64 1C0e1Xn11a1ip oftL)e íbirte littttbtttc , Chap. IV. difficulty is exceffive and confines upon impoffibility, it u --/-sJ deje&s the Soul and inclines it to defpair : Thus when the condition of obtaining fome good is neceffary, but infufferable, it takes off from all endeavours in order to it. To confiderit in a temporal Cafe, will make it more clear. As one that labours under a Dropfie, and is vext with an intolerable and infatiable thirft, if a Phyfician fhould affure him of Cure upon condition he would abfiain from drinking, he could not conceive any real hope of being healed, judging it impoffible to reGíf the importunity of his drought, he therefore negle&s the means, he drinks and dies. Thus the corrupt Heart of Man, that is under a perpetual thirft of car- nal Pleafures, and is more inflamed by the fatisfaC-tion it receives, judges it an infuperable condition to part with them for the acquiring offpiritual Happinefs : And this fenfual and fottifh Defpair caufes a total neg- lect of the means. 'Tis thus expreft by the Ifraelite.r, when God commanded them to return from the evil of their waies inorder to their Happinefs, and they faid, Abft;nercne- Therein no hope, but we will walkafter our own devices, queo. Grot. andwe will every one do the imaginationofhis evilheart. Jer. 18. ts: Theywere Slaves to their domineering Appetites, and refolved to make no trial about that they judg'd im- poffible. Briefly, In fain Man there is fomething predo- minant, which he values above the favour andfruition of God, and that is the World. As in the Parable, where Happinefs is fet forth under the familiar repre- fentation of .a Feaft, tholewho were invited to it, ex- cufe themfelves by fuch reafons as clearly difcover that fome amiable Luft charm'd them fo ftrongly, that in Luk.14. i$. the competition 'twas prefer'd before Heaven. One faith, I have bought a piece ofground, and Imull needs go fee it and another,. I have bought .a yoke of oxen,. 1 '.
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