Nothynge  weygh  your  descents,  your  petigrees,  though  fette
from  farthest  auncientye  .  .  .  what  other  are  they  in  respect
of  this  Nobilitye  then  rubbyshe,  as  Paul  termeth  them.  .  ..
He  humble  wyll  rayse  ye  hyghe  ;  He  poore  will  enryche  ye  ;
He  vnnoble  will  make  ye  most  noble.  Nor  will  he  reeue  the
nobilitye  ye  haue,  but  geue  ye  grace  to  vse  it.  Then  this
Nobilitye  nothyng  nobler.  Nor  ought  more  honourable  then
he  whoe  borne  to  God,  regenerate  in  Chryst,  stampynge
[on]  forreine  pompe,  reposeth  hym  selfe  in  this  heauenlye
and  Chrystyan  Gentrye.  Of  this  father,  thys  brother,  these
auncestoures,  who  so  is  borne  is  both  most  happelye  and  trulye
Noble.
1563,  L.  Humfrey,  The  Nobles,  or  Of  Nobilitye,  bk..  ii.
Christ  utterly  confounded  this  vanity  [of  birth]  when  He
descended  himselfe  of  the  greatest  nobility  that  ever  was  in
this  world,  and  besides  that,  being  the  sonne  of  God,  yet
called  he  commonly  himself  the  son  of  man,  that  is  to  say,
of  the  virgin  Mary  (for  otherwise  hee  was  no  son  of  man).  He
sought  not  for  honourable  titles  of  antiquitie  (as  we  use  to  do)
to  furnish  his  stile,  but  called  himselfe  a  shepheard,  a  base
name,  and  of  contempt  in  the  world.
1631,  Sir  R.  Barckley,  Felicitie  of  Man,  p.  275.
