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

Fourthly, Herein also it is unspeakably to be aggravated, That it taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling. It's the spiritual death of the soul; we are dead men by nature in respect of spiritual things, and therefore though exposed to all the curses in the Law, yet we feel nothing, we do not tremble and cry out for help; The Physician seeketh us, not we him; grace finds us out, not we grace; and hence it is, that we think we have no such thing as original sin in us: Oh it is an heavy temptation to be given up unto, to think there is no such thing as original sin, that we have no such enmity against God naturally in our hearts! Woe be to that man, who begineth to think this thing little or none at all! What can we pray for such a man, but that which the Prophet did for the Syrians when they were brought into the midst of their enemies, Lord open their eyes (saith he?) which when done, they saw themselves in the midst of their adversaries, and so looked upon themselvet but as so many dead men; Thus if the Spirit of God by the Word make thee see the dunghill in thy heart, the general pollution of thy soul, thou wilt cry out, Oh how blind was I till now! how senseless till this time! Oh I am a damned man, an undone man, if God do not recover by his grace! Therefore that of Austin (though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated) That in their controversy with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogisms; The truth of this Doctrine, as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture, so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated, who (as Paul said) were alive once secure and blessed, according to their own thoughts in the state they were in, but when once convinced ⟨p. 409⟩of the spirituality of the Law, and their own carnality and contrariety thereunto, then sin becometh out of measure sinful, and they die and are undone in their own thoughts: Therefore concerning the Writers in this Controversy, we are not only to enquire, what acquired learning they have, but what inspired grace; what experimental workings of Gods Spirit in the humbling of them, and to make them renounce all their own righteousness and fullness that Christ may be all in all:

Fourthly, Herein also it is unspeakably to be aggravated, That it taketh away all spiritual sense and feeling. It's the spiritual death of the soul; we are dead men by nature in respect of spiritual things, and therefore though exposed to all the curses in the Law, yet we feel nothing, we do not tremble and cry out for help; The Physitian seeketh us, not we him; grace finds us out, not we grace; and hence it is, that we think we have no such thing as original sinne in us: Oh it is an heavy temptation to be given up unto, to think there is no such thing as original sinne, that we have no such enmity against God naturally in our hearts! Wo be to that man, who begineth to think this thing little or none at all! What can we pray for such a man, but that which the Prophet did for the Syrians when they were brought into the midst of their enemies, Lord open their eyes (saith he?) which when done, they saw themselves in the midst of their adversaries, and so looked upon themselvet but as so many dead men; Thus if the Spirit of God by the Word make thee see the dunghill in thy heart, the general pollution of thy soul, thou wilt cry out, Oh how blind was I till now! how sensless till this time! Oh I am a damned man, an undone man, if God do not recover by his grace! Therefore that of Austin (though formerly mentioned can never enough be inculcated) That in their controversie with Pelagians there is more need of prayer then syllogismes; The truth of this Doctrine, as it is primarily discovered by the Scripture, so secondarily by the experience of the regenerated, who (as Paul said) were alive once secure and blessed, according to their own thoughts in the state they were in, but when once convinced