Selfi/hnefs the powerful Enemy of All Ordinances. 303 think fo meanly and hardly of themfelves as the Scripture (peaks of them, and Minifters muft plainly tell them. The Prophet wept that forefaw the cruelty of likzge/; but he had fo good a conceit of himfelf that he would not believe he fhould be fo cruel, z Kings 8. I 3. Is thy fervAnt a dog thIt he fhould do this ?..] The falfe Prophet Zedekiah could not for- bear, but ftruck Micaiah, when he made it known that he was a lyingProphet, i King/ 22.24 And Ahab hated him, becaufe he prophefieel not good of hies but evil. It was all the Proudmen that rofe up againft leremiak, and contradifted his prophefie and rejetled his word, Ter. 43.2. The word of God is quick and powerful, and a difcerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; and it is the plain word of that God., that feareth- not the faces of the Proudeft finners on earth, and will not flatter, nor daub with any of them all , but will tell them to their faces what they are, and what will becomeof them if they do not turn, and what they muft truft to : This is the word that Godhash put into our mouths, and commanded us to preach to them : not the flattering words of an inferior,', nor the tender languageof a man-pleafer, but the commanding words ofthe God of heaven,and theperemptory threanings of everlafting fire, againft all unconverted, unfan- aifiedmen, denounced from him that feareth none of them all, but will make them all to ftoop at laft to him, and fear, and tremble before his Majefty. And is it any wonder if Proud and felfiA finners are difpleafed with fuch a word as this ? They {land all the while they are hearing a plain and powerful preacher, as prifoners arraigned at the bar ; and fometime are ready to trembleas Felix did, when he heard Paul dilating ofrighteoufnefs, and temperance and the judg- ment to come, ACts 24. 25. And canfelf endure to be thus u fed andarraignedfor its life ? efpecially when they think it is but by a man ? For they have not the underfianding to knpw that it is Chrift that owneth all that his Meffengers fpeak by his Commiffion. Hence-it is that men hate thole Mi- niiters that they feel thus, to judge themin their doctrine, and take them for their enemiesfor telling' them the truth, Gal.4. i6. and think they are but the tremblers of the Countrey, as Ahab called
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