tions and wars which have been in the world, in all ages, are a strong and continued proof of the depravity of human nature; for these come of lusts that war in the members, James iv. 1. Look over the histories of all ages, and of all nations in them, and you will find them full; all events which have risen from the pride, ambition, and lusts of men; even among the people of God: such that say they have no sin, deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. 11. This corruption of nature is general, with respect to the parts of man, to all the powers and faculties of his soul, and to the members of his body.1. To the powers and faculties of the soul of man, his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; yea, the ima gination of the thoughts of his heart, the very substratum of thought; the understanding is darkened through the blindness and ignorance that is in it; the affections are inordinate, run in a wrong channel, and are fixed on wrong objects. 2. All the members of the body are defiled with it; the tongue is a world of iniquity itself, and defiles the whole body; the several members of it are used as instruments of unrighteousness, Rom. iii. as the throat, lips, mouth, and feet, all employed in the service of sin.

IV. The time when the corruption of nature takes place in man; the lowest date of it is his youth; The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, Gen. viii. 21. This depravity of nature is in some passages carried up higher, even to man's birth; The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, Psal. Iviii. 3. even such as are born of religious parents, have a religious education, and become religious themselves, are called transgressors from the womb, Isai. xlviii. 8. David carries the pollution of his nature still higher, when he says; Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me, Psal. li. 5. He does not say, my sin, and my iniquity, though it was his, being his nature, but sin and iniquity, in being what was common to him with the rest of mankind, and therefore must design the original corruption of his nature. To this

sense of the words it is objected that David speaks only of his mothers sin; and broad hints are given that her sin was the sin of adultery. This shews how much the advocates for the purity of human nature are pinched with this passage. Nothing of this kind is suggested in the sacred writings, but on the contrary, that she was a pious and religious person; David valued himself upon his relation to her, and pleads to be regarded for her sake, Psal. lxxxvi. 16. Besides, if this had been the case, David would have been illegitimate; and by a law in Israel, would have been forbid entering into the congregation of the Lord, and could not have bore any office in the church or state; nor did it answer the design and scope of David to expose the sins of others, especially his own parents, whilst he is confessing and lamenting his own; nor does the particle in belong to his mother, but to himself; the sense is not, that his mother being in sin, or that she in and through sin, conceived him; but that he was conceived being in sin, or that as soon as the mass of human nature was shaped and formed in him, and soul and body were united together, he was in sin, and sin in him; or he became a sinful creature. It is further urged, that David speaks not of other men, only of himself. But that all mankind are corrupted in the same manner, other passages are full and express for it, Job. xiv. 4. John iii. 6. Psal. lviii. 3. Eph. ii. 3. And if David, a man so famous for early piety and religion, one after God's own heart, whom he raised up to fulfil his will, was tainted with sin in his original formation, then surely the same must be true of all others; who, after him, can rise up and say, it was not so with him? Lastly, some will have these words to be figurative, and hyperbolical, and only mean, that he had often sinned from his youth; but men, in confessing sin, do not usually exaggerate it, but declare it plainly, ingenuously, just as it is; and indeed the sinfulness of nature, cannot well be hyperbolized.

V. The way and manner in which the corruption of nature is conveyed to men, as to become sinful by it.-1. It cannot be of God, or by infusion from him, he is of purer eyes than

to behold it. Some of the ancient heretics fancied, there were two first principles, or beings; the one good, and the other evil: but this is to make two first causes, and so two gods. 2. Nor can it be by imitation of parents, either first or immedi ate; there are some who never sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, and yet die: there are many born into the world who never knew their immediate parents, and therefore could not imitate them. Some their fathers die before they are born; and some lose both parents before capable of imitation; and if the taint is at their formation, and before their birth, it is impossible to be by imitation. 3. Nor does this come to pass through souls being in a pre-existent state. Some of the heathen philosophers, as Pythagoras and Plato, held a pre-existence of souls, before the world was; and which notion was adopted by Origen. Some think this notion was embraced by some of the Jews in Christ's time, and even by some of his followers; as is urged from John ix. 1-3. but then it is not allowe dof by him. And some modern christians have imbibed the same Heathenish and Jewish notion, but without any colour of reason or scripture authority. 4. Nor is this to be accounted for by the traduction of the soul from immediate parents; or by the generation of it, together with the body from them. Austin was once inclined to this; but it is so big with absurdities, as has been seen in the preceding chapter, that it cannot be admitted. That this corruption of nature is conveyed by generation, seems certain, see John iii. 6. for since nature is conveyed in that way, the sin of nature must come also in like manner, But how to account for this, consistent with the justice, holiness, and goodness of God, is a difficulty, and is one of the greatest difficulties in the whole scheme of divine truths. Some have thought it more advisa ble to sit down and lament this corruption, and consider how we must be delivered from it, than to enquire curiously in what way and manner it comes into us; as a man that is fallen into a pit, does not so much concern himself how he came into it, as how to get out of it, and to be cleansed from the

But a sober enquiry into this the perfections of God, the sa

filth he has contracted in it. matter, with a due regard to cred scriptures, and the analogy of faith, may be both lawful and laudible. 1. Let it be observed then, that the contagion of sin does not take place on the body apart, nor on the soul apart; but upon both when united together, and not before. The body, antecedent to its union to a rational soul, is no other than an animal, like other animals: and is not a subject either of moral good or moral evil; as it comes from a corrupt body, and is of a corruptible seed, it has in it the seeds of many evils, as other animals have, according to their nature: but then these are natural evils, not moral ones; as the savageness, fierceness, and cruelty of lions, bears, wolves, &c. But when this body comes to be united to a rational soul, it becomes then a part of a rational creature, it comes under a law, and its nature not being conformable to that law, its nature, and the evils, viciosities of it, are formally sintul. Should it be said, that matter cannot operate on spirit; this may be sooner said than proved. How easy is it to observe, that when our bodies are indisposed through diseases and pain, what an effect this has upon our minds; from the temperament and constitution of the body, many incommodities and disadvantages arise unto the soul: to what passion, anger and wrath, are men of a sanguine complexion subject? and to what is insanity owing, but to a disorder in the brain? as by thoughts in the mind motions are excited in the body, whether sinful, civil, or religious; so motions of the body are often the means and occasion of exciting thoughts in the mind. II. It is not fact that souls are now created by God pure and holy; that is, as Adam's soul was created, with original righteousness and purity; with a propensity to that which is good, and with pow er to do it. But they are created with a want of original righteousness and holiness; without a propensity to good, and without power to perform; and a reason will be given presently, why it is so, and why it should be so. Such a cre. ation may be conceived of, without any injury to the perfec

tions of God. That the souls of men should be now so created it is just and equitable, as will appear by the following consid. erations: Adam's original righteousness was not personal, but the righteousness of his nature; he had it not as a private single person, but as a public head, as the root, origin, and parent of mankind. It was but just that they should be deprived, as he of the glory of God; and in the room of it, unrighteousness and unholiness take place. To all this agrees, what a fearned author well observes, "God is to be considered by us, not as a Creator only, but also as a Judge; he is the Creator of the soul, as to its substance; in respect to which it is pure when created. Moreover, God is a Judge, when he creates à soul, as to this cirsumstance; namely, that not a soul simply is to be created by him; but a soul of one of the sons of Adam: in this respect it is just with him to desert the soul, as to his own image, lost in Adam; from which desertion follows a want of original righteousness; from which want, original sin, itself is propagated." God in this proceeds according to the original law of nature, fixed by himself; which according to the invariable course of things, appears to be this, with respect to the propagation of mankind. That when matter generated, is prepared for the reception of the soul; as soon as that preparation is finished, that very instant a soul is created, and ready at hand to be united to it, and it is. Now the law for the propagation of mankind by natural generation was given. to Adam in a state of innocence, and as sosn as created, Increase and multiply; he after this corrupted and defiled the whole frame of his nature, and that of all his posterity. Is it reasonable, that because man has departed from his obedience to the law of God, that God should depart from his original law, respecting man's generation? It is not reasonable he should, nor does he, nor will he depart from it: this appears from cases, in which, if in any, he could be thought to do so; as in the case of insanity, which infects a man's blood and family, and becomes a family disorder, and yet to put a stop to this, God does not depart from the order of things fixed by