take that metaphor, (Inebriabo animam sacerdotis, I will make the soul of the priest drunk; fill it, satiate it; and again, I will make the weary soul, and the sorrowful soul drunk1; but not only all this, (though in all this God have a hand) not only towards others, but God in his own behalf complains of the scant and penurious sacrificer, Non inebriasti me, Thou hast not made me drunk with thy sacrifices". And yet, though for the better applying of God to the understanding of man, the Holy Ghost impute to God these excesses, and defects of man (laziness and drowsiness, deterioration, corruptibleness by ill conversation, prodigality and wastefulness, sudden choler, long irreconcilableness, scorn, inebriation, and many others) in the Scriptures, yet in no place of the Scripture is God, for any respect said to be proud; God in the Scriptures is never made so like man, as to be made capable of pride; for this had not been to have God like man, but like the devil.

God is said in the Scriptures to apparel himself gloriously; God covers him with light as with a garment 18; and so of his spouse the church it is said, Her clothing is of wrought gold, and her raiment of needlework; and, as though nothing in this world were good enough for her wearing, she is said to be clothed with the sun". But glorious apparel is not pride in them, whose conditions require it, and whose revenues will bear it. God is said in the Scriptures to appear with greatness and majesty, A stream of fire came forth before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him". And so Christ shall come at judgment, with his hosts of angels, in majesty and in glory. But these outward appearances and acts of greatness are not pride in those persons, to whom there is a reverence due, which reverence is preserved by this outward splendour, and not otherwise. God is said in the Scriptures to triumph over his enemies, and to be jealous of his glory; The Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God 22: but, for princes to be jealous of their glory, studious of their honour, for any private man to be jealous of his good name, careful to preserve

16 Jer. xxxi. 14, 25.
19 Psalm xlv. 13, 14.
21 Dan. vii. 10.

17 Isaiah xliii. 24.

18 Psalm civ. 2.
20 Rev. xii. 1.
22 Exod. xxxiv. 14.

an honest reputation, is not pride. For, pride is appetitus celsitudinis perversus, It is an inordinate desire of being better than

we are.

Now there is a lawful, nay a necessary desire of being better and better; and that, not only in spiritual things, (for so every man is bound to be better and better, better to-day than yesterday, and to-morrow than to-day, and he that grows not in religion, withers, there is no standing at a stay, he that goes not forward in godliness, goes backward, and he that is not better, is worse) but even in temporal things too there is a liberty given us, nay there is a law, an obligation laid upon us, to endeavour by industry in a lawful calling, to mend and improve, to enlarge ourselves, and spread, even in worldly things. The first commandment that God gave man, was not prohibitive; God, in that, forbad man nothing, but enlarged him with that Crescite, et multiplicamini, Increase and multiply", which is not only in the multiplication of children, but in the enlargement of possessions too; for so it follows in the same place, not only replete, but dominamini, not only replenish the world, but subdue it, and take dominion over it, that is, make it your own. For, Terram dedit filiis hominum, As God hath given sons to men, so God gives the possession of this world to the sons of men. For so when God delivers that commandment, the second time, to Noah, for the reparation of the world, Crescite et multiplicamini, Increase and multiply, he accompanies it with that reason, The fear of you, and the dread of you shall be upon all, and all are delivered into your hands; which reason can have no relation to the multiplying of children, but to the enlarging of possessions. God planted trees in Paradise in a good state at first; at first with ripe fruits upon them; but God's purpose was, that even those trees, though well then, should grow greater. God gives many men good estates from their parents at first; yet God's purpose is that they should increase those estates. He that leaves no more, than his father left him, (if the fault be in himself) shall hardly make a good account of his stewardship to God; for, he hath but kept his talent in a handkerchief 25. And the slothful man is even brother to the waster 2. The Holy Ghost in Solomon, scarce pre25 Matt. xxv. 18.

26

23 Gen. i. 28.

24 Gen. ix. 1.

26 Prov. xviii. 9.

fers him that does not get more, before him that wastes all. He makes them brethren; almost all one. Cursed be he that does the work of God negligently"; that does any commandment of God by halves; and this negligent and lazy man, this in-industrious and il-laborious man that takes no pains, he does one part of God's commandment, he does multiply, but he does not the other, he does not increase; he leaves children enough, but he leaves them nothing; not in possessions and maintenance, nor in vocation and calling.

And truly, howsoever the love of money be the root of all evil2o, (he cannot mistake that told us so) howsoever they that will be rich (that resolve to be rich by any means) shall fall into many tentations, howsoever a hasty desire of being suddenly and prematurely rich, be a dangerous and an obnoxious thing, a pestilent and contagious disease, (for what a perverse and inordinate anticipation and prevention of God and nature is it, to look for our harvest in May, or to look for all grains at once? and such a perverseness is the hasty desire of being suddenly and prematurely rich, yet, to go on industriously in an honest calling, and giving God his leisure, and giving God his portion all the way, in tithes, and in alms, and then, still to lay up something for posterity, is that, which God does not only permit and accept from us, but command to us, and reward in us. And certainly, that man shall not stand so right in God's eye at the last day, that leaves his children to the parish, as he that leaves the parish to his children, if he have made his purchases out of honest gain, in a lawful calling, and not out of oppression.

In all which, I would be rightly understood; that is, that I speak of such poverty as is contracted by our own laziness, or wastefulness. For otherwise, poverty that comes from the hand of God, is as rich a blessing as comes from his hand. He that is poor with a good conscience, that hath laboured and yet not prospered, knows to whom to go, and what to say, Lord, thou hast put gladness into my heart, more than in the time when corn and wine increased"; (more now, than when I had more) I will lay me down and sleep, for thou Lord only makest me to dwell in safety. Does every rich man dwell in safety? Can every rich man lay 29 Psalm iv. 7.

97 Jer. xlviii. 10.

28 1 Tim. vi. 10

down in peace and sleep? no, nor every poor man neither; but he that is poor with a good conscience, can. And, though he that is rich with a good conscience may, in a good measure, do so too, (sleep in peace) yet not so out of the sphere and latitude of envy, and free from the machinations and supplantations, and underminings of malicious men, that feed upon the confiscations, and build upon the ruins of others, as the poor man is.

Though then St. Chrysostom call riches Absurditatis parentes, the parents of absurdities, that they make us do, not only ungodly, but inhuman things, not only irreligious, but unreasonable things, uncomely and absurd things, things which we ourselves did not suspect that we could be drawn to, yet there is a growing rich, which is not covetousness, and there is a desire of honour and preferment, which is not pride. For, pride is, as we said before, Appetitus perversus, A perverse and inordinate desire, but there is a desire of honour and preferment, regulated by rectified reason; and rectified reason is religion. And therefore, (as we said) however other affections of man, may, and are, by the Holy Ghost, in Scriptures, in some respects ascribed to God, yet never pride. Nay, the Holy Ghost himself seems to be straightened, and in a difficulty, when he comes to express God's proceedings with a proud man, and his detestation of him, and aversion from him. There is a considerable, a remarkable, indeed a singular manner of expressing it, (perchance you find not the like in the whole Bible) where God says, Him that hath a high look, and a proud heart, I will not, (in our last) I cannot, (in our former translation). Not what? Not as it is in those translations, I cannot suffer him, I will not suffer him; for that word of suffering, is but a voluntary word, supplied by the translators; in the original, it is as it were an abrupt breaking off on God's part, from the proud man, and, (if we may so speak) a kind of froward departing from him. God does not say of the proud man, I cannot work upon him, I cannot mend him, I cannot pardon him, I cannot suffer him, I cannot stay with him, but merely I cannot, and no more, I cannot tell what to say of him, what to do for him; (Him that hath a proud heart, I cannot) pride is so contrary to God, as that the proud man, and he can meet in nothing. And

30 Psalm ci. 5.

this consideration hath kept us thus long, from that which we made our first and principal collection, that this commandment of humility, was imprinted in our very first word, sequere, follow, be content to come after, to denote how early and primary a sin pride is, and how soon it entered into the world, and how soon into us; and that consideration we shall pursue now,

We know that light is God's eldest child, his first-born of all creatures; and it is ordinarily received, that the angels are twins with the light, made then when light was made. And then the first act, that these angels that fell, did, was an act of pride. They did not thank nor praise God, for their creation; (which should have been their first act) they did not solicit, nor pray to God for their sustentation, their melioration, their confirmation; (so they should have proceeded) but the first act that those first creatures did, was an act of pride, a proud reflecting upon themselves, a proud overvaluing, of their own condition, and an acquiescence in that, in an imaginary possibility of standing by themselves, without any farther relation, or beholdingness to God. So early, so primary a sin is pride, as that it was the first act of the first of creatures.

So early, so primary a sin, as that whereas all pride now is but a comparative pride, this first pride in the angels was a positive, a radical pride. The Pharisee is but proud, That he is not as other men are31; that is but a comparative pride. No king thinks himself great enough, yet he is proud that he is independent, sovereign, subject to none. No subject thinks himself rich enough, yet he is proud that he is able to oppress others that are poorer, Et gloriatur in malo, quia potens est 32, He boasteth himself in mischief, because he is a mighty man. But all these are but comparative prides; and there must be some subjects to compare with, before a king can be proud, and some inferiors, before the magistrate, and some poor, before the rich man can be proud. But this pride in those angels in heaven, was a positive pride; there were no other creatures yet made, with whom these angels could compare themselves, and before whom these angels could prefer themselves, and yet before there was any other creature but themselves, any other creature, to undervalue, or insult 31 Luke xviii. 11. 32 Psalm Lii, i.