4S Tht Cprrupion .ofthe Underflatuling. - State·n. f.Jl on fome device or expedient, by its fl:arting alide; which .deliberation, in feafon, could not produce. Th~s Saal, who will: not wJ1at to do, before tqe priefl began to confult God, . js quickly determined· when on:ce the pl-iefl:'s , band was in : his own hea-rt then .gave him an tnfwer, and ,,would not allow him to wa:it an anfwer from the Lord, 1 8(lm.· xiv. ·18, 1'9· Sudt a devilifh · dexterity l1ath the carnal mind~ in devifing what .may -maa··effettual– Jy ·divert men, from their duty ·to God. - ·Evid. 3· Doth not rhe -.cam·al mind, 11aturaHy {hive to grafp fpiritual things -in imagination ; as,:if.the foul were quite immerfed in flefh ami -blood, and would turn every thing into its own fua-pe? -Let men who.are' ufed to the form. ing of the moll abfl:raCl.ed )notions, look intotheirownfouls 9 and they (hall jind this ~bias in their JPinds ; ·whereof the · idolatry, which did of old, --al\ld fiill doth fo·much prevail in the wo-rld, is an ·uncontefiible evidence. . ·"For it plainly difcovers that men naturally' would haveavifible. Deity: and fee what they worfhip : and therefore they -chdnge-theg!ory ofthe uncon'uptible God, into an image, &c. Rom. i. 2 3. The reforn'ation of thefe natiops ·(bldfed be the Lord for it) hath banifhed idolatry, ahd images too, out o( our churches : but heart reformation only can brea~d·own men- .· tal idolatry-, and banifh the more ftlbtile and refined image worfhi p, and reprefentation of the Deity, out of the mi;ld-s of men. The world, in the time of its darknefs, was ne· · ver- more prone to the for'rner, than th~·unfanttified mind,is to the Jatter. And hence are horrible, monfl:rous, andmif– fh ?pen thoughts of God_, Chrifl:, the glory above, and all fpiri-tual things. ·_ 1 .Evid. 4· What a diffic~lt t~dk is it to detain.:_the carnal mind before. theLorp,? ho'waverfe is it t.o the entertainingof good thoug'hts, and dwelling in the meditation of fpiritual ·. things? If o~e~\ dr.iv~n,_at any time, to thiok ~f t.he great concerns ofhts .mul, 1t ts no harder work to hold .m an unru~y hungry beafi, than to hedge in the eamal mind, that it get not away to. the ¥anities_of the world again. \Vben Gqd i~ fpeaking to men by his word, or they are fpea~ing to him:in prayer, doth not the mind often leave them be'fere the Lord. 1i~e fo nlany idols tljat have eyei, butfte not, anrf ears, (but /;ear. not? The carcafe is laid down before God, .~,ot_ the · . ' . ,world . .
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=