SECT. I.
FRom the Commandment in this Text, we have heard forbidden actual lust consented unto, actual lust, though not yeelded un∣to, and original lust the mother of all, all which Austin thought was prayed against in three Petitions in the Lords Pray∣er, Lust consented unto, when we pray for the forgivenesse of sinnes committed; Lusts tempting and ensnaring, but not own∣ed by us, when we pray not to be lead in temptation, and lastly, when we say, But deliver us from evil, that is aufer concupiscentiam ne sit, take away the very root, and fountain of all evil in us, (Ad Marcell••num, lib. 20) Ignosce nobis ea in quibus sumus abstracti à concupiscentiâ, adjuvane abstrahamur à concupiscentiâ au∣fer à nobis concupiscentiam.
So that in this command we have seen the positive nature of original sinne in being called concupiscence, we shall therefore from the former Discourse treating of original sinne in the privative nature of it, and this later of the positive, en∣quire into the definition of it, what it is, for it's not enough to know that it is, and that there are such sad and bitter effects of it, but also to be assured what it is. As it is not enough for a man to be perswaded, that he is diseased, but he must search into the nature of it, what it is, if so be he would be cured. Before Austin's time, there was not a publick known definition of it: The Ancients before him thinking it enough to believe there was such a thing, and that we do daily feel the horrible effects thereof. Pighius in his Discourse of original sinne, saith,
That even to his time the Church had not peremptorily defined what it was, and therefore all are left to their liberty to believe what it is:So that they grant there is such a thing, but as if Ignoti nulla cupido, so nullum odium, of an unknown thing there is no love, and also no hatred: So that if we do not know how loathsom and vile this sinne is, we are never able to bewail it, and to humble our selves under it.
There are many Descriptions of it given by several Authors, but that we may in a large and popular way comprehend all things in one Description, that is ne∣cessary to understand the full nature of it; we may take this delineation of it.