Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

I ao Corruption of the y4jfeJ?.&c.State II.
caufe there is a falfe I^ight in the dark Mind, the
natural Confcience toliowing the fame, will call evil
good and good evil, Ifa. v. 20 And fo ’tis often
found like a blind and furious Horfe • which doth
violently run down himfelf, his Rider, and all that
doth come in his Way, John xvi. 2. IVhofoever
killeth you, will think that he doth God Service.
When the natural Confcience is awaken’d by the
Spirit of Conviction, it will indeed rage and roar,
and put the whole Man in a dreadml Confternati-
on ; awfully funi won all the Powers of the Soul to
help in a Strait; make the ftirf Heart to tremble,
and the Knees to bow ; fee the Eyes a weeping, the
Tongue a ccnfeffmg; and oblige the Man to call out
the Goods into the Sea, which it apprehends are
like to Jink the Ship ol the §oul, tho’ the Heart ftill
goes after them. But yet it is an evil Confcience,
which natively leads to Defpair, and will do it ef-
fedtually, as in Judas’s Cafe ; unlefs either Lufts
prevail over it, to lull it afieep, as in the Cafe of Fe¬
lix, Acts xxiv. 2J. or the Blood of Chrift prevail o-
ver it, fprinkling and purging it from dead Works,
as in the Cafe of all true Converts, Heb. ix. 14.
and x. 22.
Laftly, Even the Memory bears evident Marks of
this Corruption. What is good and worthy to be
minded, as it makes but flender Impreffion, lo that
Impreffion eafily wears off; the Memory, as a leak¬
ing Vefiel lets it Heb. ii. 1. As a Sieve that
is full, when in the Water, lets all go when its
taken out; fo is th? Memory, w ith refpedt to fpiri-
tual Things. But how does it retain what ought
to be forgotten ? Naughty Tilings fo bear in them -
felvcs upon it, that tho’ Men would fain have them
put of Mind, yet they dick there like Glew. How-
eye!: