3. God supports the faculties wherewith a man sinneth, and supports a man in that act wherein he sinneth, but concurs not to the sinfulness of that act. No sin doth properly consist in the act it self, as an act, but in the deficiency of that act from the rule. No action wherein there is sin, but may be done as an action, though not as an irregular action. Killing a man ⟨p. 74⟩is not in it self unlawful, for then no magistrate should Execute a Malefactor for murdering another, and justice would cease in the World; man also must divest himself of all thoughts of preserving his Life against an invader; but to kill a man without just cause without authority, without rule, contrary to rule, out of revenge, is unlawful. So that it is not the act, as an act, is the sin, but the swerving of that act from the rule, makes it a sinful act: So speaking, as speaking, is not a sin, for it is a power and act God hath endued us with, but speaking irreverently and dishonourably of God, or falsely and slanderously of man, or any otherwise irregularly, therein the sin lies. So that it is easy to conceive that an act and the viciousness of it are separable. That act which is the same in kind with another, may be laudable, and the other base and vile in respect of its circumstances. The mind wherewith a man doth this or that act and the irregularity of it, makes a man a criminal. There is a concurrence of God to the act wherein we sin, but the sinfulness of that act is purely from the inherent corruption of the Creature. ⟨p. 75⟩As the power and act of seeing is communicated to the eye by the Soul, but the seeing doubly or dimly, is from the viciousness of the Organ, the eye. God hath no manner of immediate efficiency in producing sin; as the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness, though the darkness immediately succeeds the setting of the Sun, but it is the deficient cause. So God withdraws his grace, and leaves us to that lust which is in our wills. Act. 14.16. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways. He bestowed no grace upon them, but left them to themselves. As a man who lets a glass fall out of his hand is not the efficient cause that the glass breaks, but its own brittle nature, yet he is the deficient cause, because he withdraws his support from it. God is not obliged to give us grace, because we have made a total forfeiture of it.
3. God supports the faculties wherewith a man sinneth, and supports a man in that act wherein he sinneth, but concurrs not to the sinfulness of that act. No sin doth properly consist in the act it self, as an act, but in the deficiency of that act from the rule. No action wherein there is sin, but may be done as an action, though not as an irregular action. Killing a man ⟨p. 74⟩is not in it self unlawful, for then no magistrate should Execute a Malefactor for murdering another, and justice would cease in the World; man also must divest himself of all thoughts of preserving his Life against an invader; but to kill a man without just cause without authority, without rule, contrary to rule, out of revenge, is unlawful. So that it is not the act, as an act, is the sin, but the swerving of that act from the rule, makes it a sinful act: So speaking, as speaking, is not a sin, for it is a power and act God hath endued us with, but speaking irreveverently and dishonourably of God, or falsly and slandrously of man, or any otherwise irregularly, therein the sin lyes. So that it is easie to conceive that an act and the viciousness of it are separable. That act which is the same in kind with another, may be laudable, and the other base and vile in respect of its circumstances. The mind wherewith a man doth this or that act and the irregularity of it, makes a man a criminal. There is a concurrence of God to the act wherein we sin, but the sinfulness of that act is purely from the inherent corruption of the Creature. ⟨p. 75⟩As the power and act of seeing is communicated to the eye by the Soul, but the seeing doubly or dimly, is from the vitiousness of the Organ, the eye. God hath no manner of immediate efficiency in producing sin; as the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness, though the darkness immediately succeeds the setting of the Sun, but it is the deficient cause. So God withdraws his grace, and leaves us to that lust which is in our wills. Act. 14.16. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own wayes. He bestowed no grace upon them, but left them to themselves. As a man who lets a glass fall out of his hand is not the efficient cause that the glass breaks, but its own brittle nature, yet he is the deficient cause, because he withdraws his support from it. God is not obliged to give us grace, because we have made a total forfeiture of it.
