-- CHAPTER X: We are to be humbled for this sin, as the original of all our sins, as that which temp
Hosea 14:8, 'From me is thy fruit found.' And thus may original sin say of our hearts, and of all our sinful fruits, Without me you bring forth nothing. And that the Scripture compares this inherent sin to a root, look Gal. 5:19, 'The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,' &c. Flesh, you know, is inherent corruption, which fights against the spirit, and adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, &c., these are the fruits there specified; but the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, &c. These are two roots
(says he) contrary in their nature one to the other; and this the metaphor of fruit on the one part shews: 'The fruits of the spirit are,'
&c. As all gracious acts are fruits of the spirit of regeneration in us, so, on the contrary, all the villanies in the world are fruits of the flesh, as the root. I might shew the same from Heb. 12:15, 'Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby may be defiled.'
That root of bitterness is an unregenerate person, in whose heart corrupt nature or inherent corruption remains in its full strength and vigour unmortified, and bringeth forth gall and wormwood, as the phrase in Deut. 29:18 whence this speech is taken by the apostle); and both being compared with that other apostle's expression, confirms it, whereby he sets forth Simon Magus his remaining still in the power and state of original corruption: Acts 8:23, 'I perceive,' says Peter to him, 'that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity;' that is, thou continuest in thy native corruption, and in the bond of iniquity, which hath thee under servitude and dominion; which is that which brings forth the gall and wormwood that is in all men's lives, and is the root of it; as before.
CHAPTER X:
We are to be humbled for this sin, as the original of all our sins, as that which
tempts us and draws us to sin, more than the devil doth.
It produceth such sins in us, unto which the enticement of sense and Satan's temptations could not extend any influence.—This sin of our nature is always fruitful, to bring forth evil incessantly.—To humble ourselves for it, we are to consider that our evil native might have produced more evil than it hath done, and that it hath that sinfulness in it, which will be productive of all our sins to come
Let us now improve the consideration hereof, to humble ourselves as to this sin. If but one lust, or but one branch of original corruption, when it becomes a root of evil, is so cried out upon by the apostle,—1
Tim. 6:9, 10, 'The love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows;'—if he brands one lost with this, as the height of its aggravation, that it is the root of all evil; as the apostle James in like manner doth strife and contention,
—'Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work,'—then have you not cause to be humbled for that root, which is an universal root of all sins whatsoever, of any kind thou didst ever commit? It may be said of this universal corruption, as to all other sins whatsoever, that they bear not the root, but the root them, Rom.
11:18.
Secondly, It is compared to a womb, and mother of all (and we shall see how that may be improved to our humiliation also). The place is
James 1:14, 15: 'Every man is tempted,' says he, 'when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.'
To open this now, is my purpose in hand.
1. By lust here, that conceiveth and bringeth forth, inherent corruption and original sin is meant, because it is that which is the conceiver. Conception, you know, is the first production of a living
creature into being. Now the very first conceptions of sin, that are productive of outward acts, are attributed to this sin of lust; and the first drawings on, or enticing motions and suggestions (which are the first acts of our actual sin), are all attributed to this lust, so as that which is the conceiver is not actual sin, but inherent sin, that sin in the womb, whereof all other sins are conceived. And that it is compared to a mother, that is clear; for he speaks both of conception, and of bringing forth. Temptation, and occasion, and the devil, and wicked companions, may be as the midwife to help to bring forth, but this is the mother.
Then again, in the second place, it is the immediate mother of every such sin; neither is it the mother only by descent, as in a succession afar off, as Eve is the mother of all living, as great grandmothers are of children that never lay in their own wombs, only they beget those that bring forth others; but this is the immediate womb itself in which all lay. Stapleton objects, that it is not the cause of all sin, because one sin is punished with another; yet so as still this is the immediate cause of both, the sin by which and for which we are so punished; and this is that which inclines us as well to the sin the punishment, as it did unto the sin which is the meritorious cause of that punishment; only God is pleased to give up or let forth that inherent inclination, actually to bring forth that whereby another sin is punished in way of a curse, and which else he would not have given the heart unto. Only in letting out corrupt nature, God observeth a method, and lets out one lust after another, as the curse of a former, yet so as inherent corruption is the cause of both the one and the other.
3. It is the principal cause or tempter. Although there be other causes of our sinnings also, yet this is the chief; and therefore that alone is mentioned, so as though the world tempts, and the devil tempts, yet they tempt but as tempters that are without us, and propound but the objects. But this is a pondus naturæ, it is the poise and swing of nature; and all things move as from a natural weight or poise weight within them. In Heb. 12:1, he speaks of this sin in saying, 'Let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.' Amor meus pondus meum, says Austin, what my love is, that is my weight that sways me. Stones move downward, air upward, as their poise is.
The demonstration of this its causation of sinning may be amplified by these farther particulars, whereby we may discern that no sin is to be exempted from its efficiency.
1. That many times it begins to be the mother of sins, and draws us away ere ever the devil or the world do tempt us, or the actual knowledge of the law provokes us to it (of whose provocation of corrupt nature to sin you read, Rom. 7), as it is seen in infants, who begin to sin before the devil or world can tempt them, in envy, frowardness, &c.; they go astray from the womb, being drawn aside only by the natural pondus of their own corruption: Gen.6:5, 'God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually from his youth up.' In which place original sin is compared to a mould, which casts and shapes within itself all and the very figmenta or conceptions of the heart, into such or such a sinful fashion; and it is from their youth, yea, infancy. Children bring forth sin before they bring forth teeth or hair, and then when they are incapable of Satan's suggestions, or of outward temptations from the world.
2. In that it is the cause of such sins, as neither the world nor devil can reach to tempt us to, no, not after we are grown up to reason. My brethren, you that are spiritual Christians find such sins and contrarieties in you unto what is good, such secret reluctancies, damps, heartlessness unto what is holy, as arise from the mere enmity, deadness that is in your natures unto what is good: 'I find a law,' an inward disposition, 'that when I would do good, evil is present with me.' You find mere spiritual oppositions present, that oppose spiritual motions and inclinations to good, from their first rising, and are up in their warrings against you as soon as the good motions are. These last rise as do the other; they are purely pure spiritual motions, as ingenuities unto God, strains of love towards
him; these rise, and the contrary motions to check and resist them are up in arms as soon. And as the heart grows more spiritual, so corrupt nature will be sending forth its contrarieties against the holiest actings of grace in the heart towards God, and not damping them only, but contradicting them, and as a weight pulling them down to the earth when they offer to arise, and, besides, will be mixing self-interest with the good. Now these contrarieties are neither from Satan nor from the world; the devil hath not power to know such, because they secretly and closely work, and are transacted in the spirit of the mind; and beside, the devil could not be so quick in contrary suggestions, for these oppositions rise in the same instant with the good; the law of the flesh is still contrary to the law of the mind, and sends out its acts and dictates even as soon as the other. This Paul was sensible of in Rom. 7:21: 'When I would do good, evil,' says he, 'is present with me.' He complains there of the corruptions of his heart. And not in these cases only, but take all or any kind of sin whatever, and it is a mother that could conceive alone of itself, within itself. The mother earth (as we call it) must have seed cast into it for many kinds of fruit: all animal creatures have their male and female that must concur to their procreation; but actual sin needs not to have a male to be a father. This female womb is sufficient to bring forth all conception, though now, when fallen, there was no devil to tempt; it is seed, and womb, and prolific virtue, and all. At first, indeed, Eve had not fallen if the devil had not tempted her; nor could Adam have eaten the forbidden fruit, but that both the devil indiscernibly and Eve both did tempt him. But now we should easily fall into sin though the devil were absent; although he also is by God's curse let loose upon us as the tempter, and is in many respects termed the father of lies; but this mother could and would conceive without a father. Nay, 3. It is so pregnant of wickedness that even the good and holy law made known to it provokes it to conceive the sin that is contrary to it, and therefore the law is compared to an husband: Rom. 7:5, 'The motions,' or passions, 'of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.' But in so doing the law is
but a mere occasional cause-mover unto sin, as it is in the following eighth verse of that chapter: this inherent 'sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all concupiscence.' It was this sin was the sole worker directly, the commandment but indirectly; that when the commandment, by the light and motion of it, would still beget good upon the heart, this sinful wicked womb, enraged thereby, doth, uterino furore, bring forth the clean contrary.
4. It is a womb that is never barren. By a continual ploughing and sowing of the earth, you may get the heart of it out, and then it must lie fallow a while before it will bring forth again. Other mothers of animal creatures bring forth children to such or such an age, but then cease childing, yea, and live a long while after and have no children; they have when old done teeming. But this, the longer it lives and continues, and the more sin it brings forth, the more it may, unless the Lord takes away the dominion of it by grace: Job 14:7, 8, says he, 'There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.' I know he applies this similitude otherwise, but I apply it to this, take sin when it is old, it will bring forth; if a scent of water come near it, if temptation come, it presently sprouts again.
5. Some females and mothers go long with their brood before they bring forth, and carry it long in their womb to ripen it ere it comes to the birth, as a woman goes nine months, an elephant three years; and the stronger the creatures are the longer they go, and the weaker they are the sooner they bring forth, as mice, &c. But this sin brings forth presently: Hosea 7:6, 'They have made ready their heart like an oven, &c., their baker sleepeth all the night, in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.' You go quietly to bed, and in all appearance free of such or such a lust and sinful disposition stirring; but you wake in the morning with some base lust or other that hath overgrown the heart in the night. Like Jonah's gourd, it grows up in a night, nay, in a moment, upon occasion of temptation.
6. This womb brings forth continually. It was the excellency of the tree of life of the new Jerusalem, Rev. 22, that it brings forth fruit every month; but this is a conceiving and hatching of evil every moment, and never hath any interruption of conceiving one sin or another: Gen. 6:5, 'God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was evil continually.' It cannot cease from sin. How oft is this spoken of wicked men in the Scriptures!
And shall not these things deeply humble us for this sinning sin that is such a mother, and the mother of all sin, and which hath a far nearer and more intimate causation, and deeper hand in all sinnings than the devil has? that is, as to us, and as in us sin is wrought. It is true, the devil hath the denomination of being that evil one, κατʼ ἐξοχὴν, and the tempter, and the father of lies, John 8:44, and so of all other sins; and all sins of ours are by descent from him. And in 1
John 3:8, all sins are called his works, 'He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.' The devil is thus called the first father of sin, both because he was the first that brought up that cursed invention of sinning, the first founder and original of sin; and in that respect called the father of sin, as the first inventors of music and working in brass are termed the fathers of them that do follow them in those trades, Gen. 4:20,
21. As 'also, further, for that influence and hand he hath upon us, in causing us to sin by continual tempting of us. And it is true that the guilt which redounds on him personally is far deeper for his tempting us, than what falls to our share, who are the tempted, for acting what he tempts us to. But the sin of him therein is proper to himself, and he shall answer for it all at the last day; when the angels shall be judged, he must bear the load of it. And it is moreover true that there is a guilt lies on us, both on the father's side and on the mother's side, and we are to humble ourselves for both; on the father's side for our entertaining his temptations, and thereby espousing his interest (as sin is his more than ours), and thereby making ourselves children of the devil, as Christ speaks; and again,
John 8:44, 'You are of your father the devil, and his lusts you will do,' though we little discern it, and mind it not.
But yet there is this difference between what guilt descends upon us on the mother's side from what on the father's. That this mother is the inward, immediate, natural cause of all sin in us; Satan is to us but the outward cause and mediate, and cannot tempt us, and persuade our wills but by and from the nature corruption that is indwelling; and the descent of sin from him to us is accordingly but outward, not as from a natural father; his fatherhood is but political, and by a metonymy, and we, as it were, but his adopted children only, not natural. Yea, that guilt of our yielding unto him in his temptations must be laid upon that very indwelling sin that is in us.
That mother inwardly falls in love, and closeth with the outward temptation of this cursed father, so as the great blame of all will lie upon this mother, without whose being allured and enticed this father would not allure or persuade us. It is the mother, the mother, our corrupt wills that betray us, and yield us to this father; and therefore Christ lays the blame on us and our lusts, that we are of our father the devil. And the apostle devolves our guilt in being tempted upon our own lusts: 'When ye are tempted, ye are tempted of your own lust,' James 1:14; that is the tempter far greater than the devil.
This sin of your mother is naturally yours, and all the cursed children she brings forth in you are her natural children, and she is your very nature and intrinsic constitution. And when you sin by her temptations, you may be said to sin of your own, as well as the devil doth of his own malicious propension, as Christ speaks of him. It is in and by the womb of this mother that sin is conceived within you; in that womb it is fostered, and by the strength of it is brought forth; and the sinfulness therefore hereof is properly yours, in that the mother of it is in you, even as the devil's guilt in your sins is properly his. Oh, therefore, above all humble yourselves for this, that you carry such a mother or womb of sin within yourselves. You read of Rome (whose guilt is next the devil's), what a heavy punishment in Rev. 18 lies threatened against her when she is to be destroyed: ver.
5, 'Her sins have reached up to heaven, and God hath remembered
her iniquities: reward her double according to her works.' And what is the reason of all this? What is it puts God upon this? Look chap.
17:5, you see the title of her accusation to be 'Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.' The mother of all: they came from her by genealogy and descent, and are maintained by her to this day. All nations were made drunk with her cup, and in her are found the souls of men, as there: and chap. 18:24, 'In her was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.' And for this her being the mother of all, the mother of abominations, you see what a doom she is adjudged unto.
If we should remain in our natural condition, and be found therein, then shall a bill and indictment of all the actual sins be read. Yea, but where is the mother of them all? and what sin will God judge and reward most? Even your original indwelling sin. This, this is the mother of abominations, the great beldame, the great witch and whore, in whom will be found all the sins that ever thou hast done.
And that you may enlarge, and make the meditation hereof more pungent and impressive by another parallel contemplation, though utterly contrary, look, as Christ at the latter day, when he comes to judge, what will be his glory then? Even this, he shall present himself, and all saints about him, and say to his Father, 'Lo, here am
I, and the children which thou hast given me.' And then again, 'All their fruit is found in me,' and all their graces, and all their righteousness. So, if thou be found unregenerate, then to thy everlasting confusion shall all thy sins be set in order before God and thine own conscience, as in Ps. 50:20, and this great beldame shall be brought forth with all her brood. Lo, here are all the children which this great mother and my cursed will have brought forth together, and they will judge this great whore as she stands in relation to her children; and it shall be said, Cursed be the womb that bare you, and the paps that gave you suck; and because God will pass this judgment as concerning us then, let us therefore, accordingly, judge ourselves in this manner beforehand, that we be not condemned with the world!
There be other weighty considerations might be added and enlarged upon to exaggerate the sinfulness of this sin, in the like way of comparison as hitherto hath been used.
As, first, that thou art not only to make the comparison with all thy sins actually past and done hitherto, and to make that the sole measure of thy humiliation for the iniquity of it, but further, both from what actual sins this thy corrupt nature might have brought forth, but hath not, as also from what itself (if left to itself) may and would bring forth for the future. This hath two branches,
1. What it might have brought forth, but hath not.
2. What it may, and would of itself, for the future.
These, although they admit distinct considerations, yet they have this common to both, that God measures not the sinfulness of this sin only by the acts it hath produced, but by the potentiality of it, or the power it hath to produce, if left to itself. Will you take but an instance from God? We don't measure God's power by what he hath done, or will do, but by all he can do; we consider entia possibilia, things possible to be done by him; we say, though God doth not will, or do all things, yet he is omnipotent, and accordingly do adore him for it.
And here divines rightly say that there is scientia simplicis intelligentiæ in God, a knowledge whereby he views thousands and thousands of millions of worlds and creatures he never did nor will bring forth; and that there is scientia visionis, a foreknowledge of what he purposes to do; 'Known to God are all his works from the beginning,' Acts 15:18. Thus also there are a world of sins thy heart did never bring forth, which yet it might and would have done if left to itself. In this sin they are as in the seed; and God knowing this, reckons accordingly, as the instance of the men of Keilah shews, 1
Sam. 23:11, 12, where God, upon David's inquiry, telleth him what the men of Keilah would have done, even delivered him into Saul's hands, though they never did.
This premised, I come to the two branches mentioned.
1. Thou art to measure the iniquity of this sin by what thou mightest have committed, if thou hadst been left to the swing of thy sinful nature and inclinations. And for a right estimate of this, cast thine eye upon all the sorts and kinds of sins committed in the world by any other of the sons of men, and not only upon what thyself hath hitherto acted. In Rom. 1 you have a black catalogue of sins, which read over, it is but a comment on this text, the sin in thine own heart.
And why? All sin in the world is through lust: 2 Pet. 1:4, 'Having escaped the corruptions which are in the world through lust.' All the corruptions in the world are through this original and inherent lust, and thou hast the same that are in the hearts of any in the world, and therefore wouldst perpetrate the same. There went but a pair of shears between thy nature and others; thy heart is made of the same stuff: it wrought all concupiscence in Paul; indeed not outward acts, for in those respects he professeth a blamelessness; but by the same reason it brought forth concupiscence towards any acting, it would have brought forth the outward act itself in him. It is a great thing to be considered that the stoics should discern this, and that Seneca* should thus utter it, Omnia in omnibus insunt vitia, all vices are in all; Sed omnia in omnibus non extant, but all are not extant in all; Et cupidi omnes, et maligni omnes, et ambitiosi omnes, et vitiosi, we are all covetous, ambitious, malicious, vicious, &c.
Again, consider, that though thou canst act but one sin at once, sensu diviso, yet in the nature of this corruption there is an aptness to act a multitude of sins sensu composito; nay, contrary sins would thy heart, thy root, carry thee to, and any other sin as well as what thou didst commit. Consider, moreover, what it hath been that kept thee, and that it is from God's restraining of thee that thou hast not committed infinitely greater and more grievous sins: as the case of Abimelech shews, Gen. 20:7, 9, and the last verses compared. God acknowledgeth a kind of integrity, in that he did not know Sarah was another man's wife; yet adds, 'For I kept thee,' or 'restrained thee,' and in that God punished him for what he had done, ver. 18, it argues
that God's meaning was, Had I not restrained thee, thou wouldst have done it, although thou hadst known her to have been another man's wife. Besides, take any act of sin that ever thou didst commit, yet still there is more evil in that sin in thy nature, than ever thou didst draw forth into act: 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,' Mat. 12:34. There is more in the heart than the month utters: also, ver. 35, it is styled 'the treasure of the heart.'
Now, there is far more treasure in the warehouse than is vended in the shop; and so no man ever pours forth all his sin.
2. The second branch respects sins for time to come. Thou art at present to humble thyself for this sin, as which hath that sinfulness in it, as will be the productive concurrent cause, with thine own will, of all the sins thou shalt yet commit; yea, and take this sin, in the propense inclinations of it, to be such as would produce far greater and more grievous sins than as yet thou hast committed.
My brethren, there is to be this difference between our humiliation for actual sins, barely considered as such, and for this indwelling sin as it relates to our actual, that we are not obliged to humble ourselves for any supposed actual sins, considered abstractly as actual, until they have been actually committed by us; and so in that respect a man is only to view what sins are already past; for as simply considered actual, they are not in themselves actually hitherto existent, and so are as if they were not. Nor do I know but God may out of restraining grace keep me from committing such or such sins; but that is God's doing and merciful prevention, and not mine. But the case will prove otherwise, if I will look upon this root sin within me, as it stands in my heart, in a readiness to commit any sin in this respect. I may say of it, that an infinity of sins to come are potentially existent in it as in the root; as we say of flowers in winter time, that although there be not a rosebud growing on the rose tree, yet we say that in the root there are many rosebuds that will come into existence in summer. And thus, as God in his heart, through the infinite foreknowledge which is therein, sees thoughts afar off, and so views what that root will produce, thus we may see, in the
principles of our own sinful hearts, though not what individual sins they shall be which our wills will commit, yet that an infinity of sins will one way or another sprout forth from out of our hearts, if not cut off by death, or otherwise restrained and prevented. And as they are there at present, as in their root, so we are to humble ourselves at present for the sinfulness of that root, as that which will bear them and bring them forth. I say, at present we are to do thus, for it is that indwelling corruption at present remaining in thee, which will be the cause of them; and therefore humble thyself at present in the forethought of this. And God that sees our thoughts afar off, and things to come as if they were, he says of thee at present, The root of all these is there in thee at the present, and he loathes thee for it; and therefore do thou at present humble thyself before that God who thus sees and judges. And like as we adore God's power, not only for what creatures he hath actually produced, or works of providence we see he hath brought forth, but for his power that can bring into being infinite worlds which he never means to make; and we measure and esteem him omnipotent, in respect unto those that possibly he could produce, as well as for what actually he hath made or doth make; in like manner are we to humble ourselves, not only for the potentiality of this sin in sinning, in respect unto what sins we have already acted, but what we shall, yea, even for new worlds of sinnings our nature would put forth and exert. Nor art thou to measure the sinfulness hereof by what in probability, according to the course hitherto held, thou art likely or art subject to commit, but by sins thou didst never so much as dream of, or imagine thou wouldst commit. It would be a deceiving rule to go by, if thou judge of this only by what hitherto this sin hath brought forth. No; this womb breeds monsters, and extraordinary births of sinnings, which thou thoughtest impossible to have been in thy nature to produce. Did
Hazael think his nature would turn so barbarous, so cruel as it did?
'Am I a dog to do this,' said he unto the prophet, so inhuman? Little thought Peter, that that heart of his, so resolved to stand by Christ, as he judged it to be, when he said, 'If all forsake thee, I will not;' he could not have imagined that ever it would have been so profanely vile and unchristian as to deny his endeared Lord and Saviour thrice,
and at one of those times with such horrid oaths and execrations, whilst his Lord was in the room, and present, and overheard him, as he was man. Did David ever think he should perpetrate adultery, and add murder thereunto; that that heart that was once in such an holy frame, and so magnified God for his covenant and promise made, 2
Sam. 7, should hatch and contrive within itself such abominations?
I might here yet further add, that thou art not to judge of the potentiality of this sin, and what for the future it might produce, by what thou wouldst or mightst in this life only commit, but by what unto eternity thou wouldst commit, if we could suppose thy life extended thereunto. This womb would never cease teeming, but grow still more and more wicked unto everlasting ages without end.
If all these be not perspectives clear enough to discover to thee this expanse or extensive sinfulness of this sin in the propense inclinations of it, as either by what thine own individual sins have been, or in the several sorts or species and kinds of sins that have been found in their varieties in the hearts and lives of mankind from the beginning of the world to this day, then go down to hell and compare thine own nature with what is the genius of the devils themselves. Thy nature is but the image of theirs in a smaller letter.
All the difference, and that but in this life, is, that we are tame devils through God's mere restraint, but they wild outrageous devils, wildfire and gunpowder, left to the full swing and the utmost career which the violence of their lusts do carry them to. Now, it is certain we have the seeds and capacities of sinning all the sins they headlong run into. This in respect of our souls. And we are, besides, inclined to many more sorts of sins than they are addicted to, as all the lusts of the flesh, seated in the body and outward man, which in the body the soul is subjected unto, besides those other proper to the soul itself, together with those spirits. Satan hath in his nature no lust of uncleanness, adultery, drunkenness, &c., so as thy nature hath all manner of sins the devils have, and a multitude of other sins besides, to outvie them on that account.