Human Nature

Human nature in its fourfold state by Thomas Boston, download number two. That man's nature is corrupted, proven. Lastly, I shall add but one observation more, and that is, that in every man, naturally, the image of fallen Adam does appear. Some children, by their features and liniments of their face, do as it were, father themselves, and thus we do resemble our first parents. Every one of us bears 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. First, is not a sinful curiosity natural to us? And is this not a print of Adam's image, Genesis 3, 6? Is not man naturally much more desirous to know new things than to practice old known truths? How, like old Adam, do we look in this, itching after novelties and disrelishing old solid doctrines? We seek after knowledge rather than holiness, and study most to know those things which are least edifying. Our wild and roving fancies need a bridle to curb them, while good solid affections must be quickened and spurred up. Secondly, if the Lord, by His holy law and wise providence, do put a restraint upon us to keep us back from anything, does not that restraint whet the edge of our natural inclinations and make us so much keener in our desires? And in this, do we not betray it plainly that we are Adam's children, Genesis 3, 2, 3, and 6? I think this cannot be denied for daily observation evinces that it is a natural principle that stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Proverbs 9, 17 The very heathens are convinced that man was possessed with the spirit of contradiction, though they knew not the spring of it. How often do men give themselves aloose in these things, in which, if God hath 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 her father's folly that men will rather climb for forbidden fruit than gather what is shaken off the ground of good providence to them when they have God's express allowance for it? Thirdly, which of all the children of Adam is not naturally disposed to hear the instruction that causes to err? And was not this a rock our first parents split upon, Genesis 3, 4, and 6? How apt is weak man ever since that time to parley with temptations. God speaketh once, yea, twice, yea, man perceiveth it not, Job 33, 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. Fourthly, did not the eyes in our head often blind the eyes of the mind? And was not this the very case of our first parents, Genesis 3, 6? Man is never more blinded when he is looking on the objects that are most pleasant to sense. Since the eyes of our first parents were open to the forbidden fruit, men's eyes have been the gates of destruction to their souls, in which impure imaginations and sinful desires have entered the heart, to the wounding of the soul, wasting of the conscience, and bringing dismal effects sometimes on whole societies, as in Achan's case, Joshua 7, 21. Holy Job was aware of this danger from these two little rolling bodies, which a very small splinter of wood will make useless, so that with the king who dirt's not, with his ten thousand meet him that came with twenty thousand against him, Luke 15, 31 and 32. He send us and desireth conditions of peace, Job 31, 1. I have made a covenant with mine eyes, and so on. Fifthly, is it not natural for us to take care for the body even at the expense of the soul? This is one ingredient in the sin of our first parents, Genesis 3, 6. Oh, 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 16, 30, did run but near as oft through our minds, as those questions do, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? Matthew 6, 31. Many a now hopeless case would turn very hopeful. But the truth is, most men live as if there were nothing but a lump of flesh, or as if their souls serve for no other use but like salt to keep the body from corrupting. They are flesh, John 3, 6. They mind the things of the flesh, Romans 8, 5. And they live after the flesh, verse 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 entered a descent. Sixthly, 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, Genesis 3, 5, and 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. Though perhaps if they considered the manner 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 a wandering of the desires, or, as the word is, a walking of the soul, Ecclesiastes 6, 9. This is a sort of diabolical trance wherein the soul traverses the world, feeds itself with a thousand airy nothings, snatches at this and the other created excellency and imagination and desire, goes here and there and everywhere, 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 through 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. Seventhly, 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, Genesis 3, 6. Evil example to this day is one of Satan's master devices to ruin men. And so we have by nature more of the fox than of the lamb, yet that ill property some observe in the creature, that is, 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 man 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 especially 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 humor them, and nothing is more plain that generally men choose rather to do what the most do than what the best do. Eighthly, who of all Adam's sons need to be taught the art of sewing fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, Genesis 3, 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 falling upon us silly and insignificant as that of fig leaves. What pains are men at to cover their sin from their own consciences and to draw all the fair colors upon it that they can? And when once convictions 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 water or birds to fly in the air. Therefore, the first question of the convinced is, What shall we do? Acts 2, 27. How shall we qualify ourselves? What shall we perform? Not minding that the new creature is God's own workmanship or deed. Ephesians 2, 10. More than Adam thought of being clothed with the skins of sacrifices. Genesis 3, 21. Ninthly, do not Adam's children naturally follow his footsteps and hide themselves from the presence of the Lord? Genesis 3, 8. We are every bit 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 24, 15. And men will freely do that in secret. Wish 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? I in 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. Isaiah 57, 17. I hid me. Did he seek after a hiding God? Very far from it. He went on in the way of his heart. Tenthly, how loathsome men are to confess sin, to take guilt and shame to themselves. And was it not thus in the case before us? Genesis 3, 10. Adam confesses his nakedness, which he could not get denied, but not one word he says of his sin. 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. Romans 2, 17. Many a foul mouth will then be seen, which is now wiped, and saith, I have done no wickedness. Proverbs 30, verse 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? Genesis 3, 12 and 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 lisp out 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? Genesis 3, 12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest 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 distinct is his apology, as he was afraid his meaning should have been mistaken. The woman, says he, or that woman, as if he would have appointed a judge to his own work, of which we read, Genesis 3, 22. There was but one woman then in the world, so that one would think he need not have been so nice and exact in pointing at her, and yet she is as carefully marked out in his defense as if there had been ten thousand. The woman whom thou gavest me, he speaks as if he had been ruined with God's gift, and to make the gift look the blacker it is 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 complete. He says not the woman gave, but the woman she gave me, emphatically, as if he had said, she, even she, gave me of the tree. This much for his apology. But his confession is quickly over in one word, as he spoke it, and I did eat. And there is nothing here to point to himself, and as little to show what he had eaten. How natural is this black art to Adam's posterity! He that runs may read it. So universally does Solomon's observation hold true. Proverbs 19 3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart frets against the Lord. Let us then call fallen Adam father. Let us not deny the relation, seeing we bear his image. Now to shut up this point, 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 second Adam, the blessed Jesus, for the application of his precious blood, to remove the guilt of our sin, and for the efficacy of his Holy Spirit to make us new creatures, knowing that except we be born again 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 dimensions of it, in its breadth, length, height, and depth? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17 9 However, we may quickly perceive as much of it as may be matter of deepest humiliation, and may discover to us the absolute necessity of regeneration. Man in this natural state is altogether corrupt. Both soul and body are polluted, as the apostle proves at large, Romans 3 10-18. As for the soul, this 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. The understanding, that leading faculty, is despoiled of its 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. Romans 3 11 Mind and conscience are defiled. Titus 1 15 The natural man's apprehension of divine things is corrupt. Psalm 51 21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself. His judgment is corrupt, and cannot be otherwise. Seeing his eye is evil. And therefore the Scriptures, to show that men did all wrong, say, Every one did that which was right in his own eyes. Judges 17 6 and 21 25 And his imaginations, or reasonings, must be cast down, by the power of the word, being of a peace with his judgment. 2 Corinthians 10 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 Peter 1 9 Hence the Spirit of God in the Scripture clothes, as it were, divine truths with earthly figures, even as parents teach their children using similitudes. Hosea 12 10 Which though it doth not cure, yet doth evidence this natural weakness in the minds of men. But we want not plain proofs of it from experiences. 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. Isaiah 28 10 Try the same persons and 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 neighbors, though 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, though 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 generality of mankind, who have had the benefit of good education and instruction. Yea, and are blessed with the light of grace in that measure wherein it is ascribed to the saints on earth. Yet how small a portion have they of the knowledge of divine things! What ignorance and confusion 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 concerns of greatest weight! What rueful delusions prevail over them! Do we not often see those who in other things are the wisest of men, the most notorious fools with respect to their soul's interest? Matthew 11.25 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 comes to himself, Luke 15.17, or in hell he lifts up his eyes. 6.16.23 Therefore in Scripture account, though he be ever so wise, he is a fool and a simple one. Secondly, man's understanding is naturally overwhelmed with gross darkness and spiritual things. Man at the instigation of the devil attempting to break out a new light in his mind, Genesis 3.5, instead of that broke up the doors of the bottomless pit, so as by the smoke thereof to be buried in darkness. When God first made man, and his mind was a lamp of light, but now when it comes to make him over again in regeneration, he finds it darkness. Ephesians 5 8 You were sometimes darkness. Sin is closed in windows of the soul. Darkness is over all the region. It is the land of darkness in the 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. 9 We are born spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy case, whoever thou art, that art not born again, that you may be convinced of this matter. Take the following evidences of it. 1 The darkness that was upon the face of the world before, and at the time when Christ came, arising as the Son of Righteousness upon the earth. When Adam by his sin had lost that primitive light with which he was endued at his creation, it pleased God to make a glorious revelation of his mind and will to him, touching the way of salvation. Gen 3 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 the mind prevailed again, and the light decayed till it died away among the generality of mankind, and was preserved only among the posterity of Shem. And even with them it had nearly set when God called Abraham from serving other gods. Joshua 24 15 God gives Abraham a more clear and full revelation which he communicates to his family. Genesis 18 19 Yet the natural darkness was spit out at length, save that it was preserved among the posterity of Jacob. They being carried down into Egypt, that darkness so prevailed as to leave them very little sense of true religion, and there was the necessity of a new revelation to be made to them in the wilderness. And many a cloud of darkness got above that now and then during the time between Moses and Christ. When Christ came, the world was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews and the true light with them were within an enclosure. Psalm 147 19 20 Between them and the Gentile world there was a partitioned 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, Ephesians 2 14 15. If we look abroad without the enclosure, and accept these proselytes of the Gentiles, who by means of some rays of light breaking forth upon them from within the enclosure, having renounced idolatry, worshipped the true God, but did not conform to the Mosaical rites, we see nothing but dark places of the earth, full of these habitations of cruelty. Psalm 74 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 about 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 Corinthians 1 21 And all their researches in religion were but groping in the dark. Acts 17 27 If we look within the enclosure, and accept a few that were groaning and waiting for the consolation of Israel, we will see a gross darkness on the face of that generation. Though to them were committed the oracles of God, yet they were most corrupt in their doctrine. Their traditions were multiplied, but the knowledge of those things wherein the life of religion lies was lost. Masters of Israel knew not the nature and necessity of regeneration. John 3 10 Their religion was to build on their birth privilege as children of Abraham, Matthew 2 9, to glory in their circumcision and other external ordinances, Philippians 3 2 3, and to rest in the law, Romans 2 17. After they had by their false glosses cut it so short that they might outwardly go well-nigh to the fulfilling of it, Matthew 5 11 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 a day-star arise in the heart. The latter is an evidence of the former. What but the natural darkness of men's minds can still thus wear out the light of external revelation in a manner upon which eternal happiness depends? Men did not forget the way of preserving their lives, but how quickly they lost their knowledge of the way of salvation of their souls, which are of infinitely more weight and worth. When patriarchs and prophets' teaching was ineffectual, it became necessary for men 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 spoke, John 12 37 and 38. The great cure remained to be performed by the Spirit accompanying the preaching of the apostles, who, according to the promise, John 14 12, were to do greater works. And if we look to the miracles wrought by our blessed Lord, we shall 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, Matthew 9 2, he plainly discovered that his main errand into the world was to cure 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 or case and cure. John 9 6. He made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay. What could more fitly represent the blindness of men's minds than eyes closed up with earth? Isaiah 6 1. Shut their eyes, shut them up by anointing or casting them with mortar as a word will bear. In chapter 44 18, he has shut their eyes. The word properly signifies he has plastered their eyes, as the house in which the leprosy had been was to be plastered, Leviticus 14 42. Thus the Lord's word discovers the design of that strange work, and by it shows us that the eyes of our understanding 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, Isaiah 42 5, I think the evangelist had not given us the interpretation of that name which he says signifies sent, John 9 7. 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 eyes solve only, can make us see, Revelation 3 18. Evidence 2. Every natural man's heart in life is a mass of darkness, disorder and confusion, how refined soever he appears in the sight of men. For we ourselves also say if the Apostle Paul were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, Titus 3 verse 3, and yet at the time which this text looks to, he was blameless, touching the righteousness which is in the law, Philippians 3 6. This is a plain evidence of the eye being evil, the whole body is full of darkness, Matthew 6 23. The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the world like so many blind men who will neither take a guide nor guide themselves, and therefore are falling over this and the other precipice into destruction. Some are running after their covetousness, still to be pierced through with many sorrows, some sticking in the mire of sensuality, others dashing themselves on the rock of pride and self-conceit, everyone stumbling on some one stone of stumbling or other, all of them are running themselves upon the sore point of justice while they eagerly follow, whether their unmortified passions and affections lead them. And while some are lying long in the way, others are coming up, falling headlong over them. Therefore, woe unto the blind world because of offences, Matthew 18 7. Aves and judgments swarm in the world because it is night wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. All the unregenerate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness, for though Christianity is fixed at manner and point of principle, yet nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in the practical judgment. All men agree in the desire of being happy, but among unrenewed 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, Isaiah 53 6. There like the blind sodomites about Lot's house all were seeking to find the door. Some groped one part of the wall for it, some another, but none of them could certainly say he had found it. So the natural man may stumble on any good but the chief good. Look into thine own unregenerate heart, and there will see all turned upside down, heaven lying under, and earth atop. 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 sliding that which is, and will be forever. Evidence number three. The natural man is always as a woodman, left without light, either trifling or doing mischief. Try to catch thy heart at any time thou wilt, and thou shalt find it either weaving the spider's web or hatching cockatrice eggs. Isaiah 59 5. Roving through 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. Evidence number four. The natural man is void of the saving knowledge of spiritual things. He knows not what a God he has to do with. He is unacquainted with Christ and knows not what sin is. The greatest graceless wits are blind as moles in these things. I but some such can speak of them to good purpose, so might those Israelites of the signs and miracles which their eyes had seen. Deuteronomy 29 3. To whom, nevertheless, the Lord had not given a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto that day. Verse four. Many a man that bears the name of a Christian may make Pharaoh's confession of faith. Exodus 5 2. I know not the Lord, neither will they let go what he commands them to part with. God is with them as a prince in disguise among his subjects who meets with no better treatment from them than if he were his fellows. Psalm 50 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 offers himself in the gospel. John 4 10. Psalm 9 10. Matthew 13 44-46. Do they know what sin is who nurse a serpent in their bosom, hold fast a seat, and refuse to let it go? I own indeed that they may have a natural knowledge of those things as the unbelieving Jews had of Christ whom they saw and conversed with. But there was a spiritual glory in him perceived by believers only. John 1 14. And in respect of that glory, the unbelieving world knew him not. Verse 10. The spiritual knowledge of them they cannot have, it is above the reach of the carnal mind. 1 Corinthians 2 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 spiritually discerned. He may indeed discourse of them, but in 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 wrapped up in the words of truth. 1 Timothy 1 7. Understanding neither what they say nor whatof they affirm. In a word natural men fear, seek, confess, say no, not what. Thus you may see man's understanding naturally is overwhelmed with gross darkness of spiritual things. Thirdly, there is in the mind of man a natural bias to evil, whereby 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, Jeremiah 4.22. The carnal mind drives heavily on 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 as a bird got out of a 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 incontestable evidence of this woeful bias to evil. Evidence 1. As when a man by a violent stroke on the head loses his sight, there arises to him a kind of false light, whereby he seems to see a thousand airy nothings. So man, being struck blind to all that is truly good, for his eternal interest, has the light of another sort brought into his mind. His eyes are opened, knowing evil, and so are the words of the tempter, Verify, Gen 3.5. The words of the prophet are plain, They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jeremiah 4.22. The mind of man has a natural dexterity to devise mischief. There are not any so simple as to want skill, to contrive ways to gratify their lusts, and ruin their souls. Though the power of everyone's hand cannot reach to put their devices in execution. No one needs to be taught this black art, but as weaves grow up of their own accord in a neglected ground, so doth this wisdom, which is earthly, sensual, devilish, Gen 3.15, 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 affront heaven, to oppose and run down truth and holiness, and to gratify their own and other men's lusts? They grow with the stream. No wonder that they make great progress, their stock is within them, and increases by using of it. And the works of darkness are contrived with a greater advantage, that the mind is wholly destitute of spiritual light, which, if it were in them in any measure, would so far as the mind is in the darkness, it is in the light, and the mind is in the light. And the works of darkness are contrived with a greater advantage, that the mind is wholly 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, the more easily it is done. Evidence No. 2 Let the corrupt mind have but the advantage of once being employed in or present at some piece of service for God, that so the device, if not in itself sinful, yet may become sinful by its unseasonableness, it will quickly fall upon some device or expedient, by its starting aside, which deliberation and seizing could not produce. Thus Saul, who wist not what to do before the priest began to consult 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 Samuel 14, 18, 19 Such a devilish dexterity hath the carnal mind in devising what may most effectually divert men from their duty to God. Evidence No. 3 Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grasp spiritual things in imagination? Is it the soul were quite immersed in flesh and blood, and would turn everything into its own shape? Let men who are used to the forming of the most abstracted notions look into their own souls, and they will find this bias in their minds, whereof the idolatry which did of old instill doth so much profeld in the world, is an incontestable evidence, for it plainly discovers that men naturally would have a visible deity, and see what they worship, and therefore they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image, and so on. Romans 1.23 The reformation of these nations, blessed be the Lord for it, has banished idolatry and images too out of our churches, but heart reformation only can break down mental idolatry, and banish the more subtle and refined image, worship, and representations 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, hence are horrible, monstrous, and misshapen thoughts of God Christ to glory above in all spiritual things. Evidence No. 4 What a difficult task it is to detain the carnal mind before the Lord! How averse it is to the entertaining of good thoughts, and dwelling in the meditation of spiritual things! If a person be driven at any time to think of the great concerns of the 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 carcass is laid down before God, but the world gets away the heart. Though the eyes be closed, a man sees a thousand vanities. The mind in the meantime is like a bird got loose out of a 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. Agreeable objects will do it. Psalm 108 verse 1 A pleasant speculation will arrest the minds of the inquisitive. The worldly man's mind is in little hazard of wavering when he is contriving business, casting up his accounts, or telling his money. If he answers 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 cain to petition for our lives, we should be in no hazard of gazing through the chamber of presence. But here lies a case. A carnal mind employed about any spiritual good is out of its element, and therefore cannot fix. Evidence number 5 But however hard it is to keep the mind on good thoughts, it sticks its glue to what is evil and corrupt like itself. 2 Peter 2.14 Having eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from sin. Their eyes cannot cease from sin, so the words are construed. That is, their hearts and minds, venting by the eyes what is within, are like a furious beast which cannot be held in once it has got out of its head. Let the corrupt imagination once be let loose on a favored object, it will be found hard work to call it back again, though both reason and will are for its retreat. For then it is in its own element, and to draw it off from its impurities is the drawing of a fish out of the water, or the rending of a limb from a man. It runs like fire set to a train of powder, that rests not till it can get no further. Evidence 6 Consider how the carnal imagination supplies a 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 covetous man fills his heart with the world, though 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 neighbor laid low, and every lust finds a corrupt imagination a friend to it in time of need. This it does not only when people are awake, but sometimes even when they are asleep, whereby it comes to pass that those sins are acted in dreams which their hearts pant after while they are awake. I am aware that some question the sinfulness of these things, but can it be thought that 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 one? It is the corruption of nature, thence, that makes filthy dreamers condemn. Jude verse 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. First Kings 3, 5, and 15 And if a man may in his sleep do what is good and acceptable to God, why may he not also in his sleep 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. Proverbs 6, 20, 21 When thou sleepest, says he, it shall keep thee to wit from sinning in thy sleep, that is, from sinful dreams. For a man's being kept from sin, not his being kept from affliction, is the immediate proper effect of the law of God impressed upon the heart. Psalm 119 verse 11 And thus the whole verse is to be understood as appears from verse 23 For the commandment is the lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Now the law is a lamp and 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. They guide not 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. Remarkable is that particular in which Solomon instances the sin of uncleanness, to keep thee from the evil woman, verse 24, which is to be joined to verse 22, enclosing the twenty-third 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 this, and to 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, Romans 1.18. As for the truths of revealed religion, there is an evil heart of unbelief in them, which opposes their entry, and there is an armed force necessary to captivate the mind to the belief of them, 2 Corinthians 10.4.5. God has made a revelation of his mind and will to sinners, touching the way of salvation. He has given us a 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 5.10. They believe not the promises of the word. They look on them in effect only as fair words, for those that receive them are thereby made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1.4. 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 threatenings of the word, as men travelling in deserts carry fire about with them to fright away wild beasts. So God has made his law a fiery law, Deuteronomy 33.2, hedging it about with threats of wrath. But men are naturally more brutish than beasts themselves, and will need touch the fiery smoking mountain though 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 hear plead not guilty. But remember the carnal Jews in Christ's time were as confident as you are. They believed Moses, John 9.28.29. But he confutes their confidence roundly, telling them John 5.46. Had you believed Moses, you would have believed me. If you believe the truths of God, you dare not reject as you do him who is truth itself. The very difficult you find in assenting to this truth discovers that unbelief which I am charging you with. Has it not proceeded so far with some at this day, that it has steeled their foreheads with impudence and impiety, openly to reject all revealed religion? Surely it is out of the abundance of the heart of their mouth speaketh. But though you set not your mouths against heaven 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 brings 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 blessed with an inward illumination by this special operation of the Spirit of Christ, leading them into a view of divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly luster. How have you learned the truths of religion which you pretend to believe? You have them merely by the benefit of external revelation, and by education, so that you are Christians, because you were not born and bred in a pagan, but in a Christian country. You were 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 the outward divine revelation made in the word. 1 Corinthians 2 10-12 Therefore you were still unbelievers. It is written in the prophets, They shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that is heard and has learned of the Father, cometh unto me, says our Lord. John 6 45 Now you have not come to Christ, therefore you have not been taught of God. You have not been so taught, and therefore you have not come. Ye believe not. Behold the revelation from which the faith, even of the fundamental principles in religion, doth spring. Matthew 16 16-17 Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. If ever the Spirit of the Lord take thee in hand to work in you that faith which is the operation of God, it may be that as much time will be spent in raising the old foundation as will make you find the necessity of the working of his mighty power, to enable you to believe the very foundation principles which now you think that you make no doubt of. Ephesians 1-19 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 Thessalonians 2 11-12 God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe not the truth. They fall into damning delusions, because they never really believed a truth, though they themselves and others too thought they did believe it. 3 Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives with the principle of religion which they profess. You may as soon bring East and West together as their principles and practices. 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 scarecrow. If you believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that you are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the Lord? How is it that you are so little concerned about this weighty point, whether you be born again or not? 4 Many live as they were born, and are likely to die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe that they are children of wrath? Do they believe that there is no salvation without regeneration, and no regeneration but what makes a man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not embrace them, and seek to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not dig for a hid treasure if he really believed that he might so obtain it? Men will work and sweat for a maintenance, because they believe that by so doing they shall 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, Hebrews 4, 1 and 2. If you believe the threatenings, 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 punishes. Fifthly, there is in the mind of man a natural proneness to lies and falsehood, which makes for the safety of lusts. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Psalm 58, verse 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 tempter they first doubted, then disbelieved it, and embraced a lie instead of it. For an incontestable evidence hereof we may see the first article of the devil's creed, Ye shall not surely die, Gen 3, 4, which was obtruded by him on our first parents, and by them received, naturally embraced by their posterity, and hailed fast, till light from heaven obliged 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, They shall not surely die. And this is often improved to such perfection, that men can say in the face of the denounced curse, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. Deuteronomy 29.19 Whatever advantage the truths of God have over error, by means of education or otherwise, error has always with a natural man this advantage against truth, namely, that there is something within him which says, O that it were true, so that the mind lies fair for assenting to it. And here is a reason of it. The true doctrine is a doctrine that is according to godliness, 1 Timothy 6.3. And the truth which is after godliness, Titus 1.1. Error is a doctrine which is according to ungodliness, for there is never an error in the mind, or an untruth vented in the world, in matters of religion, but what has an affinity with one corruption of the heart or another, according to that of the Apostle 2 Thessalonians 2.12. 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, an external pomp in religion, as they are so agreeable to the lusts of the heart and the vanity of the mind of the natural man. Hence also it is that so many embrace atheistical principles, for none do it but in compliance with their irregular passions, none but those whose advantage it would be that there were no God. Lastly, man naturally is high-minded, for when the gospel comes in power to him, it is employed in casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, 2 Corinthians 10.5. 3. 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 which he has got by his fallen Adam has produced a false light whereby mole-heels about him appear like mountains, and a thousand airy beauties present themselves in his deluded fancy. 3. Vain man would be wise, so he accounts himself, and so he would be accounted by others. Though man be born like a wild Assas-cult Job 11.12, his way is right, because it is his own, for every way of man is right in his own eyes. Proverbs 21.2. His state is good, because he knows none better. He is alive without the law. Romans 7.9. And therefore his hope is strong, and his confidence firm. It is another tower of Babel reared up against heaven, and it will not fall, while the power of darkness can hold it up. The word batters it, yet it stands, while one breaches are made in it, but they are quickly repaired at another time. It is all made to shake, but still it is kept up, till either God himself by his Spirit raises a heart to quake within the man which tumbles it down, and leaves not one stone upon another. 2 Corinthians 10.4.5. Or death batter it down, and raise the foundations of it. Luke 16.23. And as a natural man thinks highly of himself, so he thinks meanly of God, whatever he pretends. Psalm 51.21. The thought is that I was altogether such in 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 Corinthians 1.18 and 2.14. He brings a word and the works of God and the government of the world before the bar of his carnal reason, and there they are presumptuously censured and condemned. Hosea 14.9. 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 nest, uncovered and disturbed, where doubts, denials, and hellish reasonings crowd in it, and cannot be laid by all the arguments brought against them, till power from on high subdueth the mind, and still the mutiny of the corrupt principles. Thus much of the corruption of the understanding, which although the half be not told, may discover to you the absolute necessity of regenerating grace. Call the understanding now Ichabod, for the glory is departed from it. Consider this, you that are yet in a state of nature, and grown out your case before the Lord, that the sun of righteousness may arise upon you, before you be shut up in everlasting darkness. What avails your worldly wisdom? What do your attainments in religion avail, while your understanding lies wrapped 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, Leviticus 13.44, pronounce him utterly unclean, as plague is in his head. But that is not all, it is in his heart too. His will is corrupted, as I shall soon show. Of the Corruption of the Will 2. The will, that commanding faculty, which sometimes was faithful and ruled with God, is now turned traitor in rules with and for the devil. God planted 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 due subordination to the will of God, as was shown before, but now it is gone wholly aside. However some magnify the power of free will, a view of the spirituality of the law, to which acts of moral discipline in no wise 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 their free will. To open up this plague of the heart, I offer these following things to be considered. 1. 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 any more than a dead man can raise himself out of the grave. Ephesians 2.1. We don't deny him a power to choose, pursue, and act what, as to the matter, is good. But though he can will what is good and right, he can will nothing right and well. John 15.5. Without me, i.e. separate from me as a branch from the stalk, as both the word and context carry it, he can do nothing, to wit, nothing truly and spiritually good. His very choice and desire of spiritual things is carnal and selfish. John 6.26. He seeth me, because he did eat of the loaves, and were filled. He not only comes not to Christ, but he cannot come. Verse 44. And what he can do acceptable to God, who believeth not on him, whom the Father has sent? To evidence this inability for good in the unregenerate, consider these two things. Evidence 1. How often does a light so shine before men's eyes, that they cannot but see the good which they should choose, and the evil which 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 but follow what is wrong. Their consciences tell them the right way, and approve of it too, yet their will cannot be brought up to it. Their corruption so chains them, that they cannot embrace it, so that they sigh and go backward, notwithstanding their light. If it be not thus, how is it that the word and way of holiness meet with such entertainment in the world? How is it that clear arguments and reason on the side of piety and a holy life, which seem to have weight even with the carnal mind, do not bring men over to that side? Although the existence of a heaven and hell were but a maybe, if were sufficient to determine the will to the choice of holiness, were it capable of being determined thereto by mere reason. But men, knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1.32 And how is it that those who magnify the power of free will, do not confirm their opinion before the world, by an ocular demonstration, in a practice as far above others in holiness, as the opinion of their natural ability is above that of 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, throw them off in a moment and leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom? Whatever 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. 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 springs so much fearlessness about the soul's eternal state, so many delays and off-puts in that waiting manner, whereby much work is laid up for a deathbed by some, while others are ruined by a legal walk in unacquaintedness with the life of faith, in the making use of Christ for sanctification, all flowing from the persuasion of sufficient natural abilities. So agreeable is it to corrupt nature. Evidence number two. Let those who, by the power of the spirit of bondage, have had the law opened 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, whether the more the 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, who from their experience can tell that light led 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. Romans 7.8-13. I own, the natural man may have a kind of love to the letter of 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 the creature of his own fancy, he thinks that he has the law, but in very deed he is without the law. For as yet he sees it not in his 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 unwilling to part with it as fisher to come out of the water into dry land. He not only cannot come to Christ, but he will not come, John 5.40. He is polluted and hates to be washed, Jeremiah 13.27. Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? He is sick, yet utterly averse to the remedy. He loves his disease, so that he loathes the physician. He is a captive, a prisoner and a slave, but he loves his conqueror, his jailer 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 will instance in some particulars evidence number one, 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 submit to be restrained in sinful liberty. Everybody may see in this, as in a glass, that man is naturally wild and willful, according to Zophar's observation, Job 11.12, 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 Jeremiah 2.24, a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can turn her away. Evidence number two. 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 little to come before God. It is not easy to borrow time from the many things, to spend 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, Ezekiel 33.31. 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 sucked in the breasts of the lust. Time seems to them to fly and dry furiously, so that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does a prayer, a sermon, or a Sabbath last? The Lord's day is the longest day of all the week with many, 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 Sabbath be gone? Amos 8.5. 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 the sermon is ended, many have neither the grace nor the good manners to stay till the blessing be pronounced. But like the beasts, their head is away, as soon as a man puts his hand to loose them. And why? Because while they are at ordinances, they are as Doag detained before the Lord, 1 Samuel 22.7. Evidence 3 Consider how the will of the natural man rebels against the light, Job 24.13. Light sometimes enters in, because he is not able to keep it out, but he loves darkness rather than light. Sometimes by the force of truth, the outer door of the understanding is broken up, but the inner door of the will remains fast bolted. Then lusts arise against light. Corruption and conscience encounter and fight is in the field of battle, till corruption getting the upper hand, conscience is forced to turn its back. Convictions are murdered, and truth is made in hell prisoner, so that it cannot create any 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 those convictions not being able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrow sticking in his conscience, and at length, one way or another, gets him out and makes himself whole again. Thus while the light shines, men naturally, averse to it, willfully shut their eyes, till God is provoked to blind them judicially, and they become proof against his word, and providence is too. So go where they will, they can sit at ease, there is never a word from heaven to them that goeth deeper into their own ears. Hosea 4.17 Ephraim is joined to idols, let them alone. Evidence 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 the stroke of sword, in a day of his power. Psalm 110.2 and 3 None come to him, but such as are drawn by divine hand. John 6.44 When the Lord comes to the soul, he finds a strong man, keepeth the house in 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 solve it himself from them, carnal reason is called in to help, and urges 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 in going to hell with company, he 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, Today, if you will hear his voice hard and not your heart's. But he cries, Tomorrow, Lord, tomorrow, Lord, and just now, Lord, till that now is never like to come. Thus many times he comes from his prayers and confessions with nothing but a breast full of sharper convictions. For the heart does not always cast up the sweet morsel as soon as confession is made with the mouth, Judges 10, 10 to 16. And when conscience obliges him to 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 remembered the fish they did eat in Egypt freely. Numbers 11, verse 5. Nay, when he is so pressed that he must need say before the Lord that he is content to part with all his idols, the heart will be given the tongue to lie. In a word, the soul, in this case, will shift from one thing to another like a fish from the hook at its jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it yield as a wild ass in her month, Jeremiah 2, 24. Thirdly, there is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil, a woeful bent towards sin. Men naturally are bent to backsliding from God, Hosea 2, 7. They hang, as the word is, toward backsliding, even as a hanging wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant. Set holiness and life upon the one side, sin and death upon the other, and leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will choose sin and reject holiness. This is no more to be doubted than that water poured on the side of a hill will run downward and not upward, or that a flame will ascend and not descend. Evidence number one. Is not the way of evil the first way which the children of men 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 hellward, not heavenward. As soon as it appears that we are rational creatures, it appears that we are sinful creatures. Psalm 58, verse 3. The wicked are restrained from the womb, they go astray, as soon as they are born. Proverbs 22, 15. Foolishness is bound 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 in our very nature. The knot will not unloose, it 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 in it will meet to knit again. Not that the rod of itself will do this, the sad experience of many parents testifies to the contrary, and Solomon himself tells you, Proverbs 27, 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 spirits accompanying his own ordinance. This, by the way, shows that parents in administering 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 dependence on the Lord, and following it with prayer for the blessing, if they would have it effectual. Evidence number two. How easily are men led aside to sin, the children who are not persuaded to good or otherwise 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, Genesis 25, 27, was as easily cheated of the blessing as if he had been a fool or an idiot. The more natural a thing is, the more easy it is. So Christ's yoke is easy to the saints insofar as they are partakers of the divine nature, and sin is easy to the unrenewed man. But to learn to do good is as difficult as for the Ethiopian to change his skin, because the will naturally hangs towards evil and is averse to good. A child can cause a round thing to run when he cannot move a square thing of the same weight, for the roundness makes it fit for motion, though it goes with a touch. Even so, men find the heart easily carried towards sin, while it is as a dead weight in the way of holiness. We must seek for the reason of this from the natural set and disposition of the heart, whereby it is proned and bent to evil. Where men's will naturally but in 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 any one of these nations grow fond of Israel's God and forsake their own idols? No, no, though man is naturally given to changes, this is but from evil to evil, not from evil to good. Jeremiah 2, 10 and 11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Surely the will of man stands not in equal balance, but hath a cast to the wrong side. Evidence 3 Consider how many go on still in the way of sin, till they meet with a stop of that from another hand than their own. Isaiah 57, 17 I hid me, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. If God withdraw his restraining hand and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is under 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 suffers him, they walk in their own way. Acts 14, 16 The natural man is so fixed in his woeful choice that there needs no more to show he is off from God's way than to say he is upon his own. Evidence 4 Whatsoever good impressions are made on him, they do not last. Though his heart be firm as a stone, yea, harder than a nether millstone, and point of receiving 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. Hosea 6, 4 Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. The morning cloud promises a hearty shower, but when the sun arises, it vanishes. The sun beats upon the early dew, and it evaporates, so the husbandman's expectation is disappointed. Such is the goodness of the natural man. Some sharp affliction or piercing conviction obliges him in some sort to turn from his evil course, but his will will not be renewed. Religion is still against the grain with him, and therefore this goes off again. Psalm 78, 34-37 Though a stone thrown up into the air may abide there a little while, yet its natural heaviness will bring it down again. So do unrenewed men return to the wallowing in the mire, because though they wash themselves yet their swineish nature was not changed. It is hard to cause wet wood to take fire, hard to make it keep fire, but it is harder than either of these to make the unrenewed will attain goodness, which is a plain evidence of the natural bent of the will to evil. Evidence 5 Do the saints serve the Lord now as they were wont to serve sin in their unconverted state? Very far from it. Romans 6, 20 When you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. Sin got all, and admitted no partner. But now, when they are the servants of Christ, are they free from sin? Nay, there are still with them some deeds of the old man, showing that he is but dying in them. And hence their hearts often misgive them, and slip aside into evil, when they would do good. Romans 7, 21 They need to watch, and keep their hearts with all diligence. And their sad experience teaches them, that he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs 28, 26 If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry? 4 There is a natural contrariety, direct opposition, and enmity in the will of man to God himself and his holy will. Romans 8, 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 deputy in the soul, set to command therefore him. But now it is set up against him. If you would have the picture of it in its natural state, the very reverse of the will of God represents it. If to fruit hangen before one's eyes be but forbidden, there 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 pride in it, belching out horrid oaths and curses, as if hell opened with the opening of their mouths, or larding their speeches with minced stoves, and all this without any manner of provocation, though even that would not excuse them. Pray tell me, number one, what profit is there here? A thief gets something in his hand for his pains. A drunkard gets a bellyful, but what do you get? Others serve the devil for pay, but you are volunteers that expect no reward but your work itself, an affronting of heaven. And if you repent not, you will get your reward in full tell. When you 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. You may drive on your old trade there. Eternity will be long enough to give you your heart's fill of it. Number two. What pleasure is there here, but what flows from your trampling on the holy law? Which of your senses doth swearing and cursing gratify? If it gratify your ears, it can only be the noise it makes against the heavens. Though you had a mind to give up yourselves to all manner of profanity and sensuality, there is so little pleasure can be strained out of these sins, that we must neither conclude your love for them, in this case, as 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, a world as fruitful as such monsters, they are to be found almost everywhere. Allow me to say, they must be admitted as a mouth of the whole unregenerate world against heaven. Roman 3.14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Verse 19. Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, 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 and 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 profane, seeing as 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. First, you are enemies to God in your mind. Colossians 1.21. You are not as yet reconciled to Him. The natural enmity is not as yet slain, though perhaps it lies hid, and you do not perceive it. Number 1. You are enemies to the very being of God. Psalm 14.1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. The proud man would that none were above himself, the rebel, there were no king, and the unrenewed man, who has a massive pride in rebellion, that there were no God. He saith it in his heart, he wishes it were so, though he is ashamed and afraid to speak it out. That all natural men are such fools appears from the apostles quoting a part of this psalm, that every mouth may be stopped. Romans 3.10-19. I own, indeed, that while the natural man looks upon God as a creator and preserver of the world, because he loves his own self, therefore his heart rises not against the being of his benefactor. But his enmity will quickly appear when he looks on God as a rector and judge of the world, binding 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 thou will find it to be no God. 2. Your enemies to the nature of God, Job 21.14, 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 loved him no other way than Jacob loved Leah, while he took her for Rachel. Every natural man is an enemy to God, if he is revealed in his word. The infinitely holy, just, powerful, and true Being is not the God whom he loves, but the God whom he loathes. In fact, men naturally are haters of God. Romans 1.30. If they could, they certainly would make him otherwise in what he is. For consider, it is a certain truth that whatsoever is in God is God. Therefore his attributes or perfections are not anything really distinct from himself. If God's attributes be not God himself, he is a compound being, and so not the first being, to say which 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 conscience a few queries. 1. How stand your hearts affected towards the infinite purity and holiness of God? Conscience will give an answer to this, while 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 discover what sort of a god the natural man would have. God is holy. Can an unholy creature love his unspotted holiness? Nay, it is a righteous only that can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. God is light. Can creatures of darkness rejoice in it? Nay, every one that doth evil hateth light. John 3.20. For what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6.14. 2. How stand your hearts affected with 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 malefactor love his condemning judge, or an unjustified sinner a just God? No, he cannot. Luke 7.47. To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Hence as men cannot get the doctrine of his justice blotted out of the Bible, it is such an eyesore to them that they strive to blot it out of their minds. They ruin themselves by presuming on his mercy, while they are not careful to get a righteousness wherein they may stand before his justice. But saying their heart, the Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. Zephaniah 1.12. 3. How stand you affected to the omniscience and omnipresence of God? Men naturally would rather have a blind idol than the all-seeing God. Therefore they do what they can, as Adam did, to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord.