The Second Principle Expounded.
Q. Let us now come to ourselves, and first tell me: What is the natural estate of man?
A. Every man is by nature dead in sin as a loathsome carrion, or as a dead corpse lieth rotting and stinking in the grave, having in him the seed of all sin. 1
Q. What is sin?
A. Any breach of the law of God, if it be no more but the least want of that which the law requireth. 2
Q. How many sorts of sin are there?
A. Sin is either the corruption of nature, or any evil actions that proceed of it, as fruits thereof. 3
Q. In whom is the corruption of nature?
A. In all men none excepted. 4
Q. In what part of man is it?
A. In every part both of body and soul, like as a leprosy that runneth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. 5
Q. Shew me how every part of man is corrupted with sin?
A. First, in the mind there is nothing but ignorance and blindness concerning heavenly matters. 6 Secondly, the conscience is defiled, being always either benumbed with sin, or else turmoiled with inward accusations and terrors. 7 Thirdly, the will of man only willeth and lusteth after evil. 8 Fourthly, the affections of the heart, as love, joy, hope, desire, &c. are moved and stirred to that which is evil to embrace it, and they are never stirred unto that which is good, unless it be to eschew it. 9 Lastly, the members of the body are the instruments and tools of the mind for the execution of sin. 10
Q. What be those evil actions that are the fruits of this corruption?
A. Evil thoughts in the mind, which come either by a man's own conceiving, or by the suggestion of the devil; 11 evil motions and lusts stirring in the heart; and from these arise evil words and deeds, when any occasion is given. 12
Q. How cometh it to pass that all men are thus defiled with sin?
A. By Adam's infidelity and disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit: 13 even as we see great personages by treason do not only hurt themselves, but also stain their blood, and disgrace their posterity.
Q. What hurt comes to man by his sin?
A. He is continually subject to the curse of God in his life time, in the end of his life, and after this life. 14
Q. What is the curse of God in this life?
A. In the body, diseases, aches, pains; in the soul, blindness, hardness of heart, horror of conscience; in goods, hinderances, and losses; in name, ignominy and reproach; lastly, in the whole man, bondage under Satan the prince of darkness. 15
Q. What manner of bondage is this?
A. This bondage is when a man is the slave of the devil, and hath him to reign in his heart as his God. 16
Q. How may a man know whether Satan be his God or not?
A. He may know it by this, if he give obedience to him in heart, and express it in his conversation.
Q. And how shall a man perceive this obedience?
A. If he take delight in the evil motions that Satan puts into his heart, and do fulfill the lusts of the devil. 17
Q. What is the curse due to man in the end of this life?
A. Death, which is the separation of body and soul. 18
Q. What is the curse after this life?
A. Eternal damnation in hell fire, whereof every man is guilty, and is in as great danger of it as the traitor apprehended is in danger of hanging, drawing and quartering. 19
Ephesians 2:1; 1 Timothy 5:6
1 John 3:4; Romans 7:7; Galatians 3:10
Colossians 3:9; Psalm 51:5
Romans 3:10
Genesis 6:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:23
1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:5
Titus 1:15; Ephesians 4:18,19; Isaiah 57:20
Philippians 2:13; Job 15:16
Galatians 5:24
Romans 6:19
Genesis 6:5
John 13:2; Acts 5:3; 1 Chronicles 21:1
Romans 5:17,18,19; Genesis 3
Galatians 3:10
Deuteronomy 28:21-22,27,65-67.
Hebrews 2:14; Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Luk 11:14
John 8:44; 1 John 3:8
Romans 5:12
Galatians 3:10; Romans 3:19