A55752:735
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…
Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity and duty of Gods children by the late Reverend and Faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston ...
London: printed by J.T., 1658
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, we must exhort you from hence now to do the thing, and exalt God for God in your hearts; to be 1godly men, (to use the phrase of Scripture) to make him your God, and to have no other gods before his face. You will say, What other gods? Not to make your riches your god, as covetousness is called Idolatry, 2not to make your belly your god. Now that is but a part for the whole; that is, to make no kind of creature your god, nothing in the world; not to make the praise of men your god, &c. Now what is it to make these things a mans god? It is to exalt these things for God in a mans heart, when you place your summum bonum in any of these, that if they be taken from you, you think your selves undone, and if you enjoy them, you think your selves well, and in a happy condition. ⟨p. 253⟩In a word, it is to do the same to these that you should do to God. When a man shall think, well, I live in credit among men, I have a good estate, I am at liberty, and all things go well with me, I am now well, and if I be put off from this condition, if my estate be taken away, if my credit with men be taken away, then I am undone; when a mans heart is thus affected with these things, he makes them his God; for he gives them that which is proper to God, to think that these things can make him happy or miserable.
- 1Use 2. To excel God for God.
- 2Quest. Answ.
Therefore you shall observe that the phrase of Scripture Ro. 3. 10. is, that they have not the fear of God before their eyes. 1That is, a man that doth exalt God in his heart, he looks upon God altogether, he is always before his eyes. That is he thinks himself happy so long as he hath his favour, he fears nothing but the loss of that, therefore whatsoever he doth he hath still his eye upon God, As when a man fears any thing he will be sure to have his eye upon that, because that is the thing which he thinketh can do him good or hurt. So I say when a man hath God before his eyes, when he feareth him altogether, when he dares do nothing without his warrant, this is to exalt him for God.