gone afide, we are altogether become filthy, there is none that doth good, no, not one °.

4. We must lament our prefent corrupt difpofitions to that which is evil, and our indifpofedness to and impotency in that which is good. We must look into our own hearts and confefs, with holy blushing,

(1.) The blindness of our understandings, and their unaptnefs to admit the rays of the divine light.

By nature our understandings are darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts P.

The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man, neither can we know them, because they are fpiritually discerned ¶.

We are wife to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge'. We know not, neither do we understand, we walk on in darkness s.

God fpeaketh once, yea, twice, but we perceive it not; but hearing, we hear, and do not understand v and we fee men as trees walking w.

W

(2.) The stubbornness of our wills, and their unapiness to fubmit to the rules of the divine law.

We have within us a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not in fubjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be x.

Thou haft written to us the great things of thy law, but they have been accounted by us as a strange thing, and our corrupt hearts have been fometimes ready to fay, What is the Almighty that we fhould ferve him? And that we would certainly do whatfoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth a. For we have walked in the way of our own heart, and in the

o Pfalm xiv. 3. Jer. iv. 22. Matth. xiii. 14. y Hof. viii. 12.

p Eph. iv, 18.
s Pfalm 1xxxii. 5.
w Mark viii. 24.
z Job xxi. 15.

q 1 Cor. ii, 14. t Job xxxiii. 14. x Rom. viii. 7. a Jer. xliv. 17.

fight of our eyes, fulfilling the defires of the flesh, and of the mind b.

d

Our neck hath been an iron finew, and we have made our heart as an adamant ; we have refused to hearken, have pulled away the thoulder, and stopped our ears like the deaf adder, that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never fo wifely e.

How have we hated inftruction, and our heart defpifed reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that inftructed us f!

(3.) The vanity of our thoughts, their neglect of those things which they ought to be converfant with, and dwelling upon those things that are unworthy of them, and tend to corrupt our minds,

Every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is evil, only evil, and that continually, and it has been fo from our youth 3.

O how long have those vain thoughts lodged within ush thofe thoughts of foolifhnefs which are fini; From out of the heart proceed evil thoughts; which devife mifchief upon the bed', and carry the heart with the fool's eyes into the ends of the earth m.

But God is not in all our thoughts, 'tis well if he be in any " Of the Rock that begat us, we have been unmindful, and have forgotten the God that formed us P: We have forgotten him days without number, and our hearts have walked after vanity, and become vain. Their inward thought having been, that our houfes fhould continue for ever; this our way is our folly a

(4) The carnality of our affections, their being placed upon wrong objects, and carried beyond due bounds.

b Eccl. xi. 19. c Ifa. xlviii. 4. e Pfalm lviii. 4, 5. Prov. v. 12, 13. b Jer. iv. 14. Prov. xxiv. 9. k Mai. m Prov. xvii, 24. n Pfalm x. 4. Jer. ii. 32. q Pfalm xlix. 11, 13.

d Zech. vii. 11, 12. g Gen. vi. 5, 8, 21. xv. 19. / Mic.

o Deut. xxxii. 18°

We have fet thefe affections on things beneath, which fhould have been fet on things above, where our treasure is, and where Chrift fits on the right hand of God, the things which we should feek $.

We have followed after lying vanities, and forfaken our own mercies; have forfaken the fountain of living waters, forcifterns, broken cifterns that can hold no water".

We have panted after the duft of the earth, and have been full of care what we fhall eat and what we fhall drink, and wherewithal we fhall be clothed, the thingsafter which the Gentiles feek, and the righteoufnels thereof w.

We have lifted up our fouls unto vanity, and fet our eyes upon that which is not, having looked at the things that are feen, which are temporal y; but the things that are not feen, that are eternal, have been forgotten and postponed 2.

(5.) The corruption of the whole man; irregular appetites towards thofe things which are pleafing to fenfe, and inordinate paffions against these things that are difpleafing, and an alienation of the mind, from the principles, powvers, and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life.

C

We are born of the flesh, and we are flefha: Duft we are b: We have borne the image of the earthly; and in us, that is, in our flefh, there dwells no good thing For if to will is prefent to us, yet how to perform that which is good we find not; for the good that we would do, we do it not; and the evil which we would not do, that we do 4.

We have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of fin that is in our members : So that when we would do good, evil is prefent with us f

The whole head is fick, the whole heart faints, from the fole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no foundness in us, but wounds, and bruifes, and putrifying fores &.

There is in us a bent to backslide from the living God: Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked; who can know them? They ftart afide like a broken bow k.

(5.) We must lament and confefs our omiffions of our duty, our neglect of it, and triflings in it; and that we have done fo little fince we came into the world, of the great work we were fent into the world about; so very little to answer the end of our creation, or of our redemption, of our birth and of our baptifm; and that we have profited no more by the means of grace.

We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyard, and thou haft come many years feeking fruit from us, but haft found none'; and therefore we might jufly be cut down, and caft into the fire for cumbering the ground; thou haft come looking for grapes, but be hold wild grapes; for we have been empty vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves n.

We have known to do good, but have not done it; we have hid our Lord's money, and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and flothful servant P.

We have been unfaithful stewards 4, that have wafted our lord's goods; for one finner destroys much good'.

Many a price hath been put into our hands to get wisdom, which we have had no heart to, or our heart has been at our left hand.

Our childhood and youth were vanity v, v, and we have brought our years to an end, as a tale that is told w.

We have not known, or improved, the day of our vifitation x, have not provided meat in fummer, nor gathered food in harveft, though we have had guides overfeers, and rulers v.

We are flow of heart to understand and believe 2; and whereas for the time we might have been teachers of others, we are yet to learn the first principles of the oracles of God; have need of milk, and cannot bear ftrong meata.

We have caft off fear, and restrained prayer, before. God; have not called upon thy name, nor stirred up ourfelves to take hold on thee.

We have come before thee as thy people come, and have fat before thee as thy people fit, and have heard thy words, when our hearts at the fame time have been going after our covetoufnefs. And thus have we brought the torn, and the lame, and the fick for facrifice, have offered that to our God, which we would not have offered to our governor; and have vowed and facrificed to the Lord a corrupt thing when we had in our flock a male *.

6. We must likewife bewail our many a&tual tranfgreffons, in thought, word, and deed.

We have finned, Father, against heaven and before thee f; we have all finned, and come thort of the glory of God; for the God in whofe hand our breath is, and whofe are all our ways, have we not glorified ".

Against thee, thee only, have we finned, and have done much evil in thy fighti: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he hath fet before us; though they are holy, juft, and good1.

x Luke xix. 44. J Prov. 6, 7, 8. a Heb. v. 12. b Job xv. 4. c Ifa. Ixiv. 7. e Mal. i. 8, 24 f Luke xv. 18. b Dan, v. 23. i Pfal. li. 4. k Dan. ix. 10.

≈ Luke xxiv. 25.