APPENDIX. 235 was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ as a Son : his authority is above kings and high priests; and they have no power now but from him, and therefore none against him or his laws : all commands are null to conscience, which contradict him. The examples in Daniel iii. and vi., and of the apostles, tell us wheth- er God or man. should be first obeyed : therefore it is that the Bible is more necessary to be searched and learned than the stat- ute -book, or canons. Were man to be heard before Christ, or against him, or as necessarily as he, why have we not law- preach- ers every Lord's-day to expound the statutes and canons to all the people ? And why are they not catechised out of the book of canons, or law, as well as out of the Bible ? And sure, if we must hear Christ and his gospel before priests or princes, or before our dearest friends, much more before our fleshly lusts and appetites, and before a profane and foolish scorner, and before the temptations of the devil O, had we heard Christ warning us, when we hearkened to the tempter, and to the flesh, how safely had we lived, and how comfortably might we have died! 38. But this word, "hear him," is as comfortable as obligatory. Hear him, sinner, when he calls to thee to repent and turn to God : hear him, when he calleth thee to himself, to take him for thy Lord and Savior, to believeand trust him for pardon and salvation : hear him, when he calleth, " Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden: ho, every one that thirsteth, come: .whoever will, let him drink.of the water of life freely." Hear him when he commandeth, and hear him when he promiseth ; and hear him before the worldly wise, when he teacheth us the way to God : hear him, for he knows what he saith : hear him, for he is true, and faithful, and infallible : hear him, for he is the Son of God, the greatest messenger that ever God sent: hear him,for he pur- posely came down in flesh, that he might familiarly teach us: hear him, for none else in the world bath made known the things of God like him, and none can do it: hear him, for he moaned' us no hurt; he is our dearest friend, and love itself, and saith nothing but for our salvation, and promisetil nothing but what he will perform. Yea, hear hirn, for every soul that will not hear him shall be cut off. Hear him, therefore, if he contradict thy fleshly appetite; hear him, if great or small, if any or all shall be against it: hear him, if he set thee on the hardest work, or call thee to the greatest suffering: hear him, if he bid thee take up the cross, and forsake all and follow him, in hope of a reward in heaven: hear-him, if he call tltee to lay down thy life ; for none can be a loser by him. Hear him now in the day of grace, and he will hear thee in the
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