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…

Secondly, we must from hence be exhorted to take heed of usurping Christs honour to our selves, of being our own rule or way. The Lord is a jealous God, and will not suffer any to be a self mover, or a God unto himself. It is one of Gods extremest judgements to give men over to themselves, and leave them to follow their own rules. When he hath first wo•d men by his Spirit, and that is resisted; enticed them by his mercies, and they are abused; threatened them with his judgements, and they are misattributed to second causes; cried unto them by his prophets, and they are reviled; sent his own Son to persuade them, and he is trampled on and despised: when he offers to teach them, and they stop their ears; to lead them, and they pull away their shoulder; to convert them, and they hardened their heart; when they set up mounds against the Gospel, as it were to non-plus and pose the mercies of God, that there may be no remedy left; then after all these indignities to the Spirit of Grace, this is the judgement with which God useth to revenge the quarrel of his Grace and Covenant, to leave them to the hardness and impenitency^g ⟨p. 426⟩of their own hearts, to be a rule and way unto themselves. My people would not hearken to my voice, ²and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust; and they walked in their own counsels. Let us therefore take heed of a will-holiness. We are the servants of Christ, and our members are to be the instruments of righteousness; and servants are to be governed by the will of their masters, and members to be guided by the influence of the head, and instruments to be applied to all their services by the superior cause. ^hEvery thing which Moses did about the Tabernacle was to be done after the pattern which he had seen in the mount; and every thing which we do in these spiritual Tabernacles, we are to do after the pattern of him who is set before us. The services of Israel, after their revolt from the house of David, when they built Altars and multiplied sacrifices, were as chargeable, as specious, and in humane discourse every whit as rational, as those at Jerusalem; yet we find when they would be wiser then God, and prescribe the way wherein they meant to worship him all