A51842:589
One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on Psalm 119
One hundred and ninety sermons on the hundred and nineteenth Psalm preached by the late reverend and learned Thomas Manton, D.D. ; with a perfect alphabetical table directing to the principal matters contained therein.
London: printed for T.P. &c, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. There is not only blindness, but obstinacy and prejudice. When we come to judg by sense and reason, the whole business of Christianity seems to be a foolish thing to a carnal heart. To give up our selves to God, and all our Interest, and to wait upon the reversion of a happiness in another world, which is doubtful whether there will be any such thing or no, is a folly to him. To deny present lusts and interests, to be much in prayer, and be often in communion with God, is esteemed a like folly. When the Apostle came to preach the Gospel to the Wits ⟨p. 75⟩at Athens, they scoffed at him; they entertained his Doctrine as fire is entertained in wet wood, with hissing and scorn. To do all, and suffer all, and that upon the account of a happiness to come, to a carnal heart this is but a fancy and a mere imagination.
2. There is not only blindness, but obstinacy and prejudice. When we come to judg by sense and reason, the whole business of Christianity seems to be a foolish thing to a carnal heart. To give up our selves to God, and all our Interest, and to wait upon the reversion of a happiness in another world, which is doubtful whether there will be any such thing or no, is a folly to him. To deny present lusts and interests, to be much in prayer, and be often in communion with God, is esteemed a like folly. When the Apostle came to preach the Gospel to the Wits ⟨p. 75⟩at Athens, they scoffed at him; they entertained his Doctrine as fire is entertained in wet wood, with hissing and scorn. To do all, and suffer all, and that upon the account of a happiness to come, to a carnal heart this is but a fancy and a meer imagination.
3. As blind and obstinate, so we are apt to abuse truth. Carnal hearts turn all to a carnal purpose. As Spiders assimilate and turn all they suck into their own substance, so doth a carnal heart turn all, even the Counsels and Comforts of the word, to a carnal purpose. Or as the Sea, whatever comes into it, the sweet Rivers and droppings of the clouds, turns all into salt water.