him The Heathens are charged by St Paul That they with held the Truth in Unrighteousness The Notion of God as the Supream Law-giver and to be obeyed according to his Law imprest upon Conscience was a natural Truth and should have reign'd in their Hearts and Lives but they would not suffer it to exert its Power in ordering their Actions There is a natural Miracle seen in Egypt every Year when the River Nilus overflows the Plains many living Creatures are half form'd and part remains slimy Earth without Life or Motion Altera pars vivit rudis est pars altera tellus Such Monsters were the ungodly and unrighteous Heathens half Men in their Understandings and half Mud in their filthy Affections And there are innumerable such Monsters in the Christian world 2. The Testimony of Conscience is supprest and neglected by the prosperous Sinner If Conscience be in some degree Righteous and faithful in its Office and reproves him and sets his Sins in order before his Eyes he will not regard its earnest Warnings He is as unwilling to hear that sincere Witness in his Bosom as Ahab was the inflexible Prophet Micaiah of whom he said I hate him for he doth not prophesie Good of me but Evil. Prosperity affords many diversions whereby the sinner shifts off conversing with Conscience and remains ingaged in his sinful state I hearkned and heard saith the Prophet Jeremy but they spake not aright no Man repented of his Wickedness saying What have I done What foul ignominious Acts how defiling and debasing my Soul how offensive to the pure Eyes of God who is so glorious in Majesty and dreadful in Power Such a sight of Sin would make the Conscience boil and chill the Passions and urge sinners to return to their Duty But whilst they prosper they are obstinate in Rebellion Every one turn'd to his course as the Horse rushes into the Battel As the Horse when inflam'd by the noise and other Accidents of War furiously rushes to his own destruction thus sinners when they encounter alluring Objects that divert the Mind from serious consideration either they do not discern or will not observe the Dangers before them and with as little consideration and as much fierceness as the Beasts venture upon their own destruction Conversion is the product of the most serious and sad thoughts from which a prosperous sinner is most averse 2. The external means for converting sinners are usually ineffectual upon them whilst they enjoy Prosperity 1. The Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation to them that believe and the preaching of it is by divine Institution the ordinary means of Conversion God could by the immediate illumination of the Mind and influence upon the Will and Affections convert sinners from the Errors of their Ways but his Wisdom and condescending Goodness makes use of the Ministry of Men to convey the Word of Truth and Life to the World This way is very congruous both to the compounded Nature of Man by the Senses to work upon the Soul and to the native freedom of his Will for tho the supernatural Agent infallibly changes the Heart yet the Instrument can only direct and perswade Men as those who are endowed with intellectual and elective Faculties and thus the efficacy of Divine Grace is insinuated in a way suitable to the reasonable Nature The Ministers are stiled the Light of the World to discover to Men their undone condition by sin and to point out the way to their everlasting Peace Our blessed Redeemer saves the lost Remnant of Mankind by the sacred Ministry and where there are no Evangelical Preachers sent or only a doleful succession of blind Guides what Tertullian says of Scythia a Country that by the extremity of the cold is hard and dry and perpetually barren but the residence of fierce Cruelty is applicable to a Nation the Hearts of Men are frozen to their sins there is no melting in the tears of true Repentance no holy Heat only their brutish Lusts are ardent and active But where the Embassadors of Christ are faithful and zealous to induce sinners to break off their sins by repentance and to be reconciled to God there are none more uncapable of the sanctifying Power of the Gospel than sinners in Prosperity 1. Pride the Vice of Prosperity makes them fierce and stubborn against the holy and strict Rules of the Word We will not hearken to thee but will certainly do whatsoever goes out of our own mouth If a faithful Minister represents the inside of their foul Souls their uncomely Passions are rais'd against him if he recommends the earnest study of Holiness and Godliness they entertain his Counsels with derision and disdain Those to whom the dearest and most affectionate Honour is due being spiritual Fathers and Physicians are despised in their Persons and Office by Fools in their Prosperity They condemn what they do not understand and affect not to understand what condemns them They hear Sermons to censure and censure that they may not be troubled by them What hope is there of reducing haughty Scorners to the Obedience of the Gospel Even the Miracles and Ministry of our Saviour was without success upon the Pharisees who heard and derided him If such are convinc'd in their Minds and not disarm'd of their Pride and Self-will they refuse to yield themselves to the Lord. Meekness is a requisite Qualification for receiving the Word with its saving Vertue We are directed to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and with meekness to receive the ingrafted Word that is able to save our Souls We are prepared for Divine Grace by a serious sense of our want of it and earnest desire to obtain it He fills the hungry with good things and the Rich he sends empty away None are so insensible of their spiritual Wants and avers from the humble acknowledgment of them as the Prosperous Sinner and none more unlikely to obtain spiritual Riches 2. Infidelity that is occasion'd and confirm'd by Prosperity in Sin renders the Gospel ineffectual to the Salvation of Men. The Word preached did not profit the Jews not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it A stedfast belief of Divine Revelations is the principle of Obedience without it Motives of the highest strain are ineffectual Eternal things are not within the prospect of Sense and tho set forth with the clearest evidence of Reason and enforced with the greatest earnestness of Affection yet the Sons of Darkness sleep profoundly in their sins If Heaven with its Joys and Glory be revealed in the most affecting manner it has no more efficacy to move them than charming Musick to awaken one out of a Lethargy only violent Remedies bleeding scarrifying and burning are proper and powerful for his recovery If they are warned that the everlasting King will shortly open the Clouds and come with terrible Majesty to the universal Judgment and require an account for his abused Mercies
to cover their nakedness and foul deformity They are averse from knowing their Duty and will not search lest they should discover such terrible Truths that cross their sensual Humour The Apostle foretells That Scoffers should come in the last days who are willingly ignorant of the beginning and end of the World as if there were no Divine Maker of all things who has power to destroy them and consequently no Judg to whom Men must be accountable for their disobedience to his Laws they assent to the most evident Absurdity that all things were and shall continue in the same tenor and the cause of their willing ignorance is insinuated in the Character that describes them that they might walk after their own Lusts more securely freely and joyfully 2. Sensual Lusts do not only hinder Mens search after Knowledg but obscure the Light of Conscience and corrupt its Judgment There is such an intimate Communion between the Soul and the Body that interchangably they corrupt one another the sins of the Flesh sink into the Spirit and corrupt the moral Principles from whence the sensible Conscience springs of Good and Evil. And the sins of the Spirit Infidelity Incogitancy Error Security break out in the Deeds of the Body and make the Flesh more outragious in its Desires St. Paul declares that unto the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure but even their Mind and Conscience is defiled A purged Heart is requisite for a clear Mind but where Lust dwells it taints and perverts the practical Judgment from whence so many Disorders follow in the Life The natural Conscience in many Cases in its simple judgment of things sincerely declares what is to be done and what to be avoided but when compounded and stain'd with a tincture of Sensuality it judges according to the Desires The rebellious Israesites in the Wilderness are described It is a People that do err in their Hearts the Heart was the erroneous Fountain of all their Miscarriages and forty Years instruction could do them no good Those who are given up to carnal Delights and are in a confederacy with the gross Senses even their directive and judging Faculty is carnal in its apprehensions A reprobate Mind and vile Affections are naturally and judicially the Cause and Effect of one another Even natural Truths that are plain and bright as the essential distinction between moral Good and Evil between Vertue and Vice and the belief of a Judgment to come that is inseparably connext with it yet through the perversness and crookedness of Mens Hearts are strangely darkned Men wish according to their carnal Interest and what they wish they would fain believe and as when there was no King in Israel every one did what was good in his own Eyes so if there were no after-reckoning Men would without the check of Conscience follow the Wills of the Flesh therefore they are Atheists in desire and if not scared by the pangs of a throbbing Conscience will be so in their thoughts The Heathens cancell'd the Law of Nature and transgress'd all the Rules of Duty and Decorum they securely indulg'd those Lusts that are a derogation and debasement to the reasonable Creature and make Men below Men. The reason of this prodigious degeneracy was their Manners corrupted their Minds St. Paul charges the Ephesians not to walk as the other Gentiles in the vanity of their Minds having the Understanding darkned being alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their Heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness A dead Conscience and a dissolute Life are inseparable And how many that are surrounded with the Celestial Beams of the Gospel are as impure and impenitent as those in the black Night of Paganism They stand at the entrance of the bottomless Pit yet do not smell the Brimstone that inrages the Fire there the flames of their Lusts have feared their Consciences to a desperate degree of hardness and insensibility Of such the Apostle speaks But these as natural brute Beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption and shall receive the Reward of Unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time spots they are and blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you They violated all the Prescriptions and Restraints of natural Reason they had lost all the ingenuous bashfulness of the humane Nature and pleas'd themselves in their false licentious Principles whereby they endeavoured to justify their enormous Actions and set a superficial gloss upon their foul Deformities Now a seduced and seducing Mind make the conversion of a Sinner most difficult Whilst the Judgment condemns what the Affections approve Men are not so invincibly and irrecoverably lost the inlightned Conscience is an earnest of their return to their Duty But when the Spirit is deceived the flesh always prevails and Men are most dissolute corrupt and desperately wicked Our Saviour says If the Light that is in us be Darkness how great is that Darkness how disorderly and ruinous will the course be If the Salt hath lost its savour wherewith shall it be salted If the Conscience that should be as Salt to preserve the Soul from tainting Pleasures be corrupted wherewith can it be restored 3. Fleshly Lusts smother and suppress the Dictates and Testimony of the enlightned Conscience that they are not influential upon the Life The Dictates of Conscience are in a direct Line instructing and advising Men in their Duty the Testimony is by reflexion upon their Errors from the Divine Rule and condemning them for their Guilt 1. The Dictates of the inlightned Conscience are supprest 'T is the observation of the Philosopher concerning sensual Persons that they have Reason in the Faculty and Habit but not in the Use and Exercise The practical Understanding declares our Duty that 't is absolutely necessary to obey God and Men assent to it in the general but when this Principle is to be applied to Practice in Particulars that are ungrateful to the corrupt Will Lust draws a Veil over it that it may not appear to check the sensual Inclinations Whilst the Mind seduc'd by the Senses is intent upon the pleasing Object it does not actually and strongly consider the Divine Command and Conscience is brought under the controul of the impetuous Passions The Light of Reason as well as of Divine Revelation discovers that the blessed Beginning and the happy End of Man is to be like God and to enjoy his Love but when there is a competition between his Favour and the things of the World the carnal Heart suppresses the Dictates of the Mind and makes a blindfold choice of things present and sensible as if Man were all Earth and there were no spark of Heaven within
Strength or Beauty Swiftness or Courage so the first and chief and proper Excellency of Man is the rational Mind that distinguishes him from the Brutes and gives him a natural and regular dominion over them 'T is the highest and divinest Faculty of the Soul and from hence the deduction is clear that our Felicity consists in the perfection of the Mind If the Excellencies of all other Creatures were united in Man they could derive no true worth to him because they cannot adorn and perfect what is his proper Excellence Now according to the quality of the Objects about which the Mind is conversant 't is either tainted and depreciated or purfied and exalted To apply it to sensual worldly things how to increase Riches and make provision for the Flesh to fulfil its Lusts is more truly vilifying than if a Prince should employ his Counsellors of State and the Judges of his Courts in the Offices of his Kitchin or to dig in the Cole-pits The Mind is corrupted and debased by application to inferior perishing things as Gold and Silver are allayed and lose of their purity and value by a mixture with Copper and Tin God alone is the Sovereign Object of the Mind with respect to its dignity and capacity its superior and noblest Operations and by contemplating his glorious Attributes and Excellencies who is best in himself and best to us the Mind is inlightned and enlarged renewed and raised made holy and heavenly full of Beauty Order and Tranquillity and transformed into the likeness of the Divine Perfections 2. All the Prosperity in the World cannot bring true Satisfaction to him that enjoys it for 't is disproportionate to the spiritual and immortal nature of the Soul This is so clear by Reason that it may seem as needless and impertinent to insist on it as to use Arguments to prove that Gold and Diamonds are not proper Food for the Body but the self-deceiving folly of the carnal Heart so enamour'd of the vanity of this World that like the pleasure of a Charm is counterfeit and deadly makes it necessary to inculcate known Truths that Men may timely prevent the sad Consequences of such Folly and not be accessaries to their tormenting Conviction by experience 'T is true carnal and material Things pleasantly affect the outward Man yet such a vanity is in them that they are neither a pure nor a prevalent Good with respect to the natural and civil state of Man here Riches and Honours and sensual Pleasures are not without a mixture of bitterness that corrupt the content that Men expect in them they are not efficacious to remove or allay the Evil to which all are exposed in this open state A sharp Disease makes all the Joys of the World insipid and despicable But suppose them in their elevation they cannot supply the Wants and Exigencies nor satisfy the Desires of the Soul They cannot restore Men to the Favour of God and blessed Communion with him nor renew the Image of his Holiness in them They are but a vain Name a naked shadow of Felicity and entirely depend upon the simplicity and fancies of Men for their valuation The Apostle therefore tells us that they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish lusts Those who resolve and labour to get Riches thinking to find Felicity in them are misled by as gross folly as those who presume by their costly preparations to turn Brass or Lead into Gold For if it be Folly to desire and attempt what is impossible 't is equally so in those who seek for joyful satisfaction in Wealth and in any other secular Things as in the Alchymists that waste their real Estates for imaginary Treasures Besides the happiest Condition here as 't is like the Moon that at the brightest is spotted and imperfect so Eclipses are not less strange to it than to that Planet The World is at the best of a transient use and the pleasant Error of the Carnal Mind will be of short continuance Within a little while that which was declar'd with such solemnity by the Angel in the Revelation He lifted up his hand to Heaven and swore by Him that lives for ever that Time shall be no more will be true of every mortal Person The rich Man that was surveying his Estate with carnal complacency and extending his hopes of voluptuous living to many Years was surpriz'd with the fatal Sentence Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall those Things be which thou hast provided Now can that be our Happiness that is of such an uncertain tenure that every hour may be snatch'd from us or we from it If one should with great Expences build a Mansion-House and plant Gardens in a place subject to frequent Earthquakes that would overturn all into confusion would not his folly be conspicuous Yet how many practise themselves what they would deride in others They set their Heart upon the things of the World that are liable to a thousand changes and must shortly be parted with for ever The Slaves of Honour that are so swell'd with airy Titles of Greatness and the flattering Respects of others must shortly be devested of all and when laid in their Tombs the Trophies of Vanity will be insensible of the renown and applauses of the World Alexander the Great is long since dead to the pleasure of his Immortal Man And Death will make a final separation between the Rich and their Treasures and put an end to all the Delights of Men. Now what folly is it to prefer a Felicity that is deceitful in the enjoyment and leaves the Soul empty when it most fills it that is so vain and transitory before an Eternal Heaven a blessedness that surpasses our Hopes that secures our Fears that satisfies our immense Desires a blessedness that the humane Understanding in all the capacity of its thoughts is not able to comprehend a blessedness becoming the Majesty and Magnificence of God that bestows it What madness to despise Heaven as if the Eternity of the next World were but a moment and to love this World as if this momentary Life were an Eternity The full aggravation of this dyes the Love of the World with the deepest tincture of Folly as will appear by considering 1. 'T is a voluntary chosen Folly Thus the Divine Wisdom with passion reproaches wretched Sinners How long ye simple Ones will ye love simplicity This heightens their Character to love so obstinately what is so unlovely and unbecoming the reasonable Nature The Light of Reason and Revelation discovers the Vanity of the World 't is not for want of Evidence but for want of using the Light that Men do not discern their wretched mistake God complains in the Prophet My People doth not consider The means of restoring Men to a sound Mind is by due consideration The Soul retires from the World and makes a solemn
from the Grave Now when a Christian is prepared for this noble Act of Self-denial to forsake all things when his Duty to Christ requires it this preserves him from the ensnaring temptations of Prosperity 'T is observable the same Divine Disposition of Soul makes us temperate in the use of present Abundance and patient in the loss of it The low esteem of earthly things joyn'd with the lively hope of Heaven renders the enjoyment of the World less delightful and the loss of it more tolerable The Philosopher and Courtier says of himself that he always in his Prosperity kept a great distance between his Affections and Riches with Honours and in the change of his state they were rather taken easily away than rent from him According to the temper of the Mind the difference is as sensible in the parting with outward things as between clipping the Hair and tearing it off with violence Nay the Glory of Heaven does so eclipse the faint and fading lustre of this World that a Believer not only patiently but chearfully makes the exchange of the one for other Moses preferred Affliction with the People of God before the Crown of Egypt because of the Reward above that was in his view And the Christian Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods knowing that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance The blessed Hope will preserve us from being foil'd by Prosperity when it surrounds us and from sinking in Adversity Like Mertyllus his Shield that secur'd him in the Field and sav'd him being Shipwrack'd at Sea by wasting him to the Shore Lastly Earnest and constant Prayer to God for Divine Grace is a soveraign means to preserve those who are in Prosperity from the danger that attends it I know how to abound says the Apostle and immediatly adds I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Supernatural Strength in an eminent degree is requisite to keep us entire and upright in the dangerous conflict with the pleasant Temptations of the World and that Strength is derived from Christ and obtain'd by humble Prayer 'T is St. Austin's observation that Elisha wanted a double portion of Elijah's Spirit because he was in publick Honour and exposed to a more dangerous trial an extraordinary Grace was necessary for him But Elias was under continual persecution The Trees that are expos'd to storms are strong and firm but those in the sunny Vallies are brittle and easily blown down We are directed to ask Wisdom of God for the governing of our selves in Afflictions that in patience we may possess our Souls and the turbulent Passions may not cause rebellious disorders but the sanctified Mind may use Afflictions for our spiritual and eternal Good And 't is as necessary to beg Heavenly Wisdom for governing our selves in Prosperity that when Temptations are frequent and favour'd by our joyful Affections which are equally vehement and exorbitant as the sad Affections Reason may keep the Throne and manage Prosperity so as we may obtain our blessed End Such is the malice of Satan that he incessantly desires leave to tempt us and love to our Souls should make us pray continually for confirming Grace against his Temptations Briefly if the good things of this World make us more humble and holy more fearful to offend God and careful to please him if they are Motives to renew our Homage and Thankfulness to him if they are used in subordination to his Glory they are the Testimonies of his present Favour and the Pledges of our future Felicity Our blessed Saviour keeps the best Wine for his obedient Friends till the last FINIS ERRATA PAge 68. line 10 for Love read Law P. 134. l. 1. for Man r. Name P. 181. l. 12. for conceit and r. conceited Some Books printed for Brabazon Aylmer in Cornhil THe Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are glorified in that Great and Blessed Work By William Bates D. D. in Quarte Considerations of the Existence of God And of the Immortality of the Soul with the Recompences of the Future State To which is now added The Divinity of the Christian Religion proved by the evidence of Reason and Divine Revelation◠for the Cure of Infidelity the Hectick Evil of the Times By William Bates D. D. in Octavo The Soveraign and final Happiness of Man with the effectual means to obtain it Also the Joys of Heaven and Torments of Hell are discoursed of By William Bates D. D. in Octavo Several Sermons upon Death and Eternal Judgment By William Bates D. D. in Octavo The great Duty of Resignation to the Divine will in Afflictions enforced from the Example of our suffering Saviour By William Bates D. D. in Octavo * Mark 3. 5. Vers. 24 26 27 28 29. * 1 John 2. 16. * 2 Pet. 1. 4. * Hos. 11. 4. Rom. 2. * Psal. 69. 22. Ephes. 2. James 4. 1. Prov. 13. 10. 2 Kings 8. 12 13. Psal. 10. 4. Ezek. 28. 2. Prov. 30. 9. Deut. 6. 12. An non paena satis est te non amare Aug. Conf. Psal. 55. 19. Deut. 32. 15 Deut. 29. 19 20. 2 Cor. 4. Ephes. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 2. l. James 1. 14 15. * Nec mora quod pontus quod terra quod educat aer poscit Ezek. 16. 49. * Ut remos agere possint hastas tractare non possint * Haec enim conditio superiorum est ut quicquid faciunt praecipere videantur pernitiosissimus est malae rei maximus quisque author Quintil. Ipsa vitia religiosa sunt atque non modo non vitantur sed coluntur Lact. * Non me potes uti amico adulatore Phocion Antipatri * Nullis vitiis desunt pretiosa nomina Plin. Gal. 5. Jude * Nec te posse carere velim Gen. 6. Mark 6. 5. Acts 7. John 3. 20. 2 Pet. 3. 5. Titus 1. 15. Psal. 57. 10. Ephes. 4. 17 18 19. 2 Pet. 2. 12 13. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. l. 7 c c. 3. * Omnia torpent omnia rigent sola feritas calet Isa 44. 16 17. Heb. 4. 2. Prov. 5. 11 12 13. Exod. 9. 27. 28. Jer. 2. 24 Mat. 6. 24. 1 Cor. 1. 23. Gal. 5. 11. Rev. 21. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. 1 Tim. 6. 13. 1 Joh. 5. Min. fel. Rom. 8. 18. Heb. 3. 12. 1 Joh. 4. 18. 1 Joh. 4. 19. Euseb. lib. 6. Mat. 10. 33. Heb. 3. 7. In cane sagacitas prima est si investigare debet feras cursus si consequi audacia si mordere invadere Id in quoque optimum est cui nascitur quo censetur In homine optimum quid est ratio Haec animalia antecedit Deos sequitur Senec. Epist. 76. Luk. 12. 20. * Morto all piacer dell ' immortal suo nome Prov. 1. 22. Isa. 1. * Pretium mirantes accipiunt Tacit Jer. 17. 11. Dan. 12. 2. 1 Tim. 6. 9. Prov. 1. Deut. 32. 6. Rom. 11. Mat. 5. Rom. 11. 20 21. Prov. 1. 24 25 26 27 28 29. Psal. 78. 34 36 37. * Stat anceps medicus non videt bonum quod promittat timet malum pronunciare ne terreat modestam tamen istam concipit sententiam Deus bonus omnia potest orate pro illo Aug. Ezek. 33. 11 Ezek. 18. 21 Mat. 5. 46. Deut. 32. Rom. 2. * Deus illum ad solium evexit iste Deum ad boves demisit Pet. Mart. Deut. 29. Rev. 18. 7. Psal. 106. 4. Psal. 50. Nahum 1. 3. Rom. 9. 22. Isa. 29. 10. Psal. 49. Eccles. 7. Psal. 35. 6. Horrenda via tenebrae lubricum Tenebras solum quis non horreat lubri cum solum quis non caveat In tenebris lubrico qua is ubi pedem figis sunt istae magnae poenae hominum Aug. Col. 3. Eccles. 7. 2 3 4. * Vino debimus quod etiam non sitientes bibimus Plin. Nemo venenum temperat felle Elleboro sed conditis pulmentis id mali injicit Ita Diabolus letale quod conficie rebus gratissimis acceptissimis imbuit Tert. Rev. 3. Ezek. 16. 42 Senec. de providentia Heb. 12. Inter adversa melior Tacit. Optimos nos esse dum infirmi sumus Plin. lib. 3. Propitius Deus cum male amamus negat quod amamus iratus autem dat amanti quod male amat Aug. Phil. 4. 12. 2 Chron. 17. 3. Sponte manans pretiosior sudor est elicitus corticis vulnere vilior judicatur Solin Psal. 9. Jam. 1. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 4. Zach. 9. 9. Tit. 3. 3. Deut. 6. 11 12. Deut. 8. 12. Hos. 13. 6. Ps. 103. 1 2. * Psal. 34. 2. Psal. 26. Utentis modestia non amantis affectu Hos. 4. 11. Ephes. 4. 19. 1 Cor. 7. 30 31. * Omnis humana perversio fruendis uti velle utendis frui Aug. Psal. 139. 17 19. Psal. 4. 6 7. Psal. 63. Luk. 10. 20. 1 Tim. 6. Mat. 11. Intervallum inter me illa magnum habui itaque abstulit illa non avulsit Senec. Cons. ad Helv. Heb. 11. Phil. 4. Aelizaeus cum magno honore seculi dignitate prophetiae donum habuit Elias profugus persecutus