The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

What grief sufficient to lament the seeing of such filthy swine to trample under their feet such precious pearls? in all ages thus it hath been. Those who were indeed the true honourable upon the earth, such precious and excellent spirited men, as of whom the world was not worthy; and yet they have been most vilely abused, and are so still by this wretched world, who know not wherein true worth and excellency consists. Matth. 5. 12. Christ telling his Disciples how ill the world would use them, he tells them, they have as good use from it, as the Prophets had before them. How was Micaiah (a man of a very sweet and excellent spirit) contumeliously used? ⟨p. 144⟩he was struck on the mouth, shut up in prison to be fed with water & bread; yea, with the water and bread of affliction, while 430 false Prophets, most base spirited men, were fed delicately at Jezebels table. How was Jeremiah used? he was thrown into the dungeon, stuck up almost to the ears in the mire; the Word of the Lord was made a reproach unto him daily. David before them, (a man in whom Gods soul delighted, yet he) complains of himself, that he was a reproach of men, and despised of the people: all that saw him, laughed him to scorn; they shot out the lip, and shook their head at him, Psal. 22. 6, 7. and Job before him, he was made a by-word of the people, and as a Tabret unto them; as he says of himself, Chap. 17. 6. The same use had the blessed Apostles, who were filled with the Spirit of God; none more scorned, persecuted, contemned, than they. The most worthy and famous men in the Primitive times, found no ⟨p. 145⟩better use than these. It were infinite to instance in particulars. Ignatius, Polycarpus, Athanasius, Chrysostom, ¹Basil, and the rest, reproached, banished from their people; persecuted, and exceedingly contumeliously used. In later times, the more excellent the spirits of men were, the worse use did they ever find from the world: We might instance in Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, Zwinglius, Musculus, &c. I cannot pass by that sad example of Musculus, who was a ²