9. Thus first was dissolved the vital union of our soul with God: insomuch that _in the midst of |natural| life, we are |now| in |spiritual| death_. And herein we remain till the second _Adam_ becomes a quickening spirit to us, till he raises the dead, the dead in sin, in pleasure, riches, or honours. But before any dead soul can live, he _hears_ (hearkens to) _the voice of the Son of God_: He is made sensible of his lost estate, and receives the sentence of death in himself. He knows himself to be _dead while he liveth_, dead to God, and all the things of God: having no more power to perform the actions of a living Christian, than a dead body to perform the functions of a living man. 10. And most certain it is, that one dead in sin, has not _senses exercised to discern |spiritual| good and evil. Having eyes, he sees not, he hath ears and hears not._ He doth not _taste and see that the Lord is gracious_. He _hath not seen God at any time_, nor _heard his voice_, nor _handled the word of life_. In vain is the name of Jesus _like ointment poured forth_, and _all his garments smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia_. The soul that sleepeth in death hath no perception of any objects of this kind. His heart is _past feeling_, and understandeth none of these things. * 11. And hence having no spiritual senses, no inlets of spiritual knowledge, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; nay, he is so far from receiving them, that whatsoever is spiritually discerned is mere foolishness unto him. He is not content with being utterly ignorant of spiritual things, but he denies the very existence of them. And spiritual sensation itself is to him, the foolishness of folly. _How_, saith he, _can these things be_? How can any man _know_, that he is alive to God? Even as you know, that your body is now alive. Faith is the life of the soul: and if ye have this life abiding in you, ye want no marks to evidence it _to yourself_, but that ἔλεγχος Πνεύματος, that divine consciousness, that _witness of_ God, which is more and greater than ten thousand human witnesses. 12. If he doth not now bear witness with thy spirit, that thou art a child of God, O that he might convince thee, thou poor unawakened sinner, by his demonstration and power, that thou art a child of the devil! O that as I prophesy, there might now be _a noise and a shaking_, and may _the bones come together, bone to his bone_. Then _come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live_! And do not ye harden your hearts, and resist the Holy Ghost, who even now is come to _convince_ you _of sin, because you believe not on the name of the only begotten Son of God_.