eheld the second, because it was not answerable to it in magnificence and
glory; so, I say, it might occasion much sadness and grief, even to the
children of God, in whom that image is in part repaired, and that by a
second creation, to think how much more happy and blessed man once was,
who had grace and holiness without sin. But certainly, it should and must
be at first, before this image be restored, the bitter lamentation of a
soul, to look upon itself wholly ruinous and defaced, in the view of that
glorious stately fabric which once was made. How lamentable a sight is it
to behold the first temple demolished, or the first creation defaced, and
the second not yet begun in many souls, the foundation-stone not yet laid!
It was a sad and doleful invention which Satan inspired at first into
man's heart, to go about to find out another happiness,--to seek how to be
wise as God, an invention that did proceed from hell,--how to know evil
experimentally and practically by doing it! That invention hath invented
and found out all the sin and misery under which the world groans. It is a
poor invention to devise misery and torment to the creature. This was the
height of folly and madness, for a happy creature to invent how to make
itself miserable and all others. Indeed, he intended another thing--to be
more happy, but pride and ambition got a deserved fall, the result of all
is sin and misery.

And now from the first devilish invention, the heart of man is possessed
with a multitude of vain imaginations. Man is now become vain in his
imaginations, and his foolish heart is darkened. That divine wisdom he was
endued withal is eclipsed, for it was a ray of God's countenance, and now
he is left wholly in the dark without a guide, without a director or
leader. He is turned out of the path of holiness, and so of happiness. A
night of gross darkness and blindness is come on, and the way is full of
pits and snares, and the end of it is at best eternal misery. And there is
no lamp, no light to shine on it, to show him either the misery that he is
posting unto, or the happiness that he is fleeing from. There is nothing
within him sufficient to direct his way to blessedness, and nothing
willing or able to follow such a direction. And thus man is left to the
invention and counsel of his own desperately wicked and deceitful heart,
and that is above all plagues, to be given up to a reprobate mind. He is
now left to such a tutor and guider, an