Christs temptation and transfiguration practically explained and improved in several sermons /

II. The Heinousness of the Sin.

1. Because it is a great Arrogancy, when we seek thus to subject the Lord to our Direction, Will, and Carnal Affections. Prescribing to God argueth too great an Ascribing to our selves. Certainly the Lord cannot endure that his People, who ought wholly to depend upon him, submit to him, and be ruled by him, should prescribe as they please, how and when he should help them; and that his Power and Goodness should lackey upon, and be at the beck of our idle and wanton humours. The direction of the affairs of the world is one of the Flowers of Gods Crown. Now to dislike of his Holy Government is a presumptuous Arrogancy in the creature; we will take upon us to model our mercies, and choose our means, and will not tarry the time that he hath appointed ⟨p. 106⟩for our relief, but will anticipate it, and shorten it according to our own Fancies. God is Sovereign, we are as clay in his hands, he is our Potter, and must prescribe the shape in which we must be formed, and the use we must be put to, Jer. 18. 6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as the potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. He hath full right to dispose of the Creature, as he pleaseth, and according to the counsel of his own Will, to which we are to be subject without murmuring or repining. We cannot say to him, what makest thou? or why dost thou this? Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his maker, let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth: shall the clay say to him, that fashioneth it, what makest thou? or thy work, he hath no hands. Tempting before the Event is the same almost with murmuring after the Event.

1. Because it is a great Arrogancy, when we seek thus to subject the Lord to our Direction, Will, and Carnal Affections. Prescribing to God argueth too great an Ascribing to our selves. Certainly the Lord cannot endure that his People, who ought wholly to depend upon him, submit to him, and be ruled by him, should prescribe as they please, how and when he should help them; and that his Power and Goodness should lacquey upon, and be at the beck of our idle and wanton humors. The direction of the affairs of the world is one of the Flowers of Gods Crown. Now to dislike of his Holy Government is a presumptuous Arrogancy in the creature; we will take upon us to model our mercies, and choose our means, and will not tarry the time that he hath appointed