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

Thirdly, That we are thus originally corrupted, appeareth, in that utter impotency and inability to do any spiritual good: we are not able so much as to think a thought, or send forth an hearty groan, as to our eternal welfare; whereas at first God made Adam right, and thereby endowed him with power to do any thing that was holy, called therefore the Image of God; so happy and blessed was his condition, that he could with delight and joy fulfil the Law of God, feeling no difficulty, nor impediment, but now being dead in sin, we are no more able then dead men to move, or walk in holy things. The Scripture is wonderfully clear in this, though Papists, Arminians and others have endeavoured to raise a mist, and obscure the sun beams, Joh. 15. Without me ye can ⟨p. 178⟩do nothing. Rom. 8. The flesh is enmity against God, 1 Cor. 2. The natural man perceiveth not the things of God, neither can he, where both the act of doing good, and the power also is denied to every man by nature: If therefore every man by nature be dead in sin like a stone, as in respect of any holy impression from God, if he have blind eyes, deaf ears, a foolish heart, as to any heavenly thing, doth not this plainly tell us, that we are all over polluted? It's good for our humiliation to consider how the Scripture describeth a natural man, as wanting all his senses, he hath no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to understand, but is wholly dead, and all this is to show what a wonderful impotency is in man to help himself spiritually; Now this declareth the necessity of preserving this doctrine of original corruption clean and sound; for if we be orthodox here, then also we shall hold the truth of God against foe will and the power of nature in divine things; for these two particulars are like Castor and […], they always appear together; and what is the design or Socinians, Papists, and Arminians, either in whole or in part, to deny or extenuate original sin? but thereby to make a way to advance their magnificent Diana. their free will to holy things, for they evidently see, if original sin be such an universal, deep and inward pollution of the whole soul, even the will as well as other parts, then their doctrine of the power of nature is pulled up by the very root;