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that it please God; call every thought, word and action to judgment;' try whether they are wrought in God or not; that fo you may prove, or know, what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

S. XXXIV. The next fcripture authority we appeal to, in our vindication, is a paffage of the apostle Peter, in his first epistle writ to the believing strangers throughout the countries of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Afia, and Bithynia; which were the churches of Chrift Jefus in those parts of the world, gathered by his power and fpirit: it is this; Gird up the loins of your minds; be fober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jefus Chrift; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lufts of your ignorance. That is, be not found in the vain fafhions and cuftoms of the world, unto which you conformed in your former ignorance: but as you have believed in a more plain and excellent way, fo be fober and fervent, and hope to the end: do not give out; let them mock on; bear ye the contradiction of finners conftantly, as obedient children, that you may receive the kindness of God, at the revelation of Jefus Christ. And therefore does the apostle call them ftrangers, a figurative fpeech, people eftranged from the cuftoms of the world, of new faith and manners; and fo unknown of the world and if fuch ftrangers, then not to be fashioned or conformed to their pleas

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ing refpects and honours, whom they were eftranged from: because the strangeness lay in leaving that which was cuftomary and familiar to them before. The following words, verfe 17, prove he ufed the word ftrangers in a fpiritual fenfe; Pafs the time of your fojourning here in fear; that is, pass the time of your being as ftrangers on earth in fear; not after the fashions of the world. A word in the next chapter further explains his fense, where he tells the believers, that they are a peculiar people; to wit, a distinct, a fingular and feparate people from the reft of the world: not any longer to fashion themselves according to their customs. But I do not know how that could be, if they were to live in communion with the world, in its refpects and honours; for that is not to be a peculiar or feparate people from them, but to be like them, because conformable to them.

§. XXXV. I fhall conclude my fcripture teftimonies against these foregoing refpects, with that memorable and clofe paffage of the apostle James, against respect to perfons in general, after the world's fashion: My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the Lord of glory, with refpect of perfons: for if there come unto your affembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel; and there come in also a poor man, in vile raiment, and ye have refpect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and fay unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, or well and feemly, as the word is; and fay to the poor, Stand thou there, or

fit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? That is, they knew they did amifs: If ye fulfil the royal law, according to the fcripture, Thou fhalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have refpect to perfons, ye commit fin, and are convinced of the law as tranfgreffors. This is fo full, there feems nothing left for me to add, or others to object. We are not to refpect perfons, that is the first thing: and the next thing is, if we do, we commit fin, and break the law. At our own peril be it. And yet perhaps fome will fay, that by this we overthrow all manner of diftinction among men, under their divers qualities, and introduce a reciprocal and relational refpect in the room of it but if it be fo, I cannot help it, the apoftle James muft anfwer for it, who has given us this doctrine for Chriftian and apoftolical. And yet one greater than he, told his difciples, of whom James was one, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercife dominion over them, &c. But it fhould not be fo among you; but whofoever will be chief among you, let him be your fervant. That is, he that affects rule, and feeks to be uppermoft, fhall be esteemed leaft among you. And to fay true upon the whole matter, whether we regard those early times of the world, that were antecedent to the coming of Chrift, or foon after, there was yet a greater fimplicity, than in the times in which we are fallen. For thofe early times of the James 11. 1, 2, 3, 4. & James ii. 8, 9. ↳ Mat.xx. 25, 26, 27.

world, as bad as they were in other things, were great ftrangers to the frequency of thefe follies: nay, they hardly ufed fome of them, at leaft, very rarely. For if we read the fcriptures, fuch a thing as my lord Adam, though lord of the world, is not to be found: nor my lord Noah neither, the fecond lord of the earth: nor yet my lord Abraham, the father of the faithful; nor my lord Ifaac; nor my lord Jacob; but much less is my lord Peter, and my lord Paul, to be found in the bible: and less your holinefs, or your grace. Nay, among the Gentiles, the people wore their own names with more fimplicity, and ufed not the ceremonioufnefs of fpeech that is now practifed among Chriftians, nor yet any thing like it. My lord Solon, my lord Phocion, my lord Plato, my lord Ariftotle, my lord Scipio, my lord Fabius, my lord Cato, my lord Cicero, are not to be read in any of the Greek or Latin stories, and yet they were fome of the fages and heroes of those great empires. No, their own names were enough to diftinguish them from other men, and their virtue and employment in the public were their titles of honour. Nor has this vanity yet crept far into the Latin writers, where it is familiar for authors to cite the most learned and the most noble, without any addition to their names, unless worthy or learned: and if their works give it them, we make no confcience to deny it them. For inftance: the fathers they only cite thus: Polycarpus, Ignatius, Irenæus, Cyprian, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius, Chryfoftom,

Jerom, &c. More modern writers; Damafcen, Rabanus, Pafchafius, Theophylact, Bernard, &c. And of the last age, Luther, Melanchon, Calvin, Beza, Zuinglius, Marlorat, Voffius, Grotius, Dalleus, Amyralldus, &c. And of our own country, Gildas, Beda, Alcuinus, Horn, Bracton, Grofteed, Littleton, Cranmer, Ridley, Jewel, Whitaker, Seldon, &c. and yet, I prefume this will not be thought uncivil or rude. Why then is our fimplicity (and fo honeftly grounded too, as confcience against pride in man, that fo eagerly and perniciously loves and feeks worship and greatness) fo much despised and abused, and that by profeffed Chriftians too, who take themselves to be the followers of him, that has forbid these foolish customs, as plainly as any other impiety condemned in his doctrine? I earnestly beg the lovers, ufers, and expecters of these ceremonies, to let this I have writ have fome confideration and weight with them.

§. XXXVI. However, Chriftians are not fo ill-bred, as the world think; for they fhew refpect too: but the difference between them lies in the nature of the refpect they perform, and the reasons of it. The world's refpect is an empty ceremony, no foul or fubftance in it the Chriftian's is a folid thing, whether by obedience to fuperiors, love to equals, or help and countenance to inferiors. to inferiors. Next, their reafons and motives to honour and refpect, are as wide one from the other: for fine apparel, empty titles, or large revenues, are the world's motives, being things her children

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