Obs. 3. That Christ's name is a worthy name. Christianity will never be a disgrace to you ; you may be a disgrace to Christianity. ' I am not ashamed,' saith the apostle Paul, ' of the gospel of Christ,' Eom. i. 1(). Many are ashamed to own their profession in carnal com- pany, as if there could be any disgrace in Ixjing Christ's servant. Oh ! it is an honour to you. And as Christianity is an honour to you, so should you be an honour to it, that you may not stain a worthy name : 'Adorn the gospel,' Titus ii. 10. The herd of wicked men they are ignota capita, persons unknown and unobserved ; they may sin, and sin again, yet the world taketh no notice of it. But how doth it fur- nish the triumphs of the uncircumcised to see men of a worthy name overtaken in an offence ? The Hams of the world will laugh to see a Noah drunk. {Spots and stains in white are soon discerned.
Obs. 4. The people of Christ are named and called after Christ's name ; Christians, from Christ. The apostle saith, Eph. iii. 15, * From him the whole family, l)otli in heaven and earth, is named.' The name was first given them at Antioch, Acts xi. 2(). They were called 'disciples' before, but, to distinguish themselves from false brethren, they named themselves ' Christians.' They were called ' Nazarites' and ' Galileans' by their enemies ; and about this time there was a sect of that name, half Jews and half Christians. Xow the very name presseth us to care and holiness. Pieinember what Christ did : you are called after
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his name : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity : ' vra? 6 6vofMd^Q)v, he that countetli it his honour to use the name of Christ in invocation. Alexander the Great said to one of his captains, that was also called Alexander, Recordare nominis Alexandri — see you do nothing unworthy the name of Alexander. So, see you do nothing unworthy the name of Christ. And, as another said, speaking of something unbeseeming, I could do it, if I were not Themistocles ; so, I could do it, if I were not a Christian. Or, as Nehemiah, ' Should such a man as I flee ? ' Shall I, that am named by the name of Christ, do this ? Again, this name is an argument which you may use to God in prayer for grace and mercy ; his name is upon you, that endeareth you to his bowels. God's promises. are made to such, ' If the people that are called by my name,' &c., 2 Chron. vii. 14. And so there is a notable promise, Deut. xxviii. 10, ' And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of God, and they shall be afraid of thee.' So you shall see the church pleading this, Jer. xiv. 9, ' Yet thou, 0 Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name ; leave us not.' So may you go to God : Lord, it is thus with us, but ' we are called by thy name.'
Ver. 8. If ye fulfil the royal laio, according to the sc7'iptures, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do luell.
Now he comes to discover the ground upon which they did thus preposterously dispense their respects. It was not charity, as they did pretend, but having men's persons in admiration, because of advantage. For this verse is a jj^'olepsis, or a prevention of an excuse foreseen, which might be framed thus : That they were not to be blamed for being too humble, and giving respect there, where it was least due ; and that they did it out of relation to the common good, and a neces- sary observance of those ranks and degrees which God hath constituted among men. The apostle supposeth this objection, and answereth it partly by concession : if you do it in obedience to the second table (the tenor of which the apostle expresseth by that general rule ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself), then, such respect, rightly regu- lated, and ' according to the scriptures,' is but a duty ; partly by way of conviction : your inordinate respect of the rich, with contempt of the poor, is such a flattery and partiality which the law doth openly condemn. The poor, and those whom we may help and relieve, being in the law, or scripture-notion, as much, yea, rather more, the neighbour than the rich.
If ye fulfil, reXelre. — If ye do squarely and roundly come up to the obedience of the law, that part of it which is the rule of outward respects. The word properly signifies, ' if ye perfectly accomplish.' Sincerity is a kind of perfection. The Papists, among other places, bring this for one to show that a just man may fulfil the law of God. In this place it only implies a sincere respect to the whole duty of the law.
The royal law. — So he calleth it, either because God is the King of kings, and Jesus Christ the King of saints. Rev. xv. 3 ; and so the law, either in God's hands or Christ's hands, is a royal law, the least deflection from which is rebellion. You would not easilv break kings*