Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…

'Tis a sinful and dangerous mistake for one creature to give that trust and dependence to another creature, which is due only to God, to look upon men as if they were Gods, and horses as if they were Spirits: All creatures, even the strongest, are but as the Hop, the Vine, or the Ivy, if they clasp about the pole, the wall, or the oak; they may be supported, as you also may by leaning upon God, but if they depend, and entangle themselves one upon another, as you and the Egyptians do, you shall fail, and fall all together.

'Tis a sinful and dangerous mistake for one creature to give that trust and dependence to another creature, which is due only to God, to look upon men as if they were Gods, and horses as if they were Spirits: All creatures, even the strongest, are but as the Hop, the Vine, or the Ivy, if they clasp about the pole, the wall, or the oak; they may be supported, as you also may by leaning upon God, but if they depend, and intangle themselves one upon another, as you and the Egyptians do, you shall fail, and fall all together.

And as one creature is apt inordinately and sinfully thus to trust and lean upon another; so there is as great a proneness in the creatures inordinately to fear and dread each other, as if the creature feared were rather a God, than a man, rather a Spirit than flesh; and thus our fear magnifies and exalts the creature, and puts it as it were into the room and place of God. This was the sin which God rebuked in his own people, Isai 51. 12, 13. I even I am he that comforteth thee, ⟨p. 16⟩who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass, and forgettest the Lord thy maker, &c. See how fear exalts man, and depresseth God, it thinks upon the noxious power of men so much, that it forgets the saving power of God, as if that stood for nothing; thus a mortal worm that shall perish as the grass, eclipses the glory of the great God, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth.

And as one creature is apt inordinately and sinfully thus to trust and lean upon another; so there is as great a proness in the creatures inordinately to fear and dread each other, as if the creature feared were rather a God, than a man, rather a Spirit than flesh; and thus our fear magnifies and exalts the creature, and puts it as it were into the room and place of God. This was the sin which God rebuked in his own people, Isai 51. 12, 13. I even I am he that comforteth thee,