b ver. 4. servant, and not ours; therefore, we ought not to make our will, or judgement, the rule of his ; (servants should have no will of their own, but their Lord's) since God can and will keep him in service, and from dangerous falls, as well as us, 3. He walketh according to the light and persuasion of his heart; so that his failing is erroneous only, but not pertinacious, so long as he doth reverence light, and resolve that his heart shall not reproach him: he is docile and reducible by any clear conviction; his heart is Godward, though he does sometimes miss his way, ver. 5, 6. 4. We must all be accountable to a common Lord, and have thereupon work enough of our own to do; and, therefore, ought not to make others accountable unto us: we have none of us dominion over ourselves, therefore not over others neither, ver. 7. We have a Lord, who dearly purchased the dominion over us, and before whose tribunal we must all give an account of ourselves, ver. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 5. By judging, despising, and offending one another, we break the rules of Christian charity, grieving and endangering the souls of our brethren, ver. 13, 15. We expose those good things, wherein we agree, unto reproach, ver. 16; and prejudice the great things of the kingdom of God, "righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost" (which are the things which render us acceptable to God, and therefore should make us approved of one another) by our uncharitable altercations in smaller things, ver. 17, 18. We hinder the peace and edification of one another, ver. 19. We minister occasion of falling, stumbling, and offence to our weak brother, ver. 20, 21. We abuse our liberty, by making it a ball of contention, when we might enjoy it within ourselves, without any such danger, ver. 22. We go about to entangle our weak brother, by inducing him to act doubtingly, and without a warrant and persuasion of the lawfulness of what he doth, ver. 22, 23. So then, whatever be the differences amongst true believers, who agree in the great things of God's kingdom, the strong ought not to despise the weak, nor the weak to judge the strong; neither ought to hurt, grieve, wound, offend the hearts of one another, inasmuch as they are all fellow-servants to one common Lord, who will b Velle non videntur, qui obsequuntur imperio patris vel domini. Digest. de Regul. juris, leg. 4. judge us all and inasmuch as we are owned by that Lord, and accepted, the weak as well as the strong; who doth not so much value us by the degrees of our knowledge, as by the sincerity of our love; who doth not reap any benefit by the difference of our services, but is pleased and glorified by the uprightness of our hearts; yea, possibly is more pleased with the conscionable tenderness of the weak brother that errs, than with the confident and inexpedient liberty of the strong brother who doth not err. II. We may here note wherein the perfection of a Christian standeth, viz. in Touτo povely, to think of Christ, and think of himself, as the Apostle Paul here did. 1. To shake off all self-opinion of our own righteousness, all moral presumptions and fleshly confidence in any performances of our own, in our most zealous and blameless conversation they are good in 'genere viæ,' as paths to heaven; not in 'genere causæ,' as proper causes, on which we may depend for salvation. He that, living in the country, hath a rich office given him freely in the city, must travel from the country to the city, if he will enjoy it; but he must not ascribe the enjoyment of it to his own journey, but to his patron's bounty. We must be dead in ourselves, if we will be alive by the life of Christ; we must suffer the loss of all, and esteem it an excellent bargain for the gaining of him; we must not establish our own righteousness, if we will be found in his. The nearer any soul comes unto God, the more it learns to abhor itself, by his light discovering its deformities. The angels cover their feet and their faces ©; Moses exceedingly fears; Elias wraps his head in his mantle; the Prophet Isaiah cries out, I am undone;' and Holy Job, Mine eye seeth thee, therefore I abhor myself. The greater our approaches and acquaintance is with God, the lower our thoughts will be of ourselves. The stars disappear, when the sun riseth. Though heaven be high, yet the more there is of heaven in the soul, the more humble and low it is. Mountains must be levelled to make a way for a • Sancti viri, quo altius apud Deum virtutum dignitate proficiunt, co subtilius indignos se esse deprehendunt; quia dum proximi luci fiunt, quicquid eos in seipsis latebat, inveniunt. Greg. Moral. 1. 32. cap. 1. b Isai. vi. 1. d 1 Kings xix. 13. f Job e Heb. xii. 24. xlii. 5, 6. e Isai. vi. 5. Christ. As the orator said of Trajan, Te ad sidera tollit humus,' that his walking on the ground raised him, in the estimation of his people, unto heaven ;-we may say of a heavenly soul, Te ad humum Coelum deprimit;' the more heavenly, the more in the dust. "Qui Deo placet, sibi de se nil relinquit ;" the more we study to please God, the more nothing we are in ourselves. 2. To rejoice in the Lord, and in his righteousness alone. I will make mention of thy righteousness; of thine only,' saith the psalmist. (Psalm lxxi. 16) All mine own is as a menstruous cloth. So true is that of St. Austin, "Justitia nostra potius in remissione peccatorum constat, quam in perfectione virtutum." 3. To have communion and conformity to Christ, in his death and resurrection, by inchoate holiness, by mortifying our earthly members, and glorifying God in a heavenly conversation. The love of Christ constraining us to die unto sin, because he died for it; to give ourselves' living sacrifices unto him, who was pleased to give himself a dying sacrifice for us. For our own we are not, but his that bought us" as the civil law says, that a redeemed captive is his that bought him, 'per modum mancipii,' till he can restore the price by which he was redeemed. This we can never be able to do therefore we must ever be the servants of him that bought us. 4. To be always so tenderly affected with the sense of our own manifold imperfections, and coming short of the glory of God; that thereby our hearts may be the more inflamed, by a heavenly ambition and noble pursuit, to press forward in the use of all holy means, unto more nearness and intimate communion with the Lord Christ. The Lord is pleased here, in the church militant, in the land of temptation, by such slow and slender progresses, to renew his servants °; "Ut sit quod petentibus largiter adjiciat, quod confitentibus clementer ignoscat," as Austin excellently speaks; that there may still be a residue of spirit and grace, wherewith abundantly g Plin. Paneg. lib. 19. c. 27. Greg. Moral. 1. 10. c. 4. k 2 Cor. v. 14. 1 Rom. xii. 1. i Aug. de Civ. Dei, 6, 19. Deo dicata membra nulla tibi temeritate usurpes: non enim m 1 Cor. sine gravi n Digest. Aug. de Spirit. et Vit. cap. ult. to answer the things which are desired, and mercifully to pardon the sins that are confessed; that every mouth may be stopped from its own praises, and opened in the praises of God. From whence it cometh to pass, that God's servants, being always displeased with their present imperfection, do press forward unto that whereunto they have not yet attained,-like the waters of the sanctuary from the ancles to the loins; the water of life within them never giving over flowing, until it spring up unto eternal life; (John vii. 38) that those sins which, in our justification, are remitted, may be so daily, in our sanctification, weakened and diminished, that at last in our salvation they may be utterly removed. "Hic enim non peccare, præceptum; in Cælo, præmium:” In this life, not to sin is our duty; in the next, it shall be our reward and glory. Thus, as Christ never gave over his work on earth, till he had brought it to a consummation, (John xix. 13) nor will give over his work in heaven, till that likewise be pronounced consummate, (Rev. xvi. 17, and xxi. 6) for he must reign till he hath put down all authority and power, (1 Cor. xv. 24) that he may save to the uttermost those that come unto God through him; (Heb. vii. 25)—so the servants of Christ rest not in any past performances; are not weary of well-doing, but labour to perfect holiness in the fear of God. As by repentance they break off their sins, and do not finish them, (of which we read Dan. iv. 24. Jam. i. 15) so, by a continual progress of sanctification, they labour to increase more and more; (1 Thess. iv. 1) to grow in knowledge and in grace, (2 Pet. iii. 18) till they come to be perfect men, and to that measure of the stature of the fulness in Christ, which he hath intended for them, that they may be complete in him, and filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephes. iii. 19, and iv. 13. Col. ii. 10) Thus as in the body, so in the soul, hunger is usually a sign of health; and the greater our present perfection is, the greater will be our longings after more perfection. No man in those days was nearer God than Moses was; and no man ever made, if I may in a Semper tibi displiceat quod es,. si vis ad id pervenire, quod nondum es.—Si dixeris sufficit,'peristi. Aug. de verb. Apost. Ser. 15. q In renascentibus, remittuntur ; in proficientibus, minuuntur. Aug. Contr. Julian. Pelag. lib. 6. cap. 16. Aug. contra duas Ep. Pelag. 1. 3. c. 7. de pecc. merit. et Remiss. lib. 2. c. 7, 8, 13, 15. de perfect. Instit. cap. 5, 8. spiritual sense so call it, a more ambitious prayer than Moses did; (Exod. xxxiii. 18) "I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." As Absalom, when he was brought from banishment, aspired higher to come into his father's presence; (2 Sam. xiv. 32) so the soul, when it is once delivered from the thraldom of sin, is still more and more ambitious of nearer approaches and accesses unto God. (Rom. v. 1, 2. Psalm xlii. 2) In these things consisteth the highest perfection attainable here, in remission of sin, in the gift of righteousness, in conformity to the death and resurrection of Christ, in an humble and penitent apprehension of our own failings, in renouncing all carnal confidences, and in an importunate and indefatigable contention unto more grace and glory. III. In that the apostle saith, "If in any thing ye be otherwise minded," viz. touching legal rites, and Mosaical ceremonies, or touching the doctrine of Christian perfection, and the weakness of your present graces and attainments,— "the Lord will," in due time, out of his word, and by his spirit, if you be careful in the use of means, and attendant upon his teaching," reveal the same unto you." We may from hence learn, that in the best ages of the church there have been, and therefore we cannot expect but that there ever will be, varieties and differences of judgement amongst the members thereof. 1. While we know but in part, and prophesy but in part; 2. while there is difficulty in the disquisition of truth; 3. weakness of judgement in men to make that enquiry; 4. carelessness to try the spirits, and to prove all things; 5. prevalency of some lust or spiritual interest darkning the mind, and entangling the judgement; 6. credulity in attending unto false teachers; 7. itching ears, affecting and hankering after novel suggestions; 8. a too great reverence to the persons of men, having them in admiration, and giving ourselves up by a blind obedience and implicit faith unto their hands; 9. while there is sleepiness and inadvertency in the labourers; 10. cunning and sedulity in the adversaries; 11. unweariedness in circumambulation and supersemination of the envious man ;—we cannot expect but there will be τὶ ἑτέρως φρονοῦντες, men that will not in all things agree with their brethren. We cannot wonder to see some corn in the field of the church smutted and mildewed, |