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

so that his heart is not at all active in them, and therefore are not sins, but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack, they knew not how it came there, and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christian, that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone, so that they are my afflictions, but not sins, or when they come from my heart, and so are truly imputable to me; of which in its due time, it may be; but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration, That evil is so present with us, that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sin.

so that his heart is not at all active in them, and therefore are not sinnes, but compared to the Cup in Benjamin's sack, they knew not how it came there, and it is a great dexterity in casuistical Divinity so to direct a Christin, that he may know when such motions arise from the devil alone, so that they are my afflictions, but not sinnes, or when they come from my heart, and so are truly imputable to me; of which in its due time, it may be; but for the present we may sigh and groan under this consideration, That evil is so present with us, that nothing riseth up in the heart sooner than sinne.

Secondly, In that evil is said to be present, to Paul, there is denoted the universal and diffusca presence of it. Paul doth not say, it's present in one part, in one faculty, but to me, that is in every part susceptible of sin. Therefore it is called The Law in his members, because it putteth forth its efficacy every where: sin is present in the mind, by atheism, unbelief, &c. in the will by obstinacy and obdurateness, in the affections by inordinacy and confusion, yea sin is present in the eye, in the tongue; So that the Apostle meaneth, this original sin is of such an universal extent, that it is present in every part in him; For you must not think (as some Papists do) That original sin is only in the inferior, sensitive part of a man, but it is principally and chiefly in the intellectual and most noble part, the mind and the understanding; and indeed because it's so predominant, therefore is conversion so difficult for the Ministry, bringing arguments and convictions out of Gods word. The sin that is present in the understanding putteth a man upon atheistical cavils, and carnal disputes, whereby he shuts himself up voluntarily in his darkness, rather than he will receive light.