Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

12? Why it is to be fptciiUy noticed. State II.
but this doth at once deface the whole. A difeafe af-
fetStiii" any particular member of the bodv is ill j but
that which atfe£ts the whole is worf;. The comip-
tion of nature is the poilon of the old ferp- nt, cafi: into
the fountain of action : and fo infedts every action,
every breathing of the foul.
r. It is the caufe of ail particular lulls, and a£tual
fins, in our hearts and lives. It is the fpawn which
the great Leviathan has left in the fouls of men; from
whence comes all the fry of actual fins and abomina¬
tions. Mark vii. 21. Out of the heart of men pro. rei
evil thoughts, adulteries, iac. It is the bitter fountain:
particular lulls are but rivulets running from it, which i
bring forth into the life, a part only, an 1 not the whole
of whnt is within. Now the fount’.in is Itill above the
dreams: fo where the water is good, it is belt in the
fountain ; where it is ill, it is word there. The cor¬
ruption of nature being that which defiles all, itfeff
muft needs be the abominable thing.
3. It is virtually all fin : for it is the feed of all fins,
which want but the occafion to fet up their heads:
being in the corruption of nature, as the effect in the
virtue of its caufe. Hence it is called a body of death,
Rom. vii. 24. as confiding of the feverai members, be¬
longing fo fuch a body of Jins, Col. ii, 11. whofe life
lies in fpiritual death, it is the curled ground, fit to--
bring forth ail manner of noxious weeds. As the whole *
neft of venomous creatures mult needs be more dread¬
ful, than any few of them that come creeping forth ;
fo the fin of thy 11 iture, that mother of abominations,
mult be worfe than any particular luds, that appear ij'
ftirring in thy heart and life. Never did every fin ap- |
pear in the convcrfation of the vileft wretch that ever
lived; but look thou into thy corrupt nature, and there
thou mayeft fee all and every fin in the feed and root
thereof. There is a fulnefs of all unrighteoufnefs
there, Rom. i. 29 There is atheifm, idolatry, blaf-
phemy, murder, adultery, and whatfoever is vile Pof-
fibly none of thefe appear to thee in thy heart: but
there is more in that unfathomable depth of wickecL
uefs.