infers an univerfal depravation. Their fin was a com tion of evils, a total apoftafy from God, a violation whole law. By it they broke all the ten comma once. (1.) They chofe new gods They made thei their god, by their fenfuality: felf their god by the bition; yea, and the devil their God, believing him disbelieving their Maker. (2.) Tho' they receive they obferved not that ordinance of God, about the for fruit. They contemned that ordinance fo plainly en them, and would needs carve out to themselves, how t the Lord, (3.) They took the name of the Lord the in vain defpifing his attributes, his juftice, truth er, &c. They grofly profaned that facramental tr buted his word, by not giving credit to it; abused tha ture of his, which they should not have touched, a lently mifconftrued his providence; as if God, by for them that tree, had been standing in the way of the piness; and therefore he fuffered them not to efca righteous judgment. (4.) They remembred not th bath to keep it holy, but put themselves out of a co to ferve, God aright on his own day. Neither kep the state of the holy rest, wherein God had put the They caft off their relative duties: Eve forgets herfe acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of Adam instead of admonishing her to repent, yields temptation, and confirms her in her wickedness. Th got all duty to their pofterity. They honoured not th ther in heaven; and therefore their days was not the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6. ruined themselves, and all their pofterity. (7.) G themselves to luxury and fenfuality. (8) Took awa was not their own, against the exprefs will of th Owner. (9.) They bore falfe witnefs, and lied aga Lord, before angels, devils, and one another; in eff ing out that they were hardly dealt by, and that grudged their happinefs. (10.) They were difconte their lot, and coveted an evil covetoufnels to their which ruined both them and theirs. Thus was the 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 foon as the womb hath caft us forth; and that the cradle be turned into à coffin, to receive the corrupt lump: for we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born; yea and filthy, (Pfal. xiv. 3.) noifome, rank, and ftinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let us not complain of the miseries we are expofed to, at our entrance, nor of the continuance of them, while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poifoned all the fprings of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of man's nature, that brings forth all the miferies of human life in churches, ftates, families: in mens fouls and bodies.

2. Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality in the world; the fource of all the diforders in thy own heart and life. Every thing afts like itself, agreeable to its own nature; and fo corrupt man acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the finfulness of your own heart and life, nor at the finfulness and pervericnels of others: if a man be crooked, he cannot but halt; and if the clock be fet wrong, how can it point the hour right.

3. See here, why fin is fo pleasant, and religion fuch a burden to carnal fpirits: fin is natural, holiness not fo. Oxen cannot feed in the fea, nor fishes in the fruitful fields, A fwine brought into a palace, would get away again, to wallow in the mire. A corrupt nature tends even to impurity.

4. Learn from this the nature and neceffity of regeneration. First, This discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things, (1.) It is not a partial, but a total change, tho' imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, and therefore the cure must go thro' every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. All things become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. If one have received many wounds.

fhould

State IT. fhould be cured of them all, fave one only, he might bleed to death, by that one, as well as a thousand So if the change go not through the whole man it is naught. (2,) It is not a change made by human induftry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. A man muft, be born of the Spirit, John iii. 5. Accidental difeafes may be cured by men, but these which are natural, not without a miracle, Joha ix: 32. The change brought upon men, by good education, or forced upon them, by a natural confcience, the' it may pass among men for a faving change, it is not fo; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Tho' a gardiner, ingrafting a pear branch into an apple-tree, may make the apple tree bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple tree: fo one may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, This alfo fhews the neceflity of regeneration. It is abfolutely neceffary in order to falvation, John iii. 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God. No unclean thing can enter the new Jerufalem: but thou are wholly unclean, while in thy natural flate. If every member of thy body were dif jointed, each joint behoved to be loofed, ere the members could be fet aright again. This is the cafe of thy foul, as thou haft beard: and therefore thou must be born again; elfe thou shalt never fee heaven, unless it be far off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no mercy of God, no blood of Chrit will bring thee to heaven, in thy unregenerate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy, to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the falvation of finners. Heaven! What would ye do there, that are not born again? Ye that are no ways fitting for Chrift the head. That would be a ftrange fight, a holy head, and members auholly corrupt! a head full of treasures of grace, members wherein are nothing but treafures of wickedness! a head obedient to death, and heels kicking against heaven! are no ways adapted to the fociety above, more than beasts for converfe with men. Thou art a hater of true holiness: and at the first fight of a faint there, would cry out, Haft thou found me, O mnine enemy! Nay, the unrenewed man,

Ye

if it were poffible he could go to heaven, in that flate, be would no otherwife go to it, than now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leaving his heart behind him,

USE II. For lamentation. Well may we lament thy cafe, O natural man, for it is the faddeft cafe one can be in out of bell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou art dead already, dead while thou liveft; thou carrieft about with thee a dead foul in a living body: and because thon art dead thou canst not lament thy own cafe. Thou art loathfome in the fight of God; for thou art altogether corrupt Thou haft no good in thee; thy foul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vilenefs before the Lord. Thou thinkeft, perhaps, that thou haft a good heart to God, good inclinations, and good defires: but God knows there is nothing good in thee, but every imagination of thine heart is only evil. Thou canft do no good; thou canft do nothing but fin, For, Fift, Thou art the fervant of fin, Rom. v. 17. and therefore free from righteousness, ver. 20. Whatever righteoufnefs be, (poor foul) thou art free of it; thou doft not, thou canft not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of fin, a dominion where righteoufnefs can have no place. Thou art a child and fervant of the devil, tho' thou be neither wizzard nor witch: feeing thou art yet in the ftate of nature, John viii. 44. Te are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, confider, that fin and Satan have two forts of servants, (1.) There are fome employed, as it were, in coarfer work: those bear the devil's mark in their fore heads, having no form of godlinefs; but are profane, grofly ignorant, mere moralifts, not fo much as performing the external duties of religion, but living to the view of the world; as fons of earth, only minding earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. (2.) There are fome employed in a more refined fort of service to fin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand; which they can, and do hide from the view of the world. These are clofe hypocrites, who facrifice as much to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. These are ruined by a more undiscernable trade of fin: pride, unbelief, felf feeking, and the like fwarm in, and prey upon their corrupted, wholly corrupted fouls. Both are fervants of the fame houfe; the latter as far as the former from righteousness.

Secondly,

Secondly, How is it poffible thou fhould be able to do any good, thou whose nature is wholly corrupt? Can fruit grow where there is no root? Or can there be an effect wtihout a caufe? Can the fig-tree bear olive berries? Either a vine figs. If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou doft is certainly fo too; for no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Matth. vii. 18.

Ah! What a miferable fpectacle is he that can do nothing but fin? Thou art the man, whofoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural state. Hear, O finner, what is thy cafe.

Firft, Innumerable fins compass thee about Mountains of guilt are lying upon thee. Floods of impurities overwhelm thee. Living lufts of all forts roll up and down in the dead fea of thy foul; where no good can breathe, becaufe of the corruption there. Thy lips are unclean: the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of an unripe grave, full of french and rottennefs, Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open fepulchre. Thy natural actions are fin, for when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for your felves? Zech. vii. 6. Thy civil actions are fin, Prov. xxi. 4. The plowing of the wicked is fin. Thy religious actions are fin, Prov. xv. 8. The facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart, are only evil. A deed may be foon done, a word foon fpoken, a thought fwiftly paffeth thro' the heart: but each of these is an Item in thy accounts. O fad reckoning! as many thoughts, words, actions; as many fins. The longer thou liveft, thy accounts fwell the more. Should a tear be dropt for every fin, thine head behoved to be waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears; for nothing but fin comes from thee. Thy heart frames nothing but evil imaginations; there is nothing in thy life, but what is framed by thine heart; and therefore there is nothing in thy heart or life but evil.

Secondly, All thy religion, if thou haft any, is lost labour; as to acceptance with God, or any faving effect to thyself. Art thou yet in thy natural ftate? Truly then thy duties are fins, as was just now hinted. Would not the best wine be lothfome in a veel wherein there is no pleasure? So is the religion of an unregenerate man. Under the law; the garment