may set his nest on high.-Hab. ii. 9, 10. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, &c. for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, &c. I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body what you shall put on, &c. behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them; are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? - Matt. vi. 19. 25-27. Judas's covetousness led him to offer to the chief priests to betray Christ, and to covenant with them for thirty pieces of silver to perform it. Matt. xxvi. 14-16. Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.-Luke xii. 15. Being filled with all unrighteousness, &c. covetousness, &c. God gave them over to a reprobate mind, &c. Rom. i. 28, 29. I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous.-1 Cor. v. 11. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, &c. nor covetous.-1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Eph. v. 5. Covetousness, let it not be once named amongst you, as becometh saints, &c. for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.-Eph. v. 3. 6. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, &c. Covetousness, which is idolatry. Col. iii. 5. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out; and having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition: for the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things. -1 Tim. vi. 7-10. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.-Heb. xiii. 5. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.-1 John ii. 15, 16. CHAP. LXIV. OF THEFT. LABAN charged Jacob, his daughter's husband, with stealing his gods.Gen. xxxi. 30. Thou shalt not steal.-Exod. xx. 15. The many laws about stealing.Exod. xxii. 1-4. Ye shall not steal, &c. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired, shall not abide with thee all night, until the morning.-Levit. xix. 11. 13, When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him. Ps. l. 18. Will ye steal, &c. and come and stand before me in this house ?-Jer. vii. 7.9, 10. By killing and stealing, &c. therefore shall the land mourn.-Hosea iv. 2, 3. Every one that stealeth, shall be cut off, &c. and the curse shall enter into the house of the thief.-Zech. v. 3, 4. Those things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, &c. as thefts.-Matt. xv. 18, 19. Judas saith, Why was not this ointment sold? &c. This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief.-John xii. 4-6. Thou that preachest, a man should not steal, dost thou steal? - Rom. ii. 21. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? &c. nor thieves.-1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands. Eph. iv. 28. Exhort servants to be obedient, &c. not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity. Titus ii. 9, 10. CHAP. LXV. OF LYING AND EQUIVOCATING. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. Col. iii. 9. The law is made for the lawless, &c. for liars.--1 Tim. i. 9, 10. All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, &c. There shall in no wise enter into the New Jerusalem any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. Rev. xxi. 8. 27. For withoutare dogs, and sorcerers, &c. and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Rev. xxii. 15. Ye shall not lie one to another._ OF TEMPTING GOD: OR WHEREIN MEN Levit. xix. 11. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernable? &c. he that speaketh the truth from his heart.-Ps. xv. 1, 2. The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.-Ps. lxii. 11. I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love. Ps. cxix. 163. These six things doth the Lord hate, &c. a lying tongue.-Prov. vi. 16, 17. The lips of truth shall be established for ever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. --Prov. xii. 19. The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, &c. by lying, &c. therefore shall the land mourn.Hosea iv. 1-3. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. - Hosea xi. 12. Those are the things that ye shall do, speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour.-Zech. viii. 16. Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to (or to deceive) the Holy Ghost? &c. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.-Acts v. 3-5. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.--Eph. iv. 25. MAY BE SAID TO TEMPT HIM. MOSES said to the people, Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?-Exod. xvii. 2. They tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lusts, &c. yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel, &c. yea, they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies.-Ps. lxxviii. 18. 41.56. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works. Ps. xcv. 8, 9. Ask thee a sign: but Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.-Isa. vii. 11, 12. Ye have said, It is in vain to serve God, &c. they that tempt God, are even delivered.-Mal. iii. 14, 15. If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, &c. Jesus saith unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.-Matt. iv. 6-8. Deut. vi. 16. Luke xxii. 28. When Christ had raised the ruler's daughter, he commanded that something should be given her to eat.Mark v. 43. When the Jews had asked Jesus, a consulter with familiar spirits, or a Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar? he said unto them, Why tempt ye me?-Mark xii. 14, 15. Luke iv. 2. The Jews tempted Christ, that they might have to accuse him about the woman taken in adultery.-John viii. 4-6. Ananias and Sapphira are said to tempt the Lord by their lying about the sale of their possessions.-Acts v. 1-10. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? - Acts xv. 10. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.-1 Cor. x. 9. God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.-James i. 13. CHAP. LXVII. OF WITCHCRAFT: OR DEALING WITH wizard, or a necromancer; for all that do these things, are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.-Deut. xviii. 10-12. 14. 20. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.-1 Sam. xv. 23. Saul said unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul went to her, and said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall name, &c. which she did (though she hazarded her life by it).-1 Sam. xxviii. 7, &c. What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, and her witchcrafts are so many?-2 Kings ix. 22. Manasseh, &c. observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits, and wizards. -2 Kings THOU shalt not suffer a witch to live. xxi. 1.6. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6. The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off, &c. A man also, or a woman, that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death. - Levit. xx. 6. 27. Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.-Levit. xix. 31. When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for (or to the meeting of) enchantments. Numb. xxiv. 1. xxiii. 23. Josh. xxiii. 7. There shall not be found among you any, &c. that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or The workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, &c. did Josiah put away.-2 Kings xxiii. 24. So Saul died for his transgression, &c. and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it.-1 Chron. x. 13. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers, like the Philistines.-Isa. ii. 6. When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living, to the dead? - Isa. viii. 19. Stand thou with thy enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail, &c. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up, and save thee from these things which shall come upon thee. Isa. xlvii. 12, 13. The king (commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to shew the king his dreams.-Dan. ii. 2. 10. iv. 7. v. 7. I will cut off witchcraft out of thy hand, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers.-Micah v. 12. Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. Nahum iii. 4. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers. - Mal. iii. 5. If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?-Luke xi. 19. There was a certain man called Simeon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one. - Acts viii. 9. They found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus, &c. who sought to turn away the deputy from the faith, &c. Then Saul said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, &c. -Acts xiii. 6-10. A certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination (or of Python) met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying, &c. which spirit Paul cast out. - Acts xvi. 16-18. Certain of the vagabond Jews exorcists, when they saw Paul cast out evil spirits, attempted to do the same, in the name of the Lord Jesus; but the evil spirit overcame them, upon which many of them which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them. Acts xix. 13-16. 18, 19. The works of the flesh are manifest, &c. witchcrafts. Gal. v. 19, 20. Sorcerers (among others) are to have their part in the lake which burneth, &c. -Rev. xxi. 8. Without are dogs and sorcerers, &c. -Rev. xxii. 15. CHAP. LXVIII. OF A HARDENED HEART, AND GOD'S GIVING MEN UP TO HARDNESS OF THE Lord said unto Moses, &c. See Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let Israel pass by him for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit, that he might deliver him into thy hand.-Deut. ii. 30. He turned their hearts to hate his people, and to deal subtily with his servants. Ps. cv. 25. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?-Isa. lxiii. 17. Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Jer. v. 3. They hearkened not unto me, nor inclined to me, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers. Jer. vii. 26. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.-Hosea iv. 17. Jesus spake to the wilful Jews in parables, Because (said he) they seeing, see not, &c. for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see, &c. and should be converted, and I should heal them.Matt. xiii. 13-15. Acts xxviii. 25 -27. According to which prophecy, their judicial hardness was evident in their persecuting Christ to the death, notwithstanding the apparent evidence that he was the Son of God, both be- the truth, but had pleasure in unfore his death, in his death, and in his righteousness.-2 Thess. ii. 10-12. resurrection. Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, &c. that they which see might be made blind, &c. He said to the Pharisees, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth.-John ix. 39. 41. Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah had said, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their lhearts, that they should not see with their eyes, &c.-John xii. 37. 39, 40. They are without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, &c. wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, &c. for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, &c. and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a re probate mind (or a mind void of judgment), being filled with all unrighteGod saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, &c. and whom he will he hardeneth. -Rom. ix. 15. 17, 18. ousness. Rom. i. 21, &c. Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded (or hardened) according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber; eyes that they should not see. Rom. xi. 7-10. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, &c. should shine unto them. - 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not By these three was the third part of men killed, &c. and the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, &c.-Rev. ix. 18. 20, 21.. Men were scorched (or burned) with great heat, blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and repented not to give him glory, &c. They gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, and repented not of their deeds. Rev. xvi. 9-11.21. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.-Rev. xxii. 11. CHAP. LXIX. OF VAIN CURIOSITY: OR BEING WISE ABOVE WHAT IS WRITTEN. SECRET things belong unto the Lord but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the works of this law.-Deut. xxix. 29, Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name? &c. that we may do thee honour. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret (or wonderful).-Judges xiii. 17, 18. Jesus said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.-Acts i. 6, 7. These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself, and to Apollos, for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written.-1 Cor. iv. 6. CHAP. LXX. OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE IN THE DIS POSAL OF ALL EVENTS. THINE, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, &c. both riches and ho |