By°the crofscf Chrig.' IOI 5 3. If the world werea Crucified thing in your eyes,you would not (o much overvalue the Rich, and vilifie or neglect the Poor as youdo. An humble Godly man that walks the fireets in a thred- bare coat, may pafs by you without the leaft refpec : but if a (pining gallant were in the place , how obfervantly do youbehave your (elves ? If a poor man, though never fo wife or pious, have any-bufinefs withyou,how cold is his entertainment? bow (tránge is your deportment towards him ? and how [light- ly do you shake himoff ? But if they be-rich and honourabie in theworld, you are their fervants, and no refpeá is toomuch for them, nor no entertainment too good. Wifdom and Piety cloathed in raggs may pafs byyou unobferved : whena filken tot is bowed to like an Idol. As reverently as you now fpeakof Peter, and Parsl, and Chríft himfelf, now you hear them magnified, and fee not their outward appearances as they did that converted with them on earth ; I make no doubt but if you had lived in thole daies and feen them of fo low a prefence , and walk up and down in fo meana garb attended or regarded by few but the poor, you would have fet as light by them as others, and looked at them as poor contemptible fellows; if not as the filth and the off-fcourint; of all things ; and if you had not laidt ands on them as too fawcy reprovers of you, at leaft you would-.have given them one of, 7ulian's jeers, or Hobbs his (corns. It was this worldlySpirit that caufed the Jews to be fuch obllinate un- believers, and to per(ecute Chritt and his fervants : Men reve- rence not the face of the poor. And this is it'that continuer h them in their unbelief to thisvery day. We have many of their own writings and difputations ágainft Chrilt publifhed by them: felves ; and we find this the very fum of all, their reafonings , [Sheer us a N1efxh that fetcheth w fromcaptivity that gathered) the whole Nation of the yews to Judaea, and reforeth them to their antient po ffejons and d g:aities , With muchmore,- and, kes'the Nations (loop to them andferve them, andfets upagain the Temple and the Law, and we Will believe in him as the,true ; bat i-a no other Will we believe : ] For though they cannot deny but the prophefied time of the Mefliahs coming is pa(t , yet taking it for granted that this only is his true defcriptiona. they fay they mull look more at the defcription then the time : and to falve the ,laropheíies, they do believe that the Mefsiah did ,come about .3 Chrifz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=