3. We must therefore confess and bewail our original corruption, in the first place, that we were the children of apostate and rebellious parents, and the nature of man is depraved and wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude, and our nature is

Lord, thou madest man upright, but they have sought out many inventions ; and being in honour did not understand, and therefore abode not, but became like the beasts that perish. Eccl 7:29. Peas xhixs

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. By that one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, and we among the rest. Rom 5:12, 19.

We are a seed of evil doers; our father was an Amorite, and our mother a Hittite, and we ourselves were called (and not miscalled) transgressors from the womb, and thou knowest we would deal very treacherously. Isa 1:4. Ezek 16:3. Isa 48:8.

The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, producing the grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah. How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! Jer 2:21. Deut 32:32. Lam 4:1

Behold, we were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us. For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. We are by nature children of wrath, because children of disobedience, even as others. Ps 51:5. Job 14:4. Eph 2:2, 3.

All flesh hath corrupted their way; we are all gone aside; we are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Gen 6:12. Ps 14:3.

‹ We must take hold of the great encouragement God hath… · We must lament our present corrupt dispositions to that… ›

Pray now: a guided prayer in six parts, with the next heads each day.

Henry’s text is in the public domain. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street. Undated, about 1840 to 1860. The preface is dated Chester, March 25, 1710. From the Internet Archive scan. The KJV text is in the public domain.