I. That all of us by nature are dead, standing in need of quickening and of life; for this is presupposed, while he is said to be the Life, and that both legally and really: Legally, being under the sentence of death, for Adam's transgression, Rom. v. 15, and for that original corruption of heart we have; and really, the sentence of the law being in part executed, and that both as to the body and as to the soul. As to the body, it is now subject to death, and all the forerunners thereof, such as weakness, pains, sickness, fears, torment, trouble, weariness, yea, and in hazard of hell-fire, and the torments of the second death for ever. As to the soul, it also is many ways dead; but first in a way that is purely penal, and next in a way that is also sinful; and both ways, as to what is present, and as to what is future. For as to that which is penal and present, it is, (1.) separated from God and his favour, Gen. iii. 8, 10, 24; (2.) is under his curse and wrath, whence it cometh to pass, that by nature we are children of wrath, Eph. ii. 2, 5; servants of Satan, 2 Tim. ii. 26; the consequence of which is sad and heavy, for hence it is that we cannot please God, do what we will. Till we be brought out of that state, our ordinary and civil actions, even ploughing the ground, is sin, Prov. xxi. 4; yea, our religious actions, whether natural or instituted, are abomination; even our sacrifices, Prov. xv. 8; xxi. 27; and prayers, Prov. xxviii. 9. Psalm x. 7; yea, and all our thoughts and purposes, Prov. xv. 26; and likewise all our ways, Prov. xv. 9. As to what is penal and future, it is obnoxious to that everlasting excommunication from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9; and to the torments of hell for ever, Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. Luke xvi. As to what is not only penal but also sinful, the soul here is under the stroke of darkness in the understanding, perverseness and rebelliousness in the will, irregularity and disorder in the affections, whereby the soul is unfit for any thing that is good, Rom. iii. 10-20. Eph. ii. 1, 2, 3. Rom. v. 6; viii. 7, 8; whence proceedeth all our actual transgressions, James i. 14, 15. And moreover sometimes the soul is given up to a reprobate mind, Rom. i. 28; to strong delusion, 2 Thess. ii. 2; to hardness of heart, Rom. ii. 5; horror of conscience, Isa. xxxiii. 14; to vile affections, Rom. i. 26, and the like spiritual plagues, which, though the Lord inflict on some only, yet all are obnoxious to the same by nature, and can expect no less, if the Lord should enter with them into judgment. And finally, as to what is future of this kind, they are, being fuel for Tophet, obnoxious to that malignant, sinful, blasphemous, and desperate rebellion against God, in hell for evermore!