214 ¡ The deceit f dne e of- kans heart. Avon oinn- ono ,- pc/ ?lthl writing! . but filthire f is mor, confidently pra- h tarp " ":' t ifeiGv redj'nofthof 7xords. Whatfoeuer good it!. Herr verbz a(fa comrnod zvsdtr `is we:may thinke to come vnto by finning, it is no- cantur,ltd per ! thing to that hurt wee doe to our owne foules in fin do hoc.Ì'ning. It were madneffe to loofe athoufand Pound, dentim perpe. to gaine a hundred : much more to loofe it for no- tratur. 'thing, miffing of that hoped for hundred. So it is 'here in this deceit. In not finning, when wee are tempted, there is an vnípeakeable good : now vvhen we finne vpon hope of fome great good , firft vvee doofe the good of abftaining from finne, of keeping our felues pure from that defilement. This wee wittingly loofe : Now that great good wee thinke to winne by this Joffe , is in comparifon with this, but as a dranane to a talent. This were bad enough one would thinke : Yet here is not all. For betides the lofíe wee purpofely put our felues unto , we bofe alto that vve hoped to gaine by this loffe,both the talent and the dramme too. -As Saul, . when by this wicked execration_, and cruel]. prohi- bition offood to thepeople;he thought to haue fur- thered the viecory againft the Philiftimes , indeed he hindred it,as Ionat4an.obferued t For ifthe peo. ple had not Beene out of -heart for want -of fide they might farre more valiantly haue purftied' their aduerfaries. And fo it fareth with vs , as with the Dogge in the Fable, that letting fall the flefh that j was in his niouth,> xo,catch at the fhadow thereof, I loft both that hee had; -,a rcithat hee thqüght to haue had, both fubftance and fhadow too. For indeed, that good, which . wee procure by frnning,is rather a fhadow of good; then any true good: When wee doe
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