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Such is the enmity of the hearts of men against Christ, in his prophetical office.

2. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his priestly office. He is appointed of the Father a Priest for ever : that by his alone sacrifice and intercession, sinners may have peace with, and access to God; but Christ crucified is a stumbling-block, and foolishness to the unrenewed part of mankind, to whom he is preached, 1 Cor. i. 23. They are not for him, as the new and living way. Nor is he, by the voice of the world, an high Priest over the house of God. Corrupt nature goes quite another way to work.

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Evidence 1. None of Adam's children naturally incline to receive the blessing in borrowed robes; but would always, according to the spider's motto, owe all to themselves; and so climb up to heaven on a thread spun out of their own bowels. For they "desire to be under the law," Gal. iv. 24. And " go about to establish their own righ teousness, Rom. x. 3. Man, naturally, looks on God as a great Master; and himself, as his servant, that must work and win heaven as his wages. Hence, when conscience is awakened, he thinks, that, to the end he may be saved, he must answer the demands of the law; serve God as well as he can, and pray for mercy wherein he comes short. And thus many come to duties, that never come out of them to Jesus Christ.

Evid. 2. As men, naturally, think highly of their duties, that seem to them to be well done; so they look for acceptance with God according as their work is done, not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ. "Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?" They will value themselves on their performances and attainments; yea, their very opinions in religion, (Phil. ii. 4, 5, 6, 7.). taking to themselves what they rob from Christ, the great High Priest.

Evid. 3. The natural man, going to God in duties, will always be found either to go without a Mediator, or with more than the only Mediator, Jesus Christ. Nature is

blind, and therefore venturous: It sets a man a-going immediately to God without Christ; to rush into his presence, and put their petitions in his hand, without being introduced by the secretary of heaven, or putting their requests into his hand. So fixed is this disposition in the unrenewed

heart, that when many hearers of the gospel are conversed with upon the point of their hopes of salvation, the name of Christ will scarcely be heard from their mouths. Ask them how they think to obtain the pardon of sin? they will tell you, they beg and look for mercy, because God is a merciful God; and that is all they have to confide in. Others look for mercy for Christ's sake; but how do they know that Christ will take their plea in hand? Why, as the Papists have their mediators with the Mediator, so have they. They know he cannot but do it; for they pray, confess, mourn, and have great desires, and the like; and so have something of their own to commend them unto him: They were never made poor in spirit, and brought emptyhanded to Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood.

3. The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father has appointed the Mediator King in Zion, Psalm ii. 6. And all to whom the gospel comes are commanded, on their highest peril, to kiss the Son, and submit themselves unto him, ver. 12. But the natural voice of mankind is, Away with him, as you may see, ver. 2. 3. "They will not have him to reign overthem," Luke xix. 14. Evid. 1. The workings of corrupt nature to wrest the government out of his hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a king, Herod persecuted him, Matth. ii. And when he was crucified, they set up over his head his accusation, written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, Matth. xxvii. 37. Though his kingdom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world; yet, they cannot allow him a kingdom within a kingdom, which acknowledgeth no other head or supreme, but the royal Mediator. They make bold with his royal prerogatives, changing his laws, institutions, and ordinances, modelling his worship according to the devices of their own hearts; introducing new offices and offcers into his kingdom, not to be found in the book of the manner of his kingdom; disposing of the external government thereof, as may best suit their carnal designs. is the enmity of the hearts of men against Zion's King. Evid. 2. How unwilling are men, naturally, to submit unto, and be hedged in by the laws and discipline of his kingdom! As a king, he is a law-giver, (Isa. xxxiii. 22.) and has appointed an external government, discipline, and

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censors, to controul the unruly, and to keep his professed subjects in order, to be exercised by officers of his own appointment, Matth. xviii. 17, 18. 1 Cor. xii. 28. 1 Tim. v. 17. Heb. xiii. 17. But these are the great eye-sores of the carnal world, who love sinful liberty, and therefore cry out, "Let us break their bands aṣunder, and cast away their cords from us,” Psal. ii. 3. Hence this work is found to be, in a special manner, a striving against the stream of corrupt nature, which, for the most part, puts such a face on the church, as if there were no King in Israel, every one doing that which is right in his own eyes.

Evid. 3. However natural men may be brought to feign submission to the King of saints, yet lusts always retain the throne and dominion in their hearts, and they are serving divers lusts and pleasures, Tit. iii. 3. None but these in whom Christ is formed do really put the crown on his head, and receive the kingdom of Christ within them. His crown is "the crown wherewith his mother crowned him, in the day of his espousals." Who are they, whom the power of grace has not subdued, that will allow him to set up, and to put down, in their souls, as he will? Nay, as for others, any Lord shall sooner get the rule over them, than the Lord of glory: They kindly entertain his enemies, and will never absolutely resign themselves to his government, till conquered in a day of power. Thus ye may see, that the natural man is an enemy to Jesus Christ in all his offices.

But O! how hard is it to convince men in this point! They are very loth to take with it. And, in a special manner, the enmity of the heart against Christ in his priestly office, seems to be hid from the view of most of the hearers of the gospel. Yet there appears to be a peculiar malignity in corrupt nature against that office of his. It may be observed, that the Socinians, these enemies of our blessed Lord, allow him to be properly a prophet and a King, but deny him to be properly a Priest. And this is agreeable enough to the corruption of our nature; for under the covenant of works, the Lord was known as a Prophet or Teacher, and also as a King or Ruler; but not at all as a Priest: So man knows nothing of the mystery of Christ, as the way to the Father, till it be revealed to him. And when it is revealed, the will riseth up against it; for cor

rupt nature lies cross the mystery of Christ, and the great contrivance of salvation, through a crucified Saviour, revealed in the gospel. For clearing of which weighty truth, let these four things be considered:

First, The soul's falling in with the grand device of salvation by Jesus Christ, and setting the matters of salvation on that footing before the Lord, is declared by the Scriptures of truth, to be an undoubted mark of a real saint, who is happy here and shall be happy hereafter. Matth. xi. 6. "And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." Cor. iii. 23, 24. "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness: But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Philip. iii. 3. "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Now, how could this be, if nature could comply with that grand device?

Secondly, Corrupt nature is the very reverse of the gospel-contrivance. In the gospel God promiseth Jesus Christ, as the great means of reuniting man to himself: He has. named him as the Mediator, one in whom he is well pleased; and will have none but him, Matth. xvii. 5. But nature will have none of him, Psal. lxxxi. 11. God appointed the place of meeting for the reconciliation, namely, the flesh of Christ; accordingly, God was in Christ (2 Cor. v. 29.) as the tabernacle of meeting to make up the peace with sinners; but natural men, though they should die for ever, will not come thither, John v. 40. "And ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." In the way of the gospel the sinner must stand before the Lord in an imputed righteousness: But corrupt nature is for an inherent righteousness; and, therefore, so far as natural men follow after righteousness, they follow after the law of righteousness, Rom. ix. 31, 32. and not after the Lord our righteousness. Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some grounds for boasting; but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress nature, and exclude boasting, Rom. iii. 27. The sum of our natural religion is, to do good from and for ourselves, John v. 44.

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sum of the gospel religion is, to deny ourselves, and to do good from and for Christ, Philip. i. 21.

Thirdly, Every thing in nature is against believing in Jesus Christ. What beauty can the blind man discern in a crucified Saviour, for which he is to be desired? How can the will, naturally impotent, yea, and averse to good, make choice of him? Well may the soul then say to him in the day of the spiritual siege, as the Jebusites said to David in another case, " Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither,” 2 Sam. v. 6. The way of nature is to go into one's self for all; according to the fundamental maxim of unsanctified morality, That a man should trust in himself; which, according to the doctrine of faith, is mere foolishness. For so it is determined, Prov. xviii. 26. "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." Now, faith is the soul's going out of itself for all; and this nature, on the other hand, determines to be foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 18, 23. Wherefore there is need of the working of mighty power, to cause sinners to believe, Eph. i. 19. Isa. liii. 1. We see promises of welcome to sinners, in the gospel covenant, are ample, large, and free, clogged with no conditions, Isa. Iv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17. If they cannot believe his bare word, he has given them his oath upon it, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. And for their greater assurance, he has appended seals to his sworn covenant, namely, the holy sacraments. So that no more

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could be demanded of the most faithless person in the world, to make us believe him, than the Lord hath condescended to give us, to make us believe himself. This plainly speaks nature to be against believing, and these who flee to Christ for refuge, to have need of strong consolation (Heb. vi. 18.) to blame their strong doubts, and propensity to unbelief. Farther, also, it may be observed, how, in the word sent to a secure,graceless generation, their objec tions are answered aforehand; and words of grace are heaped one upon another, as ye may read, Isa. Iv. 7, 8, 9. Joel ii. 13. Why? Because the Lord knows, that when these secure sinners are thoroughly wakened, doubts, fears, and carnal reasonings against believing, will be going within their breasts, as thick as dust in a house, raised by sweeping a dry floor.

Lastly, Corrupt nature is bent towards the way of the

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