mility of Chrift. They fought the good opinion and refpect of the world; how then was it poffible, they fhould leave all and follow him, whofe kingdom is not of this world; and that came in a way fo cross to the mind and humour of it? and that this was the meaning of our Lord Jefus, is plain: for he tells us, what that honour was, they gave and received, which he condemns them for, and of which he bid the difciples of his humility and crofs beware. His words are these (and he speaks them not of the rabble, but of the doctors, the great men, the men of honour among the Jews) They love (fays he) the uppermoft rooms at feafts; that is, places of greatest rank and refpect; ⚫ and greetings,' that is, falutations of refpect, fuch as pulling off the hat, and bowing the body, are in our age; in the market-places',' viz. in the places of note and concourse, the public walks and exchanges of the country). And, laftly, They love (says Chrift) to be • called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi:' one of the most eminent titles among the Jews. A word comprehending an excellency equal to many titles: it may ftand for your grace, your lordship, right reverend father, &c. It is upon these men of breeding and quality, that he pronounces his woes, making thefe practices fome of the evil marks, by which to know them, as well as some of the motives of his threatnings against them. But he leaves it not here; he purfues this very point of honour, above all the reft, in his caution to his difciples; to whom he gave in charge thus: But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your mafter, even Chrift, and all ye are brethren. Neither be ye called mafters; but he that is greatest among you fhall be your fervant: • and whosoever fhall exalt himself, shall be abased.' Plain it is, that thefe paffages carry a fevere rebuke, both to worldly honour in general, and to thofe members and expreffions of it in particular, which, as near as the language of fcripture and customs of that age will permit, do diftinctly reach and allude to thofe of our ▾ Mark xii, 38. Luke xi. 43. * Mat. xxiii. 6. own own time; for the declining of which, we have suffered fo much fcorn and abuse, both in our perfons and eftates: God forgive the unreasonable authors of it! §. XXXIII. The apostle Paul has a faying of great weight and fervency, in his epiftle to the Romans, very agreeable to this doctrine of Chrift; it is this: I be• feech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, ⚫ that ye prefent your bodies a living facrifice, holy, ac'ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service: ⚫ and be not conformed to this world, but be ye trans • formed by the renewing of your mind, that, ye may 'prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect 'will of God". He writ to a people in the midft of the enfnaring pomp and glory of the world: Rome was the feat of Cæfar, and the empire: the mistress of invention. Her fashions, as thofe of France now, were as laws to the world, at least at Rome: whence it is proverbial; Cum fueris Romæ, Romano vivito more. When thou art at Rome, thou must do as Rome does. But the apostle is of another mind: he warns the Chriftians of that city, that they be not conformed;' that is, that they do not follow the vain fashions and customs of this world, but leave them: the emphafis lies upon This, as well as upon Conformed: and it imports, that this world, which they were not to conform to, was the corrupt and degenerate condition of mankind in that age. Wherefore the apostle proceeds to exhort those believers, and that by the mercies of God, (the most powerful and winning of all arguments) that they would be transformed;' that is, changed from the way of life, cuftomary among the Romans; and prove what is that acceptable will of God.' As if he had faid, examine what you do and practise; fee if it be right, and that it pleafe God: call every thought, word, and action to judgment; try whether they are wrought in God or not; that fo you may prove Rom. xii, 1, 2. or or know what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God 2. §. XXXIV. The next fcripture-authority we appeal to, in our vindication, is a paffage of the apoftle Peter, in his first epiftle, writ to the believing ftrangers throughout the countries of Pontus, Galatia, Cappado cia, Afia, and Bithynia; which were the churches of Chrift Jefus in thofe parts of the world, gathered up by his power and fpirit: it is this, Gird up the loins of your mind; 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 fashions and customs of the world, unto which you conformed in your former ignorance: but as ye 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 apoftle call them strangers (a figurative speech) people eftranged from the customs 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 pleafing respects and honours, whom they were estranged from: because the strangenefs lay in leaving that which was cuftomary and familiar to them before. The following words (ver 17.) proved he used the word strangers in a spiritual fenfe; Pafs the time of your fojourning here in fear; that is, pafs the time of your being here as strangers on earth in fear: not after the fashions of the world. A word in the next chapter farther explains this fenfe, where he tells the believers, that they are a peculiar people;' to wit, a diftinct, a fingular and separate people from the reft of the world; not any longer to fashion themselves according to their a John iii. 21, 22. Pet. i. 13, 14. customs 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 the foregoing refpects, with that memorable and close paffage of the apoftle James, against refpect 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 respect of perfons: for if there come unto your affembly, a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in alfo a poor man, in vile raiment, and ye have refpect to him. that weareth the gay cloathing, and fay unto him, 'fit thou here in a goodly place (or well and feemly, as the word is) and fay to the poor, ftand thou there, or fit here under my footftool; 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 shalt love thy neighbour as thyfelf, ye do well; < but if ye have respect 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 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 so, I cannot help it, the apoftle James must answer 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, viz. Ye know that the prinC ces of the Gentiles exercife dominion over them, &c. < But it shall not be fo among you; but whofoever will be great among you, let him be your minifter; and 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 least among you. And to fay true, upon the whole matter, whether we regard thofe 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 world, as bad as they were in other things, were great strangers 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 my lord Peter, and my lord Paul, to be found in the bible and lefs your holiness, 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 ftories, and yet they were fome of the fages and heroes of those great empires. No, their own names were enough to distinguish 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 confcience to deny it them. For inftance: the fathers they only cite thus ; Polycarpus, Ignatius, Irenæus, Cyprian, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius, Chryfoftom, Jerom, • Mat. xx. 25, 26, 27. &c. |
