Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 20:27

27 And whosoever will be chief amongst you, let him be your servant.

So Mark hath much the same, Ch. 10.42, 43, 44. Luke hath also much the same, (but it seemeth spoken at another time) Luk. 22.25, 26, 27. I shall not here inter-meddle with the Disputes, some have founded on this Text: Whether there may be a Civil Magistracy amongst Christians: A thing undoubtedly Foreign to the Sense of this Text. Or, Whether Christ here Establisheth a Party amongst Ministers; Which I do not think our Lords design here: Nor yet, with that other Question, Whether Ministers of the Gospel may take upon them, the exercise of any Civil Power. That which our Saviour here intendeth, 1. To distinguish his Kingdom from the Kingdoms of the World: Those Kingdoms are over mens Bodies and Estates, his was a spiritual Kingdom, over the Hearts and Consciences of Men. Or rather, his was a Kingdom of Glory, where there would be no need of Rulers and Magistrates, as in the Governments of the World, nor any such Exercise of Authority, as is here Exercised in the Government of Earthly Kingdoms, and Policies. 2. To condemn Ambition, and Pride in his Disciples, as making them most unfit for this Kingdom, which is a thing he had before taught them. The way to be greatest in Heaven, is to be humblest, to be Low, and mean in our own Eyes: This I think to be the Properest Interpretation of this Text, Our Lord by it Correcting the Erroneous Opinion his Disciples had of the Nature of his Kingdom, as also their Pride and Ambition, and pressing upon them other Studies, than how to be the greate[illegible: 1 letter]t in any Earthly Kingdom. If any do think, that in this Text our Lord hath some respect to the Kingdom he hath upon Earth. He rather Checks Ambition, and an Affectation of Superiority, than any thing else, and lets us know, that such as Love the Preheminence are most unfit for it: That the work of Heads of the Church, is but a Ministry, not a Domination, and that those who are fittest for it, and deserve most Honour in the Church; are those that least seek and affect it: And those most unworthy of that Honour, who most hunt after it. But I prefer the first Sense, given of this Text. For certainly, what our Saviour here saith, was not only occasioned by, but had a great Relation to the Petition of Iames and Iohn with their Mother; and the bearing Rule, and exercising Authority mentioned here, relates to the Kingdom, mentioned in that Petition. Which I think cannot be understood of the Church, which was a Kingdom of Christ; which they as yet little understood, but they either meant the Kingdom of Glory, intertaining carnal Conceptions of that, that there would be some Superiority, and Inferiority there amongst the Saints, which our Saviour here Correcteth their mistake in. Or, else they Fancied a secular Kingdom, to be Exercised by Christ on Earth, after his Resurrection from the Dead. Our Saviour Correcteth this mistake also, intimating that his Kingdom should be of another Nature, and the way to be highest in it, was to be Humble and Low, and mean in Opinions of our selves.