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

Propositions concerning the Nature of the Will.

Before we come to launch into this ocean of wormwood and gall (for the polluted will, polluteth all other things) Let us say something to the nature of the will, not enlarging our selves, either as Philosophers or Divines do in this point, but select only what is fit for our purpose.

BEfore we come to lanch into this ocean of wormwood and gall (for the polluted will, polluteth all other things) Let us say something to the nature of the will, not enlarging our selves, either as Philosophers or Divines do in this point, but select only what is fit for our purpose.

First, Therefore consider, That God hath appointed and ordered in nature, that every apprehensive power should have an appetitive power proportionable thereunto. The apprehensive being like the eye to discern and discover the object; The appetitive like the hand to embrace it: Thus the Angels, as they have an understanding to know things, so they have a will to desire them; In beasts there is a sensitive apprehension by imagination, and a sensitive appetite accordingly. Now because man in his soul is like an Angel, and in his body communicateth with beasts, therefore he hath both a two-fold apprehension, intellectual and sensitive, understanding and imagination; and also a two-fold appetite, a rational one, which is the will, and a sensitive one, which is the sensitive appetite in a man, wherein the passions and affections are seated; The will then is in a man his rational appetite, following the proposition and manifestation of the understanding: For if a man did know what was good, or what is evil, and no appetite to ⟨p. 271⟩embrace the one, or avoid the other, he would be no better than a stone or a statue for all his reason. We see then why God hath placed such a power in the soul, as the will is; It is that the good which the understanding manifesteth may be embraced and entertained, and the evil it doth discover may be shunned, Whether this will be distinct really from the soul it self, and from the understanding is a Philosophical Dispute, and will not tend to your edification.