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

Some make the Plural number to be observable, they render it à pueritiis, as containing the whole age of a man from his tender years, till he be grown up. Hence Grotius will extend it to the very time from the womb, but then runneth to his Socinian Hyperbole, which hath been sufficiently confuted. To determine the time indeed, when Infants begin to be capable of actual sins, is very difficult, but that is not my work here.

Some make the Plural number to be observable, they render it à pueritiis, as containing the whole age of a man from his tender years, till he be grown up. Hence Grotius will extend it to the very time from the womb, but then runneth to his Socinian Hyperbole, which hath been sufficiently confuted. To determine the time indeed, when Infants begin to be capable of actual sinnes, is very difficult, but that is not my work here.

Now though it is said to be evil from the youth, yet that is some limitation: It is not evil from Gods first creation of mans heart, not from its original being, and therefore the essence of a man is not evil: So that it is an horrible calumny of Tirinus the Jesuit upon this place, to say, That from this Text Luther and Calvin do infer, That the heart of a man is essentially evil; Illyricus his dotage is sufficiently disowned by them. As then the Leprosy got into the walls of the house, and that could not be scraped off, there was no way to get it out but by demolishing the wall, yet was not to be attributed to the Artificer that made the wall, but to some other supervenient cause; So likewise neither is original sin, though now so closely adhering to mans nature to be attributed to God, who first created mankind, but to Adam's voluntary Apostasy from God.

Now though it is said to be evil from the youth, yet that is some limitation: It is not evil from Gods first creation of mans heart, not from its original being, and therefore the essence of a man is not evil: So that it is an horrible calumny of Tirinus the Jesuite upon this place, to say, That from this Text Luther and Calvin do inferre, That the heart of a man is essentially evil; Illyricus his dotage is sufficiently disowned by them. As then the Leprosie got into the wals of the house, and that could not be scraped off, there was no way to get it out but by demolishing the wall, yet was not to be attributed to the Artificer that made the wall, but to some other supervenient cause; So likewise neither is original sinne, though now so closely adhering to mans nature to be attributed to God, who first created mankind, but to Adam's voluntary Apostasie from God.