glory is departed from it. Confider this, ye that are yet in the flate of nature, and groan ye out your cafe before the Lord, that the Sun of Righteoufnels may arife upon you, before you be fhut up in everlafting darkness. What avails your worldly wifdom? What do your attainments in religion avail, while your understanding lies yet wrapt up in its natural darknefs and confufion, utterly void of the light of life? Whatever be the natural man's gifts or attainments, we must (as in the cafe of the leper, Lev. xlii. 24.) pronounce him utterly unclean, his plague is in his head. But that is not all; it is in his heart too, his will is corrupted, as I fhall fhew anon.

Of the Corruption of the Will.

II. The will, that commanding faculty, (which fometimes was faithful, and ruled with God) is now turned traitor, and rules with, and for the devil. God planted it in man wholly a right feed; but now it is turned into the degenerate plant of a firange vine. It was originally placed in a due fubordination to the will of God, as was fhewn before, but now it is gone wholly afide. However fome do magnify the power of free-will, a view of the fpirituality of the law, to which acts of moral difcipline do in no ways anfwer; and a deep infight into the corruption of nature, given by the inward operation of the Spirit, convincing of fin, righteoufnefs and judgment, would make men find an abfolute need of the power of free-grace, to remove the bands of wickedness from off the free-will. To open up this plague of the heart, I offer these following things to be contidered.

Firft, There is, in the unrenewed will, an utter inability for what is truly good and acceptable in the fight of God: The natural man's will is in Satan's fetters; hemmed in, within the circle of evil, and cannot move beyond it, more than a dead man can raise himself out of his grave, Eph. ii. 1. We deny him not a power to chufe, pursue and act, what, on the matter, is good: but though he can will what is good and right, he can will nothing aright and well. John xv. 5. Without me, i. e. feparate from me, as a branch from the stock, (as both the word and context do carry it) ye can do nothing; to wit, nothing truly and spiritually good His very choice and defire of fpiritual things is carnal and felfish, John vi. 26. Ye feek me because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. He not only comes to Chrift, but he cannot come, John vi. 44. And what can one do acceptable to God, who believeth not on him whom the Father hath fent? To evidence this inability for good in the unregenerate, confider these two things

Evidence 1. How often does the light fo thine before men's eyes; that they cannot but fee the good they fhould chufe, and the evil they fhould refufe; and yet their hearts have no more power to comply with that light than if they were arrested by fome invisible hand? They fee what is right; yet they follow, and cannot but

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follow, what is wrong. Their confciences tells them the right way, and approves of it too; yet cannot their will be brought up to it: their corruption fo chains them, that they cannot embrace it; fo they figh, and go backward, over the belly of their light. And if it be not thus, how is it that the word, and way of holiness meets with fuch entertainment in the world? How is it that clear arguments and reafon on the fide of piety and a holy life, which bear in themselves even on the carnal mind, do not bring men over to that fide? Altho' the being of a heaven and a hell, were but a may be, it were fufficient to determine the will to the choice of holinefs, were it capable to be determined thereto by mere reafon: but men, knowing the judgment of God, (that they which commit fuch things are worthy of death) not only do the fame, but have pleasure in them that do them, Rom. i. 32. And how is it that these who magnify the power of free-will do not confirm their opinion before the world, by an ocular demonfuration, in a practice as far above others in holiness, as the opinion of their natural ability is above others? Or is it maintained only for the protection of lufts, which men may hold faft as long as they please; and when they have no more ufe for them, can throw them off in a moment, and leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bofom? Whatever ufe fome make of that principle: it does of itself, and in its own nature, cast a broad fhadow for a fhelter to wickednefs of heart and life. And it may be observed, that the generality of the hearers of the gofpel, of all denominations are plagued with it: for it is a root of bitterness, natural to all men; from whence do fpring fo much fearleffhefs about the foul's eternal ftate; fo many delays and offputs in that weighty matter, whereby much work is laid up for a death-bed by fome; while others are ruined by a legal walk, and unacquainted with the life of faith, and the making ufe of Chrift for fanctification; all flowing from the perfuafion of fufficient natural abilities. So agreeable is it to corrupt nature.

Evid. 2. Let thofe, who, by the power of the fpirit of bondage, having had the law laid out before them, in its fpirituality, for their conviction fpeak and tell, if they found themselves able to incline their hearts towards it, in that cafe; nay, if the more that light fhone into their fouls, they did not find their hearts more and more unable to comply with it. There are fome, who have been brought unto the place of the breaking forth, who are yet in the devil's camp, that from their experience can tell, light ler into the mind, cannot give life to the will, to enable it to comply therewith; and could give their teftimony here, if they would. But take Paul's teftimony concerning it, who, in his unconverted state, was far from believing his utter inability for good; but learned it by experience, Rom. vii. 9, 10, 11, 13. I own, the natural man may have a kind of love to the law but here lies the stress of the matter, he looks on the holy law in a carnal drefs; and fo, while he hugs a creature of his own fancy, he thinks he has the law, but in very deed he is without the

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law for as yet he fees it not in its fpirituality if he did, he would find it the very reverse of his own nature, and what his will could not fall in with, till changed by the power of grace.

Secondly, There is in the unrenewed will an agerfeness to good. Sin is the natural man's element; he is loath to part with it, as the fishes are to come out of the water into dry land. He not only cannot come to Christ, but he will not come, John v. 40. He is polluted, and hates to be washen, Jer. xiii. 27. Wilt thou not be made clean? When fhall it once be? He is fick, but utterly averse to the remedy : he loves his disease fo, that he loaths the Physician. He is a captive, a prisoner, and a flave; but he loves his conqueror, his jailor and master: he is fond of his fetters, prifon, and drudgery; and has no liking to his liberty. For evidence of this averfenefs to good, in the will of man, I fhall inftance in fome particulars.

Evidence 1. The untowardness of children. Do we not fee them naturally, lovers of finful liberty! How unwilling are they to be hedged in? How averfe to reftraint? The world can bear witness, that they are, as bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke; and more, that it is far easier to bring young bullocks tamely to bear the yoke; than to bring young children under difcipline, and make them tamely fubmit to the restraint of finful liberty. Every body may fee in this, as in a glass, that man is naturally wild and wilful, according to Zophar's obferve, Job xi. 12. that man is born like a wild afs's colt. What can be faid more! He is like a colt, the colt of an afs, the colt of á wild afs. Compare Jer. ii. 24. A wild afs ufed to the wilderness, that Snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, in her occafion who can turn her away?

Evid. 2. What pain and difficulty do men often find in bringing their hearts to religious duties? And what a task is it to the carnal heart to abide at them? It is a pain to it, to leave the world but a. little, to converfe with God. It is not eafy to borrow time from the many things, to bestow it upon the one thing needful. Men often go to God in duties, with their faces towards the world; and when their bodies are on the mount of ordinances, their hearts will be found at the foot of the hill, going after their covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 3 L. They are foon wearied of well-doing for holy duties are not agreeable to their corrupt nature. Take notice of them at their worldly bufinefs, fet them down with their carnal company, or let them be fucking the breafts of a luft; time feems to them to fly, and drive furioufly, fo that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does it drive, while a prayer, a fermon, or a fabbath lafts? The Lord's day is the longest day of all the week with many; and therefore they muft fleep longer that morning, and go fooner to bed that night, than ordinarily they do; that the day may be made of a tolerable length: for their hearts fay within them, when will the fabbath be gone? Amos viii. 5. The hours of worship are the longest hours of that day: hence when duty is over, they are like men eafed of a burden; and when fermon is ended, many have neither the

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grace nor the good manners to stay till the bleffing be pronounced, but like the beafts, their head is away as foon as one puts his hand to loose them; why, but becaufe while 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 man doth rebel against the light, Job xxiv. 13. Light fometimes entreth in, becaufe 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 fast 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 prifoner, 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 meafure: 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 averse 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 eafe; 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 obferve the refiftance 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 stroke of fword, in the day of his power, Pfal. cx. 2, 3. None come to him, but fuch as are drawn by a divine hand, John vi. 44. When the Lord comes to the foul, he finds the ftrong man keeping the house, and a deep 'peace and fecurity there, while the foul is faft afleep in the devil's 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 breaft. Now he is at no finall pains to put a fair face on a black heart; to fhake off his fears, to make head against them, and to divert himself from thinking on the unpleasant and ungrateful fubject of his foul's cafe. If he cannot fo rid himself from them, carnal reafon is called in to help, and urgeth that there is no ground for fo great fear; all may be well encgh 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 fo 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, To-morrow, Lord, to-morrow, Lord; and juft now Lord, till that 'now is never like to come. And thus, many times, he comes from

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his prayers and confeffions, with nothing, but a breaft 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 áre 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 must needs fay before the Lord, that he is content to part with all his idols; the heart will be giving the tongue the lie. the lie. In a word, the foul, in this cafe, will shift 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.

-Thirdly, 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, whofe 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 holiness.. This is no more to be doubted, than that water, poured on the fide 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 appears we are reafonable creatures, it appears we are finful creatures, Pfal. Iviii. 3. The wicked are estranged 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 shall 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 afunder by strokes. 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 himself tells you, Prov. xxvii. 22. Though thou shouldft bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness 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, first of all to correct their own irregular pallions; and look upon it as a matter of awful folenmity, fetting about it with much dependence on the Lord, and following it with prayer for the blefling, if they would have it effectual.

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