A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

The honour of this world is merely titular. Either enfeoffed to the blood: ••d what glory is it to the degenerate son, that such a noble Father begot him? •ll greatness had a beginning, and the beginning of that greatness was Desert. Am noble? let me know, this Nobleness is the lest part of mine: my fathers won it •y their virtue: they had the glory, I enjoy but the Titles. This privilege of blood, without respondent virtues, is but an empty conduit pipe: it is a pipe still, but it hath •o water in it. Another by his just merit hath gotten honour: it is derided, because is not derived: yet is that man more truly honourable. For the other wears •ut the shadow of his Predecessors triumphs: this man wears the substance of his •wne. Et que non fecimus ipsi, vix ea nostra voco. It was a witty answer, that a young gentleman gave to Arn•bius, one who disgraced his honour because it was of •he first head: my Genealogy. is a shame to me, but thou art a shame to •y Genealogy. Or, as a Prelates son said to a noble heir, who twitted •s upstart Gentry: Ego sum ortus domus meae, tuos casus tua: I am the East or ring of my house, thou art the West, and falling of thine. It is a shame for a man •o think, that the book of his Pedigree, and his Fathers Seal-ring, are sufficient emblems of honour: that he is glorious enough, because he is •attered. Or, it may •ee, there is an honour entailed to riches as in the City, credit grows just as fast as money: and in the country, reputation is measured by the acre. Then honour must •e overtaken, when it cannot be met. And now some honourable progenitor must •e found out, that either was dead many hundred years since, or never was noble […] perhaps never was at all. Moses condemned it for a heinous sin to steal children: •ut we have those that think it no sin to steal parents. This is a popular, ticular, ridiculous honour. If thou wouldest know such a one, Nudum ispice, looe upon him ked, saith Seneca. Depona patrimnd, let him put off his patriioie, let him […] ff the vain acclamations of the multitude, let him put off his popularity, let him […] of his opulence; & al fotuidudaci, and all the other constties of […] une: corpus ipsum exuat, animum intuere: let him put off his very body, look […] o his soul. Then thou must see, Quiail quart nf, no […] gnuo;