Vile Conceits!

" ... what is more ordinary than to cast aspersions upon godliness, that it makes men to be dull, heavy, stupid fools, not fit for the great and high things of the world.

And therefore they labor to

stifle any beginnings of godliness in their children,

or anyone near them,

for fear it should hinder their parts and take away the quickness of their wits and bravery of their spirits. Unless you think that to be the only bravery of spirit;

to venture upon anything that may further your own ends;

not to fear sin,

nor the displeasure of an infinite God;

to let out your hearts to the utmost in satisfying your own desires;

to examine nothing by rule

but to do whatever is good in your own eyes;

to rejoice in the ways of sin and

to deceive yourself in the proud swellings of your own heart;

to be able to scorn at conscience, humiliation for sin, and strictness in God's ways as too mean a thing for men of such quality,

of such birth as you are,
of such estates,
hopes,
preferments,
and designs as you have ...

if this is the excellency of your spirits, then godliness refutes them indeed. Yea, it debases them as low as hell itself. It casts shame in the faces of, and breaks in pieces, such haughty, swollen spirits as these are. It brings them down to lie at God's feet as poor, contemptible creatures in their own eyes, loathing and abhorring themselves, as their is infinite cause they should ... " (Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit: Delivered in a Treatise on Numbers 14:24. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. Print. 70-71, emphasis and line breaks mine)