' . Head L iJ l~rrupt~ct, prqveN~ '· ~;} lows· him a.s the thadow doth the body: it makes a blot im· the fairdl: lin~ he can draw. It is like the fig-tree in the V{all; which, how nearly foe'Ver it wucut, yet !till grew till– the wa.Jl was thrown down : for the roots of it are fixed in, the heart, while the\ faint is in the.world, .as witb bands of. I iron and brafs. [t is efpecially aCtive when he1wou1d dogood~ Rom. vii, 21. thes the fowls came down opon the carcafe$, Hence often in holy duties, the fpirit..even of a faint (as it 'were) evaporates: a.111d he is left .ere he is aware, like .!Vli– t.hal,. with an image in the 'bed, i'nfiead of an hulband. I· need not. fiand ro prove the remains of the corruption of · :iHt.tUte in tht< godly, to themfelves: f-or theygroan under it;,. and to prove it to them; . were tQ ho~d out a candle to let' ,men fee the fun: and as for the wicked, they are ready ·to.· account mole-hills in tile faint, as big as mountains; if not to reckon tlJem all hypocrites. }3ut confider thefe few ' things on' thi~ head. ( r.) If it be thus in thf green tree, IJo~. rrtujl it be in t·he dry? The fai,nts are not bqrn faints; but made fo by the ~ower of n!generating grace. Have they· got a new,nature, and yet fo -much of the old r.emains witll . them? · How great'rptll1 th<lt corruption be in others, ,whe;re: it is al togerher unmixed wiih gr~ce ! ( 2.) The faints groan, unde'r the remai'ns .of it,as a h.eavy burden; hear the apo· file, Rom..vii . 24. 0 wretched man tbat I '£lm! Who.jhalt;. , tleli7;er me from t.he bod;)' of thi..r death, What tho' thec'arnal , JNan lives at- eafe and quiet, and the corrupti~n of nature is· not his burden: is he thereforefu:e from it? No, ao; only, he is dead, and feels not the finking weight. :Many agroan is heard from· a f.ick bed; but never one from a grave. , In · t-he faint, as in the lick man, ther~ is a ,mighty ftruggle ;.. ' 1ife and death fl:ri:ving for t"he..mafiery: but in the naturaJ' man, as in the dead c'orpfe, there is no noife; becaufe deat 1 h. · bears full fway. (3.) The· godly man reGHs the '0ld corrupt nature; _he fhives to mortify it, yet it remains : he endea– -, ,ours to fiarve it, an~ by that means to we:~tken it, .. yet it is. ac1:ive : how mttfi it fpread then, and Hrengthen itfelf in . that foul, where it is ~et fiarved, but fed? And this i.s the · Gafe of all the unregen~rate, who mak'epro:v~{toJJfor the jldh tJJ fu/jilthe !ujh thereof. If the ga r d~o of the diligent af•. ford him new work daily, in CVIHing off -anq rooting . up; fu.rely that of. the £lu~~at:d. muH needs be all grown oYer·; wnh ,thorns,' 1 ly:o,
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