Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life

In the sixth place you shall have modesty mixed with much magnanimity,¹ which is rarely found in men, endued only with Moral or Civill gifts, but in nature the more modest, the less magnanimous. But a Christian, the more modest he is, the more magnanimous; look at Paul, and touching the righteousness which is of the Law, he is endued with many carnal privileges according to the Law, but now all these are but loss, and dross, and dung, that he might win Christ; all his good parts of nature, and all his, common gifts of grace, yet all of them but dross, and dung; this was the modest spirit of Paul, a man who sometimes saith of himself, He was not inferior to the very chief Apostles, 2 Cor. 12.11. yet again saith he, I am nothing, there is his magnanimity. When he is opposed, and vilified by the false Apostles; what hath Paul forgot his modesty, now, that he knows not how to submit himself, nor to compare himself with his equals? No, but though chief of the Apostles, yet am I nothing. He looks at every thing he had as nothing; This I am, but yet I am nothing. He sometimes calls himself, the least of all the Apostles, 1 Cor. 15.9, 10 and yet other whiles, not inferior to the very chief of them. ⟨p. 116⟩Sometimes he calls himself, the least of all Saints, Eph. 3.8. and yet sometimes, not inferior to the very chief Apostles; and this he had learned, he had been instructed thus to deny himself; he desired, that he might know nothing but Christ, and him crucified. See the noble spirit of this self-denial servant of God; sometimes, whey the Magistrates had done him wrong, see then how he stands upon his privileges, he complains, they had beaten him, a Roman, being uncondemned, Act. 16.9. and when they heard this, they would have sent him away privately; nay, let them come and fetch him out. See now, a man of a great and magnanimous spirit, though a man as fit to put up wrongs as any man, yet when he sees the glory of God is interested in his person, and his calling, or his cause is called in question, then he knows how to stand upon his worth; and if in such a case he sustain open wrong, then he will plead the liberty of a Subject; whereas at another time, he would have done more to a far less man then a Magistrate; He is become all things to all men, that he might save some every way;