Chapter 1 section 1
The nobility of birth, and all honours and delights what so ever, are to be denied for Christ.
It must be granted that nobility of birth in itself is a blessing of God: the children of noble's have an honourable mention in Scripture, ecclesiasties 10:7. Blessed art thou O land, when thy King is the son of nobles. The chief, the nobles in Israel, or called the renowned of the congregation. Numbers 1:16 and isa 5:13 that which is translated honourable men, is in the original their glory. The nobility the glory of the kingdom, and Jude 8. Where some said to speak evil of dignities, the word is glories. Men in eminent places are, or should be the glory of those places, and of the whole country where they live. Soul-nobility is the chief, yet I will not say the sole nobility; natural nobility must have its due respect. It was a speech of Jonadab to Amnon, 2 Sam 13:4. Why art thou, being a king's son so lean from day to day? As if to be a king's son, were enough to allay all sorrow, to make any condition full of joy and content: seemeth it a small matter (says David) 1 Sam. 18:13 to be a king's son-in-law? But to be born of the kings of the earth is accounted more, this is the highest nobility; that which is under it, birth from other great men of the Earth is honourable likewise.
This puts great thoughts into men's hearts, this is an honour in which men do much glory, yet this Moses might have had in the account of the world but he refused it; for God even this is to be denied. It was too high an expression, favouring of flattery, that an orator making an oration, in the praise of Constantine the great, had the first and greatest gift of heaven, was to be born happy, and as soon to be in the lifts of felicity as of nature, meaning the happiness of a noble birth: but though this be too much, yet we acknowledge it amongst outward privileges not to be one of the meanest, but yet not so great, but that there is infinite reason it should be denied in the cause of Christ.
For first, though there be something in it, yet there is not much, not so much as any should think it to great a thing to lay down for God.
For first, it is no such thing, but that the greatest enemies of God, hated of him, and cast out for ever from him have had it as well as others; what a succession of princes and dukes came from the loins of Esau? There reigned eight kings in Edom, before there was a king over the children of Israel; yea, before the government of Moses, and they'e flourished till the day's of Obadiah no less than 1200 years, yea they liveD to see the ruin of the second Temple, as we find it related by Josephus: what so ever is common to wicked men, God's enemies, surely it hath no great excellency in it, neither should it be in high esteem with us. That is observerable that we find, in Deuteronomy 2:12 and versus 22 and 23 where the Lord will teach Israel not to insult upon their outward conquests; he gives us this reason, because they were such as he had given to others before them, who were wicked. In Seir, says the text, the Horims dwelt before time, and the sons of Esau possessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead, as Israel did unto the land of his possession: [as Israel did] Israel had not yet possessed, but this is spoke prophetically, as it was afterwards in the days of Joshua; as if God should say, this is a favour indeed towards you, to make you conquerors over your enemies, to give their countries into your possession, this is an honour put upon you, but it is no other favour, no higher honour, than wicked profane Esau hath had before you, therefore you have no great cause to be puffed up with it. That which the Lord saith here of conquest, is true of parentage, of riches, of honour, of all outward excellences, they are indeed favours of the Lord, but no such excellent things, but that they have been made, common to the enemies of the Lord; and therefore there is great reason that our hearts should not be puffed up with them, but sit loose from them.
Secondly, there is no such great matter in it, because the birth of the greatest is defiled with sin, in the guilt and uncleanness of it, as well as the birth of the meanest: the most noble blood up on earth is tainted with high treason against the God of heaven: whatsoever your birth be from men, yet you are born a child of wrath, an enemy to God, loathsome and abominable before him, an heir of hell. When God would humble the Jews who gloried much in their birth, he shows them the uncleanness, the baseness of it, in that expression, Ezekiel 16 your father is an Amorite, and your mother an Hittie. I come off those parents, says Bernard, by whom I was a dammed creature before I was born: your birth is such, whatever it be in regard of outward greatness, as if there be not a second birth, it had been better for you that you had never been born, or rather that you had been one of the generation of dragons, all the offspring of vipers.
Thirdly, suppose it were not defiled, yet it is an exceeding poor and mean thing In the eyes of God: it may be something before men, but before God it is nothing, for God is no respecter of persons: so much a man is worth, as he is worth in God's esteem: when you come to appear before God, you must stand amongst the rest without any note of distinction of what house you came. That which Pelican, a German Divine said concerning his learning, may be said of all honour of birth, when I appear before God, says he, I shall not appear as a doctor, but as an ordinarily Christian: for you shall not appear as noble men when you come before God, but as other ordinary men. I pray tell me, says Chrystome, what is kindred? It is nothing but the sound of a word, and empty thing, which in the last day you shall know very well. That is observable in which we have, Exodus 30: 15 when God requires a price for the ransom of the souls of his people, all must give half a shekel, the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less: when they give an offering to the Lord, to make an atonement for their souls, God does not value the rich more than the poor, northern noble more than the man of mean birth.
Fourthly, it is not much in the esteem of men neither, who are wise and rational: hence it is observed by some, that's we never read of any in Scripture but three, who solemnised their birthdays, and they were Pharoah, Jeroboam, and Herod, by rich they gather how little glory that came from parentage was esteemed; he that boasts of his pedigree boasts of another's. Seneca in his fourth and fortieth epistle writing to a knight of Rome who was preferred for his valour, but yet of mean parentage, for which he seems to be troubled, Seneca cites him a notable speech of Plato: there is no king but is raised from those which were servants; there is no servant but had some of his ancestors Kings. Rehoboam was of a foolish childish spirit, though above 40 years old, and yet he came from Solomon the wisest upon the earth. Nabal, whose name was a fool, whose disposition was accordingly, who was of a sordid churlish spirit, yet he came from Caleb, a man of the most choice and excellent spirit:1 Sam. 25:3 Jonathan that was that Idol priest we read of, yet he was Moses' his grandchild, Gersom's son. Honour is but a shadow, and therefore it need be of something that is our own; riches, faces of dignity, titles of honour put upon ancestors by Princes accounted now the greatest nobility, and this descends to the honour of children, but that nobility which these things now put up on men, heretofore martyrdom was esteemed to do: and therefore amongst Christians, in the primitive times, children werewont to glory in their parentage as noble, if they had been martyrs: but yet Chrystome in his third sermon upon Lazarus labours to take off men from glorying in this, because it was not their own; he says it is a frigid empty and vain boasting to boast of this, and gives this reason; for the virtue of others can not perfect us. It is not from whence a man comes, that is his true glory, but what he is, and what good he does. It was the expression of a heathen, that he regarded no more his wicked children that came from him, than he would vermin that came from his body: if we be wicked we may be a disgrace to our ancestors, they can be no honour to us. Augustus Caesar had three daughters, who were lewd, and he used to call them his three ulcers and cankers, and was wont to cry out oh that I had lived unmarried, or had died without children. Although gold on roamed the earth none despite it and although dross and rust comes from the gold, none regards it; the virtuous coming from mean parentage are honourable, and the vitious coming from noble parentage are contemptible. This is the first argument, that there is not much in nobility or birth, that it should be counted too great a thing to be laid down for God.
But secondly, suppose there be some great matter in it, yet God is infinitely worthy that it should be laid down for his honour: if they were 10,000 times more honour in it down indeed there is, yet the denying of all were not a sufficient testimony of that Respect you owe to the great and glorious God. God is worthy that all the King's, Princes, potentates, great ones of the Earth should come and bow and lie down flat before him, abased in his presence that they should all bring their crowns, and pomp, and cast them down at his feet, as Revelation 4: 10, 11. The four and 20 elders fell down before him who set up on the throne, and worshipped him that liveth for ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, oh Lord to receive glory, and honour, and power,&c.
Such infinite distance there is betwixt the excellency and greatness of the Lord, and all the nobles of the world, that it is a wonderful favour of God to them, that if he do but appear to them, they may live before him; it is their honour that their lives may be preserved when God makes known his glory, as Exodus 24: 10, 11. And they saw the God of Israel&c. and up on the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his han., that is, to destroy them, but they were suffered to live in his sight.
Thirdly, as God is worthy of in regard of his infinite excellency, so it is due to him, because whatsoever Excellency and honour there is in your birth, it is he that hath made the difference between men: the rainbow is but a common vapour, it is the sun that gilds it, that enamels it with so many colours; we are but a vapour, it is the Lord that hath shined upon us and our fathers house and hath Put more beauty, more lustre upon us, than up on other vapours. I may say in this respect, as Saint Paul says in another case: who makes thee to differ? Was not the lump of all mankind in the hand of the Lord, as the clay in the hand of the Potter, to make one to this outward honour, and another to meanness and baseness as he pleases, he might have so ordered things, as we might have been, not only of the most beggarly and miserable brood but might have been begotten a toad or a serpent, or any other the vilest creature that livws up on the earth: that honour we have, God hath put up on us, and therefore it is his, the glory of it infinitely due unto him.
Fourthly, there is no such way to add glory to your nobility, as to be willing to use it or deny it for God. This proceeds from a noble principle indeed, what so ever it is. It is nature that causes the one kind of nobility, but it is the grace of God, as sparkle of the divine nature, a ray of the very glory of God himself, shining into the soul, that is the cause of the other. Tertullian says of Augustus, that the name of piety was more esteemed of him, then the name of power: and Hierom writing the praise of Marcella a noble woman, says of her, that he will not make mention of her family, nor the honour of her blood, what other great men she had to her ancestors; he says he would praise nothing but what was her own, and especially he commends her in this, that she was so much the more noble, in as much as riches and nobility being contemned, she was made the more noble in her poverty and humility.
Fifthly, Christ was the glory of his father, the lustre of his glory, the character and engraven form of his image, the only begotten son of the father from all eternity: he thought it no robbery to be equal with God, he was God blessed for ever, and yet how did he empty himself? He was made a scorn, he was called the carpenter's son, as one that was contemptible: he made himself of no reputation, he came in the form of a servant, yea of an evil servant that was to be beaten: yea he was made a curse, as if he had been the vilest of men: and yet this was the glory of Christ himself, because it was all for God, and good of souls: who is he then, that knows anything of Jesus Christ, that shall think much to lay down all the honour and nobility of birth, or any outward dignity under heaven for him? It is a notable expression that Bernard in a sermon upon the birth of Christ hath: what can be more unworthy? What more detestable? What is deserving more grievous punishments, than that a man should magnify himself after he hath seen God humbled? It is intolerable impudency, that where Majesty hath emptied himself, a worm should be puffed up and swell.
Sixthly, if we be Godly, God hath honoured us with a higher birth than what we have by blood from our ancestors; God hath given us a birth from above, he has begotten us of the immortal! Feed of his word, to be sons and daughters to him, heirs and co-heirs with Jesus Christ: we are born of God, and the glory of this birth should darken the other in our eyes: what great matter is it though the glory of the other be lost, seeing God hath so highly honoured you with this? This birth hath great efficacy to raise the heart to high and worthy actions: whosoever knows himself to be the son of God, never wonders more at what is human, says Cyprian, he debases himself from the heights of true generosity, who admires at anything now but God himself. This birth you may glory in, and it must not be denied; for those who are thus born again, if they shall be afraid or ashamed to appear in the ways of godliness, to manifest themselves what they are, they fall to the degree of self denial (If I may so call it) beyond piece of Moses, but it is a cursed self-denial. Moses refuses or denies to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, they refuse and deny to be called and accounted the sons of the everliving God.
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