JIH:~d I: The Corruption if the Und~:rflanding~ SS planted by the finger of God in a renewed heart, and learn-· ed of the lowly Jefus. It is natural to man to think highly· of himfelf, and what is his own; for the fhoke he h4S ' got by his fall in Adam has produced a falfe light~ whereby mole·hills about him appear like mountains; and a t~Jvufand air y beauties prefent themfelves to his deltded fancy Y air. man would be wife, (fo he accounts · himfelf, and· fo he would be accounted of by others) th·ough man b~ born like a wild ajs's colt, Job xi. 12 . His way is right becaufe it is his own: for every ....vay of man is right in hiJ qttvn e)'eJ, Rrov. xxi. 2. His Hate is good, becaufe he knows nonG better; he is alive:withoztt the law, Rom. vii. 9· and there– fore his hope is fhong, and h1s confidence firm. It is an– other tower of Babel rean·d up againfl heaven; and Hi all DOt fall while the· power of darknefs can hold it up. The word batters it, yet !t ftaods: one while breaches are made· in it, ·bu't they are quickly repaired; at an0ther time, it is all made to fhake, but Hill it :i-s kept up; till either GoJ , himfelf by his -S-pirit raife· an hean-q 1i~ke within the · rfJan, which tumbles it down; and leaves not one Hone upon a n~ no~her, (2 Cor. ·x. 4• 5.') or death batter tt down, and. raz:'! the foundations of it, [..uke xvi. 23. And as the natur al m:1<n thinks highly of himfelf, fo he thinks rneanly ·of God whatever he prete-nds, Pfal.l . 2 I: 'Thou thoug~te.;1 thatl·wa.r altogether{'uch an cne as dyfelf. . rhe doCl:rine of the gofpd a-nd the myllery ofChrifl: ar-e foolifhnefs to him ; and in his practice he treats them as fuch, I Cor. i.I8. andii . .q. He brings the word and the works of God in the governmePt of. the world, before the bar of his ca-rnal reafon; and the1e they are prefumptuoufly cenfu red a·nd condemned , Hrf. xiv. 9. Sometimes the ordinary refhaint of providence is taken ()tt, and Satan- i<:> permitted to fEr up the carnal mind: and in that cafe it is like an ant's nel1, uncovered a:1d diltu rbed; doubts, denials, and- hellifh reafonings crowd in it, and can– not be laid by all the arguments b'rought againfl: them, till a, power from on high captivate the mind, and fhli the mu– ti-ny of the corrupt principles : Thus much of the corruption of the undedhnding, which . altho' the half be not told, may difcover to you the abfo– lute necefTity of regcneratiog grace. Call th~ und.et Handing 'tmw.fcbabod, fo( the glory_is dep~rted from it.. Confider s.
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