Every one, at home and abroad, in city and coun try, in palaces and cottages, is groaning under some one thing or other ungrateful to him. Some are oppressed with poverty, some chastened with sickness and pain, some are lamenting their losses; none wants a cross of one sort or another. No man's condition is so soft, but there is some thorn of uneasiness in it. And at length death, the wages of sin, comes after these its harbingers, and sweeps all away. Now, what but sin has opened the sluice? There is not a complaint or sigh heard in the world, nor a tear that fails from our eye, but it is an evidence that man is fallen as a starfrom heaven; for God distributeth sorrows in his anger, Job xxi. 17. This is a plain proof of the corrup tion of nature: forasmuch as those that have not yet actually sinned, have their share of these sorrows; yea, and draw their first breath in the world weeping, as they knew this world, at first sight, to be a Bochim, the place of weepers. There are graves of the smallest, as well as of the greatest size in the church-yard: and there are never wanting some in the world, who, like Rachel," are weeping for their children, because they are not," Matt. ii. 18.

Secondly, Observe how early this corruption of na ture begins to appear in young ones. Solomon ob serves, that "even a child is known by his doings," Prov. xx. 11. It may soon be discerned what way the bias of the heart lies. Do not the children of fallen Adam, before they can go alone, follow their father's footsteps? What a vast deal of little pride, ambition, curiosity, vanity, wilfulness, and averseness to good, appears in them! And, when they creep out of infancy, there is a necessity of using "the rod of correction, to drive away the foolishness that is bound in their heart," Prov. xxii. 15. which shews, that, if grace prevail not, the child will be as Ishmael, a wild ass-man, as the word is, Gen. xvi. 12.

Thirdly, Take a view of the manifold gross out breakings of sin in the world. "The wickedness of man is yet great in the earth." Behold the bitter fruits of the corruption of our nature, Hos. iv. 2.

"By 'swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, like the breaking forth of waters, and blood toucheth blood." The world is filled with filthiness; and all manner of lewdness, wickedness, and profanity. Whence is the deluge of sin on the earth, but from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, the heart of man; "out of which proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, &c. Mark vii. 21, 22. Ye will, it may be, thank God with a whole heart, that ye are not like these other mer: and indeed ye have better reasor. for it than, I fear, ye are aware of; for "as, in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man,' Prov. xxvii. 19. As looking into clear water, ye see your own face; so looking to your heart, ye may see other men's there and looking into other men's, in them ye may see your own. So that the most vile and profane wretches that are in the world should serve you for a looking-glass; in which you ought to discern the corruption of your own nature: and if you do so, ye would, with a heart truly touched, thank God, and not yourselves, indeed, that ye are not as other men, in your lives, seeing the corruption of nature is the same in you as in them.

Lions

Fourthly, Cast your eye upon these terrible convulsions the world is thrown into, by the lusts of men. make not a prey of lions, nor wolves of wolves: but men are turned wolves to one another, biting and devouring one another. Upon how slight occasions will men sheath their swords in one anothers bowels! The world is a wilderness, where the clearest fire men can carry about with them will not fright away the wild beasts that inhabit it, (and because they are men, and no brutes) but one way or other they will be wounded. Since Cain shed the blood of Abel, the earth has been turned into a slaughter-house; and the chase has been continued since Nimrod began his hunting; on the earth, as in the sea, the greater still devouring the lesser. When we see the world in such a ferment, every one stabbing another with words or swords, we may

D

conclude there is an evil spirit among them. These violent heats among Adam's sons speak the whole body to be distempered, the whole head to be sick, and the whole heart faint: they surely proceed froin an inward cause, James vi. 1. "Lusts that war in our members."

Fifthly, Consider the necessity of human laws fenced with terrors and severities; to which we may apply what the apostle says, 1 Tim. i. 9. That "the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, " &c. Man was made for society; and God himself said of the first man, when he had created him, that it was not meet he should be alone: yet the case is such now, that in society he must be hedged in with thorns. And that from hence we may the better see the corruption of man's nature, consider, (1.) Every man naturally loves to be at full liberty himself, to have his own will for his law; and if he would follow his natural inclinations, would vote himself out of the reach of all laws, divine and human. And hence some (the power of whose hands has been answerable to the natural inclination) have indeed made themselves absolute and above laws; agreeable to man's monstrous design at first, to be as gods, Gen. iii. 5. Yet (2) There is no man that should willingly adventure to live in a lawless society; and therefore, even pirates and robbers have laws among themselves, though the whole society casts off all respect to law and right. Thus men discover themselves to be conscious of the corruption of nature; not daring to trust one another, but upon security. (3) How dangerous soever it is to break through the hedge, yet the violence of lusts makes many daily adventure to run the risk. They will not only sacrifice their credit and conscience, which last is lightly esteemed in the world; but for the pleasure of a few moments, immediately succeeded with terror from within, they will lay themselves open to a violent death, by the laws of the land wherein they live. (4.) The laws are often made to yield to men's lusts. Sometimes whole societies run into such extravagancies, that, like a company of

prisoners, they break off their fetters, and put their guard to flight; and the voice of laws cannot be heard for the noise of arms. And seldom is there a time wherein there are not some persons so great and daring, that the laws dare not look their impetuous lusts in the face; which made David say, in the case of Joab, who had murdered Abner, These men, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard for me," 2 Sam. iii. 39. Lusts sometimes grow too strong for laws, so that the law is slacked, as the pulse of a dying man, Hab. i. 3, 4. (5.) Consider what necessity often appears of amending old laws, and making new ones; which have their rise from new crimes, that man's nature is very fruitful of. There would be no need of mending the hedge, if men were not like unruly beasts, still breaking it down. It is astonishing to see what figure the Israelites, who were separated unto God from among all the nations of the earth, make in their history. What horrible confusions were among them, when there was no king in Israel, as you may see in the 18, 19, 20, and 21, chapters of Judges. How hard it was to reform them, when they had the best of magistrates; and how quickly they turned aside again, when they got wicked rulers. I cannot but think, that one grand design of that sacred history was to discover the corruption of man's nature, the absolute need of the Messiah, and his grace; and that we ought, in the reading of it, to improve it to that end. How cutting is that word the Lord has to Samuel, concerning Saul, 1 Sam. ix. 17. "The same shall reign over (or, as the word is, shall restrain) my people." O the corruption of man's nature! The awe and dread of the God of heaven restrains them not; but they must have gods on earth to do it, "put them to shame," Judges xviii. 7.

Sixthly, Consider the remains of that natural corruption in the saints. Though grace has entered, yet corruption is not quite expelled; though they have got the new creature, yet much of the old corrupt na-e ture remains and these struggle together within them, as the twins in Rebekah's womb, Gal. v. 17. They

find it present with them at all times, and in all places, even in the most retired corners. If a man have an ill neighbour, he may remove; if ye have an ill servant, ye may put him away at the term; if a bad yoke-fellow, he may sometimes leave the house, and be free of molestation that way: but should the saint go into a wilderness, or set up his tent in some remote rock in the sea, where never foot of man, beast, nor fowl, had touched, there will it be with him. Should he be, with Paul, caught up to the third heavens, it shall come back with him, 2 Cor. xii. 7. It follows him, as the shadow doth the body: it makes a blot in the fairest line he can draw. It is like the fig-tree on the wall, which how nearly soever it was cut, yet still grew, till the wall was thrown down: for the roots of it are fixt in the heart, while the saint is in the world, as with bands of iron and brass. It is especially active when he would do good, Rom. vii. 21. then the fowls came down upon the carcases. Hence often in holy duties, the spirit even of a saint, as it were, evaporates; and he is left ever he is aware, like Michal, with an image in the bed instead of an husband. Í need not stand to prove the remains of the corruption of nature in the godly, to themselves; for they groan under it; and to prove it to them, were to hold out a candle to let them see the sun and as for the wicked, they are ready to account mole-hills in the saints as big as mountains; if not to reckon them all hypocrites. But consider these few things on this head. (1.) If it be thus in the green tree, how must it be in the dry? The saints are not born saints; but made so by the power of regenerating grace. Have they got a new nature, and yet so much of the old remains with them? How great must that corruption be in others, where it is altogether unmixt with grace! (2.) The saints groan under the remains of it as a heavy burden: hear the apostle, Rom. vii. 24. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" What though the carnal man lives at ease and quiet, and the corruption of nature is not his