[3.] Thirdly, I answer, Thxit it is not holiness, hut ivickedness, it is not sancity, hut impiety, that is tJie reproach, the dishonour, the dis- grace, and disparagement of man : Prov. xiv. 34, ' Kighteousness exalts a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people,' or as the Hebrew has it, ' to nations.' ^ The world usually accounts either beggarliness of estate, or badness of situation, or rudeness of behaviour, or changes in government, or dulness of invention, or a disuse of arms, or some suchlike imperfections, to be the reproach of nations ; but the Holy Ghost tells us that it is sin, it is sin that is the reproach of nations, that is the shame of nations, that is the contempt and scorn of nations, and that blots and blurs all the excellencies and glories of nations. Impious persons makes the nations infamous ; and the more impious any nation, city, or person is, the more infamous that nation, city, or person is : Prov. vi. 32, 33, ' But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get ; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.' 2 There is nothing that is such a blemish and such a wound to a man's honour as sin. Sin leaves such a blot, such a blur, and such a reproach upon a man's name, fame, and re- putation, that no art, no pains shall ever be able to wipe it out. All the water in the sea cannot wash away, nor all the rubbing in the world cannot wipe away the disgrace, disdain, and contempt, that enormities, that wickednesses lays a people under : Jer. xxiv. 9, * And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdopis of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.' It was not for their holiness, their godliness, but for their wickedness and ungodliness, that God was resolved to make them a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places : Prov. x. 7, ' The memory of the just is blessed ; but the name of the wicked shall rot.' The wickedness of the wicked heaps so much disgrace, disparagement, and dishonour upon them,
1 D''QM7, nations or peoples.
5 What an indelible blot was this still upon David — viz., that his heart was upright in all things save in the matter of Uriah.
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that it makes their very names to rot and stink above-ground ; their carcases do not more rot and stink under-ground, than their very names do rot and stink above-ground. The wickedness of the wicked will make their very names such a detestation and such an abhorring, that they shall either not be remembered at all, or if they be, they shall be only remembered as a rotten, stinking, putrified thing. As the curse of God follows the soul of a wicked man to hell, so the curse of God follows the name of a wicked man on earth, so that it becomes most noisome and loathsome among the sons of men. Sin does so debase and bebeast the great ones of the world, that the prophets, as Grotius hath rightly observed, use to set forth wicked kings by the names of beasts — as the goat, the ram, the leopard, the bear — to note the beastliness of their conditions, and because they commonly maintain and exercise their government by brutish violence and tyranny, Dan. vii. 3-7 ; Prov. xxviii. 15, 16. And Christ himself, who never spoke treason nor sedition, terms king Herod a fox in that Luke xiii. 32, * And he said unto them. Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.' Herod was as crafty and as subtle as a fox, he was as cruel and as fradulent as a fox, and therefore he is very fitly termed by Christ a fox. And so Paul describes Nero by the name of a lion : 2 Tim. iv. 17, ' And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion ' — that is, out of the mouth of Nero, who for his power and cruelty was like a lion, for he was a most cruel and desperate persecutor of the Christians, and made a bloody decree, that ' whosoever confessed him- self a Christian, should without any more ado be put to death as a convicted enemy of mankind.' Now, by what has been said, you see that it is not holiness but wickedness that is the greatest disgrace, dishonour, and disparagement imaginable to the sons of men ; and therefore there is no reason why the great ones of the world should disdain to pursue after holiness upon the account of this objection. But,
[4.] Fourthly, I answer. That this objection savours strongly of cursed pride, and of hellish loftiness and stateliness of spirit ; for who art thou, 0 great mountain ! who are thou, 0 great man ! or what art thou, 0 mighty man ! Zech. iv. 2; but that thou mayest be dishonoured and disparaged for holiness' sake ? What are thy great swelling titles, but as so many rattles ? what are thy honours, but as so many meteors ?^ and what is all thy worldly greatness, but a wind that may blow thee the sooner to hell ? All thy glory is but a glorious fancy, a magnum nihil, a great nothing ; and this Haman and Herod found by experience, and so did Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, who gave a charge to the prgetors of Rome, that they should not suffer his name to be worn threadbare. Bajazet, who was one of the greatest com- manders in the world, was carried about in an iron grate to be a foot- stool to an insulting conqueror. And Belisarius, the most famous general that the latter age of the Roman empire knew, and in greatest favour with Justinian his prince, was reduced to that great want that he was fain to beg his bread. And thus in all ages men have quickly
^ Calvin hath this note on that 1 Pet. v. 5, viz., Regis animum quisque intra ae habet. Every man hath in him the mind of a king.
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