State II. they are at ordinances, they are, as Doeg, detained before the Lord, 1 Sam. xxii 7.

Evid. 3. Confider how the will of the natural men doth rebel against the light, Job xxiv. 13. Light fometimes entreth in, because he is not able to hold it out: but he loveth darkness rather than light. Sometimes by the force of truth, the outer door of understanding is broken up; but the inner door of the will remains faft bolted. Then lufts rife against light; corruption and confcience encounter, and fight as in the field of battle; till corruption getting the upper hand, confcience is forced to give back: convictions are murdered: and truth is made and held prisoner, fo that it can create no more disturbance. While the word is preached or read, or the rod of God is upon the natural man, fometimes convictions are darted in on him, and his fpirit is wounded, in greater, or leffer measure: but thefe convictions not being able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrows fticking in his confcience; and at length, one way or other, gets them out, and licks himself whole again. Thus, while the light fhines, men, naturally averfe to it, wilfully fhut their eyes; till God is provoked to blind them judicially, and they become proof against the word and providences too: fo they may go where they will, they can fit at ease; there is never a word from heaven to them, that goeth deeper than into their ears, Hof. iv. 17. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

Evid. 4. Let us observe the resistance made by elect fouls, when the Spirit of the Lord is at work, to bring them from the power of Satan unto God. Zion's King gets no fubjects but by ftroke of fword, in the day of his power, Pfal. cx. 2,

3. None come to him, but such as are drawn by a divine hand, John vi. 44. When the Lord comes to the foul, he finds the strong man keeping the house, and a deep peace and fecurity there, while the foul is fast asleep in the devil's arms. But the prey must be taken from the mighty, and the captive delivered. Therefore the Lord awakens the finner, opens his eyes, and strikes him with terror, while the clouds are black above his head, and the fword of vengeance is held to his breaf. Now he is at no finall pains to put a fair face on a black heart; to shake off his fears, to make head against them, and to divert himself from thinking on the unpleasant

and

and ungrateful fubject of his foul's cafe. If he cannot fo rid himself from them, carnal reason is called in to help, and urgeth that there is no ground for fo great fear; all may be well enough yet: and if it be ill with him, it will be ill with many. When the finner is beat from this, and fees no advantage of going to hell with company, he refolves to leave his fins, but cannot think of breaking off so foon; there is time enough and he will do it afterwards. Confcience fays, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: but he cries, Tomorrow, Lord, to morrow, Lord; and just now Lord, till that now is never like to come.. And thus, many times, he comes from his prayers and confeffions, with nothing, but a breast full of sharper convictions; for the heart doth not always caft up the fweet morfel, as foon as confeffion is made with the mouth, Judges x. 10,-16. And when confcience obligeth them to part with fome lufts, others are kept as right eyes and right hands; and there are rueful looks after thofe that are put away, as it was with the Ifraelites, who, with bitter hearts, did remember the fish they did eat in Egypt freely, Num. xi. 5. Nay, when he is fo preffed, that he muft needs fay before the Lord, that he is content to part with all his idols; the heart will be giving the tongue the lie. In a word, the foul, in this cafe, will fhift from one thing to another; like a fish with the hook in his jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it fuccumb, as the wild afs in her month, Jer. ii. 24.

Thirdiy, There is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil, a woful bent towards fin. Men naturally are bent to backfliding from God, Hof. ii. 7. They hang (as the word is) towards backfliding; even as a hanging wall, whose breaking cometh fuddenly at an inftant. Set holiness and life upon the one fide, fin and death upon the other; leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will chufe fin, and reject holinefs. This is no more to be doubted, than that water, poured on the side of a hill, will run downward but not upward, or that a flame will afcend and not defcend.

Evidence 1, Is not the way of evil the first way the children of men do go! Do not their inclinations plainly appear on the wrong fide, while yet they have no cunning to hide them? In the first opening of our eyes in the world, we look a-fquint, hell-ward, not heaven ward. As foon as it

appear

State II. appears we are reasonable creatures, it appears we are finful creatures, Pfal. Iviii. 3. The wicked are eftranged from the womb they go aftray as foon as they be born, Prov. xxii, 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child: but the rod of correction fhall drive it far from him. Folly is bound in the heart, it is woven into our very nature. The knot will not loofe, they must be broken asunder by ftrokes. Words will not do it, the rod must be taken to drive it away: and if it 'be not driven far away, the heart and it will meet and knit again. Not that the rod of itself will do this: the fad experience of many parents teftifies the contrary: and Solomon himfelf tells you, Prov. xxvii. 22. Though thou shoulaft bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foclishness depart from him. It is fo bound in his heart. But the rod is an ordinance of God, appointed for that end; which, like the word, is made effectual, by the Spirit's accompanying his own ordinance. And this, by the way, fhews that parents, in adminiftring correction to their children, have need, firft of all to correct their own irregular paffions; and look upon it as a matter of awful folemnity, fetting about it with much dependence on the Lord, and following it with prayer for the bleffing, if they would have it effectual.

Evid. 2. How eafily are men led afide to fin! The children, who are not perfuaded to good, are otherways fimple ones; eafily wrought upon; thofe whom the word cannot dray to holiness, are led by Satan at his pleasure. Profane Efau, that cunning man Gen. xxv. 27. was as eafily cheated of the bleffing, as if he had been a fool or an ideos. The more natural a thing is, it is the more eafy; fo Chrift's yoke` is eafy to the faints, in fo far as they are partakers of the divine nature: and fin is eafy to the unrenewed man; but to learn to do good, as difficult as for the Ethiopian to change bis fkin; because the will naturally hangs towards evil; but is averfe to good. A child can caufe a round thing to run, while he cannot move a fquare thing of the fame weight; for the roundaefs makes it fit for motion, fo that it goes with a touch. Even fo, when men find the heart eafily carried towards fin, while it is as a dead weight in the way of holi. nefs; we must bring the reafon of this from the natural fet and difpofition of the heart, whereby it is prone and bent to

evil. Were man's will naturally, but in an equal-balance to good and evil, that one might be embraced with as little difficulty as the other; but experience teftifies, it is not fo. In the facred hiftory of the Ifraelites, efpecially in the book of Judges, how often do we find them forfaking Jehovah, the mighty God, and doting upon the idols of the nations about them? But did ever one of thefe nations grow fond of Ifrael's God, and forfake their own idols? No, no; tho' man is naturally given to changes, it is but from evil to evil, not from evil to good, Jer. ii. 10, 11. Had a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? But my people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit.' Surely the will of man ftands not in equal balance, but has a caft to the wrong fide.

Evid. 3. Confider how men go on ftill in the way of fia, till they meet with a ftop, and that from another hand than their own; Ifa. lvii. 17. I hid me, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.' If God withdraw his reftraining hand, and lay the reins on the finner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose: for (obferve it) the way of fin is the way of his heart: his heart naturally lies that way; it hath a natural propensity to fin. As long as God fuffereth them, they walk in their own way, Acts xiv, 16. The natural man is fo fixed in his woful choice, that there needs no more to fhew he is off from God's way, but to tell he is upon his own.

Evid. 4. Whatever good impreffions are made upon him they do not laft. Tho' his heart be firm as a flone, yea, harder than the nether mill-flone, in point of receiving of them; it is otherwife unftable as water, and cannot keep them. It works against the receiving of them; and, when they are made, it works them off, and returns to its natural bias; Hof. vi. 4. Your goodnefs is a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.' The morning cloud promifeth a hearty shower but, when the fun arifeth, it evanisheth: the fun beats upon the early dew, and it evaporates; fo the husbandman's expectation is difappointed. Such is the goodnels of the natural man. Some fharp affliction, or piercing conviction oblidgeth him in fome fort, to turn from his evil courfe: but his will not being renewed, religion is fill against the grain with him, and therefore this goes off

again, Pfal. lxxviii. 34, 36, 37 Tho' a ftone, thrown up into the air, may abide there a little while; yet its natural heaviness will bring it down to the earth again; and fo do unrenewed men return to the wallowing in the mire; because altho' they were washed, yet their twinish nature was not changed It is hard to caufe wet wood take fire, hardto make it keep fire; but it is harder than either of thefeto make the unrenewed will retain attained goodness; which is a plain evidence of the natural bent of the will to evil.

Evid: laft. Do the faints ferve the Lord now, as they were wont to ferve fin in their unconverted ftate?. Very far from it. Rom. vi. 20. When ye were the fervants of fin, ye were free from righteousness. Sin got all, and admitted no partner; but now, when they are the fervants of Christ, are they free from fin? Nay, there are still with them some deeds of the old man, fhewing that he is but dying in them. And hence their hearts often mifgive them, and flip afide unto evil, when they would do good, Rom. vii. 21. They need to watch, and keep their hearts with all diligence: and their fad experience teacheth them, That he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,' Prov. xxviii. 26. If it be thus in the green tree, how muft it be in the dry?

Fourthly, There is a natural contrariety, direct oppofition and enmity, in the will of man, to God himself, and his holy will. Rom. viii. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not fubject to the law of God, neither indeed can be;' The will was once God's deputy in the foul, fet to command there for him; but now it is fet up against him. If you would have the picture of it, in its natural state, the very reverfe of the will of God reprefents it. If the fruit hanging before one's eyes, be but forbidden, that is fufficient to draw the heart after it. Let me inftance in the fin of profane fwearing and curfing, to which fome are fo abandoned, that they take a pride in them; belching out horrid oaths and curses, as if hell opened with the opening of their mouths, or larding their speeches with minced oaths, as faith, haith, faï'd ye, hai'd ye, and fuch like: and all this without any manner of provocation, tho' even that would not excufe them. Pray tell me, (1.) What profit is there here? A thief gets fomething in his hand for his pains; a drunkard gets a belly full; but what do ye get? Others ferve the