Body of Divinity, Book 4 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the Evill of Sinne.
1. IN regard of God it strikes not only at his soveraignty, Psa. 51. 4. but his Being, Psa. 10. 4.God is not in all his thoughts, or, al his thoughts are, there is no God.
It is contrary to the whole nature of God, Lev. 26. 22. Col. 1. 12. If we look on the Soveraignty of God, sin is rebellion; if on his justice, sin is iniquity; If on his goodnesse sin is unkindenesse; but it especially wrongeth the Holinesse of God in respect of its defilement. Zech. 11. 8. Amos 5. 21. Hab. 1. 13. Psa. 5. 4, 5. If we consider Gods Holinesse as a Rule, sin is a transgression, if as an excellency, sinne is a deformity.
It is a separation or aversion of the soul from him in these respects.
1. It is a taking off the soul from the love of God as the greatest good, and theIn peccato duo attenduntur▪ s…ilicet conversio ad commutabile bonum, quae materialiter se habet in peccat…: & aversio à bono incommutabili, quae est formalis & completiva ratio peccati. Aqu. 2. qu. 162. art. 6. fear of God and delight in him, …elying on him, committing our selves to him, ler. 2. 12, 13. Iam. 4. 4.
2. A separation from the Law of God as our rule, therefore it is a going besides, a being without the Law. Iohn 3. 4. Mat. 15. 6. In the Law there is.
1. A rectitude, I have esteemed thy Commandements in every thing to be right, sin is a croookednesse, Psal. 125. 5.
2. A wisedom, wisedom is justified of her children, there is a folly in sin, the wicked man is called a fool often in the Proverbs, Jer. 8. 9.
3. There is a purity and holinesse in the Law, Thy Commandements are very pure, therefore thy Servant loveth them, Rom. 7. 12. sin is filthinesse it self.
4. There is a harmony in the Law, sin is a disharmony.
5. There is a liberty in the Law, Iam. 2. 8. sin is a bondage, 2 Tim. 2. 26.
6. The keeping of the Law brings a reward, but sin, shame and death, Rom. 6. 22, 23.
3. It takes away the soul from the dominion of God, we will not have this man to rule over us, therefore it is often called rebellion.
4. Defaceth the Image of God, it doth this not only meritoriè but physi…, not only provokes God to take away his Image, but in the nature of it blots it out, Gal. 5. 17. as one contrary expels another.
5. It severs us from communion and fellowship with God, Ier. 2. 13. Psa. 10. 4. Iob 21. 4▪ it makes much for the eternall separation.
6. It severs us from the conformity and likenesse we had with God in our first Creation, it's a disconformity of our judgements to the judgement of God, and a disagreement of our wils from the will of God.
7. It alienates the soul from God, and turns it against him as an enemy, Col. 1. 21.Two things manifest the enmity of the heart to God. 1. A mans averseness from Christ and the way of the Gospel. 2. His unwillingnesse to …ely upon God alone for succour. Omne peccatum est deicidium: say the Schools. It strikes at the very essence or being of God; Every sin saith, I would have no God, Rom. 8. 7. abstractum de…tat essentiam. men are stiled therefore haters of God, Rom. 1. 30. Evil only should be the object of thy hatred, there is no evil in God, fighters against God, Act. 5. 39. There is an infinitenesse in sin objectivè though not subjectivè, it is committed against an infinite God, though it be in a finite creature.
Secondly, In respect of all Creatures, all the antipathics betwixt the creaturesRom. 8. 23. There is a double curse come upon the creatures, not only a generall curse on them all in the fall, but a particular curse, the figtree lay under a generall curse, and it would have withered with that, but because of the particular curse it withered presently. came in by mans sin, Gen. 2. 29. man had an admirable dominion over them before the fall, they took delight to obey him, now they will not be subject to him. They are all fading, deceiving, and desiling, Eccl. 1. 14. Tit. 1. 15.
Thirdly, The Reasonable Creatures, it hath defiled the Angels Iob 4. 17, 18. the devilVide Lombard. l. 2. Senten. dist. 25. & Aqu. 1, 2. qu. 85. art. 1. Sins proper end is the dishonour of God, and the ruine and abasement of the nature where it is, the Law hath put another end on it, the manifestation of Gods justice, but Christ puts a new end on it, the Lord will exalt his grace and mercy in the pardoning of it. Sin hath defiled the soul in point of purity, and disquieted it in point of serenity. The soul of man in its creation exceeded th… Sun in glory in its greatest splendour. is called the evill One.
It poisoned all mankinde at one draught, Rom. 8. 19, 20. who can reckon up the particular evils that befall him by reason of sin.
The evil of sin goes through the whole man. It is expoliatio gratuitorum say the Schools, a stripping of the soul of all those supernatural excellencies that God gave unto man in his Creation. 2. Vulneratio naturalium, the wounding of the soul in things morall and natural, naturae vires non sunt ablatae sed diminutae. A mans soul is carried after truth and good, accompanied with difficulty or delight. As the soul is carried after truth, it is called the minde, as after good the will, as after good that is difficult there is facultas irascibilis, heat in the affections, as the good is accompanied with delight there is facultas concupiscibilis. The minde is now carried after errour, and there is an unrighteous frame of Spirit, one can resist no temptation, there are inordinate affections.
It brings many calamities on the outward man, many diseases, some are born blinde, others dumb, some reckon up three hundred diseases of the eye; every age discovers as new corruptions in the souls of men, so new diseases in their bodies: these are not from the condition of our nature, as the Pelagians say, but the demerit of our sins, naturall evils, hunger, thirst, nakednesse, shortnesse of life, there is a certainty of dying, yet an unwillingnesse to die. Austin saith, after his friend was taken away, he was continually afflicted, taedio vivendi & metu moriendi. Adde to this the losse of heaven, glory, and the torments of hell, that God (who is love it self) should judge his creature to eternall torments, sin meritoriously caused hell and maintains it.
Fourthly, It appears from the names of it, it is called Evil in the abstract, Psa. It is called evil …ine adjecto, Rom. 7 13. the holy Ghost could not call it by a worse name then it self. But sin that it might appear sin praedicatio identica, and after that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinfull hyperbolically sinfull.5. 4. and Psa. 97. 10. it is evil, the worst evil, all evil, either formaliter, efficienter, or meritoriè. There is more evil in our sin then good in all the creatures in heaven and earth, Matth. 16. 26. one sin will undo the s…ul which all creatures cannot ransome, because they cannot make God satisfaction in point of good or honour, sin is both damnum and injuria, a soul is lost and a wrong offered to God.
Fifthly, From the nature of it. That which is only and perfectly contrary to the greatest good (God) must be the greatest evil, and that which is contrary to all good, hath all evil in it.
1. It is contrary to God the greatest good, Col. 1. we are said to be enemies to God, and Rom. 1. 30. haters of God. It is contrary,
1. To his glory, both essential, that which is in himself, and shines forth in Christ, Heb. 1. and manifestative, that glory which he hath manifested in all the works of creation and redemption, Prov. 16. 3.
1. It denies the glory due to God, Rom. 1. 21. Tit. 1. 16.
2. Despiseth his glory, Psa. 10. 13. Ezek. 13. 19.
3. Reproacheth God and all his excellencies, his justice, Rom. 3. 2. turns his mercy and grace into wantonnesse, abuseth his patience, all his dispensations.
4. Misemploy…th his glory, gives it to ones self, to men, the very devil, he casts out devils by Beelzebub.
2. It wrongs God in his nature and being, Psal. 14 1. Every sinner wishethThe damned in hell hate God because they are sealed up in their obstinacy against him, Isa. 51. 20. Rev. 16. 9. Aquinas brings that place to prove it, Psa. 74. ult. there were no God, he hates God for himself, so the devil and damned.
2. It is contrary to the Rule of goodnesse, the Law, it is a transgression of it, it looks upon it as a vain thing, Prov. 1. 7. as a needlesse thing, Heb. 2. 3. 1 Thes. 5. 20. as a burden or yoke, Psa. 2. 3. Isa. 5. 21, 24. as a hatefull thing, Lev. 26. 15. as an unreasonable thing, Psa. 107. 11.
Sixthly, It hath been alwaies counted the greatest evil by those that are able to judge.
1. By God he hates nothing but sin, he loves himself, his Son, his people, all his creatures: but his hatred is set on sinne only, therefore he counts nothing evil but sinne.
2. Christ was content to undergoe all other evils.
3. The Saints counted nothing evil in comparison of sin, Heb. 11. 25. the Martyrs chose rather to lay down their lives, then to admit of any thing against their consciences. Mallem, ego mundus à peccato gehennam intrare quam peccatorum sordibus pollutus regnum coelorum tenere, saith Anselme. One should rather venture the salvation of all mankinde, then commit one sin to save them.Aquin. part. 1. qu. 48. art. 6. proves, that Culpa habet plus de ratione ma…i quam poena; 1 quia ex malo culp… s…t aliquis malus, non ex malo poenae; 2 quia Deus est auctor mali poenae, non autem mali culpae. Gods greatest punishment is to punish sin with sin; He that is filthy let him be filthy still, the greatest punishment in hel… is sin, as the Saints obedience in heaven is pars praemij, so the blasphemy of the wicked in hell is pars poenae, say the Schoolmen: there is more evil in the cause then the effect.
Seventhly, There is more evil in sinne then in all sufferings whatsoever, they are but the issues of sin: Moses chose rather affliction, then to enioy the pleasures of sin for a season.
For suffering,
1. We have Gods warrant, are called to it, 1 Pet. 2. 13.
2. His command to take up our Crosse.
3. Christs example, he hath left us a copy to write after.
4. The end of sufferings is glory, of sin shame.
5. By suffering we lose some outward good, by sin the soul.
6. God hath promised to be with us in suffering, never in sinning.
Sin made hell, Rom. 2. 5, …1. and is worse then Hell.
1. God is the authour of all punishment and of hell it self: Tophet is prepared, but he is not the authour of sin, Iam. 1. 14.See Field on the Church, p. 418. Perk. vol. 1. p. 215. B. Bilson dislikes this in his Full redem. of mankinde by the death of Christ, from p. 14. to 136. B. Bilson p. 135 saith, that hell pains were never added to Christs crosse for 1300 years since the Apostles time.
2. Some say Christ underwent the torments of hell in the essentiall parts of them, the wrath of God immediatly upon his soul, but would not admit of the least sinne, Psa. 110. ult.
3. In hell there is some good, the vindicative justice of God is glorified, there is no good in sin.
4. Hell is contra bonum creatum against a created good, sin contra bonum increatum, against an uncreated good, the glory of God.
Eighthly, Every sin is after a sort the greatest evill as God is the greatest good. After a sort (I say) non datur summum malum, quod sit causa omnis mali; say the Schools. For it would then follow, that there are two first Principles of things good and evil, which was the heresie of the Manichees.
1. God is per se bonus, so sinne is per se malum, evil in it self, and good in no respect.
2. As God is to be loved for himself because he is the chiefest good, so sin is to he hated for it self, one should hate sinne as sinne, and then he will hate every sin, à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia.
3. God is the great reward of himself, and sin the great punishment of it self, Hos. 8. 11. Austin speaks of a poenalis vitiositas.
Ninthly, Every one sin doth virtually contain in it all sins, an idle word the sinne against the holy Ghost, Rom. 5▪ 14. the sin of Adam is called one mans offence. See Heb. 12. 15.