N34404:182
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
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.
Evid. 3. Consider how men go on still in the way of sin, till they meet with a stop, and that from another hand than their own; Isa. lvii. 17. I hid me, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. If God withdraw his restraining hand, and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose; for (observe it) the way of sin is the way of his heart; his heart naturally lies that way; it hath a natural propensity to sin. As long as God suffereth them, they walk in their own way, Acts xiv. 16 The natural man is so fixed in his woeful choice, that there needs no more to show he is oft from God's way, but to tell he is upon his own.
Evid. 3. Consider how men go on still in the way of sin, till they meet with a stop, and that from another hand than their own; Isa. lvii. 17. I hid me, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. If God withdraw his restraining hand, and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose; for (observe it) the way of sin is the way of his heart; his heart naturally lies that way; it hath a natural propensity to sin. As long as God suffereth them, they walk in their own way, Acts xiv. 16 The natural man is so fixed in his woful choice, that there needs no more to shew he is oft from God's way, but to tell he is upon his own.
Evid. 4. Whatever good impressions are made upon him they do not last. Tho' his heart be firm as a stone, yea, harder than the nether mill-stone, in point of receiving of them; it is otherwise unstable as water, and cannot keep them. It works against the receiving of them; and, when they are made, it works them off, and returns to its natural bias; Hos. vi. 4. Your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. The morning cloud promiseth a hearty shower; but, when the sun ariseth, it evanisheth: the sun beats upon the early dew, and it evaporates; so the husbandman's expectation is disappointed. Such is the goodness of the natural