Use 3. A)id then it is no jn-rjudice to na that we^he earthen veasels, hut rather a comfort; for dcatli, whereby we shall be knocked in pieces, will be only a consummation of onr grief and trouble here, and a beginning of the happiness in another world. In the grave dust lieth a while, but we shall be made of another fashion, and receive another kind of stamp in the world to come.
Use 4. And, I hcsecch. yon, forr/ct not that xrhich is the proper use of it for humUity. You may difier in outward relations, but you be all of one stuff. You be all earth ; judices terra: terram judicant, the judges of the earth judge the earth. They judge other men that are earth, and they be earth them- selves, and filli terra:, that is, base men. The sons of the earth, and men of tbe eartb, that is, great men, tbat account all as grasshoppers in regard of themselves ; though they be men and giants, yet they be but earth. We shonld all therefore labour to have low conceits of this life, and of all com- forts of it, as Austin saith well, liespice terram, look to tbe dust ; go to tbe grave and say, Here is the dust of tbe emperor, here is a rich man, here is a poor man ; see if you can find them differ. Alas, no difference at all. Therefore make use of sobriety in regard of tbe use of things of this life, for we be all earthen vessels. And so much shall serve for this point.
But the apostle intendeth more than so, for he speaketh of their esteem ; earthen vessels are not only broken, but contemptible. Look into the element, and you shall see every element and creature as the more light, it is more excellent, and as more earthly, it is more base, as the apostle before saith. We see now the water more lightsome than the earth, the air than the water, the fire more lightsome than it, and the element more pure than it, till we come to God himself, who is pure light. So every- thing as more light, is more excellent. What is the excellency of pearl ? They have a sparkhng light in them ; but everything as it groweth near the earth is more base, for eartb is the dregs of the world. Now ministers are more so than others, both in esteem and in usage, which followeth esteem. And what is the reason of it ? Surely,
Reason 1. Because that the world is foolish and childish, and liveth by sense and fancrji; and the matters of the r/ospel and divine trnths we speak of are spiritual things, matters of faith, far remote from sense and fancy, hy which the world liveth.
When we preach spiritual things, what are these to honours, and to riches, and to dependence, and to the goodly things of this world ? Thus the fools of the world undervalue the things of God, especially when they be in their gawdes. * See a foolish man when he hath his riches, and clothes, and friends about him, his fancy is full of these things ; tell him of spiritual things, what a loathing there is in the heart of a man ! This is the proud carnal heart of a man, which the more carnal, the more it loatheth
* That is, gauds = trifles, toys, trumpery ; and so the text means when fools are in the midst of their follies. Or is it gaudery = fine clothes ? — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 7. 357
things of a higher nature, being besotted and drunken with worldly excellencies, as men's natures are.
Reason 2. Again, divine truth is a solid thinr/. Men naturally are given to superstitious conceits in religion. They will have one, but it shall be with this conceit or that conceit ; as the apes, so they hug the brats of their own brains ; they will have devices of their own. Religion is solid, and tells them this is God's way, and God's course ; but the foolish heart of man will not yield to it. And that is the reason they cry down the solid things of God's word which have realities in them, and things to purpose. And then the world loveth their own courses, and are in love with their own way. Sin is a sweet morsel to them. Herodias is sweet to Herod. John Baptist was a good man till then, but when he meddled with that sweet morsel, then his head must off. Mat. xiv. 2, seq., Mark vi. 28. And so when Christ opposed the woi'ldly courses of the Scribes and Pharisees, he was counted a demoniac, a wine-bibber, and an enemy to Caesar, and what not, when he took on him the office ministerial.* When Paul calleth himself an 'earthen vessel,' how did they use Paul ? TertuUus, a prating orator, counteth him a pestilent fellow. Acts xxiv. 5. And his usage w^as base. They whipped him, put him into the dungeon. The Corinths, that were begotten by him, because he had not eloquence and gifts of ostentation, and fitting the stage, as their flaunting teachers had, they count him a mean person. The proud teachers brought him out of conceit with the Corinthians, and therefore he is fain to make apology for himself. ' He writes great letters in- deed, but his presence is mean and base,' as in the 10th chapter of this Epistle, ver. 10.