Epißleof S. Paul to Titus. while we lined that natural l ife,we lined inmalice and enuie,hatedandhate- full. Of all which we are to fpeake in their order. And fir(} for the corruptionof mind, and the degrees of it, we will urft fcarch out the true meaning ofchemland thendeliuerfowehaturall utftru&ion out of euery of them. Vnwife, ] This word dire&iy fheweth the folly and want of vnder- (landiug in the things of God: the,which that we may better conceiue, we mull knowe, that beforethe fall , euery man had an vnderflanding givenhimof God,bothnaturali and fpiricuall, both of them holy; and entire: and that by our apoftacie fromGod inour fira parents , we loft themaine part of the former, and euery whit ofthe latter. All our wit dome in earthlyand natural! things concerning this prefent life is not loft, yet that which remaineth is (as-rcafon itfelfé) very weake and in- fufficient; that inflanceEccle l4.8.teachethit: There is aman, andhe is but one alone, withoot afecond, he bath neither fannes ner brother, ofwhofe travels in getting wealth there it no ende: andyet bee faith net with him' [elfe, for whome doe 1trawlt? which argueth a meruailous impotencie and darkenes in the vnderflandingof naturali things.But come tobra- uenly and fupernaturall, there it is as altogether loll : we are not ableof our felues, faithour Apofile, to thinke onegood thought : and much leire toconceiue thethings of God, which areall mytleries,and written in a elafped booke, and sealed with feauen feales, vntill the Lordby his fpi- rit open the vnderflanding: fuch fool childrenare we, andofnone under- Ier,4.as. flanding. Nay further, we haue not onely a deprivation of fpiricuall wifdome in vs, but an aaerfation, and vntoward difpofition,cleanecon - trarie thereunto, that wecan imagine and conceiueonely euill continu- ally: for what iselfeproóued by that we are called keaflrinvnderflan_ ding, andwilled not to be like thehorfeor mule: which creaturesare not on- t>ail.3s,y. ly without vnderflanding,but exceeding auke andhard to be taught, e- uenwhen they aremuchbroken andbeaten. And whichof vs bath not experience of his owne flownesof heart toconceiue the things ofour e- ternall peace,neuer foiplainely, neuer fo often taught in the minifterie ? neither is one nature here of better apprehenfion then anothers for the fpeach is truenot onely ofPimpleones, but of thegreater clarkes, who hereare not the wifefl men: thequickefl natures,Plato,e.Árifiorle,Seneca, are here as blinde as moles : nay,Nicodemus a ruler in Ìfrael , how ba- bifhly and foolifhlydidhe apprehend the fpeach of Chrifl concernin>? the new birth? therewas no way but formen tò returne back c into the womb againe. Thus fenfuall atíd earthly is thebell of our wifedome, and ho, t1. no (harper isour conceit in fuch obie&s till the Lordwhet and frame them :till which timewe fee our (clues by thiswe haue Paid, tobe in the Pp t ranke i,GqTOt.
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