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

For, First, We do not say, That the Nature of man as it was created first, had this inbred pollution in it, No: it came out of Gods hands pure and clean, Eccles. 7. ult. God made man upright. It was after Gods own Image that he made him, he had no experimental knowledge of any evil within him. But as it was with the earth after mans fall, it brought forth briars and thorns, being cursed, which (as it is thought) it would not have done so before. Thus upon Adams transgression, then, and not till then, was his soul cursed spiritually, to bring forth nothing but briars and thorns, such lusts as were fit combustible matter for hell fire: Therefore every Infant almost may understand this, That the maintaining of this Truth doth not at all redound to Gods dishonour, for we see the like in the Devils, Are not they become wicked spirits? Is there not an utter impossibility in a Devil to do any thing that is good? Are they not called the spiritual wickednesses in high places? Ephes. 6. 12. as if they were nothing, but all over wickedness, yet the Devil, though so vile and abominable, was made a glorious creature. None of this poison was at first infused into him, but the Apostle Jude ver. 6, layeth it wholly upon themselves, That they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. The Devils then, though so full of wickedness, yet are not a reproach to God their Maker, but it was through their own wilfulness, they became such Apostates.

FOr, First, We do not say, That the Nature of man as it was created first, had this imbred pollution in it, No: it came out of Gods hands pure and clean, Eccles. 7. ult. God made man upright. It was after Gods own Image that he made him, he had no experimental knowledge of any evil within him. But as it was with the earth after mans fall, it brought forth bryars and thorns, being cursed, which (as it is thought) it would not have done so before. Thus upon Adams transgression, then, and not till then, was his soul cursed spiritually, to bring forth nothing but bryars and thorns, such lusts as were fit combustible matter for hell fire: Therefore every Infant almost may understand this, That the maintaining of this Truth doth not at all redound to Gods dishonour, for we see the like in the Devils, Are not they become wicked spirits? Is there not an utter impossibility in a Devil to do any thing that is good? Are they not called the spiritual wickednesses in high places?