4. But was there not good mingled with the evil? Was there not light intermixt with the darkness? No, none at all: God _saw that the whole imagination of the heart_ of man was only _evil_. It cannot indeed be denied, but many of them, perhaps all, had good motions put into their hearts. For the Spirit of God did then also _strive with man_, if haply he might repent: more especially during that gracious reprieve, the hundred and twenty years, while the ark was preparing. But still _in his flesh dwelt no good thing_: all his nature was purely evil. It was wholly consistent with itself, and unmixt with any thing of an opposite nature.
5. However it may still be matter of enquiry, “Was there no intermission of this evil? Were there no lucid intervals, wherein something good might be found in the heart of man?” We are not here to consider, what the grace of God might occasionally work in his soul. And abstracted from this, we have no reason to believe, there was any intermission of that evil. For God who _saw the whole imagination of the thoughts of his heart to be_ only _evil_, saw likewise, that it was always the same, that it _was only evil_ continually: every year, every day, every hour, every moment. He never deviated into good.
II. Such is the authentic account of the whole race of mankind, which he who knoweth what is in man, who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, hath left upon record for our instruction. Such were all men before God brought the flood upon the earth. We are, _secondly_, to enquire, Whether they are the same now?
1. And this is certain, the scripture gives us no reason, to think any otherwise of them. On the contrary, all the above-cited passages of scripture, refer to those who lived after the flood. It was above a thousand years after, that God declared by _David_ concerning the children of men, _They are all gone out of the way_ of truth and holiness, _there is none righteous, no, not one_. And to this bear all the prophets witness, in their several generations. So _Isaiah_, concerning God’s peculiar people, (and certainly the Heathens were in _no better_ condition) _The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores._ The same account is given by all the apostles, yea, by the whole tenor of the oracles of God. From all these we learn, concerning man in his natural state, unassisted by the grace of God, that _all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart_ are still _evil, only evil_, and that _continually_.