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 destroyed 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, rise 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 first deligned for? How much more, when we fee the holy and wife God, deftroying the work of his own hands, once folemnly pro-nounced by him very good, may we conclude that the original frame thereof is utterly marred, that it cannot be mended, but it muit 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 maj be flopped, 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 be 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. 2. 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 ftill. 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 fpiritual 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 follows,

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 runs may read in it, viz That Mn's nature is now wholly corrupted. Now is there a fad 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, Repre fent 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 tinful 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

I. For fcripture-proof, let us confider,

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 likeness; 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 passed on all. Doubtless, he begat both Crin and Abel in his own likenefs, as well as Seth But it is not recorded of Abel, because he left no issue 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, becaufe of his monftrous wickednefs; and befides, 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..

E 2

Secondly,

:

State II. Secondly, It appears from that feripture text, Job xiv. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Our first parents were unclean, how then can we be clean? How could our immediate parents be clean? Or, how fhall our children be fo? The uncleannefs here aimed at is a finful uncleannefs; for it is fuch as makes man's days full of trouble and it is natural, being derived from unclean parents: Man is born of a woman, ver. 1 And how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job xxxv. 4. An omnipotent Ged whole power is not here challenged, could bring a clean thing out of an unclean; and did fo, in the cafe of the Man CHRIST; but no other can. Every perfon that is born according to the courfe of nature, is born unclean. If the root be corrupt, fo muft the branchesbe. Neither is the matter mended, tho' the parents be fanctified ones for they are but holy in part, and that by grace, not by nature; and they beget their children as men, not as holy nten. Wherefore,

as the circumcifed parent begets an uncircumcifed child, and after the pureft grain is fown, we reap corn with the chaff; fo the holiest parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as they do their nature which many godly parents find true, in their fad experience.

Thirdly, Confider the confeffion of the Pfalmift David, Pfal. li. 6. Behold I was fapen in iniquity, and in fin did my mother conceive me. Here he afcends from his actual fin, to the fountain of it, namely, corrupt nature. He was a man according to God's own heart; but from the beginning it was not fo with him. He was begotten in lawful marriage; but when the lump was fhapen in the womb, it was a finful lump. Hence the corruption of nature is called the old man; being as old as ourfelves, older than grace, even in those that are fanctified from the womb.

Fourthly, fear our Lord's determination of the point, John iii. 5. That which is born of the flesh, is flaf. Behold the univerfal corruption of mankind, all are flesh. Not that all are frail, tho' that is a fad truth too; yea, and our natural frailty is an evidence of our natural corruption; but that is not the fenfe of this text: but herë is the meaning of it, all are corrupt and finful, and that naturally: hence our Lord argues here, that because they are fleth, therefore they must be born again, or else they cannot enter into the kingdom of God, ver. 3, 5. And as the corruption of our nature evidenceth the abfolute neceffity of regeneration; fo the abfolute neceffity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature: for why should a man need a fecond birth, if his nature were not quite marred in the first birth? Infants must be born again, for that is an except. (John iii. 3) which admits of no exception. And therefore, they were circumcifed under the Old Teftament, as having the body of the fins of the flesh, (which is conveyed to them by natural generation). to put off, Col. ii. 11 And now by the appointment of Jefus Chrift, they are to be baptized; which fays they are unclean, and that there

is no falvation for them, but by the washing of regeneration, and renering of the holy Ghost, Tit. iii. 5.

Fifthly, Man certainly is funk very low now, in comparison of what he once was; God made him but a little lower than the angels : but now we find him likened to the beafts that perifh. He hearkened to a brute, and is now become like one of them. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his portion (in his natural state) is with the beafts, minding only earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. Nay, brutes, in fome fort, have the advantage of the natural man, who is funk a degree below them. He is more witlefs, in what concerns him molt, than the ftork, or the turtle, or the crane, or the swallow, in what is for their interest, Jer. viii. 7. He is more stupid than the ox or afs, Ifa. i. 3. I find him fent to fchool, to learn of the ant or emmot, which having no guide, or leader to go before her; no overfeer or officer to compel or ftir her up to work; no ruler, but may do as fhe lifts, being under the dominion of none; yet provideth her meat in the fummer and harvest, Prov. vi 6, 7, 8. while the natural man has all these, and yet expofeth himself to eternal ftarving. Nay, more than all this, the fcripture holds out the natural not only as wanting the good qualities of thofe creatures; but as a compound of the evil qualities of the worst of the creatures, in which do concenter the fiercenefs of the lion, the craft of the fox, the unteachablenefs of the wild afs, the filthinefs of the dog and fwine, the poifon of the afp, and such like. Truth itfelf calls them ferpents, a generation of vipers; yea more, even children of the devil, Mat. iii. 7. John viii. 44. Surely then, man's nature is miferably corrupted.

and

We are

Laftly, We are by nature child en of wrath, Eph. ii. 3. We are worthy of, and liable to the wrath of God; and this by nature therefore, doubtless, we are by nature finful creatures. condemned before we have done good or evil; under the curfe, ere we know what it is. But will a lion roar in the foreft while he hath no prey? Amos iii. 4. that is, Will a holy and juft God roar in his wrath againft man, if he be not, by his fin, made a prey for wrath?

No, he will not, he cannot. Let us conclude, then, that according

to the word of God man's nature is a corrupt nature.

II. If we confult experience, and obferve the cafe of the world in thefe things that are obvious to any perfon that will not thut his eyes against clear light; we will quickly perceive fuch fruits, as difcover this root of bitterness: I fhall propofe a few things, that may ferve to convince us in this point.

Fift, Who fees not a flood of miferies overflowing the world? and whether can a man go, where he fhall not dip his foot, if he go not over head and ears in it? Every one at home and abroad, in city and country, in palaces and cottages, is groaning under fome one thing or other, ungrateful to him. Some are oppreffed with poverty, fome chaftned with fickness and pain, fome are lamenting their loffes; none wants a cross of one fort or another. No man's condition is

fo

fo foft, but there is fome thorn of uneafinefs in it. And at length death the wages of fin, comes after thefe its harbingers, and fweeps all away. Now, what but fin has opened the fluice? There is not a complaint nor figh heard in the world, nor a tear that falls from our eye, but it is an evidence that man is fallen as a ftar from heaven; for God diftributeth forrow in his anger, Job xxi. 17. This is a plain proof of the corruption of nature: forafmuch as those that have not yet actually finned, have their fhare of thefe forrows; yea, and draw their firft breath in the world weeping, as if they knew this world, at first fight, to be a Bochim, the place of weepers. There are graves of the finalleft, as well as of the largest fize, in the church-yard; and there are never wanting fome in the world, who like Rachel, are weeping for their children, because they are not, Mat. ii. 18.

Secondly, Obferve how early this corruption of nature begins to appear in young ones: Solomon obferves, that even a child is known by his doings, Prov. xx. 11. It may foon be difcerned, 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, curiofi vanity, wilfulnefs, and averfenefs to good appears in them: And when they creep out of infancy, there is a neceflity of using the rod of correction to drive away the foolishness that's bound in their heart, Prov. xxii. 15. Which fhews, that if prevail not, the child will be as Ishmael, a wild afs man, as the word Gen. xvi. 13.

15,

grace

Ye

Thirdly, Take a view of the manifold grofs out-breakings of fin, in the world. The wickedness of man is yet great in the earth. Behoid the bitter fruits of the corruption of our nature, Hof. iv. 2. By fwearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, (like the breaking forth of water) and blood toucheth blood. The world is filled with filthinefs, and all manner of lewdnefs, wickedness, and profanity. Whence is this deluge of fin 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. will, it may be, thank God with a whole heart, that ye are not like thefe other men: and indeed ye have better reafon for it than, I fear,` ye are aware of; for, as in water, face anfwereth to face, fo the heart of man to man, Prov. xxvii. 19. As looking into clear water, ye fee your own face; fo looking into your heart, ye may fee other men's there and looking into other men's, in them ye may fee your own." So that the most vile and profane wretches that are in the world fhould ferve you for a looking glass, in which you ought to difcern the corruption of your own nature: and if you do fo, ye would, with a heart truly touched, thank God, and not yourfelves, indeed, that ye are not as other men, in your lives; feeing the corruption of nature is the fame in you, as in them.

Fourthly,