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

¶. 7.

The Enmity and Contrariety of the Will to Gods Will.

IN the second place, That imbred sinfull propriety of the will, which accom∣panieth it, as heat doth fire, is, The enmity and contrariety of the will to Gods will; There is not onely a privative incapacity, but a positive contrariety, even as between fire and water; Gods will is an holy will, thine is unholy; Gods will is pure, thine is impure; Gods will is carried out to will his own glory, ho∣nour and greatness, thine is carried out to will the dishonour and reproach of God: Thus as Gods will is infinitely good, and the cause of all good, so in some sense, thy will is infinitely evil, and the cause of all that evil thou art plunged into; Therefore when the Apostle saith, That the carnal mind is enmity against God, Rom. 8. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 comprehends the actings of the will and the affections, as well as of the mind; It is enmity in the very abstract, so that it is neither sub∣ject to God, nor can be: Oh that God would set this truth more powerfully upon our hearts, for what tongue can express the misery of this, that thy will should naturally have such irreconcilable opposition and implacable enmity to the Law of God, that it should be diametrially opposite to Gods will, which at first was made so amicable and compliant with Gods will, that there was the Idem velle, and Idem nolle. Besides, many other considerations there are two especially that may break and exceedingly humble our souls herein: For

1. Gods will and his law, which is his will objectively taken, are absolutely in themselvs very good, and therefore the proper object of thy will; So that if thy will be carried out to any thing in the world, it should be carried out to Gods Law above any thing: This is to be willed above any created good what soever, How is it that thou canst will pleasures, profits and such created good things, and art not more ravished and drawn out in thy desires after the chiefest good, but to be in a state of opposition to this chiefest good, to contradict and withstand it, this is the hainous aggravation? Could there be a Summum malum, it would be in the will, because of its direct opposition to the Summum bonum? Herein mans will, and the Devils will, do

both agree, that they are with hatred and contrariety carried out against Gods will: If therefore thou wert to live a thousand and thousands of years upon the earth, and thou hadst no other work to do, but to consider and meditate about the sinfulness and wretchedness of the will in this particular, thou wouldst even then take up but drops in respect of the Ocean, and little crums in respect of the sand upon the sea-shore. But

Secondly, This contrariety of thy will is not only against that which absolutely in it self is the chiefest good, but relatively it would be so to thee, and therefore thy contrariety to it is the more unjustifiable. What to be carried out with un∣speakable hatred, to that which would be thy blessedness and happiness, who can bewail this enough? To have a delight and a connaturality with those things that will be thy eternal damnation, with much readiness and joy to will them, and then to be horrible averse and contrapugnant to those things, which if willed and imbraced would make thee happy to all eternity: Oh miserable and wretched man, thy condition is farre more lamentable then that of the beasts, for they have a natural instinct to preserve themselves, and to desire such things as are wholsom to them, but thou art naturally inclining to will and imbrace all those things which will be thy eternal woe and misery! What is the cause that thy will cannot imbrace the Law of God? Why art thou so contrary to it? Alas there is no just reason can be given, but original sinne is like an occult quality in thy will, making an Antipathy in it against the same; so that thou doest not love what is holy, neither art thou able to say, Why? only thou dost not love it; yea, there is the greatest reason in the world, and all the word of God requireth it likewise, that thy will should be subordinate and commensurated unto it, but there is no other cause of this evil will, then the evil of it; It is evil, and therefore cannot abide that which is good.