A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse…

Seventhly, Take heed of pride and haughtiness of Spirit: Hosea 5. 5. And the pride of Israel doth testify to ¹his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them. Ver. 6. They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them. Pride is the great master-pock of the soul, it will bud, and ²blossom, it cannot be hid; it is the Leprosy of the soul, that breaks forth in the very forehead, and so testifieth to his face. Some have called Rome, Epitomen universi, An Epitome, or Abridgement of the whole world: So it ⟨p. 187⟩may be said of pride, that it is the sum of all naughtiness, a Sea of sin, a complicated sin, a mother sin, sin, a breeding sin, a sin that has all sorts of sin in the womb of it; consult the Scriptures in the margin. Aristotle ³speaking of Justice, saith, that in Justice all virtues are couched, [Greek or Hebrew], summarily; so it may be truly said of pride, that in it all vices are as it were in a bundle lapped up together; and therefore no wonder if God withdraw his presence from proud persons, [He hath withdrawn himself from them.] Heb. Hath snatched ⁴away himself; hath thrown himself out of their company, as Peter threw himself out from the rude Soldiers ⁵into a by-corner, to weep bitterly. God will have nothing to do with proud persons, he will never dwell with them, he will never keep house with them; he that dwells in the highest heavens, will never dwell in ⁶a haughty heart. [The proud he knoweth afar of] He won't vouchsafe to come so near such loathsome Lepers, he stands of from such as odious and abominable, he cannot abide the sight of them, yea his very heart rises against