07.02a. The Corruption of the Will contd

(6) The unrenewed will is wholly perverse, in reference to man’s chief and highest end. The natural man’s chief end is not God, but himself. The being of man is merely relative, dependent, borrowed: he has neither being nor goodness originally from himself; but all he has is from his God, as the first cause and spring of all perfection, natural or moral. Dependence is woven into his very nature, so that if God were totally to withdraw from him, he would dwindle into a mere nothing. Seeing then whatever man is, he is of Him, surely in whatever he is, he should be to Him, as the waters which came from the sea do, of course, return thither again. Thus man was created, directly looking to God, as his chief end: but, falling into sin, he fell off from God, and turned into himself; and, like a traitor usurping the throne, he gathers in the rents of the crown to himself. This infers a total apostasy and universal corruption in man; for where the chief and last end is changed, there can be no goodness there. This is the case of all men in their natural state (Psalms 14:2-3), ‘The Lord looked down — to see if there were any that did — seek God. They are all gone aside’ from God; they seek not God, but themselves. Though many fair shreds of morality are to be found amongst them, yet ‘there is none that doth good, no, not one;’ for though some of them in appearance run well, yet they are still off the way; they never aim at the right mark. They are ‘lovers of their own selves’ (2 Timothy 3:2), ‘more than God’ (2 Timothy 3:4). Wherefore Jesus Christ, having come into the world to bring men back to God again, came to bring them out of themselves in the first place (Matthew 16:24). The godly groan under this woeful disposition of the heart: they acknowledge it, and set themselves against it, in its subtle and dangerous insinuations. The unregenerate, though most insensible of it, are under the power thereof, and whithersoever they turn themselves, they cannot move beyond the circle of self. They seek themselves, they act for themselves; their natural, civil, and religious actions, from whatever springs they come, all run into, and meet in the dead sea of self.

Most men are so far from making God their chief end, in their natural and civil actions, that in these matters, God is not in all their thoughts. Their eating and drinking, and such like natural actions, are for themselves; their own pleasure or necessity, without any higher end (Zechariah 7:6), ‘Did ye not eat for yourselves?’ They have no eye to the glory of God in these things, as they ought to have (1 Corinthians 10:31). They do not eat and drink to keep up their bodies for the Lord’s service; they do them not because God has said, ‘Thou shalt not kill;’ neither do those drops of sweetness, which God has put into the creature, raise up their souls towards that ocean of delights that is in the Creator; though they be a sign hung out at heaven’s door, to tell men of the fulness of goodness that is in God Himself (Acts 14:17). But it is self, and not God, that is sought in them, by natural men. And what are the unrenewed man’s civil actions, such as buying, selling, working, &c., but fruit to himself? (Hosea 10:1). So marrying, and giving in marriage, are reckoned amongst the sins of the old world (Matthew 24:38): for they have no eye to God therein, to please Him; but all they had in view was to please themselves (Genesis 6:3). Finally, self is natural men’s highest end, in their religious actions. They perform duties for a name (Matthew 6:1-2), or some other worldly interest (John 6:26). Or if they be more refined, it is their peace, and at most their salvation from hell and wrath, or their own eternal happiness, that is their chief and highest end (Matthew 19:16-22). Their eyes are held, that they see not the glory of God. They seek God indeed, yet not for Himself, but for themselves. They seek Him not at all, but for their own welfare: so their whole life is woven into one web of practical blasphemy, making God the means, and self their end; yea, their chief end.

Thus I have given you a rude draught of man’s will, in his natural state, drawn by Scripture, and men’s own experience. Call it no more Naomi, but Marah; for bitter it is, and a root of bitterness. Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust; free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loosens the bands of wickedness. Now, since all must be wrong, and nothing can be right, where the understanding and will are so corrupt, I shall briefly despatch what remains, as following of necessity, on the corruption of these prime faculties of the soul.