An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters of…

Hence Observe.

First, That the heart of man is very busy to arm against God: As when a people are threatened with an invasion, they then strengthen themselves, they lay in their Provisions of War, and get Forces in a readiness: even thus doth the heart of man: Man hath three usual ways of strengthening himself against the Almighty. First, By carnal pleas and reasonings. He pretends reason for what he doth; and he strengthens himself against all that God saith, by reason: he sets up reason against that Law which is the quintessence of reason, and will not be mad but by reason, such as it is, and that is, such as he is, a mad one. These reasonings are the strong holds spoken of by the Apostle (2 Cor. 4.5.) The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing, that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God: As the weapons of this warfare are not carnal but spiritual, so the strong holds which these cast down, are not corporeal, but carnal; they are not made of Stones, and Timber, of Earth, or Iron, but of the subtleties, slights, excuses, subterfuges, and arguings of fleshly minded men. All which the Apostle wraps up in the latter words calling them imaginations, or ratiocinations, and high things; that is, such things as are formed in the high and proud conceits of the creature exalting it self against the sound and saving knowledge of God: Such as these:

First, That the heart of man is very busie to arme against God: As when a people are threatned with an invasion, they then strengthen themselves, they lay in their Provisions of Warr, and get Forces in a readinesse: even thus doth the heart of man: Man hath three usuall wayes of strengthening himselfe against the Almigty. First, By carnall pleas and reasonings. He pretends reason for what he doth; and hee strengthens himselfe against all that God saith, by reason: he sets up reason against that Law which is the quintessence of reason, and will not be madd but by reason, such as it is, and that is, such as he is, a madd one. These reasonings are the strong holds spoken of by the Apostle (