13. What if men should yield unto thy derisions, and forsake a holy life to please thee? Wouldst thou undertake to justify them or be answerable for them before that God, that required holiness, and will condemn all the unholy? Wouldst thou bring them off, and save them from damnation? Alas! poor soul, how unable wilt thou be to save thyself! And wilt thou take them for wise men, if they displease the Lord, and go to hell to humour such a one as thou?
14. Thou wilt not thyself be mocked out of thy house, or land, or right, nor from thy meat, or drink, or rest: wouldst thou cast these away, if another should mock but thee for using them? I think thou wouldst not. And wouldst thou have wise men be mocked out of their salvation?
15. Thou wouldst not think it reasonable that thy children or servants be derided for loving or obeying thee? or thy very horse dispraised for serving thee? And do they owe thee more, than we all owe God?
16. God highly honoureth them and dearly loveth them, for that very thing that thou hatest and deridest them for. John xvi. 27, and xiv. 21, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Psal. xi. 7, "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance doth behold the upright." Psal. cxlvi. 8, "The Lord loveth the righteous." 2 Cor. vi. 16-19, "For ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And darest thou scorn the sons and daughters of the Almighty? even for that very thing for which he hath promised to receive them, and to be a Father to them? How contrary then art thou to God! Mal. iii. 16-18, "A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name; and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels: and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him:" and darest thou scorn God's jewels, and those that are thus precious to him? "For them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed," 1 Sam. ii. 30. And wilt thou be one of his despisers, opposing that in others, for which God himself hath promised to honour them?
17. To hate and scorn at holiness, is to hate and scorn at God's own image; and the clearest image of God that is under heaven; even that which Christ came down from heaven to give us the first draught of; even that copy of the holy life of Christ, which by the Spirit of God is drawn upon the heart.[556] And he that scorneth at this image of God, doth scorn at the Holy Ghost that made it, and scorn at Christ who gave us the first pattern, and scorn at God himself whose image it is. Saith Chrysostom, God is loved and hated in his servants, as a king is honoured or despised in his image. And he that dare scorn God, and scorn Jesus Christ, and scorn the Holy Ghost, in the image of God upon his children, methinks should never have the face once to expect to be saved by the God that he doth scorn.