Propositions

Chapter, verse 10. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as one without eyes, and we stumble in the noon day as in the twi-light, we are in solitary places like dead men, we roar like Bears, and mourn like Doves. Soe complains Hezekiah in the bitterness of his soul 34. 14. of Isaiah. Like a Crane, or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a Dove. And Psal. 51. 10. where David ⟨image 36⟩crieth, Create in me, O God, a clean heart, and renew in me a right spirit: restore to me the joy of my salvation, and stablish me with thy free spirit. Doth he not declare, that his heart was unclean, that his spirit was crooked, that the way of his salvation was lost, and himself subject to the spirit of bondage: so that wanting the spirit of liberty or adoption, he could not cry Abba Father, nor have any power against sin. Thus you see how Gods children may be blinded in mind, and hardened in hart for a time: so that they feel in themselves the graces of the holy spirit, to be as it were perished and dead. Further, to relieve the infirmity of your judgment in this part and point, (because I know it may much distress you) you must understand there be two kinds of hardness of hart: the one which is not perceived & felt, the other which is perceived & felt: and of the former, that there be two sorts: the first, which is most fearful, when any do purposely resist the motions of God his spirit, & willingly refuse the means of their salvation: of the which Zechariah speaketh, 7. 11. They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears ⟨image 37⟩that they should not hear; yea they made their heart as an Adamant stone, lest they should hear the Law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts sent in his spirit by the ministry of his former Prophets. The outrageous sin of these men, the Prophet Isaiah expresseth in these their own fearful terms. 28. 15. We have made a covenant with death, and we are at agreement with hell; though a scourge run over and pass through, yet it shall not come at us; for we have made falsehood our refuge, & under vanity are we hid. This was a fearful estate indeed: yet for all that, no man can say, but some of them having hardened their hearts, might be, and were afterwards converted:

Chapter, verse 10. Wee grope for the wall like the blind, and wee grope as one without eyes, and we stumble in the noone day as in the twy-light, wee are in solitarie places like dead men, wee roare like Beares, and mourne like Doues. Soe complaines Hezechias in the bitternes of his soule 34. 14. of Esay. Like a Crane, or a swallowe, so did I chatter: I did mourne as a Doue. And