2. Sensual Lusts do not only hinder Mens search after Knowledge, but obscure the Light of Conscience, and corrupt its Judgment. There is such an intimate Communion between the Soul and the Body, that interchangeably they corrupt one another: the sins of the Flesh sink into the Spirit, and corrupt the moral Principles, from whence the sensible Conscience springs of Good ⟨p. 72⟩and Evil. And the sins of the Spirit, Infidelity, Incogitancy, Error, Security, break out in the Deeds of the Body, and make the Flesh more outrageous in its Desires. St. Paul declares, that1 unto the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled. A purged Heart is requisite for a clear Mind; but where Lust dwells, it taints and perverts the practical Judgment; from whence so many Disorders follow in the Life. The natural Conscience in many Cases, in its simple judgment of things, sincerely declares what is to be done, and what to be avoided; but when compounded and stained with a tincture of Sensuality; it judges according to the Desires. The rebellious Israelites in the Wilderness are described, ⟨p. 73⟩It is a People that do err in 2their Hearts: the Heart was the erroneous Fountain of all their Miscarriages, and forty Years instruction could do them no good. Those who are given up to carnal Delights, and are in a confederacy with the gross Senses, even their directive and judging Faculty is carnal in its apprehensions. A reprobate Mind, and vile Affections, are naturally and judicially the Cause and Effect of one another. Even natural Truths that are plain and bright, as the essential distinction between moral Good and Evil, between Virtue and Vice, and the belief of a Judgment to come, that is inseparably connext with it; yet through the perverseness and crookedness of Mens Hearts, are strangely darkened. Men wish according to ⟨p. 74⟩their carnal Interest; and what they wish, they would fain believe; and as when there was no King in Israel, every one did what was good in his own Eyes: so if there were no after-reckoning, Men would, without the check of Conscience, follow the Wills of the Flesh, therefore they are Atheists in desire, and if not scared by the pangs of a throbbing Conscience, will be so in their thoughts.
2. Sensual Lusts do not only hinder Mens search after Knowledg, but obscure the Light of Conscience, and corrupt its Judgment. There is such an intimate Communion between the Soul and the Body, that interchangably they corrupt one another: the sins of the Flesh sink into the Spirit, and corrupt the moral Principles, from whence the sensible Conscience springs of Good ⟨p. 72⟩and Evil. And the sins of the Spirit, Infidelity, Incogitancy, Error, Security, break out in the Deeds of the Body, and make the Flesh more outragious in its Desires. St. Paul declares, that1 unto the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled. A purged Heart is requisite for a clear Mind; but where Lust dwells, it taints and perverts the practical Judgment; from whence so many Disorders follow in the Life. The natural Conscience in many Cases, in its simple judgment of things, sincerely declares what is to be done, and what to be avoided; but when compounded and stain'd with a tincture of Sensuality; it judges according to the Desires. The rebellious Israesites in the Wilderness are described, ⟨p. 73⟩It is a People that do err in 2their Hearts: the Heart was the erroneous Fountain of all their Miscarriages, and forty Years instruction could do them no good. Those who are given up to carnal Delights, and are in a confederacy with the gross Senses, even their directive and judging Faculty is carnal in its apprehensions. A reprobate Mind, and vile Affections, are naturally and judicially the Cause and Effect of one another. Even natural Truths that are plain and bright, as the essential distinction between moral Good and Evil, between Vertue and Vice, and the belief of a Judgment to come, that is inseparably connext with it; yet through the perversness and crookedness of Mens Hearts, are strangely darkned. Men wish according to ⟨p. 74⟩their carnal Interest; and what they wish, they would fain believe; and as when there was no King in Israel, every one did what was good in his own Eyes: so if there were no after-reckoning, Men would, without the check of Conscience, follow the Wills of the Flesh, therefore they are Atheists in desire, and if not scared by the pangs of a throbbing Conscience, will be so in their thoughts.
- 1Titus 1. 15.
- 2Psal. 57. 10.
