Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.

STATE II. NAMELY, The State of Nature, or of Entire Depravation.

HEAD I. The Sinfulness of Man's Natural State.

GENESIS vi. 5.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth▪ and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only Evil continually.

WE have seen what man was, as God made him, a lovely and happy creature: let us view him now as he hath unmade himself: and we shall see him a sinful and miserable creature. This is the sad state we were brought into by the fall: a state 〈◊〉〈◊〉 black and doleful as the former was glorious; and this we commonly call The state of nature, or Man's natural state, according to that of the apostle, Eph ii. 2. And were by nature the children of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 even as others. And herein two things are to be considered; 1st, The sinfulness; 2dly, The misery of this state, in which all the unregene|rate do live. I begin with the sinfulness of man's nature•• state, whereof the text gives us a full, tho' short account: And 〈…〉〈…〉 that the wickedness of man was great, &c.

The scope and design of these words is, to clear God's justice, in bringing the flood on the old world. There are two particular causes of it taken notice of in the preceeding verses. (1.) Mixt marriages, ver. 2. The sons of God, the posterity of Seth and Enos, professors of the true religion, married with the daughters of men, the profane, cursed race of Cain. They did not carry the matter before the Lord, that he might chuse for them, Psal. xlviii. 14. But without any respect to the will of God, they chose; not according to the rules of their faith, but of their fancy: they saw that they were fair••

and their marriage with them, occasioned their divorce from God. This was one of the causes of the deluge, which swept away the old world. Would to God all professors in our day, could plead not guilty: but tho' that sin brought on the deluge, yet the deluge hath not swept away that sin; which, as of old, so in our day, may justly be looked upon, as one of the causes of the decay of religion. It was an ordinary thing among the Pagans, to change their gods, as they changed their condition into a married lot: and many sad instances the Christian world affords of the same, as if people were of Pharaoh's opinion, That religion is only for those that have no other care upon their heads, Exod. v. 17. (2.) Great oppression, ver. 4. There was giants in the earth in those days, men of great stature, great strength, and monstrous wickedness, filling the earth with violence, ver. 11. But neither their strength nor treasures of wickedness, could profit them in the day of wrath. Yet the gain of oppression still carries many over the terror of this dreadful example. Thus much for the connexion, and what particular crimes that generation was guilty of. But every person that was swept away with the flood could not be guilty of these things, and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Therefore, in my text, there is a general indictment drawn up agaist them all, The wickedness of man was great in the earth, &c. And this is well instructed, for God saw it. Two things are laid to their charge here.

First, Corruption of life, wickedness, great wickedness. I under|stand this of the wickedness of their lives; for it is plainly distinguished from the wickedness of their hearts. The sins of their outward con|versation, were great in the nature of them, and greatly aggravated by their attending circumstances: and this not only among those of the race of cursed Cain, but those of holy Seth: the wickedness of man was great. And then it is added, in the earth. (1.) To vin|dicate God's severity, in that he not only cut off sinners, but defaced the beauty of the earth; and swept off the brute creatures from it, by the deluge; that as men had set the marks of their impiety, God might set the marks of his indignation, on the earth. (2.) To shew the heinousness of their sin, in making the earth, which God had so adorned for the use of man, a sink of sin, and a stage whereon to act their wickedness, in defiance of heaven. God saw this corruption of life, he not only knew it, and took notice of it, but he made them to know, that he did take notice of it; and that he had not forsaken the curst, tho' they had forsaken heaven.

Secondly, Corruption of nature. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All their wicked practices are here traced to the fountain and spring-head; a corrupt heart was the source of all. The soul which was made upright in all its faculties, is now wholly disordered. The heart, that was made according to God's own heart, is now the reverse of it, a forge of evil imaginations, a sink of inordinate affections, and a store-house of all impiety,

Mark vii. 21, 22. Behold the heart of the natural man, as it is opened in our text. The mind is defiled; the thoughts of the heart are evil; the will and affections are defiled: the imagination of the thoughts of the heart, (i e. whatsoever the heart frameth within itself by think|ing, such as judgment. choice, purposes, devices, desires, every inward motion); or rather, the frame of thoughts of the heart (namely, the frame, make, or mould, of these, 1 Chron. xxix. 18.) is evil. Yea, and every imagination, every frame, of his thoughts, is so. The heart is ever framing something; but never one right thing: the frame of thoughts, in the heart of man, is exceeding various: yet are they never cast into a right frame: But is there not, at least, a mixture of good in them? No, they are only evil, there is nothing in them truly good and acceptable to God: nor can any thing be so that comes out of that forge: where not the Spirit of God, but the prince of the power of the air worketh, Eph. ii. 2. Whatever changes may be found in them, are only from evil to evil: for the imagination of the heart, or frame of thoughts in natural men, is evil continually, or every day: From the first day, to the last day in this state, they are in midnight darkness; there is not a glimmering of the light of holi|ness in them; not one holy thought can ever be produced by the unholy heart. O what a vile heart is this! O what a corrupt nature is this! the tree that always brings forth fruit, but never good fruit, whatever soil it be set in, whatever pains be taken on it, must natu|rally be an evil tree: and what can that heart be, whereof every imagination, every set of thoughts, is only evil, and that continually? Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, has sunk into the marrow of our souls; and will never be cured, but by a miracle of grace. Now such is man's heart, such is his nature, till regenerating grace change it. God that searcheth the heart saw man's heart was so, he took special notice of it: and the faithful and true witness cannot mistake our case; tho' we are most apt to mistake ourselves in this point, and generally do overlook it.

Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart saying. What is that to us? Let that generation, of whom the text 〈…〉〈…〉 see to that. For the Lord has left the case of that generation on record, to be a looking glass to all after-generations; wherein they may see their own corruption of heart, and what their 〈◊〉〈◊〉 would be too, if he restrained them not; for as in water face answereth to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 so the heart of man to man, Prov xxvii. 19. Adam's 〈◊〉〈◊〉 has tra•• all men's hearts alike in this matter, Hence the apostle, Rom iii. 10. proves the corruption of the nature, hearts, and lives, of all men, from what the Psalmist says of the wicked in his day, Psal. xiv. 1, 2, 3. Psal. v. 9. Psal. cxl. 3 Psal. x. 7. Psal▪ ••xvi. 1. and from what Jeremiah saith of the wicked in his day, Jer ix. 3. and from what Isaiah says of those that lived in his time▪ Isa lvii. 7, 8. and concludes with that, ver. 19. Now we know, that what things ••ever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped,

and all the world may become guilty before God. Had the history of the deluge been transmitted unto us, without the reason thereof in the text, we might thence have gathered the corruption and total depravation of man's nature: for what other quarrel could a holy and just God have with the infants that were destroyed by the flood, seeing they had no actual sin? If we saw a wise man, who having made a curious piece of work, and heartily approved of it when he gave it out of his hand, as fit for the use it was designed for rise up in wrath and break it all in pieces, when he looked on it afterwards; would we not thence conclude the frame of it had been quite marred, since it went out of his hand, and that it does not serve for that use it was at first designed for? How much more, when we see the holy and wise God, destroying the work of his own hands, once solemnly pro|nounced by him very good, may we conclude that the original frame thereof is utterly marred, that it cannot be mended, but it must needs be new made, or lost altogether? Gen. vi 6, 7. And it 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieve•• him at his heart: and the Lord said, I will destroy man, or blot him out, as a man doth a sentence out of a book, that cannot be corrected, by cutting off some letters, syllables, or words, and interlining others here and there; but must needs be wholly new framed. But did the deluge carry off this corruption of man's nature? Did it mend the matter? No it did not. God, in his holy providence, That every mouth may be stopped, and all the new world may become guilty before God, as well as the old, permits that corruption of nature to break out in Noah, the father of the new world, after the deluge was over. Behold him as another Adam, firming in the fruit of a tree. Gen. ix. 20, 21. He planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. More than that, God gives the same reason against a new deluge, which he gives in our text for bringing that on the world: I will not, (saith he▪) again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Gen. viii. 21. Whereby it is intimated, that there is no mending of the matter by this means; and that if he would always take the same course with men that he had done, he would be always sending deluges on the earth, seeing the corruption of man's nature remains still. But tho' the flood could not carry off the corruption of nature, yet it pointed at the way how it is to be done; to wit, That men must be born of water and of the Spirit, raised from spiritual death in sin, by the grace of Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood; out of which a new world of saints arise in regeneration▪ even as the new •• ••rid of sinners out of the waters, where they had long lain buried (as it were) in the ark. This we learn from 1 Pet iii. 20, 21 where the apostle speaking of Noah's ark saith, Wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 like figure whereunto, even baptism doth also n••w save us. Now 〈◊〉〈◊〉 waters of the deluge being a like figure to baptism; it plainly follow

that they signified (as baptism doth) the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. To conclude then, these waters, tho' now dried up, may serve us for a looking glass, in which we may see the total corruption of our nature, and the necessity of regeneration. From the text thus explained, ariseth this weighty point of DOCTRINE, which he that runs may read in it, viz That Man's nature is now wholly corrupted. Now is there a sad alteration, a wonderful over|turn, in the nature of man: where, at first, there was nothing evil; now there is nothing good. In prosecuting of this doctrine, I shall,

First, Confirm it.

Secondly, Represent this corruption of nature in its several parts.

Thirdly, Shew you how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted.

Lastly, Make application.

That Man's Nature is corrupted.

FIRST, I am to confirm the doctrine of the corruption of nature: to hold the glass to your eyes, wherein you may see your sinful nature: which, tho' God takes particular notice of it, many do quite overlook. And here we shall consult, 1. God's word. 2. Men's experience and observation

I. For scripture-proof, let us consider,

First, How the scripture takes particular notice of fallen Adam's communicating his image to his posterity, Gen, v. 3. Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. Compare with this, ver 1. of that chapter, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made be him. Behold here, how the image after which man was made, and the image after which he is begotten, are opposed. Man was made in the likeness of God: that is, a holy and righteous God made a holy and righteous creature: but fallen Adam begat a son, not in the likeness of God, but in his own likeness; that is, corrupt sinful Adam begat a corrupt sinful son. For as the image of God bore righteousness and immortality in it, as was cleared before, so this image of fallen Adam bore corruption and death in it, 1 Cor. xv. 49 50. compare ver. 22. Moses, in that fifth chapter of Genesis, being to give us the first bill of mortality, that ever was in the world, ushers it in with this, that dying Adam begat mortals. Having sinned, he became mortal, according to the threat|ning; and so he begat a son, in his own likeness, sinful, and therefore mortal: thus sin and death passed on all. Doubtless, he begat both Cain and Abel in his own likeness, as well as Seth. But it is not recorded of Abel; because he left no issue behind him, and his falling the first sacrifice to death in the world, was a sufficient document of it: nor of Cain, to whom it might have been thought peculiar, be|cause of his monstrous wickedness; and besides, all his posterity was drowned in the flood: but it is recorded of Seth, because he was the father of the holy seed; and from him all mankind, since the flood, has descended, and fallen Adam's own likeness with them.

Secondly, It appears from that scripture text, Job xiv. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Our first parents were unclean, how then can we be clean? How could our immediate parents be clean? Or, how shall our children be so? The unclean|ness here aimed at is a sinful uncleanness; for it is such as makes man's days full of trouble: and it is natural, being derived from un|clean parents: Man is born of a woman, ver. 1. And how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job xxxv. 4. An omnipotent God whose power is not here challenged, could bring a clean thing out of an unclean; and did so, in the case of the Man CHRIST; but no other can. Every person that is born according to the course of nature, is born unclean. If the root be corrupt, so must the branches be. Neither is the matter mended, tho' the parents be sanctified ones: for they are but holy in part, and that by grace, not by nature; and they beget their children as men, not as holy men. Wherefore, as the circumcised parent begets an uncircumcised child, and after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature; which many godly parents find true, in their sad experience.

Thirdly, Consider the confession of the Psalmist David, Psal. li. 6. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Here he ascends from his actual sin, to the fountain of it, namely, corrupt nature. He was a man according to God's own heart; but from the beginning it was not so with him. He was begotten in lawful marriage; but when the lump was shapen in the womb, it was a sinful lump. Hence the corruption of nature is called the old man; being as old as ourselves, older than grace, even in those that are sanctified from the womb.

Fourthly, Hear our Lord's determination of the point, John iii. 5. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh. Behold the universal cor|ruption of mankind, all are flesh. Not that all are frail, tho' that is a sad truth too; yea, and our natural frailty is an evidence of our natural corruption; but that is not the sense of this text: but here is the meaning of it, all are corrupt and sinful, and that naturally: hence our Lord argues here, that because they are flesh, therefore they must be born again, or else they cannot enter into the kingdom of God, ver. 3, 5. And as the corruption of our nature evidenceth the absolute necessity of regeneration; so the absolute necessity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature: for why should a man need a second birth, if his nature were not quite marred in the first birth? Infants must be born again, for that is an except (John iii. 3) which admits of no conception. And therefore, they were circumcised under the Old Testament, as having the body of the sins of the flesh, (which is conveyed to them by natural generation) to put off, Col. ii. 11. And now by the appointment of Jesus Christ, they are to be baptized; which says they are unclean, and that there

is no salvation for them, but by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. iii. 5.

Fifthly▪ Man certainly is sunk very low now, in comparison of what he once was: God made him but a little lower than the angels: but now we find him likened to the beasts that perish. He hearkened to a brute, and is now become like one of them. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his portion (in his natural state) is with the beasts, minding only earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. Nay, brutes, in some sort, have the advantage of the natural man, who is sunk a degree below them. He is more witless, in what concerns him most, than the stork, or the turtle, or the crane, or the swallow, in what is for their interest, Jer. viii. 7. He is more stupid than the ox or ass. Isa. i. 3. I find him sent to school, to learn of the ant or ••••••not, which having no guide, or leader to go before her; no overseer or officer to compel or stir her up to work; no ruler, but may do as she lists, being under the do|minion of none; yet provideth her meat in the summer and harvest, Prov. vi 6, 7, 8 while the natural man has all these, and yet ex|poseth himself to eternal starving. Nay, more than all this, the scripture holds out the natural man, not only as wanting the good qualities of those creatures; but as a compound of the evil qualities of the worst of the creatures, in which do concenter the fierceness of the lion, the craft of the fox, the unteachableness of the wild ass, the filthiness of the dog and swine, the poison of the asp, and such like. Truth itself calls them serpents, a generation of vipers; yea more, even children of the devil, Mat. iii. 7. John viii. 44. Surely then, man's nature is miserably corrupted.

Lastly, We are by nature children of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. We are worthy of, and liable to the wrath of God; and this by nature: and therefore, doubtless, we are by nature sinful creatures. We are condemned before we have done good or evil; under the curse, ere we know what it is. But will a lion roar in the forest while he hath no prey? Amos iii. 4. that is, Will a holy and just God roar in his wrath against man, if he be not, by his sin, made a prey for wrath? No, he will not, he cannot. Let us conclude, then, that according to the word of God man's nature is a corrupt nature.

II. If we consult experience, and observe the case of the world in these things that are obvious to any person that will not shut his eye, against clear light; we will quickly perceive such fruits, as discover this root of bitterness: I shall propose a few things, that may serve to convince us in this point.

First, Who sees not a flood of miseries overflowing the world? and whether can a man go, where he shall not dip his foot, if he go not over head and ears is it? Every one at home and abroad, in city and country, in palaces, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 cottages, is groaning under some one thing •••• other, ungrateful 〈◊〉〈◊〉 him. Some are oppressed with poverty, some chastned with sick••;s and pain, some are lamenting their losses; none wants a cross of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sort or another. No man's condition is

so soft, but there is some thorn of uneasiness in it. And at length death the wages of sin, comes after these its harbingers, and sweeps all away. Now, what but sin has opened the sluice? There is not a complaint nor sigh heard in the world, nor a tear that falls from our eye, but it is an evidence that man is fallen as a star from heaven; for God distributeth sorrow in his anger, Job xxi. 17 This is a plain proof of the corruption of nature: forasmuch as those that have not yet actually sinned, have their share of these sorrows; yea, and draw their first breath in the world weeping, as if they knew this world, at first sight, to be a Dochim, the place of weepers. There are graves of the smallest, as well as of the largest size, in the church-yard; and there are never wanting some in the world, who like Rachel, are weeping for their children, because they are not, Mat. ii. 18.

Secondly, Observe how early this corruption of nature begins to appear in young ones: Solomon observes, that even a child is known by his doings, Prov. xx. 11. It may soon be discerned, what way the bias of the heart lies. Do not the children of sallen Adam, before they can go alone, follow their father's footsteps? What a vast deal of little pride, ambition, curiosity, vanity, wilfulness, and averseness to good appears in them: And when they creep out of infancy, there is a necessity of using the rod of correction to drive away the foolishness that's bound in their heart, Prov. xxii 15. Which shews, that if grace prevail not, the child will be as Ishmael, a wild ass man, as the word is, Gen. xvi. 13

Thirdly, Take a view of the manifold gross out-breakings of sin, in the world. The wickedness of man is yet great in the earth. Behold the bitter fruits of the corruption of our nature, Hos. iv. 2. By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and commiting adultery, they break out, (like the breaking forth of water) and blood toucheth blood. The world is filled with filthiness, and all manner of lewdness, wickedness, and profanity. Whence is this deluge of sin on the earth, but from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, the heart of man; out of which proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts. covetousness, wickedness, &c. Mark vii, 21, 22. Ye will, it may be, thank God with a whole heart, that ye are not like these other men: and indeed ye have better reason for it than, I fear, ye are aware of; for, as in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man, Prov. xxvii. 19. As looking into clear water, ye see your own face; so looking into your heart, ye may see other men's there: and looking into other men's, in them ye may see your own. So that the most vile and profane wretches that are in the world should serve you for a looking glass; in which you ought to discern the corruption of your own nature: and if you do so, ye would, with a heart truly touched, thank God, and not yourselves, indeed, that ye are not as other men, in your lives; seeing the corruption of nature is the same in you, as in them.

Fourthly, Cast your eye upon these terrible convulsions the world is thrown into by the lust of men: Lions make not a prey of lions, nor wolves of wolves: but men are turned wolves to one another, biting and devouring one another. Upon how slight occasions will men sheath their swords in one another's bowels! The world is a wilder|ness, where the clearest fire men can carry about with them, will not fright away the wild beasts that inhabit it, (and that because they are men, and not brutes) but one way or other they will be wounded. Since Cain shed the blood of Abel, the earth has been turned into a slaughter-house; and the chace has been continued since Nimrod began his hunting; on the earth, as in the sea, the greater still devouring the lesser. When we see the world in such a ferment, every one stabbing another with words or swords, we may conclude there is an evil spirit among them. These violent heats among Adam's sons, speak the whole body to be distempered, the whole head to be sick, and the whole heart faint. They surely proceed from an inward cause, James vi. 1. Lusts that war in our members.

Fifthly, Consider the necessity of human laws, fenced with terrors and severities; to which we may apply what the apostle says, 1 Tim. i. 9. That the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, &c. Man was made for society: and God himself said of the first man, when he had created him, that it was not meet that he should be alone: yet the case is such now, that, in society, he must be hedged in with thorns. And that from hence we may the better see the corruption of man's nature, consider, (1.) Every man naturally loves to be at full liberty himself; to have his own will for his law; and if he would follow his natural inclinations, would vote himself out of the reach of all laws, divine and human. And hence some (the power of whose hands has been answerable to their natural inclination) have indeed made themselves absolute, and above laws; agreeable to man's monstrous design at first, to be as gods, Gen. iii. 5. Yet, (2.) There is no man that would willingly adventure to live in a lawless society: and therefore, even pirates and robbers have laws among themselves, tho' the whole society cast off all respect to law and right. Thus men discover themselves to be conscious of the corruption of nature; not daring to trust one another, but upon security. (3.) How dangerous soever it is to break thro' the hedge: yet the violence of lust makes many adventure daily to run the risk. They will not only sacrifice their credit and conscience, which last is highly esteem'd in the world; but for the pleasure of a few moments, immediately succeeded with terror from within, they will lay themselves open to a violent death by the laws of the land wherein they live. (4.) The laws are often made to yield to men's lusts. Sometimes whole societies run into such ex|travagancies, that like a company of prisoners, they break off their fetters, and put their guards to flight; and the voice of laws cannot be heard for the noise of arms. And seldom is there a time wherein

there are not some persons so great and daring, that the laws dare not look their impetuous lusts in the face; which made David say in the case of Joab, who had murdered Abner, Th••se men, the son•• of Zeruiah, be too hard for me, 2 Sam iii. 39 Lusts sometimes grow too strong for laws, so that the law is slacked, as the pulse of a dying man, Hab. i. 3, 4. (5.) Consider what necessity often appears of ammending old laws, and making new ones; which have their rise from new crimes that man's nature is very fruitful of. There would be no need of mending the hedge, if men were not like unruly beasts, still breaking it down. It is astonishing to see▪ what figure the Israelites, who were separated unto God, from among all the nations of the earth do make in their history; what horrible confusions were among them, when there was no king in Israel, as you may see, in the xviii. xix. xx. and xxi. chapters of Judges: how hard it was to reform them, when they had the best of magistrates: and how quickly they turned aside again, when they got wicked rulers. I cannot but think, that one grand design of that sacred history, was to discover the corruption of man's nature, the absolute need of the Messiah, and his grace: and that we ought in the reading of it, to improve it to that end. How cutting is that word, the Lord has to Samuel, concerning Saul, 1 Sam. ix. 17. The same shall reign over (or, as the word is, shall restrain) my people. O the corruption of man's nature! the awe and dread of the God of heaven restrains them not: but they must have gods on the earth to do it to put them to shame, Judges xviii. 7.

Sixthly, Consider the remains of that natural corruption in the saints. Tho' grace has entered, yet corruption is not quite expelled: tho' they have got the new creature, yet much of the old corrupt nature remains: and these struggle together within them, as the twins in Rebekah's womb, Gal. v. 17. They said it present with them at all times, and in all places, even in the most retired corners. If a man have an ill neighbour, he may remove; if he have an ill servant, he may put him away at the term: if a bad yoke fellow, he may sometimes leave the house, and be free of molestation that way. But should the saint go into a wilderness, or set up his tent in some remote rock in the sea, where never foot of man, beast, nor fowl had touched, there will it be with him. Should he be, with Paul, caught up to the third heavens, it shall come back with him, 2 Cor xii. 7. It followeth him as the shadow doth the body: it makes a blot in the fairest line he can draw. It is like the fig-tree in the wall, which, how nearly soever it was cut, yet still grow till the wall was thrown down; for the roots of it are fixed in the heart, while the saint is in the world, as with bands of iron and brass. It is especially active when he would do good, Rom. vii. 21. then the fowls come down upon the carcases. Hence often in holy duties, the spirit even of a saint (as it were) evaporates: and he is lef••ere he is aware, like Michael, with an image in the bed, instead of an husband. I need not stand to prove th••

remains of the corruption of nature in the godly, to themselves; for they groan under it; and to prove it to them, were to hold out a candle to let men see the sun: and as for the wicked, they are ready to account mole-hills in the saint, as big as mountains; if not to reckon them all hypocrites. But consider these few things on this head. (1.) If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry? The saints are not born saints; but made so by the power of regenerat|i•• grace. Have they got a new nature, and yet so much of the old remains with them? How great must that corruption be in others, where it is altogether unmixed with grace? (2.) The saints groan under the remains of it as a heavy burden? hear the Apostle, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of this death? What tho' the carnal man lives at ease and quiet, and the corruption of nature is not his burden: is he therefore free from it? No, no; only he is dead, and feels not the sinking weight. Many a groan is heard from a sick bed; but never one from a grave. In the saint, as in the sick man, there is a mighty struggle; life and death striving for the mastery: but in the natural man, as in the dead corpse, there is no noise; because death bears full sway. (3.) The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 man resists the old corrupt nature: he strives to mortify it, yet it remains: he endeavours to starve it, and by that means to weaken it; yet it is active: how must it spread then, and strengthen itself in that soul, where it is not starved but fed? And this is the case of all unregenerate, who make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. If the garden of the diligent afford him new work daily, in cutting off and rooting up; surely that of the sluggard must needs be all grown over with thorns.

Lastly, I shall add but one observe more, and that is, That in every m••n naturally the image of fallen Adam does appear. Some children, by their features and lineaments of their face, do, as it were, father themselves: and thus we do resemble our first parents. Every one of us bear the image and impress of their fall upon him: and to evince the truth of this, I do appeal to the consciences of all, in these following particulars.

1st, Is not a sinful curiosity natural to us? And is not this a print of Adam's image? Gen. iii. 6. Is not men naturally much more desirous to know new things, than to practise old known truths? How like to old Adam do we look in this, itching after novelties, and dis|relishing old solid doctrines? We seek after knowledge rather than holiness; and study most to know these things, which are least edify|ing. Our wild and roving fancies need a bridle to curb them, while good solid affections must be quickened and spurred up

2dly, If the LORD, by his holy law and wise providence do put a restraint upon us, to keep us back from any thing▪ doth not that restraint whet the edge of our natural inclinations, and make us so much the keener in our desires: And in this do we not betray it plainly that we are Adam's children. Gen. iii. 2, 3, 6. I think this

cannot be denied: for daily observation evinceth, that it is a natural principle; that stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret, is pleasant. Prov. ix. 17. The very heathens are convinced, that man was possessed with this spirit of contradiction, tho' they knew not the spring of it. How often do men give themselves the loose in these things, in which, if God had left them at liberty, they would have bound up themselves! but corrupt nature takes a pleasure in the very jumping over the hedge. And is it not a repeating of our father's folly, that men will rather climb for forbidden fruit, than gather what is shaken off the true of good providence to them, when they have God's express allowance for it!

3dly, Which of all the children of Adam is not naturally disposed to hear the instruction that causeth to err? And was not this the rock our first parents split upon? Gen. iii. 4, 6. How apt is weak man, ever since that time, to parley with temptations! God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. Job xxxiii 14. but readily doth he listen to Satan. Men might often come fair off if they would dismiss temptations with abhorrence, when first they appear; if they would nip them in the bud, they would soon die away; but alas! when we see the train laid for us, and the fire put to it, yet we stand till it run along, and we be blown up with its force.

4thly, Do not the eyes in our head often blind the eyes of the mind? And was not this the very case of our first parents? Gen iii. 6. Man is never more blind than when he is looking on the objects that are pleasant to sense. Since the eyes of our first parents were opened to the forbidden fruit, men's eyes have been the gates of destruction to their souls; at which impure imaginations and sinful desires have entred the heart, to the wounding of the soul, wasting of the consci|ence, and bringing dismal effects sometimes on whole societies, as in Achan's case, Joshua vii. 21. Holy Job was aware of this danger, from these two little rowling bodies, which a very small splinter of wood will make useless; so as (with that King who durst not, with his ten thousand, meet him that came with twenty thousand against him, Luke xiv. 31, 32.) he sendeth and desireth conditions of peace, Job xxxi. 1. I have made a covenant with mine eyes, &c.

5thly, Is it not natural for us, to care for the body, even at the expence of the soul? This was one ingredient in the sin of our first parents, Gen. iii. 6. O how happy might we be, if we were but at half the pains about our souls, that we bestow upon our bodies! if that question, What must I do to be saved? (Acts xvi. ••0.) did run but near as oft through our minds, as those other questions do, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Mat. vi. 21. many a (now) hopeless case would turn very hopeful. But the truth is, most men live as if they were nothing but a lump of flesh: or as if their soul served for no other use, but like sai••, to keep the body from corrupting; They are flesh, John iii. 6. They mind the things of the flesh, Rom. viii. 5. and they live after the flesh,

ver. 13. If the consent of the flesh be got to an action the consent of the conscience is rarely waited for: yea, the body is often served, when the conscience has entred a dissent.

6thly, Is not every one by nature discontent with his present lot in the world; or with some one thing or other in it? This also was Adam's case, Gen. iii. 5, 6. Some one thing is always missing; so that man is a creature given to changes. And if any doubt of this, let them look over all their enjoyments; and after a review of them, listen to their own hearts, and they will hear a secret murmuring for want of something: tho' perhaps, if they considered the matter aright, they would see that it is better for them, to want, than to have that something. Since the hearts of our first parents flew out at their eyes, on the forbidden fruit, and a night of darkness was thereby brought on the world; their posterity have a natural disease, which Solomon calls, The wandring of the desires, (or, as the word is, The walking of the soul,) Eccl. vi 9. This is a sort of a diabolical trance, wherein the soul traverseth the world; feeds itself with a thousand airy nothings: snatcheth at this and the other created excellency, in imagination and desire: goes here and there, and every-where, except where it should go. And the soul is never cured of this disease, till overcoming grace bring it back, to take up its everlasting rest in God thro' Christ: but till this be, if man were set again in paradise, the garden of the Lord; all the pleasures there would not keep him from looking, yea, and leaping over the hedge a second time.

7thly, Are we not far more easily impressed and influenced by evil counsels and examples, than by those that are good? You will see this was the ruin of Adam, Gen iii. 6 Evil example, to this day, is one of Satan's master devices to ruin men. And tho' we have by nature, more of the fox than of the lamb; yet that ill property some observe in this creature, viz. That if one lamb skip into a water, the rest that are near will suddenly follow, may be observed also in the disposition of the children of men; to whom it is very natural to embrace an evil way, because they see others upon it before them. Ill example has frequently the force of a violent stream to carry us over plain duty: but especia••••y, if the example be given by those we bear a great affection to; our affection, in that case blinds our judgment; and what we would abhor in others, is complied with to humour them. And nothing is more plain, than that generally men chuse rather to do what the most do, than what the best do.

8thly, Who of all Adam's sons needs be taught the art of sowing fig-leaves together, to cover their nakedness? Gen. iii. 7. When we have ruined ourselves, and made ourselves naked, to our shame; we naturally seek to help ourselves by ourselves: and many poor shifts are fallen upon, as silly and insignificant as Adam's fig-leaves. What pains are men at, to cover their sin from their own consciences, and draw all the fair colours upon it that they can? And when once con|victions are fastened upon them, so that they cannot but see themselves

naked; it is as natural for them to attempt to spin a cover to it out of their own bowels, as for fishes to swim in the waters, or birds to fly in the air. Therefore, the first question of the convinced is, What shall we do? Acts ii. 27. How shall we qualify ourselves? What shall we perform? Not minding that the new creature is God's own workmanship (or deed, Eph. ii. 10.) more than Adam thought of being clothed with skins of sacrifices, Gen. iii. 21.

9thly, Do not Adam's children naturally follow his footsteps, in hiding themselves from the presence of the LORD, Gen. iii. 8. We are every whit as blind in this matter as he was, who thought to hide himself from the presence of God among the shady trees of the garden. We are very apt to promise ourselves more security in a secret sin, than in one that is openly committed. The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, Job xxiv. 15. And men will freely do that in secret, which they would be ashamed to do in the presence of a child; as if darkness could hide from an all-seeing God. Are we not naturally careless of communion with God; ay, and averse to it? Never was there any communion betwixt God and Adam's children▪ where the Lord himself had not the first word. If he would let them alone, they would never inquire after him. Isa. lvii. 16. I hide me.—Did he seek after a hiding God? Very far from it.—He went on in the way of his heart.

10thly, How loath are men to confess sin, to take guilt and shame to themselves? And was it not thus in the case before us? Gen. iii. 10. Adam confesseth his nakedness, which he could not get denied; but not one word he says of his sins: here was the reason of it, he would fain have hid it if he could. It is as natural for us to hide sin, as to commit it. Many sad instances thereof we have in this world; but a far clearer proof of it we shall get at the day of judgment, the day in which God will judge the secrets of men, Rom. ii. 16. Many a foul mouth will then be seen, which is now wiped, and saith, I have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20.

Lastly, Is it not natural for us to extenuate our sin, and transfer the guilt upon others? And when God examined our guilty first parents, did not Adam lay the blame on the woman? And did not the woman lay the blame on the serpent? Gen. iii. 12, 13. Now Adam's children need not be taught this hellish policy; for before they can well speak, (if they cannot get the fact denied) they will cunningly lispout something to lessen their fault, and lay the blame upon another. Nay, so natural is this to men, that in the greatest of sins, they will lay the fault upon God himself; they will blaspheme his holy providence, under the mistaken name of misfortune or ill luck, and thereby lay the blame of their sin at heaven's door. And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall? Gen. iii. 12. And the man said, the woman whom thou ga••••st to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Observe the order of the speech. He makes his apology in the first place; and then comes his confession: his apology is long; but his confession

very short; it is all comprehended in a word, And I did eat. How pointed and distin••t is his apology, as if he was afraid his meaning should have been mistaken? The woman, says he, or that woman, as if he would have pointed the judge to his own work, of which we read, Gen. ii. 22. There was but one woman then in the world; so that one would think he needed not have been so nice and exact in point|ing at her; yet she is as carefully marked out in his defence, as if there had been ten thousand. The woman whom thou gavest me: here he speaks, as if he had been ruined with God's gifts. And to make the shift look the blacker, it added to all this, thou gavest to be with me, a constant companion, to stand by me as a helper. This looks as if Adam would have fathered an ill design upon the Lord, in giving him this gift. And after all, there is a new demonstrative here, before the sentence is compleat: he says not, The woman gave me, but the woman she gave me, emphatically, as if he had said, She, even She gave me of 〈…〉〈…〉. This much for his apology. But his con|fession is quickly over, in one word, (is he spoke it) and I did eat. And there is nothing here to point to himself, and as little to shew what he had eaten. How natural is his black art to Adam's posterity? He that runs may read it. So universally does Solomon's observe hold true, Prov. xvii. 3. The foolishness of men perverteth his ways, and his heart fretteth against the Lord Let us then call fallen Adam, father; let us not deny the relation, seeing we bear his image.

And now to shut up this point, sufficiently confirmed by concurring evidence from the Lord's word, our own experience and observation; let us be persuaded to believe the doctrine of the corruption of our nature: and to look to the sacred Adam, the blessed JESUS, for the application of his 〈◊〉〈◊〉 blood, to remove the guilt of this sin; and for the efficacy 〈◊〉〈◊〉 his holy Spirit, to make us new creatures, knowing that except we be born ••gain, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Of the Corruption of the Understanding.

SECONDLY, I proceed to inquire into the corruption of nature, in the several parts thereof. But who can comprehend it? Who can take the exact dimension of it, in its breadth, length, height, and depth? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can kn••w it? Jer. xiii. 9. However, we may quickly perceive as much of it, as may be matter of deepest humiliation, and may dis|cover to us the absolute necessity of regeneration. Man in his natu|ral state is altogether corrupt. Both soul and body are polluted, as the apostle proves at large, Rom. iii. 10,—18. As for the soul, the natural corruption has spread itself through all the faculties thereof▪ and is to be found in the understanding, the will, the affections, the conscience, and the memory.

I. The Understanding, that leading faculty, is despoiled of it's primitive glory, and covered over with confusion. We have fallen

into the hands of our grand adversary, as Samson into the hands of the Philistines, and are deprived of our two eyes. There is none that understandeth, Rom. iii. 11. Mind and conscience are defiled, Tit. i. 15. The natural man's apprehension of divine things is corrupt, Psal. l. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. His judg|ment is corrupt, and cannot be otherways, seeing his eye is evil: and therefore the scriptures, that shew that men did all wrong, says, Every one did that which was right in his own eyes, Judges xvii. 7. and xxi. 25. And his imaginations, or reasonings must be cast down, by the power of the word, being of a piece with his judgment, 2 Cor. x. 5 But to point out this corruption of the mind or understanding more particularly, let these following things be considered.

First, There is a natural weakness in the minds of men, with respect to spiritual things. The apostle determines concerning every one that is not endued with the graces of the Spirit, That he is blind, and cannot see afar off, 2 Pet. i. 9. Hence the Spirit of God in the scrip|tures, clothes, as it were, divine truths with earthly figures, even as parents teach their children, using similitudes, Hos. xii. 10. Which, tho' it doth not cure, yet doth evidence this natural weakness in the minds of men. But we want not plain proofs of it from experience. As, (1.) How hard a task is it to teach many people the common principles of our holy religion, and to make truths so plain as they may understand them? Here there must be precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, Isa. xxviii. 9. Try the same persons in other things, they shall be found wiser in their generation than the children of light. They understand their work and business in the world, as well as their neighbours; tho' they be very stupid and unteachable in the matters of God. Tell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how they may gratify their lusts, and they will quickly understand these things; tho' it is very hard to make them know how their souls may be saved; or how their hearts may find rest in Jesus Christ. (2.) Consider these who have many advantages, beyond the common gang of mankind; who have had the benefit of good education and instruction; yea, and are blest with the light of grace in that measure, wherein it is distributed to the saints on earth: yet how small a portion have they of the knowledge of divine things! What ignorance and confusion do still remain in their minds! How often are they mired, even in the matter of practical truths, and speak as a child in these things. It is a pitiful weakness that we cannot perceive the things which God has revealed to us: and it must needs be a sinful weakness, since the law of God requires us to know and believe them. (3.) What dangerous mistakes are to be found amongst men, in their concerns of greatest weight! what woful delusions prevail over them! do we not often see those, who otherwise, are the wisest of men, the most notorious fools, with respect to their soul's interest, Matth. xi. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. Many that are eagle-eyed in the

trifles of time, are like owls and bats in the light of life. Nay truly, the life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delusion: out of which he never awakes, till either by a new light darted from heaven into his soul, he come to himself, Luke xv. 17. or, in hell he lift up his eyes, chap. xvi 24. And therefore in scripture account, be he never so wise, he is a fool and a simple one.

Secondly, Man's understanding is naturally overwhelmed with gross darkness in spiritual things. Man, at the instigation of the devil, attempting to break out a new light in his mind, (Gen. iii. 5.) instead of that, br••ke up the doors of the bottomless pit: so, as by the smoak thereof, he was buried in darkness. When God at first had made man, his mind was a lamp of light: but now when he comes to make him over again in regeneration, he finds it darkness, Eph. v. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness. Sin has closed the windows of the soul, darkness is over all that region. It is the land of darkness and shadow of death, where the light is as darkness. The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but the works of darkness are framed there. We are both spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy case, whosoever thou art, if thou art not born again. And that you may be convinced in this matter, take those following evidences of it.

Evidence 1. The darkness that was upon the face of the world before, and at the time when Christ came, arising as the sun of righte|ousness upon the earth. When Adam by his sin had lost that primitive light wherewith he was endued in his creation, it pleased God to make a gracious revelation of his mind and will to him, touching the way of salvation, Gen iii. 15. This was handed down by him, and other godly fathers, before the flood: yet the natural darkness of the mind of man prevailed so far against that revelation, as to carry off all sense of true religion from the old world, except what remained in Noah's family, which was preserved in the ark. After the flood, as men multiplied on the earth, the natural darkness of mind prevails again, and the light decays, till it died out among the generality of mankind, and is preserved only among the posterity of Shem. And even with them it was well near its setting, when God called Abraham from serving other gods, Josh. xxiv. 15. God gives Abraham a more clear and full revelation, and he communicates the same to his family, Gen. xvii. 19. yet the natural darkness wears it out at length, s••••e that it was preserved among the posterity of Jacob. They being carried down into Egypt, that darkness prevailed so, as to leave them very little sense of true religion: and a new revelation behoved to be made them in the wilderness. And many a cloud of darkness got above that, now and then, during the time from Moses to CHRIST. When CHRIST came, the world was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, and the true light with them, were within an inclosure, Psal. cxliii. 19, 20. Betwixt them and the Gentile world, there was a partition wall of GOD's making, namely, the ceremonial law; and

upon that there was reared up another of man's own making, namely, a rooted enmity betwixt the parties, Eph ii. 14, 15. If we look abroad without the inclosure, (and except those proselytes of the Gentiles, who, by means of some rays of light breaking forth unto them from within the inclosure, having renounced idolatry, worshipped the true God, but did not conform to the Mosaical rites) we see noth|ing but dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cru••lty, Psal. lxxiv. 20. Gross darkness covered the face of the Gentile world; and the way of salvation was utterly unknown among them. They were drowned in superstition and idolatry; and had multiplied their idols to such a vast number, that above thirty thousand are reckoned to have been worshipped by those of Europe alone. Whatever wisdom was among their Philosophers, the world by that wisdom knew not God, 1 Cor. 1 21. and all their researches in religion were but groping in the dark, Acts x••••. 27. If we look within the inclosure, and, except a few that were groaning and waiting for the Consolation of Israel, we will see a gross darkness on the face of that gene|ration. Tho' to them were committed the oracles of God; yet they were most corrupt in their doctrine Their traditions were multi|plied; but the knowledge of these things wherein the life of re|ligion lies, was lost: Masters of Israel knew not the nature and necessity of regeneration, John iii. 10. Their religion was to build on their birth privilege, as children of Abraham, Matth. iii. 9. to glory in their circumcision, and other external ordinances, Philip. iii. 2, 3. And to rest in the law, (Rom. ii. 17.) after they had, by their false glosses, cut it so short, as they might go well near to the fulfilling of it, Matth. v.

Thus was darkness over the face of the world, when CHRIST the true Light came into it: and so is darkness over every soul, till he, as the Day-star, arise in the heart. The former is an evidence of the latter. What, but the natural darkness of men's minds, could still thus wear out the light of external revelation in a matter upon which eternal happiness did depend? Men did not forget the way of preserving their lives: but how quickly did they lose the knowledge of the way of salvation of their souls; which are of infinite more weight and worth! when patriarchs and prophets teaching was ineffectual, men behoved to be taught of GOD himself; who alone can open the eyes of the understanding. But, that it might appear, that the corruption of man's mind lay deeper than to be cured by mere external revelation; there were but very few converted by CHRIST's preaching, who spoke as never man spok••, John xii. 37, 38. The great cure on the generation re|mained to be performed, by the Spirit accompanying the preaching of the apostles; who, according to the promise, (John xlv. 12.) were to do great works. And if we look to the miracles wrought by our blessed Lord, we will find, that by applying the remedy to the soul, for the cure of bodily distempers, (as in the case of

the man sick of the palsy, Matth. ix. 2.) he plainly discovered, that it was his main errand into the world to cur•• the diseases of the soul. I find a miracle wrought upon one that was born blind, performed in such a way, as seems to have been designed to let the world see in it, as in a glass, their case and cure, John ix. 6. He made clay, and anointed the eyes of the blind man, with the clay. What could more fitly represent the blindness of men's minds, than eyes closed up with earth? Isa vi. 1 shut their eyes; shut them up by anointing or casting them with mortar, as the word would bear. And Chap. xliv. 18. he hath shut their eyes; the word properly signifies, he hath plaistered their eyes; as the house in which the leprosy had been, was to be plaistered, Lev. xiv. 42. Thus the Lord's word discovers the design of that strange work; and by it shews us, that the eyes of our under|standing are naturally shut. Then the blind man must go and wash off this clay in the pool of Siloam; no other water will serve this purpose. If that pool had not represented him, whom the Father sent into the world, to open the blind eyes, (Isa. xlii. 7.) I think the Evangelist had not given us the interpretation of the name, which he says, signifies, sent, John ix. 7. And so we may conclude, that the natural darkness of our minds is such, as there is no cure for; but from the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, whose eye-salve, only can make us see, Rev. iii. 18.

Evid. 2. Every natural man's heart and life is a mass of darkness, disorder and confusion; how refined soever he appear in the sight of men. For we ourselves also, saith the apostle Paul, were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. and yet at that time, which this text looks to, he was blameless, touch|ing the righteousness which is in the law, Phil. iii. 6. This is a plain evidence that the ••ye is evil, the whole body being full of darkness, Mat. vi. 23. The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the world. like so many blind men; who will neither take a guide, nor can guide themselves; and therefore are falling over this and the other precipice, into destruction. Some are running after their covet|iousness, till they be pierced through with many sorrows; some stick|ing in the m••re of sensuality; others dashing themselves on the rock of pride and self-conceit; every one stumbling on some one stone of stumbling or other: all of them are running themselves upon the sword-point of justice, while they eagerly follow, whither their un|mortified passions and affections lead them; and while some are lying alone in the way, others are coming up, and falling headlong over them. And therefore, Wo unto the (blind) world because of offences, Matth. xviii. 7. Errors in judgment swarm in the world; because it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forrest do creep forth. All the unregenerate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness; for tho' Christianity hath fixed that matter in point of principle; yet nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in the practical judg|ment. All men agree in the desire to be happy: but amongst un|renewed

men, touching the way to happiness, there are almost as many opinions as there are men; they being turned every one to his own way, Isa. liii. 6. They are like the blind Sodomites about Lot's house, all were seeking to find the door, some grope one part of the wall for it, some another; but none of them could certainly say, he had found it: and so the natural man may stumble on any good but the chief good. Look into thine own unregenerate heart, and there thou wilt see all turned upside down: heaven lying under, and earth a-top, look into thy life, there thou mayst see, how thou art playing the madman, snatching at shadows, and neglecting the substance, eagerly flying after that which is not, and slighting that which is, and will be for ever.

Evid. 3. The natural man is always as a workman left without light; either trifling or doing mischief. Try to catch thy heart at any time thou wilt, and thou shall find it either weaving the spider's web, or hatching cockatrice-eggs, (Isa. lix. 5.) roving thro' the world, or digging into the pit; filled with vanity, or else with vileness, busy doing nothing, or what is worse than nothing. A sad sign of a dark mind.

Evid. 4. The natural man is void of the saving knowledge of spiritual things. He knows not what a God he has to deal with; he is unacquainted with Christ; and knows not what sin is. The greatest graceless wits are blind as moles in these things. Ay, but some such can speak of them to good purpose: and so might these Israelites of the temptations, signs and miracles, their eyes had seen, (Deut. xxix. 3.) to whom nevertheless the Lord had not given an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto that day, ver. 4. Many a man that bears the name of a Christian, may make Pharaoh's confession of saith, Exod. v. 2. I know not the Lord, neither will they let go when he commands them to part with. God is with them as a prince in disguise among his subjects, who meets with no better treat|ment from them, than if they were his fellows, Psal. l. 21. Do they know Christ, or see his glory, and any beauty in him for which he is to be desired? if they did, they would not slight him as they do: a view of his glory would so darken all created excellency, that they would take him for, and instead of all, and gladly close with him, as he offereth himself in the gospel, John iv. 10. Psal ix. 10. Matth. xiii. 44, 45, 59. Do they know what sin is, who hug the serpent in their bosom, hold fast deceit, and refuse to let it go? I own indeed they may have a natural knowledge of those things, as the unbelieving Jews had or Christ, whom they saw and conversed with: but there was spiritual glory in him, perceived by believers only, Joh i. 14 and in respect of that glory, the (unbelieving) world knew him not, ver. 10. But the spiritual knowledge of them they cannot have; it is above the reach of the carnal mind, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spirit|ually discerned. He may indeed discourse of them; but no other

way than one can talk of honey or vinegar, who never tasted the sweetness of the one, nor the sourness of the other. He has some notions of spiritual truths, but sees not the things themselves, that are wrapt up in the words of truth, 1 Tim. i. 7. Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. In a word natural men fear, seek, confess, they know not what. Thus may you see man's under|standing naturally is overwhelmed with gross darkness in spiritual things.

Thirdly, There is in the mind of man a natural bias to evil, where|by it comes to pass, that whatever difficulties it finds, while occupied about things truly good, it acts with a great deal of ease in evil; as being in that case, in its own element, Jer. iv. 22. The carnal mind drives heavily in the thoughts of good; but furiously in the thoughts of evil. While holiness is before it, fetters are upon it: but when once it has got over the hedge, it is a•• the bird got out of the cage, and becomes a free-thinker indeed. Let us reflect a little on the apprehension and imagination of the carnal mind; and we shall find uncontestible evidence of this woful bias to evil.

Evidence 1. As when a man, by a violent stroke on the head, loseth his sight, there ariseth to him a kind of false light, whereby he per|ceiveth a thousand airy nothings; so man being struck blind to all that is truly good, and for his eternal interest, has a light of another sort brought into his mind; his eyes are opened, knowing evil, and so are the words of the tempter verified, Gen. iii. 5. The words of the Prophet are plain, They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jer. iv. 22. The mind of man has a natural dexterity to devise mischief: none are so simple, as to want skill to contrive ways to gratify their lusts, and ruin their souls: tho' the power of every one's hand cannot reach to put their devises in execution. None needs to be taught this black art; but as weeds grow up, of their c••n ••••cord in the neglected ground, so doth this wisdom (which is ••••••thly, sensual, devilish, James iii. 15) grow up in the minds of men, by virtue of the corruption of their nature. Why should we be surprised with the product of corrupt wits: their cunning devices to afront heaven, to oppose and run down truth and holiness, and to gratify their own and other men's lust? They row with the stream; no wonder they make great progress: their stock is within them, and increaseth by using of it: and the works of darkness are contrived with the greater advantage, that the mind is wholly destitute of spiritual light, which, if it were in them, in any measure, would so far mar the work, 1 John iii. 9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; he does it not as by art, for his seed remaineth in him. But on the other hand, It is a sport for a soul to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom, Prov. x. 2••. To do with wickedness nicely, as the word imports, is as a sport, or a play to a fool; it comes off with him easily; and why, but because he is a fool, and hath not wisdom; which would mar the contrivances of darkness? The more natural a thing is, it is done the more easily.

Evid. 2. Let the corrupt mind have but the advantage of one's being employed in, or present at some piece of ••••vice to God; that so the device, if not in itself sinful, yet may become sinful, by its unseasonableness; it shall quickly fall on some device or expedient, by its starting aside; which deliberation, in season, could not produce. Thus Saul, who wist not what to do, before the priest began to con|sult God, is quickly determined when once the priest's hand was in: his own heart then gave him an answer, and would not allow him to wait an answer from the Lord, 1 Sam. xiv. 18, 19. Such a devilish dexterity hath the carnal mind, in deviling what may most effectually divert men from their duty to God.

Evid. 3. Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grasp spiritual things in imagination; as if the soul were quite immersed in flesh and blood, and would turn every thing into its own shape? Let men who are used to the forming of the most abstracted notion, look into their own souls, and they shall find this bias in their minds: whereof the idolatry, which did of old, and still doth, so much prevail in the world, is an uncontestable evidence. For it plainly discovers, that men na|turally would have a visible deity, and see what they worship: and therefore they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, Rom. i. 23. The reformation of these nations (blessed be the Lord for it) hath banished idolatry, and images too, out of our churches: but heart-reformation only can break down mental idolatry, and banish the more subtile and refined image-worship, and representation of the Deity, out of the minds of men. The world, in the time of its darkness, was never more prone to the former, than the unsanctified mind is to the latter. And hence are horrible, monstrous, and mi|shapen thoughts of God, Christ, the glory above, and all spiritual things.

Evid. 4. What a difficult task is it to detain the carnal mind before the Lord! how averse is it to the entertaining of good thoughts, and dwelling in the meditation of spiritual things! if one be driven, at any time, to think of the great concerns of his soul, it is no harder work to hold in an unruly hungry beast, than to hedge in the carnal mind, that it get not away to the vanities of the world again. When God is speaking to men by his word, or they are speaking to him in prayer, doth not the mind often leave them before the Lord, like so many idols that have eyes, but see not; and ears, but hear not? The carcase is laid down before God, but the world gets away the heart: tho' the eyes be closed, the man sees a thousand vanities: the mind, in the mean time, is like a bird got loose out of the cage, skipping from bush to bush; so that, in effect, the man never comes to himself, till he be gone from the presence of the Lord. Say not, it is impossible to get the mind fixed. It is hard indeed, but not impossible. Grace from the Lord can do it, Psal. cviii. 1. Agreeable objections will do it. A pleasant speculation will arrest the minds of the inquisitive: the worldly man's mind is in little hazard of wandering, when he is contriving of business, casting up his accounts, or telling his money:

if he answer you not at first, he tells you, he did not hear you, he was busy; his mind was fixed. Were we admitted into the presence of a king to petition for our lives, we would be in no hazard of gazing through the chamber of presence: But here lies the case, the carnal mind, employed about any spiritual good, is out of its element, and therefore cannot fix.

Evid. 5 But however hard it is to keep the mind on good thoughts, it sticks as glue to what is evil and corrupt like itself! 2 Pet. ii. 14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin. Their eyes cannot cease from sin; (so the words are constructed) that is, their hearts and minds venting by the eyes, what is within, are like a furious beast, which cannot be held in, when once it has got out its head. Let the corrupt imagination once be let loose on its proper object; it will be found hard work to call it back again, tho' both reason and will be for its retreat. For then it is in its own element; and to draw it off from its impurities, is as the drawing of a fish out of the water, or the renting of a limb from a man. It runs like fire set to a train of powder, that resteth not till it can get no further.

Evid. 6. Consider how the carnal imagination supplies the want of real objects to the corrupt heart; that it may make sinners happy, at least, in the imaginary enjoyment of their lusts. Thus the corrupt heart feeds itself with imagination-sins: the unclean person is filled with speculative impurities, having eyes full of adultery; the covet|ous man fills his heart with the world, tho' he cannot get his hands full of it; the malicious person, with delight, acts his revenge within his own breast) the envious man, within his own narrow soul, beholds, with satisfaction, his neighbour laid low enough; and every lust finds the corrupt imagination a friend to it in time of need. And this it doth, not only when people are awake, but sometimes even when they are asleep; whereby it comes to pass, that these sins are acted in dreams, which their hearts were carried out after, while they were awake. I know some do question the sinfulness of these things: But can it be thought they are consistent with that holy nature and frame of spirit, which was in innocent Adam, and in Jesus Christ, and should be in every man? It is the corruption of nature then, that makes filthy dreamers condemned, Jude 8. Solomon had experience of the exercise of grace in sleep: in a dream he prayed, in a dream he made the best choice; both were accepted of God, 1 Kings iii. 5,— 15. And if a man may, in his sleep, do what is good and acceptable to God, why may he not also, when asleep, do that which is evil and displeasing to God? The same Solomon would have men aware of this; and prescribes the best remedy against it, namely, The law upon the heart, Prov. vi. 20, 21. When thou sleepest, (says he, ver. 22.) it shall keep thee, to wit, from the sinning in thy sleep; that is, from sinful dreams: For one's being kept from sin, (not his being kept from affliction) is the immediate proper effect of the law of God im|prest upon the heart, Psal. cxix. 11. And thus the whole verse is

to be understood, as appears from verse 23. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Now the law is a lamp of light, as it guides in the way of duty; and instructing reproofs from the law, are the way of life, as they keep from sin: neither do they guide into the way of peace, but as they lead into the way of duty; nor do they keep a man out of trouble, but as they keep him from sin. And remarkable is the particular in which Solomon instanceth, namely, the sin of uncleanness, to keep thee from the evil woman: and ver. 24. which is to be joined with verse 22. inclosing the 23d in a parenthesis, as some versions have it. These things may suffice to convince us of the natural bias of the mind to evil.

Fourthly, There is in the carnal mind, an opposition to spiritual truths, and an aversion to the receiving of them. It is as little a friend to divine truths, as it is to holiness. The truths of natural religion, which do, as it were, force their entry into the minds of natural men, they hold prisoners in unrighteousness, Rom. i. 18. And as for the truths of revealed religion, there is an evil heart of unbelief in them, which opposeth their entry; and there is an armed force—necessary to captivate the mind to the belief of them, 2 Cor. x 4, 5. God has made a revelation of his mind and will to sinners, touching the way of salvation: he has given us the doctrine of his holy word: but do natural men believe it indeed? No, they do not; for he that believeth not on the Son of God, believeth not God, as is plain from 1 John v. 10. They believe not the promises of the word: they look on them, in effect, only as fair words; for these that receive them, are thereby made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. The promises are as silver cords let down from heaven to draw sinners unto God, and to waft them over into the promised land; but they cast them from them. They believe not the threatnings of the word. As men travelling in defarts carry fire about with them, to fright away wild beasts: so God has made his law a firey law, Deut. xxxiii. 2. hedging it about with threats of wrath: But men naturally are more brutish than beasts themselves; and will needs touch the firey smoak|ing mountain, tho' they should be thrust through with a dart. I doubt not, but most, if not all of you, who are yet in the black state of nature will here plead, Not guilty▪ But remember the carnal Jews in Christ's time, were as confident as you are, and they believed Moses, John ix. 23, 29. But he confutes their confidence, roundly telling them, John v. 46. Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me. Did ye believe the truths of God, ye durst not reject, as ye do, Him who is truth itself. The very difficulty you find in assenting to this truth, bewrays that unbelief I am charging you with. Has it not proceeded so far with some at this day, that it has steeled their fore-heads with the impudence and impiety, openly to reject all revealed religion? Surely it is 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••f the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the heart their mouth speaketh. But tho' ye set not your mouths against the heavens, as they do, the same

bitter root of unbelief is in all men by nature, and reigns in you, and will reign, till overcoming grace captivate your minds to the belief of the truth. To convince you in this point, consider these three things.

Evidence 1. How few are there who have been blest with an in|ward illumination, by the special operation of the Spirit of Christ, letting them into a view of divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly lustre! How have you learned the truths of religion, which ye pre|tended to believe! Ye have them merely by the benefit of external revelation, and of your education; so that you are Christians, just because you were not born and bred in a Pagan, but in a Christian country. Ye are strangers to the inward work of the holy Spirit, bearing witness by, and with the word in your hearts; and so you cannot have the assurance of faith, with respect to that outward divine revelation made in the word, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, 12. And therefore ye are still unbelievers. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God—Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me, says our Lord, John vi. 45. Now ye have not come to Christ, therefore ye have not been taught of God; ye have not been so taught, and therefore ye have not come; ye believe not. Behold the revelation from which the faith even of the fundamental principles in religion doth spring, Matth. xvi. 17, 18. Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God—Blessed art thou Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. If ever the Spirit of the LORD take a dealing with thee, to work in thee that faith, which is of the operation of God; it may be, as much time will be spent in razing the old foundation, as will make thee find a necessity of the working of his ••••••ghty power, and to enable thee to believe the very foundation principles, which now thou thinkest thou makest no doubt of, Eph. i. 19.

Evid. 2. How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith (such as it was) in time of temptation and trial! See how they fall, like stars from heaven, when Antichrist prevails, 2 Thess. ii 11, 12. God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth. They fall into damning delusions: because they never really believed the truth, tho' they themselves and others too thought they did believe it. That house is built upon the sand, and that faith is but ill-founded, that cannot bear out, but is quite overthrown, when the storm ••omes.

Evid. 3. Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives, with the principles of religion which they profess; ye may as soon bring east and west together, as their principles and practice. Men believe that fire will burn them, and therefore they will not throw themselves into it: but the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scare-crow. If ye believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that ye are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the LORD? How is it that you are so

little concerned with that weighty point, whether ye be born again or not? Many live as they were born, and are like to die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe they are children of wrath? Do they believe there is no salvation without regeneration? and no regenera|tion but what makes man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not embrace them, and labour to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not dig for a hid treasure, if he really believed he might so obtain it? Men will work and sweat for a maintenance; because they believe that by so doing they will get it: yet they will be at no tolerable pains for the eternal weight of glory: why, but because they do not believe the word of promise? Heb. iv. 1, 2. If ye believe the threatnings, how is it that you live in your sins, live out of Christ, and yet hope for mercy? Do such believe God to be the holy and just One, who will by no means clear the guilty? No, no, none believe, None (or next to none) believe what a just GOD the LORD is, and how severely he punisheth.

Fifthly, There is in the mind of man a natural proneness to lies and falshood, which make for the safety of lusts. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, Psal. lvii. 3. We have this with the rest of the corruption of our nature, from our first parents. God revealed the truth to them; but through the solicitation of the temp|ter, they first doubted of it; they disbelieved it, and embraced a lie instead of it. And for an uncontestible evidence hereof, we may see that first article of the devil's creed, ye shall not surely die, Gen. iii. 4. which was obtruded by him on our first parents, and by them re|ceived; naturally embraced by their posterity, and held fast, till a light from heaven oblige them to quit it. It spreads itself through the lives of natural men; who, till their consciences be awakened, walk after their own lusts: still retaining the principle, That they shall not surely die. And this is often improved to that perfection, that the man can say, over the belly of the denounced curse, I shall have peace, tho' I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunken|ness to thirst, Deut. xxix. 19. Whatever advantage the truths of God have over error, by means of education, or otherwise; error has always, with the natural man, this advantge against truth, namely, That there is something within him, which says, O that it were true; so that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 mind lies fair for assenting to it. And here is the reason of it. The true doctrine is, the doctrine that is according to godliness, 1 Tim vi. 3. and the truth which is after godliness, Tit. i, 1. Error, is the doctrine which is according to ungodliness; for there is never an error in the mind, nor an untruth vented in the world, (in matters of religion) but what has an affinity with one corruption of the heart or other: according to that of the apostle, 2 Thess ii. 21 They believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So that truth and error being otherwise attended with equal advantages for their reception, error, by this means, has most ready access into the minds

of men in their natural state. Wherefore, it is nothing strange that men reject the simplicity of gospel truths and institutions, and greedily embrace error and external pomp in religion; seeing they are so agreeable to the lusts of the heart, and the vanity of the mind of the natural man. And from hence also it is, that so many embrace atheistical principles; for none do it but in compliance with their irregular passions: none but these, whose advantage it would be that there was no God.

Lastly, Man is naturally high minded; for when the gospel comes in power to him, it is employed in casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 2 Cor x. 5. Lowliness of mind is not a flower that grows in the field of nature; but is planted by the finger of God in a renewed heart, and learned of the lowly Jesus. It is natural to man to think highly of himself, and what is his own; for the stroke he has got by his fall in Adam, has produced a false light, whereby ••••ole hills about him appear like mountains; and a thousand airy beauties present themselves to his deluded fancy. Vain man would be wise, (so he accounts himself, and so he would be accounted of by others) though man be born like a wild oss's colt. Job xi. 12. His ways is right because it is his own: for every way of a man is right in his own eyes, Prov. xxi. 2. His state is good, because he knows no better: he is alive without the law, Rom. vii. ••. and therefore his hope is strong, and his confidence firm. It is another tower of Babel reared up against heaven; and shall not fall while the power of darkness can hold it up. The word batters it, yet it stands; one while breaches are made in it, but they are quickly repaired; at another time, it is all made to shake; but still it keeps up; till either God himself, by his Spirit, raise an heart-quake within the man, which tumbles it down; and leaves not one stone upon another, (2 Cor. x. 41, 45.) or death batter it down and raze the foundations of it, Luke xvi. 23. And as the natural man thinks highly of himself, so he thinks meanly of God, whatever he pretends, Psal. l. 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. The doctrine of the gospel, and the mystery of Christ are foolishness to him; and in his practice he treats them as such, 1 Cor. i. 13. and ii. 14. He brings the word and the works of God in the government of the world, before the bar of his carnal reason; and there they are presumptuously censured and condemned, Hos. xiv. 9. Sometimes the ordinary restraint of providence is taken off, and Satan is permitted to stir up the carnal mind; and in that case it is like an ant's ne••t, uncovered and disturbed; doubts, denials, and hellish reasons crowd in it, and cannot be laid by all the arguments brought against them, till a power from on high captivate the mind, and still the mutiny of the corrupt principles.

Thus much of the corruption of the understanding: which, altho the half be not told, may discover to you the absolute necessity of regenerating grace. Call the understanding now Ichabed; for the

glory is departed from it. Consider this, ye that are yet in the state of nature, and groan ye out your case before the Lord, that the Sun of Righteousness may arise upon you, before you be shut up in ever|lasting darkness. What avails your worldly wisdom? What do your attainments in religion avail, while your understanding lies yet wrapt up in its natural darkness and confusion, utterly void of the light of life? Whatever be the natural man's gifts or attainments, we must (as in the case of the leper, Lev xlii 24.) pronounce him utterly un|clean, his plague is in his head. But that is not all; it is in his heart too, his will is corrupted, as I shall shew anon.

Of the Corruption of the Will.

II. The will, that commanding faculty, (which sometimes was faithful, and ruled with God) is now turned traitor, and rules with, and for the devil. God plan••ed it in man wholly a right seed; but now it is turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine. It was originally placed in a due subordination to the will of God, as was shewn before, but now it is gone wholly aside. However some do magnify the power of free-will, a view of the spirituality of the law, to which acts of moral discipline do in no ways answer; and a deep insight into the corruption of nature, given by the inward operation of the Spirit, convincing of sin, righteousness and judgment, would make men find an absolute need of the power of free-grace, to remove the bands of wickedness from off the free-will. To open up this plague of the heart, I offer these following things to be considered.

First, There is, in the unrenewed will, an utter inability for what is truly good and acceptable in the sight of God: The natural man's will is in Satan's fetters; hemmed in, within the circle of evil, and cannot move beyond it, more than a dead man can raise himself out of his grave, Eph. ii. 1. We deny him not a power to chuse, pursue and act, what, on the matter, is good: but though he can will what is good and right, he can will nothing aright and well. John xv. 5. Without me, i. e separate from me, as a branch from the stock, (as both the word and context do carry it) ye can do nothing; to wit, nothing truly and spiritually good His very choice and desire of spiritual things is carnal and selfish, John vi. 26. Ye seek me because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. He not only comes to Christ, but he cannot come. John vi. 44. And what can one do acceptable to God, who believeth not on him whom the Father hath sent? To evidence this inability for good in the unregenerate, consider these two things.

Evidence 1. How often does the light so shine before men's eyes: that they cannot but see the good they should chuse, and the evil they should refuse; and yet their hearts have no more power to comply with that light than if they were arrested by some invisible hand? They see what is right; yet they follow, and cannot 〈◊〉〈◊〉

follow, what is wrong. Their consciences tells them the right way, and approves of it too; yet cannot their will be brought up to it: their corruption so chains them, that they cannot embrace it; so they sigh, and go backward, over the belly of their light. And if it be not thus, how is it that the word, and way of holiness meets with such entertainment in the world? How is it that clear arguments and reason on the side of piety and a holy life, which bear in themselves even on the carnal mind, do not bring men over to that side? Altho' the being of a heaven and a hell, were but a may be, it were sufficient to determine the will to the choice of holiness, were it capable to be determined thereto by mere reason: but men, knowing the judgment of God, (that they which commit such things are worthy of death) not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them, Rom. i 32. And how is it that these who magnify the power of free-will do not confirm their opinion before the world, by an ocular demon|stration, in a practice as far above others in holiness, as the opinion of their natural ability is above others? Or is it maintained only for the protection of lusts, which men may hold fast as long as they please; and when they have no more use for them, can throw them off in a moment, and leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom? What|ever use some make of that principle: it does of itself, and in its own nature, cast a broad shadow for a shelter to wickedness of heart and life. And it may be observed, that the generality of the hearers of the gospel, of all denominations are plagued with it: for it is a root of bitterness, natural to all men; from whence do spring so much fearlessness about the soul's eternal state; so many delays and off-puts in that weighty matter, whereby much work is laid up for a death-bed by some; while others are ruined by a legal walk, and unacquainted with the life of faith, and the making use of Christ for sanctification; all flowing from the persuasion of sufficient natural abilities. So agreeable is it to corrupt nature.

Evid. 2. Let those, who, by the power of the spirit of bondage, having had the law laid out before them, in its spirituality, for their conviction speak and tell, if they found themselves able to incline their hearts towards it, in that case; nay, if the more that light shone into their souls, they did not find their hearts more and more unable to comply with it. There are some, who have been brought unto the place of the breaking forth, who are yet in the devil's camp, that from their experience can tell, light let into the mind, cannot give life to the will, to enable it to comply therewith: and could give their testimony here, if they would. But take Paul's testimony concerning it, who, in his unconverted state, was far from believing his utter inability for good; but learned it by experience, Rom. vi.•• 9.10, 11, 1••. I own, the natural man may have a kind of love to the law: but here lies the stress of the matter, he looks on the holy law in a carnal dress: and so, while he hugs a creature of his own fancy, he thinks he has the law, but in very deed he is without the

law: for as yet he sees it not in its spirituality: if he did, he would find it the very reverse of his own nature, and what his will could not fall in with, till changed by the power of grace.

Secondly, There is in the unrenewed will an averseness to good. Sin is the natural man's element; he is loath to part with it, as the fishes are to come out of the water into dry land. He not only cannot come to Christ, but he will not come, John v. 40. He is polluted, and hates to be washen, Jer. xiii. 27 Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? He is sick, but utterly averse to the remedy: he loves his disease so, that he loaths the Physician. He is a captive, a prisoner, and a slave; but he loves his conqueror, his jailor and master: he is fond of his fetters, prison and drudgery; and has no liking to his liberty. For evidence of this averseness to good, in the will of man, I shall instance in some particulars.

Evidence 1. The untowardness of children. Do we not see them naturally, lovers of sinful liberty! How unwilling are they to be hedged in? How averse to restraint? The world can bear witness, that they are, as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke; and more, that it is far easier to bring young bullocks tamely to bear the yoke; than to bring young children under discipline, and make them tamely sub|mit to the restraint of sinful liberty. Every body may see in this, as in a glass, that man is naturally wild and wilful, according to Zophar's observe, Job xi. 12. that man is born like a wild ass's colt. What can be said more? He is like a colt, the colt of an ass, the colt of a wild ass Compare Jer. ii. 24. A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can turn her away?

Evid. 2. What pain and difficulty do men often find in bringing their hearts to religious duties? And what a task is it to the carnal heart to abide at them? It is a pain to it, to leave the world but a little, to converse with God. It is not easy to borrow time from the many things, to bestow it upon the one thing needful. Men often go to God in duties, with their faces towards the world; and when their bodies are on the mount of ordinances, their hearts will be found at the foot of the hill, going after their covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. They are soon wearied of well-doing; for holy duties are not agreeable to their corrupt nature. Take notice of them at their worldly business, set them down with their carnal company, or let them be sucking the breasts of a lust; time seems to them to fly, and drive furiously, so that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does it drive, while a prayer, a sermon, or a sabbath lasts? The Lord's day is the longest day of all the week with many; and therefore they must sleep longer that morning, and go sooner to bed that night, than ordinarily they do; that the day may be made of a tolerable length: for their hearts say within them, when will the s••bbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. The hours of worship are the longest hours of that day: hence when duty is over, they are like men eased of a burden; and when sermon is ended, many have neither t••

grace nor the good manners to stay till the blessing be pronounced, but like the beasts, their head is away as soon as one puts his hand to loose them; why, but because while they are at ordinances, they are, as Doeg, detained before the Lord, 1 Sam. xxii. 7.

Evid. 3. Consider how the will of the natural man doth rebel against the light, Job xxiv. 13. Light sometimes entreth in, because he is not able to hold it out: but he loveth darkness rather than light. Sometimes by the force of truth, the outer door of understanding is broken up; but the inner door of the will remains fast bolted. Then lusts rise against light; corruption and conscience encounter, and fight as in the field of battle; till corruption getting the upper hand, con|science is forced to give back: convictions are murdered: and truth is made and held prisoner, so that it can create no more disturbance. While the word is preached or read, or the rod of God is upon the natural man, sometimes convictions are darted in on him, and his spirit is wounded, in greater or lesser measure: but these convictions not being able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrows sticking in his conscience; and at length, one way or other, gets them out, and licks himself whole again. Thus, while the light shines, men, naturally averse to it, wilfully shut their eyes; till God is provoked to blind them judicially, and they become proof against the, word and providences too: so they may go where they will, they can sit at ease; there is never a word from heaven to them, that goeth deeper than into their ears, Hos iv. 17. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

Evid. 4. Let us observe the resistance made by elect souls, when the Spirit of the Lord is at work, to bring them from the power of Satan unto God. Zion's King gets no subjects but by stroke of sword, in the day of his power, Psal. cx. 2, 3. None come to him, but such as are drawn by a divine hand, John vi. 44. When the Lord comes to the soul, he finds the strong man keeping the house, and a deep peace and security there, while the soul is fast asleep in the devil's arms. But the prey must be taken from the mighty, and the captive delivered. Therefore the Lord awakens the sinner, opens his eyes, and strikes him with terror, while the clouds are black above his head, and the sword of vengeance is held to his breast. Now he is at no small pains to put a fair face on a black heart; to shake off his fears, to make head against them, and to divert himself from thinking on the unpleasant and ungrateful subject of his soul's case. If he cannot so rid himself from them, carnal reason is called in to help, and urgeth that there is no ground for so great fear; all may be well enough yet: and if it be ill with him, it will be ill with many. When the sinner is beat from this, and sees no advantage of going to hell with com|pany, ••e resolves to leave his sins, but cannot think of breaking off so soon; there is time enough, and he will do it afterwards. Conscience says, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: but he cries, To-morrow, Lord, to-morrow, Lord; and just now Lord, till that now is never like to come. And thus, many times, he comes from

his prayers and confessions, with nothing, but a breast full of sharper convictions; for the heart doth not always cast up the sweet morsel, as soon as confession is made with the mouth, Judges x. 10.—16. And when conscience obligeth them ••o part with some lusts, others are kept as right eyes and right hands; and there are rueful looks after those that are put away, as it was with the Israelites, who, with bitter hearts, did remember the fifth they did eat in Egypt freely, Num. xi. 5. Nay, when he is so pressed, that he must needs say before the Lord, that he is content to part with all his idols; the heart will be giving the tongue the lie. In a word, the soul, in this case, will shift from one thing to another; like a fish with the hook in his jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it succumb, as the wild ass in her month, Jer. ii. 24.

Thirdly, There is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil, a woful bent towards sin. Men naturally are bent to backsliding from God, Hos. ii 7. They hang (as the word is) towards backsliding; even as a hanging wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. Set holiness and life upon the one side, sin and death upon the other; leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will chuse sin, and reject holiness. This is no more to be doubted, than that water, poured on the side of a hill, will run downward but not upward, or that a flame will ascend and not descend.

Evidence 1. Is not the way of evil the first way the children of men do go! Do not their inclinations plainly appear on the wrong side, while yet they have no cunning to hide them? In the first opening of our eyes in the world, we look a-squint, hell-ward, not heaven-ward. As soon as it appears we are reasonable creatures, it appears we are sinful creatures, Psal. lviii. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born. Prov. xxii. 15. Foolishness is b••d in the heart of a child: but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Folly is bound in the heart, it is woven into our very nature. The knot will not loose, they must be broken asunder by strokes. Words will not do it, the rod must be taken to drive it away: and if it be not driven far away, the heart and it will meet and knit again. Not that the rod of itself will do this: the sad experience of many parents testifies the contrary: and Solomon himself tells you, Prov. xxvii. 22. Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. It is so bound in his heart. But the rod is an ordinance of God, appointed for that end; which, like the word, is made effectual, by the Spirit's accompanying his own ordinance. And this, by the way, shews that parents, in administring correction to their children, have need, first of all to correct their own irregular passions and look upon it as a matter of awful solemnity, setting about it with much depend|ence on the Lord, and following it with prayer for the blessing, they would have it effectual.

Evid. 2. How easily are men led aside to sin! The children, who are not persuaded to good; are otherways simple ones; easily wrought upon; those whom the word cannot draw to holiness, are led by Satan at his pleasure. Profane Esau, that cunning man, Gen. xxv. 27. was as easily cheated of the blessing, as if he had been a fool or an ideot. The more natural a thing is, it is the more easy: so Christ's yoke is easy to the saints, in so far as they are partakers of the divine nature: and sin is easy to the unrenewed man; but to learn to do good, as difficult as for the Ethi••pian to change his skin; because the will natu|rally hangs towards evil; but is averse to good. A child can cause a round thing to run, while he cannot move a square thing of the same weight; for the roundness makes it fit for motion, so that it goes with a touch. Even so, when men find the heare easily carried towards sin, while it is as a dead weight in the way of holiness; we must bring the reason of this from the natural set and disposition of the heart, whereby it is prone and bent to evil. Were man's will naturally, but in an equal balance to good and evil, the one might be embraced with as little difficulty as the other; but experience testifies, it is not so. In the sacred history of the Israelites, especially in the book of Judges, how often do we find them forsaking JEHOVAH, the mighty GOD, and doting upon the idols of the nations about them? But did ever one of these nations grow sond of Israel's GOD, and forsake their own idols? No, no; tho' man is naturally given to changes, it is but from evil to evil, not from evil to good, Jer. ii 10, 11. Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? But my p••ople have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit. Surely the will of man stands not in equal balance, but has a cast to the wrong side.

Evid. 3. Consider how men go on still in the way of sin, till they meet with a stop, and that from another hand than their own; Isa. lvii. 17. I hid me, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. If God withdraw his restraining hand, and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose; for (observe it) the way of sin is the way of his heart; his heart naturally lies that way; it hath a natural propensity to sin. As long as God suffereth them, they walk in their own way, Acts xiv. 16 The natural man is so fixed in his woful choice, that there needs no more to shew he is oft from God's way, but to tell he is upon his own.

Evid. 4. Whatever good impressions are made upon him they do not last. Tho' his heart be firm as a stone, yea, harder than the nether mill-stone, in point of receiving of them; it is otherwise unstable as water, and cannot keep them. It works against the receiving of them; and, when they are made, it works them off, and returns to its natural bias; Hos. vi. 4. Your goodness is as the morn|ing cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. The morning cloud promiseth a hearty shower; but, when the sun ariseth, it evanisheth: the sun beats upon the early dew, and it evaporates; so the husband|man's expectation is disappointed. Such is the goodness of the natu|ral

man. Some sharp affliction, or piercing conviction obligeth him in some sort▪ to turn from his evil course: but his will not being renewed, religion is still against the grain with him, and there|fore this goes off again, Psal. lxxviii. 34, 36, 37. Tho' a stone, thrown up into the air, may abide there a little while; yet its natural heaviness will bring it down to the earth again: and so do unrenewed men retur•• to the wallowing in the mire; because altho' they were washed, yet their swinish nature was not changed. It is hard to cause wet wood take fire, hard to make it keep fire: but it is harder than either of these to make the unrenewed will retain attained goodness; which is a plain evidence of the natural bent of the will to evil.

Evid. lust. Do the saints serve the Lord now, as they were wont to serve sin in their unconverted state? Very far from it, Rom. vi. 20. When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. Sin got all, and admitted no partner; but now, when they are the ser|vants of Christ, are they free from sin? Nay, there are still with them some deeds of the old man, shewing that he is but dying in them. And hence their hearts often misgive them, and slip aside unto evil, when they would do good, Rom. vii. 21. They need to watch, and keep their hearts with all diligence: and their sad experience toucheth them, that, He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, Prov. xxviii. 26. If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry?

Fourthly, There is a natural contrariety, direct opposition and enmity, in the will of man, to God himself, and his holy will, Rom. viii. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The will was once God's dep••t▪ in the soul, set to command there for him; but now it is set up against him. If you would have the picture of it, i•• its natural state, the very reverse of the will of God represents it If the fruit hanging before one's eyes, be but forbidden, that is sufficient to draw the heart after it. Let me instance in the sin of profane swearing and cursing, to which some are so abandoned, that they take a pride in them; belching out horrid oaths and curses, as if hell opened with the opening of their mouths, or landing their speeches with minced oaths, as faith, hath, sai'd ye, hai'd ye, and such like: and all this without any manner of provocation, tho' even that would not excuse them. Pray tell me, (1.) What profit is there here? A thief gets something in his hand for his pains; a drunkard gets a belly-full; but what do ye get? Others serve the devil for pay; but ye are volun|••ers, that expect no reward, but your work itself, in affronting of heaven. And if you repent not, you will get your reward in full ••e; when ye go to hell, your work will follow you. The drunkard shall not have a drop of water to cool his tongue there. Nor will the covetous man's wealth follow him into the other world: but ye shall drive on your old trade there. And an eternity shall be long enough to give you your heart's fill of it. (2.) What pleasure is there here, but what flows from your trampling upon the holy law? Which of

your senses doth swearing or cursing gratify? If it gratify your ears, it can only be by the noise it makes against the heavens. Tho' you had a mind to give up yourselves to all manner of profanity and sens|uality, there is so little pleasure can be strained out of these, that we must needs conclude, your love to them, in this case, is a love to them for themselves; a devilish unhired love, without any prospect of profit or pleasure from them otherwise. If any shall say, these are monsters of men; be it so: yet alas! the world is fruitful of such monsters; they are to be found almost every-where. And allow me to say, They must be admitted as the mouth of the whole unregenerate world against heaven, Rom. iii. 14▪ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitter ••s••. Ver. 19. Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

I have a charge against every unregenerate man and woman, young or old, to be verified by the testimonies of the scriptures of truth, and the testimony of their own consciences; namely, that whether they be professors or prophane, whether they be, seeing they are not born again, they are heart-enemies to God: to the Son of God; to the Spirit of God: and to the law of God. Hear this, ye careless souls, that live at ease in your natural state

1st, Ye are enemies to God in your minds, Col. i. 21. Ye are not as yet reconciled to him, the natural enmity is not as yet slain, tho' perhaps it lies hid, and ye do not perceive it. (1.) Ye are enemies to the very being of God, Psal. xv. 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. The proud man would that none were above himself: the rebel, that there were no king; and the unrenewed man, who is a mass of pride and rebellion, that there were no God. He saith it in his heart, he wisheth it were so, tho' he be ashamed and afraid to speak it out. And that all natural men are such fools, appears from the Apostle's quoting a part of this psalm, That every mouth may be stopped, Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12, 19. I own indeed, that while the natural man looks on God as the Creator and Preserver of the world; because he loves his own self, therefore his heart riseth not against the being of his Benefactor: but this enmity will quickly appear, when he looks on God, as the Rector and Judge of the world, bind|ing him, under the pain of the curse, to exact holiness, and girding him with the cords of death, because of his sin. Listen, in this case, to the voice of the heart, and then will find it to be no God. (2.) Ye are enemies to the nature of God, Job xxi. 14. They say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Men set up to themselves an idol of their own fancy, instead of God; and then fall down and worship it. They love him no other way, than Jacob loved Leah, while he took her for Rachel. Every natural man is an enemy to God, as he is revealed in his word. An infinitely holy, just, powerful and true Being, is not the God whom he loves, but the God whom he loathes. In effect men naturally are hater•• of God,

Rom. i. 30. And if they could, they certainly would make him another than what he is. For, consider it is a certain truth, That whatsoever is in God, is God: and therefore his attributes or perfections are not any thing really distinct from himself. If God's attributes be not himself, he is a compound being, and so not the first being (which to say is blasphemous) for the parts compounding are before the compound itself; but he is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

Now upon this, I would, for your conviction, propose to your consciences a few queries, (1.) How stand your hearts affected to the infinite purity and holiness of God? Conscience will give an answer to this, which the tongue will not speak out, If ye be not partakers of his holiness, ye cannot be reconciled to it. The Pagans finding they could not be like God in holiness, made their gods like themselves in filthiness: and thereby discovered what sort of a god the natural man would have. God is holy; can an unholy creature love his unspotted holiness? Nay, it is the righteous only that can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, Psal. lxxxvii. 12. God is light; can creatures of darkness rejoice therein? Nay, every one that doth evil hateth the light, John iii. 29. For, what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Cor. ••i. 14. (2.) How stand your hearts affected to the justice of God? There is not a man, who is wedded to his lusts, as all the unregenerate are, but would be-content, with the blood of his body, to blot that letter out of the name of God, Can the male factor love his condemning judge? Or an unjustified sinner, a just God? No, he cannot, Luke vii. 47. To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Hence seeing men cannot get the doctrine of his Justice blotted out of the Bible; yet it is such an eye-sore to them, that they strive to blot it out of their minds. And they ruin themselves by presuming on his mercy; while they are not careful to get a righte|ousness, wherein they may stand before his Justice; but say in their heart, The Lord will not do good; neither will he do evil, Zeph. i. 12. (3.) How stand ye affected to the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God? Men naturally would rather have a blind idol, than an all-seeing God; and therefore do what they can, as Adam did, to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. They no more love an all-seeing, every-where-present God, than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evil deeds. If it could be carried by votes, God would be voted out of the world, and closed up in heaven: For the language of the carnal heart is, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsake as the earth, Ezek. viii. 12 (4) How stand ye affected to the Truth and Veracity of God? There are but few in the world that can heartily subscribe to that sentence of the apostle, Rom. iii. 4. Let God be true, but every man a liar. Nay truly, there are many, who, in effect do hope that God will not be true to his word. There are thousands who hear the gospel, that hope to be saved, and think all safe with them for eternity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor do at all concern themselves in that question, Whether they are burn

again, or not? A question that is like to wear out from among u•• this day Our Lord's words are plain and peremptory, Except a man be b••rn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What are such hopes then, but real hopes that God (with profoundest reverence be it spoken) will recal his word, and that Christ will prove a false prophet? What else means the sinner, who, when he heareth the words of the curs••, blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, tho' I walk in the imagination of mine heart, Deut xxix 19. Lastly, How sta••d ye affected to the Power of God? None but new creatures will love him for it, on a fair view thereof; tho' others may slavishly fear him, upon the account of it. There is not a natural man, but would contribute to the utmost of his power to the building of another tower of Babel, to hem it in. On these grounds, I declare every unrenewed man an enemy to God.

2dly, Ye are enemies to the Son of God That enmity to Christ is in your hearts, which would have made you join the husbandmen, who killed the heir, and cast him out of the vineyard: If ye had been beset with their temptations, and no more restrained than they were Am I a d••g, you will say, to have so treated my sweet Saviour? so said Hazael in another case; but when he had the temptation, he was a dog to do it. Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose consciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from him, as from their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is no other way sweet to them, than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world; and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ that is sweet to you, whose souls lothe that Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person. It is with you as it was in the carnal Jews, who delighted in him while they mistook his errand into the world, fancying that he would be a temporal deliverer to them, Mal. iii. 1 But when he was come, and sat as a refiner and purifier of silver, verse 2, 3. and cast them as reprobate silver, who thought to have had no small honour in the kingdom of the Messiah; his doctrine galled their consciences, and they rested not till they imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes in this point, which ye are so loth to believe, I will lay before you, the enmity of your hearts against Christ and all his offices.

1. Every unregenerate man is an enemy to Christ in his Prophetical Office. He is appointed of the Father, the great Prophet and Teacher; but not upon the world's call, who, in their natural state, would have unanimously voted against him: And therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer. For evidence of this enmity, I will instance in two things.

Evidence 1. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach souls inwardly by his Spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like the deaf adder that they may not hear his voice.

They always resist the Holy Ghost. They desire not the knowledge of his ways; and therefore bid him depart from them. The old calumny is often raised upon him, on that occasion, John x. 20. He is mad, why hear ye him? Soul exercise raised by the spirit of bondage, is ac|counted by many, nothing else but distraction, and melancholy fits; men thus blaspheming the Lord's work, because they themselves are beside themselves, and cannot judge of these matters.

Evid. 2. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach men outwardly by his word.

(1.) His written word, the Bible, is slighted; Christ hath left it to us, as the book of our instructions, to show us what way we must steer our course, if we would come to Emmanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light. And he hath left it upon us, to search it with that diligence, wherewith men dig into mines for silver and gold. John v. 39 But ah! how is this sacred treasure profaned by many! They ridicule the holy word, by which they must be judged at the last day; and will rather lose their souls than their jest, dressing up the conceit of their wanton wits in scripture phrases; in which they act as mad a part, as one who would dig into a mine to procure metal to melt and pour down his own and his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances, and their minds pursue them, as the same doth the dry stubble; while they have no heart for, nor relish of the holy word, and therefore seldom take a Bible in their hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds, is pleasant and taking; but what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts, makes their spirits dull and flat. What pleasure will they find in reading of a profane ballad, or story book, to whom the Bible is tasteless, as the white of an egg! Many lay by their Bibles with their Sabbath day's clothes; and whatever use they have for their clothes, they have none for their Bibles, till the return of the Sabbath. Alas! the dust or finery about your Bibles is a witness now, and will, at the last day, be a witness of the enmity of your hearts against Christ, as a Prophet. Besides all this, among these who ordi|narily read the scriptures, how few are there that read it as the word of the Lord to their souls, and keep communion with him in it. They do not make his statutes their counsellors, nor doth their particular case send them to their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the scriptures. And if at any time they be dejected, it is something else than the word that revives them: as Ahab was cured of his sullen sit, by the securing of Naboth's vineyard for him.

(2.) Christ's word preached is despised. The entertainment most of the world, to whom it has come, have always give•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is that which i•• mentioned. Matth. xxii. 5. They made light of it. And for its sake they are d••s••ised wh•• he has employed to preach it; whatever other since men put upon their contempt of the ministry, John xv. 20. The servant is not greater than the Lord: if they have persecuted me•• they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will 〈◊〉〈◊〉

yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake. That Levi was the son of the hated, seems not to have been without a ••stery, which the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in all ages, hath unriddled. But tho' the earth ••n vessel, where in God has put the treasure, be turned, with many, into vessels wher•• in there is no pleasure, yet, why is the treasure itself slighted? But slighted it is, and that with a witness this day. Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom shall we speak? Men can, without remorse, make to themselves silent Sabbaths, one after another. And alas! when they come to ordinances, for the most part, it is but 〈…〉〈…〉 the word is, to be seen) before the Lord, and to tread his c••urts; namely, as a company of beasts would do, if they were driven into them, Isa. i. 12. so little reverence and awe of God appears on their spirits. Many stand like brazen walls before the word, in whose corrupt conversation the preaching of the word makes no breach. Nay, not a few are growing worse and worse, under precept upon precepts and the result of all is, They go and fall backward, and be broken, and s••ared, and taken, Isa. xxviii. 13. What tears of blood are sufficient to lament that (the gospel) the grace of God, is thus received in vain! We are but the voice of one crying; the Speaker is in heaven; and speaks to you from heaven by men: why do ye refuse him that speaketh? Heb. xii. 25. God has made our Master heir of all things, and we are sent to court a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he; none more unworthy than they to whom this match is promised; but the prince of darkness is preferred before the Prince of Peace. A dismal darkness overclouded the world by Adam's fall, more terrible than if the sun, moon and stars had been for ever wrapt up in blackness of darknes••; and there we should have eternally lain, had not this grace of the gospel, as a shining sun, ap|peared to dispel it, Tit. ii. 11. But yet we fly like night owls from it; and like the wild beasts, lay ourselves down in our dens; when the sun ariseth, we are struck blind with the light thereof; and, as creatures of darkness, love darkness rather than light. Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Christ, in his prophetical office.

2. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his priestly office. He is appointed of the Father a Priest for ever: that, by his alone sacrifice and intercession, sinners may have peace with, and access to God; but Christ crucified is a stumbling block, and foolishness to the unrenewed part of mankind, to whom he is preached, 1 Cor. i 23. They are not for him, as the new and living way. Nor is he by the voice of the world, an High Priest over the house of God. Corrupt nature goes quite another way to work.

Evidence 1. None of Adam's children naturally incline to receive the blessing in borrowed robes; but would always, according to the spider's motto, owe all to themselves; and so climb up to heaven on a thread spun out of their own bowels. For they desire to be under the law, Gal. iv. 24. And go about to establish their own righteousness, Rom. x. 3. Man, naturally, looks on GOD as a great Master; and

himself as his servant, that must work and win heaven as his wages. Hence, when conscience is awakened, he thinks that, to the end he may be saved, he must answer the demands of the law; serve God as well as he can, and pray for mercy wherein he comes short. And thus many come to duties, that never come out of them to Jesus Christ.

Evid. 2. As men, naturally, think highly of their duties, that seem to them, to be well done; so they look for acceptance with God ac|cording as their work is done, not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou se••st not? They'll value themselves on their performances and attainments: yea, their very opinions in religion, (Philip. iii 4, 5, 6, 7.) taking to themselves, what they rob from Christ the great High-priest.

Evid. 3. The natural man going to God, in duties, will always be found, either to go without a mediator, or with more than the only Mediator JESUS CHRIST. Nature is blind, and therefore venturous: it sets a man a going immediately to God without Christ; to rush into his presence, and put their petitions in his hand, without being introduced by the Secretary of heaven, or putting their requests into his hand. So fixed is this disposition in the unrenewed heart, that when many hearers of the gospel are conversed with upon the point of their hopes of salvation, the name of Christ will scarcely be heard from their mouths. Ask them how they think to obtain the pardon of sin? they will tell you, they beg and look for mercy, because God is a merciful God; and that is all they have to confide in. Others look for mercy for Christ's sake; but how do they know that Christ will take their plea in hand. Why, as the Papists have their mediators with the Mediator, so have they. They know he cannot but do it; for they pray, confess, mourn, and have great desires, and the like; and so have something of their own to commend them unto him: they were never made poor in spirit, and brought empty-handed to Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood.

3. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father has appointed the Mediator King in Zion, Psal. ii. 6. And all to whom the gospel comes, are commanded, on their highest peril, to kiss the Son, and submit themselves unto him, ver. 12. But the natural voice of mankind is, Away with him; as you may see, ver. 2, 3. They will not have him to reign over them, Luke xix. 14.

Evidence 1. The workings of corrupt nature to wrest the govern|ment out of his hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a King, Herod persecuted him, Matth. ii. And when he was crucified, they set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, Matth. xxvii. 37. Though his kingdom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world; yet they cannot allow him a kingdom within a kingdom, which acknowledgeth no other head or supreme, but the royal Mediator. They make 〈◊〉〈◊〉 with his royal prerogatives, changing his laws, institutions and ordinances, modelling his worship according to the devices of their own hearts; introducing new offices

and officers into his kingdom, not to be found in the book of the manner of his kingdom, disposing of the external government thereof, as may best suit their carnal designs. Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Zion's KING.

Evid 2 How unwilling are men, naturally to submit unto, and be hedged in by the laws and discipline of his Kingdom! As a King, he is a Law-giver, (Isa. xxxiii 22.) and has appointed an external government, discipline and censors, to controul the unruly, and to keep his professed subjects in order, to be exercised by officers of his own appointment, Matth. xviii. 17, 18 1 Cor. xii. 28. 1 Tim. v. 17. Heb. xiii 17. But these are the great eye-sores of the carnal world, who love sinful liberty, and therefore cry out, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us, Psal. ii. 3. Hence this work is found to be, in a special manner, a striving against the stream of corrupt nature, which, for the most part, puts such a face on the church, as if there were no King in Israel, every one doing that which is right in his own eyes.

Evid. 3. However natural men may be brought to feign submission to the King of saints, yet lusts always retain the throne and dominion in their hearts, and they are serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. None but these in whom Christ is formed, do really put the crown on his head, and receive the kingdom of Christ within them. His crown is the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals. Who are they, whom the power of grace has not sub|dued, that will allow him to set up, and to put down, in their souls, as he will? Nay, as for others, any lord shall sooner get the rule over them, than the Lord of glory: they kindly entertain his enemies, and will never absolutely resign themselves to his government, till con|quered in a day of power. Thus ye may see that the natural man is an enemy to Jesus Christ in all his offices.

But O! how hard is it to convince men in this point! They are very loth to take with it. And in a special manner, the enmity of the heart against Christ in his priestly office, seems to be hid from the view of most of the hearers of the gospel. Yet there appears to be a peculiar malignity in corrupt nature against that office of his. It may be observed, that the Socinians, these enemies of our blessed Lord, allow him to be properly a Prophet and a King, but deny him to be properly a Priest. And this is agreeable enough to the corruption of our nature; for under the covenant of works, the Lord was known as a Prophet or Teacher, and also as a King or Ruler; but not at all as a Priest: so man knows nothing of the mystery of Christ, as the way to the Father, till it be revealed to him. And when it is revealed, the will riseth up against it; for corrupt nature lies cross to the mystery of Christ, and the great contrivance of salvation, through a crucified Saviour, revealed in the gospel. For clearing of which weighty truth, let these four things be considered.

First, The soul's falling in with the grand device of salvation by Jesus Christ, and setting the matters of salvation on that footing be|fore the Lord, is declared by the scriptures of truth to be an undoubt|ed mark of a real saint, who is happy here, and shall be happy here|after. Matth. xi. 6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Philip iii. 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confi|dence in the flesh. Now how could this be, if nature could comply with that grand device.

Secondly, Corrupt nature is the very reverse of the gospel contriv|ance. In the gospel, God promiseth Jesus Christ as the great means of re-uniting man to himself: he has named him as the Mediator, one in whom he is well pleased, and will have none but him, Matth. xvii. 5. But nature will have none of him, Psal lxxxi. 11 God appointed the place of meeting for the reconciliation, namely, the flesh of Christ; accordingly, God was in Christ, (2 Cor. v. 29.) as the tabernacle of meeting, to make up the peace with sinners; but natural men, tho' they should die for ever, will not come thither John v. 40. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. In the way of the gospel, the sinner must stand before the Lord in an imp••••••d righteousness: but corrupt nature is for an inherent righteousness: and therefore, so far as natural men follow after righteousness, they follow after the law of righteousness, Rom. ix 31, 32. and not after the Lord our righteousness. Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some grounds for boasting: but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting, Rom. iii 27. The sum of our natural religion is, to do good from and for ourselves, John v. 44. The sum of the gospel religion is, to deny ourselves and to do good from and for Christ, Philip i. 21.

Thirdly, Every thing in nature is against believing in Jesus Christ. What beauty can the blind man discern in a crucified Saviour, for which he is to be desired? How can the will, naturally impotent, yea and averse to good, make choice of him? Well may the soul then say to him in the day of the spiritual siege, as the Jebusites said to David in another case, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither, 2 Sam. v. 6. The way of nature is to go into one's self for all; according to the fundamental maxim of unsanctified morality, That a man should trust in himself; which according to the doctrine of faith, is mere foolishness; for so it is determined, Prov. xviii. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. Now faith is the soul's going out of itself for all: and this nature, on the other hand, determines to be foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 18, 23. Wherefore there is need of the working of mighty power, to cause sinners to believe, Eph. i. 19. Isa. liii. 1. We see promises of welcome to sinners, in

the gospel-covenant, are ample, large and free, clogg'd with no conditions, Isa. lv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17. If they cannot believe his bare word, he has given them his oath upon it, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And for their greater assurance, he has appended seals to his sworn covenant, namely, the holy sacraments. So that no more could be demanded of the most faithless person in the world, to make us believe him, than the Lord hath condescended to give us, to make us believe himself. This plainly speaks nature to be against believing, and these who ••lee to Christ for refuge, to have need of strong consolation. (Heb vi. 18.) to blame their strong doubts, and propensity to unbelief. Farther, also it may be observed, how, in the word sent to a secure, graceless generation, their objections are answered aforehand; and words of grace are heaped one upon another, as ye may read, Isa. lv. 7, 8, 9. Joel ii. 13. Why? Because the Lord knows, that when these secure sinners are throughly wakned, doubts, fears, and carnal reasonings against believing, will be going within their breasts, as thick as dust in a house, raised by sweeping a dry floor.

Lastly, ••••••rupt nature is bent towards the way of the law, or covenant of works; and every natural man, so far as he sets himself to seek after salvation, is engaged in that way; and will not quit it, till beat from it by divine power. Now the way of salvation by works, and that of free grace in Jesus Christ, are inconsistent, Rom. xi. 6. And if by grace; then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; other|wise work is no more work. Gal. iii. 13. And the law is not of FAITH; but the man that DOTH them shall live in them Wherefore, if the will of man naturally incline to the way of salvation by the law; it lies cross to the gospel contrivance. And that such is the natural bent of our hearts, will appear, if these following things be considered.

1. The law was Adam's covenant; and he knew no other, as he was the head and representative of all mankind, that were brought into it with him, and lest under it by him, tho' without strength to perform the condition thereof. Hence, this covenant is ingrained in our nature: and tho' we have lost our father's strength▪ yet we still incline to the way he was set upon as our head and representative in that covenant; that is, by doing to live. This is our natural r•• •• and the principle which men naturally take for granted, Matth. xix. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 What good thing shall I DO, that I may have eternal life?

2. Consider the opposition that has always been made in the wo•• against the doctrine of free grace in Jesus Christ, by men set•• for the way of works; thereby discovering the natural tend like an the heart. It is manifest•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the great design of the gospel 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••ance is to exalt the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, Rom. iv. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grac••. See Eph i. 6. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 chap. ii 7, 9. All gospel truths center in Christ: so that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the truth is to learn Christ, Eph. iv. 20. And to be truly taught, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be taught as the truth is in Jesus, ver. 21. All dispensations of

grace and favour from heaven, whether to nations or particular per|sons, have still had something about them proclaiming a freedom of grace; as in the very first separation made by the divine favour, Cain the elder brother is rejected, and Abel the younger accepted. This shines through the whole history of the Bible: but as true as it is, this has been the point principally opposed by corrupt nature. One may well say, that of all errors in religion, since Christ, the Seed of the woman was preached, this of works, in opposition to free grace in him, was the first that lived; and it is likely to be the last that dies. There have been vast numbers of errors, which sprung up one after another, whereof, at length, the world became ashamed and weary; so that they died out. But this has continued, from Cain the first author of this heresy, unto this day; and never wanted some that clave to it, even in the times of greatest light. I do not without ground, call Cain the author of it; when Abel brought the sacrifice of atonement, a bloody offering of the firs••ings of his flock, (like the Publican, smit|ing on his breast, and saying, God b•• merciful to me a sinner) Cain ad|vanced with his thank-offering of the first fruit of the ground, (Gen. iv. 3, 4.) like the proud Pharisee, with his God I thank thee. For what was the cause of Cain's wrath, and of his murdering of Abel? Was it not that he was accepted of God for his work? Gen. iv. 4, 5. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous, (1 John iii. 22) that is, done in faith and accepted, when his were done without faith, and therefore rejected, as the Apostle teacheth, Heb. xi. 4. And so he wrote his indignation against justi|fication and acceptance with God, through faith, in opposition to works, in the blood of his brother, to convey it down to pesterity. And since that time, the unbloody sacrifice has often swimmed in the blood of those that rejected it. The promise made to Abraham of the Seed in which all nations should be blessed, was so overclouded among his posterity in Egypt, that the generality of them saw no need of that way of obtaining the blessing, till God himself confuted their error, by a fiery law from Mount Sinai, which was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come, Gal iii. 19. I need not insist w•• tell you, how Moses and the prophets had still much ado, to lead the an•• ••off the conceit of their own righteousness. The 9th chapter to h•• Deuteronomy is entirely spent on that purpose. They were very ••ss in that point in our Saviour's time; in the time of the Apostle's, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the doctrine of free grace was most clearly preached, that error 〈◊〉〈◊〉 its head in face of clearest light; witness the epistle to the 〈…〉〈…〉 and Galatians: And since that time it has not been wanting; 〈◊〉〈◊〉 being the common sink of former heresies, and this the heart ••ise of that delusion. And finally, it may be observed, that ••s as the church declined from her purity otherwise, the doctrine ••ree grace was obscured proportionably.

3. Such is the natural propensity of man's heart to the way of the law, in opposition to Christ; that, as the tainted vessel turns the tas••

of the purest liquor put into it, so the natural man turns the very gospel into law; and transforms the covenant of grace into a covenant of works The ceremonial law was to the Jews a real gospel; which held blood, death, and translation of guilt before their eyes continually, as the only way of salvation: yet their very table (i e. their altar, with the several ordinances pertaining thereto, Mal i. 12) was a snare unto them, Rom. ii. 9. while they use it to make up the defects in their obedience to the moral law, and clave to it so, as to reject him whom the altar and sacrifices pointed them to, as the substance of all: even as Hagar, whose it was only to serve, was by their father brought into her mistress's bed; nor without a mystery in the purpose of God, for these are the two covenants, Gal. iv. 24. Thus is the doctrine of the gospel corrupted by Papists, and other enemies to the doctrine of free grace. And indeed, however natural men's heads may be set right in this point; as surely as they are out of Christ, their faith, repentance and obedience, (such as they are) are placed by them in the room of Christ and his righteousness; and so trusted to, as if by these they fulfilled a new law

4. Great is the difficulty in Adam's sons their parting with the law, as a covenant of works. None part with it in that respect, but these whom the power of the Spirit of grace separates from it. The law is our first husband, and gets every one's virgin-love. When Christ comes to the soul, he finds it married to the law; so as it neither can, nor will be married to another, till it be obliged to part with the first husband, as the apostle teacheth, Rom. vii. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now, that ye may see what sort of a parting this is, consider,

(1) It is a death, Rom. vii. 4. Gal. iii 19. Intreaties will not prevail with the soul here; it saith to the first husband, as Ruth to Na••i, The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. And here sinners are true to their word; they die to the law, ere they be married to Christ Death is hard to every body: but what difficulty do ye imagine must a loving wife, on her death-bed, find in parting with her husband, the husband of her youth, and with the dear children she has brought forth to him: the law is that hus|band; all the duties performed by the natural man, are these children. What a struggle, as for life, will be in the heart ere they be got parted? I may have occasion to touch upon this afterwards. In the mean time, take the Apostle's short, but pithy description of it, Rom x. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. They go about to establish their own righteousness▪ like an eager disputant in schools, seeking to establish the point in question: or like a tormentor, extorting a confession from one upon the rack. They go about to establish it to make it stand: their righteousness is like a house built upon the sand; it cannot stand, but they will have it to stand: it falls, they set it up again: but still it tumbles down on them; yet they cease not to go about to make it stand. But wherefore

all this pains about a tottering righteousness? Because, such as it is, it is their own. What ails them at Christ's righteousness? Why, that would make them free grace's debtors for all; and that is what the proud heart by no means can submit t••. Here lies the stress of the matter, Psal. x 4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek: (to read it without the supplement) that is, in other terms, He cannot dig, and to beg he is ashamed: Such is the struggle, ere the soul die to the law: But what speaks yet more of this woful disposition of the heart, nature oft-times gets the mastery of the disease, insomuch that the soul, which was like to have died to the law, while convictions were sharp and piercing, fatally recovers of the happy and promising sickness; and (what is very natural) cleaves more closely than ever to the law, even as a wife brought back from the gates of death would cleave to her husband: This is the issue of the exercise of many about their souls case: they are indeed brought to follow duties more closely; but they are as far from Christ as ever, if not farther.

(2) It is a violent death, Rom vii 4 Ye are become dead to the law, being killed, slain, or put to death, as the word bears. The law itself has a great hand in this; the husband gives the wound, Gal ii. 19. I though the law am dead to the law. The soul that dies this death, is like a loving wife matched with a rigorous husband: she does what she can to please him, yet he is never pleased; but tosseth, harasseth, and beats her, till she break her heart, and death sets her free; as will afterwards more fully appear. Thus it is made evident, that men's hearts are naturally bent to the way of the law, and ly cross to the gospel contrivance: and the second article of the charge, against you that are unregenerate, is verified, namely▪ that ye are enemies to the Son of God.

3dly, Ye are enemies to the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of holiness; the natural man is unholy, and loves to be so, and there|fore resists the holy Ghost, Acts vii. 51. The work of the Spirit is to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, John xvi. 8. But O how do men strive to ward off these convictions, as ever they would ward off a blow, threatning their loss of a right-eye, or a right hand? If the Spirit of the Lord dart them in, so as they cannot evite them; the heart says, in effect, as Ahab to Eujah, whom he both hated and feared: Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And indeed they treat him as an enemy, doing their a••most to stifle convictions, and to murder these harbingers, that come to prepare the Lord's way into the soul▪ come fill their hands with business, to put their convictions ou•• o•• their heads, as Cain, who fell a building of a city: some put them off with delays and fair promises, as Felix did: some will sport them away in company, and some sleep them away. The holy Spirit is the spirit of sanctification: whose work it is to subdue lusts, and burn up corruption▪ how then can the natural man, whose lusts are to him as his limbs, yea, as his life fail of be•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 enemy to him.

••thly. Ye are enemies to the law of 〈…〉〈…〉 the natural man, d•• to be under the law, as a covenant of works, chussing that way of

salvation in opposition to the mystery of Christ: yet as it is a rule of life, requiring universal holiness, and discharging all manner of im|purity, he is an enemy to it: Is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7. For, (1.) There is no unrenewed man, who is not wedded to some one last or other, which his heart can by no means part with. Now, that he cannot bring up his inclinations to the holy law, he would fain have the law brought down to his in|clinations: a plain evidence of the enmity of the heart against it. And therefore, to delight i•• the Law of God, after the inward man, is proposed in the word as a mark of a gracious soul, Rom. vii. 22. Psal. i. 2. It is from this natural enmity of the heart against the law, that all the Pharisaical gl••sses upon it have arisen: whereby the com|mandment, which is in itself exceeding ••ad, has been made very narrow, to the intent it might be the more agreeable to the natural disposition of the heart. (2) The law laid home to the natural conscience, in its spirituality, irritates corruption. The nearer it comes, nature riseth the more against it. In that case, it is as oil to the fire, which instead of quenching it makes it flame the more; When the commandment came, si•• r••vived, says the Apostle, Rom. vii. 9. What reason can be assigned for this, but the natural enmity of the heart against the holy law? Unmortified corruption, the more it is opposed, the more it rageth. Let us conclude then, that the unre|generate are heart-enemies to God, his Son, his Spirit, and his law; that there is a natural contrariety, opposition, and enmity in the will of man, to God himself, and his holy will.

Fifthly, There is, in the will of man, contumacy against the Lord. Man's will is naturally wilful in an evil course. He will have his will, though it should ruin him: it is with him, as with the leviathan, (Job xli. 29.) D••••s are counted as stubble; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. The Lord calls to him by his word, says to him, (as Paul to the jaylor, when he was about to kill himself.) Do thyself no harm: sinners, Why will ye do? Ezek. x••iii. 31. But they will not hearken, Every one turneth to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle, Jer. viii. 6. We have a promise of life, in form of a command, Prov. iv. 4. Keep my commandments and ••iv••: it speaks impenitent sinners to be self-destroyers, wilful self-murderers. They transgress the command of living; as if one's servant should wilfully starve himself to death, or greedily drink up a cup of poison, which his master commands him to forbear: even so do they: they will not live, they will die, Prov. viii. 36 All they that hate me, love death. O what a heart is this! It is a stony heart, (Ezek. xxxvi. 26) hard and inflexible, as a stone: mercies melt it not, judgments break it not; yet it will break ere it bow. It is an insensible heart; tho' there be upon the sinner a weight of sin, which makes the earth to stagger; although there is a weight of wrath on him, which makes the devils to tremble; yet h•• goes lightly under the burden; he feels not the weight more than a stone: till the Spirit of the Lord quicken him, so far as to see ••t.

Lastly, The unrenewed will is wholly perverse in reference to man's chief and highest end. The natural man's chief end is not his God, but his self. Man is a mere relative, dependent, borrowed being: he has no being nor goodness originally from himself; but all he hath is from God, as the first cause and spring of all perfection, natural or moral: dependence is woven into his very nature; so that if God should totally withdraw from him, he would dwindle into a mere nothing. Seeing then whatever man is, he is of him: surely in whatever he is, he should be to him; as the waters which come from the sea, do of course, return thither again. And thus man was created, directly looking to God, as his chi••f end: but falling into sin, he fell off from God, and turned into himself; and like a traitor usurping the throne, he gathers in the rents of the crown to himself: Now, this infers a total apostasy, and universal corruption in man; for where the chief and last end is changed, there can be no goodness there. This is the case of all men in their natural state, Psal. xiv. 2, 3. The Lord looked down—to see if there were any that did—seek God. They are all gone aside: to wit, from God; they seek not God, but them|selves. And tho' many fair shreds of morality are to be found amongst them, yet there is none that doth good, no not one; for tho' some of them run well, they are still off the way; they never aim at the right mark. They are lovers of their ownselves, (2 Tim. iii. 2.) more than God, verse 4. Wherefore, Jesus Christ having come into the world, to bring men back to God again, came to bring them out of themselves in the first place, Matth. xvi. 25. The godly groan under the re|mains of this woful disposition of the heart: they acknowledge it, and set themselves against it, in its subtile and dangerous insinuations. The unregenerate, tho' most insensible of it, are under the power thereof; and whithersoever they turn themselves, they cannot move without the circle of self: they seek themselves, they act for them|selves; their natural, civil and religious actions, from whatever spring they come, do all run into, and meet in, the dead sea of self.

Most men are so far from making God their chief end, in their natural and civil actions; that in these matters, God is not in all their thoughts. Their eating and drinking, and such like natural actions, are for themselves; their own pleasure or necessity, without any higher end: Zech vii. 6. Did ye not eat for yourselves? They have no eye to the glory of God in these things, as they ought to have, 1 Cor. x. 31. They do not eat and drink, to keep up their bodies for the Lord's service; they do them not, because God has said, thou shalt not kill: neither do these drops of sweetness God has put into the creature, raise up their souls towards that ocean of delight that is in the Creator, tho' they are indeed a sign hung out at heaven's door, to tell men of the fulness of goodness that's in God himself, Acts xiv. 16. But it is self, and not God, that is sought in them by natural men. And what are the unrenewed man's civil actions, such as buying, selling, work|ing, &c but fruit to himself? Hos. x. 1. so marrying and giving in

marriage▪ are reckoned amongst the sins of the old world; (Matth. xxiv 38) for they had no eye to God therein, to please him; but all they had in view, was to please themselves, Gen vi 3. Finally, Self is natural men's highest end, in their religious actions: They perform duties for a name, Matth. vi 1, 2. or some other worldly interest, John vi 26. Or, if they be more refined, it is their peace and at most their salvation from hell and wrath, or their own eternal happi|ness, that is their ch••ef and highest end, Matth xix. 16,—22. Their eyes are held, that they see not the glory of God They seek God indeed, but not for himself, but for themselves They seek him not at all, but for their own welfare: so their whole life is woven into one web of practical blasphemy; making God the means, and self their end, yea, their chief end.

And thus have I given you some rude draughts of man's will, in his natural state, drawn by scripture and men's own experience. Call it no more Naomi but Marah: for bitter it is, and a root of bitterness. Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loose the bands of wickedness. Now, since all must be wrong, and nothing can be right, where the under|standing and will are so corrupt; I shall briefly dispatch what remains, as following of course, on the corruption of those prime faculties of the soul.

The Corruption of the Affections, the Conscience and the Memory. The Body partaker of this corruption.

III. The Affections are corrupted. The unrenewed man's affec|tions are wholly disordered and distempered: they are as the unruly horse, that either will not receive, or violently runs away with the rider. So man's heart naturally is a mother of abominations. Mark vii. 21, 22. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, &c. The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced; he is a spiritual monster. His heart is there, where his feet should be, fixed on the earth; his heels are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on, Acts ix. 5. His face is towards hell, his back towards heaven; and therefore God calls him to turn. He loves what he should hate, and hates what he should love▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in what he ought to mourn for, and mourns for what he should rejoice in: glorieth in his shame, and is ashamed of his glory; abhors what he should desire, and desires what he should abhor, Prov. ii. 13.14.15. They hit the point indeed, (as Caiaphus did in another case) who cried out on the apostles as men that turned the world upside-down, Acts xvii. 6. for that is the work the gospel has has to do in the world, where sin has put all things so out of order, that heaven lies under, and earth a-top. If the unre|newed man's affections be set on lawful objects, then they are either excessive, or defective. Lawful enjoyments of the world Love some|times

too little, but mostly too much of them: either they get not their due; or, if they do, it is measure 〈…〉〈…〉 over. Spiritual things have always too little of them. In a word, they are always in, or over; never right, only evil.

Now, here is a three-fold cord against heaven and holiness, not easily broken; a blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly distem|pered affections. The mind swelled with self-con••ent, save the man should not stoop; the will opposite to the will of God, says he will not; and the corrupt affections rising against the Lord, in defence of the corrupt will, say, he shall not. Thus the poor creature stands out against God and goodness; till a day of power come, in which he is made a new creature

IV. The Conscience is corrupt and defiled, Tit i. 15. It is an evil eye, that fills one's conversation with much darkness and confusion; being naturally unable to do its office; till the Lord, by letting in a new light to the soul, awaken the conscience; it remains sleepy and unactive. Conscience can never do its work, but according to the light it hath to work by. Wherefore seeing the natural man cannot spirit|ually discern spiritual things, (1 Cor. ii. 14.) the conscience naturally is quite useless in that point: being cast into such a deep sleep, that nothing but a saving illuminations from the Lord, can set it on work in that matter. The light of the natural conscience in good and evil, sin and duty, is very defective; therefore tho' it may check for grosser sins; yet as to the more subtile workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it discerns them not. Thus conscience will fly in the face of many, if at any time they be drunk, swear, neglect prayer, or be guilty of any gross sin; who otherwise have a profound peace; tho' they live in the sin of unbelief, are strangers to spiritual worship, and the life of faith. And natural light being but faint and languishing in many things which it doth reach, conscience in that case shoots like a stitch in one's side, which quickly goes off; its incitements to duty, and checks for and struggles against sin, are very remiss, which the natural man easily gets over. But because there is a false light in the dark mind, the natural conscience following the same will call evil good, and good evil, Isa. v. 20. And so it is often found like a blind and furious horse, which doth violently run down himself, his rider, and all that doth come in his way, John xvi. 2. Whosoever kill••th you, will think that he doth God service. When the natural conscience is awak|ened by the Spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and rore, and put the whole man in a dreadful consternation, awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait; make the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow; set the eyes a-weeping, the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••ss|ing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, tho' the heart 〈◊〉〈◊〉 goes after them. But yet it is an evil conscience, which natively leads to despair, and will do it effectually, as in Judas's case; unless 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts. ••v. 25.

or the Blood of CHRIST prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts, Heb. ix. 14. & x. 23.

Lastly, Even the Memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good and worthy to be minded, as it makes but slender im|pression, so that impression easily wears off; the memory, as a leaking vessel, lets it slip, Heb. ii. 1. As a sieve that is full, when in the water, lets all go when it is taken out; so is the memory, with re|spect to spiritual things. But how does it retain what ought to be forgotten? Naughty things so bear in themselves upon it, that though men would fain have them out of mind, yet they stick there like giue. However forgetful men be in in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in old age to re-act the sins of their youth, while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up the former vomit. And thus it is like the riddle, that lets through the pure grain, and keeps the refuse. Thus far of the corruption of the soul.

The Body itself also is partaker of this corruption and defilement, so far as it is capable thereof. Wherefore the Scripture calls it sinful flesh, Rom. viii. 3. We may take this up in two things. (1.) The natural temper, or rather distemper of the bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin; so it hath a native tendency to sin, incites to sin, leads the soul into snares, yea, is itself a snare to the soul. The body is a furious beast, of such metal, that if it be not beat down, kept under, and brought into subjection, it will cast the soul into much sin and misery, 1 Cor. ix. 27. There's a vileness in the body, (Phil. iii. 21.) which, as to the saints, will never be removed, until it be melted down in a grave, and cast into a new mould, at the resurrection to come forth a spiritual body: and will never be carried off from the bodies of those, who are not partakers of the resurrection to life. (2.) It serves the soul in many sins. Its members are in|struments or weapons of unrighteousness, whereby men fight against God, Rom. vi. 13. The eyes and ears are open doors, by which impure motions and sinful desires enter the soul; the tongue is a world of iniquity; James iii. 6. an unruly evil, full of deadly pois••n, ver. 8. By it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness. The throat is an open sepulchre, Rom. iii. 13. The feet run the devil's errands, ver. 15. The belly is made a god, Philip, iii. 19. Not only by drunkards and riotous livers, but by every natural man, Zech. vii. 6. So the body naturally is an agent for the devil; and a magazine of armour against the Lord.

To conclude, man by nature is wholly corrupted: From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in him. And as in a dunghill, every part contributes to the corruption of the whole; so the natural man, while in that state, grows still worse and worse. The soul is made worse by the body, and the body by the soul: and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more. Thus much for the second general Head.

How Man's Nature was corrupted.

THIRDLY, I shall shew how man's nature comes to be thus cor|rupted. The heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted: but how sin had entred, they could not tell. But the Scripture is very plain in that point, Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world. Ver. 19. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Adam's sin corrupted man's nature, and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrified in Adam, as our root. The root was pois|oned, and so the branches were envenomed; the vine turned the vine of Sodom, and so the grapes became grapes of gall. Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and so transmits guilt and cor|ruption to his posterity, Gen. v. 3. Job xiv. 4. By his sin he stript himself of his original righteousness, and corrupted himself: we were in him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head, ••n the covenant of works; we were in him seminally, as our natural head; hence we fell in him, and by his disobedience, were made sinners, as Levi, in the loins of Abraham paid tithes, Heb. vii. 9, 10. His first sin is imputed to us; therefore justly are we left under the want of his original righteousness, which, being given to him as a common person, he cast off, by his sin; and this is necessarily followed, in him and us, by the corruption of the whole nature; righteousness and corruption being two contraries, one of which must needs always be in man, as a subject capable thereof. And Adam our common father being corrupt, we are so too; for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

Although it is sufficient to evince 〈◊〉〈◊〉 righteousness of this dispen|sation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet to silence the murmurings of proud nature, let these few things further be considered, (1.) In the covenant wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him and his posterity upon condi|tion of his, that is, Adam's perfect obedience, as the representative for all mankind: whereas, if there had been no covenant, they could not have pleaded eternal life, upon their most perfect obedience, but might have be••, after all, reduced to nothing, notwithstanding, by natural justice, they would have been liable to God's eternal wrath, in case of sin. Who in that case would not have consented to that represen|tation? (2.) Adam had a power to stand given him, being made up|right. He was as capable to stand for himself, and all his posterity, as any after him could be for themselves. This trial of mankind, in their head, would soon have been over, and the crown won to them all, had he stood; whereas, had his posterity been independent on 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and every one left to act for himself, the trial would have been continually a carrying on, as men came into the world. (3.) He had natural affections the strongest to engage him, being our common ••ather. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well

as ours. He had no separate interest from ours; but if he forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot his own. (5.) If he had stood, we should have had the light of his mind, the righteousness of his will, and holiness of his affections, with entire purity transmitted unto us; we could not have fallen; the crown of glory, by his obedience, would have been for ever secured to him and his. This is evident from the nature of a federal representation; and no reason can be given why, seeing we are lost by Adam's sin, we should not have been saved by his obedience. On the other hand, it is reasonable, that he falling, we should, with him, bear the loss. Lastly, Such as quarrel this dispensation, must renounce their part in Christ; for we are no otherwise made sinners by Adam, than we are made righteous by Christ; from whom we have both imputed and inherent righteousness. We no more made choice of the second Adam, for our head and representative in the second covenant; than we did of the first Adam in the first covenant.

Let none wonder that such an horrible change would be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God, as their chief end, which necessarily infers an universal deprava|tion. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commands at once. (1.) They chose new gods. They made their belly their god, by their sensuality: self their god, by their ambition; yea, and the devil their god, believing him, and disbelieving their Maker. (2.) Tho' they received, yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to themselves, how to serve the Lord. (3.) They took the name of the Lord their God in vain: despising his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grosly profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused that creature of his, which they should not have touched, and violently misconstrued his providence; as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing in the way of their happiness; and therefore he suffered them not to escape his righteous judgment. (4.) They remembered not the Sabbath to keep it holy, but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day. Neither kept they that state of holy rest, wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off their relative duties. Eve forgets herself, and acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of both; Adam instead of admonishing her to repent, yields to the temptation, and confirms her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven; and therefore their days were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined themselves, and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sensuality (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against

the Lord, before angels, devils, and one another; in effect giving out that they were hardly dealt by, and that heaven grudged their hap|piness. (10.) They were discontent with their lot, and coveted an evil covetousness to their house; which ruined both them and theirs. Thus was the image of God on man defaced all at once.

The Doctrine of the Corruption of Nature applied.

USE I. For Information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then,

1. No wonder the grave open it's devouring mouth for us, as soon as the womb hath cast us forth; and that the cradle be turned into a coffin, to receive the corrupt lump: for we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born; yea, and filthy, (Psal. xiv. 3.) noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to, at our entrance, nor of the continuance of them, while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poisoned all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of man's nature, that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states, families: in men's souls and bodies.

2. Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality in the world; the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and life. Every thing acts like itself, agreeable to its own nature; and so corrupt man acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the sinfulness of your own heart and life, nor at the sinful|ness and perverseness of others: if a man be crooked, he cannot but halt; and if the clock be set wrong, how can it point the hour right.

3. See here, why sin is so pleasant, and religion such a burden to carnal spirits: sin is natural, holiness not so. Oxen cannot feed in the sea, nor fishes in the fruitful fields. A swine brought into a palace, would get away again, to wallow in the mire. A corrupt nature tends ever to impurity.

4. Learn from this, the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, This discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things, (1.) It is not a partial, but a total change, tho' imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, and therefore the cure must go thro' every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. All things become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. If one who has received many wounds, should be cured of them all, save one only, he might bleed to death, by that one, as well as a thousand. So if the change go not through the whole man, it is naught. (2.) It is not a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. A man must be born of the Spirit, John iii. 5 Accidental diseases may be cured by men, but these which are natural, not without a miracle, John ix. 22. The change wrought upon men, by good education, or forced upon them, by a natural conscience, tho' it may pass among men for a sav••ing

change, it is not so; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Tho' a gardiner, ingrafting a pear branch into an apple tree, may make the apple-tree bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple-tree: so one may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, This also shews the necessity of regeneration. It is abso|lutely necessary in order to salvation, John iii. 3 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. No unclean thing can enter the new Jerusalem: but thou art wholly unclean, while in thy natural state. If every member of thy body were disjointed, each joint behoved to be loosed, ere the members could be set aright again. This is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard: and therefore thou must be born again; else thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be far off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no Mercy of GOD, no Blood of CHRIST will bring thee to heaven, in thy unre|generate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy, to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners. Heaven! What would you do there, that are not born again? Ye that are no ways fitting for Christ the head. That would be a strange sight, a holy head, and members wholly corrupt! a head full of treasures of grace, members wherein are nothing but treasures of wickedness! a head obedient to death, and heels kicking against heaven! Ye are no ways adapted to the society above, more than beasts for converse with men. Thou art a hater of true holiness: and at the first sight of a saint there, would cry out, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy! Nay, the unrenewed man, if it were possible he could go to heaven, in that state, he would no otherwise go to it, than now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leaving his heart behind him.

USE II. For Lamentation. Well may we lament thy case, O na|tural man, for it is the saddest case one can be in, out of hell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou art dead already, dead whilst thou livest; thou carriest about with thee a dead soul in a living body: and because thou art dead, thou canst not lament thy own case. Thou art loathsome in the sight of God; for thou art altogether corrupt. Thou hast no good in thee; thy soul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vileness before the Lord. Thou thinkest, perhaps, that thou hast a good heart to God, good inclinations, and good desires: but God knows there is nothing good in thee, but every imagination of thine heart is only evil. Thou canst do no good; thou canst do nothing but sin. For,

First, Thou art the servant of sin, Rom. vi. 17. and therefore free from righteousness, ver. 20. Whatever righteousness be, (poor soul) thou art free of it; thou dost not, thou canst not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of sin, a dominion where righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and servant of the devil, tho'

thou be neither wizzard nor witch: seeing thou art yet in the state of nature, John viii. 44 Ye are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, consider, that sin and Satan have two sorts of servants, (1.) There are some employed, as it were, in coarser work: those bear the devil's mark in their fore-heads, having no form of godliness; but are profane, grosly ignorant, mere moralists, not so much as performing the external duties of religion, but living to the view of the world; as sons of earth, only minding earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. (2) There are some employed in a more refined sort of service to sin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand; which they can, and do hide from the view of the world. These are closs hypocrites, who sacrifice as much to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. These are ruined by a more un|discernable trade of sin: pride, unbelief, self-seeking, and the like, swarm in, and prey upon their corrupted, wholly corrupted souls. Both are servants of the same house; the latter as far as the former from righteousness.

Secondly, How is it possible thou shouldst be able to do any good, thou whose nature is wholly corrupt? Can fruit grow where there is no root? Or, can there be an effect without a cause? Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou dost is certainly so too; for no effect can ex|ceed the virtue of its cause. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Matth. vii. 18.

Ah! What a miserable spectacle is he that can do nothing but sin? Thou art the man, whosoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural state. Hear, O sinner, what is thy case.

First, Innumerable sins compass thee about. Mountains of guilt are lying upon thee. Floods of impurities overwhelm thee. Living lusts of all sorts roll up and down in the dead sea of thy soul; where no good can breathe, because of the corruption there. Thy lips are unclean: the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of an unripe grave, full of stench and rottenness, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Thy natural actions are sin, for when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves; and drink for yourselves? Zech. vii. 6. Thy civil actions are sin, Prov. xxi. 4. The plowing of the wicked is sin. Thy religious actions are sin, Prov. xv. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart, are only evil. A deed may be soon done, a word soon spoken, a thought swiftly passeth through the heart: but each of these is an Item in thy accounts. O sad reckoning! as many thoughts, words, actions; as many sins. The longer thou livest, thy accounts swell the more. Should a tear be dropt for every sin, thine head behoved to be waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears; for nothing but sin comes from thee. Thy heart frames nothing but evil imaginations; there is nothing in thy life, but what is framed by thine heart; and therefore there is nothing in thy heart or life but evil.

Secondly, All thy religion, if thou hast any, is lost labour; as to acceptance with God, or any saving effect to thyself. Art thou yet in thy natural state? Truly then thy duties are sins, as was just now hinted. Would not the best wine be lothsome in a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? So is the religion of an unregenerate man. Under the law: the garment which the flesh of the sacrifice was car|ried in, tho' it touched other things, did not make them holy: but he that was unclean touching any thing, whether common or sacred, made it unclean. Even so thy duties cannot make thy corrupt soul holy, tho' they in themselves be good; but thy corrupt heart defiles them, and makes them unclean, Hag. ii. 12, 13, 14. Thou wast went to divide thy works into two sorts; some good, some evil; but th••u must count again and put them all under one head; for God writes on them all, only evil. This is lamentable: It will be no wonder to see those beg in harvest, who fold their hands to sleep in seed time: but to be labouring with others in the spring, and yet have nothing to reap when the harvest comes, is a very sad case; and will be the case of all professors living and dying in their natural state.

Lastly, Thou canst not help thyself. What canst thou do to take away thy sin, who art wholly corrupt? Nothing truly but sin. If a natural man begin to relent, drop a tear for his sin and reform, pre|sently the corrupt heart apprehends, at least, a merit of congruity: he has done much himself, (he thinks) and God cannot but do more for him on that account. In the mean time he does nothing but sin: so that the congruous merit is the leper that must be put out of the camp; the dead soul buried out of sight: and the corrupt lump cast into the pit. How canst thou think to recover thyself by any thing thou canst do? Will mud and filth wash out filthiness? and wilt thou purge out sin by sinning? Job took a potsherd to scrape himself, because his hands were as full of boils as his body. This is the case of thy corrupt soul: not to be recovered but by Jesus Christ, whose strength was dried up like a potsherd, Psal. xxii. 15. Thou art poor indeed, extremely miserable and poor, Rev. iii. 17. Thou hast no shalter but a refuge of lies; no garment for thy soul, but filthy rags; nothing to nourish it but husks that cannot satisfy. More than that, thou hast got such a bruise in the loins of Adam, which is not yet cured, that thou art without strength, Rom. v 6. unable to do or work for thyself; nay, more than all this, thou canst not so much as seek aright, but liest helpless, as an infant exposed in the open field, Ezek. xvi. 5.

USE III. I exhort you to believe this sad truth. Alas! it is evident, it is very little believed in the world. Few are concerned to get their corrupt conversation changed; but fewer, by far, to get their nature changed: Most men know not what they are, nor what spirits they are of: they are as the eye, which seeing many things, never sees itself. But until ye know, every one the plague of his own heart, there is no hope of your recovery. Why will you not believe it? Ye have plain scripture-testimony for it; but you are loth to entertain

such an ill opinion of yourselves. Alas! that is the nature of your disease, Rev. iii. 17. Thou—knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Lord open their eyes to see it, before they die of it; and in hell lift up their eyes, and see what they will not see now.

I shall shut up this weighty point of the corruption of man's nature, with a few words to another doctrine from the text.

DOCTRINE God takes special notice of our natural corruption, or the sin of our nature. This he testifies two ways, 1. By his word, as in the text. God saw—that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was enly evil continually▪ See Psal xiv. 2, 3▪ 2. By his works. God writes his particular notice of it, and displeasure with it, as in many of his works, so especially in these two:

(1.) In the death of the infant children of men. Many miseries they have been exposed to: they were drowned in the deluge, con|sumed in Sodom by fire and brimstone; they have been slain with the sword, dashed against the stones, and are still dying ordinary deaths. What is the true cause of this? On what ground doth a holy God thus pursue them? Is it the sin of their parents? That may be the occasion of the Lord's raising the process against them: but it must be their own sin that is the ground of the sentence passing on them: for the soul that sinneth, it shall die, saith God, Ezek. xviii. 4. Is it their own actual sin? They have none. But as men do with toads and serpents, which they kill at first sight, before they have done any hurt, because of their venomous nature, so is it in this case.

(2) In the birth of the elect children of God. When the Lord is about to change their nature, he makes the sin of their nature ly heavy on their spirits. When he mind•• to let out the corruption, the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 gets full depth in their souls, reaching to the root of sin, Rom. vii. 7, 8, 9. The flesh, or corruption of nature is pierced, being crucified, as well as the affections and lusts, Gal v. 24

USE. Let us then have a special eye upon 〈◊〉〈◊〉 corruption and sin of our nature. God sees it: O that we 〈…〉〈…〉, and that sin were ever before us! What avails it to notice of 〈…〉〈…〉 this ••other-sin is not noticed? Turn your eyes inward to the sin of your nature. It is to be feared, many have this work to begin yet; that they have shut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house undiscovered. This is a weighty point; and in the handling of it,

I. I shall, for conviction, point at some evidences of men's over|looking the sin of their nature, which yet the Lord takes particular notice of, (1.) Men's looking on themselves with such confidence, as if they were in no hazard of gross sins. Many would take it very hainously to get such a caution, a•• Christ g••ve his Apostles, Luke xxi. ••1. Take heed of surfeiting and drunk••ess. If any should suppose them to break out in gros•• abominations, they would be ready to say, Am I a dog? It would raise the pride of their hearts, but not their fear and trembling; because they know 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the corruption of their nature.

(2.) Untenderness towards those that fall: Many in that case cast off all bowels of Christian compassion; for they do not consider them|selves, lest they also be tempted, Gal. vi. 1. Men's passions are often highest against the faults of others, when sin sleeps soundly in their own breasts. Even good David, when he was at his worst, was most violent against the faults of others. While his conscience was asleep under his guilt, in the matter of Uriah; the Spirit of the Lord takes notice, that his anger was greatly kindled against the man, in the parable▪ 2 Sam xii. 5. And on good grounds, it is thought, it was at the same time that he treated the Ammonites so cruelly, as is related, ver. 31. Putting them under saw••, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and making them pass throw the brick kiln. Grace makes men zealous against sin in others, as well as in themselves: but eyes turned inward to the corruption of nature, clothe them with pity and com|passion; and fill them with thankfulness to the Lord, that they them|selves were not the persons left to be such spectacles of human frailty. (3.) There are not a few, who, if they be kept from affliction in worldly things, and from gross out-breakings in their conversation, know not what it is to have a sad heart. If they meet with a cross, which their proud hearts cannot stoop to bear, they will be ready to say, O to be gone: but the corruption of their nature never makes them long for heaven. Lusts scandalously breaking out at a time, will mar their peace: but the sin of their nature never makes them a heavy heart. (4.) Delaying of repentance, in hopes to set about it afterwards. Many have their own appointed time for repentance and reformation: as if they were such complete masters over their lusts, that they can allow them to gather more strength, and yet over|come them. They take up resolutions to amend, without an eye to Jesus Christ, union with him, and strength from him; a plain evidence they are strangers to themselves; and so they are left to themselves, and their flourishing resolutions wither; for as they see not the ne|cessity, so they get not the benefit of the dew from heaven to water them. (5.) Men's venturing frankly on temptations and promising liberally on their own heads. They cast themselves fearlesly into temptation, in confidence of their coming off fairly: but were they sensible of the corruption of their nature, they would beware of en|tering on the devil's ground: as one girt about with bag•• of gun-powder, would be loth to walk where sparks of fire are flying, lest he should be blown up. Self-jealousing well become•• Christians. Lord, is it I? They that know the deceit of their bow, will not be very confident that they shall hit the mark. (••.) Unacquaintedness with heart-plagues. The knowledge of the plagues of the heart, is a rare qualification. There are indeed some of them: written in such great characters, that he who runs may read them: but there are others more subtile, which few do discern. How few are the•• to whom the bias of the heart to unbelief, is a burden? Nay, they perceive it not. Many have had sharp conviction•• of other si••s that were 〈◊〉〈◊〉

to this day convinced of their unbelief; tho' that is the sin specially aimed at in a thorough conviction, John xvi 8, 9.—He will reprove the world of sin,—because they believe not on me. A disposition to establish our own righteousness is a weed that naturally grows in every man's heart: but few sweat at the plucking of it up: it lurks undiscovered. The bias of the heart to the way of the covenant of works, is a hidden plague of the heart to many. All the difficulty they find is, in getting up their hearts to duties: they find no difficulty in getting their hearts off them, and over them to Jesus Christ. How hard is it to stave men off from their own righteousness? Yet it is very hard to convince them of their leaning to it at all. Lastly, Pride and self-conceit. A view of the corruption of nature would be very humbling; and oblige him that has it, to reckon himself the chief of sinners. Under the greatest attainments and enlargements, it would be ballast to his heart, and hide pride from his eyes. The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the sin of one's nature, is the ruin of many professors: for digging deep makes great difference betwixt wise and foolish builders, Luke vi. 48, 49.

II. I will lay before you a few things, in which ye should have a special eye to the sin of your nature. (1.) Have a special eye to it in your application to Jesus Christ. Do you find any need of Christ, which sends you to him as the Physician of souls? O forget not your disease when you are with the Physician. They never yet knew well their errand to Christ, that went not to him for the sin of their nature: for his blood to take away the guilt of it, and his Spirit to break the power of it. Tho' in the bitterness of your souls, you should lay before him a catalogue of your sins of ommission and com|mission, which might reach from earth to heaven; yet if the sin of your nature were wanting in it, assure yourselves, you have forgot the best part of the errand a poor sinner has to the Physician of souls. What would it have availed the people of Jericho, to have set before Elisha all the vessels in their city full of the water that was naught, if they had not led him forth to the spring, to cast in the salt there? 2 Kings ii. 19.20, 21. The application is easy. (2.) Have a special eye towards it in your repentance, whether initial or progressive, in your first repentance, and in the renewing of your repentance, after|wards. Tho' a man be sick, there is no fear of death, if the sickness strike not his heart; and there is as little fear of the death of sin, as long as the sin of our nature is not touched. But if ye would repent indeed, let the streams lead you up to the fountain; and mourn over your corrupt nature, as the cause of all sin, in heart, lip, and life. Psal. li. 4, 5. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and none this evil in thy sight — Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (4.) Have a special eye upon it, in your mortification. Gal. v. 24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. It is the root of bitterness, that must be struck at, which the ax of mortifi|cation must be laid to; else we labour in vain. In vain do men go

about to purge the streams, while they are at no pains about the muddy fountain: It is vain religion to attempt to make the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 truly good, while the corruption of nature retains its ancient vigour, and the power of it is not broken. Lastly, Ye are to eye it in your daily walk. He that would walk aright, must have one eye upwards to Jesus Christ; and another inward to the corruption of his own nature. It is not enough that we look about us, we must also look within us. There the wall is weakest: there our greatest enemy lies; and there are grounds for daily watching and mourning.

III. I shall offer some reasons, why we should especially notice the sin of our nature.

1. Because of all sins it is the most extensive and diffusive. It goes through the whole man, and spoils all. Other sins mar particular parts of the image of God; but this doth at once deface the whole. A disease affecting any particular member of the body is ill; but that which affects the whole is worse. The corruption of nature is the poison of the old serpent, cast into the fountain of action: and so infects every action, every breathing of the soul.

1. It is the cause of all particular lusts, and actual sins, in our hearts and lives. It is the spawn which the great Leviathan has left in the souls of men; from whence comes all the fry of actual sins and abo|minations. Mark vii. 21. Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, &c. It is the bitter fountain: particular lusts are but rivulets running from it: which bring forth into the life, a part only, and not the whole of what is within. Now the fountain is still above the streams: so where the water is good, it is best in the fountain▪ where it is ill, it is worst there. The corruption of nature being that which defiles all, itself must needs be the most abominable thing.

3. It Is virtually all sin: for it is the seed of all sins which want but the occasion to set up their heads: being in the corruption of nature, as the effect in the virtue of its cause. Hence it is called a body of death, (Rom. vii. 24) as consisting of the several members, belonging to such a body of sins, (Col ii 11.) whose life lies in spiritual death. It is the cursed ground, fit to bring forth all manner of noxi|ous weeds. As the whole nest of venemous creatures must needs be more dreadful, than any few of them that come creeping forth; so the sin of thy nature, that mother of abominations must be worse than any particular lusts, that appear stirring in thy heart and life. Never did every sin appear in the conversation of the vilest wretch that ever lived; but look thou into thy corrupt nature, and there thou mayest see all and every sin in the seed and root thereof. There is a ••••lness of all unrighteousness there, Rom. i.29. There is atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and whatsoever is vile. Possibly none of these appear to thee in thy heart: but there is more in that un|fathomable depth of wickedness, than thou knowest. Thy corrupt heart is like an ant's nest, on which, while the stone lieth, none of them appear: but take off the stone, stir them up, but with the point

of a straw, you will see what a swarm is there, and how lively they be Just such a sight would thy heart afford thee, did the Lord but withdraw the restraint he has upon it, and suffer Satan to stir it up by temptation.

4.The sin of our nature is, of all sins, the most fixed and abiding. Sinful actions, tho' the guilt and stain of them may remain, yet in themselves they are passing. The drunkard is not always at his cup, nor the unclean person always acting lewdness. But the corruption of nature is an abiding sin: it remains with men in its full power by night and by day, at all times, fixed as with bands of iron and brass: till their nature be changed by converting grace; and the remains of it continue with the godly, until the death of the body. Pride, envy, covetousness, and the like, are not always stirring in thee. But the proud, envious, carnal nature is still with thee: even as the clock that is wrong, is not always striking wrong; but the wrong set continues with it, without great intermission.

5. It is the great reigning sin, Rom. vi. 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. There are three things you may observe in the corrupt heart. (1.) There is the corrupt nature; the corrupt set of the heart whereby men are unapt for all good, and fitted for all evil. This the apostle here calls, sin which reigns. (2.) There are particular lusts, or dispositions of that corrupt nature, which the Apostle calls the lusts thereof; such as pride, covetousness, &c (3.) There is one among these, which is (like Saul amongst the people) higher by far than the rest, namely, the sin which doth so easily beset us, Heb. xii. 1. This we usually call the predominate sin, because it doth, as it were, reign over other particular lusts; so that other lusts must yield to it. These three are like a river which divides itself into many streams, whereof one is greater than the rest. The corruption of nature is the river-head, which has many particular lusts, in which it runs: but it mainly disburdens itself into what is commonly called one's predo|minate sin. Now all of these being fed by the sin of our nature; it is evident that sin is the great reigning sin, which never loseth its superiority over particular lusts, that live and die with it, and by it. But as in some rivers, the main stream runs not always in one and the same channel: so particular predominants may be changed, as lusts in youth may be succeeded by covetousness in old age. Now, what doth it avail to reform in other sins, while the great reigning sin remains in its full power? What tho' some particular lust be broken? If that sin, the sin of our nature keep the throne, it will set up another in its stead: as when a water-course is stopt in one place, while the fountain is not dammed up, it will stream forth another way. And thus some cast off their prodigality, but covetousness comes up in its stead: some cast away their profanity, and the corruption of nature sends not its main stream that way as before: but it rans in another channel, namely, in that of a legal disposition, self-righteousness, or the like, so

that people are ruined by their not eying the sin of their nature.

Lastly, It is an hereditary evil, Psal. li. 5. In sin did my mother conceive me. Particular lusts are not so, but in the virtue of their cause. A prodigal father may have a frugal son: but this disease is necessarily propagated in nature, and therefore hardest to cure. Surely then the word should be given out against this sin, as against the King of Israel, 1 Kings xxii. 31. Fight neither with small nor great, save only with this: for this sin being broke, all other sins are broken with it; and while it stands entire, there is no victory.

IV. That ye may get a view of the corruption of your nature, I would recommend to you three things (1.) Study to know the spirituality and extent of the law of God, for that is the glass wherein you may see yourselves (2.) Observe your hearts at all times, but especially under temptation. Temptation is a fire that brings up the scum of the vile heart: do ye carefully mark the first risings of cor|ruption. Lastly, Go to God through Jesus Christ, for illumination by his Spirit. Lay out your soul before the Lord, as willing to know the vileness of your nature: say unto him, That which I know not, teach thou m••: and be willing to take in light from the word. Believe, and you shall see. It is by the word the Spirit teacheth, but, without the Spirit's teaching, all other teaching will be to little purpose. Tho' the gospel should shine about you, like the sun at noon-day; and this great truth be never so plainly preached: you will never see yourselves aright, until the Spirit of the Lord light his candle within your breast: the fulness and glory of Christ, the corruption and vileness of our nature, are never rightly learned, but where the Spirit of Christ is the teacher.

And now to shut up this weighty point, let the consideration of what is said, commend Christ to you all. Ye that are brought out of your natural state of corruption unto Christ, be humble; still coming to Christ, and improving your union with him, to the further weak|ning of the remains of this natural corruption. Is your nature changed? It is but in part so. The day was, ye could not stir; now ye are cured: but remember the cure is not yet perfected, ye still go halting. And tho' it were better with you than it is; the remembrance of what you were by nature, should keep you low. Ye that are yet in your natural state, take with it: believe the corruption of your nature: and let Christ and his grace be precious in your eyes. O that ye would at length be serious about the state of your souls! What mind ye to do? Ye must die; ye must appear before the judgment seat of God. Will ye ly down, and sleep another night at ease, in this case? Do it not: for before another day you may be sisted before God's dreadful tri|bunal, in the grave cloaths of your corrupt state; and your vile souls cast into the pit of destruction, as a corrupt lump, to be for ever buried out of God's sight. For I testify unto you all, there is no peace with God, no pardon, no heaven for you, in this state: there is but a step betwixt you and eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord:

if the brittle thread of your life, which may be broke with a touch, ere you are aware, be indeed broken while you are in this state; you are ruined for ever, and without remedy. But come speedily to Jesus Christ: he has cleansed as vile souls as yours; and he will yet cleanse the blood that he hath cleansed, Joel iii. 21. Thus far of the sinfulness of man's natural state.

HEAD II. The MISERY of MAN's Natural State.

EPHESIANS ii. 3.

We—were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

HAVING shewed you the sinfulness of man's natural state, I come now to lay before you the misery of it. A sinful state cannot be but a miserable state. If sin go before, wrath follows of course. Corruption and destruction are so knit together, that the Holy Ghost calls destruction, even eternal destruction, corruption, Gal. vi. 8. He that soweth to his flesh,shall of the flesh reap corruption, that is, everlasting destruction; as is clear from its being opposed to life everlasting, in the following clause. And so the Apostle having shown the Ephesians their real state by nature, to wit, that they were dead in sins and trespasses, altogether corrupt; he tells them in the words of the text, their relative state, namely, that the pit was digged for them, while in that state of corruption: being dead in sins, they were by nature children of wrath, even as others.

In the words we have four things,

1. The misery of a natural state; it is a state of wrath, as well as a state of sin. We were, says the Apostle, children of wrath, bound over, and liable to the wrath of God; under wrath in some measure; and, in wrath, bound over to more, even the full measure of it in hell, where the floods of it go over the prisoners for ever. Thus Saul, in his wrath, adjudging David to die, (1 Sam. xx. 31.) and David, in his wrath, passing sentence of death against the man in the parable, (2 Sam. xii. 5.) say each of them, of his supposed criminal, He shall surely die: or, as the words in the first language are, he is a son of death. So the natural man is a child of wrath, a son of death. He is a malefactor dead in law, lying in chains of guilt: a criminal held fast in his setters, till the day of execution: which will not fail, unless a pardon be obtained from his God, who is his judge and party too. By that means, indeed, children of wrath may become children of the kingdom. The phrase in the text, however common it is in holy

language, is very significant. And as it is evident, that the Apostle calling natural men, the children of disobedience, (ver. 2) means more, than that they were disobedient children; for such may the Lord's own children be: so to be children of wrath, is more than simply to be liable to, or under wrath. Jesus Christ was liable to, and under wrath: but I doubt we have any warrant to say, he was a child of wrath. The phrase seems to intimate, that men are, whatsoever they are in their natural state, under the wrath of God; that they are wholly under wrath: wrath is, as it were, woven into their very nature, and mixeth itself with the whole of the man; who is (if I may so speak) a very lump of wrath, a child of hell, as the iron in the fire is all fire, For men naturally are children of wrath, come forth, so to speak, out of the womb of wrath; Jonah's gourd was the son of a night, (which we render came up in a night, Jonah iv. 10.) as if it had come out of the womb of the night; (as we read of the womb of the morning, Psal. cx. 3.) and so, the birth following the belly whence it came, was soon gone. The sparks of fire are called sons of the burning coal, Job v. 7. marg. Isa. xxi. 10. O my threshing, and the corn (or son) of my floor, threshen in the floor of wrath, and, as it were brought forth by it. Thus the natural man is a child of wrath: it comes into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones, Psal. cix. 18. For, tho' Judas was the only son of perdition amongst the Apostles; yet all men, by nature, are of the same family.

2. There is the rise of this misery: men have it by nature. They owe it to their nature: not to their substance or offence: for that neither is nor was sin, and therefore cannot make them children of wrath; tho' for sin it may be under wrath: not to their nature as qualified, at man's creation, by his Maker: but to their nature as vitiated and corrupted by the fall. To the vicious quality, or cor|ruption of their nature, (whereof before) which is their principle of action, and ceasing from action, the only principle is an unregenerate state. Now by this nature, men are children of wrath; as in time of pestilential infection, one draws in death together with the disease then raging. Wherefore seeing from our first being, as children of Adam, we be corrupt children, shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin; we are also, from that moment, children of wrath.

3. The university of this misery. All are by nature children of wrath; We, saith the Apostle, even as others; Jews as well as Gentiles. Those that are now, by grace, the children of God, were, by nature, in no better case, than those that are still in their natural state.

Lastly, There is a glorious and happy change intimated here; we were children of wrath, but are not so now; grace has brought us out of that fearful state. This the Apostle says of himself and other believers. And thus, it well becomes the people of God to be often standing on the shore looking back to the red-sea of the state of wrath, they were sometimes weltering in, even as others.

Man's natural State, a State of Wrath.

DOCTRINE, The state of nature is a state of wrath. Every one in a natural unregenerate state, is in a state of wrath. We are born children of wrath; and continue so, until we be born again. Nay, as soon as we were children of Adam, we were children of wrath.

I shall usher in what I am to say on this point, with a few observes touching the universality of this state of wrath; which may serve to prepare the way of the word into your consciences.

Wrath has gone as wide as ever sin went. When angels sinned, the wrath of God brake in upon them as a flood; God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 2 Pet. ii. 4. And thereby it was demonstrated, that no natural excellency in the creature will shield it from the wrath of God; if once it becomes a sinful creature. The finest and the nicest piece of the workmanship of heaven, if once the Creator's image upon it be defaced by sin, God can and will dash it in pieces, in his wrath; unless satisfaction be made to justice, and that image be repaired; neither of which the sinner himself can do. Adam sinned; and the whole lump of mankind was leavened, and bound over to the fiery oven of God's wrath. And from the text ye may learn, (1.) That ignorance of that state cannot free men from it; the Gentiles that knew not God, were by nature children of wrath, even as others. A man's house may be on fire, his wife and children perishing in the flames; while he knows nothing of it, and therefore is not concerned about it. Such is your case, O ye that are ignorant of these things! wrath is silently sinking into your souls, while you are blessing yourselves, saying, Ye shall have peace. Ye need not a more certain token, that ye are children of wrath, than that ye never yet saw yourselves such. Ye cannot be the children of God, that never yet saw yourselves children of the devil. Ye cannot be in the way to heaven, that never saw yourselves by nature in the high road to hell. Ye are grosly ignorant of your state by nature; and so ignorant of God, and of Christ, and your need of him: and tho' ye look on your ignorance as a covert from wrath; yet take it out of the mouth of God himself, that it will ruin you if it be not removed, Isa. xxvii. 11. It is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them. See 2 Thess. i. 8. Hos. iv. 6. (2.) No outward privileges can exempt men from this state of wrath; for the Jews, the children of the kingdom, God's peculiar people, were children of wrath even as others. Tho' ye be church-members, partakers of all church privileges; tho' you be descended of godly parents, of great and honourable families; be what ye will, ye are by nature, heirs of hell, children of wrath. (3.) No profession, nor attainments in a profession of religion, do or can exempt a man from this state of wrath. Paul was one of the straitest sect of the Jewish religion, Acts xxvi. 5, yet a child of wrath, even as others, till he was

converted. The close hypocrite, and the profane, are alike as to their state; however different their conversations be: and they will be alike in their fatal end, Psal. cxxv. 5. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. (4.) Young ones that are yet but setting out into the world, have not that to do, to make themselves children of wrath, by follow|ing the graceless multitude. They are children of wrath by nature: so it is done already: they were born heirs of hell; they will indeed make themselves more so, if they do not, while they are young, flee from the wrath they were born to, by fleeing to Jesus Christ.— Lastly, Whatever men are now by grace, they were even as others, by nature. And this may be a sad meditation to them, that have been at ease from their youth, and have had no changes.

Now, these things being premised, I shall, in the first place, shew what this state of wrath is; next, confirm the doctrine; and then apply it.

I. I am to shew what this state of wrath is. But who can fully describe the wrath of an angry God? None can do it. Yet so much of it must be discovered, as may serve to convince men of the absolute necessity of fleeing to Jesus Christ, out of that state of wrath. Anger in men is a passion, and commotion of the spirit for an injury received, with a desire to resent the same. When it comes to a height, and is fixed in one's spirit, it is called wrath. Now there are no passions in God, properly speaking: they are inconsistent with his absolute uuchangeableness, and independency; and therefore Paul and Barnabas (to remove the mistake of the Lycaonians, who thought they were gods) tell them, they were men of like passions with themselves, Acts xiv. 15. Wrath then is attributed to God, not in respect of the affection of wrath, but the effects thereof. Wrath is a fire in the bowels of a man, tormenting the man himself: but there is no per|turbation in God. His wrath does not in the least mar that infinite rep••••e and happiness, which he hath in himself. It is a most pure undisturbed act of his will producing dreadful effects against the sinner. It is little we know of an infinite God: but condescending to our weak|ness, he is pleased to speak of himself to us, after the manner of men. Let us therefore notice man's wrath, but remove every thing in our consideration of the wrath of God, that argues imperfection: and so we may attain to some view of it, however scanty. By this means we are led to take up the wrath of God against the natural man in these three.

First, There is wrath in the heart of God against him. The Lord approves him not, but is displeased with him. Every natural man lies under the displeasure of God; and that is heavier than mountains of brass, Altho' he be pleased with himself, and others be pleased with him too; yet God looks down on him, as displeased. First, His person is under God's displeasure: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity, Psal. v. 5. A godly man's sin is displeasing to God, yet his person is

still accepted in the Beloved, Eph. i. 6, But God is angry with the wicked every day, Psal. vii. 11. There is a fire of wrath burns con|tinually against him, in the heart of God. They are as dogs and swine, most abominable creatures in the sight of God. Tho' their natural state be gilded over with a shining profession, yet they are abhorred of God: they are to him as smoke in his nose, Isa. lxv. 5. and lukewarm water, to be spewed out of his mouth, Rev, iii. 16. whited sepulchres, Matth. xxiii. 27. a generation of vipers, Matth. xii. 34. and a people of his wrath, Isa. x. 6.

Secondly, He is displeased with all they do: It is impossible for them to please him, being unbelievers, Heb. xi. 6. He hates their persons: and so hath no pleasure in, but is displeased with their best works, Isa lvi. 3. He that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck, &c. Their duty, as done by them, is an abomination to the Lord, Prov xv. 8. And as men turn their back upon them whom they are angry with; so the Lord's refusing communion with the natural man in his duties, is a plain indication of this wrath.

Secondly, There is wrath in the word of God against him. When wrath is in the heart, it seeks a vent by the lips: so God fights against the natural man with the sword of his mouth, Rev ii. 16. The Lord's word never speaks good of him, but always curseth or condemneth him. Hence it is, that when he is awakened, the word read or preached often increaseth his horror. Firs;t, It condemns all his actions, together with his corrupt nature. There is nothing he does, but the law declares it to be sin. It is a rule of perfect obedience, from which he always in all things, declines; and so it rejects every thing he doth as sin. Secondly, It pronounceth his doom, and de|nounceth God's curse against him, Gal. iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of law, to do them. Be he never so well in the world, it pronoun|ceth a woe from heaven against him, Isa.iii. 11. The Bible is a quiver filled with arrows of wrath against him, ready to be poured in on his soul. God's threatnings in his word, hang over his head as a black cloud, ready to shower down on him every moment. The word is indeed the saint's security against wrath, but it binds the natural man's sin and wrath together, as a certain pledge of his ruin, if he continue in that state. So the conscience being awakened, and per|ceiving this tie made by the law, the man is filled with terrors in his soul.

Thirdly, There is wrath in the hand of God against the natural man. He is under heavy strokes of wrath already, and is liable to more.

1st, There is wrath on his body. It is a piece of cursed day, which wrath is sinking into by virtue of the threatning of the first covenant, Gen. ii. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. There is never a disease, gripe nor stitch, that affects him, but it comes on him with the sting of God's indignation in it. They are all cords of death, sent before to bind the prisoner.

2dly, There is wrath upon his soul. (1.) He can have no com|munion with God; he is foolish, and shall not stand in God's sight, Psal v. 5. When Adam sinned, God turned him out of paradise: and natural men are, as Adam left them, banished from the gracious presence of the Lord; and can have no access to him in that state. There is war betwixt heaven and them: and so all commerce is cut off. They are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. The sun is gone down on them, and there is not the least glimpse of favour towards them from heaven. (2) Hence the soul is left to pine away in its iniquity. The natural darkness of their minds, the averseness to good in their wills, the disorder of their assertions, and distemper of their consciences, and all their natural plagues, we left upon them in a penal way; and being so left, increase daily. God casts a portion of worldly goods to them, more or less; as a bone is thrown to a dog: but alas! his wrath against them appears, in that they get no grace. The Physician of souls comes by them, and goes by them, and cures others beside them; while they are consuming away in their iniquity, and ripning daily for utter destruction. (3.) They ly open to fearful additional plagues on their souls, even in this life. First, Sometimes they meet with deadning strokes; silent blows from the hand of an angry God; arrows of wrath that enter into their souls without noise, Isa. vi. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, &c. God strives with them for a while, and convictions enter their consciences; but they rebel against the light: and by a secret judgment, they are knocked on the head; so that, from that time, they do as it were, live and rot above ground. Their hearts are deadned; their affections withered; their consciences stupified; and their whole souls blasted; cast forth as a branch, and withered, John xv. 16. They are plagued with judicial blindness. They shut their eyes against the light, and they are given over to the devil, the god of this world, to be blinded more, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Yea, God sends them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, 2 Thess. ii. 11. even conscience, like a self light on the shore leads them upon rocks; by which they are broken in pieces. They harden themselves against God; and he gives up with them, and leaves them to Satan and their own hearts, whereby they are hardned more and more. They are often given up unto ••••e affections, Rom. i. 26. The reins are laid on their necks; and they are left to run into all excess, as their furious lusts draw them. Secondly, Sometimes they meet with quickning strokes, whereby their souls become 〈◊〉〈◊〉 mount Sinai; where nothing is seen, but fire and smoak: 〈◊〉〈◊〉 heard, but the thunder of God's wrath, and the voice of the trumpet of a broken law, waxing louder and louder▪ which makes them 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Pastner, (Jer. xx. 4.) A terror to themselves. God takes the filthy garments of their sins, which they were wont to sleep in securely; overlays them with brimstone, and sets them on fire about their ears: so they have a hell within them.

3dly, There is wrath on the natural man's enjoyments. What|ever be wanting in his house, there is one thing that is never wanting there, Prov. iii. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. Wrath is on all that he has; on the bread that he eats, the liquor he drinks, and clothes which he wears. His basket and store are cursed, Deut. xxviii. 17. Some things fall wrong with him; and that comes to pass by virtue of his wrath; other things go according to his wish, and there is wrath in that too; for it is a snare to his soul, Prov. i 32. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. This wrath turns his bless|ings into curses, Mal ii. 2. I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already. The holy law is a killing letter to him, 2 Cor. iii. 6. The ministry of the gospel, a savour of death unto death, chap. ii. 15. In the sacrament of the Lord's supper, he eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, 1 Cor xi. 29. Nay, more than all that, Christ himself is to him, a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, 1 Pet. ii. 8. Thus wrath follows the natural man, as his shadow doth his body.

4thly, He is under the power of Satan, Acts xxvi. 18. The devil has overcome him, so he is his by conquest; his lawful captive, Isa. xlix. 24. The natural man is condemned already, John iii. 18. and therefore under the heavy hand of him that hath the power of death, that is the devil. And he keeps his prisoner, in the prison of a natural state, bound hand and foot, Isa. lxi 1. Laden with divers lusts, as chains wherewith he holds them fast. Thou needest not, as many do, call on the devil to take thee; for he has a fast hold of thee already, as a child of wrath.

Lastly, The natural man has no security for a moment's safety from the wrath of God its coming on him to the uttermost. The curse of the law denounced against him, has already tied him to the stake: so that the arrows of justice may pierce his soul; and in him may meet all the miseries and plagues that flow from the avenging wrath of God. See how he is set as a mark to the arrows of wrath, Psal. vii. 11, 12, 13. God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready; he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. Doth he ly down to sleep? There is not a promise, he knows of, or can know, to secure him that he shall not be in hell ere he awake. Justice is pursuing, and cries for vengeance on the sinner: the law casts the fire balls of its curses continually upon him: wasted and long tired pati|ence is that which keeps in his life: he walks amidst enemies armed against him: his name may be Magor Missabib, i. e. terror round about, Jer. xx. 3. Angels, devils, men, beasts, stones, heaven, and earth, are in readiness, on a word of command ••rom the Lord, to ruin him.

Thus the natural man lives, but he must die too; and death is a dreadful messenger to him It comes upon him armed with wrath, and puts three sad charges in his hand (1) Death chargeth him to bid an eternal farewell to all things in this world; to leave it, and make away to another world. Ah! what a dredful charge must this

be to a child of wrath! He can have no comfort from heaven; for God is his enemy: and as for the things of the world, and the enjoy|ment of his lusts, which were the only springs of his comfort; these are in a moment dried up to him for ever. He is not ready for another world: he was not thinking of removing so soon: or if he was, yet he has no portion secured to him in another world, but that which he was born to, and was increasing all his days, namely, a treasure of wrath. But go he must; his clay god, the world, must be parted with, and what has he more? There was never a glimmering of light, or favour from heaven, to his soul: and now the wrath that did hang in the threatning as a cloud like a man's hand, is darkning the face of the whole heaven above him: and if he look unto the earth, (from whence all his light was wont to come) behold trouble and darkness, dirtness of anguish; and he shall be driven to darkness, Isa. viii 22. (2) Death chargeth soul and body to part till the great day▪ His soul is required of him, Luke xii 20. O what a miserable parting must this be to a child of wrath! care was indeed taken to provide for the body things necessary for this life▪ but alas! there is nothing laid up for another life to it; nothing to be a seed of glorious resur|rection: as it lived, so it must die, and rise again sinful flesh; fuel for the fire of God's wrath. As for the soul, he was never solicitous to provide for it. It lay in the body, dead to God▪ and all things truly good; and so must be carried out into the pit, in the grave cloths of its natural state: for now that death comes, the companions in sin must part. (3.) Death chargeth the soul to compear before the tribunal of God, while the body lies to be carried to the grave, Eccles. xii. 7. The spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Heb. ix 2, 7. It is ap|pointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment. Well were it for the sinful soul if it might be buried together with the body. But that cannot be: it must go and receive its sentence; and shall be shut up in the prison of hell, while the cursed body lies imprisoned in the grave, till the day of the general judgment.

When the end of the world, appointed of God, is come; the trumpet shall sound, and the dead arise. Then shall the weary earth, at the command of the Judge, cast forth the bodies; the cursed bodies of these that lived and died in their natural state: The sea, death, and hell, shall deliver up their dead, Rev. xx. 13. Their miserable bodies and souls shall be re-united, and they sitted before the tribunal of Christ. Then shall they receive that fearful sentence, D••part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, Matth. xx. 41. Whereupon they shall go away into everlasting punishment, ver. 49. They shall be eternally shut up in hell, never to get the least drop of comfort, nor the least ease of their torment. There they will be punished with the punishment of loss: being ex|communicated for ever from the presence of God, his angels and saints. All means of grace, all hopes of a delivery, shall be for ever cut off from their eyes. They shall not have a drop of water to cool their

tongues, Luke xvi. 24, 25. They shall be punished with the punish|ment of sense. They must not only depart from God; but depart into fire, into everlasting fire. There the worm, that shall gnaw them, shall never die; the fire, that shall scorch them, shall never be quenched. God shall, thro' all eternity, hold them up with the one hand, and pour the full vials of wrath into them with the other.

This is that state of wrath natural men live in; being under much of the wrath of God, and liable to more. But for a further view of it, let us consider the qualities of that wrath (1.) It is irresistible, there is no standing before it. Who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry? Psal. lxxxvi. 7. Can the worm, or the moth, defend itself against him that designs to crush it? As little can worm man stand before an angry God Foolish man indeed practically bids a defiance to heaven: but the Lord often, even in this world, opens such sluices of wrath upon them, as all their might cannot stop; but they are carried away thereby, as with a flood. How much more will it be so in hell? (2.) It is unsupportable. What one cannot resist, he will set himself to bear: but, Who shall dwell with devouring fire? Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings? God's wrath is a weight that will sink men into the lowest hell. It is a burden no man is able to stand under. A wounded spirit who can bear it? Prov. xviii. 14. (3.) It is unavoidable to such as will go on impenitently in their sin|ful course. He that being often reproved, hardneth his neck, shall sud|denly be destroyed, and that without remedy, Prov. xxix 1. We may now fly from it indeed, by flying to Jesus Christ: but such as fly from Christ, shall never be able to avoid it. Whither can men fly from an avenging God? Where will they find a shelter? The hills will not hear them; the mountains will be deaf to their loudest cries; when they cry to them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. (4.) It is powerful and fierce wrath, Psal. xc. 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fean, so is thy wrath. We are apt to fear the wrath of man more than we ought: but no man can appre|hend the wrath of God to be more dreadful than it really is: the power of it can never be known to the utmost; seeing it is infinite, and (properly speaking) has no utmost: how fierce soever it be, either on earth, or in hell, God can still carry it further. Every thing in God is most perfect in its kind; and therefore no wrath is so fierce as his. O sinner, how wilt thou be able to endure that wrath, which will tear thee in pieces, Psal. l. 22. and grind thee to powder, Luke xx 18. The history of the two she bears, that tare the children of Bethel, is an awful on, 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. But the united force of the rage of lions, leopards, and she bears bereaved of their whelps, is not sufficient to give us even a scanty view of the power of the wrath of God, Hos. xiii. 7, 8. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rent the caul of their heart, &c. (5) It is penetrating and piercing wrath. It is burning wrath, and

firey indignation. There is no pain more exquisite, than that which is caused by fire; and no fire so piercing as the fire of God's indigna|tion, that burns into the lowest hell, Deut. xxxii. 22. The arrows of men's wrath can pierce flesh, blood and bones: but cannot reach the soul: but the wrath of God will sink into the soul, and so pierce a man in the most tender part. Like as, when a person is thunder-struck, oft-times there is not a wound to be seen in the skin; yet life is gone, and the bones are, as it were, melted: so God's wrath can penetrate into, and melt one's soul within him, when his earthly comforts stand about him entire, and untouched as in Belshazzar's case, Dan. v. 6. (6.) It is constant wrath, running parallel with the man's continuance in an unregenerate state; constantly attending him, from the womb to the grave. There are few so dark days, but the sun sometimes looketh out from under the clouds: but the wrath of God, is an abiding cloud on the subjects of it, John iii 36. The wrath of God abideth on him that believes not. (7.) It is eternal. O miser|able soul! If thou fly not from this wrath unto Jesus Christ, thy misery had a beginning, but it shall never have an end. Should devouring death wholly swallow thee up, and for ever hold thee fast in a grave; it would be kind, but thou must live again, and never die; that thou mayst be ever dying, in the hands of the living God. Cold death will quench the flame of man's wrath against us, if nothing else do it: but God's wrath, when it has come on the sinner, millions of ages will still be the wrath to come, Matth. iii. 7. 1 Thess. i. 10. As the water of a river is still coming, how much soever of it has passed. While God is, he will pursue the quarrel. Lastly, Howsoever dreadful it is, and tho' it be eternal, yet it is most just wrath: it is a clear fire, without the least smoak of unjustice. The sea of wrath raging with greatest fury against the sinner, is clear as chrystal. The Judge of all the earth can do no wrong. He knows no transports of passion, for they are inconsistent with the perfection of his nature. Is God un|righteous, who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then, how shall God judge the world? Rom. iii. 5, 6.

The Doctrine of the State of Wrath confirmed and vindicated.

II. I shall confirm the doctrine. Consider, (1.) How peremptory the threatning of the first covenant is; In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, Gen. ii. 17. Hereby sin and punishment being connected, the veracity of God ascertains the execution of the threat|ning. Now all men being by nature under this covenant, the breach of it lays them under the curse. (2.) The justice of God requires that a child of sin be a child of wrath; that the law being broken, the sanction thereof should take place. God, as man's ruler and Judge, cannot but do right, Gen. xviii. 25 Now it is a righteous thing with God to recompence sin with wrath, 2 Thess. i. 6. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, Hab. i. 13. And he hat•••• all the workers of

iniquity, Psal. v. 6. (3.) The horrors of a natural conscience prove this. There is a conscience in the breasts of men, which can tell them, they are sinners; and therefore liable to the wrath of God. Let men, at any time, soberly commune with themselves, and they will find they have the witness in themselves, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things, are worthy of death, Rom. i. 32. (4) The pangs of the new birth, the work of the spirit of bondage on elect souls, in order to their conversion, demonstrate this. Hereby their natural sinfulness and misery, as liable to the wrath of God, are plainly taught them, filling their hearts with fear of that wrath. Now that this spirit of bondage is no other than the Spirit of God, whose work is to convince of sin, righteousness, and judg|ment, (John xvi. 8.) this testimony must needs be true; for the Spirit of truth cannot witness an untruth. Mean while, true be|lievers being freed from the state of wrath, receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but receive the Spirit of adoption, Rom. iii. 15. And therefore, if fears of that nature do arise, after the soul's union with Christ: they come from the saint's own spirit, or from a worse. Lastly, The sufferings of Christ plainly prove this doctrine. Where|fore was the Son of God, a Son under wrath, but because the child|ren of men were children of wrath? He suffered the wrath of God, not for himself, but for those that were liable to it in their own persons. Nay, this not only speaks us to have been liable to wrath; but also that wrath must have a vent, in the punishing of sin. If this was done in the green tree, what will become of the dry? What a miserable case must a sinner be in that is out of Christ; that is not vitally united to Christ, and partakes not of his Spirit? God, who spared not his own Son, surely will not spare such an one.

But the unregenerate man, who has no great value for the honour of God, will be apt to rise up against his Judge, and in his own heart condemn his procedure. Nevertheless the Judge being infinitely just, the sentence must be righteous. And therefore, to stop thy mouth, O proud sinner, and to still thy clamour against the righteous Judge, consider, First, Thou art a sinner by nature, and it is highly reason|able that guilt and wrath be as old as sin. Why should not God begin to vindicate his honour, as soon as vile worms begin to impare it? Why shall not a serpent bite the thief, as soon as he leaps over the hedge? Why should not the threatning take hold of the sinner, as soon as he casts away the command? The poisonous nature of the serpent affords a man sufficient ground to kill it, as soon as ever he can reach it; and, by this time thou mayst be convinced, that thy nature is a very compound of enmity against God. Secondly, Thou hast not only an enmity against God, in thy nature; but hast discovered it, by actual sins, which are in his eye acts of hostility. Thou has brought forth thy lust into the field of battle against thy Sovereign LORD. And now, that thou art such a criminal, thy condemnation is just: for, besides the sin of thy nature, thou hast done that against heaven, which

if thou had done against men, thy life behoved to have gone for it; and shall not wrath from heaven overtake thee? (1.) Thou art guilty of high treason, and rebellion against the King of heaven. The thought and wish of thy heart, which he knows as well as the language of thy mouth, has been, no God, Psal. xiv. 1. Thou hast rejected his government, blown the trumpet, and set up the standard of rebellion against him: being one of these that say, We will not have this m••n to reign over us, Luke xix. 14 Thou hast striven against, and quenched his Spirit; practically disowned his laws proclaimed by his messengers; stopped thine ears at their voice, and sent them away mourning for thy pride. Thou hast conspired with his grand enemy the devil. Although thou art a sworn servant of the King of glory, daily receiv|ing of his favours, and living on his bounty: thou art holding a cor|respondence, and hast contracted a friendship with his greatest enemy, and art acting for him against thy Lord; for the lusts of the de••il ye will do, John viii. 44 (2) Thou art a murderer before the Lord. Thou hast laid the stumbling block of thine iniquity before the blind world; and hast ruined the souls of others by thy sinful course. And tho' thou dost not see now; the time may come, when thou shalt see the blood of thy relations, neighbours, acquaintances and others, upon thy head, Matth. xviii. 7. Wo unto the world because of offences—Wo to that man by whom the offence com••th. Yea, thou art a self-murderer before God, Prov. viii 36. He that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul▪ all they that hate me, love death. Ezek. xviii. 31. Why will ye die? The laws of man 〈◊〉〈◊〉 as far as they can against the self murderer, denying his body a bur•• place amongst others, and confiscating his goods: what wonder is it the Law of God is so severe against soul-murderers? Is it strange, that they who will need•• depart from God now, cost what it will, be forced to depart from him at 〈◊〉〈◊〉, into ever|lasting fire? But what is yet more criminal, thou art guilty of the murder of the Son of God, for the Lord will reckon thee among those that pierced him, Rev. 1.7. Thou hast rejected him as well as the Jews did; and by thy rejecting him, thou hast justified their deed. They indeed did not acknowledge him to be the Son of God, but thou dost. What they did against him, was in a state of humiliation; but thou hast acted against him, in his state of exaltation. These things will aggravate thy condemnation. What wonder then, if the voice of the Lamb, change to the roaring of the lion, against the traitor and murderer.

Object. But some will say, Is there not a vast disproportion betwixt our sin and that wrath you talk of? I answer, No; God punishes no more than the sinner deserves. To rectify your mist••, in this matter, consider, (1) The vast rewards God ••is annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fiery wrath against sin, that it is of graci••s rewards to the obedience it requires. If heaven be in the p••mis••s, it is altogether equal that hell be in the threatnings If death wer•• not in the balance with life, eternal misery with eternal happines••,

where were the proportion? Moreover, sin deserves the misery, but our best works do not deserve the happiness: yet both are set before us; sin and misery, holiness and happiness What reason is there then to complain? (2.) How severe soever the threatnings be, yet all has enough ado to reach the end of the law. Fear him, says our LORD, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him, Luke xii. 5. This bespeaks our dread of divine power and majesty; but yet how few fear him indeed! The LORD knows the sinner's heart to be exceedingly intent upon fulfilling their lusts: they cleave so fondly to those fulsome breasts, that a small force does not suffice to draw them from them. They that travel through desarts, where they are in hazard from wild beasts, have need to carry fire along with them: and they have need of a hard wedge that have knotty timber to cleave; so a holy law must be fenced with a dreadful wrath, in a world lying in wickedness. But who are they that com|plain of that wrath as too great▪ but those to whom it is too little to draw them off from their sinful courses? It was the man who pretended to fear his Lord, because he was an austere man, that kept his pound laid up in a napkin: and so he was condemned out of his own mouth, Luke xix. 20, 21.22. Thou art that man, even thou whose objection I am answering. How can the wrath thou art under, and liable to, be too great, while yet it is not sufficient to awaken thee to fly from it? Is it time to relax the penalties of the law, when men are tramp|ling the commands of it under foot? (3.) Consider how God dealt with his own Son, whom he spared not, Rom. viii. 32. The wrath of God seized on his soul and body both, and brought him into the dust of death. That his sufferings were not eternal, flowed from the quality of the sufferer, who was infinite; and therefore able to bear at once, the whole load of wrath: and upon that account, his sufferings were infinite in value. But in value, they must be protracted to an eternity. And what confidence can a rebel subject have to quarrel (for his part) a punishment execute on the King's Son? (4.) The sinner doth against God what he can. Behold thou hast done evil things as thou couldst, Jer. iii. 5. That thou hast not done more, and worse; thanks to him who restrained thee; to the chain which the wolf was kept in by, not to thyself. No wonder God shew his power on the sinner, who puts forth his power against God, as far as it will reach. The unregenerate man puts no period to his sinful course; and would put no bounds to it neither, if he were not restrained by divine power for wise ends: and therefore it is just he be for ever under wrath. (5.) It is infinite majesty sin strikes against; and so it is, in some sort, an infinite evil. Sin riseth in its demerit, according to the quality of the party offended. If a man wound his neighbour, his goods must go for it; but if he wound his prince, his life must go to make amends for that The infinity of God makes infinite wrath the just demerit of sin. God is infinitely displeased with sin: and when he acts, he must act like himself, and shew his displeasure by proportionable means.

Lastly, Those that shall lie for ever under his wrath, will be eternally sinning; and therefore must eternally suffer: not only in respect of divine judicial procedure; but because sin is its own punishment, in the same manner that holy obedience is its own reward.

The Doctrine of the Misery of Man's natural State applied.

USE (1) Of information. Is our state by nature a state of wrath? Then,

1. Surely we are not born innocent. These chains of wrath, which by nature are upon us, speak us to be born criminals. The swaddling bands wherewith infants are bound hand and foot as soon as they are born, may put us in mind of the cords of wrath, with which they are held prisoners, as children of wrath.

2. What desperate madness is it for sinners to go on in their sinful course: What is it but to heap coals of fire on thine own head, and lay more and more fuel to the fire of wrath, to treasure up unto thy|self wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. ii. 5. Thou mayst perish, when his wrath is kindled but a little, Psal. ii. 12. Why wilt thou in|crease it yet more: Thou art already bound with such cords of death, ••s will not easily be loosed: what need is there of more? Stand, careless sinner, and consider this.

3. Thou hast no reason to complain, as long as thou art out of hell. Wherefore doth a living man complain? Lam. iii. 39▪ If one who has forfeited his life, be banished his native country, and exposed to many hardships; he may well bear all patiently, seeing his life is spared. Do ye murmur, for that ye are under pain of sickness? Nay, bless God ye are not there, where the worm never dieth. Dost thou grudge that thou art not in so good a condition in the world as some of thy neighbours are? Be thankful rather, that ye are not in the case of the damned. Is thy substance gone from thee? Wonder that the fire of God's wrath hath not consumed thyself. Kiss the rod, O sinner, and acknowledge mercy: for God punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve, Ezra ix 13.

4 Here is a memorandum, both for poor and rich. (1.) The poorest that go from door to door, and hath not one penny left them by their parents, were born to an inheritance. Their first father Adam left them children of wrath; and continuing in their natural state, they cannot miss of it; for this is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God, Job xx 29. An heritage, that will furnish them with an habitation, who have not where to lay their head: they shall be cast into utter darkness, Matth. xxv. 30. for to them is reserved the blackn••ss of darkness for ever, Jude 13. where their bed shall be sorrow; The•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 down in sorrow, Isa. l. 11. their food shall be judgment, for God will seed them with judgment, Ezek. xxxiv. 16 and their drink shall be the red wine of God's wrath, the dregs whereof all the wicked of the earth

shall wring out, and drink them, Psal. lxxv 8. I know, that these who are destitute of worldly goods, and withal void of the knowledge and grace of God, who therefore may be called the devil's poor, will be apt to say here, We hope God will make us suffer all our misery in this world, and we shall be happy in the next: as if their miserable outward condition in time, would secure their happiness in eternity. A gross and fatal mistake! And this is another inheritance they have, viz lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit, Jer xvi 19 But the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, Isa xxviii. 17. Dost thou think, O sinner, that God who commands judges on earth, not to respect the person of the poor in judgment▪ Lev xix 15. will pervert judgment for thee? Nay, know for certain, that however miserable thou art here, thou shalt be eternally miserable hereafter, if thou livest and diest in thy natural state (2) Many that have enough in the world, have far more than they know of Thou hadst, (it may be) O unregenerate man, an estate, a good portion, or a large stock left thee by thy father; thou hast improven it, and the sun of pro|sperity shines upon thee; so that thou canst say with Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 9. I have enough. But know, thou hast more than all that, an inheritance thou dost not consider of: thou art a child of wrath, an heir of hell. That is an heritage which will abide with thee, amidst all the changes in the world: as long as thou continuest in an unre|generate state. When thou shalt leave thy substance to others, this shall go along with thyself, into another world It is no wonder a slaughter ox be fed to the full, and is not toiled as others are, Job xxi. 30. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. Well then, Rejoice, let thine heart chear thee; walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: live above reproofs and warnings from the word of God; shew thyself a man of a fine spirit, by casting off all fear of God; mock at seriousness; live like thyself, a child of wrath, an heir of hell: But know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment, Eccles xi 9. Assure thy self, thy breaking shall come suddenly, at an instant, Isa. x••. 13. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool, Eccl vii. 6. The fair blaze and great noise they make, is quickly gone; so shall thy mirth be. And then that wrath that is now silently sinking into thy soul, shall make a fearful hissing

5. Wo to him, that, like Moah, hath been at ease from his youth, Jer. xlviii. 11 and never saw the black cloud of wrath hanging over His head. There are many who have no changes, therefore th•• fear ••t God, Psal. lv. 19. They have lived in a good belief (as they call it) all their days; that is, they never had power to believe an ill report of their souls state. Many have come by their religion too easily; and as it came lightly to them, so it will go from them, when their trial comes. Do ye think men flee from the wrath, in a morning dream? Or will they flee from the wrath, they never saw pursuing them.

6. Think it not strange if ye see one in great distress about his soul's condition, who was wont to be as jovial, and as little concerned about salvation, as any of his neighbours. Can one get a right view of himself, as in a state of wrath, and not be pierced with sorrows, terrors, anxiety? When a weight, quite above one's strength, lies upon him, and he is alone; he can neither stir hand nor foot: but when one comes to lift it off him, he'll struggle to get from under it. Thunder-claps of wrath from the word of God conveyed to the soul by the Spirit of the Lord, will surely keep a man awake.

Lastly, It is no wonder wrath come upon churches and nations, and upon us in this land, and that infants, and children yet unborn smart under it. Most of the society are yet children of wrath; few are fleeing from it. or taking the way to prevent it; but people of all ranks are helping it on. The Jews rejected Christ; and their children have been smarting under wrath these sixteen hundred years. God grant that the bad entertainment given to Christ and his gospel, by this generation, be not pursued with wrath on the succeeding one.

USE (2) Of Exhortation. And here, 1. I shall drop a word to these who are yet in an unregenerate state. 2 To those that are brought out of it. 3. To all indifferently.

I. To you that are yet in an unregenerate state, I would sound the alarm, and warn you to see to yourselves, while yet there is hope. O ye children of wrath, take no rest in this dismal state; but flee to Jesus Christ the only refuge. Haste and make your escape thither. The state of wrath is too hot a climate for you to live in, Micah ii. 10. Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest. O sinner knowest thou where thou art? Dost thou not see thy danger? The curse has entered into thy soul: wrath is thy covering; the heavens are growing blacker and blacker above thy head: the earth is weary of thee, the pit is opening her mouth for thee; and should the thread of thy life be cut this moment, thou art henceforth past all hopes for ever. Sirs, if we saw you putting a cup of poison to your mouth; we would fly to you and snatch it out of your hands. If we saw the house on fire about you, while ye were fast asleep in it; we would run to you, and drag you out of it. But alas! ye are in ten thousand tha•• greater hazard; yet we can do no more but tell you your danger; invite, exhort, be|seech, and obtest you, to look to yourselves; and lament your stupidity and obstinacy, when we cannot prevail with you to take warning. If there were no hope of your recovery, we should be silent, and would not torment you before the time: but tho' ye be lost and undone, there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Wherefore, I cry unto you in the name of the Lord, and in the words of the prophet, Zech. ix. 12. Turn ye to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope. Flee to Jesus Christ out of this your natural state.

Motive 1 While ye are in this state, ye must stand or fall accord|ing to the law, or covenant of works. If ye understood this aright, it would strike through your hearts, as a thousand darts. One had

better be a slave to the Turks, condemned to the galleys, or under Egyptian bondage, than be under the covenant of works now. All mankind were brought under it in Adam, as we heard before: and thou in thy unregenerate state, are still where Adam left thee. It is true, there is another covenant brought in: but what is that to thee, who art not brought into it? Thou must needs be under one of the two covenants; either under the law, or under grace. That thou art not under grace, the dominion of sin over thee, manifestly evinceth; therefore thou art under the law, Rom. vi. 14. Do not think God has laid aside the first covenant, Matth. v. 17, 18. Gal. iii. 10. No, he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. It is broken indeed on thy part: but it is absurd to think, that therefore your obligation is dissolved. Nay, thou must stand and fall by it, till thou canst pro|duce thy discharge from God himself, who is thy party in that cove|nant; and this thou canst not pretend to, seeing thou art not in Christ.

Now, to give you a view of your misery, in this respect, consider these following things, (1.) Hereby ye are bound over to death, in virtue of the threatning of death in that covenant, Gen. ii. 17. The condition being broken, ye fall under the penalty. So it concludes you under wrath. (2) There is no salvation for you under this covenant, but on a condition impossible to be performed by you. The justice of God must be satisfied for the wrong you have done already. God hath written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must perfectly obey the law for the time to come. So saith the law, Gal. iii. 12. The man that doth them, shall live in them. Come then, O sinner, see if thou canst make a ladder, whereby thou mayst reach the throne of God; stretch forth thine arms, and try, if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds, and pierce through these visible heavens; and then either climb over, or break through the jasper walls of the city above. These things shalt thou do, as soon as thou shalt reach heaven in thy natural state, or under this covenant. (3.) There is no pardon under this covenant. Pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with which thou hast noth|ing to do, Acts xiii. 9. And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. As for thee, thou art in the hand of a merciless creditor, which will take thee by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest; and cast thee into prison, there to remain, till thou hast paid the utmost farthing: unless thou beest so wise as to get a cautioner in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge. This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this covenant, and pleadest mercy: but what is thy plea founded on? There is not one promise of mercy or pardon in that covenant. Dost thou plead mercy, for mercy's sake? Justice will step in betwixt it and thee; and plead God's covenant threatning, which he cannot deny. (4) There's no place for repentance in this covenant so as the sinner can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the law lays its curse on thee, which is a dead weight

thou canst by no means throw off; no, not tho' thine head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night for thy sin. That is what the law cannot do, in that it is weak through the flesh, Rom. viii 3. Now thou art another profane Esau, that hath sold the blessing; and there is no place for repentance tho' thou seekest it carefully with tears, while under that covenant. (5.) There is no accepting of the will for the deed under this covenant, which was not made for good will, but good works. The mistake in this point ruins many. They are not in Christ, but stand under the first covenant; and yet they will plead this privilege. This is just as if one having made a feast for those of his own family, when they sit down at table, another man's servant that has run away from his master, should presumptuously come forward and sit down among them: would not the master of the feast give such a stranger that check, Friend, how camest thou in hither? And since he is none of his family, command him to be gone quickly. Tho' a master accept the good will of his own child for the dead, can a hired servant expect that privilege? (6.) Ye have nothing to do with Christ, while under this covenant. By the law of God a woman cannot be married to two husbands at once: either death or divorce must dissolve the first marriage, ere she can marry another. So we must first be dead to the law, ere we can be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. The law is the first husband; Jesus Christ, who raiseth the dead, marries the widow, that was heart-broken, and slain by the first husband. But while the soul is in the house with the first husband, it cannot plead a marriage-relation to Christ; nor the benefits of a marriage-covenant, which is not yet entered into, Gal. v. 4. Christ is become of no effect to you; whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Peace, pardon, and such like benefits are all benefits of the covenant of grace. And ye must not think to stand off from Christ, and the marriage-covenant with him, and yet plead these benefits; more than one man's wife can plead the benefit of a contract of marriage past betwixt another man and his own wife. Lastly, See the bill of exclusion, past in the court of heaven, against all under the covenant of works, Gal. iv. 30. The son of the ••••nd-woman shall not be heir. compare ver. 24. Heirs of wrath must not be heirs of glory. Whom the first covenant hath power to exclude out of heaven, the second covenant cannot bring into it.

Objection. Then it is impossible for us to be saved. Answer, It is so, while you are in that state. But if you would be out of that dreadful condition, hasten out of that state. If a murderer be under sentence of death, so long as he lives within the kingdom, the laws will reach his life; but if he can make his escape, and get over the sea, into the dominions of another prince, our laws cannot reach him there This is what we would have you to do: flee out of the king|dom of darkness, into the kingdom of God s dear Son; out of the do|minion of the law, into the dominion of grace; then all the curses of the law, or covenant of works, shall never be able to reach you.

Motive 2. O ye children of wrath your state is wretched, for ye have lost God; and that is an unspeakable loss. Ye are without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Whatever you may call yours, you cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth▪ perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house▪ or that herd of cattle, is yours: But let us look up|ward to heaven, is that God, that grace, that glory yours? Truly, you have neither part nor lot in that matter. When Nebuchadnezzar talks of cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak! Great Babylon that I have built,—my power,—my majesty! but he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of God, saying, Your God, Dan. ii. 47. and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all that thou hast in the world, is gone. The godless man, have what he will, is one that hath not, Mat xxv 29. I defy the unregenerate man to attain to soul-satisfaction, whatever he possesseth; since God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness: in every condition, there is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart like a ghost: the soul wants something, tho' perhaps it knoweth not what it is: and so it will be always, till the soul return to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose for thyself; for God is gone, his soul is departed from thee, Jer. vi. 3. like a leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man hath no use, as the word there used doth bear. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good; and so, all grace, all goodness, all the saving instances of his Spirit, What canst thou do then? What fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12. as a filthy rotten thing fit only for the dunghill. (3.) Death his come up into th•• windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour is life, Psal. xxx. 5. is gone from thee, and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a lothsome hump is the body, when the soul is gone? Far more lothsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead while thou livest. Do not deny it; seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case, do lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence. (4) Thou hast not a steady friend among all the creatures of God; for now that thou 〈…〉〈…〉 the Master's savour, all the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is set against thee: Conscience is thine enemy: the word never speaks good of thee: God's people lothe thee, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 as they see what thou art, Psal. xv. 22. The beasts and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the ••••ld are banded together against thee, Job v. 23. Hos. ••••. ••8 Thy most, drink, clothes, grudge to be ser|viceable to the wreth that has lost God, and abuseth them to his dishonour. 〈…〉〈…〉 thunder thee: yea, the whole creation groweth, and 〈…〉〈…〉 together, because of thee, and such as thou art, 〈…〉〈…〉 will have nothing to do with thee; for there shall 〈…〉〈…〉 enter•• into it any thing that defileth, Rev. xxi. 22. Only hell from 〈…〉〈…〉, to meet thee at thy coming.

Isa. xiv. 9. Lastly, Thy hell is begun already. What makes hell, but exclusion from the presence of God? Depart from me ye cursed. Now ye are gone from God already, with the curse upon you. That shall be your punishment at length (if ye return not) which is now your choice. As a gracious state is a state of glory in the bud; so a graceless state is hell in the bud; which if it continue, will come to perfection at length.

Motive 3. Consider the dreadful instances of the wrath of God; and let them serve to awaken thee to flee out of this state. Consider, (1.) How it is fallen on men. Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of divine vengeance; that others might fear. Wrath has swept away multitudes, who have fallen together by the hand of an angry God. Consider how the Lord spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly: and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, 2 Pet. ii. 5, 6. But it is yet more dreadful to think of that wepping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, amongst those, who in hell lift up their eyes, but cannot get a drop of water to cool their tongues. Believe these things, and be warned by them; lest destruction come upon thee, for a warning to others. (2.) Consider how wrath fell upon the fallen angels, whose case is absolutely hopeless. They were the first that ventured to break the hedge of the divine law; and God set them up as monuments of his wrath against sin. They once left their own habitation, and were never allowed to look in again at the hole of the door; but they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day, Jude 6. Lastly, Behold how an angry God dealt with his own Son, standing in the room of elect sinners, Rom viii. 32. God spared not his own Son. Sparing mercy might have been expected, if any at all. If any person could have obtained it surely his own Son would have go it; but he spared him not. The Father's delight is made a man of sorrows: he who is the wisdom of God, becomes sore amazed▪ ready to faint away with a fit of horror. The weight of this wrath makes him sweat great drops of blood By the fierceness of this fire, his heart was like 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 in the midst of his bowels. Behold here how severe God is against sin! the sun was struck blind with this terrible sight! rocks were rent! graves opened! death, as it were in the excess of asto|nishment, letting its prisoners slip away. What is a deluge, a shower of fire and crimstone on Sodomites, the terrible noise of a dissolving world, the whole fabrick of heaven and earth falling down at once, angels cast down from heaven into the bottomless p••? What are all these, I say, in comparison with this? God suffering! groaning, dying upon a cross! infinite holiness did it, to make sin look like itself, viz. infinite•• ••odious. And will men live at ease while exposed to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 wrath.

Lastly, Consider that a God he is, with whom thou hast to do, whose wrath thou art liable unto: He is a God of infinite acknowledge

and wisdom; so that none of thy sins, however secret, can be hid from him. He infallibly finds out all means whereby wrath may be executed, toward the satisfying of justice. He is of infinite power, and so can do what he will against the sinner. How heavy must the strokes of wrath be, which are laid on by an omnipotent hand! infinite power can make the sinner prisoner, even when he is in his greatest rage against heaven. It can bring again the several parcels of dust, out of the grave; put them together again, reunite the soul and the body, sist them before the tribunal, hurry them away to the pit, and hold them up with the one hand thro' eternity, while they are lashed with the other. He is infinitely just, and therefore must punish; it were acting contrary to his nature to suffer the sinner to escape wrath. Hence the executing of this wrath is pleasing to him; for tho' the Lord hath no delight in the death of the sinner, as it is the destruction of his own creature, yet he delights in it, as it is the execution of justice. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. Mark the reason, For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, Psal. xi. 6, 7. I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted, Ezek. v. 13. I also will laugh at your calamity, Prov. i. 26. Finally, He lives for ever, to pursue the quarrel. Let us therefore conclude, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Be awakened then, O young sinner; be awakened, O old sinner, who art yet in the state thou wast born in. Your security is none of God's allowance, it is the sleep of death: rise out of it ere the pit close its mouth on you. It is true, you may put on a breast-plate of iron, make your bow brass, and your hearts as an adamant: who can help it? But God will break that brazen bow, and make that adaman|tine heart, at last, to fly into a thousand pieces. Ye may, if ye will, labour to put those things out of your heads, that ye may yet sleep in a sound skin, tho' in a state of wrath. Ye may run away with the arrows sticking in your consciences to your work, to work them away; or to your beds, to sleep them out; or to company, to sport and laugh them away: but convictions so stifled, will have a fearful resurrection: and the day is coming, when the arrows of wrath shall so stick in thy soul, as thou shalt never be able to pluck them out thro' the ages of eternity, unless thou take warning in time.

But if any desire to flee from the wrath to come; and for that end, to know what course to take; I offer them these few advices, and ob|test and beseech them, as they love their own souls, to fall in with them. (1) Retire yourselves into some secret place, and there me|ditate on this your misery. Believe it, and fix your thoughts on it. Let each put the ••uestion to himself, How can I live in this state? How can I die in it? How will I rise again, and stand before the tribunal of God in it? (2) Consider seriously the sin of your nature, heart and life. A kindly sight of wrath flows from a deep sense of sin. They who see themselves exceeding 〈◊〉〈◊〉, will find no great difficulty to perceive themselves to be heirs of wrath. (3.) Labour

to justify God in this matter. To quarrel with God about it, and to rage like a wild bull in a net, will but fix you the more in it. Humi|liation of soul, before the Lord, is necessary for an escape. God will not sell deliverance, but freely gives it to those, who see themselves altogether unworthy of his favour. Lastly, Turn your eyes, O prisoners of hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ; and embrace him as he offereth himself, in the gospel. There is no salvation in any other, Acts iv. 12. God is a consuming fire; ye are children of wrath: if the Mediator interpose not betwixt him and you, ye are undone for ever. If ye would be safe, come under his shadow: one drop of that wrath cannot fall there, for he delivereth us from the wrath to come, 1 Thess. i 10. Accept of him in his covenant, wherein he offereth himself to thee: and so thou shalt, as the captive woman, redeem thy life, by marrying the Conqueror. His blood will quench that fire of wrath, which burns against thee: in the white raiment of his righte|ousness thou shalt be safe; for no storm of wrath can pierce it.

II. I shall drop a few words to the saints.

First, Remember, that at that time, (namely, when ye were in your natural state) ye were without Christ—having no hope, and without God in the world Call to mind that state, ye were in formerly; and re|view the misery of it. There are five memorials, I may thence give in to the whole assembly of the saints, who are no more children of wrath: but heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, tho as yet in their minority. (1) Remember, that in the day our Lord took you by the hand, ye were in no better condition than others? O what moved him to take you, when he past by your neighbours! he found you children of wrath, even as others; but he did not leave you so. He came into the common prison, where you lay in your fetters, even as others: and from amongst the multitude of condemned malefactors, he picked out you, commanded your fetters to be taken off, put a pardon in your hand, and brought you into the glorious liberty of the children of God; while he left others in the devil's fetters. (2) Re|member there was nothing in you to engage him to love you, in the day he first appeared for your deliverance Ye were children of wrath, even as others, fit for hell, and altogether unfit for heaven: yet the King brought you into the palace: the King's Son made love to you a condemned criminal, and espoused you to himself, on the day in which ye might have had been led forth to execution. Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in the sight, Matth ix. 26. (3) Remember, ye were fitter to be lothed than loved in that day. Wonder, that when he saw you in your blood, he looked not at you with abhorrence, and passed by you. Wonder that ever such a time could be a time of love, Ezek xvi. 8. (4.) Remember, ye are decked with borrowed feathers. It is his comeliness, which is upon you, ver 14. It was he that took off your prison garments, and clothed you with robes of righteousness, garments of salvation garments where with ye are arrayed as the lilies, which toil not, neither do they spin. He took the child•• from off your

arms, the rope from about your neck; put you in such a dress as ye might be fit for the court of heaven, even to eat at the King's table. (5.) Remember your faults this day; as Pharaoh's butler, who had forgotten Joseph. Mind how you have forgotten, and how unkindly you have treated him, who remembred you in your low estate. Is this your kindness to your friend? In the day of your deliverance, did ye think, ye could have thus required him, your Lord?

Secondly, Pity the children of wrath, the world that lies in wicked|ness. Can ye be unconcerned for them, ye who were once in the same condition? Ye have got ashore indeed, but your fellows are yet in hazard of perishing; and will not ye make them all possible help for their deliverance? What they are, ye sometimes were This may draw pity from you, and engage you to use all means for their recovery. See Tit. iii. 1, 2, 3.

Thirdly, Admire that matchless love, which brought you out of the state of wrath Christ's love was active love, he loved thy soul from the pit of corruption. It was no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner? but he gave his life for thy life. He gave his precious blood to quench that flame of wrath, which otherwise would have burnt thee up. Men get the best view of the stars, from the bottom of a deep pit: from this pit of misery into which thou wast cast by the first Adam, thou mayst get the best view of the Sun of righte|ousness, in all its dimensions. He is the second Adam, who took thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. How broad were the skirts of that love, which covered such a multitude of sins! behold the length of it, reaching from everlasting to everlasting, Psal. ciii 17. The depth of it, going so low as to deliver thee from the lowest hell, Psal. lxxxvi. 13. The height of it, in raising thee up to sit in heavenly places, Eph. ii. 6.

Fourthly, Be humble, carry low sails, walk softly all your years▪ Be not proud of your gifts, graces, privileges, or attainments: but remember ye were children of wrath, even as others. The peacock walks slowly, hangs down his starry feathers, while he looks to his black feet. Look ye to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged, and walk humbly as it becomes free grace's debtors.

Lastly, Be wholly for your Lord. Every wife is obliged to be dutiful to her husband; but double ••••es lie upon her who was taken from a prison or a dunghill. If your Lord has delivered you from wrath, ye ought, upon that very account, to be wholly his: to act for him, to suffer for him and to do whatever he calls you to. The saints have no reason to complain of their lot in the world, whatever it be. Well may they bear the cross for him, by whom the curse was born away from them. Well may they bear the wrath of men, in his cause, who has freed them from the wrath of God; and chearfully go to a fire for him, by whom hell-fire is quenched to them. Soul and body, and all thou hadst in the world, were sometimes under wrath: he has removed that wrath, had not all these be at his service▪ That

thy soul is not overwhelmed with the wrath of God, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall it not then be a temple for his Spirit? That thy heart is not filled with horror and despair, is owing to him only; to whom then should it be devoted but to him alone? That thine eyes are not blinded with the smoak of the pit, thy hands are not fertered with chains of darkness, thy tongue is not broiling in the fire of hell, and thy feet are not standing in that lake that burns with fire and brimstone, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall not these eyes be employed for him, these hands act for him, that tongue speak for him, and these feet speedily run his errands? To him who believes that he was a child of wrath, even as others, but is now delivered by the blessed Jesus; nothing will appear too much, to do or suffer for his deliverer, when he has a fair call to it.

III. To conclude with a word to all; let no man think lightly of sin, which lays the sinner open to the wrath of God. Let not the sin of our nature, which wreaths the yoke of God's wrath, so early, about our necks, seem a small thing in our eyes. Fear the Lord, be|cause of his dreadful wrath. Tremble at the thought of sin, against which God has such fiery indignation. Look on his wrath, and stand in awe, and sin not. Do you think this is to press you to slavish fear? If it were so, one had better be a slave to God with a trembling heart; than a free man to the devil, with a feared conscience and a heart of adamant. But it is not so, you may love him, and thus fear him too; yea, ye ought to do it, though ye were saints of the first magnitude. See Psal. cxix. 10. Matth. x. 28. Luke xii. 5. Heb. xii 28, 29. Altho' ye have past the gulf of wrath, being in Jesus Christ, yet it is but reasonable, your hearts shiver, when ye look back to it. Your sin still deserves wrath even as the sins of others: and it would be terrible to be in a fiery furnace; altho' by a miracle, we were so fenced against it, as that it could not harm us.

HEAD III. Man's utter Inability to recover himself.

ROMANS v. 6.

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

JOHN vi. 44.

No men can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.

WE have now had a view of the total corruption of man's nature, and that load of wrath which lies on him, that gulf of misery he is plunged into in his natural state. But there's one part of his misery that deserves particular consideration; namely, his utter inabi|lity to recover himself, the knowledge of which is necessary for the

due humiliation of a sinner. What I design here is, only to propose a few things, whereby to convince the unregenerate man of this his inability; that he may see an absolute need of Christ, and of the power of his grace.

As a man that is fallen into a pit, cannot be supposed to help him|self out of it, but by one of two ways; either by doing all himself alone, or taking hold of, and improving the help offered him by others: so an unconverted man cannot be supposed to help himself out of that state, but either in the way of the law, or covenant of warks, by doing all himself without Christ: or else in the way of the gospel, or cove|nant of grace, by exerting his own strength to lay hold upon, and to make use of the help offered him by a Saviour. But alas! the un|converted man is dead in the pit, and cannot help himself, either of these ways. Not the first way: for the first text tells us, that when our Lord came to help us, we were without strength, unable to recover ourselves. We were ungodly; therefore under a burden of guilt and wrath; yet without strength, unable to stand under it: and un|able to throw it off, or get from under it: so that all mankind had undoubtedly perished, had not Christ died for the ungodly, and brought help to them who could never have recovered themselves But when Christ comes, and offereth help to sinners, cannot they take it? Cannot they improve help when it comes to their hands? No, the second text tells us, they cannot: No man can come unto me, (i e. believe in me, John vi. 35.) except the Father draw him. This is a drawing which enables them to come who till then could not come; and therefore could not help themselves, by improving the help offered It is a drawing, which is always effectual; for it can be no less than hearing and learning of the Father, which whoso partakes of, cometh to Christ, ver 25 Therefore, it is not drawing in the way of mere moral suasion, which may be, yea, and always is ineffectual: but it is draw|ing by mighty power, Ephes. i. 19 absolutely necessary for them that have no power in themselves, to come and take hold of the offered help.

Hearken then, O unregenerate man, and be convinced, that as thou art in a most miserable state by nature; so thou art utterly unable to recover thyself, any manner of way. Thou art ruined; and what way wilt thou go to work, to recover thyself? Which of these two ways wilt thou chuse? Wilt thou try it alone? Or wilt thou make use of help? Wilt thou fall on the way of works, or on the way of the gospel? I know very well, thou wilt not so much as try the way of the gospel, till once thou hast found the recovery impracticable, in the way of the law. Therefore we shall begin, where corrupt nature teaches men to begin, viz. at the way of the law of works.

I. Sinner, I would have thee believe that thy working will never effect it. Work and do thy best; thou shalt never be able to work thyself out of this state of corruption and wrath. Thou must have Christ, else thou shalt perish eternally. It is only Christ in you, can be the hope of glory. But if thou wilt needs try it; then I must lay

before thee, from the unalterable word of the living God, two things which thou must do for thyself. And if thou canst do them: it must be yielded, that thou art able to recover thyself; but if not, then thou canst do nothing this way, for thy recovery.

FIRST, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, Matth. xix. 17. That is, if thou wilt by doing, enter into life, then perfectly keep the ten commands. For the scope of these words is, to beat down the pride of man's heart; and to let him see the absolute need of a Saviour, from the impossibility of keeping the law. The answer is given, suitable to the address. Our Lord checks him for his com|pliment, Good Master, ver. 16. telling him, There is none good, but One, that is God, ver. 17. As if he had said, you think yourself a good man, and me another? but where goodness is spoken of, men and angels may vail their faces before the good God. And as to his question, wherein he discovered his legal disposition, Christ does not answer him, saying, Believe and thou shalt be saved; that would not have been so seasonable in the case of one, who thought he could do well enough for himself, if he but knew, what good things he should do; but, suit|able to the humour the man was in, he bid him keep the commandments; keep them nicely and accurately, as those that watch malefactors in prison, lest any of them escape, and their life go for their's. See then, O unregenerate man, what canst thou do in this matter; for if thou wilt recover thyself in this way, thou must perfectly keep the commandments of God.

And, (1.) Thy obedience must be perfect, in respect of the prin|ciple of it; that is, thy soul, the principle of action, must be per|fectly pure, and altogether without sin. For the law requires all moral perfection; not only actual, but habitual, and so condemns original sin; impurity of nature, as well as of actions. Now, if thou canst bring this to pass; thou shalt be able to answer that question of Solomon's, so, as never one of Adam's posterity could yet answer it, Prov. xx 9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean? But if thou canst not, the very want of this perfection is a sin; and so lays thee open to the curse, and cuts thee off from life. Yea, it makes all thine actions, even thy best actions sinful, for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job xiv. 4. And dost thou think by sin, to help thyself out of sin and misery? (2.) Thy obedience must also be perfect in parts. It must be as broad as the whole law of God: if thou lackest one thing, thou art undone; for the law de|nounceth the curse on him that continueth not in every thing written therein, Gal. iii. 10. Thou must give internal and external obedi|ence to the whole law; keep all the commands, in heart and life. If thou breakest any one of them, that will insure thy ruin. A vain thought, or idle word, will still shut thee up under the curse. (3.) It must be perfect in respect of degrees; as was the obedience of Adam, while he stood in his innocence. This the law requires, and will ac|cept of no less, Mat. xxii. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with

all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. If one de|gree of that love required by the law, be wanting; if each part of thy obedience be not screwed up to the greatest height commanded; that want is a breach of the law, and so leaves thee still under the curse. One may bring as many buckets of water to a house that is on fire, as he is able to carry, and yet it may be consumed; and will be so, if he bring not as many as will quench the fire. Even so, al|though thou shouldst do what thou art able, in keeping the commands; if thou fail in the least degree of obedience which the law enjoins, thou art certainly ruined for ever; unless thou take hold of Christ, renoun|cing all thy righteousness as filthy rags. See Rom. x. 5. Gal. iii. 10. Lastly, It must be perpetual, as the man Christ's obedience was, who always did the things that pleased the Father; for the tenor of the law is, Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the law, to do them. Hence, tho' Adam's obedience was for a while absolutely perfect; yet because at length he tripped in one point, viz. in eating the forbidden fruit, he fell under the curse of the law. If one should live a dutiful subject to his prince, till the close of his days, and then conspire against him; he must die for his treason. Even so, tho' thou shouldst, all the time of thy life, live in perfect obedience to the law of God; and only, at the hour of death, entertain a vain thought, or pronounce an idle word: that idle word, or vain thought, would blot out all thy former righteousness, and ruin thee; namely, in this way, in which thou art seeking to recover thyself.

Now such is the obedience thou must perform, if thou wouldst re|cover thyself in the way of the law. But tho' thou shouldst thus obey: the law stakes thee down in the state of wrath, till another demand of it be satisfied, viz.

SECONDLY, Thou must pay what thou owest It is undeniable thou art a sinner; and whatever thou mayest be in time to come, justice must be satisfied for thy sin already committed. The honour of the law must be maintained, by thy suffering the denounced wrath. It may be thou hast changed thy course of life, or art now resolved to do it, and set about the keeping of the commands of God: but what hast thou done, or what wilt thou do, with the old debt? Your obe|dience to God, tho' it were perfect, is a debt due to him, for the time wherein it is performed; and can no more satisfy for former sins, than a tenant's paying the current year's rent, can satisfy the master for all bygones. Can the paying of new debts acquit a man from old ac|counts? Nay, deceive not yourselves, you will find these laid up in store with God, and sealed up among his treasures, Deut. xxxii. 34. It remains then, that either thou must bear that wrath, to which, for thy sin, thou art liable according to the law; or else, thou must acknow|ledge thou canst not bear it, and thereupon have recourse to the sure|ty, the Lord Jesus Christ: Let me now ask thee, art thou able to satisfy the justice of God? Canst thou pay thy own debt? Surely not: for, seeing he is an infinite God, whom thou hast offended; the

punishment, being suited to the quality of the offence, must be infinite. But so it is, thy punishment, or sufferings for sin, cannot be infinite in value, seeing thou art a finite creature: therefore they must be in|finite in duration or continuance; that is, they must be eternal. And so all thy sufferings in this world, are but an earnest of what thou must suffer in the world to come.

Now, sinner, if thou canst answer these demands, thou mayst re|cover thyself in the way of the law. But art thou not conscious of thy inability to do any of these things, much more to do them all? Yet if thou do not all, thou dost nothing. Turn then to what course of life thou wilt, thou art still in a state of wrath. Screw up thy obe|dience to the greatest height thou canst; suffer what God lays upon thee, yea add, if thou wilt to the burden, and walk under all, without the least impatience: yet all this will not satisfy the demands of the law; and therefore thou art still a ruined creature. Alas! sinner, what art thou doing, while thou strivest to help thyself; but dost not receive and unite with Jesus Christ? Thou art labouring in the fire, wearying thyself for very vanity; labouring to enter into heaven by the door, which Adam's sin so bolted, as neither he, nor any of his lost posterity can ever enter by it. Dost thou not see the flaming sword of justice keeping thee off from the tree of life? Dost thou not hear the law denouncing a curse on thee for all thou art doing; even for thy obedience, thy prayers, thy tears, thy reformation of life, &c. because being under the law's dominion, thy best works are not so good, as it requires them to be, under the pain of the curse? Believe it, sirs, if you live and die out of Christ, without being actually united to him as the second Adam, a life-giving Spirit, and without coming under the covert of his atoning blood; though you should do the utmost that any man on earth can do, in keeping the commands of GOD, ye shall never see the face of GOD in peace. If you should from this moment, bid an eternal farewel to this world's joy, and all the affairs thereof; and henceforth busy yourselves with nothing, but the salvation of your souls: if you should go into some wilder|ness, live upon the grass of the field, and be companions of dragons and owls: if you should retire to some dark cavern of the earth, and weep there for your sins, until ye have wept yourselves blind yea, wept out all the moisture of your body; if ye should confess with your tongue, until it cleave to the roof of your mouth; pray, till your knees grow hard as horns; fast, till your body become like a skeleton; and after all this, give it to be burnt, the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in righteousness, and cannot return; you should perish for ever, notwithstanding of all this, as not being in Christ, John xiv. 6. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Acts iv. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other. Mark xvi. ••6 He that believeth not, shall be damned.

Object. But God is a merciful God, and he knows we are not able to answer his demands: we hope therefore to be saved, if we do as well as we can, and keep the commands as well as we are able.

Ans. (1.) Though thou art able to do many things, thou art not able to do one thing aright: thou canst do nothing acceptable to God, be|ing out of Christ, John xv. 5. Without me ye can do nothing. An un|renewed man, as thou art, can do nothing but sin; as we have already evinced. Thy best actions are sin, and so they increase thy debt to justice; how then can it be expected they should lessen it? (2) If God should offer to save men upon condition that they did all they could do, in obedience to his commands: we have ground to think, that these who would betake themselves to that way, should never be saved. For where is the man, that does as well as he can? Who sees not many false steps he has made, which he might have evited? There are so many things to be done, so many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty, and our nature is so very apt to be set on fire of hell; that we would surely fail, even in some point, that is within the compass of our natural abilities. But (3.) Though thou shouldst do all thou art able to do, in vain dost thou hope to be saved in that way. What word of God is this hope of thine founded on? It is neither founded on law nor gospel, and therefore it is but a delusion. It is not founded on the gospel; for the gospel leads the soul out of itself, to Jesus Christ for all: and it establisheth the law, Rom. iii. 31. whereas this hope of yours cannot be established, but on the ruin of the law, which God will magnify and make honourable. And hence it appears, that it is not founded on the law neither. When God set Adam a working for happiness to himself, and his posterity, perfect obedience was the condition required of him; and a curse was de|nounced in case of disobedience. The law being broken by him, he and his posterity were subjected to the penalty, for sin committed; and withal still bound to perfect obedience: for it is absurd to think that man's sinning and suffering for his sin, should free him from his duty of obedience to his Creator. When Christ came in the room of the elect, to purchase their salvation, the same were the terms. Justice had the elect under arrest: if he minds to deliver them, the terms are known. He must satisfy for their sin, by suffering the punishment due to it; he must do what they cannot do, viz. obey the law perfectly, and so fulfil all righteousness. Accordingly, all this he did, and so became the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, Rom x. 4. And now dost thou think God will abate of these terms to thee, when his own Son got no abatement of them? Expect it not, though thou shouldst beg it with tears of blood; for if they prevailed, they behoved to prevail against the truth, justice and honour of God, Gal. iii. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the law, to do them. Ver. 22. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doth them, shall live in them. It is true, that God is merciful▪ he cannot but be merciful, unless he save you in a way that is neither consistent with his law nor gospel? Hath not his goodness and mercy sufficiently appeared, in sending the Son of his love, to do what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the

flesh? He has provided help for them that cannot help themselves: but thou, insensible of thine own weakness, wilt needs think to recover thyself by thine own works; while thou art no more able to do it, than to remove mountains of brass out of their place

Wherefore I conclude thou art utterly unable to recover thyself, by the way of works, or of the law. O that thou wouldst conclude the same concerning thyself!

II. Let us try next, what the sinner can do to recover himself, in the way of the gospel: It is likely, thou thinkest, that howbeit thou canst not do all, by thyself alone; yet Jesus Christ offering thee help, thou canst of thyself embrace it, and use it to thy recovery. But, O sinner, be convinced of thine absolute need of the grace of Christ, for truly there is help offered, but thou canst not accept of it: there is a rope cast out to hale ship-wrecked sinners to land: but alas! they have no hands to catch hold of it. They are like infants exposed in the open field, that must starve, tho' their food be lying by them, unless one put it into their mouths. To convince natural men of this, let it be considered,

First, That although Christ is offered in the gospel, yet they cannot believe in him. Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to them that will believe in Christ; but how can ye believe? John v. 44. It is offered to these that will come to Christ; but no man can come unto him, except the Father draw him. It is offered to them that will look to him, as lifted up on the pole of the gospel, Isa. xiv 22. but the natural man is spiritually blind. Rev iii. 17. and as to the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Nay, whosoever will, he is welcome; let him come. Rev. xxii. 17. But there must be a day of power on the sinner, before he will be willing, Psal cx. 3.

Secondly, Man naturally has nothing, wherewithal to improve, to his recovery, the help brought in by the gospel. He is cast away in a state of wrath; but is bound hand and foot, so that he cannot lay hold of the cords of love, thrown out to him in the gospel. The most skilful artificer cannot work without instruments, nor can the most cunning musician play well on an instrument that is out of tune. How can one believe, how can he repent, whose understanding is darkness, Eph. v 8 whose heart is a stony heart, inflexible, insensible, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. whose affections are wholly disordered and dstem|pered; who is averse to good, and bent to evil? The arms of natural abilities are too short to reach supernatural help: hence those who most excel in them, are oft times most estranged from spiritual things, Matth. xi 24 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.

Thirdly, Man cannot work a saving change on himself: but so changed he must be, else he can neither believe nor repent, nor ever see heaven No action can be without a suitable principle. Believing, repenting, and the like, are the product of the new nature; and can

never be produced by the old corrupt nature. Now, what can the natural man do in this matter? He must be regenerate, begotten again into a bo••y h••p••: but as the child cannot be active in his own genera|tion; so a man cannot be active but passive only, in his own regene|ration. The heart is shut against Christ: man cannot open it, only God can do it by his grace, Acts xvi. 14. He is dead in sin: he must be quickned raised out of his grave: who can do this but God himself? Eph. ii 1, 5. Nay, he must be created in Christ Jesus unto good works, Eph ii. 10. These are works of omnipotency, and can be done by no less power.

Fourthly, Man, in his depraved state, is under an utter inability to do any thing truly good as was cleared before at large: how then can he obey the gospel? His nature is the very reverse of the gospel: how can he, of himself, fall in with that device of salvation, and accept the offered remedy? The corruption of man's nature infallibly concludes his utter inability to recover himself any manner of way: and whoso is convinced of the one, must needs admit the other; for they stand and fall together. Were all the purchase of Christ offered to the un|regenerate man, for one good thought, he cannot command it, 2 Cor. iii. ••. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think any thing as of our|selves. Were it offered on condition of a good word, yet how can ye, being evil, speak good things? Matth xii. 35. Nay, were it left to yourselves, to chuse what is easiest; Christ himself tells you, John xv. 5. Without me, ye can do nothing.

Lastly, The natural man cannot but resist the Lord, offering to help him; howbeit that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace. Can the stony heart chuse but resist the stroke? There is not only an inability, but an enmity and obstinacy in man's will by nature. God knows, natural man, (whether thou knowest it or not) that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass, Isa. xlviii. 4. and cannot be overcome, but by him, who hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sund••r. Hence is there such hard work in converting a sinner Sometimes he seems to be caught in the net of the gospel; yet quickly he slips away again. The hook catcheth hold of him: but he struggles, till getting free of it, he makes away with a bleeding wound. When good hopes are conceived of him, by these that travel in birth, for the forming of of Christ in him; there is oft-times nothing brought forth but wind. The deceitful heart makes many a shift to avoid a Saviour, and to cheat the man of his eternal happiness. Thus the natural man lies sunk in a state of sin and wrath, utterly unable to recover himself.

Object. (1.) If we be under an utter inability to do any good, how ••an God require us to do it? Ans. God making man upright, Eccles. vii. 29. gave him a power to do every thing he should require of him: this power, man lost by his own fault. We were bound to serve God, and to do whatsoever he commanded us, as being his creatures; and also, we were under the superadded tye of a covenant, for that

effect. Now, we having, by our own fault, disabled ourselves; shall God lose his right of requiring our task, because we have thrown away the strength he gave us, wherewithal to perform it? Has the creditor no right to require payment of his money, because the debitor has squandered it away, and is not able to pay him? Truly, if God can require no more of us than we are able to do; we need no more to save us from wrath, but to make ourselves unable for every duty, and to incapacitate ourselves for serving of God any manner of way, as profane men frequently do: and so the deeper one is immersed in sin, he will be the more secure from wrath; for where God can re|quire no duty of us, we do not sin in omitting it; and where there is no sin, there can be no wrath. (As to what may be urged by the unhumbled soul, against the putting of our stock in Adam's hand; the righteousness of that dispensation was cleared before.) But more|over, the unrenewed man is daily throwing away the very remains of natural abilities; that light and strength which are to be found amongst the ruins of mankind. Nay, farther, he will not believe his own utter inability to help himself; so that out of his own mouth he will be condemned. Even those who make their natural impotency to good, a cover to their sloth, do, with others, delay the work of turning to God from time to time; under convictions, make large promises of reformation, which afterward they never regard; and delay their repentance to a death-bed, as if they could help themselves in a mo|ment; which speaks them to be far from a due sense of their natural inability, whatever they pretend.

Now, if God can require of men, the duty they are not able to do; he can, in justice, punish them for their not doing it, notwithstanding of their inability. If he have power to exact the debt of obedience, he has also power to cast the insolvent debtor in his prison, for his not paying it. Further, tho' unregenerate men have no gracious abilities; yet they want not natural abilities, which nevertheless they will not improve. There are many things they can do, which they do not, they will not do them; and therefore, their damnation will be just, Nay, all their inability to good is voluntary; they will not come to Christ, John v. 40. They will not repent, they will die, Ezek. xviii. 51. So they will be justly condemned: because they will not turn to God, nor come to Christ; but love their chains better than their liberty, and darkness rather than light, John iii. 10.

Object. (2.) Why do you then preach Christ to us; call us to come to him, to believe, repent, and use the means of salvation? Ans Because it is your duty so to do. It is your duty to accept of Christ as he is offered in the gospel; to repent of your sins, and to be holy in all manner of conversation: these things are commanded you of God; and his command, not your ability, is the measure of your duty. Moreover, these calls and exhortations, are the means that God is pleased to make use of, for converting his elect, and working grace in their hearts: to them, faith cometh by hearing, Rom. x. 17. while they

are as unable to help themselves as the rest of mankind are. Upon very good grounds may we, at the command of God, who raiseth the dead, go to their graves, and cry in his name, awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light, Eph. v. 14. And seeing the elect are not to be known, and distinguished from others before conversion: as the sun shines on the blind man's face, and the rain falls on the rocks as well as on the fruitful plains; so we preach Christ to all, and shoot the arrow at a venture, which God himself directs as he sees meet. Moreover these calls and exhortati|ons are not altogether in vain, even to those that are not converted by them. Such persons may be convinced, tho' they be not converted: altho' they be not sanctified by these means; yet they may be restrained by them, from running into that excess of wickedness, which other|wise they would arrive at. The means of grace serve, as it were, to embalm many dead souls, which are never quickned by them; tho' they do not restore them to life; yet they keep them from smelling so rank as otherwise they would do. Finally, Tho' ye cannot recover yourselves; nor take hold of the saving help offered to you in the gospel: yet even by the power of nature, ye may use the outward and ordinary means, whereby Christ communicates the benefits of redemp|tion to ruined sinners, who are utterly unable to recover themselves out of the state of sin and wrath. Ye may, and can, if ye please, do many things, that would set you in a fair way for help from the Lord Jesus Christ. Ye may go so far on, as to be not far from the king|dom of God, as the discreet scribe had done, Mark xii. 34. tho' (it would seem) he was destitute of supernatural abilities. Tho' ye cannot cure yourselves; yet ye may come to the pool, where many such diseased persons as ye are, have been cured: ye have none to put you into it, yet ye may ly at the side of it: and who knows but the Lord may return, and leave a blessing behind him, as in the case of the impotent man, recorded, John v 5, 6, 7, 8. I hope Satan does not chain you to your houses, nor stake you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but ye are at liberty, and can wait at the posts of wisdom's door, if ye will. And when ye come thither, he doth not beat drums at your ears, that ye cannot hear what is said: there is no force upon you obliging you to apply all you hear to others; ye may apply to yourselves what belongs to your state and condition: and when you go home, you are not fettered in your houses, where perhaps no re|ligious discourse is to be heard; but ye may retire to some separate place, where ye can meditate, and pose your conscience with pertinent questions, upon what ye have heard. Ye are not possessed with a dumb devil, that ye cannot get your mouths opened in prayer to God. Ye are not so driven out of your beds to your worldly business, and from your worldly business to your beds again; but ye might, if ye would, bestow some prayers to God upon the case of your perishing souls. Ye may examine yourselves, as to the state of your souls, in a solemn manner, as in the presence of God; ye may discern that ye

have no grace, and that ye are lost and undone without it; and may cry unto God for it. These things are within the compass of natural abilities, and may be practised where there is no grace. It must ag|gravate your guilt, that you will not be at so much pains about the state and case of your precious souls. And if ye do not what you can do: ye will be condemned, not only for your want of grace, but for your despising of it.

Object. (3.) But all this is needless, seeing we are utterly unable to keep ourselves out of the state of sin and wrath. Ans. Give no place to that delusion, which puts asunder what God hath joined, namely, the use of means, and a sense of our own impotency. If ever the Spirit of God graciously influence your souls, ye will become throughly sensible of your absolute inability, and yet enter upon a vigorous use of means. Ye will do for yourselves, as if ye were to do all; and yet overlook all ye do, as if ye had done nothing. Will ye do nothing for yourselves, because ye cannot do all? Lay down no such impious conclusion against your own souls. Do what you can; and it may be, while ye are doing what ye can for yourselves, God will do for you what ye cannot. Understandest thou what thou readest? said Philip to the eunuch: How can I, said he, except some man should guide me, Acts viii. 30, 31. He could not understand the scripture he read: yet he could read it: he did what he could, he read; and while he was reading, God sent him an interpreter. The Israelites were in a great strait at the red-sea: and how could they help them|selves, when upon the one hand were mountains, and on the other, the enemies garrison; when Pharaoh and his host were behind them, and the red-sea before them? What could they do? Speak unto the children of Israel, saith the LORD to Moses, that they go forward, Exod. xiv. 15. For what end should they go forward? Can they make a passage to themselves through the sea? No: but let them go forward, saith the Lord: tho' they cannot turn sea to dry land, yet they can go forward to the shore: and so they did: and when they did what they could, God did for them what they could not do.

Quest. Has God promised to convert and save them, who in the use of means, do what they can towards their own relief? Ans. We may not speak wickedly for God: natural men being strangers to the covenants of promise, Eph. ii. 12. have no such promise made to them Nevertheless they do not act rationally, unless they exert the powers they have, and do what they can. For, (1.) It is possible this course may succeed with them. If ye do what ye can, it may be, God will do for you what you cannot do for yourselves. This is suf|ficient to determine a man, in a matter of the utmost importance, such as this is, Acts viii. 22. Pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee. Joel ii 14. Who knoweth if he will return? If success may be, the trial should be If in a wreck at sea, all the sailors and passengers had betaken themselves, each to a broken board for safety; and one of them should see all the rest perish, notwithstanding

of their utmost endeavours to save themselves: yet the very possibility of escaping by that means, would determine that one, still to do his best with his board. Why then do ye not reason with yourselves, as the four lepers did, who sat at the gates of Samaria, 2 Kings vii. 3, 4. Why do ye not say, If we sit still, not doing what we can, we die; let us put it to a trial, if we be saved, we shall live; if not, we shall but die. (2.) It is probable this course may succeed. God is good and merciful: he loves to surprise men with his grace, and is often found of them, that sought him not, Isa. lxv. 1. If ye do thus, ye are so far in the road of your duty; and ye are using the means, which the Lord is wont to bless, for men's spiritual recovery: ye lay yourselves in the way of the great Physician; and so it is probable ye may be healed. Lydia went, with others, to the place where prayer was wont to be made; and the Lord opened her heart, Acts xvi. 13, 14. Ye plow and sow, tho' no-body can tell you for certain, that ye will get so much as your seed again: Ye use means for the recovery of your health, tho' ye are not sure they will succeed. In these cases, probability determines you; and why not in this also? Importunity, we see, doe•• very much with men: therefore pray, meditate, desire help of God; be much at the throne of grace, supplicating for grace; and do not faint. Tho' God regard not you, who, in your present state, are but one mass of sin; universally depraved, and vitiated in all the powers of your soul: yet he may regard his own ordinance. Tho' he re|gards not your prayers, your meditations, &c. yet he may regard prayer, meditation, and the like means of his own appointment, and so bless them to you. Wherefore, if ye will not do what ye can: ye are not only dead, but you declare yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

To conclude, let the saints admire the freedom and power of grace, which came to them in their helpless condition, made their chains fall off, the iron gate to open to them, raised the fallen creatures; and brought them out of the state of sin and wrath, wherein they would have lain and perished, had they not been mercifully visited. Let the natural man be sensible of his utter inability to recover himself. Know thou art without strength; and canst not come to Christ, till thou be drawn. Thou art lost, and canst not help thyself. This may shake the foundation of thy nopes, who never sawest thy absolute need of Christ and his grace; but thinkest to shift for thyself, by thy civility, morality, drowsy wishes and duties; and by a faith and repentance, which have sprung up out of thy natural powers, without the power and efficacy of the grace of Christ. O be convinced of thy absolute need of Christ, and his overcoming grace; believe thy utter inability to recover thyself: and so thou mayst be humbled, shaken out of thy self-confidence, and ly down in dust and ashes, groaning out thy miser|able case before the Lord: A kindly sense of thy natural impotency, the impotency of depraved human nature, would be a step towards a delivery.

Thus far of man's natural state, the state of enti•••• depravation.