* Misprinted ' popery.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 9. 133
adulterers and adulteresses,' saith blessed St James, ' know yc not that the love of this world is enmity with God ?' James iv. 4.
3. It is likewise /c?/.sY'/(oor/. For it makes the creature to be that that it is not, and it makes God that which he is not. We despise him, and set up the creature in his room. There is a false witness alway in false confi- dence. Indeed there are many sins in it.
4. There is u/norrince ; not knowing the creature to be so vain as it is. There is ignorance of God, not knowing him to be ' all in all,' Col. iii. 11, as he is.
5. And there is rebellion, to trust in the creature, when God will not have it trusted in.
6. And there is bnpatiencc. When these supports are taken away, then men gi'ow to murmuring. There is almost all sins hidden in self-confidence and self-sufficiency. You see the danger of it to God.
II. Besides that, it is dangerous to onrselres. It brings us under a curse. ' Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his arms,' Jer. xvii. 5, that trusts in anything but God. It brings us under a curse, as I said, because it is idolatry and spiritual adultery. And then again, because leaning to a false prop, that being taken away that shored us up before, down we fall, with that we leaned on.
Now all things but God being vanity, we, relying upon that which is vain, our trust is vain, as the thing is vain. We can hope for no better condition than the things we trust to. They are vain, and we are vain; so there is a curse upon them.
Therefore we have gi'eat cause to hate that upstart religion, that hath been devised for their own ends, for then* own profit, because it would bring us under a curse. They would have us to trust to om* own works in matter of salvation, to trust to our own satisfaction to be freed from purgatory, &c. They would have us to trust to creatures, to something besides God ; to trust in the mediation of saints, to be our intercessors, &c. And what doth this false trust ? It breeds despair at length.
What is the reason that a well-advised papist, that knows what he doth, cannot but despair, or else renounce popery ? Because popery carries the soul to false props in matter of justification. They renounce their own religion at the hour of death, as Bellarmine did (»•). They live by one re- ligion, and die by another, which would not be if their religion were good. For their hearts tell them that they have not done so many works that they may trust in them, and they have not been so well done that they may trust in them. It is a dangerous thing. ' Cui'sed is he that trusts in man,' or in anything in man.
Nay, we must not trust om- own gi-aces, as they are in ourselves, not by way of merit ; no, not by way of strength. We must not trust our pre- sent graces to carry us out, without new supply to further us. It was Peter's fault. ' Though all men deny thee, yet will not I,' Mat. xxvi. 35. He tnisted to his present strength ; he forgot that if he had not a new sup- ply from the spring of grace, that he should miserably miscarry, and so he died.* All om* righteousness to trust to, it is a ' broken reed,' Isa. xxxvi. 6. It is somewhat, if we place it in the due place, to give us evidence that we are true Christians ; but to trust in it by way of merit, the devil will pick so many holes in that kind of title, and conscience will see so many flaws in it, if we bring no better title, than either the holiness in us, or the works from us, the devil and our own conscience will spy so many flaws and *" That is, spiritually, and for the moment of his backsliding. — G. Qu. ' did '? ' — Ed.
134 COMMENTARY ON
cracks in it at the time of death, tliat we shall not dare to trast in it, but we must run out of ourselves to Christ, or else we die in desperation. Let us knosv these thinjfs. All things but God, the more we know them, the less we trust in them. But it is clean contrary of God, the more we know him, the more we|shall trust in him. The more we meditate, and enlarge our hearts in the consideration of his divine essence eveiy way, the more we shall trust in him. ' They that know thy name, will trust in thee,' Ps. ix. 10. Let us trust in no outward thing.
No ! not in the humanity of Christ. I add that further. We are very prone to trust in things sensible ; and the apostles, because Chi'ist was present with them, and comfortable among them (as indeed he was sweet and loving, bearing with their infirmities, and encouraging them upon all occasions) ; 0 they were loath to part with him. He tells them that he must leave them, but they should not fare the worse, he would * send them the Comforter.' ' The flesh itself profits nothing,' John vi. G3, without the Godhead, saith he.