plain enough.' 1 Silly, ignorant people are very apt to dote upon that most, and admire that most, which they understand least ; but prudent Christians judge of ministers not by their lungs, but by their brains ; not by their throats, but by their hearts and lives ; not by their voices and tones, but by the plainness, spiritualness, suitableness, and useful- ness of their matter : like Demosthenes, who when he heard an orator bellowing with a loud and roaring voice, said, Non quod magnum est bene est, sed quod bene est magnum est, I mark rather the goodness than loudness of an oration. 2 It is observable throughout the Scriptures, that the profoundest prophets, and the greatest apostles, yea, and Christ himself, did commonly accommodate themselves to their hearers' capacities. 3 The^^pt in and kept under all those human excellencies, the discodflP of which might anywise cloud divine glory. Men that hav^J|pir eyes upon divine glory, do know that the more any acquired parts, gifts, and excellencies do appear in holy exercises, the more the name, honour, and glory of God is clouded, and the more those that have most of the indwellings of God are dis- satisfied and disadvantaged ; and therefore those that have real respect to divine glory, they draw as it were a curtain between all their human excellencies and religious exercises, 1 Cor. ix. 3. That none may think this is my private opinion, let me add a few sayings of theirs that have been eminent in acquired excellencies. Gregory Nazianzen, a holy and a weighty writer, compares curiosity and novelty of speech in the things of God unto lascivious dancing, and the arts of jugglers, whereby they deceive the senses of those that look on ;* and further saith that simple, proper, genuine language was in holy things wont to be esteemed godliness. And it was a remarkable saying of golden-mouthed Chrysostom, as some caU him, ' When I first began to preach,' said he, ' I was a child, and delighted in rattles, in the applause of the people ; but when I was a man, I began to despise them.' New phrases and expressions do many times make way for the introducing of new doctrines, as learned Parseus in his comment on 1 Cor. i. 1 observes : ' For the most part,' saith he, ' those who in points of divinity devise new terms and unusual expressions, do hide under them some new and strange doctrines; they wrap up their error in some intricate words and distinctions.^ When our words in preaching differ from the style of the Holy Ghost, the people be in danger of turning aside to vain jangling, saith Danaeus-^ Loquamur verba scripturce, &c., said that incomparable man, Peter Kamus: Let us speak the words of scripture, let us make use of the language of the Holy Ghost, and for ever abominate those that profanely disdain at the stately plainness of God's blessed book, and that think to correct the divine wisdom and eloquence with their own infancy 7 and sophistry. 8 Non quanta eloquentia, sed qu/xnta evidentia, saith Augustine. Melius
^ Dr John Kainolds (?)— G. ^ Erasmus.
" Holy Moses covered his glistering face with a veil when he spake to the people.
* Eusebius tells us of some in his days, who to win upon the minds of men, did amaze them with new words. — Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c. 7.
* Geneva : mdccxlvi folio, with his other ' Commentarii.' — G.
* Lambertus Danseus. — G. ' ' Childishness.' — G.
8 The orators of Athens were then suspected, when they began to make excursions with florid expressions.
146 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
est ut nos reprehendant grammatici, quam ut non intelligant populi: the same author on Ps, cxxxviii. Such as mind more, saith another, the humouring of their hearers' fancies than the saving of their souls, do little consider that of Seneca, ^ger non qucerit medicum eloquen- iem, sed sanantem: Sick men are not bettered by physicians' sugared words, but by their skilful hands. Dr Sibbes was wont to say, that great affection and good affection seldom go together. Truth is like Solomon's spouse, all glorious within ; she is most beautiful when most naked, as Adam was in innocency. The king of Persia^ having sent to Antalcidas, the Lacedemonian captain, a garland of roses wonderfully perfumed with spices and other sophistications, he accepted of his love, but misliked the present, and sent him word : Rosarum odorem artis adulteraiioneperdidisti: Thou hast marred the sweetness of the roses with the sweetness of thy perfumes. So many mar the sweetness of the word, by perfuming it with their human eloquence and oratory. For a close, remember that God himself, the great master of speech, when he spake from heaven, he made use of three several texts in a breath : Mat. xvii. 5, ' This is my beloved Son,' Ps. ii. 7 ; 'In whom I am well pleased,' Isa. xlii. 1 ; ' Hear ye him,' Deut. xviii. 15 ; which you may note against the curious queasiness^ of such nice ones as disdain at the stately plainness of the Scriptures. But,
[3.] Thirdly, If thou dost really and actually aim at the glory of God in what thou dost, then the glory of God will swallow up all by-aims and ends that may thrust themselves in upon the soul whilst it is at its work.^ Look, as Aaron's rod, Exod. vii. 10-12, swallowed up the magicians' rods, so the glory of God will swallow up all carnal aims and ends. Look, as the sun puts out the light of the fire, 80 the glory of God will put out and consume all other ends. This is most certain, that which is a man's great end, that will work out all other ends. If thou settest up the glory of God as thy chief end, that will by degrees eat out all low and base ends. Look, as Pharaoh's lean Mne, Gen. xli. 4, ate up the fat, so the glory of God will eat up all those fat and worldly ends that crowd in upon the soul in religious work. The keeping up of the glory of God as thy great end, will be the keeping down and the casting out of all other ends.
[4.] Fourthly, He that really and actually aims at the glory of God in what he doth, he will he doing what God commands, though nothing for the present comes of it. If his eye be truly fixed upon divine glory, a command of God shall be enough to carry him on in his work.* Ps. xxvii. 8, * When thou saidst. Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' When the glory of God is a man's mark, his heart will sweetly echo and graciously comply with divine commands : Jer. iii. 22, ' Keturn, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee ; for thou art the Lord our God.' God's commands fall with great power and force upon that man's heart, that hath divine glory in his eye. One word from God will command such a soul to a gracious compliance with
^ Tirabazus.— G. » < Niceness,' ' squeamisliness.' — G.
' Christus opera nostra non tain actibus quam finibus pensat. — Zanchius. * Rom. xvi. 19, Obedientia non discutit Dei mandata, sed facit. — Prosper.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 147