Gods husbandry

The hypocrite (if he be a Preacher) doth labour (as with child of a longing desire) to be counted the best, or one of the best Preachers in the country; if he be only a private man, he desireth to be esteemed one of the forwardest professors, and pleaseth himself well in such fancies; yea, he hath a sensible edge, and a kind of core against those, that stand betwixt him and this reputation. Neither can he well away with such, as bear away the credit and applause from him: as you may perceive plainly in Diotrephes, and in the Pharisees; so his religiousness hath a tack of the same fault, that his civill righteousness hath. But the true-hearted Christian serveth God in humility of spirit, not heeding what men deem of him, further than their want of respecting him, will be an impediment to his doing of good.¹ He seeks not praise of men, neither of you nor others, as Paul saith to his Thessalonians. Wherefore he doth not things of contention, whetting himself on, and putting an edge upon himself, with a hope and desire of doing better than such an one, or putting down such an one; but purely (out of a longing desire to glorify God, sets himself to do the best he can, rejoicing with his whole heart, to see the well-doing ⟨p. 67⟩of others; yea, glad at the soul, to see them far exceed himself, and wishing (with Paul) that all men were like him, yea, beyond him in all graces, And if contentious, vain-glorious, emulatory conceits arise within him, he knits his brows against them, with as true heat of anger against himself, as Moses had once against Joshua, when he chode him sharply, saying; Dost thou envy for my sake? ²But happily it may fall out, that the hypocrite will be driven from serving himself in this vain-glorious fashion; yet then he looketh to himself with a more sinister eye, if more may be: for he becomes a servant to his own heart superstitiously, as those great sacrificers in the Prophet,³ that would fain come before God with thousands of Rams, and with Rivers of Oil; yea, that would give their children for their sins, the fruit of their body for the faults of their souls, refusing no cost nor hardness, to earn pardon, and deserve remission, or make satisfaction, or redeem to themselves an hope of liberty to sin in some other kind. They would pay. GOD for their evil deeds, with such good deeds;