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

But in the second place, Besides these indeliberate motions, there are those which are deliberate, to which the will doth give free and full consent; and these are greater sins then the former, because the more voluntary; and certainly ⟨p. 287⟩the will of a man is as full of sinful consents, as the Sea is of water: Whensoever any lust, any sin cometh to tempt thee, How easily and quickly is thy consent obtained? Indeed outwardly to commit the sin that is many times hardly accomplished, there may want the opportunity, fear or shame may restrain men, but to consent to sin, yea that which is most abominable, may be a thousand times over committed by the will in a little space. Now that the wills consent to a sin is a sin, if it be kept within only, and not expressed in the outward act, is difficulty believed; even as they think their thoughts, so also the desires of their will are free in this particular; Yea it seemeth to be the constant Doctrine of the Pharisees, That if a man did externally obey the Law of God, though in his heart he did will the contrary, yet the Law did not condemn him: Hence it is that Matth. 5. our Saviour doth expound the Law so exactly and spiritually, and that it seemed a great Paradox to the received Traditions at that time, for our Lord, doth there show, That if a man doth lust after a woman in his heart it is adultery and so of all other gross sins: If then thou doest will in thy heart, desire and consent in thy heart to any sin, though thou canst not, or darest not commit it; Here God looketh upon thee, as such a sinner; for as in holy things God accepteth the will for the deed, so in evil things, the will to do it, the consent to do it, is as if thou hadst done it, Tantum fecimus, quantum volumus, even Seneca could say. What thunder and lightning is in this truth, if rightly understood; Go and search thy will, make strict examination about it, and thou wilt find sparks, do not fly faster from the forge then sinful consentings do issue from thee all the day long. No sooner doth any voluptuous, ambitious or profitable object appear in thy soul, but thy will hath secretly consented to it, and embraced, even before thou canst tell what thou hast done:

But in the second place, Besides these indeliberate motions, there are those which are deliberate, to which the will doth give free and full consent; and these are greater sinnes then the former, because the more voluntary; and certainly