Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head I. is corrupted, proven. % j
"tis recorded of Seth, becaufe he was the Father of
the holy Seed ; and from him all Mankind fmce the
Flood has defcended, and fallen Adam's own Like-
nefs with them.
Secondly, It appears from that Scripture Text,
Job xiv. 4. IVbo can bring a clean Z’hing out of an
unclean ? Not one. Our rirft Parents were unclean,
how: then can we be clean ? How could our imme¬
diate Parents be dean ? Or how (hall our Children
be fo ? The Uncleannefs here aimed at, is a fenful
-Uncleannefs; for ’tis fuch as makes Man’s Days
full of trouble: And ’cis natural, being deriv’d from
unclean Parents; Manisbdrn of a Woman, ver. r.
And how can he be clean that is born of a Woman ?
Job xxv. 4. An Omnipotent God, whofe Power is
not here c.iallenged, could bring a clean Thing out
of an unclean ; and did fo, in the Cafe of the Man
Chrift: But no other can. Every Perfon that is
born, according to the Qourfe of Nature, is bom
Wtkan. If the Root be corrupt, fo muff the Bran¬
ches be. Neither is the Matter mended, tho’ the
Parents be Jantfified ones: For they are but holy in
Part, and that by Grace, not by Nature ■, and they
beget their Children as Men, not as holy Men.
Wherefore, as the circumcifed Parent begets an un-
circumcifed Child, and after the pureft Grain is
Town, we reap Corn with the Chaff; fo the holieft
Parents beget unholy Children, and cannot commu¬
nicate their Grace to them, as they do their Nature;
which many godly Parents find true, in their fad
Experience.
thirdly, Confidcr the Confeffion of the Pfalmift
David, Pfal. li. 5. Behold, I was Jhapen in Iniquity,
find in Sin did my Mother conceive me. Here he af-
cends from his a&iial Sin, to the Fountain of it,
C 3 ' namely.
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