James 1:15

Then when lust hath conceived, &c.— "For the gradation is much more swift and fatal than the generality of mankind are aware: lust having conceived, brings forth actual sin by a speedy birth, where perhaps the full indulgence of it was not intended; and sin, when it is finished, or perpetrated, is impregnated with death, and tends in its consequences to the final ruin both of body and soul." According to this fine metaphorical genealogy, Concupiscence is the mother of sin, and sin is the mother of death. Milton seems evidently to have had his eye upon this passage in his famous allegorical description of sin and death: Par. Lost, book 2. 50: 727, &c.