CHAP.l. up~n the Epiftle of JAM E s. VBRS.I4 But every man is tempted,] He fpeaketh fo univerfally, becaufe none is free but Chrifi. _ when by his own lu{l] He faithhu own,bccaufet~ough we have all a corrupt nature in ~ommon, yet every ~:me. bath a particular feverttl inclmation to this or that Gn rooted m his nature: Or ra– ther Bwn, to exclude forreign force, and all vioJencefrom without; chere is not agreater enemy then our own nature. [ Hi1 ow,; tuft] That I may {hew you, what is meant by luft, I mufi premife Come– thing~ 1. The .soul of man. is ~hiefly and m~inly made up '!fdefires, like~ fpunge 'c1s always th1dlmg, and fuckmg of fomethmg to fi\1 it felf; All its Ad:ings, even the tirfl: AClings of the Underfianding, . come out of fome will, and fome dellre, as the Apofile fpeaketh, ofthe wills, oftheminde, Eph.2.3. a place I lhall touch upon again by and by. 2. At leafi this will be granted, That the bent of the Soul, the mofi vigorous, commanding,[waying faculty of the Soul, is defire; that .Nvrt.[J-1~ tln9utA-»]n,~ is (Hay) the mofi vigorous bent of the Soul. 3· Since the fall, man rather confulceth with his defires, then with any thing elfe , and there all aClion and purfuit beginneth; fo that this faculty is eminently corrupted, and cor– rupceth and (wayeth all therefi; and therefore grofs lufis, the lower and bafer defires, are called, the law of the members, Rom. 7• 23. defires or lufis giving law to the whole Soul: Upon thefe R~afons I fuppofe it is that all fin is expreffed by lufi, which, if taken in a proper and refirained fence, would not reach the obliquities of the wholen11ture of man, but onely of one faculty; but becau(e there feemeth to be in the Creature a fecret will and defire, by whtch every art is drawn out, and defire is the mofi vigorous faculty,bend– ing and engaging the Soul to aCtion, the Spirit of God chooferh to exprefs fin by tuft, and fuch words as are mofi proper to the dejire.r - of the Creatures; ~ris true, chat in the Old Tefiament I finde it exprefled by~word proper to the Underfianding, by inventions, or imaginAtions, or counfels, whence thofe phrafes, walkjng ac– cording to their own imaginations , arid \Valkf:ng in their own counfe!s : But the New Tefl:ament delighteth rather in the other e_xpreffioris of concupi{cence and luft, words proper to the defires; the reafon of which difference I conceive to be, partly the manner ~f the Hebrews, who frequently ufe words of the underftand– mg tonotefuitab!e affections; partly the fiate of the world, who at firfi were bruitijb in their conceits, and prone to i dots, and P therefore IO)
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