The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…

It is in this case between a natural man and his sin, as it was between Demetrius and his goddess Diana, Acts 19. you shall see here, when Saint Paul began to preach against the gods that were made with hands, he said nothing against Diana in particular, but lays down this for a general ground and position, that they were no gods that were made with hands, Demetrius soon saw the consequence of this doctrine, that then Diana would be no goddess at all; see now how Demetrius pleadeth the case to his fellow crafts-men: The truth is, saith he, we all know, that by this craft we get our livings, and we are all maintained by Diana, now if she fall to the ground, as one Paul preacheth, and laboureth earnestly to have her down, as being no goddess, if she prove to be no deity, certainly we are all undone, all our trade will come to nothing, therefore let us join hands together to defend her honour: upon this all the City was in an uproar, and there ariseth a great cry amongst them, for the space of two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. What is the reason? Paul would pull down Diana, therefore it is high time to maintain her honour, Paul would throw down the gods made with silver and gold, therefore it was high time for him to stand for those gods that he might also maintain those profits that came to him by them. So it is, my brethren, with all the sinful courses of wicked men in the world: All the while the Word of God is so taught, that men observe no kind of crossness in it to their own corruptions, men will bear it with much quietness, but if a man have a Diana in his heart, a sin that he loves, a sin that brings him in pleasure or profit, a sin that by no means he will lose, as the worldling, he must have his gold, and the adulterer must have his queans, and the drunkard his cups, let the Word of God offer but to pluck these away, and you shall have an uproar presently, and they will all cry out, our ⟨p. 231⟩trading will fail, our delights will be gone, and we shall never see any more good days. My brethren, I know not how it is here, but this we find by woeful experience, in the country, too often: Let us but thwart young men in their sports, we shall see them so much the more violently bent upon them, even because the will of God is manifested to the contrary; And why?

It is in this case between a naturall man and his sinne, as it was between Demetrius and his goddesse Diana,