thou reserve the top of thy affections? for thy gold? for thy
_Herodias_, &c. O yee adulterers and adultresses, can yee offer God a
baser indignity? What ayleth the world? Is it afrayd thinke we, that God
can have too much love; who in regard of his owne infinite beauty, & the
beames he vouchsafeth to cast upon us, deserves the best, yea all, and a
thousand times more then all? Ought not all the springs and brookes of
our affection, to runne into this Maine? may not hee justly disdaine,
that the least Riveret should bee drained another way? that any thing in
the world should bee respected before him, equalled with him, or loved
out of him, of whom, for whom, and through whom are all things? Who, or
what can bee sufficient for him our Maker and Saviour? In other objects
feare excesse: here no extasie is high enough.

[Sidenote: 2. From his spirituall nature.]

Consider and reason thus with thy selfe (O man) canst thou brooke a
sluggard in thy worke, if thou bee of any spirit thy selfe? is not a
slothfull messenger as vinegar to thy teeth, and as smoake to thine
eyes? Hast thou any sharpnesse of wit, is not dulnesse tedious unto
thee? And shall hee that is all spirit (for whom the Angels are slow and
colde enough) take pleasure in thy drowzie and heavie service? Doe men
choose the forwardest Deere in the heard, and the liveliest Colt in the
drove? and is the backwardest man fittest for God? Is not all his
delight in the quickest and cheerefullest givers and servitors? Even to
_Judas_ he saith, That thou doest, doe quickely; so odious is dulnesse
unto him: what else mooved him to ordaine, that the necke of the
consecrated Asse should bee broken, rather then offered up in sacrifice;
doth God hate the Asse? Or is it not for the sake of the quality of the
creature; which hath ever among the Heathens beene an _Hieroglyphick_ of
heavinesse and tardity?