Chapter V
An inquiry into the grounds and causes of this heinous inordinacy in our lusts.
Having thus largely shewn wherein the inordinacy or irrectitude of man s
lusts does lie, both for parts and aggravations, now it remains that, as in the rest I have done, I should shew what are the true adequate grounds of
all these several parts and degrees of their inordinacy or sinfulness specified, which I will manifest to you in their several order, by a few propositions linked together, as links in a chain, that so you may see how one thing follows upon another.
Prop. 1. That all men have sinned, and are in their own consciences
guilty of a wrong done unto God, and thereby obnoxious to his wrath and
judgment. This now all the world yields to, and I have before proved it from Rom. iii. 19, every mouth is stopped at it, and becomes subject to judg ment, as the word is ; and this all consciences apprehend, and look at God
as an enemy, till reconciliation is apprehended by Christ ; if they know but God, they must needs do so, and then they can never make him their chiefest
good, for what they make their chiefest good they must delight in above all. Now him whom they apprehend as an enemy, and are guilty of an injury done to him, they can never truly delight in ; so as the guilt of sin will, if
there was no more, take them off from God as their chiefest good, and if so, then also as their chiefest end ; for finis et bonuin, the end and the good, can never be severed. And besides, if they apprehend God an enemy, whilst
they do so, they cannot make him their utmost end, for none can make one
that loves him not, the utmost end of all his actions. This is enough, if no
more, to prove it ; but we will add, Prop. 2. As by the guilt of s
n, man s nature is deprived of ability to make God the chiefest good ; so also of holiness, to make him the chiefest end. Rom. iii. 23, All have sinned, and so are fallen short of the glory of God ; voreeovvrai, they come lag, reach not so high, as men that come short
of a goal for want of strength. Of the glory of God, either fall short of seek
ing or attaining glory or happiness in him as the chiefest good, or desiring to bring glory to him as their chiefest end. Now, nihil atjit ultra suain
spharam, nothing acts beyond the sphere of its activity. Therefore being deprived of that power, they fall short, yea, even their judgments want a
power to discern and know him aright to be the chiefest good ; as 1 Cor.
ii. 14, they cannot know the things of God, they think them foolishness, they have thoughts that fall short in the judging of their chief good, and
then, suppose no other defect, yet their inclinations cannot be carried unto him ; for ignoti nulla cupido, there is no desire of what is unknown. Eph.
iv. 18, Being estranged from God through ignorance. Or if they could
302 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
truly discern him to be the chiefest good, yet the guilt and consciousness which they have of his being an enemy, hinders him from being so to them, or yet they want a suitable principle ; but last of all they want a power to
judge him so.
Prop. 3. Though the soul is thus deprived of the glory of God, and so of
ability to make God its chiefest good and utmost end ; yet (as you may re member I told you before) the soul is an active thing, and so remains still
for all this. It is as full of quicksilver as ever, for still it desires happiness and good: Ps. iv. 6, Who will shew us any good? Omnia bonum appetunt,
says the philosopher. It is as full of active inclinations as the sea is of waves which cannot rest, as you have the comparison in Isa. Ivii. 20, but must roll to some shore or other. And this now discovers the ground why it
is carried on to other things as its chiefest good, so continually and so inces
santly ; for seeing these inclinations cannot find delight in God, it must needs
go seek satisfaction somewhere else. So in the fore-alleged place, Eph. iv. 8, Being estranged from the life of God through ignorance, so as not to see
this eternal good in him, what follows from it ? They give themselves over
to sin with greediness ; every man would have his belly full, and of pleasure
they must have a nXsovsfya. And estranged from God they are, and there
fore they cannot have it in him ; and so they go out to any unclean practice that will afford it, and therefore also ignorance is made the ground of lusts :
1 Peter i. 14, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to
the former lusts in your ignorance. The reason they lusted after vain things so was their ignorance of God, and inability to make him their delight ; as
children that make counters and rattles their chiefest delight, being ignorant of better things ; and the soul too must have something to play with as well
as they.
Prop. 4. As the soul, being deprived of ability to make God its chiefest
good, still retains inclinations to some other by reason of its activeness and
the inclinations that are in it, so also being deprived of ability to make God
its chiefest end, the soul must still have some general end in the guiding of
all these its inclinations, because it still remains a reasonable creature, which worketh always to and for an end. Now, what other can that prove to be
but self-love, seeing it was the next subordinate end to God in man by
nature, and is not extinguished by sin and the deprivation of grace ; but, on the contrary, when that former end, who is God, is took away and put down from its sovereignty, this must of necessity succeed, inherit, and
possess all its rights, privileges, and prerogatives ; even as in a kingdom, when the first heir or elder is removed, the next brother or so succeedeth, who before was but a subject, though the next and first, unto the king. And therefore all that a man doth or can do now, the utmost end which
guideth all, and to which all was directed before, when he was in his upright
state, must needs be for the sake of self-love or pleasure, which is all one.
Prop. 5. Self-love having got into our hearts, into that throne, and seat, and regality that God s glory once there had, which is now deposed ; and so
having the same absolute prerogative, and enjoying all the privileges that
were annexed to God s crown and sovereignty over man s soul; it also comes
to exercise the same jurisdiction in us which God s glory once likewise did and should, as being now the lord-paramount end of all the rest, and so
plays all these sinful pranks in us that appear in our hearts and lives, and
so comes to be the sole, true, adequate ground of any sins which can be in
stanced in. For, as before, we making God our utmost end, as God makes
himself his end, and so as he admires himself, his thoughts and actions,
brings his will to pass, and his counsel must stand ; so we also should have
CHAP. V.] IN KESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 803
done, our wills being in tune to his ; so now by the same reason we come to admire and doat upon ourselves, seek to advance our own wills, and to make
all stoop to us ; and so here you may see the ground of all the pride that is
in us. Again, as then we should have been zealous and tender of his glory, lest any creature should in the least measure derogate from him, or enjoy any good to itself which God s glory had not custom out of (for thus zealous
is God of his glory), so now self is looking to have the same privilege,
grieves that any should have any excellency we have not, or which may not add lustre to ours, or which may in the least measure cast a shadow on ours. Hence all the envy that is in us at the good of others, all grudgings, repin-
ings, distractions, rejoicing at the hurt of others, whereby that is removed
that should stand in our light. As God making himself his utmost end
destroys all his enemies out of the infinite love of himself, brings them into
subjection, that he may be all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28, so we likewise desire and endeavour to do to all our enemies, and to get the victory, and to keep ourselves uppermost ; and hence all the revenge that is in us. And all these
you see proceed from self thus advanced, as the adequate ground of them ; and so it may be said of all sin else contrary to the law, only I instance in
these, because in lusts we seek pleasure out of good things created, and it
is more apparent we do so from these instances. And in 1 Cor. xiii. 4, true
love is made the ground of long-suffering, kindness to others, &c. ; therefore the opposite sins to all these come from self-love, which is opposite to the
love of God. And so you see that other ground of that branch of our lusts,
inordinacy, that they are not carried only to other things besides God as the
chiefest good, but also to things contrary to God and the good of others.
Prop. 6. Now self-love having got into the saddle, and having usurped
all the power into its own hands, and establishing its own prerogative, and
seeking its chiefest happiness in the creatures, and not being able to delight in God, it comes also to hate and lust against anything that would rob it of
its happiness, and that labours to make it subject again, and to dethrone and
depose it ; it hates it as an enemy to its prerogative and sovereignty, which
is its utmost end. And therefore as a man by reason of this self-love loves
all things that advance it, be they never so contrary to the law, so it hates what would any way hinder it ; and hence is its enmity against God, his
law, his children, because all these would bring it down : 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. They would bring all
into subjection again, and into captivity to Jesus Christ. As tyrants use to hate the lawful heirs to the throne, so we do God, and cannot endure to hear of him, as Saul could not of David ; therefore, Rom. viii. 7, the flesh is said
to be enmity against God. And therefore if grace in our own bowels seek
to set God up again, we fight against it, and set ourselves against it, as Saul did hate his son Jonathan for taking part with David. And hence is the
lusting of the flesh against the spirit, Gal. v. 17 ; and the motions of the
flesh are as so many spears thrown to kill all motions of the Spirit in us. And if the law of God comes as a herald to proclaim God lord and king, and to threaten us if we will not be subject to him ; yet self-love, which is thus
highly exalted, is of so great a spirit as it will never yield. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against the law, and cannot be subject, Rom. viii. 7. And the same ground of quarrel is there in wicked men against godly men s lives, who being of God s party, the light wherewith they shine, con demns them for traitors and usurpers, and tells them their works are evil ;
804 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
and therefore they hate the light, for their deeds are evil: John iii. 19,
* And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Yea, when conscience comes to apprehend God to be an invincible enemy, who will cer
tainly destroy us, as it doth in those that sin against the Holy Ghost, who, Heb. x. 27, are said to receive and expect judgment, then self-love thus advanced desires to be revenged on God all it can, and as an utter enemy,
delights in what angers and provokes him, for the sin against the Holy Ghost is but revenge against God and his saints ; as the devil, when he was
cast out of heaven, made war with the woman and her seed, Rev. xii. 13. Hence you may see grounds for all the several aggravations of this inor-
dinacy of our lusts.
1. That readiness to sin, for the soul remains still in itself active and nimble.
2. Our lusts must needs have much power and force in us to carry us on
to him, because they are the laws of this lord-paramount, self-love, which
reigns as our utmost end, and gives all our desires their commission, and
they all there fawn upon it, who having such power therefore, puts forth all
the power the soul hath in all its desires, so as quicquid vult, valde vult.
3. The unsatisfiedness ariseth from the emptiness of those objects which
lusts carry us out unto (such are the pleasures of sin and the creatures) as
their chiefest good ; and withal the vast wideness of the soul, being made at
first of such a size, as God only, not the creature, should be able to fill it, and widened also by Adam gaping to swallow a godship at once ; so all these
pleasures satisfy you no more than a drop can fill a cistern.
4. This greediness ariseth from the unsatisfiedness, for appetitus fi.nis est
infinitus; for the soul having so large a stomach, because it hath a large life
of comfort to maintain, and these pleasures affording so little at once, the
soul is as a man ready to perish with thirst, and hath only a sucking-bottle
given him, whence he can suck but drops at once, which can scarce keep soul and body together ; and therefore it is so greedy and impatient, and would have all at once.