Placaeus: the unregenerate always miss the true scope and so sin
Thesis XVIII. With these agree what we read in Josué de la Place's treatise On man's free choice. He first teaches that Adam lost the absolute liberty of not sinning, and that the bondage of sin took its place. That bondage lies in the depravity and crookedness of the moral faculties, especially the will, and the depravity consists in turning away from the true last end and turning toward a last end that only appears to be one.
It follows, since whatever is desired is either the last end or a means to it, that nothing sound is left in our moral faculties, and that as long as we are in this condition we cannot help sinning. He then gives the reason in these words: 'Whether we seek the last end or the means, we always miss the true mark, however brightly the unregenerate man may seem to shine with virtues. For whatever he desires, says or does, he aims at a last goal that falsely appears to him to be the goal, though it is very far from the true one. By that very fact he sins, and he cannot help sinning as long as he judges wrongly about the goal' (page 199).
Latin
XVIII. His consentanea sunt quae leguntur apud Josuam Placeum tractatu de Libero hominis arbitrio. Ubi postquam docuit Adamum amisisse libertatem absolutam non peccandi, & in ejus locum successisse servitutem peccati, sitam in depravatione atque obliquitate facultatum moralium, praesertim voluntatis; eam vero depravationem consistere in aversione a vero fine ultimo, & conversione ad finem ultimum falso apparentem: Ex quo sequitur, cum quicquid appetitur, sit aut finis ultimus aut medium ad illum, nihil sani reliquum esse factum in facultatibus nostris moralibus, & quamdiu sic affecti sumus fieri non posse quin peccemus, hujus rei rationem subjungit his verbis. Nam seu appetamus finem ultimum, seu media, aberramus semper a vero scopo, quantumcunque virtutum splendore lucere videatur homo irregenitus, quia quicquid appetit, quicquid loquitur & agit, in scopum ultimum collineat, qui falso illi apparet scopus, cum plurimum absit a vero scopo, & eo ipso peccat, nec potest non peccare, quamdiu male judicat de scopo. pag. 199.