Chap. 9.

out iffue; nor of Cain, all whofe progeny was drowned in the flood; but of Seth, by whom all mankind hath hitherto been continued in the world: which shews that none are exempted from it. God faw that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart, was only evil continually, Gen. 6. 5: and afterwards God faith, that it was fo from his youth, Gen. 8. 215 according to the original it is, Every formation or figment of the heart; all that was framed or effigiated there, is only evil, and that from his youth: Where the Hebrew word used, reaches in other Scriptures even to infancy. Which fhews, that we are tranfgreffors from the womb. Hence one of the Jewish Rabbins being asked when the evil imagination was put into man answered, From the hour that he is formed. Hence that ancient faying, Ipfe ortus in vitio eft; Our first rife is iniquity. Job fpeaking of mans birth, faith, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one, Job 14. 4. Man, who is of unclean Parents, muft needs be unclean. Nothing but fupernaturah grace can purifie fuch an one; none but the Holy One: can make us clean. David cries out, Behold I mas fhapen in iniquity, and in fin did my mother conceive me; in the Hebrew it is, warm me. Pfal. 51. 5, He confeffes that there was iniquity even in primo ardore, in the first warmth of natural conception: before he was born or faw the light, he was polluted and unApol. Dav. clean. Antequam nafcimur, maculamur, faith St. Ambrofe; Before we are born, we are polluted. Our Saviour fpeaking of Regeneration, faith, That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, Joh. 3. 6. In natural gene ration there is nothing but flesh or corrupt nature; the Spirit or Divine nature is from Regeneration

cap. 11.

only.

only. St. Paul stiles this inward pravity, a body of fin, Chap. 9. Rom. 6. 6. It is a loathfome carkafs made up of vile matter. It is not fo much one fin, as virtually all; other fins are parts and branches of it. The weight and preffure of this body made even St. Paul cry out, O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death! Rom. 7. 24. Thus, and much more, doth the Scripture bear witness to this truth.

2. No man, who seriously looks into the frame of his own heart, can want a proof of this truth. Upon a faithful infpection into himself, a fink of fin, a Chaos of turpitudes and horrible irregularities will appear to be in him. Reafon was lighted up by God; but it is now as a beam prodigiously cut off from the fountain of light. Leaving the first Truth, it wanders and lofes it felf in a wilderness of Errors. Forgetting its great Original, it gropes in the dark about the Supreme End, and cannot of it felf find the dore to true happiness. It doth, and that by a fingular priviledg above other creatures, know its Maker; and yet in an unreasonable manner it turns away from him, and feeks an happiness in the lower World, or at best in it felf. It should, like the Celestial bodies, move circularly; and after a furvey of all creatures, return back to the fame point from whence it came, which is the bofom of God himself; and yet it flies away from him, and makes its neft in one Creature-vanity or other. It hath a natural and indelible instinct after happiness, and perpetually cryes out, Who will fhew us any good? And yet it is not able fo much as by a holy thought to afpire after the great Bleffednefs fet forth before it in the Gospel. Heavy things defcend by a right line to their center: Brutes haften

Ff 2

to

nay

Chap. 9. to those things which are congruous and convenient to their natures: Only Man, though endowed far above these with Reafon and Liberty, falls fhort, and miffes the mark. Pure Precepts, excellent Promises, heavenly Mysteries, are fet before him in the Gofpel, yet without a fupernatural illumination, he cannot perceive or receive them; at most he fees them only in the image or picture of the Letter, but not in their liveliness and spiritual glory: a form or shell of knowledg he may have, but he doth not taft or favour the sweetness of them. And all this because his Reason, though active enough in naturals, is in fpirituals but as an eye without an optick faculty, dark, darkness it felf. The Will, though its proper object be good, turns away from God, who is Goodnefs it felf, and feeks its chief good fomewhere else. It opens it felf in a free choice to every vanity that paffes by; yet is it shut to God and all the offers of grace; forfaking God the Fountain of Liberty, it becomes an arrant Slave and Drudg to fin; and, which is wonderfully prodigious, it is in love with its chains, and loth to be made free indeed. All the goodness in God, Christ, Heaven, Bleffedness, outwardly propofed, move it not to ftir a foot towards fuch attracting objects; ftill it hangs in vanity, and lyes upon the dunghill of the world, and rowls it felf in the mire of one luft or other. It hath an enmity against God, who made it free; it would be above his Will who is Supreme: rather than its inordinate lufts should be restrained, it would have God ceafe to be. There De Civit. 1.14. is in every man, as St. Austin speaks, Amor fui ufq; ad contemptum Dei, a love of himself, even to the contempt of God. The Affections are all vain, earthly,

cap. 28.

carnal,

carnal, mutinous against reafon; infomuch, that they Chap. 9. by an unnatural violence depofe it, and fo unman the man: Hence he becomes as the beafts that perish. The Reafon faith, this or that is good; but the Af fections repugn and refift. The Soul is paralytick, Reafon moves to the right hand, Affection to the left, and carries all before it: Hence that faying, Video meliora proboq;, deteriora fequor. The Affections, which primitively were fervants to Reafon, are now upon the Throne. Reason, though once a Royal Prince, is dethroned and become fervile. That which is the glory of our nature, and proves us to be men, that is hurried up and down by the rude rabble of lufts and malapert paffions. This being the natural frame and temper of man, let us fit down and confider; Was it thus from the beginning? Was humane nature fuch in the first impreffion? Did God put his Reafon under a Cloud, or his Will into chains and fervitude? Was it from God, that the one turns away from the first truth, and the other from the chief good? Did God put into man an instinct after happiness in vain, or infpire into him an immortal fpirit, that it might creep upon the earth, and pour out it felf to every vanity? Did God create man at variance with himself, and at firft, fet up that unnatural inteftine war, which is between the rational and fenfitive powers? Was it his pleasure, that the inferior faculties in man should contumaciously reluct against the fuperior; or that the superior should bafely ferve the inferior? Without doubt it cannot be. God is light, purity, Wisdom it self; these things are darknefs, corruption, ataxy, and cannot be from him. No other account can be given of them but this;

That

Chap. 9. That they are the bruises of the fall, the wounds of corrupt nature.

.

3. No man, who looks abroad into the World, can with any colour oppofe this truth. The millions of actual fins, which as a mighty deluge overspread the world, are as fo many pregnant proofes of that original pravity which is in us. In the old world all fleth had corrupted its way, Gen. 6.12. Afterwards, all nations walked in their own ways, Acts 14. 16. That is, in finful ones: fin is the course of the world, Ephef. 2. 2. It is the element and proper ubi of it; the whole world lies in it, 1 Joh. 5.19. And whence is it, that fin is fo univerfal, that iniquity abounds in all times and places? Our Saviour opens the bloody fountain of it, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, falfe-witness, blafphemies, Matt. 15. 19. All these black troops of wickedness, iffue out from the corrupt heart of man; the inherent pravity which is there, is feminally all the monsters of vice. The Apostle Paul proving all under fin, doth thus defcribe the corrupt eftate of men; There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that underftandeth, none that feeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open fepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of afps is under their lips: Whofe mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are fwift to shed blood: Destruction and mifery are in their ways: The way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes, Rom.3. Here the Apostle paints out corrupt nature; not that all men actually do these things, but that there is in