Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

Head I. is ccrrupteJj fri.vtn- 4$
but it is recorded of Seth, becaufe he was the father of
the holy feed; and from him all mankind fince the flood
has c'.efcfnded, and fallen Adam’s own likenefs with
them..
Secondly, It appears from that feripture text, Job
::iv. 4. Woo can lring a clean thing out of an unclean ?
Not one Our firft parents were unclean, How then can
we be clean ? How could our immediate parents be
clean ? Or, How fhall cur-children be fo r The unclean-
nefs here aimed at, is a fir.ful uncleannefs ; for it is fuch-
as makes man’s days full of trouble : and it is natural,
being derived from unclean parents; Man is bem of a
woniuit, ver. I send hovj can he be clean that is lorn of a.
•acma:: ? Job-xxsv. 4. An omnipotent God, whole power
is not here challenged, could bring a clean thing out of
an unclean and did fo, in the cafe of the man Chrilh;
but no other can. Every perfon that is bom according
to the- coutfe of nature, is born unclean If the root be
corrupt, fo mull the branches be. Neither is the mat¬
ter mended, though the parents be fanefified ones : for
they are but holy in part, and that by grace, not by na¬
ture; and tliey beget their children as men, not as holy
tnen. Wherefore, as the circumcifed parent begets an
uncircumcifcd child, and afrer the pure ft grain is fown,
we reap c-yn with the chaff; fo the holiefl parents beget,
unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to
them, as they do their nature ; which many godly pa¬
rents find true, in their fad experience.
- Thirdly, Confuler the confeifion of the Pfalmift David,
I'falm li 6. Beho'd l voas jhapen in imquity, and in fui
d.d iny mother conceive me. Here he a Ice mis from his
actual fin, to the fountain of it, namely, corrupt natuit.
U r was a man according to God’s own heart ; but from
the beginning it was not fo with him. He was begotten
in lawful marriage ; but when the lump was fltapen in
he womb, it was a finful lump Hence the corrupt km
of nature is called the old-man; being as old as ourfelves,.
cider than grace, even in thofe that are fandrified from
the womb,.
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