could not alwayes prevail except it were with Amphion to draw stones after him Once I was stoned or with Orpheus the Trees Thrice was I beaten with rods or brute beasts as at Ephesus After the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus True it is that the miraculous power of God went along with him and brake open the doors of mens hearts and made some way for the Word to enter wheresoever he came but otherwise his entertainment was according to the disposition of the people amongst which he came At Lystra he was welnigh stoned to death by the Heathen Indeed at first seeing him cure a lame man they would have sacrificed to him and Barnabas as Gods and could scarse be restrained but afterward upon the instigation of the Iews they had almost sacrificed them to their own malice At Antioch the vulgus of the Iews stir up the devont women and chief men who usually stir not in such cases unless stirred by some calumniations against him and Barnabas At Philippi the Magistrate being in like sort incensed by the people he is whipt imprisoned stockt together with Silas At Thessalonica he is greatly endangered by certain leud fellows of the baser sort who sought his life At Ephesus Demetrius with his fellow craftsmen brethren in iniquity raise the City against him where he met with those beasts he spake off At Hierusalem he had certainly dyed had not Lysias the chief Captain rescued him and set him afterward out of the reach of those who had bound themselves by oath not to eat or drink till they had slain him If he found at any time any better welcome it was among the better sort Sergius a prudent man desires to hear the Word from his mouth At Corinth Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue is converted by him and when the Iews his constant enemies laid it before Gallio the Proconsul against him he drove them from the Judgement seat and would not admit their bill of complaint When the beasts of the people came upon him at Ephesus yet the chief of Asia were his friends and stood for him and the Town-clerk or Recorder rather a man of no mean office speaks in the justification of him and his companions Lysias the chief Captain of the Roman bands secures him as we have said from open outrage and secret conspiracy Publius the chief man of Melita entertains him three dayes with all curtesie and curing the Father of Publius and others he is honoured there with many honours and laded with all things necessary for his voyage to Rome and though he met with a base and wicked sort of people at Thessalonica such as your catchpoles that wait upon Courts who could they have caught him would have made him away yet at Beroea he met with men of a right noble disposition who entertained him and Silas with that respect which was due unto their place receiving the Word with all readiness of mind and searching the Scriptures whether the things they Preached were so or not and accordingly the Spirit of God takes notice of their carriage and writes down their commendation to all posterity not without a sharpe reflexion upon those of Thessalonica These men to wit the Beroeans were more noble then those of Thessalonica We have been too long in our Preface yet the Masters of Rhetorique do not prescribe any certain limits but leave the same liberty therein as they do to a Commander to make the Front of his battail as narrow broad and deep as he please And to have large Portals or Gate-houses with many lodgings in them is not unusual for Noble and Gentlemens houses In the words there is a commendation given to the Beroeans and a special thing commended in them which is their Nobility The men of Beroea were more noble Now in that the Spirit of God is pleased to bestow a commendation upon the men of Beroea we may observe That whatsoever is commendable in any may have its commendation So many Prophets said one of the Ancients so many testimonies of Gods divine praescience So may we say here So many good men as are mentioned in sacred Scripture so many evidences of this truth Their goodness some way or other is commended still unto us And as any of them have been eminent in any grace so there is an eminent mark set upon them in reference to that Noah is reported singular for his Godliness amongst the world of ungodly Abraham as Father of the faithful for his Faith Ioseph as a special pattern of Chastity Moses of Meekness Daniel of Temperance Iob of Patience Nathaniel of singleness of Heart There were grosse errours foul misdemeanours amongst the Corinthians and in those things St. Paul praised them not but those did not so far blast their good deeds but that he did commend them for what they did well I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things Whom Christ loves he rebukes and so we finde him reproving almost every one of the seven Churches of Asia but yet he forgets not to commend that which was commendable in them Nay the Church of Philadelphia had but a little strength and there was but something of good found in Abijah the son of Ieroboam and yet the Lord passes it not over in silence but takes notice of it Nay more though Saul were a wicked Prince and Davids mortal enemy yet David a man after Gods own heart could finde somewhat to lament and somewhat to comment upon at his death Indeed a pearl is not to be rejected though lying in a dunghil or found in a Toads head nor Vertue to be misliked though lodged amongst many Vices but as it was the custom of the Athenians of old to write the names of such as were fair handsome persons upon their wals or doors or other places as it hapned thus Such a one is fair such a one is handsome or comely So if any do any thing handsomely or in comely manner we need not fear to say This was well or handsomely done And this in the first place is but a piece of Justice As the conception of all things was from the Goodness so the disposition of all was from the Justice of God It was a work of Justice to make separation betwixt light and darkness day and night heaven and earth so it is a work of Justice to distinguish betwixt good and evil to separate the pretious form the vile and set it forth in its proper lustre It 's an act of Justice to give to every one his due Tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour belongs And Praise is a tribute proper for good deeds and Honour for such as excel in vertue We should offer Frankincense said the wise Heathen to the gods but praise unto
sails and as far as possible may be from all learning and rather then use a little pains and industry quench the light and bring in darkness and blackness of ignorance and Barbarism into thy Family What a blot was it to the Son of Cicero that it should passe into a kinde of proverb That the people of Rome could not know Cicero's Son by his speech and that his sottishness should be as great as his Fathers eloquence Indeed it is a shame for any that bear any place or authority in a State to be altogether ignorant of Letters What a disgrace was it to Michael sirnamed Balbus Emperour of Constantinople and to the Empire it self that his best skill should be to tell which were likely to prove the best Pigs what Asses would kick and how to avoid them what Asses were fit for burden and what for saddle And that for matter of Learning he should be so ignorant that another should sooner read a book then he write his name What a ridiculous business was it though the Historian excuse it that a question being propounded who was the better Souldier Hector or Achilles a Prince upon the suggestion of an ignorant fellow that Achilles was a flagitious Letcher and no wayes to be compared with Hector should make Proclamation that if any did but name Achilles in his house as the King had forfeited his wits so he should forfeit his house and all he had to make amends to the King And is it not a shame also that Gentlemen of great birth and dignity should be so illiterate and ignorant even of the Latine tongue that they understand nothing at all of it except there be an Interpreter or Exorcist as sometimes he was called to conjure out the meaning not altogether unnecessary sometimes for the understanding the Devils Oracles Nay how can many be blamed and shamed enough who so for cast all knowledge behind their back that though Interpreters do bring out unto them the Muses naked as it were and prostitute them to their pleasures as Lot did his Daughters to the men of Sodome whether with like intention lest the one should do worse and as little discretion in betraying the honour of the other I will not determine yet they will not be tempted to meddle with them They are so chast that they leave them untouched unsaluted unseen And hence it comes to passe that either they betake themselves wholly to worldly business raking and scraping together all that may be got without regard of honour many times or honesty and gaining to themselves no other name then what Caligula gave I. Silanus and Diogenes to all illiterate persons namely that of golden Cattle or else they gave themselves entirely to sports and pastimes Hawking and Hunting things not unlawful nor unuseful but pursued most an end with too much expence of treasure and time the greatest of treasures For as Mahomet the Turkish Emperour said when he had greatly lessened the number of those that kept his Dogs and Hawks that there were yet enough left for a vain and foolish sport So some few hours at certain seasons might suffice for such game and the rest be employed and spent in the pursuit of knowledge a thing of infinite more use and far more excellent name and yet others which is worse having great means do give themselves up to all manner of riot without measure of which more by and by and hating all discours that savours never so little of any learning or ingeny admit none usually but flattering parasites into their company being like unto nothing so much as those trees which grow on the top of great Praecipices the fruit whereof is eaten by Ravens and such like Fowl there being no accesse unto them for men to seise on them for food Now if that Roman were lookt upon as sottish who keeping Schollars still about him was of that opinion that whatsoever any of his house knew he knew also then much more sottish are they who know nothing themselves nor will admit of any willingly that do For whereas the great prerogative of Letters are that they are an ornament in prosperity a refuge and protection in adversity a comfort in age a solace in solitariness a remedy for the wearisome burden of idleness and a cure for crosses and sometimes also for sickness the one did or might at least if he had been capable enjoyed some shadow of these but the other can glory only in sensuality which Sardanapalus counted his chief felicity whose manners as his Epitaph suited better with a beast then a man 2. Thou that art the Son of a Magnanimous Father wilt thou bring cowardise into thine Ancestry and discredit thine Heroick line with a base spirit as with a kind of bastardy Was it not ominous that a man should bring forth an Hare in Xerxes army And was it not infamous that such slugs should follow after such thunderbolts such darkness after so great lightning in Ninus Cyrus his and Scipios family But here many do not fall short but far exceed both in word and deed our antient Nobility and Gentry The godly in Scripture are said to fear an oath but some Gentlemen have too great spirits to be restrained and stand in aw of any such leight matter When Ephraim spake trembling And if fearful Oaths give men just cause as indeed they do they cannot but tremble to hear some of them speak They thunder and lighten as 't was said of Pericles and when they fall into a passion as he by his powerful Oratory so they by their dreadful Oaths put all into a combustion Or as Livy writes of young Ceso that he spake so confidently as if he carryed the power and vertue of all Dictatures and Consulships in his own voice and strength so they swear so stoutly as if all power in heaven and earth were given unto them as if their tongues were absolutely their own and they had no Lord over them It is the command of our Saviour That we should not swear at all neither by heaven because it is the Throne of God nor yet by the earth because it is his footstool nor by our head because we cannot make one hair black or white And so it is they observe in some sort his command They swear not by heaven or earth now but by God himself They swear not by their own head but oh impiety oh horror by the head wounds heart and bloud of God They spare themselves but rend and tear God in pieces with their Oaths It were well and much to be wished that as Gentlemen of all other are most curteous and civil towards men so they would learn to be a little more civil towards their God But the magnanimâ—ty of some is such that it makes them forget all civility And what they are in words the same we may finde some also to be
drawn forth in great abundance by often smiting and striking them So the metalled disposition the richness of nature the many sparks of virtue which are in some noble births are drawn out to greater perfection through the care that is taken in their good Education Much is ascribed to the seed of which much to the place where much to the air wherein men are born What vertue there is in the seed we have said The place where men are born by reason of the richness or barrenness of the soyl or scituation in reference to the Sea may confer somewhat towards mens manners The air according to the subtlety or grosseness thereof makes no little difference in wits colours complexions dispositions but education is all in all and is sufficient almost of it self alone to alter all It hath been questioned though I think no great question need be made of it Which conduces most to good living A happy brith or good breeding As it was said of Demosthenes the Oratour That his Mother brought forth one Demosthenes and his own labour and travail brought forth another So may we say here Generation brings a man forth in one sort and Education in another A happpy birth layes a good foundation Breeding carries on the building to perfection And great Personages having the advantage usually of others in their education do attain thereby to a far more noble and generous disposition 3. This happens by reason of good examples which they have about or nearer their eyes then others The Trophies of Miltiades would not suffer Themistocles to sleep Alexander the great was greatly animated by the gests of Achilles Caesars spirit was stirred up by Alexanders acts and he grieved that he had done nothing at that age wherein the world was conquered by him And if forraign examples have wrought so much how much more may we imagine The domestick examples of Parents kindred alliance will excite us whom naturally we love and desire to be like and to whom we are as loath to be a shame our selves as we are unwilling others should cast shame upon them The Romans did wisely who would by no means suffer those that bought the houses of Noble personages to remove or take down their Images They knew the standing of them would be a great spur a huge incitement to vertuous atchievemēts The very houses otherwise would upbraid the weak owners for entring upon other mens honours and doing nothing worthy of honour themselves And does not the same consideration think we work as well if not much more upon noble issues to keep up the honour of their own houses as it did upon strangers that they might not seem unworthy to lodge in those that they purchased from others Yes surely And were it not for this wise Governours would not suffer the dignities and titles conferred on the Ancestors to passe and descend at a venture by succession upon their children but that by this means they would bind them by a kind of necessity not to degenerate from the vertue of their Ancestours 4. Lastly This happens surely not without some Divine influence from above Pearls are not engendred in the Sea without a flash of Lightning And these more pretious Pearls of the earth are not begotten certainly without some Divine flash or influence from heaven The Heathen had their Heroes whom they reckoned betwixt gods and men And we know no Divines but are willing to allow Heroick motions by which those whom we may rightly term Worthies were guided in their actions And what we allow them in their lives may not without reason be granted in their births also True it is the workings of God are free and not tyed to persons or families but yet as the Spirit of God which is tyed to no sort of men was most commonly poured out upon such as in Scripture are called the Sons i.e. the Disciples of the Prophets who were trained up in the Schools of the Prophets and by the study of the Law were fitted and disposed for the receiving of the Spirit what else is the meaning of that proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets but that though it sometimes fell out otherwise as in the case of Amos who was no Prophet nor Son of a Prophet but an Herdsman and gatherer of Sycamore fruits it was unusual that persons never applying themselves to such courses should be so suddenly and strangely invested with the Spirit of Prophesie So I make no doubt nor question at all but that the Divine grace and blessing though not tyed to any doth most usually fall in some special manner upon those Families whose Ancestors have done worthily and who set themselves after the example of their Ancestors to do worthily in the places where they live And when all these Birth and Breeding special examples below and special blessings from above do concur when Heaven and Earth do consent and conspire together as it were in one for their good they must needs excell in matter of abilities and have a preheminence above others in respect of noble qualities Now this may let us see first How justly Noblemen and Gentlemen are in all places prized preferred honoured above others Such are better born and better bred then others and so when Honour is cast upon them a lustre is cast upon Honour Honour it self being in a sort ennobled when Noble persons are honoured Whereas on the contrary the advancement of men of mean birth and condition is a debasement of the Dignity to which they are advanced And look as unskilful mechanicks who set little statues upon great bases or Pedistals do shew the smalness and contemptibleness of their statues so much the more so those that raise men of sordid condition to high places of Honour and Dignity do lay open their inabilities and discredit them the more tottering and shaking this way and that way through their Instability The Shechemites raised up Abimelech the son of a maid-servant to be King over themselves but as Iothan told them They carryed themselves therein ingratefully so the event shewed them that they dealt therein but impolitickly When a Servant raigneth the earth is disquieted neither will it be at rest till it hath vomited him up as the stomach the meat that offends it Then Kingdoms and Common-weals are peaceable and prosperous when Places and Persons of Honour are sorted and suited to each other True it is the Nobility and Gentry have alwayes had many mouths opened against them but they alwayes won upon the affections and found favour with good men both in love to their Ancestry and in hopes to have from them a like generous Progeny Herod being an Idumaean burnt all the Iews Genealogies envying them that antiquity whereof himself could not glory so many being basely born themselves would root out the Nobility and Gentry and like the Fox that had lost his tail himself would have the
another Alpha and Omega another beginning and end of all that is within us and all that comes from us And as all the stars in the firmament cannot make day without the Sun nor an infinite sight of Cyphers arise to the smallest number without the addition of some figure So neither can all the excellencies in the world without Piety make any thing in Christian Divinity nor add any thing of moment to the spiritual Nobility Let none therefore great or small content themselves as we have said with my thing but Godliness but rather labour â—o winde themselves up to the highest pitch of Christian Nobleness To subdue our passions to mortifie our inordinâ—te affections to conquer our lusts to minde the things which are above to have the desires of our heart still upon God and the remembrance of his Name to stand for God in opposition to the world and depend wholly upon his Providence to contemn both the profits and pleasures of this world neither suffering our hearts to be overcharged or besotted with the one or the other is true Godliness and that which few attain unto true Christian Nobleness We may observe many that stand much upon their Gentility that are infinitely sottish and many that pretend much to Piety that are infinitely Covetous and both of them despising and scorning each other As Bernice the wife of Deiotarus and a certain Spartain Dame meeting one day turned their backs to one another suddenly the one as it should seem abhorring the perfume of sweet powder the other the smell of rank butter So these usually keep aloof off the first scoffing at the others sordid Piety the second at the others sottish Gentility And do we not think that there is a third man that may justly scorn both as having nothing in them of true Christianity Do we not think to finde Atreiden Priamumque saevum ambobus Achillem The drunken sot and the wretched worldling And the good man both alike detesting He that is master of his passions that hath command of his affections that hath his conversation in heaven and keeps communion still with God that infinitely scorns the world and is wisely temperate in the use of the creatures he only is the true Christian. And he that is such a one is truly Noble And though his birth be never so mean and low yet if his parts advance him in the Common-wealth to any office or dignity Agnosco procerem and look on him as meet to encrease the number of the Gentry or Nobility Godliness as it is said of the Crown takes off all taindours of bloud and caeteris paribus makes any birth passant and good Yea Godliness alone hath a Crown laid up for it Hence forth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness God hath promised it to Piety and he that hath promised will one day set it upon the head of the Godly and being set on there it shall rest to all eternity 4. This should make the children of God careful to answer their birth and to walk worthy of the Lord who is not ashamed to be called their Father and hath bestowed upon them the honour of being called his Sons We see that Nobles and Gentlemen stand much upon their Honour and are careful not to stein it themselves and give this as he in the Poet in charge to their children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To excell still others in worth and dignity And not to stein the honour of their Ancestry How much more then should the Sons of God the children of the most High stand upon their Honour and be careful to approve and practise the best things taking heed lest they do any thing whereby that worthy name by which they are called may be blasphemed Yea seeing the earth brings forth grasse and herb yielding seed after its kinde and the tree brings forth fruit after his kinde They which are the off-spring of God and of kin if I may so speak to heaven should be ashamed not to answer their kindred It was a foul shame which the Son of the great Scipio brought upon his family To have the Ring whereon his Fathers head was graven pluckt from his hand as having nothing of that wisdom in his head or stoutness in his hands which gave his Father a seat in every noble Romans heart It was a far greater shame that the trifling spirit of Nero and the cowardly spirit of those that durst not withstand his humour brought upon the Romans that not only the Knights but the chief Senatours of Rome should come into the Theatres and condescend to take upon them the parts of Common-Players on the Stage That the Noble families which had sent forth Consuls Commanders Conquerours should now send forth Fidlers Dancers and Fencers That they should be now Actors of those things whereof their Ancestors scorned to be Spectators That they whose Trophies and Temples were to be seen as monuments of their Noble Families should now be made the mirth and maygame of the common people That the conquered coming into the City should point at the Conquerers saying See the sons of those that sometimes conquered Kings and Kingdoms and led them in triumph through their streets become now themselves the grand Pageants and pastime of Rome And is it not as foul though it be not accounted so because custome hath made it common That the children of God should prostitute themselves so far as to play the same parts which none but the vilest were wont to play upon the stage of the world That the Church which was wont to send forth Armies of Saints Confessors Martyrs should now send forth in greater number Swearers Drunkards and Covetous worldlings That they should be Actors of those things which sometimes it was a shame to speak of and commit those things commonly which heretofore might not be so much as named amongst the Saints That they which were more then conquerours over the Devil the world and the flesh and whose vertues erected so many Temples to the eternizing of their memories should now be themselves the grand conquests of Satan The habitation of Devils the holds of foul spirits and cages of unclean and filthy lusts That men may justly point at them with the finger saying See the children and successors of the Saints who sometimes conquered and converted the world become now themselves the shame and scorn of Religion Such intimations as these we know sound harsh in the ears especially of great Ones who though they many times act yet seldome hear of their dishonourable actions and are as unpleasant to us as we make no doubt it was to the Princely Prophet to call the great Ones of Israel Princes of Sodome and Rulers of Gomorrah Such reproaches cannot so much grate mens ears as such carriages grieve and vex and free as the Scripture phrases are the good Spirit of