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

SECT. II.

And first, It may well be called Natural, because it doth infect the whole Nature of Mankind. It's a defilement that followeth our specific, not individual being: Even as we call death natural, because it followeth all mankind; Rich men die, and poor men die; learned men die, and foolish; None are exempted from it: Thus also it is with this sin, All that are born in a natural way of mankind have this contagion. The sons of Noblemen and Princes, though they glory in their blood and their descent, yet they are as full of sin, and the children of wrath, as well as the children of the basest; so that though in civil respects they boast of their birth, and are above others, yet in a theological and divine respect, all are alike; yea the children of godly parents, though they have a promise to their seed, and in that respect their children are said to be holy, 1 Cor. 7. yet they come into the world with inherent corruption in them; They do not generate their children, as godly men, but corrupt men, as Austin of old expressed it, A circumcised man begat a child uncircumcised, and the Husbandman, though he soweth his seed out of the chaff and husk, yet that brings up others with chaff and husk upon it. Well therefore may we call it a natural sin, because it doth extend to the whole humane Nature, as it is in every one that partaketh of it in a natural way. So that as Divines do distinguish of infirmities and evils; There are some that are specific, which follow the Species, as death; and some are accidental, which follow the individual nature: Thus there are some sins, which follow the particular nature of a man, and these are actual sins. Every man is not a drunkard, an adulterer, but some are defiled one way, some another; but then there is a sin, which followeth the whole and universal nature of man, and this is original sin, though every man be not guilty of such or such a particular sin, yet all are, of original sin; And therefore the Schoolmen say, Actual sin doth corrumpere personam, but original Naturam, actual sins corrupt the person, original the nature.