A Golden Chain

Timoth. Yea, but me thinks you do too much condemn your self in respect of sin. For I can remember that from your childhood you were of a good and gentle nature, and your behaviour was always honest and civil, & you could never abide the company of them that were roisters and ruffians, & swearers, and blasphemers, and contemners of Gods word, and drunkards, which now are termed good fellows. And your dealing with all men hath bin ever commended for good, faithful and just. What mean you then to make your self so abominable and accursed, and to say, you were so wholly addicted unto wickedness, and your will so fearfully and miserably in captivity unto the will of the devil.

Timoth. Yea, but me thinkes you doe too much condemne your selfe in respect of sinne. For I can remember that from your childhood you were of a good and gentle nature, and your behauiour was alwaies honest and ciuil, & you could neuer abide the companie of them that were roysters and ruffians, & swearers, and blasphemers, and contemners of Gods word, and drunkards, which nowe are tearmed good fellowes. And your dealing with all men hath bin euer commended for good, faithfull and iust. What meane you then to make your selfe so abominable and accursed, and to say, you were so whollie addicted vnto wickednesse, and your will so fearefully and miserably in captiuitie vnto the will of the deuil.

Euseb. Brother Timothy, I know what I say, God give me grace to speak it with more lively feeling of my weakness and with a more bitter detestation of my sin. By nature through the fall of Adam am I the child of wrath, heir of the vengeance of God by birth: yea and so from my first conception: and I had my fellowship with the damned devils under the power of darkness & rule of Satan, while I was yet in my mothers womb: and although I showed not the fruits of sin as soon as I was borne nor long after: yet was I full of the natural poison, from whence all wicked deeds do spring, and cannot but sin outwardly, as soon as I am able to work (be I never so young) if occasion be given: for my nature is to sin as is the nature of a serpent to sting: & and as a Serpent yet young, or yet unbroughtforth is full of poison and cannot afterward (when time and occasion is given) but bring forth the fruits thereof. And as an adder, a toad, or a snake is hated of man, not for the evil it hath done, but for the poison that is in it, and hurt which it cannot but do: so am I hated of God for that natural poison which is conceived and borne with me before I do any outward evil. And as the evil which a venomous worm doth, maketh it not a serpent, but because it is a venomous worm, therefore doth it evil, and poisoneth: even so do not our evil deeds make us evil first, but because we are of nature evil, therefore do we evil, and think evil, to eternal damnation by the law, and are contrary to the will of God in our will and in all things consent unto the will of the fiend.