: ·Head.!. 'The Corr-upti on of·t .~e Jf'ill. 6r and ungrateful fubjeet of.h is foul's cafe. If he cannot fo rict himfelf from them, -caTnal· reafon is called in to help, and prgeth that there is no ground -for {o great fear; all r.1ay b~ . well enough yet; and if it be ill with him, it will be ill with -• many .. When the finner is beat from this;and•feesno ad ~ ·' vintage in going to hell with company, he refolves to leave h!s fins, but canrronhink of breaking offfo foon; there is , time enough, and he·wilJ do it afterwards. Confcience fa.ys , ·· To-day, if;;e •wi/1hear hiJ voice,: hardtn not your hearts : , but he cries, .'To -mdrrow,., Lord; to-morrow, and jujl now Lord, till that now is never like to come. And t~us, many . times, he comes from his prayers a,nd coofeffions, with no- . thing but -a ·breaA: full of !harper conviCl:ioos; for the heart • 'doth not always ca·frup .the fweet morfel, a~ foon as con– :,,,feffion i~ made with the mourh, JudgeJ x.'r o.-16. And , ·when confcience ohlige~h them to part with fame .lulls, o– thers are kept as light eyes and right hands; and th'ere are , ruefUl looks after tbofe that are··put away, as it was·with the ~· Jfraelitu, who, with bitter hearts, did remember the fift.J t hey did eat ·in Egypt-freely, ·Num. xi . '. Nay, when he is fo prelfed, that he mull needs fay beforc:-.the Lord, that he is , content to patt with a1l _his idols; the heart will.be givin.rr the tongue the lie. In' a word, the fou.i, i_n this cafe; will fhift from one thing to another; like a fi[h with the hook in his ,jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it fuccumb, as the 'Wild aft·in herm#nth, Jer-. ii. 2 4~ . 'JZir'dfy, 1:here is in the will of man a natural pronenef3 to evil, a w'oful bent towards fin. Men natuyally are bent /·t o hackjliding :from Cod, Hof. ii . 7. They hang (as the · word is} towards backfl[ding ; even as a ,hanging wall. · whofe breaking comethJi1ddenly at a.n injlant. Set holind3. an4 life upQn the one fide, fin and death upon the other; Iea.we the unrenewed will to it felf, it will chofe fin,· and re– j eCl: holio~fs. ·This is ·no more to be doubted~ than tha t water, poured on the fideof a hill, will r:un downwa rd and ·· not upward. or that a · fi<~.me ,.will afcend and not ,defcend . Evidence .J ... ·Is nonhe way of evil the fidl way the chil– drenofri1en do go. Do not their inclinations:plainly appeal': ' on the wron.&fide, .while yet they have no cunning to hide- .them? In the firll ·ope~ing of our eyes in the· world, we · look a ~quint, hdl·w.ard, not hea.vell··Wa;d, -As [qon as it: • I , · F appta_rs . \
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=