curse bears the same relation to the threatening, that law-justification bears to the promise. Hence it is that the unbeliever is declared to be condemned already, John iii. 18. Lastly, Christ's being made a curse for sinners is a clear evidence of sinners being naturally under the curse; Gal. iii. 13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." He took their place in the broken covenant of works, Gal. iv. 4, 5, that bearing the curse due to them, they might be set free upon their union with him. Hence they who by faith are united to Christ having his satisfaction imputed to them, are delivered from the curse, as borne for them, and away from them, by their Surety, but all others remain under it, as not being reputed to have satisfied it. Thus far in the general, concerning this dreadful condition. But, A more Particular View of the dreadful condition of the Natural Man, under the curse of the broken Covenant of Works. II. We must take a more particular view of the dreadful condition of the natural man under the curse of the broken covenant of works. And here opens the most terrible scene that men are capable of beholding, in time or eternity. Happy they who timely behold it, so as to be thereby stirred up to flee to Christ. It comprehends both the sinfulness and the misery of a natural state, the curse being the chain by which the sinner is bound over to death in its full latitude, as it stands in the threatening of the covenant, Gen. ii. 17, and by which he is staked down under that death. And we shall take a view of this in the natural man's condition, by the breach of the covenant of works, in this life, and after this life. The Condition of the Natural Man under the Curse, in this Life. FIRST, The natural man's condition, under the curse of the broken covenant, is very terrible in that part of it which takes place in this life. The execution of the curse is not quite delayed to another world; it is begun in this life, carried further on at death, and full and final execution comes at the last day. As to that part of this condition which takes place in this life, we shall have the more distinct view of it, if we take it up in these following parcels; as to the soul, the body, and the whole man. The Condition of the Natural Man's Soul under the Curse. First, Let us view the condition of the natural man's soul under the curse. The natural man's soul is under the curse. It is the most noble part of the man, but the heaviest part of the curse lies upon it. And therefore Christ's soul-sufferings, when he was made a curse for us, were the most terrible of all his sufferings. That is the inward man into which the curse sinks, like water or oil, Psalm cix. 18. In the moment man sinned, his soul fell under the curse. And so, 1. His soul was separated from God, in favour with whom its life lay, Psalm xxxvi. 5; Deut. xxix. 21. The course of saving influences was stopt, the sun went quite down on him, and he lost God, his friend, his life, the soul of his soul. Thus natural men live without God, Eph. ii. 12, separated from him, Isaiah lix. 2. There is no saving intercourse betwixt God and them, more than there is betwixt us and our friends now lying in the grave, Psalm v. 5, Amos iii, 3. They hear his word preached; but, alas! they hear not his own voice, John v. 37. They pray to him, but he hears them not neither; John ix. 31, "God heareth not sinners." They hang on about the posts of his doors, but they never get a sight of the King's face. Be where they will, in the church or in the tavern, in duty or out of it, they are ever at a distance from God. The reason is, they are under the curse, which is as a great gulf fixed betwixt God and them, that there can be no communication between them, none by any means, but what can dry up the gulf, or remove the curse; which the blood of Christ only, applied to the soul, can do. 2. Hence man's soul-beauty was lost; death seizing on him by sin, his beauty went off. As when Christ cursed the fig-tree, it withered away; its blossoms went up as dust, its verdure and greenness were lost; so the cursed sinner was stript of his original righteousness, the light of his mind, the rectitude of his will, the orderliness of his affections, and the right temper of all the faculties of his soul, Gen. iii. 7, 8. Thus, under the curse, the natural man's soul lies in ruins, "dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1, dead to God, dead to righteousness, dead to its primitive constitution and frame, though in a living body. one. A dead corpse is an awful sight, where the soul is gone. But thy dead soul, from which God is gone, O natural man! is a more awful Couldst thou see thy inward man, as well as thou seest the outward, thou wouldst see a soul within thee of a ghastly countenance, the eyes of its understanding set, its speech laid, all the spiritual senses now locked up, no pulse of kindly affection towards God beating any more; but the soul lying speechless, motionless, cold and stiff like a stone, under the curse. 3. Hence the whole soul is corrupted in all the faculties thereof, Gen, vi. 5, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," Jer. xvii. 9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" As the soul being gone, the body corrupts; so the soul, being divested of its original righteousness, is wholly corrupted and defiled, having a kind of verminating life in it; Psalm xiv. 3, "They are altogether become filthy." And as when the curse was laid on the earth, the very nature of the soil was altered; so the souls of men under the curse are quite altered from their original holy constitution. This appears in all the faculties thereof. : (1.) Look into the mind, framed at first to be the eye of the soul; there is a lamentable alteration upon it under the curse. "O how is the fine gold become dim!" There is a mist upon it, whereby it is become weak, dull, and stupid in spiritual things, and really incapable of these things; 1 Cor. ii. 14, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Darkness has sat down on the mind; Eph. v. 8, "Ye were sometimes darkness:" and there spiritual blindness and ignorance reign, not to be removed by man's instruction, or any power less than what can take off the curse. This cursed ground is fruitful of mistakes, misapprehensions, delusions, monstrous and misshapen conceptions in divine things; doubtings, distrnst, unbelief of divine revelation, grow there, of their own accord, as the natural product of the cursed soil; while the seed of the word of the kingdom sown there does perish, and faith cannot spring up in it, for such is the soil that they cannot take with it. (2.) Look into the will, framed to have the command in the soul, and it is in wretched plight. Its uprightness for God is gone, and it is turned away backward from him. It is not only under an inability for good, but having lost all power to turn itself that way, Rom. v. 6, "We were without strength"; Phil. ii. 13, "For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure;" but it is averse to it, as the untrained bullock is to the yoke; Psal. lxxxi. 11, "My people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me"; Luke xix. 14, " We will not have this man to reign over us"; John v. 40, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." The will is set in direct opposition and contrariety to the will of God; Rom. viii. 7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." It is a heart of stone, that will break ere it bow to the will of God; and will remain refractory and contumacious against him, till the curse be removed, and the nature of the soul changed, though it should be plied with all the joys of heaven and all the terrors of hell. It is prone to evil, having a fixed bent unto sin; Hos. xi. 7, "My people are bent unto backsliding from me;" and this proneness to sin nothing can alter but an omnipotent hand. (3.) Look into the affections, framed to be the arms and feet of the soul for good, and they are quite wrong. Set spiritual objects before them to be embraced, then they are powerless, they cannot embrace them, nor grip them stedfastly; they presently grow weary, and let go any hold they have of them; like the stonyground hearers, who because they had no root withered away, Matth. xiii. 6. But as for carnal objects, agreeable to their lusts, they fly upon them, they clasp and twine about them; they hold so fast a grip, that it is with no small difficulty they can be got to let go their hold. Summon them to duty, they are flat, there is no raising of them, they cannot stir; but on the least signal given them by temptation, they are like Saul's hungry soldiers, flying on the spoil. (4.) Look into the conscience, framed to be in the soul God's deputy for judgment, his spy, and watchman over his creature; and it is miserably corrupted; Tit. i. 15, "Their mind and conscience is defiled." It is quite unfitted for its office. It is fallen under a sleepy distemper, sleeping and loving to slumber. So it is a dumb conscience, often not meddling with the work of directing, informing of the will of God, warning against sin, and exciting to duty; and thus men are left as when there was no king in Israel, every one doing that which is right in their own eyes. Sometimes being consulted, it gives quite wrong orders, calling darkness light, and light darkness, having lost its right judgment; like those of whom our Lord speaks; John xvi. 2, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God service." And accordingly it excuseth where it should accuse; and accuseth where it should excuse. And if it be once thoroughly awakened, it drives towards despair. (5.) Lastly, Look into the memory, framed to be the storehouse of the soul, and the symptoms of the curse appear there too. Things agreeable to the corruption of nature, and which may strengthen the same, stick fast in the memory, so that often one cannot get them forgotten, though they would fain have their remembrance razed. But spiritual things natively fall out of it, and are soon forgotten; the memory, like a leaking vessel, letting them slip. 4. Man being in these respects spiritually dead, the which death was the consequent of the first sin, the curse lies on him as a gravestone, and the penalty binds it upon him, that he cannot recover. So he is in some sort, by the curse, buried out of God's sight. Thus sinners are said to be "concluded in unbelief," Rom. xi. 32; shut up, as in a prison, "under the law," viz. with its curse, Gal. iii. 23. So when Christ comes to sinners with his offers of life and salvation, he finds them bound in a prison, Isa. lxi. 1, “He hath sent me-to proclaim-the opening of the prison to them that are bound." They are under chains of darkness, even the chains of the curse on all the faculties of the soul; which they can no more shake off them, than a dead man can loose and throw off him his dead clothes, hoise up his grave-stone, and come forth to the light. The curse cuts off the communication between God and the sinner, and so closes up all door of hope, while it remains, but by that which can remove the curse. As 5. Hence that corruption of the soul grows more and more. the dead corpse, the longer it lies in the grave, it rots the more, till devouring death has perfected its work in its utter ruin; so the dead soul under the curse grows worse and worse in all the faculties thereof, till it is brought to the utmost pitch of sin and misery in hell; 2 Tim. iii. 13, like "evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse." Sin continuing its reign in the soul, must needs gather strength; and the longer the corruption of nature continues, the stronger it grows. And hence it is, that ordinarily the longer one has lived in an unregenerate state, the pangs of the new birth are the more severe. 6. And hence the corruption of nature shoots forth itself in innumerable particular lusts, according to its growth, Mark vii. 21, 22, 23, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." These all spring up in the soul under the curse, in such plenty as at length to cover the face of the whole scul, as the cursed earth brings forth thorns and thistles without the pains of the husbandman, and as nettles do the face of the sluggard's vineyard, Prov. xxiv. 30, 31. The man thinks himself very far from such a sin as he has not been tried with; but when a fit temptation offers, he appears in his own colours? why ? but because the soul under the curse was fit to conceive by such a temptation. 7. And these lusts grow stronger and stronger. The man who "first walks in the counsel of the ungodly," proceeds to "stand in the way of sinners," and at length "sits down on the seat of the scornful," Psalm i. 1. The more corrupt one's nature grows, the more nourishment it sends forth to feed and flesh particular lusts. And these lusts, acting according to their nature, gather strength by exercise; so that custom makes their acting so easy and ready, that they come at length to refuse to be managed, like those of |