Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

Woe to him that lodeth himself with thick clay, saith the¹ Prophet, How long? He may have enough to load him, he can never have enough to weary him. He may lod• his house, his memory, his bags, his wits, his time, his conscience; but he can never fill his Hell. He may quickly have enough to sink him, but he can never have enough to satisfy him: As a ship may be overladen with Gold or Silver even unto sinking, and yet have compass and sides enough to hold ten times more: so the heart will quickly be loaded unto sinking, but never filled unto satiety. In one word, we must in sin distinguish between the Act, and the Concupiscence from whence that² Act ariseth; or in the faculties between the Life and the Lust of them, between their natural strength and activity, and their law of corruption. The liveliness and strength of the faculties may quickly be wasted, and yet the lust strong still. Sin in Act hath a concurrence of the powers of the soul, and services of the body, which in their motions may quickly languish. But yet as the Philosophers say of the soul, though it may seem tired and spent, and waxen old, because the body in which it resides grows unfit for its service, yet the soul indeed itself ³doth not grow old, but if it had equal instruments would be as vigorous in the oldest man, as in the youngest: so we may say of sin, though the body may grow weary of adultery, or the mind weary of plodding mischief, or the thoughts weary of contriving deceit, yet concupisce•is non senescit, Lust it self grows never old nor weary. ⟨p. 191⟩Nay, as the water when it is stopped in its principal course, yet one way or other where it best may it will make a shift to find a vent, and to discover it self: even so lust in the heart will one way or other, when the mind and faculties, the body and members are quite tired out in the principal service, make a shift to break forth into some easier vent. When the adultery in the heart hath worn out the body, and spurred it so long in this unclean race, that it now sinks under the burden, and hath no more blood to lose, yet even then it will find a vent, and such a man will have eyes full of adultery, a tongvefull of adultery, thoughts and speculations full of adultery, a memory in the review of former lewdness full of adultery.