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State II naked; it is as natural for them to attempt to spin a cover to it out of their own bowels, as for fishes to fwim in the waters, or birds to fly in the air. Therefore, the first question of the convinced is, What Shall we do? Acts ii. 27. How fhall we qualify ourselves? What fhall we perform? Not minding that the new creature is God's own workmanship (or deed, Eph. u. 10.) more than Adam thought of being clothed with fkins of facrifices, Gen. iii. 21.

9thly, Do not Adam's children naturally follow his footsteps, in hiding themfelves from the prefence of the LORD, Gen. ii. 8. We are every whit as blind in this matter as he was, who thought to hide himself from the prefence of GOD among the fhady trees of the garden. We are very apt to promife ourselves more fecurity in a fecret fin, than in one that is openly committed. The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, faying, No eye shall fee me, Job xxiv. 15. And men will freely do that in fecret, which they would be ashamed to do in the prefence of a child; as if darknefs could hide from an all-feeing God. Are we not naturally carelefs of communion with God; ay, and averfe to it? Never was the any communion betwixt God and Adam's children, where the Id himself had not the firft word. If he would let them alone, they would never inquire after him. Ifa. Ivii. 16. I hide me.Did he feek after a hiding God? Very far from it.-He went on in the way of his heart.:

1othly, How loath are men to confefs fin, to take guilt and shame to themselves? And was it not thus in the cafe before us? Gen. iii. 10. Adam confelleth his nakednefs, which he could not get denied; but not one word he fays of his fins: here was the reafon of it, he would fain have hid it if he could. It is as natural for us to hide fin, as to commit it. Many fad inftances thereof we have in this world; but a far clearer proof of it we fall get at the day of judgment, the day in which God will judge the fecrets of men, Rom. ii. 16. Many a foul mouth will then be feen, which is now wiped, and faith, I have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20.

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Lafly, Is it not natural for us to extenuate our fin, and transfer the guilt upon others? And when God examined our guilty first parents, did not Adam lay the blame on the woman? And did not the woman lay the blame on the ferpent? Gen. iii. 12, 13. Now Adam's children need not be taught this hellith policy; for before they can well speak, (if they cannot get the fact denied) they will cunningly lifpout fomething to leffen their fault, and lay the blame upon another. Nay, fo natural is this to men, that in the greatest of fins, they will lay the fault upon God himself; they will blafpheme his holy providence under the miftaken name of misfortune or ill luck, and thereby lay the blame of their fin at heaven's door. And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall? Gen. ii. 12. And the man faid, the woman whom thou avest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Obferve: the order of the fpeech. He makes his apology in the first places and then comes his confeffion: his apology is long; but his confession

very fhort; it is all comprehended in a word, And I did eat. How pointed and diftinct is his apology, as if he was afraid his meaning fhould have been mittaken? 7he woman, fays he, or that woman, as if he would have pointed the judge to his own work, of which we read, Gen. ii. 22. There was but one woman then in the world; fo that one would think he needed not have been fo nice and exact in pointing at her; yet he is as care fully marked out in his defence, as if there had been ten thoufard. The woman whom thou gavest me: here he fpeaks, as if he had been ruined with God's gifts. And to make the thift look the blacker, it is added to all this, thou gavest to be with me, a conftant companion, to ftand by me as a helper. This looks as Adam would have fathered an ill defign upon the Lord, in giving him this gift. And after all, there is a new demonftrative here, before the fentence is compleat: he fays not, The woman gave me, but the woman the gave me, emphatically, as if he had faid, She, even She gave me of the tree. This much for his apology. But his confellion is quickly over, in one word, (as he spoke it) and I did eat. And there is nothing here to point to himself, and as little to fhew what he had eaten. How natural is t black art to Adam's pofterity? He that runs may read it. So univerfally does Solomon's obferve hold true, Prov. xvii. 3. The foolishness of man perverteth his ways, and his heart fretteth against the Lord Let us then call fallen Adam, father; let us not deny the relation, feeing we bear his image.

And now to fhut up this point, fufficiently confirmed by concurring evidence from the Lord's word, our own experience and obfervation; let us be perfuaded to believe the doctrine of the corruption of our nature; and to look to the fecond Adam, the bleifed JESUS, for the application of his precious blood, to remove the guilt of this fin; and for the efficacy of his holy Spirit, to make us new creatures, knowing that except we be born again, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Of the Corruption of the Understanding.

SECONDLY, I proceed to inquire into the corruption of nature, in the feveral parts thereof. But who can comprehend it? Who can take the exact dimenfion of it, in its breadth, length, height, and depth? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it? Jer. xvii. 9. However, we may quickly perceive as much of it, as may be matter of deepest humiliation, and may dif cover to us the abfolute neceffity of regeneration. Man in his natu ral state is altogether corrupt. Both foul and body are polluted, as the apoftle proves at large, Rom. iii. 10,-18. As for the foul, this natural corruption has fpread itfelf through all the faculties thereof; and is to be found in the understanding, the will, the affections, the confcience, and the memory.

I. The Understanding, that leading faculty, is defpoiled of it's primitive glory, and covered over with confufion. We have fallen

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into the hands of our grand adverfary, as Samfon into the hands of the Philiflines, and are deprived of our two eyes. There is none that underftandeth, Rom. iii. 11. Mind and confcience are defiled, Tit.i 15. The natural man's apprehenfion of divine things is corrupt, Pfal. 1./21. Thou thoughteft that I was altogether fuch an one as thyfelf. His judgment is corrupt, and cannot be otherways, feeing his eye is evil and therefore the fcriptures, that fhew that men did all wrong, fays, Every one dia that which was right in his own eyes, Judges xvii..7. and xxi. 25. And his imaginations, or reafonings must be caft down, by the power of the word, being of a piece with his judgment, 2 Cor. X. 5 But to point out this corruption of the mind or understanding more particularly, let thefe following things be confidered.

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Firft, There is a natural weaknefs in the minds of men, with refpect to fpiritual things. The apoftle determines concerning every one that is not endued with the graces of the Spirit, That he is blind, and cannot fee afar off, 2 Pet. i. 9. Hence the Spirit of God in the fcriptures, clothes, as it were, divine truths with earthly figures, even as parents teach their children, ing fimilitudes, Hof. xii. 10. Which, tho' it doth not cure, yet do evidence this natural weakness in the minds of men. But we want not plain proofs of it from experience. As, (1.) How hard a talk is it to teach many people the common principies of cur holy religion, and to make truths fo plain as they may understand them? Here there must be precept upon precept, precept upon precept line upon line, line upon line, Ifa. xxviii. 9. Trv the fame perfous in other things, they thall be found wifer in their generation than the children of light. They understand their work and bufinefs in the world, as well as their neighbours; tho' they be very stupid and unteachable in the matters of God. Tell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how they may gratify their lufts, and they will quickly understand thefe things; tho' it is very hard to make them know how their fouls may be faved; or how their hearts may find reft in Jefus Chrift. (2.) Confider thefe who have many advantages, beyond the common gang of mankind; who have had the benefit of good education and inftruction; yea, and are bleft with the light of grace in that meafure, wherein it is diftributed to the faints on earth; yet how finall a portion have they of the knowledge of divine things! What ignorance and confufion do ftill remain in their minds! How often are they mired, even in the matter of practical truths, and speak as a child in these things. It is a pitiful weakness that we cannot perceive the things which God has revealed to us: and it muft needs be a finful weaknefs, fince the law of God requires us to know and believe them. (3.) What dangerous mistakes are to be found amongst men, in their concerns of greatest weight! What woful delafions prevail over them! do we not often fee thofe, who otherwife, are the wifelt of men, the most notorious fools, with respect to their foul's intereft, Matth. xi 25. Thou haft hid these things from the wife and prudent. Many that are eagle-eyed in the

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trifles of time, are like owls and bats in the light of life. Nay truly, the life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delufion; out of which he never awakes, till either by a new light darted from heaven into his foul, he come to himself, Luke xv. 17. or, in hell he lift up his eyes, chap. xvi. 24. And therefore in fcripture account, be he never fo wife, he is a fool and a fimple one.

-Secondly, Man's understanding is naturally overwhelmed with grofs darknefs in fpiritual things. Man, at the inftigation of the devil, attempting to break out a new light in his mind, (Gen. iii. 5.) instead of that, broke up the doors of the bottomlefs pit: fo, as by the fmoak thereof, he was buried in darkness. When God at firft had made man, his mind was a lamp of light; but now when he comes to make him over again in regeneration, he finds it darknefs, Eph. v. 8. re were fometimes darkness. Sin has clofed the windows of the foul, darkness is over all that region. It is the land of darkness and fhadow of death, where the light is as darknefs. The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but the works of darkness are framed there. We are born spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without a miracle of grace. This is thy cafe, whofoever thou art, if thou art not born again. And that you may be convinced in this matter, take chofe following evidences of it.

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Evidence 1. The darkness that was upon the face of the world before, and at the time when Chrift came, arifing as the fun of righte-. oxfnefs upon the earth. When Adam by his fin had loft that primitive light wherewith he was endued in his creation, it pleased God to make a gracious revelation of his mind and will to him, touching the way of falvation, Gen. iii. 15. This was handed down by him, and other godly fathers, before the flood: yet the natural darkness of the mind of man prevailed fo far against that revelation, as to carry off all fenfe of true religion from the old world, except what remained in Noah's family, which was preferved in the ark. After the flood, as men multiplied on the earth, the natural darkness of mind prevails again, and the light decays, till it died out among the generality of mankind, and is preferved only among the pofterity of Shem. And even with them it was well near its fetting, when God called Abraham from frving other gods, Joth. xxiv. 15. God gives Abraham a more clear and full revelation, and he communicates the fame to his family, Gen. xvii 19. yet the natural darknefs wears it out at length, fave that it was preferved among the pofterity of Jacob. They being carrieddown into Egypt, that darkness prevailed fo, as to leave them very little fenfe of true religion; and a new revelation behoved to be made them in the wilderness. And many a cloud of darkness got above that, now and then, during the time from Mofes to CHRIST. When CHRIST came, the world was divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, and the true light with them, were within an inclofure, Pal cxlvii. 19, 20. Betwixt them and the Gentile world, there was a partition wall of Gon's making, namely, the ceremonial law; and

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State II. upon that there was reared up another of man's own making namely, a rooted enmity betwixt the parties, Eph ii. 14, 15. If we look abroad without the inclosure, (and except thofe profelytes of the Gentiles, who, by means of fome rays of light breaking forth unto them from within the inclosure, having renounced idolatry, worshipped the true God, but did not conform to the Mofaical rites) we fee nothing but dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cru ltv, Pfal. Ixxiv. 20. Gi of darknefs covered the face of the Gentile world; and the way of falvation was utterly unknown among them. They were drowned in fuperftition and idolatry; and had multiplied their idols to fuch a vaft number, that above thirty thoufand are reckoned to have been worshipped by thofe of Europe alone. Whatever wisdom was among their Philofophers, the world by that wisdons knew not God, 1 Cor. i. 21. and all their refearches in religion were but groping in the dark, Acts xvii. 27. If we look within the incloure, and, except a few that were groaning and waiting for the Confolation of Ifrael, we will fee a grofs darknefs on the face of that generation. Tho' to them were committed the oracles of God; yet they were most corrupt in their doctrine. Their traditions were multiplied; but the knowledge of these things wherein the life of religion lies, was loft: Maflers of Ifrael knew not the nature and neceffity of regeneration, John iii. 10. Their religion was to build on their birth-privilege, as children of Abraham, Matth iii. 9. to glory in their circumcifion, and other external ordinances, Philip. iii. 2, 3. And to rest in the law, (Rom. ii. 17.) after they had, by their falfe gloffes, cut it fo fhort, as they might go well near to the fulfilling of it, Matth. v.

Thus was darknefs over the face of the world, when CHRIST the true Light came into it; and fo is darkness over every foul, till he, as the Day-ftar, arife in the heart. The former is an evidence of the latter. What, but the natural darkness of men's minds, could ftill thus wear out the light of external revelation in a matter upon which eternal happiness did depend? Men did not forget the way of preserving their lives: but how quickly did they lofe the knowledge of the way of falvation of their fouls; which are of infinite more weight and worth!' when patriarchs and prophets teaching was ineffectual, men behoved to be taught of GOD himself; who alone can open the eyes of the understanding. But, that it might appear, that the corruption of man's mind lay deeper than to be cured by mere external revelation; there were but very few converted by CHRIST's preaching, who spoke as never man Spoke, John xii. 37, 38. The great cure on the generation remained to be performed, by the Spirit accompanying the preaching of the apoftles: who, according to the promise, (John xiv. 12.) were to do great works. And if we look to the miracles wrought by our bleffed Lord, we will find, that by applying the remedy to the foul, for the cure of bodily distempers, (as in the cafe of

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