and their marriage with them, occafioned their divorce from God. This was one of the caufes of the deluge, which fwept away the old world. Would to God all profeffors in our day, could plead not guilty but tho' that fin brought on the deluge, yet the deluge hath not fwept away that fin; which, as of old, fo in our day, may juftly be looked upon, as one of the caufes of the decay of religion. It was an ordinary thing among the Pagans, to change their gods, as they changed their condition into a married lot and many fad inftances the Chriftian world affords of the fame, as if people were of Pharaoh's opinion, That religion is only for thofe that have no other care upan their heads, Exod. v. 17. (2.) Great opprellion, ver. 4. There was giants in the earth in the days, men of great ftature, great ftrength, and monftrous wickedness, filling the earth with viclence, ver. 11. But neither their firength nor treafures of wickedness, could profit them in the day of wrath. Yet the gain of oppreflion fill carries many over the terror of this dreadful example. Thus much for the connexion, and what particular crimes that generation was guilty of. But every perfon that was fwept away with the flood could not be guilty of thefe things, and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Therefore, in my text, there is a general indictment drawn up again them all, The wickedness of man was great in the earth, &c. And this is well inftrusted, for God fuw it. Two things. are laid to their charge here.

Firft, Corruption of life, wickedness, great wickedness. I underftand this of the wickedness of their lives; for it is plainly diftinguished from the wickedness of their hearts. The fins of their outward converfation, were great in the nature of them, and greatly aggravated by their attending circumftances: and this not only among thofe of the race of curfed Cain, but thofe of holy Seth the wickedness of man was great. And then it is added, in the earth. (1.) To vindicate God's feverity, in that he not only cut off finners, but defaced the beauty of the earth; and fwept off the brute creatures from it, by the deluge; that as men had fet the marks of their impiety, God might fet the marks of his indignation, on the earth. (2.) To fhew the heinoufness of their fin, in making the earth, which God had fo adorned for the use of man, a fink of fin, and a stage whereon to act their wickedness, in defiance of heaven. God faw this corruption of life, he not only knew it, and took notice of it, but he made them to know, that he did take notice of it; and that he had not forfaken the earth, tho' they had forfaken heaven.

Secondly, Corruption of nature. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All their wicked practices are here traced to the fountain and fpring-head; a corrupt heart was the fource of all. The foul which was made upright in all its faculties, is now wholly difordered. The heart, that was made according to God's own heart, is now the reverfe of it; a forge of evil imaginations, a fink of inordinate affections, and a ftorè-houfe of all impiety,

Mark

Mark vii. 21, 22. Behold the heart of the natural man, as it is opened in our text. The mind is defiled; the thoughts of the heart are evil; the will and affections are defiled: the ima nation of the thoughts of the heart, (ie. whatfoever the heart frameth within itfelf by thinking, fuch as judgment, choice, purposes, devices, defires, every inward motion); or rather, the frame of thoughts of the heart (namely, the frame, make, or mould, of thefe, 1 Chron. xxix. 18.) is evil. Yea, and every imagination, every frame, of his thoughts, is fo. The heart is ever framing fomething; but never one right thing: the frame of thoughts, in the heart of man, is exceeding various: yet are they never caft into a right frame: But is there not, at least, a mixture of good in them? No, they are only evil, there is nothing in them truly good and acceptable to God: nor can any thing be fo that comes out of that forge where not the Spirit of God, but the prince of the power of the air worketh, Eph. ii. 2. Whatever changes may be found in them, are only from evil to evil: for the imagination of the heart, or frame of thoughts in natural men, is evil continually, or every day From the first day, to the last day in this ftate, they are in midnight darkness; there is not a glimmering of the light of holinefs in them; not one holy thought can ever be produced by the unholy heart. O what a vile heart is this! O what a corrupt nature is this! the tree that always brings forth fruit, but never good fruit, whatever foil it be fet in, whatever pains be taken on it, muft naturally be an evil tree and what can that heart be, whereof every imagination, every fet of thoughts, is only evil, and that continually? Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, has funk into the marrow of our fouls; and will never be cured, but by a miracle of grace. Now fuch is man's heart, fuch is his nature, till regenerating grace change it. God that fearcheth the heart faw man's heart was fo, he took special notice of it: and the faithful and true witness cannot mistake our cafe; tho' we are most apt to mistake ourselves in this point, and generally do overlook it.

Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, faying, What is that to us? Let that generation, of whom the text fpeaks, fee to that. For the Lord has left the cafe of that generation on record, to be a looking glafs to all after-generations; wherein they may fee their own corruption of heart, and what their lives would be too, if he restrained them not; for as in water face anfwereth to face, fo the heart of man to man, Prov xxvii. 19. Adam's fall has framed all men's hearts alike in this matter. Hence the apostle, Rom iii. 10. proves the corruption of the nature, hearts, and lives of all men, from what the Pfalmift fays of the wicked in his day, Pfal. xiv. 1, 2, 3. Pfal. v. 9. Pfal. cxl. 3. Pfal. x. 7. Pfal. xxxvi. 1. and from what Jeremiah faith of the wicked in his day, Jer. ix. 3. and from what Ifaiah fays of those that lived in his time, Ifa. Ivii. 7, 8. and concludes with that, ver. 19. Now we know, that what things foever the law faith, it faith to them that are under the law that every mouth may be flopped,

E

and

and all the world may become guilty before God. Had the hiftory of the deluge been tranfmitted unto us, without the reafon thereof in the text, we might thence have gathered the corruption and total depravation of man's nature for what other quarrel could a holy and juft God have with the infants that were deftroyed by the flood, feeing they had no actual fin? If we faw a wife man, who having made a curious piece of work, and heartily approved of it when he gave it out of his hand, as fit for the ufe it was defigned for, rife up in wrath and break it all in pieces, when he looked ou it afterwards; would we not thence conclude the frame of it had been quite marred, fince it went out of his hand, and that it does not ferve for that use it was at firft deligned for? How much more, when we fee the holy and wife God, deftroying the work of his own hands, once folemnly pronounced by him very good, may we conclude that the original frame thereof is utterly marred, that it cannot be mended, but it must needs be new made, or loft altogether? Gen. vi. 6, 7. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart: and the Lord faid, I will deftroy man, or blot him out, as a man doth a fentence out of a book, that cannot be corrected, by cutting off fome letters, fyllables, or words, and interlining, others here and there; but muft needs be wholly new framed. But did the deluge carry off this corruption of man's nature? Did it mend the matter? No, it did not. God, in his holy providence, That every mouth may be ftopped, and all the n'w world may become guilty before God, as well as the old, permits that corruption of nature to break out in Noah, the father of the new world, after the deluge was over. Behold hum as another Adam, finuing in the fruit of a tree, Gen. ix. 20, 21. He planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. More than that, God gives the fame reafon against a new deluge, which he gives in our text for bringing that on the world: I will not, (faith he,) again curfe the ground any more for man's fake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, Gen. viii. 21. Whereby it is intimated, that there is no mending of the matter by this means; and that if he would always take the fame courfe with men that he had done, he would be always fending deluges on the earth, feeing the corruption of man's nature remains fill. But tho' the flood could not carry off the corruption of nature, yet it pointed at the way how it is to be done; to wit, That men must be born of water and of the Spirit, raifed from spiritual death in fin, by the grace of Jefus Chrift, who came by water and blood; out of which a new world of faints arise in regeneration, even as the new world of finners out of the waters, where they had long lain buried (as it were) in the ark. This we learn from Pet iii. 20, 21 where the apoftlé fpeaking of Noah's ark faith, Wherein few, that is, eight fouls, were faved by water. The like figure whereunto, even baptifm doth alfo now fave us. Now the waters of the deluge being a like figure to baptifm; it plainly fellows,

that

that they fignified (as baptifin doth) the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. To conclude then, thefe waters, tho' now dried up, may ferve us for a looking glafs, in which we may fee the total corruption of our nature, and the neceffity of regeneration. From the text thus explained, arifeth this weighty point of DOCTRINE, which he that rans may read in it, viz That Mn's nature is now wholly corrupted. Now is there a sad alteration, a wonderful overturn, in the nature of man: where, at firit, there was nothing evil; now there is nothing good. In profecuting of this doctrine, I fhall, Fft, Confirm it.

Secondly, Reprefent this corruption of nature in its feveral parts. Thirdly, Shew you how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. Lfty, Make application.

That Man's Nature is corrupt d.

FIRST, I am. to confirm the doctrine of the corruption of nature : to hold the glafs to your eyes, wherein you may fee your finful nature: which, tho' God takes particular notice of it, many do quite overlook. And here we fhall confult, 1. God's word. 2. Men's experience and obfervation

1. For fcripture-proof, let us contider,

First, How the scripture takes particular notice of fallen Adam's communicating his image to his pofterity, Gen. v. 3. Adam begat a fon in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. Compare with this, ver. 1. of that chapter, In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Behold here, how the image after which man was made, and the image after which he is begotten, are oppofed. Man was made in the likenefs of God: that is, a holy and righteous God made a holy and righteous créature: but fallen Adam begat a fon, not in the likeness of God, but in his own ikenefs; that is, corrupt finful Adam begat a corrupt finful fon. For as the image of God bore righteoufnefs and immortality in it, as was cleared before, fo this image of fallen Adam bore corruption and death in it, Cor. xv. 49, 50. compare ver. 22. Mofes, in that fifth chapter of Genefis, being to give us the first bill of mortality, that ever was in the world, ufhers it in with this, that dying Asam begat mortals. Having finned, he became mortal, according to the threatning; and fo he begat a fon, in his own likeness, finful, and therefore mortal: thus fin and death paffed on all. Doubtless, he begat both Crin and Abel in his own likeness, as well as Seth But it is not recorded of Abel, becaufe he left no iffue behind him, and his falling the first facrifice to death in the world, was a fufficient docu nent of it: nor of Cain, to whom it might have been thought peculiar, because of his monftrous wickednefs; and besides, all his pofterity was drowned in the flood: but it is recorded of Seth, because he was the father of the holy feed; and from him all mankind, fince the flood, has defcended, and fallen Adam's own likeness with them..

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Secondly

his foul.

What delight do fome find in their difcoveries of the works of nature, by the fcrapes of knowledge they have gathered! but how much more exquifite pleasure had Adam, while his piercing eyes read the book of God's works, which God laid before him, to the end he might glorify him in the fame; and therefore he had furely fitted him for the work! but above all, his knowledge of God, and that as his God, and the communion he had with him, could not but afford him the most refined and exquifite pleasure in the innermost recesses of his heart. Great is that delight which the faints find in these views of the glory of God, that their fouls are fometimes let into, while they are compaffed about with many infirmities; but much more may well be allowed to finlefs Adam; no doubt he relished these pleasures at another rate.

Laftly, He was immortal: He would never have died, if he had not finned; it was in cafe of fin that death was threatned, Gen. ii 17. which fhews it to be the confequent of fin, and not of the finless human nature. The perfect conftitution of his body, which came out of God's hand very good; and the righteoufnefs and holiness of his foul, removed all inward causes of death: nothing being prepared for the grave's devouring mouth, but the vile body, Philip iii. 21. And those who have finned, Job xxiv. 19. And God's fpecial care of his innocent creature, fecured him againft outward violence. The apoftle's teftimony is exprefs, Rom. v. 12. By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin. Behold the door by which death came in! Satan wrought with his lies till he got it opened, and fo death entred; and therefore is he faid to have been a murderer from the beginning. John viii. 44.

The

Thus have I thown you the holiness and happiness of man in this ftate. If any fhall fay, What's all this to us, who never tafted of that holy and happy ftate? They must know it nearly concerns us, in fo far as Adam was the root of all mankind, our common head and reprefentative; who received from God our inberitance and flock to keep it for himself and his children, and to convey it to them. Lord put all mankind's ftock (as it were) in one fhip: and, as we ourfelves fhould have done, he made our common father the pilot. He put a bleflig in the root, to have been, if rightly managed, diffufed into all the branches. According to our text, making Adam upright, he made man upright; and all mankind had that uprightnefs in him; for, if the root be holy, fo are the branches. But more of this afterwards. Had Adam ftood, none would have quarrelled the reprefentation.

USE I. For Information. This fhews us, (1) That not God, but man himself was the caufe of his ruin. God made him upright: his Creator fet him up, but he threw himself down. Was the Lord's directing and inclining him to good the reafon of his woful choice? Or did heaven deal fo fparingly with him, that his preffing wants fent him to hell to feek fupply? Nay, man was, and is, the cause of