Man's nature is now
wholly corrupted
We have seen what man was,
as God made him--a lovely and happy creature. Let us view
him now as he has unmade himself--we shall see him a sinful
and a miserable creature. This is the sad state we are
brought into by the fall. Man's nature
is now wholly corrupted. There is a sad alteration,
an astonishing overturning in the nature of man--where, at
first, there was nothing evil--now there is nothing good.
"And God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Genesis 6:5
All their wicked practices are here traced to the fountain
and spring-head--a corrupt heart was the source of all. The
soul, which was made upright in all its faculties--is now
wholly disordered. The heart, which was made according to
God's own heart--is now the reverse of it, a forge of evil
imaginations, a sink of inordinate affections, and a
storehouse of all impiety, Mark 7:21, 22. Behold the heart
of the natural man, as it is opened in our text. The mind is
defiled; the thoughts of the heart are evil; the will and
affections are defiled. The imagination of the thoughts of
the heart, that is, whatever the heart frames within itself
by thinking, such as judgment, choice, purposes, devices,
desires, every inward motion--is evil. Yes, and every
imagination, every frame of his thoughts, is evil.
But is there not, at least, a mixture of good in them? No,
they are only evil. Whatever changes may be found in them,
are only from evil to evil; for the imagination of the
heart, or frame of thoughts in natural men, is evil
continually. Not one holy thought can ever be produced by an
unholy heart.
O, what a vile heart is this! O, what a corrupt nature is
this! What can that heart be, whereof every imagination,
every set of thoughts--is only evil, and that continually?
Surely that corruption is ingrained in our hearts,
interwoven with our very natures, has sunk deep into our
souls, and will never be cured but by a miracle of grace.
Now such is man's heart, such is his nature--until
regenerating grace changes it.
