Page:Comer's conflict, or, The beginner's battle with the devil, when essaying to come to Christ by faith.pdf/19

 The Beginner's Battle will the Devil 19 ' ſuffer the Arians to abuſe Chriſt, whom he hath ſet at ' his right hand in glory, and will have all men honour ' the Son as they hononr the Father.' Upon which the edict was reverſed. I may fay, can you think that God will accept your worſhip to him, be it ever ſo great"; if you take no notice of Chriſt, be ſure God will reject you and your ſervices. But then again, 2. As God will have Chriſt to have the glory of his King- ly-office, ſo alſo his Prieſtly. Thus, ſuppoſe ſome great monarch, his ſon conſerting, ſould lay upon his ſon the puniſhment due to ſome rebellious ſubjects, intending his ſon's honour as well as their pardon; the king ſends forth a proclamation to them to let them know that his ſon had ſatisfied juſtice, and procured a pardon; but many of them not truſting to this, would not come in, but would ſend the king gifts and preſents to gain his favour; the emperor scorns their gifts upon that account; eſpecially they thus robbing his ſon of the honour of making their peace, and thereby alſo plainly ſhewing, that they thought their crime was not ſo great, but a ſmall matter would make it up, ſuch as their gifts. Surely if gifts would have done the buſinefs, his ſon had greater gifts than theirs; ſo that he needed not have died or ſuffered. The reddition of this ſimile may be eaſily made: God abhors our prayers, alns, and all our ſervices, if we bring them as ſatisfactory to his juſtice, and ſprinkle of our puddly waters, our tears, upon the mercy-ſeat, and fill the holy place with the ſtinking favour, the stinking vapours of our prayers, which are unperfumed with the incenſe of Chriſt's righteouſneſs, or that are to better than the recking ſteams of a dung-hill, the noxious vapours of a hollow cavern, or the ſmoke of ſome ſulphurious vulcano I ſay, to go to the holy place with theſe, inſtead of the incenſe of Chriſt's merit and intercession, is not to make an alatonement, but a provocation. This makes popifl aufterities to be acts of pride, inſtead of being acts of mortification. 3. God will have him get the honour alſo of his Pro- phetical-office: for it is by his Spirit that he inſtructs and peaches us how to pray as well as perform. By his merit we have acceptance, and by his Spirit affiſtance. If a child ſhould write ſome excellent track in the mathematicks in Greek, we would infallibly conclude ſome did learn him, or Lietate to him; ſo when you pray in the ſpirit, and ſpiritual-