carry should refuse to do the one that they might thereby be enabled to do the other What is it else that God and Christ do require of men to the receiving of the promises but only that they would disburden themselves of earthly incumbrances which hinder the reception of spiritual mercies that so with hearts emptied of worldly affections and cares they may be qualified for the fulnesse of heavenly riches When Joseph invited his father and brethren to come down into Egypt he bids them not to regard their stuffe for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours Gen. 45. 20. So the true heavenly Joseph when he invited men to come unto him he bids them not to set their hearts on things on the earth because all the riches of his Kingdome are before them and by his promises made over to them How inexcuseable then must their neglect be who do not with answerable hearts and desires embrace such precious offers SECT 5. A fifth aggravation is taken from the command of God and Christ We are not onely invited to take hold of the promises but we are commanded to believe the excellency of them This saith the Apostle is his commandment that we should beleeve on the Name of his Sonne Jesus Christ Joh. 3. 23. That is we ought so to beleeve his promises his sayings as to count them worthy of all acceptation As we assent unto them for their truth so are we to embrace them for their preciousnesse and worth Our faith must work by love it must put forth it self in the strength of all affection by our esteeming and prizing of them above the most desirable things of the world Thus David did when he said Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycings of my heart Psalm 119. 111. Gods promises he made as his lands as his goods as his all They were more dear to him then all his temporal things whatsoever When therefore they are not thus honoured both in the hearts and in the lives of beleevers the great Commandment of the Gospel is violated the disobedience of which will be recompenced with more heavy and sore judgements then the breaches of the Law CHAP. XVIII Foure differences between the promises of God and Satan THe second Application from this truth That the promises of the Gospel are precious shall be to acquaint us with the wide differences that are between the promises of God and the promises of the Devil who is the great deceiver of the whole world Rev. 12. 9. Sinne which Satan by all his arts endeavoureth to make men guilty of that so they may be as miserable as himself is in it self so full of deformity and uglinesse as that if it were but seen in its true shape there could not be a more effectual argument to keep men from the commission of it then it s own monstrosity There are three things say the School that cannot be defined Dei formositas materiae primae informitas peccati deformitas The Amiablenesse and beauty of God the informity of the first matter and the deformity of sin Now to hide and cover this misshapen monster Satan useth not a few devices Sometimes he makes it to appear in the habit and likenesse of a vertue and thus he tempts men to covetousnesse under the notion of frugality to riot and prodigality under the colour of liberality Sometimes he varnisheth it with the specious shews of profit and gaine and promiseth large rewards to them that will but comply with his suggestions and counsels And this is one of the most subtil artifices that he useth to withdraw a man from any good to entice and winne him to any sin Thus he tempted Balaam to venture upon the cursing of Gods people by the promise of honour and preferment Micha's Levite with a small augmentation of his stipend promised unto him he tempted both to theft and idolatry Judas upon the promise of thirty pieces of silver which the instruments of the devil make unto him he tempts to sell the life and blood of his blessed Master yea by a franke and large promise of all the kingdomes of the world he tempts our Lord and Saviour to the highest act of idolatry that is imaginable to fall down and worship him not despairing by the greatnesse of the offer to hide the foulnesse of the sinne though it be with scorne and indignation rejected by Christ Mat. 4. 10. Because therefore that the most of men are ready to be deceived by the speciousnesse of the devils promises and to give more heed to what he speaks then to the good Word of God I shall in four particulars set forth the difference between the promises of God and the promises of Satan The first is the difference between the persons that make them Promises are like bonds which depend altogether upon the sufficiency of the surety If a beggar seal to an instrument for the payment of ten thousand pounds who esteems it to be any better then a blank But if a man of estate and ability do bind himself to pay such a sum it is looked upon as so much real estate and men dovalue themselves by such bills and bonds as well as by what is in their own possession God who hath made rich promises to beleevers is able to performe what he hath spoken He is rich in mercy Eph. 2. 4. Abundant in goodnesse and truth Exod. 34. 6. He is the God of truth Psalm 31. 5. The Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1. 3. But the devil is a Beggar an outcast one that hath nothing in possession nothing in disposition He is a lyar and the father of it John 8. 44. A deceiver Revel 12. 9. A murtherer from the beginning who killed not one but all in one Joh. 8. 44. How then can his promises be a foundation of support to any that have no other word to build upon but his He hath never kept his promise and God hath never broke his promise There hath not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant 1 Kings 56. A second difference is in the matter of the promises Let us weigh the promises of the one and of the other in the balance of truth and we shall finde that the promises of God are gold and the promises of the devil are Alchimy such which though they glitter much have no worth or excellency in them Or that they are as Aristotle calls the Rainbowe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an appearance only and not like the cloud which he stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a true and real substance God's are substantial realities and his vanishing and fleeting shadows windy and swollen bladders which but a little prickt do quickly fall and grow lank Stobaeus out of Herodotus tels a story of one Archetimus who had deposited moneys in the hand of Cydias his friend who afterwards requiring them again of
which he beares the image of the second Adam the Lord from heaven as in the other he did beare the similitude of the first Adam who was of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15. 47. The promises they have in them a vim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative vertue and power to mould and fashion the heart to holinesse and to introduce the Image of Christ into it in regard of that native purity which dwels in them and is above gold that hath been seven times tried in the fire Psal 12. 6. therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples that they were cleane through the Word that he had spoken unto them John 15. 3. and when he prayed unto God to sanctifie them his prayer is Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth Joh. 17. 17. Secondly beleevers may be said to be partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the Objects of Faith and Hope Both which are graces that have in them a wonderful aptitude to cleanse and purifie the Subjects in which they dwell and to introduce true holinesse in which the lively image and resemblance of God doth chiefly consist First Faith it believes the truth of those things which God hath promised and apprehends also the worth and excellency of them to be such as that thereby it is made firme and constant in its adherence vigorous and active in its endeavours to use all means for the obtaining a conformity to God and Christ and the escaping of the corruption that is in the world through lust For till a man come to be a believer he is by the temptations of Satan and the specious promises with which they usually come attended drawn aside to the commission of the worst of sinnes in which though he weary himself to finde what first was seemingly promised yet he meets with nothing but delusions and disappointments of his expectation Balaam hath an edge set upon his spirit to curse the people of God by a promise of preferment made unto him and he tires himself in going from place to place to effect it but God hinders him from doing of the one and Balack denies the giving unto him the other So Judas by a baite that suits his covetousnesse undertakes to sell his Lord but when he hath accomplished his wickednesse and received his wages he throws it away and dares not keep what before he so earnestly thirsted after the blood of his Master makes every piece of the silver look gastly so that now he sees another image upon it then Cesars and cries out that he had sinned in betraying innocent blood Now faith it enables a beleever to discern a snare a defilement under all the gilded aldurements of Satan and the world And therefore he rejects with scorne those temptations with which others are miserably captivated resists with resolution all the courtings and solicitations of the flesh to which others yield beholding onely a stability and preciousnesse in those promises which have the oath of God to make them sure and his love to make them sweet And these only have a prevailing power with him to cause him so to order his conversation in all manner of holinesse that he may walk as it becomes an heire of heaven and an adopted sonne of the most high God to walk Secondly as Faith by beleeving the promises doth purifie the heart so also doth hope which expects the performance of what faith beleeveth work and produce the same effects He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. The expectation which beleevers have by the promises is not a supine oscitancy whereby they look to be possessed of life and glory without any care or endeavours of theirs for to obtaine it like to callow and unfeathered birds that lie in the nest and have all their food brought to them gaping onely for to receive it But it is an expectation accompanied with diligence and industry for the fruition of what they do expect The grace of God saith Paul teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And the ground of this he subjoyneth Vers 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He that truly expects glory earnestly pursues grace Heb. 12. 14. He that hopes to be with God in heaven useth all meanes to be like God on earth An heavenly conversation is the natural fruit of an heavenly expectation Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ The Heathen could say that labour was the husband of hope There is hope the harlot and hope the wife Hope the married woman is known from hope the harlot by this that she alwayes accompanieth with her husbands labour True hope looks to enjoy nothing but what is gotten by travel and paines and therefore useth all meanes to obtaine that good which faith apprehendeth in the promise It seekes glory by grace it endeavours after communion with God in heaven by working a conformity to God in a beleever while he is on earth Thirdly beleevers are made partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the irreversible obsignations and declarations of God which he hath freely made unto them of his taking them unto himself in an everlasting communion of life and glory Heaven is as Prosper calls it Regio beatitudinis the onely climate where blessednesse dwells in its perfection While we are here below we are but as Kings in the cradle the throne on which we must sit the robes with which we must be clothed the crown which must be set upon our heads are all reserved for heaven In this life there is onely a taste of celestial delights and in the other there is a perpetual feast Here we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Grace doth as Cameron expresseth it adsignificare infirmitatem connotate a weaknesse and imperfection and glory that signifies an abolition and doing away whatsoever is weak or imperfect But all this absolute perfection of happinesse which is laid up in heaven for beleevers is ratified and made sure unto them in the promises and therefore they are said to be heires of the promise Heb. 6. 17. Yea by the promises they have the pledges and first-fruits of all that happinesse which they shall enjoy in heaven given unto them in this life We are now the sonnes of God saith the Apostle though it doth not yet appeare what we shall be 1 John 3. 2. That is we now beare his image and likenesse though in a more dark and imperfect character Our knowledge our grace our comforts are all incompleat But when he shall appeare we shall be like him That is when Christ shall come to receive us unto himself we shall beare upon us his
its orbe doth then enlighten the earth farre more then multitudes of stars that shine bright in the clearest night and so one promise in armies of changes that befall beleevers fills their souls with more serenity and peace then the confluence of all outward contentments can produce under one small and petty crosse A Christian many times walkes more chearfully under sore fiery trials then others in the sun-shine of worldly prosperity The three children walkt to and fro with more joy in the furnace then Nebuchadnezzar in his stately Palace CHAP. VI. Containing positive rules directing to the right use of the promises HAving shew'd what a promise is and the sundry respects wherein the promises of the Gospel are precious by way of eminency and excesse I passe on to the third general head which is made up of several rules and directions that concern the due application of them which are by so much the more necessary by how much the promises above all other parts of the sacred Oracles of God are most apt to be deeply injured by the two sinful extremes of distrust and presumption The infirme beleever whose jealousies and misgivings are too strong for his faith puts away from him the consolations of the promises as small and looks upon them as cordials not strong enough to heale and remove his distempers The over-secure and self-confident person placeth his fond presumptions in the roome of Gods promise and thereby drawes as certaine a ruine upon himselfe as he who ventures to go over a deep river without any other bridge then what his shadow makes I shall therefore branch the rules which concerne the right use of them into rules positive and cautionary the one pointing out several duties which every one must exercise himselfe in that would willingly reape any real fruit and advantage from the promises the other forewarning the many errours and mistakes which are as stones of stumbling to weak Christians or as stones that lye upon the mouth of the wells of salvation which must be removed before the water of comfort can be drawn from them I shall begin with the positive rules which are many SECT 1. Eye God in the promises First in the applying of any promise fix the eye of your faith upon God and Christ in it Promises are not the primary object of faith but the secondary or they are rather the meanes by which we believe then the things on which we are to rest As in the Sacraments the elements of bread and wine serve as outward signes to bring Christ and a beleever together but that which faith closeth with and feedeth upon is Christ in the Ordinance and not the naked elements themselves So the promises are instrumental in the coming of Christ and the soul together they are the warrant by which faith is imboldned to come to him and to take hold of him but the union which faith makes is not between a beleever and the promise but between a beleever and Christ And therefore those Divines who in their Catechetical Systems have made the formal object of faith to be the promise rather then the person of Christ have failed in their expressions if not in their intentions and have spoken rather popularly then accurately For the object of faith is not ens complexum an Evangelical maxim or proposition but ens incomplexum the person of Christ as the whole current of Scripture-expressions do abundantly testifie wherein faith is described by receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. by beleeving on him Joh. 3. 16. by coming to him Joh. 6. 36. As we cannot come to Christ without the aide of a promise so may we not rest in the promise without closing with Christ The promises they are but as the field and Christ is the hidden pearle which is to be sought in them they are as the golden candlesticks and he is both as the Olive-tree which drops fatnesse into them and as the light which shines in them they are as the Alabaster-box and he is as the precious spicknard which sends forth the delightful savour they are as the the golden pot and he is the Mannah which is treasured and laid up in them they are as the glasse and he is the beautifull face which is to be seen in them We all beholding with open face as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. But in looking unto God and Christ in the promise let the eye of faith be directed especially to these foure attributes and perfections of God the freenesse of his grace in making them the absolutenesse of his power to effect them the unhangeablenesse of his counsel not to revoke or disannull the least iota of them the greatnesse of his wisdome to performe all which he hath spoken in the best season and joynt of time These are foure such pillars upon which faith may safely leane and which the strength of the most violent temptations can never shake much lesse overturne as Sampson did the pillars of the house against which he leaned Judg. 16. 30. SECT 2. Eye free grace First view with the eye of faith the freenesse of Gods grace in making so many rich promises they are all patents of grace not bills of debt expressions of love not rewards of services gifts not wages He that made many out of mercy might without the least umbrage of injustice have made none Though his truth do tie him to the performance of them yet his love and mercy onely did move him to the making of them his promise hath made him a debtour but free grace made him a promiser And here the assertion of the School may be judged sound Divina voluntas licèt simpiciter libera sit ad extra ex suppositione tamen unius actus liberi potest necessitari ad alterum Though the will of God be most entirely free in all his manifestations towards the creature yet upon the voluntary and free precedency of one supposed act we may justly conceive him to be necessarily obliged to a second Thus God was most absolutely free in the making of his promises but having made them he is necessitated to the fulfilling of them by his truth According to that of the Apostle Tit. 1. 2. God who cannot lie hath promised before the world began And that of the Prophet Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham Mich. 7. 20. The making of the promise unto Abraham was free mercy the fulfilling of it to Jacob was justice and truth This direction touching the freenesse of Gods grace in the promises is exceeding usefull to succour and relieve the perplexing fears of the weak and tempted Christian who though he have eyes to see the unspeakable worth and excellencie of the promises yet hath not the confidence to put forth the hand of faith and to apply them to his necessities He wants forgivenesse of sinnes but doubts the promise
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Gen. 49. 23 24 Therefore when believers do at any time finde the dispensations of God to them in his providences to cross rather then to favor the fulfilling of such promises as he hath made to them in his Word and which they in their prayers do earnestly seek and expect yet are they not to cast away their confidence or to take up any such sad conclusions as that God hath forgotten his promise and that he beares no respect to them or their sacrifices because God doth not limit the accomplishment of his promises to the serenity and successe of his providences but doth many times use such dispensations which seeme rather to frustrate and make void his purpose then to establsh and effect it Jonah is set on shore by a whale when the mariners arive at their Port by the ship The blinde man in the Gospel John 9 6. Christ cures by clay and spittle and not by balsams And as they that go to sea do not obtain a firme and unmoved state of body by the steddiness of the vessel in a calme but by the accustoming and inuring of themselves to the rollings and tossings of it in several weathers So neither do beleevers gain a settled peace of minde by the calme equality of Gods providences towards them but by acquaintance with vicissitudes and adverse revolutions in the midst of which they still finde the promise to be as an anchor sure and firme and therefore are not perplexed or amazed at all other changes that befall them SECT 2. Cau. 4. Take heed of curiosity in selecting promises The fourth cautionary direction to beleevers is To take heed of a sinful and affected curiosity so as to esteeme onely those promises most precious which do stand in the Scripture like fruit ungathered and untouched by the hand of common Christians and are like flowers as they imagine not at all smelt and blown upon by any but themselves As there is a vaine affectation in some Ministers to decline and wave those Scriptures that have in them the greatest pregnancy to confirm their doctrines and to set their wits on work and the texts many times upon the rack to force them to speak to their purpose that so their notions and conceptions may be looked upon by their auditors as neither vulgar nor common So is there a lust of fancy in many Christians of pleasing and delighting themselves in the picking and selecting out such promises as have not come under the observation of others or have been least used by them in the constant daily recourse which they have had unto them Now this vanity and curiosity which thus prevailes in many Christians doth not only spring from pride which often begets an affectation of singularity but it ariseth also from a false conceit and opinion taken up by them that such promises are more sweet when ruminated upon and more full when sucked on being like unto breasts that have had little or none of their milk drawn and taken from them First they conceive them to be more sweet and to affect the soul with a greater of delight But there is a twofold sweetnesse and delight the one ariseth from the goodnesse of the object the other from the newnesse of the object The newnesse of the object is that with which fancy is chiefly delighted and by which it worketh upon the will to close with it as a convenient and suitable good But the understanding propounds the goodnes truth of the object to the will and thereby draws and wins iâ—â—o a liking and full embracing of it Now that which should endeare the promise unto beleevers is not any suggestion from fancy that none but themselves have either observed or used this or that particular promise upon that ground to hug it in their bosoms as Scholars do those notions and books which none are possessed of but themselves But the high estimation which they have of them should wholly arise from that transcendent goodnesse and truth which is in the promises and makes them deservedly to be of all desired and accepted Thus Paul commends the Gospel 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners They conceive though fondly them to be more full as well as more sweet But this is one of the peculiar excellencies of the promises that the emanations of comfort which flow from them are not in the least impaired or diminished by the common and daily use of them no more then light is wasted in the Sunne by the multitudes of generations that have enjoyed the use and benefit of it Still it hath as much light in the body of it as it had in its first creation And so the promises which Abraham Isaac and all the faithful descended from them have successively used and lived upon do still retaine the same vigour and abound with as great plenty of support and comfort unto present beleevers as ever they did unto them As the Bee doth with an innocent theft as Parisiensis calls it suck honey from the flowers without the least prejudice to their beautiful colours which delight the eye or to the fragrant sent which affects the smell of him that gathers them So do beleevers draw from the promises a grateful satiety both of delight and comfort without the least diminution either of their fulnesse or sweetnesse He that is last in the application of the same promise may finde it as rich in its plenty as effectuall in its vigor as he that came first unto it Wells saith Basil are the better and more pure the oftner they be drawne and so the promises which are the wells of salvation do receive an improvement by the frequent and common use of them The end of this Caution is no way to forbid any Christians valuing or esteem of one particular promise above others which God by the powerfull workings of his Spirit hath in a speciall manner made use of for the quieting of their soules in the time of their greatest perplexity and the filling of them with all joy peace in believing as if thereby they did derogate ought from the just worth of other promises For it being Gods manner not to seale and manifest his love unto believers by one and the same promise but to make use of this promise to one and of a differing promise to another who both lie under the same distress It is their duty to have in a peculiar remembrance that promise and Scripture above others by which God was pleased first to speak peace to their soules But the aime of the Caution is to keep believers from putting any disrespect upon the precious promises by their esteeming of them to be so much the lesse worth by how much the more common and ordinary they have been in their use Did Manna nourish the Israelites the lesse because
particular perswasion that God will give the very thing it self that we begge of him but the faith of submission by which we resolve our prayers into his will and beleeve that he will do whatever is best for our good and his glory We then distrust God when either we are jealous of his willingnesse to performe his Word or of his power to accomplish his Word But when we acknowledge the alsufficiency of his power and resigne our desires to his will we do then pray in faith And this was the faith that our Lord Christ did put forth in his prayer when he said Not my will but thy will be done Luk. 22. 42. I do not deny but that God may sometimes assure and incline the hearts of his children that are importunate wrestlers in prayer to be confident of granting the temporal blessing that they seek but this is a confidence that is rather begotten by the Spirit in the height and vigour of prayer then brought with us unto the duty Sometimes I say such a confidence may be but it is neither ordinary nor usual Secondly temporal mercies must be asked for a right end James 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts Carnal lusts may make men eager in prayer but not successeful Usually wrong ends in prayer are accompanied with disappointments Sinister Aimes turn duties of worship into acts of self-seeking they change the voice of prayer into a brutish howling Hos 7. 14. The execution of justice it selfe into murther Hos 1. 4. Finis in moralibus idem est quod forma in naturalibus The end in moral things is the same that the forme is in natural things The quality and goodnesse of them is not discerned but by the end It concernes therefore beleevers that would in prayer obtaine any outward blessing to look unto their ends in asking of it though the mercy be earthly yet their end in asking of it must be heavenly Gods glory must be in the end of all prayer as his Name must be in the beginning of it else it cannot be expected that it should be owned as a sacrifice by him The fifth Assertion is that the blessings of temporal promises are to be sought secondarily and not primarily Mat. 6. 33. They are neither to be the chief cares of our life or desires of our prayers because the soul may do well without the body but the body cannot do well without the soul And yet of this disorder the greatest part of men may be found guilty Their estates they carefully put into their deeds and evidences and their souls they onely put into their wills the last of instruments that are usually either made or sealed For the one they think it enough if with a few gilded expressions of piety it be given and bequeathed as a legacy unto God But for the other they conceive no paines or toile too great to encrease it or cost too much for to secure it The one they make the task of the morning and day of their lives the other the by-work of the evening and the approaching night of death So that it is no wonder if in these preposterous and irregular actings of men they do not finde the blessing of Gods promise upon their labours that they toil as in the fire and weary themselves for very vanity Hab. 2. 13. that they sowe much and bring in little Hag. 1. 6. For what benefit can they justly expect to reap from the promise who neglect to walk by the guidance of that rule to which the promise is made CHAP. XVII It is an horrible sinne to neglect or abuse the Promises Aggravated in five particulars HAving spoken enough if not too much to each of those foure heads that in the beginning were propounded and laid as so many corner-stones for this small structure to stand upon The last head which now remaines to be insisted on is the handling of such useful applications and inferences as do naturally flow and arise from this Doctrinal truth of the transcendent worth and preciousnesse of the promises which are given unto us by Jesus Christ And the first Application which I shall make is A sad and just complaint which sighes and tears may better expresse then words of the great injury and contempt that is done unto the blessed promises both by mens carelesse and overly seeking after them as things of no great worth and by their sinful perverting of them unto wrong ends and purposes while they turn grace into wantonnesse and sin the more freely because of the redundancy of divine mercy which is manifested in them God layes it as an heavy charge against Israel that he had written unto them the great things of his law but they were counted as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. How much more are they blame-worthy who are guilty of despising the Magnalia Evangelii and of setting light by the most choice and excellent things of the Gospel as if they were of little or no importance for the obtaining of life and salvation This complaint if it had no circumstances to aggravate it but were onely laid in the general against men that they have forsaken the fountain of living water and hewed them out cisternes broken cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. It would quickly prove to be so black an indictment as could neither admit of an excuse to lessen the sin nor yet of pitty to mitigate the punishment that deserves to be inflicted upon such offenders But if we shall consider it in the several aggravations which heighten it we may then at this sinne justly crie out Be astonished O ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate There are five particulars that make the complaint more sad and the injury which is done unto the promises the more exceeding sinful SECT 1. The first Aggravation is taken from the universality of this sin they who are transgressors in this matter are not a few Parisiensis speaking of Davids Psalmes cries out Eheu quot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habet sanctus David vel potiùs Spiritus sanctus ad suam Cytharam Oh! how many Dullards hath holy David or rather the holy Spirit to his harp who are little affected with the heavenly melody that it makes And may it not be as truly said concerning the precious promises of Christ Oh! how many are there that taste little or nothing of their sweetnesse What vast numbers of men are there who see no more worth and beauty in them then blinde persons do in the Sunne How many be there that spend and blaze away the lamp of their time in frothy studies and curious speculations but seldome or never look into the Bible to read and understand what their interest or right is to the blessings of heaven by the promises How ambitious are others to be thought to know much of the minde of God concerning his decrees which