Famous are the exploits of this divine gift; time would fail to recount them: all sacred story is filled with them. But let it suffice, that by it the holy ancients endured all trials, overcame all enemies, prevailed with God, renowned his truth, finished their testimony, and obtained the reward of the faithful, a crown of righteousness, which is the eternal blessedness of the just.
1. Of pride, the first capital lust; its rise.—2. Its definition and distinction.—3. That an inordinate desire of knowledge in Adam, introduced man's misery.—4. He thereby lost his integrity.—5. Knowledge puffs up.—6. The evil effects of false, and the benefit of true knowledge.—7. Cain's example a proof in the case.—8. The Jews' pride in pretending to be wiser than Moses, God's servant, in setting their post by God's post.—9. The effect of which was the persecution of the true prophets.—10. The divine knowledge of Christ brought peace on earth.—11. Of the blind guides, the priests, and the mischief they have done.—12. The fall of Christians, and the pride they have taken in it, hath exceeded the Jews; under the profession of their new-moulded Christianity, they have murdered the witness of the Lord Jesus.—13. The angels sang peace on earth at the birth of the Lord of meekness and humility: but the pride of the Pharisees withstood and calumniated him.—14. As Adam and the Jews lost themselves by their ambition, so the Christians losing the fear of God, grew creed and worship-makers, with this injunction, Conform or burn.—15. The evil effects of this in Christendom, so called.—16. The way of recovery out of such miserable defection.
1. Of pride, the first capital lust; its rise.—2. Its definition and distinction.—3. That an inordinate desire of knowledge in Adam, introduced man's misery.—4. He thereby lost his integrity.—5. Knowledge puffs up.—6. The evil effects of false, and the benefit of true knowledge.—7. Cain's example a proof in the case.—8. The Jews' pride in pretending to be wiser than Moses, God's servant, in setting their post by God's post.—9. The effect of which was the persecution of the true prophets.—10. The divine knowledge of Christ brought peace on earth.—11. Of the blind guides, the priests, and the mischief they have done.—12. The fall of Christians, and the pride they have taken in it, hath exceeded the Jews; under the profession of their new-moulded Christianity, they have murdered the witness of the Lord Jesus.—13. The angels sang peace on earth at the birth of the Lord of meekness and humility: but the pride of the Pharisees withstood and calumniated him.—14. As Adam and the Jews lost themselves by their ambition, so the Christians losing the fear of God, grew creed and worship-makers, with this injunction, Conform or burn.—15. The evil effects of this in Christendom, so called.—16. The way of recovery out of such miserable defection.
I. Having thus discharged my conscience against that part of unlawful self, that fain would be a Christian, a believer, a saint, whilst a plain stranger to the cross of Christ, and the holy exercises of it; and in that briefly discovered what is true worship, and the use and business of the holy cross therein, to render its performance pleasing to Almighty God; I shall now, the same Lord assisting me, more largely prosecute that other part of unlawful self, which fills the study, care, and conversation of theworld, presented to us in these three capital lusts, that is to say, pride, avarice, and luxury; from whence all other mischiefs daily flow, as streams from their proper fountains: the mortifying of which makes up the other; and indeed a very great part of the work of the true cross; and though last in place, yet first in experience and duty: which done, it introduces in the room of those evil habits, the blessed effects of that so much needed reformation, to wit, mortification, humility, temperance, love, patience, and heavenly-mindedness, with all other graces of the Spirit, becoming followers of the perfect Jesus, that most heavenly man.
The care and love of all mankind are either directed to God or themselves. Those that love God above all, are ever humbling self to his commands, and only love self in subserviency to him that is Lord of all. But those who are declined from that love to God, are lovers of themselves more than God: for supreme love must centre in one of these two. To that inordinate self-love, the apostle rightly joins proud and high-minded. (2 Tim. iii. 2, 4.) For no sooner had the angels declined their love, duty and reverence to God, than they inordinately loved and valued themselves; which made them exceed their station, and aspire above the order of their creation. This was their pride, and this sad defection their dismal fall; who are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day of God.
II. Pride, that pernicious evil, which begins this chapter, did also begin the misery of mankind: a most mischievous quality; and so commonly known by its motions and sad effects, that every unmortified breast carries its definition in it. However, I will say, in short, that pride is an excess of self-love, joined with an undervaluing of others, and a desire of dominion over them: the most troublesome thing in the world. There are fourthings by which it hath made itself best known to mankind, the consequences of which have brought a misery equal to its evil. The first is, an inordinate pursuit of knowledge; the second, an ambitious craving and seeking after power; the third, an extreme desire of personal respect and deference: the last excess is that of worldly furniture and ornaments. To the just and true witness of the eternal God, placed in the souls of all people, I appeal as to the truth of these things.
III. To the first, it is plain, that an inordinate desire of knowledge introduced man's misery, and brought an universal lapse from the glory of his primitive state. Adam would needs be wiser than God had made him. It did not serve his turn to know his Creator, and give him that holy homage his being and innocency naturally engaged and excited him too; nor to have an understanding above all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, joined with a power to rule over all the visible creation of God; but he must be as wise as God too. This unwarrantable search, and as foolish as unjust ambition, made him unworthy of the blessings he received from God. This drives him out of paradise; and instead of being lord of the whole world, Adam becomes the wretchedest vagabond of the earth.
IV. The lamentable consequence of this great defection, has been an exchange of innocency for guilt, and a paradise for a wilderness. But, which is yet worse, in this state Adam and Eve had got another god than the only true and living God: and he that enticed them to all this mischief, furnished them with a vain knowledge, and pernicious wisdom: the skill of lies and equivocations, shifts, evasions, and excuses. They had lost their plainness and sincerity, and from an upright heart, the image in which God had made man, he became a crooked, twining, twisting serpent; the image of that unrighteous spirit, to whosetemptations he yielded up, with his obedience, his paradisaical happiness.
V. So that fallen Adam's knowledge of God stood no more in a daily experience of the love and work of God in his soul, but in a notion of what he once did know and experience: which being not the true and living wisdom that is from above, but a mere picture, it cannot preserve man in purity; but puffs up, makes people proud, high-minded, and impatient of contradiction. This was the state of the apostate Jews before Christ came; and has been the condition of apostate Christians ever since he came: their religion standing, some bodily performances excepted, either in what they once knew of the work of God in themselves, and which they have revolted from; or in an historical belief, and an imaginary conception and paraphrase upon the experiences and prophecies of such holy men and women of God, as in all ages have deserved the style and character of his true children.
VI. As such a knowledge of God cannot be true, so by experience we find, that it ever brings forth the quite contrary fruits to the true wisdom. For as this "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated;" (James, iii. 17;) so the knowledge of degenerated and unmortified men is first impure: for it came by the commission of evil, and is held in an evil and impure conscience in them that disobey God's laws, and that daily do those things which they ought not to do; and for which they stand condemned before God's judgment-seat in the souls of men: the light of whose presence searches the most hidden things of darkness, the most secret thoughts, and concealed inclinations of ungodly men. This is the science, falsely so called: and as it is impure, so it is unpeaceable, cross, and hard to be entreated; froward, perverse, and persecuting; jealous that any should be better than they, and hating and abusing those that are.
VII. It was this pride made Cain a murderer: (Gen. iv. 8:) it is a spiteful quality; full of envy and revenge. What! was not his religion and worship as good as his brother's? He had all the exterior parts of worship; he offered as well as Abel; and the offering of itself might be as good: but it seems the heart that offered it was not. So long ago did God regard the interior worship of the soul. Well, what was the consequence of this difference? Cain's pride stomached it: he could not bear to be outdone by his brother. He grew wrathful, and resolved to vindicate his offering by revenging the refusal of it upon his brother's life: and without any regard to natural affection, or the low and early condition of mankind, he barbarously dyed his hands in his brother's blood.
VIII. The religion of the apostatized Jews did no better; for, having lost the inward life, power, and spirit of the law, they were puffed up with that knowledge they had: and their pretences to Abraham, Moses, and the promises of God, in that frame, served only to blow them up into an insufferable pride, arrogancy, and cruelty. For they could not bear true vision when it came to visit them; and entertained the messengers of their peace as if they had been wolves and tigers.
IX. Yea, it is remarkable, the false prophets, the great engineers against the true ones, were ever sure to persecute them as false; and, by their interest with earthly princes, or the poor seduced multitude, made them the instruments of their malice. Thus it was, that one holy prophet was sawn asunder, another stoned to death, &c. So proud and obstinate is false knowledge, and the aspirers after it; which made holy Stephen cry out, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as did your fathers, so do ye." (Acts, vii. 51.)
X. The true knowledge came with the joy of angels,singing, "Peace on earth, and good-will towards men;" (Luke, ii. 14;) the false knowledge entertained the message with calumnies: Christ must needs be an impostor; and that must prove him so,to wit, his power of working miracles; which was that which proved the contrary. They frequently sought to kill him: which at last they wickedly accomplished. But what was the chief motive to it? Why, he cried out against their hypocrisy, the broad phylacteries, the honour they sought of men. To be short, they give the reason themselves in these words: If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: that is, he will take away our credit with the people; they will adhere to him, and desert us; and so we shall lose our power and reputation with the multitude.
XI. And the truth is, he came to level their honour, to overthrow their Rabbiship, and by his grace to bring the people to that inward knowledge of God, which they, by transgression, were departed from; that so they might see the deceitfulness of their blind guides, who by their vain traditions had made void the righteousness of the law: and who were so far from being the true doctors and lively expounders of it, that in reality they were the children of the devil, who was a proud liar and cruel murderer from the beginning.
XII. Their pride in false knowledge having made them incapable of receiving the simplicity of the gospel, Christ thanks his Father, that he had hid the mysteries of it from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes. (Matt. xi. 25.) It was this false wisdom swelled the minds of the Athenians to that degree, that they despised the preaching of the apostle Paul as a vain and foolish thing. But that apostle who, of all the rest, had an education in the learning of those times, bitterly reflects on that wisdom, so much valued by Jews and Greeks; "Where," says he, "is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputerof this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. i. 20.) And he gives a good reason for it, "That no flesh should glory in his presence." (Verse 29.) Which is to say, God will stain the pride of man in false knowledge, that he should have nothing on this occasion to be proud of: it should be owing only to the revelation of the Spirit of God. The apostle goes further, and affirms, "That the world by wisdom knew not God:" (verse 21:) that is, it was so far from a help, that as men use it, it was a hindrance to the true knowledge of God. And in his first epistle to his beloved Timothy, he concludes thus: "O Timothy! keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called." (Tim. vi. 20.) This was the sense of apostolical times, when the divine grace gave the true knowledge of God, and was the guide of Christians.
XIII. Well, but what has been the success of those ages that followed the apostolical? Any whit better than that of the Jewish times? Not one jot. They have exceeded them; as with their pretences to greater knowledge, so in their degeneracy from the true Christian life: for though they had a more excellent pattern than the Jews, to whom God spoke by Moses his servant, he speaking to them by his beloved Son, the express image of his substance, the perfection of all meekness and humility; and though they seemed addicted to nothing more than an adoration of his name, and a veneration for the memory of his blessed disciples and apostles, yet so great was their defection from the inward power and life of Christianity in the soul, that their respect was little more than formal and ceremonious. For notwithstanding they, like the Jews, were mighty zealous in garnishing their sepulchres, and curious in carving their images; not only keeping with pretence what might be the relics oftheir persons, but recommending a thousand things as relics, which are purely fabulous, and very often ridiculous, and to be sure altogether unchristian; yet as to the great and weighty things of the Christian law, viz. love, meekness, and self-denial, they were degenerated. They grew high-minded, proud, boasters, without natural affection, curious, and controversial, ever perplexing the church with doubtful questions; filling the people with disputations, strife, and wrangling, drawing them into parties, till at last they fell into blood: as if they had been the worse for being once Christians.
O the miserable state of these pretended Christians! that instead of Christ's and his apostles' doctrine, of loving enemies, and blessing them that curse them, they should teach the people, under the notion of Christian zeal, most inhumanly to butcher one another; and instead of suffering their own blood to be shed for the testimony of Jesus, they should shed the blood of the witnesses of Jesus for heretics. Thus that subtle serpent, or crafty evil spirit, that tempted Adam out of innocency, and the Jews from the law of God, has beguiled the Christians, by lying vanities, to depart from the Christian law of holiness, and so they are become slaves to him; for he rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience.
XIV. And it is observable, that as pride, which is ever followed by superstition and obstinacy, put Adam upon seeking a higher station than God placed him in; and as the Jews, out of the same pride, to outdo their pattern, given them of God by Moses upon the mount, taught for doctrines their own traditions, insomuch that those that refused conformity to them, ran the hazard of Crucify, crucify: so the nominal Christians, from the same sin of pride, with great superstition and arrogance, have introduced, instead of a spiritual worship and discipline, that which is evidently ceremonious and worldly; with suchinnovations and traditions of men as are the fruit of the wisdom that is from below; witness their numerous and perplexed councils and creeds, with Conform or burn, at the end of them.
XV. And as this unwarrantable pride set them first at work, to pervert the spirituality of the Christian worship, making it rather to resemble the shadowy religion of the Jews, and the gaudy worship of the Egyptians, than the great plainness and simplicity of the Christian institution, which is neither to resemble that of the mountain, nor the other of Jerusalem; so has the same pride and arrogancy spurred them on, by all imaginable cruelties to maintain this great Diana of theirs. No meek supplications, nor humble remonstrances, of those that kept close to primitive purity in worship and doctrine, could prevail with these nominal Christians to dispense with the imposition of their unapostolical traditions; but as the ministers and bishops of these degenerate Christians left their painful visitation and care over Christ's flock, and grew ambitious, covetous, and luxurious, resembling rather worldly potentates, than the humble-spirited and mortified followers of the blessed Jesus; so almost every history tells us, with what pride and cruelty, blood and butchery, and that with unusual and exquisite tortures, they have persecuted the holy members of Christ out of the world; and that upon such anathemas, as far as they could, they have disappointed them of the blessing of heaven too. These, true Christians call martyrs; but the clergy, like the persecuting Jews, have styled them blasphemers and heretics; in which they have fulfilled the prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not say, that they should think they do the gods good service to kill the Christians, his dear followers, which might refer to the persecutions of the idolatrous Gentiles; (John, xvi. 2;) but that they should think they do God good service to kill them:which shows, that they should be such as professedly owned the true God, as the apostate Christians have all along pretended to do. So that they must be those wolves, that the apostle foretold, should arise out of themselves, and worry the flock of Christ, (Acts, xx. 29,) after the great falling away should commence, that was foretold by him, and made necessary, in order to the proving of the faithful, and the revelation of the great mystery of iniquity.
I shall conclude this head with this assertion, that it is too undeniable a truth, where the clergy have been most in power and authority, and have had the greatest influence upon princes and states, there have been most confusions, wrangles, bloodshed, sequestrations, imprisonments, and exiles: to the justifying of which I call the testimony of the records of all times. How it is in our age I leave to the experience of the living; yet there is one demonstration that can hardly fail us; the people are not converted, but debauched, to a degree that time will not allow us an example. The worship of Christendom is visible, ceremonious, and gaudy; the clergy, ambitious of worldly preferments, under the pretence of spiritual promotion; making the earthly revenues of churchmen much the reason of their function; being almost ever sure to leave the present smaller livings, to solicit and obtain benefices of larger title and income. So that with their pride and avarice, which good old Peter foresaw would be their snares, they have drawn after them ignorance, misery, and irreligion upon Christendom.
XVI. The way of recovery from this miserable defection is to come to a saving knowledge of religion; that is, an experience of the divine work of God in the soul: to obtain which be diligent to obey the grace that appears in thy soul, O man! that brings salvation; (Tit. ii. 2, 11, 12, 14;) it turns thee out of the broad way into the narrow way; from thy lusts to thy duty; from sin to holiness;from Satan to God. Thou must see and abhor self: thou must watch, and thou must pray, and thou must fast; thou must not look at thy tempter, but at thy preserver; avoid ill company, retire to thy solitudes, and be a chaste pilgrim in this evil world: and thus thou wilt arrive at the knowledge of God and Christ, that brings eternal life to the soul: a well-grounded assurance from what a man feels and knows within himself: such shall not be moved with evil tidings.
1. Pride craves power as well as knowledge.—2. The case of Korah, &c. a proof.—3. Absalom's ambition confirms it.—4. Nebuchadnezzar's does the like.—5. The history of Pisistratus, Alexander, Cæsar, &c. shows the same thing.—6. The Turks are a lively proof, who have shed much blood to gratify pride for power.—7. The last ten years in Christendom exceed in proof of this.—8. Ambition rests not in courts, it finds room in private breasts too, and spoils families and societies.—9. Their peace is great that limit their desires by God's grace, and having power, use it to the good of others.
1. Pride craves power as well as knowledge.—2. The case of Korah, &c. a proof.—3. Absalom's ambition confirms it.—4. Nebuchadnezzar's does the like.—5. The history of Pisistratus, Alexander, Cæsar, &c. shows the same thing.—6. The Turks are a lively proof, who have shed much blood to gratify pride for power.—7. The last ten years in Christendom exceed in proof of this.—8. Ambition rests not in courts, it finds room in private breasts too, and spoils families and societies.—9. Their peace is great that limit their desires by God's grace, and having power, use it to the good of others.
I. But let us see the next most common, eminent, and mischievous effect of this evil. Pride does extremely crave power, than which not one thing has proved more troublesome and destructive to mankind. I need not labour myself much in evidence of this, since most of the wars of nations, depopulation of kingdoms, ruins of cities, with the slavery and misery that have followed, both our own experience and unquestionable histories, acquaint us to have been the effect of ambition, which is the lust of pride after power.
II. How specious soever might be the pretences of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, against Moses, it was their emulation of his mighty power in the camp of Israel that put them upon conspiracies and mutinies. They longed for his authority, and their not having it was his crime: for they had a mind to be the heads and leaders of the people. The consequence of which was a remarkabledestruction to themselves and all their unhappy accomplices.
III. Absalom, too, was for the people's rights against the tyranny of his father and his king; (2 Sam. xv.;) at least with this pretence he palliated his ambition; but his rebellion showed he was impatient for power, and that he resolved to sacrifice his duty as a son and subject to the importunities of his restless pride; which brought a miserable death to himself and an extraordinary slaughter upon his army.
IV. Nebuchadnezzar is a lively instance of the excessive lust of pride for power. His successes and empire were too heady for him: so much too strong for his understanding, that he forgot he did not make himself, or that his power had a superior. He makes an image, and all must bow to it, or be burnt. And when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to comply, "Who," says he, "is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Dan. iii.) And notwithstanding the convictions he had upon him, at the constancy of those excellent men, and Daniel's interpretation of his dreams, it was not long before the pride of his power had filled his heart, and then his mouth, with this haughty question, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv. 30.) But we are told, that while the words were in his mouth, a voice from heaven rebuked the pride of his spirit, and he was driven from the society of men, to graze among the beasts of the field.
V. If we look into the histories of the world, we shall find many instances to prove the mischief of this lust of pride. I will mention a few of them for their sakes who have either not read or considered them.
Solon made Athens free by his excellent constitution of laws; but the ambition of Pisistratus began the ruin of itbefore his eyes. Alexander, not contented with his own kingdom, invaded others, and filled with spoil and slaughter those countries he subdued: and it was not ill said by the man, who, when Alexander accused him of piracy, told him to his face that Alexander was the greatest pirate in the world. It was the same ambition that made Cæsar turn traitor to his masters, and with their own army, put into his hand for their service, subdue them to his yoke, and usurp the government; which ended in the expulsion of freedom and virtue together in that commonwealth; for goodness quickly grew to be faction in Rome; and that sobriety and wisdom which ever rendered her senators venerable, became dangerous to their safety: insomuch that his successors hardly left one they did not kill or banish; unless such as turned to be flatterers of their unjust acquisition, and the imitators of their debauched manners.
VI. The Turks are a great proof to the point in hand, who to extend their dominion, have been the cause of shedding much blood, and laying many stately countries waste.
And yet they are to be outdone by apostate Christians; whose practice is therefore more condemnable, because they have been better taught: they have had a master of another doctrine and example. It is true, they call him Lord still, but they let their ambition reign: they love power more than one another; and to get it kill one another; though charged by him not to strike, but to love and serve one another. And, which adds to the tragedy, all natural affection is sacrificed to the fury of this lust: and therefore are stories so often stained with the murder of parents, children, uncles, nephews, masters, &c.
VII. If we look abroad into remoter parts of the world, we shall rarely hear of wars; but in Christendom rarely of peace. A very trifle is too often made a ground of quarrelhere: nor can any league be so sacred or inviolable that arts shall not be used to evade and dissolve it to increase dominion. No matter who, nor how many are slain, made widows and orphans, or lose their estates and livelihoods; what countries are ruined; what towns and cities spoiled: if by all these things the ambitious can but arrive at their ends! To go no further back than sixty years, that little period of time will furnish us with many wars begun upon ill grounds, and ended in great desolation. Nay, the last twelve years of our time make as pregnant a demonstration as we can furnish ourselves with from the records of any age. It is too tedious, nor is it my business, to be particular: it has been often well observed by others, and is almost known to all, I mean the French, Spanish, German, English, and Dutch wars.
VIII. But ambition does not only dwell in courts and senates: it is too natural to every private breast to strain for power. We daily see how much men labour their utmost wit and interest to be great, to get higher places, or greater titles than they have, that they may look bigger and be more acknowledged; take place of their former equals, and so equal those that were once their superiors: compel friends, and be revenged on enemies. This makes Christianity so little loved of worldly men; its kingdom is not of this world; and though they may speak it fair, it is the world they love: that without uncharitableness we may truly say, People profess Christianity, but they follow the world. They are not for seeking the kingdom of heaven first, and the righteousness thereof, (Matt. vi. 33,) and to trust God with the rest; but for securing to themselves the wealth and glory of this world, and adjourning the care of salvation to a sick bed, and the extreme moments of life; if yet they believe a life to come.
IX. To conclude this head; great is their peace, who know a limit to their ambitious minds; that have learnedto be contented with the appointments and bounds of Providence: that are not careful to be great; but, being great, are humble and do good. Such keep their wits with their consciences, and, with an even mind, can at all times measure the uneven world, rest fixed in the midst of all its uncertainties, and as becomes those who have an interest in a better, in the good time and will of God, cheerfully leave this; when the ambitious, conscious of their evil practices, and weighed down to their graves with guilt, must go to a tribunal that they can neither awe nor bribe.
1. The third evil effect of pride is love of honour and respect. Too many are guilty of it.—2. It had like to have cost Mordecai dear. Great mischief has befallen nations on this account.—3. The world is out in the business of true honour, as well as in that of true science.—4. Reasons why the author, and the rest of the people he walks with, use not these fashions.—5. The first is, the sense they had in the hour of their conviction, of the unsuitableness of them to the Christian spirit and practice, and that the root they came from was pride and self-love.—6. Reproach could not move them from that sense and practice accordingly.—7. They do it not to make sects, or for distinction.—8. Nor yet to countenance formality, but passively let drop vain customs, and so are negative to forms.—9. Their behaviour is a test upon the world.—10. And this cross to the world a test upon them.—11. The second reason against them is their emptiness.—12. Honour in Scripture is not so taken as it is in the world. It is used for obedience.—13. It is used for preferments.—14. A digression about folly in a Scripture sense.—15. Honour is used for reputation.—16. Honour is also attributed to functions and capacities, by way of esteem.—17. Honour is taken for help and countenance of inferiors.—18. Honour is used for service and esteem to all states and capacities: honour all men.—19. Yet there is a limitation, in a sense, to the righteous, by the Psalmist; to honour the godly, and contemn the wicked.—20. Little of this honour found in the world's fashions.—21. The third reason against them is, they mock and cheat people of the honour due to them.—22. The author and his friends are for true honour.—23. The fourth reason is, that if the fashions carried true honour in them, the debauched could honour men, which cannot be.—24. The fifth reason is, that then men of spite, hypocrisy, and revenge, could pay honour, which is impossible.—25. The sixth reason is drawn from the antiquity of true honour.—26. The seventh reason is from the rise of the vain honour, and theteachers of it, wherein the clown, upon a comparison, excels the courtier for a man of breeding.—27. The eighth reason against these honours is, that they may be had for money, which true honour cannot be.—28. The ninth and last reason is, because the holy Scripture expressly forbids them to true Christians.—29. As in the case of Mordecai.—30. A passage between a bishop and the author in this matter.—31. Likewise the case of Elihu in Job.—32. Also the doctrine ofChristto his disciples.—33. Paul against conforming to the world's fashions.—34. Peter against fashioning ourselves according to the world's lusts.—35. James against respect to persons.—36. Yet Christians are civil and mannerly in a right way.—37. But unlike the world in the nature of it, and motives to it.—38. Testimonies in favour of our dissent and practice.
1. The third evil effect of pride is love of honour and respect. Too many are guilty of it.—2. It had like to have cost Mordecai dear. Great mischief has befallen nations on this account.—3. The world is out in the business of true honour, as well as in that of true science.—4. Reasons why the author, and the rest of the people he walks with, use not these fashions.—5. The first is, the sense they had in the hour of their conviction, of the unsuitableness of them to the Christian spirit and practice, and that the root they came from was pride and self-love.—6. Reproach could not move them from that sense and practice accordingly.—7. They do it not to make sects, or for distinction.—8. Nor yet to countenance formality, but passively let drop vain customs, and so are negative to forms.—9. Their behaviour is a test upon the world.—10. And this cross to the world a test upon them.—11. The second reason against them is their emptiness.—12. Honour in Scripture is not so taken as it is in the world. It is used for obedience.—13. It is used for preferments.—14. A digression about folly in a Scripture sense.—15. Honour is used for reputation.—16. Honour is also attributed to functions and capacities, by way of esteem.—17. Honour is taken for help and countenance of inferiors.—18. Honour is used for service and esteem to all states and capacities: honour all men.—19. Yet there is a limitation, in a sense, to the righteous, by the Psalmist; to honour the godly, and contemn the wicked.—20. Little of this honour found in the world's fashions.—21. The third reason against them is, they mock and cheat people of the honour due to them.—22. The author and his friends are for true honour.—23. The fourth reason is, that if the fashions carried true honour in them, the debauched could honour men, which cannot be.—24. The fifth reason is, that then men of spite, hypocrisy, and revenge, could pay honour, which is impossible.—25. The sixth reason is drawn from the antiquity of true honour.—26. The seventh reason is from the rise of the vain honour, and theteachers of it, wherein the clown, upon a comparison, excels the courtier for a man of breeding.—27. The eighth reason against these honours is, that they may be had for money, which true honour cannot be.—28. The ninth and last reason is, because the holy Scripture expressly forbids them to true Christians.—29. As in the case of Mordecai.—30. A passage between a bishop and the author in this matter.—31. Likewise the case of Elihu in Job.—32. Also the doctrine ofChristto his disciples.—33. Paul against conforming to the world's fashions.—34. Peter against fashioning ourselves according to the world's lusts.—35. James against respect to persons.—36. Yet Christians are civil and mannerly in a right way.—37. But unlike the world in the nature of it, and motives to it.—38. Testimonies in favour of our dissent and practice.
I. The third evil effect of pride, is an excessive desire of personal honour and respect.
Pride, therefore loves power, that she might have homage, and that every one may give her honour, and such as are wanting in that, expose themselves to her anger and revenge. And as pride, so this evil effect is more or less diffused through corrupt mankind; and has been the occasion of great animosity, and mischief in the world.
II. We have a pregnant instance in holy writ, what malice and revenge proud man is capable of, when not gratified in this particular. It had almost cost Mordecai his neck, and the whole people of the Jews their lives, because he would not bow himself to Haman, who was a great favourite to king Ahasuerus. And the practice of the world, even in our own age, will tell us, that not striking a flag or sail, and not saluting certain ports or garrisons, yea, less things have given rise to mighty wars between states and kingdoms, to the expense of much treasure, but more blood. The like has followed about the precedency of princes and their ambassadors. Also the envy, quarrels, and mischiefs that have happened among private persons, upon conceit that they have notbeen respected to their degree or quality among men, without hat, knee, or title: to be sure, duels and murders not a few. I was once myself in France[3]set upon about eleven at night, as I was walking to my lodging, by a person that waylaid me, with his naked sword in his hand, who demanded satisfaction of me for taking no notice of him, at a time when he civilly saluted me with his hat; though the truth was, I saw him not when he did it. I will suppose he had killed me, for he made several passes at me, or I, in my defence, had killed him, when I disarmed him, as the earl of Crawford's servant saw, that was by; I ask any man of understanding or conscience, if the whole ceremony was worth the life of a man, considering the dignity of the nature, and the importance of the life of man, both with respect to God his Creator, himself, and the benefit of civil society.
III. But the truth is, the world, under its degeneracy from God, is as much out of the way as to true honour and respect, as in other things; for mere shows, and those vain ones, too, are much of the honour and respect that are expressed in the world; that a man may say concerning them, as the apostle speaks of science, that is, they are honours and respects falsely so called; having nothing of the nature of true honour and respect in them: but as degenerate men, loving to be honoured, first devised them, so pride only loves and seeks them, and is affronted and angry for want of them. Did men know a true Christian state, and the honour that comes from above, which JESUS teaches, they would not covet these very vanities, much less insist upon them.
IV. And here give me leave to set down the reasons more particularly, why I, and the people with whom I walk in religious society, have declined, as vain and foolish, several worldly customs and fashions of respect, muchin request at this time of day: and I beseech thee, reader, to lay aside all prejudice and scorn, and with the meekness and inquiry of a sober and discreet mind, read and weigh what may be here alleged in our defence: and if we are mistaken, rather pity and inform, than despise and abuse our simplicity.
V. The first and most pressing motive upon our spirits, to decline the practice of these present customs, pulling off the hat, bowing the body or knee, and giving people gaudy titles and epithets in our salutations and addresses, was that savour, sight and sense of God, by his light and Spirit given us, of the Christian world's apostacy from God, and the cause and effects of that great and lamentable defection. In the discovery of which the sense of our state came first before us, and we were made to see him whom we pierced, and to mourn for it. A day of humiliation overtook us, and we fainted to that pleasure and delight we once loved. Now our works went beforehand to judgment, and a thorough search was made, and the words of the prophet became well understood by us; "Who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears?" "He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." (Mal. iii. 2.) And as the apostle said, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter, iv. 18.) "Wherefore," says the apostle Paul, "knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men:" (2 Cor. v. 11:) what to do? To come out of the nature, spirit, lusts, and customs of this wicked world: remembering that, as Jesus has said, "For every idle word that man shall speak, he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matt. xii. 36.)
This concern of mind and dejection of spirit was visible to our neighbours; and we are not ashamed to own, that the terrors of the Lord took such hold upon us, becausewe had long, under a profession of religion, grieved God's Holy Spirit, that reproved us in secret for our disobedience; that as we abhorred to think of continuing in our old sins, so we feared to use lawful things, lest we should use them unlawfully. Our heaven seemed to melt away, and our earth to be removed out of its place; and we were like men, as the apostle said, upon whom the ends of the world were come. God knows it was so in this day; the brightness of his coming to our souls discovered, and the breath of his mouth destroyed every plant he had not planted in us. He was a swift witness against every evil thought and every unfruitful work; and, blessed be his name, we were not offended in him, or at his righteous judgments. Now it was that a grand inquest came upon our whole life: every word, thought, and deed was brought to judgment, the root examined, and its tendency considered. "The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life," (1 John, ii. 16,) were opened to our view; the mystery of iniquity in us. And by knowing the evil leaven, and its divers evil effects in ourselves, how it had wrought, and what it had done, we came to have a sense and knowledge of the states of others: and what we could not, nay, we dare not let live and continue in ourselves, as being manifested to us to proceed from an evil principle in the time of man's degeneracy, we could not comply with in others. Now this I say, and that in the fear and presence of the all-seeing, just God, the present honours and respect of the world, among other things, became burdensome to us: we saw they had no being in paradise, that they grew in the night-time, and came from an ill root; and that they only delighted a vain and ill mind, and that much pride and folly were in them.
VI. And though we easily foresaw the storms of reproach that would fall upon us for our refusing to practise them; yet we were so far from being shaken in our judgment,that it abundantly confirmed our sense of them. For so exalted a thing is man, and so loving of honour and respect, even from his fellow-creatures, that so soon as in tenderness of conscience towards God we could not perform them as formerly, he became more concerned than for all the rest of our differences, however material to salvation. So that let the honour of God and our own salvation do as it will, it was greater heresy and blasphemy to refuse him the homage of the hat, and his usual titles of honour; to deny to pledge his healths, or play with him at cards and dice, than any other principle we maintained: for being less in his view, it seemed not so much in his way.
VII. And though it be frequently objected that we seek to set up outward forms of preciseness, and that is but as a green riband, the badge of the party, the better to be known: I do declare, in the fear of Almighty God, that these are but the imaginations and vain constructions of insensible men, that have not had that sense which the Lord hath given us, of what arises from the right and the wrong root in man: and when such censurers of our simplicity shall be inwardly touched and awakened by the mighty power of God, and see things as they are in their proper natures and seeds, they will then know their own burden, and easily acquit us, without the imputation of folly or hypocrisy herein.
VIII. To say that we strain at small things, which becomes not people of so fair pretensions to liberty and freedom of spirit: I answer with meekness, truth, and sobriety; first, nothing is small that God makes matter of conscience to do, or leave undone. Next as inconsiderable as they are made, by those that object upon us, they are much set by; so greatly as for our not giving them to be beaten, imprisoned, refused justice, &c. To say nothing of the derision and reproach that hath been frequentlyflung at us on this account. So that if we had wanted a proof of the truth of our inward belief and judgment, the very practice of them that opposed it would have abundantly confirmed us. But let it suffice to us, that "Wisdom is justified of her children:" (Matt. xi. 19:) we only passively let fall the practice of what we are taught to believe is vain and unchristian: in which we are negative to forms: for we leave off, we do not set up forms.
IX. The world is so set upon the ceremonious parts and outside of things, that it has well beseemed the wisdom of God in all ages to bring forth his dispensations with very different appearances to their settled customs; thereby contradicting human inventions, and proving the integrity of his confessors. Nay, it is a test upon the world: it tries what patience, kindness, sobriety, and moderation they have: if the rough and homely outside of truth stumble not their minds from the reception of it, whose beauty is within: it makes a great discovery upon them. For he who refuses a precious jewel, because it is presented in a plain box, will never esteem it to its value, nor set his heart upon keeping it; therefore I call it a test, because it shows where the hearts and affections of the people stick, after all their great pretence to more excellent things.
X. It is also a mighty trial upon God's people, in that they are put upon the discovery of their contradiction to the customs generally received and esteemed in the world; which exposes them to the wonder, scorn, and abuse of the multitude. But there is a hidden treasure in it: it inures us to reproach, it teaches us to despise the false reputation of the world, and silently to undergo the contradiction and scorn of its votaries; and finally with a Christian meekness and patience to overcome their injuries and reproaches. Add to this; it weans thee of thy familiars; for being slighted of them as a ninny, a fool, afrantic, &c. thou art delivered from a greater temptation; and that is the power and influence of their vain conversation. And last of all, it lists thee of the company of the blessed, mocked, persecuted JESUS: to fight under his banner against the world, the flesh, and the devil: that after having faithfully suffered with him in a state of humiliation, thou mayst reign with him in a state of glorification: who glorifies his poor, despised, constant followers with the glory he had with the Father before the world began. (John, xvii. 5.) This was the first reason of our declining to practise the before-mentioned honours, respect, &c.
XI. The second reason why we decline and refuse the present use of these customs in our addresses and salutations, is from the consideration of their very emptiness and vanity: that there is nothing of true honour and respect in them, supposing them not to be evil. And, as religion and worship are degenerated into form and ceremony, and they not according to primitive practice neither, so is honour and respect too; there being little of that in the world as well as of the other; and to be sure, in these customs, none that is justifiable by Scripture or reason.
XII. In Scripture we find the word honour often and diversely used. First for obedience: as when God saith, "They that honour me;" (1 Sam. ii. 30:) that is, that keep my commandments. "Honour the king;" (1 Pet. ii. 17;) that is, obey the king. "Honour thy father and mother;" (Exod. xx. 12;) that is, saith the apostle to the Ephesians, "Obey thy father and thy mother in the Lord, for that is right:" (Eph. vi. 1, 2:) take heed to their precepts and advice: presupposing always, that rulers and parents command lawful things, else they dishonour themselves to enjoin unlawful things; and subjects and children dishonour their superiors and parents, in complyingwith their unrighteous commands. Also Christ uses this word so, when he says, "I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and ye dishonour me;" (John, viii. 49;) that is, I do my Father's will in what I do, but you will not hear me; you reject my counsel, and will not obey my voice. It was not refusing hat and knee, nor empty trifles: no, it was disobedience; resisting him that God had sent, and not believing in him. This was the dishonour he taxed them with; using him as an impostor, that God had ordained for the salvation of the world. And of these dishonourers there are but too many at this day. Christ has a saying to the same effect; "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father; and he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath sent him:" (John, v. 23:) that is, they that hearken not to Christ, and do not worship and obey him, they do not hear, worship, nor obey God. As they pretended to believe in God, so they were to have believed in him; he told them so. This is pregnantly manifested in the case of the centurion, whose faith was so much commended by Christ; where, giving Jesus an account of his honourable station, he tells him, "He had soldiers under his authority, and when he said to one, Go, he went; to another, Come, he came; and to a third, Do this, he did it." (Luke, vii. 8.) In this it was he placed the honour of his capacity, and the respect of his soldiers, and not in hats and legs: nor are such customs yet in use amongst soldiers, being effeminate, and unworthy of masculine gravity.
XIII. In the next place, honour is used for preferment to trust and eminent employments. So the Psalmist, speaking to God: "For thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:" again, "Honour and majesty hast thou laid on him;" (Psalm viii. 5; xxi. 5;) that is, God hath given Christ power over all his enemies, and exalted him togreat dominion. Thus the wise man intimates, when he says, "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honour is humility." (Prov. xv. 33.) That is, before advancement or preferment is humility. Further, he has this saying, "As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool:" (Prov. xxvi. 10:) that is, a fool is not capable of the dignity of trust, employment, or preferment: they require virtue, wisdom, integrity, diligence, with which fools are unfurnished. And yet if the respects and titles in use amongst us are to go for marks of honour, Solomon's proverb will take place, and doubtless doth, upon the practice of this age, that yields so much of that honour to a great many of Solomon's fools; who are not only silly men, but wicked too; such as refuse instruction, and hate the fear of the Lord; (Prov. xiii. 18;) which only maketh one of his wise men.
XIV. And as virtue and wisdom are the same, so folly and wickedness. Thus Shechem's lying with Dinah, Jacob's daughter, is called: (Gen. xxxiv. 7:) so is the rebellion and wickedness of the Israelites in Joshua. (Josh. vii. 15.) The Psalmist expresses thus: "My wounds stink, because of my foolishness:" (Psalm xxxviii. 5:) that is, his sin. And, "The Lord will speak peace to his saints, but let them not turn again to folly:" (Psalm lxxxv. 8:) that is, to evil. "His own iniquities," says Solomon, "shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins: he shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray." (Prov. v. 22, 23.) Christ puts foolishness with blasphemy, pride, theft, murders, adulteries, wickedness, &c. (Mark, vii. 10-12.) I was the more willing to add these passages, to show the difference that there is between the mind of the Holy Ghost, and the notion that those ages had of fools, that deserve nothonour, and that which is generally meant by fools and folly in our time; that we may the better understand the disproportion there is between honour, as then understood by the Holy Ghost, and those that were led thereby; and the apprehension of it, and the practice of those latter ages of professed Christians.
XV. But honour is also taken for reputation, and it is so understood with us: "A gracious woman," says Solomon, "retaineth honour;" (Prov. xi. 16;) that is, she keeps her credit: and by her virtue, maintains her reputation, of sobriety and chastity. In another place, "It is an honour for a man to cease from strife:" (Prov. xx. 3:) that is, it makes for his reputation, as a wise and good man. Christ uses the word thus, where he says, "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country;" (Matt. xiii. 57;) that is, he has credit, and is valued, save at home. The apostle to the Thessalonians has a saying to this effect: "That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour:" (1 Thes. iv. 4:) that is, in chastity and sobriety. In all which nothing of the fashions by us declined is otherwise concerned than to be totally excluded.
XVI. There is yet another use of the word honour in Scripture, and that is to functions and capacities: as, "An elder is worthy of double honour:" (1 Tim. v. 17:) that is, he deserves double esteem, love, and respect; being holy, merciful, temperate, peaceable, humble, &c., especially one that labours in word and doctrine. So Paul recommends Epaphroditus to the Philippians; "Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation:" (Phil. ii. 29:) as if he had said, Let them be valued and regarded by you in what they say and teach. Which is the truest, and most natural and convincing way of testifying respect to a man of God; as Christ said to his disciples, "If ye love me ye will keep my sayings."Further, the apostle bids us, To honour widows indeed: that is, such women who are of chaste lives and exemplary virtue are honourable.
XVII. The word honour, in the Scripture, is also used from superiors to inferiors. Which is plain in the instance of Ahasuerus to Haman; "What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour?" (Esther, vi. 6.) Why, he mightily advanced him, as Mordecai afterwards. And more particularly it is said, that "the Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour:" (Esther, viii. 16:) that is, they escaped the persecution that was like to fall upon them, and by the means of Esther and Mordecai, they enjoyed not only peace, but favour and countenance too. In this sense the apostle Peter advised Christian men "To honour their wives:" (1 Pet. iii. 7:) that is, to love, value, cherish, countenance, and esteem them, for their fidelity and affection to their husbands, for their tenderness and care over their children, and for their diligence and circumspection in their families. There is no ceremonious behaviour, or gaudy titles requisite to express this honour. Thus God honours holy men: "Them that honour me," says the Lord, "I will honour; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed:" (1 Sam. ii. 30:) that is, I will do good to them, I will love, bless, countenance, and prosper them that honour me, that obey me: but they that despise me, that resist my Spirit, and break my law, they shall be lightly esteemed, little set by or accounted of; they shall not find favour with God, nor righteous men. And so we see it daily among men: if the great visit or concern themselves to aid the poor; we say, that such a great man did me the honour to come and see, or help me in my need.
XVIII. I shall conclude this with one passage more, and that is a very large, plain, and pertinent one: "Honour all men, and love the brotherhood:" (1 Pet.ii. 17:) that is, love is above honour, and that is reserved for the brotherhood. But honour, which is esteem and regard, that thou owest to all men; and if all, then thy inferiors. But why for all men? Because they are the creation of God, and the most noble part of his creation too: they are also thy own kind: be natural, and assist them with what thou canst; be ready to perform any real respect, and yield them any good or countenance thou canst.
XIX. And yet there seems a limitation to the command, Honour all men, in that passage of godly David, "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? he in whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord." (Psalm xv. 1, 4.) Here honour is confined and affixed to godly persons; and dishonour made the duty of the righteous to the wicked, and a mark of their being righteous, that they dishonour, that is, slight or disregard them. To conclude this Scripture inquiry after honour, I shall contract the subject of it under three capacities, superiors, equals, and inferiors: honour, to superiors is obedience; to equals, love; to inferiors, countenance and help: that is honour after God's mind, and the holy people's fashion of old.
XX. But how little of all this is to be seen or had in a poor empty hat, bow, cringe, or gaudy, flattering title, let the truth-speaking witness of God in all mankind judge. For I must not appeal to corrupt, proud, and self-speaking man, of the good or evil of those customs; that as little as he would render them, are loved and sought by him, and he is out of humour and angry if he has them not.
This is our second reason why we refuse to practise the accustomed ceremonies of honour and respect; because we find no such notion or expression of honour and respect, recommended to us by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures of truth.
XXI. Our third reason for not using them as testimonies of honour and respect is, because there is no discovery of honour or respect to be made by them: it is rather eluding and equivocating it; cheating people of the honour and respect that is due to them; giving them nothing in the show of something. There is in them no obedience to superiors, no love to equals, no help or countenance to inferiors.
XXII. We are, we declare to the whole world, for true honour and respect; we honour the king, our parents, our masters, our magistrates, our landlords, one another; yea, all men, after God's way, used by holy men and women of old time: but we refuse these customs as vain and deceitful; not answering the end they are used for.
XXIII. But, fourthly, there is yet more to be said: we find that vain, loose, and worldly people are the great lovers and practisers of them, and most deride our simplicity of behaviour. Now we assuredly know, from the sacred testimonies, that those people cannot give true honour that live in a dishonourable spirit; they understand it not; but they can give the hat and knee, and that they are very liberal of, nor are any more expert at it. This is to us a proof that no true honour can be testified by those customs, which vanity and looseness love and use.
XXIV. Next to them I will add hypocrisy, and revenge too. For how little do many care for each other! Nay, what spite, envy, animosity, secret backbiting, and plotting one against another, under the use of these idle respects; till passion, too strong for cunning, breaks through hypocrisy into open affront and revenge! It cannot be so with the Scripture honour: to obey, or prefer a man, out of spite, is not usually done: and to love, help, serve, and countenance a person, in order to deceive and be revenged of him, is a thing never heard of: theseadmit of no hypocrisy nor revenge. Men do not these things to palliate ill-will, which are the testimonies of quite the contrary. It is absurd to imagine it, because impossible to be done.
XXV. Our sixth reason is, that honour was from the beginning: but hat-respects and most titles are of late: therefore there was true honour before hats or titles; and consequently true honour stands not in them. And that which ever was the way to express true honour is the best way still; and this the Scripture teaches better than dancing-masters can do.
XXVI. Seventhly, if honour consists in such-like ceremonies, then will it follow, that they are most capable of showing honour who perform it most exactly, according to the mode or fashion of the times; consequently, that man hath not the measure of true honour, from a just and reasonable principle in himself, but by the means and skill of the fantastic dancing-masters of the times: and for this cause it is we see that many give much money to have their children learn their honours, falsely so called. And what doth this but totally exclude the poor country people; who, though they plough, till, sow, reap, go to market, and in all things obey their justices, landlords, fathers, and masters, with sincerity and sobriety, rarely use those ceremonies; but if they do it is so awkwardly and meanly, that they are esteemed by a court critic so ill favoured as only fit to make a jest of and be laughed at: but what sober man will not deem their obedience beyond the others' vanity and hypocrisy? This base notion of honour turns out of doors the true, and sets the false in its place. Let it be further considered, that the way or fashion of doing it is much more in the design of its performers, as well as view of its spectators, than the respect itself. Whence it is commonly said, He is a man of good mien; or, She is a woman of exact behaviour. And whatis this behaviour but fantastic, cramped postures and cringings, unnatural to their shape; and, if it were not fashionable, ridiculous to the view of all people; and is therefore to the Eastern countries a proverb.
XXVII. But yet, eighthly, real honour consists not in a hat, bow, or title, because all these things may be had for money, for which reason, how many dancing-schools, plays, &c. are there in the land, to which youth is generally sent to be educated in these vain fashions! Whilst they are ignorant of the honour that is of God, and their minds are allured to visible things that perish; and instead of remembering their Creator, are taken up with toys and fopperies; and sometimes so much worse, as to cost themselves a disinheriting, and their indiscreet parents grief and misery all their days. (Prov. iii. 9.) If parents would honour God in the help of his poor with the substance they bestow on such an education, they would find a far better account in the end.
XXVIII. But lastly, we cannot esteem bows, titles, and pulling off of hats, to be real honour, because such-like customs have been prohibited by God, his Son, and servants in days past. This I shall endeavour to show by three or four express authorities.
XXIX. My first example and authority is taken from the story of Mordecai and Haman; so close to this point, that methinks it should at least command silence to the objections frequently advanced against us. Haman was first minister of state, and favourite to king Ahasuerus. The text says, That the king set his seat above all the princes that were with him; and all the king's servants bowed and reverenced Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him; but Mordecai, it seems, bowed not, nor did him reverence. (Esther, iii. 1, 2.) This at first made ill for Mordecai; a gallows was prepared for him at Haman's command. But the sequel of the storyshows that Haman proved his own invention, and ended his pride with his life upon it. Well now, speaking as the world speaks, and looking upon Mordecai without the knowledge of the success; was not Mordecai a very clown, at least a silly, morose, and humorous man, to run such a hazard for a trifle? What hurt had it done him to have bowed to and honoured one the king honoured? Did he not despise the king, in disregarding Haman? Nay, had not the king commanded that respect; and are not we to honour and obey the king? One would have thought he might have bowed for the king's sake, whatever he had in his heart, and yet have come off well enough; for that he bowed not merely to Haman, but to the king's authority; besides, it was but an innocent ceremony. But it seems Mordecai was too plain and stout, and not fine and subtle enough to avoid the displeasure of Haman.
Howbeit, he was an excellent man: he feared God, and wrought righteousness. And in this very thing also he pleased God, and even the king too, at last, that had most cause to be angry with him: for he advanced him to Haman's dignity; and if it could be to greater honour. It is true, sad news first came; no less than destruction to Mordecai, and the whole people of the Jews besides, for his sake: but Mordecai's integrity and humiliation, his fasting, and strong cries to God prevailed, and the people were saved, and poor condemned Mordecai comes, after all, to be exalted above the princes, whether in this or any other respect. They that endure faithful in that which they are convinced God requires of them, though against the grain and humour of the world and themselves too, they shall find a blessed recompense in the end. My brethren, remember the cup of cold water: "We shall reap if we faint not." And call to mind, that our Captain bowed not to him that told him, "If thou wilt fall down andworship me, I will give thee all the glory of the world:" shall we bow then? O no! Let us follow our blessed Leader.
XXX. But before I leave this section, it is fit I add, that in conference with a late bishop, and none of the least eminent, upon this subject and instance, I remember he sought to evade it thus: "Mordecai," says he, "did not refuse to bow, as it was a testimony of respect to the king's favourite; but he, being a figure and type of Christ, refused, because Haman was of the uncircumcision, and ought to bow to him rather." To which I replied, That allowing Mordecai to be a figure of Christ, and the Jews of God's people or church; and that as the Jews were saved by Mordecai, so the church is saved by Christ; this makes for me; for then, by that reason, the spiritual circumcision, or people of Christ, are not to receive and bow to the fashions and customs of the spiritual uncircumcision, who are the children of the world; of which such as were condemnable so long ago in the time of the type and figure, can by no means be justifiably received or practised in the time of the antitype or substance itself. On the contrary, this shows expressly, we are faithfully to decline such worldly customs, and not to fashion ourselves according to the conversation of earthly-minded people; but be renewed and changed in our ways, and keep close to our Mordecai; who having not bowed, we must not bow, that are his people and followers. And whatever be our sufferings or reproaches, they will have an end: Mordecai, our captain, that appears for his people throughout all the provinces, in the king's gate, will deliver us at last; and, for his sake, we shall be favoured and loved of the king himself too. So powerful is faithful Mordecai at last. Therefore let us all look to Jesus, our Mordecai, the Israel indeed; He that has power with God, and would not bow in the hour of temptation, but has mightily prevailed;and therefore is a Prince for ever, and "of his government there shall be no end." (Isa. ix. 7.)
XXXI. The next Scripture instance I urge against these customs, is a passage in Job, thus expressed: "Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person; neither let me give flattering titles unto man, for I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing, my Maker would soon take me away." (Job, xxxii. 21, 22.) The question that will arise upon the allegation of this Scripture is this, viz. What titles are flattering? The answer is as obvious, namely, Such as are empty and fictitious, and make him more than he is: as to call a man what he is not, to please him; or to exalt him beyond his true name, office, or desert, to gain upon his affections; who, it may be, lusteth to honour and respect: such as these,—most excellent, most sacred, your grace, your lordship, most dread majesty, right honourable, right worshipful, may it please your majesty, your grace, your lordship, your honour, your worship, and the like unnecessary titles and attributes, calculated only to please and tickle poor, proud, vain, yet mortal man. Likewise to call man what he is not, as my lord, my master, &c., and wise, just, or good, when he is neither, only to please him, or show him respect.
It was familiar thus to do among the Jews, under their degeneracy; wherefore one came to Christ, and said, "Good master, what shall I do to have eternal life?" (Luke, xviii. 18.) It was a salutation or address of respect in those times. It is familiar now: good my lord, good sir, good master, do this, or do that. But what was Christ's answer? how did he take it? "Why callest thou me good?" says Christ; "there is none good, save one, that is God." (Verse 19.) He rejected it that had more right to keep it than all mankind: and why? Because there was one greater than he; and that he saw the man addressed it to his manhood, after the way of the times,and not to his divinity which dwelt within it: therefore Christ refuses it, showing and instructing us that we should not give such epithets and titles commonly to men; for good being due alone to God and godliness, it can only be said in flattery to fallen man, and therefore sinful to be so said.
This plain and exact life well became Him, that was on purpose manifested to return and restore man from his lamentable degeneracy, to the innocency and purity of his first creation; who has taught us to be careful how we use and give attributes unto man by that most severe saying, "That every idle word that man shall speak, he shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matt. xii. 3, 6.) And that which should warn all men of the latitude they take herein, and sufficiently justifies our tenderness is this, That man can scarcely commit greater injury and offence against Almighty God, than to ascribe any of his attributes unto man, the creature of his word, and the work of his hands. He is a jealous God of his honour, and will not give his glory unto another. Besides, it is so near the sin of the aspiring fallen angels, that affected to be greater and better than they were made and stated by the great Lord of all, and to entitle man to a station above his make and orb, looks so like idolatry (the unpardonable sin under the law) that it is hard to think how men and women professing Christianity, and seriously reflecting upon their vanity and evil in these things, can continue in them, much less plead for them; and least of all reproach and deride those that through tenderness of conscience cannot use and give them. It seems that Elihu did not dare to do it; but put such weight upon the matter as to give this for one reason for his forbearance, to wit, lest my Maker should soon take me away: that is, for fear God should strike me dead, I dare not give man titles that are above him, or titlesmerely to please him. I may not, by any means, gratify that spirit which lusteth after such things. God is to be exalted, and man abased. God is jealous of man's being set higher than his station: he will have him keep his place, know his original, and remember the rock from whence he came: that what he has is borrowed; not his own but his Maker's, who brought him forth and sustained him; which man is very apt to forget: and lest I should be accessory to it by flattering titles, instead of telling him truly and plainly what he is, and using them as he ought to be treated, and thereby provoke my Maker to displeasure, and he in his anger and jealousy should take me soon away, or bring sudden death and an untimely end upon me, I dare not use, I dare not give such titles unto men.
XXXII. But if we had not this to allege from the Old Testament writings, it should and ought to suffice with Christians, that these customs are severely censured by the great Lord and Master of their religion; who is so far from putting people upon giving honour one to another, that he will not indulge them in it, whatever be the customs of the country they live in: for he charges it upon the Jews as a mark of their apostasy; "How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" where their infidelity concerning Christ is made the effect of seeking worldly, and not heavenly honour only. And the thing is not hard to apprehend, if we consider that self-love and desire of honour from men is inconsistent with the love and humility of Christ. They sought the good opinion and respect of the world; how then was it possible they should leave all and follow him, whose kingdom is not of this world; and that came in a way so cross to the mind and humour of it? And that this was the meaning of our Lord Jesus is plain: for he tells us what that honour wasthey gave and received, which he condemned them for, and of which he bid the disciples of his humility and cross 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," says he, "the uppermost rooms at feasts," (Matt. xxiii. 6,) "that is, places of greatest rank and respect; and greetings," (Mark, xii. 38,) that is, salutations of respect, such 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 lastly, "they love," says Christ, "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 stand for your grace, your lordship, right reverend father, &c. It is upon these men of breeding and quality that he pronounces his woes, making these practices some of the evil marks by which to know them, as well as some of the motives of his threatenings against them. But he leaves it not here: he pursues this very point of honour above all the rest in his caution to his disciples; to whom he gave in charge thus: "But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." (Matt. xviii. 8, 10-12.) "Neither be ye called Masters; but he that is greatest amongst you shall be your servant: and whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased." Plain it is that these passages carry a severe rebuke, both to worldly honour in general, and to those members and expressions of it in particular, which, as near as the language of Scripture and customs of that age will permit, do distinctly reach and allude to those of our own time; for the declining of which we have suffered so much scorn and abuse, both in our persons and estates; God forgive the unreasonable authors of it!
XXXIII. The apostle Paul has a saying of great weightand fervency, in his epistle to the Romans, very agreeable to this doctrine of Christ; it is this: "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service; and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, that acceptable, and perfect will of God." (Rom. xii. 1, 2.) He wrote to a people, in the midst of the ensnaring pomp and glory of the world. Rome was the seat of Cæsar, and the empire; the mistress of invention. Her fashions, as those 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 Christians 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 emphasis 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 customary among the Romans; and prove what is that acceptable will of God. As if he had said, Examine what you do and practise; see if it be right, and that it please God; call every thought, word, and action to judgment; (John, iii. 21;) try whether they are wrought in God or not; that so you may prove or know, what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
XXXIV. The next scripture authority we appeal to, in our vindication, is a passage of the apostle Peter, inhis first epistle written to the believing strangers throughout the countries of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; which were the churches of Christ Jesus in those parts of the world, gathered by his power and spirit: it is this; "Gird up the loins of your minds; be sober and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." (1 Pet. i. 13, 14.) That is, be not found in the vain fashions and customs of the world, unto which you conformed in your former ignorance; but as you have believed in a more plain and excellent way, so be sober and fervent, and hope to the end: do not give out; let them mock on; bear ye the contradiction of sinners constantly, as obedient children, that you may receive the kindness of God, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And therefore does the apostle call them strangers, a figurative speech, people estranged from the customs of the world, of new faith and manners; and so unknown of the world: and if such strangers, then not to be fashioned or conformed to their pleasing respects and honours, whom they were estranged from: because the strangeness lay in leaving that which was customary and familiar to them before. The following words, verse 17, prove he used the word strangers in a spiritual sense; "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear;" that is, pass the time of your being as strangers on earth in fear; not after the fashions of the world. A word in the next chapter, further explains his sense, where he tells the believers, that they are a peculiar people; to wit, a distinct, a singular and separate people from the rest 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 respects and honours; for that is not to be a peculiar or separatepeople from them, but to be like them, because conformable to them.