OF THE MIND BY SIN. 163 (2.) It may be considered as it is practical, as to the power it bath to direct the whole scut, and determine the will unto actual operation according to its light. 1 shall not inquire, at present, whether the will, as to the specification of its acts, do necessarily follow the determination of the mind or practical understanding. I aim at no more, but that it is the directive faculty of the soul as auto all moral and spiritual operations. I fence it fvilows; Sect. 61. (l.) That nothing in the soul, not the will and affections, can will, desire, or cleave unto any good, but what is presented unto them by the mind, and as it is presented. That good, whatever it be which the mind cannot discover, the will cannot choose, nor the affections cleave unto. All their actings about and con- cerning them are not such as answer their duty. This our Saviour directs us to the consideration of, Mat. vi. 22, 23. a Time light of the body is theeye; if therefore «thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of " light. But ifthine eye be evil, thy whole body shall a- be full of darkness; if therefore the light that is in thee " be darkness, how great is that darkness?' As the eye is naturally the light of the body, or the means there- of, so is the mind unto the soul. And if darkness be in the eye, not only the eye, but the whole body, is in darkness, because in the eye alone is the light of the whole; so if the mind be under darkness, the whole soul is so also, because it hath no light but by the mind. And hence both is illumination sometimes taken for the whole work ofconversion unto God, and the spi- ritual actings of the mind by the renovation of the Holy Ss Ghost, are constantly proposed, as those which precede any gracious actings in the will, heart, and life; as we shall shew afterwards. (2.) As the soul can no way by any other of its facula ties receive, embrace, or adhere unto that good in a sav- ing manner, which the mind doth not savingly- appre- hend; so, where the mind is practically deceived, or any way captivated under the power of prejudices, the will and-the afflictions can no way free themselves from en- tertaining that evil which the mind bath perversely as- sented unto. Thus, where the mind is reprobate or void of a sound judgment, so as to call good evil, and evil good, the heart, affections, and conversation, will be conformable thereunto, Roth. i. 28, 29. And, iu the scripture, the deceit of the mind is commonly laid down as the principle of all sin whatever, I Tim. ii. 14. Heb. iii. ts, Is. 2 Cor. xi. 3. Sect. 62. And this is -a brief delineation of the state of the mind of man whilst unregenerate, with re- spect unto spiritual things. And fromwhat bath been spoken, we do conclude that the mind, in the state of nature, is so depraved, vitiated and corrupted, that it is not able, upon the proposal of spiritual timings unto it, in the dispensation and preaching of the gospel, to un- derstand, receive, and embrace them in a spiritual and saving manner, so as to have the sanctifying power of them thereby brought into and fixed in the soul, with- out an internal, especial, immediate, supernatural, ef- fectual enlightening act of the Holy Ghost; which,, what it is, andwherein it doth consist, shall be declared« 23
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