CORRUPTION OR and fulsome errors, is hard to determine. I know some words in it are used with the old Pelagian trick of am- biguity, so as to be capable of having another sense and interpretation put upon them, than their present Use and designwill admit of. But that artifice will be im- mediately rendered useless. Sect. 2. There is a twofold state of men with res- pect unto God, which is comprehensive of all indivi- duals in the world. For all men are either unregene- gate, or regenerate. There being an affirmation and a negation concerning the state of regeneration in the scripture, one of them may be used concerning every capable subject; every man living is so, or he is not so; and herein, as I suppose, there is a general consent of Christians. Again, it is evident its the scripture, and we have proved it in our way, that all men are born in an unregenerate condition. This is so positive- 1y declared byour Saviour, that there is no rising up against it, John iii. 3, 4, 5, G, 7, 8. Now regeneration being the deliveryof men (or the means of it) from that state and condition wherein they are born, or are by nature, we cannot discover wherein it doth consist, without :a .declaration of that state which it gives us :deliverance from. And this, in the first place, we shall insist upon at large, giving an account of the state of lapsed nature under a loss of the original grace of God. And these things I shall handle practically for the edification of all sorts of believers, and not in the way and method of the schools, which yet shall be -done elsewhere. Sect. 3. In the * declaration of the state of corrupt- 'ednature after the fall, and before the reparation of it by the grace of Jesus Christ, that is the effectual opera- tion of the HolySpirit, the scripture principally insists on three things: (1.) The corruption and depravation of the mind; which it calls by the name of darkness and blindness, with the consequents of vanity, igno- rance and folly. (53.)'The depravation of the will and affections, which it expressed) several ways, as by weakness or impotency; and stubbornness or obstinacy. (3.) By the general name of death, extended to the tt -Dieu veterém-Nativitatem.atgue a feo minessires natura, qua -rural;.propagation treasfuedentur in sobotem in scripture damnari; maledictam cords nostri.imaginationem, . rationem, os,manna, pedes peccatoe,tencbris involute in nobis omna. Johan. Ferns en .Evang Job. cap. "1, v. 23. Fide perdies ape relicts, intettigentia óbcacata, l Voluntate captive, borno quo in se repsreter ,Péninvrrerit. de 'Vorat Gent. I. 7. e. 5. DEPRAVATION nCt, condition of the whole soul; and these have various cf. fects and consequences, as in our explanation of them will appear. Sect. 4. -1. All men by nature not enlightened, not renewed, in their Minds by the saving effectual opera. Lion ofthe Holy. Spirit, are in a state of darkness and blindness, with respect wtto God and spiritual things, with the way of pleasing him, and living unto him. Be men otherwise, and inother things never so wise, know- ing, learned, and skilful in spiritual things, they are dark, blind, ignorant, unless they are renewed in the spirit of their minds by the Holy Ghost. This is a matter which the world cannot endure to hear of and is ready to fall into a tumult upon its mention. They think it but an artifice, which some weak men have got, to reflect on and condemn them, who are wiser than themselves. On the like occasion did the Pharisees ask of our Saviour that question, with pride and scorn, are weblind also? John ix. 40. But as he lets them know, that their presumption of light and knowledge, would serve:only to aggravate their sin and condemnation, ver. 41. so lie plainly tells them, that notwithstanding all their boasting, they had itet.beardthevoice rf.Godat any time, -nor seen his shape, John v. 37. Sect: 5: Some, at present, talk much about the power of the intellectual faculties of our souls, asthough they were neither debased, corrupted, impaired, nor depraved. All that disadvantage which is befallen our natureby the entrance of sin, is hut in the disorder of the affections, and the inferior sensitive parts of the soul, which are apt to tumultuate and rebel against that pure untainted light which is in the mind. And this they speak of it, without respect unto its renovation by the Holy Spirit; for, if they include that also, they are in their discourses most notorious confused triflers. In- deed, some of them write, as if they had never deigned once to consult with the scriptures, and others are plain- ly gone over into the tents of the Pelagians. But, set- ting aside their modern artifices, of confident boasting, contemptuous reproaches, and scurrilous railings, it is no difficult undertaking, so to demonstrate the deprava- tion of the minds of men by nature, and their impotency thence to discern spiritual things.in.a spiritual manner, 'without a- saving effectual work ofthe. Holy Spirit in Si quispee Natura vigorem evangeliaanti predicationi nos cmtsentire posse.confirenetabaque illumination Spiritus Sancti; bmretico Failitur Spiritu. Conc. Arausic.8 Can. 7. Y4,i
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