XII. In Scripture we find the word honour often and diversely used. First for obedience: as when God saith, "They that honour me;" (1 Sam. ii. 30:) that is, that keep my commandments. "Honour the king;" (1 Pet. ii. 17;) that is, obey the king. "Honour thy father and mother;" (Exod. xx. 12;) that is, saith the apostle to the Ephesians, "Obey thy father and thy mother in the Lord, for that is right:" (Eph. vi. 1, 2:) take heed to their precepts and advice: presupposing always, that rulers and parents command lawful things, else they dishonour themselves to enjoin unlawful things; and subjects and children dishonour their superiors and parents, in complying with their unrighteous commands. Also Christ uses this word so, when he says, "I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and ye dishonour me;" (John, viii. 49;) that is, I do my Father's will in what I do, but you will not hear me; you reject my counsel, and will not obey my voice. It was not refusing hat and knee, nor empty trifles: no, it was disobedience; resisting him that God had sent, and not believing in him. This was the dishonour he taxed them with; using him as an impostor, that God had ordained for the salvation of the world. And of these dishonourers there are but too many at this day. Christ has a saying to the same effect; "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father; and he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath sent him:" (John, v. 23:) that is, they that hearken not to Christ, and do not worship and obey him, they do not hear, worship, nor obey God. As they pretended to believe in God, so they were to have believed in him; he told them so. This is pregnantly manifested in the case of the centurion, whose faith was so much commended by Christ; where, giving Jesus an account of his honourable station, he tells him, "He had soldiers under his authority, and when he said to one, Go, he went; to another, Come, he came; and to a third, Do this, he did it." (Luke, vii. 8.) In this it was he placed the honour of his capacity, and the respect of his soldiers, and not in hats and legs: nor are such customs yet in use amongst soldiers, being effeminate, and unworthy of masculine gravity.