had sinned, and his body was made mortal and passible, he then admitted many natural vices, and the horse was rendered more untameable." lb. in Rom. vii. From these and many other passages, of these more early Christian writers, it is manifest, that they all admitted that there was a general corruption of human nature, a great warping from the original rectitude of the first creation, and a mighty proneness to sin, (which necessarily required a renovation in Christ) owing to the fall of our first parents. If this be a deformed piece, what will you call the following description? God saw the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil continually. This, perhaps, may be reckoned a more monstrous drawing still; yet it came from that hand which painted the canopy of the skies, and touched all the pictures of nature into such inimitable perfection. Pray let us examine the most distinguishing features in this draught. Not barely the works of his hand, or the words of his tongue, but the imaginations of his heart are evil. The contagion has spread itself through the inner man. It has tainted the seat of his principles, and the source of his actions. (Gen. vi. 5.) Is there not, you will say, some mixture of good? no; they are only evil, there is no hopeful tendency; not so much as a little leaven of piety, may have a chance to diffuse itself, and meliorate the whole lump. But are there no lucid intervals, no happy moments, when virtue gains the ascendancy? None; he is only evil continually. The usurpation of sin is total, and its tyranny is perpetual. that What I have advanced, therefore, is no libel upon the Creator's benignity; because it is the very echo of his own determination. Neither is it so properly discouraging, as humbling and alarming, to our fellow-creatures: humbling, to make us sensible of our ruin; alarming, to make us desirous of a recovery. Hervey. He that would have a fuller view of indwelling sin, had need only to open his eyes to take a little view of that wickedness which reigneth, yea, rageth all the world over. Let him consider the pre vailing flood of the things mentioned by Paul to be the fruits of the flesh, (Gal. v. 19–21) that is, among the sons of men, in all places, nations, cities, towns, parishes; and then led him add there unto but this one consideration, that the world, which is full of the steam, filth, and blood of these abominations, as to their outward actings of them, is a pleasant garden, a paradise, compared to the heart of man, wherein they are all conceived; and hourly, millions of more vile abominations, which being stifled in the womb by certain ways, they are never able to bring forth to light. Let a man, 1 say, using the Law for his light and rule, take this course, and, if he have any spiritual discerning, he may quickly attain satisfaction in this matter. . It may Owen. be as well to particularize here a few of the most unequivocal symptoms of this moral, or spiritual death, for the benefit of those who choose rather to indulge a spirit of self-imposition, than to exercise that of self-inspection. Who, that does not know his own heart, would expect to find there the radical semina of avarice, ambition, blasphemy, cruelty, deceit, envy, hatred, hypocrisy, injustice, intemperance, lying, malice, oppression, revenge, slander, vain glory, violence, and such like: all which have a direct tendency to the total subversion of every social, moral, and christian virtue. Such, however, is the undisguised character of the human heart. Temple of Truth. I believe that I was conceived in sin, and brought forth in inquity; and that, ever since, I have been continually conceiving mischief, and bringing forth vanity. For, certainly, I must be a hard-hearted wretch indeed, steeped in sin, and fraught with corruption to the highest, if I know myself so oft to have incensed the wrath of the most high God against me, as I do, and yet not be sensible of my natural corruption, nor ac knowledge myself to be, by nature, a child of wrath as well as others: for I verily believe, that the want of such a due sense of myself, argues as much original corruption, as murder and whoredom do actual pollution: and I shall ever suspect those to be the most under the power of that corruption, that labour most, by ar guments, to divest it of its power: and therefore, for my own part, I am resolved, by the grace of God, never to go about to confute that by wilful argument which I find so true by woful experience. If there be not a bitter root in my heart, whence proceeds so much bitter fruit in my life and conversation? Alas! I can neither set my head nor heart about any thing, but I still show myself to be the sinful offspring of sinful parents, by being the sinful parent of a sinful offspring; nay, I do not only betray the inbred venom of my heart, by poisoning my common actions, but even my most religious performances also, with sin. I cannot pray, but I sin; I cannot bear, or preach a sermon, but I sin; I cannot give an alms, or receive the sacrament, but I sin; nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my very confessions are still aggravations of them; my repentance needs to be repented of; my tears want washing; and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer. Thus, not only the worst of my sins, but even the best of my duties, speak me a child of Adam. Insomuch, that whenever I reflect upon my past actions, methinks I cannot but look upon my whole life, from the time of my conception to this present moment, to be but as one continued act of sin. And whence can such a continued stream of corruption flow, but from the corrupt cistern of my heart? And whence can that corrupt cistern of my heart be filled, but from the corrupt fountain of my nature? Cease, therefore, O my soul, to gainsay the power of original sin. Bishop Beveridge. It is the character of all men in the state of depraved nature and apostacy from God, that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts is only evil continually. Gen. vi. 5. All persons in that condition are not swearers, blasphemers, drunkards, adulterers, idolaters, or the like: these are the vices of peculiar persons, the effects of particular constitutions and temptations. But thus it is with them, all and every one of them, all the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts are evil, and that continually; some, as to the matter of them; some as to their end; all, as to their principle: for out of the evil treasure of the heart can proceed nothing but what is evil. The man that understands the evil of his own heart, how vile it is, is the only useful, fruitful, solidly believing, and obedient perothers are fit only to delude themselves, to disquiet families, churches, and all relations whatever. son; Owen. My heart," says David, "shows me the wickedness of the ungodly." As face answers to face in a glass; so the heart of man When a believer considers the vileness of his own heart by nature he does not wonder, so much, that others fall, as that to man. : he himself is kept from falling. My heart's to many gods a slave; Of imag'ry an hideous cave; A heap of calumnies unspent ; A gulf of greed and discontent. Search well, my soul, through all the dark recesses Madan. ERSKINE. DR. WATTS. The depravity of human nature continued, nor could the waters of a universal deluge purge it away. So deep, alas, is the stain, and so incorrigible the virulency, of original corruption, that it will yield to nothing—to nothing will it yield, but to the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Till this takes place, every heart of man must wear the prophet's stigmatizing motto, "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Hervey. Q. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it. Q. How many sorts of sins are all men under ? A. All men are guilty before God of two sorts of sin; of original, and of actual; "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psal. li. 5. "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." Eccl. vii. 20. Q. How can we be guilty of Adam's first sin? A. We are guilty of it, because Adam sinned not only as a private, but also as a public person, and representative of all mankind, Rom. v. 15-17. "But not as the offence, so also is the free gift; for if through the offence of one many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation." Q. How else came we under his guilt? A. We are guilty of his sin by generation; for we were in his loins, as treason stains the blood of the posterity, or parents' leprosy the children. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psal. li, 5. Q. Wherein doth it consist? A. It consists in two things. First, in our aversion and enmity to that which is good, Rom. vii. 18. “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Secondly, in proneness to that which is evil, Rom. vii. 14. "But I am carnal, sold under sin." Q. Is this corruption of nature in all men? A. Yes; in all mere men, and women, none excepted, Rom. iii. 10, 23. "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Q. In what part of our nature doth this sin abide? A. It abides in the whole man, in every part of man, both soul and body, Gen. vi. 5. "God saw that the wickedness of man was |