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

Fourthly, From hence also ariseth that impossibility of loosing our selves from the creature to return again to God from wn•m we fell; Had not the Lord showed mercy to some of mankind, none of them could ever have recovered out of their lost estate, no more than the Devils can to that habitation which they forsook; All these creatures are the bird-lime that now hinder the wings of the soul from flying to Heaven: Oh that we could say, The snare is broken, and we are delivered; Who will give me wings that I may fly as a Dove, and my soul find rest with God! Yea as a man hath no power to break these bonds of sin, so neither hath be any desire, for he is kept thus fast joined to sin by delight and by pleasure; so that the more sin and the creatures delight him, the more strongly is he possessed; Samson was as much under Delilah's power, though it was by his delight and consent, as when under the Philistines by force and constraint; So that the will and affections of man are hereby so glued to sin and the creature, That nothing is more offensive and troublesome to them, then to be divided from these things: So that whereas David having experience of the sweetness of Gods favour, saith, It is good for me to draw nigh to God; They (on the contrary) judge it their greatest good to draw nigh to, and possess the creature, Hence

Fourthly, From hence also ariseth that impossibility of loosing our selves from the creature to return again to God from wn•m we fell; Had not the Lord shewed mercy to some of mankind, none of them could ever have recovered out of their lost estate, no more than the Devils can to that habitation which they forsook; All these creatures are the bird-lime that now hinder the wings of the soul from flying to Heaven: Oh that we could say, The snare is broken, and we are delivered; Who will give me wings that I may flie as a Dove, and my soul find rest with God! Yea as a man hath no power to break these bonds of sinne, so neither hath be any desire, for he is kept thus fast joyned to sinne by delight and by pleasure; so that the more sinne and the creatures delight him, the more strongly is he possessed; Samson was as much under Dalilah's power, though it was by his delight and consent, as when under the Philistims by force and constraint; So that the will and affections of man are hereby so glued to sin and the creature, That nothing is more offensive and troublesom to them, then to be divided from these things: So that whereas David having experience of the sweetness of Gods favour, saith, It is good for me to draw nigh to God; They (on the contrary) judge it their greatest good to draw nigh to, and possess the creature, Hence