diseases is a great
work; to cure the disease itself is a greater; but to cure the body,
the root, the occasion of diseases, is a work reserved for the great
physician, which he doth never any other way but by glorifying these
bodies in the next world.

XXII. EXPOSTULATION.

My God, my God, what am I put to when I am put to consider and put off
the root, the fuel, the occasion of my sickness? What Hippocrates, what
Galen, could show me that in my body? It lies deeper than so, it lies in
my soul; and deeper than so, for we may well consider the body before
the soul came, before inanimation, to be without sin; and the soul,
before it come to the body, before that infection, to be without sin:
sin is the root and the fuel of all sickness, and yet that which
destroys body and soul is in neither, but in both together. It is the
union of the body and soul, and, O my God, could I prevent that, or can
I dissolve that? The root and the fuel of my sickness is my sin, my
actual sin; but even that sin hath another root, another fuel, original
sin; and can I divest that? Wilt thou bid me to separate the leaven that
a lump of dough hath received, or the salt, that the water hath
contracted, from the sea? Dost thou look, that I should so look to the
fuel or embers of sin, that I never take fire? The whole world is a pile
of fagots, upon which we are laid, and (as though there were no other)
we are the bellows. Ignorance blows the fire. He that touched any
unclean thing, though he knew it not, became unclean,[315] and a
sacrifice was required (therefore a sin imputed), though it were done in
ignorance.[316] Ignorance blows this coal; but then knowledge much more;
for there are that _know thy judgments, and yet not only do, but have
pleasure in others that do against them_.[317] Nature blows this coal;
_by nature we are the children of wrath_;[318] and the law blows it; thy
apostle Saint Paul found that _sin took occasion by the law_, that
therefore, because it is forbidden, we do some things. If we break the
law, we sin; _sin is the transgression of the law_;[319] and sin itself
becomes a law in our members.[320] Our fathers have imprinted the seed,
infused a spring of sin in us. _As a fountain casteth out her waters_,
we _cast out our wickedness_, but _we have done worse than our
fathers_.[321] We are open to infinite temptations, and yet, as though
we lacked, we are tempted of our own lusts.[322] And not satisfied with
that, as t