A65285:628
A Body of Practical Divinity
A body of practical divinity consisting of above one hundred seventy six sermons on the lesser catechism composed by the reverend assembly of divines at Westminster : with a supplement of some sermons on several texts of Scripture / by Thomas Watson ...
London: printed for Thomas Parkurst, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Something positive. Original sin hath contaminated and defiled our Virgin-nature 'Twas Death among the Romans to poison the Springs. Original sin hath poisoned the Spring of our Nature; it hath turned Beauty into Leprosy; it hath turned the azure brightness of our Souls into a midnight darkness.
Original sin is become connatural to us. A Man by Nature cannot but sin; though there were no Devil to tempt, no bad Examples to imitate, yet there is such an innate principle in him, that he cannot forbear sinning, 2 Pet. 2.14. A peccato cessare nesciunt, who cannot cease to sin, as an Horse that is lame cannot go without halting. —In Original sin is,
1. An aversion from Good: Man hath a desire to be happy, yet opposeth that which should promote his happiness; he hath a disgust of holiness, he hates to be reformed. Since we fell from God, we have no mind to return to him.
2. A propension to Evil. If as the Pelagians say, there were so much goodness in us since the Fall, then why is there not as much natural proneness to Good, as there is to Evil. Our own experience tells us, that the natural bias of the Soul hath a tendency to that which is bad. The very Heathens by the Light of Nature saw this; Heriocles the Philosopher said, [Greek or Hebrew], 'tis grafted in us by Nature to sin: Men roll sin as honey under their Tongue.—They drink iniquity as water,