Remains of that reverend and learned divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in…Remaines of that reverend and learned divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in…

Fifthly, He makes men believe their nature is prone to it, and they cannot leave it. If I were as ¹such and such men are indeed I could abstain, but my nature is such that it will not suffer me.

Fifthly, He makes men beleeve their nature is prone to it, and they cannot leave it. If I were as ¹such and such men are indeed I could abstaine, but my nature is such that it will not suffer me.

1. 15. Deceit.

I answer: Thou must know that this doth not excuse but aggravate thy sin; if thy nature be ¹prone to any sin, know, that the sin is much more grievous: we loathe a toad because of the venomous nature of it; so God loatheth our nature, because its sinful. As a drunken man that murders another commits a double sin, one of drunkenness, another of murder, which comes from drunkenness; so, if our nature be prone to any sin which we commit, its a double sin; first, in that it is natural to us and original: secondly, that we ⟨p. 17⟩commit thereby original transgressions. We had you know, a part in Adams sin by propagation; now if we have a hand in it our selves by our strong inclinations thereunto, we our selves are causes thereof: likewise let us not therefore go about to excuse our selves with this, that because I am of an other temper then another man, I may take more liberty, and God will bear with us herein; for God certainly will bear with us the less.

I answer: Thou must know that this doth not excuse but aggravate thy sinne; if thy nature be ¹