pence and reward, whereunto his mind directly bending itself, is termed right or straight, otherwise perverse.

To make this somewhat more plain, we must note, that as they, which travel from city to city, enquire ever for the straightest way, because the straightest is that which soonest bringeth them to their journey's end; so we, having here, as the apostle speaketh, no abiding city, but being always in travel towards that place of joy, immortality, and rest, cannot but in every of our deeds, words, and thoughts, think that to be best, which with most expedition leadeth us thereunto, and is for that very cause termed right. That sovereign good, which is the eternal fruition of all good, being our last and chiefest felicity, there is no desperate despiser of God and godliness living, which doth not wish for. The difference between right and crooked minds, is in the means which the one or the other eschew or follow. Certain it is, that all particular things which are naturally desired in the world, as food, raiment, honour, wealth, pleasure, knowledge, they are subordinated in such wise unto that future good which we look for in the world to come, that even in them there lieth a direct way tending unto this. Otherwise we must think, that God, making promises of good things in this life, did seek to pervert them and to lead them from their right minds. Where is then the obliquity of the mind of man? his mind is perverse and crooked, not when it bendeth itself unto any of these things, but when it bendeth, so that it swerveth either to the right hand or to the left, by excess or defect, from the exact rule whereby human actions are measured. The rule to measure and judge them by, is the law of God. For this cause, the prophet doth make so often and so earnest suit, "O direct me in the way of thy commandments: as long as I have respect to thy statutes, I am sure not to tread amiss." Under the name of the law, we must comprehend not only that which God hath written in tables and leaves, but that which nature also hath engraven on the hearts of men. Else how should those heathens, which never had books but heaven and earth to look upon, be convicted of perverseness? "But the gentiles, which had not the law in books, had (saith the apostle) the effect of the law written in their hearts."

Then seeing that the heart of man is not right exactly, unless it be found in all parts such, that God examining and calling it unto account with all severity of rigour, be not able once to charge it with declining or swerving aside, (which absolute perfection when did God ever find in the sons of mere mortal men?) doth it not follow, that all flesh must of necessity fall down and confess, we are not dust and ashes, but worse; our minds from the highest to the

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lowest are not right; if not right, then undoubtedly not capable of that blessedness which we naturally seek, but subject unto that which we most abhor, anguish, tribulation, death, woe, endless misery. For whatsoever misseth the way of life, the issue thereof cannot be but perdition. By which reason, all being wrapped up in, and made thereby the children of death, the minds of all men be-. ing plainly convicted not to be right, shall we think that God hath endued them with so many excellencies more, not only than any, but than all the creatures in the world besides, to leave them in such estate, that they had been happier if they had never been? Here cometh necessarily in a new way unto salvation, so that they which were in the other perverse, may in this be found straight and rightThat the way of nature, this the way of grace. The end of that way, salvation merited, presupposing the righteousness of men's works; their righteousness, a natural ability to do them; that ability, the goodness of God which created them in such perfection; but the end of this way, salvation bestowed upon men as a gift, presupposing not their righteousness, but the forgiveness of their unrighteousness, justification; their justification, not their natural ability to do good, but their hearty sorrow for their not doing, and unfeigned belief in him, for whose sake not-doers are accepted, which is their vocation; their vocation, the election of God, taking them out from the number of lost children; their election, a mediator, in whom to be elect; this mediation, inexplicable mercy; his mercy, their misery, for whom he vouchsafed to make himself a Mediator. The want of exact distinguishing between these two ways, and observing what they have common, what peculiar, hath been the cause of the greatest part of that confusion whereof Christianity at this day laboureth. The lack of diligence in searching, laying down, and inuring men's minds with those hidden grounds of reason, whereupon the least particular in each of these are most firmly and strongly builded, is the only reason of all those scruples and uncertainties, wherewith we are in such sort entangled, that a number despair of ever discerning what is right or wrong in any thing. But we will let this matter rest, whereinto we stepped to search out a way, how some minds may be, and are right truly, even in the sight of God, though they be simply in themselves not right.

Howbeit, there is not only this difference between the just and impious, that the mind of the one is right in the sight of God, because his obliquity is not imputed; the other perverse, because his sin is unrepented of; but even as lines that are drawn with a trembling hand, but yet to the point which they should, are thought

ragged and uneven, nevertheless direct in comparison of them which run clean another way; so there is no incongruity in terming them right-minded men, whom though God may charge with many things amiss, yet they are not as hideous and ugly monsters, in whom, because there is nothing but wilful opposition of mind against God, a more than tolerable deformity is noted in them, by saying, that their minds are not right. The angel of the church of Thyatira, unto whom the Son of God sendeth thus greeting, “I know thy works, and thy love, and thy service, and faith; notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee,” was not as he, unto whom St. Peter, "Thou hast no fellowship in this business; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." So that whereas the orderly disposition of the mind should be this, perturbation and sensual appetites all kept in awe by a moderate and sober will, in all things framed by reason; reason directed by the law of God and nature; this Babylonian had his mind, as it were, turned upside down. In him unreasonable cecity and blindness trampled all laws, both of God and nature, under feet; wilfulness tyrannized over reason, and brutish sensuality over will; an evident token that his outrage would work his overthrow, and procure his speedy ruin. The mother whereof was that which the prophet, in these words, signified, "His mind doth swell."

Immoderate swelling, a token of very eminent breach, and of inevitable destruction: pride, a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to strip ourselves of all faults, one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off. But I am not here to touch the secret itching humour of vanity, wherewith men are generally touched. It was a thing more than meanly inordinate, wherewith the Babylonian did swell. Which that we may both the better conceive, and the more easily reap profit by the nature of this vice, which setteth the whole world out of course, and hath put so many, even of the wisest, besides themselves, is first of all to be inquired into: secondly, the dangers to be discovered, which it draweth inevitably after it, being not cured: and, last of all, the way to cure it.

Whether we look upon the gifts of nature, or of grace, or whatsoever is in the world admired as a part of man's excellency, adorning his body, beautifying his mind, or externally any way commending him in the account and opinion of men, there is in every kind somewhat possible which no man hath, and somewhat had which few men can attain unto. By occasion whereof, there groweth disparagement necessarily; and by occasion of disparagement, pride through men's ignorance. First, therefore, although men be

not proud of any thing which is not, at least in opinion, good; yet every good thing they are not proud of, but only of that whicle neither is common unto many, and being desired of all, causeth them which have it to be honoured above the rest. Now there is no man so void of brain, as to suppose that pride consisteth in the bare possession of such things; for then to have virtue were a vice, and they should be the happiest men who are most wretched, because they have least of that which they would have. And though in speech we do intimate a kind of vanity to be in them of whom we say, “They are wise men, and they know it ;" yet this doth not prove, that every wise man is proud which doth not think himself to be blockish. What we may have, and know that we have it without offence, do we then make offensive when we take joy and delight in having it? What difference between men enriched with all abundance of earthly and heavenly blessings, and idols gorgeously attired, but this, the one takes pleasure in that which they have, the other none? If we may be possessed with beauty, strength, riches, power, knowledge, if we may be privy to what we are every. way, if glad and joyful for our own welfare, and in all this remain unblamable; nevertheless, some there are, who, granting thus much, doubt whether it may stand with humility to accept those testimonies of praise and commendation, those titles, rooms, and other honours, which the world yieldeth, as acknowledgments of some men's excellencies above others. For, inasmuch as Christ hath said unto those that are his, "The kings of the gentiles reign over them, and they that bear rule over them, are called gracious lords; be ye not so:" the anabaptist hereupon urgeth equality among Christians, as if all exercise of authority were nothing else but heathenish pride. Our Lord and Saviour had no such meaning. But his disciples feeding themselves with a vain imagination for the time, that the Messias of the world should in Jerusalem erect his throne, and exercise dominion with great pomp and outward stateliness, advanced in honour and terrene power above all the princes of the earth, began to think how with their Lord's condition their own would also rise; that having left and forsaken all to follow him, their place about him should not be mean; and because they were many, it troubled them much which of them should be the greatest man. When suit was made for two by name, that of them "one might sit at his right hand, and the other at his left," the rest began to stomach, each taking it grievously that any should have what all did affect; their Lord and Master, to correct this humour, turneth aside their cogitations from these vain and fanciful conceits, giving them plainly to understand, that they did but

deceive themselves: his coming was not to purchase an earthly, but to bestow an heavenly kingdom, wherein they, if any, shall be greatest, whom unfeigned humility maketh in this world lowest, and least amongst others: "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, therefore I leave unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on seats, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel." But my kingdom is no such kingdom as ye dream of: and, therefore, these hungry ambitious contentions are seemlier in heathens than in you. Wherefore, from Christ's intent and purpose, nothing is farther removed than dislike of distinction in titles and callings, annexed for order's sake unto authority, whether it be ecclesiastical or civil. And when we have examined thoroughly what the nature of this vice is, no man knowing it can be so simple as not to see an ugly shape thereof, apparent many times in rejecting honours offered, more than in the very exacting of them at the hands of men. For, as Judas's care for the poor was mere covetousness; and that frank-hearted wastefulness spoken of in the gospel, thrift; so, there is no doubt, that going in rags may be pride, and thrones be clothed with unfeigned humility.

We must go farther, therefore, and enter somewhat deeper, before we can come to the closet wherein this poison lieth. There is in the heart of every proud man, first, an error of understanding, a vain opinion whereby he thinketh his own excellency, and by reason thereof his worthiness of estimation, regard, and honour, to be greater than in truth it is. This maketh him in all his affections accordingly to raise up himself; and by his inward affections his outward acts are fashioned. Which, if you' list to have exemplified, you may, either by calling to mind things spoken of them whom God himself hath in Scripture especially noted with this fault; or by presenting to your secret cogitations that which you daily behold in the odious lives and manners of high-minded men. It were too long to gather together so plentiful an harvest of examples in this kind as the sacred Scripture affordeth. That which we drink in at our ears, doth not so piercingly enter, as that which the mind doth conceive by sight. Is there any thing written concerning the Assyrian monarch, in the tenth of Isaiah, of his swelling mind, his haughty looks, his great and presumptuous taunts; "By the power of mine own hand I have done all things, and by mine own wisdom I have subdued the world?" Any thing concerning the dames of Sion, in the third of the prophet Isaiah, of their stretched-out necks, their immodest eyes, their pageantlike, stately, and pompous gait? Any thing concerning the practices of Corah,