Whose eyes the god of this world hath blmded.] Satan is here called the god of this world, not properly, but by a mimesis ; be- cause he challenges to himself the honour of a god, and hath a world of subjects that obey him ; and, to secure their obedience, he blinds them, that they may never see a better w^ay or state, than that he hath drawn them into. Therefore he is called the ruler of the darkness of this world, who rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience. The eye of the soul is the mind, that thinking, considering, and reasoning power of the soul ; this is, as the philosophers truly call it, the to rr/s/Mouzov, the leading faculty to all the rest, the guide to all the other faculties, which, in the order of nature, follow this their leader : If this be blinded, the will, which is ccjeca potentia, a blind power in itself, and all affections bhndly following the blind, all must needs fall into the ditch. And this is the case of the far greater part of even the professing world. Let us suppose a number of blind men upon an island, where there are many smooth paths, all leading to the top of a perpendicular cliff, and these blind men going on continually, some in one path, and some in another, but all in some one of those many paths which lead to the brink of their ruin, which they see not ; it must needs follow, if they all move forward, the w^hole number will in a short time be cast away, the island cleared, and its inhabitants dead, and lost in the bottom of the sea. This is the case of the unregenerate world ; they are now upon this habitable spot of earth, environed with the vast ocean of eternity ; there are multitudes of paths leading to eternal misery ; one man takes this way, and another that, as it is Isa. liii. 6. " We have " turned every one to his own way ;"" one to the way of pride, another to the way of covetousness, a third to the way of persecu- tion, a fourth to the way of civility and mortality ; and so on they go, not once making a stand, or questioning to what end it will bring them, till at last over they go, at death, and we hear no more of them in this world : And thus one generation of sinners follows another, and they that come after approve, and applaud those miserable wretches that went before them, Psal. xlix. 13. and so hell fills, and the world empties its inhabitants daily into it. Now I will make it my work, out of a dear regard to the precious souls of men, and in hope to prevent (v/hich the Lord in mercy grant) the loss, and ruin of some, under whose eyes this discourse shall fall, to note some of the principal ways in which
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 185
precious souls are lost, and to put such bars into tlienj, as I am capable to put ; and, among many more, I will set a mark upon these following twelve paths, wherein millions of souls have been lost, and millions more are confidently, and securely following after, among which, it is likely, some are witliin one step, one day, or hour, to their eternal downfal and destruction. There is but one way in all the world, to save, and preserve the precious souls of men, but there are many ways to lose and destroy them : It is here, as it is in our natural birth, and death, but one way into the world, but a multitude out of it. And first.
The first way to hell discovered.
1. And to begin where, indeed, the ruin of very many doth begin, it will be found, that ill education is the high-way to destruc- tion ; vice need not be planted ; if the gardener neglect to dress, sow, and manure his garden, he need not give the weeds a greater advantage ; but if he also scatter the seeds of hemlock, docks, and nettles into it, he spoils it, and makes it fit for nothing. Many parents, and those godly too, are guilty of too many neglects, through carelessness, worldly incumbrances, or fond indulgence ; and whilst they neglect the season of sowing better seed, the devil takes hold of it ; if they will not improve it, he will : If they teach him not to pray, he will teach them to curse, swear, and lye ; if they put not the bible, or catechism in their hands, he will put obscene ballads into them : and thus the offspring of many godly parents turn into degenerate plants, and prove a generation that know not the God of their fathers. This debauched age can fur- nish us with too many sad instances hereof. Thus they are spoiled in the bud ; simple ignorance in youth, becomes affected and wilful ignorance in age ; blushing sins in children become impudent in age; and all this for want of a timely, and prudent preventing care. Others there are of the rude and ignorant multitude, who are bred themselves much like the beasts they daily converse withal ; and so they are fitly described, Job xxx. 6, 7. Go into their houses, and you may sooner find in the window, or upon the shelf, a pack of cards, than a bible or a catechism ; their beds and tables differ little, or not at all, from the stalls and cribs where beasts lie down and feed, in respect of any worship of God among them ; or if, for fashion-sake, a fev,^ words be huddled over in the evening, when their bodies are tired, the man saith something, he scarce knows what, the wife is aleep in one corner, the children in ano- ther, and the servants in a third. This is the education multitudes of parents give their children all the week, and when the sabbath comes, the most they learn to know at church, is, where their own
184 A TREATISE OF TSE SOTJL OF MA5:
seat staDcIs, and that it is necessary to speak with such a neighbour' after prayers about such or such a bargain, or business for the next week.
And othere there are, who breed their children as profanely, as these do sottishly ; teaching them, by their examples, the newest oaths that were last minted in hell, and to revile and scoff all se- rious godliness, and the sincere professors of it, smiling to hear with what an emphasis they can talk in the dialect of devils, and how wittily thcv can droll upon godly ministers and Christians.