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

3. There is the rational appetite, and that is called the will, and this is in man only; a beast hath not properly any will, no more then he hath understanding, so that the will of a man is a noble and high faculty in him, appointed to follow reason, and to be regulated by it in all things; and therefore Austin saith, Voluntas tantum est in bonis; The will is only in good things; If a man love evil or desire evil, this is not voluntas (saith he) but cupiditas; It doth not deserve the name of the will, but of lust, but common speech is otherwise, there is a bad will, a corrupted will as well as a good will, only when we say, the will is a rational appetite, that must not be understood formaliter, but participativè, as they say, that is, the will doth not know, doth not reason, but is directed thereby, therefore it is called coeca potentia, a blind power, and if you say, it is blind, How then can it see the good proposed? I answer, it followeth the good proposed, not because it knoweth it, but because of its essential subordination to the understanding; Hence it is that to have a good will, it is so requisite to have a sound mind. Ignorant and blind minds are always accompanied with corrupt and polluted wills; There cannot be a sanctified will, where there is not an enlightened mind; This should make the ignorant and stupid to tremble in their estate they live in: This should make you prize knowledge above gold and pearls, as also to wait upon the Ministry with diligence, seeing that by knowledge the will cometh to be made holy.

3. There is the rational appetite, and that is called the will, and this is in man onely; a beast hath not properly any will, no more then he hath understanding, so that the will of a man is a noble and high faculty in him, appointed to follow reason, and to be regulated by it in all things; and therefore Austin saith, Voluntas tantum est in bonis; The will is only in good things; If a man love evil or desire evil, this is not voluntas (saith he) but cupiditas; It doth not deserve the name of the will, but of lust, but common speech is otherwise, there is a bad will, a corrupted will as well as a good will, only when we say, the will is a rational appetite, that must not be understood formaliter, but participativè, as they say, that is, the will doth not know, doth not reason, but is directed thereby, therefore it is called coeca potentia, a blind power, and if you say, it is blind, How then can it see the good proposed? I answer, it followeth the good proposed, not because it knoweth it, but because of its essential subordination to the understanding; Hence it is that to have a good will, it is so requisite to have a sound mind. Ignorant and blind minds are alwayes accompanied with corrupt and polluted wils; There cannot be a sanctified will, where there is not an enlightened mind; This should make the ignorant and stupid to tremble in their estate they live in: This should make you prize knowledge above gold and pearls, as also to wait upon the Ministery with diligence, seeing that by knowledge the will cometh to be made holy.