It is an that is, it fobriety and chastity. In an other place, honour for a man to ceafe from ftrife: makes for his reputation, as a wife and good man. Christ uses the word thus, where he fays, A prophet is not without honour, fave in his own country":" that is, he has credit, and is valued, fave at home. The apostle to the Theffalonians has a faying to that effect: That every one of you should know how to poffefs his < veffel in fanctification and honour';' that is, in chastity and fobriety. In all which, nothing of the fashions by us declined is otherwife concerned, than to be totally excluded. 3 §. XVI. There is yet another ufe of the word [honour] in fcripture, and that is to functions and capacities: as, an elder is worthy of double honour that is, he deferves double esteem, love, and respect; being holy, merciful, temperate, peaceable, humble, &c. especially one that labours in word and doctrine ".' So Paul recommends Epaphroditus to the Philippians: Re<ceive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold fuch in reputation.' As if he had faid, let them be valued and regarded by you in what they fay and teach. Which is the trueft, and moft natural and convincing way of teftifying refpect to a man of God, as Chrift fai to his difciples, If you love me, you will keep my fayings.' Farther, the apostle bids us, to honour widows indeed;' that is, fuch women as are of chafte lives, and exemplary virtue, are honourable. Marriage is honourable too, with this provifo, that the bed be undefiled': fo that the honour of marriage, is the chastity of the married. §. XVII. The word Honour in the fcripture, is alfo ufed of fuperiors to inferiors; which is plain in that of Ahafuerus to Haman: What fhall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour?' Why, he mightily advanced him, as Mordecai afterwards. 4 Prov. x. 3. Tim. v. 17. * Efth, vi. 6. e Mat. xiii. 57. f 1 Thef. iv. 4. i Heb. xiii. 4. And And more particularly it is faid, That the Jews had light, and gladnefs, and joy, and honour': that is, they escaped the perfecution that was like to fall upon them, and, by the means of Efther and Mordecai, they enjoyed, not only peace, but favour and countenance too. In this sense, the apostle Peter advised men, to 'honour their wives;' that is, to love, value, cherish, countenance and efteem them for their fidelity and affection to their husbands; for their tenderness and care over their children, and for their diligence and circumfpection in their families: there is no ceremonious behaviour, or gawdy titles, requifite to express this honour. Thus God honours holy men: They (fays the Lord) that honour me, I will honour; and they that defpife me, fhall be lightly esteemed":' that is, I will do good to them, I will love, blefs, countenance, and profper them that honour me, that obey me: but they that defpife me, that refift my spirit, and break my law, they shall be lightly esteemed, little fet by, or accounted of; they fhall not find favour with God, nor righteous men. And fo we fee it daily among men: if the great vifit, or concern themselves to aid the poor, we say, that fuch a great man did me the honour to come and fee or help me in my need. §. XVIII. I fhall conclude this with one paffage more, and that is a very large, plain, and pertinent one: 'Honour all men, and love the brotherhood';' that is, love is above honour, and that is reserved for the brotherhood. But honour, which is esteem and regard, that thou oweft to all men; and if all, then thy inferiors. But why, for all men? Because they are the creation of God, and the nobleft part of his creation too; they are alfo thy own kind: be natural, have bowels, and affift them with what thou canft; be ready to perform any real refpect, and yield them any good or countenance thou canft. §. XIX. And yet there feems a limitation to this command, honour all men, in that godly paffage of David, Who fhall abide in thy tabernacle? who fhall! dwell in thy holy hill? He in whofe eyes a vile per"fon is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear "the Lord P.' Here honour is confined and affixed to godly perfons, and difhonour made the duty of the righteous to the wicked, and a mark of their being righteous, that they difhonour, that is, flight or difregard, them. To conclude this fcripture-enquiry after honour, I fhall contract the fubject of it under three capacities; fuperiors, equals, and inferiors: honour to fuperiors, is obedience; to equals, love; to inferiors, countenance and help: that is honour after God's mind, and the holy people's fashion of old. §. XX. But how little of all this is to be seen or had in a poor empty hat, bow, cringe, or gaudy fluttering title? Let the truth-fpeaking witnefs of God in all mankind judge. For I must not appeal to corrupt, proud, and felf-seeking man, of the good or evil of these customs; that, as little as he would, render them, are loved and fought by him, and he is out of humour, and angry, if he has them not. This is our fecond reason, why we refuse to practise the accustomed ceremonies of honour and respect, because we find no fuch notion or expreffion, of honour and refpect, recommended to us by the Holy Ghost in the fcriptures of truth. §. XXI. Our, third reafon, for not using them as teftimonies of honour and refpect is, because there is no discovery of honour or refpect to be made by them: it is rather eluding and equivocating it; cheating people of the honour or refpect that is due to them; giving them nothing in the fhew of fomething. There is in them no obedience to fuperiors; no love to equals; no help or countenance to inferiors. §. XXII. We are, we declare to the whole world, for true honour and refpect: we honour the king, our • Pfal. xv. 4. parents, parents, our masters, our magiftrates, our landlords, one another, yea all men, after God's way, used by holy men and women of old time: but we refuse these cuftoms, as vain and deceitful; not answering the end they are used for. §. XXIII. But fourthly, there is yet more to be said: we find that vain, loofe, and worldly people, are the great lovers and practifers of them, and most deride our fimplicity of behaviour. Now we affuredly know, from the facred teftimonies, that thofe people cannot give true honour, that live in a difhonourable fpirit; they understand it not: but they can give the hat and knee; and that they are very liberal of; nor are any more expert at it. This is to us, a proof, that no true honour can be teftified by those customs, which vanity and loofenefs love and ufe. §. XXIV. Next to them, I will add hypocrify and revenge too. For how little do many care for each other? Nay, what fpite, envy, animofity, secret backbiting, and plotting one against another, under the use of these idle refpects; till paffion, too ftrong for cunning, break through hypocrify into open affront and revenge. It cannot be fo with the fcripture-honour: to obey, or prefer a man, out of spite, is not ufually done; and to love, help, ferve, and countenance a perfon, in order to deceive and be revenged of him, is a thing never heard of: thefe admit of no hypocrify, nor revenge. Men do not these things to palliate ill-will, which are the teftimonies of quite the contrary. It is abfurd to imagine it, because impoffible to be done. §. XXV. Our fixth reafon is, that honour was from the beginning, but hat-refpects and moft titles are of late therefore there was true honour before hats or titles; and confequently true honour ftands not in them. And that which ever was the way to exprefs true honour, is the best way ftill; and this the scripture teaches better than dancing-mafters can do. §. XXVI. Seventhly, if honour confifts in fuch like ceremonies, then will it follow, that they are most capable of fhewing honour, who perform it most ex G 4 actly, actly, according to the mode or fashion of the times; confequently, that man hath not the measure of true honour, from a juft and reasonable principle in himself, but by the means and skill of the fantastic dancingmafters of the times: and for this caufe it is we fee, that many give much money to have their children learn their honours, falfly fo called. And what doth this but totally exclude the poor country people; who, though they plough, fow, till, reap, go to market; and in all things obey their juftices, landlords, fathers, and masters, with fincerity and fobriety, rarely use those ceremonies; but if they do, it is fo awkwardly and meanly, that they are esteemed by a court-critic fa illfavoured, as only fit to make a jeft of, and be laughed at but what fober man will not deem their obedience beyond the other's vanity and hypocrify? This bafe notion of honour turns out of doors the true, and fets the falfe in it's place. Let it be farther confidered, that the way or fashion of doing it is much more in the defign of it's performers, as well as view of it's fpectators, than the respect itself. Whence it is commonly said, he is a man of good mein; or, fhe is a woman of exact behaviour. And what is this behaviour, but fantaftic, cramp postures, and cringings, unnatural to their fhape, and if it were not fashionable, ridiculous to the view of all people; and therefore to the Eastern countries a proverb. §. XXVII. But yet eighthly, real honour confifts not in a hat, bow, or title, because all these things may be had for money. For which reafon, how many dancingfchools, plays, &c. are there in the land, to which youth are generally fent to be educated in these vain fashions? whilst they are ignorant of the honour that is of God, and their minds are allured to visible things that perish; and instead of remembering their Creator, are taken up with toys and fopperies; and fometimes fo much worse, as to coft themselves a difinheriting, and their indifcreet parents grief and mifery all their days.. If parents would honour God in the help of his poor, |