A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the…

The Means of Grace which He favours them with, the Gospel it self is an occasion of Sin to them, Act. 13. 45. God visits them with Afflictions, to humble them and to prevent sin in them, but they are the worse for them, 2 Chron. 28. 22. Hos. 7. 1. It argues a man to be exceeding sick, when he is the worse for the Medicine that should heal him. This discovers the malignity of the Disease. Thus, inasmuch as the Law, the Gospel, Mercies, A• ••ictions do occasion men to sin against God more, that manifests the exceeding Sinfulness of their Natures. This sin of Nature is virtually all Sin. It contains in the bowels of it, the Cursed spawn of every sin, Rom. 7. 8. Eph. 4. 19. There is no sin, great or comparatively small, against either the First or the Second Table of the Moral Law ⟨p. 67⟩but it is contained in this Sin, Mat. 15. 19. There is no sin that ever was committed in the world, but that sinful Heart which is in every man, would cause him to commit that sin, if God should give him up to be as bad as that sin which is in him would have him to be. We see that some men are mere Devils Incarnate. Some of the Roman Emperors, Nero, Caligula and others, were so wicked as that if Devils were clothed in Flesh, they could hardly be more Wicked. Now Original Sin is the same in other men that it was in them. It is owing to the Restraining Grace and Providence of God, that all men are not so bad outwardly as some are. For the Heart of man is a sink of Sin, an hell of Abominations. Nor is there any abomination on Earth or in Hell, but it is in the Corrupt Nature of man to become Guilty of it. It cannot be Expressed, what an abounding Iniquity Original Sin is. It is a Fountain of Sin. It wa• said of sinful Jerusalem, As a Fountain casts out her Waters, so she casteth out her Wickedness,