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

First, Because the soul is a Subject fit and prepared for to receive this Righteousness. This rectitude you heard, was a moral perfection necessarily required in man: The soul of a man cannot be in a neutral condition, it must either have holiness, or sin in it; As the air doth necessarily receive either light or darkness; The body is either sick or well; if then the soul be such a fit and capable subject of holiness; when it is deprived of it, it wants that which is suitable and connatural to it: Insomuch that for the soul to be without this holiness, it's against the nature of it; Why should such a spot and a blemish be in so glorious a creature? How came spots in this Sun? As Idolaters are condemned, because they turned the glory of God into the Image of a beast that eateth hay: No less is done by Adam's Apostasy upon us all, for we who were made Gods Image, are now become like beast without understanding, and yet this consideration will not debase and humble us.

First, Because the soul is a Subject fit and prepared for to receive this Righteousnesse. This rectitude you heard, was a moral perfection necessarily required in man: The soul of a man cannot be in a neutral condition, it must either have holiness, or sinne in it; As the air doth necessarily receive either light or darkness; The body is either sick or well; if then the soul be such a fit and capable subject of holiness; when it is deprived of it, it wants that which is sutable and connatural to it: Insomuch that for the soul to be without this holiness, it's against the nature of it; Why should such a spot and a blemish be in so glorious a creature? How came spots in this Sunne? As Idolaters are condemned, because they turned the glory of God into the Image of a beast that eateth hay: No lesse is done by Adam's Apostasie upon us all, for we who were made Gods Image, are now become like beast without understanding, and yet this consideration will not debase and humble us.

Secondly, This Privation is a sin, Because it is against the Law of God which requireth habitual holiness in us. It requireth the continuance in that state, which God created us in. This Definition of original sin, that it is a Privation of that rectitude which ought to be in us, was first assigned by Anselm, and Occham thought it insufficient, unless there was added […] the Description, a Privation arising from the sin of another, Because (saith he) Adam upon his sin lost this Righteousness, which ought to be in him, yet we cannot say, he had original sin, because it did not arise from a sin of another, but from his own transgression. This is a needless subtlety, for it was original sin in Adam, yea and in Eve, though they did not derive it from one another, because they did actively communicate this unto all their Posterity. This Privation then of all glorious holiness being against the Law of God, as we have formerly showed, therefore it makes a man truly sinful.