30. Why the world despiseth those that are gracious
Why the world despiseth those that are gracious
Obj. The thing is not much questionable that grace is glorious, but it may be objected, Doth grace make one glorious? Then how comes the world to despise such as have grace? such as are like Christ?
Ans. 1. I answer it is from blindness, from spiritual drunkenness and madness. They cannot discern of things; they are besotted; they see no difference. Therefore they cannot discern things that are excellent. But take a man in his right principles; take a sober man, and he will see an excellency in a Christian above himself.
Ans. 2. Again, grace is not made so much of ofttimes in the world, because it is joined with so many infirmities. Our life ’is hid with Christ,’ Colossians 3:3. It is hid under infirmities and under afflictions ofttimes; and being hidden it doth not appear so much in this world.
Ans. 3. And then again, however men force upon themselves a contempt of grace, and of the best things, yet notwithstanding it is but forced; for their conscience stoops at it. Witness conscience when it gives evidence on their deathbed. Take a man when he is himself, when he is sober, when he is best able to judge, when those things are taken from him, that obscured and darkened his judgment, and then you shall have him justify all things that are good, both grace and the means of grace.
Ans. 4. Again it must be so, that we may be conformable to Christ. The world misguideth* the state of a Christian. They think them vile and base persons. So they did Christ the head of the church. You see how Christ was esteemed. His glory was veiled with our nature and with misery a while; but it sparkled out ofttimes in his miracles. Now this was that he might suffer and perform the work of salvation. For the devil nor the wicked world would never have done that they did to him, if his glory had broken forth to the full lustre of it. So it is with the body mystical of Christ. The world misjudgeth of them. It appears not now what they shall be hereafter, nor what they are now indeed; because God will have them conformable to Christ. If so be that the glory of Christians were discovered in the true lustre, who would wrong a Christian? If they did see him indeed to be a member of Christ and an heir of heaven, the care of angels and the price of Christ’s death; if they did see him in his excellency, all the world would admire him, and make another man of him than of potentates and monarchs! But how then should he be conformable to his head in afflictions? The head was to save us by death. He must be abased. The world must take him as a strange man, and we that must be conformed to him, we must pass as unknown men in the world. But not so unknown, but that grace breaks out sometimes to admiration and imitation; and when it hath not imitation, it stirs up envy and malice in others, in the children of the devil. Therefore, notwithstanding all objections, grace is glory. It makes us like Christ, who is glorious, who is ’the Lord of glory.’ And then it draws glory with it, glorious peace and glorious comfort, and joy in the Holy Ghost, the attendants of grace in the hearts of God’s people. Is it not, as I said, a glorious thing for a man to have that peace in him that passeth all understanding, that shall settle and quiet his soul in all tumults in the world? When all things are turned upside down, for a Christian to stand unmoveably built upon the rock: whence comes this glorious pitch, but from grace? Grace and peace: one follow another. Then for a man to have inward joy and comfort in the midst of afflictions and disconsolations in the world, it is a wonderful and a glorious thing. It is called ’joy unspeakable,’ 1 Peter 1:8, and ’glorious grace,’ 2 Corinthians 3:8. Therefore in regard of that that follows it, in this world it is glory.
Hence it is that the wise man saith, that ’the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.’ He is more glorious than another man, as pearls are above pebbles. He is more excellent in life, in death, and after death especially; for there is a growing from glory to glory. He is glorious in life, more glorious in death, when his soul shall be put into glory in heaven; and most of all glorious when Christ shall come to be glorious in his saints, as it is in 2 Thessalonians 1:10. So he is excellent in life, and in death, and for ever. For another man, that is but a man—a man, said I, nay, if a man be but a man, he is either like a devil in subtlety, or a beast in sensuality; he carries the image either of a beast or of the devil, besides a man. A righteous man therefore that hath the image of God stamped upon him, he is better than another man every way; for he is in a higher rank of creatures. Grace sets a man as far above other men as other men are above other creatures. At the first the creatures reverenced God in Adam. They came and took their names from him. They were subject to him. So grace is a glorious, majestical thing. Wicked men, even Herod, reverenced grace in John Baptist, Mark 6:20, and evil men reverence it in their hearts, in God’s people, though their mouths speak against it. A Christian is a spiritual man. As reason lifts a man above other creatures, so the image of God set upon a man, it lifts and raiseth him above other men.
Use 1. If grace and the image of God and Christ in us be glory, and make us excellent, let us all labour for grace above all things. We all, as I said before, desire liberty; and as we desire liberty, so we desire glory; but we know not the way how to come to it. In seeking liberty, we seek licentiousness; in seeking glory, we seek it from men that cannot give it. We seek glory in outward things that are nothing. What is the glory of all outward things, but the shining of a rotten piece of wood in the night time, or as a glow-worm? What is all this glory but a flash? It is nothing. If we would seek true glory indeed, as naturally all do, let us seek grace. Thereby we resemble Christ, ’the Lord of glory;’ thereby we are glorious in the eyes of Christ; thereby we are glorious both without and within. Though this glory for the present be hid, thereby we are terrible to the devil and all enemies. For ever since his head was crushed by Christ, that broke the serpent’s head, he is afraid of man’s nature in Christ; he is afraid of Christians, as knowing that they be better than himself. And he shall be judged by them ere long. The devil shall be judged by Christians. Therefore let us study for this glory. A man is never glorious till he be a Christian.
It is said of Antiochus, that he was a vile person. What! Though he was a king (i)? Yes. Let a man be never so great in the world, if he be a wicked man, a man that dishonoureth his tongue, that should be his glory, that hath not the language of Canaan, that dishonours and defiles his body, that should be the ’temple of the Holy Ghost,’ 1 Corinthians 6:19, a man that carries a malicious and malignant spirit, that hath the image of the devil in his soul: if he be never so great a person, he will be vile ere long, when all relations shall end in death. All excellencies must be laid down in death. Therefore seeing all other excellencies cannot keep a man from being a vile person, let us labour for that that will put a glory upon us. Labour for the image of Christ to be stamped upon our soul. There is a great humour in this age in looking to pieces of workmanship. If a man have skill to discern a piece, as they call it, it is more than ordinary. Beloved, what a vanity is this (though these pictures be lawful; they are a kind of mute poetry). But what is this to the having of the glorious image of Christ stamped upon us; to be glorious in the eye of God and in the very judgment of carnal men!
There is nothing so excellent as grace, and nothing so base as sin. Indeed there is nothing base but sin; and nothing excellent but grace. So that God’s children, not only in their glorious riches and prerogatives to be the sons of God and heirs of heaven, are glorious, but they have an inward glory. ’The spouse of Christ is glorious within,’ Psalms 45:13. Insomuch that Christ is in love with his own graces. He wonders at his own graces in his children.
Use 2. Again, oppose this to the scorn and hatred of the world; base-minded persons, that disgrace goodness that their illness may be the less discerned. They labour to make all alike, all they can, by slanders at least, that their illness may not appear. Oppose the judgments of God’s Spirit that esteems grace glory against all the judgment of the base world. Beloved, they shall know one day, that those that they despise shall judge them; and their hearts secretly tell them so. What makes them malign men better than themselves? They have a secret conceit, he is above me. ’The spiritual man judgeth all things,’ 1 Corinthians 2:15. He is a man that discerns by a spiritual eye. He judgeth and condemneth my ways, and hereafter he will judge me. A secret conscience in him makes him fear a good man. Though he deprave* and malign him, yet his heart stoops.
Use 3. Again, is grace glory? When God sets in† on us, shall we cast our crown in the dirt? Shall we defile and blemish our glory by sinning against conscience? We forget our excellency, that grace is glory. It teacheth us how to carry ourselves to ourselves. If there be grace in us, let us be honourable to ourselves. It is a good caveat that we should be venerable to ourselves; that is, Christians should take a holy state to themselves. What! I that am an heir of heaven; I that am a king; I that am a conqueror; I that am the son of God; I that am a freeman: should I tangle myself with these things? Shall I go and stain myself? Is it not an unsightly thing to see a golden pillar daubed with dirt? or to see a crown cast into the dirt? God hath put a crown upon me; he hath made me a king; he hath made me an heir of heaven; he hath made me his son; he hath put a glory upon me;—shall I abase myself to devilish base courses? No. I will be more honourable in my own eyes. Let us think ourselves too good for the base services of Satan. These thoughts we should take to ourselves. These are not proud thoughts, but befitting our condition. When we are tempted to any base course, whatsoever it is, it is contrary to my calling.
Use 4. And let us comfort ourselves in the work of grace, though it be wrought in never so poor a measure, in all the disparagements of the world; for those that are besotted with false vain-glory, they have the eyes of their souls put out, and dimmed and dazzled with false glory. They cannot judge of the glory of a Christian. They want eyes. Therefore let us be content to pass in the world as hidden. Christ passed concealed in the world; only now and then the beams of his glory brake forth in his miracles. So we must be content. For our glory is hid in Christ, for the most part; and it is clouded with the imputations and malice of men, and sometimes with infirmities, as it will in this world. Let us comfort ourselves with this, that we are glorious howsoever, and glorious within; and this glory will break out in a holy conversation. And it is better to be glorious in the eyes of God, and angels, and good men, and in the consciences of ill men, than to have glory from their mouths. Malice will not suffer them to glorify them with their mouths, but their consciences must needs stoop to goodness; for God hath put a majesty into goodness, that any man that is a man, that is not a beast, that hath natural principles, will reverence it; and the consciences of such men will make them speak the truth one day, and they shall say, ’We fools thought these men mad,’ but ’now we see ourselves fools.’ Therefore in the disparagements of worldly men, that know not where true glory lies, let us be content with this, that God hath made us truly glorious by working a change in a comfortable measure; let us comfort ourselves in this.
Use 5. Again, by this we may know whether we have grace in us or no. If we think grace to be glory, let us have that judgment and conceit of grace.
(1.) Of the change of our natures, by the Spirit of God, and the truth of God, as the Holy Ghost hath here, calling it glory. That very judgment shews that there is an alteration in our affections; that we are changed in the spirit of our minds; that we have a right conceit of heavenly things. For none but a Christian indeed can judge grace to be glory, that can truly think so. For if a man think grace to be glory truly, if he be convinced by the power of the Spirit, he will be gracious. For there is an instinct in all men by nature to glory in something. You have the gulls* of the world, they glory in something, in swaggering, beastly courses. You have devilish men glory that they can circumvent others. Rather than men will have no glory, they will glory in that that is shame indeed. Man having a disposition alway to glory in something, if he be convinced that grace is glory, he will be gracious.
Therefore, I beseech you, enter into your own souls, and see what conceits you have of the image of God, of the graces of Christianity, and then certainly it will raise a holy ambition to have that stamp set upon you.
(2.) Again, this is another evidence that a man is gracious, if he can look upon the life of another that is better than he with a conceit that it is glory, and loving of it as glory. Many men see grace in other men, but with a maligning eye. They see it to disgrace it. For naturally this is in men. They are so vain-glorious and ambitious, that when they see the lives of other men outshew theirs, instead of imitation, they go to base courses. They obscure and darken that light with slanders, that they will not imitate in their courses. This is in the better sort of men, the prouder, and greater sort of men. What grace they will not imitate they will defame. They will not be outshined by anything. Therefore, those that can see so far into the life of another man, as they love it, and honour the grace of God in another man, it is a sign there is some work of glory begun in them. Men can endure good things in books, and by reports, and good things of men that are dead, &c., but they cannot endure good things running in their eyes. Especially when it comes in a kind of competition and comparison, they love not to be outshined.
’From glory to glory.’
We see the state of God’s children here, and the state in heaven, come both under one name; both are ’glory.’ The children of God are kings here, they shall be kings in heaven. They are saints here, as they be saints in heaven. There is an adoption of grace as well as an adoption of glory, Romans 8:30, et alibi. There is a regeneration here of our souls; there is a regeneration of soul and body then. We are new creatures here; and we shall be new creatures there.