A20559:116
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandments gathered from the mouth of a faithful pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholar in Cambridge.The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.
London: printed by John Harison for Thomas Man, 1603London: printed by Iohn Harison for Thomas Man, 1603
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The use that we must make of this is, that so far as we would have all our wants supplied, & have the blessing of God upon our soul & body, & have abundance of all good things for this life, and the life to come, then we must labour to bring our harts to the true & right fear of God, that we may tremble before his greatness, & to reverence & dread the great name of the Lord of hosts. The way to attain this is, first, to deny our selves quite, to renounce utterly our carnal wisdom, as he saith, Pro. 3. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes, but fear God, and depart from evil. If one will be reasoning the matter according to the fleshly wisdom of men, and he hath reason to do that ⟨image 30⟩he doth, then surely he will never have reason to be religious and serve God, for that is against his reason, for Solomon would have us fear God, & how shall one come to do that, he must not be conceited of his own wisdom, he must not think well of carnal reason, nor be ruled by it, for the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God in all things: yea, the carnal wisdom of a spiritual man is enmity to God, and goodness, & so long as one follows it, he shall never fear God. As we may see this in Eve, when she would go to consult with that carnal reason that the devil had put into her head, & began to think with her self, surely this fruit is fair to look to, it hath a good colour to the eye, and it is like the taste will be pleasant to the mouth, and then I shall get well by it, for I shall get much knowledge, and be made like God, so that my state shall be mended, for this the Devil had persuaded her off: then she falls to eat the forbidden fruit, and to tempt her husband; and to do any thing that the Devil would tempt her unto, and fears God no more then if she had been sure there had been no God. We must forgo our fleshly wisdom, and forsake our carnal reason then, if ever we will fear God, and not consult with flesh and blood, for if we do, that will draw us far enough from God, and make us never regard him. The second thing that we must do, to obtain true fear of God, is to ask it of him; to confess that in our selves, we have no true fear of God; but are altogether profane: as David speaks of unregenerate men, that they have not the fear of God before their eyes, but think that there is no God; and live as if there were no God;
The vse that we must make of this is, that so far as we would haue all our wants supplied, & haue the blessing of God vpon our soule & body, & haue aboundance of all good things for this life, and the life to come, then we must labour to bring our harts to the true & right feare of God, that we may tremble before his greatnes, & to reuerence & dread the great name of the Lord of hoasts. The way to attaine this is, first, to deny our selues quite, to renounce vtterly our carnall wisdom, as he saith,