The [1anity of the Creature, of the perfecution. Fire carne downe from heaven to de- firoy Sodom, and fire came downe from heaven to ad- vance Eliau ; the fame Sea a San&uary unto Ifrael, and a Grave unto .Egypt ; joxah had beene drowned if he had not beene devoured, the latter deftruCtion was a delive- rance from the former, and the ravine of a Fifh, a refuge from the rage of the Sea : Pulfe kept `Daniel in good li- king, which the meat of the Kings Tablecould not doe in the other children : for indeed Life is not a thingmeere- ly naturoll, but of promife, as the Apo &le fpeakes ; Let the promife be removed, and however a. wicked man lives as well as a righteous man, yet his life is indeed but a brea- thing death , onely the cramming of him to a day of (laughter : When the bleffing of God is once fubduCted, though men labour in the very fire, turne their vitali heat with extremitie ofpaines into a very flame, yet the clofe of all their labour will prove nothing but Vaxitie, as the Prophet fpeakes. Wee fhould therefore turne unto God that wee may live not onely by the Creature, but by the Word which fandìifieth the Creature, that we may not leans upon our fubflance, but upon Gods promifes, that we may not live by that which we have only, but by that which we hope for,and may flillfind God accompanying `his owne blefíings unto our foule. But here the vanitie and wickedneffe of many world- 1y men is jufily to bee reproved, who refl. on the Creature as on the only itaf a and comfort of their life, who count it their principal] joy, when their Corne, and Wine, and Oyle encreafeth ,who magnifie their owne Arts, facrifice to their ovvne Net and D rag ( which is the Idolatrie of covetoufnefe, fo often fpoken of by the Apofile when all the trufi, and hope, and glory, and rejoycing, which men have is in the Creature, and not in G o D.) They boaft, faith the Pfalmifi, in the multitude of their Riches. Nay, fo much fottifhneffe there is in the nature of man, and fo much fophifric in the Creature, that the proud C a foole t Tim.4.8. . Must .t. Habac.a.r3. Eb. i .rl,t 6. l:phef.ç'ç. Col. 3.1. .0fal,49.6.
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