Human Nature

I'm reading from the book, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, by Thomas Boston, The Corruption of the Will. They no more love the all-seeing and everywhere present God than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evildoes. 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 forsaken the earth, Ezekiel 8, 12. 4. How stand ye affected to the truth and veracity of God? There are but few in the world who can heartily subscribe to this sentence of the Apostle Roman 3, 4, Let God be true, but every man a liar. Nay, truly there are many who, in effect, 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 it all concern themselves in the question, whether they are born again or not, a question that is light to wear out from among us at this day. Our Lord's words are plain and peremptory, Except a man be born 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 recall his word, and that Christ will prove a false prophet? What else means the sinner who, when he hears the words of the curse, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart? Deuteronomy 29, 19. Lastly, how stand ye affected to the power of God? None but new creatures will love him for and on a fair view thereof, though 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 him it in. On these grounds, I declare every unrenewed man an enemy to God. Secondly, you 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 you had been beset with their temptations, and no more restrained than they were. Am I a dog, you will say, that I should so treat my sweet Saviour? So did Hazel ask 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 that they never suck 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 please in the world, and when they die be kept out of hell. Alas, it is but a mistaken Christ that is sweet to you, whose souls loathe 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 with 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. Malachi 3.1 But when he sat as a refiner and purifier of silver, verses 2 and 3, and rejected them as reprobate silver, who thought to have had no small honour in the kingdom of the Messiah, his doctrine gulled their consciences, and they had no rest till he imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes in this point, which are so averse to believe, I will lay before you the enmity of your hearts against Christ and all his offices. First, 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 call of the world, who in their natural state would have unanimously voted against him. Therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer. For evidence of this enmity, I will instance two things. Evidence number one. Consider the entertainment which he meets with when he comes to teach souls inwardly by his spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like that 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 10 20. He is mad, why hear ye him? So exercise raised by the spirit of bondage is accounted by many nothing else but distraction and melancholy fits. Men thus blaspheming the Lord's word because they themselves are beside themselves, and cannot judge of those matters. Evidence number two. Consider the entertainment with which he meets when he comes to teach men outwardly by his word. Number one. His written word, the Bible, is slighted. Christ has left it to us as a book of our instruction to show us what way we must steer our course if we would go to Emmanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light. And he hath then joined us to with that diligence wherewith men dig into mines for silver and gold. John 5 39. But ah, how is this sacred treasure profaned by many! They ridicule that holy word by which they must be judged at the last day, and will rather lose their souls in their jest, dressing up the conceits of their wanton wits and scripture phrases, in which they act as mad a part as one would dig into a mine, and to procure metal to melt and pour down his own in his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances, and their minds pursue them as a flame doth the dry stubble, while they have no heart for, nor relish to, the holy word, and therefore seldom take a Bible in their hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds is pleasant in taking, but what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts makes their spirits dull and flat. What pleasure they find in reading a profane ballad or storybook, to whom the Bible is tasteless as a white of an egg. Many lay by their Bibles with their Sabbath-day 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 the 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 those who usually read the scripture, how few are those who read it as a word of the Lord to their souls, and keep up communion with him in it. They do not make his statutes their counselors, nor doth their particular case send them to their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the scriptures, and when they are dejected, it is something else in the word that revives them, as Ahab was cured by a solid fit by the securing of Naboth vineyard for him. 2. Christ's Word Preaches to Spies The entertainment which most of the world, to whom it has come, have always given it, is that which is mentioned in Matthew 22.5. They made light of it, and for its sake they are despised whom he employs to preach it. Whatever other face men put upon their contempt of the ministry, John 15.20.21, their servant is not greater than the Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my say, they will keep yours also. But only 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 mystery, which the world in all ages hath unriddled. But though the earth and vessels wherein God hath put the treasure be turned with many into vessels wherein there is no pleasure, yet why is the treasure itself slighted? But slighted it is, and that with the witness is day. Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom shall we speak? Men can, without remorse, make to themselves silent sabbath one after another. And alas, when they come to ordinances, for the most part it is but to appear, or as the word is, to be seen before the Lord, and to tread his courts, namely, as a company of beasts would do if they were driven into them. Isaiah 1.12. 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 precept. And the result of all is, they go and fall backward, and are broken and snared and taken. Isaiah 28.13 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. A speaker is in heaven, and speaks to you from heaven by men. Why do you refuse him that speaketh? Hebrews 12.25 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 proposed. 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 forever wrapped up in the blackness of darkness. And there we should have eternally lain, had not this grace of the gospel as the shining sun appeared to dispel it. Titus 2.11 But yet we fly like night owls from it, and like the wild beasts lay ourselves down in our dens when the sun arises, 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 forever, 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 Corinthians 1.23 They are not for him as a new and living way, nor is he by the voice of the world and high priest over the house of God. Corrupt nature goes quite another way to work. Evidence 1. None of Adam's children naturally inclined 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 the thread spun out of their own bowels. For they desire to be under the law, Galatians 4.21 And go about to establish their own righteousness. Romans 10.3 Man naturally looks on God as the 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 to the demands of the law, serve God as well as he can, and pray for mercy wherein he comes short. Thus many come to duties, they never come out of them to Jesus Christ. Evidence 2. As men naturally think highly of their duties, that seem to them to be well done, so they look for acceptance with God according 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 seest not. They value themselves on their performances and attainments, yea, their very opinions in religion. Philippians 3.4-7 Taken to themselves what they rob from Christ, the great high priest. Evidence 3. The natural man, going to God in duties, will always be found either to go without a mediator, or with more than only one mediator, Jesus Christ. Nature is blind, and therefore vengeorsome. It sets men 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 his 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 mediators, 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. Thirdly, the natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father hath appointed a mediator, King and Zion, Psalm 2 verse 6, all to whom the gospel comes are commanded on their highest peril to kiss the Son, and submit themselves unto him, verse 12. But the natural voice of mankind is away with him, as you may see, verses 2 and 3, they will not have him to reign over them, Luke 19, 14. Evidence number one, the workings of corrupt nature to rust the government out of his hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a king, Herod persecuted him, Matthew 2. And when he was crucified, they set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, Matthew 27, 37. Though his kingdom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world, yet they cannot allow him a kingdom within a kingdom, which acknowledges no other head or supreme but the royal mediator. They make bold with his royal prerogatives, changing his laws, institutions, and ordinances, modeling 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. Evidence number two, how unwilling are men naturally to submit unto and be hedged in by the laws and disciplines of his kingdom. As a king, he is a lawgiver, Isaiah 33, 22, and has appointed an external government, discipline, and censors to control the unruly and to keep his professed subjects in order, to be exercised by officers of his own appointment. Matthew 18, 17, and 18, 1 Corinthians 12, 28, 1 Timothy 5, 17, Hebrew 13, 17. But these are the great eyesores 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, Psalm 2, verse 3. Hence this work is found to be, in a special manner, a striving against a 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. Evidence number three, 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 diverse lusts and pleasures, Titus 3, 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 subdued, that will allow him to set up and 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, but will never absolutely resign themselves to his government, till conquered in a day of power. Thus you may see that the natural man is an enemy to Jesus Christ and all his offices. But oh, how hard is it to convince men on this point! They are very loath to take it up, and in a special manner the enmity of the heart against Christ and his priestly office seems to be hid from the view of most of the hearers of the gospel. There appears to be a peculiar malignity and corrupt nature against that office of his. It may be observed that the Sassanians, those enemies of our blessed Lord, allow him to be properly a prophet and a king, but deny him to be properly a priest. 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 a way to the Father till it be revealed to him, and when it is revealed, the will rises up against it. For corrupt nature lies cross to the mystery of Christ, and the great contrivance of salvation through the crucified Saviour revealed in the gospel. For clearing of which weighty truth, let these four things be considered first. The souls falling in with the grand scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ, and setting the matters of salvation on that footing before the Lord, is declared by the scriptures of truth to be an undoubted mark of a real saint, who is happy here, and shall be happy hereafter. Matthew 11 6 Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. 1 Corinthians 1 23 and 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. Philippians 3 3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now how could this be, if nature could comply with that grand device? 2 Corrupt nature is a very reverse of the gospel In the gospel God proposes Jesus Christ as a great means of reuniting man to himself. He has named him as a mediator, one in whom he is well pleased, and will have none but him. Matthew 17 5 But nature will have none of him. Psalm 81 11 God appointed the place of meeting for the reconciliation, namely the flesh of Christ. Accordingly God was in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5 19 As a tabernacle of meeting, to make up the peace with sinners. But natural men, although they should die forever, will not come to Christ. John 5 40 You 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 imputed 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. Romans 9 31 32 And not after the Lord our righteousness. Nature is always for building up itself, and has some ground for boasting. But the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting. Romans 3 27 The sum of our natural religion is to do good from and for ourselves. John 5 44 The sum of the gospel religion is to deny ourselves, and to do good from and for Christ. Philippians 1 21 Thirdly, everything in nature is against believing in Jesus Christ. What beauty can a 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 a Jebusite said to David in another case, Except thou take away the blind in the lane, thou shalt not come in hither. 2 Samuel 5 6 The way of nature is to go into oneself 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. Proverbs 18 26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. Now faith is a soul's going out of itself for all, and this nature, on the other hand, determines to be foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1 18 23 Wherefore there is need of the working of mighty power to cause sinners to believe. Ephesians 1 19 Isaiah 53 1 We see the promises of welcome to sinners in the gospel covenant are ample, large, and free, clogged with no conditions. Isaiah 55 1 Revelation 22 17 If they cannot believe his bare word, he has given them his oath upon it. Ezekiel 33 11 And for their greater assurance he is the next seals to a 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 those who flee to Christ for a refuge to have need of a strong consolation. Hebrews 6 18 To balance their strong doubts and propensity to unbelief. Further also it may be observed how in the words sent to a secure, graceless generation their objections are answered beforehand, and words of grace are heaped one upon another, as you may read Isaiah 55 7 and 9 Joel 2 13 Why? Because the Lord knows that when these secure sinners are thoroughly awakened, doubts, fears, and carnal reasonings against believing will be getting into their hearts as thick as dust in a house raised by sweeping a dry floor. Lastly, corrupt nature is bent toward 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. Romans 11 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, otherwise work is no more work. Galatians 3 12 And the law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shall live in them. Wherefore, if the will of man naturally inclined to the way of salvation by the law, it lies cross to the gospel plan. And that such is the natural bent of our hearts will appear if the following things be considered. 1 The law was Adam's covenant, and he knew no other. And he was the head and representative of all mankind, that were brought into it with him, and left under it by him, though without strength to perform the condition thereof. Hence this covenant is interwoven with our nature, and though we have lost our father's strength, yet we will still incline to the way he was set upon, is our head and representative in that covenant, that is, by doing to live. This is our natural religion, and the principle which men naturally take for granted. Matthew 19 16 What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? 2 Consider the opposition that has always been made in the world against the doctrine of free grace in Jesus Christ, by men setting up the way of works, thereby discovering the natural tendency of the heart. It is manifest that the great design of the gospel plan is to exalt the free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Romans 4 16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Ephesians 1 6 Ephesians 2 7 9 All gospel truths center in Christ, so that to learn the truth is to learn Christ. Ephesians 4 20 And to be truly taught it, is to be taught as the truth is in Jesus. 21 All dispensations of grace and favor from heaven, whether to nations or particular persons, has still had something about them proclaiming the freedom of grace, is in the very first separation made by the divine favor. 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 heirs 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 will be the last that dies. There have been vast numbers of heirs, which sprang up one after another, whereof at length the world became ashamed and weary, so that they died away. 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 times of greatest light. I do not without ground call Cain the author of it, who, when Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, a bloody offering from the firstlings of his flock, like the publican smiting on his breast, and saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, advanced with his thank-offering of the fruit of the ground, Genesis 4, 3 and 4, like the proud Pharisee with his, God, I thank thee, and so on. For what was the cause of Cain's wrath, and of his murdering Abel? Was it not that he was accepted of God for his work, Genesis 4, 4 and 5? And wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous, 1 John 3, 12, that is, done in faith, and accepted, when his were done without faith, and therefore rejected, as the apostle teaches, Hebrews 11, 4. So he wrote his indignation against justification and acceptance with God through faith, and opposition to works, and the blood of his brother, to convey it down to posterity. And since that time the unbloody sacrifices 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, Galatians 3, 19. I need not insist on telling you how Moses and the prophets had still much to do to lead the people off the conceit of their own righteousness. The ninth chapter of Deuteronomy is entirely spent on that purpose. They were very gross in that point in our Savior's time, in the time of the apostles, when the doctrine of free grace was most clearly preached. That error lifted up its head in the face of clearest light. Witness the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and since that time it has not been wanting. Pulpery be in the common sink of former heresies, and the hardened life of that delusion. And finally it may be observed, that always as the church declined from her purity otherwise, the doctrine of free 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 a taste 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, is the only way of salvation. Yet their very table, i.e. their altar with the several ordinances pertaining thereto, Malachi 1.12, was a snare unto them, Romans 2.9. While they used it to make up the defects in their obedience to the moral law, and claimed to it so as to reject him whom the altar and sacrifices pointed them to, as a substance of all, even as Hagar, whose duty was only to serve, was by their father brought into her mistress's bed, not without a mystery in the purpose of God, for these are the two covenants, Galatians 4.24. This 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. Grace is a difficulty in Adam's son, so they are parting with the law as a covenant of works. None part with it in that respect, but those whom the power of the Spirit of grace separates from it. The law is our first husband, and gifts every one's virgin love. When Christ comes to the soul, he finds it married to the law, so that it neither can nor will be married to another, till it be obliged to part with the first husband, as the Apostle teaches, Romans 7.1-4. Now that you may see what sort of a parting this is, consider first, it is a death, Romans 7.4, Galatians 2.19. Entreaties will not prevail with the soul here. It saith to the first husband, as Ruth to Naomi, The Lord do so to me, and more also have fought 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 you imagine must a loving wife on her deathbed 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 husband. 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 parted. I may have occasion to touch upon this afterwards. In the meantime, take the Apostle's short but pithy description of it, Romans 10.3. 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 school 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 on the sand. It cannot stand, but they would 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 sets them against Christ's righteousness? Why, that would make them free grace-debtors for all. And this is what the proud heart can by no means submit to. Here lies the stress of the matter, Psalm 10.4. 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 woeful 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 natural, and cleaves more closely than ever to the law, is even a wife brought back from the gates of death would cleave to her husband. This is the issue of the exercises of many about their soul's case. They are indeed brought to follow duties more closely, but they are as far from Christ as ever, if not further. Secondly, it is a violent death, Romans 7.4. You 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, Galatians 2.19. I through 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 tosses, harasses, and beats her till she breaks 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 lie crossed to the gospel method. And the second article of the charge against you that are unregenerate is verified, namely, that you are enemies to the Son of God. Thirdly, you are enemies to the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of holiness. The natural man is unholy, and loves to be so, and therefore resists the Holy Ghost, Acts 7.51. The work of the Spirit is to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, John 16.8. But oh, how do men strive to ward off these convictions as much as they would ward off threatening the loss of a right eye or a right hand. If the Spirit of the Lord darts them in, so that they cannot avoid them, the heart says, in effect, as they have to Elijah, whom he hated and feared, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And indeed they treat him as an enemy, doing their utmost to stifle convictions, and to murder these harbingers that come to prepare the Lord's way into the soul. Some field their hands with business, to put their convictions out of their heads, as Cain, who said about building 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 a spirit of sanctification, whose work it is to subdue lusts, and burn up corruption. How then can a natural man, whose lusts are to him as his limbs, yea, as his life, fail of being an enemy to him? Fourthly, you are enemies to the law of God. Though the natural man desires to be under the law, as a covenant of works, choosing that way of salvation, in opposition to the mystery of Christ, yet, as it is a rule of life to him, requiring universal holiness, and forbidding all manner of impurity, he is an enemy to it. It is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be. Romans 8, 7. For, number one, there is no unrenewed man who is not wedded to some one lust or another, 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 inclinations, a plain evidence of the enmity of the heart against it. Therefore, to delight in the law of God after the inward man is proposed in the word as a mark of a gracious soul. Romans 7, 22. Psalm 1, verse 2. It is from this natural enmity of the heart against the law that all the pharisaical glosses upon it have arisen, whereby the commandment, which is in itself exceeding broad, has been made very narrow, to the intent it might be the more agreeable to the natural disposition of the heart. Number two. The law laid home on a natural conscience, and its spirituality irritates corruption. The nearer it comes, nature rises a higher 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, sin revived, says the apostle Romans 7, 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 rages. Let us conclude, then, that the unregenerate are heart enemies to God, his Son, his Spirit, and his law, that there is a natural contrariety, opposition, and enmity in 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 willful in an evil course. He will have his will, though it should ruin him. It is with him as with the Leviathan. Job 41, 29. Darts 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 jailer, when he was about to kill himself, Do thyself no harm, sinners, why will you die? Ezekiel 18, 31. But they will not hearken. Everyone turneth to his course as a horse rushes into the battle. Jeremiah 8, 6. We have a promise of life in form of a command. Proverbs 4, 4. Keep my commandments and live. It speaks impenitent sinners to be self-destroyers, willful self-murderers. They transgress the command of living, as if one's servant should willfully starve himself to death, or greedily drink a cup of poison, which his master commands him to forbear. Even so do they. They will not live, they will die. Proverbs 8, 36. All they that hate me love death. Oh, what a heart is this! It is a stony heart. Ezekiel 36, 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, though there be upon the sinner a weight of sin, which makes the earth to stagger. Although there is a weight of that wrath on him, which makes the devils to tremble, yet he goes lightly under the burden. He feels not the weight any more than a stone would, till the Spirit of the Lord quicken him so far as to make him feel it. Lastly, the unrenewed will is wholly perverse, in reference to man's chief and highest end. The natural man's chief end is not God, but himself. The being of man is merely relative, dependent, borrowed. He has neither being nor goodness originally from himself, but all he has is from God, is a first cause and spring of all perfection, natural or moral. Dependence is woven into his very nature, so that if God were totally to 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 came from the sea do of course return there again. Thus man was created directly looking to God as his chief 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. This infers a total apostasy and universal corruption in man. For where the chief and last end is changed, there could be no goodness there. This is the case of all men in their natural state. Psalm 14, 2 and 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 themselves. Though many fair shreds of morality are to be found amongst them, yet there is none that doeth good, no, not one. For though some of them in appearance run well, yet they are still off the way, they never aim at the right mark. They are lovers of their own selves. 2 Timothy 3, 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. Matthew 16, 24. The godly groan under the remains of this woeful disposition of the heart. They acknowledge it, and set themselves against it in its subtle and dangerous insinuations. The unregenerate, though most insensible of it, are under the power thereof. And whithersoever they turn themselves, they cannot move beyond the circle of self. They seek for themselves, they act for themselves. Their natural, civil, and religious actions, from whatever springs they come, 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 manners 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. Zechariah 7, 6. Did ye not eat for yourselves? They have no eye to the glory of God in these things. 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 those drops of sweetness which God has put into the creature raise up their souls towards that ocean of delights that is in the Creator. Though they be a sign hung out at heaven's door, to tell men of the fullness of goodness that is in God himself. Acts 14, 17. 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, working and so on, but fruit to himself? Hosea 10, 1. So marrying and giving in marriage are reckoned amongst the sins of the old world. Matthew 24, 38. For they had no eye to God their end to please him, but all they had in view was to please themselves. Genesis 6, 3. Finally, self is natural men's highest end in their religious actions. They perform duties for a name, Matthew 6, 1 and 2. Or some other worldly interest, John 6, 26. Or if they be more refined, it is their peace, and at most their salvation from hell and wrath, or their own eternal happiness that is their chief and highest end. Matthew 19, 16 to 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. Thus I have given you a rude draft of man's will and 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 unloose the bands of wickedness. Now, since all must be wrong and nothing can be right, where the understanding and will are so corrupt, I shall briefly dispatch what remains as following, of course, on the corruption of these prime faculties of the soul. The corruption of the affections. Section 3. The affections are corrupted. The unrenewed man's affections are wholly disordered and distempered. There is 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. Marks 7.21 and 22. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, and so on. The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced. He is a spiritual monster. His heart is where his feet should be, fixed on the earth. His heels are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on. Acts 9.5. 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. Joys in what he ought to mourn for and mourns for what he should rejoice in. Glories in his shame and is ashamed of his glory. Abhors what he should desire and desires what he should abhor. Proverbs 2.13 and 15. The Jews hit the point indeed, as Caiaphas did in another case, when they cried out against the apostles as men that turned the world upside down. Acts 17.6. For that is the work which the gospel has to do in the world, where sin has put all things so out of order that heaven lies under and earth above. If the unrenewed man's affections be set on lawful objects, then they are either excessive or defective. Lawful enjoyments of the world have sometimes too little, but mostly too much of them. Either they get not their due, or if they do, it is a measure pressed down and running over. Spiritual things have always too little of them. In a word, they are never right, only evil. Now here is a threefold court against heaven and holiness, not easily to be broken. A blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly, distempered affections. The mind swelled with self-conceit says 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 defense of the corrupt will says he shall not. Thus a poor creature stands out against God and goodness till a day of power come in which he is made a new creature. THE CORRUPTION OF THE CONSCIENCE The conscience is corrupt and defiled, Titus 1.15. It is an evil eye that feels one's conversation with much darkness and confusion. Being naturally unable to do its office till the Lord, by letting in new light to the soul, awaken the conscience, it remains sleepy and inactive. Conscience can never do its work, but according to the light it has to work by. Wherefore, seeing the natural man cannot spiritually discern spiritual things, 1 Corinthians 2.14. The conscience naturally is quite useless in that point, being cast into such a deep sleep that nothing but saving and illumination from the Lord can set it on work in that manner. The light of the natural conscience in good and evil, sin and duty, is very defective. Therefore, though it may check for grosser sins, yet, as to the more subtle workings of sin, it cannot check 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, though they live in the sin of unbelief, and are strangers to spiritual worship and the life of faith. Natural light, being but faint and languishing in many things, which it does reach, conscience in that case shoots like a stitch in one 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, Isaiah 5.20. So it is often found, like a mad and furious horse, which violently runs down himself, his rider, and all that come in his way, John 16.2. Whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God's service. When the natural conscience is awakened by the spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and roar, and put the whole man in a dreadful consternation. Awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in the straight. Make the stiff heart to tremble and the knees to bow. Set the eyes a-weeping, the tongue a-confessing, and obliged a man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are likely to sink the ship of the soul, though the heart still goes after them. Yet it is an evil conscience, which naturally leads to despair, and will do it effectually, as in Judas' case, unless either lusts prevail over it, till all it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts 24.25, or the blood of Christ prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts, Hebrews 9.14 and 10.22. Corruption of the memory. Even the memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good and worthy to be remembered, as it makes but slender impressions, so that impression easily wears off. The memory as a leaking vessel lets it slip, Hebrews 2.1. As a sieve that is full when in the water lets all go when it is taken out, so is a memory with respect to spiritual things. But how does it retain what ought to be forgotten? Not a thing so bear in themselves upon it, that though men would fain have them out of mind, yet they stick there like glue. However forgetful men are 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 react the sins of their youth, while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up the former vomit. This is like a riddle that lets through the pure grain and keeps a refuse, thus far of the corruption of the soul. Corruption of the body. 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, Romans 8, 3. We may take this up in two things. First, the natural temper, or rather distemper of the bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin, so it has a tendency naturally 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 Corinthians 9, 27. There is vileness in the body, Philippians 3, 21, which as to the saints will never be removed, until it be melted down in the grave and cast into a new form 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 instruments or weapons of unrighteousness, whereby men fight against God, Romans 6, 13. The eyes and ears are open doors by which impure emotions and sinful desires enter into the soul. The tongue is a world of iniquity, James 3, 6. An unruly evil, full of deadly poison, verse 8. By it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness. The throat is an open sepulcher, Romans 3, 13. The feet run the devil's errands, verse 15. The belly is made a god, Philippians 3, 19. Not only by drunkards and riotous livers, but by every natural man, Zechariah 12, 6. So the body naturally is an agent for the devil, and a magazine of armor against the To conclude, man by nature is wholly corrupted. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in him. 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 show how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. The heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted, but how sin had entered they could not tell. But the scripture is very plain in that point, Romans 5, 12-19. By one man's sin entered into the world. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. Adam's sin corrupted man's nature and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrefied in Adam as our root. The root was poisoned, and so the branches were envenomed. The vine turned into the vine of Sodom, and the grapes became grapes of Gaul. Adam by his sin became not only guilty, but corrupt, and so transmits guilt and corruption to his posterity, Genesis 5-3, Job 14-4. By his sin he stripped himself of his original righteousness and corrupted himself. We were in him representatively, being represented by him as our moral head in 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, Hebrews 7, 9 and 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, is the subject capable thereof. In 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 prove the righteousness of this dispensation, that it is from the Lord, who doth all things well, yet to silence the murmurings of proud nature, let these few things further be considered. Number one. In the covenant wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him in his posterity, upon condition of his, that is Adam's, perfect obedience as a representative of all mankind. Whereas if there had been no covenant, they could not have pleaded eternal life upon their most perfect obedience, but might have been, 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 representation? Number two. Adam had a power to stand, given him being made upright. He was as capable of standing for himself in 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 for them all had he stood, whereas had his posterity been independent of him, and everyone left to act for himself, the trial would have been continually carrying on as men came into the world. Number three. He had the strongest natural affection to engage him, being our common father. Number four. 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 must necessarily forget his own. Number five. If he had stood, he 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 forever 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 with 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 a horrible change could be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God as their chief end, which necessarily infers a universal deprivation. Their sin was a complication of evil's, 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 by believing him and disbelieving their maker. 2. Though they received, yet they observed not the ordinance of God about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would knees 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, and so on. They grossly profaned the 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. Therefore he suffered him 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 in 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 the 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 forget all duty to their posterity. 6. They honored 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 in all their posterity. 7. Gave themselves up 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, any fact giving out that they were hardly dealt by, and that heaven grudged their happiness. 10. They were discontent with their lot, and coveted in evil covetousness to their house, which ruined both them and theirs. This was the image of God on man defaced all at once. DOCTRINE OF THE CORRUPTION OF NATURE APPLIED Use one for information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then first. No wonder that the grave opens its devouring mouth for us as soon as the womb has cast us forth, and that the cradle is turned into a coffin to receive the corrupt lump. For we are all in a spiritual sense dead born, yea and filthy. Psalm 14.3. Noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing is a word in port. Then let us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to at our entrance into the world, nor of the continuance of them while we are in it. Here is a venom that has poisoned all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is a corruption of man's nature that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states, and families, and in men's souls and bodies. Secondly, behold, here is in a glass a spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality which is in the world, the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and life. Everything 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 sinfulness 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 aright? Thirdly, 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 soon get away again, to wallow in the mire, and corrupt nature tends ever to impurity. Lastly, learn from this the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, this discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things. Number one, it is not a partial but a total change, though imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, therefore the cure must go through every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart and new affections for holiness. All things become new. Second Corinthians 5, 17. If one having received many wounds should be cured of them all, save one only, he might bleed to death by that one as well as by a thousand. So if the change go not through the whole man, it is not. Number two, 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 3, 5. Accidental diseases may be cured by men, but those which are natural not without a miracle. John 9, 32. The change brought upon men by good education are forced upon them by a natural conscience. Though it may pass among men for a saving change, yet it is not so, for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Though a gardener, by engrafting 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 a man may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, this also shows a necessity of regeneration. It is absolutely necessary in order to salvation. John 3, 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot save 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 must be loosened before the members can be set right again. This is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard. Therefore thou must be born again, otherwise thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be afar 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 unregenerate state. For God will never open a fountain of mercy to wash away his own holiness and truth, nor to 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 who are not born again? You who are in no way fitted for Christ ahead. That would be a strange sight, a holy head, and members wholly corrupt, a head full of treasures of grace, and members wherein is nothing but treasures of wickedness, a head obedient to the death, and heels kicking against heaven. You are no better adapted for the society above than beasts are for converse with men. Thou art a hater of true holiness, and that the first sight of a saint there would his 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, would go to it no otherwise. Then now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leaving his heart behind him. Use number two for Lamentation Well, may we lament thy case, O natural 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 while thou livest. Thou carriest about with thee a dead soul and a living body. And because thou art dead, thou canst not lament thine own case. Thou art loath them 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. Every imagination of thine heart is only evil continually. Thou canst do no good, thou canst do nothing but sin. For first, thou art the servant of sin. Romans 6, 17, Therefore free from righteousness. Verse 20 Whatever righteousness be, poor soul, thou art free from it. Thou dost not, thou canst not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of sin, a dominion wherein righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and servant of the devil, though thou be neither wizard nor witch, seeing thou art yet in a state of nature. John 8, 44 Ye are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, consider that sin and Satan have two sorts of servants. First, there are some employed, as it were, in coarser work. Those bear the devil's mark on their foreheads, having no form of godliness, but are profane, grossly ignorant, mere moralists, not so much as performing the external duties of religion, but living in the view of the world as sons of earth, only attending to earthly things. Philippians 3, 19 Number two, 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 eyes of the world. These are close hypocrites, who sacrifice as much to the corrupt mind as the others to the flesh. Ephesians 2, 3 These are ruined by a more indiscernible 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 a farmer from righteousness. Secondly, How is it possible that 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 a fig tree bear olive berries, either of vine figs? If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou dost is certainly so too, for no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Matthew 7, 18 Ah, what a miserable spectacle is he that can do nothing but sin! Thou art the man, whoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural state. Hero, 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 grape, full of stench and rottenness, Romans 3, 13. Thy throat is an open sepulchre, thy natural actions are sin, for when ye did eat and when ye did drink, did ye not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Zechariah 7, 6 The civil actions are sin, Proverbs 21, 4. The ploughing of the wicked is sin, thy religious actions are sin, Proverbs 15, 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, the thoughts and imaginations of thy heart are only evil continually. A deed may be soon done, a word soon spoken, a thought swiftly pathed through the heart, but each of these is an item in thy accounts. O sad reckoning, as many thoughts, words, and actions, so many sins! The longer thou livest, thy accounts swell the more. Should a tear be dropped for every sin, thy 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 thine heart or life but evil. Secondly, O thy religion, if thou hast any, is lost labour, as to acceptance with God, or any saving effect on 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 loathsome in a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? So is the religion of an unregenerate man. Under the law of the garment which the flesh of the sacrifice was carried in, though it touched other things, did not make them holy. But he that was unclean, touching anything, whether common or sacred, made it unclean. Even so, thy duties cannot make thy corrupt soul holy, though they in themselves be good. But thy corrupt heart defiles them and makes them unclean. Haggai 2 12-14 Thou wast wont to divide thy works into two sorts, some good, some evil. But thou 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 begging harvest, who fold their hands in sleep and 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, presently the corrupt nature apprehends at least a merit of fitness. He has done much himself, he thinks, and God cannot but do more for him on that account. In the meantime he does nothing but sin. So that the fitness of the merit is, that the leper 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 anything which thou canst do? Will mud and filth wash out filthiness? 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. Psalm 22 15 Thou art poor indeed, extremely miserable and poor. Revelation 3 17 Thou hast no shelter but a refuge of lies, no garment for thy soul but filthy rags, nothing to nourish it but husks that cannot satisfy. And more than this, thou didst get such a bruise in the loins of Adam as is not yet cured, that thou art without strength. Romans 5 6 Unable to do or work for thyself. Nay, more than all this, thou canst not so much as think aright, but art lying, helpless as an infant exposed in the open field. Ezekiel 15 5 You three, I exhort you to believe this sad truth. Alas, it is evident that it is very little believed in the world. Few are concerned to get their corrupt conversation changed, but few are by far to get their nature changed. Most men know not what they are, nor what spirit they are of. They are as the eye, which seeing many things never sees itself. But until you know every one the plague of his own heart, there is no hope of your recovery. Why will you not believe it? You have plain Scripture testimony for it, but you are loath to entertain such an ill opinion of yourselves. Alas, this is the nature of your disease. Revelation 3 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 as to another doctrine from the text. Doctrine God takes special notice of our natural corruption or the sin of our nature. This he testifies in two ways. By his word, as in the text, God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. See Psalm 14, 2 and 3. By his works, God marks his particular notice of it and displeasure with it, as in many of his works, so especially in these two. First, in the death of the infant children of men. Many miseries they have been exposed to. They were drowned in a deluge, consumed in Sodom by fire and brimstone. They have been slayed with a sword, dashed against the stones, and are still dying ordinary deaths. What is the true cause of this? And what ground does 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. It is the ground of the sentence passing on them. For the soul that sinneth, it shall die, says God. 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 it is in this case. Secondly, 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 be heavy on their spirits. When he means to let out their corruption, the lance goes deep into their souls, reaching to the root of sin, Romans 7, 7 and 9. The flesh or corruption of nature is pierced, being crucified, as well as the affections and lusts, Galatians 5, 24. Let us then have a special eye upon the corruption and sin of our nature. God sees it, O that we saw it too, and that sin were ever before us. What avails it to notice other sins, while this mother sin is not noticed? Turn your eyes inward to the sin of your nature. It is to be feared that many have this work to begin yet. They have shut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house undiscovered. This is a weighty point, and in handling of it I shall notice these four heads. Number one, men's overlooking their natural sin. I shall, for conviction, point out some evidences of men's overlooking the sin of their nature, which yet the Lord takes particular notice of. Men's looking on themselves with such confidence as if there were no hazard of gross sins. Many would take it very heinously to get such a caution as Christ gave his apostles, Luke 21, 34. Take heed of surfeiting and drunkenness. If any should suppose them to break out in gross abominations, each 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 not the corruption of their nature. Number two, lack of tenderness towards those that fall. Many, in that case, cast off all bowels of Christian compassion, for they do not consider themselves lest they also be tempted, Galatians 6, 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 a man in the parable, 2 Samuel 12, 5. And on good grounds it is thought it was at the same time that he treated the Ammonites so cruelly as is related in verse 31, putting them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and making them pass through 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 compassion, and fill them with thankfulness to the Lord, that they themselves were not the persons left to be such specimens of human frailty. 3 There are not a few who, if they be kept from afflictions and worldly things, and from gross outbreakings 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 are 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 have a heavy heart. 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 loss, that they can allow them to gather more strength, and yet overcome them. They take up resolutions to amend without an eye to Jesus Christ, union with Him, and strength from Him, a plain evidence that they are strangers to themselves. So they are left to themselves, and their flourishing resolutions wither. For as they see not the necessity, so they get not the benefit of the dew from heaven to water them. 5 Men's venturing freely on temptations, and promising liberally in their own strength. They cast themselves fearlessly into temptation, in confidence of their coming off fairly. But were they sensible of the corruption of their nature, they would be cautious of entering on the devil's ground, as one gird about with bags of gunpowder, would be unwilling to walk where sparks of fire are flying, lest they should be blown up. Self-jealousy well becomes Christian's. Lord is it I, these that know the deceit of their bow, will not be very confident that they shall hit the mark. 6 Unaccointedness 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 subtle, which few discern. How few are there, to whom the bias of the heart to unbelief is a burden. Nay, they perceive it not. Many have had sharp convictions of other sins, that were never to this day convinced of their unbelief. Though that is a sin, especially aimed at an authorial conviction. John 16, 8 and 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 bring men off from their own righteousness. Yea, it is very hard to convince them of their leaning to it all. Lastly, pride and self-conceit. The 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 a ballast to his heart and hide pride from his eyes. The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the sins of one's nature, is a ruin of many professors. For digging deep makes great difference betwixt wise and foolish builders, Luke 6, 48 and 49. ORIGINAL SIN SPECIALLY NOTICED Section 2 I will lay before you a few things in which you should have a special eye to original sin. Number 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 a 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. Though in the bitterness of your souls you should lay before him a catalogue of your sins, of omission and commission, which might reach from earth to heaven, yet if original sin were lacking in it, assure yourselves that you have forgotten the best part of the errand which a poor sinner has to the physician of souls. What would it have veiled the people of Jericho to have set before Elisha all the vessels in their city full of the water that was not, if they had not let him forth to the spring to cast in salt there? 2 Kings 2 19-21 The application is easy. Number 2 Have a special eye to it in your repentance, whether initiative or progressive, in your first repentance and in the renewal of your repentance afterwards. Though a man be sick, there is no fear of death if the sickness strike not to 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 you would repent, indeed, let the streams lead you up to the fountain, and mourn over your corrupt nature as a cause of all sin in heart, lip, and life. Psalm 51 4-5 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Number 3 Have a special eye upon it in your mortification. Galatians 5 24 These that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. It is the root of bitterness that must be struck at, which the acts of mortification must be laid to, else we labor 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 life truly good, while the corruption of nature retains its ancient vigor, and the power of it is not broken. Lastly, you are to eye it in your daily walk. He that would walk aright must have his eye upward to Jesus Christ, and another inward to the corruption of his own nature. It is not enough that we look about us, we must look within us. There the wall is weakest. There our greatest enemy lies, and there are grounds for daily watching and mourning.