ing grace loose the bands of wickedness. Now, since all must be wrong, and nothing can be right, where the Understanding and Will are so corrupt, I shall briefly dispatch what remains, as following of course, on the corruption of those prime faculties of the soul.

The Corruption of the Affections, the Conscience, and the Memory. The body partaker of this Corruption.

III. The Affections are corrupted. The unrenewed man's Affections are wholly disordered and distempered; they are as the unruly horse that either will not receive, or violently runs away with his rider: so man's heart naturally is a mother of abominations, Mark vii. 21. 23. 66 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness," &c. The natural man's Affections are wretchedly misplaced: he is a spiritual monster: his heart is where his feet should be, fixed on the earth; his heels are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on, Acts ix. 5. His face toward hell, his back toward heaven; and therefore God calls him to turn. He loves what he should hate, and hates what he should love: joys in what he ought to mourn for, and mourns for what he should rejoice in: glorieth in his shame, and is ashamed of his glory; abhors what he should desire, and desires what he should abhor, Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15. They hit the point indeed (as Caiaphas did in another case) who cried out on the apostles as men that turned the world up-side-down, Acts xvii. 6, for that is the work the gospel has to do in the world, where sin has put all things so out of order, that heaven lies under, and earth a-top. If the unrenewed man's affections be set on lawful objects, then they are either excessive or defective. Lawful enjoyments of the world have sometimes too little, but mostly too much of them: either they get not their due, or, if they do, it is measure pressed down and running over. Spiritual things have always too little of them. In a word, they are always in, or over; never right, only evil.

Now, here is a three-fold cord against heaven and holiness, not easily broken: a blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly distempered affections. The mind swelled with self-conceit, says, the man should not stoop; the Will opposite to the will of God, says he will not; and the corrupt Affections rising against the Lord, in defence of the corrupt Will, say he shall

not.

Thus the poor creature stands out against God and good

ness, till a day of power come, in which he is made a new

creature.

IV. The Conscience is corrupt and defiled, Tit. i. 15. It is an evil eye, that fills one's conversation with much darkness and confusion, being naturally unable to do its office; till the Lord, by letting in a new light to the soul, awaken the Conscience, it remains sleepy and unactive. Conscience can

never do its work, but according to the light it hath to work by. Wherefore, seeing the natural man cannot spiritually discern spiritual things, (1 Cor. ii. 14,) the Conscience naturally is quite useless in that point; being cast into such a deep, that nothing but a saving illumination from the Lord, can set it on work in that matter. The light of the natural Conscience in good and evil, sin and duty, is very defective; therefore though it may check for grosser sins, yet as to the more subtile workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it descerns them not. Thus Conscience will fly in the face of many, if at any time they be drunk, swear, neglect prayer, or be guilty of any gross sin; who otherwise have a profound peace; though they live in the sin of unbelief, are strangers to spiritual worship, and the life of faith. And natural light being but faint and languishing in many things which it doth reach, Conscience, in that case, shoots like a stich in one's side, which quickly gets off; its incitements to duty, and checks for and struggles against sin, are very remiss, which the natural man easily gets over. But because there is a false light in the dark mind, the natural Conscience following the same, will call evil good, and good evil, Isa. v. 20. And so it is often found like a blind and furious horse, which doth violently run down himself, his rider and all that doth come in his way, John xvi. 2. "Whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God service." When the natural Conscience is awakened by the Spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and roar, and put the whole man in a dreadful consternation, awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait; make the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow; set the eyes a weeping, the tongue a confessing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, though the heart stills goes after them. But yet it is an evil Conscience, which natively leads to despair, and will do it effectually as in Judas's case, unless either lust prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts xxiv. 25, or the blood of Christ prevail over it, sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts, Heb. ix. 14, and x. 23.

LASTLY. Even the Memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good and worthy to be minded, as it makes but slender impression, so that impression easily wears off: the Memory, as a leaking vessel, lets it slip, Heb. ii. 1. As a seive that is full, when in the water, lets all go when it is taken out; so is the Memory, with respect to spiritual things. But how does it retain what ought to be forgotten? Naughty things so bear in themselves upon it, that though men would fain have them out of mind, yet they stick there like glue. However forgetful men be in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the Memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in their old age to re-act the sins of their youth, while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up the former vomit. And thus it is like the riddle, that lets through the pure grain and keeps the refuse. Thus far of the corruption of the soul.

The Body itself also is partaker of this corruption and defilement, so far as it is capable thereof. Wherefore the Scripture calls it sinful flesh, Rom. viii. 3. We may take this up in two things. (1.) The natural Tempers, or rather distemper of the Bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin, so it hath a native tendency to sin, incites to sin, leads the soul into snares, yea, is itself a snare to the Soul. The body is a furious beast, of such metal, that if it be not beat down, "kept under, and brought into subjection," it will cast the soul into much sin and misery, 1 Cor. ix. 27. There is a vileness in the Body, (Phillip. iii. 21.) which, as to the saints, will never be removed, until it be melted down in a grave, and cast into a new mould, at the resurrection, to come forth a spiritual Body; and will never be carried off from the bodies of those who are not partakers of the resurrection to life. (2.) It serves the soul in many sins. Its members are instruments, weapons of unrighteousness, whereby men fight against God, Rom. vi. 13. The eyes and ears are open doors, by which impure motions and sinful desires enter the soul: "The tongue is a world of iniquity," James iii. 6. "An unruly evil, full of deadly poison," ver. 8. ver. 8. By it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness. The throat is an open sepulchre," Rom. iii. 13. The feet run the devil's errands, ver. 15. The belly is made a god, Philip. iii. 19, not only by drunkards and riotous livers, but by every natural man, Zech. vii. 6. So the body naturally is an agent for the devil, and a magazine of armour against the Lord.

To conclude: Man by nature is wholly corrupted, "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness

in him." And, as in a dunghill, every part contributes to the corruption of the whole, so the natural man, while in that state, grows still worse and worse. The soul is made worse

Thus

by the body, and the body by the soul; and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more. much for the second general head.

How Man's Nature was Corrupted.

THIRDLY, I shall show how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. The heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted; but how sin had entered, they could not tell. But the Scriptures are very plain in that point, Rom. v. 12. "By one man sin entered into the world," verse 19. "By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." Adam's sin corrupted man's nature and leavened the whole lump of mankind. We putrified in Adam, as our root. The root was poisoned, and so the branches were envenomed: the vine turned the vine of Sodom, and so the grapes became grapes of gall. Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and so transmits guilt and corruption to his posterity, Gen. v. 2. Job xiv. 4. By his sin he stript himself of his origi nal righteousness, and corrupted himself: we were in him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head in the covenant of works; we were in him seminally, as our natural head; hence we fell in him, and by his disobedience were made sinners; as Levi in the loins of Abraham paid tithes, Heb. vii. 9, 10. His first sin is imputed to us; therefore justly are we left under the want of his original righte ousness, which being given to him as a common person, he cast off by his sin; and this is necessarily followed, in him and us, by the corruption of the whole nature; righteousness and corruption being two contraries, one of which must needs always be in man, as a subject capable thereof: and Adam our common father being corrupt, we are so too; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?"

Although it is sufficient to evince the righteousness of this dispensation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet to silence the murmuring of proud nature, let these few things further be considered. (1.) In the covenant wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him and his posterity upon condition of his, that is, Adam's perfect obedience, as the representative for all mankind: whereas, if there had been no covenant, they could not have pleaded eternal life upon their most perfect obedience, but

might have been, after all, reduced to nothing, nothwithstanding, by natural justice they would have been liable to God's eternal wrath, in case of sin. Who in that case would not have consented to that representation? (2.) Adam had a power to stand given him, being made upright. He was as capable to stand for himself, and all his posterity, as any after him could be for themselves. This trial of mankind, in their head, would soon have been over, and the crown won to them all, had he stood; whereas, had his posterity been independent on him, and every one left to act for himself, the trial would have been continually a carrying on, as men came into the world. (3.) He had natural affections the strongest to engage him, being our common father. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well as ours. He had no separate interest from ours; but if he forgot ours, he behooved to have forgot his own. (5.) If he had stood, we should have had the light of his Mind, the righteousness of his Will, and holiness of his Affections, with entire purity transmitted unto us; we could not have fallen; the crown of glory, by his obedience, would have been for ever secured to him and his. This is evident from the nature of the federal representation; and no reason can be given why, seeing we are lost by Adam's sin, we should not have been saved by his obedience. On the other hand, it is reasonable, that he falling, we should with him bear the loss. Lastly, Such as quarrel this dispensation, must renounce their part in Christ, for we are no otherwise made sinners by Adam, than we are made righteous by Christ; from whom we have both imputed and inherent righteousness. We no more made choice of the second Adam for our head and representative in the second covenant, than we did of the first Adam in the first covenant.

Let none wonder that such a horrible change should be brought on by one sin of our first parents; for thereby they turned away from God as their chief end, which necessarily infers a universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostacy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commandments at once. (1.) They chose new gods. They made their belly their god, by their sensuality: self, their god, by their ambition: yea, and the devil their god; believing him, and disbelieving their Maker. (2.) Though they received, yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They contemned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to themselves, how to serve the Lord. (3.) They took the name of the Lord their God in vain; despising