The State of Nature

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this worlds according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

In order to preserve in our minds a constant remembrance of our union to Christ and dependance upon him, it has pleased the Holy Ghost, in the Scriptures, to represent the principal operations of grace in the heart, in terms which correspond to the different parts of Christ’s work and sufferings upon earth. Thus our deliverance from sin is called, in the

Epistle to the Colossians, the circumcision of Christ — a putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ (Col. ii. 11). In a similar manner, according to other passages (Col. ii. and Rom. vi), we are buried with him in his baptism — crucified with him, or die with him in his death — rise with him in his resurrection — and sit with him in heaven; that is, we undergo in our hearts a change similar and equal to that which took place in Christ’s bodily condition, when, after a death and burial upon earth, he ascended to another world.

This is one sense of those numerous passages of the New Testament, in which we are joined with Christ in the several parts of his covenant transactions; but is by no means the most important sense. The principal signification of them is undoubtedly this, that we are spiritually circumcised, crucified, buried, risen from sin unto righteousness, by virtue and power derived from his meritorious crucifixion and resurrection.

We cannot, at this time, examime all the passages at length; but it will be proper for us to observe the one which introduces the text.

In the preceding Chapter, St. Paul prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him .... according to the working of his mighty power y which he ivroiight in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. The rest of the Chapter may be considered as only the continuation of this idea, or a digression: He hath raised him from the dead — arid you, too, who were dead in trespasses and sins: for the words, hath he quickened, are not in the Original. The terms of this proposition are brought together in the 5th verse, where the same idea is represented — eveji when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ.

The words contain a delineation of the STATE OF man: first, as it is by nature; secondly, as it is by practice.

1. Ye were dead in trespasses and sins. We are, in our natural state, compared to the dead.

Let us contemplate that mournful residue of human nature, a dead body. Among the useful lessons to be read from it, there is one not to be forgotten — that it is a picture of the natural condition of the human soul. This body has eyes, and feet, and the organs of a body; but it neither sees, nor hears, nor acts, nor speaks: though it is furnished with the proper instruments of action and of suffering, it wants the vital principle to make those instruments perform their functions.

So is the soul of m?Ti.

It comes into the world endued with all those faculties which are comprehended under the names of understanding, memory, and affections: man has an Understanding, that can soar to unknown heights in science, and fathom the deepest mysteries of nature — powers of reasoning, which can penetrate the most secret recesses of knowledge, and develope the greatest intricacies — comprehension of mind to embrace, at once, an almost endless variety of important subjects: he is possessed of a Memory, which can preserve the record of past experience, and former acquisitions in knowledge, to an extent of which we know not the limits: man has a Heart too — a heart that can flame with love, or rankle with hatred — that can burn with anger, or smile with complacency — a heart which can be elevated with hope, or depressed with fear — exulting with joy, or agonized with sorrow. When all these passions and powers of the soul are called into exercise, by those occasions which were intended by God to excite them, it is in its right state — it lives: this will be allowed; but how does it appear that we are dead? Can any one be at a loss to know what those occasions are? What is the appropriate object of all the faculties of the soul? can any one doubt whether the proper and peculiar employment of the Understanding be not to meditate on the glories of that God, whose power and goodness called us into being and gave us a reasonable soul? — whether it is not appropriately exercised when it adores, in the works of the creation, the hand of the great Architect; or when it refers every event of providence to the immediate agency of that wise Governor, who sits at the helm? Will any one hesitate to allow that every passion of the soul should point to God? — whether we should not love him most, who is indeed the most amiable; and fear him most, who is the most terrible in his anger? — whether we ought not to hate that most, which most he hates; and rejoice in that most, which most he approves? — and whether, though we may admire, love, fear, and rejoice in certain created things, we are not in all seasons to have all our thoughts ultimately converging to God? That this is the reasonable condition of the soul and these its appropriate employments, is perfectly obvious to any one who will reflect that God is, in fact, the All in All of the universe — that nothing exists without him — that nothing is good or beautiful without him — that nothing can give us pleasure without his agency: he pervades the universe — he surrounds it — he upholds it — he fills it! it is all his own: he does every thing in it. Is the human soul, then, designed to do any thing but for God? the Scripture, however,

A A sumniariiy coiifiims the conclusions of our reason; for it says, the Lord hath niade all things for himself. But does the soul of man naturally thus embrace the Deity, as the only suitable object of his Affections? do we not know that God is in none of his thoughts, instead of being in all of them? he has passions, indeed, and the sensibility of them is sometimes vivid; but the exercise of them is invariably confined to the things of this world, and never voluntarily and naturally ascends to God: set the Deity before him as an amiable, faithful, and gracious Being — such an exhibition excites no emotion in his breast — no love, no joy, no confidence: array Jehovah in his terrors before the sinner — he will shrink, but he does not relent — he fears punishment, but he does not fear God: change the theme, and tell him of the wonders of redeeming love — here is employment for his Understanding to trace the wisdom of God in the plan of redemption, and scope for the exercise of his Affections in the consideration of the love of Christ and his own interest in it — but no! nothing of this sort can gain his attention — it possesses no interest for him — he is deaf to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely: strike what string you will, there is no chord in his heart that sounds in unison. What must we say of the state of that soul? — that it is dead; for it performs no one function of spiritual life: all in it is torpid — inanimate — dead! There is a further propriety in calimg- the natural state of the soul by the name of death: there is in the dead body no power to return to life; neither is there in the soul any ability to attain to spiritual life, or the exercise of holy affections toward God: nay, more — there is no Will to this end — a paralytic person may have no power to use his limbs, but he may possess the desire — whereas a dead person has not even the desire — so the natural soul has no will to live again unto God. There is in the dead body no spark of life, which time or care may fan into a flame: it will remain a corpse: nothing but the power of God can raise it from the dead. In like manner there is in the natural man no latent principle of spiritual life: without a Divine Intercessor, he must ever remain as he is: no good education, or good resolutions, as they are called, will ever make him a good man, except there be a superadded principle from above — a change wrought in him by an Eternal Agent — life put into him by the Spirit of God. He is, however, not so dead, but there is an ability to commit sin; and, therefore, he is said to be dead in trespasses and sins: it is a life full of dead acts — a sort of dying life — a living death — a life which is all death.

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This is the moral state of man.

No less awfully sad and dangerous in his JUDICIAL state.

By his Moral state, we mean the state of his heart, as it respects right or wrong; by his Judicial, his state before God, considered as innocejit or guilty.

He is born guilty — he is a child of wrath. Antecedently to our works, or even moral agency, even in infancy, we are under the wrath of God. The account to be given of this doctrine, as we hold it, is this — that God dealt with Adam in a collective capacity, as the father of mankind; and when he became guilty, all his descendants became guilty likewise.

This being a matter of pure revelation, in which reason supplies us with few explanations, our only concern is to produce one or two of those passages of Scripture on which the truth is established. The text is immediately in point: for, that the Apostle might not be supposed to call the Ephesians children ofivrath, on account of their being Gentiles, he includes himself and every Christian Brother in the number; for he writes thus — Among whom we all had our conversation in times past, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But the fullest explication of this truth will be found in Romans, ch. v. verses 12 — 14:

there the Apostle’s argument seems to be, that, before the giving of the Law from Mount Sinai, there could be no transgression of that law; if, therefore, there be any instance of punishment, the sufferers must have been considered as guilty by some other law: but there are instances of suffering, namely, the death of infants: now no innocent person can suffer in an upright part of God’s government, therefore these infants are considered as guilty; but their guilt could not have arisen from themselves, for they never committed any sin; and therefore it is the guilt of Adam imputed to them: in the succeeding verses, where St. Paul draws the line between what was lost in Adam and gained in Christ, he asserts the imputation of Adam’s sin repeatedly — through the offeyice of one tnany are dead — the judgment was by one to our condemnation — by one mans offence death reigned by one — by the offence of one judgment come upon all men to condemnation — by one mans disobedienxe many were made sinners (Rom. v. 15 — 19).

Think of this. Brethren. What will it avail that you are harmless in your lives, while you still remain in that state of spiritual death in which you were born? If you know nothing of a transition from death unto life, a change of your hearts from sin unto holiness, you are not yet risen from the dead — you cannot see the kingdom of God.

And what are yovir reflections on the other passage of this text; that we are children of wrath? Do you believe that that wrath will one day be revealed? and that those, who neglect the appointed method of restoration, shall find that God spoke a dreadful truth, when he pronounced the primeval curse upon Adam? Take instruction of your duty, and warning of your danger, from one word of Scripture — He, that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God ahideth on him (John iii.36.)

II. From this view of the natural condition of mankind, let us proceed to consider, in the second place, the PRACTICE to which it leads.

Ye walked according to the course of this world: that is not, “ye were murderers, thieves, adulterers;” for this can hardly be said to be the course of this world, at least we hope not: the greater number are rather outwardly decent; so that the course of this world is rather a course of outward decorum, than inconsistent with it.

The natural man, on his entrance into life, finds by far the greater part of mankind like-minded with himself; and so, first in his heart, and then in his practice, he joins the gay world of thoughtless people; and, mingling with the throng, he henceforth becomes one of their number. God has marked out our course for him to run in his passage through the earth, and the world takes another: but he fears the world more than he fears God, and he loves the people of the world better than he loves God; and, therefore, he deliberately makes choice of the ways of the world.

We said deliberately — for there is in some, indeed, great ignorance of the consequence of joining with the world, though not sufficient to excuse them: but, in general, in the beginning of life, it is not without some checks of conscience, arising from perhaps a pious education or other causes, that he yields himself to the current of general example, and is carried dowTi the stream.

Henceforward he adopts the same system as the people of the world: he conforms to their customs and manners, is guided by their rules, and receives their maxims as his own. All that neglect of religion which is visible in the world, is to be seen in him. That contempt of them that fear God, which is found so generally in mankind, he also feels or aftects to feel. That giddy pursuit of trifles, fondness for amusements, thirst of riches or honours, which mark the people of the world, form a part of his character: he places all his happiness in bodily comfort or some fancied possession in this life, and live:^ as if he w ere never to die.

Alas! how little does he reflect, or those with whom he is joined, on their misery and danger! This their way is their folly, says the Psalmist: like sheep they are laid in the grave: death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave (Ps. xlix. 13, 14). They think not that God hath said of them, that all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John ii, 16). So entirely wrong, and hostile to God, is the course of this world, that even the friendship of the world is enmity against God.

And the course of this world, where does it end? — the broad road, where does it terminate? With all the advantage of numbers on their side, with which they fill and throng the broad road, that road can never be any other than what Christ has declared it to be — the one which leadeth to destruction. Why should any of us, and particularly the Young, be fascinated by the pleasures which the world seem to enjoy, or be deceived by their numbers, when hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it? (Is. v. 14).

li I hey would see ^«till more the wretchedness of their state, let them hear what master they are serving-. They walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedietice. St. Paul couples these two courses together, as being synonimous; or, at least, as explanatory one of the other. They, who walk according to the world, walk according to Satan. Now when men confess that they are walking according to the world — which they will sometimes very openly acknowledge, by saying that they do as others do, that they cannot break with the world, that they have their interests in mind and must therefore not make themselves offensive by their singularity — they think not that they are saying this, in fact, that they cannot disobey Satan whom so many serve — they cannot quarrel with his servants — they cannot run the risk of losing the wages which they hope to receive from him. Such language openly expressed, or even such thoughts springing up in the mind, would startle the wickedest of men: yet such is the language of the carnal heart, as interpreted by the Word of God.

A wise enemy is not unwilling to have his power and resources undervalued and ridiculed, by one whom he hopes to make his prey; and therefore Satan, though he is the prince of the powei of the air — the head of that legion of spirits, whom the Jews supposed to inhabit the air, and to be more powerful than the rest — though he is repeatedly called by Christ the prince of this tvorld (John xii. 3 1. xiv.30. xvi. 1 1), and, by an Apostle, the God of this world (2 Cor. iv. 4) — not, indeed, by any other right than that of usurpation, though he is a great syirit, and one that actually is now working in the children of disobedience; that is, upon the Gentile Idolaters, whom he makes to perform their adorations to himself: yet he is well contented to hear his existence denied by enlightened men, and all the account of his agency ridiculed as tales invented to frighten children.

The humble Christian sees sufficient in the Scriptures to put him upon his guard against Satan, and is thankful that he is warned of the existence of such a foe; without which revelation, he would be at a loss to divine the origin of peculiar thoughts that unaccountably rise up in his mind.

There is a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour; and his name is Satan, our adversary: and those are under his influences, who, least of all men, suspect it. They are deceived by him, who are so besotted by iove of the world or attachment to their self-righteous doings, (hat, while they deny not (he

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Gospel, they perceive not the suitableness and glory of it: for it is thus written, The god of this luorld hath Minded the minds of them which believe 7iot, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of’ Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them (2 Cor. iv. 4). They are of the Devil, who live in the practice of any known sin, or neglect of any known duty: for. Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do: he, that committeth sin, is of the devil (1 John iii. 8) — he is of the devil, or according to the prince of the power of the air — he acts from the suggestions of Satan, and in conformity to his wishes — he does that which pleases the evil spirit, that which promotes his plans and enlarges his kingdom — he does that which is after the example of Satan, which will bring him to dwell with the devil and his angels.

Are there no such characters, think you, current in the world? — no such in the present assembly? They may know themselves by this infallible mark, that they fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind: by this you see that those who please Satan, are identified with those who please themselves.

“Are we then always to deny ourselves? — does virtue consist in always acting contrary to our own desires?” No: it is possible that duty and inclination may coincide; especially in those who have been long in the ways of God. But it is evident that the natural inclinations will always be either contrary to the law of God, or exceed the limits assigned by it; for the heart, where those desires find their origin, is totally depraved and corrupt: hence it is, that to fulfil the desires of the fleshly mind is sinful: thus speaks St. Paul, The carnal mind that is, our natural disposition, is enmity against God (Rom. viii. 7); and, therefore, to fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the mind, is an act of enmity against God. Yet it is undeniably the practice of mankind, to please themselves: though they sometimes forego their immediate self-gratifications for the sake of future advantages, yet they will not by any means renounce what they suppose to be their temporal interests for the sake of God: they consider themselves as entirely at liberty to follow their inclinations as far as public opinions, or the laws of the land, or their own unenlightened consciences will countenance them; but they know nothing of acting from the simple motive of pleasing God. Hence, a natural man will apply his money to such purposes of luxury or sin, as may seem productive of most pleasure to himself: his time shall be squandered away in amusements, or such employments as are agreeable to himself: the language of their hearts is this, “Who is Lord over us? — if we choose to spend what is our own in this or that manner, who is to take upon himself to call us to account for it?” Thus they forget that God is that Being, alone, in the universe, that must be pleased — that His will must be done on earth, as it is in heaven — that to consult our own inclinations instead of His commands, is an act of daring rebellion against the Sovereign of the Universe — and that all we do for God as a sort of compensation to him, while our hearts are in this state, is rejected by him with scorn. Israel is an empti, vine: he bringeth forth fruit unto himself (Hos. x. 1).

Let a reflection or two on this subject CON-CLUDE our discussion upon it.

How dreadful is the nature of sin! Adam sinned but once; yet that one offence was an offence against the commands of God: and God will have us to see, in the natural consequences of sin, how exceedingly dreadful is its nature; for from that one offence has flowed that torrent of spiritual, temporal, and eternal misery, which has deluged the world. Not to mention that it has filled the body with disease and the soul with sorrow, let it be recollected, that it has caused the countless millions of his posterity to come into the world dead to all the purposes of their creation, and under the curse

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and wrath of Almighty God! and then, in consequence, living as might be expected; serving the world, the devil, and the flesh; given up by God to a reprobate mind; filled with all unrighteousness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder y debate, deceit, malignity; haters of God, despiteful, proud (Rom. i. 28 — 30) — yea, that this life of sin belongs to all natural men without any exception; for even an Apostle includes himself in the number, We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lasts and pleasures, living in malice afid envy, hateful, and hating one another (Titus iii. 3) — that nothing was found of sufficient efficacy to deliver men from this condition, but the blood and agony of God’s own Son — and that those who reject this, do, by following the natural course of things, thereby plunge themselves into everlasting perdition.

Oh, who would not tremble at the commission of that, which is thus surcharged with infinite mischiefs and woes! Who would not fear to disobey that holy Lord God, who, for one offence of man, does in justice bring down such awful marks of His wrath on him and his posterity!

Since, however, his love and mercy have provided a way of recovery, how important it is, that we should both begin to seek our salvation, and should seek it in the right way! Let us beware of imagining that it is only becoming a little more strict in our duties: there must be a very powerful and universal change on the heart and sentiments, resembling a resurrection from the dead, or else the Scriptures aver a vain exaggeration.

Again, if you ever begin this great work, take those words of the text as a test and criterion of your state, namely, the walking according to the course of this world. Though your not walking in that course will not necessarily prove your sincerity, the walking according to the course of this world will certainly evidence your insincerity: for this passage will then identify you with those who are dead in sins; who are fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and continue the children of wrath.

Let me, then, once more warn you all, that to be like the generality of men is to be in a state of death, a state in which ruin is silently working; and that whenever the time may be that you shall serve God, or in whatever place, you will begin to differ widely from the people around you. Singularity is unavoidable; and if it be a cross, it must be taken up. Happy and holy is he, who hath part in this spiritual resurrection! no more a slave to custom and public opinion, he begins to act for himself according to the dictates of reason and religion, and rises into the glorious liberty of the children of God!