Necessity of holiness farther argued from our own state and condition in this world; with what is required of us with respect unto our giving glory to Jesus Christ.
V. Another argument for the necessity of holiness may be taken from the consideration of ourselves, and our present state and condition; for it is hereby alone that the vicious distemper of our nature is or can be cured. That our nature is fearfully and universally depraved by the entrance of sin, I have before declared and sufficiently confirmed, and I do not now consider it as to the disability of living unto God, or enmity unto him, which is come upon us thereby, nor yet as to the future punishment which it renders us obnoxious unto; but it is the present misery that is upon us by it, unless it be cured, which I intend. For the mind of man being possessed with darkness, vanity, folly, and instability; the will under the power of spiritual death, stubborn and obstinate; and all the affections carnal, sensual, and selfish; the whole soul being hurried off from God, and so out of its way, is perpetually filled with confusion and perplexing disorder. It is not unlike that description which Job gives of the grave: “A land of darkness, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness,” chap. x. 21, 22. When Solomon set himself to search out the causes of all the vanity and vexation that is in the world, of all the troubles that the life of man is filled withal, he affirms that this was the sum of his discovery, “God made men upright, but they have found out many inventions,” Eccles. vii. 29; that is, cast themselves into endless entanglements and confusions. What is sin in its guilt, is punishment in its power, yea, the greatest that men are liable unto in this world. Hence, God for the guilt of some sins penally gives many up to the power of others, Rom. i. 24, 26, 28; 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. And this he doth, not only to secure and aggravate their condemnation at the last day, but to give them in this world a recompense of their folly in themselves; for there is no greater misery nor slavery than to be under the power of sin.
This proves the original depravation of our nature: The whole soul, filled with darkness, disorder, and confusion, being brought under the power of various lusts and passions, captivating the mind and will unto their interests, in the vilest drudgeries of servitude and bondage, no sooner doth the mind begin to act any thing suitably unto the small remainders of light in it, but it is immediately controlled by impetuous lusts and affections, which darken its directions and silence its commands. Hence is the common saying not so common as what is signified by it, —
[Ovid. Metam., lib. vii. 20.]
Hence the whole soul is filled with fierce contradictions and conflicts, Vanity, instability, folly, sensual, irrational appetites, inordinate desires, self-disquieting and torturing passions, act continually in our depraved natures. See the account hereof, Rom. iii. 10–18. How full is the world of disorder, confusion, oppression, rapine, uncleanness, violence, and the like dreadful miseries! Alas! they are but a weak and imperfect representation of the evils that are in the minds of men by nature; for as they all proceed from thence, as our Saviour declares, Matt. xv. 18, 19, so the thousandth part of what is conceived therein is never brought forth and acted: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not,” James iv. 1, 2. All evils proceed from the impetuous lusts of the minds of men; which, when they are acted unto the utmost, are as unsatisfied as they were at their first setting out. Hence the prophet Isaiah tells us that wicked men, under the power and disorder of depraved nature, are like “the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt,” and have “no peace,” chap. lvii. 20, 21. The heart is in continual motion, is restless in its figments and imaginations, as the waters of the sea when it is stormy and troubled; and they are all evil, “only evil continually,” Gen. vi. 5. Herein doth it “cast up mire and dirt.” And those who seem to have the greatest advantages above others, in power and opportunity to give satisfaction unto their lusts, do but increase their own disquietness and miseries, Ps. lxix. 14: for as these things are evil in themselves and unto others, so they are penal unto those in whom they are, especially in whom they abound and reign; and if their breasts were opened, it would appear, by the confusion and horror they live in, that they are on the very confines of hell.
Hence is the life of man full of vanity, trouble, disappointments, vexations, and endless self-dissatisfactions; which those who were wise among the heathens saw, complained of, and attempted in vain reliefs against. All these things proceed from the depravation of our nature, and the disorder that is come upon us by sin; and as, if they are not cured and healed, they will assuredly issue in everlasting misery, so they are woeful and calamitous at present. True peace, rest, and tranquillity of mind, are strangers unto such souls. Alas! what are the perishing profits, pleasures, and satisfactions by them, which this world can afford? How unable is the mind of man to find out rest and peace in them or from them! They quickly satiate and suffocate in their enjoyment, and become to have no relish in their varieties, which only heighten present vanity, and treasure up provision for future vexation. We have, therefore, no greater interest in the world than to inquire how this disorder may be cured, and a stop put to this fountain of all abominations. What we intend will be cleared in the ensuing observations:—