Downame - Puritan-02038 v2

Of the vanitie ofworldly nobilitie. 3 37 cient, there being no hiflories that make mention of any common - wealth,which was conflitutedlong after the com- mon- wealth ofIfrael: for whereas all writings and records were meerely fabulous among the Heathens before the wars ofTroy; the learned haue found that this warre was long af- ter the fetling of the ¡late of Ifrael, when as they had lephthe for their ludge. Finally, there was neuer any nation, ho could fo plainly and diflinêtly íhew the antiquitieof their houles and kinred, by reafon ofrhat exact diuilon oftheir tribes, families and inheritances, which was rcligioutly ob_ ferued among them.But yet what did all thisnobilitie of the people oflfrael auaile them, when as degenerating from their anceftors, theylotl their vernies, the true life and fouie oftheirnobility, and became vicious and polluted with all manner ofíinne? Surely notliiiigat all; for do not the Pro- phets ofGod notwithflanaingall this (looking vnto what they were,and not refpenlingfrom whom they were defcen- Efai.r.k.to. ded) call them the feed of the wicked,corrupt children,peo- pie of Gomorrah? Do they not tellthem,that the curfed Ca- naniteswere their kilned, their father an Amotite, and their Ezech.t6.3. mother an Hittite ?Yea doth not lohn the Baptifl go further, calling them a generation of vipers, and charging them no more to challengeAbrahamfor their father,feeing they no- thing refembled him in his faith and other vertucs ?And doth Matth.3.7.9. not our Sauiour himfelfe difgrace them with the fame title? and when they gloried in their nobility, becaufe they were Matth.rz.34. effbrahamsfeed, Both not he tell them,that if they were the children of Abraham, they would do the workes of sAbra- Iohn 8.44. ham, and plainly affirmeth that they were the children of the diuell, becaufethey did his will, and refembled him in per- forming their wicked lulls? So fit-tall account haue Chrift and his Prophets made of this worldly nobility, being feue- red from vertue and polluted with vice and wickednes.Nei- therisit any marucl lif that nobility which is deriued from earthly parents,doth nought profit thofe who do not imitate theirvertue, whenaskinred and confanguinity with Chrift Ieftishimfelfe, who was not only man, but alto the glorious Sonne ofGod, did notat all auaile thofe, who were not as Z. nette