A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is, by pregnant texts of Scripture vindicated from false glosses / by Anthony Burgess.

¶. 4.

The Corruption of the Will in its Act of Fruition.

THe next Act is that which is called Fruition; An operation (you heard) of the will, when it doth possess a thing, as its ultimate end, end resting in it, as a center, and desiring no further; For as the stone cannot of it self hang in the air, but must descend to the earth, and there it resteth: So the will of man mo∣veth up and down in a restless manner, like Noah's Dove, till it find out an ob∣ject wherein it doth acquiesce with fulness of content. Now there is no object that we may thus frui, enjoy ultimately, and for it self's sake, but God onely. That distinction of frui and uti, to enjoy and use only, which Austin first exco∣gitated, the Schoolmen are large upon; To enjoy a thing, is to have it for its self sake, referring it to no further end, for the Rule is, Appetitus finis, is in∣finitus, The soul never hath enough of that which it ultimately desireth, but yet desireth nothing else but that. As in Philosophy it is said, Materia semper appetit formam, the Matter doth constantly desire new forms in sublunary things; Hence is that frequent alteration, transmutation and generation, but in the hea∣venly bodies, the matter (they say) is satiated, desireth no other, because of the great activity and perfection of that form; Thus it is in moral things, the heart of a man, while carried out to any earthly thing, cannot meet with its complement and fulness of blessedness, and therefore like the Horsleech still cry∣eth, Give, give, Sen caret optatis, seu fruitur miser est. It is a Sheol that is alwayes craving, onely when terminated upon God, because he is bonum quo nihil melius, there cannot be any good desirable, which is not transcendently in him; therefore the sanctified will doth enjoy him onely: Thus David, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and none in earth in comparison of thee; In Heaven Da∣vid had none but God, not Angels nor Arch-angels, Heaven would not be Heaven, if God were not enjoyed. Indeed Divines do commonly call the en∣joyment of God in Heaven fruition, and that is immediate, compleat and perfect fruition, but yet even in this life, believers partake of God, have communion with him, and do enjoy him. It is indeed by saith, not yet by vision, but the object of faith is as real and operative in the soul, though not to such a full de∣gree, as the object seen Thus you see, that according to the true order and constitution of things, God onely is to be enjoyed, he onely is to be loved, and desired for his own sake, and all things else in reference to him. But on the breadth, the depth and length of our natural defilement therein! What spiritu∣al Geometry can measure the dimensions hereof? For doth not every natural man enjoy something or other, which is as a God to him? Why is Covetousness called Idolatry? Why are some said to have their belly a God? Is not all this, be∣cause they love these things, and enjoy these things for their own selfe's sake? Whereas we ought only to use them, as instruments of Gods glory, and advan∣tages of grace, not to abide or dwell in them; They are to be taken as Physick, which is not received for its selfe's sake, but because of health; So that were it not for health, a man would never use it: Thus it ought to be with us, in all the comforts we have in this world, to use them no further then they are subservient to our spiritual condition; we are ex officio discendere, not cupiditate ruere, such a crucified and circumcised heart the Apostle exhorteth to, 1 Cor. 7. The time is short, those that marry must be as if they married not, those that rejoyce, as if they rejoyced not If a man desire a garment, he would not have all the cloath in the Countrey, but as much as serveth for his garment; So neither are we to desire wealth, riches, honours, any comfort without end, but as much as will conduce

for Heaven. The travailer will not burden himself, no not with gold and silver, who hath a long journey to go; Oh then call off thy will again and again? Say, Why art thou fastned here? Why stayest thou here? Look further, look higher, This is not God; As the Angel did on a suddain so ravish John, that he was ready to worship him, but the Angel forbad him, saying, I am thy fellow-servant, worship thou God; So these creatures had they a voice would speak, when thou art at any time ravished with the excellency of them, do not love us, love God; do not delight in us, delight thou in God, we are but thy fellow-creatures, yea not so much, but inferiour and more ignoble then man. Jansenius (Lib. 2. de statu naturae lapsae.) following his Austin, will not allow us any love to any thing but God; we may use it (say they) but not love it; yea he rejects that assertion, we may love the creatures, but moderately; this is (saith he) as if we should say, there is a moderate covetousness, a moderate pride; and we must grant, that the Scripture doth many times speak of the love of the creature, as absolutely and intrinsecally a sinne. Thus, Love not the world, nor the things of the world, 1 Joh. 2. 15. He doth not say, Use not the world, but love not the world; and thus, The love of money is the root of all evil, not the having of it or using of it. But this seemeth to be too rigid and stoical; and it is indeed a meer Que∣stion De nomine; for, take love in the sense they do, for the willing of a thing, for its own selfe's sake, thus it is intrinsecally a sinne to love any creature, it is spi∣ritual Idolatry, and a breach of the first command, but then the Scripture doth allow us to love the creatures, so we do not love them more then God. Thus Husbands are commanded to love their wives, and we are to love our Neighbours as our selves; So that to love the creatures is our duty, we should sinne, if we did not, onely the excesse and inordinacy is sinfull, and this we are guilty of, when we enjoy any thing but God, Now though none will acknowledge them∣selves guilty of this sinne, yet every natural man doth enjoy some creature or other, his will is fastened upon something that is not God: It is true, this sinne is very secret and subtile, the godly themselves have much ado to find it out in their own hearts; the will of a man is such an unsearchable Abisse of all evil, but do not thou crawl on the ground like a worme any longer, Set thy affections on things above. It is indeed a Question worthy much enquiring into, How a man shall know whether he doth enjoy a creature or use it onely, when it is a Sarah, when an Hagar onely? And here the godly themselves are often in great uncertainties; The root of things lieth hid under ground; The first Letter com∣monly which beginneth a Book hath so many gaudy flourishes about it, that it is hard to know what it is: Thus also it is in our hearts and conversations; what is the Summum bonum, the great wheel that moveth all, the ultimate rest of our soul, it is very difficult to find out; but it is not my work now to dive into this, it is enough that we know, The will of every man is naturally so polluted, that it enjoyeth a creature in stead of God, it cannot will, love, and imbrace him as the chief∣est good. Proceed we then to the next act of the will about the end, and that not as possessed and enjoyned, but 〈◊〉〈◊〉 be obtained and acquired, and that by some means, which we call Intention, and we shall find the will horribly corrupted in this respect also.