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…

Secondly, you had need of other spirits, for the improving of the large ¹opportunities of service for God and his Church, that you have more than others; these are as great blessings, as your estates, or any dignities ⟨p. 206⟩you have above others. God betrusts you with much, in giving you such large opportunities of service, for the honour of his great Name. If your birth be high, your estates high, and your spirits endued with excellency from on high, how fit then are you to be used by God in high and honourable services? Hence the conversion of a great man is of exceeding great consequence; whereupon Saint Paul was so loath to lose the Conversion of the Deputy Sergius Paulus, who began to listen to his preaching; of whom we read Acts 13. verse 7. and so on: Therefore when Elymas withstood him in this work, seeking to turn away the Deputy from the Faith, the spirit of S. Paul rose against him with much indignation; and being filled with the Holy Ghost, he set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil thou enemy of righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now behold the hand of ⟨p. 207⟩the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind. As if S. Paul should have said, What? will you hinder me in such a great work as this, wherein God may have so much honour in the conversion of this Noble-man, this man of public and eminent place? this indeed is to be full of all mischief, to be an enemy of all righteousness. Thus you see how his spirit was stirred when he was put in fear of being hindered in such a notable prize as this: As a man when likely to have a great draught, there comes in one and disturbs him, and is like to hinder him of it. Surely, S. Paul saw that it was a wonderful great blessing to the Church, to have great men to be brought in, to the obedience of the faith, and to be added to it.

Secondly, you had need of other spirits, for the improving of the large ¹opportunities of service for God and his Church, that you have more than others; these are as great blessings, as your estates, or any dignities