Chapter III
The difference between the natural defects in men s minds, caused by the fall and
sin, and those which are spiritual defects. That men s natural imperfections in understanding and reason would have been much greater if they were not
healed by the common goodness of God to men. Yet, notwithstanding, how
deficient men are in the knowledge of civil and natural things ; and therefore
they must be much more so as to such which are spiritual.
Having proved in the general that even the spirit of man, or his more
sublime part, the understanding, is defiled, I now come to shew, in the par
ticular, instances wherein this corruption of the mind doth consist. To make
the way clear to my discourse, I premise these two propositions.
Prop. 1. There is a difference between the wounds and natural defects which the fall of Adam hath given the mind, and the sinful defilements which it hath contracted from his fall. For as in the body there are many defects which in themselves are miseries
indeed, but not defilements, and which may humble a man as punishments but not as sins ; such are lameness, blindness, &c. ; so in the faculties of
the soul, and in this of the understanding especially, besides the defilements
of it, there are many wants, imperfections, and weaknesses, which simply in themselves considered may rather be thought miseries than sins, as weak
ness of memory, ignorance in human sciences, &c., the principles whereof Adam had, who gave names to beasts according to their natures ; and we should have inherited them from him. That you may understand this fur
ther, consider that Adam s mind (as the best of men s minds also now are) was enriched with two several endowments : 1, the sanctifying light of the law written in the heart, whereby he knew God, and how he ought to serve him ; and, 2, much other additional knowledge and wisdom, which should seem as handmaids unto this former, and attend upon it, as knowledge in
the nature of the creatures, which God gave also to Solomon, an heart as
large as the sea, and as many notions in it as sandson the sea-shore, all
which, though sanctified, as being guided and ordered by the other, yet was
not (as simply in itself considered) sanctifying knowledge. Now therefore
CHAP. III.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 141
the understanding of man since the fall hath answerably received two wounds.
It is not only stripped of that sanctifying light utterly and wholly, but those
rich hangings and adorning attendants are gone too ; and therefore they are
repaired since the fall by two several remedies, viz. gifts, and the grace of
spiritual knowledge ; gifts of knowledge and wisdom you shall find where
grace is not. Thus the heathens had the imperfections of the mind repaired in natural and civil knowledge as much as we. And unregenerate men also have spiritual gifts
: Eph. iv. 8, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ; Ps. Ixviii. 18, Thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. But these
gifts are not grace, for they heal not the mind nor rectify the crooked and
perverse dispositions of men ; as Solomon says, Eccles. i. 15, That which
is crooked cannot be made straight. And there is grace and sanctifying
light where these gifts are wanting, and therefore the absence of them is not
a sin, for many of those whom God chooseth and sanctifieth want these rich endowments of the mind, which are as the handmaids to the great mistress
of all grace ; and where that is not, they all signify nothing to the real
purpose of our salvation : 1 Cor. xiii. 1,2, Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sound
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing.
My intent is not to run over the defects in naturals which are in the mind, so much as the defilements of it in regard of spirituals ; and we shall follow
herein the example of Scripture, which takes notice of the defilement of the
conscience, and mind, and memory, but not of the natural weakness of them :
* But even their mind and conscience is defiled. Now it is these wants that are healed by sanctification, into which we are to enquire, and for the healing of which the apostle prays in this, 1 Thes. v. 23, and the healing of which are essentially necessary to salvation.
Titus i. 15,
The use of this proposition laid down may be to ease the complaints of many poor souls, who have the defilements of their spirits more healed than the defects and imperfections of them ; who have weak memories, shallow
understandings and capacities, and meaner gifts than other men ; and who
yet have more of that knowledge wherein the image of God consists, Col.
iii. 10, than those other men have who excel them in wisdom and gifts. Though they be fools in worldly wisdom, yet they err not in the way of holi ness : Isa. xxxv. 8, And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it
shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. And, indeed, if we look to the purpose of God s election, he hath not chosen the wise, but the foolish things of this world : 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ; but God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And if so, what though thou hast natural defects in thy mind, why shouldst thou be
cast down ? Thou mayest have a weak memory, perhaps, yet if it can and doth remember good things as well or better than other, then it is a sanctified memory, and the defilement is healed, though the imperfection of it is not ; and though thou art to be humbled for it as a misery, yet not to be dis
couraged, for God doth not hate thee for it, but pities thee ; and the like holds good, and may be said as to the want of other gifts.
As a godly man who hath grace may be defective as to these gifts, so
142 AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
wicked men may have the imperfections of their understandings more healed
by gifts than a godly man, and yet the defilements of them, which are opposed to sanctification, may still remain utterly untaken away ; and thus unre-
generate men may exceed those who are sanctified, as to such gifts
: Luke
* For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the
xv. 8,
children of light. They are said to be wiser in their generation than the children of light ; that is, than those who have a sanctified light in their minds. Yet consider the distinction there put, which is, that they are but wiser in their generation ; that is, in their kind and sphere ; and this is no more than what is common and usual ; for every creature in its own kind may have a farther insight into a thing than another, which is yet more
noble, hath. Thus many beasts, in sight, and smell, and taste, and fancy, put down and exceed a man ; as an eagle excels us in sight, an ape in taste, and dogs in smelling; yet a man hath reason, which recompenseth and overbalanceth all. And thus, wicked men in their kind, that is, so far as their
generation reacheth, which is common to both, and in such gifts which both
partake of, may exceed the godly ; but yet these are children of light in the
Lord, though not in the world ; and the other are children of light in the
world, but darkness in the Lord : Eph. v. 7, 8, Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord : walk as children of light. Such ungodly men, who have such gifts and eminent
parts, are as the crocodiles, which, according to the report of them, are
quick-sighted on land, but dull-sighted in the water ; so these are quick and
sharp-witted in all things but what belong to their peace. Prop. 2. These wounds and defects of the mind in natural and civil
things, if searched to the bottom, and considered what they would be, if not healed in most men, more or less, by especial gifts from God, will appear to be very great.
Most of that light which men have in them is a borrowed light from God, and more than nature, now fallen, hath bequeathed and left us. And, indeed, that portion which, as sons of Adam, we may claim as derived to us by virtue of that first law still in force, increase and multiply, whereby we are
men, would be found exceeding small, did not God, pitying us out of his
abundance, add to our stock de novo, and help us to trade with it. If there
fore we reflect how little of natural light at the most we have, and how much
of that little is helped by superadded gifts from. God, we shall find our loss
as to these natural abilities to be great, and our remaining stock to be very
little and inconsiderable. It is true, indeed, we have, and must have, under
standing and reason ; for this being the difference between us and beasts, without it we could not be men : Ps. xxxii. 9, Be ye not as the horse, or
as the mule, which have no understanding ; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Without understanding we could neither be capable of sin, not obnoxious to punishment for it, nor
sensible of any guilt ; and therefore sin doth not deprive us of all under
standing, since (as Prosper* assigns it as a reason) that faculty concurs to
the commission of it.
It is also true, that as to other creatures, according as they have objects
proportioned for them, God hath given answerably an instinct to know and
discern what is good for them in their kind ; so to men also God hath given to know the things of a man, in order to the upholding their natural and
civil being in this world ; and therefore a wisdom in their generation is pro
per to men as such. And how far these common fundamental principles of
reason should reach, and be improved, it is hard to determine.
* Prosper, lib. iii. Je vocat. Gentium.
CHAP. III.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 143
That Adam s sin hath not the same influence into all men s understand
ings, which it hath into theirs who are born fools, it is not as if these idiots were more guilty of Adam s sin, and more obnoxious to the curse and mis
chiefs of it than others, but that in those who have the remainders of a
natural light, and use of reason, the works of God might appear, in fitting them at least for civil business and employments of the world ; and thus
our Lord Jesus Christ speaks and argues in the case of the man born blind : John ix. 2, 3,
* And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin,
this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents
: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
But, however, let us view the understandings of the wisest men in natural
or civil things, which belong to the present life; let us sound and fathom them
to the bottom, and we shall find that all is exceeding shallow, and that they are but clung bladders, not blown to the wideness for which they were made
to stretch. If we consider the knowledge of nature, how short-sighted are
the wisest of men in it? Solomon, who excelled all others in wisdom, who was
the great dictator in natural philosophy, who discoursed from the hyssop on the wall to the trees of the forest, 1 Kings iv. 33, yet when he comes to sum up the reckoning, he puts this at the foot of the account, that what is
wanting cannot be numbered : Eccles. i. 15, That which is crooked cannot be made straight ; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. He who was so wise, saw that the defects of his knowledge overpassed all
arithmetic, and yet he had notions as many as the sands of the sea, 1 Kings iv. 20.
If we consider the knowledge of those things which are necessary to the maintenance and support of man s life, or to the upholding of civil govern ment, which are good for man s body, either in physic or diet, or which are
for the increase of his estate and credit, or which are necessary for the com
munities of mankind to settle order and government among men, how
ignorant are the wisest of men in all these ? Solomon says thus in the
: Eccles. vi. 12, For who knoweth what is good for man in this
general
life, all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow ? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun ? What is good for man (says he) in this life ? He doth not speak of the world to come, but the present. And common experience proves Solomon s assertion, for those who have most extended their wits to the preservation of their healths, have
destroyed them by errors and mistakes. Those ways which the wisest of men have pitched on, as the nearest and shortest cuts to riches and honours, have proved the loss of both : Eccles. ii. 13, 14, Then I saw that wisdom
excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. The wise man s eyes are
in his head ; bnt the fool walketh in darkness : and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. Though indeed wisdom exceeds folly, as much as light doth darkness, yet one event happens to all, and the wise are poor and disgraced as well as fools ; and to what end and purpose then
is the wisdom of the greatest and bravest men ?
And after all, the most of that knowledge unto which men attain in these
things fore-mentioned is from a new gift of God. They cannot understand and manage so much as husbandry without his instruction, but it is God who teacheth them discretion, how to order their corn in sowing and threshing it : Isa. xxviii. 24-26,
* Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground ? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the ryo in
Hi AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
their place ? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. Thus the knowledge of the nature of things, and of the application and use of them in profitable inventions for human life, is the gift of God, which the old world did acknowledge when anything which is now common among us was first invented ; for they honoured them as gods who found
out ploughing, &c., sowing, music, &c. And this gave occasion to the
idolatry of those times, who worshipped the authors of such inventions, as
thinking them more than men, and that it was some especial divine assistance
enlightened them in it.
And if thus in natural and civil things men s minds were so defective as
to need God to help their wit and invention, much more great must be the
deficiency of man s understanding in things moral and divine and the aids from God more apparent which supply those defects. If we reflect on the
heathens, what was the light which the wisest of them had ? It was mostly in duties of the second table of God s law; and they had but little prints of
knowledge concerning the duties of the first table, and those soon blotted or worn out: Kom. i. 21, 28, Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. And of those prints which they had of this first table of God s law, if you ask how they came to be set upon their minds, the apostle tells us they were written: Eom. ii. 15,
* Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else ex
cusing one another. And how were they written, but by God s own finger, as he writ the law on the tables of stone ? The knowledge of God which
they had it was manifest in them : Rom. i. 19, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them: for God hath shewed it unto them. And how was it manifest ? Why, God had shewed it to them, and that not
only materially, by creating the world, though that be the means instanced
in, but also by teaching them to read in this great volume of the creation, and learning them to spell his eternal power and Godhead out of that book ; as the printer, who barely prints a book, doth not manifest to all men what
is in it ; but it is what the master, who teacheth to read and understand it, doth. And so God in this case doth the like ; and therefore the wisdom which the wisest of the heathens had, is called the wisdom of God : 1 Cor.
i. 21, For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.
But now if you bring the sharpest understandings to read and apprehend the things written and revealed in God s other book, his word, they cannot do it without a supernatural light and assistance. And there is want of this
light to teach men to know these truths, even in a speculative and notional manner, such as unregenerate men may have. For was not the mere narra
tion, the bare story of them, foolishness to the heathen, because they had not this light to enable them to do so much, as mere reading amounted to ?
as 1 Cor. i. and ii. Was it not matter of derision to the Athenians ? Acts
xvii. 32, And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked : and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. And why ? Because though they heard these things, yet their quick wits, not
enlightened by the Spirit, could not apprehend them. And therefore the
Scripture is said not to be of private interpretation : 2 Peter i. 20, Know
ing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpreta-
CHAP. III.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 145
tion ; i.e. no private understanding, nor the sharpest wit, if not assisted by the Holy Ghost, can understand them, for their meaning cannot be explained without help of the public secretary of heaven who wrote them at first :
2 Peter i. 21, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And when Christ himself was the preacher, he opened their understandings that
they might understand the Scriptures, for without this his preaching was not
enough: Luke xxiv. 45, Then opened ho their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. Though we attain to knowledge of the
letter of the word, and of the meaning of holy writ, as unregenerate men do attain other knowledge ; yet we could not gain this but by gifts dispensed upon Christ s ascension, which qualify men, not to be apostles only, but
teachers and interpreters of the word : Eph. iv. 8, 11, Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers. And if it be said, May not men understand the historical matters of fact laid down in the word, as well as
they understand other histories, by the strength of their natural wit and
reason ? I answer, yes, they may, but yet not so as to apprehend the design of the sacred story, or the holy use for which it was wrote, to instruct men
in it, which is the chief mind and intent of the Holy Ghost. This they cannot understand without supernatural assistance ; or if they could com
pass in their thoughts, the meaning of the history of the Bible, and those
discourses which, by way of illustration, run in the golden veins of the Scrip tures concerning natural things and political, wherein much of Job and of
the Proverbs is spent, yet they can never penetrate the spiritual mysteries of the gospel. These are the things of God, which he hath peculiarly given to his children, and they are above the reach or capacity of the minds of
other men : 1 Cor. ii. 9-12, But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit
: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. The inward work of the Spirit, and the mysteries of free grace, are such things which the wisest of men cannot understand S3 much as in
the letter of them. Thus Nicodemus could not imagine what the new birth should mean : John iii. 3, 4, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king dom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he
is old ? can he enter the second time into his mother s womb, and be born? No ; the vision of all these things is become as the words of a book that is sealed : Isa. xxix. 11, 12, And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned,
saying, Read this, I pray thee : and he saith, I cannot ; for it is sealed : and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I
pray thee : and he saith, I am not learned. What though you deliver it to one who is learned, and ask him to read it, yet he cannot, and why ? Because
it is sealed, and no one in heaven or earth is worthy to open the seals of these hidden and closed treasures of grace, but Christ alone, and without his
key no man can come to know them. Or if an unregenerate mind could ba VOL. x. K
146 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
supposed to arrive so far as to know them and understand their meaning,
yet they can never assent to them without a work of the Holy Ghost on the
soul : 1 Cor. xii. 3, And that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
by the Holy Ghost. He speaks it of common gifts
: ver. 1, Now concern
ing spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. He shews that
the very changing of their opinions, that they should think the gods whom
they before worshipped to be no gods, and assent to this, that Jesus was the
Lord, that even this was from the power of the Holy Ghost, without whom
they could not have attained to so much. And yet farther, if the under
standings of men were filled with all this light, and needed not any new
assistance to the attainment of all knowledge, not only natural, civil, and
moral, but divine and spiritual also in the letter, yet still the defilement, the
corruption of the mind might remain, yes, and doth continue in men who
are enlightened in all these. So that suppose in none of these the mind had
received any wound or darkness, so as to need no new light, or suppose that a man hath received all this knowledge from the Holy Ghost, yet there is a
farther knowledge required than all this, which till it be wrought, the under
standing may truly be said still to be defiled and blind, and to know nothing as it ought to know.