An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

The second thing observable from this relative consideration is, That the Apostle ¹intending to beget awe and esteem in the hearts of those he wrote unto, he mentioneth his Office, and from whom he had it, An Apostle of Jesus Christ. This was a greater glory (saith Chrysostom) then if he had styled himself any temporal Officer in the Civil State. For he doth (saith the same Father) as if one next to the Emperor should write to a certain people, giving himself that title of honour, which was next to the Emperor. Thus doth Paul, The Apostle of Jesus Christ. This could not but astonish and startle all his opposers and enemies, yet if you do consider, with a worldly respect, what Christ himself was, and so any Officer under him, you must judge it the most contemptible and despicable thing that can be, that which a carnal man would have been ashamed to own; for Christ himself was called, The Carpenters son, and bred up at Nazareth, a most despicable place; and his outward condition was so low, that he saith, He had not where to lay his head. And as for his Apostles, what repute they had in the world, Paul himself telleth us; when he saith, They were accounted the off-scouring of all things, 1 Cor. 4. 13. Yet see how the Apostle glorieth in this title, as that which might justly awe the consciences of those to whom he wrote. From this observe,

The second thing observable from this relative consideration is, That the Apostle ¹intending to beget awe and esteem in the hearts of those he wrote unto, he mentioneth his Office, and from whom he had it, An Apostle of Jesus Christ. This was a greater glory (saith Chrysostome) then if he had styled himself any temporal Officer in the Civil State. For he doth (saith the same Father) as if one next to the Emperour should write to a certain people, giving himself that title of honour, which was next to the Emperour. Thus doth Paul, The Apostle of Jesus Christ. This could not but astonish and startle all his opposers and enemies, yet if you do consider, with a worldly respect, what Christ himself was, and so any Officer under him, you must judge it the most contemptible and despicable thing that can be, that which a carnal man would have been ashamed to own; for Christ himself was called, The Carpenters sonne, and bred up at Nazareth, a most despicable place; and his outward condition was so low, that he saith, He had not where to lay his head. And as for his Apostles, what repute they had in the world, Paul himself telleth us; when he saith, They were accounted the off-scouring of all things,