A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

SECT. I.

From the Commandment in this Text, we have heard forbidden actual lust consented unto, actual lust, though not yielded unto, and original lust the mother of all, all which Austin thought was prayed against in three Petitions in the Lords Prayer, Lust consented unto, when we pray for the forgiveness of sins committed; Lusts tempting and ensnaring, but not owned by us, when we pray not to be lead in temptation, and lastly, when we say, But deliver us from evil, that is aufer concupiscentiam ne sit, take away the very root, and fountain of all evil in us, (Ad Marcell•num, lib. 20) Ignosce nobis ea in quibus sumus abstracti à concupiscentiâ, adjuvane abstrahamur à concupiscentiâ aufer à nobis concupiscentiam.

FRom the Commandment in this Text, we have heard forbidden actual lust consented unto, actual lust, though not yeelded unto, and original lust the mother of all, all which Austin thought was prayed against in three Petitions in the Lords Prayer, Lust consented unto, when we pray for the forgivenesse of sinnes committed; Lusts tempting and ensnaring, but not owned by us, when we pray not to be lead in temptation, and lastly, when we say, But deliver us from evil, that is aufer concupiscentiam ne sit, take away the very root, and fountain of all evil in us, (Ad Marcell•num, lib. 20) Ignosce nobis ea in quibus sumus abstracti à concupiscentiâ, adjuvane abstrahamur à concupiscentiâ aufer à nobis concupiscentiam.

So that in this command we have seen the positive nature of original sin in being called concupiscence, we shall therefore from the former Discourse treating of original sin in the privative nature of it, and this later of the positive, enquire into the definition of it, what it is, for it's not enough to know that it is, and that there are such sad and bitter effects of it, but also to be assured what it is. As it is not enough for a man to be persuaded, that he is diseased, but he must search into the nature of it, what it is, if so be he would be cured. Before Austin's time, there was not a public known definition of it: The Ancients before him thinking it enough to believe there was such a thing, and that we do daily feel the horrible effects thereof. Pighius in his Discourse of original sin, saith, That even to his time the Church had not peremptorily defined what it was, and therefore all are left to their liberty to believe what it is: So that they grant there is such a thing, but as if Ignoti nulla cupido, so nullum odium, of an unknown thing there is no love, and also no hatred: So that if we do not know how loathsome and vile this sin is, we are never able to bewail it, and to humble our selves under it.