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WHat sinne is that then in little children, that doth so displease God, that it doth not make thē only sub∣iect to bodily death, but also to eternall death, and maketh them the children of
wrath and of the curse, euen before they haue the vse of reason: to know & discerne either good or euill.
It is that naturall corruptiō whereof Dauid speaketh, say∣ing:* 1.1 I was conceyued in sinne, & my mo∣ther did beare me in sinne: nowe if wée would haue the meaning of the words of Dauid expressed according to the signifi∣cation that they haue in the Hebrew, we must thē say: And my mother hath war∣med me in sinne, or with sinne, whereby he giueth to vnderstād that he hath bene begotten, conceiued, and nourished, in his mothers wombe, with the sinne, euen as if he & sinne were brothers, twinnes, be∣gotten, conceyued & nourished togither in the wombe of one very mother: it is then easie to vnderstand how natural sinne is now to man, being in this corrupted na∣ture, wherevnto he is fallen by meane of his transgression: for that whiche Dauid speaketh of himselfe, doth appertaine to the whole race of man. Wherefore that conception whereof he speaketh in this passage, is common to vs all. Then euen so as a litle Serpent doth offend vs, not only as sone as he is brought or hatched,
but béeing in his egge, or in the belly of his dame: euen so do we in déede displease God from our very mothers womb. And what is the cause that this little serpent doth so muche offende vs? by meanes of the venemous nature that is in him. For all be it that he haue not yet shewed it, yet notwithstanding it is still abiding in him, and doth not let to shewe it, but on∣ly bicause it wanteth the meane: but it shall be sufficiently shewed in his tyme.
Is it the like of man?
There is no doubt of it, for experience doth so plainly declare it: for sith the time that our first father was poysoned with the venime of the olde serpent, he coulde beget no chil∣dren but suche like as he him selfe was, and little serpēts of the same nature that he was, and infected with the same ve∣nime, the which albeit that it doth abyde hidden for a certen time in vs, doth not let for all that to shewe it selfe foorthwith at the first occasion that it may finde. This is the first spring, the first founda∣tion, and the first cause, as muche as doth pertayne to man, of all the sinnes that he may cōmit. Nowe if that wicked spring,
how secret or couert soeuer it be, dothe so muche displease God, that it hath already deserued eternall damnation, before that it hath so muche as once budded foorthe: howe muche more shall it displease him with his buddes, his braunches, and the whole trée and his fruit?
That is very easie to iudge.
So easie as nothing is more easie.
Psalm. 51.