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

They commend those expressions, Ita nobis videtur, and Salvo meliorum judicio. It is our sententia, not our fides: Now if this were said only in some points, disputed amongst the Orthodox, that are at a great distance from Fundamentals, it might be received; but they extend this further, if not to the foundation-stones, yet to those that immediately join to them, and so do [Greek or Hebrew], remove such things that will in time endanger the whole structure of Christianity, and so from Remonstrantisme proceed to Socinianism, which is adificari and ruinam, as Tertullian expresseth it (De praesc.) Such an edification many unsettled spirits meet with.

They commend those expressions, Ita nobis videtur, and Salvo meliorum judicio. It is our sententia, not our fides: Now if this were said only in some points, disputed amongst the Orthodox, that are at a great distance from Fundamentals, it might be received; but they extend this further, if not to the foundation-stones, yet to those that immediately joyn to them, and so do 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, remove such things that will in time endanger the whole structure of Christianity, and so from Remonstrantisme proceed to Socinianisme, which is adificari and ruinam, as Tertullian expresseth it (De praesc.) Such an edification many unsetled spirits meet with.

Tenthly, Original sin doth pollute the mind of a man with pride and vain-glory, so that he is easily puffed up with his own conceits, and altogether ignorant of his ignorance. The Apostle Col. 2. 18. saith of some, Vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind. This Tumour, this Tympany in the mind hath been the cause of most heresies in the Church. The Gnostics boasted in their knowledge, and had their name from it. The Eunomians did vainly and blasphemously brag, That they knew God, as well as he knew himself. And some in these later days have not been afraid to compare themselves above the Apostles for gifts and illuminations. So that whereas every one should with wise Augur, say humbly, I have not the understanding of a man, I am more brutish then any man: Or with Austin, when one admiring his learning used this expression, Nihil te latet; he answered again, Nihil tristius legi, because he knew the falsehood of it, because of his ignorance even in innumerable places of Scripture: They equalize themselves to Angels, yea to God himself. This pride, this self-conceit is a worm bred in the rose, and the more parts men have, the more doth this disease increase. Matthew Paris relateth of a great Scholar, much admired for his learning, who in his Lectures once in the Schools, proving the Divine Nature, and also Incarnation of Christ with mighty applause, did most arrogantly say, That Christ was beholding to him for this Dispute, that he owed, as it were his Divine Nature to his learning, as if he had not been God, if he had not proved it; upon which blasphemy