"moft falacious brutes, in heightening and pam "pering of their lufts! and though they are loth"fome, and come to fhame, yet fhall they be too "impudent, to be afhamed? O thou that camest to "feek and to fave that which was loft, wilt thou, "in thy abundant mercy, Lord, look after the loft "creatures; who, elfe, are too far gone, ever to "look after thee? O that they may remember "from whence they are fallen, and repent, and re"turn, even for fhame of the world, and for fear "of thy wrath, before their fire of luft be over"taken with the fire of hell, and they not only be "loft in this world but for ever.

O may the pre"fent evil world come better to reflect, and confi"der the dreadful overthrow of filthy Sodom, "made an enfample to thofe that should after live "fo ungodly, and hear, and fear, and do more fo wickedly. Help us, Lord, to flee fornication, ❝even as damnation; and let it not be fo much "as named among us (as becomes Chriftians) unlefs to be ftigmatized, and abominated, by all, Amen."

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evermore.

THA

MEDITATION LXI.

Of original corruption.

HAT our very nature is tainted and infected; and we come defiled and finful into the world, is the known doctrine of our church, in hơmilies, articles, catechifm, and office of baptism. Nor does the church herein impofe, any more than the Word of God obliges us to believe," that we 66 were

were shapen in iniquity, and conceived in fin," Pfal. li. 5. By nature dead in fin, and the children "of wrath," Eph. ii. 1, 3. And if David so pleaded guilty, and St. Paul after the fame manner impeached himself and his brethren in Chrift, O my foul, how can I reckon myself clear? and "who can

bring a clean thing out of the unclean?" Job xiv. 4. When" by one man's difobedience, many were "made finners; yea, by the offence of one, judg"ment came upon all men, to condemnation,' Rom. v. 16, 19. Though I know what cavilling, and railing too, there is, at the doctrine; and many ufe the wit of their brains to frame arguments, and also fhew the edge of their teeth to make invectives against it; as the dog would gnaw afunder the cord, that ties him up; fo are Pelagians and Socinians hard at work, to force themselves from under the uneafy confinement. And hideous outcries do they make, not only of flandering human nature, but of blafpheming the divine. They refent it, as too great a difparagement, to be thought fo corrupt and bad; and would be taken for innocent, even from the beginning; and all still to have been well with them: as if they had not been born of women; but efcaped the common fall and shipwreck of mankind. As Adam was for covering his tranfgreffion fo are his children ftill for fewing together the fig-leaves, to cover their nakedness. And if they will at all own any fores of nature; yet they are for fkinning them over, and healing very flightly, without ever fearching to the bottom; and conftrue the degeneracy of their nature, as rather an apology for them, than any indictment against them.

But, no wonder they fo blunder at things revealed, who are more determined by the writings of philofophers, than by what is afferted in the Holy Scriptures: when flesh and blood has not revealed

it, they will not endure it. And if they but call it against reafon; then they think enough is faid, to throw it quite out of doors, that no man of sense may any more defend fuch an abfurdity.

But fhall I, my foul, withftand God's revelation, because of man's objection? muft I renounce the revealed verity, because fome will load it with abfurdity? I know not what article of faith then I fhall ever hold faft. But when it is fuch a truth, as I do not only hear, but feel; and it comes home to my own very sense and experience: fhall any fophiftical reafonings wrangle me out of it; what though I cannot refolve the queftion (èber Tò xaxor) whence the evil was derived: whether from the foul formed in the body; or lighted as a candle from the fouls of the parents: when the thing itself is evident, fhall I deny it, because I cannot account how it came to pafs? if I fee the house on fire, I am fure there was a caufe: though that light may not fhew me how it began. And whatever any talk of (the rafa tabula) an indifferency by nature, to virtue or vice: never could I find any fuch thing; but all men inclined the wrong way: and abundance of work, by difcipline, and the grace of God, to make any one better than the reft. Such an ill foil is the nature of man, running him all to naught and without a difpofition to bear any good; which, with very much ado, and even against the native genius (if at all) it comes there to prevail and flourish. I fee the fad profpect of fuch ruins; as tell me too plain, from whence I am fallen. Though I can fcarce tell what I was, by what I now am; any more than I can judge of rich wine, by the vinegar into which it is degenerated; yet may I find the reafon in myfelf, why I cannot find out the whole of this matter; becaufe, alas, my intellectuals are fo maimed, that I can hardly judge aright of other things, more open that

"

lie before me. Though I know, all that God made was very good; and man upright and holy, after his own bleffed image; yet how foon after, did he fee the wickednefs of man fo great on the earth, that every imagination of the thought of his "heart was only evil continually?" Gen. vi. 5, 6. Our first parents that fell, and lost themselves, by abufing the freedom which God gave them; they did not only represent, but they were, all mankind; which is but ftill the fame Adam, grown bigger. And their fin was not only imputed to us; but it is inherent in us: and we are finners, coming out of the loins of finners. For O what better can fuch produce, but their like? that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Streams can be no purer than the fountain. Even children of believers, though holy, with a federal fanctity, to give them a title to baptifm; yet are they fo morally unclean, as to need that purgation. And none here escapes, that is naturally defcended of Adam's offspring; no, God will not alter his purpose, nor ftop the wheel of nature, that mankind fhould not be propagated in the fame way which at first he appointed: though the fin of man coming between, has rendered that propagation finful, and to condemnation.

not one.

Let me not then here, my foul, think to vindicate, and excufe myself, because I did not actually fin in Adam: when, alas, I make myself an acceffory and party, in carrying on the apoftacy and rebellion, and doing even the fame things. To what purpose, to cry, I could not help it? when I go on to do juft like it? and ftill do bear about me, the old man, the law in my members, the indwelling fin, the evil treasure of the heart, the body of this death, the root of bitterness, the fink of fin, the very fountain of all filthiness; to pollute all that comes from me: and when I have all fin, radically

in my nature; and even as much defire to fin, as to quench my thirst. And what is fo with my inclination, is not without my confent neither; but my will is falfe and perverfe, as well as my mind dark and vain, my heart dull and hard, my confcience ftupid, my paffions mutinous, my affections brutish, and all out of frame; all disorderly, and to pieces, in my foul. I have not only fuftained the lofs of my primitive good, and that image of God, after which he created me, in righteoufnefs, and true holiness, but have contracted such an incurvation to the earth, and fo ftrong a bias to evil, as makes me averfe to God, and not only impotent to good, but rather to withstand, than chufe, what is beft for me. And does this now make the matter ever the better, but rather ftill the worse with me, that the bent of my nature carries me away from God; and 1 find in me fuch a contrariety to his holy law, yea, even in my heart, an antipathy to what is holy, and the mighty propenfity to things hateful in his fight? for no better, alas, is it with me naturally; and then, be fure, this is none of God's work. No, the guilt is found upon me, and lies at my door. O let me not then charge God foolishly, as well as wickedly: for he will be juftified, when he speaks, and clear when he judges. And though taking us, as he finds us, he might cut off the whole traiterous generation, for that guilt which makes us liable to his wrath and damnation; (as we would not stick to destroy a whole neft of ferpents) yet does he not proceed to that extremity, but in judgment fo remembers mercy, that he has made the remedy even as wide as the malady, and the falvation common, as well as the corruption; that, as in Adam all die, fo in Chrift, all fhould be made alive.

But yet, my foul, let me never make light of the evil of evils; nor offer to defend myself in that

garrifon,