My God, my God, what am I put to when I am put to consider and put off
the root, the fuel, the occasion of my sickness? What Hippocrates, what
Galen, could show me that in my body? It lies deeper than so, it lies in
my soul; and deeper than so, for we may well consider the body before
the soul came, before inanimation, to be without sin; and the soul,
before it come to the body, before that infection, to be without sin:
sin is the root and the fuel of all sickness, and yet that which
destroys body and soul is in neither, but in both together. It is the
union of the body and soul, and, O my God, could I prevent that, or can
I dissolve that? The root and the fuel of my sickness is my sin, my
actual sin; but even that sin hath another root, another fuel, original
sin; and can I divest that? Wilt thou bid me to separate the leaven that
a lump of dough hath received, or the salt, that the water hath
contracted, from the sea? Dost thou look, that I should so look to the
fuel or embers of sin, that I never take fire? The whole world is a pile
of fagots, upon which we are laid, and (as though there were no other)
we are the bellows. Ignorance blows the fire. He that touched any
unclean thing, though he knew it not, became unclean,[315] and a
sacrifice was required (therefore a sin imputed), though it were done in
ignorance.[316] Ignorance blows this coal; but then knowledge much more;
for there are that _know thy judgments, and yet not only do, but have
pleasure in others that do against them_.[317] Nature blows this coal;
_by nature we are the children of wrath_;[318] and the law blows it; thy
apostle Saint Paul found that _sin took occasion by the law_, that
therefore, because it is forbidden, we do some things. If we break the
law, we sin; _sin is the transgression of the law_;[319] and sin itself
becomes a law in our members.[320] Our fathers have imprinted the seed,
infused a spring of sin in us. _As a fountain casteth out her waters_,
we _cast out our wickedness_, but _we have done worse than our
fathers_.[321] We are open to infinite temptations, and yet, as though
we lacked, we are tempted of our own lusts.[322] And not satisfied with
that, as though we were not powerful enough, or cunning enough, to
demolish or undermine ourselves, when we ourselves have no pleasure in
the sin, we sin for others' sakes. When Adam sinned for Eve's sake,[323]
and Solomon to gratify his wives,[324] it was an uxorious sin; when the
judges sinned for Jezebel's sake,[325] and Joab to obey David,[326] it
was an ambitious sin; when Pilate sinned to humour the people,[327] and
Herod to give farther contentment to the Jews,[328] it was a popular
sin. Any thing serves to occasion sin, at home in my bosom, or abroad in
my mark and aim; that which I am, and that which I am not, that which I
would be, proves coals, and embers, and fuel, and bellows to sin; and
dost thou put me, O my God, to discharge myself of myself, before I can
be well? When thou bidst me _to put off the old man_,[329] dost thou
mean not only my old habits of actual sin, but the oldest of all,
original sin? When thou bidst me _purge out the leaven_,[330] dost thou
mean not only the sourness of mine own ill contracted customs, but the
innate tincture of sin imprinted by nature? How shall I do that which
thou requirest, and not falsify that which thou hast said, that sin is
gone over all? But, O my God, I press thee not with thine own text,
without thine own comment; I know that in the state of my body, which is
more discernible than that of my soul, thou dost effigiate my soul to
me. And though no anatomist can say, in dissecting a body, "Here lay the
coal, the fuel, the occasion of all bodily diseases," but yet a man may
have such a knowledge of his own constitution and bodily inclination to
diseases, as that he may prevent his danger in a great part; so, though
we cannot assign the place of original sin, nor the nature of it, so
exactly as of actual, or by any diligence divest it, yet, having washed
it in the water of thy baptism, we have not only so cleansed it, that we
may the better look upon it and discern it, but so weakened it, that
howsoever it may retain the former nature, it doth not retain the former
force, and though it may have the same name, it hath not the same venom.