sessions, and potions, and sermons are those which are in vain. I say not in vain, if there be cause of reproof and no amends; but if there be no cause, and so it be in vain, "I [Philip. 1. is.] joy therein, and will joy." But if it be far unlikely, amongst so great riches as is here, to find no pride at all, very unlikely; then hear the charge, and present yourselves, and find yourselves guilty here in our office this day, while you may find grace, lest you be tried and found so in that day when there shall be no hope of grace, but only a fearful expectation of judgment. Which that you may do the better, so many as God shall make willing, as some I hope He doth, I will inform you how to try yourselves, referring you to the several branches in our statutes, in the high court of parliament in Heaven, laying them out unto you as I find them in the records of the Holy Ghost. The points are three in number. First, if the mind of [1] any man be so exalted that he looketh down on his brethren as if he stood on the top of a leads, and not on the same ground they do, that man is highminded. St. Augustine saith well: Excipe pompatica hæc et volatica, they are the same that you are. They have not vestem communem, the same coat, but they have cutem communem, the same skin; and within a few years when you die, if a man come with a joiner and measure all that you carry with you, they shall carry away with them as much; and within a few years after, [Vid. S. Aug. Ser. a man shall not be able to discern between the shoulder-blade 61.9.1 of one of them and one of you. Therefore no cause why you should incedere inflati, insericati, and from a high mind betraying itself by a high look contemn them, as many you do. I say then, if any of you be a child of Anak, and look down so upon another as in his sight his brethren seem Num. 13. as "grasshoppers:" 1. whether it appear in the countenance, in drawing up his eye-brows, in a disdainful and scornful eye, Prov. 30. such an one as David, though he found no penal statute to punish it, could never abide, and David was a man after Ps. 101. 5. God's own heart, and therefore neither can God abide it: 2. or whether it appear in a proud kind of dialect of speech, as was that of Saul's, Ubi nunc est iste filius Ishai? where 1 Sam. 20. is this son of Jesse? that he come to the Pharisee's Non sum (Lu. 18. of 33. 13. 27. SERM. sicut: 3. or whether it be in the course of their life, that fab. 1. 14. they be like to the great fishes, to pikes, that think all the 23.] I. 1 Sam. 2. 15, &c. little fishes in the stream were made for them to feed on. So that it appeareth they care not what misery, what beggary, what slavery they bring all men to, so they may soak in the Ezek. 11.3. broth of the caldron, and welter in their wealth and pleaZeph. 3. 3. sure; who are in their streets and parishes as "lions," a great [Gen. 4. deal more feared than beloved, as implacable as Lamech to bear any injury, and will have for one drop of blood no less than a man's life. What speak I of bearing injury? which will do injury, and that for no other reason but this: Thus it must be, for Iophni will have it not thus but thus, and except they may do thus, what they will to whom they will, when and how they will, forsooth they do not "govern," their authority is nothing; in this sort overbearing all things with their countenance and wealth, and whosoever standeth but up, Jam. 2. 6. drawing him before the "judgment seats," and wearying him out with law. These men who do thus from a high in-bearing of the head, in phrase of speech, and in the order or rather disorder of their dealing, overlook, overcrow, and overbear their brethren of mean estate, it is certain they be highminded. Enquire and look whether any be so. 1 Kings 21. 7. [2] Secondly, if any mind climb so high that the boughs will bear him no longer, by exalting himself above either his ability, condition or calling-a fault which hath like to cost our times dear-that man's footing will fail him, he will down, he and his mind are too high a great deal. The late treasons and conspiracies came from such kind of minds. For when the minds of men will overreach their abilities, what must be the end, but as we have seen of late to prove traitors? Why? because they have swollen themselves out of their skin. Why so? because they had lashed on more on their pleasure than they had. For so doing, when they had overreached themselves, they becamе TρоTEтês, they must take some heady enterprise in hand. What is that? to become 2 Tim. 3. 4. πρodóτaι, that seeing their credit is decayed in this state, they may set up a new, and that is by overturning the old. And not only this passing the ability is dangerous to the overturning of a commonwealth, but the passing of a man's condition too; and tendeth to the impoverishing, and at last 36. 19. to the overthrow of the estate also. 1. Whether it be excess of diet; as when being no magistrate, but plain Master Nabal, his dinner must be "like to the feast of a King." 2. Or 1 Sam. 25. whether it be in excess of apparel, wherein the pride of England now, as "the pride" of Ephraim in times past, “testi- Hos. 5. 5. fieth against her to her face." 3. Or whether it be "in lift- Prov. 17, ing up the gate too high," that is, in excess of building. 4. Or Gen. 32. whether it be in keeping too great a train, Esau's case, that " he go with "four hundred" men at his tail, whereas the fourth part of the fourth part would have served his father well enough. 5. Or whether it be in perking' too high in their 'i. c. liftalliance; the bramble's son in Lebanon must match with the their cedar's daughter. These are evidences and signs set down to prove a high mind: see and search into yourselves, whether 14.9. you find them or no. x ing up heads.] 2 Kings 14. Jude ver. There is yet of this feather another kind of exalting ourselves above that we ought, much to be complained of in these days. St. Paul calleth it "a stretching of ourselves 2 Cor. 10. beyond measure." Thus if a man be attained to any high skill in law, which is the gift of God; or if a man be grown wise, and experienced well in the affairs of this world, which is also His good blessing; presently by virtue of this they take themselves to be so qualified as they be able to overrule our matters in divinity, able to prescribe Bishops how to govern and Divines how to preach; so to determine our cases as if they were professed with us; and that, many times affirming things they know not, and censuring things they 1 Tim. 1.7. have little skill of. Now seeing we take not upon us to deal in cases of your law, or in matters of your trade, we take this is a stretching beyond your line; that in so doing you are a people that control the Priest; that you are too high when Hosea 4. 4. you set yourselves over them that "are over you in the Thes. 5. Lord;" and that this is no part of that sober wisdom which Rom. 12. St. Paul commendeth to you, but of that cup-shotten' wisdom 3; ['i. e. which he there condemneth. Which breaking compass and drunken. Bailey.] outreaching is, no doubt, the cause of these lamentable rents and ruptures in the Lord's net in our days. pride cometh contention," saith the Wise Man. I wish might be looked upon and amended. all in the end. 10. 12. 3. For "only by [Prov. 13. .SERM. 5. 17. 3. Thirdly, if any man lift up himself too high, any of both I. these ways, God hath taken order to abate him and take Hosea 6. 5. him down, for He hath appointed His Prophets to "prunc those that are too high," and He hath ordained His word to 2 Cor. 10. "bring down every imagination that shall be exalted against it." Now then, if there be any man that shall seek to set * himself without the shot of it, and is so highminded as that he cannot suffer the words of exhortation, and where God hath said, "Charge them that be rich," he cannot abide to hear any chargc-and such there be; sure that man without all question is very highminded, and if he durst he would tear out this leaf, and all other where like charge is given, 1 Sam. 25. through the Bible. Of Nabal it is recorded, "He was so 2 Sam. 3. 7. surly, a man might not speak to him;" of Abner, a great man, and a special stay of the house of Saul, that upon a word spoken of his adulterous life with one of Saul's minions, he grew to such choler that he forgot all, and laid the plot that cost his master Ishbosheth his kingdom. Micaiah prophesied good things, that is to say, profitable to Ahab-the event shewed it; yet because he did not prophesy good things, that is, such as Ahab would hear, he spared not openly to profess he hated him; and whereas the false Prophets were fed at his own table, and fared no worse than he and the Queen, 1 Kings 22. he took order for Micaiah's diet, that it should be the "bread of affliction" and the "water of trouble," and all for a chargegiving. These were, I dare boldly affirm, highminded men in their generations: if any be like these, they know what they are. If then there be any that refuse to be pruned and trimmed by the word of God; 1. who either when he 27. heareth the words of the charge, blesseth himself in his heart Deu. 29.19. and saith, Tush, he doth but prate, these things shall not come upon me, though I walk still according to the stubbornness of mine own heart; 2. either in hearing the word of God, takes upon him (his flesh and blood, and he) to sit on it, and censure it, and say to himself one while, This is well spoken, while his humour is served; another while, This is foolishly spoken, now he babbleth, because the charge sits somewhat near him; 3. either is in the Pharisees' case, which after they have heard the charge do, as they did at Lu. 16. 14. Christ, éкμvктηpíšεw, jest and scoff, and make themselves 2 Sam. 6. merry with it, and wash it down with a cup of sack, and that because they "were covetous:" if in very deed "the word of Lu. 16. 14. God be to them a reproach," and they take like delight in both, Jer. 6. 10. and well were they if they might never hear it; and to testify their good conceit of the word, shew it in the account of the ephod, which is a base and contemptible garment in their eyes, and the word in it and with it-this is Michal's case. [See Whosoever is in any of these men's cases is in the case of a 20, &c.] highminded man, and that of the highest degree; for they lift themselves up, not against earth and man, but against Heaven and God Himself. O beloved, you that be in wealth and authority, love and reverence the word of God. It is the root that doth bear you, it is the majesty thereof that keepeth you in your thrones, and maketh you be that you are; but for Ego dixi, Dii estis, a parcel-commission out of Ps. 82. 6. this commission of ours, the madness of the people would bear no government, but run headlong and overthrow all chairs of estate, and break in pieces all the swords and sceptres in the world, which you of this city had a strange experience of in Jack Straw and his meiny', and keep a memo- ['i. e. rerial of it in our city scutcheon, how all had gone down if from a this word had not held all up. And therefore honour it I Saxon Freneg beseech you; I say, honour it. For when the highest of fying a yourselves, which are but "grass," and your lordships' glory and Bailey.] worship, which is "the flower" of this grass, shall "perish and Isa. 40. 6, pass away, this word shall continue for ever." And if you receive it now, with due regard and reverence, it will make you also to continue for ever. finue: word signiyou der 7, 8. This is your charge, touching the first branch. I beseech you, enquire of it, whether there be any guilty in these points; and if there be, suffer us to do our office, that is, to humble you, or else sure the Lord will do His, that is, pull down riches and mind, and man and all: Patimini falcem occantem, ne patiamini securim extirpantem. God will not suffer it certainly; He would not suffer it in a king, He would not Dev.17.20. suffer it in an Angel, He cannot bear it to rise in an Apostle, Jude ver.6. "for the greatness of revelations;" therefore He will not bear 2 Cor. 12.7. it in any man for any cause whatsoever. Let this be the conclusion of this point. We shall never have pride well plucked up, so long as the с 2. The se 'follow ar Treting |