The gallants burden A sermon preached at Pauls Cross, the twenty nine of March,…The gallants burden A sermon preached at Paules Crosse, the twentie nine of March,…

To speak more particularly, Be not too confident (who so ever) in thy Mount Seir; every wicked soul hath her Mount Seir to trust in: they that have no assurance of rest in Heaven, have their Refuges and Mountains of help of Earth; David so returns it upon the wicked:¹ In the Lord put I my trust, how then say you to my soul, flee as a Bird to your Mom •taine. Why should I seek to foreign helps, that have settled my self in the bosom of Rest it self? Riches are a Mount Seir to the Covetous, they rest on them, as the Ark on the Mountains of Armenta: Honour is a Mount Seir to the Ambitious, against all the besiegings of rivals: Sensuality to the Voluptuous, against all the disturbances of a clamorous Conscience: Pride, Fraud, Drunkenness, is a Mount Seir to the lovers; but alas, how unsafe? if stronger against, and further removed from the hand of man, yet nearer to Gods hand in Heaven: though we acknowledge no place (Procul a••o•e, or, procul a fulmine) far from God, or from his thunder: But we say, it is not safest sailing on the top of the Mast, to land on the mountainous height of a temporal estate, is neither wise nor happy: Men standing in the shade of humble Valleys, look up and wonder at the height of Hills, and think it goodly living there, as Peter thought Tabor, ⟨image 14⟩but when with weary limbs they have ascended,² and find the beams of the Sun melting their spirits, or the cold blasts of Wind making their Sinews stark, flashes of Lightning, or cracks of Thunder, soonest endangering their advanced heads, then they confess (decking their proud Conceit,) the low valley is safest: for the fruitful Dews that fall first on the Hills, stay least while there, but run down to the Valleys: and though on such a promontory a man further sees, and is farther seen, yet in the Valley, where he sees less, he enjoys more: Take heed then, least to raise thy Mount Seir high, thou dejectest thy soul low:³ Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the Mountains of Samaria: If we build our Houses by Unrighteousness, and our Chambers without equity, though as strong as Mount Seir, they shall not be able to stand in the Earth-quake of Judgement: God so threatens Jehoiakim: