The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.

They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doth good, no not one. Ps. 14. 2, 3.

They know not, neither will they understand ; they walk on in darkness : All the foundations of the earth are out of course. Ps. 82. 5.

O Lord, thy word testifieth

What my experience seeth,

That the Sons of Men

Err in their hearts,

From thy holy Ways.

The Glory of thy Kingdom they cannot see;

The Blessedness of their Estate

None will regard ;

Nor behold the Brightness of

Thine eternal Treasures ;

Nor how near they are to

Thine eternal Love.

The glory of the Earth, is

Stained by Sin

Oppressed with Tares,

Spoiled with Briars and cursed Thorns,

Wherein according to the course of this World, according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience,

They all walk

In the Lusts of the Flesh,

In the vanity of the Mind,

Having the Understanding darkned,

Being alienated from the life of God,

Through the ignorance that is in them. Eph. 4. 17. 18.

With one consent they wander up and down,

To polluted streams,

And will not refresh their Soul,

With living Waters.

The riches of thy bounty,

Which with infinite liberality, Thou freely givest,

They disregard.

By that means turning the world into a desart Wilderness,

Of Owls and Dragons,

That thirst after happiness,

They know not what ;

Seek it they know not where ;

Find it no where.

They seek it in Gold, not in Thee ;

In Silver, In Apparel,

In Feasts, In Houses.

But in the high Estate, to which already they are by thee exalted, they find no pleasure.

The freedom of thy Love hideth it from their Eyes.

The Truth and Commonness of thy Glorious Works,

They cannot see.