Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

I. ¹Natural Concupiscence, or the Viciousness of our Nature, which is in Infants, this is as the Tinder or the Gun-powder whereby our Natures are apt to take fire at the least spark. This is a sin, because it is the absence or privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our Nature; it is a fruit and punishment of Adams first sin, and an immediate consequent of the loss of our Original Righteousness. This is fomes peccati: like to that wherewith the fire is kindled or kept burning: called the Old Man, sinful Sin, the body of Sin, sin dwelling, Law of Members.

I. ¹Natural Concupiscence, or the Vitiousness of our Nature, which is in Infants, this is as the Tinder or the Gun-powder whereby our Natures are apt to take fire at the least spark. This is a sin, because it is the absence or privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our Nature; it is a fruit and punishment of Adams first sin, and an immediate consequent of the loss of our Original Righteousness. This is fomes peccati: like to that wherewith the fire is kindled or kept burning: called the Old Man, sinful Sin, the body of Sin, sin dwelling, Law of Members.

1. 1Natural Concupiscence.

II. ¹Then there is some Temptation, solicitation, suited to this corrupt Principle, either by the Devil or wicked men: or some Object presented to a man that might stir up and excite ⟨p. 26⟩this internal principle of Corruption in our hearts, and though all men have the seeds of all sin, yet Satan observing mens different constitutions hath different baits, (as men have several baits, for several fish) some he soliciteth to drunkenness, others to uncleanness, and others to covetousness: Where note, that Satan hath a wonderful advantage of us, which he had not in our first Parents before the first sin; for there was nothing in their hearts that was corrupt, and yet how did the Devils temptation together with the Object set before their eyes, prevail over them! What the warm Sun is to the stiff and frozen Serpent, it doth enliven it, and then it sendeth forth its venom, and useth its sting; that a Temptation, or an Object, proposed is, to our corrupt Natures. Some call this Abstraction, a drawing the mind off from good to evil.