2. _They are represented as wanting spiritual senses._--They savour the things of the world, not the things which are of God. They indeed love the effects of God's goodness to them, but they delight not in His character as a holy, just, and faithful Being. They may feel a natural pleasure in certain mechanical emotions of the passions excited by objects presented to the sight, or by sounds which strike the ear, as the artificial tears from the image of the Virgin Mary will melt down an assembly of Catholics, or as a concert of musical instruments will rapture the hearers; but they relish not the Word and ordinances of God, considered as means of holiness and as designed to convince them of their sins and bring them to repentance. If the Word dispensed comes home to their conscience, they are offended. They lose the music of the pleasant song and talk against it by the walls and in the doors of their houses.
3. _They resemble the dead in the want of vital warmth._--If they have any fervour in religion, it is about the forms and externals of it, or about some favourite sentiments which they find adapted to soothe their consciences, not about those things in which the power of religion consists. As death deforms the body, so sin destroys the beauty of the soul. It darkens the reason, perverts the judgment, and disorders the affections. To be carnally-minded is death.
4. _They may be denominated dead as they are worthy of and exposed to punishment._--This is called death because it is the separation of the soul from God and heaven, from happiness and hope, from all good and unto all evil. This is a death which awaits the impenitent.
+II. There is in ungodly men a general disposition to follow the way of the world.+--"According to the course of this world" (ver. 2). They, like dead carcases, swam down the stream of common custom, and were carried away with the general current of vice and corruption.
1. _Most men have a general idea that religion is of some importance._--Few can wholly suppress it, or reason themselves out of it. But what religion is and wherein it consists they seldom inquire, and never examine with any degree of attention. Such opinions as flatter their ungodly lusts, or pacify their guilty consciences, they warmly embrace. That scheme of doctrine which will make converts without exacting reformation, and give assurance without putting them to much trouble, they highly approve. The path which will lead men to heaven with little self-denial they readily pursue.