for it is so great a reproach to the spirit and power of Christ, and to the effects of baptism, to Scripture, and that all good people are bound in con to right reason, For when Christ came to reconcile us to his Father, he came to take away our sins, not only to pardon them, but to destroy them; and if the regenerate, in whom the spirit of Christ rules, and in whom all their habitual sins are dead, are still under the servitude, and in the stocks of Original Sin, then it follows, not only that our guilt of Adam's sin is greater than our own actual, the sin that we never consented to, is of a deeper grain than that which we have chosen and delighted in, and God was more angry with Cain, that he was born of Adam, than that he killed his brother; and Judas by descent from the first Adam contracted that sin, which he could never be quit of, but he might have been quit of his betraying the second Adam, if he would not have despaired. I say not only these horrid consequences do follow, but this also will follow, that Adam's sin hath done some mischief, that the grace of Christ can never cure; and generation stains so much, that regeneration cannot wash it clean. Besides all this, if the natural corruption remains in the regenerate, and be properly a sin, then either God hates the regenerate, or loves the sinner, and when he dies he must enter into heaven, with that sin, which he cannot lay down but in the grave; as the vilest sinner lays down every sin; and then an unclean thing can go to heaven, or else no man can. And lastly, to say that this natural corruption, though it be pardoned and mortified, yet still remains, and is still a sin, is perfect nonsense; for if it be mortified, it is not, it hath no being; if it is pardoned, it was indeed, but now is no sin; for till a man can be guilty of sin without obligation to punishment, a sin cannot be a sin that is pardoned; that is, if the obligation to punishment, or the guilt be taken away, a man is not guilty. Thus far, Madam, I hope, you will think I had reason. One thing more I did and do reprove in their Westminster Articles; and that is, that Original Sin, meaning our sin derived from Adam, is contrary to the law of God, and doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner; binding him over to God's wrath, &c. that is, that the sin of Adam imputed to us is properly, formally, and inherently a sin. If it were properly a sin in us, our sin, it might indeed be damnable; for every transgression of the divine commandment is so; but because I have proved it cannot bring eternal damnation, I can as well argue thus; this sin cannot justly bring us to damnation, therefore it is not properly a sin; as to say, this is properly a sin, therefore it can bring us to damnation. Either of them both follows well; but, because they cannot prove it to be a sin properly, or any other ways but by a limited imputation to certain purposes, they cannot say it infers damnation. But because I have proved, it cannot infer damnation, I can safely conclude, it is not formally, properly, and inherently a sin in us. ON CONTENTMENT. FROM THE RULES AND EXERCISES OF HOLY LIVING. VIRTUES and discourses are like friends necessary in all fortunes; but those are the best which are friends in our sadnesses; and in this sense no man that is virtuous can be friendless; nor hath any man reason to complain of the Divine Providence, or accuse the public disorder of things, or his own infelicity, since God hath appointed one remedy for all the evils in the world, and that is a contented spirit. For this alone makes a man pass through fire, and not be scorched; through seas, and not be drowned; through hunger and nakedness, and want nothing. For since all the evil in the world consists in the disagreeing between the object and the appetite, as when a man hath what he desires not, or desires what he hath not, or desires amiss; he that composes his spirit to the present accident, hath variety of instances for his virtue, but none to trouble him because his desires enlarge not beyond his present fortune; and a wise man is placed in the variety of chances, like the nave or centre of a wheel in the midst of all the circumvolutions and changes of posture, without violence or change, save that it turns gently in compliance with its changed part, and is indifferent which part is up, and which is down; for there is some virtue or other to be exercised whatever happens, either patience or thanksgiving, love or fear, moderation or humility, charity or contentedness, and they are every one of them in order to his great end and immortal felicity; and beauty is not made by white or red, by black eyes and a round face, by a straight body and a smooth skin, but by a proportion to the fancy. No rules can make antiability; our minds and apprehensions make that; and so is our felicity; and we may be reconciled to poverty and a low fortune, if we suffer contentedness and the grace of God to make the proportion. For no man is poor that doth not think himself so.* But if in a full fortune, with impatience he desires more, he proclaims his wants and his beggarly condition. But because this grace of contentedness was the sum of all the old moral philosophy, and a great duty in Christianity, and of most universal use in the whole course of our lives, and the only instrument to ease the burthens of the world, and the enmities of sad chances, it will not be amiss to press it by the proper arguments, by which God hath bound it upon our spirits, it being fastened by reason Non facta tibi est, si dissimules, injuria. and religion, by duty and interest, by necessity and conveniency, by example, and by the proposition of excellent rewards, no less than peace and felicity. 1. Contentedness in all estates is a duty of religion; it is the great reasonableness of complying with the Divine Providence, which governs all the world, and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great family. He were a strange fool, that should be angry because dogs and sheep need no shoes, and yet himself is full of care to get some. God hath supplied those needs to them by natural provisions, and to thee by an artificial; for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade, or some means to make or buy them, so that it only differs in the manner of our provision; and which had you rather want, shoes or reason? And my patron, that hath given me a farm, is freer to me than if he gives a loaf ready baked. But however all these gifts come from him, and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he pleases; and if we murmur here, we may at the next melancholy be troubled, that God did not make us to be angels or stars. For if that, which we are or have, do not content us, we may be troubled for everything in the world, which is besides our being or our possessions. God is the master of the scenes, we must not choose what part we shall act ; it concerns us only to be careful that we do it well, always saying, If this please God, let it be as it is; and we who pray that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, must re |