4. ' By sect a pharisee ; ' of the strictest among the Jews, Acts xxvi. 5.
5. Zealous above the ordinary sort of the pharisees, instructed with a commission to persecute the christians, which gave him a reputation in the eyes of those who were zealous for the law.
6. External righteousness before men for legal observances ; he never neglected any as long as he lived in that course. Well, then, here were church privileges, circumcision, and here was strictness, and zeal in that profession ; and for him to renounce all the institutes of the religion in which he was born and bred, and to have a life free from scandal, this was much, if we consider the state of these things.
Secondly, His esteem of these things before and after conversion.
1. Before conversion, they were gain to him, partly as they might procure his esteem with men, and recommend him to the Judaising brethren. If they had cause to boast in these things, he had much more. And partly as to the favour of God, falsely esteeming them as much conducing to salvation.
2. After conversion, whatever he accounted them before, he is now taught better by the Holy Ghost — (1.) What he accounteth them ; (2.) For what he accounteth them so.
[1.] What he accounteth them ; £fy/-ua, a loss, that is to say, un- profitable and dangerous.
(1.) Worthless and unprofitable, because they could not effectuate what he depended upon them for ; they could not give him any accep- tation with God.
(2.) Dangerous and prejudicial to better things, as they might with- draw him from the faith of Christ, or put him upon more labour and difficulty to renounce them. It is a matter of great difficulty for a man that hath great carnal privileges not to prize them and value them above the conscience of his duty to God. To excel in parts and privileges, and esteem in the world for a blameless conversation, and yet to prize the grace of Christ so as to leave all things for it, is very hard and difficult, and more hard than for those who have not like impediments.
[2.] For what. For Christ, for his sake, his laws and doctrines. Christ is to be sought and bought at any hand and rate : Mat. xiii. 45, 46, ' The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seek- ing goodly pearls ; and when he hath found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it/ Therefore whatever would keep him from embracing christian doctrine would be loss rather than advantage, however they commended him to men, and might procure him gain and honour, or in the judgment of an ill-guided conscience they might seem to commend him to God.
Thirdly, How it holdeth good in other cases, so as it may be of catholic use and profit to us now to imitate this example.
1. The examples of men of worth, who have incurred loss and diffi- culties in embracing the christian religion, are a great encouragement to godliness. Men that have not so much to lose or to deny for Christ may be sincere, but certainly it is a greater commendation to religion when those who can well enough make up their interests elsewhere are
YeR. 7.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIAXS III. 5
willing to sacrifice all their interests for Christ. Now these have this happiness above others, that the)7 have something of value to esteem as nothing for Christ, and to commend religion to the world.
2. It commendeth the worth of Christianity to us. There are such huge advantages of being a christian, that those who have most to lose, and have best wisdom to judge, are content to be stript of all rather than miss Christ or lose Christ. "Arwa tjv /jloi fcepBrj, ' what things were gain ; ' some by his Hebrew stock, his laudable sect, his great fame with his countrymen ; ' these made him an instance worthy to be produced to confirm the truth of the religion which he pro- fessed.
3. Such things will come to be denied by every one that will be a thorough serious christian. In any age there are the rabble of nominal christians, who stand only upon the legs of others, and have a Christi- anity commended to them by the testimony of others and the sufferings of others who have lived before them ; and as they are concerned in these things, have nothing but the name and the profession, but have not that constitution of heart or manner of conversation which will become christians. Briefly, then, there is a twofold conversion — one without the church, the other in the church.
[1.] Without the church, from paganism or a false religion to the true : 1 Thes. i. 9, ' And how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.' Now in this conversion those who are so turned must deny their honour and credit with their party, and all the advantages they enjoyed thereby, as Paul did. So Vergerius, who was bishop of Justinople and nuncio to the pope, whilst he opposed the protestants, was conscious to the truth of their doctrine, and turned a reformed preacher among the Grisons.