1. The end of the Gospel is to recover man out of a carnal ungodly state; into a state of holiness and reconciliation with a God; the Terminus à quo; men are carnal, ungodly. (1.) Carnal, when man fell from God, he fell to himself, self interposed as the next Heir, and that self was not the Soul, but the Flesh; many wrong their Souls, but no man ever yet hated his own Flesh, and therefore men would rule themselves, and please themselves according to their fleshly appetite and fancy, John 3.6. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and therefore love the Pleasures, Honours, and Profits of the World, as the necessary provision to satisfy the desires of the Flesh; And whosoever live thus, they live in a carnal state, as all do, till grace renew them, Rom. 8.5. but this carnal estate doth break forth, and bewray it self in various ways of sinning, Titus 3.3. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. All are not Fornicators, Drunkards, Persecutors, nor live in the same way of sing, but all are ⟨p. 116⟩turned from God to the World, and have a carnal mind, which is emnity to God, Rom. 8. 7. (2.) The next word is ungodly, men thus constituted, live either in a denial of God, Psalm 14.1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; or a neglect of God, Ephes. 2.12. Without God in the world; without any acknowledgement or worship of him, Psalm 9.17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God; or if not deprived of all sense of a Deity, they worship false Gods, as those, Acts 14.12, 13. the men of Lycaonia, that called Barnabas, Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief Speaker, and would have sacrificed to them; and the Apostle saith to the Galatians, Gal. 4. 8. When ye knew not God, ye did service to them, which by nature are no Gods; they worshipped plurality of false Gods: And though the wise men of the Gentiles had some confused knowledge of the true God, Rom. 1.19, 20, 21. yet they glorified him not as God, but committed Idolatry by setting up a false medium of worship, an Idol, which begot a brutish Conception of God in their mind: so that a false Religion is so far from showing a remedy of corrupt nature, that it is a great part of the Disease it self. 2.
1. The end of the Gospel is to recover man out of a carnal ungodly state; into a state of holiness and reconciliation with a God; the Terminus à quo; men are carnal, ungodly. (1.) Carnal, when man fell from God, he fell to himself, self interposed as the next Heir, and that self was not the Soul, but the Flesh; many wrong their Souls, but no man ever yet hated his own Flesh, and therefore men would rule themselves, and please themselves according to their fleshly appetite and fancy, John 3.6. That which is born of the flesh, is •lesh, and therefore love the Pleasures, Honours, and Profits of the World, as the necessary provision to satisfy the desires of the Flesh; And whosoever live thus, they live in a carnal state, as all do, till grace renew them, Rom. 8.5. but this carnal estate doth bre•k forth, and bewray it self in various ways of sinning, Titus 3.3. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. All are not Fornicators, Drunkards, Persecutors, nor live in the same way of sinnng, but all are ⟨p. 116⟩turned from God to the World, and have a carnal mind, which is emnity to God, Rom. 8. 7. (2.) The next word is ungodly, men thus constituted, live either in a denial of God, Psalm 14.1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; or a neglect of God, Ephes. 2.12. Without God in the world; without any acknowledgment or worship of him, Psalm 9.17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God; or if not deprived of all sense of a Deity, they worship false Gods, as those, Acts 14.12, 13. the men of Lycaonia, that called Barnabas, Iupiter, and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief Speaker, and would have sacrificed to them; and the Apostle saith to the Galatians, Gal. 4. 8. When ye knew not God, ye did service to them, which by nature are no Gods; they worshipped plurality of false Gods: And though the wise men of the Gentiles had some confused knowledge of the true God,
