[ 1589] Sin, the remainders thereof even in the best of Gods Children.
AS in a piece of ground,* 1.1 even after the best and most accurate tillage, some seeds and roots of those noysome weeds, wherewith it was formerly much pestered will still remain, and will be springing up, be it never so sedulously, never so assiduously managed; So after the gracious work of Regeneration there will be a smatch of all Sin in some degree or other; hence it it that Methodius, an ancient Bishop of the Church,* 1.2 compares the inbred corruption of Man's heart to a wild Fig-tree, growing upon the wall of some goodly Temple, or stately Pallace, whereof albeit the main trunk of the stem be broke off, and stump of the root be plucked up, yet the fibrous strings of it, piercing into the joynts of the stone-work, will not utterly be extracted, but will be ever and anon shooting and sprowting out, untill the whole frame of the building be dissolved, and the stone-work thereof be disjoynted and pull'd in pieces.