QUESTION I. 253 publish the iniquity and shame of their nature, in opposition to all the influences of instruction and advice, example and authority. And if all children were utterly untaught and un- restrained, even in the years of childhood, these iniquities would break out and discover themselves with much more evidence and shame : This appears in, particular families, even in such countries and such towns which are civilized by learn- ing and politeness. There are a thousand instances wherein this is evident in fact ; that where the education of children is neglected, the whole generation becomes vicious : So among the heathens, there are whole nations wicked, perhaps without an exception. VII. To give yet a fuller confirmation of this truth, that mankind have a sinful and corrupt nature in them, let it be ob- served, that where persons have not only been educated from their youngest years in all the practices of piety, virtue and goodness, as far as parents could influence them, but where young persons themselves have taken something of a religious turn betimes, and have sought after true wisdom and piety, what wretched and perpetual hindrances do they find within them- selves ? What inward oppositionsare working in the heart, and too often interrupt this holy course of life ? What vanity of mind, what sinful appetites, . what sensuality and forgetfulness of God, what evil affections, what vicious thoughts and,wishes, and tendencies of heart rise up in contradiction to their honest and professed purposes of virtue and holiness, and lead them,astray too often from their duty both to God and man ? ..Even some of the best of men, who have observed their ownhearts, are forced to cry out, Oh, wretched creature that I am ! What vicious principles do I find in my members warring against reason and the lawof mymind, and bringing me too often into captivity to sin ? Whether St. Paul complained thus concerning. himself or no in his letter to the Romans, chapter vii.. verses 23,. 24. or whether he spoke it in the name of mere pretenders to religion, yet as there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and never sins ; so I am persuaded, there is not a man who cannot in some measure take up this complaint, that he is sometimes led astray by sense, appetiteor passion, in greater or lesser in- stances, against the better dictates of his mind and conscience : There is not a man who may not mourn over himself in this language, O wretched creature indeed ! Who shall deliver me from this native disorder, this inward plague, these evil pro. pensities of my nature ? There is none perfectly righteous ; no not one. I may sum up the argument contained in the three last con. siderations in this manner, viz. If great multitudes of mankind are grossly sinful, and if every individual, without exception,
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