A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

The sum is this; he that lacks Grace, lacks knowledge: Qui malus est moribus, caecus est oculis. They that wander in by-paths declare themselves ignorant of the right way: so if a man be lewd in his manners, we conclude him blind for the way of salvation, Rom. 3.16. If their works be full of cursedness, murder, and destruction, we infer; The way of peace they have not known. O the infinite number of blind souls? if all that be ungodly, live in darkness, how few of this world have eyes! or if they that have, they see not, Esa. 43.8. Bring forth the blind people, that have eyes. Every one indeed is ready to tax another's ignorance, not his own. If two blind men rush one upon another in the way either complains of others blindness; neither of his own. O that this blindness were a little removed, that by a self-inspection we might see our own hearts. If the sinner would look into that secret cloisture, how would the spectacle amaze him! He should find a will more warped than a bow: affections more perverse than an unbroken dromedary: a soul bleeding with unstanched wounds, a chamber full of fiends; one holding down the reason, another dulling the memory, a third tempting the will, a fourth fearing the conscience. Thus they possess the Citadel, his heart; possessing they vex it, vexing they laugh ⟨p. 187⟩at it, laughing they destroy it, and after destruction they torment it. How lies the poor ravished soul panting under these adulterers; slaved in the chains of a most miserable bondage; where the bread of life, and blood of CHRIST is kept from her: beholding with Ruth her dear children, her affections, faculties, and addictions to good, butchered before her eyes; expecting the fatal hour, when her self must be haled to the great tribunal, and receive her eternal doom Let us all therefore now look inward; be not longer blind at home, strangers to our own bosoms. Now he that opened the eyes of Paul, open ours; and rescue our soul from destructions, our darling from the Lions;¹ and our selves from the hour and power of darkness.

The summe is this; he that lackes Grace, lackes knowledge: Qui malus est moribus, caecus est oculis. They that wander in by-pathes declare themselves ignorant of the right way: so if a man be lewd in his manners, we conclude him blind for the way of salvation,