Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

State of Innocence applied. 35
tliat tight which God hath to exa£t perfect obedience
of his creature, and to punilh in cafe of xh.fobedience.
j(3 } Behohj here the infinite obligation we lie under,
to Jefus Chr It the fecond Adam ; who with his own
precious bioed has bought our efcheat, and freely makes
offer of it again to us, Hof. xiii. 9 and that with the
advantage of everlafting fecurity, that it can never be
altogether loll any more, John x. 28, 29. Free grace
will fix thofe, whom, free-will flnok down into a gulf
of mifery.
Use If. This reacheth a reproof to three forts of
perfons ((.) f'o thefe who hate religion in the power
of it, wherever it appears; ami can take pleafure in
nothing, but in the world and their lulls. Surely thofe
men are far from rightecufnefs; they are haters of
God, Rom. i. 30, for they are haters of his image.
Upright Adam in Parrdife, would have been a great
eye-fore to all.fuch perfons ; as he was to the ferpent,
whofe feed they prove themfdves to be, by their ma¬
lignity. (2 i It reproves thefs who put religion to
fhame, and thofe who are afhamed of religion, before a
gracelefs world. There is a generation who make i'o
bold with the God that made them, and can in a mo¬
ment crufh them, that they ridicule piety, and make a
mock of ferioufneis. Againjt whom do ye /port your-
/elves P Againjl whom make ye a wide mouth and draw
out the tongue P Ifa. Ivii. 4. Is it not againfl God
himfeif, whole image in fome meafure repaired on fome
of his creatures, makes them fools in your eyes ! But
be ye not mockers, left your bands be made ft rong, Ifa.
xxviii. 22 Holinefs was the glory God put on man,
when he made him : but now ions of men turn that
glory into ihame, becaufe they themfeives glory in their
fhame. There are others that fecretly approve of re¬
ligion, and in religious company will profefs it ; who
at other times, to be neighbour-like are alhamed to
own it; fo weak are they, that they are blown over with
the wind of the wicked’s mouth. A broad laughter,
an impmus jefl, a filly gibe out of a profane mouth, is
to many an unanfwerable argument againfl religion
and