Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

nor do they keep a man out of trouble, but as they keep him from sin. And remarkable is the particular in which Solomon instanceth, namely, the sin of uncleanness, to keep thee from the evil woman: and ver. 24. which is to be joined with verse 22. inclosing the 23d in a parenthesis, as some versions have it. These things may suffice to convince us of the natural bias of the mind to evil.

Fourthly, There is in the carnal mind, an opposition to spiritual truths, and an aversion to the receiving of them. It is as little a friend to divine truths, as it is to holiness. The truths of natural religion, which do, as it were, force their entry into the minds of natural men, they hold prisoners in unrighteousness, Rom. i. 18. And as for the truths of revealed religion, there is an evil heart of unbelief in them, which opposeth their entry; and there is an armed force—necessary to captivate the mind to the belief of them, 2 Cor. x 4, 5. God has made a revelation of his mind and will to sinners, touching the way of salvation: he has given us the doctrine of his holy word: but do natural men believe it indeed? No, they do not; for he that believeth not on the Son of God, believeth not God, as is plain from 1 John v. 10. They believe not the promises of the word: they look on them, in effect, only as fair words; for these that receive them, are thereby made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. The promises are as silver cords let down from heaven to draw sinners unto God, and to waft them over into the promised land; but they cast them from them. They believe not the threatenings of the word. As men travelling in deserts carry fire about with them, to fright away wild beasts: so God has made his law a fiery law, Deut. xxxiii. 2. hedging it about with threats of wrath: But men naturally are more brutish than beasts themselves; and will needs touch the fiery smoking mountain, tho' they should be thrust through with a dart. I doubt not, but most, if not all of you, who are yet in the black state of nature will here plead, Not guilty But remember the carnal Jews in Christ's time, were as confident as you are, and they believed Moses,