put the whole man in a dreadful consternation, awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait; make the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow; set the eyesa-weeping, the tongue a-confessing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, though the heart still goes after them. But yet it is an evil conscience which natively leads to despair, and will do it effectually, as in Judas' case; unless either lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts xxiv. 25. or the blood of Christ prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts, Heb. ix. 14. and x. 23. Lastly, Even the memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good and worthy to be minded, as it makes but slender impression, so that impression easily wears off; the memory, as a leaking vessel, lets it slip, Heb. ii. 1. As a sieve that is full, when in the water, lets all go when it is taken out; so is the memory, respect to spiritual things. But, how does it retain what ought to be forgotten? Naughty things so bear in themselves upon it, that though men would fain have them out. of mind, yet they stick there like glue. However forgetful men be in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in old age to re-act the sins of their youth, while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up the former vomit. And thus, it is like the riddle, that lets through the pure grain, and keeps the refuse. Thus far of the corruption of the soul. with The body itself also is partaker of this corruption and de-. Wherefore the filement, so far as it is capable thercof. Scripture calls it sinful flesh, Rom. viii. 3. We may take this up in two things. (1.) The natural temper, or rather distemper of the bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin; so it hath a native tendency to sin, incites to sin, leads the soul into snares, yea, is itself a snare to the soul. The body is a furious beast, of such metal, that if it be not beat down, kept under, and brought into subjection, it will cast the soul into much sin and misery, Cor, ix. 27. There is a vileness in the body, (Phil. iii. 21.) which, as to the saints, will never be removed, until it be melted down in a grave, and cast into a new mould, at the resurrection to come forth a spiritual body; and will never be carried off from the bodies of those, who are not partakers of the resurrection to life. (2.) It serves the soul in many sins. Its members are instruments or weapons of unrighteousness, whereby men fight against God, Rom. vi. 13. The eyes and ears are open doors, by which impure motions and sinful desires enter the soul: "The tongue is a world of iniquity: An unruly evil, full of deadly poison,' James iii. 6, 8. By it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness. "The throat is an open sepulchre," Rom. iii. 13. The feet run the devil's errands, ver. 15. The belly is made a god, (Phil. iii. 19.) not only by drunkards and riotous livers, but by every natural man. Zech. vii. 6. So the body naturally is an agent for the devil, and a magazine of armour against the Lord. To conclude: Man by nature is wholly corrupted: From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in him. And, as in a dunghill, every part contributes to the corruption of the whole; so the natural man, while in that state, grows still worse and worse. The soul is made worse by the body, and the body by the soul; and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more. Thus much for the second general head. How Man's Nature was corrupted. THIRDLY, I shall shew how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. The Heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted; but how sin had entered, they could not tell. But the Scripture is very plain in that point, Romans v. 12, 19. "By one man sin entered into the world. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." Adam's sin corrupted man's nature, and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrified in Adam, as our root. The root was poisoned, and so the branches were envenomed; the vine turned the vine of Sodom, and so the grapes became grapes of gall. Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and so transmits guilt and corruption to his posterity, Gen. v. 3. Job. xiv. 4. By his sin, he stripped himself of his original righteousness, and corrupted himself: We were in him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head, in the covenant of works; we were in him seminally, as our natural head; hence we fell in him, and by his disobedience were made sinners, as Levi, in the loins of Abraham, paid tithes, Heb. vii. 9. His first sin is imputed to us; therefore, justly are we left under the want of his original righteousness, which, being given to himasa common person, he cast off, by his sin; and this is necessarily followed, in him and us, by the corruption of the whole nature; righteousness and corruption being two contraries, one of which must needs always be in man, as a subject capable thereof. And Adam, our common father, being cor rupt, we are so too; for, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" Although it is sufficient to evince the righteousness of this dispensation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet, to silence the murmurings of proud na ture, let these few things further be considered. (1.) In the covenant wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him and his posterity, upon condition of his (that is, Adam's) perfect obedience, as the represen tative for all mankind; whereas, if there had been no covenant, they could not have pleaded eternal life, upon their most perfect obedience, but might have been, after all, reduced to nothing, notwithstanding, by natural justice, they would have been liable to God's eternal wrath, in case of şin. Who, in that case, would not have consented to that. representation? (2.) Adam had a power to stand given him, being made upright. He was as capable to stand for himself, and all his posterity, as any after him could be for themselves. This trial of mankind, in their head, would soon have been over, and the crown won to them all, had he stood; whereas, had his posterity been independent on him, and every one left to act for himself, the trial would have been continually a-carrying on, as men came into the world. (3.) He had natural affections the strongest to en gage him, being our common father. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well as ours. had no separate interest from ours; for, if he forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot his own. (5.) If he had stood we should have had the light of his mind, the righteousness of his will, and holiness of his affections, with entire purity transmitted unto us; we could not have fallen; the He 1 crown of glory, by his obedience, would have been for ever secured to him and his. This is evident from the nature of a federal representation; and no reason can be given why, seeing we are lost by Adam's sin, we should not have been saved by his obedience. On the other hand, it is reasonable that, he falling, we should with him bear the loss. Lastly, Such as quarrel this dispensation, must renounce their part in Christ; for we are no otherwise made sinners by Adam, than we are made righteous by Christ; from whom we have both imputed and inherent righteousness. We no more made choice of the second Adam, for our head and representative in the second covenant, than we did of the first Adam in the first covenant. I.et none wonder that such an horrible change would be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God, as their chief end; which necessarily infers an universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostacy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commands at once. (1.) They chose new gods. They made their belly their god, by their sensuality; self their god by their ambition; yea, and the devil their God, believing him, and disbelieving their Maker. (2.) Though they received, yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to themselves, how to serve the Lord. (3.) They took the name of the Lord their God in vain; despising his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grossly profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused that creature of his, which they should not have touched, and violently misconstrued his providence; as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing in the way of their happiness; and, therefore, he suffered them not to escape his righteous judgment. (4.) They re-membered not the Sabbath, to keep it holy; but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day. Neither kept they that state of holy rest, wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off their relative duties: Eve forgets herself, and acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of both; Adam, instead of admonishving her to repent, yields to the temptation, and confins her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven; and, therefore, their days were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined themselves, and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sensuality. (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against the Lord, before angels, devils, and one another; in effect giving out that they were hardly dealt by, and that heaven grudged their happiness. (10.) They were discontent with their lot, and coveted an evil covetousness to their house; which ruined both them and theirs. Thus was the image of God on man defaced all at once. The Doctrine of the Corruption of Nature applied. USE I. For information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then, 1. No wonder the grave open its devouring mouth for us, as soon as the womb hath cast us forth; and that the cradle be turned into a coffin, to receive the corrupt lump? For we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead-born; yea, and filthy, (Psal. xiv. 3.) noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to, at our entrance, nor of the continuance of them, while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poisoned all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of man's nature that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states, families; in mens souls and bodies. 2. Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality in the world; the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and life. Every thing acts like itself, agreeable to its own nature, and so corrupt man acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the sinfulness of your own heart and life, nor at the sinfulness and perverseness of others: If a man be crooked, he cannot but halt; and if the clock be set wrong, how can it point the hour right? 3. See here, why sin is so pleasant, and religion such a burden to carnal spirits; sin is natural, holiness not so. Oxen cannot feed in the sea, nor fishes in the fruitful 1 |