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to as their best, to impart it to them ; and acting in their behalf to the utmost of their power.
Now such is the efficacy, power, and force of indwelling sin in man, an infection that the nature of other creatures knows nothing of, that in many it prevails to stop this fountain, to beat back the stream of natural affections, to root up the principles of the law of nature, and to drive them unto a neglect, a destruction, of the fruit of their own loins. Paul tells us of the old Gentiles, that they were aaropjoi, Rom. i. 31. 'without natural affection ;' that which he aims at is that bai'barous custom among the Romans, who ofttimes to spare the trouble in the education of their children, and to be at liberty to satisfy their lusts, destroyed their own children from the womb. So far did the strength of sin prevail to obliterate the law of nature, and to repel the force and power of it.
Examples of this nature are common in all nations ; amongst ourselves, of women murdering their own children, through the deceitful reasoning of sin. And herein sin turns the strong current of nature, darkens all the light of God in the soul, controls all natural principles influenced with the power of the command and will of God. But yet this evil hath, through the efficacy of sin, received a fearful aggra- vation. Men have not only slain, but cruelly sacrificed, their children to satisfy their lusts. The apostle reckons idolatry, and so consequently all superstition, among the works of the flesh, Gal. v. 20. that is, the fruit and product of indwelling sin. Now from hence it is that men have offered that horrid and unspeakable violence to the law of nature mentioned. So the psalmist tells us, Psal, cvi. 37,38. The same is again mentioned, Ezek. xvi. 20, 21. and in sundry other places. The whole manner of that abomination 1 have elsewhere declared. For the present it may suffice to intimate, that they took their children and burnt them to ashes in a soft fire ; the wicked priests that assisted in the sacrifice affording them this relief, that they made a noise and clamour, that the vile wretches might not hear the woful moans and cries of the poor dying tormented infants. I suppose in this case we need no farther evidence. Naturalists can give no rational account, they can only admire the secret force of that little
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fish, which, they say, will stop a ship in full sail in the midst of the sea. And we must acknowledge that it is beyond our power to give an account of that secret force and unsearch- able deceit that is in that inbred traitor, sin, that cannot only stop the course of nature, when all the sails of it that carry it forward are so filled as they are in that of affections to children, but also drive it backward with such a violence and force, as to cause men so to deal with their own children, as a good man would not be hired with any reward to deal with his dog. And it may not be to the disadvantage of the best, to know and consider, that they carry that about them, and in them, which in others hath produced these effects.
The like may be spoken of all other sins against the prime dictates of the law of nature, that mankind is or hath been stained and defamed withal. Murder of parents and children, of wives and husbands, sodomy, incest, and the like enor- mities ; in all which sin prevails in men against the whole law of their being and dependance upon God.
What should I reckon up the murders of Cain and Abel, the treason of Judas, with their aggravations; or remind the filth and villany of Nero, in whom sin seemed to design an instance of what it could debase the nature of man unto; in a word, all the studied, premeditated perjuries ; all the de- signed, bloody revenges; all the filth and uncleanness; all the enmity to God and his ways that is in the world, is fruit growing from this root alone.
2. It evidences its efficacy in keeping men off from be- lieving under the dispensation of the gospel. This evidence must be a little farther cleared.
(1.) Under the dispensation of the gospel, there are but few that do believe. So the preachers of it complain, Isa. liii. 1. ' Who hath believed our report?' which the apostle in- terprets of the paucity of believers. John xii. 38. our Saviour Christ himself tells us that ' many are called ;' the word is preached unto many, 'but few are chosen.' And so the church complains of its number, Micah vi . 1 . Few there be who enter the narrow gate; daily experience confirms this woful ob- servation. How many villages, parishes, yea, towns, may we go unto, where the gospel, it may be, hath been preached many years, and perhaps scarce meet a true believer in them, and one who shews forth the death of Christ in his conver-
18S THE NATURE AND POWER
sation. In the best places, and most eminent for profession, are not such persons like the berries after the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three in the top of the upmost boughs, and four or five in the highest branches ?