Chapter CLXVIII

“Not we, but he ate of the Tree,
whose fruit was interdicted;
Yet on us all of his sad Fall
the punishment’s inflicted.
How could we sin that had not been,
or how is his sin our,
Without consent, which to prevent
we never had the pow’r?

CLXIX. [140]

“O great Creator why was our Nature
depravéd and forlorn?
Why so defil’d, and made so vil’d,
whilst we were jet unborn?
If it be just, and needs we must
transgressors reckon’d be.
Thy Mercy, Lord, to us afford,
which sinners hath set free.