ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 2, 3. 121 heart ; and by how much the more a man prized it be- fore, by so much the more doth he detest it now. They counted no silver nor gold too good to frame their idols of before ; their ear-rings shall go to make them a calf, Exod. xxxii. 3. but when they repent, nothing can be too base to compare them or to cast them unto, Isa. ii. 20. xxx. 22. The human nature is the same in all men, yet some facwlties are more vigorous in some, and other in others ; some witty, others strong ; some beautiful, others proper ; some a quick eye, others a ready tongue ; some for learned, others for mechanical professions : as some grounds take better to some kind of grain than to others ; so in the new man, though all the graces of Christ are in some degree and proportion shaped in every regenerate person, yet one excels in one grace, another in another. Abraham in faith, Job in patience, Moses in meekness, David in medi- tation, Solomon in wisdom, Phinehas in zeal, Mary Magdalen in love, Paul in labour, &c. And so it is in the old man too. Though by nature we have all the members of original corruption, yet these put themselves forth in actual vigour differently. One man is more possessed by a proud devil, another by an unclean one ; Ahaz superstitious, Balaam ambi- tious, Cain envious, Korah stubborn, Esau profane, Ishmael a mocker, the young man a worldling. Ac- cording to different complexions and tempers of body, (by which habitual lust is excited and called forth into action,) or according to the differences of education, countries, callings, converse, and interests in the world, so men are differently assaulted with distinct kinds of sin, and most men have their beloved lusts, which they may more properly call their own, Psa. xviii. 23. And as this sin is usually the special bar
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