Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

O f nod:fait. 3 27 belowed vpon fomeofthem, fo they are continued to their whole kind and race, vnlefle Tome by accident do degene- rate : as for example, thus cions and yong grafts refemble the tree from which they were cut, admitting no alteration, though they be grafted into a new locke; and thus horfes take after their race, dogs after their kind, and hawkes and and other Fowles participate the nature and properties of that lraine whereof they arebred. Lally, nobilitie ferueth for good vfe, as it is a meanes both to refiraine from vice, or at leal fromopen and notorious crimes,and to prouokc men to good andvertuous a6tions; for being hereby as lights fet vpon an hill,vpon which the eies ofall men are fixed and fa- fiened, they are retrained from many open and grofl'e fins, for feare ofdifhonoring themfelues and blemifhing their re- putation, and incited to many verrues and ciuil aétions, for the maintaining of their credit and elimation : which ends, though they be not religioufly good in themfelues, when as they are only, or chiefly propounded, yet are they the caufe and occafion of good both to the Church and com- mon-wealth.By all which it appeareth,that nobilitie is to be much eleemed ofall, and to be reuerenced and refpe&ted of inferiours;and therefore thofe fpeeches of Heathen Philofo- phers,and alto ofmanyChritian writers,'which tend to the bringing in a paritie amongl the faithful], and an abfolute contempt ofnobility,are either themfelues to be contemned and reieéted,or eis to be applied to that falfe and counterfeit nobilitie, which confileth only in outward titles, and in the worth ofancelors, being in it felfe worthleffe and deflitute of all vertue and goodneffe. Which error that we alto may not fall into,in (hewing the §. SeCt.3. vanitie of nobilitie, we mull dillinguifh it into two kinds: That true nobi the firl we may tearme true and compleate nobilitie, when litieis much to as men doe ioyne with that honor, which they haue from be honored ad their ancelors, their owne vertues and good deferts, efpeci- re fpe5ted. ally religion and true godlineffe ; that fo they may be noble, not only by inheritance, but as it were by their ownepur- chafe, and appeare no ieflTe good in the fiightofGod, then glotius in the eyes of men. And this is that true nobilitie, Y 4 which