A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is, by pregnant texts of Scripture vindicated from false glosses / by Anthony Burgess.

SECT. I.

MAT. 12. 35.

And an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things.

THese words are part of an Apologetical Answer, that our Savi∣our made against the Pharisees, who were guilty of blaspheming the holy Ghost, because they did maliciously oppose the known truth, and what was done by the Spirit of God, attributing it to the power of the devil. And in this Apology the fervency and zeal of our Saviour, doth appear in the compellation he giveth them, Generation of vipers: Here you see, That it is not alwayes railing and indiscreet zeal, to call wicked men by such names that their sinnes do de∣serve.

In the next place, he giveth the reason of this their blasphemy, it is no won∣der if they speak ill, who have ill and naughty hearts, which he expresseth em∣phatically:

1. By an interrogation, How can ye?

2. By the impossibility, How can ye?

3. From the matter mentioned: he doth not say, How can ye being evil de good things, but speak; We might think wicked men might easily forbear evil words, though not evil actions, but their heart is first set on fire with hell, and then the tongue. The Physician discovers how the heart is by the tongue, and so doth Religion also. Now that good words cannot proceed from a bad heart, viz. naturally (for on purpose, and artificially many evil-minded men, may speak religiously, and men may have butter words, whose hearts are like swords) our Saviour proveth from the common and even proverbial rule; A good man hath a good heart, and a good treasure, and so of this sweet fountain cannot come bitter streams. But a bad man hath an evil treasure in his heart, and so from these thorns men cannot gather grapes, nor from these thistles figs; we see here then a good man and a bad, diversified by that which is wholly hidden and secret, not known to any, but God, till he discover it by words or actions. Now this evil treasure in every mans heart is two-fold,

1. That which is Natural, that which he cometh into the world with, thus every man hath an inexhausted treasure of wickedness, which he spends upon all his life time, and yet never cometh to the bottom of it; And in this sense our

Divines do well prove, That no natural or unregenerate man is able to do any thing, though never so little that is good, because he is a bad Tree, and be∣ing also of the seed of Serpents, there cannot come any honey, or sweet thing from him.

2. There is an acquired and increased treasure of sinne, which a man storeth up by daily custom in sinne, so that he becometh to have two treasures of evil in his soul, as if one were not enough, natural, and voluntary, innate, and volunta∣rily contracted: For you must know, That original sinne, though it be a full fountain of poison, ready of it self to overflow, yet custom in sin doth strength∣en, and inable it to be more vigorous and operative; we may put more wood to this fire, and so make it more dreadfull: Even as these Pharisees, though they were by nature, the Serpents seed, yet because of their voluntary and contract∣ed malicious disposition in them, superadded to the former, our Saviour calleth them, Generation of vipers. Now although the Pharisees had this two-fold evil heart, naturally, and voluntarily, yet I shall of the former onely, and so handle it not, as relating to the Pharisees, but as it is a general Truth, to be af∣firmed of every one, till renewed by grace, that he hath an evil treasure, an evil heart within him; And from thence observe,

That original sinne is the evil treasure that is in a mans heart. Sometimes the heart it self is said to be evil, to be desperately wicked; but then it's not taken phy∣sically, as it's a corpulent substance in a man; but morally or theologically, as it is the seat and principle of all evil: For as the Sea hath all the Rivers in it, from which they come, and to which they return again; so the heart is the fountain of all evil, and all evil is seated in it, coming from the heart, and going back again to it.

But let us open this treasure, which is not like the opening of that Alablaster Box, which perfumed the whole house; but like the opening of a noisom Sepulchre or dunghil, from whence cometh only what is loathsome; Therefore it's not cal∣led a treasure in a good sense, as commonly the word is used; for we do not use to treasure up vile and loathsom things; but because in a treasure there is plenty and fulness, therefore is this evil heart, this original pollution called a treasure, and that very properly, for these resemblances.