The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please…

6. Be not proud for any external worldly goods, nor for any internal spiritual gifts. Not for external goods, because, that as they came lately, so they will shortly be gone again; their loss therefore is the less to be grieved at. Not for any internal gifts: for as God gave them, so will he likewise take them away, if (forgetting the giver) thou shalt abuse his gifts, to puff up thine heart with a pride of thine own worth; and contemn others, for whose good Almighty God bestowed those gifts upon thee. Hast thou any one virtues that moves thee to be self-conceited? thou hast twenty vices that may better vilify thee in thine own eyes.

6. Be not proud for any external worldly goods, nor for any internal spiritual gifts. Not for external goods, because, that as they came lately, so they will shortly be gone again; their loss therefore is the less to be grieved at. Not for any internal gifts: for as God gave them, so will he likewise take them away, if (forgetting the giver) thou shalt abuse his gifts, to puff up thine heart with a pride of thine own worth; and contemn others, for whose good Almighty God bestowed those gifts upon thee. Hast thou any one vertus that moves thee to be self-conceited? thou hast twenty vices that may better vilisie thee in thine own eyes.

Be the^* same in the sight of God, who beholds thy heart, that thou seemest to be in the eyes of Men, that see thy face. Content ⟨p. 181⟩not thy self with^* an outward good n•mè, when thy Conscience shall inwardly tell thee it is undeserved, and therefore none of thine. A deserved good name for any thing, but for godliness, lasts little, and is less worth. In all the holy Scriptures, I never read of an Hypocrite's repentance: and no wonder; for whereas after sin conversion is left as a means, to cure all other sinners, what means remain to recover him who hath converted conversion it self into sin? Woe therefore unto the Soul that is not, and yet still seemeth religious.