7.

thou be neither wizzard nor witci.: feeing thou art yet in the state of nature, John viii. 44. Te are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, confider, that fin and Satan have two forts of fervants, (1.) There are fome employed, as it were, in coarser work: thofe bear the devil's mark in their fore-heads, having no form of godliness; but are profane, grofly ignorant, mene moralists, not fo much as performing the external duties of religion, but living to the view of the world; as fons of earth, only minding earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. (2.) There are fome employed in a more refined fort of fervice to fin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand which they can, and do hide from the view of the world. Thefe are clofs hypocrites, who facrifice as much to the corrupt mind, as the other to the fleth, Eph. ii. 3. These are ruined by a more undifcernable trade of fin: pride, unbelief, felf-feeking, and the like, fwarm in, and prey upon their corrupted, wholly corrupted fouls. Both are fervants of the fanie houfe; the latter as far as the former from righteousness.

;

Secondly, How is it poffible thou fhouldst be able to do any good, thou whofe nature is wholly corrupt? Can fruit grow where there is no root? Or, can there be an effect without a caufe? Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou doft is certainly fo too; for no effect can exceed the virtue of its caufe. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Matth. vii. 18.

Ah! What a miferable fpectacle is he that can do nothing but fin? Thou art the man, whofoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural ftate. Hear, O finner, what is thy cafe.

First, Innumerable fins compafs thee about. Mountains of guilt are lying upon thee. Floods of impurities overwhelm thee. Living lufts of all forts roll up and down in the dead fea of thy foul; where no good can breathe, because of the corruption there. Thy lips are unclean the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of an unripe grave, full of french and rottennefs, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open fepulchre. Thy natural actions are fin, for when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? Zech. vii 6. Thy civil actions are fin, Prov. xxi. 4. The plowing of the wicked is fin. Thy religious. actions are fin, Prov. xv. 8. The facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart, are only evil. A deed may be foon done, 2 word foon fpoken, a thought swiftly paffeth through the heart: but each of these is an Item in thy accounts. O fad reckoning! as many thoughts, words, actions; as many fins. The longer thou livest, thy accounts fwell the more. Should a tear be dropt for every fin, thine head behoved to be waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears; for nothing but fin comes from thee. Thy heart frames nothing but evil imaginations; there is nothing in thy life, but what is framed by thine heart; and therefore there is nothing in thy heart or life but evil.

Secondly,

:

Secondly, All thy religion, if thou haft any, is loft labour; as to acceptance with God, or any faving effect to thyfelf. Art thou yet in thy natural state? Truly then thy duties are fins, as was just now hinted. Would not the best wine be lothfome in a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? So is the religion of an unregenerate man. Under the law; the garment which the flesh of the facrifice was carried in, tho' it touched other things, did not make them holy but he that was unclean touching any thing, whether cominon or facred, made it unclean. Even fo thy duties cannot make thy corrupt foul holy, tho' they in themfelves be good; but thy corrupt heart defiles them, and makes them unclean, Hag. ii. 12, 13, 14. Thou waft wont to divide thy works into two forts; fome good, fome 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 beg in harvest, who fold their hands to fleep in feed-time: but to be labouring with others in the fpring, and yet have nothing reap when the harvest comes, is a very fad cafe; and will be the cafe of all profeffors living and dying in their natural state.

to

Laftly, Thou canst not help thyself. What canft thou do to take. away thy fin, who art wholly corrupt? Nothing truly but fin. If a natural man begin to relent, drop a tear for his fin and reform, prefently the corrupt heart apprehends, at least, a merit of congruity:' he has done much himself, (he thinks) and God cannot but do more for him on that account. In the mean time he does nothing but fin: fo that the congruous merit is the leper that must be put out of the camp; the dead foul buried out of fight: and the corrupt lump caft into the pit. How canft thou think to recover thyfelf by any thing thou canft do? Will mud and filth wash out filthinefs? and wilt thou purge out fin by finning? Fob took a potsherd to fcrape hinfelf, because his hands were as full of boils as his body. This is the cafe of thy corrupt foul: not to be recovered but by Jefus Chrift, whofe ftrength was dried up like a potfherd, Pfal. xxii. 15. Thou art poor indeed, extremely miferable and poor, Rev. iii. 17. Thou haft no fhalter but a refuge of lies; no garment for thy foul, but filthy rags; nothing to nourish it but hufks that cannot fatisfy. More than that, thou haft got fuch a bruife in the loins of Adam, which is not yet cured, that thou art without ftrength, Rom. v. 6. unable to do or work for thyfelf; nay, more than all this, thou canft not fo much as feek aright, but lieft helpless, as an infant expofed in the open field, Ezek. xvi. 5.

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

fuch

fuch an ill opinion of yourselves. Alas! that is the nature of your difeafe, Rev. iii. 17. Thou knoweft not that thou art wretched, and

miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Lord open their eyes to fee it, before they die of it; and in hell lift up their eyes, and fee what they will not fee now.

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

DOCTRINE God takes special notice of our natural corruption, or the fin of our nature. This he teftifies two ways, 1. By his word, as in the text, God faw-that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was enly evil continually. See Pfal. xiv. 2, 3- 2 By his works. God writes his particular notice of it, and displeasure with it, as in many of his works, fo efpecially in thefe two :)

(1.) In the death of the infant children of men. Many miferies they have been exposed to: they were drowned in the deluge, confumed in Sodom by fire and brimftone; they have been flain with the fword, dafhed against the stones, and are ftill dying ordinary deaths. What is the true caufe of this? On what ground doth a holy God thus pursue them? Is it the fin of their parents? That may be the occafion of the Lord's raifing the process against them: but it must be their own fin that is the ground of the fentence paffing on them: for the foul that finneth, it shall die, faith God, Ezek. xviii. 4. Is it their own actual fin? They have none. But as men do with toads and ferpents, which they kill at first fight, before they have done any hurt, because of their venomous nature, fo is it in this case.

(2.) In the birth of the elect children of God. When the Lord is about to change their nature, he makes the fin of their nature ly heavy on their fpirits. When he minds to let out the corruption, the lance gets full depth in their fouls, reaching to the root of fin, Rom. vii.7,8,9. The flesh, or corruption of nature is pierced, being crucified, as well as the affections and lufts, Gal. v. 24.

USE. Let us then have a fpecial eye upon the corruption and fin of our nature. God fees it: O that we faw it too, and that fin were ever before us! What avails it to notice other fins, while this motherfin is not noticed? Turn your eyes inward to the fin of your nature. It is to be feared, many have this work to begin yet; that they have fhut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house undiscovered. This is a weighty point; and in the handling of it,

I. I fhall, for conviction, point at fome evidences of men's overlooking the fin of their nature, which yet the Lord takes particular notice of, (1.) Men's looking on themselves with fuch confidence, as if they were in no hazard of grofs fins. Many would take it very hainoufly to get fuch a caution, as Chrift gave his Apostles, Luke xxi.34. Take heed of furfeiting and drunkenness. If any fhould fuppofe them to break out in grofs abominations, they would be ready to say, Am I a dog? It would raife the pride of their hearts, but not their fear and trembling; because they know not the corruption of their nature.

(2.) Un

(2.) Untendernels towards thofe that fall: Many in that case cast off all bowels of Chriftian compaffion; for they do not confider themfelves, left they also be tempted, Gal. vi. 1. Men's paffions are often highest against the faults of others, when fin fleeps foundly in their own breasts. Even good David, when he was at his worst, was most violent against the faults of others. While his confcience was afleep under his guilt, in the matter of Uriah; the Spirit of the Lord takes notice, that his anger was greatly kindled against the man, in the parable, 2 Sam xii. 5. And on good grounds, it is thought, it was at the fame time that he treated the Ammonites fo cruelly, as is related, ver. 31. Putting them under faws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and making them pass throw the brick kiln. Grace makes men zealous against fin in others, as well as in themselves: but eyes turned inward to the corruption of nature, clothe them with pity and compaffion; and fill them with thankfulness to the Lord, that they themfelves were not the perfons left to be fuch fpectacles of human frailty. (3.) There are not a few, who, if they be kept from affliction in worldly things, and from grofs out-breakings in their converfation, know not what it is to have a fad heart. If they meet with a crofs, which their proud hearts cannot stoop to bear, they will be ready to fay, O to be gone: but the corruption of their nature never makes them long for heaven. Lufts fcandaloufly breaking out at a time, will mar their peace, but the fin of their nature never makes them a heavy heart. (4.) Delaying of repentance, in hopes to fet about it afterwards. Many have their own appointed time for repentance and reformation: as if they were fuch complete masters over their lufts, that they can allow them to gather more ftrength, and yet overcome them. They take up refolutions to amend, without an eye to Jefus Chrift, union with him, and strength from him; à plain evidence they are ftrangers to themselves; and fo they are left to themselves, and their flourishing refolutions wither; for as they fee not the neceffity, fo they get not the benefit of the dew from heaven to water them (5.) Men's venturing frankly on temptations and promifing liberally on their own heads. They caft themfelves fearlefly into temptation, in confidence of their coming off fairly: but were they fenfible of the corruption of their nature, they would beware of entering on the devil's ground: as one girt about with bags of gunpowder, would be loth to walk where sparks of fire are flying, left he fhould be blown up. Self-jealoufing well becomes Chriftians. Lord, is it I? They that know the deceit of their bow, will not be very confident that they fhall hit the mark. (6.) Unacquaintedness with heart-plagues. The knowledge of the plagues of the heart, is a rare qualification. There are indeed fome of them written in fuch great characters, that he who runs may read them'; but there are others more fubtile, which few do difcern. How few are there to whom the bias of the heart to unbelief, is a burden? Nay, they perceive it Many have had sharp convictions of other fins, that were never

not.

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90 Sin of our Nature especially to be noticed.

State II. to this day convinced of their unbelief; tho' that is the fin fpecially aimed at in a thorough conviction, John xvi 8, 9-He will reprove the world of fin, because they believe not on me. A difpofition to establish our own righteoufnefs is a weed that naturally grows in every man's heart: but few fweat 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 Jefus Chrift. How hard is it to ftave men off from their own righteoufnefs? Yet it is very hard to convince them of their leaning to it at all. Lastly, Pride and felf-conceit. A view of the corruption of nature would be very humbling; and oblige him that has it, to reckon himself the chief of finners. Under the greatest attainments and enlargements, it would be ballaft to his heart, and hide pride from his eyes. The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the fin of one's nature, is the ruin of many profeffors: for digging deep makes great difference betwixt wife and foolish builders, Luke vi. 48, 49.

II. I will lay before you a few things, in which ye fhould have a Special eye to the fin of your nature. (1.) Have a fpecial eye to it in your application to Jefus Chrift. Do you find any need of Chrift, which fends you to him as the Physician of fouls? O forget not your difeafe when you are with the Phyfician. They never yet knew well their errand to Chrift, that went not to him for the fin of their nature: for his blood to take away the guilt of it, and his Spirit to break the power of it. Tho' in the bitterness of your fouls, you fhould lay before him a catalogue of your fins of ommiffion and commifion, which might reach from earth to heaven; yet if the fin of your nature were wanting in it, affure yourselves, you have forgot the beft part of the érrand a poor finner has to the Physician of fouls. What would it have availed the people of Jericho, to have fet before Elifba all the veffels in their city full of the water that was naught, if they had not led him forth to the fpring, to caft in the falt there? 2 Kings ii. 19, 20, 21. The application is eafy. (2.) Have a special eye towards it, in your repentance, whether initial or progreffive, in your firft repentance, and in the renewing of your repentance, afterwards. Tho' a man be fick, there is no fear of death, if the sickness ftrike not his heart; and there is as little fear of the death of fin, as long as the fin of our nature is not touched. But if ye would repent indeed, let the ftreams lead you up to the fountain; and mourn over your corrupt nature, as the caufe of all fin, in heart, lip, and life. Pfal. li. 4, 5. Against thee, thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight -Behold, I was fhapen in iniquity, and in fin did my mother conceive me. (4.) Have a fpecial eye upon it, in your mortification. Gal. v. 24. And they that are Chrift's have crucified the flesh. It is the root of bitterness, that must be ftruck at, which the ax of mortification must be laid to; elfe we labour in vain. In vain do men go

about.