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45 - Original Sin - Sermons on Several Occasions · Sacred Texts Archive

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