Thomas Manton · 36 of 67

Verse 9. · Part 3

2. We are bound more than they, as being of an inferior rank; and acts of submission and obedience do chiefly oblige inferiors. The angels themselves are inferior to God; but ‘dwellers in houses of clay’ much more. That passage of the psalmist is emphatical, Ps. ciii. 20, ‘The angels, that excel in strength, do his commandments.’ Shall the peasant scorn that work in which the prince himself is engaged? If the glorious mighty angels durst not sin against God, we should not much more. When John would have worshipped the angel, he saith, Rev. xxii. 9, ‘See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant.’ Ah! who would decline the work when an angel is our fellow-servant? When these mighty spirits put their necks to the work of the Lord, shall sorry man be excused?

3. We are the more bound for their sakes, because of their tutelage, They are present with. us. We are awed by a man of gravity, much more should we be by the presence of an angel. When Cato was upon the stage, they durst not call for their obscene sports. There is an angel always by you. What reports, think you, will they carry to Christ, if they should see anything that is unseemly? 1 Tim. v. 21, ‘I charge you before God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,’ fec. The holy angels are, as it were, the spies and intelligencers of heaven, and do acquaint Christ, not only with our miseries, but our sins. God’s omnipresency is a great depth, we cannot fathom it with our thoughts, and therefore it worketh but little with us. The nearer things come to the manner of our presence, the more do they affect us. Consider the angels are present with you in the room where, it may be, you are acting your privy wickedness.

Again, we had need be holy, the rather for the angels’ sake, because else we shall lose their tutelage. They care not to take notice of an impure, obstinate sinner: Ps. xxxiv. 7, ‘The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.’ They that fear God themselves delight most in them that do likewise. Suitableness of spirit and life breedeth a holy and sweet familiarity between us. They delight to keep us, and go with us here, that they may lay a foundation for a more familiar acquaintance in heaven. Now, shall we grieve such blessed companions? When Balaam went to curse the people of God, a good angel resisteth him, Num. xxii. 22. If an angel stood in the way of a sorcerer, much more do they seek to stop and prevent the miscarriages and offences of God’s children. Will you break forth or go on violently when an angel standeth in the way, and leave their tutelage for a lust? They are holy, and disallow all carnal enterprises, and would withstand the execution of them. Will you constrain them to forsake you? You know how it sped with Josiah, when he would not turn his face, but go out without the defence of God and his angels. See 2 Chron. xxxv. 22; he was wounded in the battle, and goeth home and dieth.

Thirdly, It teacheth us to be more awe-full; all fear is not slavish. The angels, that have a pure nature, are afraid to sin; we have a mixed nature: corruption is already gotten into our souls, and therefore have more need of caution; as they that have an enemy without and a treacherous party within have need to watch and ward. Fear is all the remedy left us; we cannot stop the flux of natural corruption, but we may withstand a natural temptation. As the angels resist the admission of sin, so let us withstand the increase and propagation of it; we are always in the presence of God, and shall we affront him to his face? Fear keepeth the angels pure and us holy, them from the admission of sin, and us from the commission of it: so Solomon saith, ‘Blessed is he that feareth always,’ Prov. xxviii. 14; that is, not that perplexeth himself with needless terrors and scruples; that were a torture, not a blessedness; that is the devils’ fear, who ‘believe and tremble.’ But when we are always cautious, out of a deep respect to God, that we dare not offend him at any time, this is a blessed fear, like the good angels’ fear; as Michael here ‘durst not bring a railing accusation.’

Obs. 9. The next point is from that a railing accusation. In the original it is κρίσιν βλασφημίας, ‘the judgment or sentence of blasphemy, or evil-speaking.’ The meaning is, such unworthy language as would not become any serious judgment or process; and because the angel was a party, not a judge, we translate it not a railing judgment, but a railing accusation. Thence observe, that to the worst adversary in the best cause, railing and reviling must not be used: ‘Michael, when contending with the devil about the body of Moses,’ &c. The reasons are:—

1. Because such reproaches come from an evil principle, contempt or passion, both of which argue pride. One that over-valueth himself disdaineth others; and stormeth when he is crossed, as a full stream roareth and swelleth when it meeteth with a dam and obstruction.

2. Such reproaches are most unsuitable to matters of religion. The God of peace will not be served with a wrathful spirit, and Christ’s warfare needeth no carnal weapons. Christianity of all religions is the meekest and most humble; the foundation of it is the Lamb slain, and the consignation and sealing of it is by the Spirit, who descended in the form of a dove, both emblems of a modest humility; and should a meek religion be defended by the violence and fury of our passions? Cursing doth ill become them that are called to ‘inherit a blessing,’ 1 Peter iii. 9.

3. They are flatly against the word. The scripture is a great friend to the peace of human societies, for it condemneth the least offensive word and gesture: Isa. lviii. 9, ‘Thou shalt put away from thee the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger;’ a gesture of indignation, and therefore God would have it laid aside, even the putting forth of the finger, as well as the yoke broken. So see Mat. v. 22, ‘But I say unto you, Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, is in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say unto his brother, Raca, is in danger of the council: and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.’ The Scribes and Pharisees had restrained the sixth commandment to the gross act of murder; Christ telleth them that rash anger, with all the expressions of it, is murder. His expressions allude to the courts of the Jews; three there were specially among them—the lowest, the middle, and the highest. Their lowest judicatory was of three men, who took cognisance of lighter matters, as injuries and strifes about goods, and things of a pecuniary concernment; this court was set up in lesser towns that had few in habitants. The second court was of three and twenty men, before whom the weightiest causes were brought: concerning the life of a man, all capital crimes, or if an ox had gored a man or woman, or in case of any abominable commixtion with a beast, if a woman approached to a beast, &c., Lev. xx. 16. This court was set up in all the cities of Palestine, and was called the lesser Sanhedrim; and because Jerusalem was the head city, the seat of the prince and temple was there, therefore, in that city were two of these lesser Sanhedrims: the lower sate in the Gate of the Mountain, that is, that gate which gave en trance to the mountain of the temple; the other, being the higher, sate in the Gate of Ezra, near the porch of the temple. The third judicatory was the greater Sanhedrim, which consisted of severity men, in imitation of the counsel of God to Moses, Num. xi. 16. This was the highest judicatory, from whence there was no appeal, as there might be from the lower courts to this. Into this assembly were chosen such as did excel others for nobility and wisdom, and that by a solemn laying on of hands; strangers or unclean persons or common people might not come nigh unto them. To this tribunal were referred all doubtful matters too hard for inferior courts to decide, Deut. xvii. 8, 9, as also all things that did belong to the twelve tribes, or to the whole nation; all things that concerned the high priest, matters of war and peace, the false prophet, fec. Therefore Christ saith, Luke xiii. 33, ‘It can not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem,’ that being the city where the Sanhedrim sate. By this court was Christ condemned, and the apostles, Acts iv. 5; and Stephen, chap. vii. 7; and Paul, chap, xxiii. 1. They sate in a part of the temple called Gasith; their punishments were strangling, beheading, stoning, burning; those that were condemned to be burned were burnt in the Valley of Hinnom; and in great cases, besides his corporal death, the malefactor was appointed and accursed to the judgment of hell. Let me apply all to the present case. Christ doth not meddle with the lowest court, the judgment of three men, because capital matters did not belong to their cognisance, and his intent is to show what a capital matter the least expression of anger is: ‘Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,’ saith he, ‘is in danger of judgment;’ that is, of the judgment of twenty-three men, to show that rash anger is before God a capital matter. ‘And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca’—thou vain and witless fellow; this was the lowest kind of contumely then in use; some make it only an interjection of indignation—‘is in danger of the council;’ that is, of the Sanhedrim, which noteth, that anger expressed, though in the lowest way, is a higher fault than single and bare anger, as the fault was greater for which they appeared before the higher Sanhedrim than that for which they appeared be fore the twenty-three judges. ‘But whosoever shall say, Thou fool’—this noteth a higher contempt, as implying a charge, not only of weakness of nature, but of sin and wickedness,—‘he is in danger of hell-fire,’ which was the highest judgment of the Sanhedrim, to burn them in the Valley of Hinnom, and to leave them accursed till the Lord come; and so proportionably it noteth the greatness of the crime which is committed in slandering and reproaching our brethren. It is a most odious sin before God; for, in allusion to man’s judgment, he showeth, that though there be degrees in the sin, and will be in the punishment, yet the whole kind is very displeasing to the Lord.

4. Because reproaches have an influence, and do exasperate rather than convince. The dog that followeth the game with barking and bawling loseth the prey; and there is not a more likely way to under mine the truth than an unseemly defence of it. Satan is mightily gratified, if men had eyes to see it, with the ill-managing of God’s cause.

Use 1. First, It serveth for information, to show us the vanity of those excuses by which men would disguise their wrath and passion. What! will you plead, I am in the right way, it is God’s cause?

Ans. Passion is blind, and cannot judge: James i. 20, ‘The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.’ The wrong way may be usually descried by the excesses and violences of those that are engaged in it. If we be in the right, extremities and furies of passion are not lawful; our religious affections may overset us. When religion, which should limit us, is made a party to engage them, it is hard to keep bounds. A stone, the higher the place from whence it falleth, giveth the more dangerous blow; so the higher the matter about which we contend, usually our anger falleth with the more violence, and is the more unmortified, because of the pretence of zeal. If the erring parties offend through ignorance, remember a bone out of joint must be settled again with a gentle hand, Gal. vi. 1. Are the opposite stubborn? ‘In meekness instruct those that oppose themselves,’ 2 Tim. ii. 25; when their absurd opposing is apt to tempt us to rage, passion, and reproach, we must contain ourselves; the hasty disciples ‘knew not what spirit they were of.’

Do they provoke, revile, wrong us first?

Ans. The railing and ill-dealing of another doth not dissolve the bond of our duty to God; to return injury for injury is but to act over their sin; it was bad in them, and it is worse in us; for he that sinneth by example sinneth doubly, as having had experience of the odiousness of it in another—qui malum imitatur, bonus esse non potest. Revenge and injury differ only in order of time; the one is first, the other second in the fault; and it was no excuse to Adam that he was not ‘first in the transgression.’ Christianity teacheth us a rare way of overcoming injuries, not only by patience, but doing good to those that wrong us: Rom. xii. 17, and 1 Peter iii. 9, ‘Bender not reviling for reviling, but, contrariwise, blessing.’ We have for our pattern Christ, ‘who being reviled, reviled not again,’ 1 Peter ii. 23, And herein he was imitated by his disciples, 1 Cor. iv. 13, βλασφημούμενοι παρακαλοῦμεν, ‘being defamed, we intreat’—a motto which I would have prefixed to all rejoinders or replies to a virulent opposition. Calvin’s modesty concerning Luther is notable: Etiamsi me, diabolum vocarit, eum tamen insignem Dei servum agnoscam—though he should call me devil, yet God forbid but I should account him an eminent servant of Christ. It was once an argument for the truth of our religion that the scriptures contained a doctrine that could not be of men, as forbidding revenge, which is so sweet to nature, and commanding us to do good to them that hate us.

But shall I suffer myself, and in me the cause of Christ, to be trampled upon?

Ans. You are allowed a modest vindication of the truth and your own innocency: Prov. xxvi. 4, 5, ‘Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.’ You will say, Here is hot and cold in one breath. I answer—Solomon speaketh of a scoffing, railing fool; and the meaning is,—do not imitate him in his foolish passion. This were to be evil because he is so; and it is against reason, that because I am sensible of indecent carriage in him, therefore I should allow it in myself; but yet answer him,—that is to the purpose, and with solid reason beat down his presumption and ignorance with a meek but a strong reply, such as may check his pride, but not imitate his folly. It is observable, when it was said of Christ, John viii. 48, 49, ‘Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil,’ he answered not a word to the personal reproach; but where his commission was touched, to that he replieth, saying, ‘I have not a devil, but I honour my father.’ It is but weakness of mind, or strength of passion, to regard personal invectives. In short, we may answer, but not with harsh and contumelious language.

Use. 2. Secondly, Here is a direction to public persons, and those that can handle the pen of the writer. Passion is apt to taint our religious defences; but check it. Michael ‘durst not bring a railing accusation;’ leave all unhandsomeness of prosecution to them that defend an evil cause: ‘The servant of God must be gentle and patient,’ 2 Tim. ii. 24. Opprobrious language doth but darken a just quarrel and contention. But you will say, May we not reprove the sins of men, and that somewhat sharply? I answer—Yea, it is lawful, as appeareth both by the practice of the prophets and angels, yea, of Christ himself, and also by the precepts of the word. Paul saith, Titus i. 7, that ‘a bishop must not be self-willed, and soon angry;’ and yet (ver. 13) he biddeth him ἐλεγχεῖν ἀπότομως, to rebuke some gainsayers sharply. There is a great deal of difference between railing and a reproof. A sermon without some warmth and keenness in it is but like a cold ration; men that speak from their brain will speak coldly, because they only declaim against things for fashion’s sake, without any sense or touch upon their hearts; an affectionate pleading for Christ is like strong water, whereas a formal narration is but like river water, without any strength and vigour. They that love Christ will be zealous for his truths and ordinances, and zeal cannot deliver itself without some smartness and earnestness; but a cold indifferency is more tame and flat. But then this must be done with great caution; you had need look to your spirits. Partly because Satan loveth to corrupt a religious affection; partly because, in these businesses, God is not only engaged, but ourselves; and many times the savour of the main river is lost when it is mingled with other streams; too, too often do we begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. The cautions which I shall give respect—(1.) The object, or cause; (2.) The persons; (3.) Manner; (4.) Principle; (5.) End.

1. The cause must be regarded, that it be real and weighty: weighty it must be; it is preposterous to be all of a fire about question able truths and matters of a less regard. The flaming sword was set about paradise. And real it must be; the sin we reprove must be manifest, and the faults we charge apparent: Mat. v. 22, ‘If any be angry with his brother without a cause,’ &c. Otherwise Christ and his apostles called Raca, Mat. xxiii. 17, ‘O fools and blind;’ and Luke xxiv. 25, ‘O fools and slow of heart to believe,’ &c.; and Gal. iii. 1, ‘O foolish Galatians;’ and James ii. 20, ‘O vain man,’ &c. But in all these cases there was a cause. False and rash imputations are but railing; zeal being a fierce and strong passion, you must not let it fly upon the throat of anything but what is certainly evil.

2. The persons must be considered; weak sinners are to be distinguished from the malicious, and the tractable from the obstinate. God’s tender lambs, though straying, must be gently reduced;’ put a difference,’ saith our apostle, ver. 19. Ad evangelizandum, non maledicendum, missus es, said Œcolampadius to Farel, who was a good man, but a little too violent—Thou wert not sent to revile, but to preach the gospel. But on the other side, there is a difference to be used in the case of hypocrites, that gain by that repute and esteem which they have. Christ himself inveighed against the Pharisees, asperrimis verbis, in the roughest ways: Mat. xxiii., ‘Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,’ &c. We may pluck off the disguise from a hypocrite, especially when they seduce and deceive the miserable multitude by an opinion of holiness. The Pharisees and Sadducees, to keep up their repute, submitted to John’s baptism, but doth he treat them gently? No; Mat. iii. 7, ‘O generation of vipers,’ &c. So Paul to Elymas the sorcerer, Acts xiii., ‘O thou full of all subtlety and mischief, thou child of the devil, and enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the holy ways of the Lord?’ In these cases there is a regard had to others, that they may not perish by too good an opinion of such deceivers; and here that of Solomon is of regard, Prov. xxviii. 4, ‘They that forsake the law, praise the wicked; and they that keep the law, set themselves against them;’ a vigorous opposition doth better here than a cold dislike.

3. For the manner. With our zeal we should still manifest love and compassion; and our way of dealing must rather be rational than passionate. There is a holy contemperation of zeal and meekness if we could hit upon it; the same Spirit that appeared in cloven tongues of fire appeared also in the form of a dove. ‘The work of righteousness’ may be ‘sown in peace,’ James iii. 18. The church’s garden thriveth by the cool gales of the north wind, as well as the sultry heat of the south, Cant. iv. 16; God’s cause should neither be neglected nor disparaged by an indiscreet carriage.

4. Concerning the principle; see that it be good; it must not be zeal for our private concernments, but for the glory of God; not a strange fire, but a holy fire. Moses was the meekest man upon earth in his own cause: Num. xii. 3, ‘When Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, the man Moses was meek above all men of the earth.’ When our zealous contests come from a heart bleeding for God’s dishonour, from hatred of sin, a fear of the public, then they are right. Lot was vexed not with Sodom’s injuries, but Sodom’s filthiness, 2 Peter ii. 8. When love of our neighbour, desire of his amendment, we are loath to suffer sin upon him, puts us upon this earnestness, our heart is upright with God; but when we seek to disgrace the men rather than condemn the sins, and we rage most upon the hazard of our own interest, and can be earnest against some sins and errors, and comply with worse, it is not zeal for God, but for a party.

5. Great regard must be had to the end. A reproof aimeth at the conviction or conversion of a sinner, but censure at his disgrace and confusion. Our aim must be as right as our passion is strong; what ever we do must not be done out of a spirit of ostentation and popularity, or to keep up a devotion to our own interests. John Baptist sharply reproved the Pharisees, not when contemning his person, but when coming to his baptism.

Obs. 10. There remaineth nothing of the 9th verse to be discussed but the last clause, the Lord rebuke thee. Though Michael doth not rail, yet he referreth the matter to God, Whence observe, that in religious contests we must carry on the opposition, though not in an unseemly manner. Michael doth not let Satan alone, so we must not let errors alone, and the devil carry it clearly without rub or opposition. Many, under a pretence of meekness, are still and silent in the cause of Christ. Cursed is this peace and meekness, when we let the envious man sow his tares, and we never give warning. God’s messengers are compared to watchful dogs; when the wolf cometh we must bark; if the sleepy world be troubled at it we must bear their reproach.

Obs. 11. Again, he referreth it to God, who is the fittest patron of his own causes. In our contests about religion, God must especially be sought unto for a blessing. Michael contended, bat said, The Lord rebuke thee; disputing times should also be praying times. Prejudices will never vanish till God ‘send out his light and truth,’ Ps. xliii. 3; and if the devil be not prayed down, as well as disputed down, little good cometh of our contests.