The Doctrine of Repentance

3. Repentance is necessary for all sins.

Let us be deeply humbled and mourn¹ before the Lord for original sin. We have lost that pure quintessential frame of soul as once we had; our nature is vitiated with corruption. Original sin hath diffused it self as a poison into the whole man^*. Like the Jerusalem-Artichoke, which, wherever it is planted, presently over-runs the ground. There are not worse natures in Hell than we have. The hearts of the best are like Peters sheet, ⟨p. 98⟩where were a number of unclean creeping things, Act. 10. 12. This primitive corruption is bitterly to be bewailed, because we are never free from it. It is like a spring under ground, which though it be not seen, yet it still runs. We may as well stop the beating of the pulse, as stop the motions to sin. This inbred pravity retards and hinders us in that which is spiritual, Rom. 7. 19. The good that I would, I do not. Original sin may be compared to that fish Pliny speaks of, a Sea-Lamprey,³ which cleaves to the keel of the ship, and hinders it when it is under sail. Sin hangs weights upon us^*, that we move but slow to Heaven. O this adherency of sin! Paul shook the Viper which was on his hand into the fire, Act. 28. 5. But we cannot shake off original corruption in this life. Sin doth not come as a lodger for a night, but an indweller,