II. Such is the authentic account of the whole race of mankind, which he who knoweth what is in man, who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, hath left upon record for our instruction. Such were all men before God brought the flood upon the earth. We are, secondly, to enquire, Whether they are the same now?
1. And this is certain, the scripture gives us no reason, to think any otherwise of them. On the contrary, all the above-cited passages of scripture, refer to those who lived after the flood. It was above a thousand years after, that God declared by David concerning the children of men, They are all gone out of the way of truth and holiness, there is none righteous, no, not one. And to this bear all the prophets witness, in their several generations. So Isaiah, concerning God’s peculiar people, (and certainly the Heathens were in no better condition) The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. The same account is given by all the apostles, yea, by the whole tenor of the oracles of God. From all these we learn, concerning man in his natural state, unassisted by the grace of God, that all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are still evil, only evil, and that continually.
2. And this account of the present state of man, is confirmed by daily experience. It is true, the natural man discerns it not: and this is not to be wondered at. So long as a man born blind, continues so, he is scarce sensible of his want. Much less, could we suppose a place where all were born without sight, would they be sensible of the want of it. In like manner, so long as men remain, in their natural blindness of understanding, they are not sensible of their spiritual wants, and of this in particular. But as soon as God opens the eyes of their understanding, they see the state they were in before; they are then deeply convinced, that every man living, themselves especially, are by nature altogether vanity, that is, folly and ignorance, sin and wickedness.
3. We see, when God opens our eyes, that we were before ἄθεοι ἐν κόσμῳ· without God, or rather Atheists in the world. We had by nature no knowledge of God, no acquaintance with him. It is true, as soon as we came to the use of reason, we learned the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made. From things that are seen, we infered the existence of an eternal, powerful Being, that is not seen. But still, although we acknowledged his being, we had no acquaintance with him. As we know there is an Emperor of China, whom yet we do not know; so we knew, there was a King of all the earth; yet we know him not. Indeed we could not; by any of our natural faculties. By none of these could we attain the knowledge of God. We could no more perceive him by our natural understanding, than we could see him with our eyes. For no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son willeth to reveal him. And no one knoweth the Son but the Father, and he to whom the Father revealeth him.
4. *We read of an antient king, who being desirous to know, what was the natural language of men, in order to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the following experiment. He ordered two infants as soon as they were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them, where they were brought up without any instruction at all, and without ever hearing an human voice. And what was the event? Why, that when they were at length brought out of their confinement, they spake no language at all; they uttered only inarticulate sounds, like those of other animals. Were two infants in like manner to be brought up from the womb, without being instructed in any religion, there is little room to doubt, but (unless the grace of God interposed) the event would be just the same. They would have no religion at all: they would have no more knowledge of God, than the beasts of the field, than the wild ass’s colt. Such is Natural religion! Abstracted from traditional, and from the influences of God’s Spirit.
5. And having no knowledge, we can have no love of God: we cannot love him we know not. Most men talk indeed of loving God, and perhaps imagine they do. At least, few will acknowledge they do not love him: but the fact is too plain to be denied. No man loves God by nature, any more than he does a stone, or the earth he treads upon. What we love, we delight in: but no man has naturally any delight in God. In our natural state, we cannot conceive, how any one should delight in him. We take no pleasure in him at all: he is utterly tasteless to us. To love God! It is far above, out of our sight. We cannot, naturally, attain unto it.
6. *We have by nature not only no love, but no fear of God. It is allowed indeed, that most men have, sooner or later, a kind of senseless, irrational fear, properly called superstition, though the blundering Epicureans gave it the name of religion. Yet even this is not natural, but acquired; chiefly by conversation or from example. By nature, God is not in all our thoughts: we leave him to manage his own affairs, to sit quietly, as we imagine, in heaven, and leave us on earth to manage ours. So that we have no more of the fear of God before our eyes, than of the love of God in our hearts.
7. Thus are all men Atheists in the world. But Atheism itself does not screen us from idolatry. In his natural state, every man born into the world is a rank idolater. Perhaps indeed we may not be such in the vulgar sense of the word. We do not, like the idolatrous Heathens, worship molten or graven images. We do not bow down to the stock of a tree, to the work of our own hands. We do not pray to the angels or saints in heaven, any more than to the saints that are upon the earth. But what then? We have set up our idols in our hearts: and to these we bow down and worship them: we worship ourselves, when we pay that honour to ourselves which is due to God only. Therefore all pride is idolatry: it is ascribing to ourselves what is due to God alone. And altho’ pride was not made for man, yet where is the man that is born without it? But hereby we rob God of his unalienable right, and idolatrously usurp his glory.
8. *But pride is not the only sort of idolatry, which we are all by nature guilty of. Satan has stamped his own image on our heart in self-will also. I will, said he, before he was cast out of heaven, I will sit upon the sides of the north. I will do my own will and pleasure, independently on that of my Creator. The same does every man born into the world say, and that in a thousand instances. Nay, and avow it too, without ever blushing upon the account, without either fear or shame. Ask the man, “Why did you do this?” He answers, “Because I had a mind to it.” What is this but, “Because it was my will;” that is in effect, because the devil and I are agreed: because Satan and I govern our actions, by one and the same principle. The will of God mean-time is not in his thoughts, is not considered in the least degree: although it be the supreme rule of every intelligent creature, whether in heaven or earth, resulting from the essential, unalterable relation, which all creatures bear to their Creator.
9. *So far we bear the image of the devil, and tread in his steps. But at the next step we leave Satan behind, we run into an idolatry whereof he is not guilty: I mean, Love of the world, which is now as natural to every man, as to love his own will. What is more natural to us, than to seek happiness in the creature, instead of the Creator? To seek that satisfaction in the works of his hands, which can be found in God only? What more natural than the desire of the flesh? That is, of the pleasure of sense in every kind? Men indeed talk magnificently of despising these low pleasures, particularly men of learning and education. They affect to sit loose to the gratification of those appetites, wherein they stand with a level with the beasts that perish. But it is mere affectation: for every man is conscious to himself, that in this respect he is by nature a very beast. Sensual appetites, even those of the lowest kind, have, more or less, the dominion over him. They lead him captive, they drag him to and fro, in spite of his boasted reason. The man, with all his good breeding and other accomplishments, has no pre-eminence over the goat: nay, it is much to be doubted, whether the beast has not the pre-eminence over him? Certainly he has, if we may hearken to one of their modern oracles, who very decently tells us.