The application of redemption

The Seventh Shift and forgery whereby our Carnal ¹Reason would […] and defeat the power of the Truth, and lessen the loathsomeness of sin, is that which seems to them so reasonable, even to common sense, as that it admits no denial; and it's taken from THE HOLINESS AND SPIRITUALNESS OF THE LAW, unto which they are bound, and that overbearing strength of the body of sin, and original corruption, […] they are wholly disenabled to the performance thereof; so that there is not only a difficulty, but even an impossibility to corrupt Nature, and to men in their Natural condition, to answer the exactness thereof; doth not the Text say […] such cannot cease from sin, 2. Pet. 2. 14. That which is […] of the flesh, and comes from it, is flesh, John, 3. 8, 9. Are not the words plain, That the Prince of the Air rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and that he takes them captive at his will, 2 Tim. 2. last. Nay, if the holy Apostle who had the Spirit of Grace, yet found his distempers bear up so hard, and make head against him, that they soiled him, and put him to the worse, and forced him to cry out as under captivity and thraldom, I see another Law in my members carrying me captive; Oh wretched man, who shall deliver me, Rom. 7. If he that had received the power of Grace against his sin, was yet so overborne, what can they be able to do that are yet in their natural condition (and have nothing but sin) as all the Sons of Adam are since the Fall? That as […] in a storm are forced by the rage of winds and weather to go whither they will carry them, not whither they should; men pity them for what they suffer, do not […] them for what they cannot do: So it is with the strength of distempers, which like a mighty stream, carry us uncontrollably ⟨p. 142⟩to the commission of evil, and it's impossible for us to prevail against; alas, what can Nature do in such a case, if God will not help? Is it equal that men be put upon impossibilities? or that they should be punished for that which cannot be avoided? It's not in man to direct his own ways, to subdue his own sins: we are nothing else but a lump of corruption, the Lord knows we do what we can, and we hope we shall not be condemned for what we cannot do.