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

SECT. IV.

That Original Sin which is in every man doth vent it self betimes.

That Original Sinne which is in every man doth vent it selfe betimes.

WE proceed to the second part in the Doctrine, which is, That this original sin which is in every man doth vent it self betimes, his Imagination is evil from his childhood. We told you, the Papists offer violence to the Text, when they limit it to a mans youth, excluding his childhood, as if that were innocent; The Rabbins they say (as Mercer relateth) this evil figment is in a mans heart, till he be thirteen year old, and afterwards a good figment cometh into a man. It is greatly disputed with the Schoolmen, When is the time that a child cometh to discern between good and evil, for till then (they say) the Law of God doth not bind, and so he is not capable of actual sins? Some limit the time of actual sins to four or six years of age; But certainly here cannot be any fixed or uniform Rule given; neither may we deny children to be guilty of actual sins, before they come to years of discretion: Certainly Austin speaketh of his observation of the envy which one child hath, while another sucketh the same breast; and therefore although we cannot say with the Lutherans, That Infants have either actual sins, or actual graces, yet no doubt but actual sins do very early proceed from them; neither is the time of their sinning to be limited to the time of their use of reason in a formal and deliberate manner. It is true, our Saviour took a little child, setting him in the midst of the company, saying, Unless a man become like this child, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, Mat. 18. 4. not that such a little child had not both original and actual sins in him, but because comparatively to grown persons they are innocent, having not the pride and other sins as men of age have, therefore it is, that we are to be converted, and become like little children; yea there is no parent that desireth the salvation of his children, but he may observe, that from the very childhood there is a great averseness to what is holy and a natural inclination to evil; Insomuch that all do betimes give a discovery of that inbred and sinful pollution that is in them. Solomon saith, That folly is bound up in the heart of a child, prov. 22. 15. And in