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…

By Word we are not to understand the Word of Creation, wherein God spake and all things were made Good and serviceable to the use of man. For sin came after that Word, and defaced as well the goodness which God put into the Creature, as his Image which he put into man. But by Word I understand first in general Gods Command and Blessing which strengtheneth the Creature unto those operations for which they serve: in which sense our Saviour useth it, Matth. 4. 4. and elsewhere, If ye call those Gods unto whom the Word of God ¹came, that is, who by Gods Authority and Commission are fitted for subordinate services of Government under him, say ye of him whom the Father hath ²sanctified, that is, to whom the Word of the Father and his Commission or Command came, to whom the Father hath given Authority by his ^zPower, and fitness by his ⁴Spirit to Judge, and save the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God? Secondly, by that Word I understand more particularly the Fountain of that Blessing, which the Apostle calls in general the Word of Truth, and more particularly, The Gospel of Salvation, ⁵and this word is a sanctifying Word; Sanctify them by ⁶thy truth, thy Word is Truth: and as it sanctifies us, so it sanctifies the Creatures too, it is the Fountain not only of Eternal, but of Temporal Blessings. And therefore we find Christ did not only say unto the sick of the Palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee, but also Arise and ⁷walk, intimating, that Temporal Blessings come along with the Gospel, it hath the Promises as well of this life ⁸as that to come. I never saw the righteous forsaken, saith the Prophet David (suitable to that of the Apostle, He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee) nor their seed begging their bread; That is, never so wholly by God forsaken, if they were the seed of the Righteous,