CHAPTER II.

THE FALLEN, GUILTY, AND RUINED STATE OF MAN.

§ 1. I Now, my young friend, address you on a subject unspeakably important; as no hope can be entertained of doing you lasting good, till you feel the truth of the statement, contained in this chapter; but if you be led by the Divine Spirit, to perceive that this chapter describes your own condition, there will then be a pleasing prospect of your becoming acquainted with those things which belong to your everlasting peace.

In reference to bodily disorders it is said, that to know our disease is half the cure: the same observation will apply to the disorders of the soul. If one deeply infected with a fever, or the plague, were so deluded, as to believe himself enjoying perfect health, or to think himself, at worst, but slightly disordered, and therefore to neglect the means for restoring health, how soon would death and the grave convince him of his sad mistake! Such delusion is seldom met with; but an infinitely more dreadful and more mischievous delusion, is as common as the light of day. Perhaps you labour under its baleful influence. Perhaps, if your life has been unstained by flagrant enormities, you imagine yourself a good-hearted young man, or an innocent young woman. Your sins are softened down under the name of youthful follies. The deep corruption of your nature is totally hidden from your view. You are in danger of

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· DELUSION RESPECTING MAN'S

dying eternally of the worst of plagues, and yet thinking that all is well. You are exposed to the wrath of a justly offended God, and saying to yourself, "Peace, peace."

§ 2. God forbid that I should wish to represent your state, by nature, as worse than he describes it in his word. If I had the wish I should scarcely have the power. Be patient then, and hear the worst. What are you? If guided by the opinions of a poor blind world, you might reply, "A frail imperfect creature, guilty of some sins, but yet with so many good dispositions and good actions to counterbalance them, that I may reasonably hope for happiness and heaven." My dear young friend, are these, or such as these, your views of yourself? If they be, no wretched madman, bound with chains, crowning himself with straw, and imagining himself a mighty and happy monarch, was ever more deceived. I repeat the question. What are you? Let the word of the God of truth reply. And what is its answer? It teaches you that you are corrupt and polluted, and at variance with your God; having all the powers of your soul disordered; and exposed, justly exposed, to everlasting ruin; and so entirely depraved and undone, that without a change as great as a second birth, you cannot possibly see the kingdom of God.

Perhaps you exclaim,* "Shocking doctrine!" whilst, full of indignation, you are almost ready to throw this book aside, before you have glanced at the proofs afforded in scripture, for the assertions I have made. If this be the case, I beseech you to remember I appeal to scripture,

* A few lines, with a little alteration, from Fletcher's Appeal.

FALLEN STATE, COMMON AND RUINOUS. 23

not to your passions; to the declarations of God, not to worldly delusions. You may cry out at the sight of a shroud, a coffin, a grave, Shocking objects!" but your loudest exclamations will not lessen the awful realities, by which many have happily been shocked into a timely preparation for approaching death.

Refuse not then to listen to the declarations of God, on this momentous subject to refuse to hearken is to seal your own destruction.

§3. His word assures you, that every human being is born into this world with a corrupt and sinful nature. God formed man "in his own image," innocent and holy; but fallen man begat a son "in his own likeness," corrupt and fallen like himself. The consequence is, man comes into this world with a sinful nature; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Such is the exceeding sinfulness of human nature, that the word of God strongly describes it, by declaring that we are shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin." "Man is a transgressor from the womb, and goes astray speaking lies." The devil is elsewhere called the father of lies; and one of the earliest tokens of human depravity is, that a disposition to commit that abominable sin so soon appears in little children. -Man is born untamed and rude as a "wild ass's colt." "Foolishness is bound even in the heart of a child." "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," "is only evil and that continually;" "he is abominable and filthy, and drinketh in iniquity like water." As he advances in life, do

Gen. v. 1. v. 3. Job, xiv. 4. xxii. 15. Gen. viii. 21. vi. 5.

Ps. li. 5. lviii. 3. Joby xi. 12 Prov. Job, xv. 16

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SCRIPTURAL ACCOUNT OF MAN'S

his corruptions weaken? The words of the apostle answer, No: We ourselves, also, were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” "God looked down from heaven upon the chil. dren of men, to see if there were any that did understand." And what is the dreadful result of this examination? "EVERY ONE of them is gone back; they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

§ 4. This sinfulness of your nature, my young friend, is not partial; it is not confined to some of your powers or faculties; but, like a mortal poison, spreads through and pollutes the whole. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." The heart, which should be the best part of man, is now the worst. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Such are the windings of its corruption, that no eye but that of Jehovah can trace them out. It is full of evil; not merely tainted but filled with sin; and "madness dwells in it." From this corrupt fountain, flows as corrupt a stream. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemies, covetousness, wickedness," or malevolence, "deceit, lasciviousness," or immodesty, "envy, pride, foolishness," or levity. Not merely is the heart thus polluted, "but the lusts of men war in their members." The eyes, the ears, the

Tit. iii. 3. Ps. liii. 2. Matt. xv. 19. Mark, vii. 22.

Is. i. 5, 6.
Jam. iv. 1.

Jer. xvii. 9. Ecc. ix. 3.

FALLEN AND SINFUL STATE.

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hands, the feet, the lips, are all defiled by different sins; and the tongue, that member which was formed peculiarly for its Creator's praise, "is now a world of iniquity; and is set on fire of hell." Man is elsewhere represented as born in that state which is called flesh; a name applied to this corruption of our nature. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh" And "the works of the flesh," says an inspired apostle, "are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Such is man when the corruptions of his nature have opportunity for appearing; and has he any deeds of righteousness to counterbalance this exceeding sinfulness? O, let the evangelical prophet answer : "We are ALL as an unclean thing; and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." So far are our best actions, in our natural state, from helping, that even they are polluted and loathsome; and sin, like a whirlwind unopposed, sweeps us on to perdition.

§ 5. But I foresee an objection, which some may make to parts of this statement.

Perhaps you, my young friend, exclaim, “I have not committed many of the sins here named." Perhaps not. I am here showing you your own lost condition, by referring you to those sad fruits which your depraved heart, unless by one means or other prevented, would produce; and which in millions of cases have Jam. iii. 6. John, iii. 6. Gal. v. 19, 21. Is. Ixiv. 6.