a simple 
affirmation only, do come in with an amazing kind of implication, wherein 
the apostle leaveth it to our own thoughts to conceive of, and is as if he had 
said. How dreadful must it needs be ! which I leave to your own thoughts 
to conceive of, I not being able, says he, to utter or express the terror of it. 

Hence the genuine and natural way of handling this part, is to set it forth 
by way of inference or corollary from that former point, which we have 
despatched. I shall therefore accordingly draw forth demonstrations of the 
dreadfulness thereof from those fore-cited scriptures, or grounds already 
laid in the fore-gone chapter, which doth afibrd sufficient topics unto this 
head. 

First, Let us take the main doctrine itself, as in the general it is uttered 
here, that it is a falling into the hands of God himself, and not of creatures 
only ; and a being punished from his presence and the glory of his power 
immediately, as 2 Thes. i. 9. And then extend and widen your apprehen- 
sions to take in how fearful this must be, which I shall demonstrate by a 
comparative gradation, raised thus : 



526 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

I. If it were but a giving us up into the hands of mere creatures to afflict, 
and thev assisted by God, but with the common and ordinary concurrence of 
his power, which joins with and upholds the agency of all things in their 
workings, whether in comforting us or in distressing of us : this the lowest 
degree of supposition. And yet consider how dreadful this supposition 
would render to our thoughts such a punishment to be, if God should be but 
as the looker-on, and withal the setter of them on ; or, as in the Scripture 
phrase, Mat. xviii. 34, but only deliver us up to these tormentors. As 
when it is termed a being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, suppose it 
were a lake of material corporeal fire only, wherein thy body is cast, and 
thv soul, no otherwise to sufier than by what the spirits of that body it is 
united to and dwells in, is by that fire made sensible of. And suppose, 
withal, the spirits thereof were kept up, in their utmost sensibleness, of what 
torment that fire could inflict, and thy body continually flaming (as the bush 
in Exodus) and yet never burnt up, how terrible is it for flesh and blood to 
think but this of it ! Or, to use another comparison, if a man were bound 
hand and foot, with his mouth set open, and were cast into a pit, wherein, 
as in the apostle's sheet let down from heaven, were all manner of creeping 
things, toads, serpents of all sorts, fiery scorpions, cockatrices, vipers, adders, 
snakes, &c., flies, hornets, lice, pismires, and frogs, &c. ; and that these 
should bite and sting thee with exquisite pain and torment, also creep in at 
thy mouth, down into thy inwards, gnaw and swell thee there. How did 
but one sort of these creatures, when sent by God, afflict Pharaoh and all 
the Egyptians ! A man in this case should endure not only the pains men- 
tioned, but beyond them the torture which antipathy, contrariety, and natural 
abhorrency works, which is of all other most exquisite, and turns nature 
backward (as of Jordan it is said) into a recoil, and wresteth it against itself 
and throws it ofl' its hinges. I need not instance how, by this way of anti- 
pathy, a cock makes a lion roar, a mouse the elephant to tremble, a serpent 
or a toad, a spider, sets the whole of nature in man into an inconsistency ; a 
man knows not how to bear up, sustain himself, or be himseU". But, be- 
sides, what pains or torments these, or any of these, can inflict ; — 

II. Let us proceed in our supposition a step further. If God should so 
far further assist as to set his wisdom a-work, and that only to find out and 
invent, what mixture of torments from creatures would be most exquisite of 
all others. As if a king (whose wrath is compared to the roaring of a lion, 
who yet sets but others to torment) should but order ten men to invent tor- 
ments for one poor man, as the Sicilian tyrants did. Hence, Mctjus tor- 
mentum Siculi non invenire tyraimi. And then consider, for the exaggeration 
of this unto your thoughts, 

1. That the nature of man is so framed as it is capable to receive discom- 
fort as well as comfort from every creature. The least creature hath a sting 
in it as well as honey, unto something or other in man's nature, if it be ap- 
plied and turned against it. 

2. God knows all the ingredients in the creatures' natures ; as also, it is 
said, he knows our frame, and so therewith the suitableness of sense in man's 
nature thereunto. Think, then, what punishment from their mixture can he 
invent and temper, and put all the venoms (the dregs) into one cup, as the 
psalmist speaks. And as by some lesser proportion we may estimate this 
by what those that know the secrets of nature can effect, above what other 
men, as Solomon did. 

3. Now, raise up your apprehensions from these two steps of comparison 
thus first laid. If, as the psalmist says, he that made the eye shall not he see ? 
speaking of that infinite omniscience in God himself above what is in the 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 527 

creatures, say I then in this case, if the creatures that God hath made may 
thus be supposed able to work anguish to a man, dolour and misery, what 
then can God, the great God that made all these himself, immediately inflict ! 
As the prophet Isaiah slighteth the Egyptians and their assistance, Isa xxxi. 
8 ; thus, their horses are flesh, not spirit, and the Egyptians that ride them 
are men, and not God ; so we may of all these suppositions, and still say, 
these are but of what creatures can do, who are creatures, and not God ; 
flesh, and not spirit. 

III. That we may yet heighten the dreadfulness of this immediate hand of 
God, let us make a third supposition beyond the former, that God not only 
should use his ordinary concurrence with creatures, but (as sometimes he 
hath done), arm those creatures with his own wrath, over and above the 
activity of their ordinary sphere of workings, heating that sword of created 
powers he strikes with red-hot in the fui-nace of his fiery indignation, and 
so intending the power of creatures beyond their strength, yet still so as to 
use them as the sole instruments of that anguish wrought, conveying his 
anger with them but as at second-hand ; and so, as the man so afilicted is 
sensible, not of the stroke of the creatures only, but of God, and his wrath 
accompanying and seconding it through them. This would be yet more 
dreadful than the former, and yet still fall short of what the doctrine hath 
held forth, that himself is the avenger, and strikes immediately. 

1. This latter is more dreadful to suppose than the former, yea, is not a 
bare supposition ; for if God conveys his wrath with the least aflliction, 
and in his providences fights against a man, and the heart is thereby made 
sensible of his wrath therein, this, as it often falls out, so it useth won- 
derfully to inflame and rage in man's spirit, even as a poisoned arrow useth 
to do the flesh, which itself alone would only pierce and wound, but as it 
is an arrow ; but if further dipped in poison, or, as the apostle's com- 
parison is, Eph. vi., made a fiery dart, it works a further anguish and 
torment. Now there is no creature but if armed with God's wrath, or if it 
be but a messenger and a representer of God's anger, but it is infinitely more 
di-eadful than of itself otherwise it is. What is less than the shaking of a 
leaf, which seems itself to tremble ? But if God send faintness of heart and 
terror with it, and by it, into a man's heart, the very * sound of the shaking 
of a leaf chaseth them,' Lev. xxvi. 36. Every grass-blade, burnished with 
God's wrath, strikes terror into the heart, as that flaming cherub did into 
Adam's, This is experimented in men troubled in mind, unto whom, 
Iratnmque refert qucelihet herha Deum. Every creature presents an angry 
God, and strikes trembling of heart into them. * They fear where no fear 
is.' The light, which of all creatures is the most amiable and pleasantest, 
yet to a spii-it wounded the beams thereof ai-e dreadful ; and when it is day, 
he wisheth it were night, and that darkness might for ever cover him ; and 
why should the light arise, says he, to disclose my rebellion against my 
maker ? Thus Job iv. 20, ' Wherefore is the light given to him that is in 
misery ?' even as on the contrary to a soul God's face shines on, every 
creature strikes up comfort and gladness into it. He hears the thunder 
(which made Caligula tremble), It is my Father's voice, says he ; views the 
stars, These are mine, saith he. The greatest afllictions to such an one do 
turn into joy, knowing he hath a treasury of love in the bosom of his Father 
that sent them. The perfect contrary is here. 

2. This latter supposal of God's arming the creatures with his displeasure, 
and conveying it by them, falls yet lower, and is less than God's immediate 
wi-ath fi-om himself, even as God's love, conveyed by ordinances and means, 
is a far lower dispensation than the immediate communication thereof from 



529 AN UNREGEMERVTE M.VN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

himself. God's power, tliough never so great, yet in working by and through 
an instrument, is abated, lessened, stinted in working. You may have read 
and heard (perhaps) the comparison between God's power and the creatures, 
in respect of torment, thus expressed, that the one is but as if a child should 
strike a blow in comparison of a giant. But to the case in hand; I have used 
to raise it thus : A giant that can of himself give a great blow immediately, 
if he yet should take but a straw to strike withal, the stroke would prove but 
small, and yet it would be greater than if a child should strike with it. Why? 
Because his power is limited and enervated by the instrument he strikes withal. 
Now, what are all the creatures, though in God's hand, but as straws in a 
giant's ? And yet how terrible is his wrath when conveyed by them ! I 
conclude this with allusion to that speech of Rehoboam, 1 Kings xii. 10. 
The weioht of God's little finger is heavier than that of the whole creation ; 
and if they be able, or God by them, to scourge us with whips, then God 
himself immediately with scorpions. 

Having thus considered how the immediateness of God's working doth 
comparatively exceed that of the creatures, or of himself by the creatures, 
in the 

Fourth place, let us go on more sadly, in a positive way, to consider 
what his immediate power is, what the strength of those hands is which men 
must fall into. And how may this amaze you ! As it is said of God's wis- 
dom, ' There is no end of it, no searching of his understanding,' so nor of his 
power. And how can I discover or unbare that arm before you ? I begin 
to do it thus : God had begun to enter into a contest with Job, and touched 
him but with his Httle finger, and Job soon felt him, and cries out, ' If I 
speak of strength,' or think that way to grapple with him, ' he is strong,' 
Job ix. 19. If but his little finger be so strong, as Job found it, what is his 
fist, which Ezekiel next sets forth the strokes of his wrath by ? And what 
God himself there speaks against covetous and bloody men, Ezek. xxii, 13, 14, 
do you apply to every sin you live and go on in. Says God, ' I will strike 
with my fist at thy dishonest gain. And can thy heart endure, or thy hands 
be made strong, in the day in which I shall have to do with thee ?' Let 
every one that heareth or readeth this, who yet go on in their sins, consider 
with themselves. Am I able to stand it out and encounter this God ? And 
encounter him thou must, if thou goest on in thy sins. Or, Can my heart 
endure ? sayest thou. The apostle puts the very same consideration upon 
the Corinthians' spirits, when guilty of idolatry. (And it is the same case 
of uncleanness, or any other known sin). 'Do you provoke the Lord to 
jealousy ? are you stronger than he ?' 1 Cor, x. 22 ; as if be had said. Do 
you not consider what a powerful God you have to do withal, and that imme- 
diately? Can you grapple with him, think you, or make your part good 
with him ? Hear yet further by what way it is that the apostle sets forth 
to us the strength of God ; and let us make a further estimate thereby as to 
the matter in hand. The apostle, in the same epistle, though upon another 
occasion, chap. i. 25, had said that ' the weakness of God is stronger than 
the strength of men ;' in which speech he evidently puts our thoughts upon 
making of a measure of what is to be accounted more or less stronger or 
weaker in God, in respect of the putting forth his power by what the Scrip- 
tures do express of him, after the simihtude of man, as in Job the comparison 
is of his little finger, and in Ezekiel of his fist ; whereof the one is weaker 
(in man) and the other stronger. Now, in man, what is weaker than his 
breath, which will scarce blow away a straw ? (and his weakness is usually 
expressed by this, that ' his breath is in his nostrils.') Now, estimate the 
strength of God according unto what is said in the Scriptures of God (and 



Chap. VIII.J in respect of sin and punishment. 529 

that as to this point of destroying us) after the manner of men. ' By the 
very breath of his nostrils we are consumed,* Job iv. 9. His power is such 
that he needs put forth no more (as it were) to destroy us. His very weak- 
ness is enough. Job had in the same verse first said, ' By the blast of him 
we perish,' but because a blast imports some forcibleness, the utmost might 
of what is in a man's breath, and it is a man's putting forth his breath with 
a more than ordinary violence ; therefore, by way of diminution and correc- 
tion, he adds, ' by the breath of his nostrils ;' that is (still measuring it as 
spoken after the similitude and manner of men), by the most ordinary and 
weakest putting forth of his power. And yet we see if he puts forth no 
more, he blows us to destruction when his intent is to destroy. And why ? 
For of us the Scriptures use a comparison suitable thereto, in saying that we 
are but ' as the dust of the balance :' Isa. xl. 15, ' Yea, all the nations (put 
all together) are but as the small dust of the balance ;' as that little that 
is left in the balance, when what is weighed is taken forth, which is easily 
blown away with a man's breath. Again, yet lower, in man, his nod is of 
less force than his breath ; and yet, ' lo, at the rebuke of his countenance 
we perish,' Ps. Ixxx. IG ; ' He can look on one that is proud, and abase 
him, and his eye can cast about rage and destruction,' Job xl. 11-13. He 
had said before, verse 9, * Hast thou an arm like God ?' He riseth from 
the power of his nod, the weakness of his power, unto the power of his arm ; 
and so may we, from his looks to his breath, from that to his little finger, 
from that to his fist, from that to his arm and hands, in which his strength 
is said to lie, Luke i. 51. Oh think how dreadful, then, it must needs be to 
' fall into those hands ' (as here in the text) ; into those hands, I say, that 
' measure the waters in the hollow of them,' that ' span the heavens,' and at 
the same time comprehend also ' all the dust of the earth ' in one grasp, as 
one of us doth a little pebble ; and verse 15, ' takes up the isles as a very 
little thing,' as you would do hazel nutshells out of a pail of water. Now for 
thee, a poor grasshopper, to be taken into those hands, and to be gripped, 
and crushed, and squeezed with the might thereof; but the Scripture ex- 
pressions go further jei : to have this God, like a mill-stone, fall upon thee 
with his whole weight, which is Christ's comparison. Mat. xxi. 44. ' Thy 
wrath lies hard upon me,' said Heman. You see in summer little green 
flies creeping upon green leaves, which, if a man doth but touch, they die. 
Such a slight creature art thou in comparison to this God. Or further (as 
Job's comparison is), that this great and mighty God should run upon thee 
as a mighty giant with his full force, the utmost of his force, as a man doth 
upon his enemy ; yet so Job speaks of it, chap. xvi. 14. And in another 
place, the same Job, that he should * take thee about the neck' and throttle 
thee. Oh what do we, poor ' potsherds of the earth, striving with our Maker!' 
as Isaiah speaks, chap. xlv. 9 ; or, as Christ spake from heaven, will flesh 
think to kick and spurn against such iron pricks and pikes, which run up 
into the soul whilst it strikes upon them. 

And that we may yet further have a thorough sensibleness of our 
obnoxiousness and exposedness to this great God, let us withal consider his 
absolute sovereignty over us, as well as his power. What an inconsiderable 
portion doth any one soul (and every one is singly to deal with him for his 
own particular) bear unto this infinity of being and glory ! To whom not 
one nation, but all nations ; and not only all nations that are now extant in 
the world, but that ever have been, or shall be, are counted ' as nothing,' 
yea, ' less than nothing.' What a little thing is this island of ours to the 
whole body of nations ! And yet all isles are to him but a little thing, as 

VOL. X. I, 1 



530 AN UNKEGENEEATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

Isaiah speaks. Lord, think thou, what am I to thee, or any man, that thou 
shouldst regard him ! Yea, and being sinful, why should any man (as he is 
of himself) think that God should have any stick or demur within him, to 
withhold himself from destroying him every moment ! For, lo, even the 
greatest of men, that have been of greatest wisdom, parts (being sinners), he 
hath in his distance and greatness laid them aside, and regarded them not 
at all : Job xxxvii. 24, ' He regards not the wise in heart.' What is all or 
any excellency in thee to him ! 

There is therefore no way but to turn unto him, and seeing you must fall 
into his hands, prevent him by putting yourselves into his hands. This 
great arm of his may be held : Isa. xxvii, 5, ' Let them take hold of my 
strength ; fury is not in me.' There is an arm also of another one, that is, 
Christ, who can deal with God for thee, and overcome him. Isa. liii. 1, 
' To whom is the arm of the Lord (so he termeth Christ) revealed ?' Thus 
you have seen and heard something of the greatness of this God, and that 
but in general, as he is the author of this punishment, and thereby this 
punishment aggrandised unto us, and yet how little do we know of him ! as 
Job speaks. 

Secondly, Subjoin hereunto the consideration of what is the eminent sub- 
ject of this punishment, the soul of man, and that the issue of this punish- 
ment is no less than the destruction of that soul. And these two (which I 
join together) will afford further reflections, to help us to conceive of the 
fearfulness of this punishment. And the consideration hereof cometh in 
most pertinently next unto the foregoing, wherein the power of the agent was 
spoken to, but now in this the capacity of the subject or patient, and the 
receptivity thereof of impressions from this worker. 

That the soul is the immediate vessel of this wrath, that I spake to before : 
Mat. X. 28, ' Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the 
soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell.' The former part of which words evidently import, 1, that the soul 
alone, and immediately in itself, and not only in respect of what it suffers 
with or from the body's suffering, is the subject of this punishment, though 
the body also is ; and, 2, Christ concludes, that it is the destruction of both 
body and soul. 

You know also the rule, that the measure of every agent's working upon 
another must be taken from the capacity of the subject which the impres- 
sion is made upon, as well as from the power of the agent that works. Fire 
works more fiercely upon oil and brimstone, than upon stones, or upon dust 
or sands. You may discern this in the parts of your own body. Rheum 
falling upon the lungs doth not torture so, as falling upon a tooth, a joint, 
or eye. How also are the inward parts capable of more exquisite torment, 
as by the stone, &c., bred in them, than the outward are, by any cuttings or 
wounds ? 

Now, the soul of a man is capable of more exquisite impressions from 
God's hand, in that it is an intelligent spirit, and in the substantial faculties 
of it assimilated to him, made in his image, a spirit as God is, that hath an 
understanding, and other faculties to receive and take in from him what he 
is pleased to pour forth into it by them, and is accordingly more sensible 
thereof, than the senses of the body are or can be supposed to be from 
creatures. The prophet Nahum seems to have considered this, chap. i. 
ver. 5, 6, when, setting out God's wrath to men in the effects of it, he first 
considers how it works upon inanimate creatures, that are at such a dis- 
tance (in respect of the kind of their being) from God's : ' It kindleth a fire,' 
Bays he, ' which maketh the hills to melt, and the earth is burnt up at his 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 531 

presence ; yea, the world, and all that dwell therein' (which he will one day 
burn up with fire). Now from these the prophet infers and raiseth up our 
thoughts. Doth he work thus upon insensible creatures, as the hills, and 
the earth, and the whole world ? Do the elements melt with fervent heat? 
Are the heavens shrivelled up as a scroll of parchment before him, by the 
violence of that fire which he sends forth ? Consider, then, oh consider, ye 
sons of men, how will the fire of his wrath work upon your intellectual souls! 
And as unto this scope and coherence with the former, I understand what 
follows, ver. 6, ' Who can stand before his indignation ? who can abide ia 
the fierceness of bis anger?' He here turncth his speech, and applieth it 
to men. For the souls of men being in their beings and kind nearer of kin 
to him, spirits, as he is the great Spirit, and the Father of spirits, which were 
made only for God, and to be filled with God, have accordingly a more 
intimate sense of his workings on them. And it is as if he had said, If, 
then, he sends forth such a fire as melts r^nd dissolves the earth, mountains 
of iron or brass, how much more will it be able to melt wax ! And such 
are men's souls to God, comparatively to other creatures. Christ speaking 
of his soul, when he had thus to do with God, in the day of his anger, Ps. 
xxii. 14 (that psalm was all made of him) ' My heart is melted like wax, it 
is melted in the midst of my bowels.' And towards this sense doth Sanctius 
seem to understand that complaint of Job's, uttered to his friends, concern- 
ing those terrors of God which he felt within him : Job vi. 4, 11 verses com- 
pared, ' Is my strength the strength of stones ? or is my flesh,' my nature 
or constitution, ' of brass,' that I should be able to encounter with this indig- 
nation of the Almighty ? Stones and brass have no sense in them (or but 
a dull sense, if their opinion should hold true, de seiisu remm), they have 
no blood nor spirits to make them sensible of these arrows of God's auger he 
had spoken of, ver, 4. Ay, but Job meaneth to say, I have a soul made of 
other metal, suited to God, the great Spirit, whose an-ows I feel, which is 
exquisitely sensible of all his actings. Take the statue of a man made of 
brass, or cut out of stone, and slash and cut him, and he feels it not ; but cut 
the same Hmbs that answer to these in a living man, made of flesh and blood, 
with the same knife, and what torture is it ! You may see this, and aggra- 
vate it to yourselves, by what inferior spirits to this great Father of spirits, as 
angels and devils can work upon man's soul, that is a spirit like themselves, 
being yet inferior to them. When Saul had but one evil spirit sent from 
the Lord, how distracted and terrified was he, though in the midst of the 
enjoyments of a kingdom ! 1 Sam. xiv. 14. Also that great apostle, that 
had his spirit fortified, as having been newly feasted with the joys of heaven, 
and that not as at a distance only, but as a spectator, that stood by, present 
there, 2 Cor. xii.; yet one angel, ' Satan, bufi"eting him,' he was so disturbed 
and put to it, as he knew not what to do, or how to bear it ; only God told 
him, ' My grace is sufficient for thee.' Well, but do men's souls in hell 
* fight with flesh and blood,' yea, or ' with principalities and powers' chiefly? 
No ; that is but whilst they are the 'rulers of this world,' as there it is 
added. And yet if these spirits have such power over our spirits to buffet 
and terrify them, what hath God, the Father of them ? 

Again, consider how the soul is capable of more joys and sorrows than the 
bodily senses are, and this by how much it doth exceed them in its eminency 
and capacity. The soul is able to drink up all the pleasures the whole crea- 
tion can afford the bodily senses, or they bring in ; to drink them up (I say) 
even at one draught, and yet would in the midst of it still cry. Give, Give. 
Now, as it is in the body of a man, look whatever part is capable of more plea- 
sure, it is also capable of more pains. So the soul proportionably ; look how 



532 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTIKESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

capable it is of greater joys (as it is from God), it is as much of sorrows also, 
unto the same extension and intension of them. 

Add, II., as to this point, that as the soul is thus vastly capable of more 
sorrow and anguish, so further, that these souls to be punished are filled 
with sin, and in that respect termed ' vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,' 
Horn. ix. 22. Take a barrel of wood, and of itself it will burn as it is wood ; 
but if withal it be pitched within, and full of tar and combustible matter, it 
will buiii more ragingly. Of unfruitful branches, apostatising from Christ, 
it is said, Johnxv. 6, that they are ' cast into the fire, and they are burned ;' 
that is, they bui-n to pm-pose, make a mighty fire. That clause, ' and they 
are burned,' is added by way of aiu-esis or emphasis; else it needed not. We 
see when sins were but laid upon Christ by imputation, who in himself was 
separate from sinners, and had no conscience of sin, how yet the anger of 
God against sin dealt with him, as undertaking to be a surety for sin. And 
' can you drink,' says Christ, ' the cup that I am to drink of '?' that is, so as 
to bear it and not be overcome with it. Now, in Luke xxiii. 31, you may 
see how Christ infers fi'om his sufferings, as being the sufiierings of one who 
had not been himself personally guilty of sin, what therefore, with difference, 
those in whom sin is inherent must expect. ' Weep for yourselves,' says 
he, ' for if they do those things to the green tree, what will be done in the 
dry ?' that is, who are fit combustible matter for the fire, and, as the pro- 
phet says, ' are as stubble fully diy,' Nahum i. 10 : and of the terribleness 
of God's anger he had before discoursed (as was even now observed) in ail 
that chapter. 

Again, III., in the soul, some faculties are more capable of anguish from 
his wrath than other, even as in the body some parts are more of pain. If 
a man would avoid a scalding drop to be let fall upon any part, of all other 
he would fence his eye. You see how a mote, a fly troubleth it ; a scalding 
di-op of oil would much more. So it is in the faculties of the soul. You 
read there is the * spirit of the mind,' Eph. iv. 23. Now God will wound 
even that, and aims at it in this punishment. ' A wounded spirit who can 
bear ?' says Solomon. If a man's flesh be torn and cut, he may yet bear up 
himself, but if his bones be broken, ' who can stand ?' Now the immediate 
strokes of God are so compared by David, as unto the breaking of the bones, 
in comparison of other dealings of God with, and inflictions from God to- 
wards us. 

The next thing which I mention, but as an appendix to this head, is, that 
it is the destruction of the soul. So Christ and the apostle again and again. 
They are said to be lost ; and though men may metaphysically dispute that 
it is better to be, though in hell, than not to be, yet Christ hath said, ' it 
were better not to have been born.' I shall say no more as to this head 
than what the apostle expresseth this by, in 1 Tim. vi. 9, in saying, that 
men are ' drowned in perdition and destruction.' One would think for him 
to have expressed death and destruction, it might have been enough to have 
said that a man were drowned, or sunk down to the bottom of waters, or the hke 
materials that would suffocate a man ; but to say he is ' drowned in perdi- 
tion' itself, or that ' perdition and destruction' are the pit, the lake he is 
plunged into, what can be said beyond it ? And yet here he is not content 
with one single word to express that by either, as to have said, ' drowned in 
perdition,'' but must double it, and add another word, destruction, also. De- 
stroyed, therefore, over and over ; drowned over head and ears, as we say, 
and all that is in them drowned and sunk into perdition ; the whole soul, 
yea, the whole man. No part above water : destroyed with a double destruc- 



Cli\P. VIII. ] IN KKSlMCOr OF SIN AND I'UNISHMKNT. 583 

tlon ; both for object double, and also for the subject of it, both body and 
soul. So Christ says. 

The third head that aflbrds matter of exaggeration to our thoughts, where- 
by to infer the fearfulness of this punishment, is taken from the ends or final 
causes mentioned in that first section : the ends, I say, which God hath 
in, and is provoked by unto this punishment. And as I then singly argued 
from each of them the immediateness of God's hand therein, so now I shall 
from each of the same, the dreadfulness hereof. There were three attributes 
of God in special, and his glory in common, which God aimeth at the mani- 
festation of, in this ultimate guerdon or reward for sin. 1. The manifesta- 
tion of the glory (that is in common) ; then particularly, 1st, of his power ; 
2dly, the satisfying of his justice ; 3dly, of his wTath. The scriptures I 
then had recourse to, do specify all these. I shall speak to these in this sec- 
tion, and to the other in the following. 

1. In general, that he aimeth at his glory in it (which is God's general 
aim, and is common to these and all other attributes) is evident. His glory 
(as it is to be manifested to us) is but the result or shine of all or any of his 
attributes, manifested in that place of Prov. xvi. 4, ' The Lord hath made all 
things for himself,' that is, for his glory (for that is himself, ' My glory I 
will not give to another') it follows, ' yea, even the wicked for the day of 
e^dl.' The day of evil there is the day of punishment, the wicked them- 
selves also making and preparing themselves by sin thereto ; but so as 
thereupon God manifests his glory upon them, as well as upon all things else, 
which he hath made in their several seasons and kinds. And Solomon doth 
mention this of punishment, as one eminent instance of all things else what- 
ever that are for his glory, and which will be ordered then by him thereunto 
in a special manner ; and because (it being so great an evil) men might think 
otherwise, yea, but, says Solomon, God seeks and will have a glory out of 
this punishment, as well as out of all things else, of which ye all acknow- 
ledge that God made them for himself. And so in that 2 Thes. i. 9, they 
are said to be ' punished from the glory of his power ;' that is, from his 
power, gloi-ifying himself on them, as I before expounded it. And as it is 
for the glory of this his power, so by the same reason of all or any of those 
other attributes, he is pleased to put forth therein. 

I shall premise two maxims, from whence forelaid the inference for the 
dreadfulness of this will more readily rise, in an infinite height, unto our more 
serious and sober apprehensions. 

1. The first, that all things which God doth for his own glory, he will per- 
form them like himself, that. is, like God, and so make the utmost of everj-- 
thing that that subject matter, whatever it be, will afibrd of glory to him. 
This rule is ascertained to us, as from the nature of God, so from that say- 
ing of the apostle, Rom. i. 21, where he condemns the Gentiles, that they 
' glorified him not as God,' that is, in such a manner as was worthy of him ; 
they came not up to that height of glory, so great a God must have given 
unto him from creatures. Now, if it be the sin of creatures that they fall 
short in glorifying God as God, then be assured that if God himself under- 
takes and professeth to do a thing for his glory, he will, in the whole of it, 
and issue thereof, either glorify himself as God, or never begin to essay or 
meddle with it, but would have let it alone for ever. 

2. From hence take this also along with you, to carry it in your view 
through each particular that follows : that then, if God seeks to glorify him- 
self in a way of punishment, that punishment must be answerably_ great and 
proportioned to raise up a glory unto God, such as shall ' glorify him _ as 
God ' in that way. For it is the punishment or the judgment itself which 



534 AN UNKEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFOKE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

he executes (as the psalmist says) out of which this glory must spring. This 
punishment, as it is a punishment, is that wherein God will be glorified as 
God ; that is, it is the soil which this crop of his glory is to grow up out 
of, and the crop or harvest of glory can be but what the fertility of that soil, 
as such, affords. These things in general forelaid. 

Now, 8, the greatness or vast comings in of that glory God reckons upon 
from this may rise up in your view by these particulars. 

(1.) Had it not been that, in comparison of other works of his, an infinitely 
exceeding revenue of glory would have arisen unto him from this, God would 
never have set his heart or hand to this work of all other ; I say it again, he 
■would never have set his hand to this work of all other. For as he is 
Creator, he hath a love to all, and hates nothing that he hath made ; he loves 
no such bloody work for itself, nor would have ever imbrued his hands in 
the destruction of his creature, had it not been for an exceeding weight of 
glory ; and as being justly provoked thereto, it becometh a just prize on that 
hand presented to him, which he will be sure withal to manage and perform 
"with the utmost righteousness. It is certain that this is to him opus alieraim, 
a work strange to his nature, as the prophet speaks. He does not naturally 
nor willingly (says the Lamentation) ' afflict or grieve the children of men,' 
Lam. iii. 33. Men's quarrellings and cavils hereabout did put him long 
since to his oath, and he hath cleared himself by oath in Ezekiel : ' As I live, 
I will not the death of a sinner ;' that is, not simply, as if I delighted in it 
for itself, as a God that is cruel (which was objected) ; and therefore I say 
peremptorily it must be an infinite mass of glory, after much longsufiering 
and impenitency of men, that moves him to it. And if so, then, accord- 
ing to the principles even now mentioned, do you that are impenitent sin- 
ners look to it, for ex vestro corio (I allude to Job's speech, skin for skin), 
out of the blood of j^our souls, and their destruction, shall this tribute and 
tax of glory be raised, according unto what your sinfulness shall be found to 
have been. And oh, then, do you collect how fearful it is like to be ! View 
it in a contrary, and indeed though an instance far transcending the propor- 
tion of this, yet in respect of holding some likeness to God's proceeding in 
this, will conduce to heighten our thoughts about this. It is a consideration 
that helps our faith (and it is a great one) that for God to deliver up his 
own Son to death, and for himself to bruise him (you have it all in a short 
saying, Isa. liii. 10, • It pleased the Lord to bruise him '), and that this 
should be the object of his good pleasure, there must have been some in- 
comprehensible vast design of glory to accrue therefrom, to be attained by 
doing it, some high end and far transcending design that was to be the issue 
and product of it ; which, as you know, was the glory of his mercy and love 
in the salvation of men : ' Glory to God on high, good will to men.' And 
this is as great an evidence and argument to our faith that God is resolved 
to save sinners as can be given. For what hath been thus done to Christ is 
past recalling, not to be recompensed any other way than by saving many by 
the knowledge of him, as God there speaks. Now as this instance of the 
highest kind serves to evidence this thing to us, so, though in a far lesser pro- 
portion, you may take somewhat a like illustration, at least in the point in hand; 
that certainly it must be a great surpassing mass of glory that will come in 
unto him by this punishment for sin, which should any way gain him to be 
so much as willing to it, against which otherwise he hath so much in his 
own nature, who had it withal in his absolute power to have given effectual 
grace to all as well as to some ; which latter all acknowledge he hath done, 
even as it was in his power to have saved the world without Christ's death, 
Mark xiv. 36. ye sons of men, know and understand your God, and 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 585 

be moved theroby to turn unto him ; and the more by this, that it must and 
will prove an infinite punishment that is coming upon you, because, were it 
not an immense sum of glory would accrue to him out of it, and that but 
upon your final impenitency ; he that is a God so good in himself would 
never else bring it upon you. And according to that first maxim premised, 
it must be the soreness of the punishment from whence that glory must 
arise. 

(2.) Consider herewith how that he hath reserved this, as his last work in 
that other world, when this world shall come to bo folded up as a garment, 
and a final conclusion be put to all these other dispensations and works of 
glory that are now on foot. And as Solomon told us that he hath * made 
the wicked for himself and for the day of evil,' so Job also tells us, that ' the 
wicked is reserved to tlie day of destruction, and shall be brought forth at 
(or to) the day of wrath.' Reserved by God till after all his other works of 
wonder are ended and gone, then to be brought forth as a trophy of his glory. 
Both themselves and all their sins are reserved till then, and laid up amongst 
God's treasures, to be then made public. The salvation of his elect and 
the destruction of the wicked are the last and only works that then remain, 
and do remain, and are purposely kept unto that time, when he means to 
shew himself to be God indeed, and to make all men and angels know that 
he is God. It is an argument of the fearfulness of that punishment the 
devils shall undergo, Jude 6, 2 Peter ii. 4, that he hath ' reserved them in 
everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day.' It is a certain rule 
that God's latter works do still exceed and put down the former, so far as 
the former shall not in comparison be remembered, Isa. Ixv. 17, Jer. iii. 16. 
When God would make his apostles (as to this world) the greatest spectacle 
of miseiy that (excepting what he made his own Son, who was the first 
born among many brethren), he ever put upon saints, prophets, or martyrs, 
that had preceded and were before them, how doth the apostle express his 
design in it, 1 Cor. iv. 9 ? 'I think,' says he, ' that God hath set forth us 
the apostles last as it were, men appointed to death, for we are made a spec- 
tacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men : ' alluding to those gladia- 
tors brought up last upon the stage as a spectacle to the people. The thing I 
cite it for is, that the greatest work in that kind he appointed to be at last, 
as also was that which immediately preceded it, the coming of his Son in the 
last days. And but this of punishing the wicked in his last, and very last, 
of all that he will do for ever. 

(8.) Especially let us withal consider besides how all his ^actings and works 
whereby to glory himself for ever shall be reduced and contracted to these 
two. He gives over all other of providence and spiritual dispensations by 
ordinances, and sets down and betakes himself to these two alone. God 
hath nothing else to do in the other world ; and he hath no other revenue 
of manifested glory that remains extant ; he lives and reigns eternally in or 
upon these two ; and yet this is, then, when he is resolved to the utmost to 
be glorious. And yet all is but what comes out of these two works, the 
salvation of the elect and destruction of the wicked. 

(4.) Again, consider these two are uniform works, and unvarying, and 
* without shadow of turning.' In this world he makes a variety and inter- 
change of providences, which are exercised in such works as he sometimes 
takes up and then lays down again at pleasure ; he ' sets one thing against 
another,' as Solomon speaks. Every day and age produceth a variety and 
alteration. And this is because his glory, that appeareth but imperfectly in 
some one (as in this and that particular), may have an additional perfection 
in some other, that so all that variety may, like small pieces in tapestry, 



580 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [^^O^K XIII. 

make that piece of work complete. And yet we see how in this mixture, 
and often but in some one single work or piece wrought and done but once, 
how much of God's glory appears to the wonderment of men and angels. 
Whereas now this last work of punishing wicked men (as likewise that other 
of salvation), are but as one continued dispensation, of one woof, and uniform 
for ever, without change, variety, or interruption. The whole stream of God's 
activity contracts itself unto and runs in these two channels, and no more, in 
onme volubilis cevum. And how strong must you needs suppose these two 
streams each of them to be, whenas the manifestation of the Deity doth now 
run so strongly in a thousand rivulets. This in general, from the manifesta- 
tion of his glory. 

I named three attributes in particular, which God doth more eminently 
shew forth in this great and last work of his 

First, His power. 

Secondly, Justice. 

Thirdly, Avenging wrath, to the end to gain a glory to himself out of all 
these. 

First, His power. That you have in two places : Rom, ix. 22, * What if 
God, willing to shew his wrath, and make his power known ?' His power, 
you see, is mentioned distinct from his wrath, though indeed it will provoke 
to be the power of his wrath ; but I shall distinctly speak of it. You have 
it also mentioned as that attribute which shall be most glorified hereby in 
2 Thes. i. 9, ' Who shall be punished with destruction from the glory of his 
power.' I afore spake some things of the greatness of God's power as in 
relation to this punishment, in shewing how fearful it is to fall into the 
hands of God, in the first head or demonstration in this section. I shall only 
here add, 

1. This general rule concerning it, that the drawing forth of power or 
activity by God in any work, is still but what is proportionable and answer- 
able to the work ; that is, the efiect shall be answerable in greatness to the 
power that is said to be put forth. It is certain God over-acts nothing. Now 
the efiect wherein this power of his is put forth, is here said to be destruc- 
tion ; and therefore that destruction must be conceived proportioned to the 
power that is said to be exerted. There was never work which God ever 
did, wherein he professed to shew forth a transcendency of power, or of any 
other attribute, but it was wonderful and glorious in its kind. All his attri- 
butes are himself, and so as great as himself. This visible world, in its 
kind, what a glorious building is it, consisting of heaven and earth ! and to 
what end was it that he professed he made it '? You have it Rom. i. 20, that 
by the creation of the world might be ' understood his eternal power and 
Godhead.' And if he that created and raised up such beings out of nothing 
shall profess yet further to make his power known, and will use that power, 
and put it forth in destroying, to shew forth the glory of it, how great will 
that destruction be which must bear a proportion to such a manifestation ! 
That after God hath in so gi-eat and so various works preceding this, suffi- 
ciently, as we might think, shewn himself God, in point of power, or what 
a powerful God he is ; that yet after all, as if in all these he had not given 
so full proof or demonstration of power, and as not satisfied with all the 
former as not enough, he should be after all willing, as the apostle says here, 
at last to begin a new work, which should make the ears of the whole crea- 
tion tingle, on purpose to make his power known : this is it swallows 
up my thoughts into astonishment, knowing both that, according to the 
rule before given, his last works ordained to shew forth any attribute, must 
infinitely exceed the former, that served to the making known thereof; and 



Chap. VilL] in respect of sin and punishment. 687 

that again puts a new amazement into my thoughts, to think how, or 
wherein so much a greater proportion of power should be spent ! If it were 
barely to annihilate, and bring the creature to its first nothing, there needs 
not an extension of power ; it were but withdrawing that word of his power 
that tolds up and bears up all things, Heb. i. 3, and these, as all, would fall 
to nothing. But over and above, you read here of such a destruction as 
draws out his power positively, and makes his power known afresh. Spe- 
cially, when again I consider as to this particular, that to destroy the well- 
being of anything is, in the ordinary experience of us creatures, more easy 
than to give being. A mau that cannot make alive the least of creatures, 
not the least fly or flea, can yet with an easy touch destroy them. I hinted 
before some respects wherein this destruction might exceed, in respect of 
power concurring to it, that of the creation. In the creation there was 
but a single expense of power, namely, of merely raising up out of nothing ; 
but in this a double. For the wrath of God, exerted in the fierceness of it, 
hath a tendency to bring, and would, if no other power intervened, bring the 
sinner unto nothing ; as that speech of Jeremiah doth imply, chap. x. 24, 
' Correct me not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing ;' as also that 
of Nahum, ' Who can stand in the fierceness of his anger ?' So as under 
this his pressure of the creature unto nothing, for God to uphold that crea- 
ture in being, is equivalent unto a continual educing it out of nothing again. 
Oh what destruction must that then be in the execution of it, in which God 
will positively put forth more power than in creating, and thereby, after all 
other works of power shewn, get himself the name among the whole creation 
of being a powerful God indeed ! But of this destruction, more hereafter. 
Thus much for that of power. 

The second attribute is justice, which he will to the utmost shew forth in 
this punishment. So in the text, ' The Lord shall judge his people ;' and 
2 Thes. i. 9, {dlzriv rlaovdiv) ' They shall lay down, or pay a punishment ;' 
and ver. 6, ' It is a righteous thing in God to recompense tribulation,' &c. 
And indeed, God's power herein is not put forth simply out of sovereignty, 
or for itself, but is drawn out by justice and wrath, to execute what they 
are provoked unto. I before gave this as one reason why God himself 
must execute this punishment, because else the punishment will not come 
up to satisfy his justice ; but now I make use of the same to infer the dread- 
fulness thereof: that it is the falling into the hands, as of a potent God, so 
of a just God recompensing for sin, and extending his mighty power to 
inflict a punishment, which should in justice hold proportion with the de- 
merit of sin, that so the exactness of his justice might appear. 

Now, to heighten our apprehensions of the dreadfulness of this punish- 
ment from this particular, consider, 

1. The infinite demerit of sin. Which is not enough known or considered 
by the miserable subjects thereof, because indeed God himself, in his holi- 
ness, and in his greatness, is not known by them. Now, because men will 
not otherwise know, nor be sensible of sin, in the spiritual evil of it against 
God, therefore it is that God is put upon it thus to make men know it, and 
what God himself is ; for men to sin against him by such dreadful efiects, as 
in justice shall hold proportion with their sin and the desert thereof. And 
God professeth he will herein be exact, Heb. ii. 2, so as ' every transgres- 
sion shall receive a just recompence of reward;' not such or such sins, some 
few more eminent sins only, but every transgression shall have a reward pro- 
portionate. ' He that is the Judge of all the world, shall not he be exact?' 
as Abraham in another case, Gen. xvii. Yes ; in this ultimate punishment 
he will be sure to I e, as Isaiah speaks, chap, xxviii. ver. 17, ' To lay judg- 



538 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII 

ment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,' as carpenters do when 
they would fit things one to another, and make things uniform and corres- 
pondent, and square them adequately to an hair's breadth, as we say. And 
thus God will do in judging ; he will bring his line and his plummet, take 
measure of the heinousness of every sin, and mete a punishment adequate 
thereto. And if so, then this punishment, how dreadful will it be ! ' If thou 
■wilt be severe to mark what is done amiss, who will be able to stand ?' 
says the psalmist, Ps. cxxx. 3, The heinousness of sin is measured by 
the greatness of that glory whereof it is the debasement ; and that debase- 
ment done to him, further measured by this, that it is by so mean things 
as we creatures are to God ; and so is estimated by the worth of that person 
against whom it is committed, which therefore could by no other means be 
expiated, but by the debasement and emptying of as great a glory, due to 
the person of the Son of God, appearing in our nature as one person there- 
with. Sin, the apostle tells us, Eom. vii. 13, is ' above measure sinful.' 
And hence, accordingly, this punishment is estimated to be above measure 
fearful. Thus Jer. xxx, 11, and Isa. xxvii. 7, 8, God putting this very 
difierence between his punishing godly men, his own children, and his punish- 
ing wicked men, 'Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him ? ' 
No ; for he puts this difference in the 8th verse, he smites his own in 
measure. You may thus take the compass, the magnitude, and the depth 
of it by this, that therefore oppositely his punishing the other exceeds all 
measure. Sin is the creature's proper work, and'punishment is God's work. 
* Vengeance belongeth unto me,' says the text ; he challengeth it as his. 
Now it is certain God will shew himself as perfect and as exact in his work 
as man and Satan have been in theirs ; he will not be exceeded dr outgone 
by them. ' The Lord is known,' says the psalmist, ' by the judgment that 
he executeth,' Ps. ix. 16. If the creature be so wicked as to bring forth so 
heinous an evil {in rjenere moris) as sin is, which is malum catholictim, a 
catholic evil, and accordingly hath the name of all evil given it, as virtually 
and transcendently containing all that God or man calls evil, then be assured 
that God who is so just will be as sure to bring forth, by way of return upon 
the creature, a punishment that shall be, in genere poemc, in its kind, malum 
catJwlicum., an universal evil also. And such Ezekiel terms it, speaking of 
the evil of punishment; it is 'an evil, and an only evil,' Ezek. vii. 5 ; that 
is, such an evil as shall be nothing but evil, and that shall contain the spirit, 
the quintessence of all evil in it. Therefore, Ps. Ixxv. 8, ' In the hand of 
the Lord there is a cup, and it is full of mixture ; ' as if an artist that knows 
the nature of all simples should temper a cup that is full of all sorts of 
poisons, and which is a compound of the bitterest, loathsomest ingredients 
this earth puts forth. Even thus hath God strained the quintessence of all 
evils into one cup ; and it follows there, ' the wicked of the earth must drink 
the dregs of it ; ' which phrase also argues such a mixure as this we speak 
of ; the bitterest of all is at the bottom, and it is eternity to the bottom, 
and they must not nor shall not leave a drop, but suck out the dregs, as the 
prophet's phrase is, Ezek. xxiii. 34. Thou hast a ' cup of abomination,' and 
when thou hast ' filled up thy measure,' then will God take a measure of 
thy cup, and fill the same proportion of dregs and mixture to thee in a cup 
of his tempering. 

2. Consider that in the manifestation of this attribute of justice there 
must, of all other (nest unto that of mercy), be a more special glory intended 
and designed by God himself, unto which this punishment must bear an 
eminent proportion, as being the matter wherein it appears. I said before, 
that if God professed to manifest any attribute of his whatever, it still hath 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 539 

been done in such eflfects of wonder as all the creation is set admiring of. 
Now of all other attributes, these two of justice and mercy are the prime, 
which he sets the greatest value upon the manifestation of. And therefore 
still look how they are more eminent, or by how much the more eminently 
he intends to manifest them above other attributes, by so much must the 
effects in and by which he manifesteth them exceed and excel all other works. 

Now that these are the brightest jewels in that crown of his glory, and 
which he intends most to embellish, may be seen in this : 1. That he hath 
chosen the choicest and most excellent of his creatures as the stuff or mate- 
rials in which to set these forth ; namely, angels and men, and Christ him- 
self the head of all. That look as curious engravers, when they would shew 
their best art and chiefest workmanship, they cull out the choicest materials, 
as either precious stones, cedar, or marble, to work upon ; and so embroid- 
erers, the finest stuff or cloth for the groundwork they would embroider 
gold or pearls upon ; thus hath God singled forth angels and men, the 
chief of, and more noble creatures (in the stuff they consist of) than the rest 
of his whole creation. Power and wisdom is seen in other creatures, but 
vindictive justice, as also grace and saving mercy, only on men and angels. 
And, 2, although he hath shewn forth more of wisdom and power in the 
frame and fabric of men and angels than in the whole of heaven and earth, 
yet still, comparatively, more of justice and mercy in these two, than that 
all or any of the otlier attributes shewn forth in and upon them comes 
unto ; whereof this is sufficient evidence, that they have the name of ' vessels 
of mercy' and 'vessels of wrath,' Rom. ix. You read nowhere that they 
are termed vessels of power or vessels of wisdom, which is a token that they 
are filled with these, in that they carry away the denomination (which is 
VLsnallj d prlncipaliori), as if no attributes else in comparison seemed to 
appear. And yet how much of power and wisdom is seen in the fabric of 
man, David tells us, ' I am wonderfully or fearfully made.' So then, those 
that shall prove to be the miserable vessels of this his wrath and justice,, 
shall be so filled with the punishment whereby this justice is made known, 
as shall deservedly bear the name of wTath and judgment engraven upon 
it of all other attributes. 'The day in which he will judge the world,' Acts 
xvii. 31, is elsewhere called the day of destruction, the day of wrath, the 
day of judgment, &c. It beareth its denomination from this very work we 
speak of. 

And further, consider how [he hath given out beforehand, almost six 
thousand years before, concerning this work above all works else, and hath 
posted it upon Enoch's pillars (you know the tradition I allude to) as you 
use to do citations, Jude 14, 15, or as you do indicere diem, set a day for 
the most solemn works. 'Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied 
hereof, saying. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to 
execute judgment upon all,' &c. And further and besides, God speaks of 
preparations to have been all along made by him during the time of this 
world against that day. The persons are a-fitting, Rom. ix ; the punish- 
ment a-preparing, ' prepared for the devil and his angels,' even from their 
very first fall. Now certainly God would never raise up in us, by such 
words given out by himself, so gi'eat expectations, if the reality, the execu- 
tion, the thing itself, should not answer to all these. Yea, after all his other 
works of wonder finished and perfected, he professeth to come on purpose to 
be glorified. And in what ? as well in rendering vengeance in the destruc- 
tion of wicked men as in the glorifying his saints, 2 Thes.i. 6-10, ' Seeing 
it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that 
trouble you; and to you that are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus 



540 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the gloiy of his power : when he 
shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that 
believe, in that day.' He carries on the glorifying himself and of his power 
in the one as well as in the other. 

Yea, and to render the solemnity of this work and day yet greater, he 
calls a general assembly of all men and angels that are or have been, or of 
men that yet shall be, in either worlds, to be present and see the execution. 

To conclude. It is therefore called ' the great day,' as that ' reserved to 
the judgment of the great day,' Jude G, and other speeches. And why the 
great day, but from this work of that day that shall be done upon it, which 
this day shall then bring forth and produce ; as days have their style and 
denomination from the work of the day, opus diei in die siio. So this (as 
was said) is called the day of destruction, wrath, &c. And if so, then that 
style of greatness must be from the greatness of the work that shall be done 
thereon. And so the judgment of the great day, because great will the 
judgment be that is to be executed on that day. 

Lastly. God hath in the mean time suftered his glory to be debased, 
himself to be the least regarded in the world, sin and the devil to carry all 
before them, and sinners to have the glory ; relieving himself in the mean 
time that he hath a treasure of glory to be broken up at that day, Rom. 
ii. 3, when he will come on purpose to be glorious. He hath suffered an 
eclipse of six thousand years, that in the end he may break forth with a 
redoubled glory. And all that glory must come in this way, even from this 
punishment he shall execute. And it must be a recovery of greater glory 
than he should have had by man's holiness in that first state by creation, 
or God would never have let sin have come into the world ; he meant not to 
be a loser. 

I come next to argue this from the third attribute, his wrath ; or if you 
will, his power and justice, as intended and heightened to extremities by 
wrath ; and though he will be just in what he doth, yet it is justice put on 
by wrath. He recompenseth sin, not only as rector universi, judge of all the 
world, and so upon the account of public rules given forth, to vindicate the 
equity and righteousness of which, he punisheth the transgressions of them ; 
but over and above he doth it as resenting an injury, a personal affront given 
to himself, his person ; and this draws forth his wrath and vengeance on his 
own behalf. 

As it is termed vengeance, so zeal, in Heb. x. 27, and 1 Cor. x. 22, ' Do 
you provoke the Lord to jealoixsy ?' In Nahum i. 2, see what a conglome- 
ration there is of attributes and effects. 

God is jealous ; that is the first. He compares that in God unto that in 
man, which, Solomon tells us, is the * rage of man,' Prov. vi. 84. 

Again, 2, The Lord reiJengeth, the Lord revengdh. That is the effect, 
and he says it twice, as speaking of one who is inflamed with anger. 

Then, 3, to shew how fiercely in revenging he executes it, even with fun', 
he adds, The Lord revengeth and is furious'; who yet professeth elsewhere of 
of himself, 'Fury is not in me ;' that is, of myself it is not, Isa. xxvii. 4. 
But as he is provoked by sin and impenitency, so fury is in him. ' The 
Lord is furious.' 

Then, 4, follows the subject thereof, and what they are to kim whom his 
fury^waxeth so hot against, enemies and adversaries : ' The Lord will take 
vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.' 



Chap. VIII.] in kespecx of sin and punishmknt. 541 

Which accords with this text, ' Vengeance is mine, I will recompense the 
adversaries,' ver. 27, 

And, 5, if any urge, Yea, but is not God merciful, and slow to anger ? 
Yes, says he, ver. 3, the Lord is slotc to anf/er. But he brings it into shew 
that in this case it is that very patience of his, which in the issue works up 
unto that fury, Losa putieiitia fit furor. 

And then, 6, he further warns them to consider, that in the execution of 
this fury to the utmost, his power comes to be engaged, The Lord is great iit 
power. 

And lastly. He u-iU not at all acquit the wicked that lives and dies in his 
sins ; which is a clause or proviso he still puts in, even when he speaks the 
greatest things of his mercy. See Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 

And although the very reading this description of God as an avenger 
shews forth alone its own dreadfulness, yet further, to clear and enlarge 
upon it, consider, 

1. How it is justice heightened by wrath to a fury, and all of these whet- 
ting on and drawing out the greatness of power. And to this purpose we 
find, as was observed, power and wrath joined, in Rom. ix. 22 and Ps. xc, 

* Who hath known the power of thine anger ?' His jealousy draws out his 
strength, and his power works in a way of wrath. Take a man ; let his 
blood, his fury be up, and thereby all his spirits are intended and stirred, 
and he is able to strike a greater and heavier blow than at another time ; 
as Samson, in his fury against the Philistines, he pulls down the pillars 
of the house. Now bring this to God, and though his power is the same, 
and not greater, when he executeth vengeance on his enemies, than at all 
other times ; yet being attributed to him after the manner of men, it im- 
ports to us something of analogy (whereby the wox'king of his power in such 
a case is set out) which it holds with what is in men in the like case. 

And so shews (1.) that if ever he did or will upon any occasion, or can 
be supposed to shew forth power and strength, it will be in this, for he is in 
fury ; and in that fury talks of the greatness of his power, which in men in 
their fury useth to be at the highest ; and they shew forth their strength in 
no acts so much as those which they do in fury. 

(2.) That comparatively therefore unto other works of his, wherein he 
shews forth power, he is to be supposed to shew forth more of power in this. 
Consider, therefore, if God shewed forth power in creating the world, &c., 
yet according to this analogy I may say of all those kinds of works whatever 
(speaking after the manner of men), that he did them coolly as it were ; but 
this he doth in fury, and so may well be supposed to put forth more of power 
in these, in that respect, than in those other. 

• 2. Avenging wrath is more than simple anger. A man is angry with a 
friend, and so is God often with his children ; and then he ' stirs not up all 
his wrath,' as Ps. Ixxviii. But the butt and mark which revenge shoots its 
arrows at, is an enemy, as both out of Nahum and the twenty-seventh verse 
of this chapter was observed. And not only so, but such as are irrecon- 
cileable enemies ; for that is the state of men in hell, and the posture of 
their spirits there towards God, to be fixed in malice. Now when vengeance 
in God shall be extreme, who shall be able to bear it ? 

3. Justice hath a mixture of pity mingled with it ; but when it is a case of 
revenge, there is a decorum put upon the extremity of justice. It is the re- 
venge of an injury, which, though in the creature, who itself is a subject of 
Gods (who only hath the sovereignty of power), it is therefore inglorious and 
unworthy ; yet, in God, who is the supreme, in case of wrong and injmy to 
himself, this hath a glory in it : ' Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' No 



542 AN UNEEGENEEATE MAK's GUILTINESS BEFOEE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

wonder, then, if it be termed * severity,' Rom. xi. 23 ; ancl James ii. 13, ex- 
pressly, ' judgment without mercy ;' and perhaps in that respect also it is, 
that. Rev. xiv. 10, it is termed, ' wrath without mixture ;' that is, pure wrath 
which hath no mixture, not a drop to cool one's tongue. And again, * wrath 
to the uttermost,' as 1 Thes. ii. IG, the apostle speaks of that wrath which, 
upon the destruction of Jerusalem (the type of the day of judgment), befell 
that nation. And so it is set forth in the language of the wrath at the great 
day, as Grotius hath observed, which is wrath to the uttermost ; and as God 
is said to ' rest in his love ' shewn to his children, Zeph. iii. 17, so his 
wi-ath satisfies itself in accomphshing vengeance : Ezek. vii. 8, 9, ' I will ac- 
complish mine anger upon thee ; and I will judge thee according to thy 
ways, and I will recompense thee for all thine abominations. And mine eye 
shall not spare, neither will I have pity ; I will recompense thee according 
to thy ways, and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee, and ye 
shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth ; ' and therefore is often called 
a sacrifice, as Mark ix. 49. 

And this answers an objection may be made. Did not David expressly 
choose rather to ' fall into the hand of God than man '?' 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. 
The answer is at hand in the same place : ' for his mercies are great ;' that is 
David's reason for it there. And so indeed the difference lies in chastising 
anger, and avenging wrath, and David there speaks of God's chastising his 
children in this world ; but in the world to come you see the case is altered. It 
is the falling into the hands of an avenger, who in that execution professeth 
to shew no mercy : ' He that made them will have no pity on them.' 

Lastly, Consider how wrath sets all that is in God against a man, whets 
and sharpens the whole activity of every attribute. What is the reason that 
in the text, when this dreadful execution is spoken of, the attribute of the 
living God is mentioned rather than power ? &c. The life of God speaks 
the whole of his attributes. The whole of his nature and Godhead, as it is 
active and working, this life imports. In hell, God draws out all his forces, 
all his attributes into the field, whereof wrath is the leader and general. All 
his perfections conspire either to stir up and enkindle wrath, or to assist him 
in the execution. How power is drawn forth and intended, I shewed before. 
Wisdom, that marshals all into order, * sets both thy sins in order,' in the 
view of thy conscience, Ps. 1. 21, and ' sets his terrors in battle array against 
thee;' it is Job's expression, chap. vi. 4, and the same word in both places. 
And as it marshals all, so whets on to vengeance : Prov. i. 25, ' Ye have 
set at nought all my counsel ; I will therefore laugh at your calamity, I will 
mock when your fear cometh.' It is wisdom speaks this, ver. 20. * Be not 
deceived,' saith the apostle, ' God is not mocked,' Gal. vi. 7. It imports 
two things : 

1. That sinners think to illude and deceive God. As what is it else to 
think to defer repentance to the last, and then to come and flatter, and look 
to be saved, as if they had served him from the very first moment of their 
lives ? They herein think to go beyond God. 

2. That in such cases God's wisdom takes it and resents it to the height. 
Nothing adds unto provocation more, in a man that is wise, than to perceive 
how another man thinks to go beyond him, and impose upon his wisdom. 
And it is wisdom in a man that makes him he would not be mocked, deceived, 
or trifled withal ; this principle riseth up in God's heart, the judge of all 
the world. Again, his holiness cries out to him against the sinner : Thou 
art a pure God, and I can endure to behold no iniquity ; and the ' eyes of 
my glory have been provoked ' by this sinner continually. Then says justice 
too, I must be satisfied to the utmost farthing, and have the last drop of 



Chap. VIII.] in respect of sin and punishment. 543 

blood that is in their souls ; and this their punishment executed on their own 
persons is all I shall have or can recover for all the dishonour hath been 
done thee ; for Christ, through their unbelief, hath not taken off one farthing 
of their debt, but all is left and remains upon their own score. And I can 
no other way recover glory, but by having it out of them ; and therefore it 
is that an eternity is required, because, but by an eternity of suffering it is 
that they can come to satisfy : Prov. xxvii. 20, ' Hell and destruction are 
never full,' or satisfied, as the next words shew the meaning to bo. Then 
saj'S truth and righteousness, Their whole lives have been contrary to my 
love, the whole actings and courses of them have been but a mnking a lie, a 
web of hypocrisy, continually woven and vended: Rev. xxii. 15, that 'love 
and make a lie;' and Rom. iii. 13, ' their tongues are full of falsehood and 
deceit ; ' and again, ' give them their portion with hypocrites,' whom of all 
else I hate, says truth. Then boils up jealousy, Eveiy creature hath been 
an idol, and made their god, and set up in God's stead, and they have been 
inflamed with them, as of idolaters the prophet speaks; 'idols of jealousy' 
have all their lusts been, and the glory due to me hath been given to them. 
But you will say, Will not mercy at last speak a good word for them ? Will 
it not allay and moderate all these ? No ; but turn as fiercely against them as 
any other attribute, and plead, I indeed did a long while resti'ain all these 
other attributes that were provoked every moment, ' whom God endured with 
much long-sufi"ering,' says Rom. ix. 22 ; and that they have lived so long free 
from wrath hath been by means of me, I waiting for their repentance, which 
hath cost me millions. I have spent riches on them, in forbearance of them, 
all which now is to be reckoned to them in wrath. You have it Rom. 
ii. 4, 5, ' They have despised the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, 
and long-suffering ; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth them to 
repentance ; but, after their hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up 
unto themselves wrath,' &c. And says grace, I was presumed on, and made 
a stale to and defender of their lusts, and was ' tui'ned into wantonness,* 
Jude 4. 

And thus all in God is set (as it were) on fire against a sinner, and (as I 
may so speak) do turn all in him into fury. And look as to God's people, 
all in God is assimilated into love towards them, and they live and dwell 
in love, and see nothing else as it were in God but love. ' God is love,' 
says the apostle, namely, to his own, 1 John iv. 16. Nothing else appears, 
or rather, all that is in him appears in that hue, under that dye, with that 
tincture. So here, on the contrary, all in God is turned into fury : Icesa 
patient la fit furor. Though he is not so of himself, — 'Fury is not in me,' 
says he, Isa. xxvii., — but sin hath made him such. 

A fourth head of demonstrations is taken from the instances given both 
of good and bad men. Which instances, as I then alleged to prove the im- 
mediateness of God's inflicting it, so now I shall from thence present some 
inferences of the fearfulness hereof. Do but sit down a little with Job and 
Heman, who were the instances of good men ; or go to that roll which the 
Scriptures have recorded of Cain, and Judas, and others, or which ecclesi- 
astical stories or present examples of our age have afi"orded, of men in 
horror ; weigh and perpend their cries and roarings, and consider what a sad 
spectacle such instances afford. 

1. Of good men. Heman I insisted in before, and acquainted you with 
his complaints, as sad as man can utter. I reserved that of Job specially for 
this place, as I then professed all the while that he had but afflictions com- 
mon to men ; and although he was every way surrounded with them, as being 
visited with a loathsome disease, his body filled with dolours and pains, his 



544 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

children lost, servants destroyed by fire from heaven, his estate quite gone 
unto an extremity of poverty, his wife abhorring his breath, and tempting 
him to blasphemy, all this while the text tells us, chap. ii. 10, that ' in all 
this did not Job sin with his lips,' but was quiet and patient, as the Holy 
Ghost in the New Testament takes notice of him : James v., ' You have 
heard of the patience of Job.' Well, but God himself in the end came in 
upon him with his immediate wrath. And now will you hear of his impa- 
tience too ? He was not pricked to the quick till now. But then he begins 
to curse the day of his birth, chap. iii. 1-3, and at that rate talks all along 
that chapter. For brevity, let us only consult his lamentations, in chap. vi. 
vers. 2-4, ' Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid 
in the balances together, for now it would be heavier than the sand, there- 
fore my words are swallowed up.' The rest that follows, I shall add by 
and by. What was it caused this sudden outcry and alteration in Job's 
spirit, from that still and sedate frame we left him in before ? What was 
it ■? The thoughts of his lost estate, children, wife's unkindness, or the 
pains of his bones and body, &c., or his downfall from a petty kingdom? 
Did these begin now at length so sadly to return upon him, so as in the end his 
spirit should begin to take them in, and lay them at length to heart, which 
at first he in an holy gallantry had made so light of ? Oh no ; he had 
fully concocted and digested all that had been occasioned from all or any of 
these, and had quieted himself with one or two good cordials, namely, that ' the 
Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken, and blessed be the name of the 
Lord,' chap. i. 21 ; and again, ' Shall we receive good from the hand of the 
Lord, and not evil ?' chap. ii. 10, which had carried away all that sorrow 
might have been stii'ring in him from these. What might be the matter 
then that was the cause of these so high disturbances ? The next words, 
ver. 4, do inform us, ' For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the 
poison whereof drinks up my spirits ; the terrors of God do set them- 
selves in array against me.' Let us go on duly to weigh and consider these 
passages of his. 

Heman, in his horrors, had complained, Ps. Ixxxviii. 7, that ' God's wrath 
lay hard or heavy on him,' and says no more of it. But Job here, in like 
manner feeling the like weight thereof, goes about to express how heavy 
and how great the burden was of his grief, that was caused thereby. And 
he calls for a mighty scale to weigh it in, such a scale as might be large 
enough to contain all the sands of the sea. ' Oh that my grief were 
thoroughly weighed, and my calamities laid in the balance together ; for 
now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.' His meaning is, that to 
have his grief and calamity put in one of the scales, and the sand of the sea 
in the other, his calamity would be infinitely heavier. His invention was 
heightened by what he really felt ; the greatness of it made him eloquent ; 
for as love, so deep sense of misery useth so to do. And he pitcheth, as 
you see, upon the weightiness of sand, to express it by, which is of all things 
the weightiest, as Solomon tells us : Prov. xxvii. 3, * A stone is heavy, and 
the sand is weighty.' Yea, and ' the sand of the sea ; ' which, take both 
those sands within the sea at the bottom of it, and those also scattered with- 
out on the shore, they do make an immense bulk and body condensated, if 
they were gathered together into one heap (as the waters were into one 
place when God made the sea). Job had a most sublime fancy, as the high 
strains of that whole book shew ; and this is in view a comparison vast and 
great enough (one would think) as could be used. But yet further, observe 
how he breaks ofi" that attempt of his to express it by this or by any such 
comparisons, though in appearance never so hyperbolical. Which breaking 



CUAP. VIII.] IN RE3PECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMKNT. 645 

oflf his next speech utters, * My wonls,' sa)'3 he, * are swallowed up !' As a 
small thing is swallowed up of a greater, as a drop of the ocean, as one small 
scattered sand would be in the bulk of all those sands of the sea whin cast 
in amongst them, so were all these his vast expressions and coinpiirisons he 
had used, although thus great (which yet from all rhetoricians would have 
had the name of hyperboles, far exceeding the reality), but yet in hi.s sense 
and feeling were swallowed up by the thing itself. I feel my words fall 
short, says he ; so Broughton paraphraseth on those words, and therefore 
he cuts himself off from using any more or higher decipherings of it of any 
kind, if any could have been found, as being all but mere metaphors, too 
light, and holding no weight with that far exceeding weight of misery he 
felt (as the apostle, on the contrary, comparing present afflictions and the 
glory to come together speaks), but Job here, he gives it clean over as a 
thing unexpressible. And instead of all essays that way, he chooseth rather 
to speak and shew the cause thereof, the same which I in this treatise have 
endeavoured to do. And thereby he sets forth in a reality the dreadfulness 
of it indeed ; and more than by all things whatever that his grief could have 
been compared unto. This you have in these words, ' For the arrows of 
the Almighty are within me.' He had sores without in his body, and afflic- 
tions in his outward man or condition ; fears without, and terrors within. 
He complains not, that yoa hear, of them at all. Oh, but they are these 
arrows that are within me, says he, ' the arrows of the Almighty ;' that is, 
which none but an Almighty hand could shoot, and shoot so deep ; such 
arrows as could come out of no other forge or quiver. The soul of a man is 
a spirit of a vast depth, and God, and God alone, can shoot up into it unto 
the arrow head. And yet again, besides the strength of the arm that shoots 
them, and the forkedness of the arrows themselves, they were all as arrows 
that are dipped in poison, envenomed with the guilt of his sins, which as 
chap. xiii. 23 and 26, God had now set on upon his soul, ' Thou makest 
me possess the sins of my youth.' Thus it follows in the next words, ' and 
the poison thereof drinks up my spirit.' They do not only lot out the spirits 
(which wounds made by other arrows use to do), but they * drink them up.' 
The strength and violence of the venom of them had such an efficacy on his 
veiy soul, and the very spirit and life thereof, as they drank all up. Again 
it follows, ' And the terrors of God have set themselves in array against me. 
God drew forth his wrath, as it were, into a well-ordered army, into rank 
and file, at once to fall upon him. If one man had a whole army set against 
him, and each armed man therein were to shoot a bullet or an arrow into 
him at once, and if, withal, we could make the supposition that that man 
should have his life still renewed after each wound given, so as never to die, 
and yet they still to renew to shoot all at once every moment, how dreadful 
is this to any one's thoughts thereof! But yet these are but men, not God, 
whose arrows he says these were. ' Oh that he would destroy me !' saya 
Job ; that is, kill me outright ; so vers. 8, 9, ' Oh that I might have my 
request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for ! Even that 
it would please God to destroy me, and that he would let loose his hand, 
and cut me off.' Well, but Job, canst thou not stir up thy spirits, and 
harden thyself against all these present sorrows ? ' The spirit of man will 
bear its infirmity,' if it be steeled with resolution. To this Job himself gives 
answer by way of pire-occupation to this effect : that if death indeed, or a 
being utterly cut off, should come upon me with all that host of fears 
(thereof elsewhere Job tells us death is the king), I could harden myself 
aga'nst that ; yea,, and to endure the pains of the most exquisite tortures 

VOL. X. Mm 



546 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS KEFORE GOD, [LoOK XIII. 

any kind of death could inflict, if thereby God would thus cut me otl'; 
then indeed (if such news of death were brought me) ' I should j'et have 
comfort ; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow,' so ver. 10. And let it be 
the worst death he can put me to, for so it follows, ' let him not spare.' 
Oh but they are these arrows of his own within me ! these 1 cannot bear : 
so ver. 12, 'Is my strength the strength of stones, or my flesh brass,' that 
1 should be able to endure and bear up myself against these encounters ? 
Oh no. Read on those his expressions further roared forth by him in chap, 
xvi. vers. 12-14, 'He hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by 
the neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers 
compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; 
he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon 
breach ; he runneth upon me like a giant.' What should I instance in more, 
or how to comment on them ? 

That which, in the second place, is proper next to be done, is to provoke 
those that are secure sinners, &c., and others also that are awakened, to 
raise but up their thoughts from the consideration hereof, to infer and gather 
how dreadful this punishment in hell must be, above all that these dispen- 
sations can represent unto us. And this is most strongly inferred from these 
examples, whether they be the examples of good men, as Job was, or bad 
men, as Cain and Judas were, in both which I formerly instanced in. 

I shall make inference from each of these apart, as in the first section I 
also did in arguing from them, the immediateness, &c. 

Firs', From these of good men. If you consider that all these terrors 
which Job and Heman endured from God were yet all in love, out of so solid 
and substantial a love, permanent, and abiding in God's heart all this while 
towards them, and that all these were but chastisings of them for trial, and 
' to make them partakers of his holiness.' And be-;ides, what manner of 
auger was it towards them ? It was but anger which love stirred up ; and 
those his afflictions were accompanied and joined all with everlasting kind- 
ness and thoughts of peace all the while. According to that in Isa. liv. 8, 
* In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with ever- 
lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.* 
Yea, those two known cordial recipes, so frequently made use of, and com- 
monly taken by most Christians in their distresses, and cited by two apostles, 
James i. 12, chnp. v. 11, Heb. xii. 5, and Christ himself from heaven. Rev. 
iii. 19. ' Happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not 
thou the chastening of the Almighty,' were first spoken and directed unto 
this our Job whilst in the midst of these atflictions, in chap. v. 17, and are 
particularly applied to that his condition in the worst of it by the Holy 
Ghost, James v. 11. Yea, and all this that was upon Job was in itself 
(how great soever it seemed to his sense) but the touch of God's little finger. 
Job i. 11. Oh think, then, how great will that vengeance be which is pure 
wrath. Rev. xiv., which is out of furj', as was shewn, which is the fiery in- 
dignation of patience abused, boiled up into fury. This that befell them is 
said to be but a little wrath, and for a moment. And yet (as also it is said, 
Ps. ii. 12) if God be angry but a little, who is able to abide it! Then what 
^\ ill this last and extreme vengeance reserved for hell be ? These chastise- 
ments of Job's and Heman's were, in comparison of what awaits men in hell, 
but as rods of birch or rushes, which we use to whip our children withal : 
Ps. Ixxxix. 32, 33, ' Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and 
their iniquity with stripes : nevertheless, my loving-kindness will 1 not ut- 
terly take from them, nor sufi'er my faithfulness to fail.' These were all rods 
of mercy's own gathering and making, the stripes whereof are not so deep 



Chap. VIII.] is hespect of sin and punishment. 647 

but they may be and were bealed again ; as in the same book you also find 
it, chap. V. 18, ' He inaketh sore, and bindeth up ; he woundeth, and his 
hands make whole ;' and so was Job in the issue thus healed ; and Heman 
likewise, and made thereby one of the wisest men in the worM, 1 Kings iv. 
J31. Yea, but these wherewith v. icked men in hell are eternally lashed and 
cut off, are rods of revenge's making ; ' rods of iron' (as the psalmist in that 
second Psalm speaks), ' to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel,' never 
to be set together again or made whole. Again, those strokes on the chil- 
dren of God are in measure, as Isa. xxvii. 7, 8, but of these in hell it may 
be and is said that wrath comjth upon theaa without measure. Again, in 
the midst of these corrections he remembers mercy, but in this of hell there 
is 'judgment without mercy,' James ii. 13. In those other stripes given 
his children God himself is afflicted, and feels every stroke he gives them, 
as Jer. xxxi. 20, and Isa. kiv ; but in these in hell, vengeance and justice 
do satisfy themselves in their deserved damnation. It is styled a sacrifice 
to him, Mirk ix. 43, 49, compared, and elsewhere. 

Secoiidlij, The same inference may be much more raised from those in- 
stances given of bad men suffering in this life the like terrors to those men- 
tioned. If we but consider that when they fall and seize upon them in the 
greatest extremity, that yet then they are, in comparison to what remains to 
them in hell, but as the sippiugs of the top of that cup here, the dregs whereof 
are reserved for them there, to drink to the bottom : as Ps. Ixxv. 8, ' In the 
hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full of mixture, 
and he poureth out of the same : but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the 
earth shall wring them out, and drink them.' Those words, be poureth out 
the same, and hut the diegn thereof, are an opposition each to other, shewing 
how that in this life God promiscuously poureth forth the same from the 
upper part thereof, both upon good and bad. And that all that is but the 
overflowings of what is uppermost, but the dregs, the brackish, bitter stuff', 
is reserved for hell ; and the truth is, men can bear but the sippings thereof 
here. Should they drink but a little deeper, their souls would be giddy, auJ 
reel out of their bodies in a moment. As the joys of heaven cannot be in- 
herited by flesh and blood, so nor the torments of the fulness of this wrath. 
But in hell their bodies shall be nealed (as we speak of glass) that they may 
end ire this fire. All the terrors of conscience here are, as is said of the 
joys of the saints, but the earnest-pennies, farthing-tokens, in comparison to 
that great, immensely vast treasure of wrath to come you have heard the 
Scriptures speak of. All here is but the shadow of death, and yet if tha. 
can wither men's souls so, w^hat will the blackness of darkness do ? as the 
apostle speaks of this. The utmost threatened here is, that ' the anger of 
the Lord shall smoke ' against a man, Ddut. xxix. It is but smoke ; but in 
hell it breaks forth into raging flames of the fiercest fires, Luke xvi. 24, that 
till every corner, and break out at all the windows of the soul. 

The fifth and last head, which represents the dreadfulness of all this unto 
an infinity, is, that it is a ' falling into the hands of the livuifj God." The 
living God. The former exaggerations have been raised from falling into the 
hands of the great, powerful, just, and avenging God ; but this further of the 
living God. Which, of all other attributes, the apostle hath singled forth to 
set out the dreadfulness of it by, and is therefore most of all to be heeded 
by us, as having as much weight in it to the thing in hand as any of the 
other. The living God notes out, not only God's activity, and how the 
whole of his life and being is engaged and active in this punishment (as was 
noticed), but further, both that, 1, he shall execute this to eternity ; and, 2, 
that during that whole space of eternity he will permanently continue to 



548 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIIT. 

inflict it. His being the living God notes out, 1, eternity; 2, with a con- 
tinuation of acting all that while ; and so his being the living God both 
threatens and effecteth, 1, an etei'nal, and, 2, a continual death in those that 
are the subjects thereof. And to imply so much it is that he hath that de- 
noD-iination, specially and so eminently given him here, when this punish- 
ment is spoken of. 

First, consider thy soul is an immortal soul as to the duration of it, and 
that this great God is the living God. And sin in thee, and the injury of it 
to Gcd, is an eternal stain, which hell fire cannot eat out or satisfy God for, 
but in an eternity of time ; and therefore whilst God lives, and thou iivest, 
he will inflict it on thee. That is one meaning. 

Again, God's life, as it is in itself a continual act, so in its being attri- 
buted to him with respect to this punishment, it imports his continued acting 
therein witliout cessation or intermission. For he doth it as the living God. 
Job, whilst he endured the terrors of the Almighty, complains they were eo 
incessant that God ' sufffred him not to take breath :' Job ix. 18, he followed 
his strokes so thick, ' with one breach,' as he there speaks, ' upon another.' 

You have both these set forth in one and the same scripture : Rev. xiv. 
10, 11, ' He shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God ; and he shall be 
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in 
the presence of the Lamb : and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for 
ever and ever. And they have no rest day nor night.' First, they have no 
rest day nor night; that; shews they have no intermission. And then, that 
the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever shews the eternity. Yen, 
and further, to stiike our dull hearts with the sense of this eternity, if one 
eixr be not enough, another is added, for ever and ever. Which eternity, as 
5'ou know, our S;iviour is still careful to indigitate, when he speaks of hell, 
in love and warning unto men's souls, that they might be moved by the mo- 
ment thereof to endeavour to escape it. 

Now, it being thus, this infinitely superadds unto all the former. The 
former heads have given demonstration to us, wherein the substance of this 
great punishment consists, and then comes in this as the fatal and final 
rolling stone upon the grave or sepulchi'e of souls. And with the grave hell 
is oft paralleled. Or these two imports thereof are as two millstones hung 
about the necks of those that are plunged into this lake, to sink them down 
for ever ; for these two things mentioned do work in the spirits of those that 
undergo it, perfect fear and perfect despair. The efi'ects of both which make 
up a perfection of misery in such a state. 

1. Perfect despair. Hope was given to reasonable and intelligent natures 
(and in peculiar unto them) to be as a breathing hole in time of misery, to 
keep up life in such ; n one whereby to sustain itself. And the reasonable 
soul being in its duration eternal, and having an eternity of time to run 
through and sail over, hath this privilege, denied to beasts, to take a pros- 
pect or foresight of time that is yet to come, and if it can spy out any space 
or spot of time in which it shall have happiness or ease, or outlive its misery, 
it will not utterly die; yea, it will harden itself against present misery with 
this thought, that, however, it shall not always be thus with me. But on 
the contrary here, by reason of this ability of foresight, it comes to pass that 
a wretched soul in hell, viewing and turning over all the leaves of time to 
eternity, both finds that it shall not outlive that misery, nor yet can it find 
one space or moment of time of freedom and intermission, having for ever to 
do with him who is the living God. And then it dies and dies a.iiain, and 
sinks into a gulf of despair for the future, as well as it is swallowed up with 
present sense of wrath. 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 549 

2. Perfect fear. Which these likewise cause, and keep up within that 
soul, and that continuall}-, of all their misery that is yet to come. And the 
nature of fear is to outstrip a man's misery, and to take them up before they 
come, as hopjs use to do our comforts, so as by reason thereof it comes to 
pass that the soul is not only tormented by what it at present feels, but with 
the thought of all that is to come, whic'i still further strikes the soul through 
and through. So as this thought, that it will be with me thus for ever and 
ever, makes it completely miserable. Yea, hereby the soul doth come all 
along in every instant to endure and be possessed in fears and dreadful ap- 
prehensions of all that woo that in eternity is 3'et to come, as well as that at 
present. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The inferences and uses of the doctrine. — If God punish eth sins, he is not the 
author of it. — Let us he firmly persuaded of the reality of this wrath to 
come. — Let us adore and fear the rjrentness of God, and he moved to turn 
to him. — Let us consider what it is to die, and lohat the state of the other 
world is. — Let hdievers learn highly to value that salvation which Christ 
obtains for them. 

If God in his wrath be the immediate inflicter of that punishment for sin, 
then certainly he is not the author of sin. Fulgentius, among other highly 
evincing demonstrations of it, casts in this : iniquitalis ciijus est ultor, noii 
est alitor; God is not the author of sin, whereof he is the avenger; which 
maxim is founded upon an high principle of reason and equity. God puts 
the whole of this matter so far off from himself, that he lays all, both sin 
and punishment, wholly upon man ; so as although the punishment itself 
be from his own just wrath, that is provoked to inflict it, yet even thereof 
he thus speaks, ' Do they provoke me to anger ?' (it is true they do) but 
'do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces ?' So as 
he ascribes his own wrath, that inflicts that punishment, wholly to themselves!, 
returns even that upon themselves. As if he had said, I am angry indeed, 
&e., it is true, yet they are more the provoking causes of that anger than 
myself. They spite but themselves, when they sin against me. Like unto 
which is that speech also, Romans ii. 4, 5, ' Thou treasurest up wrath unto 
thyself.' Thou- to thyself ; although it be God's wrath in his breast that is 
treasured up, yet the treasuring of it up is ascribed unto themselves. 

God will send his Son Jesus Christ on purpose to clear all such imagin- 
able suspicions and suppositions that men or devils can cast upon him, for 
condemning of men, or executing this punishment himself. ' Enoch, the 
seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all 
that arc ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have 
ungodlily committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners 
have spoken against him.' His work at that day is to convince, yea, and to 
convince is named first, as well as to execute judgment. And it is certain 
that in order thereto he will speak all fairness, equity, justice, and reason, 
it were not conviction else ; and he will have all his saints and angels about 
him, as judges and witnesses. He will have all the world to hear it, and 
how equal it is for him to execute so sore a vengeance. And as he will con- 
vince them of their deeds to be ungodly and deserving it, so of their hard 
speeches ; and that, whatever his decrees were, they themselves were un- 



550 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

godly, and their deeds ungodly, and ungodlily committed. Mark but how he 
doth unijodly them. And he will convince them, and stop their mouths lor 
ever. Christ sent him in the parable speechless to hell, Mat. xxii. 12. And 
this is one great service the man Christ Jesus is to do for God at the latter 
day : and if he should not do this satisfyingly, and clear all thase things, he 
must shut up his books, and come off the bench, and proceed no further, 
either to sentence or execution. 

Let our meditation upon what hath been delivered be what Moses hath 
prompted to us ; anl let us make the same use thereof which he also did. 

The 90ih Psalm was penned by Moses (as the title shews, .4 prayer of Moses 
the man of God), and it was composed by him in his latter days, after he had 
seen his forty j-ears, a whole generation in a nation of men removed out of 
this world, and their ' carcases fallen in the wilderness,' a spectacle so sad, 
as perhaps not any one man in the world hath seen, or age afforded, but at 
the flood, before or since, in so short a compass of time. His song is a 
funeral elegy, or meditation of death, made upon that whole generation, 
ver. 3, * Thou turnest man to destruction ; and sayest, Return, ye children 
of men.' And vers. 5, 6, 'Thou carriest thtm away, as with a flood. In 
the morning, they are like grass which groweth up; in the morning, it flour- 
isheth and groweth up ; in the evening, it is cut down, and withereth.' And 
God from that time began also to stint and limit man's years to that measure 
which it hath held to unto this day : ver. 10, ' The days of our years are 
threescore years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore 
years ; yet is their strength but labour and sorrow : for it is soon cut off", 
and we fly away.' Our souls fly away like birds when the shell is broke ; 
and then hell follows (as the Revelation speaks, chap. vi. 8), as in reality, so 
in Moses's discourse. And that was it which was the matter of deepest and 
saddest thoughts in this meditation unto him of any other. Ver. 11, it fol- 
lows, ' Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? Even according to thy fear, 
so is thy wrath.' Which he utters, 

1. By way of lamentation. He sighing forth a most doleful complaint 
against the security and stupor he observed in that generation of men in his 
time, both in those that had already died in their sins, as well as of that new 
generation that had come up in their room, who still lived in their sins. Oh, 
says he, ' Who of them knoweth the power of thine anger ?' namely, of that 
wrath which foUoweth after death, and seized upon men's souls for ever ; 
that is, who considers it, or regards it, till it take hold upon them ? He 
utters it, 

2. In a way of astonishment, out of the apprehension he had of the great- 
ness of that wrath : 'Who hath known the power of thine anger !' that is, 
who hath or can take it in according to the greatness of it ? which he en- 
deavours to set forlh, as applying himself to our own apprehension, in this 
wise, ' Even according to thy fear, so is Ihy wrath.' Where those words 
thij fear B.\e taken objective, and so is all one, and the fear of thee ; and so 
the meaning is, thai according to whatever proportion our souls can take in, 
in fears of thee and of thine anger, so great is thy wrath itself. You have 
souls that are able to ccimprehend vast fears and terrors ; they are as exten- 
sive in their fears as in their desires, which are stretched beyond what 
this world or the creatures can afibrd them, to an infinity. The soul of 
man is a dark cell, which when it begets fears once, strange and feariul ap- 
paritions rise up in it, which far exceed the ordinary proportion of worldly 
evils (which yet also our fears usually make greater than they prove to be); 
but here, as to that punishment, whi.;h is the cfi'ect of God's own immediate 
wrath, let the soul enlarge itself, says he, and widen its apprehension to the 



Chap. IX.] in ifsiect of sin anp i tniphmknt. 551 

utmost; fear what you cnn imngine, yet still God's wrath, and the punish- 
ment it inflicts, are not only proportionable, but indnilely exceeding all you 
can fear or imagine. 'Who kuoweth the power of ihine anger?' It passelh 
knowledge. 

Now the use Moses makes of all this doctrine of death and wrath, in the 
next following ver. 12, is this ; ' So teach us to number our days, that wo 
may apply our hearts to wisdom.' This he spake to God in behalf of that 
present generation that then survived ; and by spreading before them all 
these considerations, thereby also exhorteth Ihem to that which is the only 
true wisdom, even to turn unto the Lord, so to escape that wrath that is to 
come. And he, as an holy man, that knew the terror ot" the Lord, doth thus 
persuade men ; and oh let our souls be persuaded by it. And to this end, 

Use 1. I would first persuade you to believe, that there is this wrath to 
come. ' We knowing the terror of the Lord ;' that is, ourselves being as- 
sured by believing that such a wrath is in the heart and breast of God against 
impenitent sinners, as also understanding what and how dreadful that wrath 
is; we do ' persuade men,' 2 Cor. v. 11. And for men to apprehend and 
Leleve it, is the first most effectual engine to persuade them by. God did 
not, ere he placed these souls of ours in our bodies, first carry them down 
to hell, and then up to heaven, that so we having a fore-knowledge of either 
by sight and sense, might then be left to act in this world accordingly ; but 
God hath left, on!}' the revelation of both these unto faith, in this world, by 
the word. Heb. xi. 7, it is said, ' Noah being wained of God of things not 
Been as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; 
by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness 
which is by faith.' 

You know how the day of this great wrath to come, the day of judgment, 
is assimilated by Christ to the days of Noah, Mat. xxiv. 37-39, and that, 
among other, in respect of the security and unbelief that is and will be, afore 
it comes, in the hearts of men about it (which is Christ's special scope there). 
And the place in the Hebrews cited answerably, I'eckoneth that faith of Noah 
(who being forewarned of the flood, was moved with fear, and prepared an 
ark to save himself and his family) amongst those other instances of saving 
faith which that chapter doth enumerate, as that which had this wrath to 
come signitied thereby in his eye, shewing withal the foundation of the con- 
demnation of that world to lie in this, that though Noah declared this wrath 
to come unto them by his preaching and example (for as he was a preacher 
of righteousness, so of this wrath, as Enoch also had been), yet they believed 
it not, because it was unseen, as the words of that seventh verse are. For 
these things then happened in types of what was to fall out concerning this 
great wrath to come, that destruction of the old world being but the shadow 
of this, as expressly it is interpreted to be : 1 Peter iii. 20, ' The spirits in 
prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsufiering of 
God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing. The like 
figure whereunto is baptism, which now also saves us.' If the ark was of 
salvation, then the flood of damnation ; and that, then, as the word nko 
now evidently shews. This wrath, it is a thing to come, as that of the flood 
then was to them, styled therefore the wrath to come ; and so it is a thing 
not seen, and so is reckoned amongst the objects of faith. 

Men, indeed, have some lesser stitches in conscience aforehand, both from 
it and about it, but little do they imagine that these will or should ever be- 
come the matter of such torturing aches as they rise up to in the end. 
Men do as little imagine this of these fore-running warnings, or secret grip- 
ings and twitches, as the old world did then that the usual clouds of heaven 



552 AK UNEEGENEBATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

that cause storcrs would ever have swelled to the drowning of the world. Nor 
indeed doth this fall out to men's souls until the curse or wrath of God enters, 
' like oil into their bones,' as the psalmist speaks of Judas, Ps. cix. 18. 

For this wrath is in the mean time a thing hidden in the breast and bosom 
of the Almight}', and is therefore terriied ' a treasure of wrath ; ' a treasure, 
hecau-e hid, so treasures use to be (they are termed 'hidden treasures,' Prov. 
ii. 4, and elsewhere). And for the same reason, the coming of it upon men 
is called the ' revelation of the righteous judgment of God,' Luke xix. 42. 
As the things belonging to men's peace, so their destruction are ' hidden 
from their eyes.' Though ' damnation slumbers not,' 2 Peter ii. 3, but is 
on its march, and proceedeth in its approaches towards them, every hour 
nearer and nearer, yet men slumber in respect of the belief thereof, and not 
so much as dream of it in their slumber, 1 Thes. v. 3, 6, 9. The apostle's 
complaint there is the same in efl'ect with that of Moses : ' Who knows the 
power of thine anger,' so as to ' apply his heart to wisdom ? ' 

The Baptist, who began the publishing of the gospel, he began it with 
fore-warning men of his wrath, and styled it ' the wrath to come.' And 
Christ, whose office was to preach that gospel, seconds him therein, and 
terms it hell fire, &c. Now observe how he speaks to the pharisees about 
it : '0 ye generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath 
to come ? ' Mat. iii. 7. It is vox adniircntis; as if he had said, It is strange 
that the preaching of wrath to come should anyway startle your so hardened 
hearts as to see you here attending at my sermons ; and that the] considera- 
tion thereof should any way arrest or make any dint upon your souls. The 
reason of his wonder was, because indeed men believe it not, or very slightly. 
• Who hath demonstrated it unto you ? ' as his word is. And Christ useth 
the very same word about this matter, Luke xii. 5, *I will forewarn you' (or 
demonstrate to 3-ou) 'whom you shall fear, even him that can destroy in hell.' 
All this still tends to shew how hidden it is from the most of men. The very 
same unbelief is more darkly, and in other terms expressed in the Old Testa- 
ment : Deut. xxxii. 29, ' Oh that they would consider their latter end ! ' and 
Eccles. xi. 8, 9, ' Piemember the days of darkness, for they are many ; but 
know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.' 
Now to help you a little in the belief of this: 
Besides what the Scriptures speak hereof, 

1. Consult thine own heart. Thou hast a busy principle within thee. 
Conscience, that like a spy sent in from an adverse party into another's 
quarters, observes and takes notice of all that passeth ; not thy actions or 
speeches only, but what is done in thy privy chamber, or closet of thy soul; 
and not only so, but thou mayest hear the noise of his pen still a-running, 
and punctually writing that which it observeth ; and there is not a motion, 
a lust, a desire, a purpose, an end, a flying thought, but it diligently doth 
set down, and can give thee the sense thereof, and thou canst not stop the 
course hereof. And what is the meaning of all this, but that thy judgment 
is continually a-preparing, thine examination a-takiug all thy life long? For 
where there is a register, a clerk of the assize thus busy at work, there is a 
judge, whose officer he is. Be wary, therefore, what thou dost. Thou art 
surprised and undone if thou heedest not, for all this is in order unto judg- 
ment. And as letters wiitten with onion or lemon juice appear not at the 
present, so may not the impresses of these sad lines against thee; yet bring 
but thy soul to this fire we have been speaking of, and every character, 
tittle, yea, accent or aggravation of sin, will be made visible and legible. 
And hence it is the books are said to be opened, Rev. xx. 

2. Again, do you not hear daily the noise of cannon shot from heaven let 



Chap. IX.] in eespkct of sin and punishment. 653 

ofT, and ilie 1 nllets fly about yonr cars, and st o them strike this man and 
that man in your view ? It is the apostle's c( nviction to the Gentiles, Rrm. 
i. 18, that thenlbre there is a treasury of wrath to come, which he speaks 
of, chap. ii. 4, because at present even in this world, ' the wrath of God is 
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and uiirightcous-iiess of men, 
that withhold the truth in unrighteousness.' The meaning ^\ hereof is, there 
is no sort or kind of unrighteousness or ungodliness, lut in tl e instance or 
example of seme man or other, God halh by seme manifest judgment shewn 
his wrath against it, in the view and observation of the very heathens thrm- 
Felves, of and whom it is he speaks this. There was never a nation of the 
heathens, but the stories of it would have afforded a theatre of God's judg- 
ments against all sorts of evils in one person or other, singled out by 
decimation (as it were) in this world, to shew thereby that there was an hidden 
wrath to come in the other world, which would fall upon all the rest, who 
yet escaped at present. Those few and scattered instances manifested a 
treasury, a magazine of wrath in heaven ; his phrase is /win hcaroi, that is, 
in and from God, which the heathens also were sensible of; witness their 
sacrifices of atonement directed unto heaven. And this to be the apostle's 
scope is clearly seen, in that he prosecutes this in the following chap, ii., 
vers. 1-5, ' Therefore thou art inexcusable, man, whosoever thou art that 
judgest : for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for 
thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judg- 
ment of God is according to truth against them vhich commit such things. 
And thinkest thou this, man, that judgest them which do such things, and 
doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God ? Or despisest 
thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering ; not 
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But, after 
thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against 
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.' And 
unto this account you may put the enumeration of those instances of judgment 
iriade by the other apostles, as those upon the angels that fell, and on the 
old world, on Sodom and Gomorrah, Korah, &c., whereof though some were 
outward and temporal punishments, yet Lecause they were evidences of 
that wrath to come upon like impenitent sinners, both these apostles do to 
that purpose allege them, and make use thereof to beget this belief in us. 
For so expressly the one begins his discourse thereof: 2 Peter ii. 3-5, 'Whose 
judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth 
not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to 
hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judg- 
ment ; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a 
preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the un- 
godly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomormh into ashes, condemned 
them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after 
should live ungodly.' Then the other apostle adds, Jude, ver. 7, ' They 
FufFuiing the vengeance of eternal fire. The Lord knoweth how to deliver 
the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of 
judgment to be punished.' Consider also what his wrath hath been to whole 
nations ; and how he says he will one day turn ' all the nations into hell 
that forget God,' as the psalmist tells us, Ps. ix. 17. He hath prisons large 
enough, and chains strong enough to hold them all. "When the Jews saw 
one hundred and eighty thousand of the Assj-rian's host killed in a night 
before the very walls of Jerusalem, ' fearfnlness surprised the h^poeiites; ' 
their hearts melted with terror to think what the wrath of God must be for 
ever, Isa. xxxiii. 14, &c. 



554 AN UNBEGENERATE Man's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, ;BoOK XIII. 

Use 2. Then learn to adore and fear the greatness of our God, to the end 
to turn to him. 

Where he shews favour, ' his favour is hfe,' Ps. xxx. 5 ; yea, his lovinc;- 
kiudness is better than hfe : ' Ps. Isiii. 3, ' Whom have I in heaven but 
ihee ?' There needs no other there. 

On the contrary, if he be provoked, there needs no other judge or avenger 
but himself. I may say, the weapons of his warfare within himself are 
mighty to revenge all disobedience. This great general needs not borrow, 
nor call in the aid of his creatures (though in respect of their being his 
militia, he is styled ' the Lord of hosts '), to make war and destroy. That 
very face of his gives hfe, and strikes dead and kills. * In Ihy presence is 
fulness of joy,' Ps. xvi. 11. And 'from his presence is destruction,' 2 Thes. 
i, 9. ' Oh hide us,' say they, Rev. vi. 16, ' from the face of him that sits on 
the throne, and from the wr.ith of the Lamb.' They point to the fountain 
of their anguish, and speak what above all was it they dreaded. It is greatly 
observable what and how God talks to Job to this veiy purpose. Says God 
to Job, chap, xl., ' Wilt thou contend with me ? ' So, ver. 2, he begins to 
dare him : Come, says he, let this be among other one trial of thy power 
(who had been a prince, &c.) in comparison of mine ; take upon thee (as I 
mean to do), and be judge of all the world ; pi;t on thy jurige's robes, and 
thy biggest looks. Thus ver. 10, ' Deck thyself with majesty and e.xcel- 
lency, and array thyself with glory and beauty.' And pariicularly try, try 
what thou canst do or effect, when thou art most angry, by thy mere looks. 
' Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath,' ver. 11. Throw sparkles of thy most 
fiery indignation from thine eyes. Canst thou look a man dead, and cover 
a man's iace for ever with confusion ? ' Look on every one that is proud, 
and bring him low.' So ver. 12, ' Hide them in the dust together,' be they 
never so many, ' and bind their faces in secret ;' that is, cover them with con- 
fusion of face, with a look or rebuke of thy face ; make them run into holes 
or seek mountains to cover them, to avoid the terror of thy looks. Now all 
this I can du, says GoJ, with a mere look, whenever I please. And I can 
as easily save also, as I can thus destroy (which thou canst not do thine own 
soul), as the next verse insinuates, ' Then will I confess thine own hand can 
save thee.' You see he resolves saving and destroying into the same power 
of his, and maketh the same estimate of either, which the apostle also doth : 
chiip. iv. 12, ' There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.' 

My exhortation therefore in fine is, let us not fear creatures, but ' fear 
him, and make him your dread ;' and learn to know what a God ye walk 
before every day, and have for ever to do withal. Christ, that came out of 
his bosom, knowing him, doth (Luke xii. 4 and 5, compared with Mat. 
s. 26 and 28), upon knowledge of this God, make this same exhortation : 
* I say to you,' says he, and ' I will forewarn you ' (he says it twice, and it 
is as if he had said, Take it from me that know him), ' fear hitn that is able 
to destroy body and soul.' The apostle succenturiates, ' We know him that; 
hath said. Vengeance is mine,' so here, Heb. x. And again, we ' know- 
ing the terror of ihe Lord,' 2 Cor. v. 11, which they know, by an estimate 
taken from his goodness, that his wrath must be answerable. And Moses 
also, that had seen his back-parts and his glory, he cries out, * Who knows 
the power of thine anger ? ' Hypocrites and carnal professors (as those were 
whom God professedly takes to task, Ps. 1.) think to play with the great 
God, and deal wi;h him anyhow (as we say), as with a man that is their 
fellow. They know him not : Ps. 1. 21, ' These things hast thou done, and 
I kept silence; and thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself.' 
And what things they had done and were gu.lty of (see if thou hast not been 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. S55 

guilty of the same or like) the 18ih, 19lb, and 20th verses shew: • When 
ihou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker 
with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth 
deceit. Thou siltest aud speukest against thy brother ; thou slanderest 
thine own mother's son.' And God was silent or long-suffering. The like 
you have, Isa. Ivii. 11, 12, ' Of whom hast thou been afraid, that thou bast 
lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart ? have not I held 
my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not ? ' &c. But mark what is the 
issue of all this ; in Ps. 1. 21 it follows, ' But I will reprove thee, and set 
them in order before thee.' They had never felt the smart of his anger iu 
all their lives, and little thought that the lion was in him ; but it follows, 
' Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none 
to deliver.* Oh t ike heed and turn to him, or on the sudden he will start 
up like a mighty lion and tear your souls in pieces, as a giant might do cob- 
webs, and prey upon the blood of your very souls, and break the bones 
thereof as a lion could of the most silly creature. Add to this, 

Use 3. Consider what it is to die, and what the state and condition of the 
other world is. It is to have to do with God immediately, either in wrath 
or love, aud from his own hands, as well as from the immediate sentence of 
his mouth, to receive thy weal or woe. That we come naked into this 
world, aud go as naked out of it, was Job's meditation first ; after that 
David's : Ps. xlix. 15, ' We shall carry nothing away,' that is, of what be- 
longs to this world ; then after him Solomon the son : Eccles. v. 15, 'As 
he came forth of his mother's womb (speaking of man), naked shall he re- 
turn to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may 
carry away in his hand.' The effect of which divine meditation comes to 
this, to put secure and careless man upon the consideration of his immortal 
soul's condition, which first conieth into this world naked, as well as his 
body. And, poor thing ! the meaning of its first cry (if the soul itself could 
then speak out its mind) is, I am an empty thing, and have brought nothing 
with me ; who will shew me any good "? But after its being grown up, it 
begins to find the world richly furnished with all things to enjoy, as the 
apostle's phrase is, 1 Tim. vi. 17. But yet again, when he goes out of this 
woild, he is then turned out of house and home as perfectly naked as he 
came into it ; and, as Rev. xviii. 14, ' The fruits that thy soul lusted after, 
and all things which are dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou 
shalt find them no more at all.' Death is therefore compared unto the 
breaking or failing of a merchant or tradesman proving bankrupt : Luke 
xvi. 9, 'Then when ye fail,' &c., says Christ; of which I have elsewhere 
spoken. 

Now, if this be thy case as to this and that other world, think with thy- 
self what thine eternal soul must then betake itself unto, and also unto 
whom in that other world. My doctrinal part hath informed you that it is 
God himself, God immediately : Eccles. xii. 7, ' The spirit returns unto him 
that gave it.' To explain which, there was that evident difference put in 
the making man's soul at first from that of his body, that God made the 
body out of the earth, but the soul was breathed in by Go 1 ; and therefore 
not out of any pre-existent matter, as the souls and forms of all other living 
things are. And upon this dissoluton or separation of each from other, it 
is that Solomon says, ' Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, 
and the soul to God that gave it ;' that is to say, the same common law 
befalls either in their kind, that to other things in their kind, they are re- 
duced unto their first principles. And so look as the body is materially 
resolved into the earth, which was the first matter of it, so, according to 



55G AN UNREGENEEATE MAn's GUII^TINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

some kind of analogy thereunto (and so far as the soul is capable of a like 
return unto God), the soul returns to God that gave it, as having been the 
immediate original of it, not materially, as a spark is out of the tire, but as 
the immediate efficient. It came from God by way of gift, God gavj it ; 
that is, freely and voluntarily produced it by a sole single free act of his will 
an. I power, whereby he created it out of nothing ; and so in tbe whole of it, 
it was an entire and mere gift of his. And, therefore, in the beginning of 
bis exhortation, verse 1 of this chapter, he had aforehand laid this us a 
foundation for it, ' Remember thy Creator,' or ' Crea'ors ;' and is so styled, 
because he is in a more special manner thy Creator, than of our bodies, or 
of other creatures ; and that because himself immediately gave thy soul in 
such a manner as he produced not our bodies, nor material substances. 
And hence it is it returns to him, as the immediate judge or arbiter of its 
eternal condition. It returns to EI,ohim, which, as a Lapide and Ferdi- 
nandus have observed in their comments, signifies also a judge as well as a 
creator, and so was chosen out here, as a word more filly serving that his 
pcope, than any other name of God's. Now then, think what it is to die ; 
it is to to return to God, so as eternally and immediately to have to do with 
him. 

And then withal cons'der the different dispensations of this great God 
towards you in this world, and that next. In this world men's souls having 
creature-comforts, God communicates himself unto them thereby, and by 
reason of his patience and longsuffering to them added hereto, they bear 
not of, nor from him immediately ; the most of men do not otherwise than 
in these mediate ways. 'I was altogether silent,' sa-ys God, Ps. 1. He 
answers them neither good nor bad. And thus, though he is not far off from 
any of us, but men live and move in him, in respect of his power to uphold 
them, as Acts xvii. 28, or, as ver. 25, ' He giveth life and breath unto all 
things ' (which clause doth interpret that other, ver. 28), yet as to con- 
verse with, or intimate knowledge of him, he is the ' unknown God,' ver. 23, 
and men live without God, in that respect, in this world, as Eph. ii. 12. 

But although men thus live without God here, they shall not live (I might 
Ray not die rather, for it is a death) without God in the world to come. I 
beseech you, think with yourselves, bow your converse with this great God 
in this world is (I express it by that of men with a lion comparatively), but 
as thx-ough a grate (as that of the spouse's with him is said to be but 
through a lattice. Cant. ii. 9). And he keeps to the laws of his ordinary 
providence ; he breaks not forth immediately, but lies still and quiet, and 
through his patience suflereth and permitteth men to walk by him, and do 
all their heart's desire, and lets them alone. But, brethren, when you come 
to die, it is as if one were turned in unto that lion with the grate open ; and 
those repagula of his patience removed, your poor souls, your naked souls, 
are upon him immediately, and must (in a clean contraiy way to what the 
saints do) dwell with him for ever. The consideration of this struck dread 
and horror into the hearts of the sinners of Zion, as it may well do in any 
poul that hath not communion with God. Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' The sinners in 
Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites : who among us 
shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who amongst us shall dwell with ever- 
lasting burnings ?' (I opensd that place before, and shewed that this de- 
vouring fire was God himself.) These speak one to another as men affrighted 
use to do, and as struck on the sudden with apprehensions of the greatness 
of that God, whom their consciences (now awakened) told them they had to 
do withal for ever. And they look ti-embling one upon the other, and tbe 
common cry and voice among them thereupon is. Whose portion will this 



Chap. IX.] in rkspkct of sin and punishment. 557 

prove to be ? For it will be the portion of some ; or, who of us, or all crea- 
tures, is able to bear it, or endure it ? And upon this conference (as I may 
term it), and inquisition among tliemselves, God by the prophet steps out 
and answers them, but in a clean contrary way, and to their further con- 
fu-iion, and tells them, there are those that shall dwell with ine thus imme- 
diately, unto whom I will be glory and happiness, who shall walk in the 
comfort of this fire which you thus dread ; and who (like the three children 
ill that fiery furnace) shall be refreshed therein. So it follows, ' He that 
walks righteously, and speaks uprightly, he shall dwell on high,' And there- 
fore it further follows, 1, as a promise to the upright and pure in heart, ver. 
17, ' Thine eyes shall see the King in his glory.' And, 2, with a further 
threatening to the hypocrites, ' Thine heart,' who art an hypocrite, ' shall 
meditate terror,' ver. 18. 

Now then again, seeing you have thus to do with the great God alone for 
ever, let every one of us ' prepare to meet our God,' Amos iv. This neces- 
sarily puts you upon seeking of him here in this world, and to seek that face 
and favour of his, in which alone is life. You must therefore also give up 
your souls unto him here, to live in him, as in your chiefest good, and not 
in your lusts ; and to live to him as your highest end and constant interest, 
and as whose glory should act and steer you in all your ways, and not unto 
yourselves. And therefore you, that have neglected this great God, or served 
him but in formality and hypocrisy (which in Sciipture hath the denomina- 
tion of those that forget God), who never knew what it is to have intimate 
communion and fellowship with him through faith, in prayer and other con- 
verses, joined with hearty love unto him, and to the interest of his glory, 
think, oh think with yourselves, when you come to die, that you must go to 
him, and be with him for ever, in that sense I have given. Think with thy- 
self thus : My soul will be turned naked out of this world, and there is 
nothing, no, not a rag of any of the comforts I pursue after here, which shall 
be carried with it from hence ; but it is the great God I must be turned 
naked unto, and appear before ; and if my soul be found naked of his image 
too (which to have renewed in me was the only errand he sent my soul for 
into this world), and if I bring not that along with me, as my current token, 
ticket, and pass into the other world, there will not be a dwelling place of 
bliss for me, to receive me into ; not such an one as the apostle speaks of 
for the comfort of the saints : 2 Cor. v. 1, 3, ' We know that if our earthly 
tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God ; if so be we shall not 
be found naked,' ver. 3, that is, devoid of his image, as also of Christ's 
righteousness. But instead thereof, this great God will be unto me as a 
furnace, and I must dwell with those everlasting burnings spoken of, even 
for ever. 

And then think with thyself again, What communion or correspondency 
hath my soul kept and held with God ? What acquaintance hath it had with 
him ? For otherwise it will be strange you should commend your souls into 
his hands (as Christ did, and the saints use to do when they die), and that 
with a desire and intention to live that eternity with him which is to come, 
and yet not to have lived at all with him, or to him here. How dost thou 
think thou canst look him in the face at thy first appearance before him ? 
If they should take thy soul away from thee this night, as Christ's speech 
is, Luke xii. 20, how canst thou think God should then at first look on 
thee, much less take thee into eternal, immediate bosom-communion with 
himself for ever ? I pray, upon what acquaintance ? And so may God 
also say unto thee. Oh, therefore, ' remember thy Creator in the days of 
thy youth ;' learn to know and fear him ; ' acquaint thyself with him, and 



558 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

be at peace. Receive the law, I pray thee, from his mouth,' &c., Job xxii. 
21, 22. 

Again, thiuk with thyself,' What do I pursuing after the things of this life 
with my dearest afleclions, and utmost intentions ? Alas, I am to live for 
ever with God, and not with these. The apostle sets forth a manifesto upon 
it, 1 Tim. vi. 7, ' We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain (or 
manifest, says he, rb brjXov) we carry nothing out ;' and thereby provokes 
them to pursue with might and main after godliness, which alone is great 
gain, and only current money in the other world. And this is the manifest 
coherence of those two sayings, following immediately one the other in those 
two verses, vers. 0, 7, * But godliness with contentment is great gain. For 
(says he) we brought nothing into this worLl, and it is certain we can carry 
nothing out ;' the latt-r being a motive to the former. And therefore also 
upon the same ground it follows, ' Trust in the living God, and not in riches' 
(so neither in learning, wisdom, credit, &c.), ver. 17. For wh}'^ ? It is the 
Uvinq God whom you are to have to do withsil for ever. Although he hath 
for the present given you, and provided all things in this world richly to en- 
joy (as it follows there), yet he hath reserved himself for you to enjoy in the 
other world. And it is the living God in my text likewise, into whose hands 
vou fall, as of a judge and avenger, if you fall short of godliness, Heb. x. 
And it is this living God you must be made happy in and by for ever. 

The great theme and subject of Ecclesiastes, you know, is, that * all is 
vanity and vexation of spirit.' Now you may observe, how Solomon, upon 
this very g found and account I have now been pressing, doth set a fresh 
stamp upon, and his last seal unto that truth, that all is vain, Eccles. xii. 8, 
even from this ground, that a man's spirit returns unto God that gave it, 
ver. 7. Read and observe the coherence of those two verses, ver 7, 8, 
' Then shall the dust return unto the earth as it was, and the spirit shall 
return to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is 
vanity.' He had in the beginning of this book pronounced them vanities : 
chap, i., ' Vanity of vanities,' &c. And he had all along proved them vain at 
lest, as they are enjoyed in this world, unto those who enjoy them most 
abundant^, most fre^dy. But now when in the conclusion he had brought 
man himself, that is, the enjoyer of them, and discoursed him into his grave, 
laid him in the dust, and said thereupon that his soul must immediately go 
to God, then he cries out anew, having reserved it for the conclusion of all, 
and that also upon an account greater than all the former : ' Vanity of vani- 
ties, saith the Preacher, all is vanity ; ' and thereupon infers as the close, 
• Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God and keep his 
commandments : for God shall bring every work unto judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.' You may observe 
how the apostle in a parallel manner also speaks, ' It is appointed for all 
men to die, and after this the judgment,' Heb. ix. 27, just as Solomon here. 

Let me next deal strictiui, or at downright blows with you. I first serve 
every soul here with an arrest, that he was once a child of wrath : Eph. ii. 3, 
' Children of wrath by nature as well as others.' Let every man clear him- 
self of it unto God as he can ; all were born such, and continue such until 
now, 1 John ii. 9, if they have not become otherwise, by an escape made, 
from the sense of this danger, which is termed by the Baptist, a ' flying from 
the wrath to come,' Mat. iii. 7 ; an ' escaping the damnation of hell,' by 
Christ, Mat. xxiii. 33, as the murderer did when he ran to the city of 
refuge from the attack of the avenger of blood (as in Heb. vi. 18 the allu- 
sion is), a flying for refuge unto Christ. Which escape is made by a solid, 
and serious, and overpowering apprehension of that estate to be such, as 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 559 

that a man continuing therein, he apprehends he is every moment obnoxious 
to this ■vvrath, which drives him unto Christ as a deliverer from that wrath, 
joined with a giving a man's self up to him. Both which, through the power 
of the Holy Ghost accompanying them, do work a change of heart and life 
in him, an actual turning of the soul unto God, from all sin to godliness. 
And until a man bo thus ingrafted into Christ, and thereby made a new 
creature in him, 'all this wrath,' as Christ says, John iii. 80, ' remains or 
abides upon him.' Which word remains imports, as was said, his condition 
to have been originally, and in itself, and from the beginning, uninterruptedly 
under wrath; until saving faith, which is accompanied with regeneration and 
true repentance, puts the difference. So as there needs no more to be in- 
quired of such a man, but what have you to say for the alteration of your 
estate ? without which it is one and the same that it was at the first ; he 
continues under condemnation until now, wrath remains. As we use to say, 
an outlawry, a sentence of death remains upon a man till pardoned. He 
says not only that the wrath of God is coming upon such a man, as the 
apostle's phrase is, but it abides, &c. ; the apostle indeed says, it comes, as in 
respect to the execution of it, but Christ says, it abides on a man, in respect 
of a man's being bound over unto it, until the Son doth make him free. 

Then again, think with yourselves, how that this wrath of God is declared 
to be ' against all ungodliness and unrighteousness ' of any kind, continued 
in a way of disobedience. And be thy sins small or great, yet whilst thou 
art in that estate, this wrath is in their proportion due unto all that un- 
godliness and unrighteousness in thee, and remains upon thee for them. 
First, against all ungodliness, though it be but in deadness, averseness unto, 
and running aside from God unto the creature ; whereupon follow neglects, con- 
tempts of him, enmities to him, and thence omission of duties towards him, 
and ' not glorifying him as God,' as there ver. 21. And, secondly, all un- 
righteousness unrepented of and continued in ; the enumeration of the 
particulars of which you may have in the same chapter: vers. 29, 30, 'Being 
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, mali- 
ciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, back- 
biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, 
disobedient to parents,' &c. And to strike thy heart yet more, think what 
sins the apostle more especially singleth out, as those for which he specially 
indigitates that ' the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.' 
Col. iii. 5, 6, Even 'fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil 
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things' sake 
the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience ; ' that is, that 
live in them in a way of rebellion and disobedience unto God. 

And consider, they are not heathens only, whom the wrath of God is 
poured forth upon ; though so, Ps. Ixxix. 6, ' Pour out thy wrath upon 
the heathen that have not known thee ;' and Ps. ix. 17, ' All the nations 
that forget God shall be turned into hell ;' but it is also those that live under 
and ' obey not the gospel,' and those especially. In 2 Thes. i. 7-9, the 
subjects of this wrath are reduced to these two : those that know not God,' 
they were these heathens ; and those that ' obey not the gospel,' that is, 
who professing it, and living under the means of it, even the children of the 
kingdom (as they are called. Mat. viii, 12, and Mat. xiii. 41), there ' shall 
be gathered out of the kingdom' (that is, the visible professors of religion, in 
the strictness of it), ' all things' (that is, persons) ' that do offend, and do 
iniquity,' or are workers of it. Those first, and especially, that have given 
scandal by doing iniquity openly, and repented not, and then those that 
secretly du iniquity, that are found workers of it in any kind, they shall be 



560 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [SoO'^ XIII. 

g ithered, s lys Christ, ' and cast into a furnace of fire ;' and hypocrites espe- 
cially, thej are made the measure and standard of all other that are cast 
into it, both by Christ and the prophet Isaiah. 

But not only these, but in Mat. xii. 22, ' He that but wanteth the wed- 
dinc-garment ;' not the positive doers of iniquity onl}', but that want true 
grace, s'ncerity of faith, and love unto Jesus Christ ; the wanting all those 
graces. Col. iii. 12, Gal. vi, 15, which as a garment he should have put on, 
as in those places, that csme to such a wedding, the wed ling of so great a 
parson. And when there, he savs to sush a o,i3, ' Friend' (it is an up- 
braiding speech, such an one as Christ used to Judas, Mat. xxv. 40, because 
he had professed himself to be a frend, but is discovered to be a false and 
fL-i:fned one), ' how comest thou hither ?' here is no room for thee. And 
though Christ is said to spy out but one such among that company, yet it 
is the case of many : for, that the conclusion of that parable, ver. 14, im- 
porteth, ' many are called, few are chosen ;' and so that one person is pro- 
fessedly made but the instance or example of what Christ will do with all 
others that are such, who will prove many. And it is said that he was 
speechless, or strangled as with an halter (as the original word signifies), 
tiirouch obstupefaction of spirit. Now of this man, and all other such, 
Christ the King saith, ver. 13, ' Bind him hand and foot' (that he may not 
be able to help himself, or deliver himself), ' and cast him into outer dark- 
ness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And the true rea- 
son is, because if men's estates be found unrenewed or unregenerate (as this 
man's was through want of true grace), then the sins of their whole lives do 
abide upon their score, and are charged upon them. And every such an 
one, even the finest-spun hypocrite, hath sins enough (if he had no other) 
in those very deficiencies and fallings short of trm and spiritual grace, which 
he wholly wants. And the highest and most sublimated work of the Spirit, 
which a man remaining unregenerate is any way capable of, through heavenly 
enlifhtenings, and tastings of the powers of the world to come, stirring up 
but self only, and the afi'ections thereof towards spiritual things, is capable of 
beinfT discovereJ, not only that it is a deficient work, and short of true holi- 
ness at that day ; but also when all the inward obliquities, motives, ends, 
purposes, affections, that are in such men's hearts, that were the influencers 
and guides of their ways and actions, are discovered, it will be found that 
they all are matter of wratb, as truly as their other sins ; and their persons 
will be proved to have continued under the wrath of God abiding on them, 
as well as grosser sinners. And that there will be the discovery of these 
things in such men, is the genuine scope of that passage, Heb. iv. 13, 14, 
' The word of God' (understand it whether of Christ, or the word of Christ) 
' is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even 
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and 
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hejrt : neither is there any 
creature' (that is, of the heart of man) ' that is not manifest in his sight, 
with whom we have to do.' For unto such professors iimong the Jews, as 
had been enlightened, &c., as chap, vi., of whom you also read up and down 
in that epistle, and yet still remained in real and spiritual unbelief, as 
ver. 11 of this very chapter compared with Jude ver. 5, is this passage par- 
ticularly directed, and of them intended. 

Consider, moreover, that the longer thou goest on in this estate, or in thy 
sin, the more of wrath thou ' treasurest up unto thyself,' as Rom. ii. Every 
moment sins do add unto that heap ; and all thy sins are barrelled up in thy 
conscience, as gunpowder fully dry, and an answerable proportion and mea- 
sure of wrath is laid up in God's heart ; and when these meet, and that it 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 5G1 

comes to pass that the fire of God's wrath breaks forth out of his heart into 
thine, then thy soul is blown up in an instant, and a fire kindled that burns 
for ever in hell. 

And meditate also how frail thy life is, how thin and slight a screen of 
flesh there is betwixt all this wrath and thy bare soul ; which, if worn, or 
any way sliced through, the soul runs out. Nay, that venomous spider, thy 
soul, dwells but in a cobweb, which, if broken, or any violence be done it, 
it instantly flies away into the other world. Job, in several places, delights 
to compare our lives and condition in this world unto a candle or lamp. 
Now let the candle be let alone to burn itself out fairly to its full length, yet 
some last but a very little while, and those of the greatest size cannot long. 
Oh, but how many intervening casualties are there, that afore do put it out ? 
The ' candle of the wicked shall be put out, and destruction cometh upon 
them,' Job xxi. 17, that is, ab extrinseco, from without. How many thieves 
in the candle, or fatal accidents, do men meet with, that unawares consume 
it ! Immoderate sorrows and cares swale it ; intemperance, like too much 
oil poured thereon to feed it, choketh and extinguisheth it ; too much inten- 
tion of mind turns the flame downwards upon itself, and so it evaporates. 
Often another man's breath, in seasons of malignity (which fall out more or 
less every year), blows and puffs it out. A friend's breath comes in with 
an infectious vapour, and throws his soul out who visits him ; yea, an un- 
skilful or else a mistaking hand of a physician, who undertakes to snufi" and 
brighten it, unwarily clean snufis the candle out. Yea, men strong and 
vigorous 'go to the grave in a moment,' as in the same 21st chapter of Job, 
ver. 13. Yea, as Ps. Iv. 15, they ' ^o quick to hell :' it is an allusion to 
Korah, Dathan, &c.. Num. xvi. 30, 33; of whom it is said twice, ' They went 
alive to hell.' Many die so suddenly, that they are in hell in a trice, and 
as it were ere quite dead. And truly the most of men live in this world like 
silly sheep in a pasture, as David's similitude is : Ps. xlix. 14, ' They are 
put into hell like sheep ;' (so some*). It notes oixt their security in respect 
of that slaughter which comes upon them. This man dies, then that, then 
another, and they regard it not; even as the sheep do not, when the butcher 
(as his pleasure is) takes out first one, then another, and carries them to 
the shambles, whilst the rest feed on, and know not that they themselves are 
a-fatting to the day of slaughter also. 

Let us consider also what millions of transgressions are we guilty of in 
one day ! Oh, then, what in thy whole life ! And what a reckoning will 
the sins of thy whole hfe come to, when every commandment shall bring in 
their bills ! And that thou hast to deal with a God who, 

1. Hath all thy sins before him : Isa. Ixv. 6, ' Behold, it is written before 
me, but I will recompense,' &c. 

2. That will never forget anyone of them : Amos viii. 7, ' The Lord hath 
sworn. Surely I will never forget any of their works.' 

3. With a God who will bate thee nothing : ' Every transgression shall 
receive a just recompence of reward.' He ' spared not his own Son,' Rom. 
viii. ; and will not thee, unless by regeneration thou hast a portion in his 
Son. Think with thyself what a case thou art in, if thou must answer jus- 
tice for all and every one of these. 

The most of these things hitherto by way of use spoken by me, are no 
other than what David himself spends one whole psalm together upon; 
it is Ps. xlix., and styles it the ' meditation of his heart,' ver. 3, which 
caused me to entitle that former about what it is to die, a meditation rather 

* See Ainsworth. 

VOL. X. N n 



562 AN UNREGENERATE MAn's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

than an use, as I had done that of Moses also, Ps. xc. This of David's I 
shall here add, to set the deeper seal and weight upon all that hath been 
treated. 

He begins the psalm, and shews the moment of these matters, though in 
view but ordinary, with as solemn a preface and proclamation, calling upon 
attention and heed hereto, as anywhere we find in Scriptures. 

1 . In the first verse he summons all the world into a ring about him : ' Hear 
ye this, all the people ; give ear, all the inhabitants of the world.' 

And, 2, particulariseth forth his auditors into all sorts of conditions: ver. 2, 
' Both low and high, rich and poor together.' For why ? What he was to 
utter to them did as much concern the one as it did the other, and behoved 
them all alike to look to, as being that which especially concerned them in 
respect unto their being in the other world, how difierent soever their con- 
dition was in this. 

And, 3, he cries up the matter itself as the greatest wisdom, ver. 3, and 
a deep mysterious parable and dark saying : ver. 4, ' My mouth shall speak 
of wisdom ; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I 
will incline mine ear unto a parable ; I will open my dark saying upon the 
harp.' Now, what should this matter be ? It was to declare two things, 
which take up that whole psalm. 

The first, how in the style of a be it known to all men (for we have seen 
he publisheth it to all), he aloud declares, I for my part am not afraid to 
die, and go into that other world. Which confidence of his he greatens by 
this supposition superadded, that if, when he should come to die, all the 
sins of his whole life were presented before his view, yet notwithstanding he 
should not be afraid. Thus, ver. 5, ' Wherefore should I fear in the days 
of evil, when the iniquities of my heels shall compass me about? ' A strange 
confidence, which yet he found reason for from God ; for he challengeth all 
or anything to bring in reason to the contrary. Let them all say, * Where- 
fore should I fear ? ' And yet his other psalms as well as his story tells us 
what an infinite number of sins were upon his score, and how sensible he 
was thereof. And that this bold speech of his relates specially to the day 
of death, or days wherein he might have cause to fear it (though I will ex- 
clude no other times of trouble that were yet to come before in this life to 
be intended by him, which interpreters wholly carry it unto). That this is 
his scope, I shall make appeal to the whole drift of what follows throughout 
the psalm, which concerns the state of wicked men in their death, which I 
shall by and by shew. But specially I argue it from the reference and cor- 
respondency this speech hath with and to verse 15, 'God will redeem my 
soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me. Selah,' There 
you have the reason or ground of this his confidence, which he had at first 
uttered in verse 5, perfectly expressed, as that which he opposed unto all 
therefores or ivherefores to the contrary ; yea, though they should be fetched 
from his very sins, that might (if anything) make him afraid. But there in 
that resolve of his, ver. 15, he centres and landeth this which he had so 
confidently uttered in verse 5. And all the rest of his discourse that comes 
between, is apparently about the opposite condition of wicked men ; as that 
they must die, and what their estate is in and after death. All which was 
but to illustrate this confidence of his. 

He plainly in this verse 5 puts himself into the supposition, as if he were 
then to die, and as if death (' the king of terrors,' Job xviii. 19) were setting 
down his siege about him, and that all ' the iniquities of his heels,' or ways 
(which are death's strongest forces : ' The sting of death is sin, and the 
strength of sin is the law,' 1 Cor. xv. 56), were as an army formed up, 



Chap. IX.j in respect op sin and punishment. 563 

'encompassing him round' (which out of Psalm xl. 12 I have shewed to 
have been his case, and the very metaphor he there also useth). But now 
David was so steeled, as though he placed himself thus aforehand in the full 
view and face of all these, single and alone in the midst of them. He yet 
outdares them all, as the apostle did, Rom. viii. 33, strengthened with this, 
' for the Lord will receive my soul ; ' which phrase of speech to be the same 
that a dying saint useth, you all know. And this part of his speech, ver. 5, 
might have come in as comfortable an use as any other of that former doc- 
trine, the innumerable number of sins ; but that this other part that now 
follows doth properly belong unto what hath been nov/ last insisted on, and 
80 I rather placed both here. 

The second thing is the opposite state of wicked men in their lives, and in 
relation to their dying, and also at and after death, by which he both illus- 
trates and expounds his meaning in ver. 5 to be to utter his own blessed 
condition at his death, verse 15; and to that purpose it is he further dilates 
upon the death of wicked men in the rest of the psalm, and which is indeed 
a kind of summary of what in the former meditation I have pressed. 

During their lives, ' they trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the 
multitude of their riches,' verse 6, and yet they see (as the word is, verse 10), 
that they cannot redeem their own or others' precious souls from bodily death, 
or obtain of God by a ransom, that they should live for ever, ' for he sees 
the wise man die like as the fool, and so leave their wealth to others ;' thus 
in verses 7-10. That which therefore (miserable wretches) they relieve 
themselves with against this is, ' their inward thought is that their houses 
shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations ; they 
call their lands after their own names, and their posterity approve their 
sayings, though, when he dies, he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall 
not descend after him,' &c. And whither goes he when he dies ? ' His 
soul ' (so it is in the original, and varied in the margin) ' shall go to the 
generation of his fathers ' (to the company of those giants of the old world, 
from whom hell hath its name so oft in the Proverbs). And where are 
they all ? The ' spirits in prison.' So the apostle resolves us, speaking 
of the men of the old world, 1 Peter iii. 19. ' And they shall never see 
light ' or comfort more, says the psalmist ; but as for me (says David, 
verse 15), ' God shall receive me ' into the bosom of his love and bhss. 
And then, again, upon their dying, ' they are laid as sheep in the grave ; 
death shall feed on them,' and prey upon them ; the first death upon their 
bodies in the grave, the second death upon their souls. ' And their beauty 
shall consume in the grave,' so as at the morning (as there) of the resur- 
rection, the greatest personages that have had such a gleam of glory to 
attend them whilst they lived, accompanied perhaps also with dominion 
over others, shall then rise such ugly shabby death-eaten and hell-eaten 
creatures (as we use to say moth-eaten), all their beauty being preyed 
upon (that is his word) and consumed. And such shall appear in judgment, 
where the upright whom they despised ' shall have dominion over them, 
ver. 14. ' But,' says David, ' God shall redeem my soul from the power of 
the grave ; for he shall receive me. Selah.' 

And, for the further illustration of all this, and how it relates unto death, 
I shall only cast in a manifest parallel between what David here had meditated 
about the condition of wicked men at death, with what our Lord himself hath 
seconded it withal, in expressions fully herewith agreeing, treating of wicked 
men's dying also, Luke xii. 16-21. It is the parable of that rich mtvn whose 
soul was taken away that night. 1. Says David, ' Their inward thought is,' 
&c., ver. 11 ; and says Christ, ' He thought within himself,' so ver. 17. 



5G4 AN UNREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

2. ' Whilst he lived he blessed himself,' so David, ver. 18, namely, in those 
his inward thoughts about his goods and posterity. And the like speaks 
Christ, to be the inward speech and applauding himself, of his rich man : 
' He says to his soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; 
take thine ease and be merry.' Again, 3, of this man Christ says, ' Thou 
fool, this night,' &c. ver. 20 ; and David of his, * This their way is their 
folly,' ver. 10. 4. And finally, the reason of that their folly, which both 
Christ and David give, do centre in one and the same : ' This night thy soul 
shall be required of thee, then whose shall these things thou hast provided 
be?' thus Christ, ver. 20 ; and David, correspondently, ' His soul shall go,' 
&c. They shall never see light, ver. 19, and he shall carry nothing away, 
but leave his wealth to others,' vers. 10, 17. 

But still withal let us remember what David's conclusion is concerning 
himself at his death, and which he placeth in the midst as the centre of his 
discourse, which hath all this other about wicked men round about it, and 
to the end to magnify the mercy thereof to himself. ' But God shall 
redeem my soul, and shall receive me. Selah.' The mercy of both which 
the last use of all that next follows doth concern, and so shuts up this dis- 
course. 

Use 4. Let all believers from hence learn how to set a due and full value 
upon that salvation which they profess to expect, and which God hath 
designed to give them. 

Our great and gracious God, the more to bind and oblige the redeemed of 
the sons of men unto himself, hath twisted their salvation of a double cord 
of love. 1. A privative one, seen in what they are snatched out of, which is 
termed a being ' saved from wrath,' Rom. v. ; a ' delivering from wrath,' 
1 Thes. i. 10 ; an * escaping the damnation of hell,' Mat. xxiii. 33 ; a not so 
much as ' entering into condemnation,' John v. 24. 2. The other a positive 
part, ' the glory to be revealed,' the greatness of which no tongue can utter 
or heart conceive. That blessedness or glory conferred on the elect angels, 
and that favour shewn them, hath not this privative part of salvation to 
greaten it, further than as by way of prevention, in that God upheld them 
from falling into the merit or desert of it, whereas we men are all become 
guilty before God, were actually under wrath, * children of wrath even as 
others,' one as well as another, Eph. ii. And the weight of this, he in that 
scripture would have them put into the scale whenever they thought of sal- 
vation, ' By grace ye are saved,' so as with a note of remark it follows, 
ver. 8. God hath thus doubled the mercy of salvation to us, on purpose to 
make it salvation indeed ; ' so great salvation !' as the apostle speaks, 
Heb. ii., which duplication is seen in all parts of our salvation as well as 
this, as might be largely shewn. 

There are many gracious saints that have had no impressions of wrath, no 
fears and terrors of hell, set upon their souls in their first humiliation ; nay, 
the consideration thereof hath had but small influence into their hearts by 
way of motive in turning them unto God, but it hath been pure free love 
hath taken their hearts and swallowed up their thoughts. Yet mark what I 
shall say unto thee in this case, although, indeed, the less thou hast been 
moved in thy turning to God with such fears or impressions of hell, it be in 
some respect the better, for the more kindly hath God's work been in that 
respect upon thee ; and it also argues a special tenderness in God's heart 
towards thy soul to have restrained the roughness of the east wind from 
blowing on thee, as the prophet speaks. Yet let me withal say, that the 
more any one hath after conversion taken into consideration this wrath, I 
do not mean by terrors, but by a practical meditation of it, and his own 



Chap. IX. J in respkcx ok sin and punishment. 5G5 

desert thereof, the more, when joined together with the former, of God's 
pure love, it will move his heart to thankfulness to God for saving him. And 
the more thine heart hath this way been enlarged, the more God's love, 
which thou art either assured of or reliest on, must needs be greatened to 
thee, yea, and prove the higher incentive of love unto God again from thee. 
Whereas, on the contrary, that I may give a caution, because there seemeth 
to be such an ingenuity in grace, its working in that first respect mentioned, 
that wrath hath had no influence at all, hence such persons are apt too 
much to neglect, or not to mind the consideration of God's wrath at all, no, 
not so much as in this latter way mentioned ; but thinking to keep up an 
ingenuity of love, they entertain not this at all in their meditations. But 
sure this is far more blameworthy than that other is commendable, and that 
by how much there comes thereby to be a loss, of so much and of so great 
a part of God's love purposely thereby designed to be shewn ; I term it a 
loss, for what is not seen, and the heart considers not, nor is sensible of, is 
as if it had not been. And further, 1 add, that this valuing of God's love 
herein shewed, at its own full rate in both respects, is a matter of greater 
moment than the working of thy love to him in so ingenious and kindly a 
way, as thou supposest, without all or any consideration of hell or wrath, 
can arise unto ; and this, by how much God's love to us, in the full latitude 
of it, is a thing more precious than our love to him. Of the two, God had 
rather have us apprehend his love towards us in the utmost extent thereof, 
than have our love, or love from us to him, to work but in that one way of 
ingenuousness ; yea, and in the issue you will all find, that if you join the 
considerations of both together, they will concur to work an higher ingenuity 
of love, than that other way alone can do. 

If we will come to comprehend with all saints the height, and depth, &c., 
of the love of God and Christ, in all the dimensions of it, we must take that 
course and way in our meditations about it, which God himself hath laid 
out and designed on pui-pose to set it forth and greaten it unto us by ; which 
he hath done as well by so great a deliverance from so great a wrath due to 
us, as by conferring so rich an inheritance of glory upon us. And look as 
God hath two such vast contrivances of infinite weight each of them, the 
one in his right hand, the other in his left, for the manifestation of his love, 
80 we should have two scales in the hand of our faith to weigh each by ; 
and of the two, it may perhaps be hard to say which is the more massy, 
that is, in the apprehensions of some of those who have been deeply 
humbled for sin, and under sense of wrath, though I think glory carries it 
by far. 

I observe, that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ himself, though but 
made a surety for sin, and though it was impossible he should be holden of 
wrath or anything he was to suffer. Acts ii. 24, yet he doth consider, as well 
for his blessing God, as also to his own comfort, in Ps. xvi. 7 and 10, a 
psalm made wholly of him, and magnify the delivering part of salvation : 
' Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor sutler thine holy One to see cor- 
ruption ;' I say, he considers this as well as the joy which followed thereon, 
which yet also follows there, ver. 11, ' Thou wilt shew me the path of life. 
In thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand are pleasures for ever- 
more,' He reckons up both, as two distinct parts of favour shewn in that 
salvation of his, which is both the cause and pattern of ours. And that it 
was to bless God for both these, which he thus distinctly and apart mentions, 
his preface to both, ver. 7, ' I will bless the Lord,' &c., shews. Thus as 
man. And there is this further evidence of it, that look as what any one 
exerciseth faith for, and prays for much before it is obtained, that propor- 



56G AN UXREGENERATE MAN's GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK XIII. 

tionably he is thankful for after. And the same is seen in Christ in this 
very particular; for as we read in that psalm, that he exercised faith for this 
deliverance as well as for that glory ; so, in like manner, Heb. v. 7, that 
' he ofiered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto 
him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in what he feared.' 
And hence it came to pass, that we find him after his deliverance so greatly 
blessing God for it. So you read of his praising God for the same in Ps. 
xxii. from ver. 2 to the end, and in express words, ver. 25, even as well as 
you may read his prayer for this deliverance in the former part of that psalm. 

If he who, but for us and our sakes, needed no deliverance, then how much 
more lies this upon us, the persons saved, and unable to save ourselves, dis- 
tinctly to remember both these parts of our salvation with infinite praise and 
blessing of God's great name ! ' Bless the Lord, my soul ; and all that 
is within me, bless his holy name, and forget not all' (that is, not any of) 
' his benefits,' says the psalmist in his own person, Ps. ciii. 1, 2. And what 
sort of benefits were they ? It follows, ver. 3, 4, ' Who forgive th all thine 
iniquities ; who redeemeth thy life from destruction : ' there is salvation 
from sin and hell, the privative part ; ' Who crowneth thee with loving- 
kindness and tender mercies' (over and above deliverance), ' and satisfieth 
thy mouth with good things : ' there you see also is the positive part. You 
might observe the very same in this 40th Psalm, ' Thou shalt redeem me,' 
&c., and, ' Thou shalt receive me.' 

By all that hath been spoken, although you are saved from it, yet, look 
down into hell a little, as it hath been set out to you ; and think with 
yourselves. Hath God delivered me from so great a death, and given me 
such a deliverance as this, from a death so dreadful and eternal also ! How 
would the devils and spirits in prison prize an escape and deliverance from 
wrath present and to come, if they could be supposed capable thereof, yea, 
if they had no more ! A nobleman or favourite that hath run into great 
and high treasons, to have but mere life given him, how would he value it, 
though he never saw the court more, nor were never restored unto his estate 
and dignities, had he but wherewithal to live ! If a man were in danger to 
be drowned, and a rope were thrown him and a crown, and bidden take his 
choice, with promise. Thou shalt be king of all the world, if thou come to 
shore safe with the crown on thy head ; of the two he would in this case take 
hold of the rope, and refuse the crown. And why? Because it is salva- 
tion and his life. But for a man to be both wafted safe to the shore, and then 
arriving there, to have this crown besides, how great salvation would this be 
valued ! stupendous grace and love ! 

These things the saints should consider chiefly unto two ends and pur- 
poses : 

1. To be thankful to God and Christ. 

2. To comfort their own souls. 

1. To be thankful both to God and Christ. 

(1.) To God the Father. It was his part to contrive the whole desiga of 
our salvation, to the end to set forth his love to us. And the Scripture 
spreads before us the love of the Father herein upon this double considera- 
tion : 1, that he appointed us not to wrath, which otherwise we should have 
in the issue and execution, by reason of sin fallen under; 2, that he ordained 
us to salvation. You have an express scripture for both these, setting 
forth the love of God the Father hereby : 1 Thes. v. 9, ' God hath 
not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation.' Here are first, two 
parts of the mercy vouchsafed : 1, deliverance from wrath ; 2, salvation. 
Then the love of the Father in his not appointing us to wrath (and so not 



Chap. IX.] in respect of sin and punishment. 567 

to leave us under it), as well as appointing us to salvation, and both as 
appointments of God, the one as well as the other. 

And then in the second epistle, chap. ii. 13, he provokes them unto 
thankfulness for this, ' But we are bound to give thanks unto God for you, 
who hath from the beginning choson you unto salvation, through sanctifica- 
tion of the Spirit and belief of the truth ; ' which he speaks with reference 
to what was done to others (ver. 12 compared). Let me speak to you then 
in the apostle's language : Oh what thanks are yourselves then bound (if the 
apostle gave them for others) to give unto God for yourselves, to whom God 
hath given faith and holiness, upon both these respects ! 

(2.) To Jesus Christ for that hand which he had in this our deliverance 
from wrath, thus expressly, 1 Thess. i. 10, 'Ye wait for his Son from heaven, 
even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.' Here acain you 
have these two parts of salvation set together. 1. His coming from heaven 
which they waited for with hopes of his carrying them thither, as he tells 
them, chap. iv. 17, ' We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air ; 
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' Then, 2 (which the apostle adds 
with an emphasis), ' Even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.' 
Take in that, too, says he, and forget it not, to endear your Jesus to you ; 
and for ever know him by this character, it is that Jesus who delivered you 
from the wrath to come. It was the Father's work, indeed, to appoint and 
ordain this deliverance, and us unto the benefit of it through faith ; but it 
was our Jesus, his Son's work, to effect and accomplish it ; it was his soul 
that paid for all. 

And the manner or way how he deHvered us from this wrath, heightens 
this his love yet more ; for he delivered us from it by being ' made himself 
a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 23. 

2. The second thing I propounded was, to comfort your souls in the 
consideration of this salvation and deliverance. Thus Christ, Ps. xvi. 9, 10 
for his deliverance, ' Therefore my heart is glad, my flesh also shall rest in 
hope ; for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, thou wilt shew me the path 
of Ufe,' &c. And David in the 49th Psalm, which led on to this, doth com- 
fort himself also, ver. 15, when of wicked men he had said, 'Like sheep 
they are put into hell ' (as some read it), ' Death shall feed on them ; ' he 
then for his own particular comforts himself with this, ' But God shall re- 
deem my soul from the power of hell, for he shall receive me.' And the 
apostle to the Thessalonians, 1st epistle, chap, v., having, ver. 9, set before 
them (as was before opened) that God had not appointed them to wrath, but 
to obtain salvation, he subjoins, ver. 11, ' Wherefoee comfort yourselves 

TOGETHER.' 



END OF VOL. X. 



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