good his satisfaction to whom we swear and for the ending and not the beginning of strife els we prostitute Gods name eyther to our own or other mens lusts Common and light swearing argues such a degree of irreverence of Gods Majestie as we may truly boldly say that the heart of a common and customary swearer is voyd of all grace and true fear of God And in weighing with my self with admiration and horrour the customarie swearing amongst so many considering that there is nothing in it as in other sins eyther profitable or pleasant or of credit in the world or that brings eyther reasonable or sensuall good I have made account that besides imitation of one another and custom which makes it half naturall to some and a conscience guiltie of want of credit in others which moves many to swear that they may be beleeved and want of wit in not a few who strive by accessory oaths to supply their defect of matter or other inabilitie of speach there is in this swearing veyn a deeper mysterie of mischeif then ordinary and that indeed men take it up specially in the divels intention who sets them a work and not a litle in their own in direct opposition of God and because he in his law hath so severely prohibited it If God had not in his word so expresly and severely forbidden it as he hath done certeynly there would not be the least part of it used that is Gracelesse men seem therein to affect a professed contempt of God and withall an opinion from men that they fear nothing neyther God nor divell as they say But God will make them feel that fear not the guilt of taking his glorious name in vayn which all creatures ought to honour and reverence This sin being directly against Gods majestie he reservs by his providence the punishment of it ordinarily to himself spiritually by hardnes of heart and impenitencie in this life usually to the end thereof and both bodily and ghostly by hell-fire for ever Where it is also like that the divels and damned men do and will swear and curse in their utter rejection from God and intollerable torment and so make their sin and course of blaspheaming as endlesse as their punishment for it CHAP. L. Of Zeal ZEal is by some well defyned the heat and intention of all affections and not eyther any one simple affection or composition of divers I add of the understanding also So men meditate zealously and love zealously and hate zealously and rejoyce zealously and mourn zealously and with great intention of heart The like is to be sayd of all the rest of the affections As nothing lives without naturall heat so neyther lives he the life of Christ indeed who is destitute of christian zeal to warm him in his affections and actions specially in matter of Gods worship and service in which whether wrong or right luke-warmnes is odious and loathsom The Lord will spue out of his mouth the luke-warm whether wyne or water Worldly wise-men despise zeal as prejudiciall to wisdom discretion So Festus judged Paul mad Michall accounted David as one of the fools for the singular zeal of God which they manifested But even this foolishnes of God is wiser then men Yet is it certeyn that men of great knowledg and judgment do seldom make that manifestation of Zeal which weaker persons do The former have their spirits most in their brayns and are exercised specially in the disquisition and discerning of truth from falshood and of good from evill The latter have them most in their hearts and accordingly give themselvs to the affectionate pursuit of that which they conceav to be true and good and alike to the avoyding and impugning of the contrarie Some deceav others by the pretence of zeal which they put on for their advantage as stage-players do vizours till their part be played And thus Ismaell deceaved the fortie men of Samaria with his crocodiles tears Also there are not a few who deceav both others and themselvs by seeming to both eyther to have the Zeal of God which they wholly want or much more then they have And of this number was Iehu how loud soever he cryed to Ionadab Behold the zeal which I have for the house of the Lord whereas in truth that which most set him awork was zeal for his own house though it may be he thought not so Besides craftines in this Iehues zeal there are two other properties the one suspitious where it is found and the other odious The former is a furious march against evill without an answerable pursuit of and affection unto the contrarie good Many are vehemently carryed against Antichristian devises in truth or so appearing unto them in whom yet appears litle love and affection to that which is of Christ in their own judgment Such are rayther carried by their own flesh then led by the spirit of God The other is crueltie To be aright and truely zealous cannot but be good seeing so many and those wise men desire at times to seem so though they be not True zeal must be for God and from God and according to God and having God both for beginning and end and rule of direction it cannot but it self be good and godly It must be for the Lord and for the furtherance of his glorie in the obedience of his will and in mans salvation and not for our own or other mens by-purposes And if it so fall out that by one and the same thing Gods cause and our own profit credit or other worldly advantage be promoted we had need keep a jealous eye over our selvs that we serv not our turn on God by making his ends as it were a bridg to our own as Iehu did Secondly as the fire of the altar came from heaven so must our coal of zeal be fetched thence as being the work of Gods spirit in our hearts in the use of prayer meditation upon the word of God read and heard the examples of others godly as it were ryding in the fierie chariot of Elyas and the like holy means by which this divine fire is kindled and nourished in mens breasts Thirdly it must be according to God both for the qualitie of the matter and quantity of the intention of affection For the former It is good alwayes even then and then onely to be zealous in a good matter and that neyther lightly presumed nor partially conceipted so to be but certeynly known els we burn not sweet incense with holy fire but dirt and doung in stead thereof Our zeal also must be apportioned to the object and that not onely considered in it self but also in the circumstances attending upon it in regard whereof things not alwayes the most good or evill in themselvs may justly deserv at our hands a great bent eyther of love to them or hatred against them And amongst other circumstances we must be carefull
as melancholick monks do So for others the lesser helps and provocations of grace they can have from them with whom they are occasioned to converse they are to be the more frequent with God in the personall exercises of pietie but so as they take heed that they wrong not father and mother by their Corban nor make a speciall calling of the common works of all christians Others are grown more out of kinde who take greater delight in the following and fellowship of horses and hauks and dogs then in mens companie Such have drunk deep of the cup of Circes by which she is said to have transformed men into beasts That which was Nabuchad-nezzars punishment they make their cheif pleasure As God hath established fellowships and communities of men to procure their mutuall good and to fence them the better on everie side against evill so sin and wickednes being the greatest and onely absolute evill christians are most bound by vertue of their association to help and assist within the bounds of the callings in which God hath set them their brethren and associates against it according to that of the Phylosopher He that bears with the vices of his freind makes them his own Hence all Israel was punished and is sayd to have sinned for not preventing or reforming one Achans transgression The sin of another how near soever unto me cannot defile me because he doth it for then that which neyther goes into a man nor comes out of him might defile him but when eyther I doe something for the furthering of it which I should not do or neglect something which I should perform in my place for the preventing or reforming of it by these means I become accessorie eyther before or after the fact and not otherwise Although it be to be desyred and that unto which we are bound as humanitie our speciall places and occasion will permit that we converse onely with such as eyther may make us better which is wisdom or which we are like to make better which is charity yet will a good and wise man make good use of all companies Amongst the good he will learn to love goodnes the more amongst the evill and most amongst the worst the more to hate evill But yet notwithstanding there is a difference In evill company we see what to avoid which is good but in good what to follow which is better Besides there is danger if of no worse thing lest the edg of our zeal against evill should be taken of if we be occasioned continually to be grateing against it The spirit of grace and goodnes had need to be strong in him that is not tyred with continuall struglings and stryvings with the mallice of others He that at the first with righteous Lot vexeth his righteous soul dayly with the wicked deeds of them with whom he liveth yet will in time be in danger to be vexed dayly lesse and lesse with them as things growing by custom more familiar to him Also there is a second danger lest living amongst fools or wicked persons we cōtent our selvs with the litle model of goodnes or wisdom which we have because we are some body in comparison of them as he that hath but half an eye is a king amongst them that are blinde whereas amongst the wise and good we have still matter of imitation and provocation to aspire unto greater perfection in goodnes I conclude with that of the father If men good and bad be joyned together in speciall bond of societie they eyther quickly part or usually become alike Friendship eyther takes or makes men alike Much acquayntance shews eyther great imployment in the world which puts men necessarily upon the acquayntance of many or great ability and endowments which draw the acquaintance of many to a man for their benefit or an ambitious heart which seeks to be known and acknowledged by many or an idle head that hath litle els to do but to occupy it self in seeking or getting freinds As many who if they walked alone would by reason of their richer apparrell be thought men of better estate then they are and others meaner then they are by reason of their russet coats who yet both are discerned of what condition and rank they be by their companions and consorts so the vertuous or vitious dispositions of men are much discovered by the company which they affect and with which they sort with most gladnes and content For like will to like whether good or evill There is a difference between love goodwill and freindship We may love other things besides men bear good-will to the persons that know us not but we have freindship onely with men and that with mutuall consent arising from mutuall love and goodwill for our mutual good Now though divers other contracts be more streyt in severall relations yet is there in this of freindship a kinde of inwardnes arising from conformitie of judgment and affections the conjunction of the minde being the nearest kindred by which persons are more streitly tyed together then any other way There is a freind sayth Salomon that sticketh closer then a brother And Moses passing from brother to child and from childe to wife placeth her as near as the mans bosom but a freind nearer as reckning him as his own soul. Such a freind Ionathan was whose love to David passed the love of women Him whom we are to take so near unto us so constantly to keep and so freely to communicate withall we must not lightly make choyse of nor as the manner of many is by meeting together at a feast or playing a game at bowls or tables or lodging in one Inn but eyther after long experience and having as the proverb is eaten a bushell of salt together or upon some singular and extraordinary motive or tryall And as Christ committed not himself to the Iews because he knew their hearts so neyther are we easily to commit our selvs to men because we know not their hearts We are wisely to judg before but freely to credit after the knot of freindship tyed yet so as we try the wisdō secrecy faithfulnes of our freinds in smaller matters before we trust them in greater as men use to try whether their vessels will hould water or no before they put wyne into them And albeit that christian love which is the bond of perfection and first fruits of the spirit be due to all christians from all yet are not all fit freinds for all of that fellowship David notwithstanding the many worthyes in his kingdom had specially Husha◠the kings freind and so had our Lord whilst he lived upon earth specially Iohn among all the twelv the disciple whom he loved This speciall affection to one above the rest in Christ was holy yet humayn Many complayn of the perfidiousnes of freinds how vilely they have been used by them
will and making small or none account that either the rules of the Word appertain unto them for direction or the precepts for obedience or the threatnings for restraint yet do lay their sacrilegious hands boldly upon the promises as their true and undoubted right And the reason is because the promises contain in them things good and pleasing to mans nature which because we would gladly have true we readily beleeve and apply But such seperate what God hath joined together and in effect take away from the Words of the Book of God and God will take away their part out of the Book of Life Others again trans-form commandments into promises with great and dangerous errour For example where it is said The Priests lips should preserv knowledg the Romish Priests chaleng an immunity from erring whence they should take warning that they er not So from Christs teaching that a city set upon an hill cannot be hid they will wring a promise of perpetuall visibility of Church and Ministery from him where he intends onely an exhortation to his Disciples after to become Apostls unto answerablenesse both in life and doctrine to the eminencie of their places Some again make conditionall promises absolute as that Whose sins ye binde upon earth they are bound in Heaven forgetting that it must be the Church gathered together in Christs name that is both furnished with lawfull authoritie useing it lawfully Likewise that Christ will preserv the Ministery and Ministers and be with them to the end of the World leaving out the condition going before which is that they do their duty in their places in makeing Discipls and baptizeing them and teaching them to observ whatsoever he had commanded them Lastly How many because God promiseth forgivenesse to sinners whensoever they repent promise unto themselvs repentance upon an howers warning before their death though they go on in sin all their life long But the saying of the Ancient is memorable in this case He that promiseth forgivenesse to him that repents doth not promise repentance to him that sins But on the contrarie as he that makes a bridg of his own shadow cannot but fall in the Water so neither can he escape the Pit of Hell who layes his own presumption this way in the place of Gods promise CAP. IIII. Of the works of God and his power wisdom will goodnesse c. shining in them IT is a receaved truth in Divinity that whatsoever is in God is God So the will of God considered as the foundation of that which he wills and as inherent in him is nothing els but God willing his justice nothing els but God just his mercy but God mercifull and so for the rest of the Divine Attributes And as everie work of God is founded in some of those Attributes and that by name in his understanding as judging the thing to be good in his holy will agreeing thereunto and in his power effecting all things So this foundation and first cause of them all being immanent and inherent in God is God essentially of what nature soever alwaies good the work be without him which his will and power effecteth Neither is this will of God to work by his power wrought in him by any thing without himself for then he should receav addition of perfection from the creature moveing him thereunto though yet it be most certain that there are many things which God neither in his wisdom judgeth fit to be done by him nor wills the doing of them nor would work or do them by his power but upon the creatures work going before For example God wills and works the condemnation of some sinners because he judgeth fit willeth and will work therein the manifestation of the glorie of his justice but this condemnation which otherwise he would not lay upon any he both wills and works by and for the Creatures sin according to his eternall and unchangeable purpose of will in himself When the Scriptures speak and we according unto them of any thing done by God in respect of the Creature before the World was made it must be understood as meant onely of his foreknowledg and decree of will and purpose of doing For things could be done no otherwise then they could be nor could be otherwise then in God who alone was nor could be in God otherwise then in his foreknowledg and will according to which he works them actually in time by his power These three Attributes as before I intimated his power will and wisdom do concur to the produceing of all and everie one of his works His power worketh and effecteth all things his will sets his power a working his wisdom directs both the one other his will in willing and his power in working Touching his power The right hand of the Lord which in men is the instrument of strength is exalted and by it he can do what he will and much more then he will And whereas God cannot ly or denie himself or the like it is immediately because he will not and that not of impotencie in him but of potencie and perfection of excellencie as on the contrarie it is the power of mans weaknesse that he can do amisse So for things importing contradiction as that the same thing should be and not be at once or not be that which it is or the like it is Religiously said by some rather that such things cannot be done by God then that God cannot do them seeing the reason of this impossibilitie of their so being is not in Gods Nature but in theirs The will of God is one as God is one But as there is one Spirit but diversitie of manifestations so this one internall will of God doth exercise and extend it self diversly to and upon divers objects This extention and exercise of this one will of God is of us to be considered in divers degrees The weakest and most remisse degree is to will the suffering of evill For though God to speake properly wills not sin yet he willingly suffers it not as ignorant of it nor as neglecting it nor as unable to prevent it but as willingly wittingly and of purpose suffering that evill to be done which he could easily hinder if he would oppose his omnipotent power The next degree of Gods willing stands in commanding good and approveing of it where it is found And thus God wills and commands that all men should repent thus he wills that all should come to the knowledg of the truth and be saved and thus lastly he would haue the wicked turn from his wickednesse and live and not dy And these things and the like he seriously wills to wit by way of commanding requireing them and of approveing them wheresoever they are found The highest and most intent degree of willing in God is when he so wills a thing as withall he imploys his omnipotent power for the effecting of it and
hand of his providence bend their hearts by mutuall affection unto thee at least so far as is good for thee and wherein they are inflexible and defective he will make supply out of the aboundance of his love and goodnesse that so it may be verified which is written With the same measure that ye meet with all it shall be measured to you again To conclude this point Let the grace of God herein specially triumph over our corruption that whereas by nature we would be loved of them whom we hate by grace we may love them Which hate us And this is a great work of grace in deed and yet most necessarie for all Christs Disciples We must not be like the Pharisees who in stead of enlarging their own affections streightned the Law of loving their neighbours unto such as loved them or dwelt within a certain compasse of them but we must account all our neighbours that need pittie or help from us and our Christian neighbours and brethren also if the Lord have receaved them though they be neither minded in all things as we are nor towards us as we are towards them Lastly as Faith is to rule Love that it prove not lust and Hope that it prove not presumption so also must it Reason and Sense in all their operations which it no way abolisheth but orders and sanctifies And as in Nature the denomination is from the predominant qualitie so is it in our course of life To live by Reason is to live the life of a man To live by Sense is to live the life of a beast But to live by Faith is to live the life of the Son of God and to be in its effects partaker of the Divine nature and that not onely in the reasonable but in the sensitive faculties also For these three Faith Reason and Sense being all Gods works in a man cannot be contrarie in their right use one to another neither can any thing be true in one which is false in another neither doth or can any one of them destroy another but use order and perfit it Reason Sense and Faith both Sense and Reason For Faith comes by hearing at the first and is nourished and encreased both by hearing and seeing and by the benefit of all other Senses afterwards Neither can it possibly either be begot or nourished or encreased but by the discourse of Reason ordered and sanctified by the Spirit of God Which Spirits work is so effectuall as it makes even the meanest powers of nature created in a man to serv effectually for the furthering of the highest works of supernaturall grace Sweet is the harmonie of all the powers and parts both of the Soul and bodie of a sanctified person Reason is that wherein man goes before all other earthly creatures and comes after God onely and the Angels in Heaven For whereas God and Nature hath furnished other Creatures some with horns some with hoovs others with other Instruments and weapons both defensive and offensive man is left naked and destitute of all those but may comfort himself in that one endowment of Reason and providence whereby he is enabled to govern them all Now who would not strive to excell other men in that wherein men excell all other Creatures How much more in that to which few men attain true faith and the life thereof CAP. XI Of Atheism and Idolatry SOme are Atheists in opinion others in affection but many more in conversation of life There are but few of the first coat and which can so wholy blot out the remainders of Gods Image written by Creation in their hearts as to leav them altogether emptie and devoyd of the knowledg conscience and reverence of a Divine Majestie and which come to conclude roundly in their hearts that there is no God Yet some without doubt in time and by degrees proceed from Atheism in conversation to Atheism in affection and from Atheism in affection to Atheism in opinion and judgment Men civilly honest seldom or never become Atheists in perswasion but lewd and flagitious persons do who being pursued by the furie of an accusing conscience for hainous evils wish and no marvail that there were no Iudg in Heaven to condemn them and so come at last to be perswaded in themselvs of that which they gladly would have true and are justly left of God to such horrible delusion that so sinning without fear they may perish without remedie And this is the reason why there are more Atheists in opinion in our dayes then of old even because so many are more bent upon mischief and liveing wickedly in this world bear themselvs in hand and so get to beleev that there is no justice in the world to come Another reason is the proportion of wit to which our Age is come above the former In regard hereof it is that Atheism though dissembled and concealed by the same ungracious wit which begets it is a thousand times more to be feared in the Land then Papism Men have too much wit to become Papists in any generallitie and just enough to fit them for Atheists if Gods powerfull hand restrain them not The verie simple dare not become Atheists but are more in danger to prove superstitious and to beleev everie thing the verie understanding hardly can but have by sound reason and sad thoughts will they nill they some acknowledgment of a Divine Majestie forced upon them But persons of froathy wit and vicious life are fitly tempered for the impression of Atheism for the Divel Atheism is incomparably worse and more odious then Idolatry as it is more intollerable in a State or Kingdom to enterprize the overthrow of all Kingly Power and Soveraigntie then to detract how much soever from the lawfull Kings or Magistrates due honour and to give it to a Stranger Besides whereas Idolaters and superstitious persons having in them some reverence of a Divine Power are thereby both restrained from many mischiefs and provoked to many good actions the Atheist wanting both this Divine restraint and motive both runs riot in wickednesse and villanie and is barren of all good things neither doing good nor forbearing evill further then for meer fear or shame of men Atheists use to be verie confident in their assertions as the Orator observs in Vellejus partly lest they should seem unto others to doubt or fear that there is a God who will punish heir impieties and partly to encourage themselvs in their wickednesse as fearing lest they should be drawn into some conscience and aw of Gods Majestie It is oft true in this case amongst others that the most cowards are the greatest boasters Idolatry either makes that to be God which is not or God to be that which he is not It is exercised either in intending Divine worship so known to be to that which is not God or in intending a devised worship to the true God
is or can be false in Divinitie The truth in the inferiour facultie is subordinate to that in the superiour in all things and comes short of it in many things but can in nothing be contrarie unto it seeing God and his Spirits work cannot be contrarie to himself I ad though the truth be uttered by the Divel himself yet is it originally of God When he speaks a ly he speaks of himself but when he speaks the truth he speaks of God who so far useth or rather abuseth him as to utter and professe that which he hateth We ought to reverence excellent men but the truth more as Dionisius said of Nepos and Aristotle of Plato and Socrates And good reason seeing a main cause of our reverencing of men is their knowledg and profession of the truth No prescription say the Lawyers lies against the King say we with the Father against the truth which by the Verdict of a great King himself and his Nobles with him is greater then the King no space of time no patronage of person no priviledg of place from which blind or simple custom commonly getting footing and growing into use by succession is brought to coap with truth it self and that the most violently where the persons are the most bruitish and godlesse But our Lord Christ called himself Truth not Custom neither is Falshood Errour or Heresie convinced by Noveltie but by Truth This Truth is alwayes the same whilst The God of Truth is in Heaven what entertainment soever it finde with men upon Earth It is alwayes praise-worthy though no man praise it and hath no reason or just cause to be ashamed though it oft go with a scratcht face They that fight against it are like the Floods beating upon the strong Rocks which are so much the more miserably dashed in pieces by how much they are the more violently carried Though Fire and Sword assault it yet will it not be killed or dy and though by violence it be buried quick yet will it rise again and if not before yet when all Flesh shall rise again and when Truth which was first and before Falshood and Errour shall be last and abide for ever We must love and attain to the knowledg of the Truth in our selvs First Lest we be Clouds without rain promising that to others which we our selvs want and must in our places afterwards make manifestation and profession of it and not be like the grave insatiable in receaving in and barren in returning any thing back but must be alwayes readie as we see hope of doing good to propagate it like the Phylosopher who being found fault with for disputing with all that he met with wished that the bruit beasts also could understand him that he might impart something even to them yea in our kind like God himself that gives wisdom to all that asks it of him and to Christ the Lord that Word of God and true Light which inlightens everie one that comes into the World and sometimes even when we see no hope of doing good if dutie bind us though hope fail us that so the non-proficients may have cause rather to complain of themselvs for not learning then of us for not manifesting the truth unto them And albeit all truth is not to be spoken at all times A fool uttereth all his mind but a wise man keeps it in for afterwards yet nothing not true at any time or for any cause He that hath but a right Philosophicall spirit and is but morally honest would rather suffer many deaths then call a Pin a Point or speak the least thing against his understanding or perswasion A man in pleading for the Truth may shew his judgment and understanding best in the matter but his grace and godlinesse in the manner when he handles a good cause well and the Lords cause after the Lords manner Sometimes men pretend Gods Truth and zeal for it when indeed they make their pleas for Truth serv onely for hackneys for their lusts to ride on whither they would have them Sometimes men seriously intend Truth and yet mingle both with their good intention and it may be true assertion also such their personall corruptions and distempers as Christ looseth more by their inordinatenesse that way then he gaines both by their sound knowledg and fervent zeal of and for his Truth The most account a ly more shamefull then sinfull and therefore make it a matter of great disgrace to take the ly specially in the hearing of others and yet make it no matter of conscience to make the ly before God and his Angels Ah foollish People thus to honour your selvs and other vile men your likes more then God himself and the Angels with him and with all base in your Pryde who will rather bear the ly at your own mouth then at an others When a man speakes against his knowledg his own heart tels his tongue it lyeth which to put up quietly argues both a gracelesse and an abject spirit Whereas both grace and true courage also may be shewen in bearing the ly at an others mouth by overcoming such indignation and anger ryseing thereat as is harder to conquer then a Citty The Divell is the father of lyes which whilst they in the womb of whose heart he begets them impute to other and better causes mooveing them thereunto they are but like harlots who for theyr credits sake father theyr bastards upon honest men Many things even good may occasion lying as all good may do all evill but no thing can bring it forth and cause it save the womb of our own corrupt heart imprignated by the divell Now if both by the Law of God and light of nature it be an abhominable confusion for a woman to lie down before a beast what is it for man or woman to prostitute themselvs to Sathan for the gendring of so mis-shapen a monster as a ly is And very rightly is a ly called monstrous considering both the divels kindes of which it comes and also the disproportion in it often between the speach and the thing spoken and alwayes between the tongue and heart of the speaker Neyther doth the goodnes of the meaning though never so good excuse the evill of the doing when as a ly is told He that tels a ly for God is an accepter of persons and God wil surely reprove him saith Iob. And no marvayl Since his own heart condemnes him God which is greater then his heart and knoweth all things will condemn him much more And if a ly told that through it the truth of God may more abound to his glory procure just condemnation what may they expect that use to ly for meaner though good ends He that tels a ly for a good end puts the Divell into Gods service which neyther his truth needs nor his holynes will endure but he that tels a ly for an evill
as his Lord though he were owner of little or nothing considering how he had the use of his gardens and galleryes to walk in heard his musick with as many ears as he did hunted with him in his parkes and ate and drank of the same that he did though a litle after him and so for the most other delights which his Lord enjoyed And in truth what great difference is there save in the proud and covetous minde of a man whether he himself or another be owner of the good things whereof he with him hath the lawfull use and benefit Distinction must be put between the things themselvs and their casuall and personall abuses otherwise the natures of the things can neither be rightly conceaved of nor expressed Neyther doth the abuse of good things so take away or make forfeyture of the use as that the counsayl of Lycurgus is to be followed who would have the vines cut down because men were sometimes druncken with the grapes Yet may the abuse of a thing be so common and notorious and the use so small or needlesse as better want the small use then be in continuall danger of the great abuse of it The best things abused become the worst both naturally and morally by reason of a greater force in them then in other things which we must not therefore superstitiously disavow or cease to account the best as they are but we must thereby be warned to use them the more warily that we may enjoy their full goodnes and not prejudice them by abuse Otherwise we shall be lyable to the curse of a greater then A istippus who wished a plague upon those wantons who by their abuseing it had defamed a sweet oyntment wherein he took delight All evil stands in the abuse of good And good things are abused commonly eyther when they are unmeasurably used as it is said of wyne that the first cupp quenches thirst the second procures chearfulnes the third drunkennes and the fourth madnes or by applying them unaptly or to wrong ends or persons as when one offers light to the blynde or speech to him that is deaf or wisdom to a brutish man or as when cowards fight with their tongues and swash-bucklers dispute with their swords or in regard of their supernaturall use when we referre not all to the glory of God and our own and others eternall good and welfare which are the utmost ends of all things CAP. XXIX Of Riches and Poverty IT is the first degree of riches to have what is necessarie the next to have what is enough And indeed he is a rich man who wants no outward means wherewith to mainteyne himself and his plentifully in that state of life in which God hath set him whether high or low and he poore on the contrary to whom that proportion is wanting And hence it comes to passe that there are poore kings and rich coblers poore landlords and rich tenants as there are warm dayes in winter and cold in summer respecting the season of the yeare Besides if a person have the possession and not the use of riches and be sick of that disease which Salomon saw and experience of all ages confirms to be common among men namely of a man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desyreth and yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof I would not call him but rayther his chests and storchouses rich seeing he as well wants that which he hath in regard of its use and end as that which he hath not A freind of myne in the university was wont to tell me merily and wittily that surely there was something in this mony more and better then he and I saw seeing such a great wise and learned man whom he would name loved it so well and such another as wise and learned as he as well as he and so a third and a fourth He knew well ynough it was not any good in it which we saw not but lust and filthy coveteousnes in them whose learning and wisdom should have taught them to despise and haâ—e such basemyndednes And in truth if in any other thing basenes of mynde is seen in the love of mony and so they are justly contemned in the eyes of others that are enamoured of it Some do make theyr belly theyr God and those are men of an abject spirit others their riches for covetousnes is idolatry and that in a special work of devotion by trusting to them which no man doth to his belly yet is the covetous of the two the more vile and servs the baser God for the life belly for which food is are better then food and yet food for the belly is the best part of riches and that of which alone Adam in innocency stood need If men were not above measure infatuated with sensuallitie they who know inward good things would not affect outward inordinately That fools and idiots that know no better things should love mony is not strange For oxen love grasse and swyne draffe and every creature naturally the best thing which it knows But that wise and learned men and they who know the good things of the minde specially the good things of God in his word should so doat upon it is most vile and monstrous Some love mony for it self and for the bare possession of it and because they delight to tell their pence but that is the case of few of learning or wisdom But as mouls by digging in the earth rayse up hils so do they hope to clyme up by this basenes as being set a work this way by ambition for the most part which too often breeds in the breasts of men rarely endowed as the cancker doth in sweet flowers For such men esteeming themselvs worthy of account in the world for their excellency and perceaving riches the readyest way to procure it or make way for it they lay hold thereof with both hands and being seduced with the love of mony for that end do for the getting and keeping of it peirce themselvs through with many sorrows The blessing of the Lord maketh rich If wealth come by inheritance it is Gods blessing that a man is borne of rich friends and not of beggars If by mens free gift it is his blessing that hath made them able and willing to do us good If goods be gotten by industry providence and skill it is Gods blessing that both gives the faculty and the use of it and the successe unto it And as riches are in themselvs Gods blessings so are we to desire them of him and to use lawfull diligence to get them for the comfortable course of our naturall and civill state For though we are to be able to bear poverty if God send it yet should we rayther desire riches as a man though he can go
between Ioseph and his brethren David and King Saul and many mo verifying that of the wise man Everie perfection of work is the envy of a man from his neighbour By means whereof it also hurts its owner many tymes by a kinde of unnaturall rebound as it were from the envious and that so violent as none but God in heaven can stand against it Not Adam in paradise agaynst the divels envy nor David against Sauls nor Christ against the Pharisees And in this regard a mediocritie in any good is the more thankfully to be accepted from God considering unto what danger this way all eminencie exposeth a man The highest trees are soonest and soarest shaken with tempests The best remedy for preventing envy by others is to carry a low Sayl in the most prosperous gayl that can blow and to ascribe the good a man hath rayther to any other cause then to himself or his own wit industry or worth any way Therein he least disparageth others that want it and so frees himself best from their envy at him CHAP. XLI Of Slaunder HE is a Slaunderer who wrongs his neighbours credit eyther by unjust raysing or upholding an evill report against him Of which two viz. the raysing or receaving a false report seeing that if there were no receavers there would be no theevs one of good skill in discerning doubteth whether is more damnable We must then get amongst others this mark of him that shall sojourn in the Lords tabernacle and dwell in his holy mountayn that we neyther rayse nor take or hold up a reproach against our neighbour Though the North winde be not alwayes to be wished because it driveth away rain yet is an angry countenance to drive away a backbyting tongue As a man may be wounded in his body with the sword taken out of his own handâ— so may he in his credit by the injurious relation of the very thing which his hand hath done or tongue spoken And the same also sometimes being good in it self and eyther wrested to some other sense then he intended as were the words of Christ by false witnesses or craftily made an opportunitie whereupon to build some false but colourable insinuation of evill as was Davids being at Nob with the High priest by Doeg Sometimes also being evill as when men without just and necessarie occasion blaze abroad the faults of others eyther in idlenes for want of other talk or of hatred by way of revenge or in flatterie to please other men or in envy as grudging at their good name And it may wel be thought that persons oftner calumniate others of love to themselvs then of hatred to them thinking therein to build their own credit upon the ruines of other mens which is as if one to make his own garment seem the fayrer should cast mire upon his neighbours Some slaunders are such as confute themselvs in the eyes of all reasonable men as eyther being so great or so senselesse as are incredible or when the known qualitie of the person accused fastens a slaunder upon the accusation as did Platoes with Diogenes when he heard one accuse him of evill Some also there are which turn to the advantage of the slaundereds credit afterwards namely such as a litle time will plainly manifest to have been false and feyned For then they who before have wronged them through credulitie will hold themselvs their debters for amends afterwards which also it may come to passe they may make them by not beleeving some ill though just report of them in after time Slaunderers of any others may rightlyest be called divelish seeing the divell hath his name of Slaundering He sometimes slaunders God to men as to Eve of envie in the beginning sometimes men to God as Iob of hypocrisie and continually man to man by his venemous instruments thus anotamized in their parts by the Apostle Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongue they have used deceipt the poyson of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitternes And truely it may be he should not much misse the mark that affirmed slaunders and false reports to have raysed as great and many quarrels amongst equals conspiracies from inferiours and from superiours violent oppressions as all injuries in truth offered or other provocations whatsoever Men commonly with one stroak wound or kill but one whereas a slaunderous blow reacheth to many He wounds himself with his own slaunderous tongue his mouth making his flesh to sin He wounds him in the ear to whom he slaundereth specially if credulous as the most are in receaving false reports And as for him whom he slaundereth he wounds him in his good name though him onely by suffering evill the former two as workers of it and withall oftens makes way by so doing for further wrong to be offered him eyther by himself or others Thus Maximinus the tyrant set awork certain vile persons to accuse the Christians of heynous evils that so he might persequute them with more shew of reason like as men when they would have their dogs killed give out that they are mad David never complayns of the sharpnes of the swords of the Philistims or other enemyes but of the sharp swords of the tongue of slaunderers he oft and piteously complains in the book of the Psalms as peirceing deeper then the former And yet for fence against those sharp swords God hath put into the hands of his innocent servants two bucklars the one inward viz. a conscience upon due knowledg and examination excusing before God and this is of proof The other such a conversation before men as may ward our credit and good name from being wounded in the eyes of such as know us and are equally mynded and such as are not apt eyther greedily to devour or lightly to admit slaunders and vituperies raysed against us Yet if the divell could by the serpents slaunders impeach the credit of God himself with our first parents in their state of innocencie no marvayl if his serpentlike instruments can prevayl with sinfull men women this way even against Gods faithfull servants We must therefore prevent slaunders what we can bear what we cannot avoyd and alwayes be mindefull by earnest prayer as well to commend our good name to God that he may take charge of it as our persons and estates Better never accused then quit though after the clearest and most honourable manner that may be seeing after a bold slaunder something ever will stick behinde by which the ignorant of the truth will be abused and adversaries take advantage to upbrayd But how great soever matter of greif or shame unjust slaunder causeth yet he that is reproached for well doing hath the spirit of glory resting upon him and being innocent may say that the evill is not against him but against another whom the slaunderer takes him
not so much as our affections do encline but that on the contrarie we wholly abhor from it in the very first rising we may gather it to be rayther by suggestion from Sathan then of our own concupiscence And as it is not in our power to avoyd the outward presentations of evill by wicked men to our eye or ear but we are compelled oftens to see and hear their unlawfull works and words as did Lot the Sodomites so neyther seemeth it to be in our power to avoyd the bare thoughts of evill which are not alwayes evill thoughts by Sathans Suggestions but that he being a spirit and spirituall wickednes can present them to our spirits more effectually then can any man object and offer outward and corporeall provocations to our outward and bodily senses As Christ our Lord after the glorious testimonie given of him by his Father from heaven and by the Holy Ghost sitting upon him in the form of a dove and by Ihon the baptist both in word and deed was immediately led into the wildernes by the spirit to be tempted of the divell so must christians make account after the speciall testimonies of Gods love receaved of some singular combat of temptation for their tryall wherein if they overcome the love of God is thereby as it were sealed up unto their hearts Holy men therefore prospering in vertue must exult and count it all joy when they fall into divers temptations and are exercised in them by the divine providence for the tryall of their fayth and therewith of Gods gratious power which is perfited in their weaknes this way There are none of Gods servants but in the case of temptation have reaped the fruit of his singular providence towards them sometimes in preventing such temptations as if they had come upon them in their full strength would have been most like if not clean to have overthrown them yet to have caused their greivous fall by which they have through Gods providence sitting at the stern glyded as a ship by the side of a rock sometimes in guyding them even in the verie midst of temptations compassing them about like so many sands and sometimes by helping and haleing them off even when they have stuck fast and been ready to sinck in them Many have been the bodily dangers known and not known which by Gods good providence we have escaped but how many more those that are spirituall in which we had been utterly swallowed up a thousand times if his gratious hand from heaven had not releived us Now besides those common to all everie person hath his speciall temptations arising eyther from his temper of body or sex or age or education or custome or state or calling or company or other occasion against which he must watch most carefully as men use to watch in the gates of a câ—ity beseiged and in such other places as in which the enemy is likest to make his assault in which if we quit our selvs as men and stand fast we shall have our part in his comforts who sayd I was upright with him and I kept my self from mine iniquitie Some have thought it a wise Christian course in the confession of our secret sius resydeing in the heart unto God not to use the outward voyce for fear of acquainting Sathan with them thereby and so of advantageing him to tempt us by applying himself to that wherein he seeth us likest to sin As it is certain that he knows not our hearts at all as God doth by immediate insight but gathers them by the motions and manifestations of the body so considering that he himself is the originall of all evill mediately or immediately it is like he is for the most part acquainted with his own work in men And so it is good wisdom in us to prefer the best manner of acknowledging our sins to God for the advantaging of our repentance before the fear of discovering our corruption to the divell Christ our Lord teaching us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evill one would warn us not to lead our selvs into temptations nor to deliver our souls into Sathans hands which yet we do by affecting familiaritie with wicked men which are as it were his brokers by omitting duties of religion publiquely or privately or doing them unfruitfully by neglecting our speciall callings and doing nothing and thereby giveing him opportunitie to tempt us to do evill and lastly by opening too wide the windows of our outward senses towards allureing objects By these means we not onely tempt God to leav us but the divell after a sort to tempt us We have a promise that if we resist him he will fly from us but that is when he assalts us and not when we challenge him as it were with his own weapons wherewith he hath foyled so many He that thus puts himself within the reach of his paws shall hardly scape being torn in peices by him Let us commit our selvs unto Gods safe keep-in all our wayes but not come in Sathans way lest we advantage his mallice and put our selvs out of Gods protection As the saylers skill is seen in carrying his ship through a storm so is the strength of fayth in vanquishing dangerous temptations Yet must we not measure the state of a man too much by that which befals him in some or other such dangerous tryall There are few so evill but have at times their temptations that I may so speak to some particular good by which they are caryed lesse or more that way and few or none so good but on the contrarie have temptations to evill in which at times something humayn befals them Now to judg of mens persons according to some such few particulars contrary to their generall course were partiallitie The wicked fall not into evill but lye groveling in evill The godly fall sometimes by occasion but God is faythfull who with the temptation maketh a way for his to escape by their renuall of repentance and victorie of fayth And though in those their wrestlings they get a wrench and limp afterwards as Iacob did yet they have power and prevayl and go on as he did in their way CAP. XLVII Of Conscience EVerie mans conscience is as it were a second God within him both to judg of his actions within and without him and also of his person and personall state and whether in it he be accepted of God or not And surely a great good work of God it is that he hath created and set such an overseer as this conscience is in the soul of man by which if he doe any thing amisse he is checked in secret that so by repentance he may finde mercy at Gods hands And how good is it sayth one that this worm should be felt whilst it may be killed and gnaw for a time that it may be
so far to have respect to that of persons as to hate evill most in them whose persons we most love and so in our wives children and friends more then in strangers and in our selvs most of all And he that hath not learnt to bear things amisse in others which he will not bear in himself hath eyther too much fleshly zeal or too litle spirituall or both which two oftens lodg in one breast by which it comes to passe that many are earnest to pluck the moat out of their brothers eye that perceav not the beam in their own Notwithstanding as it doth not detract eyther from the dignitie or necessitie of naturall heat in our bodyes that there is found in some an agueish and unnaturall heat far greater then the naturall so neyther in truth and just valuation of things doth it derogate from the excellencie and necessitie of the heat of true zeal and life of grace in the godly consisting therein that many are zealous amisse whether knowing and so deceaving others or not knowing and so deceaving themselvs of what spirit they are CAP. LI. Of Hypocrisie HYpocrites have their names from stage-players as rayther playing then working that which is good and vertuous and the same onely upon the stage and to please lookers on And as amongst stage-players the same persons act divers parts at divers times and those very different one from another so is it with the actions of hypocrites They hold no correspondencie one with another but some of them cover and others discover their masters shame as Noahs sons did their fathers And as such persons are never constant for none can long play the counterfeyt untyred so neyther are they free in any one kinde of good but have a goodnes rayther like the water in a dead pit forced out at tymes with buckets then of a living spring which sends out its streams freely and constantly Yea further as Iacob though for his fathers blessing he covered his hands and neck very cunningly was bewrayed by his tongue and voyce so hardly can a counterfeyt carry his matters so close but that oft times even in one and the same work there will be found a jarr of the parts one with another so as eyther the tongue will check the hands or the hands the tongue or both mutually to the shewing and shaming of all When great hypocrites and deep dissemblers are left of God to fall into any grosse or scandalous evill they seldom or never recover their former shew of religion neyther as one sayth will the lambs skin which the wolf wears being once shorn ever grow agayn but God in judgment leaving them in some speciall temptation to grosse wickednes in which they loose their credit in the world which alone they sought and so break the hedg which formerly restreyned them doth punish their former close dissimulation with after open profanenes Young hypocrites commonly prove old Atheists It may well be sayd as it is in the Proverb that Hypocrisie is spun with a fine thread considering how hypocrites deceav and over-reach others and oft times weaker persons those that are wiser then they how much more considering how thereby they deceav themselvs In which latter there is a transgression and evill both in deceaving and being deceaved For albeit a man may often without sin be deceaved by another yet never so by himself seeing the spirit of a man may if it do not alwayes know the things of a man This self deceavablenes ariseth in men eyther from presumption when they think they need not or from slouth that they will not take the payns or from an evill conscience that they dare not trye and examine themselvs and their works and estates with God as they ought Besides hypocrites by false appearances getting credit with others come to esteem themselvs better then they are because others esteem them so This hypocrisie is indeed not onely a base but a foolish evill Base in dissembling the evill which it hath and is ashamed of and in counterfeyting the good which it hath not and is ashamed to seem to want And therefore notably proud people scorning as they use to boast to dissemble seldom come under this coat but do usually appear to men as voyd of grace and goodnes as they are before God Foolish it is if in nothing els yet in covering from men that evill which God seeth and hateth and will punish with infinitely greater both losse and shame and torment then any or all men will or can and not onely the evill dissembled but therewith the dissimulation also which men legally do not Great must the hypocrites portion be in Gods plagues with whom as the principall the apparantly evill as but an accessorie hath his portion appointed It is one thing to doe a work in hypocrisie which onely hypocrites doe and an other thing to do it with hypocrisie which is still ready alasse to mingle it self with the work of Gods grace in all our best actions as Tobyah and the rest of the heathen would have mingled themselvs with the Lords people in the building of his temple The same may be sayd of unbelief indevotion the like corruptions It is no marvayl that Atheist and Epicures judg all that make shew of pietie and godlynes specially above the size custome of the times conceipted fantasticall and very hypocrites seeing they measure others by themselvs And knowing that if they should make the semblance of godlines which the others do it should be no better in them then hypocrisy and fancie they conclude the same roundly upon others from their own premises And of this they are also desirous to perswade both themselvs and others Themselvs for a kinde of envious comfort in evill that others are as ill as they and for their own hardning out of that imagination Others for their miserable credit when they are not thought leaud alone They being themselvs Sadâ—cees would fayn think others have them thought Pharisees by others A tang of this also is to be found even in them who are not voyd of all goodnes towards such as a litle overstep them in the wayes of godlynes Though hypocrisie be in it self a verie odious thing and so evill as it corrupts all good in him in whom it reigns making both his works of devotion and of mercy abhominable to the Lord yet considering how litle true good is in the world it were well for others at least that there were more hypocrisie in many then there is Which would help both to represse in them many grosse enormities for shame and to keep credit with men which now shamelesly they practise and also provoke them to many outward good works for the good of others at the least which now they wholy and boldly neglect in professed godlesnes and dishonesty Besides hypocrisie yeilds though it intend it not a full and loud testimonie to true vertue and godlines seeing
no man ordinarily desires to seem but good Now if it be a thing so desireable even by their testimonie who want goodnes to appear good how much more to be so in deed what is the emptie shadow to the solid body To shut up this Head As the shadow follows the body so doth the name and fame of good true goodnes with equally-mynded men And in stead of a thousand compasses of devise which men fetch about to obteyn the name of good and vertuous this one short and right-on way of being good indeed would serv the turn for the procureing it from all indifferent and wise judges The most compendious way to this honour is that in truth a man be as he would be accounted sayth the Heathen how much more ought Christians who are perswaded of Gods providence in ordering this and all his other blessings upon themselvs and others thus both to say and think and proceed accordingly And look what recompence of honour or other reward this playn and homely uprightnes which of all other vertues Laudatur alget is denyed from men God who seeth and loveth it will plenteously supply Blessed are the perfit in way who walk in the Law of Iehovah To chuse the right way of Gods law first and then to walk uprightly in it is to be guided by Gods own spirit to heaven CHAP. LII Of Sin and punishment from God WHatsoever swarveth from the law of God written in the table of the heart or of stone whether in our nature or actions eyther in the not being of that which should be or being of that which should not be which two are alwayes joyned together in originall sin and oftens in actuall is sin and evill yea the greatest yea the onely evill indeed Sin is worse then the divell as having made him evill whom God made good yea then all punishments yea then hell it self which God prepared and made and is therefore good to punish sin and sinners by And accordingly it was godlily sayd of one that if sin and hell were set before him the one on the one side and the other on the other that he must needs go through the one of them he would rayther enter upon hell then sin But blessed be God who will assuredly keep them from hell whose hearts are so set to keep themselvs from sin by his grace This sin is incident onely to reasonable creatures God the creator being above sin and unreasonable creatures beneath it For the disorders in bruit beasts they are not sin in them to whom there is no law but punishments of mans sin against God who hath subjected them to vanitie thereby to testifie how greatly he is offended at mans for whom at first he made them and all other creatures in a more excellent state The case of children is otherwise as being reasonable creatures made after Gods image in Adam and having the law written in their hearts as a subject capable both of good and evill which bruits are not Although sin be onely in reasonable creatures yet is it a most unreasonable thing otherwise it were not sin save as it crosses true reason eyther by lust against reason or shew of reason against truth So for particular enormities the more unreasonable the more sinfull as lusts against nature adulterie in a maryed person pryde in a mean prodigalitie in a needy covetousnes in him that abounds in riches prophanenes in a preacher and so of all other vices All sins save that first of Adam and mens very last are both sins in themselvs and effects of former sin and causes of latter and that not onely by Gods just though severe judgment in punishing one by another but oft times also by a kinde of naturall and necessarie coherence and affinitie Sometimes one sin brings on an other by provoking unto it as rash anger unto strife sometimes to back it as Peters denying of Christ did his after forswearing him sometimes to conceal it as all other evils draw on lying and theft murther many times sometimes to mainteyn it as pride doth covetousnes and oppression and sometimes to countenance it that it be not disgraced as Herods rash oath drew after it the beheading of Iohn the Baptist And of these commonly a lesser draws on a greater as lesser sticks set the greater on fire So also by those degrees of iniquitie do men proceed in one and the same particular enormitie in which as in a chayn drawing from heaven to hell each link moveth his next from the one and smaller end to the other greater First there is in a man concupiscence by which he is drawn away from God unto whom he ought to cleave with the whole heart And having once let goe his hold on him the true and unchangeable good he is forthwith seazed by some appearing and counterfeyt good and thereby entised as the byrd by falling on the ground is taken in the sâ—are from which whilst she held aloft she was free Vpon this inveigled affection and deceaved judgment thereby comes consent of will to have or do the thing which is evill called by the Apostle the conception of lust which that it may bring forth sin in outward act and exequution wants nothing but opportunitie This sin perfited by a continued course therein without repentance brings forth death unavoydably He therefore that begins to do evill or to forsake that which is good in the affection of his heart is like him that puts his feet into a pit and lets the hold of his hands go and without Gods gratious hand catching hold of him can never stay till he come to the bottom of the pit of perdition And no marvayl of this progresse in evill seeing everie sin how small soever in degree hath joyned with it the contempt of God As therefore the safest way against the flame is to quench the spark by which it may be kindled so against this fire of hell to quench betymes the spark of concupiscence and lust This is done partly by withdrawing from it the occasions and incitements of and unto sin which are as fewell for nourishing it as if it be the lust of anger and revenge not to give ear to words of provocation but to be as a deaf man that hearâ— not If of uncleanenes not to look upon a mayd If of drunckennes or excesse that way not to look upon the wine when it is red c. The second help is by smothering the corruption in the beginning which as fire if it have no vent goes out but getting passage breaks out into a flame Lastly as water fires contrarie quencheth it so do the spirituall means of grace as prayer meditation upon Gods word and the like quench by degrees the sparks of sin and fire of hell The greatnes of the sin is not alwayes to be esteemed by the thing done For as much crookednes may be found in a small line so may
pressed with great burdens of temptations in a kinde of abjectnes of minde to moulder away and make their gold litle better then drosse by undervaluing Gods goodnes towards them Such are unthankfull to God uncomfortable in themselvs and unprofitable unto others in comparison Besides there is an humble hypocrisy when men so subjâ—ct themsâ—lvs to others specially superiours as they reverence their viâ—es or suffer their reason more if their fayth and consciences to be captived to their lusts And hence comes the worshiping of Angels and other poynts of will worship in which the shâ—w of â—isdom in the inventers imposers and of humilitie in the followers bear â—wâ—y Lastly there is a desperate humilitie when out of an evill and accusing conscience a man knows and judges himself out of Gods favour and a vile person But now the most of this humilitie hath joyned with it no small pride That of the first kinde is very rare and the infinitely more common and dangerous disease is the overswelling of the heart through excesse of self-love and presumption Self-love disposeth a person to think himself and to desire to be thought of others to have the excellency which he hath not Herewith the minde is easily corrupted and vayn man induced to presume of that goodnes in himself which he wants and to be lifted up with that which he hath Many by stouping loose of their bodily height but few stoop too low in conceipt of themselvâ— Yet as Christ Iesus ceased not to be God though he humbled himself to the taking upon him the form of a servant so neyther is any man eyther in truth or account of God or good men the lesse but much the more excellent for his lowly appearance to himself or others Yea as the same Christ our Lord stepped from the shamefull crosse to the height of his glory and exaltation so he that will make any high building in christianitie must first think of and lay this low foundation of humilitie This lowlynes of minde is the mother of meeknes as Christ insinuates saying Learn of me for I am lowly and meek The humbly-mynded if a crosse come or injurie be offered bears them moderately as thinking moderately of himself yea meanly in regard of his sins and the miserie to which they expose him The proud through want of consciousnes hereof if he be a litle crossed is feirce and violent â—ove dignas concipit iras What He A man of his worth so to be used specially by such a one And as the boar wheâ—s and sharpens his â—uskes in his own foam so doth a proud person whet and sharpen his heart hands and tongue to indignation and revenge in the froathy and foamish imagination of his own worth Seeing that in evill dayes the meek and milde in spirit following Christs example who was as a lamb dumb before the shearer not opening his mouth are in danger not onely to be shorn but to be flayed also the most in the wisdom and lust of the flesh think it better to â—owl with the wolves and to byte too then by departing from evill specially by bearing wrongs patiently to make themselvs a pray But here fayth steps in and leads the meek to Gods promises that he shall inherit the earth and that God will arise to judgment to save all the meek of the earth and that he will see and hear and in due time right the wrongs of meek Moses though he passe them by and as a deaf man hears not But for the violent and self-avenger he puts himself out of Gods protection and goes upon his own hazzard As the stommack swels eyther with good meat excessively used or with winde and ill humours so there is â—carse any thing eyther so good or so evill but mans corrupt heart takes occasion of prydeing and puffing up its self by it The prophet speaks of some who boasted in evill and the Apostle of others whose glorying was in their shame If former ages have been bold ours is impudent this way in which it is hard to say whether the pride which persons take in good or in evill be greater Many shame not to boast of the evils practised by them which modest men are ashamed to hear of and some of the evils which they never did nor dare nor can doe thereby to get credit with vayn persons If pride in good be hatefull it is abhominable in evill specially when men bely themselvs to get matter of glorying in mischief as Austin confesseth he in his youth had done Fools glory in their moâ—ley coats and therein shew why they wear them But worse then mad are they who glory in sin and are lift up for that which cast the Angels from heaven Adam out of Paradise and Nabuchadnezzar out of his kingdom amongst the beasts of the feild and which will cast all into hell that delight in it As wicked men pride themselvs in their evils so are the good in danger to be enamoured of their goodnes And as he that beseigeth a cittie if he can neyther obteyn it by composition nor take it by assault nor constreyn it by hunger will in the last place if he can undermine and blow it up with gunpouder So our and Gods enemy Sathan when he cannot corrupt or destroy Gods servants otherwise attempts and that oft successively the lifting them up with vayn conceiptednes of themselvs and their own worth The holy Apostle was in danger to be exalted above measure with the number of revelations for the preventing whereof he needed a messenger of Sathan to buffet him So God for the keeping and driveing of pride from his servants sometimes brings great afflictions upon them and humbles them thereby and sometimes he doth this by suffering them to fall into other sins to remedy that greater sin of pride as men use to drive out a greater pin with another somewhat smaller How close doth this corruption cleav unto us and how dangerous is it withall for the purging out of which the Lord useth such a medicine There are in this pride many strange touches some being proud in and some of their humilitie Of the first sort were they who being vaynly puffed up by their fleshly mindâ— in voluntarie humblenes worshâ—ped Angels From a touch of this kinde Peter was not free when he so refrâ—ctâ—rily refused to suffer Christ to wash his feet There is also danger of being proud of not being proud nor â—oftie in caryage apparaell or contempt of inferiours and of being called rayther goodman then mayster and rayther mayster then Sir knight Besides all these many will goe on their tiptoes though barefoot being proud of no man knows what eyther within or without them and none more then they There want not also amongst the rest who put out pride to usurie that by forbearing it a while and uâ—ing for it humble and submissive appearances they might after