Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

Of the vanitie ofPrincesfauour.r.. 309 phants moue them to difpleafure..Ofthis Daisid had experi- ence, Who being greatly in Sault fauour, fuddenly procured his hatred, for no othercaufe, but by his owne worth and good deferts, and the others iealoufie and vniuft fitfpition. And therefore hauing by his owne experience, come to the knovvledgeofthis inconf ancieand mutabilitie;hefaiththat it is better to tru in the Lord, then tohaue confidence in Prin. Pfaim.rr8.g. ces, becaufe where heloareth,he /meth to the end: his loue and Iohn fauourbeing immutable and vnchangeable. To which pur - pole al to fereeiie faith, thatthe hope ofthehils is but vale, and Ierem.3 r.3. the multìiudt of themountaine.s, but in the Lord our God is the health oflfrael. But though it were granted that the fauour ofPrinceswere immutable, yet there is no caufe why wee fhould fee our harts much vpö it, for as much as théfelues are mortall,and readie to leave vs when we Moll beare our felues vpon them, and to falle vs when as we thinks their loue our chiefefltengrh . And this argttmetit Daukivfethtodiffwade Pfalm.t463.4 vs from trutiing in Princes, becaufe their breath deparreth, and they returning to their earth, all their thoughrsperifh; accounting him bleffed who puts his whole confidence in the Lord, whole loue is vnchangcable and himfelfe eternal!, andnot in theKings and potentates of she earth, whole loue is mutable, and themfelues mortali, and confequetidy their favours are a vaine flay to reti vpon, feeing they die w ith them: neitherlet any man thinke,that their fauoursreceiued are annexed to the crowne, and will continue by fuccefìion, feeing there is nothing more common, then.for the heire to hate them, whom his father orpredece4fourloped and etiee- med; it being the nature of foueraigne power not to ioy muchin others loue,but rather to delight themfelues in crea- tures of their owne making. But as this fauour of worldly Princes is vaine, fo allo is it 4.Sea.i3. vnprofitable;neither bringingto thole that haue it any great Thatthefguors good, nor exempting and freeing them from any great euil: ofprincesate it doth -not make them better or more vertuous; yea often- vnprofitable. times inuchWorfe, andmore vitiousthen thole that ia ant it, puling them Vp With pride, and caufing them to be infolent in all their carriage and behauiour. It cloth not free them X 3 from