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

13% Sin of Nature fpcciallynoticed.Stztell.
II. I’ll lay before you a lew Things, in which yc
fhould have a fpecial Eye to the Sin of your Na¬
ture. (i.) Have a fpecial Eye to it, in your Appli¬
cation to Jefus Cbrift. Do you find any Need of
Chrift, which fends you to him as the Phyfician of
Souls ? O forget not this Difeafe, when ye’re with
the Phyfician. They never yet knew well their Er¬
rand to Chrift, that went not to him, for the Sin of
their Nature ; for his Blood to take away the Guilt
of it, and his Spirit to break the Power of it. Tho’,
in the Bitternefs of your Souls, yc Ihould lay before
him a Catalogue of your Sins of Omillion and Corn-
million, which might reach from Earth to Heaven ;
yet if the Sin of your Nature were wanting in it,
allure your felves, you have forgot the beft Part of
the Errand, a poor Sinner has, to the Phyfician of
Souls. What wou’d it have avail’d the People of
Jericho, to have fet before Elijha, all the Vellels in
their City, full of the iVater that was naught; if
they had not led him forth to the Spring, to call in
the Salt there ? 2 Kings ii. 19, 20, 21. The Appli¬
cation is eafy. (2.) Have a fpecial Eye to it, in
your Repentance, whether Initial or ProgreJJiw -, in
your firft Repentance, and in the renewing of your
Repentance afterwards. Tho’ a Man be fick, there’s
no fear of Death, if the Sicknefs ftrike not to his
Heart: And there’s as little Fear of the Death of
Sin, as long as the Sin of our Nature is not touch’d.
But if ye wou’d repent indeed, let the Streams lead
you up to the Fountain; and mourn over your cor¬
rupt Nature, as the Caufe of all Sin, in Heart, Lip,
and Life, Pfal. li. 4, 5. Againft thee, thee only have
I finned, and done this Eojil in thy Sight. Be¬
hold, I was Jhapen in Iniquity, and in Sin did my
Mother conceive me. (3.) Have a fpecial Eye upon
it,