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the man fick of the palfy, Matth. ix. 2.) he plainly discovered, that it was his main errand into the world to cure the difeafes of the foul. I find a miracle wrought upon one that was born blind, performed in fuch a way, as feems to have been defigned to let the world fee in it, as in a glafs, their cafe and cure, John ix. 6. He made clay, and anointed the eyes of the blind man, with the clay. What could more fitly reprefent the blindnefs of men's minds, than eyes clofed up with earth? Ifa vi. 1. Shut their eyes; fhut them up by anointing or cafting them with mortar, as the word would bear. And Chap. xliv. 18. he bath fhut their eyes; the word properly fignifies, he hath plaistered their eyes; as the house in which the leprofy had been, was to be plaistered, Lev. xiv. 42. Thus the Lord's word difcovers the defign of that strange work; and by it fhews us, that the eyes of our undertanding are naturally fhut. Then the blind man muft go and wash off this clay in the pool of Siloam; no other water will ferve this purpose. If that pool had not reprefented him, whom the Father fent into the world, to open the blind eyes, (Ifa. xlii. 7.) I think the Evangelift had not given us the interpretation of the name, which he fays, fignifies, fent, John ix. 7. And do we may con lude, that the natural darknefs of our winds is fuch, as there is no cure for; but from the blood and Spirit of Jefus Chrift, whofe eye-falve, only can make us fee, Rev. i. 18.

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Evid. 2. Every natural man's heart and life is a mass of darkness, diforder and confufion; how refined foever he appear in the fight of For we ourselves alfo, faith the apostle Paul, were fometimes foolish, difbedient, deceived, ferving divers lufts and pleasures, Tit.iii. 3. and yet at that time, which this text looks to, he was blameless, touching the righteousness which is in the law, Phil, iii. 6. This is a plain evidence that the eye is evil, the whole body being full of darkness, Mat. vi. 23. The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the world, like fo many blind men; who will neither take a guide, nor can guide themselves; and therefore are falling over this and the other precipice, into deftruction. Some are running after their covetoufness, till they be pierced through with many forrows; fome sticking in the mire of fenfuality; others dafhing themselves on the rock of pride and felf-conceit; every one ftumbling on fome one stone of ftumbling or other all of them are running themfelves upon the fword-point of justice, while they eagerly follow, whither their unmortified paffions and affections lead them; and while fome are lying alone in the way, others are coming up, and falling headlong over them. And therefore, Wo unto the (blind) world because of offences, Matth. xviii. 7. Errors in judgment fwarm in the world; because it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forreft do creep forth. All the unregenerate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness; for ' tho' Christianity hath fixed that matter in point of principle; vet nothing less than overcoming grace can fix it in the practical judg ment. All men agree in the defire to be happy: 'but amongit vn

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State IT. renewed men, touching the way to happiness, there are almost as many opinions as there are men; they being turned every one to his own way, Ifa. liii. 6. They are like the blind Sodomites about Let's honfe, all were feeking to find the door, fome grope one part of the wall for it, fome another; but none of them could certainly fay, hè had found it and fo the natural man may ftumble on any good but the chief good. Look into thine own unregenerate heart, and there thou wilt fee all turned upside down: heaven lying under, and earth a-top, look into thy life, there thou mayft fee, how thou art playing the madman, hatching at fhadows, and neglecting the fubftance, eagerly flying after that which is not, and flighting that which is, and will be for ever.

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Evid. 3. The natural man is always as a workman left without light; either trifling or doing inifchief. Try to catch thy heart at any time thou wilt, and thou fhall find it either weaving the Spider's web, or hatching cockatrice-eggs, (Ifa. lix. 5.) roving thro' the world, or digging into the pit; filled with vanity, or elfe with vilenefs, bufy doing nothing, or what is worfe then nothing. A fad fign of a dark mind.

Evid. 4. The natural man is void of the faving knowledge of fpiritual things. He knows not what a God he has to deal with; he is unacquainted with Chrift; and knows not what fin is. The greatest graceless wits are blind as moles in these things. Ay, but fome fuch can fpeak of them to good purpose: and fo might these Ifraelites of the temptations, figns and miracles, their eyes had feen, (Deut. xxix. 3.) to whom nevertheless the Lord had not given an heart to perceive, and eyes to fee, and ears to hear, unto that day, ver 4. Many a man that bears the name of a Chriftian, may make Pharaoh's confeffion of faith, Exod. v. 2. I know not the Lord, neither will they let go when he commands them to part with. God is with them as a prince in difguife among his fubjects, who meets with no better treatment from them, than if they were his fellows, Pfal. 1. 21. Do they know Chrift, or fee his glory, and any beauty in him for which he is to be defired? if they did, they would not fight him as they do: a view of his glory would fo darken all created excellency, that they would take him for, and inftead of all, and gladly clofe with him, as he offereth himself in the gofpel, John iv. 10. Pfal. ix. 10. Matth. xiii. 44, 45, 59. Do they know what fin is, who hug the ferpent in their bofom, hold faft deceit, and refufe to let it go? I own indeed they may have a natural knowledge of thofe things, as the unbelieving Jews had of Chrift, whom they faw and converfed with but there was fpiritual glory in him, perceived by believers only, Joh i.-14. and in refpect of that glory, the (unbelieving) world knew him not, ver. 10. But the fpiritual knowledge of them they cannot have; it is above the reach of the carnal mind, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are fpiritually difcerned, He may indeed difcourfe of them; but no other

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way than one can talk of honey or vinegar, who never tafted the fweetness of the one, nor the fournefs of the other. He has fome notions of spiritual truths, but fees not the things themselves, that are wrapt up in the words of truth, 1 Tim. i. 7. Understanding neither. what they fay, nor whereof they affirm. In a word, natural men fear, feek, confefs, they know not what. Thus may you fee man's underftanding naturally is overwhelmed with grofs darkness in fpiritual things.

Thirdly, There is in the mind of man a natural bias to evil, whereby it comes to pafs, that whatever difficulties it finds, while occupied about things truly good, it acts with a great deal of ease in evil; as being in that cafe, in its own element, Jer. iv. 22. The carnal mind rives heavily in the thoughts of good; but furiously in the thoughts of evil. While holiness is before it, fetters are upon it: but when once it has got over the hedge, it is as the bird got out of the cage, and becomes a free-thinker indeed. Let us reflect a little on the apprehenfion and imagination of the carnal mind; and we fhall find unconteftible evidence of this woful bias to evil.

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Evidence 1. As when a man, by a violent stroke on the head, lofeth his fight, there arifeth to him a kind of falfe light, wherely he perceiveth a thousand airy nothings; fo man being ftruck blind to all that is truly good, and for his eternal intereft, has a light of another fort brought into his mind; his eyes are opened, knowing evil, and fo are the words of the tempter verified, Gen. iii. 5. The words of the Prophet are plain, They are wife to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, Jer. iv. 22. The mind of man has a natural dexterity to devife mifchief: none are fo fimple, as to want fkill to contrive ways to gratify their lufts, and ruin their fouls; tho' the power of every one's hand cannot reach to put their devices in execution. None needs to be taught this black art; but as weeds grow up, of their own accord in the neglected ground, fo doth this wisdom (which is earthly, fenfual, devilish, James iii. 15 ) grow up in the minds of men, by virtue of the corruption of their nature. Why fhould we be furprifed with the product of corrupt wits: their cunning devices to affront heaven, to oppofe and run down truth and holiness, and to gratify their own and other men's lufts? They row with the ftream; no wonder they make great progrefs: their flock is within them, and increaseth by ufing of it: and the works of darkness are contrived with the greater advantage, that the mind is wholly deftitute of fpiritual light, which, if it were in them, in any meafure, would fo far mar the work, 1 John iii. 9. Whofoever is born of God, doth not 1 commit fin; he does it not as by art, for his feed remaineth in him. But on the other hand, It is a fport for a fool to do mifchief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom, Prov. x. 23. To do witty wickedness nicely, as the word imports, is as a sport, or a play to a fool; it comes off with him eafily; and why, but because he is a fool, and hath not wifdom; which would mar the contrivances of darknefs? The more natural a thing is, it is done the more easily.

Evid. 2. Let the corrupt mind have but the advantage of one's being employed in, or prefent at fome piece of fervice to God; that fo the device, if not in itfelf finful, yet may become finful, by its unfeasonableness; it fhall quickly fall on fome device or expedient, by its starting afide; which deliberation, in feafon, could not produce. Thus Saul, who wift not what to do, before the priest began to confult God, is quickly determined when once the priest's hand was in : his own heart then gave him an anfwer, and would not allow him to wait an answer from the Lord, 1 Sam. xiv. 18, 19. Such a devilish dexterity hath the carnal mind, in deviling what may most effectually divert men from their duty to God.

Evid. 3. Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grafp spiritu things in imagination; as if the foul were quite immerfed in flesh and blood, and would turn every thing into its own fhape? Let men who are used to the forming of the most abstracted notion, look into their own fouls, and they hall find this bias in their minds: whereof the idolatry, which did of old, and still doth, so much prevail in the world, is an unconteftable evidence. For it plainly difcovers, that men naturally would have a vifible deity, and fee, what they worship: and therefore they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, Rom. i. 23. The reformation of thefe nations (bleffed be the Lord for it) hath banished idolatry, and images too, out of our churches: but heart-reformation only can break down mental idolatry, and banish the more fubtile and refined image-worthip, and reprefentation of the Deity, out of the minds of men. The world, in the time of its darkness, was never more prone to the former, than the unfanctified mind is to the latter. And hence are horrible, monftrous, and mishapen thoughts of God, Chrift, the glory above, and all spiritual things.

Evid. 4. What a difficult task is it to detain the carnal mind before the Lord! how averfe is it to the entertaining of good thoughts, and dwelling in the meditation of fpiritual things! if one be driven, at any time, to think of the great concerns of his foul, it is no harder work to hold in an unruly hungry beaft, than to hedge in the carnal mind, that it get not away to the vanities of the world again. When God is fpeaking to men by his word, or they are fpeaking to him in prayer, doth not the mind often leave them before the Lord, like fo many idols that have eyes, but fee not; and ears, but hear not? The carcafe is laid down before God, but the world gets away the heart : tho' the eyes be closed, the man fees a thousand vanities: the mind, in the mean time, is like a bird got loose out of the cage, skipping from bufh to buih; fo that, in effect, the man never comes to himfelf, till he be gone from the prefence of the Lord. Say not, it is impoffible to get the mind fixed. It is hard indeed, but not impoffible. Grace from the Lord can do it, Pfal. cviii. 1. Agreeable objections will dó it. A pleafant fpeculation will arreft the minds of the inquifitive: worldly man's mind is in little hazard of wandering, when he is Sarriving of bulinefs, cafting up his accounts, or telling his money:

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if he answer you not at firft, he tells you, he did not hear you, he was bufy; his mind was fixed. Were we admitted into the presence of a king to petition for our lives, we would be in no hazard of gazing through the chamber of prefence: But here lies the cafe, the carnal mind, employed about any ipiritual good, is out of its element, and therefore cannot fix.

Evid. 5 But however hard it is to keep the mind on good thoughts, it fticks as glue to what is evil and corrupt like itself! 2 Pet. ii. 14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot ceafe from fin. Their eyes cannot ceafe from fin; (fo the words are conftructed) that is, their hearts and minds venting by the eyes, what is within, are like a furious beast, which cannot be held in, when once it has got out its head. Let the corrupt imagination once be let loofe on its proper object; it will be found hard work to call it back again, tho' both reafon and will be for its retreat. For then it is in its own element; and to draw it off from its impurities, is as the drawing of a fish out of the water, or the renting of a limb from a man. It runs like fire fet to a train of powder, that refteth not till it can get no further. Evid. 6. Confider how the carnal imagination fupplies the want of real objects to the corrupt heart; that it may make finners happy, at least, in the imaginary enjoyment of their lufts. Thus the corrupt heart feeds itself with imagination-fias: the unclean perfon is filled with fpeculative impurities, having eyes full of adultery; the covetous man fills his heart with the world, tho' he cannot get his hands full of it; the malicious perfon, with delight, acts his revenge within his own breast) the envious man, within his own narrow foul, beholds, with fatisfaction, his neighbour laid low enough; and every luft finds the corrupt imagination a friend to it in time of need. And this it 'doth, not only when people are awake, but fometimes even when they are asleep; whereby it comes to'pafs, that these fins are acted in dreams, which their hearts were carried out after, while they were awake. I know fome do question the finfulness of these things: But can it be thought they are confiftent with that holy nature and frame of fpirit, which was in innocent Adam, and in Jesus Christ, and fhould be in every man? It is the corruption of nature then, that makes filthy dreamers condemned, Jude 8. Solomon had experience of the exercife of grace in fleep: in a dream he prayed, in a dream he made the best choice; both were accepted of God, 1 Kings iii. 5,-15. And if a man may, in his fleep, do what is good and acceptable to God, why may he not alfo, when afleep, do that which is evil and difpleafing to God? The fame Solomon would have men aware of this; and prefcribes the beft remedy against it, namely, The law upon the heart, Prov. vi. 20, 21. When thou sleepest, (fays.he, ver. 22.) it hall keep thee, to wit, from the finning in thy fleep; that is, from finful dreams: For one's being kept from fin, (not his being kept from affliction) is the immediate proper effect of the law of God inpreft upon the heart, Pfal. cxix. 11. And thus the whole verfe is

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