The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…

So all-most in all other sins, there is scarce any other sin so bad, but ungodly persons will stand in defence of it, and if they can snatch a few words out of scripture, and tear them violently, from the true sense thereof, unto their own lust, they count this a matter of great wittiness, but in truth it is a matter of great & horrible wickedness, and a damnable profaning of the name of god, when one can wrest & hale together many places, and say much for his sin, it is not a note of more wit, but of more acquaintance with the devil, for their tongue is set on fire of hell, it is tipped with hell fire, & blown by the stinking breath of Satan, & when they have said all they can, they have made their sin more grievous, their hart more hard, and them selves more cursed, in that they have done no thing all the while, but dishonoured God, to make him a patron of wickedness, and his word a sword for the devil.

So al-most in all other sinnes, there is scarce any other sinne so bad, but vngodlie persons will stand in defence of it, and if they can snatch a few words out of scripture, and teare them violentlie, from the true sence thereof, vnto their owne lust, they count this a matter of great wittinesse, but in truth it is a matter of great & horrible wickednesse, and a damnable prophaning of the name of god, when one can wrest & hale together manie places, and say much for his sinne, it is not a note of more wit, but of more acquaintance with the diuell, for their tongue is set on fire of hell, it is tipped with hell fire, & blowne by the stinking breath of Satan, & when they haue said all they can, they haue made their sinne more grieuous, their hart more hard, and them selues more cursed, in that they haue done no thing all the while, but dishonoured God, to make him a patrone of wickednesse, and his word a sword for the diuell.

Fourthly, the word of God is abused & profaned, by turning it to charms and spells & all kind of sorcery, to cure such persons as be mispoken as they term it, and aired, as such ⟨p. 49⟩foolish terms they have, and to say the Lords prayer or some place of scripture, to find things that be lost, with many such wicked things, this a sinful perverting of Gods word. And whereas men commonly excuse themselves for this sin, because the words be not ill, yet let them know, that when one abuseth good words to a wrong end, they be evil words to him, and if the word of God be perverted to such an end, as he hath not appointed, they be the devils words to him that thus perverts them, and Satan is no less dangerous an enemy, when he comes like an angel of light, then if he appeared in his colours: and this charming God himself condemns, & in the law saith, that he will find out such persons. So that, both these charmers and those that go unto them be wicked abusers of Gods name, and either, they shall have no success in the thing they sought for, or if they have, it is a greater plague, for now they prosper in their sin, and their hart is made more hard & incurable. And thus the word of God is abused. Now the remedy against this abuse is, that we labour to apply Gods word to the right ends that he hath appointed; and if we will know these ends, we may see them,