Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

We grant indeed that the Lord, being the Fountain of life, doth allow the Creature in regard of life temporal some subordinate operation and concurrency in the work of preserving life in us. But we must also remember, That the Creatures are but Gods Instruments in that respect: and that not as servants are to their masters, Living instruments, able to work without concurrence of the superior cause; but Dead instruments, and therefore must never be separated from the Principal. Let God subduct from them that concourse of his own which actuates and applies them to their several services, and all the Creatures in the world are no more able to preserve the body or to comfort the mind, then an axe and a hammer and those other dead instruments are able by themselves alone to erect some stately edifice. It is not the corn or the flour, but the staff of bread which supports the life, and that is not any thing that comes out of the earth, but something which comes down from heaven, even the blessing which sanctifies the Creature▪ for man liveth not by bread alone, but by the word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth. The Creature cannot hold up it self, much less contribute to the subsistence of other things, unless God continue the influence of his blessing upon it. As soon as Christ had cursed the fig-tree, it presently withered and dried up [Greek or Hebrew] ¹fr•m the roots; to show that it was not the root alone, but the blessing of Christ which did support the fig-tree. The Creatures of themselves are Indifferent to contrary operations, according as they have been by God severally applied. Fire preserved the three children in the furnace, and the same fire licked up the instruments ⟨p. 19⟩of the persecution. Fire came down from heaven to destroy Sodom, and fire came down from heaven to advance Elijah; the same sea a Sanctuary unto Israel and a grave unto Egypt; Jonah had been drowned if he had not been devoured, the latter destruction was a deliverance from the former, and the ravine of the fish a refuge from the rage of the sea; pulse kept Daniel in good liking, which the meat of the kings table could not do in the other children: for indeed Life is not a thing merely ²natural, but of promise, as the Apostle speaks;