Chap.i5. An Expofition upon the Booh, of f OB. Verf:25. . mour and weapons by which the Saints flrengthen themfelves again( Satan ; -fo carnal reafonings and the lulls of the fleib, are the armour and weapons by which wicked men frengthen themfelves again( God. A wicked mans chief care is to fortifie and encourage his lulls ; to put warm clothes to his finful heart, and make it flout againfi God : Sin begins with turning the heart fromGod, and fin ends in turning the heart againft God : The fait fiep in fin is.a.negle&ofGod, the fecond fiep is contempt of God, the third and fait is a War withGod : He firengthens himfelf (for the battel) againfi the Almighty. Secondly obferve, Sin runs againft reafon, and caufeth us to aEi not onely wick edly, butfoolifhly : Is it not folly and madnefs for weaknefs to contend with Omnipotency ? When a (inner hath flrength- ned himfelf the bell he,can, the very weaknefs of God (as the Apolille (peaks) is fironger than he. What King (faith Chrill, Luke 14. 31.) going to make war againft another King, loth not firft fit down, &c. as ifhe had Paid, The Kings of the Earth are not fo foolifh, fo brainlefs, and counfellefs to con- tend with thole, whom they cannot match ; they will hard. ly venture a battel with Ten thoufand againft Twenty thou. fand, they will rather make a difadvantagious peace , than proceed in a War upcn fuchadvantages. The Kingof Ifrael reprovad the challenge which the King of /udab lent him, by the Parable of the Thifle in Lebanon, afpiring to match with the Cedar in Lebanort (2 Kings aç 9.) What's a Thifile to a Cedar ? Then what is man to God ? See then what a reafonlefs, yea fenfelefs creature man is, who will needs go out againfi God to battel, though all the number he can mufler, is not onely as difproportionabie as Ten thoufand to Twenty thoufand, as a Thilile to a Cedar, but more than one tingleman isto a Million of men, or than a bruifed Reed to the firongefl Oak. God with cafe made all the power of man alone, and he, thoughalone, canmore eafily defroy it it coil him but the fpeaking of a word to fet it up, and he can pull it down with, yeo without a word. fpeaking. Many men have been filed, Thegreat, Theftrong. The mighty : But no man ever durfi own this file, The Almighty : This title of God ill the Text,The Almighty,,fhould make the mightielt of T met
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=