Body of Divinity, Book 4 · Chapter 8 – Chapter 9
CHAP. VIII. Of the Cause of Sinne.
SIn properly is nothing formally subsisting or existing (for then God shouldPerkins Cas. of Consc. In peccato nihil positivum, say the Schoolmen Vide Calvin. Institut. l. 2. c. 4. God is not the Author of that whereof he is Ultor. Fulgentius. Actor in malo not Author mali. Vix ullus unquam extitit adeò superlativè impius qui asseruit Deum esse authorem peccati, se… mali moralis, ut sumitur pro malitia ipsa, nec Ethnicus quidem nedum Christianus. Barlow. Exercit. 2. be the author of it) but it is an ataxy or absence of goodnesse and uprightnesse in the thing that subsisteth, Psal. 5. 4. 1 Iohn 2. 16. 1 Iohn 1. 5. Hab. 1. 13. Iob 34. 10.
The Church of Rome *Bellar. de amiss…grat & statu peccati, lib. 2. cap. 2, 3, 4, &c. Rhem. Annot. in Mat. 6. 13. & Jam. 1. 13.slanders the Protestants, and saith, that they maintain God to be the cause of sin, but we hold that the Devil and mans corrupt will are the cause of it. Sin in man at first came from Satan, Iohn 3. 8. & 8. 44. Iohn 6. 17. Matth. 16. 23. the cause of sinne now man is fallen, is from our selves, Matth. 15. 19.
God hath no hand in the acting and approving of sinne, Rom. 3. 5. & 9. 14. He is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity with approbation; He is the wise permitter, powerful disposer, and eternal avenger of it.
God cannot sin, or cause others to sin:
1. Because his will is most holy and pure, and the rule of perfection, Isa. 6. He is holy in his Nature, Actions, he hath so confirmed his Angels in holinesse that they cannot sin.
2. To sinne is to turn away from the chiefest and last end, therefore he cannot sinne.
3. God threatens sinners in his word, and punisheth them, therefore he allows it not.
4. All deservedly hate the Manichees, Marcionites and Libertines, who would make that sacred and dreadful Majesty the cause of their detestable enormities, therefore Bellarmine doth wickedly in imputing to Protestant Divines that which they detest with the greatest loathing.
That is a great Question in Divinity, An Deus author peccati ex reformatorum placitis statuatur?Papistae clamitant à Catholicis sieri Deum authorem peccati maximè Calvino, Martyre, Beza: hos enim docuisse, illum authorem esse omnium scelerum, & flagitiorum. Bellarminus praesatione in controversias; & quidem ita authorem, ut cor hominis imp…llat & incitet ad malefaciendum, adeò ut incestus Absolomis verè uerit illius opus. Chamier. …om. 1 lib. 3. cap. 1. de Script. Vide Whitak. c. 1. q. 5. controv. c. 7.
Four several kinds of power though not in, yet over sinne, may be ascribed to God, a permissive, desertive, restrictive and disposing power.
First, A permissive power, else it could not be; he may permit what he is not bound to hinder.
Secondly, A desertive power, it would not be if he withdrew not his grace; sinne needs no efficient cause no more then darknesse, Causa deficiens in moralibus efficiens.
Thirdly, A restraining power, there may be an act of restraining grace on the Devil.
Fourthly, A disposing power, whereby he disposeth and ordereth sinne to someNon est eadem ratio futurorum bonorum & malorum; bona enim sunt ex vir tute positiva quae semper cum suis effect is, ab efficaci Dei voluntate fluit: sed mala ex defectu sunt oriunda, atque adcò quà talia non pendent ab efficaci aliquo decreto. Quicquid ha…ent entis positivi, ab efficaci decreto pendet… quicquid purae negationis, ex ejusdem decret negatione sequi-i tur, quicquid verò pr…ationis & pravitatis in sese continent, peccatoribus ipsis debetur in solidum. Rescrip. Ames. ad responsum Grevinchov. c. 13. Vide plura ibid. Mal…m es…e bonum est, saith Austin… And again, Non fit aliquid nisi omnipotens fieri velit, vel sinendo ut fiat, vel ipse faciendo. Peccatum sieri Deo permittente bonum est, saith Bellarmine. The Arminians have blasphemous expressions, Qui non vetat pecca… cum potest jubet, say they, Why doth God complain of sin, he might have kept it out of the world. See M… Manton on Iam. 1 13. from p. 100. to 105. God hardened Pharaohs heart, Exod. 4. 21. & 10. 1. 1. He infused no hardness, nor stirred up the inward propension in him to evil, neither did he harden him by bare prescience, or by an idle permission, it was Gods will that Pharaoh should be hardened, and he disposed all his providences to that end. He withdrew his grace, and left him loose to the swinge of his own heart, Psal. 81. 1…. 1 Sam. 16. 14. He delivered him up to the power of Satan, 1 King. 22 22. excellent and good end, his glory: When God doth dispose or order the sin of any man,
1. He doth not infuse this evil but use it.
2. He useth it not as an evil or sin, but as an instrument.
3. He would not use it to such an end, but that he is able to raise more good by it, and to counterpoise all the evil in the action.
4. God did not infuse malice into Iosephs brethren, but made use of it rather to a sale then a murder, he sent him before to save much people alive, Gen. 45. 8.
In the beginning of sin Gods will is exercised:
First, By way of inhibition in giving a Law against it.
Secondly, By way of permission, leaying a lawlesse man to a lawlesse way. In the progresse of sin, God either hinders or over-rules it, in the end, he either punisheth or pardoneth it. And all this without sin, or the least blemish of sin. For in the beginning of sin he sheweth his Wisdome: In the progresse he sheweth his Power: In the end, he maketh manifest both his Justice and his Mercy. Mr Wischart on the Lords Prayer, Petit. 3.
Those places Acts 2. 23. 2 Sam. 1. 43. besides a permission do expresse an active providence; he is said to harden and deceive. Gods permission is not otiosa but efficax permissio.
1. God permits sin.
2. Cooperates to the act as natural.
3. Decreed it.
4. As a just Judge he denieth grace.
5. As the supream Judge he useth all these as instruments of his glory.
Papists and Arminians allow God no other power about sin, but what is barely permissive or desertive at most.
There are two ordinary similitudes, one from a halting horse, the rider which makes the horse go is not the cause of his halting, but of his going only; but it is a question whether this clears the doubt, for the rider is but an outward moving cause to the other, he doth not work to the motion of the horse as immediatly as the horse himself doth, therefore this simile were good and fit if that opinion were true, God doth only give being, but not immediately work to the effect it self; and if the simile were to the purpose, it would be, that the rider besides this outward motion did as immediatly help to going as nature it self.
As for the other about a dunghill, the Sun-beams that work upon any boggy places and make them smell, but yet they themselves are not defiled: this would illustrate well for all the sins men runne into since the fall, but how will it answer about the first sinne? for Adams nature was not a bog.
The best way is to hold these two truths:
1. God doth not sin nor is not the author of it.
2. That he hath a providence about it, and for the manner it is hard to determine.
Object. God bid Shimei curse.
Ans. That was an improper command, and implieth only that God used Shimei's tongue as a whip to scou…ge David.
Object. Ezekiel 20. 25. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgements whereby they should not live. There God seems not only to permit, butHic nodus sic solvetur, si dicamus per mala statuta, vel intelligi leges Ethnicorum, quibus Deus iratus popuiam suum subjecerat: idque videtur innuere oppositio versus vic…simi tertii, ubi Deus dicit se dedisse populo suo statuta, quae quisquis impleverit vivet per ea, opponens malas istas leges suae legi: vel si dicamus per mala statuta intelligi legem Dei moralem & caer…monialem: quae quidem mala vocari potest accipiendo malum non pro injusto, sed pro noxio & in pernici…m cessuro. Huic interpretationi adstipulatur subjecta clausula: Additur enim, Statuta per quae non pos…ent vivere. Nam per legis impletionem nemo unquam salutem adeptus est. Molin. Enodat. gravis. Quaest. 1. cap. 2. de Dei Providentia. Mentem iis ademi, ita ut meis legibus contemptis, ipsi sibi leges facerent duras atque mortiferas, ita Chaldaeus hic. Grotius. also to command sin.
Iunius interprets it, Ipsis incommoda noxiaque, and mentions some particulars.
I gave them in the wildernesse decrees and ordinances, that were not good for them but hurtful; and judgements that did sentence them to death: So the great Annotations, instancing there in some of those judgements.
Weems understands it of the ceremonial statutes, and nicely distinguisheth between not good and evil: See Psal. 5. 4, 5, 6. The ceremonial statutes were good in their kinde, and in respect of the end for which God ordained them, Col. 2. 17. Some say God did deliver them over into the hands of wicked Princes, he gave them over in judgement to obey their idolatrous Laws, the statutes of Omri: Others hold the genuine meaning to be that of the Chaldee Paraphrase, They observed statutes which were not right, and customs whereby they should not live.
Some Protestant Authors have used some incommodious and harsh phrases, yetMr Ar…her indeed saith, That God is not only the Author of sin, but also of the sinfulnesse, the very Formality, the Anomy, the Ataxy, the Pravity of sinne, whence his Book was burnt. 1. They do most of them use but the Scripture-phrase, and Bellarmine himself useth worse in this matter; With what face can Bellarmine lay to Calvins charge that he makes God the author of sin, when he wrote two books against the Libertines, as Bellarmine himself acknowledgeth 2. De statu peccati, c. 1. when the Protestants professedly handle the question, An Deus si… Author peccati? they determine it negatively, therefore it is not fair for their Adversaries to conclude that they hold so by some passages in their writings which may seem to sound that way.
CHAP. IX. Of communicating with other Mens sins.
NO godly man ought to partake or communicate with other mens sins, Isa. 52. 11. Ephes. 5. 11. 2 Cor. 6. 15, 16. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Revel. 18. 11. Vitia aliorum si feras, facis tua.
We are guilty of other mens sins, or communicate with others, First, Negatively and privatively, and that
1. By sinful silence: the Heathen knew not the exactnesse of godlinesse, when he said, He repented him often that he spake, but never that he held his tongue.
2. When one omits to do his duty with that life, courage and zeal which he ought; as Eli reproved his sons, but not sharply enough, and punished them not for their sins.
3. When one doth not pray for a reformation, Psal. 51. or humble himself for the sins of others, 1 Cor. 5. 2. 2 Cor. 12. 21.
Secondly, More directly and positively:
1. He who commands or perswades Isa. 10. 1. as Ieroboam who made Israel toNumb. 31. 16. Dan. 3. 4, 5. 1 Sam. 22. 18. Act 23. 23. 1 Sam. 11. 15. 1 King. 21. 10. 1 Sam. 22. 18. Hab. 2. 15. Athaliah counselled her son to do evil. sin was a cause of all the peoples Idolatry, there was not one of the one and twenty Kings of the house of Israel that departed from the sins of Ieroboam. Balaam inticed the people of Israel to fornication and idolatry; the Devil by being a tempter becomes guilty of all the sins committed by men: Eve became a tempter to Adam, 1 Tim. 5. 22.
2. He who is a minister and servant to execute the evil commands of others, the three Worthies in Daniel refused to obey Nebuchadnezzar, and the Apostles would obey God rather then men; Doeg is cursed by God for this, Ps. 52. 2 Kin. 1. 9. Ier. 7. 17, 18.
3. He that gives consent and allowance to it, Levit. 20. 4, 5. though he do not act it, Rom. 1. ult.
4. He who defends, praiseth and encourageth others that have sinned, He that breaks one of these least commandments, and teacheth others so to do. Cajetan holds that to drink till a mans head be giddy is no sin, or a venial one: Another holds that there is a lawful idolatry: the Papists canonize such acts, to murder and poison Princes: the Pharisees encouraged the people in sin.
5. Those that familiarly converse with wicked men, 1 Cor. 5. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 14. our very presence in idolatrous service is evil, 1 Cor. 14. 15.
6 Permission and connivance at evil, Levit. 20. 4, 5. Qui non vetat peccare cum potest, jubet. This concerns Magistrates and other Superiours, if they restrain not sinne when they have power and authority in their hands, 1 Sam. 3. 30.
7. Provoking to sin, 1 Kin. 21. 25. Ephes. 6. 4. Gal. 5. 26.
8. Giving ill example, as when Magistrates and Ministers swear, Ieroboam byCommunicating in our Congregations with ignorant and prophane people, makes us not partakers of their sins; Communion is a common union, their sins are not the common thing, we are united then in. his ill example as well as precepts made Israel to sin, Mat. 23. 35. not that they killed Abel, but they went on in their predecessours steps.