unbelief in them? The apostle confesseth, in the name of all believers, the
same without any prejudice to what we assert; for it supposeth a culpable weakness, in regard of which the soul hath need to be renewed. The apostle, Col. 3:10, teacheth the same doctrine; "And have put on the new man, which is renewed; kai endusamenoi ton neon, ton anakainoumenon; where I pray you take notice of the apostle's changing of the tense, "Ye have put on the new man which is renewed;" he speaks of the renovation in the present tense, denoting the continuance of the action. And that it relates to the mind is no less clear; for this new man is expressly said to be "renewed in knowledge." Hereunto add the apostle's prayer for the believing Thessalonians, 1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And how frequently doth the Scripture discover the particular evils that are to be found in the soul as their proper place? as we may see in the apostle's prayer for the believing Ephesians, chap. 1:17, &c. So Col. 1:9, 10. How frequently does the Lord reprove his disciples for the relics of unbelief in them? The apostle confesseth, in the name of all believers, the great remains of darkness that are yet on their minds, 1 Cor. 13:12. But to recount such places as teach that sin is yet remaining in the mind and will, were an endless labour.
ARGUMENT III. There are many members of the body of death, which the godly groan under, that are purely spiritual; whereof the body can be no receptacle; and must needs remain in the soul, even in the mind and will; such as, Atheism, ignorance, hatred of God, unbelief, want of love to God, &c. That these and the like cannot be said to lodge in the body, is evident: for, 1. Some of these sins are mere privations; as, ignorance of, and want of love to God, &c.; privations, I say, of rectitude, that ought to be, not in the act, (for there is no act, but a cessation from action); but in the power, which is nothing else than the soul, mind, and affections; unless you will say that the body is capable to love God, which is most absurd. And no less absurd is it to assert the same anent the sensitive part of the soul, as they call it. 2. How can these sins be said to lodge there, where there cannot be so much as an imagination of their objects; as in hatred of God. The body is not capable thereof; in regard God is not
the object of the fancy, but of the mind; so that we can have no imagination of him; he being infinitely removed from matter; and therefore as far from the imagination, as colours from hearing, sounds from the taste, or the most abstract notions from the soul of a beast. 3. Moreover, there are some sins founded on reflection, which the body is not capable of; as, pride, and lifting up of the soul, upon the account of its perceiving in itself ideas of the most sublime things, far removed from the knowledge of others. How such can be said to be driven out into the body, I persuade myself no man can show with any colour of reason; yet pride is not the least of the members of the body of death.
ARGUMENT IV. If the remains of original sin in the regenerate be not in the soul, but whatever remains of it be driven to the body; then original sin is quite razed out in regeneration, not only ut non imputetur, but ut non sit; it hath no more a being in the saints: and so there is no sin the regenerate are chargeable with but actual sin; and so all the children of God have been under a miserable mistake, while they confessed and bewailed their original corruption. All which is contrary to the Scriptures, and the sentiments of orthodox divines. I prove the connection: for if the remains of natural corruption lodge not in the soul, it hath no lodging in the man at all. The reason is, because the body, considered as contradistinct to the soul, is not subjectum capax; for the body as such is subject to no law; now, "where there is no law, there can be no transgression;" and if the body as such were subject to a law, then all bodies should be so; I mean of a moral law. If you say, the body is not considered here simply as a body, but as a constituent part of the man; I answer, That indeed the whole suppositum is under the law. But the formal reason of a man's being subjectible to a law, is rationality, which is the only thing that makes him capable to be directed by a law. So that, although sin may be from the body occasionally, as madness from the distemperature of the brain; and may be also in it terminatively, as whoredom, drunkenness, &c.; yet formally it is in the soul; which, against the law, complies with the temptation, which in some cases the body may have a deep share in; and the soul useth the members of the body for fulfilling the desires of sin, to which it is incited by the body. Whatever power we grant unto the body for stirring up the soul to sin, and whatever we say of that incitation considered simply as an action of the body; we
judge it highly agreeable to reason, that the inciting to sin which is by the body, as it ariseth from a view of the object, is, at least interpretatively, an imperate act of the soul, which takes fire upon the first view of the species of the external object presented by the eyes, ears, &c.; and consequently follows that act of the soul, though the motion of the blood and spirits, thus commanded by the soul, adds fuel to the fire. For whence, I pray you, is the motion of the blood and spirits in the body inciting to sin, but from the soul, which, upon a view of the object, judgeth the same to be fit for it to enjoy hic et nunc; and so wills it with a sort of velleity at least; whereupon natively follow such motions in the body? This is evident from this, that when the practical judgment goes a contrary way, these motions in the body follow it in the same: though indeed, when once the devil is raised thus in the blood and spirits, the soul cannot easily lay him; because the will hath but a politic, not a despotic power over the fancy once set upon an object; as is too evident from experience. Had Achan, when he saw the Babylonish garment, and wedge of gold, judged they had been devils appearing in shape of bodies, doubtless quite contrary motions tending to aversation would have arisen in him. So that I think it is clear, that incitation to sin by the body, follows the conception of lust in the soul; and that the body is only the midwife helping to bring forth the unhappy birth.
From what is said it appears, that even actual sin is not formally in the body, but in the soul: for though the body may contribute something thereto in genere entis, yet the soul only gives all in genere moris. From thence is the anomia of the action. Now, if it be driven to the body, as is alleged, it surely stirs there; that is, original sin there breaks forth into action; which cannot be said, as we have already declared. And therefore we may safely thence conclude, it is not there; for where it is, there it will bring forth its unhappy births.
One thing more I add: That if the patrons of this opinion be of the judgment, that the soul doth not always think, by this argument they shall be obliged to say, that regenerate infants have no sin in them at all; nor godly persons adult, when they sleep, and do not dream: for sin is put out of the soul, they say, and the body is at rest.
ARGUMENT. V. If in regeneration indwelling sin be driven out of the
soul into the body, then it is in the body, either in more or less, or in equal measure, as before conversion. In greater measure it cannot be, or then the renewing in the whole man falls to the ground; yea, the body is the worse of regeneration, and is so far from having old things done away, that they are increased to a greater height; which to reconcile to the privilege which the bodies of believers have in their union with Christ, and being the temples of the Holy Ghost, is impossible. If it be said, it is there in lesser measure than before; let them shew how that can be. Surely, according to their principles, sin properly had part of its lodging in the body before conversion. Now, what room it had in the soul, it has lost according to them. Wherefore it cannot be in less measure there than before; unless you say, that it bad less before conversion in the soul, than it had in the body. But experience flies in the face of this assertion: for those that are converted before they come to maturity, when they do come to years, find tenfold more difficulty in guiding their bodies, than they had before their conversion. If the last be said, then the body is nothing the better of regenerating grace; which is inconsistent with the union with Christ. If you say, that we just now confessed the body may be in a worse case after regeneration than before, wherefore much more equally evil with what it was before, I answer, That I ever denied the body to be a subject capable formally either of moral goodness or evil; and therefore in that respect it neither can be better nor worse. But otherwise, we must distinguish the state of the body with respect to nature, and with respect to grace. With respect to nature, and in itself, it may be indeed in a worse case, as was said; in so far as, by the power of nature grown up, it is more hard to be tamed and holden in than before. But in respect of grace conferred on the soul, when it is at its worst, it is in better case than when it was in its best natural state, the soul being graceless; as one is in a better case when he hath drunk in the precepts of sobriety, and has a faithful tutor, than when he was a child; though now both have more ado than formerly. This will more clearly appear, if we consider how the body is partaker of regenerating grace. Grace is not, nor cannot be formally and subjectively in the body, but objectively and reductively. It is not by way of inherence in it, but in respect of usefulness it is for it; for grace makes no change in the body, but in respect that the members of the body are thereby better employed than before, as the apostle teacheth, 1 Thess. 4:3, 4; 1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 6:13. So then grace in the soul is the guide and