112 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XX.
judges of his spirit; but most simply and agreeable to the context, to speak thus largely of himself, seemed to them to be the work of a distracted, or foolish person. And so, 2 Cor. xi., ' I would to God you could bear with me ;' and vers. 16, 17, ' I say again, let no man think me a fool ; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.' If it had been for his own honour, the objection would have force. But what he did herein, he meant for the glory of God and the gospel.
But that which is counted madness ordinarily in christians, is either seriousness in religion ; when men will not flaunt, and rant, and please the flesh, as others do, but take time for meditation, and prayer, and other holy duties, they that choose a larger sort of life, think them mopish and melancholy ; — or else self-denial ; when they are upon the hopes of the world to come, dead to present interests, and can forsake all for a naked Christ, the world thinks this folly and madness. In the judgment of the flesh it seemeth to be a mad and foolish thing to do all things by the prescript of the word, and to live upon the hope of an unseen world. Or else zeal in a good cause. It is in itself a good thing : Gal. iv. 18, ' It is good to be zealously aifected always in a good thing.' But the world is wont to call good evil ; as astronomers call the glorious stars by horrid names, as the serpent, the greater and lesser bear, and the dog-star, and the like. God will not be served in a cold and careless fashion : Kom. xii. 11, ' Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' This will not suit with that lazy pace which pleaseth the world, therefore they speak evil of it. Another is a holy singularity, as Noah was an upright man in a corrupt age, Gen. vi. 9. And we are bidden, Eom. xii. 2, not to conform ourselves to this world. Now to walk contrary to the course of this world, and the stream of common examples, and to draw hatred upon ourselves, and hazarding our interests, for cleaving close to God and his ways, is counted foolish by them who wholly accommodate themselves to their interests : John xv. 19, ' The world will love his own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, there- fore the world hateth you.' Once more, fervours of devotion, or an earnest conversing with God in humble prayer ; the world, who are sunk in flesh and matter, are little acquainted with the elevations, and enlargements of the spirit, think all to be imposture and enthusiasm. And though praying by the Spirit be a great privilege, Jude 20, Rom. viii. 26, Zee. xii. 10, yet it is not relished by them ; a flat, dead way of praying suiteth their gust better. Christ compareth the gospel to new wine, which will break old bottles. Mat. ix. 17 ; as fasting in spirit, praying in spirit. A little dead, insipid taj^lash, or spiritless worship, is more for the world's turn. Missa non mordet
Thirdly, The reasons why it is so.
1. Natural blindness: 2 Cor. ii. 14, * The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.* They are incompetent judges : Prov. xxiv. 7, ' Wisdom is too high for a fool.' For though by nature we have lost our light, we have not lost our pride ; Prov. xxvi. 16, ' The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.' Though men's way be but
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 113
a sluggish, lazy, dead way, yet they have an high conceit of it, and censure all that is contrary, or but a degree removed above it. And therefore is it that worldly and carnal men judge perversely and unrighteously of God's servants, and count zeal and forwardness in religious duties to be but madness ; which is a notable instance of the miserable blindness of our corrupt nature.
2. Prejudicate malice, which keepeth them from a nearer inspection of the beauty of God's ways, and the reasons and motives which his children are governed by. Their eyes are blinded by the god of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4, and their own forestalled prejudices ; and then who is so blind as they that will not see ? In the ancient apologies of christians, they complained that they were condemned unheard, and without any particular inquiry into their principles and practices: Nolentes audire, quod auditum damnave non possuiit, Tertull. They would not inquire, because they had a mind to hate. And Coelius Secundus Curio hath a notable passage in the Life of Galeacius Caracciolas, which was the occasion of his conversion. The story is thus. One John Francis Casarta, who was enlightened with the knowledge of the gospel, was very urgent with this nobleman, his cousin, to come and hear Peter Martyr, who then preached at Naples, One day, by much entreaty, he was drawn to hear him, not so much with a desire to learn and profit, as out of curiosity. Peter Martyr was then opening the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and showing how blind and perverse the judgment of the natural under- standing is in things spiritual ; and also the efficacy of the word of God on those in whom the Spirit worketh. Among other things he useth this similitude, that if a man riding in an open country should see afar off men and women dancing together, and should not hear the music according to which they dance and tread out their measures, he would think them to be fools and madmen, because they appear in such various motions, and antic gestures and postures. But if he come nearer, so as to hear the musical notes, according to which they dance, and observe the regularity of the exercise, he will change his opinion of them, and will not only be delighted with the exactness thereof, but find a motion in his mind to stand still and behold them, and to join with them in the exercise. The same, saith he, happeneth to them who when they see a change of life, company, fashions, conver- sation in others, at their first sight impute it to their folly and mad- ness, but when they begin more intimately to weigh the thing, and to hear the harmony of the Spirit of God and his word, by which rule this change and strictness is directed and required, that which they judged to be madness and folly they see to be wisdom and reason, and are moved to join themselves with them, and imitate them in their course of life, and forsake the world and the vanities thereof, that they may be sanctified in order to a better life. This similitude stuck in the mind of this noble marquis (as he was wont to relate it to his familiar friends), that ever afterward he wholly applied his mind to the search of the truth and the practice of holiness, and left all his honours and vast possessions for a poor life, in the profession of the gospel at Geneva. Well then, it is because prejudice condemneth things at a