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45 - Original Sin - Sermons on Several Occasions · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Original sin, and God saw that the wickedness of man
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  Speaker 1: was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
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  Speaker 1: the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Genesis
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  Speaker 1: six five. How widely different is this from the fair
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  Speaker 1: pictures of human nature which men have drawn in all ages.
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  Speaker 1: The writings of many of the ancients abound with gay
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  Speaker 1: descriptions of the dignity of man, whom some of them
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  Speaker 1: paint as having all virtue and happiness in his composition,
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  Speaker 1: or at least entirely in his power, without being beholden
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  Speaker 1: to any other being, yea as self sufficient, able to
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  Speaker 1: live on his own stock, and little inferior to God himself.
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  Speaker 1: Nor have heathens alone men who are guided in their
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  Speaker 1: researches by little more than the dim light of reason.
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  Speaker 1: But many likewise of them that bear the name of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and to whom are entrusted, the oracles of God spoken
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  Speaker 1: as magnificently concerning the nature of man, as if it
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  Speaker 1: were all innocence and perfection. Accounts of this kind have
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  Speaker 1: particularly abounded in the present century, and perhaps in no
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  Speaker 1: part of the world more than in our own country.
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  Speaker 1: Here not a few persons of strong understanding, as well
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  Speaker 1: as extensive learning, have employed their utmost abilities to show
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  Speaker 1: what they termed the fair side of human nature. And
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  Speaker 1: it must he acknowledged that, if their accounts of Him
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  Speaker 1: be just, man is still but a little lower than
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  Speaker 1: the angels, or, as the words may be more literally rendered,
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  Speaker 1: a little less than God. Is it any wonder that
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  Speaker 1: these accounts are very readily received by the generality of men?
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  Speaker 1: For who is not easily persuaded to think favorably of himself? Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: writers of this kind are most universally read, admired, applauded.
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  Speaker 1: And innumerable are the converts they have made, not only
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  Speaker 1: in the gay but the learned world, so that it
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  Speaker 1: is now quite unfashionable to talk otherwise, to say anything
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  Speaker 1: to the disparagement of human nature, which is generally allowed,
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding a few infirmities, to be very innocent and wise
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  Speaker 1: and virtuous. But in the meantime, what must we do
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  Speaker 1: with our Bibles? For they will never agree with this.
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  Speaker 1: These accounts, however, pleasing to flesh and blood, are utterly
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  Speaker 1: irreconcilable with the scriptural. The scriptural a errs that quote,
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  Speaker 1: by one man's disobedience, all men were constituted sinners. That
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  Speaker 1: quote in Adam, all died, spiritually, died, lost the life
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  Speaker 1: in the image of God, that fallen sinful Adam then
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  Speaker 1: quote begat a son in his own likeness, nor was
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  Speaker 1: it possible he should beget him in any other For
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  Speaker 1: quote who can bring a clean thing out of an
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  Speaker 1: unclean That consequently, we, as well as other men, were
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  Speaker 1: by nature quote dead in trespasses and sins. Quote without hope,
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  Speaker 1: without God in the world, and therefore quote children of wrath,
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  Speaker 1: that every man may say, quote I was shapen in
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  Speaker 1: wickedness and in sin. Did my mother conceive me that
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  Speaker 1: quote there is no difference in that all have sinned
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  Speaker 1: and come short of the glory of God, of that
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  Speaker 1: glorious image of God wherein man was originally created. And hence,
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  Speaker 1: when quote the Lord looked down from heaven upon the
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  Speaker 1: children of men, he saw that they were all gone
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  Speaker 1: out of the way, They were altogether become abominable. There
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  Speaker 1: was none righteous, not one, none that truly sought after
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  Speaker 1: God just agreeable to this, to what is declared by
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost in the words above recited. Quote God
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  Speaker 1: saw when he looked down from heaven before quote that
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  Speaker 1: the wickedness of man was great in the earth, so
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  Speaker 1: great that quote, every imagination of the thoughts of his
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  Speaker 1: heart was only evil continually. This is God's account of man,
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  Speaker 1: from which I shall take occasion, first to show what
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  Speaker 1: men were before the flood, secondly to inquire whether they
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  Speaker 1: are not the same now, and thirdly to add some inferences.
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  Speaker 1: I am first by opening the words of the text,
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  Speaker 1: to show what men were before the flood, and we
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  Speaker 1: may fully depend on the account we are given, for
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  Speaker 1: God saw it when he cannot be deceived. He quote
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  Speaker 1: saw that the wickedness of man was great, not of
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  Speaker 1: this or of that man, not of a few men, only,
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  Speaker 1: not barely of the greater part, but of man in general,
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  Speaker 1: of men universally. The word includes the whole human race,
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  Speaker 1: every partaker of human nature, and it is not easy
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  Speaker 1: for us to compute their numbers to tell how many,
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  Speaker 1: thousand and millions they were. The earth then retained much
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  Speaker 1: of its primeval beauty and original fruitfulness. The face of
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  Speaker 1: the globe was not rent and torn as it is now,
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  Speaker 1: and spring and summer went hand in hand. It is
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  Speaker 1: therefore probable it afforded sustenance for far more inhabitants than
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  Speaker 1: it is now. Capable of sustaining, and these must be
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  Speaker 1: immensely multiplied. While men begat sons and daughters for seven
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  Speaker 1: or eight hundred years together. Yet among all this inconceivable number,
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  Speaker 1: only quote Noah found favor with God. He alone, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: including part of his household, was an exception from the
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  Speaker 1: universal wickedness, which, by the just judgment of God in
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  Speaker 1: a short time after, brought on universal destruction. All the
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  Speaker 1: rest were partakers in the same guilt, as they were
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  Speaker 1: in the same punishment. Quote. God saw all the imaginations
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  Speaker 1: of the thoughts of his heart, of his soul, his
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  Speaker 1: inward man, the spirit within him, the principle of all
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  Speaker 1: his inward and outward motions. He quote saw all the imaginations.
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  Speaker 1: It is not possible to find a word of a
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  Speaker 1: more extensive signification. It includes whatever is formed, made fabricated within,
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  Speaker 1: all that is or passes in the soul, every inclination, affection, passion, appetite,
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  Speaker 1: every temper design thought. It must, of consequence, include every
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  Speaker 1: word and action as naturally flowing from these fountains, and
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  Speaker 1: being either good or evil, according to the fountain from
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  Speaker 1: which they severally flow. Now God saw all this, The
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  Speaker 1: whole thereof was evil. Contrary to moral rectitude, contrary to
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  Speaker 1: the nature of God, which necessarily includes all good, contrary
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  Speaker 1: to the divine will, the eternal standard of good and evil,
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  Speaker 1: contrary to the pure holy image of God. Wherein man
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  Speaker 1: was originally created and wherein he stood. When God, surveying
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  Speaker 1: the works of his hands, saw them all to be
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  Speaker 1: very good, contrary to justice, mercy, and truth, and to
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  Speaker 1: the essential relations which each man bore to his creator
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  Speaker 1: and fellow creatures. But was there not good mingled with evil?
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  Speaker 1: Was there not light intermixed with darkness? No, none at all. Quote.
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  Speaker 1: God saw that the whole imagination of the heart of
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  Speaker 1: man was only evil. It cannot indeed be denied. But
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  Speaker 1: many of them, perhaps all had good motions put into
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  Speaker 1: their hearts. For the spirit of God. Then did also
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  Speaker 1: quote strive with man, if haply he might repent more,
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  Speaker 1: especially during that gracious reprieve the hundred and twenty years,
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  Speaker 1: while the ark was preparing. But still quote in his
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  Speaker 1: flesh dwelt no good thing. All his nature was purely evil.
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  Speaker 1: It was wholly consistent with itself and unmixed with anything
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  Speaker 1: of an opposite nature. However, it may still be matter
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  Speaker 1: of inquiry. Quote was there no intermission of this evil?
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  Speaker 1: Were there no lucid intervals wherein something good might be
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  Speaker 1: found in the heart of man. We are not here
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  Speaker 1: to consider what the grace of God might occasion work
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  Speaker 1: in his soul, And abstracted from this we have no
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  Speaker 1: reason to believe there was any intermission of that evil.
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  Speaker 1: For God, who quote saw the whole imagination of the
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of his heart to be only evil, saw likewise
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  Speaker 1: that it was always the same that it quote was
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  Speaker 1: only evil, continually, every year, every day, every hour, every moment,
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  Speaker 1: He never deviated into good. Such is the authentic account
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  Speaker 1: of the whole race of mankind, which he who knoweth
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  Speaker 1: what is in a man who searcheth the heart and
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  Speaker 1: trieth the reins, have left upon record for our instruction.
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  Speaker 1: So were all men before God before the flood upon
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  Speaker 1: the earth. We are secondly to inquire whether they are
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  Speaker 1: the same now. And this is certain, the scripture gives
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  Speaker 1: us no reason to think any otherwise of them. On
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, all the above sighted passages of scripture refer
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  Speaker 1: to those who lived after the flood. It was above
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  Speaker 1: a thousand years after that God declared by David concerning
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  Speaker 1: the children of men. Quote, they are all gone out
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  Speaker 1: of the way of truth and holiness. Quote there is
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  Speaker 1: none righteous, not one. And to this bear all the
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  Speaker 1: prophets witness in their several generations. So Isaiah concerning God's
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  Speaker 1: peculiar people, and certainly the Heathens were in no better. Quote.
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  Speaker 1: The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint
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  Speaker 1: from the soul of the foot. Even and too the
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  Speaker 1: head there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and
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  Speaker 1: putrefying sores. The same account is given by all the apostles, yea,
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  Speaker 1: by the whole tenor of the oracles of God. For
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  Speaker 1: all these we learn concerning man in his natural state,
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  Speaker 1: unassisted by the grace of God, that quote, every imagination
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  Speaker 1: of the thoughts of his heart is still quote evil,
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  Speaker 1: only evil, and that quote continually. And this account of
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  Speaker 1: the present state of man is confirmed by daily experience.
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  Speaker 1: It is true the natural man discerns it not. And
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  Speaker 1: this is not to be wondered at. So long as
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  Speaker 1: a man born blind continues, so he is scarcely sensible
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  Speaker 1: of his want. Much less could we suppose a place
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  Speaker 1: where all were born without sight, would they be sensible
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  Speaker 1: of the want of it? In like manner. So long
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  Speaker 1: as men remain in their natural blindness of understanding, they
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  Speaker 1: are not sensible of their spiritual wants, and of this
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  Speaker 1: in particular. But as soon as God opens the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of their understanding, they see the state they were in before.
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  Speaker 1: They are then deeply convinced that quote every man living
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  Speaker 1: themselves especially are by nature quote altogether vanity, that is,
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  Speaker 1: folly and ignorance, sin and wickedness. We see when God
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  Speaker 1: opens our eyes that we were before. We were before
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  Speaker 1: Athio and Thoi COSMOI without God, or rather atheists in
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  Speaker 1: the world, we had by nature no knowledge of God,
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  Speaker 1: no acquaintance with him. It is true, as soon as
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  Speaker 1: we came to the use of reason we learned the
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  Speaker 1: invisible things of God, even his eternal power and Godhead,
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  Speaker 1: from the things that are made, from the things that
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  Speaker 1: are seen, we inferred the existence of an eternal, powerful
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  Speaker 1: being that is not seen. But still, although we acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: his being, we had no acquaintance with him. As we know,
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  Speaker 1: there is an Emperor of China whom we do not know.
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  Speaker 1: So we knew there was a King of all the earth,
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  Speaker 1: yet we knew him not. Indeed, we could not by
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  Speaker 1: any of our natural faculties. By none of these could
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  Speaker 1: we attain the knowledge of God. We could no more
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  Speaker 1: perceive him by our natural understanding than we could see
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  Speaker 1: him with our eyes. For no one knoweth the Father
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  Speaker 1: but the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth
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  Speaker 1: to reveal him. And no one knoweth the Son but
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  Speaker 1: the Father, and he to whom the Father revealeth him.
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  Speaker 1: We read of an ancient king, who, being desirous to
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  Speaker 1: know what was the natural language of men, in order
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  Speaker 1: to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the
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  Speaker 1: following experiment. He ordered two infants, as soon as they
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  Speaker 1: were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them,
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  Speaker 1: where they were brought up without any instruction at all,
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  Speaker 1: and without ever hearing a human voice. And what was
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  Speaker 1: the event? Why that, when they were at length brought
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  Speaker 1: out of their confinement, they spoke no language at all.
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  Speaker 1: They uttered only inarticulate sounds like those of other animals.
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  Speaker 1: Were two infants in like manner to be brought up
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  Speaker 1: from the womb without being instructed in religion? There is
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  Speaker 1: little room to doubt. But unless the grace of God interposed,
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  Speaker 1: the event would be just the same. They would have
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  Speaker 1: no religion at all, they would have no more knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of God than the beasts of the field than the
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  Speaker 1: wild ass colt. Such is natural religion, abstracted from traditional
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  Speaker 1: and from the influences of God's spirit, and having no knowledge,
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  Speaker 1: we can have no love of God. We cannot love Him.
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  Speaker 1: We know not. Most men talk, indeed of loving God,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps imagine they do. At least few will acknowledge
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  Speaker 1: they do not love Him. But the fact is too
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  Speaker 1: plain to be denied. No man loves God by nature
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  Speaker 1: any more than he does a stone or the earth.
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  Speaker 1: He treads upon what we love we delight in. But
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  Speaker 1: no man has naturally any delight in God. In our
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  Speaker 1: natural state, we cannot conceive how any one should delight
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  Speaker 1: in him Him. We take no pleasure in Him at all.
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  Speaker 1: He is utterly tasteless to us. To love God. It
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  Speaker 1: is far above out of our sight. We cannot naturally
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  Speaker 1: attain unto it. We have by nature not only no love,
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  Speaker 1: but no fear of God. It is allowed, indeed, that
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  Speaker 1: most men have sooner or later a kind of senseless,
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  Speaker 1: irrational fear, properly called superstition. Though the blundering Epicureans gave
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  Speaker 1: it the name of religion. Yet even this is not natural,
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  Speaker 1: but acquired chiefly by conversation or from example. By nature.
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  Speaker 1: God is not in all our thoughts. We leave him
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  Speaker 1: to manage his own affairs, to sit quietly, as we
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  Speaker 1: imagine in heaven, and leave us on earth to manage ours,
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  Speaker 1: so that we have no more of the fear of
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  Speaker 1: God before our eyes than the love of God in
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  Speaker 1: our hearts. Thus our all men quote atheists in the world.
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  Speaker 1: But atheism itself does not screen us from idolatry. In
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  Speaker 1: this natural state, every man born into the world is
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  Speaker 1: a rank idolater. Perhaps indeed, we may not be such
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  Speaker 1: in the vulgar sense of the word. We do know,
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  Speaker 1: like the idolatrous heathens worship molten or graven images. We
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  Speaker 1: do not bow down to the stock of a tree,
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  Speaker 1: to the work of our own hands. We do not
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  Speaker 1: pray to the angels or saints in heaven any more
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  Speaker 1: than to the saints that are upon the earth. But
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  Speaker 1: what then, we have set up our idols in our hearts,
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  Speaker 1: and to these we bow down and worship them. We
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  Speaker 1: worship ourselves when we pay that honor to ourselves, which
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  Speaker 1: is due to God only. Therefore, all pride is idolatry.
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  Speaker 1: It is ascribing to ourselves what is due to God alone. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: pride was not made for man. Yet where is the
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  Speaker 1: man that is born without it? But hereby we rob
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  Speaker 1: God of his unalienable right, and idolatrously usurp his glory.
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  Speaker 1: But pride is not the only sort of idolatry, which
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  Speaker 1: we are all by nature guilty. Kau Satan has stamp
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  Speaker 1: tis quote on image in our heart in self will
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  Speaker 1: also quote I will, said he before he was cast
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  Speaker 1: out of heaven. I will sit upon the sides of
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  Speaker 1: the north. I will do my own will and pleasure
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  Speaker 1: independently on that of my creator. The same does every
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  Speaker 1: man born into the world say, and that in a
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  Speaker 1: thousand instances nay, and avow it too, without ever blushing
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  Speaker 1: upon the account, without either fear or shame, asked the man,
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  Speaker 1: why did you do this? He answered, because I had
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  Speaker 1: a mind too. What is this but quote? Because it
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  Speaker 1: was my will that is in effect, because the devil
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  Speaker 1: and I agreed, Because Satan and I govern our actions
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  Speaker 1: by one and the same principle. The will of God, meantime,
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  Speaker 1: is not in his thoughts, is not considered in the
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  Speaker 1: least degree, although it be the supreme rule of every
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  Speaker 1: intelligent creature, whether in heaven or earth, resulting from the essential,
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  Speaker 1: unalterable relation which all creature bear to their creator. So
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  Speaker 1: far we bear the image of the devil and tread
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  Speaker 1: in his steps, But at the next step we leave
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  Speaker 1: Satan behind, we run into an idolatry, whereof he is
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  Speaker 1: not guilty. I mean love of the world, which is
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  Speaker 1: now as natural to every man as to love his
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  Speaker 1: own will. What is more natural to us than to
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  Speaker 1: seek happiness in the creature instead of the creator, to
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  Speaker 1: seek that satisfaction in the works of his hands, which
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  Speaker 1: can be found in God only. What more natural than
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  Speaker 1: quote the desire of the flesh, that is the pleasure
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  Speaker 1: of sense in every kind. Men indeed talk magnificently of
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  Speaker 1: despising these low pleasures, particularly men of learning and education.
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  Speaker 1: They affect to sit loose to the gratification of these appetites,
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  Speaker 1: wherein they stand on a level with the beasts that perish.
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  Speaker 1: But it is mere affectation, for every man is conscious
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  Speaker 1: to himself that in this respect he is by nature
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  Speaker 1: a very beast. Sensual appetites, even those of the lowest kind,
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  Speaker 1: have more or less the dominion over him. They lead
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  Speaker 1: him captive, they drag him to and fro in spite
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  Speaker 1: of his boasted reason. The man, with all his good
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  Speaker 1: breeding and other accomplishments, has no pre eminence over the goat. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: it is much to be doubted whether the beast has
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  Speaker 1: not the pre eminence over him he has. If we
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  Speaker 1: may hearken to one of their modern oracles, who very
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  Speaker 1: decently tells us once in a season, beast too taste
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  Speaker 1: of love. Only the beast of reason is its slave,
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  Speaker 1: and in that folly drudges all the year. A considerable difference. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it must be allowed there is between man and man,
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  Speaker 1: arising beside that wrought by preventing grace from difference of
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  Speaker 1: constitution and of education. But notwithstanding this, who that is
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  Speaker 1: not utterly ignorant of himself can here cast the first
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  Speaker 1: stone at another? Who can abide the test of our
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: blessed lords? Comment on the seventh commandment quote, he that
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  Speaker 1: looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
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  Speaker 1: adultery with her already in his heart. So that one
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  Speaker 1: knows not which to wonder, at most, the ignorance or
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  Speaker 1: the inn insolence of those men who speak with such
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  Speaker 1: disdain of them, that are overcome by desires which every
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: man has felt in his own breast, the desire of
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  Speaker 1: every pleasure of sense, innocent or not, being natural to
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  Speaker 1: every child of man, and so the desire of the eye,
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  Speaker 1: the desire of the pleasures of the imagination. These arise
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  Speaker 1: either from great or beautiful or uncommon objects, if the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: two former do not coincide with the latter. For perhaps
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: it would appear upon a diligent inquiry that neither grand
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: nor beautiful objects please any longer than they are new,
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  Speaker 1: that when the novelty of them is over, the greatest
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  Speaker 1: part at least of the pleasure they give is over.
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  Speaker 1: And in the same proportion, as they become familiar, they
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  Speaker 1: become flat and insipid. But let us experience this ever
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  Speaker 1: so often, the same desire will remain still The inbringk
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  Speaker 1: at thirst continues fixed in the soul. Nay, the more
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  Speaker 1: it is indulged, the more it increases and incites us
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  Speaker 1: to follow after another and yet another object. Although we
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  Speaker 1: leave everyone with an abortive hope and a deluded expectation,
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  Speaker 1: yea the hoary fool who many days has struggled with
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  Speaker 1: continued sorrow, renews his hope and fondly lays the desperate
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  Speaker 1: bet upon tomorrow. Tomorrow comes tis noon, tis night, this day,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: like all the former, flies, Yet on he goes to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: seek delight tomorrow till to night he dies, a third
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: symptom of this fatal disease. The love of the world,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: which is so deeply rooted in our nature, is the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: pride of life, the desire of praise, of the honor
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: that cometh the men this, the greatest admirers of human nature,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: allow to be strictly natural, as natural as the sight,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: or hearing, or any other of the external senses. Are
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: they ashamed of it? Even men of letters, men of
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: refined and improved understanding, so far from it that they
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: glory therein they applaud themselves for their love of applause.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Yea eminent Christians so called, make no difficulty of adopting
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the saying of the old vain heathen animi dissolutai aeste
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: e naquiam negmigeri qui de semina setiante. Not to regard
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: what men think of us is the mark of a
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: wicked and abandoned mind. So that to go calm and
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: unmoved through honor and dishonor through evil report and good
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: report is with them a sign that is indeed not
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: fit to live. Quote away with such a flow from
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the earth. But would one imagine that these men ever
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: heard of Jesus Christ or his apostles, or that they
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: knew who it was that said quote? How can ye
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: believe who receive honor of one another and seek not
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the honor which cometh of God only? But if this
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: is really so, if it be impossible to believe and
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: consequently to please God, so long as we receive or
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: seek honor of one another and seek not the honor
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: which comes from God only, then in what a condition
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: are all mankind, the Christian as well as heathens, Since
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: they all seek honor of one another, Since it is
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: natural for them to do themselves, being the judges, as
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: it seems, to see the light which strikes upon their eye,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: or to hear the sound which enters their ear. Yea,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: since they accounted a sign of a virtuous mind to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: seek the praise of men, and of a vicious one
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to be content with the honor that cometh of God only,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I proceed to draw a few inferences from what has
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: been said, and first from hence we may learn one
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: grand fundamental difference between Christianity considered as a system of doctrines,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and the most refined Heathenism. Many of the ancient Heathens
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: have largely described the vices of particular men. They have
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: spoken much against their covetousness or cruelty, their luxury or prodigality.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Some have dared to say that quote, no man is
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: born without vices of one kind or another. But still,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: as none of them were apprized of the fall of man,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: so none of them knew of his total corruption. They
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: knew not that all men were empty of all good
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and filled with all manner of evil. They are wholly
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: ignorant of the entire deprivation of the whole human nature
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of every man born into the world, in every faculty
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of his soul, not so much by those particular vices
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: which reign in particular persons, as by the general flood
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of atheism and idolatry of pride, self will, and love
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of the world. This, therefore is the first grand distinguishing
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: point between Heathenism and Christianity, the one acknowledges that many
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: men are infected with many vices, and even born with
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: a proneness to them, but supposes withal that in sum
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the natural good much overbalances the evil. The other declares
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: that all men are conceived in sin, and quote shapen
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: in wickedness, And hence there is in every man quote
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: a carnal mind which is enmity against God, which is
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: not cannot be subject to His law, and which so
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: infects the whole soul that quote there dwelleth in him,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: in his flesh, in his natural state, quote no good thing,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: but quote every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: is evil, only evil, And that continue. Hence we may
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: secondly learn that all who deny this, call it original sin,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: or by any other title, are put heathen. Still in
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: the fundamental point which differences Heathenism from Christianity, they may
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: indeed allow that men have many vices, that some are
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: born with us, and that consequently we are not born
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: altogether so wise or so virtuous as we should be.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: There being few that will roundly affirm, quote, we are
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: born with as much propensity to good as to evil,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and that every man is by nature as virtuous and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: wise as Adam was at his creation. But here the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: schivaluth is man by nature filled with all manner of evil?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Is he void of all good? Is he wholly fallen?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Is his soul totally corrupted? Or to come back to
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the text, quote, is every imagination of the thoughts of
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: his heart only evil? Continually this, and you are so
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: far a Christian. Deny it, and you are but a heathen.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Still we may learn from hence in the third place,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: what is the proper nature of religion, of the religion
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. It is therapia psyche's God's method of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: healing a soul which is thus diseased. Hereby the great
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: physician of souls applies medicines to heal this sickness, to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: restore human nature totally corrupted in all its faculties. God
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: heals all our atheism by the knowledge of Himself and
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, by giving us
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: faith a divine evidence and conviction of God and of
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the things of God. In particular of this important truth quote,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Christ loved me and gave himself for me by the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: repentance and lowliness of heart. The deadly disease of pride
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is healed that of self will by resignation, a meek
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and thankful submission to the will of God, and for
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the love of the world in all its branches. The
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: love of God is the sovereign remedy. Now this is
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: properly religion, faith thus working by love, working the genuine,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: meek humility, entire deadness to the world, with a loving,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: thankful acquiescence in and conformity to the whole will and
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: word of God. Indeed, if man were not fallen, there
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: would be no need of all this, There would be
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: no occasion for this work in the heart, this renewal
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: in the spirit of our minds. The superfluity of godliness
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: would then be a more proper expression than the superfluity
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of naughtiness. For an outside religion without any godliness at all,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: would suffice to all rational intents and purposes. It does,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: accordingly suffice to the judgment of those who deny this
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: corruption of our nature. They make very little more of
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: religion than the famous mister Hobbs did of reason. According
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to him, reason is only quote a well ordered train
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: of words. According to them, religion is only a well
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: ordered train of words and actions. And they speak consistently
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: with themselves. For if the inside be not full of wickedness,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: if this be clean, already, what remains but to quote,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: cleanse the outside of the cup outward reformation, if their
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: supposition be just, is indeed the only thing needed. But
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: ye have not so learned the oracles of God. Ye
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: know that he who seeth what is in man gives
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: a far different account, both of nature and grace, of
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: our fall and our recovery. We know that the great
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: end of religion to renew our hearts in the image
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: of God, to repair that total loss of righteousness and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: true holyness which we sustained by the sin of our
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: first parent. We know that all religion which does not
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: answer this end, all that stop short of this, the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: renewal of our soul in the image of God, after
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the likeness of Him that created it, is no other
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: than a poor farce and a mere mockery of God,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: to the destruction of our own soul. Oh, beware of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: all those teachers of lies who would palm this upon you,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: for Christianity, regard them not, although they should come unto
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness, with all the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: smoothness of language, all decency, yea beauty and elegance of expression,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: all professions of earnest goodwill to you, and reverence for
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the holy scriptures. Keep to the plain old faith, once
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: delivered to the saints, and delivered by the Spirit of
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: God to our hearts. Know your disease, know your cure.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: You were born in sin, therefore ye must be born again,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Born of God by nature. Ye are wholly corrupted. By grace,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Ye shall be wholly renewed in Adam. Ye all died
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: in the second atom in Christ, ye are all made
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: of life. Quote you that were dead in sins, hath
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: he quickened. He hath already given you a principle of life,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: even faith in Him who loved you and gave himself
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: for you. Now go on from faith to faith, until
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: your whole sickness be healed, and all that quote mind
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ, end
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: of section forty five.