Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

USE II. For Lamentation. Well may we lament thy case, O natural man, for it is the saddest case one can be in, out of hell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou art dead already, dead whilst thou livest; thou carriest about with thee a dead soul in a living body: and because thou art dead, thou canst not lament thy own case. Thou art loathsome in the sight of God; for thou art altogether corrupt. Thou hast no good in thee; thy soul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vileness before the Lord. Thou thinkest, perhaps, that thou hast a good heart to God, good inclinations, and good desires: but God knows there is nothing good in thee, but every imagination of thine heart is only evil. Thou canst do no good; thou canst do nothing but sin. For,

First, Thou art the servant of sin, Rom. vi. 17. and therefore free from righteousness, ver. 20. Whatever righteousness be, (poor soul) thou art free of it; thou dost not, thou canst not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of sin, a dominion where righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and servant of the devil, tho' ⟨p. 86⟩thou be neither wizard nor witch: seeing thou art yet in the state of nature, John viii. 44 Ye are of your father the devil. And to prevent any mistake, consider, that sin and Satan have two sorts of servants, (1.) There are some employed, as it were, in coarser work: those bear the devil's mark in their fore-heads, having no form of godliness; but are profane, grossly ignorant, mere moralists, not so much as performing the external duties of religion, but living to the view of the world; as sons of earth, only minding earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. (2) There are some employed in a more refined sort of service to sin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand; which they can, and do hide from the view of the world. These are close hypocrites, who sacrifice as much to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh,