ADDRESS IV.

The State of Man by Natural
Corruption.

THE object of former Addresses has been to stir you up to make a right use of your present affliction; you have been urged by the value of your soul, and the approaching awfulness of death, judgment, and eternity, not to neglect this chastening of the Lord, but seriously to consider your spiritual state in his sight, and his ways towards you; to examine yourself by the light of Scripture, and mark the way of salvation there set before you. I would hope, indeed, that you are bent on doing this, and I would willingly endeavour to assist you in so important a work. By your spiritual state I mean the state of your soul, the cir

cumstances of your condition which respect that soul of yours, which must live for ever either in heaven or in hell: and there are three points of view in which it should more especially be considered,-1st, Your state by natural corruption; 2dly, Your state by actual transgression; and 3dly, The state which is required to fit you for heaven, and which either is or may be attained through the power of the Spirit of God. I propose, therefore, reading to you now some passages of Scripture which refer to your state by natural corruption: and may the Spirit of the Lord render his word effectual to your conviction and humiliation, and produce in you more and more true penitence and self-abasement.

(Prayer as before.)

Gen. i. 31.-God saw every thing that he had made; and behold, it was very good.

Gen. ii. 16, 17.-The Lord God commanded the man, saying, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the

day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Gen. iii. 6.-And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband, and he did eat.

Rom. v. 12.-By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Rom. v. 15.-Through the offence of one many be dead.

Rom. v. 16.-The judgment was by one to condemnation.

Rom. v. 18.-By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

Rom. v. 19.-By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. Gen. v. 3.-Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image. Job xiv. 4.-Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. Job xxv. 4. How can he be clean that is born of a woman?

Psalm li. 5.-Behold, I was shapen

in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Ephes. ii. 3.-We were by nature the children of wrath.

John iii. 6.-That which is born of the flesh is flesh,

Rom. vii. 8.-I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

Rom. vii. 14.-I am carnal, sold under sin.

Rom. viii. 7.-The carnal mind is enmity against God.

Gal. v. 17. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit.

Rom. viii. 8.-They that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Gen. vi. 5.-God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. Gen. viii. 21.-The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Jerem. xvii. 9.-The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Lord search the heart.

I the

Mark vii. 21.-Out of the heart pro

ceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within.

Luke vi. 44.-Every tree is known by its own fruit.

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Matt. vii. 17.-Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

These portions of holy Scripture relate to you, my friend, and to every child of Adam; they describe your spiritual state by natural corruption; they shew you that you are by nature a miserable, sinful creature, wicked and deceitful in heart, carnal, sold like a bond-slave under sin, destitute of every thing good, and utterly unable to please God. And they shew how you come to be thus by nature born in sin the child of wrath, namely, through the disobedience of Adam.