2. God _saw all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart_――Of his soul, his inward man, the spirit within him, the principle of all his inward and outward motions. He _saw all the imaginations_. It is not possible to find a word of a more extensive signification. It includes whatever is formed, made, fabricated within; all that is, or passes in the soul: every inclination, affection, passion, appetite; every temper, design, thought. It must of consequence include every word and action, as naturally flowing from these fountains: and being either good or evil, according to the fountain from which they severally flow. 3. Now God _saw that all_ this, the whole thereof _was evil_, contrary to moral rectitude; contrary to the nature of God, which necessarily includes all good; contrary to the divine will, the eternal standard of good and evil: contrary to the pure, holy image of God, wherein man was originally created, and wherein he stood when God surveying the works of his hands, saw them _all_ ♦to be _very good_: contrary to justice, mercy and truth, and to the essential relations which each man bore to his Creator and his fellow creatures. 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?