.. 'Head t. Th~ Explicctti•m ifthe Text. ?3: fruit, ' but never good fruit, whatever foil it be 'fet in, whatever pains be taken oA it, mtlfi: naturaliy be an evii– 'tre~: and what can that heart be, whereofevery imagi– n-ati;oA, every ·ret of thoughts, is only ev,il, and th~t cort– ti.nually? Sure.ly that corruption is irrgrained in our hearts, ~nterwoven w,ith our very nature's., has. funk into ~he mar1 1'ow of our fouls; and will never he cured but by a mira– .t:le of p,race. Now.fuch is tnan's heart, {uch is his nature, :tiU1egeneratimg grace change it. God that feacheth the heart., fa:w man's hea,rt was fo, he took fpecial notice of it: .apd the faithful and true witn~ cannot miftake our'cafe ·; th.o' we are mof.l: apt to miO:ake ourfelves in this point; and · '&enerally do overlook it. , ' ~ . . Bew.are that there be not a thaught m thy wrcked 'heart, fayiog,, What is that to. us? Let' that generation of whom · .tit~ text fpeaks, fee to th-at. For the Lord has left the cafe oLr.hat generatio_n on tecord, to be a looking-g1afs to a-il after~generations; .wherein they may fe_e their own cor- :rupt~oo of heart, and what their lives would be too, ifhe re• ~ .!trained them not; for as in water face anfwereth to (ace, ' fo the heart ofman to ma11, Prov. xxvii. 'i9. Adam's faH has fran1ed all men's hearts alike in this matter, · Hence '"the a-pofile, 'Rom. iii. 10.-proves the corruption of the ~ature, hearts, and lives of all men, from what the Pfa!- " , mifl faysof .the wicked in his day, Pfal. xiv. 1. 2. 3· P(a!• v. 9. P[ai. c:x;l._3. Pfal. x. 7. Pfal. xxxvi. 1. and from what Jeremiah faith of the wicked in his day , ]er. ix. 3· and from what /(aiah fay.s of thofe that lived in his time, , lfa lvii.7 . 8 . and concludes with tl1ar, ver. 19 . Now w~ know, t4at cw..hat thing1 foever the law faith, it faith /(} ' them who are under the !aw: that everf mout.h may b~ • ·- jhpped, and all the "World may become g'uilty before God, · Had the hifiory of the deluge been tranfmitted unto os, without any reafon thereof in tbe teJ5ct, we might thence have gathered the corru[nion and total depravation of man's nature: fo:" what other qua'nel could a holy and juf!: God ha·ve with the infants that were defl:royed by the · – fl;pod , feeing the.y had no·aCl:.ual !in:? If wa faw a wife man · who, havrng -made a curious piece of w-erk, and heartily approved ,of it when he gave it out of his hind, as fit fGr : the. ·ufe it wa~ defiiued,for., rife up( in w:rath 1 -ami_break i-t: ·
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