Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

And secondly, it may teach them as not to Trust, so not to Swell with these things neither. It is an argument of their windiness and emptiness that they are apt to make men swell; whereas if they cannot change a hair of a mans head, nor add an inch to his stature, they can much less make an accession of the least dram of merit, or real value to the owners of them. And surely if men could seriously consider, That they are still members of the same common body, and that of a twofold body, a civill and a mystical body, and that though they haply may be the more honourable parts in one body, yet in the other they may be the less honourable; that the poor whom they despise may in Christs body have a higher room then they (as the Apostle saith, Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, Rich in faith, Jam. 2. 5.) I say, if men could compare things rightly together, and consider that they are but the greater letters in the same volume, and the poor the smaller, though they take up more room, yet they put no more matter nor worth into the word which they compound, they would never suffer the tympany and inflation of pride or superciliousness, of self-attributions, or contempt of their meaner brethren to prevail within them. We see ⟨p. 12⟩in the natural body though the head have a Hat on of so many shillings price, and the foot a Shoo of not half so many pence, yet the head doth not therefore despise the foot, but is tender of it, and doth derive influence as well unto that as to any nobler part:

And secondly, it may teach them as not to Trust, so not to Swell with these things neither. It is an argument of their windinesse and emptinesse that they are apt to make men swell; whereas if they cannot change a haire of a mans head, nor adde an inch to his stature, they can much lesse make an accession of the least dramme of merit, or reall value to the owners of them. And surely if men could seriously consider, That they are still members of the same common bodie, and that of a twofold body, a civill and a mysticall body, and that though they haplie may bee the more honorable parts in one body, yet in the other they may be the lesse honorable; that the poore whom they despise may in Christs body have a higher roome then they (as the Apostle saith, Hath not God chosen the poore in this world, Rich in faith, Iam. 2. 5