A Treatise of Original Sin

. 1.

This Scripture opened, vindicated and improved against the Doctrine of Free-will.

THis truth cannot be superstructed better, then upon this foundation in the Text, which is a noble ingredient into that famous portion of Scripture, wherein the Doctrine of those sublime mysteries about Election and Reprobation are professedly handled, and those Objections which the presumption of human reason is ready to produce, are fully answered. So that whereas in other places that Doctrine is only occasionally or incidentially handled, here the Apostle doth industriously treat of the nature of it. Thus it hath of old been interpreted, and of late by the Orthodox. Only Arminius following Suecanus in part, and the Remonstrants after Arminius they have excogitated a new Analysis of this Chapter, full of absurdity and impertinencies; for they would not have the Apostle at all to treat of Election and Reprobation of persons, they turn themselves and the Scripture into all shapes and forms to evade that, but they interpret it of a twofold Purpose or Decree of God, The one whereof they say is, That whosoever doth believe shall obtain Justification, Adoption and Salvation: The other, That whosoever seek for righteousness by the works of the Law shall be rejected from all these. This (they say) is the scope of the Apostle: But who seeth not what forcing and wresting this is of Scripture? So that we may wonder, how such an interpretation could come into their mind; for the Apostle doth not speak of Conditions, but of Persons, his scope is not to show, that they are believers who are received, and workers who are rejected. The Apostle had abundantly confirmed this in the fourth Chapter, but he intends to show the Dominion and Sovereignty of God in the eternal disposing of men's persons, and that upon the occasion of God's rejecting the Jews, and calling in the Gentiles. Therefore he saith, To whom he will, he showeth mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth: whom he will] He puts the discrimination upon God's will, not upon any internal qualification in the subject. Also he instanceth in Esau and Jacob before they had done good or evil, whereas if Jacob were considered as a believer, then God did look upon him as having good in him. Further, he bringeth in Pharaoh for an example, how that God did reject him, and whether the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , verse. 17. be rendered, I have raised thee up, or I have kept thee alive in those judgments, and not destroyed thee, as the Remonstrants and others vehemently contend; yea some Orthodox do yield, it will all come to the sense, that he was an object on whom God would demonstrate his power and justice, or kept by God for a while, as some Anatomists do a dead body before they bury it, to gather profitable observations for the good of others: not that God infused any evil in Pharaoh 's heart (though the Scripture useth three words concerning Pharaoh, the one is to confirm or corroborate his heart, and that is ascribed to God seven times. The other is to harden, and that is once (though we render the word to corroborate, to harden. ) The last is, To aggravate or make heavy, which is once likewise ascribed to God, (which is also rendered by our Interpreters to harden, ) not (I say) that this expression denoteth, God did put any sinful frame into Pharaoh 's heart; nor yet on the other side, is it to be understood of a mere bare permission of God, as if he did no more then suffer him by his patience to be hardened, but God as a just Judge did for Pharaoh's sin antecedent justly deny him any molifying grace, leaving him to his lusts, which in such occasions as he had, did break out into a more violent flame; So that the whole blame lay upon Pharaoh himself, not on God; Hence it is, that he is so often said, To harden his own heart. Now this example of Pharaoh could not make at all to Paul 's purpose, if his intent was to prove, that God would reject all such who seek for righteousness by the works of the Law, for Pharaoh was an Heathen, he was ignorant of God's Law, and could not seek for Justification by the works thereof. Besides, if the Apostle did not intend to show God's purpose absolutely and inconditionately (in a well explained sense) about persons, but only his Decree about their qualifications, what occasion was there for Paul to make such an Objection, Is there unrighteousness with God? And then first to objurgate the Objector, Who art thou, O man, that disputest against God? And then returneth a full answer to the Objection, from the less to the greater, from the Potter, who hath power over the same clay to make a vessel of honor or dishonor. These Objections and Answers could have no place in the Remonstrantical Analysis and Interpretation; For who would argue it injustice in God to reject such who did not believe in Christ, but sought for Justification by the Law? If the Apostle did prove only two such Decrees about the ways to salvation and damnation, here was no such mystery transcending human expectation. This is certain, the Remonstrants commend their way of common Election, making the determinate event to be by man himself, in a most plausible and colorable manner, as being most agreeable to human reason and equity. There is no man would dispute against God in this, whereas the other exposition strongly pursued by Austin, and for the dreadfulness of it to flesh and blood, which is ready to call God to an account for his administrations was greatly disliked by many and a scandal to them; Even as at this day, it still meeteth with the same unkind entertainment from Lutherans, Socinians and Arminians, who make an Universal Conditional Election, whereby (they say) God would have all to be saved, even the Calvinists themselves, as they are pleased to instance by derision. Well if this part of Scripture will not convince, I know not what light will, and they must needs be prepossessed, who can let their judgments assent to such a remote and forced explication; Not to add that the Decree which they make about God's rejection of such who seek for Justification by works is false; for did not many Jews following the righteousness of the Law, at last believe in Christ; Was not Paul once zealous for the works of the Law? Yet afterwards an affectionate admirer of the righteousness by faith. But we leave these bold Interpreters who do assume more to themselves in turning the sense of these words this way and that way, then do allow God in the disposing of mankind, as if the Text were like the Potters clay, that they might make a sense of honor and a sense of dishonor.

Come we therefore more particularly to the words in hand, and as appeareth by the illation [So then] they are an inference from Paul 's preceding Discourse; As for those, though men of great Antiquity, who suppose these words spoken not by Paul himself, as in his own person, but in the person of some opponent, it is so weak that it is not worth the resuting; For the Apostle in the beginning of the Chapter, useth great asseveration and atteslation, even with a solemn oath concerning his great affection to the Jews and their salvation, to whom also he attributeth great Church privileges and spiritual prerogatives, and this he doth, because he was to deliver most dreadful matter, which would be exceeding displeasing to that Nation, and which might seem to come from hatred to them: But this Preface is to mollify them: And whereas it might be objected, If a greater part of the Jews, who were once God's people, and to whom the promises did belong, were rejected, how could God's word be true? The Apostle dishtinguisheth of the Israelites, and showeth, that the promise in regard of the spiritual efficacy did belong only to Abraham 's seed after the promise, or who were the children of Abraham in a supernatural way, imita • ing him and walking in his slept; The other were Abraham 's sons after the flesh, not but that they were children of the promise also in respect of the Covenant externally administered, they were circumcised as well as the other, and called Act. 3. The children of the promise, and if this were not so, the Apostle should in the same breath almost have contradicted himself, for he said of the Nation in the general, That to them did belong the Covenants and the Promises: Hence that whole Nation is sometimes called his son, yea his siest born, and son of delights; But though Abraham 's children thus after the flesh, and in some sense of the promise also, yet not in that sense, as the Apostle meaneth here, so as to be the blessed seed, and elected by God in Christ: Hence Paul showeth, That the promises in respect of the efficacy and gracious benefits flewing from them did belong only to the elect; And this he proveth, first from Ishmael and Isaac; And whereas it might be said, Ishmael for his actual impiety deriding of, and persecuting Isaac was rejected, and also that he was born of Hagar a bondwoman; then he further exemplifieth in Esau and Jacob, born both of the same father, and of the same mother, and at the same time, and yet before they had done good or evil; The one even the younger was loved of God, and the Elder to whom the birthright did belong was hated. Whether these instances be propounded as types only (so that for all this both Ishmael and Esau might be elected, as some have charitably thought of Elau, that he repented of his cruel intentions to his brother, changing his mind to him, and so (as they think) dying a converted man, or whether they be propounded as Examples also as well as Types (viz. ) as those persons whom God had excluded from grace, and therefore the Scripture giveth this Character of Esau that he was a profane man,) is not much material. This is enough, that the Discourse of Paul is carried on with great strength: And whereas it might be objected, That God was unrighteous in making such a difference between those that were equal, the Apostle answereth from a Text of Scripture, Exod. 33. 19. where Moses desiring to see the glory of God, God grants his request, giving this reason, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and merciful to whom I will be merciful: Thus even Moses hath that great glory put upon him, even to speak to God face to face, and that not for any worth or dignity in himself, but the mere gracious will of God; Therefore there is no unrighteousness in this act, whereby God receiveth one and leaveth another, because this Assumption is an act of grace and savor, and in things of favor and liberality, there is no injustice: If I meet two poor men equally indigent, and I relieve one passing by the other, there is no injustice in not relieving of him. Now from this expression of God to Moses, the Apostle maketh this inference in my Text, removing all causes and merits of the grace of God from man, and attributing it wholly to God.

In the negation we have a distribution, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. [It is not.] Here is much dispute, what is meant by that? But the Context maketh it evident, that election is not, nor the blessed effects of Election, Conversion, Justification and Salvation. Some also add, The act of volition, It is not of him that willeth to will; for God worketh in us to will: So that all is to be given to God; for Voluntas bons, is one of God's good gifts to us, Nelentem pravenit ut velit, volentem subsequitur ne finstra velit: A good will cannot precede God's gifts, seeing that it self is one of God's gifts.

Not of him that willeth] Here we see plainly the will of man so importent, yea so polluted by sin, that it cannot put itself forth to any good.

Again, It is not of him that runneth.] The Remonstrants limit this too much (as if it were) an allusion to Esau, who neither by running (when he wearied himself in hunting for venision;) nor by willing (when with tears he so earnestly desired the blessing) could obtain it; for the Scripture doth usually compare Christianity to a race, and our conversation to a running. So that it is neither our inward willing, or outward performing of duties, (though with much industry,) that make us obtain this grace from God: Not that we are to sit still and to be idle, but we are to wait on the means only, it's God's grace not our wills which do make us holy and happy. Therefore you have the positive cause of all, But it is of God that showeth mercy,] It is then the mere mercy and compassion of God, which maketh a diffrence between men lying in the same sin and misery; he speaketh not of justifying mercy, adopting mercy, but of electing mercy, converting and calling mercy. This discriminating power and grace of God doth evidently appear everywhere, there being two in a family, one taken, the other left; Two hearing a Sermon, one humbled and converted, the other remaining blind and obdurate; If to this it be replied, that the meaning is, It is not of the will alone, nor of him that runneth alone, but of God's mercy also, then (as Austin of old did solidly observe) it might as truly be said, That it is not of God that showeth mercy, but of him that willeth and runneth; And this is very absurd, Pia aures non ferunt, Godly ears (saith Aquinas on this place) would not endure it; and Newe Christianus dicere andebit, (said Austin. ) The weightiness of the matter hath made me thus long in opening the Text: We come to the Observation, viz.

That the will of man is so greatly defiled by sin, that we cannot obtain any spiritual mercy by it. It's the grace of God, the compassion of God that maketh thee abhor thy sins, and close with that which is holy, thy will is naturally an enemy and an adversary to it; Should God let thee alone, till thou come to meet him, thy condition would be hopeless; The will of a man naturally stands at a defiance against the things of God; else why is it, that under such means of grace that many enjoy, why is it that when there are so many invitations and expostulations that the understanding and conscience is convinced, that cannot tell what to say, yet the will of a man is obstinate and refractory?

. 2.

The Will is so fallen from its primitive honor, that it's not worthy to be called Will but Lust.

LEt us take notice of the great depravation of the will. And

First, It is seen in this, That it is so fallen from its primitive honor, That it is no more worthy to be called voluntas but cupiditas, not will, but lust. For the will signifieth a rational appetite following the dictates of reason, but our will doth not, cannot do so, and therefore as she said, Call me no more Naomi, but Marah; So it is here, Call it no more a will, but a lust; and thus the Scripture doth by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mean lust, Ephes. 2. 3. Fulfilling the desires, or lusts of the flesh; (The wills, as it is in the original, 1 Pet. 4. 3.) To work the will of the Gentiles, is explained by walking in lusts; and verse. 2. the lusts of men, which is nothing but their wills is opposed to the will of God; Thus those that will be rich, 1 Tim 6. 9. that will to be rich, is a sin against that command, Thou shalt not lust. Oh then think seriously of this, my will is become a lust, my virgin an whore, I cannot will anything, but it is a lusting after it rather then a willing of it! It is not willing of riches, but lusting after them; not willing of honors, but lusting after them; we call it a lust not a will, because it doth excessively (and beyond Scripture-bounds) will a thing neither doth it will with subordination and reference to God's glory. Thus a man's will is his lust.

. 3.

The Will is wholly perverted about the Ultimate End.

ALthough the will of man be subject to more defilements, then the body of a man is exposed to diseases, yet I shall briefly select some of the more remarkable instances. And

First, Herein is the natural sinfulness of the will manifested, In that it is wholly perverted about the ultimate end, which is the proper and adequate object of it; God is the supreme and ultimate end of the will: Therefore were our souls endowed with this noble faculty, that the will might firmly and immovably adhere to him; That as the elements have their proper principles of motion, whereby they never rest, till they come to their center, or ultimate term in which they wholly acquiesce; Thus also if we respect the primitive institution, the will was given us for such a principle which should carry us out constantly to the enjoying of God. But oh the sad perversion and inordinacy that is now come upon this chief power of the soul, for now a man's self is put into God's room; So that whereas God was the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of a man's will; Now a man's self is made his god, he willeth himself, he loveth himself, all things are done in reference to himself, as the utmost end: So that this self-seeking, this self-loving is the root of all other iniquities; when the Apostle was to reckon up a Catalogue of manifold notorious impieties, 2 Tim. 3. 2. he reckons up men, lovers of themselves, as the bitter root of all wormwood springing from it; you cannot reckon up any sin, whether spiritual or carnal, that doth not flow from this, because a man doth inordinately will, and love himself; That as Aristotle reporteth of one Antipheron, which through the weakness of his eyes, the very air was instead of a Looking-glass, making a constant reflection, so that he saw himself, beheld himself all the day long; Thus it is with the will, all the motions and actings of it are only to self-glory, self-pleasure, self-profit, &c. whereas at first the will was created so subordinate to God, that it did will the glory, and honor, and blessedness of God infinitely above its own self; If they could say to David, Thou art worth ten thousand of us, how much more could Adam in the state of integrity say unto God, that his Name, his Glory and Majesty were to be esteemed and set up far above the good of all men and Angels. Austin observeth truly, That those two Cities, Jerusalem and Babel, of God and the Devil, had these two contrary foundations, Babel had Amor sui usque, and Contemptum Dei, The love of a man's self, even to the contempt of God and Jerusalem, The love of God, even to the contempt of a man's self: Oh then look upon this as the Goliath -sin, as the Beelzebub -evil in thy will, that it cannot, it doth not anything, but excessively will and love it self to the contempt of, and rebellion against God! The Command of God is, To love him with all our heart, soul, and might, and to love our neighbor also, but there is no injunction to love ourselves; Indeed that is supposed as a duty, when a man's self is made the rule and measure of love to our neighbor: Some think the reason why there is no express command to love ourselves, is, because that is required in loving of God, because he only loveth himself that loveth God, and in loving of God we love ourselves; whereas when we love ourselves for ourselves sake, not subordinately to God, we do indeed hate ourselves, procuring our self damnation. Let us then bewail this fall of the will by original sin from God into its self, whereby we will our own glory rather then God's; our own interest then the great God's, who yet giveth us all we have; This is to break the order which the wise and holy will of God hath immutably ordained, viz. the submission and subjection of the creature to the Creator.

. 4.

The Privacy and Propriety of the Will.

SEcondly, Another extensive and powerful defilement of the will is a consequent from the former, viz. The Privacy and Propriety of it; For whereas by the primitive Institution our will is to be commensurated and regulated by the will of God; now it naturally abhorreth and refuseth any such agreement, as if our will were to take place of God's will, as if the prayer were that our will (not God's will) might be done; In this is an Abyss of all evil, that our will naturally inclineth to be independent on God's will; we would have that a measure and rule even to God's will, that God should not will, but what we would have: Oh horrible blasphemy and confusion! for the human will of the Lord Christ was not a rule and measure of things to be done, being the will of a creature, therefore he prayeth, Not my will, but thy will be done, Luk. 26. 39. If then Christ's human will was to be regulated by that superior and increated will, how much more is the will of a sinful and corrupt man; This then is that which maketh the whole soul like a Blackmoor; This is the essence (as it were) of all sin; A man's own will, not God's will is regarded, but a man's own proper will is wholly followed, we would give Laws to God, and not God to us; Whensoever thy heart is carried out to lusts, to any wickedness, What is this but to exalt thy will, and to depress the will of God? Hath God said, Be not proud? thou wilt be proud: Hath God said, Swear not? thou wilt swear: Thus all sin is nothing but a man's own will lifted up against the will of God: No wonder then if one said, Cesset voluntas propria & non ardebit g • henna; Let there be no longer our own will, and there will be no longer any hell; It's this proper private will of ours that was the cause of hell: Adam and Eve they preferred their will before God's will, and that brought in death and damnation: Therefore regeneration is the writing of God's Law in our hearts, whereby we come to say, as Christ, I come to do thy will O God, and Paul immediately upon his conversion saith, Lord what wilt thou have me do, he giveth up his will as a blank on which God may write his will, O Lord there shall not be any longer my will to persecute, my will to oppose thy Church, I will break this will of mine, renounce this will of mine: Thus as a vessel melted in the fire may be put into any form or fashion the artificer pleaseth, so was it with Paul 's will: This proper private will of thine, likewise maketh all the trouble and misery thou meetest with; it is thy own will that maketh thee to walk so heavily and discontentedly, for were thy will resigned up into God's, were thou able to say in all things, the will of the Lord be done, I have no will, but what God would have me to exercise; this would keep thee in a quiet calm frame all the day long, whereas now all the dispute and contention is, whether thy will or God's will must give place to each other. Oh vain and wretched man! how long shall this self-will of thine be thy ruin; Is it not reason that the will of the creature should give place to the will of the Creator, as the stars do not appear, when the Sun beginneth to arise.

. 5.

The Pride and Haughtiness of the Will.

THirdly, The great and notable pollution of the Will, Is the pride and haughtiness of it, not only refusing subjection to the Will of God, and to be under that, (as hath been shown) but in some remarkable particulars.

The first whereof is, an affectation of equality with God himself. Thus the will of a poor weak wretch, that cannot turn a white hair into black, whose breath is in his nostrils, that hath the same originals for his body as a worm hath, yet the aspireth after a Deity, and would be like God himself. As

1. in attempting to make gods, and then to worship them. What pride and vanity is in man to take upon him to make what he intends to worship; so that what man pleaseth shall be a god, and what pleaseth him not shall be none, Deus non erit Deus nisi homini placuerit. Thus whereas God at first made man after his image now man maketh God after his image; Besides the horrible blindness that is upon the mind in this thing, there is also pride and arrogancy of the will; what is this but to assume superiority over their own gods, which yet they worship, and adore? But

2. This pride of the will is more conspicuously manifested, In affecting to be like the true God, not to endure him to be a superior above us: While our first parents had not any internal pollution at all upon them, yet this sin did presently insinuate them, whereby they aspired after a Deity: therefore the Devil tempted them with this suitable bait, Ye shall be like God's knowing good and evil: That sin of Adam hath still a more peculiar impression upon mankind: Whence came that abominable and blasphemous custom into the world of deifying men, (which they called Daimons, ) but from that inbred pride of the will, desiring to be like God▪ Ezek. 28. 2. Thus it was with that Prince of Tyrus, he lifted up himself and said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, thou hast ser thine heart as the heart of God; What detestable and loath some arroganacy is here? Oh the patience of God, that doth not immediately consume such a wretch, as he did Herod who sinned not so highly, for he did not proclaim he was God only the people by way of flattering cried out the voice of God, and not of man, which because he did not disclaim but secretly owned, therefore was such a remarkable punishment inflicted upon him. We see from these instances what pride lurketh in man's will, there is the cockatrice egg which may quickly prove to be a flying Serpent: This pride is thought also to be the sin of the Devil, whereby he was not contented with the station God had put him, but was ambitious of a divine nature, as if he with Christ might think it no robbery to be equal with God. This unspeakable arrogancy did show itself notoriously in some great Potentates of the world, Gaius Caesar especially, (for which cause Grotius though absurdly maketh him to be the Antichrist ) that did exalt himself above all that is called God. This madness of pride was as visible in Alexander, who though sometimes through the consciousness of human imbecility (as when he was wounded and saw blood fall from him) would refuse such a thought, yet at other times he did industriously affect to be related among the number of the God's, and to have divine worship performed to him, and as the son of Jupiter, Hammon, would be pictured with horns, and Jupiter's Priest meeting of him instead of that form, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , did purposely mistake, saying, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hail thou son of Jupiter; yea, he sends into Greece, that by a public Edict, he might be acknowledged for a god, which the Lacedemonians in scoff did without scruple admit, saying, Qundoquidem Alexander vult esse Deus, Deus esto; Seeing Alexander will be god, let him be one: But the Athenians being more scrupulous, or at least of greater hatred against him, punished Demades the Orator for advising them to receive him as god; for he had said, Look (Oye Athenians) Ne dum coelum custodies terram amittatis, while ye keep heaven ye loose the earth: This carnal counsel, is admired as infallible policy almost by all the Potentates of the world; Thus you see what pride is latent in the will of a man, and how far it may rise by temptations; though the experience of human imbecillities may quickly rebuke such mad insolencies, yet some excuse or other they use to put it off, as when it thundered, one asked Alexander, wheather he could do so; he put it of, and said, he would not terrify his friends: if you say this corruption of the will is not in every man by nature, I grant it for the degree, but it is habitually and radically there. Let any man be put in such temptations, as Herod and Alexander were, and left alone to this inbred pride and original pollution, it would break out into as great a flame: Original sin needeth time to conceive, and bring forth its loathsome monsters.

3. This pride of the will is seen, In the presumption and boldness of it, to inquire into the consels of his Majesty, and to call God himself to account for his administrations. Rom. 9. 20, who art thou (O man) that disputest against God? [O man,] that is spoken to humble and debase him; Wilt thou call God to an account? Shall God be thought unjust, because thou canst not comprehend his depths? Certainly God hath more power over us then the Potter over his clay, for the Potter doth not make the materials of that, he only tempreth it, whereas God giveth us our very beings; and therefore it is intolerable impudency for us to ask God, why he made us so? yet how proud and presumptousis man, to dispute about God's precedings, whereas the great Governors of the world will not allow any Subject to say, why dost thou so to them? The Psalmist complaineth of this pride in some men, Psal. 12. 4. Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? Thus Pharaoh said to Moses, who is the Lord that I should obey him? This pride in the will, whereby men will audaciously intrude into things they know not, hath made these heretics in judgments, the Pelagians and Socinians, Their will doth not captivate their understanding to God's Ipse dixit, for us the Schoolmen observe truly, in every act of faith, there is required pia affectio, and inclinatio voluntatis, and when that is refractory and unsubmitting, it causeth many damnable heresies in the judgment; for it is the pertinency of the will, that doth greatly promote the making of an heretic.

Lastly, This pride of the will is seen, In raging and rebellious risings up against God in his proceedings against us. In this the pride of the will doth sadly discover itself, what rage, what fretting and discontent do we find in our hearts, when God's will is to chastise or afflict us? If we could bind the arms of the Omnipotent to prevent his blows, how ready is presumptuous man to do it? It is therefore a great work of regeneration to mollity and soften the will, to make it sacile and ductile, so as to be in what form God would have us to be. When David had such holy power over his will, 2 Sam. 15. 26, that in his miserable flight from Absalom, he could say, If ye have no delight in me, behold here I am, let him do to me as seemeth good to him; he could abound and want, be rich and poor, a king and no king all in a day, this argued the great work of sanctification upon his will. This iron was now in the fire, and so could be molleated as God would have it; Thus in the fore mentioned instance of Paul, when he cried out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Here was a tender humble resignative of the whole will to God, without any conditions or provisoes; But oh the pride and unruliness of the will, if left to its natural pollution! When God shall any ways bring his judgments upon us, how impatiently do we rise against God, even as if we would be revenged of his Majesty? As it is said of the Thracians, when it thundereth and lighteneth, they shoot against heaven, as if they would bring God to order. Xerxes scourged the sea, and sent a Bill of defiance against the hill of Athos. Augustus being beaten with a tempest at sea, defied their god Neptune, and caused his image to be taken down from the place where the rest of their gods were. Yea Charron speaketh of a Christian King, who having received a blow from God, swore be would be revenged, and gave a commandment, that for ten years no man should pray to him, or speak of him; I tremble to mention these dreadful instances, but they are useful to demonstrate, what pride and unsubdued contumacy is in the will of man, even against God himself, when he crosseth us of our wills: Yea do not the godly themselves though grace hath much mollified their will, and made it in a great measure obsequious to God, yet do they not mourn, and pray, and groan under the pride of their will? do they not complain, oh they cannot bring their will to God's will! They cannot be content and patient under God's dispensations, they fret, they mutter, they repine. Is not all this because the will is proud, the will doth not submit? Heavenly skill and art to order thy will, would make thee find rest in every estate.

. 6.

The Contumacy and Refractoriness of the Will.

ANother instance of the native pollution of the will is, The contumacy and refrractioness of the will, it is obstinate and inpenetrable; The Scripture useth the word heart for the mind, will and conscience not attending to philosophical distinctions, so that the stony heart, the uncircumcised heart, is the same with a stubborn and disobedient will. Thus the Scripture putteth the whole cause of a man's not conversion, of his not repenting upon the resractory will in a man especially, Levite. 26. 14. If ye will not hearken to me, and will not do these Commandments, verse 18. If ye will not for all this hearken to me, verse. 23. If ye will not be reformed, but will walk contrary to me; Observe how all is put upon the will, so that if their will had been pliable and ready, then the whole work of Conversion and Reformation had been accomplished; So Matth. 21. 29. The disobedient son returneth this answer to his father, I will not. This contumacy therefore of the will may be called the bad tree, that is the cause of all thy bad fruit; A regenerated will, a sanctified will, would make thee prepared for every good work. It is for want of this that all preaching is in vain, all God's mercies, and all judgments are in vain; Why should not the hammer of God's word break it? Why should not the fire of it melt it? but because the stubbornness of the will is so great, that it will not receive any impression, 'tis called therefore a stony heart, not an iron heart, for iron by the fire may be mollified and put into any shape, but a stone will never melt, it will sooner break into many pieces, and fly in the face: Thus the will of a man hath naturally that horrible hardness and refractoriness, that instead of loving and embracing the holy things of God, it doth rather rage and hate with all abomination such things.

. 7.

The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to God's Will.

IN the second place, That imbred sinful propriety of the will, which accompanieth it, as heat doth fire, is, The enmity and contrariety of the will to God's will; There is not only a privative incapacity, but a positive contrariety, even as between fire and water; God's will is an holy will, thine is unholy; God's will is pure, thine is impure; God's will is carried out to will his own glory, honor and greatness, thine is carried out to will the dishonor and reproach of God: Thus as God's will is infinitely good, and the cause of all good, so in some sense, thy will is infinitely evil, and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into; Therefore when the Apostle saith, That the carnal mind is enmity against God, Rom. 8. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections, as well as of the mind; It is enmity in the very abstract, so that it is neither subject to God, nor can be: Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts, for what tongue can express the misery of this, that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God, that it should be diametrically opposite to God's will, which at first was made so amicable and compliant with God's will, that there was the Idem velle, and Idem nolle. Besides, many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein: For

1. God's will and his law, which is his will objectively taken, are absolutely in themselves very good, and therefore the proper object of thy will; So that if thy will be carried out to anything in the world, it should be carried out to God's Law above anything: This is to be willed above any created good whatsoever, How is it that thou canst will pleasures, profits and such created good things, and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good, but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good, to contradict and withstand it, this is the heinous aggravation? Could there be a Summum malum, it would be in the will, because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum? Herein man's will, and the Devils will, do both agree, that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against God's will: If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth, and thou hadst no other work to do, but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular, thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean, and little crumbs in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore. But

Secondly, This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in itself is the chiefest good, but relatively it would be so to thee, and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable. What to be carried out with unspeakable hatred, to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness, who can bewail this enough? To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation, with much readiness and joy to will them, and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things, which if willed and embraced would make thee happy to all eternity: Oh miserable and wretched man, thy condition is far more lamentable then that of the beasts, for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves, and to desire such things as are wholesome to them, but thou art naturally inclining to will and embrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery! What is the cause that thy will cannot embrace the Law of God? Why art thou so contrary to it? Alas there is no just reason can be given, but original sin is like an occult quality in thy will, making an Antipathy in it against the same; so that thou doest not love what is holy, neither art thou able to say, Why? only thou dost not love it; yea, there is the greatest reason in the world, and all the word of God requireth it likewise, that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it, but there is no other cause of this evil will, then the evil of it; It is evil, and therefore cannot abide that which is good.

. 8.

The Rebellion of the Will against the light of the mind, and 〈◊〉 slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man.

THirdly, The original pollution of the will is seen in the rebellion of it against the light of the mind, and the slavery of it to the sensitive part in a man, to the carnal and sinful affections therein: Both which do sadly proclaim how the will is by nature out of all holy order, and fallen from its primitive integrity; For in the former respect therefore did God give us reason, that by the light and guidance thereof, the will should proceed to its operations; So that for the will to move itself before it hath direction from the mind, is like the servant that would set upon business before his master commands him, like an unnatured dog, that runneth before his master do set him on: To will a thing first, and afterwards to exercise the mind about it, is to set the earth where Heaven should be: But oh the unspeakable desolation that is brought upon the soul in this very particular! The will stayeth for no guidance, expecteth no direction, but willeth because it will, what is suitable and agreeable to the corrupt nature thereof, that it embraceth be it never so destructive and damning; God made the mind at first, that it could say like the Centurion, I bid the will go and it goeth; the affections move, and they move; but now the inferior soldier biddeth the Centurion go and he goeth; This then is the great condemnation of the will, that though light come in upon it, yet it loveth not the light, but rebelleth against it; and this sinfulness of the will is more palpably discovered under the means of grace, and the light of the Gospel, then under the light of nature merely, for such are said comparatively to sit in darkness, and to have no light; The more then the light of the Gospel doth appear, the more any beams of truth do gloriously shine into thy breast, and thou for all this gain-sayest them, livest against them, the more is thy will in a sin. This then doth greatly aggravate the polluted nature of the will, that it can contradict the powerful arguments of the soul, when it was made subordinate to knowledge, then to become tyrannical and usurping over it, this argueth the will hath a peculiar infection in it, insomuch that if it had never so much light, yet that would be evil, because it will be evil. I know there are many learned men, that say, The will cannot but follow the practical dictate of the understanding; There is (say they) a natural connection between them, so that if the will at any time offend, it is because the light and conviction of the mind is faint and inefficacious: But this opinion doth greatly retract from the nature of grace, and the nature of our original sin, from grace, as if that did sanctify the understanding and affections only, and from original sin, as if that were not seated in the will, but in the other parts only, whereas the will of a man may be called the throne of wickedness, because from it properly all sins have their rise and being; Do we not see this plainly in the Devils, who are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , greatly knowing and understanding, yet no Devil is able to will what is good, but willeth to sin always, and cannot resrain it; How cometh this about? They do not want knowledge, they are not capable of sins of ignorance, and yet with what irreconcilable enmity is the Devil set against that which is good, insomuch that he cannot all the day long, but will those things that are offensive to God. Although they know this is to their eternal torment; By which you see how depraved and poisoned without Christ the will is, though the understanding meet it like an Angel to stop this Balaam in wicked and unjust ways: Never then plead ignorance, or plead passions, for it is the defect and wickedness of the will that makes thee so vile; But as the will in the upper region (as it were) is so much polluted, so in the lower region also; for if we consider it as bordering upon the affections, there we shall find as horrible a sin daily committed, as when God's Law sorbids a woman to fall down before a beast; for when the will, which is in itself a rational appetite, shall make itself like one of the vile affections and passions; what is this but a spiritual and unclean lust with a beast; Lay then this more to heart than thou doest; Think how horrid a sight it would be, if thy body should become like a beasts, and thou go on the ground as that doth, what would then become of that Os sublime? And is not this as bad, when thy will is made a vassal to every inordinate affection? Thou willest what thy passions call for, yet thus it is with everyone till grace doth elevate the will, and set it in its proper throne.

. 9.

The Mutability and Inconstancy of the Will.

FOurthly, The mutability and inconstancy of the will about what is holy, is a great part of the original desolation upon it. It is true, Adam 's will was mutable at the first Creation, though he had full power and perfection to stand, yet because his will was changeable, therefore he fell from his holy estate, and no wonder that Adam 's will was mutable, for the will of the Angels so greatly transcending man in glory, was also vertible and changeable, so that to have the will confirmed in what is good, that it cannot fall into the contrary condition, is a blessed and gracious privilege vouchsafed by God alone; Therefore there are no men, though never so much sanctified, but their wills would make them fall off from God, did not God outwardly support him. This natural mutability is in the will, because it's the will of a creature, only the will of God is immutable and unchangeable, and this is only a negative imperfection, it is not a sin, but the inconstancy and changeableness that I now mention is a sinful and corrupt one. This mutability of the will and instability, discovers itself in these particulars,

1. In some great fears or judgments of God upon a man, then though he hath no more but nature, yet his will doth sometimes seem to yield, and to melt before God. Thus Pharaob 's will, Ahab 's will, did abate of their contumacy while the heavy rod of God was upon them, but how quickly did they lick up their vomit again? When the iron was taken out of the fire, it grew as cold as ever; And is not this inconstant will the ruin of many? Oh that thou hadst such a will always, as thou hadst in such straits, in such extremities, then how happy wouldst thou be!

2. This inconstancy of thy will appeareth to thy undoing, When in some Ordinance the Word preached, the Sacrament administered or reproof applied to thee, then thou beginnest to yield, then thou sayest, I will do it, I will be so no more, I will become new, but these April showers hold for a season, the winter will come when all will be frost and snow. Mat. 21. 29. One of those sons, who said to his father, I go, sir, seeming to be very willing; (whereas on the other side, I will not, ) did quickly falsify his Word; So that he who refused at first, proved better then he that seemed so forward, and thus truly it falleth out sometimes, that the later end is far better of some, who for a long while say, they will not, that are stubborn and rebellious, but God afterwards maketh them to will, then of such who give many fair promises, now they will, and then they will, in such sickness they will, in such a powerful motion they will, but afterwards they will not.

3. The sinful inconstancy of the will about holy things, is, When after a ready and willing profession of Christ, in times of temptation and great extremities then they fall off, and their fall is great. This is because the will was not resolved and fixed, that whatsoever should fall out, yet they would not treacherously depart from God, Act. 11. 23. Barnabas exhorted the Disciples, That with purpose of heart they should cleave to God, otherwise if the will be not steadfast and resolved, every temptation is able to drive it back.

Lastly, The lazy, sluggish and half-desires of the will about good things, manifest the inconstancy of it. Jam. 1. A double-minded man, (and so a double-willed man) is inconstant in all his ways; when the will is divided between the creature and the Creator; or when like the sluggard, he desireth meat, but will not put forth his hand out of his bosom, he willeth and willeth, but never doth effectually set himself upon working: This man is like a reed that is tossed up and down with every wind. Many more sinful affections might be named, for they are like the motes in the air, or the sand upon the sea shore; But let this suffice, because more will then be discovered, when we speak of the slavery of it to evil, having no freedom to will what is good. Only let this Truth be like a coal of fire fallen upon thy heart, let it kindle a divine flame in thy breast, consider this corrupt will is the root of all evil; If thy will were changed, if thy will were turned to God, this would bring the whole man with it: Oh pray to God, to master thy will, to conquer thy will? Say, O Lord, though it be too hard for me, yet it is not for thee; Remember hell will be the breaking of thy corrupt will; Thou that wouldst not do God's will here, shall not have thy will in anything when in hell.

. 1.

HItherto we have been discovering the vast and extensive pollution of the will, in its Originals and Naturals, both in the several operations and affections of it; The next thing in order is, To treat of the will in regard of its state, as in freedom of servitude, about which so many voluminous Controversies have been agitated: And indeed a sound judgment in the point of Free will is of admirable consequence to advance Christ, and the grace of the Gospel; For whosoever do obscure the glory thereof, they lay their foundation here; They praise nature to the dispraise of grace, and exalt God as a Creator, to the prejudice of Christ as a Redeemer.

Although it is not my purpose to go with this Point as many miles as the Controversy would compel me, yet because the Doctrine of Free-will is so plausible to flesh and blood, that in all Ages of the Church it hath had its professed Patrons; And because the cause of Christ and the Gospel is herein interested, and further, because it is of a great practical concernment to know what a slavery and bondage is upon the will of man to sin; it will be necessary and profitable (in some measure) to enlarge upon it; for there is scarce one in a thousand, but is pussed up with his own power and strength, so that he feeleth not the want of grace.

. 2.

This last mentioned Scripture opened.

THis Text I have pitched upon will be a good and a sure foundation for the superstruction of our future Discourse; For Austin in his hot disputes with the Pelagians about the freedom of the will to what is good, doth often fly to this Text, as a sure Sanctuary: And Calvin (gravely upon this Discourse of our Savior) saith, Eunt nunc Papistae (we may add Arminians and Socinians) & liberum arbitrium factuose extollunt, &c. Let them presumptuously exalt free will, but we being conscious of our own bondage, do glory in Christ only our Redeemer: Though Maldonado is pleased to censure this expression of Calvin, us Sententia digna verberibus, vel igne.

Let us therefore take notice of the Coherence, and we will go no higher then to the 30 ^th verse, where we have specified a blessed and fruitful event upon Christ's Discourse, concerning his Person and Office, For as he spake those words, many believed on him; not by their own natural ability and power, but the Father did draw them by his omnipotent and efficacious grace: Christ while he spake to the ear did also reach to the heart; he did not only preach, but could enable the hearer also to believe, herein exceeding all Pastors and Teachers that ever were in the Church of God; Christ plants and watereth, and giveth the increase likewise all of himself; Yea Christ seemeth here to sow his seed upon the high way, and among thorns and stones, yet some seed cometh up and prospereth well.

Upon this we have the love and care of Christ mentioned to these new Converts, he immediately watereth these plants, and swadleth these new born Infants that they may not miscarry; This is seen in the counsel suggested to them, where you have, The Duty supposed, and the admirable Privilege issuing from it▪ The Duty supposed, If ye continue in my Word; It is not enough to begin, unless there be perseverance. It is not enough to receive Christ and his Word, unless we abide therein and have our ears (as it were) bored, never to depart from such a Master; The neglect of this maketh all that dreadful Apostasy, and those sad scandals to Religion, which in all Ages do terribly break forth, Except ye abide in Christ, as well as be in him, we shall fall short in the wilderness, and not be able to enter into Canaan.

It is also observable, that Christ saith, If ye abide in my Word; it must be the true Doctrine of Christ; it must be what he hath delivered, which denoteth two things:

1. That heresy and error can no ways make to our Christian-Discipleship, they cannot set us at liberty from any lust or sin; and therefore no wonder if you see men of corrupt judgments at last fall into sinful and corrupt practices; For the word of God is only the instrument and instituted means of sanctification, Sanctify them by thy word, Joh. 17.

2. Hereby we see the necessity of the Ministry of it; by the preaching of God's word they are first brought to believe, and after that are continually to depend on it; The Ministry is both for the begetting of grace, and the increase of it; Those that despise and neglect the Word preached, do greatly demonstrate they never got any good by it.

The consequent Privilege upon this continuance in the Word, is to be Christ's Disciples indeed; From whence we have a distinction of a Disciple in appearance and show, or profession only, and a Disciple indeed. There were many that became Christ's Disciples in profession only, they followed him for a season, but afterwards forsook him, which caused our Savior so much in his Parables and Sermons to press them upon a pure. thorough and deep work of grace upon their souls: The title without reality will be no advantage. Musculus observeth, That Christ useth the Present tense, Then are ye my Disciples indeed; From whence he gathers,

But Beza maketh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as in other places; and if so, then it must be thus understood, That our Perseverance in grace doth not make grace to be true, but doth demonstrate and evidence the Truth; such will appear to be stars indeed fixed in the firmament, when others like blazing Comets will quickly vanish away: But this is not all the Privilege, there is a twofold mentioned in the next verse,

First, Ye shall know the truth; when they did at first believe the Word, they did know the Truth in some measure, but now their knowledge should be more evident, clear, and increasing; And indeed the godly they do so grow in knowledge about heavenly things, that they account their former knowledge even nothing at all.

The second Privilege is, The truth shall make them free; Every man (till regenerated) is in bondage and captivity, to blindness in his mind, to lust in hiswill; And there is nothing can set us at liberty from this dungeon and prison, but the grace of God by the Word preached.

But no sooner is this Privilege spoken of, then it stirreth up the Cavils and Objections of some that heard it, They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man, How then doest thou say, Ye shall be made free? Some think, That those who are said to believe did argue thus; But this seemeth very harsh; Therefore no doubt some others that were in the multitude, that did not believe, they were offended at this speech of our Savior's, and therefore dispute against it, arrogating to themselves both a Native freedom, We are Abraham's seed; and also an actual one, We were never in bondage to any man. This expression exerciseth Interpreters very much, for whether by [We] they mean their Ancestors or Themselves, living at that time; It is plain, at first they were in bondage in Egypt, afterwards in Babylon, and at that present in bondage to the Roman Empire, How then could they affirm such a notorious lie, that they were never in bondage to any man? Some say, They mean of such vassals and slaves, as sometimes in war are taken and sold to others: Now (though the Israelites were often conquered, and brought under the power of others, yet) they were never sold slaves, and so not in bondage in that sense. Others say, They do not speak of a Civil, or Public, and State-Liberty, but (as it were) a religious and holy freedom; For, though they were in civil bondage, yet they glorified in Abraham 's seed, and the religious freedom thereby in respect of God's favor. So Hensius (in his Aristarchus Sacer. upon this place,) They (saith he) who spake this, did attend to the Law and Covenant, for such who obeyed the Law, they called free. Hence they had a paradoxal Proverb, None unless he exercise himself in the study of the Law, is to be accounted a free man; And, Qui observat legem esse Regem, even as the Stoics say of their wise man. Sixtus Senesis maketh these words to be spoken by some of the Galileans, who would never own any foreign power, but did choose rather to die, then to make such an acknowledgement. That which many pitch upon is,

Although Calvin well addeth, They might have a pretence for what they said, as if the Roman power did by force reign over them, and therefore that they were ( de jure) free.

But our Savior speaking of one kind of freedom and slavery, and they of another, he doth in the next verse more particularly open his meaning, and withal layeth a foundation to prove, That though they boasted and gloried in their freedom, yet they were indeed servants and slaves; This he proveth by that universal Proposition, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin; You must lay an Emphasis in that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is not to be understood of every actual committing of sin, but of the willful, habitual and constant committing of it: And thus though great men may boast in their Sovereignty they have over many others; though they may glory in multitude of servants, yet if they be overcome by any one vice, they be the vilest slaves and vassals of all, Quot vitia, tot Domini, so many vices, so many Lord's: Now original sin that is a Lord and Master to everyone, that reigneth over all mankind; some actual sins enslave one man, and some another; but original sin doth every man; yea though the godly are (in some measure) freed from the dominion of it, yet it keepeth up a tyrannical dominion over the most holy, as appeareth Rom. 7. by that complaint of Paul, He could not do the good he would, because he was sold under sin.

This foundation then being laid, our Savior showing the difference between a servant and a son, doth in my Text suppose,

1. A necessity of everyone till sanctified to be made free.

2. The Manner how. And

3. That this is freedom indeed.

The Necessity supposed is, If the Son make them free; Though he speaketh this to those Jews who were in a twofold bondage to sin, original and actual; natural and voluntary, yet this is to be applied to every man that is not in the state of regeneration, He hath no liberty or freedom of will to do what is good, but is a vassal to all sin; sin is the lusts thereof do prevail-over him, so that he hath neither will or power to come out of this bondage.

2. There is the Manner how, or the Person by whom we obtain true liberty, If the Son make you free. In some Cities the elder brother had power to adopt sons, and so to make free, however Christ is therefore called the Redeemer, because he doth obtain spiritual freedom for his people, and that not only in respect of the guilt of sin freeing from that; which grace of Christ the Pelagians did acknowledge (and would constantly interpret my Text in this sense only) but also the power of sin by inherent Sanctification and Renovation of the whole man; and of this freedom the Text doth here principally speak, not so much the freedom from the guilt of sin; by justifying grace, as from the power of sin by sanctifying grace.

3. You have the Commendation of this spiritual liberty, it is called freedom indeed, implying, that though they had never so much civil freedom, never so much dominion and power, yet if servants to sin, they were in the vilest bondage that could be: Civil freedom is thought to be so great a good, that it can never be prized enough; Therefore the Rabbins have a saying, That if the Sea were ink, and the world parchment, it would never serve enough to contain the praises of liberty. The Scripture informeth us, how great an honor it was accounted to be free of Rome, but if all this while men are captivated either to personal sins, or to sins of the nature, they remain in worse bondage, then ever any Gally-slaves were in; The people of Israel in their iron furnace and house of bondage did cry and groan for a Redeemer; but this is the unspeakable evil of this soul-bondage, that we delight in it, that we rejoice in it; all our endeavor and care is, that we may not be set at liberty, and have these chains taken off us. From this explication observe,

That no man hath any liberty or freedom of will to what is good, till Christ by his grace hath made him free. We do not by freedom of will obtain grace, but by grace we obtain freedom of will: So that by the Scripture we have not any true ground for a liberum, arbitrium, but a liberatum in spiritual things; There is no such thing as a free-will, but a freed will in a passive sense, and tunc est liberum, when it is liberatum, as Austin; Then it's actively free, when it is first passively made free, Rom. 6. 16. Being made free from sin; He doth not say, you have made yourselves free, but ye are made frre by the grace of Christ. And again, verse. 22. Ye are now made free from sin; and Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death: By which expressions is implied, 1. That all men till sanctified are in an absolute vassalage and thralldom to sin. And, 2. That it is only the grace of Christ that doth deliver from this bondage. It is Christ not our own will that maketh us free.

3

Of the several Kinds of Freedom which the Scripture speaketh of.

TO enter into the depths of this Doctrine, Consider, What kinds of freedom the Scripture speaketh of, and which is applicable to our purpose. The Schools have vast disputes about liberty and free-will, What it is, whether a compounded faculty or a simple one; and whether a faculty, or habit, or act; especially they digladiate about the definition of free-will, what it is; but if anything shall be thought necessary to be said in this point, it may be pertinently brought in, when we shall answer such Objections as the Patrons of nature do use to bring in the behalf of Free-will: only it is good to know, that in the Scripture we find a civil liberty and a spiritual liberty spoken of, a civil liberty; Thus bond and free are often opposed, Ephes. 6. 8. Col. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 22. But this is not to the Text, nor to our purpose; Therefore the Scripture speaketh much of a spiritual freedom, and that is,

First, In the translating of us out from the dominion of sin and Satan, into a gracious state of holiness; and this is called by Divines, Libertas gratia, or (as Austin) libertas à peccato. The freedom of grace of which those Texts speak that we mentioned before.

Secondly, There is the Evangelical and Christian liberty, whereby we are freed from many things of the law, not only the curse of the moral law and the spirit of bondage, which did accompany the legal administration thereof, but also from the obligation unto, and exercise of the ceremanial; This Evangelical liberty is often commended in the Scripture, as the glorious privilege of the Christian Church, which the legal Church wanted; of this legal servitude, and Evangelical freedom the Apostle, Gal. 4, doth largely, and most divinely treat, This Christian liberty also from Jewish rites, The Apostle, Gal. 5. 1. •• horteth us to stand fast in, as being purchased for us by the death of Christ, as a glorious privilege; only the Apostle Peter, 1 Pet. 2. 16, giveth good advice, That we turn not our liberty into licentiousness; It is true, the Apostle doth once use the word [free] abusively and improperly, Rom. 6. 20, where the servants of sin are said to be free from righteousness, or to righteousness, now this is improperly called a freedom; for as the service of God is the truest freedom, so freedom from holiness is the greatest slavery. Although Austin doth from this Text make a division of liberty into two kinds, which he maketh perpetual use of, Libertas à peccate, and Libertas a justitiâ; The godly man hath the former liberty, the sinner hath the latter, but this latter is improperly called liberty.

Lastly, There is a spiritual freedom mentioned by the Scripture, as the utlimte and complete perfection of all, when the soul shall be freed not only from the dominion of sin, but the presence of it, all the relics and remainders of it, and the body shall be freed from death, pain, and all corroptibility, Rom. 8. 2. This is called, the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and for this every godly man is to groan and mourn, even as the woman in travel to be delivered; This is called by Divines libertas gloriae, and libertas à miserià. But we are to speak of the liberty of grace; and herein we are not to admire the Freewill of man, but the free grace of God: man hath no free-will to do that which is spiritual and holy; Free-will is an Idol which the corrupt heart of man is apt to advance; he is unwilling to be brought out of himself, to be beholding to the grace of Christ only; therefore Austin observed well, That this truth is to be found out by prayer and supplication, sooner then by disputation; Did men commune with their own hearts; did they observe the Abyss and depth of all evil that is in their corrupt will, how entangled and in slaved to the creature, they would quickly fall from disputation to humiliation, and turn arguments into prayers.

. 4.

The Names which the Scripture expresseth that by, which we call Free-Will.

THe next thing in our method that will be explicating of the Doctrine, is to take notice of, What names the Scripture useth to express this thing by, that we call Free-will; for free-will is not a Scripture name, but Ecclesialsical, yet the sense of it is in the Scripture; for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is often used in the Scripture, to will, and that in such things wherein freedom is necessarily supposed, Luk. 22. 9. Where wilt thou, that we prepare a place? Joh. 9. 27. Wherefore would ye hear it again, will ye also be his Disciple? Act 7. 28, wilt thou kill me also, &c. and in many other places, hence 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is used for the free-will of a man, 1 Cor. 7. 37, and indeed it is disputed, whether to do a thing voluntary, and libere, voluntarily and freely be not all one, and so libertas, and voluntas, only voluntas denoteth the power and liberty, the qualification of it in its working. Jansen is most confident, that in Austin 's constant dispute with the Pelagians, liberum arbitrium, is no more then voluntas, and that to do a thing freely, is no more then to do it voluntarily; this he maintaineth against the Jesuits, and withal wonders at a late Writer of their own (whom he nameth not) which writeth, that the word servum arbitrium, was not heard in the Church of God for fifteen hundred years, It is Bellarmine that saith so, but our Divines had detected this falsehood long before Jansen. Howsoever Austin may use the word, yet the Scripture expresseth that which we call the will by, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . A second word to express liberty is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , liberty, yet this is not so much applied to the liberty of the will, as to the liberty of a man, as here in the Text, the son shall make you free, your persons not your wills; but because there is an universal bondage in all the powers of the soul to sin, blindness in the mind, contumacy in the will; (for Quid est libertas sine gratiâ, nisi contumacia. ) What is liberty in the will without grace, but contumacy against God, and a willful delight in evil ways, Inordinacy in the affections: therefore the person is said to be made free, not but that the will is principally included in this, only the will is not all that is made free, 2 Cor 3. 17, where the spirit of the Lord is, thereby is liberty; It's from the Spirit of God we obtain liberty from sin, and also from servile slavish fears. The Jesuits would have this liberty nothing to the purpose in the controversy de libero arbirio, for (say they) this is a spiritual mystical liberty, libertas à peccate, and they are treating of libertas naturae, which they make to consist in an indifferency to good or evil, but by their favor this is a proper liberty, and it is this that the Pelagians did most controvert about, and still the proper dispute between the orthodox and their adversaries is in this particular, Whether there be any liberty or freedom in a man's will without grace to shake off the deminion of sin, so that they keep most properly to the state of the question, who are diligent in the opening of the nature of this liberty. Another word which the Scripture useth to express this free-will by, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Pet. 5. 2, Phil. 1. 4, and this is very proper and full, when we do a thing not by constraint, or by a natural necessity, then we do it freely, therein we show our liberty, so that liberty doth oppose coaction and natural necessity; It is impossible the will should in its immediate elicit acts be compelled, for then it should be voluntas and noluntas, at the same time; then velle would be nolle, which is an high contradiction: Therefore liberty doth necessarily oppose constraint, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , doth also oppose a natural necessity (I say) a natural necessity (for there are other necessities that liberty doth consist with, yea and the more necessary the more free, as in time is to be shown.) Thus though the stone hath an inclination to descend downwards, yet because the stones motion is from a natural necessary principle, therefore it is not free: Beasts likewise though, they exceed the inanimate creatures, yet they do not agere 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , voluntarily. They do act spontaneously, but not voluntary, because a natural principle of sense doth determine them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 indeed, Heb. 10. 26, is translated willfully, If we sin willfully after we have known the truth; but there it signifieth an high degree of the obstinacy of the will, and a confirmation in evil against great light and knowledge; but commonly it signifieth doing a thing, so as not to be constrained to it. Platonical Philosophers call free-will 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , too proud a word to be given to a creature; and therefore the ancient Greek Fathers being many of them Platonists, did greatly obscure the glory of grace by receiving Platonical words, of which this is one: Indeed they gave to God 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is too much for a creature, which hath a necessity of subordination to God, and dependency on him. The Stoics they express free-will by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that which is in our own power. The Aristotelians express it by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is the Scripture expression likewise; Though the Scripture and Aristotelians differ as much as light and darkness about the nature of liberty, As the Ancients by following Platonical Philosophy: so the Neotericks (especially the Jesuits by following Aristotle, ) have greatly prejudiced the Doctrine of free grace, setting up free-will in the room thereof. There is one expression more, and the Scripture hath it but once, which is the most emphatical in describing of this liberty, and that is 1 Cor. 7. 37. Having power over a man's own will, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for liberty lieth in some kinds of some dominion to have our own will; hence in liberty we may conceive something Negative and something Positive; Negative, and that is not to be compelled, not to be constrained, not to be enslaved: Positive, and that is to have some power and dominion over the actions of our will, as the Apostle instanceth in him, who had decreed to keep his virgin from marriage, This man is said to have power over his own will. By these Scripture words we may come to understand in a great measure, what liberty and freedom of will is.

. 5.

Some Observations concerning the Promoters of the Doctrine of Free-Will, how Unpleasing the contrary Doctrine is to flesh and blood, with some advice about it.

SEcondly take notice, That it is the great purpose and design of some to go contrary to the plain intent of the Scripture; For many in all ages of the Church have (with all their learning and parts) endeavored to set up this Idol of Free-will, whereas the great drift of the Scripture is to advance and set up the free grace and free gift of God: The Apostles they write to debase man and to exalt the grace of God; Erronious persons, they dispute, and write, to exalt the will of man, and to take off from the grace of God; What a loud trumpet is Paul in his Epistles to sound forth the praises of free grace, not only free grace in justification, but free grace also in sanctification? It's the grace of God that doth not only pardon the guilt of sin, but conquer the power of it: Consider then whether it be better, to set up Dagon or the Ark, the free-will of man, or the free gift and grace of God. Truly it is a very uncomfortable task, to be disputing against that grace, which yet we must wholly rely upon, when we come to die. It is one thing what men write while they are in health, what cobweb-distinctions they please themselves with in their voluminous writings, and another thing when they are in the agonies of death, and are to appear at the tribunal of a righteous God. It was that (which that famous Champion for the grace of God) Bradwardine comforted himself with, when he undertook the cause of God against Pelagians, That he could pray for the grace of God, to help him in his undertakings, to be present with him, and to direct him, whereas his adversaries could not do so. And indeed how can an Arminian, or a Pelagian with any of those Naturists, cordially pray for the grace of God to assist them, while they write against grace, and patronize free-will? Let them sacrifice to their own nets, to their own parts and abilities; It's from their will that grace is efficacious. This arrogancy is like that of the Heathens, whose saying was, Ignavis opus est auxilio Dei, It is only the sluggish that need the help of God: Yea Tully argueth the case, That we are not beholding to God for our virtue; therefore (saith he) our ancestors have praised the gods for their success and outward advantages, but never for their virtues; Happily it is awe and reverence that men bear to the Christian Religion, that keepeth them from such blasphemous expressions; yet even in Christian Writers (pleading for the power of nature) instances might be given of proud and swelling expressions.

Thirdly, It is good to observe, That even in all those whose end avour hath been to advance the free-will of a man to what is truly good, there hath appeared some guiltiness (as it were) in them, therefore they have often changed, (if not their minds yet their words) thus they have removed from the mountains to the valleys: The Pelagians did incrustate their opinions often, and the Papists speak sometimes so plausibly, that you would think Bellarmine and Calvin did embrace each other. Pelagius did at last come to use the word grace, yea did anathematize such as should not hold the grace of God requisite to every good act; by which crafty guiles he did deceive the Eastern Bishops, and still in the serpents-skin do the Jesuits and Arminians appear; They think it the greatest calumny that can be cast upon them, to say, they are against the grace of God; hence they use the word of grace often, as well as of free-will, but all this ariseth from guilt; they do use the word grace ad frangendam invidiam, to decline, envy, to insinuate more into the hearts of credulous hearers: so that men sacrilegiously advance the will of man' make man to have the greatest praise in converting himself, in saving himself; and whereas Paul said, Not I, but the grace of God with me; They will on the contrary affirm, Not the grace of God, but I; yet for all this they would be thought to advance the grace of Christ, but that is a true rule of Austin's, Gratia non est gratia ullo modo nisi sit gratuita omni modo; Grace is not grace any way, unless it be free and gra • uitous every way; Therefore the inconstancy, the changes and shifts all such are put to, who plead for this liberty of the will, argue they are not in the Truth, but like thieves do hate the light, and change their garments often, that they may not be discovered; They are afraid of the Scripture, and would more gladly have the controversy ended by Aristotle, then by Paul; so that this Pelagian error hath had Cain 's curse (as it were) upon it, a trembling, lest every place of Scripture it, does meet with) should kill it.

Fourthly, To maintain the slavery of the will to sin, and to deny any liberty to that which is holy and godly, is a truth so unpleasing to flesh and blood, doth so reproach (as it's thought) mankind, that it hath always in the Church of God, (by some heretical persons or others) been spoken against; It hath been judged very scandalous and offensive, as that which did lay the axe to the root of all Religion and holiness; But yet experience hath taught us, that none have expressed so much holiness in their lives, as those who have had this truth of Christ's grace incorporated into them; and on the other side, the Pelagian Doctrine hath left upon men's spirits, like leaven, à cornu & tumorem, a sowreness and bitterness, as also a tumor and vaunting confidence in themselves; So that if the denying of free-will and exalting the grace of God be so profane an opinion in its genius and inclination (as some calumniate,) it's a miracle, that from such a poisoned fountain such sweet streams should flow, and from such thorns so pleasant grapes should grow. But the reason of this offense to flesh and blood, is the self-love and self-fullness that is in every man by nature; spiritual pride and self-confidence do reign in all men by nature; hence it is that though they be naked, yet they are not ashamed of it, which in Adam (while innocent) did come from his integrity, but in corrupt man from his senselessness and stupidity. No wonder then if this Doctrine of grace be not justified cordially, and as it ought to be, but by the sons of grace, who have felt the power and efficacy of it upon their hearts, who have experimentally found the grace of God freeing their will from all that bondage it was in to sin and Sataen.

Fifthly, From this it is, that a gracious heart is required to study this point, as well as a learned head. Experience of regeneration, of being made a new creature, of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, will excellently direct in this controversy. I wonder not to see a man, though come out of Egypt loaden with Egyptian gold, to make a molten-calf for a god and to worship it: men of great learning, and it may be of great external civility (as they say of Pelagius ) if not humbled by the grace of God, and throughlyu emptied of themselves, how can they stoop and yield all up to Christ? It was therefore Austin 's wish, That the Pelagians would turn their disputations into prayers, for it is the heart as well as the head that is useful in this point. Though all Divinity be practical, and practice is the end of knowledge, yea in Scripture language, Tantum scimus quantum operamur, we are said to know no more then we do; yet some truths have a more immediate influence into practice then others, whereas some opinions do stand in the Court (as it were) others enter into the holiest of holiest: Now this truth about the grace of God, and free-will is practice (practice ) as I may say, what some do of the ultimate dictate of the understanding; This truth lieth in the vitals of Religion, and therefore the experience of all the godly is justly brought after Scripture arguments to confirm this great truth; Therefore humble yourselves more, commune with your own hearts, be much in prayer and self-emptiness, and you will quickly find the light of this truth shining into your hearts; Come and taste, Come and see, what you hear with your ears; pray that God would grant you an experimental knowledge of grace, and then you will quickly confess not unto your own free-will, but to the free grace of God, all praise, and glory doth belong.

Sixthly, This truth therefore being so contrary to flesh and blood, It is by the grace of God that we come to acknowledge the grace of God. Error in mind is part of our bondage, as well as lust in our heart; It is therefore by th • grace of God that we are delivered from both these thraldoms; we have a freed mind from ignorance, and a freed will from concupiscence; It is the Spirit of God that leadeth us into all truth, called therefore the Spirit of truth, John 14. 17. It is by the grace of God that thou fallest not in this error of advancing free-will; It's by the grace of God that thou art no Pelagian or Arminian; It is this that maketh thee to differ from them; Thy judgment, thy heart would be self-confident herein, did not the Spirit of God teach thee.

Lastly, Consider that the grace of God is necessary to guide us in this point, Because this Question hath always seemed very difficult. Austin acknowledged it so; Hence he saith, That when grace is defended, we are thought to destroy free-will, and when a free-will is acknowledged (though in some sense only) we are thought to deny free grace. Indeed the Truth is not so difficult ( viz. ) that we have no spiritual liberty to what is good, or that grace only maketh the will free; but how to reconcile this with the natural liberty of the will, that it shall not be as a stock or stone, that hath seemed to some even insoluble, and therefore they advise to captivate our understandings in this point, as we do in the Doctrine of the Trinity; however whether soluble or insoluble, the difficulty argueth the necessity of God's assistance, while we preach, and you hear about it.

. 6.

The first Demonstration of the slavery of the Will is from the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into.

SEveral particulars being premised as introductory to our intended matter, our next work is to show, Wherein this servitude & slavery of the will doth consist; Not that you are to conceive of the will, as some prisoner who is chained up in a dungeon, that hath power to walk and run, only those external impediments do hinder him, which is Bellarmine 's similitude about the inability of a natural man to supernatural good: So the will hath some inward power and ability to do that which is holy, only there are lusts, which are vincentes and vincientes, as Austin expresseth, conquering and binding this will, that it cannot actually perform what internally it hath a power to do, here is no such thing, for we must conceive of this habitual depravation and defilement of the will in its state and condition more inward and deeply rooted in it.

First therefore, That the will of man is destitute of any freedom to what is good, appeareth, In the Necessity of sinning that every man is plunged into, that he cannot but sin in all that he doth; That as the Angels and Saints in Heaven have Beata Necessitas, a blessed necessity of loving of God, and delighting in him, so that no temptation in the world can draw them off: Thus every man by nature is in an unhappy and wretched necessity of sinning, Dura Necessitas, as Austin called it. Insomuch that though the Scripture doth represent the things of Heaven in a most glorious manner to affect us, yet we cannot be taken off from our sin to love that; Hence it is that every man till regenerated is compared to an evil tree, and Tit. 1. they are said to be unclean, and everything made unclean to them; The person being not accepted, neither can any duties be: This is our sad and miserable condition by nature, But whose heart is thoroughly affected with it? Thy eating, thy drinking, thy buying and selling, yea thy praying and all other duties, as they come from a man not sanctified by grace are sins in the eyes of God. Think then to what an infinite aggravation they will arise, and whether thou mayest not truly complain, they are more then the sands upon the Sea-shore; so that as the Toad and Serpent do necessarily vent what is poison, and can never do that which is sweet and wholesome: Thus no man in his natural estate can ever do anything but be sinning, and so damning of himself all the day long; Only when we say it is thus naturally necessary to a man to sin in all things he doth, you must know, that we do not herein make him absolutely like a brute beast, which is not capable either of vice or virtue; for this necessity is voluntarily brought by man upon himself, he did willfully strip himself of all power and ability to do that which is good, and so having shut out the light from himself, he doth necessarily remain in the dark, having chaced away the Spirit and presence of God from his soul, which is the life thereof, he becometh spiritually dead, and so in a necessity of sinning: But it is not thus with Serpents and Toads; for whether they were at first created solely, with such a poisonous nature, or whether upon Adam 's fall it was inflicted upon those creatures as a curse, it is plain, that these creatures could not with any will or consent bring themselves into this estate, but man did voluntarily at first, having no seed of evil, or inward propensity to sin transgress the Commandment, whereupon his soul became more shamefully naked then his body. This necessity therefore whereby he is determined only to sin, ariseth from his own free and voluntary impiety; As a man that hath willfully put out his own eyes must blame himself forever if he cannot see: If then this bondage be upon thee, that in all things thou sinnest, whatsoever thou undertakest, evil is presently over ruling of thee, blame not God, or any providence of his, no nor the Devil neither, for though he doth tempt, yet he doth not necessitate to sin, but thy own self, for from thy own bowels this destruction doth arise.

. 7.

That a Necessary Determination may arise several ways, some whereof are very consistent with Liberty, yea the more necessary the more free.

IT is good to observe, and it may clear many difficulties in this point, That a necessary determination may arise several ways, some whereof are very consistent with liberty, yea the more necessary the more free. Thus God himself doth necessarily will that which is good, and yet freely also: And if you ask, Whence doth it arise that God is thus determined to what is good? I answer, It is from the infinite and absolute perfection of his holiness, whereby he is not, nor cannot be a God that willeth iniquity. Arminius indeed maketh it little less than blasphemy to say, God is libere bonus, but that is, because he cannot part with his Helena, or Delilah (viz.) That liberty consists in an indifferency to good and evil, and in this sense to say, God doth so freely will good, that he can as freely will evil, would be blasphemy; but to will evil is no part at all of freedom, it is a defect in a mutable creature, as is to be shown. Such a determination to good only was in Christ also from his perfection, and is likewise in the Angels confirmed, and Saints glorified; here is no power to sin, yet have they liberty in an eminent degree, though determined to good only: On the contrary, the Devils and damned men they are necessarily determined to that which is evil, they cannot but hate God, they are not able to have one good thought, or one good desire to all eternity, yet all this is done freely by them; Now as the determination to good did arise from perfection, from the strong principles of holiness within, so in these their necessary determination to evil doth arise from that power of iniquity and sin they are delivered up unto: In this necessity of sinning are all natural men (till regenerated) absolutely plunged into, and that from the dominion which sin hath over them; Only herein they differ from the Devils and damned men, they are in their termino, in their journeys end, and so are not in a capacity of being ever freed from this necessity and thralldom to sin: There will never be a converted Devil, or a converted man in hell, their state is unchangeable, and they can never be recovered, but with wicked men in this life, God hath dealt in many plentiful ways of mercy, so that though for the present determined only to evil all the day long, though for the present under the chains and bonds of sin, Yet the grace of God may deliver them out of this prison, and set them at liberty, but till this be, they are as the Devils carried out necessarily in all hatred unto God, and this determination to one is from imperfection.

Lastly, There is a determination to one from principles of Nature without reason and judgment, and where such is there cannot be any liberty, for reason and judgment is the root of liberty, though it be formally in the will.

By this then you see, That this necessity of sinning doth not take away the natural freedom that is in the will, so that a man and a beast should be both alike. Luther (De Servo Arbit. ) indeed wished that the word Necessity might be laid aside; Neither doth Bradwardine like that expression, Necessitas immutabilitatis, as applied to man, but in the sense all that are Orthodox do agree.

. 8.

The second Argument of the Servitude of the Will is its being carried out unto sin voluntarily, and with delight.

SEcondly, This necessity of sinning doth not at all take off from the voluntariness and delight therein, but every natural man is carried out so voluntarily and readily unto every sin suggesting itself, as if there were no necessity at all. Hence man by nature is said To swallow down iniquity like water, Job 15. 16 Even as the feverish or Hydropical man is never satiated with water; Therefore the necessity of sinning is never to be opposed to his willingness and freedom; for though a man hath no freedom to good, yet he hath to evil, Eoque magis libera, quo magis Ancilla, the more he is subject to sin, the more enslaved to it by his delight therein, the freer he is to act it; We must not then imagine such a necessity of sinning in a man, as if that did compel and force a man against his inclination and desire: You must not think that it is thus with a man, as if he could say, O Lord, my will is set against sin, I utterly abhor and detect it, but I am necessitated to do it; for the will being corrupted, doth with all propensity and delight rejoice in the accomplishing of that which is evil.

. 9.

3. The Bondage of the Will is evident by its utter impotency to any thing that is Spiritual; And wherein that inability consists.

THirdly, This bondage of the will to sin is evidently manifested in its utter impotency and inability to anything that is spiritual. It's like Samson, that hath lost its strength, God made man right, whereby he had an ability to do anything that was holy, there could not be an instance in any duty, though in the highest degree, which Adam had not a power to do, and now he is so greatly polluted, that there is not the greatest sin possibly to be committed by the vilest of men, but every man hath the seed and root thereof within him, for this reason man by nature is not only compared to the blind and deaf, but also to such who are wholly dead in sin: So that as the dead man hath no power to raise himself, so neither hath a man who is spiritually dead in his sins.

That this Truth may greatly humble us, Let us consider, wherein this absolute impotency to what is holy, is in every man, for this is a great part of the demonstration of our spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. And

First, Such is the thralldom of the will, That a man by nature cannot resist the least temptation to sin, much less the greatest, without the special grace of God helping at that time. We matter not those Pelagian Doctors who hold a man by his own power may resist less temptations, yea more grievous ones, though not continually; for when our Savior teacheth us to pray, That we may not be lead into temptation, doth not that imply, whatsoever is a temptation, whether it be small or great, if the Lord leave us thereunto, we presently are overcome by it. Certainly, if Adam while retaining his integrity in a temptation, and that about so small a matter comparatively, for want of actual corroborating grace, was overtaken by it: Is it any wonder that we who have no inward spiritual principle of holiness within us, but are filled with all evil and corruption, that we are reeds shaken with every wind? The rotten Apple must fall at every blast: Know then that it is either sanctifying or restraining grace, that keeps thee from every snare of sin thou meetest with; Thou wouldst every hour fall into the mire did not that uphold: These Delilah's would make thee sleep in their laps, and then as Jael to Sicera, so would they do to thee. Herein is our bondage discovered.

Secondly, Our thralldom is manifested, In that we are not able of ourselves to have one good thought, in reference to our eternal salvation; But if any serious apprehension, if any godly meditation be in thy soul, it is the grace of God that doth breath it into thee; The wilderness of thy heart cannot bring forth such roses: Thus the Apostle, We are not able of ourselves (2 Cor. 3. 5.) to think any thing as of ourselves; Though the Apostle speaketh it occasionally in his ministerial employment, yet (it holdeth generally true of everyone, of thyself) then thy heart is like a noisome dung-hill, nothing but unsavory thoughts do arise from it; but if at any time any good motion, any sad and serious thought stirreth within thee, know this cometh from without, it is put into thee, as the cup of gold in Benjamin 's sack; and therefore this must greatly debase us.

Thirdly, We are not able of ourselves to have the least desire or longing after grace, and a state of holiness. Not only Pelagianism, but Semi-pelagianism is a dangerous rock to be avoided: The later made our desires to begin, and then God's grace to succeed and accomplish; But there is not so much as the least groan, the least desire can arise in thy heart: Oh that God would change me! Oh that I were in the state of those that do truly fear God! And the reason is, because the Scripture describeth us by nature to be dead in sin, and compareth the work of grace to a spiritual resurrection: Oh how great is thy bondage which doth so far oppress thee, that thou canst not so much as long for any freedom! Oh hopeless and wretched man, if left to himself!

Fourthly, From this followeth the next demonstration of our vassalage and spiritual impotency, That we cannot pray to God, that he would deliver us out of this misery. No natural man can pray, it is the grace of God that doth enable thereunto, he may utter the words of prayer, he may repeat the expressions, but (alas) he doth not, he cannot pray, as God requireth, and so as he will accept of it. The Apostle is clear for this, Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought; Is not this unspeakable misery, who needeth to pray more then thou, and yet thou canst not pray? Thou art sinning, thou art dying, thou are damning, and yet canst not pray: Is not thy heart like an adamant, if this break thee not?

Fifthly, Such is our impotency and bondage, That we are not able to affect our selves with the fear and terror of the Law, thereby to be convinced and humbled in ourselves. If we cannot do the preparatories for grace, much less grace it self; if we cannot do the less, How shall we do the greater? Now one great preparatory work is, To have a divine and powerful fear in our souls, by reason of the Law, whereby we are afraid of hell, of the day of Judgment, and cannot have any rest in our spirits, because of this. Now this is wrought by the Spirit of God in a preparatory way, Rom. 8. 15. It is called The Spirit of bondage: And Joh. 14. The Spirit doth convince the world of sin; So that in and through the preaching of the Law, and discovery of sin, the Spirit of God doth awaken and terrify the conscience of a man, maketh him afraid, that he cannot eat, or drink, or take the delight he used to do. It is true, the slavish sinfulness of this fear the Spirit of God doth not work, but the heart being like a mudded pool, when it is moved, such slavish fears will arise likewise; But how far is every natural man from this, he is secure and jolly, blessing and applauding himself, crying peace, peace, all is at quiet within him, because the strong man doth keep the house? It is the voice of the Lord only that can make these mountains to quake and melt.

Sixthly, Such is our weakness, That we cannot barden or soften our hearts in the least manner, but they remain obdurate and like brass and iron. Thy heart is like a stone within thee, and thou art no ways able to mollify it; Therefore God maketh it his work, and he graciously promiseth, I will take away the heart of stone (Ezek. 11. 19.) and give an heart of flesh; As if God had said, I know this work is above you, you are not able to do it: And certainly, if the godly themselves (because of the remainders of original corruption do complain of the hardness of their hearts,) cannot mollify or soften them, as they desire; Is it any wonder if the wicked man be not able to remove the stone from him.

Seventhly, A man cannot by the power of nature believe, no not so much as with an historical faith, till grace prepare the heart therein. Now faith is the first foundation-stone, Heb. 11. He that cometh to God must believe he is, and so he must believe the truth about Christ; But we see by the Pharisees, who heard Christ preach, saw the wonderful miracles he did, yet instead of believing in him did deride and oppose him; so that all the acts of faith, whether dogmatical or saving, we are enabled unto only by the grace of God, Matth. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but not to them: Thus Act. 18. 27. the Disciples are said to believe through grace, faith then is the gift of God, not the work of man's free-will. ) And if he cannot do this, it is plain, he cannot move one foot of himself towards Heaven.

Lastly, Such is our impotency, That when grace is offered and tendered to us, the will of itself hath no power to consent to it, or make improvement of it. It can, and oft doth resist and refuse grace, but of itself it cannot embrace it. It is true, Papists and Arminians plead hard for this power of the will, but this is to give more to man's will then to God's grace, this is to make man to differ himself from others.

It might be thought, that the will indeed cannot choose Christ, or receive him as a Lord, because there is no revelation or manifestation of a Christ; They are a people happily who sit in darkness, and have no light; and therefore though they may have an inward power to see, yet for want of light to actuate the medium they cannot; so that the defect ariseth not from the power within, but the manifestation of the object without: And this indeed is gratly to be considered, whether an Infidel or Pagan (for example) doth not believe, because there is no proposition of the object in the Ministry, otherwise if he enjoyed that, then he had power over his own to assent to it. Now even the Pelagians themselves, and their followers, yea even all that give not grace its full due, yet thus far they do acknowledge there must be a doctrinal revelation by the Spirit of God, of the truths to be acknowledged; and when this light is set (as it were) upon the Candlestick, then a man of his own self is able to see; but such is the corruption of man, that not only grace must bring in the light, but it must also give the eye to see; So that the work of God's grace is both objective and subjective, objective in revealing the object, and subjective in preparing and fitting the subject; It being the Lord who doth give the seeing eye, and the hearing ear, Prov. 20. 12. Yea the Arminians go further, acknowledging that grace doth irresistibly work upon the understanding of a man, for it being a passive faculty it cannot withstand its illumination, but the will that retaineth its indifferency, when grace hath done all it will do: This therefore is granted, That without the grace of God enlightening and revealing, we are not able to believe the mysteries of Christ Kingdom; but though all this be granted, yet we say, That without further grace (even grace regenerating and sanctifying the will.) we are not able to cleave to that which is good: You must not then conceive, as if God only offered grace in the Ministry, and then the will of man by its own self doth love and delight in it; No, the heart of stone is first to be removed, we are to be new born, and made new creatures, before we can put forth any spiritual life at all; Not that a man is converted without his will, or that he doth not believe or repent, but the grace of God, only God changeth the will, he quickeneth it, and enliveneth it so, that whereas it was like Sarah 's dead womb before, now it was made fruitful. The grace of God doth not compel the will, but change it; As if water which naturally descendeth be turned into air, then it doth as naturally ascend; Indeed this is a physical change, but the moral change by grace in the will, is as notable to its operations. To consent therefore to grace is the work of grace; It is grace that maketh us to will and receive grace: Hence we see by experience of those many who enjoy the means of grace, how few do effectually and powerfully improve them: Whence is this difference? Is it because one doth use his free-will better then another? Surely this would attribute far more to free-will, then to God's grace; for it's the will of man that maketh grace effectual, not grace that maketh the will of man pliable: By this Peter should be no more beholding to the grace of God then Judas; nor David then Saul, seeing ( ex parte Dei ) all had grace alike, only one used this grace of God by his own power better then another, and thus we shall have something that we did not receive, and we shall make ourselves to differ from other; How derogatory and injurious is this to the grace of God?

. 10.

That man naturally loves his Thraldome to Sin, and contradicts the Means of Deliverance from it; is a great Aggravation of the Bondage and Servitude of the Will.

SEcondly, The miserable bondage of the will to sin, is the more to be aggravated, In that it loveth this thralldom, delights to be in this drudgery, even as the Swine doth in its mire; yea it doth vehemently oppose and contradict all the means of deliverance from it. Austin complained, Velle meum inimicus captivum tenebat: Our will is kept captive; So that if the grace of God come to set us free, we love our bondage better then liberty; we had rather be in our prison with chains upon us, then abide in God's palace: So that this vassalage of the will to sin, is not like a bodily one, which is troublesome and very grievous to those that are detained therein, as we see it was to the Israelites groaning under the yoke, but naturally we delight in this slavery, and look upon that freedom which grace would procure for us, as the greatest misery, and this maketh us unspeakably miserable, according to that known Rule, Quid miserius misero, non miserante seipsum, What is more miserable then that wretched man, who doth not, who cannot pity himself? You must not therefore conceive of the will of man thus captivated to sin, as if it were against its inclination, as if of itself it did endeavor to cast off this yoke, as it is with some people, who being over-powered, are forced to submit, but yet they wait for, and long for an opportunity to set themselves at liberty: No, but the will doth delight and rejoice in this servitude: A man doth willingly give his ears to be bored by his lusts, resolving never to go from this Master, unless grace change him, and make him a new creature all over.

. 11.

The Bondage of the Will is seen in its Concupiscential Affection to some Creature or other, never being able to lift its self up to God.

THis want of freedom to anything that is good, is seen, In the concupiscential affection to some creature or other, never being able to lift itself up to God: And certainly, if you ask, Wherein doth the bondage of the will to sin consist? We may in the general say, in its creature affection, so that the will, which while entire and sound did love God as the chiefest good, and all creatures in reference, and with subordination to him, is now so debased that it creepeth upon the ground, and is not able at all to love anything but itself and the creature; So that now everyone taketh up that request Psal. 4, Who will show us any good? Any temporal good, they desire the Devils offer; So that if he would show them the glory of the world, and bestow it on them, they would presently fall down and worship: Oh the unhappy and miserable change that sin hath now made upon the will! being in absolute subjection to everything that he was made lord over; God put all things under his feet, and now all things have put man under their feet: It's the love of the world, and the things of the world, that is the Iron chain about the will, as that about Nebuchadnezzar 's stump of the Tree; so that it can never lift itself up to what is Heaven: This maketh the will like that woman, who was bowed down with her infirmity, and could not look up, till Christ healed her, and made her straight: This maketh the necessity of a spiritual resurrection, that so we may set our affections upon things above. This love of the world, and the things thereof, is the Sum of all those particular ways, whereby we are thus wretchedly enslaved; Therefore grace when it cometh doth loosen these bonds, and make us free, by working in us a contrary love, and a contrary sweetness and delight; So that now all the world, with the dainties thereof, are but as so many husks in comparison of that manna he now feedeth upon; And as he that steadfastly beholds the Sun for a while, his eyes are so dazzled, that he cannot for a season behold anything else: Thus when grace hath so sanctified and affected the will, that it findeth no greater sweetness and delight then in holy things, this presently maketh him throw away all those bonds that were upon him.

. 12.

Herein is the Bondage of the Will seen, That when it doth endeavor to overcome any sin, it is by falling into another.

FOurthly, Herein is the bondage of the will seen also, That when it doth endeavor to overcome any sin, it is by falling into another. So that the Argument usually brought to prove, that the will hath some freedom to what is good doth indeed more confirm the servitude of it to sin; For it is often objected, That if the will be thus in absolute bondage to sin, How cometh it about that even Heathens have by their own strength reformed their lives, and have abounded in justice, fortitude and chastity even to admiration? Is not that instance of Polemon famous, who though a drunkard, yet coming to hear Xenocrates his Lecture about temperance, was so immediately persuaded thereby, that he presently forsook that beastly sin? In this Argument Julian the Pelagian did often triumph; But Austin 's answer was good, and justifiable by Scripture, That when they left one sin, they fell into another, they did cure one lust by another lust, a carnal one by a spiritual one; for when they did abstain from such sins, it was not in reference to God, and from faith in Christ, but it was either from vain glory, or to be sure a sinful confidence, and resting upon themselves; and therefore even the Stoics, who pretended the highest, viz. That we were to do virtuous actions for virtues sake, yet they came too short of the right mark; for virtue is not to be loved ultimately for virtues sake, but that thereby we might draw nearer to God, and be made happy in enjoying of him; Therefore the Stoics opinion did teach a man nothing but self-confidence and self fullness, which sins are forbidden by the Word of God, as well as Epicurean and gross sins: Oh then the unspeakable bondage of the will to sin! That as the bird in a net, the more she striveth to get out, the more she entangleth herself: Thus it is with the natural man, the more he striveth of himself to come out of this mire, the faster he sticketh in: Thou then who art a natural man, though such a sin and such a sin be left, yet see if when the Devil was cast out, a worse did not come in the room thereof; See if it be not with thee, as in that representation to the Prophet, Thou hast broken a wooden yoke, and an iron one is made instead thereof; Thou hast cured a carnal sin by a spiritual one; For you must know, That not only grace doth expel sin, but sometimes one lust may expel another, as the Pharisees spiritual pride, and self-righteousness did make them abhor the Publicans sins; so that even then the natural man cannot but sin, while he is casting off sin. Therefore though unregenerate persons may do that which is materially good, and for the substance of the act, yet they can never do that which is formally so; or as Austin expressed it of old, we must distinguish between the Officium, the Duty itself, and Finis, the end of the Duty: Now the end of all till regenerated, can never be right or pure, it never ascends high enough even to God himself, because they want faith; So that though Aristides was just, yet he was not the Scriptures just man, that liveth by faith; None of the renowned Heathens were chaste by faith, charitable by faith, temperate by faith, and therefore their glorious actions were only splendid, glistering sins, they had a pompous appearance, but were indeed real vices, which were so far from profiting them as to eternal happiness, that they were an hindrance to them, for hereby they trusted in themselves; The Epicurean he said, It is good for me frui carne, To enjoy the body; The Stoic he said, It was good for me frui mente; But David he said, It was good for him to draw nigh to God.

. 13.

The more Means of Grace to free us, the more our Slavery appears.

FIfthly, Herein is our miserable bondage to sin manifested, That the more we have the means of grace to set us at liberty, the more doth our slavery discover itself: So that whatsoever good and holy thing we meet with, it draweth out our corruption the more. This the Apostle complaineth of, as part of that captivity he groaned under, Rom 7. That the Law which was for good, wrought in him all manner of evil: Thus the Gospel, yea Christ preached, is the occasion of more wickedness and impiety in unregenerate men, then otherwise they would be guilty of; And if this be so, though our heads were fountains of water, yet we could not weep enough for the guilt and wretchedness we are in by this means, for our remedies make our diseases greater, light increaseth our darkness, life causeth death; Insomuch that did not God work by his own power mightily in the use of these means, they might be no longer the means of grace, but of anger and judgment, and the preaching of the Gospel, because of the sad effects which it hath through the willful indisposition of many who hear it, might be as much trouble to us, as the presence of the Ark was to the Philistines: Therefore the clearer light, the more powerful means of salvation a people do enjoy, the more is the impiety and wickedness of such (whom grace doth not convert) daily increased; insomuch that the Gospel shining upon such men, is like the Sun shining upon a noisome dunghill, which maketh it the more loathsome; How then can there be free-will in a man to good, when if left to himself all helps are an hindrance to him, and all remedies are more destructive? Hence the Scripture calleth it, making of the heart fat, Isa. 6. an allusion to beasts, which are prepared to destruction by their best pastures.

. 14.

The Necessity of a Redeemer demonstrates our thralldom to sin.

LAstly, That the will is inthralled irrecoverably unto sin, appeareth, In the necessity of Grace, and of Christ as a Redeemer, if we were not in bondage, what need we have a Redeemer? Let not then the common expression in the Schools be liberum arbitrium, but liberatum, which is a phrase we seldom meet within them; It is good to know the full latitude of that glorious title of our Savior, ( viz. ) a Redeemer; he is so called, not only, because he redeemeth us from the curse of the law, and the guilt of sin, but also because we were under the power and dominion of sin and Satan, daily fulfilling the works of the flesh, so that his death was not only to obtain remission of sins, but to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works, Tit. 1. 14. And hence also he is said, to offer himself a sacrifice, that he might present to God, a Church without spot or wrinkle, Eph. 5. 27, which will be completely perfected in heaven. To set up free-will then, is to pull down our Redeemer, as much as we give to that, we deny to Christ, we make him but a half-Savior, and an half-Redeemer, while we maintain, that we set ourselves at liberty from the power of Satan: Oh then let the name of a Redeemer forever make thee blush and ashamed to speak of a free-will.

. 15.

An Examination of the Descriptions and Definitions of Freedom or Liberty of Will which many give it; Showing, that none of them are any ways competent to the Will unsanctified.

WE proceed therefore to make a further discovery of the bondage of the will to sin, and that it hath no liberty, no power or ability to do anything that is truly godly; If we take notice of all those ways, wherein learned men do place liberty or freedom of will, we shall find evidently, that none of these descriptions, or definitions are any ways competent to the will, while it is unsanctified; For,

First, if that opinion be received, (which Bellarmine and others follow) That liberty is radically in the understanding, though formally in the will, (that is) the reason of the wills liberty is from the understanding, which doth propound several objects, and thereupon the will is indeterminate, whereas in beasts their appetite is plainly limited, because they want reason; as it is arbitrium, so (they say) it is in intellectu, as liberum so in voluntate. Now (I say) let this be received (for I do not dispute the truth of it) then we must say, The will hath no liberty to what is good, because it faileth in the root; The stream cannot run, when the spring is dried up; for if we take the understanding in respect of spiritual, and heavenly things, so it is altogether darkened and blinded; Therefore there is the grace of illumination required that it may know and believe the things of God, without which men love and delight in darkness rather then light: The things of God are said to be foolishness to a natural man; so that all the while a man hath no more then nature in him, he is like those birds that can see in the night, but are blind in the day; They have quick and sharp apprehensions in worldly and earthly matters, but are altogether stupid and senseless in regard of heavenly; How then can the will be free, when the mind is altogether dark; for God in conversion, when he will set the will and affections at liberty from sin, begins first in the understanding, light in the mind is first created, there are holy thoughts and spiritual convictions wrought in the soul, and by this light the other parts of the soul they come to be sanctified; now then if there be not so much as this antecedaneous work upon the mind, the will is as yet very far from the Kingdom of heaven? Wonder not then if ye see unregenerate men walking and stumbling in the dark; that you see them so captivated unto every lust; you may as soon remove a mountain out of its place, as take them off from their iniquities; For how can it be otherwise while the will hath no guid to lead it, none to inform it concerning the evil and danger of those ways it is going in? If there be no light in the mind, there is no liberty in the will; so that hereby both horse and rider are (as it were) thrown into the sea.

Secondly, If to be that liberty doth consist in an active indifferency to good or evil, then the will is not free, because the former part of this description (upon Scripture-grounds) can no ways be accommodated to the will. This description is generally received and applauded by Arminians and Jesuits as the best, (though Gibieus saith it is the worst) making the very formal nature of liberty to consist herein, that when all requisites to an action are supposed, yet the will can do, or not do; and this they extend even to spiritual objects, to that great work of conversion, affirming, when grace doth assist and help all it can; (so that Ex parte Dei, all things are ready that do concur to our conversion;) yet the will, because it is free, retaineth an active indifferency, either to accept of this grace offered, or to reject it. This description we do no ways acknowledge, as that which depriveth God, Christ, and the glorified Saints from liberty; and besides, liberty being perfection, and so in the most perfect manner in the most perfect subjects, this doth debase it making a defect part of this perfection: It is wholly absurd to make a power to sin part of liberty: Indeed this was a concomitant of Adam 's liberty, but not because liberty, but because his will was mutable and changeable, so that if he had been corroborated and confirmed in grace, he had not put forth any such experience of his liberty: well though we cannot assent to it, yet let it be supposed to be true; The Scripture is very clear and pregnant, That a man hath no such indifferent power in him to good or evil; Indeed to evil, that he is carried out unto with all delight, he can of himself kill himself, but he cannot of himself give life to himself: But as for the other part, to be able to love what is good, to believe and to turn himself unto God, this is above his power, for the order of nature and of grace differ as much, as the order of sense and reason; so that as the sensitive faculty cannot put forth acts of reason, (the eye cannot discourse and reason,) so neither can the rational faculties put forth the acts of grace, which come from a divine nature, and that which is borne from above; All these places which describe man in a spiritual sense to be blind in mind, deaf in ears, and hardened in understanding, yea which say, he is dead in sin; and therefore the work of conversion is compared to regeneration, and to a resurrection; all these do plainly declare, that the will hath no activity at all as to the first beginnings of grace. It is true indeed, there are commands to repent, to be converted, yea we are bid to choose life and death, but there are none of these duties commanded, which in other places are not made the gracious gifts of God; so that to repent, to be converted, they are promised by God as the workings of his grace, whereby they are both duties and gifts; Although the Arminian thinketh that impossible: They are duties because we are the people who do believe and do repent, and are commanded thereunto; They are also gifts because it is the grace of God alone that doth enable thereunto; when therefore you read of such commands, you must not think, that they imply our power and ability, for then grace would be wholly excluded, seeing these Texts speak absolutely, as if a good work were wholly done by our own power; whereas the Arminian and Papist will not wholly exclude grace, and so these Texts would prove more then they contend for; But such commands are still imposed upon us by God, to show what doth belong to him; what he may justly expect from us; for seeing he created man with full power and ability to keep these commands, if man willfully cast himself into an utter impotency, God hath not thereby lost the right of commanding, though we have the power of obeying.

Besides by these Commands, as we are to know our duty, so thereby also we are provoked to be deeply humbled under our great inability, seeing ourselves treasuring up wrath every day, and preparing more torments for ourselves, unless the grace of God doth deliver us; Yea by these commands God doth work grace, they are practical and operative means, whereby he doth communicate life unto us.

And lastly, Therefore God doth use Commands, Because this way is suitable to man, who is a rational Agent; For although the work of grace is more than merely suasive, it is efficacious and really changing the heart, so that the Spirit of God doth far more in converting of a sinner, then the Devil doth in tempting to sin; yet God dealeth suitably to the nature of a man; We are not like stocks and stones, to whom it is ridiculous to preach, there being not in them a passive capacity of receiving the work of grace; Hence it is that the Word is preached, Miracles are wrought, powerful Arguments are used to draw off the heart; So that grace doth work Ethicophysically (as some express it,) Commands then and Threatenings are used, because grace is wrought in us after a rational manner, in an attempered manner to our constitution; The understanding being first wrought upon, that so the will and affections may more readily give up themselves.

Thirdly, If liberty be the same with voluntariness and no more, (as many learned men do contend, making voluntas and liberum arbitrium all one, as that which is opposed to coaction and natural necessity; yea if we add Aurtelus his opinion to this, that libertas was nothing but complacentia, liberty is the complacency and delight of the will in its object) then in this sense, (if rightly understood,) a man hath no freedom to what is holy. It is true indeed, the learned to show, that grace in converting doth not destroy the liberty of the will, ( viz. the natural liberty) no more then the will itself; Grace doth not compel the will, or put an inherent natural necessity upon it; for if there could be coaction, the velle would be nolle, which is a contradiction; and if a natural necessity could be imposed upon it, it would not be appetitus rationals, a rational appetite; so that though grace in converting of man doth insuperably, and invincibly change the will, making it of unwilling willing, so that there is a necessity (not natural,) but of immutability and unchangeableness; The will doth most certainly give itself up to the grace of God mollifying and fashioning of it for that purpose: This Iron (as it were) is put into the fire, and then it is made pliable to receive any form or impression, yet the essential liberty is not destroyed; For the Question about Free-will is not An sit? but Quid possit? And herein lieth the difficult knot in this whole point about grace and the will of man, How to assert the irresistible (as many call it, but others reject that expression, though the sense of those who use it, is very sound and significant enough) work of grace, insuperably determining the will to that which is good, and yet to be free from coaction or such a necessity as is destructive to liberty? The Quomodo. How these two are to be reconciled, is that which in all ages hath exercised the most learned and judicious; insomuch that some have advised to rest in it by faith, as in a mystery above our understanding, even as we do in many other Doctrines to be believed by us; But I am not to ascend this mountain at this time; This is enough for our purpose, to show, That if liberty be said to consist in willing a thing freely from coaction and necessity, even in this respect, we have not thus far liberty to good, because it is God that worketh in us to will. Indeed when we do will, we are not compelled by the Grace of God, only we cannot will till the Grace of God enable us thereto; It is not of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy; Neither are, we born of the will of man, but of God; It is grace then only that maketh us to will the good things tendered to us, though the will in eliciting of this is not compelled, but doth it freely, yea grace giveth this freedom to it, so that grace doth not destroy, but give liberty; And therefore Austin of old urged,

They cannot hold free-will in a true sense, that do not hold free and efficacious grace, which giveth the will all the strength it hath to what is good: Thus liberty, if it be the same with willingness, we have it not of ourselves, till the grace of God bestow it upon us.

Fourthly, If liberty consist in having dominion and power over our actions, then also the will cannot be said to be free, as to do holy things; For although the will, when it doth will, is the subordinate cause under God of its own action, and as a cause, so also may be said to have dominion over it, yet because the actual willing of what is good, doth not arise or exist by the strength of the will, but by the grace of God, therefore it is that (in respect of good things) the will cannot be said to have the dominion over them. This Definition of liberty ( viz. ) [to have a dominion over our own actions,] is by Jansen asserted to be the true and proper meaning of Augustine, that his judgment is, then the will is said to be free, when it hath dominion and power over what it doth; and if so, no wonder then the will be so often said to be captivated and enslaved, that it hath no freedom to what is holy; For what power can the will have over holy actions, when it is corrupted and defiled, that no holy thought, or holy motion is under the power of it. It was Ambrose his complaint of old, That Cor nostrum non est in nostrâ potestate; Our heart is not in our power, but sinful and evil workings of soul rise up in us, which we are no ways able to extinguish.

Fifthly, If liberty be (as Anselm of old defined it, to which some Neotericks do adhere, viz) Facultas servandi rectitudinem, propter rectitudinem ipsam, That it is a power to observe that which is right, for righteousness sake, then this doth evidently proclaim, That man hath no Free-will, for to observe that which is holy and righteous for holiness sake, which must needs argue a man regenerated and borne again; And indeed liberty in this sense is nothing but the Image of God repaired in a man, and so is no more then to be like God himself; And now that every man by nature hath lost this Image of God, is so plain, that the experience of every man concerning his distance from God may fully confirm it. If to this be added Aquinas his Description, That it is, Vis electiva mediorum servato ordine ad finem. A power to choose means with a due order and respect to the end (yet still freedom in the will to what is good cannot be found) For as (saith he) The understanding which is an apprehensive faculty, hath its simple and bare apprehension of a thing (viz. of the first principles ) And then it hath another act, which is to Reason and Discourse, and that is properly of Conclusions to be deduced from those principles; So what principles are in respect of conclusions to the Understanding, the same the end is, in respect of the means to the will; And therefore as the understanding doth necessarily err, when it doth not discourse suitably to the first principles; So the will, which is the appetitive part of a man, must necessarily sin, when it doth not choose means with a due order to the end: Now God being the chief end of all our actions, how impossible is it for the will corrupted as it is, to will riches, health, learning, or any creature in reference to God as the end.

Lastly, If liberty consist (as Gibieuf would have it) in an amplitude of spirit and independency upon the creature, so that it is above every created object with an eminent magnanimity of spirit adhering to God alone, and resting in him as the chiefest good, then it is plain also, That by nature the will of man is utterly impotent to this thing, for the love of the creature is so predominant that we live and do all things in reference to that; So that whereas grace maketh us to do all things of God, and through God, and to God; Now the creature doth so reign in our hearts, that we move only in all the workings of our soul to it. Aristotle observeth, That some

And if we speak in a spiritual sense, we are all thus borne slaves and vassals, not being able to put forth the actings of true and right reason, but do follow the lusts of our own soul, and are taken captive by the Devil at his will.

Thus we have at large discovered the bonds and chains of sin our wills are fastened in; Oh that in the reading of this, God would breathe into the souls of such wretched sinners, strong desires and ardent groans to be redeemed from this thralldom! Shall the ungodly say, ( Psal. 2.) concerning Christ, Let us break his bonds, when yet they are bonds of love, which are for our eternal happiness? And wilt not thou rather cry out, concerning these bonds, and these yokes, which are for thy eternal damnation, Let us break them and rend them asunder? Doth not the senselessness and stupidity of men, while they hear these things too sadly evidence the state of thralldom we are in to sin?

SECT. I.

This Text opened.

T He exceeding great pollution of the Will by original sin being largely discovered, both in the acts of it, as also in its state. We now proceed to the Affections which are seated in the sensitive appetite of a man; For as sense is a kind of imperfect understanding, so the affections are a kind of an imperfect will, and the defilement of these is so palpably and experimentally discerned, that Heathens have complained of God the Author of Nature, for implanting such things in us, which are for the most part the cause of all our ruin and calamity.

Now it is not my intent to declare the depravation of every affection in a man, for that would make the work to swell too big, but I shall speak in the general of them, instancing in particulars, as occasion offereth.

The Scripture doth not speak of the several parts of the soul, according to that Philosophical division, as is generally received; and therefore that which Philosophers call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 affections, or passions, as distinguished from the understanding and will, that is most commonly called the heart and the soul; Thus love, fear, hope and anger are attributed to the heart of a man. It is true, the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is used in the New Testament three times, where the word Affection is not barely intended, but an horrible depravation of it, even to unnatural uncleanness, as Rom. 1. 26. God gave them up to vile affections, and how unnatural they were is immediately subjoined, Col. 3. 5. The Apostle there reckoning up several sins to be mortified, fornication, uncleanness, addeth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which some understand the same kind of uncleanness the Apostle mentioneth to the Romans, So doing, or that mutum percatum, a sin that they say Socrates was guilty of, though so admired for his wisdom and morality; Hence those that have given themselves up to this dreadful pollution are called Pathici from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we render it inordinate affection in the general; and therefore some do understand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here for those sins which arise from the irascible appetite, and so take the word, though generally spoken in an ill sense; Even as the Stoics held all passions and affections to be sin; and the affections which are placed in the concupiscible appetite the Apostle meaneth (say they) by the next expression 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , evil concupiscence, If this be so (as Grotius expounds it) then we have here the Apostle speaking of affections according to philosophical notions, but I will not determine this to be the meaning.

The last place is, 1 Thess. 4. 5. where the Apostle showing, God hath called us to holiness, he addeth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not in the lust, or affection of concupiscence; Here it seemeth to be taken strictly for those lustful affections, which flow from the sinful concupiscence in a man; But if the Scripture doth use the word differently to Philosophers, to be sure the thing itself is acknowledged, as appeareth by my Text, where we have a Command directing of us about the Object we are to place them upon, and that is set down, First, Affirmatively, and then Negatively. The Directive Duty is in that expression, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Set not your affections, we render it in the margin, or mind; so that the Greek word doth signify the acts of the mind, but not them only, it comprehendeth also the affectionate part of a man; It includeth the mind and affections also, because commonly the intense actings of the mind excite and stir up proportionably the intense actions of the affections: Therefore it's sometimes translated savouring, Matth. 16. 23. So Rom. 8. the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , doth not only comprehend the mind, but chiefly the affectionate workings of the flesh against the Spirit of God.

We shall treat of it, as relating to the affections, therefore we have the Object prescribed them, they are to be upon things above, heavenly things This implieth naturally they are placed other where then they should be, upon earthly and sading objects. The Serpents seed (and so we are all by nature) cannot but lick up the dust of the earth, and live upon that; So that there is (for more emphasis) added the Negative also, Not on things on the earth; By these some mean those human and superstitious Ordinances that the Apostle mentioned before, for these were not of the Fathers heavenly planting; and indeed it is true, the more a man is made spiritual, and hath had the experience of that wonderful resurrection of his soul from the state of sin, in which it was dead, the more doth he nauseate and reject all superstition and human ways of devotion, rejoicing in the purity and simplicity of Christ's Institutions, as those alone by which he can obtain any spiritual proficiency. But the Context seemeth to extend this Object further to all sinful objects, yea and to lawful objects, that we are not in an immoderate and inordinate manner to let our hearts run out upon them.

So then we have in the Text a most divine Injunction imposed on us, To set our affections upon things above, always to put in practice that Exhortation, Sursum corda, but such is the horrible corruption of these affections by nature, that they can no more ascend up to them, then a worm can fly upwards like a Lark; Therefore the Apostle supposeth, that ere this be done, there must be the foundation laid of a spiritual Resurrection, If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that be above; Our spiritual Regeneration and Resurrection is both a cause of our heavenly affections, and also it is a motive and obligation, it being contrary to the nature of such things that ascend upwards, that they should descend downwards: How can fire fall like a stone to the center? From the Text then we may observe.

That such is the corruption of the affections of man by nature, that till the grace of regeneration come, they are placed only on earthly objects, and cannot move towards heavenly.

SECT. II.

Of the Nature of the Affections.

BEfore we come to anatomize their evil and sinfulness, let us take notice a little of The Nature of these Affections, And

First, You must know that in man (besides his understanding and will, which are either the same with the rational soul, or powers seated in it) there is also a sensitive appetite placed in the body, from whence arise those motions of the soul, which we call affections and passions, such as anger, love, joy, fear and sorrow, &c. It is true indeed, many learned men place affections in the will also, they say, The will hath these affections of joy and sorrow, and so Angels also have, only (they say) these are spiritual and incorporeal, and this must necessarily be acknowledged; But then in men (besides those affections in the will) there are also material ones seated in the sensitive appetite; for man being compounded of soul and body, hereupon it is, that as in his rational part, he doth agree with Angels, so in his sensitive part with the bruits; Therefore in man there are three principles of actions that are internal, his Understanding, Will and Affections, these later are implanted in us only to be servants and helps, but through our corruption they are become tryants and usurpers over the more noble powers of the soul; so that man is not now as reason, much less as grace, but as affections do predominate. The Scripture (you heard) calleth these affections by the name of the heart, though sometime that comprehendeth the mind and will also. The common Greek word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is rendered passions, and they are so called, because of the effect of them, for when put forth, they make a corporeal transmutation and change in a man: Some make this difference between 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (a word that Quintilian saith, there is no proper Latin expression for, Vide Voss de institut. Orat. ) and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they make passions to be, when in a mild and moderate motion of the soul without any violence or excess, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when they are turbulent and troublesome, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth rather signify the manners of men, then their affections. These passions have several names, sometimes they are called perturbations, but that is most properly, when they have cast off the dominion of reason; Sometimes the motions and commotions of the soul; sometimes passions, which expression is disliked by some; That which seemeth to be most proper and full, is to call them affections, because the soul of a man is affected in the exercise of them; So that by these we mean no more, then that whereby a man about good or evil is carried out with some affection and commotion of his soul, only you must know, that when we call them passions, it is not to be understood formally, but causally; In their nature they are not passions, but motions and actings of the soul, only they cause a passion and suffering by some alteration in the body.

Secondly, These affections in the soul are of a various nature, yet by Philosophers they are reduced into two heads, according to the subject they are seated (viz.) The appetite concupiscible, and the appetite irascible; not that this is a twofold distinct appetite, only the same appetite is distinguished according to its diversity of objects; The appetite concupiscible, doth contain those affections that relate to good or evil absolutely considered; For if it be good that is propounded, then there is first the affection of love, if this good be not enjoyed, then there is the affection of desire; if it be obtained and enjoyed, then it is the affection of joy; if it be evil that is presented, then there is the affection of hatred, whereby we distaste it, and hereupon we fly from it; This is called Fuga, or abomination; but if we cannot escape it, then there is the affection of sorrow; Thus there are six affections in the concupiscible part; The object of the irasible appetite is good, as difficult or evil, as hardly to be avoided; good, if it be possible to be obtained, then there followeth the affection of hope, if it be not possible, then of despair, and as for the evil, that is difficulty overcome, if we can master it, then there ariseth the affection of boldness or confidence, if we cannot, then of fear; if the evil press us hard, that we cannot obtain what we would have, then ariseth the affection of anger; Thus there are five affections in the irascible appetite, so that in all there are eleven passions, although from these come many other affections of the soul, that we may call mixed ones, as Error, Zeal, Pity, &c. in which many and several affections are ingredient: If then there be so great a number of these in man, and they all corrupted, yea predominating over a man, what sea is more troubled and tossed up and down with storms and tempests, then the heart of a man? What a miserable wretched creature is man, who hath every one of these passions tyrannizing over him, if God leave thee to an inordinate love of anything? What unspeakable bondage doth it put thee into, if to excessive anger? What torments and vexations doth it work, making thy soul like an hell for the present, if to excessive fear and sorrow? Will not these be like rottenness in thy bones immediately? In how many particulars may thy condemnation arise? Thy love may damn thee, thy fear may damn thee, thy anger may damn thee, or any other affection, which yet do continually work in thy soul.

SECT. III.

How the Affections are treated of severally by the Philosopher, the Physician, the Orator, and the Divine.

THirdly, These affections may be treated of in several respects, but what is most advantageous to the soul, is to handle them, as a Divine, enlightened and directed by the Word of God.

1. The Natural Philosopher he is to treat of them, while he writeth De animâ, of the soul; and certainly the nature of them is as necessary to be known as any other part of men: Hence it is said, Aristotle did write a book of these nature affections, (but it is lost,) The Philosopher he discourseth of them, but as to their natural being, not at all regarding the holy mortifying of them; and therefore a man may be an excellent Philosopher, but yet a slave to his corrupt affections.

2. The Physician he also treateth of the affections; Galen wrote a Book concerning the curing of them, but he also considers them only as they make for, or against the health of the body, they attend not to the souls hurt, how much the salvation of that is indamaged thereby, only they treat of them as they are hurtful in the body; Erasistratus discovered the inordinate love of a great man by his pulse; Amnon did pine and consume away by his inordinate affection to Tamar; Therefore the Physician he considers them no further then how they may be cured, that the health of the body may be preserved; And indeed this is also a good Argument in Divinity, to urge, that you must take heed of the sins of the passions, for they torment the body, indispose the body, they kill they body, Worldly sorrow worketh death, so doth worldly anger and worldly fear; But of this hereafter.

3. The Rhetorician and Orator he also writeth of the affections, as Aristotle in his Rhetoricks; Now the Orator he discourses of them no further, than as they may be stirred up or composed by Rhetorical speeches, how to put his Auditors into love, anger, fear and grief, as he pleaseth; for it is a special part in Oratory to bow the affections; This was represented in Orphens harp, which is said to make beasts follow him, yea very trees and stones, that is, Oratory doth civilize and persuade the most rude and savage. Now although those who write of the method of preaching, do much commend this gift in a Minister of the Gospel to be able to stir up, and quicken the affectionate part, yet the grace of God is required to go along herein; For it is easy for a Tully or Demosthenes to stir up the affections of their Auditors, when they declaimed about such civil and temporal matters, that they saw themselves deeply concerned in; The very principles of nature did instigate them to this; but we preach of supernatural things, and the matters we press are distasteful and contrary to flesh and blood, therefore no wonder if men hear without affection, and go away without any raised affection at all.

4. There is the Moral Philosopher, and he looketh upon it as his most proper work to handle the affections; for what hath moral virtue to do, but to moderate the affections, that we do not over-love, or over-fear; This is the proper work of the Moral Philosopher, but neither is this handling of them high enough for a Divine; The curing and ordering of them, which Moralists do prescribe, is but to drive out one sin with another, so that their virtues were but vices, if you regard the principles and ends of their actions; Therefore

In the last place, The Divine or Minister of God, he is to preach of them, and he only can do it satisfactorily having God's Word to direct him, for by that we find they are out of all order, by that we find they are to be mortified, by that we find only the Spirit of Christ, not the power of nature is able to subdue them; The true knowledge therefore about the pollution of them, will greatly conduce to our humiliation and sanctification.

SECT. IV.

The Natural Pollution of the Affections is manifest in the Dominion and Tyranny they have over the Understanding and Will.

SECT. V.

They are wholly displaced from their right Objects.

THirdly, The great sinfulness of the affections is seen, In that they are wholly displaced from their right Objects. The objects for which they were made, and on which they were to settle, is God himself, and all other things in reference to him; our love God only challengeth in that command, Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and soul, &c. Our hatred that is properly to be against sin, because it dishonors God; our sorrow it is principally to be because of our offenses to him; so that there is not any affection we have, but it doth either primarily or secondarily relate to God, but who can bewail the great desolation that is now fallen upon us; Every affection is now taken off its proper center; Instead of loving of God, we love the world, we love our pleasures rather then God; Instead of hating of sin we hate God, and cannot abide his pure and holy Law and Nature: Thus we fear not whom we ought to fear, viz. God, That can destroy both soul and body in hell; and what we ought not to fear, there we are afraid, as the frowns and displeasure of men, when we are to do our duties; Our sorrow likewise is not that also corrupted, How melting and grieved are we in any temporal loss, in any worldly evil, but then for the loss of God and his favor by our iniquities, there our bowels never move within us. Thus our affections, out of all order to their proper objects, ought to be groaned under, more than if all our bones were out of joint, for that is only a bodily evil, hindering a natural motion, this is a spiritual one, depriving us of our enjoyment of God. This particular pollution it is, that the Text doth immediately drive at, when it commands us, To set our affections above, it plainly showeth, where they are naturally, viz. upon things of the earth; and therefore as it was Christ's divine power that made the woman bowed down with her infirmity for so many years to be strait;