How can a man be made more incapable of the Spirit of Christ, than by a wrong value for money; and yet how can he be more wrong in his value of it, than by following the authority of the Christian world?
*Nay, in every order and station of life, whether of learning or business, either in church or state, you cannot act up to the spirit of religion, without renouncing the most general temper and behaviour of those, who are of the same order and business as yourself.
*And though human prudence seems to talk mighty wisely about the necessity of avoiding particularities, yet he that dares not be so weak as to be particular, will be obliged to avoid the most substantial duties of Christian piety.
These reflections, will, I hope, help you to break through those difficulties, and resist those temptations, which the authority and fashion of the world hath raised against the practice of Christian humility.
CHAP. XIV.
Shewing how the education which men generally receive, makes the doctrines of humility difficult to be practised. The spirit of a better education represented in the character of Paternus.
1.ANOTHER difficulty in the practice of humility, arises from our education. We are corruptly educated, and then committed to take our course in a corrupt world; so that it is no wonder, if examples of great piety are so seldom seen.
Great part of the world are undone, by being born and bred in families that have no religion.
But this is not the thing I now mean; the education that I here intend, is such as children generally receive from virtuous parents, and learned tutors and governors.