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

SECT. I.

Hitherto we have been informed out of this Text, what is comprehended in the word [Flesh] attributed to every one that is in a natural way born of mankind. We now proceed to that Truth, for which it was designedly pitched upon, viz. That Original sin is not only a Privation of Gods Image, but doth cannot also a Positive inclination, and an impetuous propensity to every thing that is evil. For this Question is agitated between some Papists, and the Protestants; They asserting, That the whole nature of original sin lieth in the privation of Gods Image: But the Orthodox, they say, That although original sin is privative, yet it is not merely privative, but doth include in it, as the materiale, that habitual crookedness and perverseness, which is in all the faculties of the soul; And thus the Protestants do almost in effect say the same with Aquinas, who calleth original corruption a corrupt habit, not a mere privation, for privations are of two sorts, either simple, that imply only a privation, as blindness and death, or compounded and mixed, which besides the mere privation, do denote some materiale or substratum with it. Thus Aquinas compareth original sin to a sickness or disease, which doth not only signify a privation of health, but also the humours excessively overflowing, and thereby dissolving the due temperament of the body: Such a privation is original sin, a mixed, or compounded privation, that besides the absence of what righteousness is due, denoteth also a propensity and violent inclination unto that which is evil. It is true indeed, if we come punctually to examine, how the will is disobedient, and how the affections are so disorderly, we cannot resolve into any thing, but this privation, the understanding is therefore darkness and erroneous, because without its primitive light; The will is crooked and perverse, because without its primitive rectitude: So that Calvin saith well, He that calls it the privation of Gods Image, saith the whole nature of it, yet when we speak of the privative part of it only, we do not so fully and significantly express the dreadful pollution of it: