But man was made for nobler ends, created Lord of the lower world; not to serve, but to be served by other creatures; a mercy able to melt the hardest heart into thankfulness. I remember, Luther pressing men to be thankful, that they are not brought into the lowest condition of creatures,1 and to bless God that they can see any creature below themselves, gives us a famous instance in the following story: Two Cardinals (saith he) riding in a great deal of pomp to the Council of Constance, by the way they heard a man in the fields; weeping and wailing bitterly, they rode to him, and asked what he ailed? perceiving his eye intently fixed upon an ugly toad, he told them that his heart was melted with the consideration of this mercy, that God had not made him such ⟨p. 207⟩a deformed and loathsome creature, though he were formed out of the same clay with it: Hoc est quod amare fleo, said he, This is that, that makes me weep bitterly. Whereupon one of the Cardinals cries out, Well said the Father, the unlearned will rise and take heaven, when we with all our learning shall be thrust into hell. That which melted the heart of this poor man, should melt every heart when we behold the misery to which these poor creatures are subjected, And this will appear a mercy of no slight consideration, if we but draw a comparison betwixt our selves, and these irrational creatures, in these three particulars.
But man was made for nobler ends, created Lord of the lower world; not to serve, but to be served by other creatures; a mercy able to melt the hardest heart into thankfulness. I remember, Luther pressing men to be thankful, that they are not brought into the lowest condition of creatures,1 and to bless God that they can see any creature below themselves, gives us a famous instance in the following story: Two Cardinals (saith he) riding in a great deal of pomp to the Council of Constance, by the way they heard a man in the fields; weeping and wailing bitterly, they rode to him, and asked what he ailed? perceiving his eye intently fixed upon an ugly toad, he told them that his heart was melted with the consideration of this mercy, that God had not made him such ⟨p. 207⟩a deformed and loathsom creature, though he were formed out of the same clay with it: Hoc est quod amare fleo, said he, This is that, that makes me weep bitterly. Whereupon one of the Cardinals cryes out, Well said the Father, the unlearned will rise and take heaven, when we with all our learning shall be thrust into hell. That which melted the heart of this poor man, should melt every heart when we behold the misery to which these poor creatures are subjected, And this will appear a mercy of no slight consideration, if we but draw a comparison betwixt our selves, and these irrational creatures, in these three particulars.
- 1Luther in 3. pre••pt.Luth•r in 3. pre••pt.
