Head I. T!te Corruption of the !f"il!. ~ t to ward off thefe convictions, as ever they would ward off a blow, threatning-tt1eir lofs of a right-eye, or a right'· h'and! If the fpirit of tbe Lord dart the;tl in, fo as tbey cannot cw -vite them; tbe he<~.rt fays, in effdl:, asAhab to Elijah , whom he \loth hated and feared, Hafi thou (ou11d me; 0 mine ene– 'l'llJ-;J And inde~d tqey treat him as an enemy, doing their ut– mofi to fiifle conviCtio-ns, and to murder tbefe harbingers, -that 'come to prepare the Lord's way iot~ the foul. Some ·fill their hands with bufinefs, to put their conviCtions out of their heads, as Cain who fe.ll a building of a city; fome put them, off with delays and fair pro;nifes, as Fef.ix did: · fome will fport them away in company, ·and fom'e ileep them a– way. The holy Spirit is the fpirit otnmcrification whofe work it is to fubdue lulls, and burn up corruption : how then can the nat~ral man, whofe lufls are to him as hi$ limbs, yea, as his life, fail of being an enemy to him ? Lafl!y, Ye are enemies to the law of God. Tho' the na– ttlral man dejires to be under the-law as a covenant ofworkJ 9 chutlng thar way of falvation in oppofition to the myftery of Chrifi; yet as it is a rule if life, requiring univerfa! holinefs~ and difcharging all manner ofimpurity, he is an enemy to it; I1 not fitbjcfl to th-e1arwofGod, neither indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7. For, ( r.) There is no un'renewed man, who is not wedded to fome one tuJl ·or other, which his heart. can by no. means part wirh. Now tl1at he cannot bring up his inclina– tions to the holy law, he would fain have t..he law brought down to his- inclinations : a plain evidence of the enmity of the heart againft it. And tbertfore, to delight in the 'law o/God, after the in'Luard n-~an . is propofed in the word as a mark of a gracious foul , Rom. vii. 22. Pfal. i. 2. It is ' from thio; natural enmity of the heart ~gaiofi the law, that ~ll the pharifaical glolTes upon it have arifen; whereby the i:Ommandn1ent, which is in itfeif'exceeding broad, has been rn.ade very narrow, to the intent itmight be the more agree– able to the naturai difpyfi iioi'J of the heart. (2.) The law laid home to the natural confcience, in its fpirituality; ir· ritates <:Or ruptiQn. fhe nearer it comes, nature rifeth the more againfi it. In that cafe, it is as oil to the ili-e, · · ~w,bich inllead of quenching it, mt1kes it flame the mor~; · l11hew the commandment came,jin revived, fay.s the apofUe, · -,.R~m. vii. 9• What reafon can be aHiliined for ~ t4is, but ..
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