The works of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel College in CambridgeThe vvorks of William Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge

Secondly. §2As a man is unable to overcome any sin: So also, if he be fallen, he is unable to rise again. Peter himself must have a look from Christ, before he could repent. As if Jesus Christ had said to him; Peter, thou art now down in the dirt, and I know thou canst not rise, unless I give forth My hand unto thee: then here is My hand; and so He did heave him up. Every sin that a man does commit, he is taken captive by it, more or less: sin is a captivity. Now, Voluntas non est libera, nisi liberata: A man is not free, unless freed. If the Son make you free, you are free indeed; but else not at all. Every sin that a man does commit, it is a mortal wound, a death of the soul, sin is. A man may be able to kill himself, but being killed, he cannot raise himself. The Ship having his rudder broken, cannot go where it will but must go where the Tempest pleases. And Beloved, there is never a fin that a man commits, but he does strike upon his rudder, he does strike upon the earth withal; and he does lose his rudder. A poor sheep is able for to lose it self, & to wander: but being lost, is not able to come home again. Yea, our Saviour says, in the Parable of the lost-sheep, (meaning lost-man) The lost-sheep is taken by the shepherd, or the good-man that finds it, and is laid upon his shoulder, and so brought back again. What is this shoulder, but the strength of Christ? And indeed, if a poor soul, if a wandting, poor, lost soul be not laid on the shoulder of Jesus Christ: he will lose, and wander unto all Eternity, will lose himself, and wander for ever. This is well expressed (as an Ancient does observe) in the example of Adam: when Adam had sinned, and fallen; Adam was not able to return again (Let us mark it the rather, because Adam, he was our Great Common-father; and in his example we may all see our own faces,) Says he, Adam being fallen, he could not rise again: but when Adam was fallen, What does he? Then he sets himself, for to make himself clothes of fig leaves, that so he might be freed from the injury of the weather: he could mind his clothes, and do something to take away his shame; but not one thought of God, not ⟨p. 51⟩one word of God whom he had lost. And so now man, man having finned; What does he do? He can mind his clothes, he can mind the affairs of the world; those things that concern this life, and his body: Oh!

Secondly. §2