Further, all the commands of God must be heartily embraced, some whereof are as contrary to flesh and blood as fire to water; Self, which is thy great idol, must be denied; the world with all its pomp and pride, in comparison of Christ refused; principalities and powers rencountered and foiled, thine enemies loved (and if killed, it must be with kindness) godliness owned, though much disgraced by others, truth followed close, though it threaten to dash out thy teeth with its heels, a buffeted Christ with his naked Cross preferred before weighty Crowns; things which reason cannot comprehend, believed; and which none ever obtained, laboured for. Friend, are these easy things? what thinkest thou? add to all this the consideration not only of thy weakness and inability to do these things, but also thy wickedness and contrariety to them; thou art not only deprived of good, but all over depraved with evil; The imaginations and thoughts of thy heart are evil, only evil, and that continually, Gen. 6.5. Thou dost resolvedly and obstinately refuse good and choose evil, Eccles. 8.11. Jer. 44.16. The hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to ⟨p. 116⟩do evil, Eccles. 8.11. observe how full that text is, man is resolved to have his minion, his lust, though he have wrath and death and hell into the bargain; as the mother of Nero, being told that her son would be her death if ever he were Emperor, answered, Let him kill me, so he may reign; so they say, Let sin reign, though it kill us, though it damn us; The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. If thou wert only empty of God and grace, the work were more easy; but thou art an enemy to grace and godliness; thy carnal mind (which is Lady Reason her self, thy highest natural excellency) is (not an enemy, for such an one may be reconciled, but in the abstract) emnity against God. Thou hatest God, Rom. 1.30. His people, 1 John 3.12. His precepts, Prov. 1.25, 29. His Son, John 15.25. and all for his sake; thou fightest against him daily, sinnest in defiance of him continually, entailest thy quarrel upon thy posterity, carriest it with thee into the other world (if thou diest unregenerate) and there art throwing thine envenomed darts of blasphemy, and spitting thy poison against the Most High to eternity.
Further, all the commands of God must be heartily embraced, some whereof are as contrary to flesh and blood as fire to water; Self, which is thy great idol, must be denied; the world with all its pomp and pride, in comparison of Christ refused; principalities and powers rencountred and foiled, thine enemies loved (and if killed, it must be with kindness) godliness owned, though much disgraced by others, truth followed close, though it threaten to dash out thy teeth with its heels, a buffeted Christ with his naked Cross preferred before weighty Crowns; things which reason cannot comprehend, believed; and which none ever obtained, labored for. Friend, are these easie things? what thinkest thou? add to all this the consideration not onely of thy weakness and inability to do these things, but also thy wickedness and contrariety to them; thou art not onely deprived of good, but all over depraved with evil; The imaginations and thoughts of thy heart are evil, onely evil, and that continually, Gen. 6.5. Thou dost resolvedly and obstinately refuse good and choose evil, Eccles. 8.11. Jer. 44.16. The hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to ⟨p. 116⟩do evil, Eccles. 8.11. observe how full that text is, man is resolved to have his minion, his lust, though he have wrath and death and hell into the bargain; as the mother of Nero, being told that her son would be her death if ever he were Emperor, answered, Let him kill me, so he may reign; so they say, Let sin reign, though it kill us, though it damn us; The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. If thou wert onely empty of God and grace, the work were more easie; but thou art an enemy to grace and godliness; thy carnal minde (which is Lady Reason her self, thy highest natural excellency) is (not an enemy, for such an one may be reconciled, but in the abstract) emnity against God. Thou hatest God, Rom. 1.30. His people, 1 John 3.12. His precepts, Prov. 1.25, 29. His Son, John 15.25. and all for his sake; thou fightest against him daily, sinnest in defiance of him continually, entailest thy quarrel upon thy posterity, carriest it with thee into the other world (if thou diest unregenerate) and there art throwing thine invenom'd darts of blasphemy, and spitting thy poison against the Most High to eternity.
