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

SECT. I.

First, In the soul, as it is endowed with reason and understanding: For herein man did transcend all other visible creatures, that God made him with a rational soul, investing him with reason and free-will, and in this respect the Image of God is not totally lost; For though by it we have lost all our power and understanding in holy things, yet we have not lost our souls, and the natural faculties thereof; we are not made brute beasts, we are men still; Hence it is that still the reason holds, Why a man should not kill another, Gen. 9. 6. For in the image of God made he man; If there were not yet the Image of God in some respect, the reason would not be so forcible; For what weight would it carry to say, Thou shalt not kill a man, because once he had the Image of God, but now he hath lost it? God speaketh of what he will require of every man that hath slain another, and that because in the Image of God he made him: Thus Jame. 3. 9. aggravateth the sin of cursing any man, because man is made after the similitude of God; To this we may appropriate that of the Poet, confirmed (Act. 17.) by the Apostle himself, We are his off spring: We will grant then, That the Image of God, so far as it consists in the soul, and the natural faculties, is not lost, though in regard of the actings thereof even about natural things, they are made infirm and weak.

FIrst, In the soul, as it is endowed with reason and understanding: For herein man did transcend all other visible creatures, that God made him with a rational soul, investing him with reason and free-will, and in this respect the Image of God is not totally lost; For though by it we have lost all our power and understanding in holy things, yet we have not lost our souls, and the natural faculties thereof; we are not made bruit beasts, we are men still; Hence it is that still the reason holds, Why a man should not kill another, Gen. 9. 6. For in the image of God made he man; If there were not yet the Image of God in some respect, the reason would not be so forcible; For what weight would it carry to say, Thou shalt not kill a man, because once he had the Image of God, but now he hath lost it? God speaketh of what he will require of every man that hath slain another, and that because in the Image of God he made him: Thus Jame. 3. 9. aggravateth the sinne of cursing any man, because man is made after the similitude of God; To this we may appropriate that of the Poet, confirmed (