Love to Christ, necessary to escape the curse at his coming

2. The Imprecations of such men in Scripture might be taken rather as Predictions, than as Curses; or at ⟨p. 80⟩least imprecating Predictions. They speaking by the Spirit of God, foretold what Curses would be inflicted by God upon them, for their Sin, and in a way of sin overtake them.

3. There is a Ministerial, and a Magisterial cursing. The one is to make any thing or person accursed, as the desert of Sin; the other is to pronounce, wish, or declare any thing or person accursed; and this is all that men can do. Therefore though men pronounce Anathema against some, without cause, as the Pope and his Councils against Protestant•, we need not be terrified therewith, else the most happy men might be the most accursed. 2 Sam. 16.12. It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will require me good for his cursing this day.

II. This doth teach us the evil nature of Sin, and what a cursed thing it is, as being the meritorious cause of all the Curses that befall any of the Creatures of God. If Sin had been kept out of the World, curses had never come into it: But Sin made way for the Curse, and brought it in; the commission of sin was the introduction of the Curse. Gen. 3.14. And the Lord said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. 17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Sin and the Curse are so linked together, that Christ only that can take away the Sin, can remove the Curse.