Baxter - BT767 B28 1662

xo4 'A Si1nt or~ Brute~ Pa:rt II~ do they fet fo light by Halinefs, and Chriil and Heaven, but heo; caufe they apprehend them not to be Deft for them ? Would men refufe, and obfiinately againfl: all perfwafions refufe a Holy life , if they took it practic<1lly to be Deft for them ? what ! will they contrive their o\\?n de(l-ruElion ? do they long to do themfelves a Mifchief, and the greateH Mif– chief in the world? No, thats not the cafe; But the matter is this: Their fen[es draw them another way ; Their eye, tbeic ear, their tail:e, their feeling, ever)i fenfe bath a Pleafure of its Own, and this fenfe or flefh is violent ·and unreafonab!c, and would fain be fatisfied: and Reafon that was given us to Rule it, is bribed and blinded and perverted by it, and fo is ready as a f~rvant to obey it, and to take its part ; and the fleihl¥ mind . dtfcerneth not the things of God, for they a_re fpirimally dif– cerned : the Will alfo and the Affections are by the byas of a flelhly inclination corrupted, and habitually lean to the flelhly part : And rhat whit:h men Love, they will eafily think well of, al'ld are glad of any thing like Reafon todefend ii: ; and that which is againfi the Inclination of the Will, will hardly be thought well of, and any thing like Reafon will ferve againft ir. This depravation of the mind and will of man, en11aved and ruled by the Fle{h or fenfuality, is the very caufe that mofl: men will noE choofe the Better parr, and fo the caufe of their perpetual mifery. And till the Holy Ghofi fend in a heavenly light of Wifdom into the mind to fhew them the true difference between - the Good and the Evil, and a new Inclination into the Will, that fhall turn their hearts from the Evil to the Good,they wiJJ fiill go ().n,and the mz1tters of God will feem foolifhnefs to them,and they will take thofe men fo.r the veryeft foo/J that follow theWifdom oi the Lord, and provide moH carefully for eternal li fe.; and they will take thofe for the wifeft men, that are mofi contrary to the God of Wifdom, and that dare leap mofi fearlefly into Hell; Or if this be not their OpinioN, bur conviction force tbem to a wi f.er kind of langruwe, yet will it be their Pra£licat eflim.Jtion and their Hearts, a~their Choice and Lives will eafily de<:iat~. For · th.Jlt which iJ born of the fi efh u ~ejh, and that which is born of t he /pirit is fpirit, Jol1.3 .6. The flelhly man wi11 have a ~efoly min d ' and will, and openly or fecretly will Live after the fl efo, and fuch · are the heirs of death, Rom.8. 5!7,13. Fl(fbly generation cannot make a [piritual mindor heart in any, hut it mufi be by JP_iritlflll

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=