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…

But to return to those things which are more for practice. This doctrine of original sin doth direct us in our ^*humiliations for sin, shows us whither we should rise in judging and condemning our selves, even as high as our fleshly lusts, and corrupt nature. Let not any man say, saith S. James, that he was tempted of God; I shall go further, Let not any man say of himself by way of excuse, extenuation, or exoneration of himself, I was tempted of Satan, or of the World; and who can be too hard for such enemies, who can withstand such strong solicitations; ^**Let not any man resolve his sins into any other original then his own lusts. Our perdition is totally of our selves, we are assaulted by many enemies, but it is one only that over cometh us, even our own flesh. Saint Paul could truly say, ^*It was no more I that sinned; but did he charge his sins therefore upon Satan, or upon the World? No, though it was not he, yet it was something that did belong unto him, an inmate, a bosom enemy, even sin that dwelt within him. It is said, that Satan provoked David to number the people, and ⟨p. 213⟩yet Davids heart smote himself, and did not charge Satan with the sin, because it was the lust of his own heart that let in and gave way to Satan's temptation. If there were the same mind in us as in Christ, that Satan could find no more in us to mingle his temptations with all, then he did in him, they would be equally successless; but this is his greatest advantage, that he hath our evil nature to help him, and hold intelligence with him. And therefore we must rise as high as that in our humiliations for sin: For that will keep us ever humble, because concupiscence will be ever stirring in […]: and it will make us throughly humble, because thereby sin is made altogether our own, when we attribute it not to casualties, or accidental miscarriages, but to our nature; as David did, In sin was I shaped, and in iniquity did ⁴my mother conceive me. It was not any accident, or external temptation which was the root and ground of these my sins, but I was a transgressor from the womb,