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

A third Argument is in the Text, from the aggravation of those actual sins he committed; They were not sins to be considered merely in themselves, but from the cause and root whence they sprang, even the defiled and corrupt nature that was in him, it being not so much those actual, though so horrid sins that made him so guilty, as that they did flow from such a defiled fountain within ⟨p. 61⟩him: Thus he aggravateth those actual sins from the root and cause within him; For although he was regenerated, and so delivered from the dominion of original corruption, yet it was with him, as with Paul, The Law of sin did still war within him against what was good, sin dwelt in him still, and was apt upon all occasions, like a Delilah, to betray him into the hand of the Philistines, into the power of some soul transgressions. It is true, some have thought, that David speaks this to extenuate and lessen his sin; as if his meaning had been, Lord, it's true, I have committed these foul sins in thy sight, but they are the more venial and pardonable, because my nature is corrupt: It is no wonder, that being not an Angel, or a man in integrity, as Adam, or confirmed in grace, as the glorified Saints in Heaven, but the son of corrupted Adam, that I have thus tumbled into the mire; And it cannot be denied, but that this truth of our original corruption may be pleaded, both for aggravation to punish, and also for pity to spare: Hence Gen. 6. 5. Because every imagination of mans heart, was only evil, and that continually, therefore God was provoked to destroy the world by water, yet Chap. 8. 21. the very same thing, viz. because a mans heart is evil from his youth, is made a reason, why God will not smite the earth again with such an universal destruction. But it seemeth far more genuine and consonant to David's scope in this Psalm, to make these words by way of aggravation; for David is humbling and debasing of himself, desirous to justify and clear God, and therefore he layeth himself as low, as possibly he can, digging into the very bottom of all that evil, which cleaveth to him.

A third Argument is in the Text, from the aggravation of those actual sinnes he committed; They were not sinnes to be considered meerly in themselves, but from the cause and root whence they sprang, even the defiled and corrupt nature that was in him, it being not so much those actual, though so horrid sinnes that made him so guilty, as that they did flow from such a defiled fountain within