here plead, Not guilty: but remember the carnal Jews in Christ's time were as confident as you are that they believed Moses, John ix. 28, 29. But he confutes their confidence, roundly telling them, John v. 46. "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me.” Did ye believe the truths of God, ye durst not reject, as ye do, him who is truth itself. The very difficulty you find in assenting to this truth, bewrays that unbelief I am charging you with. Has it not proceeded so far with some at this day, that it has steeled their fore-heads with the impudence and impiety, openly to reject all revealed religion? Surely it is "out of the abundance of the heart their mouth speaketh." But, though ye set not your mouths against the heavens, as they do, the same bitter root of unbelief is in all men by nature, and reigns in you, and will reign till overcoming grace captivate our minds to the belief of the truth. To convince you in this point, consider these three things.

Evidence 1. How few are there who have been blest with an inward illumination, by the special operation of the Spirit of Christ, letting them into a view of divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly lustre! How have you learned the truths of religion, which ye pretend to believe? Ye have them merely by the benefit of external revelation, and of your education; so that you are Christians, just because you were not born and bred in a Pagan, but in a Christian country. Ye are strangers to the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by, and with the word in your hearts; and so you cannot have the assurance of faith, with respect to that outward divine revelation made in the word, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, 12. And therefore ye are still unbelievers. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God---Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me,' says our Lord, John vi. 45. Now ye have not come to Christ, therefore ye have not been taught of God, Ye have not been so taught, and therefore ye have not come; ye believe not. Behold the revelation from which the faith, even of the fundamental principles in

religion springs, Matt. xvi. 17, 18. "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.---Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." If ever the Spirit of the Lord deal with thee, to work in thee that faith, which is of the " operation of God," it may be as much time will be spent in razing the old foundation, as will make thee find a necessity of "the working of his mighty power," and to enable thee to believe the very foundation-principles, which now thou thinkest thou makest no doubt of, Eph. i, 19.

Evid. 2 How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith, such as it was, in time of temptation and trial? See how they fall, like stars from heaven, "God when antichrist prevails, 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. shall send then strong delusions, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth." They fall into damning delusions ; because they never really believed the truth, though they themselves and others too thought they did believe it. That house is built upon the sand, and the faith is but ill-founded, that cannot bear out, but is quite overthrown, when the storm comes.

Evid. 3. Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives, with the principles of religion which they profess ye may as soon bring east and west together, as their principles and practice. Men be lieve that fire will burn them, and therefore they will not throw themselves into it: but the truth is, most men live as if they thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God revealed in his word against their unrighteousness and ungodliness, a mere scare-crow. ye believe the doctrines of the word, how is it that ye are so unconcerned about the state of your souls before the Lord? How is it that ye are so little concerned with that weighty point, whether ye be born again or not? Many live as they were born, and are like to die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery of a natural state? Do they believe they are children of wrath? Do they believe there is no salvation without regeneration?

If

and no regeneration but what makes man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not embrace them, and labour to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not dig for a hid treasure, if he really believed he might so ob tain it? Men will work and sweat for a maintenance; because they believe that by so doing they will get it yet they will be at no tolerable pains for the "eternal weight of glory;" why, but because they do not believe the word of promise? Heb. iv. 1, 2. If ye believe the threatenings, how is it that ye live in your sins, live out of Christ and yet hope for mercy? Do such believe God to be the holy and just One, who will by no means clear the guilty? No, no, none believe, none (or next to none) believe what a just God the Lord is, and how severely he punisheth.

Fifthly, There is in the mind of man a natural proneness to lies and falsehood, which make for the safety of lusts. "They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies," Psal. lvii. 3. We have this with the rest of the corruption of our nature, from our first parents. God revealed the truth to them; but through the solicitation of the tempter, they first doubted of its then disbelieved it, and embraced a lie instead of it. And for an incontestible evidence hereof, we may see that first article of the devil's creed, "Ye shall not surely die," Gen. iii. 4. which was obtruded by him on our first parents, and by them received; naturally embraced by their posterity, and held fast, till a light from heaven oblige them to quit it. It spreads itself through the lives of natural men; who, till their consciences be awakened, walk after their own lusts: still retaining the principle, that they shall not surely die. And this is often improved to that perfection, that the man can say, in the face of the denounced curse, "I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst," Deut. xxix. 19. Whatever advantage the truths of God have over error by means of education, or otherwise; error has always, with the natural man, this advantage against truth, namely, that there is

something within him, which says, O that it were true; so that the mind lies fair for assenting to it. And here is the reason of it. The true doctrine is, the doctrine that is according to godliness, 1 Tim. vi. 3. and the truth which is after godliness, Tit. i. I. Error is the doctrine which is according to ungodliness; for there is never an error in the mind, nor an untruth vented in the world (in matters of religion) but what has an affinity with one corruption of the heart or other: according to that of the apostle, 2 Thess. ii. 12. "They believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." So that truth and error being otherwise attended with equal advantages for their reception, error, by this means, has most ready access into the minds of men in their natural state. Wherefore, it is nothing strange that men reject the simplicity of gospel truths and institutions, and greedily embrace error and external pomp in religion; seeing they are so agreeable to the lusts of the heart, and the vanity of the mind of the natural man. And from hence also it is, that so many embrace atheistical principles; for none do it but in compliance with their irregular passions; none but these whose advantage it would be, that there were no God.

Lastly, man naturally is high-minded; for when the gospel comes in power to him, it is employed in "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowlelge of God," 2 Cor. x. 5. Lowliness of mind is not a flower that grows in the field of nature,, but is planted by the finger of God in a renewed heart, and learned of the lowly Jesus. It is natural to man to think highly of himself, and what is his own. For the stroke he has got by his fall in Adam, has produced a false light, whereby mole-hills about him appear like mountains; and a thousand airy beauties present themselves to his de luded fancy. "Vain man would be wise," (so he accounts himself, and so he would be accounted of by others) "though man be born like a wild ass's colt," Job xi. 12. His way is right because it is his own: for," every way of a man is right in his own eyes,'

Prov. xxi. 7. His state is good because he knows none better, he is alive without the law, Rom. vii. 9. and therefore his hope is strong, and his confidence firm. It is another tower of Babel reared up against heaven; and shall not fall while the power of darkness can hold it up. The word batters it, yet it stands.. One while breaches are made in it, but they are quickly repaired; at another time, it is all made to shake, but still it is kept up; till either God himself by his Spirit raise an heart-quake within the man, which tumbles it down, and leaves not one stone upon another, (2 Cor. x. 4, 5.) or death batter it down, and raze the foundations of it, Luke xvi. 23. And as the natural man thinks highly of himself, so he thinks meanly of God, whatever he pretends. Psal. 1. 21. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." The doctrine of the gospel and the mystery of Christ are foolishness to him; and in his practice he treats them as such, I Cor. i. 18. and ii. 14. He brings the word and the works of God in the government of the world, before the bar of his carnal reason; and there they are presumptuously censured and condemned, Hos. xiv. 9. Sometimes the ordinary restraint of providence is taken off, and Satan is permitted to stir up the carnal mind: and in that case it is like an ant's nest, uncovered and disturbed; doubts, denials, and hellish reasonings crowd in it, and cannot be laid by all the arguments brought against them, till a power from on high captivate the mind, and still the mutiny of the corrupt principles.

Thus much of the corruption of the understanding; which although the half be not told, may discover to you the absolute necessity of regenerating grace. Call the understanding now Ichabod; for "the glory is departed from it." Consider this ye that are yet in the state of nature, and pour out your case before the Lord, that the Sun of Righteousness may arise upon you, before you be shut up in everlasting darkness. What avails your worldly wisdom? What do your attainments in religion avail, while your understanding lies yet wrapt up in its natural darkness and