The Third Part from John Baptists Nativity, Part 8
The Gospell.
LVKE 22. 24.
There was a strife among them which of them should seeme to be the greatest, &c.
CHrist in this Scripture teacheth his Apostles ambitiouslie contending for rule,
1. By precept, The kings of the nations, &c. but yee shall not so be, &c.
2. By paterne, I am among you as one that ministreth, &c.
But yee shall not so be] Or as S. mMat. 20. 26.Matthew, it shall not be so among you. Now this kinde of speech is vsed in holy Scriptures, and in our english tongue two manner of waies, either forbidding a thing to be done, or else foretelling a thing not to be done: as a master in saying to his seruant, this shall not be done to day, forbids a thing to be done: but when an Astronomer saith of the weather it shall not be cold, or hot, vponupon such a monethmonth or day, he doth not forbid, but onelyonly foretell a thing that shall not be: so the words, foreign, are vsed Apocalip. 10. 6. and 22. 5. According to this twofold acception I finde a twofold construction of this clause (but yee not so) first, by way of prophecie; secondly, by way of proposition or prohibition: if it be taken Prophetically, then it is a prophecie concerning the disciples estate either in this, or in the world to come. If in this life, the meaning is briefly this, the kings of the Gentiles doe raigne, and they that are in authoritie are called benefactors; but ye not so: that is, I doe foreshew vntounto you that ye shall not be so; as if he should say, they in their gouernement are called benefactors, but you exercising authoritie shall be called malefactors: they ruling ill are called good men, ye ruling well shall be reputed euill men: nIohn 16. 33.in the world ye shall hauehave affliction, and ye must of necessitie drinke of my cup, and be baptized with the baptisme that I am baptized with, and so Christ is made to speake that in this place which he saith oMat. 10. 20. Iohn 15. 20.elsewhere, The disciple is not aboue his master, nor the seruant aboue his Lord: if they hauehave called the master of the house Belzebub, how much more them of his household. If they hauehave persecuted me, they will also persecute you: me, who came to minister vntounto them, and to giuegive my life for them; euen so you, which in your authoritie shall intend the good of all, and spend your liues in seruing them all. This sense doubtles is true, for by wofull experience we finde it to be so, when as pSee dangerous positions vnderunder pretence of reformation lib. 2. cap. 5. 7. 8. 10. 11. 12. 13.among vsus some for their superioritie, are called Antichrists; other for their authoritie, tyrants; other for restraining the licentiousnesse of certaine factious people, persecutors.
If we take (but yee not so) for a Prophecie touching the life to come, the meaning is, the kings of the Gentiles hauehave lordship ouer them, &c. but ye not so: that is, in my kingdome (which you falsely conceiue to bee vponupon earth) I doe foretell vntounto you, that it shall not bee so. For though I appoint vntounto you a kingdome, and yee shall eate and drinke at my table in my kingdome, and sit on seates iudging the twelue tribes of Israel in my kingdome: yet my kingdome is not of qIohn 18. 36.this world, yee shall not (I assure you) tyrannise in heauen, as the kings of the nations vponupon earth. This sense likewise is good, and fitting other places of Scripture, but it doth not fit our present text: for it will appeare by comparing one Euangelist with another that Christs rPiscator schol. in Mat. 20. 26.foreign, it shall not be, is nothing else but foreign, let in not be: for whereas Saint Marke saith, chapter 10. 43. shall bee your seruant, and verse 44. shall be seruant of all: S. Matthew chap. 20. 26. hath it in tearmes imperatiue, let him be your seruant, and S. Luke here, he that is greatest among you, let him be as the least, and he that is chiefe, as he that doth serue. These termes of command insinuate that our blessed Sauiour spake (vos autem non sic) imperatiuely, forbidding a thing to be done. Wherefore let vsus examine two poynts especially; first what is said; secondly, whom it concernes.
sT. C. Reply to D. Whitgif…s anwere to the admonit. pag. …. sect. 1. 2.Some referre so to the word benefactors, here translated gracious Lords, making the sense to be, they that are in authoritie are called gracious Lords, but ye not so; that is, ye shall not be called gracious Lords. tT. C. Vbi sup. pag. 10. Marlorat. & Piscator in Mat. 20. 25. 26.Other referre so to the verbes, reigne and rule, making the sense thus, the kings reigne, and great men rule, but you not so; that is, ye shall not rule: other attribute so to the same verbes, yet make the construction otherwise, the kings of the Gentiles doe rule, but ye not so: uTheophylact, Euthym. Bucer, Musculus, in Mat. 20.that is, ye shall not so rule, to wit as the kings of the nations rule. So that either titles of honour are forbidden as gracious Lords, or ruling, or else so ruling. The Nouelists in the first exposition hauehave condemned the titles of our Archbishops, in the second, the iurisdiction of our Bishops; our xD Whitgift defence of his answere to the admonit. cap. 1. diuision. 1. following the Doctors aboue cited.Diuines therefore like best of the third, affirming that Christ here prohibited neither titles of honour, nor ruling, but onelyonly so ruling.
Not titles of honour, as Lord, ruler, benefactor: for as Christ in saying yMat. 23. 8.elsewhere, be not ye called Rabbi for one is your master: and call no man father vponupon …, for one is your father which is in heauen; and be not called Doctors, &c. zD. Whitgift vbi sup. cap. 2.Forbids not simply the names of Rabbi, father, and Doctor; for a childe may call his parent father, and a scholler may call his teacher Doctor, and a seruant may call him vnderunder whose gouernment he liues master; and so Paul called himselfe the a1. Tim. 2. 7.Doctor of the Gentiles, and the b1. Cor. 4. 15.Corinthians father. As I say Christ there forbids not absolutely the names of father and master, much lesse the functions: but only the pharisaicall affection, and arrogant affectation of superiority: so Christ here likewise forbids not his Apostles to be called Lords, or rulers, or benefactors: but condemnes only the carnall ambition of these titles, and insolent vsing of the same. For we reade in holy Scripture that these titles were giuen to Christ and his Disciples, as Iohn 13. 13. Ye call me master, and Lord (saith he) and ye say well, for so am I. Yea his Apostles are stiled by that title which is rendred elsewhere Lords, Acts 16. 30. Lords, what must I doe to be saued, said the Iaylor to Paul and Silas, and yet they reprehended not this title, which they would hauehave done had it beene vnlawfull; as bActs 14. 15.Paul and Barnabas rebuked the men of Lystra when they would hauehave sacrificed vntounto them as vntounto Gods, O men why doe ye these things? so likewise Preachers of the word are stiled rulers, Heb. 13. 7. Remember those which hauehave the rule ouer you, who hauehave preached vntounto you the word of God: and verse 17. of the same Chapter, cLoquitur hoc de pastoribus …cclesiae sicut D. Fulke, Marlorat. P…scator in loc.obey those which hauehave the rule ouer you, and submit your selues, for they watch for your soules. Hence the parsonages in England were termed anciently rectories, and the parsons rectors: as for the stile gracious Lords, vrged so much by the dT. C. vbi s…p.Nouelists against our reuerend and honorable Primats: answere is made that there is not one sillable in the word foreign that signifieth a Lord. It is true that our learned English interpretours in old time sought by (the periphrasis) gratious Lords, to set downe the meaning of Christ, vsing Lord for a title of honour, and gratious for a title of doing good. But our new translation expresseth it better in reading benefactors: the Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship ouer them, and they that exercise authority vponupon them are called benefactors: so Beza, benefici vocantur: so the vulgar latine, Erasmus, Ro. Stephanus and other as well ancient as moderne interpretours: so that the clause vos autem non sic, is referred by the two other Euangelists, and almost all eD. Whitgift vbi sup.learned expositors vntounto the fond ambition and tyrannicall oppression of the Gentile Kings, and not vntounto their titles or names. Indeed we finde that the Kings of fCaluin apud Marlorat. in loc. Mat. 20. 25. See prolog. of Ecclesiasticus & Strabo Geograp. lib. 17.Egypt and of other gCleomenes K. of Sparta so called.nations vaine-gloriously desired to be called foreign munificent benefactors, when as they deserued rather the names of tyrants and oppressors: as the Popes of Rome hauehave called themselues (I verily thinke contrary to Christs but you not so) Clement, Pius, Boniface: when they were most vnmercifull and impious malefactors. All that may be gathered hence then is, that the Kings of the Gentiles assumed flattering titles vntounto themselues, being indeed nothing lesse then that which their stiles imported; and it may be a good admonition for all men, especially for Clergie men, to frame their liues answerable to their names and titles of honour giuen vntounto them. An ambitious desire to be called benefactor is prohibited here, but the name it selfe is commendable, for Saint Peter applieth it vntounto Christ, Acts 10. 38. Iesus of Nazareth went about doing good, and S. Paul exhortethhGalat. 6. 10. vsus to doe good vntounto all men, especially to them of the household of faith.
As for ruling, we say that it is against all sense, that where the titles of rulers are giuen, there ruling should be denyed: nay Christ in the wordes immediatly following (he that is greatest among you, let him be as the least, &c. Insinuates that there must bee some great among them. He saith not (as iCom. in Mat. 20. 26.Musculus obserues) no man ought to bee chiefe among you, which he would hauehave said, if it had not been lawfull in the kingdome of God for some to be great and cheife, or if it had bin necessary that all should hauehave bin in all things equall. The celestiall spirits are not equall, the starres are not equall, the disciples themselues were not in all things equall. It is not therefore Christs meaning to hauehave none great or chiefe among Christians, seeing our state requires necessarily that some be superiour, and other inferiour, So kIn Mat. 20. 26. Id…m Luther postil maior. in festo. Bartho.Martine Bucer, the fond Anabaptists collect here that no man may be together a Christian, and a magistrate, because Christ said to his Disciples it shall not be so among you, not considering that those which according to the will of the Lord beare rule godly, nihil minus quàm dominari, immo maximè seruire, & tanto pluribus quanto pluribus praefuerint, doe nothing lesse then domineere, yea verily do most of all serue, and euen so many doe they serue, ouer how many soeuer they beare rule. So Chrysostome, Theophylact, Euthymius, and it is the lD. Whitgift vbi sup.common opinion of other writers that these words of Christ doe not condemne superiority, Lordship, or any such like authority: but only the ambitious desire of the same, and the tyrannicall vsage thereof. If Christ here would hauehave forbidden ciuill gouernment in all men, he would hauehave said the Kings of Israel hauehave rule, but ye not so: or if his intent had bin to forbid it in Ministers only, then he would hauehave said, the Priests of Israel rule, but ye not so; but in saying the Kings of the Gentiles beare rule, but ye not so: he doth euidently shew that hee mislikes only such an insolent kinde of ruling as the Gentiles vsed. He condemnes neither temporall authority, nor Ecclesiasticall: not temporall authority, whether it bee supreme or subordinate; not supreme, for mActs 25. 11.Paul appealed to Caesar as supreme gouernour, aduising eueryevery soule to be nRom 13. 1.subiect vntounto superiour powers; not subordinate, for S. o1. Pet. 2. …3.Peter gaue this rule concerning rulers, submit your selues to eueryevery ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be to the King as to the chiefe head, or vntounto gouernours, as vntounto them that are sent of him, for the punishment of euill doers, and for the laud of them that doe well.
Not Ecclesiasticall authority, for S. pActs 5.Peter notwithstanding this (but you not so) iudicially sat vponupon Saphira… and Paul exercising this authority deliuered q1. T…m. 1. 20.Hemineus and the incestuous r1. Cor 5. 5.Corinthian vntounto Sathan. And the same Paul exhorts Timothie the Bishop of Ephesus, s1 Tim. 5. 19.against an elder receiue none accusation vnderunder two or three witnesses. He grants vntounto Timothy, to receiue bils of complaint, and so iudicially to proceed against Elders in citing them, and examining them, and if need be deposing them.
Well then, if Christ here forebad neither titles of rulers, nor yet ruling it selfe whether it be ciuill or ecclesiasticall: it remaines that he prohibited only so ruling, that is, such a tyrannicall kind of gouernment as the Gentile Kings vsed, and that ambitious desiring of the same which ruled in them. And indeed Christ often in the Gospell vseth to call backe those that are his from errors and corrupt affections by the behauiour of the Gentiles, Mat. 6. 7. The Gentiles doe thinke that by their much babling they shall be heard, bee not ye therefore like vntounto them, and in the same Chapter verse 31. 32. Take no thought, saying what shall we eate or what shall wee drinke, or wherewith shall we be clothed (for after all these things seeke the Gentiles) but seeke ye first the kingdome of God, &c. And that this is Christs meaning, I proue by these three reasons collected out of the context it selfe, 1. he saith Mat. 20. 25. and Marke 10. 42. Yee know that the Kings of the Gentiles, speaking of those rulers they knew, and they were tyrants and oppressors, as Pontius Pilate who condemned Christ an tIohn 19. 4. 16.innocent, in whom he found no fault; and uMarke 6. 20. 27.Herod Antipas, who beheaded Iohn the Baptist (a iust and holy man whom he reuerenced and heard in many things) at the request of his minion; and Herod the great who butchered all the male children in xMat. 2. 16.Bethelem, and vnderunder pretence to worship, eagerly sought to worry Christ in his cradle: ye know that these Kings now reigne, but ye not so, that is, I would not hauehave you so to reigne.
2. foreign, vsed in Mat. and Marke is to tyrannize; so learned Erasmus in his yIn Mat. 20.paraphrase, qui principatum gerunt inter gentes, dominatum ac tyrannidem exercent in illos quibus imperant, and in his annotations, dominantur in eas, siue adv…rsus eas. So Musculus in his comment vponupon these words in S. Mathew, non regunt populum, sed premunt, suisque affectibus seruire cogunt: so zCom. in Mat. 20. 25.Benedict. Aretius, foreign, est dominari cum aliena aCum acerbitate quadam, as the compiler of the lesser and latter annotations vnderunder Bezaes name, in Mat. 20. 25.tyrannide, & foreign, in potestate violenter tenere: foreign is taken in other places of the new testament, as namely, 1. Pet. 5. 3▪ and Acts 19. 16. Whereas it is obiected that in our present text the simple verbe is vsed, and therefore not tyrannie but iurisdiction is forbidden: answere is made that this of Saint Luke must be construed by the places of Mat. and Marke, seeing all three meane one and the same thing by the concent of all Harmonies.
3. Christ expoundes himselfe thus in the words immediatly following, let the greatest among you bee as the least, and the chiefe as he that serueth. bArdens, Musculus, Bucer.As if he should say, the Kings of the nations are tyrants in their gouernment, making mischiefe their minister, and lust their law: but I would hauehave you to beare rule so moderatly, that euen the soueraigne may behaue himselfe as a seruant, and the master as a Minister. I would hauehave Princes among you to be cEsay 49. 23.nursing fathers vntounto the Church, and Prelats among you to be dEphes. 4. 11.pastors of my people. So S. e2. Cor. 4. 5.Paul exercising authority, said, we preach not our selues, but Christ Iesus to be the Lord, and our selues your seruants for Iesus sake, and in f1. Cor. 9. 19.another place, I made my selfe a seruant vntounto all men. A Minister must (as it is in our english phrase) s…rue his cure, a magistrate must also minister vntounto those which are vnderunder him, euen the King himselfe is a great seruant of the common weale: he must (as gIob 29. 15.Iob speakes) become eyes to the blinde, and feete to the lame, he must with hPlutarch com. adprin. indoctum.Epaminondas watch, that other may the more securely sleepe; and labour, that other may the more freely play. Magna seruitus magna fortuna quoth iConsolat. ad Polybium.Seneca, nam ipsi Caesari cui omnia licent, propter hoc ipsum multa non licent: omnium domos illius vigilia defendit, omnium otium illius labor, omnium delicias illius industria, omnium vacationem illius occupatio. As those Princes are most vnprofitable, qui nihil in imperio nisi imperiū cogitant, which in their Empire thinke of nothing so much as of imperiousnes: so they doubtles are most happy to the state, who being greatest are as the least, and being chiefe as they that serue. I conclude this obseruation in kLib. 3. de confiderat.Bernards aduise to Pope Eugenius, praesis vt prouideas, vt consulas, vt procures, vt serues, praesis vt prosis, &c. O lMat. 24. 46.blessed is that faithfull and wise seruant, whom his master when he commeth shall finde so ruling ouer his house.
Thus hauehave I shewed what is said, let vsus see now whom it concernes; it is certaine that Christ spake this vntounto his Apostles only, but in them vntounto some other representatiuely; the question is then here whether hee spake representatiuely to the whole Church, that is, all Christians; or else representatiuely to the ministers of the Church only. We say with Aretius, Bucer, Musculus in their commentaries vponupon Mat. 20. That he doth vnderstand all Christians as wel lay men as Clergy men, and this also we proue by these reasons ensuing.
1. Christ in this Chapter immediatly before, and also presently after, vsing this word you, and speaking vntounto his Disciples and none but them (as in this place,) speaketh vntounto them as representing the whole Church and not only the Ministers, as verse 19. This is my body, which is giuen for you; and verse 20. This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you, by you, though it be spoken only to the Disciples, is not vnderstood the ministers only, for if Christs body were giuen, and his blood shed only for them, it would follow that none should be saued but Ministers, and that is contrary to the text m2. Cor. 5. 15.elsewhere Christ died for all, againe verse 29. I appoint vntounto you, as my father hath appointed vntounto me, a kingdome. Where by you, he meanes all true Christians of whatsoeuer estate, quality, degree: for as nIohn 1. 12.many as receiued him and beleeued in his name, to them he gaue power to be the sonnes of God, and if they be sonnes and children of God, then heires also, Rom. 8. 17. So that if thou wil… hauehave any part in Christ and his kingdome, then thou must also take some part of this text, thou must become as one of vsus, and be numbred among these you, but ye not so.
2. The opposition here which is betweene Gentiles and you, doth euidently proue that it is spoken vntounto the whole Church; as for example, the Kings of the Gentiles doe tyrannize ouer them, that is ouer the people: among them are Kings tyrannizing, and people tyrannized: but you not so, that is, I doe command that among you there should bee neither Kings tyrannizing, nor people tyrannized. It is thus with them, it shall not bee so with you Ministers, is no good opposition; it is thus with the Gentiles, it shall not be thus with you Christians, is a full and a fit antithesis, the like whereof is found, Mat. 6. 7. 8. 31. 32. Luke 12. 29. 30. 1. Thessal. 4. 4. 5.
3. This place compared with that of Mat. chap. 23. vers. 8. 9. shewes plainly that it is spoken vntounto the whole Church, for Christ in that place speaking of the same matter vseth a like forme of wordes, as for example, the scribes and the Pharisees are called Rabbi, &c. but be not ye so called. Now that he deliuered this exhortation as well to the people as to the pastors, is apparent in the very first verse of the Chapter, then spake Iesus to the multitude, and to his Disciples. I will end this exposition with an oEpitap. Roberti Lincol. episc. apud Huntindon hist. lib. 7. pag. 218.Epitaph which I thinke may serue for a glosse to the whole Gospell.
Hic humilis diues (res mira) potens pius, vltor
Compatiens, …itis cum pateretur erat.
Noluit osse suis dominus, studuit pater esse,
Semper in aduersis m…rus & arma suis.