SECT. XVIII.
It is according to Austin's Judgement the great Instrument of conveying Original Sinne to the child.
16. THe Imagination is so greatly polluted, That according to Austin's judgement, it is the great instrument of conveying original sinne to the child; For when he is pressed to shew how original sinne cometh to be pro∣pagated, how the soul can be infected from the flesh, though this be not his chief answer, yet he doth in part runne to this (viz.) the powerfull effect of the imagination; The vehement affection and lust in the parent is according to him the cause of a libidinous disposition in the child, hereupon he instanceth in the fact of Jacob, who by working upon the imagination of the females, did by the parti-coloured sticks produce such a colour in their young ones; Yea one thinketh, that this instance was by a special providence of God, chiefly to represent how original sinne might be propagated from parents to children;