more are the acts of that faculty also a sin, but if these be innocent, then much more is that.

40. Yet the Apostle does confess, that concupiscence or lust hath of itself the nature of sin."

"Of itself:" That is, it is in the whole kind to be reproved, it is not a sin to all persons, not to unconsenting persons: for if it be no sin to them that resist, then, neither is it a sin to them that cannot consent. But it hath the 'nature of sin,' that is, it is the material part of sin, a principle and root from whence evil may spring, according to St. Austin's words: "Modo quodam loquendi vocatur peccatum quod peccato factum est, et peccati, si vicerit, facit reum"." Just as if a man have a natural thirst, it may tempt him, and is apt to incline him to drunkenness; if he be of a sanguine disposition, it disposes him to lust; if choleric, to anger; and is so much a sin as the fuel is a part of the fire; but because this can be there, where damnation shall not enter, this nature of sin is such as does not make a proper guiltiness; for it is a contradiction to say, the sin remains and the guilt is taken away: for he that hath a sin, is guilty of punishment, that is, he is liable to it, if God pleases: he may pardon if he pleases; but if he pardons he takes away the sin for in the justified, no sin can be inherent or habitual; "Quomodo justificati, et sanctificati sumus, si peccatum aliquod in nobis relinquiturz?" If concupiscence be an inherent sin in us before baptism, it must either be taken away by baptism, or imputed to us after baptism: for if the malice remains, the guilt cannot go away; for God will by no means justify the remaining sinner.

41. These things I have chose to say and publish, because I find that the usual doctrines about original sin, are not only false, and presumed without any competent proof, but because, as they are commonly believed, they are no friends to piety, but pretences of idleness, and dishonourable to the reputation of God's goodness and justice, for which we ought to be very zealous, when a greater indifference would better become us in the matter of our opinion, or the doctrine of our sect; and therefore it is not to be blamed in me, that I move the thoughts of men in the proposition; for it is not a useless one, but hath its immediate * Lib. 1. de Nup. et Concup, c. 23. z Hieron. ad Oceanum.

effects upon the honour of God, and the next, upon the lives of men. And therefore this hath in it many degrees of necessary doctrine, and the fruits of it must needs do more than make recompense for the trouble I put them to, in making new inquiries into that doctrine, concerning which they were so long at ease.

But if men of a contrary judgment can secure the interests and advantages of piety, and can reconcile their usual doctrines of original sin with God's justice and goodness and truth, I shall be well pleased with it, and think better of their doctrine than now I can: but until that be done, they may please to consider that there is in Holy Scripture no sign of it, nor intimation, that at the day of judgment Christ shall say to any, Go, ye cursed sons of Adam, into everlasting fire, because your father sinned; and though I will pardon millions of sins which men did choose and delight in, yet I will severely exact this of you, which you never did choose, nor could delight in this, I say, is not likely to be in the event of things, and in the wise and merciful dispensation of God, especially since Jesus Christ himself, so far as appears, never spake one word of it, there is not any tittle of it in all the four Gospels; it is a thing of which no warning was or could be given to any of Adam's children, it is not mentioned in the Old Testament (for that place of David in the fifty-first Psalm, Clemens Alexandrinus and others of the fathers snatch from any pretence to it); and that one time where it

spoken of in the New Testament, there is nothing said of it, but that it is imputed to us to this purpose only, that it brought in death temporal: and why such tragedies should. be made of it, and other places of Scripture drawn by violence to give countenance to it, and all the systems of divi nity of late made to lean upon this article, which yet was never thought to be fundamental, or belonging to the foundation, was never put into the creed of any church, but is made the great support of new and strange propositions, even of the fearful decree of absolute reprobation, and yet was never consented in, or agreed upon what it was, or how it can be conveyed, and was (in the late and modern sense of it) as unknown to the primitive church, as it was to the doctors of the Jews, that is, wholly unknown to them both; why, I say, men should be so fierce in their new sense of

this article, and so impatient of contradiction, it is not easy to give a reasonable account.

For my own particular, I hope I have done my duty, hav ing produced scriptures, and reasons, and the best authority, against it. “Qui potest capere, capiat."

For" I had a good spirit; yea, rather being good, I came into a body undefiled." Wisd. viii. 19, 20.

CHAP. VIII.

OF SINS OF INFIRMITY.

SECTION I.

1. ALL mankind hath for ever complained of their irremediable calamity, their propensity to sin.' For though by the dictates of nature all people were instructed in the general notices of virtue and vice, right reason being our rule: insomuch that the old philosophers, as Plutarch reports, said that virtue was nothing else but τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς διά θεσίς τις καὶ δύναμις γεγενημένη ὑπὸ λόγου ", “ a disposition and force of reason.' And this reason having guided the wisest, was formed into laws for others; yet this reason served to little other purposes, but to upbraid our follies and infelicities, and to make our actions punishable, by representing them to be unreasonable: for they did certainly sin, and they could no more help it, than they could prevent their being sick, or hungry, or angry, or thirsty. Nature had made organs for some, and senses for others, and conversation and example brought in all. So that if you reproved a criminal, he heard and understood you, but could not help it: as Laius, in the tragedy;

Λέληθεν οὐδὲν τῶνδέ μ', ὧν σὺ νουθετεῖς.

Γνώμην δ ̓ ἔχοντά μ' ἡ φύσις βιάζεται 5.

'Reason taught him well, but nature constrained him to the contrary; his affections were stronger than his reason.'

2. And it is no wonder that while flesh and blood are the

a

Περὶ ἠθικῆς ἀρετ,

h

Eurip. Chrys. Priestley's edition, vol. vii. p. 592,

prevailing ingredient, while men are in the state of conjunction, and the soul serves the body, and the necessities of this are more felt than the discourses of that,-that men should be angry and lustful, proud and revengeful, and that they should follow what they lust after, not what they are bidden to do. For passions and affections are our first governors, and they being clearly possessed of all mankind in their first years, have almost secured to themselves the soul of man, before reason is heard to speak: and when she does speak, she speaks at first so little and so low, that the common noises of fancy and company drown her voice. This, I say, is the state of nature.' And therefore Lactantius brings in a pagan complaining, "Volo equidem non peccare, sed vincor. Indutus enim sum carne fragili, et imbecillâ: Hæc est quæ concupiscit, quæ irascitur, quæ dolet, quæ mori timet. Itaque ducor incertus, et pecco non quia volo, sed quia cogor. Sentio me et ipse peccare; sed necessitas fragilitatis impellit, cui repugnare non possum :" "I would fain avoid sin, but I am compelled. I am invested with a frail and weak flesh: This is it which lusteth, which is angry, which grieves, which fears to die. Therefore I am led uncertainly, and I sin, not because I will, but because I am constrained. I perceive that I do ill, but the necessity of my weakness drives me on, and I cannot resist it."

Καὶ μανθάνω μὲν, οἷα δραν μέλλω κακά.

Θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων.
દે

"I know well and perceive the evils that I go upon, and they are horrid ones, but my anger is greater than my reason." So Medea in the tragedy. This is the state of a natural man in his mere naturals, especially as they are made worse by evil customs, and vile usages of the world.

3. Now this is a state of infirmity; and all sins against which there is any reluctancy and contrary desires of actual reason, are sins of infirmity. But this infirmity excuses no man: for this state of infirmity is also a state of death; for by this St. Paul expressed that state from which Christ came to redeem us: ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν, « when we were yet" in infirmity, or "without strength, in due time Christ died for us;" that is, when we were does, impious, or

C Lib. iv. Instit. c. 21. d Euripid. Med. Porson. 1074.

e Rom. v. 6.

"sinners," such as the world was before it was redeemed, before Christ came. These are the sick and weak, whom Christ, the great physician of our souls, came to save. This infirmity is the shadow of death; and it signifies that state of mankind which is the state of nature, not of original and birth, but in its whole constitution, as it signifies not only the natural imperfection, but the superinduced evil from any principle; all that which is opposed to grace.

4. To this state of nature being so pitiable, God began to find a remedy, and renewed the measures of virtue, and by a law made them more distinct and legible, and imposed punishments on the transgressors. For by little and little, the notices of natural reason were made obscure, some were lost, some not attended to, all neglected some way or other; till God by a law made express prohibition of what was unreasonable, forbidding us to desire what before was unfit and unnatural, and threatening them that did things unlawful. But this way, by reason of the peevishness of men, succeeded not well, but men became worse by it. For what the law did forbid without the threatening of any penalty, they took for an advice only, and no severe injunction: and those commandments which were established with a threatening to the transgressors, they expounded only by the letter, and in the particular instance, and in the outward act.

5. Before the law, men allowed to themselves many impieties, which reason indeed marked out to be such, but no law had forbidden them in express letter. They thought it lawful to seduce and tempt another man's wife, and invite her to his house and conjugation, so he did not steal, or force her away but if they found a coldness between her and her husband, they would blow the coals, and enkindle an evil flame. It is supposed that Herod did so to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, even after the law. They would not by violence snatch the estate from a young prodigal heir, but if he were apt, they would lend him money, and nurse his vice, and entangle his estate, and at last devour it. They would not directly deny to pay the price of a purchase; but they would detain it, or divert it, or pay it in trifling sums, or in undesired commodities. This was concupiscere rem alienam.' They did not steal, but coveted it, and so entered indirectly and this God seeing, forbade it by a law: "For

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