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

¶. 12.

Herein is the Bondage of the Will seen, That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sin, it is by falling into another.

Herein is the Bondage of the Will seen, That when it doth indeavour to overcome any sinne, it is by falling into another.

Fourthly, Herein is the bondage of the will seen also, That when it doth endeavour to overcome any sin, it is by falling into another. So that the Argument usually brought to prove, that the will hath some freedom to what is good doth indeed more confirm the servitude of it to sin; For it is often objected, That if the will be thus in absolute bondage to sin, How cometh it about that even Heathens have by their own strength reformed their lives, and have abounded in justice, fortitude and chastity even to admiration? Is not that instance of Polemon famous, who though a drunkard, yet coming to hear Xenocrates his Lecture about temperance, was so immediately persuaded thereby, that he presently forsook that beastly sin? In this Argument Julian the Pelagian did often triumph; But Austin's answer was good, and justifiable by Scripture, That when they left one sin, they fell into another, they did cure one lust by another lust, a carnal one by a spiritual one; for when they did abstain from such sins, it was not in reference to God, and from faith in Christ, but it was either from vain glory, or to be sure a sinful confidence, and resting upon themselves; and therefore even the Stoics, who pretended the highest, viz. That we were to do virtuous actions for virtues sake, yet they came too short of the right mark; for virtue is not to be loved ultimately for virtues sake, but that thereby we might draw nearer to God, and be made happy in enjoying of him; Therefore the Stoics opinion did teach a man nothing but self-confidence and self fullness, which sins are forbidden by the Word of God, as well as Epicurean and gross sins: Oh then the unspeakable bondage of the will to sin! That as the bird in a net, the more she striveth to get out, the more she entangleth her self: Thus it is with the natural man, the more he striveth of himself to come out of this mire, the faster he sticketh in: Thou then who art a natural man, though such a sin and such a sin be left, yet see if when the Devil was cast out, a worse did not come in the room thereof; See if it be not with thee, as in that representation to the Prophet, Thou hast broken a wooden yoke, and an iron one is made in stead thereof; Thou hast cured a carnal sin by a spiritual one;