What They Said

"As we do not cease to hate a young wolf although that he hath not yet worried any sheep, or a young serpent, notwithstanding that it hath not yet cast forth its venom, but do judge them worthy of death because of the perverse nature that is in them: so ought we to esteem that God hath no less occasion to condemn us, even from our mother's womb, because of our perversity and natural malice engendered within us. And though the Lord should damn us eternally, He should do us no wrong, but only that which our nature deserveth; for although the young infant hath not yet done any work which we may judge to be evil, since he hath not yet the understanding or the power to do it, yet it followeth not therefore but that the perversity which is natural in man hath already its root in him as one part of his paternal inheritance, the which cannot please God; for although it bringeth not forth its fruits, yet they do remain still there, as in their root, which will bring them forth in its time—as the venom is already in a serpent, although he bite not, and the nature of a wolf in a young wolf, how harmless soever he seemeth to be,…."

Daniel Cawdrey

(1588–1664)