N34404:228
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
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 sleep, that nothing but a saving illuminations 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 tho' it may check for grosser sins; yet as to the more subtle workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it discerns 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; tho' 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 stitch in one's side, which quickly goes 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 […] •ssing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, tho' the heart […] 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;
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 sleep, that nothing but a saving illuminations 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 tho' it may check for grosser sins; yet as to the more subtile workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it discerns 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; tho' 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 stitch in one's side, which quickly goes 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 kill•th you, will think that he doth God service. When the natural conscience is awakened by the Spirit of conviction, it will indeed rage and rore, 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 〈…〉 •ssing; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it apprehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, tho' the heart 〈…〉 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 […] or lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts. •v. 25. ⟨p. 81⟩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. & x. 23.
unless 〈…〉 or lusts prevail over it, to lull it asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts. •v. 25. ⟨p. 81⟩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. & 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 sieve 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 give. However forgetful men be in in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in 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.
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 sieve 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 giue. However forgetful men be in in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in 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 temper, 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's a vileness in the body, (Phil. 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 or 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. 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,
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 by the body, and the body by the soul: and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and more. Thus much for the second general Head.
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 Scripture is very plain in that point, Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world. Ver. 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 putrefied 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. 3. Job xiv. 4. By his sin he stripped himself of his original righteousness, and corrupted himself: we were in him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head, •n 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 righteousness, 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?
THIRDLY, I shall shew how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. The heathens perceived that man's nature was corrupted: but how sin had entred, they could not tell. But the Scripture is very plain in that point, Rom. v. 12. By one man sin entered into the world. Ver. 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,
Although it is sufficient to evince […] righteousness of this dispensation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet to silence the murmurings 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 be•, after all, reduced to nothing, notwithstanding, 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 […], 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 •ather. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well ⟨p. 83⟩as ours. He had no separate interest from ours; but if he forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot ours, he behoved 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 a 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;
Although it is sufficient to evince 〈…〉 righteousness of this dispensation, that it was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet to silence the murmurings 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 be, after all, reduced to nothing, notwithstanding, 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 , 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 ather. (4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well
than we did of the first Adam in the first covenant.
Let none wonder that such an horrible change would be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God, as their chief end, which necessarily infers an universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commands 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.) Tho' 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 his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grossly profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused that creature of his, which they should not have touched, and violently misconstrued his providence; as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing in the way of their happiness; and therefore he suffered them not to escape his righteous judgment. (4.) They remembered not the Sabbath to keep it holy, but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day. Neither kept they that state of holy rest, wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off their relative duties. Eve forgets herself, and acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of both; Adam instead of admonishing her to repent, yields to the temptation, and confirms her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven; and therefore their days were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined themselves, and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sensuality (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against ⟨p. 84⟩the Lord, before angels, devils, and one another; in effect giving out that they were hardly dealt by, and that heaven grudged their happiness. (10.) They were discontent with their lot, and coveted an evil covetousness to their house; which ruined both them and theirs. Thus was the image of God on man defaced all at once.
Let none wonder that such an horrible change would be brought on by one sin of our first parents, for thereby they turned away from God, as their chief end, which necessarily infers an universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils, a total apostasy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the ten commands 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.) Tho' 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 his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grosly profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused that creature of his, which they should not have touched, and violently misconstrued his providence; as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing in the way of their happiness; and therefore he suffered them not to escape his righteous judgment. (4.) They remembered not the Sabbath to keep it holy, but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day. Neither kept they that state of holy rest, wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off their relative duties. Eve forgets herself, and acts without advice of her husband, to the ruin of both; Adam instead of admonishing her to repent, yields to the temptation, and confirms her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven; and therefore their days were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined themselves, and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sensuality (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against
USE I. For Information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then,
1. No wonder the grave open it's devouring mouth for us, as soon as the womb hath cast us forth; and that the cradle be turned into a coffin, to receive the corrupt lump: for we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead born; yea, and filthy, (Psal. xiv. 3.) noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to, at our entrance, nor of the continuance of them, while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poisoned all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of man's nature, that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states, families: in men's souls and bodies.
2. Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity, and formality in the world; the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and life. Every thing acts like itself, agreeable to its own nature; and so corrupt man acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the sinfulness of your own heart and life, nor at the sinfulness and perverseness of others: if a man be crooked, he cannot but halt; and if the clock be set wrong, how can it point the hour right.
3. See here, why sin is so pleasant, and religion such a burden to carnal spirits: sin is natural, holiness not so. Oxen cannot feed in the sea, nor fishes in the fruitful fields. A swine brought into a palace, would get away again, to wallow in the mire. A corrupt nature tends ever to impurity.
4. Learn from this, the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, This discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things, (1.) It is not a partial, but a total change, tho' imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, and therefore the cure must go through' every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. All things become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. If one who has received many wounds, should be cured of them all, save one only, he might bleed to death, by that one, as well as a thousand. So if the change go not through the whole man, it is naught. (2.) It is not a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. A man must be born of the Spirit, John iii. 5 Accidental diseases may be cured by men, but these which are natural, not without a miracle, John ix. 22. The change wrought upon men, by good education, or forced upon them, by a natural conscience, tho' it may pass among men for a sav•ing ⟨p. 85⟩change, it is not so; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Tho' a gardiner, ingrafting a pear branch into an apple tree, may make the apple-tree bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple-tree: so one may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, This also shows the necessity of regeneration. It is absolutely necessary in order to salvation, John iii. 3 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. No unclean thing can enter the new Jerusalem: but thou art wholly unclean, while in thy natural state. If every member of thy body were disjointed, each joint behoved to be loosed, ere the members could be set aright again. This is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard: and therefore thou must be born again; else thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be far off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no Mercy of GOD, no Blood of CHRIST will bring thee to heaven, in thy unregenerate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy, to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners. Heaven! What would you do there, that are not born again? Ye that are no ways fitting for Christ the head.
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 temper, 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's a vileness in the body, (Phil. 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 or 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 pois•n, 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.
4. Learn from this, the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, This discovers the nature of regeneration in these two things, (1.) It is not a partial, but a total change, tho' imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted, and therefore the cure must go thro' every part. Regeneration makes not only a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. All things become new, 2 Cor. v. 17. If one who has received many wounds, should be cured of them all, save one only, he might bleed to death, by that one, as well as a thousand. So if the change go not through the whole man, it is naught. (2.) It is not a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. A man must be born of the Spirit, John iii. 5 Accidental diseases may be cured by men, but these which are natural, not without a miracle, John ix. 22. The change wrought upon men, by good education, or forced upon them, by a natural conscience, tho' it may pass among men for a sav•ing ⟨p. 85⟩change, it is not so; for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Tho' a gardiner, ingrafting a pear branch into an apple tree, may make the apple-tree bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple-tree: so one may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly, This also shews the necessity of regeneration. It is absolutely necessary in order to salvation, John iii. 3 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. No unclean thing can enter the new Jerusalem: but thou art wholly unclean, while in thy natural state. If every member of thy body were disjointed, each joint behoved to be loosed, ere the members could be set aright again. This is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard: and therefore thou must be born again; else thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be far off, as the rich man in hell did. Deceive not thyself: no Mercy of GOD, no Blood of CHRIST will bring thee to heaven, in thy unregenerate state: for God will never open a fountain of mercy, to wash away his own holiness and truth: nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners. Heaven! What would you do there, that are not born again? Ye that are no ways fitting for Christ the head.
