Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

I Head I. The explication of the Text. 41
.1 exceeding various: yet are fhey never cafl jnto a right
1: frame : But is there not, at kail a mixture of good in
f them ? No, they are only evil, there is nothing in theijv
il truly good and acceptable to GoH : nor can any thing be
fc that comes out of that forge •, where not the Spirit of
fj God, but the prince cf the poivcr of the air worketh,
j| Eph. ii 2. Whatever changes may be found in them,
il are onlv from evil to evil : for the imagination of the
1 heart, or frame of thoughts In natural men, is evil con¬
i'! tinuaily, or every day : From the firlb day, to the lad
1 day in this date, they are in midnight darknefs ; there
! is not a glimmering of the light of hoknefs in them; not
ill one holy thought can ever be produced by the unholy
i| heart O what a vile heart is this ! O whar a corrupt
|| nature is this! the tree that always bnngs forth fiuit,
rl but never good fruit, whatever foil it be fet in, what-
ji ever pains be taken on it, mud naturally be an evil tree :
.jlji and what can that heart be, whereof every imagination,
every fet of thoughts, is only evil, and that continually?
1:3 Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, ;nter-
M v/oven with our very natures, has funk into the marrow
|ij of out fouls ; and will never be cured, but by a miracle
1)0 of grace. Now fuch is man’s heart, fueh is his nature,
iu till regenerating grace change it. God that fearcheth
|:J the heart law man’s heart was fo he took .fpecial notice
i of it: atid the faithful and true witnefs cannot rnifbke
!i(i our cafe ; though we ate mod apt to rnidake ouifelves
l in this point, and generally do overlook it.
Beware that there be not a thought in thv wicked
I heart, faying, What is that to us? Let that generation
II whom the text fpeaks, fet to that. For the Lord
I has left the fcafe of that generation on record, to be a
| looking-glafs to all after-generations ; wherein they may.
jj fee their own corruption of heart, and what'their lives
w would be too, if he rtllraincd them not; for as in \nater
j face arfwereth to face, jo the heart of man to man,
! Prov. xxvii. 19. Adam’s fall has framed ail men’s hearts
|i alike in this matter. Hence the apcftle, Rom. iii. 1©.
| proves the corruption of the nature, hearts, and lives of