to tbeExp1anation (the Vocirine, &c. 5 5 fiftent with, and contradiEtory unto, that whole fiate and condition wherein we were to live to God ; feeing they all fuppofè the Entrance of fin. And it is not likely that our Reafon as now corrupted, fhould be willing to embrace that which it knew nothing of in its heft condition, and which was inconfiftent with that way of attaining happinefs which was abfolutely fùited unto it. For it hath no Faculty or Power but what it bath derived from that fiate. And to fuppofe it is now of it fèlf fuited and ready to embrace fuch heavenly myfteries of Truth and Grace, as it had no notions of, nor could have in the fiate of Innocency, is to fuppofe that by the Fall our Eyes were opened to know Good and Evil, in the fènfe that the Serpent deceived our firft Parents with an Expe&ation of. Whereas therefore our Reafon was given us for our only Guide in the firft conftitution of our Na- tures, it is naturally unready to receive what is above it, and as corrupted hath an Enmity thereunto. Hence in the firft open propofal of this myfiery, namely, of the Love and Grace of God in Chrift, of the Introdu &ion of a Mediator and his Righteoufnefs into our Relation unto God, in that way which God in infinite Wifdom had de- figned'; the whole of it was looked on as meer folly by the Generality of the wife and rational men of the. World, as the Apoftle declares at large, i Cor. ch. t. Neither was the Faith of them ever really received in the World, without an Act of the Holy Ghoft upon the mind in its Renovation. And thofe who judge that there is nothing more needful to enable the mind of man to receive the myfteries of the Gòfpel in a due manner, but the outward propofal of the Doetrine thereof, do not only deny the Depravation of our Nature by the Fall,, but by Tuft confequence, wholly renounce that Grace whereby we are to be recovered. Wherefore Reafon ( as hath'been elfewhere proved), a hng on and by its own innate Principles and Abilities, conveyed unto it from its original
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