vain sometimes as to claim kindred with the Stars and write themselves children to the Sun and Moon but when they have gone the highest they fall yet far short of the godly who have Christ for their elder brother and all the Saints the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble army of Martyrs all the children of God throughout the world for their brethren And for their priviledges they are the Citizens of heaven and Peers if I may say of the Kingdom of God They have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ yea and with the blessed Spirit also The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with you all So that there is not a dram of Power in the Father of Merit in the Son of Comfort in the holy Ghost but they have an interest in it So that they may alwayes delight themselves in the love of the Father relieve themselves by the Grace of the Son and solace themselves in the Comforts of the Spirit And having this fellowship with God and being as it were Peers of his Kingdom it is no wonder that they have also Tutelam Imperii the guard of the Almighty the ministry and protection of the Angels about them They are all ministring spirits sent forth for to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation So that there is nothing spoken so highly and vaingloriously of their Kindred and Priviledges by others but it is made good in a higher way to the godly in the greatest truth and reality 1. And this in the first place letteth us see the reprobate minds and dispositions of those who have the godly in lowest estimation who ought to be in highest repute with them for their Piety and Devotion Let men be singular for Learning or any art or mechanique profession they are admired and adored by all but good men are lookt upon and talkt of but as monsters of Nature or some new mixture or strange composition They that keep themselves carefully from the filth and off-scouring of the world are generally reputed as such by those that are the filth and off-scouring of the world indeed Yea let the great Ones of the world busie themselves much in matters of Piety and they shall run presently the hazard of forfeiting with some of their own rank the honour of their Nobility That which Salvian long since complained of is as true in our times If any Noble man shall begin to turn towards God presently he begins to loose the credit of a Noble man with men Oh how little is the name of Christ esteemed amongst Christian people when Religion makes a man ignoble and Noble men are compelled to be wicked lest being good they should be lookt upon as worthless The Turks are of opinion that Learning doth soften and emasculate mens minds and the like Heathenish opinion have some of Piety that it doth weaken and effeminate mens spirits and take them off from every thing that is manly True it is godly men cannot swear nor drink nor drab it so stoutly nor give a sudden stab nor enter the lists upon every trifling occasion so desperately as they that think and speak of them so contemptuously But let the glory of God and service of their Countrey require it and none shall quit themselves more nobly Let Iulian the Emperour command his Christian Souldiers saying Producite aciem pro defensione reip Bring forth the Battail for the defence of the Common-wealth and every one obeyes Let him change the word and cry Producite arms in Christianos Bring forth your weapons against your fellow Christians and they acknowledge another Superior and regard not what he sayes They are cowards arant cowards to do evil They can do nothing against but have spirit and courage enough for the truth Let sword fire beasts whips wheels wracks be prepared for the Martyr Gordius Gordius is prepared not to die once but ten thousand deaths if possible for Christ. Let Romanus be threatned first with the wrack and then be spared by reason of his noble birth he will renounce the Honour of his birth rather then loose the Honour of being a Martyr Absit ut me Nobilem Sanguis parentum praestet aut lex Curiae Generosa Christi secta Nobilitat viros God forbid that bloud of Parents saith he Or court of honour should ennoble me Christs generous sect gives Nobility Let Sanctus let Lucian be tortured and questioned of what Countrey they are They each reply I am a Christian. Of what Profession I am a Christian. Of what Parentage I am a christian To every demand I am a Christian shewing at once their courage and constancy and that Christianity is the best Nobility Did these want valour or may they not seem to have drunk of the cup of spirits which some talk of Or doth not the Spirit and life which were both in their words and actions shew clearly that they had drunk indeed at that fountain which springs up in Gods children to eternal life and that the Spirit of glory and of God did rest upon them And have not Women also in like sort played the Men and marched along with them in the same Equipage shewing that they are indeed not onely flesh of our flesh but bone of our bone by their incomparable courage We have read of a Prince that was called Tremblant by reason of the trembling of his flesh when his armour was wont to be put on who being demanded the reason by some who had his valour in suspition told them You have little knowledge of me for if my flesh knew how far my courage would ere long carry it it would fall into a flat swound But surely we have so much knowledge of those that usually vilifie the valour of true Christians that should the same conflicts be presented to them which were sometimes to the Martyrs not onely their flesh but their hearts would be tremblant and they ready for lack of spirit to encounter them to fall as Saul in his distress flat on the ground None but the Christian spirit could endure the brunts which the Christian hath undergone Well and good may those which are Noble according to the flesh want as we see too often by experience the spirit of Piety but the true Christian can never want the spirit of Magnanimity or if a Christian should possibly prove a coward he hath that as other infirmities from the flesh not the spirit even as the other if they prove Religious have it from the spirit and not from the flesh 2. This lets us see how little cause some have to please themselves with their Nobility who have no regard to godliness no respect to piety Such are not so happy upon their own account in respect of their Noble birth as
no Father the other no Mother yet both famous in their age and no small founders of the Roman greatness and glory For all arts Livy writes of Cato the elder That he exceeded all That he had so much spirit and wit that he could have cut out his own fortune wheresoever he had been born And whereas others were excellent only in one kinde he was so good at every thing that you would have thought him born on purpose for that one thing whatsoever it was he undertook For Oratory not to take notice of Demosthenes and Cicero whose mean birth all know and was often cast in their teeth The great master in his Art tels us of one whom yet he names not who being askt what such and such a figure was Answered He knew not but if there were any figure belonging to an Orator he was sure he had it For Government of State affairs a Modern Historian informes us of one that by the goodness of his own nature alone and out of the stock of meer natural wit without any knowledge or almost any letters carryed the credit away from all his fellow Counsellours and passes this judgement withal That the precepts of wisdom should be framed rather from the excellent parts of nature found in a man then that an excellent man should be framed from the precepts of wisdom Such copies sometimes nature sets us in common births of excellent abilities And so for singular qualities we may see some of mean descent excel in meekness and gentleness for which as for his virginal purity some say Christ loved Iohn above others and in goodness of nature for which the Heathen did reverence even the very shadow of Isidore As Hales said of Bonaventure some are so excellent that Adam may have seemed almost not to have sinned in them that very little taint of original perverseness may seem to rest upon them As there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so there be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders as well as monsiers in nature But if we look to the common course or wheel as St. Iames saith of generation mens abilities and qualities caeteris paribus are ordinarily according to their births Nature brings not any thing so excellent from a common as she doth from a noble stock The old proverb is true The bounds of the Mysians and Phrygians are distinct And the flights of Eagles and Iayes are different The natural parts of men of mean condition are commonly weaker and their minds generally more sordid and base And if any thing singular do put forth it self at any time in them yet it hath a tang of the stock from whence they came and carries a taint with it as good wine that is drawn from a musty cask If they strive to do better then ordinary yet many unhandsome carriages are mingled still with their best actions and though we shall finde in many of them many good things yet seldom shall we see them come off in any with that grace as they that are better born and bred shall do Apes as they say act as Apes and Ants as Ants. If they cannot do as Eagles or Lions it is by reason of a deficiency in their nature and for want of sufficiency of discretion which should govern their actions So that it was not for nought that Thales or Plato or whosoever he were did blesse himself that he was born a Graecian and not a Barbarian Good parentage is a great blessing and they that are well born as Plato said have gold and silver special excellencies mingled with their natures Whereas Artificers and Husbandmen are made up as it were of Brass and Iron For instance we see by manifold experience that men of noble and gentile birth excel the vulgar sort 1. In docility They have more catching wits more sudden snatching apprehensions then others The doctrine that is instilled into them fals on them as the dew on the tender herb and as the showers upon the grasse and not as in others as rain on the high-way which without continual dropping can make no impression Into a malicious soul wisdom saith the wiseman will not enter nor dwell in the body subject unto sin And the thick skin knowledge cannot pierce nor lodge in the rude and rougher constitutions of the vulgar The very countenance of noble youths doth seem to smile and allure the Muses unto them and the Muses again seem to smile on them and to be ready to embrace them as their favorites and afford them all the kindnesses they can as their choysest darlings whereas they shun the Countrey complexions hate your mechanick companions and turn away from them as holding themselves much disparaged by such when they make love unto them If true Gentlemen court them in earnest they grow more familiar with them in short time and dive deeper into their secrets then others that serve a full Apprentiship with them 2. In ingeny As their wit are more catching so they are more fruitful in themselves As they excel for capacity so also for fertility Like well manured ground they bring forth a better crop then your barren soyl or Forrest lands Whence say they in the Gospel hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works Is not this the Carpenters son Is not his Mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joses Simon and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us whence then hath this man all these things They might well wonder indeed that a Carpenters son should discover so much wisdom Such mean births can seldom say unto Wisdom Thou art my Sister and call Vnderstanding their Kinswoman But we know well he had a Divine birth a more noble generation and thence did that wisdom and those works shine forth in him And what are all the wise Sentences and pithy Apophthogmes that are extant but the productions commonly of more noble births or at least more noble educations The vulgar sort are not sought for in publique Counsel nor set high in the Congregation nor are they found where Parables are spoken Whatsoever savours of Ingenuity is suspected as not coming from them The Tyrians were sometimes driven out by their servants who were resolved at last to set up one to King it over the rest And who should that be but he that first spyed the Sun-rising Whereupon Stratos servant looking Westward by his Masters advice first discovered the beams of the Sun guilding the tops of the hils before the body of the Sun could be seen The fact savoured not of a servile wit and inquiry being made the device was found to be the Masters and not the Mans. And by that they all understood how much ingenuous dispositions do differ from those of servants Though they may exceed them in malice yet they must come short of their Masters in Wisdome 3. In magnanimity Though they have better wits
in him were to be ascribed unto his Nature but his vices to Fortune or Age So that they embraced not straightwayes the Gospel is rather to be attributed to external causes matter of fortune politique respects worldly concernments iniquity of the times and age wherein they lived then to their inherent qualities of nature which are better in them then in others and in themselves no bad preparations for the Gospel Besides God at first did pass them by leaving them to walk on still in their own wayes and choosing those of the meaner sort both for the promulgation and profession of the Gospel that none might think they were chosen for worldly respects or dignity or that the Gospel was carryed on by humane force and authority But when once thâ—ough the mercy of God from on high the day-spring from above did visit them they above all became nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to the Church and brought in willingly their riches and glory with themselves into it And as the Church is the pillar and stay of truth so they in special manner became the stayes and pillars of the Church To whom do our material Churches and such like places of Gods worship and our Universities the Seminaries and Nurseries of Learning and Piety owe their beginning to throughout Christendom but to them and such as have been raised up by them to share with them in the like honour and dignity And who entailed that portion upon the Ministers of the Gospel which God did at first settle upon the Tribe of Levi and that by Solemn Vow that it should never be cut off but they And who are they that of late would have pulled down our Churches as places of superstition destroyed our Universities as the Pests which they stuck not to call them of the Land and stood ready as the Dragon in the Revelation over the woman to devour the holy thing which was left but the Vulgar sort and such who swallowing down much goods as the Dragon much poyson do swell thereupon and reckon themselves great Gentlemen who have many times no greater ambition then to be able to do those a spite that are of our Profession Plebs superum Fauni Satyrique Laresque The meaner sort of the gods the communalty The gods that in fields woods and chimney corners ly Such is the difference between noble and common births The one would keep up the Church and true Religion in lustre and splendor with themselves the other would bring them down to as sordid a condition as their own Originals And look as Iulian an Usurper first of the Empire and afterward an Apostate from the Church did not meddle with Ministers as Diocletian who thought by killing of them to root out Christianity which lived still and flourished notwithstanding their death but by robbing the Church and taking away the maintenance of Churchmen he destroyed the Ministry it self upon which also ignorance and decay of Religion presently ensued So many usurping the name of Gentlemen and apostatizing from the way of the Church medled not with Ministers themselves that was against Iulians and stood not with their principles but by taking away their Maintenance would have rooted out the Ministery it self upon which Barbarism and Atheism must needs have followed A work sutable to their upstart Nobility and new-found Piety but such as could never yet finde entertainment by the truly ancient Nobility or Gentry Pharaoh will make no purchase of his Priests Lands but reserves them till better times and allows them a portion when their Land would not himself Iesabel entertains four hundred of Baals Prophets at her own Table The Romans richly endowed their Priests And whosoever saith the Heathen Poet doth in good earnest worship the Gods the same doth make much also of their Priests And as yet our Nobility have thought rather of preserving then robbing their Ministry And thus we see by experience that men of good descent are better conditioned and do in many things excel those of the Vulgar sort and that a good natural birth in it self is no bad preparation for the spiritual But how comes it to passe that such as are well descended do so far transcend others 1. This happens by virtue of their generation The seed is as it were the abstract of soul and body and carries the qualities of both along with it The whole tree is in the seed and if the seed be good the tree is good if the seed be naught the tree is naught If the first fruits be holy the lump also is holy and if the root be holy so are the branches The water in the pitcher rellishes of the fountain from whence it springs The milk savours of the Land whereon the Cattle feed the Vinegar of the Wine of which it came Every thing hath a smatch of that from whence it takes its original We see in the ofspring of birds and beasts the virtue and spirit of the Paâ—ent and we may observe the corn that is sown rising up to its growth according to the quality of the grain Caligula took Drusilla to be his own daughter by her curst conditions And Parents have no more certain way to judge of their own title to their children then this that they are like themselves in their dispositions Men might see was it said the spirit of living Alexander in his dying Mother and we may say as truly the spirit of the dead Ancestors may be discerned in their surviving children For as the Poet speaks of one that was killed in the water Ille manet fundo rediit pro corpore sanguis The body lay beneath i th' bottom but the blood Start up and on the surface of the water stood So though the remains of mens Ancestors lie buried in the dust yet their blood runs fresh and quick in their childrens veins As we see ordinarily to omit the strange resemblances in the productions of brute beasts much of Father and Mother in the Childrens countenance garb carriage and sometimes strange impresses on the body derived from Father to childe Saleucus had an anchor on his thigh and so had his sons and so had all his Nephews so we may observe the good qualities of the minde the spirit of Magnanimity Hospitality Policy Learning to be as hereditary in some Families as the Lance to the Spartans the Ivory shoulder to the Pelopidae the Grasshopper to the Athenians or the scepter of Princes delivered over still by succession to their children 2. This happens by Education The virtues which they have radically by Generation are completed by Education The metalled horse is made much more serviceable by good training and mannaging The richness which is in some grounds discovers it self in far greater fruitfulness by good husbandry and tilling of them The sparks that lie hid in flints are
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
with such sacrifices God is well pleased So the spiritual Nobility is best The fear of God and true piety Though the carnal have the priority in nature in all these yet the spiritual kindred food fasts cloathing freedom sacrifices Nobility is best And for the last however the great ones of the world brag much of their Nobility yet godly men surpass them therein in every respect 1. In respect of their Parentage they are descended from the most High They are the Sons and Daughters of the Almighty They are born not of bloud nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man but of God That which was the vain ambition of some of the Heathen as of Alexander and others is their happy condition They are the Sons of God And whereas the great Ones of this world notwithstanding their goodly Parentage are the children of night and darkness children of wrath children of death children of hell the rich Glutton that spake himself the son of Abraham was tormented in the flames of the infernal pit all the godly are the children of light and of the day the children of promise the children of the wedding-chamber and not only children as wicked men may be but certain heirs of the Kingdom of God For their mother the womb wherein all godly men lie is that of Christs Spouse The Lambs wife who is a great Queen and hath Kings daughters and honourable women for her attendants is their Mother They are all Sions children And as the Lycians take their name from their Mother and if their Mother be Honourable reckon their children so whatsoever the Father be and the children base born if the Mother be so though the Father be never so Honourable So they call no man Father on earth but count it their honour that they are the children of the Church which though she be on earth yet is not of the earth but hath her original from above Ierusalem from above is the mother of them all So that as they excel all by the Fathers side they surpass also by the mothers side Ierusalems w ch is their mother descending also from God Indeed upon a true account at first rise God may be said to be both Father and Mother to them By his free goodness a Father By the power and fruitfulness of his grace a Mother Even as also the Ministers of God the inferior and subordinate agents in their generation are sometimes called fathers as begetting them In Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel And sometimes mothers as bearing them and bringing them forth Of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you Those vertues and excellencies which in carnal and corporal agents are divided being more eminently and perfectly in spiritual agents united 2. In respect of their divine nature and qualities They are children of God and so are born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible The word of God is the seed of which they are begotten And as there is vis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative vertue in the corruptible seed of man by which it comes to pass that one man differs from another in conditions so there goes a formative vertue with the word of God even the spirit of grace which begets in them a disposition above that which is humane and forms them after the image of God makes them partakers of the divine nature and holiness of God and works in them such affections and conditions whereby they excel all others which are not born of the same seed nor have the same seed of God abiding in them which they have The spirit works in them the same mind will affections desires dispositions which are in God and makes them in all holy as he is holy and pure as he is pure There are as we have shewed special excellencies to be found in those that are noble according to the flesh whether Christians or others truly Religious or not and they that are spiritually noble come not behind them in any thing and excell them in all those things that have any excellency by nature above the rest They lose not any priviledge which they have by the flesh but gain over and above that which comes by the Spirit 1. They are as docil and ingenious and as capable of any humane Wisdom and Learning as the best Moses was learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians And we see dayly the children of God come as richly laden out of the Schools of men as ever the Israelites did with spoyles out of the Land of Egypt Iulian a learned Emperour but wicked Apostat saw it and was grieved at it We are wounded saith he with our own quils out of our own books they take weapons which in fight they use against us We may see the learning of those Fathers some of which as living before him or being contemporary with him he complained of and may reap the fruit of that with joy which was a grief of heart to him We may see how destructive a pen to error Lactantius had How instructive in good manners Hierome How assertive in doctrine Austin is What a high strain Hialry What an humble vein Chrysostome hath How Basil reproves How Nazianzen comforts How fluent Orosius is How short and trusle Ruffinus How Eusebius tels his story How sollicitous Eucherius is How Paulinus begins How Ambrose proceeds How Tertullian thunders and lightens How more stoutly Cyprian speaks then eloquenly and yet how much more strength there is in his life then in his speech 2. Pass we from Learning and Wisdome to matter of courage and magnanimity and we shall find that the godly fall not short of any The Lord is a man of war and he teaches their hands to war and their fingers to fight He girds them with strength to subdue their enemies Besides what they have by nature He gives them also a spirit of might and power as being to wrestle not onely with flesh and blood but with principalities and the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickednesses in high places which do every day vanquish the men of this world and are every day vanquished by the children of God who being armed with a double kind of armour are carried on with as undaunted a courage as any against their two kind of enemies spiritual and temporal And indeed to yield them so far as justly we may the preheminence in all things Some of them have had no peers either for learning or valour wisdom or courage All the Lawgivers of Greece cannot match one Moses Nor all the wise men one Solomon Nor all their Worthies one Iosuah or David Nor all their feigned Herculesses one true Sampson 3. If the Nobles of the world again think they have wherein
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
God The things spoken of being not only a shame to those that profess themselves the children of God but an infinite dishonour also to God himself For what is Godliness but the imitation of God And wherefore are we styled and profess our selves the children of God but that we ought and take upon us to be holy as God is holy and to shew forth the vertues of him that called us out of darkness into his marvellous light Now when a man shall profess himself a Painter and take upon him to make the picture of a King if he mishape him and give him an ill Phismony or ill feature stangers will be ready to judge of the Kings person as of an ill-favoured creature So if the life of Gods children which be as little pictures or Images visible representations of the vertues of the invisible God be wicked and profane Heathen and Infidels will be ready to blaspheme the name of God while they judge and speak of him according to his Counterpain Thus the cruelties of the Spaniards in the Indies who styled themselves The children of him who is the Father of mercies and yet committed fearful butcheries gave occasion to that and the like Blasphemies What a God with a mischief is this who hath begotten such impure and wicked sons If the Father be like the Sons there is little goodness of a certain in him And if Pagans should live amongst us and see how multitudes do abuse the name of God sometimes for their politique ends and worldly gain sometimes altogether needlesly and in vain How the most commit the greatest sins constantly and salute God every day as confidently in his Ordinances What would they think but that the God which we serve were a dead Idol a leaden God such as one of the Kings of France was wont to wear in his cap kissing it and begging pardon of it when he had committed any foul murther and promising it should be the last and yet by and by fall to killing and kissing again And why should they who keep as constant a course in Gods service as they do in sin be thought to sin lesse grossely though not so ridiculously as he What is it to use the ordinances and offices of Religion so but to use them as the ordinances and offices that belong to a dead Idol and not to the living God Doth not God himself complain of this as of a grosse and ridiculous deportment Will you steal and murther and commit adultery and swear falsly and burn incense unto Baal and walk after other Gods whom ye know not and come and stand before men this house which is called by my Name and say We are delivered to do all these abominations Is this house which is called by my Name become a den of Robbers in mine eyes Behold even I have seen it saith the Lord. Thus they put on Religion a matter of it self of inward excellency to set a better face upon their outward pomp and glory and they which before the Supream Judge of all were full of abominable corruptions stood fair in the eyes of men by a formal Profession And this is a common carriage with men and passed over as a matter of nothing but we may take notice of that which the Psalmist saith That the Lord sees though for a time he be silent and that he utterly dislikes those actions wherein Hypocrites think him like themselves and that he will set those things at last in order before their eyes which they would not set as they should have done in right order before his We should therefore be more careful of our demeanor for the time to come and as we call God Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work we should passe the time of our sojourning here in fear We should take all heed lest we any wayes dishonour our Noble Parentage and labour in all things to be imitators of our Father as dear children Our Life should answer our Name and our Conversation our Profession lest otherwise the issue be thus A good Name and an ill Fame a fair Profession and abominable Transgression We did set before you but now the wicked practise of an evil Prince we shall put you now in minde of a better precedent who used a Picture the Picture of his Father to better purpose taking it out and viewing it when he was to act any thing of great concernment that beholding his Fathers image in the frame he might do nothing unworthy his Fathers Name Let us abominate the former practise and learn from the latter to give much more that honour to the Father of our spirits which he did to the Father of his Flesh. Let us do nothing to dishonour Him from whom we derive the greatest honour to be called his children Let the Image of his Divine vertues be alwayes in our minds engraven upon our hearts and let us carry our selves so holily so mercifully so perfectly in all things that all that see us may see that we are called by the Name of the Lord and that we are a seed which the Lord hath blessed It is a pleasure to Parents to see their own resemblance in their children and it is an honour to children to keep alive the vertues of their dying or deceased Parents And it is no lesse pleasing to God that the life of his children should answer their birth no lesse joy to the Almighty to see his Sons walking in the truth after the Commandement which they have received from their Father to see them carrying like Gedeons Souldiers a Divine light burning in their earthly Pitchers To see them exercising the graces of his immortal spirit in their mortal bodies And how signal and triumphant a badge of righteousness and how great a crown of glory is it for them to behave themselves so holily and obediently that God shall not have cause to complain of them as he did of some I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me But shall willingly speak to their eternal both commendation and consolation Surely they are my people children that will not lie children whose words and works are sutable children who will not carry truth in their lips and a lie in their right hand children that will not carry God in their profession and the Devil in their conversation 5. Hence they that be poor and pious may take solace though they suffer many times in this life much disgrace their Nobility is as good as that of the best though they live here under a cloud of obscurity What repute great ones have with the world They have with God and good men the one are the onely excellent Ones with the sons of men the other with the children of God The one are the the Worthies of the world the other are the Lords Worthies of whom the