An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

The trouble which came upon Paul in Asia being described in several aggravating particulars, the next thing he intends, is to inform us about the holy and gracious end which God intended in all this. The Lords purpose was by this heavy exercise to bring Paul off from all self-confidence, to wean him from all humane props, to teach him to depend upon God alone. Even Paul though so great a proficient in holiness, who doth propound himself a pattern for others to follow, yet he needeth this self-emptying, he is prone to have some secret confidence in himself, and therefore God as the wise physician provideth some bitter pills to kill such Worms as these. The last spiritual enemy which grace is to destroy in a regenerate man, is self-dependence: so hard a matter is it to be wholly wrought out of our self, that God may be all and we nothing. The final cause therefore of this trouble we have here most divinely described by Paul, which is set down first Negatively, That we might not trust in our selves, Then Positively, but in God, with the reason of it, he raiseth from the dead; Let us consider the Negative that we may not trust in our selves. The Greek word [Greek or Hebrew], is used sometimes in Scripture of a divine trust, and sometimes of an humane, of a divine trust, Heb. 2. 13. [Greek or Hebrew], I will trust in him, Eph. 3. 12. In whom we have access [Greek or Hebrew], with confidence. ¹In the Old Testament the expression of trusting in God is often used, so that by this word is excellently described one act of faith, whereby the soul sinking as it were under difficulties doth firmly and powerfully lay hold on Christ. Thus the grace of faith putteth us upon the renouncing of all the wisdom, power, and excellency of Men and Angels, to judge every Creature, but an easy shadow in comparison of God. This fiducial resting of the soul on God by faith, is constantly to be put forth in all spirituals and temporals of the soul; it is indeed à spiritual and supernatural lesson, very hard for flesh and blood to learn, which useth to swim with bladders, to walk with clutches, to have always some humane and earthly prop or other; but yet God doth teach his people this mystery, and acquaints them with this Heavenly art to trust in him only, and not in any Creature.

THe trouble which came upon Paul in Asia being described in severall aggravating particulars, the next thing he intends, is to informe us about the holy and gracious end which God intended in all this. The Lords purpose was by this heavy exercise to bring Paul off from all self-confidence, to weane him from all humane props, to teach him to depend upon God alone. Even Paul though so great a proficient in holiness, who doth propound himself a patterne for others to follow, yet he needeth this self-emptying, he is prone to have some secret confidence in himself, and therefore God as the wise physician provideth some bitter pils to kill such Wormes as these. The last spirituall enemy which grace is to destroy in a regenerate man, is self-dependence: so hard a matter is it to be wholy wrought out of our self, that God may be all and we nothing. The finall cause therefore of this trouble we have here most divinely described by Paul, which is set down first Negatively, That we might not trust in our selves, Then Positively, but in God, with the reason of it, he raiseth from the dead; Let us consider the Negative that we may not trust in our selves. The Greek word , is used sometimes in Scripture of a divine trust, and sometimes of an humane, of a divine trust,