I.

VOL. imagination of any of us, that God did ever create fuch a thing as the reasonable intelligent fpirit of man, his own offspring, image, and glory, with an original indifpofition to the love of Himfelf? Do we think that God gave fuch a nature to man at first, as was capable of being imployed about fpiritual objects, and yet with this ftrange defect or flaw in it, that it fhould be impoffible to this nature of man to love the author of itself, and the original of its own life and being? This cannot be. It can never be, that a reasonable spirit, the immediate iffue of the great father of fpirits, fhould be fo alienated from its own father; and that it fhould be fo dependent upon sense, as not to be able to love him from whom it came, or any thing which is above the sphere of that base principle, which now presumes to give laws to the immortal mind. It is not to be fuppofed, that GoD ever created man fo, as that his invifibility, which is the excellency of his own being, fhould be the reason why man fhould not love him. For he is therefore invisible, because he is excellent. And to think that the nature of man at first was fo formed, that the excellency of things fhould be the reason why they fhould not be loved, and his own excellence a reason for his creature not to love him, is too abfurd for any rational perfon to imagine. It is therefore plain, that the present state of man is a very lapsed state.

SOME

SOME of the heathen, as we obferved before, SER M. have acknowledged and lamented this.

We II.

find one of them complaining, that the darkness of ignorance clouded his mind, and that this body and flesh was but as a living fepulchre to the man. Another complains of certain bonds and chains, that tied down the mind of man to the body, and the things of fenfe. And a third fpeaking of the excellent ftate of man at first, fays, that he then lived in a fort of familiarity and converse with GoD, but that now it was become quite otherwife with him. Such things as these we find in the writings of divers of the heathen. And how incongruous a thing is it for us who have all the concerns of our fouls, and what relates to our being, fo expressly discovered and made known to us; how incongruous a thing is it, I fay, that fuch a malady as this fhould be fo little minded as it is by us! Many have very flight notions of the degeneracy of man, and make a little matter of it, and the most have a much flighter fenfe thereof in practice. How few are there, who carry it as thofe who apprehend themfelves fallen, and caft down from great excellencies! fallen fhort, very far fhort, of the glory of GOD! We live as if we apprehended no fuch malady, as if we knew not that there was a disease or diftemper inwrought into our natures. Oh, how little is there of the fenfe of this to be found in the bulk of mankind! And hence I would farther infer,

2. THAT

VOL 2. THAT this depravity or lapsedness of the nature of man confifts greatly, in the depreffion and declination of his mind, and intellectual powers, as to the particular work and office of guiding his paffions, his affections, and practical inclinations. This was juft mentioned before in the last difcourfe*, but shall now be more largely confidered. I do not fay, with fome, that this is all that is meant by the corrupt ftate of man; but certainly it ftands very much in this, that his mind and rational powers are become unfit for their proper business; and, that fenfe hath got the throne, ufurped the reins, and governs his paffions and affections. Herein, I fay, confifts, in very great part, the corruption and depravedness of man's present state. And do not we find it to be fo? Do not we fee, as to the objects that draw men's affections daily into a certain course, that it is not the mind, but sense which prescribes ? Sense dictates and fays, "Love here," and they do accordingly; "Love not there," and they obey. "Let that be the object of your love, which "sense tells you is amiable and lovely; and that "which sense says no fuch thing about, you may

flight, neglect, and take no further notice of." Thus men are dictated to, and they do accordingly. It is plain then, that the depravedness of man's state stands chiefly in this, that sense takes upon itfelf to do the business of the mind and intellectual powers, and we consent it should be fo.

BUT

See Prop. 6. p. 25.

III.

BUT is not this a difmal thing? more difmal SER M. that it is not laid to heart! Is it not a difmal thing, I fay, that the first rank and order of creatures in this fublunary world fhould be funk into that low beftial life, fo as to be governed by no higher a principle than what is common to them with brutes; and that the incongruity of this should not be reflected upon, and more deeply confidered? That men fhould fo feldom confider with themselves the unfitness of their course, or labour to shake off the ufurped dominion over them? This, I fay, is moft fad and doleful to think on, that matters fhould have gone on thus from age to age, and from generation to generation, in fo many fucceffions to this day, and we have heard of fo few in all that time, who have regretted to be fo impofed upon, and forborn to live the life of beafts and brute creatures through fo many ages! One would think it should some time or other have come into the mind of man, to think thus with himself. "What is it a

becoming thing for me, a reasonable and intelligent creature, one formed after the image "and likeness of GoD, one of those creatures "made at first for his immediate fervice and fel"lowship, that I must now be imposed upon, "and dictated to by sense? that vile and base ," principle of fenfe, so as to love nothing but "what that counts lovely, and neglect every

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thing which that takes no cognizance or no"tice of ?" It is an amazing thing, that there fhould not be fo much apprehenfiveness left among

men,

I.

VOL. men, as to remember, that they were men, in their original, once at least that they were men. Remember, faith the Prophet in a like cafe, and hew yourselves men. But alas, how little is there left of a sense of this degeneracy among us! how little refentment of the vile indignity that is done to the whole kind, and which the whole species of men have fuffered to come upon them! to be degraded and brought down into an inferior rank and order! to do, to act and live, as if they were also made to die like the beasts that perish.

THERE are indeed many, in the mean time, who proudly arrogate and give to man that which belongs not to him in his present condition, and which this ftate does not admit of. They fay him to be that which he is not, but in the mean time really fee not, nor lament that he is neither what he was, nor what he should or ought to be. And to how little purpofe is it to magnify human power, when it is manifeft how forlorn the present state of man is? He is fallen very low! And what are these men intent upon, who make it their business now to magnify the nature and power of man in this condition? thofe parafites of mankind, as I may call them, what mean they by it? When he is become a loft perifhing creature, they adorn him with fhadows, and think they make up the matter by attiring him with magnificent titles and attributes. As if when a perfon is condemned to fuffer the execution of the fentence of death paffed upon him, one should cloath him with a majestick robe, and bestow

e Ifa. XLVI. 8.