XXXIV. The next scripture authority we appeal to, in our vindication, is a passage of the apostle Peter, in his 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 separate people from them, but to be like them, because conformable to them.
XXXV. I shall conclude my scripture testimonies against the foregoing respects, with that memorable and close passage of the apostle James against respect of persons in general after the world's fashion: "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons: for if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel: and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, (or well and seemly, as the word is;) and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?" (James, ii. 1-4.) That is, they knew they did amiss: "If ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors." (James, ii. 8, 9.) This is so full there seems nothing left for me to add, or others to object. We are not to respect persons, that is the first thing: and the next thing is, if we do we commit sin, and break the law; At our own peril be it. And yet perhaps some will say, that by this we overthrow all distinction amongst men, under their divers qualities, and introduce a reciprocal and relational respect in the room of it: but if it be so, I cannot help it, the apostle James must answer for it, who has given us this doctrine for Christian and apostolical. And yet one greater than he told his disciples, of whom James was one, "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, &c. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." (Mat. xx. 25-27.) That is, he that affects rule, and seeks to be uppermost, shall be esteemed least among you. And to say true on the whole matter, whether we regard those early times of the world, that were antecedent to the coming of Christ or soon after, there was yet a greater simplicity than in the times in which we are fallen. For those early times of the world, as bad as they were in other things, were great strangers to the frequency of these follies: nay, they hardly used some of them, at least very rarely. For if we read the Scriptures, such a thing as my lord Adam, though lord of the world, is not to be found: nor my lord Noah neither, the second lord of the earth: nor yet my lord Abraham, the father of the faithful; nor my lord Isaac; nor my lord Jacob; but much less is my lord Paul, &c. to be found in the Bible: and less your holiness, or your grace. Nay, among the Gentiles, the people wore their own names with more simplicity, and used not the ceremony of speech that is now practised among Christians, nor yet anything like it. My lord Solon, my lord Phocion, my lord Plato, my lord Aristotle, 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 some of the sages and heroes of those great empires. No, their own names were enough to distinguish them from other men, and their virtue and employments in the public service 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 conscience to deny it them. For instance; the Fathers they only cite thus: Polycarpus, Ignatius, Irenæus, Cyprian, Tertullian, Origen, Arnobius, Lactantius, Chrysostom, Jerom, &c. More modern writers; Damascen, Rabanus, Paschasius, Theophylact, Bernard, &c. And of the last age, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, Zuinglius, Marlorat, Vossius, Grotius, Dalleus, Amyralldus, &c. And of our own country, Gildas, Beda, Alcuinus, Horn, Bracton, Grosteed, Littleton, Cranmer, Ridley, Jewel, Whitaker, Seldon, &c. And yet I presume this will not be thought uncivil or rude. Why then is our simplicity (and so honestly grounded too, as conscience against pride in man, that so evilly and perniciously loves and seeks worship and greatness) so much despised and abused, and that by professed Christians too, who take themselves to be the followers of Him, that has forbidden these foolish customs, as plainly as any other impiety condemned in his doctrine? I earnestly beg the lovers, users, and expecters of these ceremonies, to let this I have written have some consideration and weight with them.
XXXVI. However, Christians are not so ill-bred as the world think; for they show respect too: but the difference between them lies in the nature of the respect they perform, and the reasons of it. The world's respect is an empty ceremony, no soul nor substance in it: the Christian's is a solid thing, whether by obedience to superiors, love to equals, or help and countenance to inferiors. Next, their reasons and motives to honour and respect, are as wide one from the other: for fine apparel, empty titles, or large revenues are the world's motives, being things her children worship: but the Christian's motives are the sense of his duty in God's sight; first to parents and magistrates; and then to inferior relations: and lastly to all people, according to their virtue, wisdom, and piety; which is far from respect to the mere persons of men, or having their persons in admiration for reward: much less on such mean and base motives as wealth and sumptuous raiment.
XXXVII. We shall easily grant, our honour, as our religion, is more hidden; and that neither are so discernible by worldly men, nor grateful to them. Our plainness is odd, uncouth, and goes mightily against the grain; but so does Christianity too, and that for the same reasons. But had not the Heathen spirit prevailed too long under a Christian profession, it would not be so hard to discern the right from the wrong. O that Christians would look upon themselves with the glass of righteousness; that which tells true, and gives them an exact knowledge of themselves! And then let them examine, what in them, and about them, agrees with Christ's doctrine and life; and they may soon resolve, whether they are real Christians, or but Heathens christened with the name of Christians.
SOME TESTIMONIES FROM ANCIENT AND MODERN WRITERS IN FAVOUR OF OUR BEHAVIOUR.
XXXVIII. Marlorat, out of Luther and Calvin, upon that remarkable passage I just now urged from the apostle James, gives us the sense those primitive reformers had of respect to persons in these words, viz. 'To respect persons here, is to have regard to the habit and garb: the apostle signifies, that such respecting of persons is so contrary to true faith, that they are altogether inconsistent: but if the pomp, and other worldly regards prevail, and weaken what is of Christ, it is a sign of a decaying faith. Yea, so great is the glory and splendour of Christ in a pious soul, that all the glories of the world have no charms, no beauty, in comparison of that, unto one so righteously inclined. The apostle maketh such respecting of persons, to be repugnant to the light within them, insomuch as they who follow these practices, are condemned from within themselves. So that sanctity ought to be the reason or motive of all outward respect; and that none is to be honoured, upon any account but holiness.' Thus much Marlorat. But if this be true doctrine, we are much in the right in refusing conformity to the vain respects of worldly men.
XXXIX. But I shall add to these, the admonition of a learned ancient writer, who lived about 1200 years since, of great esteem, namely Jerom, who writing to a noble matron, Celantia, directing her how to live in the midst of her prosperity and honours, amongst many other religious instructions, speaks thus: 'Heed not thy nobility, nor let that be a reason for thee to take place of any; esteem not those of a meaner extraction to be thy inferiors; for our religion admits of no respect of persons, nor doth it induce us to repute men, from any external condition, but from their inward frame and disposition of mind: it is hereby that we pronounce men noble or base. With God, not to serve sin is to be free; and to excel in virtue is to be noble. God has chosen the mean and contemptible of this world, whereby to humble the great ones. Besides, it is a folly for any to boast his gentility, since all are equally esteemed by God. The ransom of the poor and rich cost Christ an equal expense of blood. Nor is it material in what state a man is born; the new creature hath no distinction. But if we will forget how we all descended from one Father; we ought at least perpetually to remember that we have but one Saviour.'
XL. But since I am engaged against these fond and fruitless customs, the proper effects and delights of vain and proud minds, let me yet add one memorable passage more, as it is related by the famous Casaubon, in his discourse of Use and Custom, where he briefly reports, what passed between Sulpitius Severus and Paulinus, bishop of Nola, (but such an one as gave all to redeem captives; whilst others of that function, that they may show who is their master, are making many both beggars and captives, by countenancing the plunder and imprisonment of Christians, for pure conscience to God); he brings it in thus: 'He is not counted a civil man now, of late years amongst us, who thinks it much, or refuseth to subscribe himself servant, though it be to his equal or inferior.' Yet Sulpitius Severus was once sharply chid by Paulinus for subscribing himself his servant, in a letter of his, saying, 'Take heed hereafter, how thou being from a servant called into liberty, dost subscribe thyself servant unto one who is thy brother and fellow-servant; for it is a sinful flattery, not a testimony of humility, to pay those honours to a man, and a sinner, which are due to the one Lord, and one Master, and one God.' By this we may see the sense of some of the more apostolical bishops, about the civilities and fashions so much reputed with people that call themselves Christians and bishops, and who would be thought their successors. It was then a sin, it is now an accomplishment: it was then a flattery, it is now respect: it was then fit to be severely reproved; and now, alas! it is to deserve severe reproof not to use it. O monstrous vanity! How much, how deeply, have those who are called Christians revolted from the plainness of the primitive days, and practice of holy men and women in former ages! How are they become degenerated into the loose, proud, and wanton customs of the world, which knows not God; to whom use hath made these things, condemned by scripture, reason, and example, almost natural! And so insensible are they of both their cause and bad effects, that they not only continue to practise them, but plead for them, and unchristianly make a very mock of those who cannot imitate them. But I shall proceed to what remains yet further to be said in our defence, for declining another custom, which helps to make us so much the stumbling-block of this light, vain, and inconsiderate age.