The Spider

“The blind hope that is foimd in men ignorant and presumptuous will certainly fail thejjij it is compared to a spider’s web Job viii. 14. The spider spitineth a web out of her own bowels, which is swept away as soofi as the besom cometh; so do carnal men conceive a few rash and imgrounded hopes; but when death cometh; or a little trouble of conscience, these vain conceits are swept away.” Let us not spin a hope of heaven out of ourselves, or our own works, feelings, or professions. Such a web of confidence maybe very ingeniously contrived, but it must be very frail and will inevitably be swept away. What is a man full of self-righteousness but a dark room full of cobwebs? Good housekeepers do not care for the clever works of this poor insect, but are eager to destroy them, for they are a detriment, and not an ornament. Neither spiders nor their webs are acceptable to us; and even so we may depend upon it that when we have finished the web of our legal hopes and worked hard at our will worship, God will have no more respect to us and our proud doings than we have to spiders and their constructions. Let proud Pharisees think of this and be humbled. The bee is our example, for she builds a house but fetches all the material from abroad, and it is from the flowers of the garden, and not from herself, that she procures the honey with which she stores her cells. Spiders suck no flowers as bees do, their productions are from their own bowels. True believers get all the substance and sweetness of their hopes from the flowers of the promises, and dare not live upon themselves, or anything that they can do or be.