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

Secondly, From this vehement inclination thus to sin, there is a restlessness and disquietness in us, till we be satisfied, we rage and oppose all those who will not give us to drink of this water; How discontented are men at those means ⟨p. 443⟩and ways which God hath appointed to prevent sin; They love not the Law of God, they love not the Word of God, because it is holy and threateneth sin; They love not a faithful and powerful Ministry, because […] work is against sin; They cannot endure the holy Orders and Discipl•• […] hath appointed in his Church, because against sin; And why is all this? but because there is a thirst within, a scorching heat after it, and therefore cannot endure to be hindered from the satisfying of it: Thus by this means a man is put into a miserable perplexity, if he doth not sin he is mad and rageth, and if he doth sin he is miserable and undone; As one in a Dropsy, if he doth not drink, he cannot bear it, and if he doth, he thereby increaseth his danger: Thus every man is a miserable, restless creature by nature, wretched if he doth not sin, and wretched much more if he doth sin; what misery it is to have a scorching heat within a man, and to have nothing to cool, is parabolically represented by our Saviour in Dives while in hell, Luke 16. 24. who desired Abraham to send Lazarus, that he might dip his finger in water, and cool his tongue, though it were but a drop of water, he was glad of it: Thus it is proportionably with every man by nature, having a vehement appetite to sin, and therefore much disquieted, till they do accomplish it; We read of a terrible judgement God brought upon the Israelites, while in the wilderness, Deut. 8. 15 which was by fiery Serpents, that did sling them; The Hebrew word for a Serpent signifieth thirst, to which also the Greek name [Greek or Hebrew] doth answer, they are called so, because upon the stinging of a man, he hath immediately such an inflammation and heat upon him, that he doth thirst inordinately, and yet if he do drink, he dieth irrecoverably; so that a man then bitten was in a miserable condition; for if he did not drink the heat within him did burn him up, and if he did drink, he was sure to die; Original sin is like this fiery Serpent, it hath poisoned mankind with its sting, so that a man hath an inordinate thirst to sin;