Common and dangerous.

ders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord.

2 Cor. 6. 5. In labors, in watchings, in fastings,

2 Cor. 11. 27. In weariness, and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often. Flattery.

198. Has flattery been a common and dangerous evil? Job 17. 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

Job 32. 21. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles to man. For I know not to give flattering titles: in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.

Ps. 5. 9. They flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels. Ps. 12. 2. With flattering lips, and with a double heart, do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things.

Pr. 7. 21. With the flattering of her lips she forced him.

Pr. 20. 19. Meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Pr. 24. 24. He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him.

Pr. 26. 28. A flattering mouth worketh ruin.

Pr. 23. 23. He that rebuketh a man, afterwards shall find more favor, than he that flattereth with the tongue.

Pr. 29. 5. A man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet.

Ezk. 13. 10. They have seduced my people, saying Peace; and there was no peace. 18. Wo to the women that sew pillows to all arm-holes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every Stature to hunt souls? 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not

re

Who are so called?

per

turn from his evil way, by promising him life. Dan. 11. 21. In his estate shall stand up a vile son to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall be corrupt by flatteries.

Fools.

199. Who are called fools by their Maker?

Ps. 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Ps. 74. 18.

name.

The foolish people have blasphemed thy

Ps. 94. 6. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

Pr. 17. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Pr. 10. 18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. 23. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief.

Pr. 12. 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame.

Pr. 13. 19. It is abomination to fools to depart from evil.

Pr. 14. 9. Fools make a mock at sin. 16. The fool rageth, and is confident.

Pr. 15. 5. A fool despiseth his father's instructions. 14. The mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

Pr. 18. 2. A fool hath no delight in understanding. 6. A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snares of his soul.

Pr. 20. 3. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.

Who are so called?-Desirable.

Pr. 26. 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. his own conceit? there is

Seest thou a man wise in more hope of a fool than of

him. 16. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.

Pr. 27. 3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty: but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.

Pr. 28, 26.

fool.

He that trusteth in his own heart is a

Pr. 29. 11. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.

Ec. 5. 3. A fool's voice is known by multitude of words.

Ec. 7. 4. mirth.

The heart of fools is in the house of

9. Anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Jer. 17. 11. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

Lk. 12. 19. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.

200. Who are called fools by mankind?

Jn. 10. 20. And many of them said, He [Christ] hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

Ac. 26. 24. Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad. 1 Cor. 4. 10. We are fools for Christ's sake.

Friendship.

201. Is friendship desirable ?

2 S. 1. 26. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

Professed friendship-What is God?

Pr. 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Pr. 18, 24. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Pr. 27. 9. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.

202. Do professed friends often fail us?

Job 19. 14. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 19. All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

Ps. 38. 11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Ps, 41. 9. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

Ps. 55. 12. It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Zec. 13. 6. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Mat. 26. 56. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

2 Tim. 4. 16. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

God.

203. Is there a God who is the First Cause of all things?

Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning, God created the heav

en and the earth.

What is God?

Ps. 9. 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth.

Ps. 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.

Ps. 58. 11. earth.

Ps. 100. 3.

Verily he is a God that judgeth in the

The Lord, he is God: it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.

Rom. 1. 20. The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.

Rom. 11. 36. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.

Heb. 3. 4.

Every house is builded by some man;

but he that built all things is God.

204. What is God?

Ex. 3. 13. What is his name?

What shall I say

unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAŤ I AM.

Ex. 15. 3.

his name.

The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is

Ps. 104. 1. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty: Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire. Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

Jn. 4. 24. God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.