AN EXPOSITION Of the EPISTLE of JUDE, Together With many large and usefull DEDUCTIONS. Formerly Delivered In sundry LECTURES in Christ-Church LONDON. ⟨May 24 th.⟩
BY WILLIAM JENKYN, Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, AND PASTOR of the Church at Black-friars, LONDON.
The SECOND PART.
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Maxey, for SAMUEL GELLIBRAND, at the golden BALL in Paul's Church-yard, 1654.
TO My Dear FLOCK, and much honoured Friends, The CHURCH of GOD, In the Precinct of BLACK-FRYARS LONDON.
IT cannot seeme strange, that I who have lately given my selfe to the service of your soules, should now dedicate my Booke to you for that purpose. Nor can any wonder, since you have lately imitated your Predecessors, in the loving and unanimous Call of your (though now unworthy) Pastor; that he should endeavour to follow the steps of those excellent servants of Christ your former Ministers, who in their times both by Preaching and Printing bestowed their labours upon you for your spirituall benefit.
I have frequently heard, that Black-fryars is one of those places in London, commonly accounted and called by the name of Priviledged, in respect of sundry civil Immunities bestowed upon it. But what are all those Political, in comparison of the Spiritual priviledges which God hath afforded to you of this place? in regard whereof I much question, whether any Congregation in London (I [Page]think I may take a far larger compass) hath been equal to you in the priviledg of enjoying so long a continuance of an Able, Orthodox, Soul-saving Ministry. Those two excellent and eminently faithful Servants of Christ, Mr. Egerton, and Doctor Gouge (lately deceased) spent (as I am informed) about seventy years in their Ministerial Labors among the people of Black-fryars.
The Gospel in your Congregation hath continued (I think) beyond the remembrance of the oldest, (the Lord grant that it may outlive the youngest) now living among you. God hath, as it were, made his Sun to stand still upon your Gibeah, and his Moon upon your Ajalon, to give you light to overcome your spirituall Enemies. How many learned, and pithy expositions, savoury discourses, and excellent tractates have had their conception in your Parish, and their birth in your pulpit! You have enjoyed the monthly administration of the Lords Supper, (as your late reverend Pastor informed me) these five and forty yeares, without any interruption. I mention not these things to occasion your glorying in men, or any outward priviledges, but onely to put you upon self-reflexion, and holy examination, how you have thriven in holinesse under all these enjoyments: Church priviledges (I grant) are excellent mercies, in their kinde: Without the Ordinances, places are commonly as void of Civility as Christianity; They are but magna latrocinia, dens of robbers, and places of prey, darke places of the Earth fill'd with violence. Church-priviledges, (so far forth as they are visibly owned) make men visible (saints in opposition to the world; yea and in their due and holy use, real and true saints in opposition to hypocrites. But notwithstanding all these, the meanes of grace, without grace by those meanes, leave those who injoy them, in the same condition (in respect of any saving benefit) with those who want them. Jer. 9.25, 26. Is. 29.1. 2 Hag. 12.14. Rom. 2.25.28, 29. The Arke at Shiloh, the sacrifices devoured by Ariel, Circumcision in the flesh, The temple of the Lord, The Rock and Mannah, The [Page] Lords Supper at Corinth, &c. 1 Cor. 11.20. Jer. 7.12. were priviledges which did not savingly profit the enjoyers, who were not holy by their holy things, but their holy things rather were made unholy by them. Nay, bare outward priviledges increase condemnation. The valley of vision hath the heavyest burden. The Israelites who had (not monthly but) daily sacraments, eating and drinking them every meal, were most severely destroy [...]d. These were but as Uriahs letters, which they carryed to their owne destruction. The higher Corazin and Bethsaida's elevation was, the greater was their downfall. Justice will pluck the unreformed, from the Altar of priviledges. Sermons do but heat hell, and Sacraments are but oyl and pitch to make its flame scald and consume the more painfully. The barren oak was not so near cursing, as the barren fig-tree. Nor are weeds on the dunghill so near plucking up, as those in the Garden; by none is the name of God so much dishonoured, mercy so much abused, hypocrisie so odiously veiled, the power of godlinesse so bitterly hated, Joh. 8.33. Rom. 1.27. as by many who have most enjoyed Church priviledges. Put not off your souls therefore (dear Christians) with outward Priviledges without inward grace by those Priviledges. What is it more to have a name to live, and to be spiritually dead, to have titular sanctity and real impiety, then for a starving man to be v [...]iced up for a plentiful house-keeper? When God had bestowed upon Abram a new name, and changed it to Abraham he gave him also a new blessing. The unprofitable under the means of grace, are therfore worse then those who want those means, because they are not better, the more aship is laden with gold, the deeper she sinks, the more you are laden with golden priviledges, the deeper (if you miscarry) wil be your destruction Though the Ministers industry without succe [...]ss, acquits him, yet it condemns his people. He may be sincere, yet unsuccessfull; but then the people in the mean time, if unprofitable, shew themselvs hypocritical. You never commend your Ministers but by getting the saving impressions of what they preach upon your hearts. Christ reproved the young man for calling him good Master, because (saith Calvin) he had [Page]never received any saving good from Christ. The sheep onely prayse the care of the carefull shepherd, by their wool, milk, fruitfulnesse and fatness. Let it never be said, that God gives the food of life to you, (as a rich man gives a nurse good dyet for the benefit of his child) onely for the thriving of strangers. Be not as Indians, who go naked and beggarly in the midst of all their heaps of gold. Let not sermons be as jewels onely to hang in your ears, but let them be lockt up in the cabinets of your hearts. Consider, ordinances are never yours, till you get the savour of them upon your spirits; Meat upon the table may be taken away, but not when by eating, 'tis turned into a mans substance. Books may be stoln out of a Scholars study, but a thousand theeves can never take away the learning which he hath gotten into his head, by studying those Books. The grace of priviledges is onely safe. You shall be stript of these when you come to dye, but the grace of them will stick by you for ever. Christ may say to those at the last day, depart, who have eat and drunk with him, and cast out devils, but never will he say so, to those who having eat and drunk with him, have also eat and drunk himself, who have cast lust out of their souls, and gotten a broken heart for sin, or obtained the least dramme of sanctifying grace. Oh how much is a drop of inward holinesse, better then a sea of outward priviledges!
This book with which I here present you, is the second part of my Exposition upon the divine and excellent Epistle of Jude. The Apostles scope in writing this Epistle was to stir up these Christians to oppose those who would have seduced them to libertinism, and to contend for the faith, against those who turned the grace of God into wantonnesse, who allowed themselves to live, or rather (like beasts) to wallow in all filthinesse, under pretence of advancing free grace; and who laboured to make the Saints by being Christians to become Heathens, as the Apostles had made them of Heathens to become Christians. The endeavor of satan was to drive people from one extream to another, [Page]and since he could not by keeping some under Judai [...]m, cause them to deny that Christ had purchased for them any liberty at all, he most earnestly laboured by driving them to Atheism and looseness, to make them beleive that n [...]w they had liberty to be as had as they would, and that the worse they were, the better they were, & the lower they were in sin, the higher in Christian perfection: And hence it was that these later Epistles (one of the last whereof this of Jude was) are principally spent in opposing a feigned, workless lifeless faith, and in administring antidotes against those doctrines of prophaneness and libertinism, wherewith the times grew the more infested, as the doctrine of grace grew the more to be cried up and advanced.
It is now a compleat year since I began to put pen to paper for the preparing this second Part for the presse: And it might long since have been finished, had not my many other employments hindred. It hath cost me (I confess) some studious hours; but the kind acceptance which my other Part hath found from the Church of God, encouraged me to look beyond the difficulty of the work, and made me unwilling to leave this Commentary longer unfinished. I shal conclude with my earnest & humble supplication to the Father of lights that this endeavour (among others) may advance the spiritual progress of the Church, and principally of you (my dear and beloved friends) so in grace here, that you may be fitted for glory hereafter. So prayes, Sirs,
AN EXPOSITION of the EPISTLE of JUDE.
PART II.
THe second Argument brought by our Apostle to incite these Christians earnestly to contend for the faith opposed by the Seducers, is taken from the certainty of the destruction of those ungodly men. This argument he handles from the fourth to the seventeenth verse. In the managing whereof, having first mentioned sundry examples of Gods judgments which befell the great sinners of former times, ver. 5, 6, 7. (of which largely I have spoken before) he now secondly adds, that these seducers lived in the very same sins which God had punish'd in those sinners of old; and this he prosecutes in the eighth, ninth and tenth verses. And then thirdly, from v. 10. to 17. he infers and amplifies this Conclusion, Wo to them, v. 11. q. d. Therfore these seducers shall likewise perish.
This eighth verse then, being part of that second Branch, wherein the Apostle shews that these seducers lived in the same sins which God had punish'd in others, contains (as hath been said pag. 612.) these two parts.
- 1. The faults wherewith these seducers were charged.
- 2. The fountain from which these faults issued.
In the first, The faults wherewith, &c. I considered,
- 1 Their specification.
- 2 Their amplification.
1 Their specification; and their faults were of two sorts.
- 1 Carnal uncleannesse: they defiled the flesh.
- 2 Opposing of Authority, express'd in two Branches;
- 1 The despising of dominion:
- 2 The speaking evil of dignities.
2 Their amplification in these words [Likewise also:] They sinn'd both as the former sinners had done, and although they knew that they had been punished by God for sinning.
The second part, viz. the fountain from which these their faults issued, was, their spiritual sleeping and dreaming, contained in the word [dreamers.]
Concerning the first fault wherewith the seducers are charged; viz. defiling the flesh, I have spoken pag. 613, 614. &c. of the former Part.
Of the second, viz. Opposing of Authority, I have also spoken at large in its first branch, viz. the despising of dominion. I now proceed to speak of it in the second branch, contained in these words, They speak evill of dignities.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 Great is the audacious extravagancy of an unmortified tongue: Observ. 1 James (chap. 3.6.) calls it a fire; and here we see it aspires like fire, [...]. Jam 3.5. and moves upward, and fastens upon such things as were much above it: Peter saith, These Seducers are not affaid to speak evill of Dignities, 2 Pet. 2.10. the tongue set on fire by hell below, fires even upon those which are called gods, and are in the hihgest and most eminent degree: the tongue speaketh proud things, Psal. 12.3. In the mouth of the foolish is the rod of pride, Pro. 14.3. In which place the fools tongue may either be termed a rod of pride, which for proud speaking shall whip the fool himself; or else a rod which by the fools proud speaking whips and lasheth any other. The Septuagint read it, The fools tongue is [...], a rod of reproach: and some conceive in using the word rod, Gr. (according to some) [...], Solomon alludes to the custom of Magicians, who by their Rods were wont to do their magical exploits and false miracles of transforming, Exod. 7.12. metamorphosing and changing the shapes of things; as if these proud railers by the rods of their tongues, Leviter volat sermo, sed graviter vulnerat; leviter transit, sed graviter urit; leviter profertur, sed non leviter revocatur; facilè volat, atque adeo facilè violat charitatem. Bern. Serm. de trip. cust. their revilings and slanderous reproaches, did labour to metamorphise and transform men, making the honourable to appear base, the learned most illiterate, the upright most dishonest, &c. The pride of the heart is most frequently discovered by the tongue: Rabshakeh threatned he would make them eat their own dung, and drink their own pisse▪ the tongue threatens God himself, Isa. 14.13. I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. Talk no more exceeding proudly (saith Hannah) 1 Sam. 2.3. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh [Page 9]through the earth. Psal. 73.9. Our tongues are our own, who is Lord over us? Psal. 12.7. The tongue, though small, opposeth the greatest. It was a gracious care of David, to take heed to his tongue, Psal. 39.1. Mans glory, (his tongue) must not be imployed against Gods glory, or the Magistrates (here call'd Glories.) The tongue, of which we had not the use, till we had the use of reason; was never appointed to the used without reason, for pride and passion. He who made the tongue soft and pliable, all flesh without a bone in it, teacheth us that it should not be harsh, rugged, and proud in its expressions: the double rail or hedg of the teeth and lips, shews that this wild beast is very unruly, Jam. 3.8. and that it ought to be kept in. The best way to keep the fire from breaking out at the Chimney, [...]. is to quench the coals upon the hearth; a cool and humble heart wil abate the heat of the fiery tongue.
2. Dignities lie open to the lash of the tongue. Observat. 2
The more eminent the person, the more censured is his action: the highest towers are most frequently blasted with lightning; nor power, nor innocency can protect from imputations. The fire of the tongue dares touch even laurel Which lightning (they say) never blasteth.; the sword of the mouth will adventure even upon the mouth of the sword▪ When Saul was chosen, and carryed and lifted up with highest acclamations, the sons of Belial despised him. 1 Sam. 10.27 It is a vain ambition to expect the good word of all. Its an equall weaknesse to be proud of the applause, and impatient under the reproaches of the multitude: the care of all especially of governors, should be rather to be worthy of honor, then to receive honor; rather to be honourable, then honoured; and not so much to seek quiet abroad, as in themselves, and the conscience of their upright and sincere endeavors. Its better to deserve well, and to hear ill; then to deserve ill, and to hear well.
3. Observat. 3 Magistrates should take heed of blemishing their [Page 10]dignity and losing their glory. The Apostle here cals them dignities or glories: And to maintain their glory, 'tis not enough to be magnificent and outwardly pompous in their attendance, apparel, diet buildings, &c. but let them shew themselves dignities, 1 In their entrance into their places: and 2. in their deportment when they are entred. 1. For their entrance, let it not be sordid and unworthy, in the way of suing by freinds, mony &c. Such should be prefer'd, not as would have places, but such as places would have. Olives, Vines, Fig-trees refuse their honours; brambles catch hold on preferment. Sauls modesty in hiding himself when chosen King, detracted not from his dignity when he accepted it. Cùm omnia faceret ut imperare deberet, nihil faciebat ut imperaret. It was an high commendation of Theod [...]sius the Emperor, that when he had done all that could make him worthy to rule, he would do nothing that he might rule: The worthiest to govern, are they often who think themselves unworthiest. Eò dignior erat quo magis se clamabat indignum. Hier. in Epitaph. Nepot. Let Christ herein be the pattern, who humbled himself, but he left his exaltation to his Father. How is dignity debased, when they are advanced, not who deserve best, but bid fairest? when mony makes the Magistrate, and shall provide preferment for him, who is not at all fit for that. What wonder is it to see that they who buy their places deer, should afterward sell justice deer also? 2 In their deportment when they are entred; let Magistrates keep up their glory by wisdome and understanding; if no Christian, much lesse must a Magistrate be a child in understanding: A fool cannot be harmlesse. A King in our English expression imports as much as cunning, From the old Saxon word koning. or knowing. Wisdome makes a mans, especially a Magistrates face to shine: Wisdome and Magistracy cast a reciprocal lustre upon one another: Solomons wisdom made him more glorious and sought to, then his wealth. It was a notable speech of our Henry the first, A King without Learning is but a crowned asse: That creature is but contemptible under the richest [Page 11]ornaments. If a rulers calling hinders him from the study of many commendable parts of Learning, yet let it put him upon such studies as are necessarily requisite to the understanding of government; Prov. 14.8. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. 2 To preserve dignity, a Magistrate in his place must carry himself couragiously. Solomons throne was beset with Lions, not with Apes; they who oppose vice, had need of heroical spirits; cowards are fitter to be slaves then rulers. A Magistrate in his own cause, should be as flexible as a reed; in the cause of God, as stiffe as an oak; a timorous ruler is a Hare in a Lions skin: All dare meddle with him, who dares meddle with none. And its just with God, that he should suffer by the subjects, who dares not make their sins suffer by him. 3. Let dignity be upheld by the hatred of covetousnesse, base and filthy lucre; how unseemly is it for a golden spade to dig in a dunghill? for the robe of an Emperor to stop an oven? Let not these who are called Gods, grovel in the earth; what is not cheap to him, to whom mony is dear? How unfit is it for a Magistrate to soar high in respect of his place, and at the same time (like the kite) to have his eye fixed upon the dunghill, or carrion! It's the judgment of God against covetousnesse, that they who follow gain as their God, shall yet account another a base miser for doing so. It was a noble speech of Themistocles, who seeing a precious stone upon the ground, bid another take it up; For thou (said he) art not Themistocles. 4. To preserve dignitie, let Magistrates carry themselves usefully, industriously, for the publick good. There's a neer conjunction between dignity and duty: The shadow of honor attends upon the body of service. It was a true speech of the wise old counsellers to Rehoboam, 1 Kings 12.7. If thou wilt be a servant to this people &c. they will be thy servants. The tree which is most deeply rooted, flourisheth and spreads most, and the person who is most deeply and [Page 12]lowly engaged in service, shall best flourish and spread in renown. Empty are those Titles which are only obtained by Birth, Retinue and Favour, &c. The Titles of Most Illustrious, Excellency, Right Honourable, &c. bestowed upon an uprofitable Governor, are but nick names and upbraidings for his not being what he should, and is said to be; and as unduly given him, as the names of wholesome drugs are put upon empty boxes in the Apothecaries shop. 5. Let Dignity be upheld with piety. Holiness is the lustre of all other accomplishments, and the most lasting foundation of honour: They that honour me, will I honour. If Religion at the Bar make the profane Magistrate to tremble, much more may Religion on the Bench dismay a profane Offender: When the Lusts of wicked Subjects make them willingly to reproach Religious Rulers, their consciences shall make them unwillingly to honor them. Never did those Magistrates long preserve their owne names, who suffered Gods to be profaned. The greatest Potentate on earth cannot be loose and ungodly by Authority; their place will not bear them out in it. Religion is no disparagement to Magistracy. How needless, how unsutable is it for great ones to fear nothing more then to have a name to fear God?
4. Observ. 4. How highly is God provoked, when he makes these Dignities and Glories unglorious! It's no small offence that puts the Lord upon pouring contempt upon Princes; that makes him stain the pride of their glory, and cover it with shameful spewing: When Manasseh shall be fetterd, Jehoiakim be a broken Idol, buried with the buriall of an Asse, Jer. 22.19, 24 and the Signet upon his right hand plucked thence, and thrown on the dunghil, Nebuchadnezzar turned into a Beast, &c. when the Lord deals thus with Rulers; they should look beyond a rebellious head-strong people: they have Neg [...]tium cum Deo: Their work is to look inward and upward, to study what their sin hath been, which hath incensed [Page 13]God to debase that which he commands all other to honour. If the Lord suffer people to cast off the yoak of their obedience to Princes; surely Princes did first cast off the yoak of obedience to God. 1 Sam. 2.30. They who despise God shall be lightly esteemed. If it be the Lord who subdues the people under Princes, Psal. 18.47 it is he that subdues Princes under their people: Its God who stilleth the noise of the seas, and the tumult of the people: Psal. 65.7. If he remove the banks and bounds of his protection, the proud waves both of seas and popular tumults will overflow the highest mountains. If at any time Princes are overborn by such an overflowing scourge, let them examine themselves whether they have not transgressed the bounds of Gods Commandments; whether if God deal with them as with Saul, Manasseh, Nebuchadnezar, Zedekiah, Jehu, Jeroboam, they have not with them, been disobedient, idolatrous, proud, oppressive, &c. The alterations of Governors and Governments, peculiarly belong to Gods Prerogative Royal He rul [...]th in the kingdom of men, giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. And the putting of proud Princes and people, upon an holy and humble consideration hereof, (which can never be, unless not only his bare permission, but even his positive working, and such as flowes from his effectual Ordination, be acknowledged) is clearly intimated in Scripture, Dan. 4.17 to be one main end of the severe dispensations of providence, in the pulling down of Governments and debasing of Dignities.
5. Observ 5. Its lawful for Magistrates to preserve their Authority by a certain external, though decent and moderate Pomp and Majesty. They may lawfully use and receive titles of honour, and have Attendance, Apparel, Buildings, Dyet sutable to their Dignities; the Spirit of God here calls them Dignities, or Glories: Paul, Act. 26.25 gave to Festus the title of Most Noble: God himselfe hath cast upon Rulers a beam of his Glory: Psal. 21.5. Honour and [Page 14]Majesty hath God laid upon them: The most high God (saith Daniel) gave Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom, Dan. 5 18, 19. and Majesty, and Glory, and Honour. Faithful and godly Joseph, Gen. 41. when advanced, was adorned with Pharaohs Ring, and a gold Chain, arraied in Vestures of fine linnen, riding in the second Chariot which Pharaoh had, they crying before him, Bow the knee. Jude here puts Dominion and Dignities together. Magistracy deek'd with Dignity, is oft hated and envyed; and strip'd of Dignity, is alwayes scorn'd and contemned: This the Fomenters of Anarchical confussions well know, who endeavour to overthrow Dignities, that they may thereby destroy Dominions: Nor yet ought Magistrates to please themselves with Titles and Dignities, empty of that goodness and worth which should accompany and adorn Greatness: They should not so affect the Title, as to neglect the thing and work whereof their Titles admonish them. Glorious Titles and Dignities, contradicted by a wicked and undue deportment, proclaim equally both the sin and shame of those upon whom they are cast. Prohibiti sunt mated [...]ci, non jussi sunt sacrificiis honorari. Aug. q. 86. in Exod To conclude, though Rulers should be honoured, yet not adored: They should so endure to be acknowledged the peoples Superiours, as to fear to be accounted Gods Equals: Soon was Herod the food of wormes, when he patiently endured to have his voice cryed up for the voice of God. Historians mention the Sacrilegious impiety of D [...]mitian, who would be called by the people, Suet. in vita Dom. cap. 13. The Lord our God: To these may be added the proud usurpations of the Pope, who exalts himself above all that is called God; who pretends to pardon sin, and to be the head of the Church; and of those Princes that have taken the Title of most Mighty, most Invincible, &c.
6. Observ. ult. Its our duty to be cautioned against flattering of Governors. They are Dignities and Glories, but should not dazzle our eyes into a sinful winking at their sins. Though they are not to be reviled, yet neither soothed [Page 15]when they offend God. What ill have Governors deserved at our hands, that we should in stead of friends, Honor quo praediti sunt non est vitiorum integumentum. be their flatterers? & that they only of all the men in the world should be without friends, that is, reprovers? We must honour them in stead of, not against God; Say unto the King and Queen, humble your selves; Jer. 13.18. 1 Sam. 15.29. 1 King. 18.18. Isai. 39 6. More then once we read that Samuel reproved Saul; nor did Nathan spare David; Eliah, Ahab; Isaiah, Hezekiah; the Buptist, Herod. The danger of flattering Rulers, reacheth beyond themselves. The soothing of such in sin is the casting of a bag of poyson into a common fountain, se [...]ving for the use of the whole City. Nor yet ought the reprehending of publick persons to be practised without much prudence; lest by it the disease be rather irritated then cured. Singular was the wisdom of Nathan to draw the sentence of David against himself out of his own mouth. 1 Sam. 2 1. 1 King, 20 39. Nor do all sorts of faults require the same severity in reproving: some sins are warts, others are [...]l [...]ers; some are secret, and then the plaister should not be broader then the sore; the reprehension more open then the offence: Care is to be had lest Reprehension degenerate into Sedition: Preachers for Conversion should have another aime: In short, in every reproof, difference is to be put between the person and Office of the Magistrate: The Dignity of the Office should not suffer for the vices of the person; nor should the vices of the person be spared for the Dignity of the Office.
This for the specification of the faults of these Seducers, which was the first Branch in the first part of the Text: The second branch of this first part of the Text followes, viz, the aggravation of these faults, in that the Apostle saith, that these Seducers sinned likewise also. In which two words the Apostle expresseth a twofold aggravation of their sins.
[Page 16] The first stands in the harmony or consent between the sins of these Seducers, and the wickedness of those who went before them: they sinned likewise.
2. The second stands in the obstinacy of these sinners in their impieties, Similiter tamen. they sinning also, or (as Beza reads it) notwithstanding they knew the forementioned severe judgements which had befallen the former sinners for their impieties.
EXPILCATION.
I shall but briefly touch upon both these by way of Explication, the difficulty not being great, although the matter contained in them profitable.
1. Explicat. 1. The Harmony or consent of these Seducers with former sinners in their wickedness, is exprest in this word [...], Likewise; a word importing as much as did those words in the seventh verse, where the Apostle saith, that the Cities about Sodom and Gomorrha, did [...], In like manner give themselves, &c. If it be demanded, Wherein that agreement or consent which was between these Seducers and former sinners did consist? It is answered by some, That the Apostle did not intend that these Seducers did walk precisely in the same particular sins in which the forementioned sinners, the Israelites, Angels, Sodomites had lived; or that they did trace them [...], step by step in every several sort of wickedness, but only that they were in the general, very grievous and hainous sinners, as those of old were, giving themselves with them over to all manner of impiety.
But comparing the practices of these Seducers with the sins wherewith the Israelites, Angels, Sodomites were charged, as also considering the word [Likewise] most properly imports such a connexion of this verse with the former, as whereby is intended that these Seducers imitated those former sinners in those very sins which were before by the Apostle mentioned; Ver. 5, 6, 7. I conceive it [Page 17]may be best answered; that the agreement here mentioned by Jude, between the former and latter sinners, was an agreement in the same sins for sort and kind; and that he intends, as the Isralites and Angels proudly refused to yeeld due obedience and subjection to God; the former rebelling against God who governed them immedi [...]tely, Videtur Judas indicare Gnosticos Sodomitis fuisse similes, quasi eo rum improbitatem imitarentur. Vid. Justinian. in loc. the latter despising that government which he exercised over them by his servant Moses: and as the Sodomites sin'd by sensual filthinesse and carnal uncleanness; in like manner did these Seducers defile the flesh, and despise dominions, &c. And yet I doubt not, but withall the Apostle in this word [likewise] insinuates a further agreement between these former and and later sinners; and that was in the same punishment which was likewise to fall upon those who lived in the same sins, for which they of old were punished.
The second aggravation of the wickednesse of these seducers, is taken from their obstinacie in sinning, contained in this expression, [...], also, or notwithstanding; noting, that these seducers sin'd, although they well knew what judgments of God had befallen the forementioned sinners, for the very same sinnes whereof they were guilty. These Angels, Isralites, Sodomites had been whipt (as it were) before their eyes; God had laid them before them for a [...] (as Jude spake before) an example to them who after should live ungodly. Ver. 7. These judgments were as a buoy before the ankre, to prevent the dashing of future generations against the same destruction. Yet these seducers sinn'd notwithstanding these judgments of God upon those of old; Rom. 1 32. like a theef, so mad upon cutting a purse, that he commits that offence, even under the gallows whereon one was newly hanged for the same fault.
OBSERVATIONS
1. Great is our proneness to follow corrupt example. Observat. 1 Of this before pag. 572 of the former part.
[Page 18] 2. Observ. 2 There is a proneness to sin in every age of the world. Israelites, and Sodomites before, and these seducers afterward provoke God. A doctrine that puts the godly upon a holy both contention against, and contentation under the iniquity of their times; they should be both patient, and zealous; patient, to shew their submission to Gods providence: Eccles. 7.10. Zealous, to preserve their own purity; they must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked generation. Even the godly are as ready to favour of the follies of their generation, as waters to receive a tang from the earth, through which they run. 1 Pet. 4.4. Of this see more pag. 605 of the former part.
3. Observ. 3 The wicked agree in sinning; they run together into the same excess of riot. Hand may joyn in hand against holinesse: This unity is but conspiracy, it's against unity, trin'unity. Gods people should be asham'd of their divisions even by the example of sinners. Of this more pag. 571. Part 1.
4. Observ. 4 Greatest severities are in themselves insufficient to work upon sinners. These Seducers sinned notwithanding the punishing of the same sins formerly. What a calamitous catalogue of Judgments do we find mentioned by Amos chap. Amos 4.6, 7.8, &c. 4? and though all of them had been inflicted upon the people, yet did not the punished return to the Lord. They turn not (saith the Prophet, Isai. 9.13.) Isa 9.13. Lev. 26.39. to him that smiteth, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts. And Lev. 26.39. it is not threatned only as a judgment, that the people should be carried into their enemies land, but (which is far worse) that there they should pine away in their iniquities, though their Liberties, estates, lives were consumed, yet their sins outliv'd them, and remained: Their iniquities did not pine away in them, but they in their iniquites. The Prophet Hosea, Hos. 13.13. Compares them to a foolish child, that stayes in the place of breaking forth of children; men may be in troubles, and yet rather dye [Page 19]there, then seek by repentance to be delivered; like as the Prophet in that place useth the comparison of a foolish child, which though in a dark stifling womb, there continues, though to the destruction of it self and mother. Ther's an insufficiency in all outward dispensations, to change the disposition of the heart; the back may be broken, and yet the heart remain unbroken: Though divels be thrust down into, and tormented in hell, yet they ever continue proud and unreformed. Ahaz trespass'd the more, 2 Chron. 28.22. the more he was distressed; judgments may irritate, not remove sin: They may make us to fret and rage by stopping us in a way of sin; (as a dam makes the torrent the more to rise and swell) but they cannot turn or dry up a stream of corruption. Resistance occasions it to break forth afterward with the greater violence: Great wounds cannot work in us good wils: unlesse grace doth inwardly renew us, as well as troubles outwardly restrain us, there will be no true turning to God. The more God stop'd Baalam in his way, the more mad he was to be going on; a man who is stopt in the street with a cart, is not made thereby out of love with his journie, but the more resolved to go on, the faster afterward: It's a singular mercy when an affliction is wrought into us; if God hath a mind to do us good, he will make us good by all our troubles. This is the depth of misery, for God to say, let him that is filthy notwithstanding his washing, continue so still: Consider in every trouble, thy work is with God, and that not only to observe him sending of it, but to beg his blessing upon it. Beseech him that no wind may go down, till it hath blown thee nearer thy haven; to take off no plaister till thy sores be healed; pray not so much with Pharaoh, to have the frogs, as with David, to have thy sins taken away: Calamities are then removed in mercy, when sanctified before they are removed; Love me not Lord, (said Augustine) with that love wherewith [Page 20]thou puttest one out of the way, Non quo extrudis de viâ, sed quo corrigis devium. but reducest him that is wandring.
And this for the first part of this verse, viz. the faults wherewith these seducers were charged, as they have been considered both in their specification and aggravation; The second follows, The fountain from which these faults issued, intended in this expression, Filthy dreamers.
EXPLICATION
In the explication hereof, I shall shew in what sense the Apostle here gives these seducers this title, and withall the sin and misery in being such as this title imports.
The word here interpreted filthy dreamers, in the Greek is [...], [...] qui videt in somnia. signifying properly such who are dreaming in sleep. Beza renders the word sopiti, such who are fast or sound asleep, in a deep dead sleep. Erasmus and Vatablus, [...], Arist. Delusi in somniis; such who are deluded in dreams. The Vulgar wholly omits the translation of the word; but the word properly signifies such who in their sleep are dreaming; and thus Joseph is called [...] a dreamer, and Acts 2.17. It's said, your old men [...], shall dream dreams (importing likewise thus to dream in sleep.) And these of whom our Apostle here speaks, may be termed dreamers in sleep, either 1. In a proper, or 2. In a metaphorical sense. If 1. In a proper sense, then these seducers were dreamers in their natural and bodily rest and sleep; 1 thus they, mentioned Acts. 2.17. dreamed dreams in their naturall sleep, and thus Gagneius, Vatablus, Salmeron understand this place; as if the Apostle had intended, Redundat effusior libido vsque ad nocturnas inter dormiendum pollutiones Vatab. that these impure seducers did put forth and expresse their filthy lustfulnesse in their very dreams, when they were asleep. Thus likewise our own learned interpreters understood this dreaming in sleep, as is plain by their rendring the word [...], by filthy [Page 21]dreamers, as conceiving that these seducers in their unclean dreams had defiled and polluted their bodies when they were in their naturall sleep; not that the word [...] admits of the interpretation of (fil [...]hy dreams) by the force of its own signification, (it's Acts 2.17. us'd in a good sense, namely of holy and pure dreaming) but the foresaid interpreters were pleas'd so to refer this word to the following expression, viz. (defile the flesh) that they interpreted it of that dreaming in sleep wherein these seducers defiled their bodies by nocturnal pollutions; which uncleannesse (as some think) is the same with that of him mentioned, Lev. 15.16. Whose seed went from him. A strong inducement hence may be gathered (that I may note it by the way) for every one, as to hate that odious, and I fear, too common a sin of self-pollution (which by some Casuists is accounted a greater sin then adultery; and by others to have even murder in it) so to keep their hearts with all diligence, from those impure thoughts in the day-time, which may otherwise make them filthy dreamers in the night; and when they go to sleep, to beseech God to keep the key of their phansie, that so it may not run out into dreaming impurely.
But secondly, others (and those the most) better interpret this dreaming whereof Jude speaks, 2 metaphorically, or in a borrowed sense; conceiving that the Apostle here in calling these seducers dreamers in sleep, doth compare them to such: and that,
- 1. In respect of sleeping.
- 2. Of dreaming in sleep.
1. In respect of sleeping, [...]. Septuag. these seducers may be compared to dreamers in sleep; they were spiritually drown'd, overwhelmed in a deep, sound sleep of sin; such a deep sleep as the Prophet mentions, Isa. 29.10. Isa. 29.10 The Lord hath poured upon you the spirit of a deep sleep, a dead and midnight sleep. 1 Thes. 5.6. Let us not sleep as do others, Matth. 25.5. while the bridegrome tarried, they all slumbred and slept, [Page 22]&c. This spiritual sleep in sin is threefold, (as divines observe) 1. That natural sleep whereby every one is overtaken, and is both unable and unwilling to move himself to the least supernaturall good, till God awake him by his spirit, and effectually say unto him, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead. 2. That slumber, or the remaines of that natural sleep in the godly, continuing in them, even after they are awakened out of their dead sleep of nature; they being hereby oft overtaken with spiritual slumber, by reason of the relicks of sin still abiding in them. This the Spouse acknowledgeth, Cant. 5.2. I sleep, but my heart waketh. 3. The third is a judicial and penal increase of that naturall sleep, and that deadnesse of heart, by the custom and continuance in sin. This is properly that forementioned deep sleep, Isa. 29.10. pour'd upon the impenitent Jewes; and this last is that which is here attributed to these seducers. And in two respects may such sinners be compared to men in a deep sleep.
1. In regard of the causes. 2. The effects of sleep.
1 The causes of sleep. 1. The sleep of the body cometh from obstruction and binding up of the senses by vapours which arise out of the stomack, so the spirituall fumes of worldly cares and desires obstruct the senses of the soul: Luke 21.34. therfore our Saviour speaks of being oppressed, or overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse; Prosperitie is a vapour, which if it overcome not, yet weakneth the brain, as strong waters do. This was the cause of Davids, and Solomons, and Asa's sleep.
2. Sleep ariseth from wearinesse and want of spirits; and there is a wearinesse causing spiritual sleep, namely that which ariseth from too much expence of the strength of the soul upon other matters, impertinencies that concern not its true happinesse and welfare.
3. Oft sleep comes from want of exercise, and when there is a cessation from spirituall exercises, Prayer, Hearing, Sacraments, Meditation; there followeth [Page 23]a spiritual sleep; these are the fewel of grace; and he that will not exercise himself to godlinesse, Tim. 4 7. shall never keep himself long awake.
4. Sleep may come from sleepy yawning, and sl [...]thfull company, the company of spiritual sluggards causeth spirituall sleep; cold formal persons cast a damp upon the heat of others; Spirituale gelicidium. Ames. frozen company derive a spirituall icinesse into the souls of those who converse much with them.
5. Some are made to sleep by singing and musick: and many by the flatteries and sinful soothing of false doctrines, of Libertinism, or Arminianism &c. and by the unfaithfulnesse of those who dare not reprove for, but sooth in sin, are cast into a spirituall sleep.
2. Sinners may be compared to men in a deep sleep, in regard of the effects of sleep, and that in respect 1 of their want of shame and bashfulnesse in sin; they who are asleep, Jer. 8.12. though their nakednesse (with Noah's) be uncovered, yet they blush not; these seducers proclaimed their sin like Sodome. See before Part 1. concerning the word [...]; they could not blush, saith the Prophet; a blushing colour is not the colour of such mpudent ones. 2. Of their unarmednesse, and liablenesse to danger: in sleep, the preciousest thing men carry about them, may be taken away without resistance; they suffer that to be loose which they held fast before, be it never so rich a jewel. Sisera was slain in his sleep, and Ishbosheth upon his bed, and in spiritual sleep, men suffer the precious jewel of truth, and the profession thereof to be wrung from them, and may be rob'd of all that good which ever they had. There's no tentation, sin, judgment, but a sleeping Christian is exposed to, he is a field without a fence, a City without a watch, he hinders no invader, he is ruin'd without resistance. In the approach of judgments, he is naked; he makes not the name of the Lord his strong tower, he cannot act faith to close up himself in the wounds of Jesus Christ: The people of God [Page 24]in the midst of troubles are above them, whereas wicked men, though without trials, are ever exposed to them; they fence their estates, families, &c. not their souls. 3. In respect of unactivenesse, and being without motion; men in a deep sleep are without sense and motion; wicked men act not, move not holily; what they do, they do without delight; they are Summer-sluggards, harvest-sleepers, though the work be great, there's no working A sleeping siner works not out his salvation, he offers no violence to the kingdom of heaven, he strives not to enter the strait gate, he wrestles not in prayer, he lives as if he had nothing to do in the world; heaven is not his businesse: he is, but he lives not; he is a spirituall drone, a mute, a cyphar, a nullity, a superfluity in the world; Jer. 13. like Jeremiahs rotten girdle, or bad figs; Ezek. 15. or like Ezekiels Vine-branches, weak and unfruitful, good for nothing but the fire, not fit to make beams or rafters of; such a kind of rest as this to a Saint, would be his greatest unquietnesse, unserviceablenesse is a kind of hell upon earth to a godly man. 4. In respect of unwillingness to be disturb'd, stird or disquieted men disposed to sleep, desire to be alone; they who are spiritually sleepy, avoid such company as would rouze them from their sloth; they compose themselves to rest, draw the curtains, put out the candle, are afraid to be disquieted by the light, they are loth to do what they know, and to know what either they do or should do. 1 Thess. 5. [...] They that sleep (saith the Apostle) sleep in the night; they are angry with the Word and Ministers, because they wil not let them sleep quietly in sin: Such as will let them alone in sin and never disturb them, are the quiet honest men; [...], i.e. perinde stolidi ac rationis expertes; ac si omnes sensus haberent penitus sopitos. B [...]za in loc. they wil not endure wholesome words, sound doctrine. 5. And especially, in respect of insensiblenesse, stupidity, blockishnesse; men in a deep sleep feel nothing that is done to them: This (I conceive) Jude principally aimes at, for likewise also (or notwithstanding) (saith he) they knew the judgments [Page 25]of God upon others, yet stil they sin'd, they slept: so senslesse and stupid were they! Sed et stupida impudentia denotari potest, ut non abstineant ab omni foeditate, à qua etiam nequissimi abhorrent, nisi somnus pudorem et sensum tollat. Lo [...]in. in loc. [...]. 2 Tim. 4.2. Ephes. 4.19. [...] Rom. 11 8 [...]. their consciences were seared with an hot iron, past feeling, bound up by a deep benummedness caused by custome in sin: this was that deep sleep poured upon them by God, like that which befell Adam, whereby though a rib was taken out of him, yet he perceived it not: like that also of Saul, Sisera and Jonah. The Apostle expresseth it by that significant word [...], Rom. 11.8. we translate it slumber: it signifies (say some) midnight sl [...]ep, which is the time when men are most throughly asleep. But by this word (say others better) is imported such a sleep as out of which all the pinching, wounding, pricking cannot raise a man; or such a sleep as whereby a man is so fastned and nail'd down to his sloth, that he and his sloth cannot be parted; the word [...] properly signifying pricking, or compunction, Act. 2.37. They were pricked. &c. And so great is the spiritual stupidity and insensibleness of sinners in their sleep of sin, [...]. B [...]z [...] He [...]. Tolle. à [...], Compungo, punge [...]do penetro, vet quia nullae agitationes, vel transpuncti ones possunt Jud [...]os è [...]omno peccati excitare: sic Pareus, O [...]and. Vel quia sunt quasi recerto loco penitus clavo affixa, quae aegrè potest avelli. Sic Chrysoft. Theophilact. that 1 They are insensible of the greatest danger; these they prevent not, yea foresee not: They go on and are punished; they fear nothing, feeling only troubles them; and that too when it is too late; they are like drunken men on the top of a mast. 2. They are insensibl of the l [...]udest noyses, severest denuntiations, these do but deafen their ears; nor do voices lift up like a trumpet, make them prepare for a battel. 3. They are insensible of the stirrings and jogings given them in their spirituall sleep, the faithfullest admonitions of friends: A rebuked scorner, hates both rebukes and rebuker; though oft reproved, he hardens his neck. 4. They are insensible in this their sleep of being uncovered and stript of their clothes; yea of being wounded and maimed by Gods severer strokes and bloody stripes; though the water-pot and spear be taken from the bolster, yet they stir not; like the hen which loseth now one, by and by another, then a third chicken, till the kite have almost [Page 26]snatcht away all her brood; and yet she follows her scraping and picking as eagerly as ever. They regard not the works of God; when the hand of the Lord is lifted up they wil not see. Though gray haires be upon them, they know it not. 1. They are insensible who wounds, they think not of the hand of God in the miseries that befall them, they consider not they have negetium cum Deo, to do with God, when men hurt them; all their study is how to avenge themselves upon, or reconcile themselves to the instrument. 2. They are insensible why they are wounded, of sin the deserving cause; they neither looking upward nor inward, they are not driven by what they feel, to consider what they have done; no man saith, What have I done? They search not after the Jonah when any storm ariseth: every thing shall be blam'd sooner then sin, though there be many a foot print of punishment upon them, they trace not the foot, the sin that made it. 3. They are insensible of the way to cure their wounds, they turn not to the Lord their God for all this; they are like a foolish child, Hos. 13.13. that staies long in the place of breaking forth of children. They had rather stifle themselves in the womb of sin and punishment, then come forth by repentance; they turn not to him that smites: They use every way to remove punishment but the right, so that they pine away in their iniquity, Lev. 26.39. and though their books were torn, yet their lessons not learned.
2. 2 These seducers are compared to dreamers in sleep, in regard of their dreaming; that is, their vain false, empty imaginations, dotages, doctrines, which (in the end) like dreams deceived themselves and their followers. A dream when a man sleepeth, seems to have truth and reality in it; but when he awaketh, it quite vanisheth away: he who utters his own foolish conceits and vain delusions, is in common speech said to dream, and to speak his own dreams; and thus these seducers, in stead of the truths of God, vented their own fables and groundlesse fictions, fancies, and dreams. In this sense [Page 27] Epiphanius understands the Apostle Jude, [...]. Epiphan. adv. haer. cap. 26. p. 96. when he call's these seducers dreamers; Jude speaks not (saith he) of them who dream'd in bodily sleep, but of such who utter their words like them who dream, and not like those who speak with the sobriety of such who are awake. To the same purpose speaks Irenaeus likewise, lib. 1 cap. 20. They put off (sath he) their own dreams for divine oracles. And such have been the dreams of Enthusiasts, and of the Anabaptists in Germany; one of whom (as Sleidan reports) cut off his own brothers head in the presence of his parents, pretending that he did it by an immediate revelation and command from God. The false Prophets are in Scripture oft call'd dreamers, because they delivered not the truths of God, but the vaine figments of their own deluding and deluded fancies. As Deut. 13.3. Jer. 23.25. where the Prophet who saith, I have dreamed, I have dreamed; is by Jeremiah said to be a Prophet of the deceit of his owne heart. These seducers of whom Jude speaks, being asleep in sin, Irenaeus vocat Gnosticos Oniro pompos, sua somnia quasi oracula Dei ventilantes. lib. 1 cap. 20. deceived themselves and hearers with d [...]ctrines, vain opinions, and especially false hopes of pleasure and liberty in sin, though when their consciences awaked, they found themselves miserably deluded by Satan, and their own sensual hearts. Thus Zophar speaks, J [...]b [...]0.8. that the hypocrite shall flie away as a dream, that is, as the good dreamed of, or the joy of a dream which is short, vanishing, and deceiving; so Psal. 73 20. As a dream when one awaketh, so O Lord, when thou awakest, shalt thou despise their image; Isa. 29.8. and thus the Prophet compares the temper of the people under all the judgments of God, unto that of a deluded dreamer, who pleaseth himself with dreaming of food and fulnesse, and when he awakes, in stead of a furnisht table, and a fill'd stomack, finds and feels himself more indigent and nearer famishing then ever he was before. Thus the fond sinner is dreaming of a kingdome, when he is going to execution; and when Jael's nail is nearer his temples [Page 28]then a crown: He blessing himself in his heart, and saying that he shall have peace, though he live in a way of warring against God. And sundry ways may sinners delude themselves, like dreamers, by their vain and groundlesse conceits; as 1. in dreaming of their persons, 2. of their actions. Of their Persons: 1. dreaming that they are not so bad as others, because they abstain from gross, apparent and notorious abominations; thus the Pharisee deluded himself, Luk. 18.11. Some dream that they have not such and such corruptions, because God restrains them from the outward acts of sin; as if the rest and silence of corruption alwaies came from the renovation of the spirit; whereas it comes not from the want of a mind disposed to sin, but of an object proposed to draw forth corruption: Others dream that if they had lived in the daies of Christ, the Prophets, and Ma [...]tyrs; they would not have persecuted them: Though they bitterly oppose those in whom the Image of Christ shines, (and they who cannot endure that spa [...]k of holinesse in a Saint, how could they have loved that flame which was in Christ?) and hate those most in whom the piety and zeal of the holy Martyrs and Saints of old is revived. 2. Sinners delude themselves in dreaming that they are in a good and happy estate before God, Rev. 3.17. Gal. 6 3. being indeed miserable and bad: Thus some dream that God loves them, Psal. 69.22. Heb. 12.6. because he gives them wordly prosperitie, whereas the prosperitie of the wicked is their ruin; and God oftenest gives it in wrath, and denies it in love: Some dream that their condition is happy, because they are civily honest in the world; whereas their irreligious honesty is as bad as unhonest religion; and except your righteousnesse exceed &c. Matth. 5.20 Others dream they are happy, because they have been born in the Church, and enjoy its priviledges, 1 Cor. 10.5 Matth. 7.22, 23 whereas a barren fig-tree is nearer cursing then a bramble; and they who received Sacraments every meal were destroy'd in the wildernesse: Some dream of happinesse, because they have some kind of [Page 29]Knowledg, Faith▪ Repentance, Obedience; whereas their knowledg transforms them not, it's light without heat: Their faith applies (in a sort) Christ to them; not themselves to Christ, but to their lusts: their repentance respects the punishment of sin, not the sin to be punished; they hate sin for hell, not as hell; and in their tears, sin is rather bathed then drowned; their obed [...]nce is not a serving of God, but of themselves upon God, they serve God for by-respects; Hos. 1.4. and in their obedience, they aim not at obedience.
2. Sinners delude themselves in dreaming concerning their actions, that they are good, 2 Sam. 6 7. because done with a go [...]diat [...]ntion; not considering that a work may be good in a ma [...]s own eyes, P [...]ov. 16 25. and the issues thereof the waies of death; or that they are warrantable because of the example of the multitude, whereas the most are the worst and the whole world lies in wickednesse. Some dream that small sins are as none, as vain thoughts, idle wo [...]ds; whereas the least sin, is the b [...]each of a great and royoll Law, and an offence against a great God; and thoughts and words shall be both brought into judgment. Some dream, that the outward works of the Law are sufficient, whereas the Law in every command is spirituall, and binds the heart as well as the hand; and they who made their Philacteries broad, made the expositions of the Law too narrow. Some dream that their actions are good because followed with successe, whereas the goodnesse of the action is not to be judged by the goodnesse of the successe, but the goodnesse of the successe by the goodnesse of the action; plenty could not justifie sacrificing to the Queen of heaven. Jer. 44.11. Some because of the corruption of their natures, dream of excusing their actions; they are but men (say they;) wheras they deserve damnation both for the corruption of nature, and the fruits thereof: also some dream thus because of the faults of the godly mentioned in Scripture; they making that an argument of boldnes [Page 30]in sinning, which should be an argument of fear to sin: some because they are ignorant and not Book-learn'd, whereas ignorance (though simple) only somewhat extenuates, but it excuseth not sin, & keeps not from hell, but only from such a degree of torment, as that of unfruitful knowledg; and wilful (now the common) ignorance, increaseth both sin and punishment, as shewing that men will willingly suffer the damage of ignorance, to enjoy the freedom of sinning. Som dream that the imployments of their callings may excuse them for the neglect of holy duties, as if callings were made to call us away from God, or as if eternity were to give way to trifles. Others fondly dream, that outward tentations, the counsels or commands of others inticing them to sin, shall sufficiently excuse them; whereas the outward tentation could do nothing, without the compliance of the inward corruption; and the disobeying of God for mans command, is a disobedience with a greater disparagement to God, then if man had said nothing: Endlesse it would be to mention all those spirituall dotages, and deluding dreams of sinners about their actions; as that they may sin, because they dream some places of Scripture will give them allowance, or that much good will ensue of their sin: that they may take liberty (though excessive) in things, because lawfull: that they may do evil, because they make account to make amends for it afterward, or upon pretence that they do it only for tryall to learn the vanity of sin; or that the necessity of their living urgeth them, or upon presumption of Gods mercy, or by the painting of sin with the colour of vertue. To these may be added a sinners dreaming that good duties may be omitted, because they are difficult, or because of their many other important occasions, or because ther's a purpose of doing them hereafter; or in regard of their troubles threatned, or because they have done enough good already, or more then others, or by reasoning from predestination; as if being ordained [Page 31]to salvation, though they live never so wickedly, it shall never disadvantage them, &c. All which with many more, are the vain dreams and delusions of sinners, whereby with these seducers they take liberty to offend God, and thereby to overthrow themselves.
OBSERVATIONS
1. Spirituall judgments are the sorest. Observ. 1 Insensiblenesse in sin, and self-delusion, were judgments which made these seducers miserable: They are judgments which seize upon the soul: No blessings so sweet as soul-blessings, and no judgments so sore as soul-judgments: The soul is the excellency of a man; the body is a body of vilenesse; the soul is precious, excellent every way, but only as depraved with sin: Its noble in regard of its original, functions, endowments. If all be well with the soul, all is well with the man, though the body be never so miserable: If it go ill with the soul, the man is wretched, let the body be never so happy. The funerall of a noble man is much spoken of; when a Prince dies, all lay it to heart; when his Page dies, it is never regarded: The body, the souls page, is not to be lamented, from which the soul parts; but the soul, from which God himself parts. And further, the distempers which befall the soul, are of all others hardest to remove: There is no herb in the garden, no receipt from the Physician, no medicine in the shop that can cure the soul; men are only parents and physicians of the body; he that made the soul, can only mend it: the Father of spirits is the only Physician of spirits. 'Tis omnipotent strength that recovers a sin sick, and raiseth and rouzeth a sleeping soul; man can cast thee into thy sinful sleep, only God can awaken thee: outward helps cannot cure the inward man; he that sits in heaven, can only touch and teach the heart. And further, the distempers of the soul uncur'd, are of all others the most deadly and destructive. A scratch on the finger we call a slight wound, but a wound that reacheth [Page 32]to the heart is deadly; Whatever befals the body is comparatively slight and to be slighted. The worst things which befall the body, may be sent in mercy; they part between us and contemptible enjoyments, yea, oft they make way for the enjoying of the best blessings; but they which befall the soul, sever from him in whom all blessednesse is laid up: spiritual comforts or miseries are true, real; the temporal of either are but opinionative. Fear not him, saith Christ, that can kill the body, but fear him that can throw both body and soul into hell. To conclude, Spiritual judgments are alway inflicted in displeasure, in the last place, as the forest of all, as a reckoning for all other faults, when all other chastisements are despis'd: when God is shewing mercy, the last mercies are the best; and the further he goeth in mercy, the sweeter he is and when he is punishing, the last punishments are the forest; and the further he goeth, the bitterer he is: the judgment of pining away in iniquity is the last of all that dismal catalogue, Lev. 26.39. The spirit of a deep sleep is contiguous to hell it self: Rev. 22.11 he that is filthy, let him be filthy still, is the last judgment we read of (befalling in this life) in all the new Testament; yea the more God inflicts it, the more he is provok'd to inflict it; outward punishments move God to pity; but this being a sin as wel as a punishment, the more it lies upon man, the more it offends God.
2. Observ. 2 All the sinfull sleepinesse of Saints differs much from that of the wicked; Cant. 5.2. I sleep, but my heart awaketh (saith the Spouse.) The godly have ever in them a regenerate principle, that is waking when they seem to be most sleeping, & that is contending against natural self. The godly (as one speaks) are more pained and laborious in their sleep, Laboriosius dormiunt quam vigilare potucrunt. then in their waking; it more troubles them to be idle, then to do their Lords work; their souls yeild not to that slothfulnesse wherewith their senses are overtaken. Sensuall sinners sleep all at once, all in them, [Page 36]and of them sleeps, but the Saint keeps his heart watchful. The very business of the wicked is but vanity and dreams, but the sleeps of the godly are busie and vigilant; the wicked sleeps and trifles, when he is most serious to work his wickednesse; but when the righteous sleepeth, his heart riseth and worketh upwards toward God, in whom only he finds rest when thus imployed. The wicked man sleeps and loves to sleep, laies himself to sleep, shuts the door, draws the curtaines, puts out the candle, chargeth that none wake him; but a Saint is like a man overtaken with sleep against his will, who is surprized with it, as with an armed man; and being never so sound asleep, but he is between sleeping and waking, he alwaies even then fears he sleeps, and wisheth he were awaked, and would be glad, if any would take the pains to rouze him, though by making the loudest noise, and giving him the most violent jog; yea will gladly accept of the smartest blows, and the bloodyest stripes; that the Lord laies upon him, if by all he may be awakened from his slothfulnesse. He complaines of himself, and he is sensible of his sleeping; I sleep (saith the Spouse;) and so far as she saith she sleeps, she did not sleep. To conclude this, she wakes in her heart, though the outward man sleep; but the heart of sinners sleeps (as we say of one sometime, his heart is asleep) even when he is awake: Sometime a Christian under a tentation may be so low brought, as that his spiritual life runneth all to the heart, and the outward man is left destitute; as in war, when the enemy hath won the field, the people run into the City; and if beaten out of the City, they run into the Castle; the grace of God sometimes fails in the outward action, the field, when yet it retireth to the heart, in which fort it is impregnable: From all which I gather, that as the wicked should not flatter himself, so neither should the godly be disheartned by spirituall sleeping; and the reason is, because their [Page 34]sleeps are so unlike to one another.
3. Self-soothing, delusion, flattering, are very dangerous and destructive, as being the foundation of the wickednesse and wo of these seducers, these dreamers; nothing against which we are more cautioned in Scripture: If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Gal. 1.3. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers, deceiving your own selves. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, Gal. 6.7. James speaks of those who by seeming to be religious, deceived their own hearts. Jam. 1.26. Ephraim said, 1 Cor. 6.9. 1 Cor. 15.33. Obad. 3. Isa. 44.20. Job 15.31. Yet am I become rich, I have found me out substance, in all my labours they shall finde no iniquity in me, that were sin, Hos. 12.8. Because he was wealthy, he soothed himself in his sin. Laodicea flattered her self, that she was rich, increased with goods, and had need of nothing, Rev. 3.17. He flattereth himself in his own eyes, Psal 36.2. 1 Joh. 1.8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our selves, &c. 1 Cor. 3 18. Let no man deceive himself: Nothing can be so dangerous as when one so near as ones self becomes false and flattering. When the Centinels and Guards of a City are treacherous, how great and unavoidable is the destruction thereof [...] when he who should be his own preserver, becomes his own destroyer, how sore and sure a destruction he doth incur, and how great is the indignity hereof! Theres nothing under which men are so impatient, and which they can less abide, then to be deceived and circumvented by others; and yet how unworthily patient are men in being deceived by themselves, or rather by the deceitfulness of sin; nothing is accounted so great a disgrace, as to be deceived in those things, which ought to be best known, and most familiar to a man: and what should be so well known to thy self, as thy self? In nothing are men so fearfull of being deceived, as in matters of greatest moment; and what business in the world of so weighty concernment, as the salvation of thy own soul? Nor doth the [Page 35] dreafullest judgment fall upon any so dreadfully, as upon the self-flatterer and deluder; the same judgment which befals him with others, makes him more miserable then others, because he expected to be more happy then others. How wofull is that Hell into which a sinner falls by presuming of Heaven! Its a Hell upon earth, for sinners to dream that they are going to Heaven. An imaginary happiness in sin occasions a doubled wo and misery for sin: when our natural dreams are false, its better they should be of bad then good, of fearful things then of joyful. Its better for a King to dream himself to be a beggar, then for a beggar to dream that he is a King; for when the King waketh, his grief is gone, and his joy is doubled, he then seeing the vanity of his dream; but when the Beggar wakes, his former grief is increased, and returns the fiercer, by reason of the false joy of his dream. And thus it is in the deceitful dreams and dotages of the heart: far better is that deceit whereby a son of God thinks himself a slave of Satan, then that whereby a slave of Satan dreams himself a member of Christ. Better it is for Nebuchadnezzar being a man to think himself a beast, then for a beast to think himself a man. A mans false conceit of misery when indeed he is happy, doth not make him miserable, but rather occasions his happiness; but a mans false apprehension of happiness, he being miserable, is so far from making him happy, that it makes him doubly miserable. To conclude this, as nothing is so calamitous, as to dream of happiness when we are in misery, so nothing is more common; Its natural for men to think too well of themselves, to nullifie others, and to deifie and omnifie themselves. There's nothing so easie as to be deceived, to dream of false delight, and to neglect true danger; men are naturally witty in nothing but in deluding, and thereby in damning their own souls; like a man who, being to pass over a narrow Bridg, under which is a deep River, puts on a pair of Spectacles before his [Page 36]eyes, whereby he adventuring upon a supposed and imaginary breadth, falls into the water, and so is drowned.
To prevent then this self-flattery and delusion, 1. Be much in conversing with that faithful discoverer, and friend, the Word of God. Let it be the man of thy counsel, and dwell richly in thee. A man hath many flatterers, and but this one friend. This is an impartial glass that will represent to a King his, as well as to a beggar his spots. Heb. 4.12. It is quick and powerful, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts of the heart, and making manifest the intents of the heart. When Ahab enquired of his false Prophets concerning his going up to Ramoth Gilead, Jehoshaphat aks, whether there was not a Prophet of the Lord, that they might enquire of him also. When thou hearest the flatterings of thine own false heart, rather fear then follow them; at least suspend thy belief till thou hast enquired of the Word of God. 2. Search throughly and diligently into the grounds and reasons upon which thy heart would needs perswade thee of thy happiness. He that hath to do with Cheaters, will not easily believe all they say; The simple believeth every word; but the wise man, as he ponders his own words before he utters them, so the words of another before he credits them. Let not thy heart perswade thee of thy good condition, by laying before thee common marks, which may agree even with hypocrites; as external profession, an orthodox judgment, opposing of Error, or pleading for the Truth, attending upon Ordinances, freedom from scandalous sins, some sweet and sudden motions of heart in holy Duties; but ever build upon such marks as will necessarily infer sincerity and a principle of saving grace in the heart; such as have some singular excellency in them which an hypocrite cannot reach, a [...] (as Christ speaks) something more then others ordinarily attain, things which alwayes accompany [Page 37]salvation, Heb. 6.9. 3 Possess thy heart with an apprehension of Gods presence. Set thy self as in his eye: Consider though thou mayest baffle thy conscience, yet not the eye of Gods Omnisciency. Never think thou art out of the reach of his hand, or the view of his eye: Psal 44.17.21. Tell thy conscience (as the Church speaks) there is no dealing falsly, for shall not God search it out, who knoweth the secrets of the heart? Would not a Malefactor speak truly at the Bar, did he know the Judg had windowes into his brest? Vitia nostra, quia amamus, defendimus; & mal [...]mus excusare illa quam excutere. Sen. Ep. 116. 4. Look not upon thy self through the spectacles of self-love. A man that is in love with any thing, thinks the blemishes and deformities of the thing beloved to be beauties and Ornaments. Self-love makes shadowes to be substances, and mole-hills to be mountains. Let not affection bribe or throw dust into the eye of thy judgment. The more thou lovest thy self, the more thou wilt desire to appear amiable, and adorned with a specious and seeming goodness. Joseph loved his bro her Benjamin, and he gave him five changes of rayment. Till thou denyest thy self, and putest off the person of a friend, thou wilt never put on the person of a just Judg. Study to know thy self as thou art in thy self, not as thou art partially represented to thy self. Be not like Limners, who so as thy can make a mans picture gay and gaudy, Luke 6.48. care not to draw it so as to resemble him. The want of true humiliation and denyal of our selves, is the ground of all self-flattery and heart delusion: Gold must be melted and dissolved, before it can be defecated and rid of the dross. Bodies full of vicious humours must be emptied by purgation, before they can come to an healthful state. Crooked things cannot be made strait without the wringing and bowing of them by the hand. The greater our humiliation, the greater our integrity.
4. Observ. 4. Its our wisdom to take heed of spiritual sleeping in sin. For which purpose,
[Page 38] 1 Make much of a stirring Ministry. Love that preaching most which is most exciting. The Word preach'd is both light and noise, both which disquiet sleepers. A still easie Minister, makes a sleepy drowzie people. Ministers must stir those who sleep in sin, though they stir them up to rage. They must be sins of Thunder against sinners, not sweet singers and pleasant Musicians: No employment requires so much holy vehemency and fervor as the welfare of souls. Cry aloud (saith God to his Prophet) and lift up thy voice as a Trumpet: and people should be so far from blaming the loudness of the sound of the Word, that they should only blame the depth of their own slumber. They should ever take part with the Word against their lusts, and intreat God that his word may be an awakening, though it be a displeasing voice; as also, that he would cry in the ears of the soul by the voice of his own Spirit, and to stir it in the Ministry with his own arm for indeed otherwise Ministers shall rend their owne sides, before they rowze their peoples souls.
2. Labour for a fruitful improvement of sufferings. Beseech the Lord that no affliction may blow over without benefit to thy soul. None sleep so soundly as they who continue sleeping under the greatest joggings. Physick, if it works not, is hurtful to the Patient. If thou art so close nailed to thy sin, that afflictions cannot part it and thee, its a provocation to God to leave thee, Isai. 1 5. and an incouragement to Satan that he shall keep thee. God is never more displeased then when he takes away judgments in judgment; then when he punisheth by delivering thee from thy trouble, and delivers thee up to thy own heart. Oh beg earnestly of God, that the blessed opportunities of suffering times, may never leave thee as bad as they found thee; for if so, they will leave thee worse; and that no wind may go downe till it have driven thee nearer thy Haven.
[Page 39] 3 Endeavour for a tender trembling heart at the very beginning of the solicitations of sin. That which makes way for eternal, takes away spiritual feeling. Men sleep by little and little, from slumber they fall to sleeping. Every sin neglected, is a step downward to a deep sleep. A deluge of sin is made up of several drops: Prov. 5.22. Many knots tied one upon another will hardly be loosed. Every sin repeated, and not repented of, binds downe the soul in insensibleness and sloth. Dum servitur libidini, facta est consuetudo; et dum consuctudini non resistatur, facta est necessi [...]as. Aug. [...]onf. l 8. c. 5. Every sin suffered to defile the conscience, makes it the more regardless of it self. Sin is of an incroaching nature; like a smal River, it growes in going; like a Gangreen, it creeps by degrees. The deceitful modesty of sin by asking little at first, quickly enticeth us to more Smal beginnings, usher large proceedings: One bit draws down another. As every good work increaseth our ability for obedience, so every sin leaves upon the soul a readiness for further disobedience. The not resisting the first inclination to sin, makes way to stupefaction by sin. He who dares not wade to the ancles, is in no danger of being swallowed up.
4 Labour for faith in threatnings. Restrain not belief only to what God hath promised. Let faith comprehend all Truths in its vast bosom, and overcome all the improbabilities that seem to keep away Judgment, as well as those that seem to keep away Mercies. Noah was not drown'd in a deep sleep of sin, and in a deluge of waters with the old world; and the reason was, faith taught Noah to fear, Hebr. 11. and fear (that watchful Grace) prevented feeling. Faith makes a man solicitous for a while, and safe to eternitie. Natural [...]y we are more moved with fear, then stirr'd with hopes.
5 Vigorously and constantly exercise thy self in Godliness. Never think thou hast done enough. Think not thy work is ended til thy life is ended. Take heed of remisness in holy Duties: Fervency of spirit is by the [Page 40]Apostle join'd with serving of the Lord. Rom. 12.11. Let the Tempter ever find thee imploied: The night comes when no man can work, John 9.4. but as long as the day lasts no man must loyter. As sleep causeth idleness, so idleness causeth sleep. Strive to attain to the highest pitch of grace, and yet ever be working, as if thou wert at the very lowest, Phil 3.13. Forget those things (as the Apostle speaks) which are behind. Take heed of turning thy spur into a bridle, namely, of making that former practice of holiness, which should be an inducement to thy further active progress, an hinderance from proceeding therein. All the steps we have taken are lost, if we give over before the race be run.
6 Keep company with waking Christians; such as neither dare sleep in sin themselves, nor suffer any to sleep who are neer them. In the sweating sickness (they say) that they who were kept awake by those who were with them, escaped; but their sickness was deadly if they were suffered to sleep. The keeping one another awake is the best fruit of the communion of Saints. Heb. 10.24, 25 The Apostle speaks of provoking one another to love and good works, of exhorting, or calling upon one another.
7 Watch over thy self in the use of such things as are in themselves lawful. In lawful things there is least fear, and therefore most danger. More perish by meat then by poyson; because every man takes heed of the hurtfulness of the latter, and fears not any harm by the former. Satan lyes in ambush behind our lawful enjoyments. Christ was once lost at a feast, and oft since in worldly abundance: Prosperity never waked any out of sin. 'Tis as hard to be full and watchful, as to be empty and contented. Luke 21.34. Sobriety and Vigilancy are put together. Take heed lest the vapours of sensual enjoyments overwhelm thee: Let the things of this life be thy Solatia, not thy Negotia; thy refreshments, not thy employments; use them as the things, not for [Page 41]which thou dost live, but without which thou canst not live. They who are inclined to be gross in their bodies, should use much exercise; and they who have abundance in the world, should take much pains with their hearts, lest while they get the world, they lose their God.
THese words contain an aggravation of that hainous sin wherewith our Apostle had charged these Seducers in the foregoing verse; their Crime was, their speaking evil, or blaspheming of Dignities: the greatness of this sin, the Apostle evidenceth and evinceth, by comparing of it with the contrary meek and humble carriage of the Archangel, even towards the worst of creatures, the Divel himself.
This comparison the Apostle first, Propounds, ver. 9 wherein he describes the meek and humble carriage of the Archangel towards the Divel in his contending with him.
2 He accommodates and applies it to these Seducers, ver. 10.
1 In the comparison propounded in ver. 9 there is intimated a threefold amplification of the sin of these Seducers, by comparing it with the deportment of the Archangel.
1 In respect of the persons compared; and this branch of the Comparison is double. 1 Between a chief Angel and vile men. 2 Between Magistrates and the Divel. 1 If Michael an Angel, an Archangel, durst not rail; [Page 42]how impudent and proud are men, dust and ashes, to adventure to do so? 2 If he did forbear to revile the Divel himself, the enemy of God and his Church, the worst of evil ones, and one who was his inferior, how great was their sin, who would speak evil of Magistrates, called Gods, and set up by him, as those to whom they ought to be in subjection?
2 The second branch of the Comparison, whereby their sin is amplified, was from the different cause about which the Angels and these Seducers were employed. The cause for which the Archangel contended was good, clear, and righteous; namely, the burial of the body of Moses; a work very good, whether we consider the Authority of him who enjoined it, God himself; or the end of the injunction, the preservation of the people from Id [...]latry: but the cause which these Seducers had undertaken was wicked and sinful, considering that it was the blaspheming of that Order which was instituted and ordained by God himself, Tit. 3.1. Rom. 13.1. 1 Pet. 2.18. and by his special command to be highly honoured and esteemed.
The third branch of the comparison, whereby the Apostle heightens their sin, was the different carriage and deportment of the Archangel towards the Divel, from that of these Seducers toward Magistrates. 1 The Archangel reasoneth humbly, and disputes; the Seducers peremptorily determine the question, pass sentence and give judgment: The Angel commits his cause to God, and appeals to him for redress and relief; the Seducers are Judges in their own cause, break their bounds, detract from Gods Authority, and usurp his Throne. The Angel in the fervor of contention, when most highly provoked, was patient and humble; these provoked by none rage and revile. These are the particular branches of the comparison, set down this verse.
If it were needful, before I come to the handling of these several parts of the verse, to premise any thing by way of vindication of it, and the whole Epistle from [Page 43]the Exception of those who alledg that the Epistle is not Canonical, because the contention about the body of Moses is not mentioned in Scripture, but was only a tradition. I might answer
1 With Learned Junius, the substance of this History is mentioned in Scripture; Deut. 34 6. therein we finding that the Lord buried Moses, and that none knoweth of his Sepulcher unto this day; so that it is plain the body of dead Moses was buried by God, i.e. either by his own immediate power, or by the instumrental power of an Angel, (as seems from this place most probable) and also that the particular place of his burial was altogether unknown to men and divels. 'Tis true, the Scripture mentious not circumstances, either a contention of Michael with the Divel, or the carriage and expressions of either party in that contention. But therefore
2 Though these passages here set down by Jude be not expressed in the Sacred Story, yet 'tis sufficient for us, that they are now by the Apostle, who was led by the Spirit of God, inserted into holy Writ. Possibly (as Rivet notes) this story was not delivered to the Apostle by tradition, but revealed to him by the Holy Ghost. Some indeed say, [...], l 3. c. 2. it was taken out of a certain (uncertain) book, called the Ascension of Moses, and mentioned by Origen. Others, that it was handed by tradition from generation to generation. But granting either of the two last. Is the Divine authority, either of this passage, or of the Epistle, therefore to be doubted of? by the same reason sundry other places of Scripture must be questioned: frequently doth the Spirit of God in the Scripture, 2 Tim. 3.8. set down that as done in former stories, which was not at all there mentioned, as Jannes and Jambres their withstanding of Moses; Heb. 11.21. Jacobs worshipping on the top of his staffe; Moses his saying that the sight upon the Mount was so terrible, Heb. 11.21. Psal. 105.18. that I exceedingly fear and tremble; that Josephs feet were hurt with fetters, and that hee was laid [Page 44]in Irons, &c. Yea how ordinary is it for the Penmen of Scripture to make use of sentences taken out of Heathen Poets? as that of Menander, 1 Cor. 15 33. Evil communication corrupts good manners. Of Epimenides, Tit. 1.12. The Cretians are always lyars, evill beasts, slow bellies. Of Aratus, Acts 17.28. In him we live, and move, and have our being. The Spirit of God which could sanctifie passages taken out of Heathens, and make them Canonical, might do the like by this relation or tradition (if it were so) of the Archangels contention with the Devil, and by putting of the Apostle upon the inserting of it, give it the stamp of divine authority, and so render it to us most certain and infallible; and by this we at once answer both those who reject this Epistle, because Jude brings an example from tradition, no where recorded in Scripture; as likewise the Papists, who offend in the other extream of excess, from hence pleading for a liberty in the Church to joyn traditions with the Holy Scripture; whereas they can neither prove that the Apostle had this story by tradition, (for why might not the Spirit of God reveal to the Apostles what had been done before in ages past, as it did to the Prophets what should be done afterwards in ages to come?) nor that it is lawful for us to do all that the Apostles might, who (as Rivet well notes) did many things by a singular and peculiar right, Rivet. in Isai. p. 474. Apostoli multis singulari jure usurparunt in quibus nemo debet aut etiam potest eos imitari. wherein none either ought or is able to imitate them. This premised briefly, I come to the words of the Verse, wherein we have three parts considerable.
- 1. The Combatants: Michael the Archangel, and the Devil.
- 2. The
Strife and Contention it self; set down,
- 1. More generally; so its said, they contended.
- 2. More particularly; and so it was a disputation about the body of Moses.
- 3.
The Carriage of the Archangel in this Contention, which was twofold:
- [Page 45]1. Inward, in respect of his disposition, set down Negatively; he durst not bring a railing accusation.
- 2. Outward, in respect of his expression, set down Affirmatively; He said, the Lord rebuke thee.
1. First, Of the parties contending, Michael the Archangel, and the Devil.
EXPLICATION.
In the Explication whereof, we shall consider, First, Michael the Archangel, who is described two wayes; or from a double Name, 1. Of his Person, and so he is called Michael. 2. Of his Office and Place, and so he is called an Archangel.
The Name of his person is Michael. This Name signifies, who is as, or like, or equal unto God. But who this person should be, learned men agree not: Some conceive that the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity is here cald Michael: Others, that an holy, and created Angel, is here by Jude intended by the Name of Michael; and that as by the Name of Gabriel, so likewise of Michael, a certain Angel is to be understood. And that this latter is the true opinion, seems to me undeniable for these reasons. 1. Because Michael, (Dan. 10.13.) is called one of the chief Princes, that is of the chief Angels or Archangels; but how this can fitly be spoken of Christ, I understand not, whom we must not account one of the number of the Angels, but one without, or rather infinitely above that number, or order, even the omnipotent Creator of Angels, as well as men, Col. 1.16. 2. An Angel vers. 21. of the forenamed Chapter, describing the difficulty of his work, tels Daniel, that there was none that held with him, Inepta & filio Dei indigna oratio. Gom. de Nom. Mich. Tom. 1. p. 107. & Tom. 2. p. 217. or strengthned him, but Michael: But this expression (as learned Gomarus notes) seems to be unfitly applied unto Christ, because there can be no greater strength named then that of Christ, whose power is infinite. To say, [Page 46]There's none with me but the Son of God, seems an harsh expression; he who hath the Son of God to stand by him wanting no other. 3. Jude call, this Michael an Archangel: but as we never read in Scripture that Christ is called an Archangel, or a chief, or the chief Angel; so 1 Thes. 4.16. we find that Christ and the Archangel are manifestly distinguished, the Apostle saying, that The Lord shall descend from heaven with the voice of an Archangel. 4. It seems also to be very unmeet to say of Christ, that he durst not bring against the Devil, a railing accusation, Christ being the Lord and Judg of Devils, and whom he shall at the last day condemn to eternal punishment: yea we find Joh. 8.44. that he passed judgment upon him, and pronounced him a murtherer, one that hath no truth in him, a lyar, and the father of a lye; a sentence, which the Angel here disputing with the Devil (though he had just cause, yet) durst not utter, he only saying, The Lord rebuke thee. 5. The Apostle Peter speaking of this very matter, 2 Pet. 2.11. and aggravating the sin of these seducers by this humble carriage of their Superiours, plainly speaks not of Christ, but of the holy Angels, he saying thus, whereas Angels which are greater in power and might, bring not a railing accusation, &c. Nor doth the Argument drawn from the signification of the name Michael, prove, that by Michael we are here to understand the Son of God. This word Michael, by Interpretation (say some) is, qui sicut Deus, (and according to them) imports one that is as, or equal to God, a name which (say they) cannot agree to any creature. But its answered, that the Particle [...] in the Hebrew is not here to be taken relatively, as signifying one who; but interrogatively, Who is? and it is ever in Scripture so taken, Psal. 89.8. Esai. 44.7. Jer. 49.19. and 50.44. when used in expressions wherein the Name of God is celebrated, as Exod. 15.11. Who is like unto thee? &c. So Psal. 35.10. all my bones shall say. Lord who is like to thee? So Psal. 71.19. And thus the giving of this name Michael to the creature, is no dishonouring [Page 47]of God, by making it equal to God; Est confessio majestatis Dei, non alienatio illius à Deo. Gomarus. but rather an advancing of God by an humble Confession or acknowledgment of the matchles majesty of that gloririous God, whom none can equalize. And hence it is, that as the name Micaiah is imposed upon one who was an holy Prophet; so this name Michael is in Scripture frequently found to be imposed by the people of God on their children; Numb. 13.13. 1 Chron. 5.13. 2 Chron. 21 2. 2 Chron. 20. Yea Jehoshaphat gave this name to one of his sons, haply in token of thankfulnesse for that glorious victorie which in his reign God bestowed upon him and all Judah. Fieri potest ut ob divinae gloriae zelum, nomen id impositum sit isti angelo. Lor. And possibly for the zeal of this Angel in vindicating the glory of God, was this name Michael given him.
2. This first party contending, is described by the name of his office and place, and so he is called the Archangel. It's here demanded, 1. Whether he were the only Archangel, the cheif of all the rest of the Angels, or only one of the Archangels, or cheif Angels? 2. Wherein this Principality and Superiority stands? Questions, whereof the Scriptures (and therfore we ought to) speak sparingly.
1. For the first. The Scripture speaks not any where of Archangels in the Plurall number, nor of more then one Archangel. 1 Thes. 4.16. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the voice of the Archangel: some conceive, that as there is one cheif of the evill Angels, called the Prince of the Divels, who are called his Angels, (Matth. 25. the Divel and his Angels) so likewise that there is one cheif or principal among the good Angels, and that he is this Michael; and thus they understand that place of Rev. 12. where Michael and his Angels are mentioned, as fighting with the Divel and his Angels. And divers of the popish Schoolmen account this Michael the Archangel to be superior to all those three Hierarchies, and nine orders of Angels; (one whereof, they say, is that of Archangels) which they boldly affirm to be in heaven.
The second question, Wherein the superiority and preheminence [Page 48]of this Archangel stands, is more difficultly resolved then the former. The Schoolmen following Dionysius, Gregory, and others, groundlesly assert, that the Angels are distributed into three ranks and Hierarchies; and that every one of these three, contain three several orders apiece. The first of the three ranks and Hierarchies, they say, comprehends Cherubims, Seraphims, and Thrones; The second, Dominions, Principaleties, and Powers: The third, Mights, Archangels, and Angels. Nor do they only shew their boldnesse in ranking and dividing them thus into these three Hierarchies and nine orders, (for how can they precisely assert that they should be thus marshal'd in rank and file, distributed and divided after this manner, and that there are just so many and no more orders of Angels?) but they presume to tell us the reasons of all these severall appellations, and to set down the severall properties and offices which are allotted to all these orders of Angels, whereby they are distinguished among themselves. The Seraphims (they say) are so called, because they are inflamed, and inflame others with extraordinary and ardent love to God. The Cherubims are named from their excelling in the light of knowledg: The Thrones are such who contemplate and adore the judiciary equity and righteous judgments of God; and the Angels (say they) who are contained in this first classis or order, are never sent forth (a bold assertion and contrary to Scripture; which saith, they are all ministring spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation) upon any ministry or imployment, Heb. 1 14. but their work is only to wait immediately upon God. In the second rank and hierarchy, they tell us, that Dominions are those that govern and order all the offices of the other Angels; Principalities such as are set over People, and Provinces, Nations, as their keepers and Princes. Powers, such as are to restrain and keep under the powers of divels. For the third rank, they [Page 49]dictate, that those upon whom they put the title of Or Might, [...], Ephes. 1.21. Mights, have the working of miracles for their imployment; that Archangels are messengers employed by God in matters of greater and weightier concernment, and Angels in lesser businesse. How audacious the vanity of these assertions is, how much without, yea against the warrant of Scripture, its evident by the naming of them. Where find we in Scripture, that Seraphims are either a certain, or the first order of Angels, and that they are so call'd from their ardent love of God? There's nothing attributed to these Seraphims in Jsaiah 6. verse 2. where they are mentioned, which may not agree to all the rest of the Angels; nor can it thence be proved, that they are call'd Seraphims from their ardent love to God. The word Seraphim in the Hebrew signifies [...], incensores, such who set on fire: Its a name given to the fiery Serpents Num. 21.6.8. and it's much more probable, that they are so call'd not from their office or inward gifts, but from their externall likenesse wherein they appeared. As Ezek cap 1.13. speaks of the living creatures, that their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of Lamps. Nor can it be proved from the signification of the word Cherubim, that they are so call'd from their great knowledg; for though some (indeed) say, the word Cherub signifies, From [...], sicut multitudo. as a multitude (which yet must be far fetch'd, to import the abundance of their knowledg); yet others more probably conceive, that it signifies as young men, or intimates their appearance in a winged shape; and so indeed by the command of God they were shadowed out, Exod. 25.18. Nor are they lesse mistaken in making the overseeing and ruling of Provinces the work of Principalities; for if any such thing belong to any Angels, it may be with more probability attributed to the Archangel Michael, who (according to some learned men) is said to be (under Christ) the Prince of the Jews. ( Dan. 10.21. it's said, Michael [Page 50]your prince) It's generally conceived by our more learned and modest interpreters, that those severall expressions of Thrones, Ephes. 1.21. Col. 1.16. Ephes. 3.10. Dominions, Principalities, Powers; do not signifie purely the same thing, but divers orders and ranks of Angels; and this they prove from the dis-junctive particle, or, put between Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, as also from that place of Dan. 10.13. where Michael is said to be one, or the first of the chief Princes; likewise from the title of an Arch, or chief Angel. Lastly, because there is an order among the Devils, which they lost not with their integrity at ther fall; but what and wherein this order among the Angels should consist, and how they differ, they modestly profess they dare not determine; that its curiosity to enquire into; and rashness to define this secret; that this is a learned ignorance: and herein Augustine joyns with them, who saith, Quid inter sc distant has vocabula dicant qui possunt, si tamen possunt probare quod dicunt. Ego me ista ignorare confiteor. Enchirid. c. 58. How those names of Angels differ, let them speak who are are able, if yet they are able to prove what they speak; I profess my ignorance herein. And this by way of Explication of the first Party here contending, Michael the Archangel: It follows, that we speak of the second, who is here said to be the Devil.
2. Of the word Devil (in the Greek [...]) I meet with sundry Interpretations among the learned. Some, as Gerson and Bonaventure say, that the word signifies falling q. Deorsum fluens. Gerson Tr. in Magnificat. Bonavent. l. 2. Sent. dist. 5. q. 1. Dictus est Diabolus, quia deorsum fluxit, & ex hoc in suâ malitiâ firmatus est. Diabolus non valens conscendere, sed compulsus descendere, odit Deum justum, & invidet excellentiae ejus. and tending downward, and the Devil (say they) not being able to keep up in his former height of glory and excellency, but compell'd to descend from it, is not to be moved from his malice. Others also with more wit then strength, say, that the Word Diabolus comes from Dia (which they say, is as much as two,) and Bolus, signifying a draught, taken up in a Fishers net, because when the Devil draws man into his net, he makes of him (as it were) a double draught, by destroying both body and soul: The ordinary and true derivation of the word is from [...], to slander, [Page 51]calumniate, and falsly to accuse; and hence the appellative name of Devil is often in Scripture used for any false accuser: thus Judas is called Devil, Joh. 6.70 One of you (saith Christ) is a divel. 1 Tim. 3.11. The wives of Deacons must not be [...], slanderers, and 2 Tim. 3.3. The Apostle speaks of some who are treacherous, false accusers, or devils, &c. So Tit. 2.3. concerning the aged women he saith, that they must not be false accusers, or Devils; in which sense some understand that command of Eph. 4.27. Give not place to the Devil, or to any false accuser, or slanderer, who shall come with slanderous reports against another; the Apostle giving that precept as a direction to the observing of what went immediatly before; namely, that the Sun should not go down upon our wrath. False accusers being make-bates and kindle-coals between persons, are to be oppos'd and resisted. More specially, the word Divel is taken for an evil spirit, or Angel, Mat. 13.39. Luc. 8.12. Acts 10.38. and 13.10. 1 Pet. 5.8. 2 Tim. 2.26, &c. and yet more specially the term Devil is attributed to the chief or Prince of Devils, call'd so by way of eminency. Mat. 4.1. he tempted Christ. Apoc. 12.7. he and his Angels fight with Michael and his. See Mat. 25.41. Thus it is taken here. And clear reason there is why Satan should thus be called a slanderer, or false accuser. Some say, because of his accusing of God to man, and that principally by that first accusation, 1 wherin he accused God of falshood, by saying, notwithstanding what God had threatned, that they should not die: and of Envy, by telling them, that God knew that in the day they did eat thereof, they should be like gods; And this is the opinion of Justin Martyr, [...]. Justin in Paraen. ad Graec. p. mihi 21. in that excellent exhortation of his to the Greeks: The Scriptures (saith he) call that enemy of mankind, the Devil, from that first slander or calumny which he brought to man; And thus he is still a slanderer, laying his accusations sometimes against Gods Justice, perswading sinners that God allows them [Page 52]in their sins, Sic Tert. 2. Cont. Marc. cap. 10. Deo imposuit prohibitionem esus omnis ligni, mendacem comminationem mortis, invidiam cujusdamdivinitatis. Vide Chrysost. hom 2. in 2. Ep. ad Corinth. so driving them to presume: sometimes laying them against his mercy, perswading those who are humbled, that their sins are greater then can be forgiven, so driving them to despair: sometime against his faithfulness, omniscience, &c. frequently against his providence, making men beleeve that God hath no care of the ordering and governing of things in the world; the good are miserable, and the wicked happy. When Christ was on Earth, he was accus'd by the Devil to be an Impostor, that cast out Devils by the help of Beelzebub, &c. Falsely did he accuse God to Christ, by clipping his word, and perverting the Scripture to a pernicious sense.
2. He is (according to others) called an accuser, for accusing man to God. This is the opinion of Lactantius. The Devil (saith he) is calld an accuser, because for those very faults to which he tempts and allures us, Vid. Chrysost. ubi supra. Diabolum criminatorem vocamus, propterea quod crimina in quae ipse allicit, ad Deum defert. Lact. lib. 2. Instit. cap. 8. he accuseth us, by laying them before God. The accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12) is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. He objecteth things before God for the disgrace and hurt of the godly. Thus he accused Joshuah the High Priest, for his sins noted by filthy garments, Zech. 3.1, 3. As also Joh, for self-seeking. Satan espies the least sins in them, these he aggravates, and for them pleads their unworthiness of the least mercy, the sins which in them are weaknesses, he represents as wickednesses; the sins which they condemn in themselves, and for which they condemn themselves, he layes before God to have him also condemn them for them claiming the justice of the Law, and the execution of the curse against, and upon them. This accuser diminisheth, wresteth their best actions, as if performed to a wrong end, and hypocritically; thus he accused Job of serving God only for wages, hereby representing all his services to be void of sincerity. In nothing is the malice of Satan so clearly discovered as in accusing the godly before God. For 1. Hereby he [Page 53]shewes his desire to do them the greatest hurt, which is to bring them out of favour with God, to separate them from their only friend, by being a tale-bearer and slanderer, Revel. 12. He accused them before our God. And 2. Such is his malice, that he will endeavor that which he can but endeavour, never effect; yea in the undertaking whereof he is sure to miscarry: Oppose them he will, though hurt them he cannot, and is sure to hurt himself; putting forth his poyson, though he have no power; he accusing Saints before a God who sees the falsness of his accusations, whose Power, Justice and Mercy ever makes him rebuke the accusing Divel, Zech. 3.1, 2, 3. & pity the accused Saints. And in respect of this accusing the Faithful to God, I conceive that Satan is principally called, (1 Pet. 5.8.) Our Adversary: in the Original, [...], a word that properly signifies an Adversary pleading or contending against another before a Judg in judgment; in which sense its used Matth. 5.25. Lest thy adversary, [...], deliver thee to the Judg, &c. so Luke 12.58. When thou goest with thine adversary, [...], to the Magistrate; so that when the Apostle calls the Divel Our adversary, he intends that he is our adversary by way of accusing us before the Judg of Heaven and earth. And very fitly may this our Accuser be called an [...], or adversary in judgment, because he who contends with another before a Judg, commonly labours to pervert his cause by slanders and false accusation▪ which (as hath been said) aptly agrees to this our adversary; and hence it may be, 1 Chron. 21.1 Job 1, 6. Z [...]ch. 3. [...]. that when the Septuagint meet in the Old Testament with the Hebrew word Satan, an adversary, they translate it by the Greek word [...], a false accuser.
Thirdly, Our enemy is here called the Divel, or false Accuser, because he accuseth one man to another; stirring up hereby strife and contention between man and man: and as sometimes he accuseth the Godly to one another, as plain hearted Mephibosheth to David (his [Page 54]Divellish stratagem in these times;) so most commonly he accuseth the Godly to the wicked: Thus he accused Joseph of Incontinency, David of Treason, Daniel of Disobedience, Elijah of troubling Israel, Jeremy of revolting, Amos of preaching against the King; the Apostles of Sedition, Rebellion, alteration of Lawes; Paul was accused to be a pestilent fellow, and one that taught against the Law of Moses; Christ himself was accused of Gluttony, Sorcery, Sedition; and how skilful a Master he is in this hellish Art of false accusation, appears in that he accuseth the Faithful, though never so innocent; devising what he cannot find, Jer. 18.18. nay, not only though they are, but even because they are holy; for the matter of their God, for Praying, Hearing, Fasting, keeping Sabbath, Preaching the Truth. He accuseth them oft by those who are tyed to them by dearest relations, David of Injustice by Absolom. He accuseth all the Godly for one mans offence, Thus they are all, &c. nay, for a personal failing in one or two, he accuseth the whole Religion it self; railing against the Sun, because one hath stumbled in the Sun-shine. He hath an Art to accuse for that, whereof himself and his are most guilty; thus he accused Joseph of Incontinency, Elijah of troubling Israel, Christ of being an enemy to Cesar; yea, of that, to which the Accused are most contrary, as in those instances appears, accusing even the Sun of darkness. And God hereby makes their integrity more apparant, either here or hereafter: Slanders are but as soap, which though it soyles for the present, yet it makes way for whiteness: The Sun of their good fame shall break out gloriously from under the cloud of slanders; God will bring forth their righteousness as the light, Psal. 37.6. and their judgment as the noon day: yea, which is the greater advantage, the smutchings of slanders shall brighten the Graces of Gods people, their Humility, Peace, Watchfulness, Faith. The tongues of sinners are but as brushes or rubbers to fetch off the dust [Page 55]which is but too ready to fall upon the graces of Saints. The Divel is Satan, and therefore he is a Divel; he is an Adversary to Christ, to Holiness: what will not malice say? Now Christ is gone beyond Satans reach, he throwes the dirt of slanders upon his pictures, and on them most, that are fairest and most resemble him; he loves to trouble them in their way, whom he cannot hinder of the end. The Divel is a Serpent, and therefore he is an Accuser; he hath subtilty to invent, as well as malice to utter his slanders. He is the god of the world, and hath the tongues of wicked men at his command: if he saith to one, Go, it goeth, &c. He hath found the successfulness of this Engine of accusation, he hath murdered thousands with it, and thereby ever brought Religion into suspition and disgrace; he hath many receivers, he wil therefore thieve away the names of Saints; his calumnies easily enter, and hardly depart.
Fourthly, This adversary may here be called a Divel, an Accuser, because he accuseth a man to himself, and that in two respects: 1 He makes a man think better of himself then he should; tells him he is going to Dothan, when he is going to Samaria; that the way to Hell is the ready way to Heaven. As Absolom told the people flatteringly, Thy cause is good; so he, Thy case is happy: Strangling them oft with a silken halter. 2 He makes men think their estate worse then it is, by stretching the sins which he hath drawen them to commit, beyond all the measure of Mercy, and possibility of pardon, to bring the sinner to despair. Thus he dealt with Cain and Judas. He who once told men, they might repent when they would, and it would be time enough hereafter to call for Mercy, now affrights them with apprehensions that the day of Grace is at an end, and that it is too late to make their peace with God. He who was of late a tempting, is now a tormenting Divel.
[Page 56] Hitherto of the Explication of this first part, the parties contending: the Observations follow.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Observ. 1. The higher our Eminency is, the greater should be our humility. The more glorious any one is for Endowments, the more humble should he be in the beholding them. This Eminently glorious Angel, this Archangel hath Humility stampt upon his name: By it he doth not ask, Know you not who I am? or Who is so great as I? but Quis sicut Dominus, Who is like the Lord? The more thou art above others in the height of place, the more shouldst thou go beyond them in the grace of humble-mindedness. Humility is an Angelical Grace. No Creature so high as an Archangel; no Creature so humble as he, and the highest is the humblest Angel. None so low as the Divel, and none so proud as he: The Divel tempts Christ to worship him; the Archangel worships Christ. We must, though high, take heed of high-mind edness. When we shine most with outward glory, we must not know it; know it we must, so as to be thankful [...] not so as to be proud. What have we that we have not received? The more we have received, as the greater shall be our account, so the greater should be our acknowledgment. They who partake of most gifts do but proclaim' like beggars, that they have o [...]t [...]est been at the door of mercy. When any great performance hath been wrought by us, we should [...]ear to arrogate the praise thereof to our selves; herein imitating Joab, who when he had as good as taken Rabbah the Royal City, 2 Sam. 12 27 sent messengers to David to come and complete the Conquest by taking it fully, lest the City should be called after his name: He knew the jealousie of Kings in point of Honour: he wisely might remember, that the attributing of more thousands to Saul then to D [...]vid, though but by female sing [...]ers, had almost cost David his life. God is jealous of his Honour, he will [Page 57]not give it to another, nor might any one take it to himself, Of this largely in my former Part, Ver. 6 Page 486
2. The highest Dignity is to be much in duty. Observ. 2. In this word Archangel, here is equally both comprised Superiority and Service: an Archangel is in english but an high and supreme Messenger or Waiter. The service of God is the glory of the highest Angel. How poor a Creature would Michael have thought himself, had he not been a Messenger to Christ! Its wel observed by some that Angels are more frequently called by their name of Office, then of Nature; oftner Angels, then Spirits; as if they more delighted in their being dutiful, then in their very being. And a Saint is as thankful that God will deign to be his Master, as a sinner is proud that he can make men to be his own servants. The dosius the good Emperor, esteemed this the highest of all his Titles, Ʋltimus Dei servus, The lowest servant of Christ. A person is truly so honourable as he is useful. Pauls glory was not that he had ruled and domineer'd, but laboured more then they all; yea, in the meanest services for Jesus Christ, not in planting of, and preaching to Churches, or in governing them only, but in stripes, 2 Cor. 11.23, 24, 25 prisons, [...]ourneyes, weariness, perils, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness. The meanest service about a King is honorable. Many think the glory of a Minister [...]r Magistrate consists in Revenews, fat Benefices, large Incomes, shining Retinue; but ask an Archangel, and he will say, it is in being a servant, a messenger. How unglorious is a man in Scarlet, Purple, Gold, Crowns, nay, with the most Eminent and Angelical parts, if he serve not Christ by all? He is at best, but like a smal letter in the midst of a great Gay; where there is, though much flourish, little benefit, much hinderance to the Reader. Oh how happy we, if among us every one in Eminency laboured to joyn the Arch and the Angel together! otherwise he who is most eminent in Dominion, [Page 58]may but prove an arch Tyrant; eminent for Riches, an arch Usurer; eminent for Learning, an arch Heretick.
3. Observ. 3 The soveraignty and dominion of God extends it self even to the highest of created beings. Even from the lowest worm to the highest, the Arch-angel, all are at the beck of the great God; as every soul must be subject to the higher Power, so every soul and power must be subject to him who is the highest; he who excepts himself, Qui se excipit, se decipit. Bern. ad Eugem. deceives himself. The greatest are at Gods disposal; they must either be voluntarie servants or unvoluntary slaves. God is the God of the mountains, as well as the valleys. He is indeed the God of the valleys to fill them, but the God also of the mountains so as to be above them, to level and pul them down. No proud Pharaoh must say, Who is the Lord, that I should let Israel go? Angels are great and high, but God is greater. Angels excell us, but God even them in strength, infinitely more then do they the lowest worm. If one Angel can slay an hundred fourscore and five thousand; what can the God of Angels doe? This lessons both high and low; the higest adversary to take heed of opposing the high God: Are they stronger then he? If he was a fool who thought himself wiser then Daniel, much more is he such who thinks he is stronger then God. The proudest Pharaohs, E [...]. k. 28 3. Nebuchadnezzars must either break or bend; God will either be known of them, or on them: The great design that God had in sending Nebuchadnezzar from his Babel among the beasts, was, That he might learn this lesson▪ that the Lord ruleth in the kingdome of men, Dan. 4.17 and giveth it to whomsoever he will. This is his controversie with us still, and never will it end, till he have prevailed over us, and be seen to have the better of us. This subjection to God is that lesson which sooner or later every one must learn. The true interest and wisdom of the greatest Potentates is to learn it here in the way, lest they perish from it. It lessons [Page 59]also the poorest Saints; as in all their priviledges, God wil yet be known to be their Lord, as wel as their friend, and therefore will be serv'd with holy fear; so in all their sufferings from their proud enemies, they may say with Solomon, There be higher then they. Eccles 5.8. The Lord on high is mightyer then the noyse of many waters; yea, then the mighty waves of the Sea. The great God is their good freind, he who hath the service of Angels, hath goodnesse and protection for them. When the strongest servant in the house beats and abuseth them, the weakest child of God may say, I'le tel my father: He can and will redresse every Saints injury.
4. Great is the comlinesse of order; Observ, 4 even Angels have and love it. There are Angels, and there is one (at least) Archangel. In heaven, There must be a disparity among men, Unisons make no good Musick. even among the creatures where God immediately manifests his presence, there are Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers; what the difference [...]is, we know not; that there is a difference, we know: Nay, the Divel, who is the great enemy of order and government on earth, observes and upholds a kind of order and rule in hell: Even there is a prince of Divels, and the Divel and his Angels, (Though it's true, the most powerfull divel is the most powerfully wicked:) nor heaven, nor hell allow of a parity; though there be no good, yet there is some order in hell; Holy Angels are no friends to levelling. They are mistaken, phanatick spirits, who think it a point of perfection to be without Superiours; would they be more perfect then the glorious Angels? The truth is, they cry out for this liberty, that they may be in slavery to their lusts (which government curbs;) and not so much for that they hate government (the love whereof is implanted in all by the light of nature) as because they hate those hands in which it is, they would fain get it into their own; and could they once do so, tho none could govern so ill, yet none would govern so much as themselves who most cry down ruling. They who [Page 60]most [...]ppose Government in others, most desire the Government over others▪ Evil angels, who will not be subject to God, are most tyrannical over me [...] Satan, who would not continue in the worshipping of God, tempted Christ to worship him. Order is the beauty and safety of places. They who are weary of it, are weary of their owne happiness. But of this more before in Part 1. page 638
5. Observ. 5. The divel is an hurtful spirit. His work is to do mischief; his name Divel speaks him a Destroyer, and wounder of names; and all his names import mischievousness. He and his angels are called Cacodaemons, Evil Angels, frequently in Scripture, Evil Spirits; not evil only in regard of the bad which is in them, but also of the hurt which is done by them. The Divel is Abadd [...]n, Rev. 9 11. Perdition; he is perdition or destruction it self; not only Passively, but even Actively also; and as we call a wicked man, scelus, wickedness, for most wicked; so is the Divel call'd perdition or destruction it self, because he is the chief, Rev. 9 11. cruel, skilful, industrious Destroyer, seeking whom he may deuour; compassing the earth, as a Fouler doth the tree where the bird sits; or as Besiegers do a City, to plant murdering Engines: He seeks not whom to scratch bite, or wound; but whom to destroy, devour, swallow up ( [...]) 1 Pet. 5.8. To Abaddon is added his name in the Greek, whereby he is also noted to be acrue destroyer, Apollyon: He is in Scripture called a murderer, an old bloody one, such from the beginning. Compared also to a Lyon, a Serpent, R [...]v. 12.3. a Dragon, a red bloody, fiery ( [...]) Dragon. He is bloudy in being thirsty after, and imbrued in blood, in all the blood of the Saints since the beginning of the world: His Works prove him more hurtful then his Names. Hurtful he is to the bodies of men; These he hath often possessed, counting the tormenting of them all his pleasure, and ejection out of them his torment: These he hath thrown into fi [...]e and water; [Page 61]cutting also and wounding [...]hem; rending them when compelled to leave them; H [...]m [...] mal [...] [...]elam D [...]ab [...]. by his instruments (wicked men his weapons) mart [...]ring, mangling, and murdering them, from Abel till now; afflicting them with no [...]som and destructive diseases Hurtful to the Estates of men, by tempests, winds, fires, as appears by his dealing with J [...]b, whom he made both in body and estate, his very anvil, upon which he laid all his angry and cruel strokes. Hurtful he is to the souls of men, either tempting to, corrupting in, or else tormenting or afrighting them for sin. Hurtful to the name he is; by slanders and false accusations. They who are freed from consuming by the former, shall not escape totally from sindging by this latter Where he cannot devour with the mouth of the sword, he will wound by the sword of the mouth▪ Where he cannot strike with his hand, he will spit with his mouth, and bite with his teeth. And lastly, the properties of his hurtfulness shew it more then its workings; for he is anciently hurtful; he began many thousand years ago with the first man: How hurtfull do we account that thief and murderer who hath been mischievous for some few years! No Muderer so old an one, as Satan. He is maliciously hurtful, not being so by accident, or beside his intention, but aiming to be so. He kils none by chance-medly, but all his Murders are wilful: 'tis his meat and drink, his recreation, his only ease, if he could be said to have any. His hurtfulness is incessant, his trade, his work, as well as his [...]. He cannot give over this Employment; 'tis his Element, nor can he any more live without it then a fi [...]h out of the water. He is restless in sin; When he is not in places where he may do much hurt, he is said to walk through dry places, a ba [...]re [...], un-inhabitable wilderness, and there he finds no rest; his only rest is an hurtful motion. A sinner sleeps not till he sin; but the Divel alway sins, and never s [...]eeps; he is a vig [...]lant Dragon: He never rested [Page 62]one moment since the begin [...]ng of the world. As he never wanted, so he never would have rest: he hath no Holy-dayes. He gos up and down continually seeking whom he may devour: Upon the Sabbath as much as, nay, more then other dayes; and he never doth more hurt then when he seems to do least; nay, when he seems to do most good. He is universally hurtful in respect of the Object; he is hurtful (in intention at least) to all mankind; to good and bad, to his enemies, yea his friends: to the former, because the less he can, the more he would do. The more God loves, the more he hates, and labours to hurt (as in all the forementioned respects.) He had rather find one Pearle then a thousand pibbles. Oh how sweet to him is the fal of a Peter, a David, a Noah! the bloud of a Stephen, a Paul, a Godly Minister. He winnowes the best wheat most, and beats the tree most that bears the best fruit: Our great Lord himself must not go without his marks. Nay, he is hurtful to his owne greatest friends. Those he hurts most, who serve him most: A cruel Master, that wounds and starves all his slaves! wounds the conscience, wears out the body. Sinners are his hackneys, whom he whips and spurs all the day of Life, and at night he lodgeth them worse then in the day he used them. Never suffers he them to feed upon one morsel of the bread of Life; gives nothing but wind and wormwood, vanity and vexation. Lastly, he is skilfully hurtful, he is skilful to destroy, and hath an equal mixture of the Lion and the Serpent. He hath seven heads, Revel. 12.3. and many devices in them all: Elimas ful of all subtilty, and mischief, Acts 13.10 is aptly therefore called the child of the Divel. Our worst enemy sometimes comes to us as our best friend. He disguiseth his person, like the Gibeonites, that so he may get within us. He seemed to Eve to be more friendly then God himself. He oft seems to compassionate the sinner; to the profane he propounds an easie loose [Page 63]Religion; to the Proud he suggests the unfitness of suffering himself to be trampled on, &c. He never kisseth, but 'tis to kill; and this Crocodile never sheds tears but 'tis to shed blood. He chuseth his fittest times for his tentations, as in time of conversing in bad company, so he set upon Peter: in time of solitariness, so he set upon Christ and Joseph. In times of trouble of conscience, then he suggests we are hypocrites; like Simeon and Levi, who killed the Shechemites in their soreness. In times of security and ease, so he set upon David: like enemies who fal upon one anothers Quarters in their mid-night sleep. If he cannot hinder from good, he can blemish it by sinful meanes; an undue manner, a bad end. He can by a thousand Arts disparage a holy Duty to those that behold it, if he doth not mar it in the performance This hurtfulness of the Divel shewes whom they resemble, that are never well themselves but when they are doing something that may make others bad, or do them hurt. Whose only work is to pull down, and pluck up, to tear and rend; to lay gins and snares, not for beasts, but men; to search out iniquities, and to accomplish a diligent search: who are skilful to destroy, but ignorant how to build up. How unlike are these to him who went up and down continually doing good? It likewise discovers the goodness and power of God, in stopping this hurtful Creature, in bounding him within his limits, in binding him in chains of restraint; so that though he wils to do what (nay more then) he can, yet he shall never do what he will, nor often what he can. It teacheth us to make him our friend who only hath care and goodness to countervail the Divels cruelty. O miserable they whose souls do, and shall ever dwel among Lions, in a Godless, Christless, Shepherdless state. Lastly, it instructs, that better is the suffering of him who is hurt, then the solace of him that is hurtful; the former is conform'd to Christ, the latter to the divel.
[Page 64] 6 Observ. 6. Saints must expect slanders, but [...] be afflicte [...] with them. So long as there are Divels, there will be false Accusers. We oft say, upon hearing false and infamous reports, we wonder who should [...]aise them: But wonder not; there is a Mint constantly going in hell, and there is a Mint master, whose w [...]rk it is to coyn calumnies; and though they be men who put them off for him yet this Coyn bears his Stamp. 'Tis a good sign thou pleasest not Satan, when thou canst not have his good word. He doth no more against thee, then he hath done against all thy Brethren, whose Accuser he hath ever been; count not this Tryal by his fiery tongue strange; nay, count it strange when this tougne is not fired upon thee The Son of God himself was in this fire before thee, nay, is in it with thee. If the flame be hot, remember the company is comfortable and cooling. Had it been enough to have been accused, there would never have been one innocent. God indeed suffers this fire to bu [...]n thee, because thou art not pure enough; but the Divel kindles it, because thou art not impure enough. Its a sign that thy tongue vexeth Satan, when his tongue vexeth thee. Remember that thy name is bright in Gods sight, and l [...]ke the Sun, glorious heaven-ward, when most clouded earth-ward. God takes a greater care of his servants names then they do of their own. Wherefore were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses, Numb. 12 8. saith God to Aaron and Miriam? Besides the accidental good which slanderers do thy soul or the present, by making thee humble, watchful, selfsearch [...]ng, there will come a ti [...]e wherein they shall make rest [...]tutu [...] (in specie) of all thy st [...]ln reputation: They stole it from thee in se ret, Quisqui [...] v [...] lens d [...]t [...]ab [...] f [...]mae m [...]ae, ist [...] nobens add a mercedi me [...] Aug. but the [...] shall restore [...]t before men and Angels, and that with Interest. Thy innocency may be hid, but not extinguish'd; and he that willingly detracts from thy name, doth (though) unwillingly add to thy reward.
7 Observ. 7. To censure every [...]ne that is accused, is to condemn [Page 65]the innocent. Its not ground enough for thy censure, that they are accused; (for Satan may cause that;) but, if called, throughly sift the accusation; John 7.24. judge righteous judgement; and look not onely upon the outside, but enter into the bowels of the cause: Bare accusation makes no man guilty: commonly the slanders of wicked men speak the person, and often the cause also good: Be slow of belief: Hear both sides: Let both thy ears, like Balances, take in equal weight. Tis true, 1 Cor. 13.7. Charity believeth all things, but they all are good things; it also hopeth all things. There's no harm in suspending thy belief till proof comes. If thou shootest thine Arrow too soon, thou mayest haply hit a Jehoshaphat, drest up by Satan in an Ahabs attire. Its better to acquit many nocent, then to condemn one innocent. In doubtful cases hope the best. God went down to see, when the cry of Sodom came up to heaven; though he saw before he went down. Its good to be forward in accusing thy self, and by that time that work is well done, thy censorious credulity will be cool'd when thou hearest reports of others.
8. Obser. 8. How harsh and cruel a Master doth every wicked man serve! The Divel puts his servants upon sin against God, and then accuseth them for those sins to God, themselves, and others: He that at the first allured Saul to disobey God, by sparing of Amaleck; afterwards drives him to despair, by representing his sin, and Gods wrath, when he appeared in the shape of Samuel; the sins which his tentations represent but as tricks and trifles, his accusations will aggravate, even to a mountaynous proportion: He that in the former saith, Thy sin is so small, thou needst not fear it; nay, perhaps tels thee is a great good; will afterward make it appear so great an evil, that thou canst not bear it: Though at the first he tels thee it is so small that God will not see it, yet at last he suggests it so great, that God will not forgive it: The time thou now spendest in hearing his [Page 66] accusations, would have been better spent in opposing his tentations. Who would serve such a Master, who in stead of standing by his servants for their diligent service, wil stand up before God and man against them? While they are serving him, he is quiet; when they have done, he payes them with terrors, and perswasions that they are damned wretches: and yet this is the Prince of the world, who hath more servants then Jesus Christ; though he, in stead of accusing for, covers sin. Oh that sinners were so wise, as in time to look for a new service, and to stand astonished at this amazing folly, that they should more delight to serve him who sheds their blood, then him who shed his blood for them.
9 Great should be our care to prevent false accusations, Observ. 9. to stop Satans mouth, and the mouths of sinners, which are so ready to be opened against us; to take heed that they speak not reproachfully and truly at the same time.
1. It ought to be our care to make streight steps to our feet, Ephes. 5.15. seeing we shall be sure to hear of the least halting: we ought to walk circumspectly. If wicked men will make faults, at their own peril be it; let them not find them made to their hand: though we may account such or such an error to be but small, yet the slanderous beholder will look upon it with an old mans spectacles, and to him it will appear great. The sharp weapons of slanders, must be blunted by innocency. Let the matter, manner, and end of every action be good, and then God will justifie, if Satan slander.
2. Never leave integrity to remove infamy: He that will part with a good conscience, to get a great name, shall lose name and conscience too.
3. Defend and plead Gods cause against false accusation. If we be shields to his, he will defend ours.
4. Let us be as careful of the names of others, as of our own. Let us not receive, believe, laugh at the slanders cast upon others. Our name will be entertained at our neighbours houses, as his is at ours. We must open our [Page 67]mouths for the dumb, the absent, the innocent.
5. Be willing the godly should reprove thee: He who wil not hear a just admonition, may justly hear an unjust accusation; the smitings of freinds will prevent the stabbings of enemies, Godly rebuke embraced will preserve thee from reproach, and being a byword.
6. Accuse thy self before God, humble thy soul for whatever thy self and others can alledge. Be more vile in thine own, then thou canst be in the thoughts or mouths of others; and thereby flie to Jesus Christ, who will answer all accusations within or without thee; the clefts of that rock being the best refuge against the pursuit of slanderous tongues. Oh how sweet is it to say in the midst of slanders, Well yet, my soul, God hath nothing to lay to thy charge.
10. False accusers imitate Satan, Observ. 10 they are the Divels first born, and bear his name. Their tongues are set on fire of hell; but of the greatnesse of their sin, I shall have clearer occasion to speak in the third and last part of this verse, as also of the helpes against it.
This for the first part of this verse, the parties contending; Michael the Archangel, and the Divel. The second followes, the strife or contention it self; Michael contending with the Divel, disputed about the body of Moses.
EXPLICATION.
In the explication of this second part, the contention it self, I shall speak 1. Of this combat, as it's set out more generally; so here it is said that Michael contended. 2. As it's set out more particularly, in the particular case and cause in which he contended; and so it's said, Michael disputed about the body of Moses.
1. More generally: It is said that Michael contended, [Page 68] [...], Vox [...] forensis est, et ad judicia spectat. Justinian. in loc. the word (saith Justinian) is borrowed from courts of judicature, and belongs to judgments; [...], is to contend in judgment. The word in Scripture is used severall waies, and oft it signifies to hesitate, and stagger, or doubt, Rom. 14.23. Matth. 21.21. Rom. 4.20. And the word imports a doubting with a contention: Qui haesitat, al tercantibus sententiis, secum quasi litigat et disceptat. Bud. in comment. He that doubts or hesitates in a businesse, being by different opinions drawn several waies, finding a strugling and a contention (as Budeus notes) within himself, as unresolved what course to take. Rom. 14.1. The Apostle speaks of doubtfull, or contentious disputations; or (as the word signifies) contentions of disputations. [...], altercationes disputationum. Beza. Acts 11.2. They of the circumcision ( [...]) contended with Peter.
It may here be demanded, What are those contentions between good and bad Angels? Its answered, That they are either about things, 1. of temporall, or 2. of spiritual concernment.
1. About Temporals, and so they contend, the good Angels for, and the bad against the outward welfare of the people of God: Psal. 34.7. The good Angels (like Souldiers) pitch their tents about the godly, to protect them, where Satan pitcheth his forces to destroy them. Evil Angels strive to drive men into places of danger, the Divel would have had Christ to have leapt from the top of the pinacle: Mat. 6.4. but the good Angels keep us in all our waies, and bear us up in their arms, Psal. 91.12. When Elisha was beset, the mountain was full of horses and chariots, 1 King. 6.17. The Divel, who stir'd up Daniels enemies to have destroyed him by the Lions, was disappointed by that good Angel, Dan. 6.22 who shut the Lions mouths. The Angels of God defended Jacob from the fury of his brother Esau, Gen. 32.2. into whose heart Satan had put it to contrive Jacobs death. Satan endeavours the destruction of people and countries; but good Angels fight for their safety: When Satan prevailed [Page 69]with David to number the people, 2 Sam. 24.17. he left him fewer to number by seventy thousand. Michael the chief of the chief princes protected the Jewes against the tyranny of the Persians, Dan. 10.13. 2 King. 19.35 And an Angel smote an hundred fourscore and five thousand which came to destroy Judah: Exod. 14.19 An Angel went between the Israelites and the army of Egyptians. When Satan stir'd up Jezabel to seek and vow the death of Elijah, 1 King. 19.5 persecuted Elijah was fed and preserved by a good Angel. Divels labour to destroy the families and estates of the godly; (as in the case of Job:) the Angels of God are their guard (when 'tis for their good) to protect them, and encamp about their persons and habitations.
2. The contentions of good and bad Angels are about Spirituall things. Jesus Christ, who is the Spiritual head and husband of the Church, was by evil Angels with deadly hatred opposed; good Angels admire, adore, advance him. When Christ was in the womb, Satan would have had his mother suspected of uncleannesse, so that her husband was minded to put her away; but the good Angel affirms, that what was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost. The Divel sought to murder him in his infancy; The good Angels appeared in multitudes praising God at his nativity, and one directs Joseph to carry Jesus into Egypt for his preservation from Herods cruelty. The Divell tempts Christ, Matth. 4. and tosseth him from place to place: The good Angels, when he was afterward faint and weary, came and ministred to him. The Divel, through the whole course of his life, stirs up persecution and raiseth slanders against him, enters into Judas to betray him, and into the Jewes fasly to accuse and crucifie him: but as one good Angel appeared from heaven in his agony strengthening him, so would more then twelve legions of such (had God but given a commission) have waited upon him, and rescued him from his enemies. The Divels malice against Christ dyed not with him; but to baffle the [Page 70]glory of his resurrection, he suggests the aspersion of his Disciples, their stealing away his body by night: The good Angels attest the glory of his resurrection to those who came to the Sepulchre and afterward his Asrension, to those who look'd toward heaven; assuring them also of his return to judgment. Nor is the contention of good and bad Angels lesse about the Church of Christ: The good Angels rejoyce at the enlargment of Christ kingdome, the conversion of one sinner; and 'tis a pleasure to them to be present at the publick ordinances, and to look into the mystery of the Gospel, 1 Cor. 11.10▪ Ephes. 3 10 As impossible it is, they should preach anothe [...] Gospel, is to be accursed, Gal. 1.8. They surther the Gospel, and preserve the true worship of God, forbidding the worship of themselues. The Law was given by their ministry: Luke 2 9. Acts 10.10. The Angel directs Cornelius to send for Peter: The Angel brought Philip to instruct the Eunuch; invited the Apostle to come to Macedonia, and help souls to heaven; delivered Peter out of prison to preach the Gospel; carried the soul of Lazarus to heaven; resisted Balaam in the way wherein he came forth to curse Israel, &c. Michael and his Angels, Rev. 12. fight for the defence of the Church against all the injuries of the Divel. But the Divel is the grand adversary of souls: Evil Angels labour to stop the passage of the Gospel; they put forth their power in Jannes and Jambres; to resist Moses in his Ministry. The Divel offereth himself to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahabs Prophets. He stands at Joshuah's right hand to withstand him in his Office; Zech 3 1. Matth. 13. 1 Tim. 4 1. 1 The [...]. 2 18. Rev. 2.10. he soweth tares in the field, where the good seed of the word is sown: False Doctrines are the Doctrines of Divels: Satan hindred Paul once or twice from his journey to the Thessalonians to confi [...]m their faith; he raiseth persecution against the Church; he cast some into prison: And where he cannot hinder powerful preaching, he contends to make the word sundry wayes ineffectual: some he holds fast [Page 71]in unbelief and contumacy; from careless hearers he snatcheth the word: Those who happly hear attentively, he hinders from practising; and of some kind of practisers he often makes Apostates.
The second thing to be explained, 2 Branch of Explicat. is the strife and [...]mbate between Michael and the Divel, set forth more particularly in the particular case and cause thereof, the Archangel disputed about the body of Moses. And here,
- 1 What he did? he disputed.
- 2 About what he d [...]d it; or the subject of that disputation? the body of Moses.
1. He disputed, [...], 1 The word signifieth a Contest by Argument and Reason; besides which manner or strife, Justinian. in. loc. there is no other (say some) after which spirits can strive and contend one with another. I shall not dispute the truth of that assertion (the mos Angelicus, Vid. Z [...]ch. de Angelis p. 156 the manner of Angelical disputation being to us so dark:) nor shall I now enquire how Angels represent their minds and apprehensions one t [...] another in their disputations; but sure I am, that as the Arguments which this holy Archangel produced against the Divel to justifie his action, were strong and cogent (as being drawn from the revealed will of God) so the practice of disputing for convincing the adversaries of the Truth, or stopping their mouthes by arguments grounded upon that foundation, Acts 17.17.18.4, 19.19.9.20.9.24.12, 15. was frequently used by the Apostle Paul, and to be imitated by us; who, were our words softer, and our Arguments stronger, might more convince the Adversary against whom, and credit the cause for which we contend.
If it be here demanded, Why this Archangel would dispute with an incorrigible adversary? Its answered, he disputed not with hopes to recover his Adversary: But 1. To credit his cause. It was a righteous cause, and was worthy of a strong Advocate: though the adversary against whom we reason deserves neglect, yet [Page 72]the truth for which we argue, deserves our contention.
2. To apologize for himself: He might have been look'd upon, as one who resisted and opposed Satan, upon bare resolution and self-wil, and would effect his desire by bare force, had he not disputed the equity of his proceedings with the Divel.
3. To render the Divel the more inexcusable: Who now, though he were so far from being bettered or amended by all the disputation and reasoning of Michael with him, that he was the more enraged against the truth; yet must needs be more clearly convinced, that he opposed the righteous and holy will of God.
2. 2 For the subject of this disputation, it was (saith Jude) about the body of Moses. The principal doubt in this branch is, what should be the cause of this contention and disputation between Michael and the Devil, about the body of Moses. Sundry causes are by sundry Interpreters mentioned: I shall rehearse some of the most probable, and cleave to that which I conceive to be the true one: Some affirm that the body of Moses is here to be taken figuratively, not for that body which was buried on Mount Nebo, but for that holy Priesthood about which Satan resisted Joshuah, Zech. 3.1. because this Priesthood as a shadow, was to be restored at the return of the Captivity, and to be in Christ truly fulfilled, whom the Apostle cals the body, (Col. 2.17.) that answered the shadowes of the Law. Others also making this place of Jude to refer (though after a different manner from the former) to that of Zech. 3.1. Opinio mystica est, ut corpus Mosis fuerit Synagoga; ac Synagogam liberari prohibu [...] rit Diabolus de Captivitate Babylonis. Lorin. in loc. Conceive that by the body of Moses, we are here to understand the Synagogue, or Church of the Jewes; the delivery whereof from the Captivity of Babylon, Satan (say they) opposed, and Michael contended for.
But besides the Arguments which have been brought already, to prove that this Michael here mentioned by Jude, was not Jehovah; as was he who is mentioned [Page 73] Zech. 3.1. It seems an harsh expression, and no where used, to call either the Mosaical Priesthood as fulfilled by Christ, or the Synagogue and Church of the Jewes, the body of Moses. Some conceive that this contention about the body of Moses, was from Michaels endeavouring, and the Divels opposing of the honourable burial of Moses; to whom (say they) the Divel would have had burial denyed, in regard of his slaying of the Aegyptian in his life time; and that the Divel contended, that the body of a Murderer belonged to him to dispose of. But this opinion seems false, both in regard of the great distance of time which was between the slaying of the Aegyptian and this contention; as also that the Divel knew either that the slaying of the Aegyptian was no true murder, or if it were, that it was forgiven by God, who sundry times after it, manifested tokens of signal love to his servant Moses. It is therefore lastly, and most truly asserted by others, that Michael therefore contended with the Divel about the body of Moses, because the Divel endeavouring (contrary to the express will of God) that it might be buried in some open and well-known place, that so the Israelites (who were alwaies too prone to idolatay) might thereby be drawn to give Moses Divine adoration; Deut. 34.6. Michael in zeal to the honour, and obedience to the will of God, opposed the Divel, and contended that the body of Moses should be buried in a seeret place, Vid. Chrysost. Hom. 5 in Mat. August. To. 3. p. 731. Ambr. 2 Offic. c. 7. where no man might know of his Sepulchre. This last is the opinion of most, if not of all Modern Writers both Protestant and Popish, and of sundry of the Antients.
The most think that Satan in his contention aim'd at stirring up the people idolatrously to worship the very dead body of Moses; and some affirm (though I suppose without ground) that after his death his face retained its former shining lustre: and to prevent the idolizing of Moses his very Rod, they conceive, that Moses took it away with him when he went to dye; it being that Rod, [Page 74]whereby he had wrought so many Miracles, and which was called the Rod of God. Others rather think that Satan intended to have put the Israelites upon the idolatrous worshipping of Moses soul or Ghost, by the discovery of his Sepulchre; this opinion seems to me very probable. I know not, that the worshipping the reliques of dead mens bodies, was an idolatry used in those times. I suppose it will not be denyed, but that it was the practice of the Heathens to worship the ghosts or souls of the dead, who in their life time had been eminent for their greatness and beneficence; hence Jupiter, Mercury, Esculap. &c. were counted Deities after their deaths, for that good which their survivers had received from them while living; and Heathens used this their idolatry, by occasion of their having among them the Tombs and Sepulchres of the deceased: Thus the Cretians worshipped Jupiter for their God, whose Sepulchre they boasted that they had among them. And hence Lactantius holily and wittily derides them, Quomodo potest Deus alibi esse vivus, alibi mortuus; alibi babere Templum, alibi Sepulchrum? Lactant. l. 1. c. 11. for honouring a God, who (as they thought) was in one place living, in another place dead; who in one place had a Sepulchre, in another a Temple.
The Roman Emperors after their deaths, were Deifi'd at the burning of their bodies; which being burnt, their souls were worshipp'd by the name of manes; and upon their Sepulchres they engraved these words, To the gods, Dijs manibus. the ghosts or souls of the departed; they blindly believing, that the souls of the departed did reside about, or were present at the places, where their bodies were buried; and these soules of the departed, Heathens were wont to worship and consult with at their graves and Sepulchres; a practice which from heathens was received by the Israelites also Hence we read, Isaiah 65.4. of the idolatrous Jewes, who remained among the graves, and lodged in the monuments, namely, to consult with the spirits of the dead; as is clear from Isaiah 8.19. where the Prophet reproves the people for consulting for the [Page 75]living with the dead; i e. with the souls or ghosts of those who were dead and departed. And at these graves and Sepulchres of the dead, were idolaters wont idolatrously to Feast and Banquet with those sacrifices which they had offered to the honour of the dead. Hence we read, Psalm 106.28. of the great idolatry of the Israelites, in eating the sacrifices of the dead. And this idolatrous custome of seeking to the dead at their Tombs or Sepulchres, the Divel invented, that these deluded idolaters, who expected to consult with dead men, might indeed, and really receive answers from, and so worship him: for though he perswaded his Vassals, that they who were dead, gave them their answers; yet indeed, those answers came from him. And to this practice the Divel might easily have brought these Israelites, could he have obtained the discovery of Moses his Sepulchre; which, containing the remains of so famous a Law-giver, and one so eminent above all the men in the world for acquaintance with God, would in probability upon all exigencies, have drawn idolaters to it, for the adoration of, and consultation with Moses: (especially considering the great and constant need of direction, in which the Israelites stood wh [...]le they were in the Wilderness, for their passage to Canaan;) though▪ indeed the name of Moses was to have been but a stale or stirrup, to have advanced the adoration even of the Divel himself; who, as he was the sole contriver of this idolatry, so would have been pleased most with it, and honoured onely by it; it being as much beyond the power of idolaters or Divels to deal with a true, since dead Moses, as it ever was against the will of Moses, to have any such dealing with them. If it be here objected, that the Israelites did not worship at the Sepulchres of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and the other Patriarchs, and therefore that neither they would have idolatrously worshipped Moses, if they had known the place of his burial. Its answered, that there was far greater likelihood [Page 76]and danger of their idolizing Moses, then any of the fore-mentioned Patriarchs; and that both in regard of the honour that Moses had received from God, and also of that good which the Israelites had received by Moses. 1. In respect of the former, none of the godly Ancestors of the Israelites were so illustrious as was Moses, for working Miracles, and so many renowned performances, both in Aegypt, and after the Israelites came out of it; none by the testimony of truth it self, being like Moses, whom God knew face to face; none who had the reputation of being so frequently and long with God, and of being a Law-giver to the people, and a Mediator between God and them, to fetch them Lawes from God, and to carry their desires again to God; to be taken up (that he might converse with God) to the top of a flaming Mount, the foot whereof no other person might touch upon pain of death; to have a face so gloriously shining, (upon descent from God) as if God had imparted to him a kind of ray of Divinity. In a word, To have God say of him, as he did to, and of Moses, I have made thee a God (a speech (haply) not yet forgotten by Israel) to (so great and puissant a Monarch as) Pharaoh. 2. In respect of the great benefits that God bestowed upon the Israelites by Moses; never did they receive the like by any other Instrument in any age; who ever was there besides Moses, by whom God sent so many miraculous plagues upon their Enemies? by whom (at the holding up of a Rod) he divided the Sea, and sent six hundred thousand men through it dry-shod, and afterward caused it to return upon, and swallow up their Enemies; by whom he split the Rocks into Cups, and gave them water in a scorching Wilderness, and fed them with miraculous showres of bread from heaven, &c. Its therefore probable, that one so eminently honored of God, and beneficial to Israel, as was Moses, had his grave been known, would after his death have been idolatrously worshipped, and [Page 77]perheps too, consulted with, as their guide in the Remainder of their journey into the Land of Canaan. Yea, Haeres. 55. Epiphanius reports, that in Arabia, Moses, for the Miracles wrought by him, was accounted a God, and that there his Image was worship'd.
And whereas it may be said, that the Israelites could not be so blockish as to have worship'd a dead Moses, his mortality being so pregnant a confutation of their idolatry, and his Divinity. Its answered, Idolatry is a sottish sin; Spiritual, as well as Carnal Whoredome, taking away the heart. Its just with God, that they who lay by his rule, should also lay off their own reason. Nor yet would the knowne Zeal of Moses (while living) against such a practice as this, have, in probability, kept the Israelites from this idolatry, had Moses his body been discovered: considering not only their proneness to that sin, and their forgetfulness of holy instruction; but also, for that they might haply impute the unwillingness of Moses to be worship'd in his life time, and while he was among them, rather to his modesty and humility, then to his disallowing of such a practice after his death, when he should be both absent in body, and glorious in soul. In short, needs must that be bad, which that evil one is so violent in contending to have effected; nor certainly, would Satan much have regarded Moses his body, had it not been to do hurt to the Israelites souls; and he who by his subtilty had once before with so much success drawn the people to Idolatry, and almost to destruction, by the company of the Midianitish women, was much more industrious and hopeful, by this means, which had a face of greater plausibility, and would have proved far more hurtful, to have effected the like again.
OBSERVATIONS
1 The opposition between sin and holiness is universal; Observ. 1. they never meet but they fight. This enmity flies higher [Page 78]then men, it reacheth even to Angels also. Its in the heart, between a man and himself: outward between men and men, between men and Angels, between God and both, between Angels and Angels; Holiness and sin are irreconcileable. Their opposition is reciprocal. Holiness can never tamely endure sin, nor sin quietly endure holiness. These antipathies can never be reconcil'd. Such is the opposition between them, that they cannot brook one another, notwithstanding all the plausible and rarely excellent qualifications that may be mixt with either. A Saint cannot love a sinner, nor a sinner a Saint, as such: though either be never so beautiful, Affable, Noble, Learned. The Divel meeting with Holiness, and Michael with sin, though both in an Angel, fight and contend with one another. Its in this case as with the dressing of some meats, though the sauce, the mixtures be never so pleasant, the dressing never so cleanly and skilful; yet if such or such an ingredient be put in, the food wil be loathsome to some stomacks, and will not down. Such a one were a good man (saith a wicked person) were he not so precise, pure: And such a one were an excellent companion, (saith a Saint) were he holy and heavenly. Between the Wolf and the Lamb there is an antipathy of natures. Sir Fr. Bacons N [...] Hist. Their guts (say some) made into Lute-strings, will never sound harmoniously together. If they live quietly (as is prophesied Isai. 11.6) its because the nature of the one is changed. They who act from contrary principles, by contrary rules for contrary ends, must needs thwart one another. The people of God, may hence be both cautioned and comforted. Cautioned, not to expect to be altogether quiet if they will be holy. Their Legacy left them is, in the world to find hatred and trouble. Joh. 16. ult. They must be men of contention, though Angels for their endowments. Cautioned a so they should be, that they leave not their holiness; for then, though mans contending with them should end, [Page 79]yet Gods would begin; and the worlds friendship is bought at too dear a rate, when with the loss of Gods favour. Cautioned lastly, Pax cum viris, bellum cum vi [...]iis. not to hate the person of any under pretence of hating his sin; abhor not the body, but the sore: Zeal must not be destroying, but refining fire. No man is so good, as for all things to be beloved; no man so bad, as for any thing but sin to be hated. The people of God may hence also be comforted; when they meet with most contention from men, it is but what Angels have met with from Divels: nay, what Christ hath met with from men and divels. As Christ is our Captain, so Angels, yea, Archangels are our fellow souldiers, nor shall we any more miscarry, then either. The worlds bad word, is no bad sign. Two things much speak a man; his company that he keeps, and his commendation which he receives. Wicked men cannot speak well of them who cry downe their sin: nor is their discommendation any disgrace.
2 Satan is overmatch'd in his contentions. Observ. 2. Michael an Archangel, a good Angel, contends with him. Although all the Angels are equal by nature, Corpora crassiora & inferiora per subtiliora & potentiora, quodā erdinereguntur; Omniacorpora per spiritum vitae; & spiritus vitae irrationalis, per spiritum vitae rationalem; & spiritus vitae rationalis desertor & peccator, per spiritum vitae rationalem & pium, & justum, & ille per ipsum Deum. Aug. de trin. l. 3. c. 3. and created with equal power, yet was the power of the faln Angels much impaired by, and for their Apostasie; and as the holy Angels exceeded them in other qualifications, so likewise in this of power. Good Angels, though they are not Omnipotent, yet had they not that chaine put upon them, which was put upon the bad, immediately after their fall, whereby they are both restrained from what they would; and oft, from what they can. This subjection of the bad Angels is manifested by Angustine, from that order which God hath placed among the Creatures: The bodies (saith he) which are more gross and inferior, are ruled in a certain order by the more subtle and superior. All bodies are ruled by a spirit of life, and the irrational spirit of life by the rational; and that rational spirit of life which fell and sinn'd, by that rational spirit of life which is holy and righteous; and this holy Spirit [Page 80]by God himselfe. Nor do we ever in Scripture read of any contention between the good and evil Angels, wherein the good had not the victory, Revel. 12.8. The Divel and his Angels fought and prevailed not: Dan. 10. and ver 9. He was cast out unto the earth. The Divel never fights, either himself, or by his Instruments, but he is foyld, but he falls: Besides, the good Angels ever contend for and by a great God, under a glorious and victorious Head and Captain, Jesus Christ; against a cursed, yea, a captivated enemy, who cannot lift up an hand further then the Captain of the good Angels, pleaseth; in a good cause, for the honour of God, and the welfare of the Church; should they ever be foyld, their Captain would lose the most glory. How good is God, to order that the best Creatures should be the strongest! How happy Saints, in that they have, though an invisible, yet an invincible Life-guard, an Army of Angels to pitch their tents about them, Psal. 34.7. whose safety thereby, can be no more then shadowed by mountains of full horses, and Chariots of fire! If any thing do sometimes befall them afflictive to their sense, yet nothing can befal them destructive, nay, not advantageous to their souls. How great is our interest to continue our Guard! These holy Spirits are driven away by our filthy conversation, like Doves that cannot endure noysom places. They will protect none, whose protection drawes not allegiance to their great Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Oh give not the good Angels cause to say of us, as David of Nabal, 1 Sam. 25.21. Surely in vain have we kept all that they have, &c. A man without Angels is not without Divels. Miserable is it for the poor sinner to be like a Lamb in a large place, exposed to the cruelty of the Wolf, in stead of being defended by the care of the Shepherd. Miserable (lastly) is the condition of every enemy of Christ and his Church, who joynes with that Head, and fights under that Leader which is sure to be foyl'd; that walks according [Page 81]to the Prince of the power of the air; that wars against the Angels of God, yea, with him, the God of those Angels. And how can they expect, who have fought for Satan against Michael in their life time, that Michael should contend with Satan for their souls at their deaths?
3. Observ. 3. In all contentions our care should be that our cause be good. Michael contended in a righteous quarrel. Its commonly seen, the hottest contentions are bestowed upon the unholiest causes. Idolaters cry out louder and longer for Diana of the Ephesians, wicked men more strenuously strive for the promoting of the Divels Kingdom, then the Saints do for the advancing of Christs. How loud did Baals Priests cry to their God for help, 1 King. 18 26, 28. and how cruelly did they gash their bodies when the reputation of their dumb and deaf Deity was hazarded! How eager were the men of Ophrah, Judg. 6.28. that Gideon might be put to death for throwing down of the Altar of Baal! But what a shame is it, that blind Zeal should be more eager and active then that which is inlightned! The goodness of that for which we contend, only commends the greatness of our fervor in contending for it. The more fiery and furious a horse is which wants eyes, the more dangerous to himself, and others, is his career. The higher and stronger the winds are which drive the Ship upon the sands and Rocks, the more destructive and inevitable will be the wrack of the Ship. We must first be sure we have a clear, a Scripture-way, and then how sweet and sutable a connexion is it to be fervent in spirit, when serving the Lord? We should mistrust and fear our course is wrong, Rom. 22.11. when we find our hearts most eager and impetuous; and when we are sure our course is right, we should be ashamed that we are so faint and sluggish.
4. Satan contends with the strongest, even with the strongest Angel. Observ. 4. No Excellency can exempt any one from his onsets. He adventured upon Christ himself. The most famous Worthies mentioned in Scripture, Job, Marth. 4. [Page 82]David, Peter, &c. could not escape the Divels encounter. This Serpent set upon our first parents in their innocency. He commonly singles out the Leaders for combate: and they often meet with the sharpest assaults. That Christian which is most Angelical shall find Satan most Diabolical. The Divels malice being most against God, is most against them who have in them most of God: in them he labours to be revenged on him: In the servants he strikes at the Master. And God in Wisdom so orders it, that they who have most strength should be most exercised, to make his graces the more manifested to all Beholders. God was not delighted that Job should be assaulted and tempted, but that thereby Satan should be overcome. And such is the Divels malice, that he will trouble those most in the way, whom he knowes he can least hinder of the end. He contends, though he conquers not. Where he cannot destroy our grace, he will labour to disquiet our peace. Satans assaults are no sign of Gods hatred, nor should they be any occasion of our censures. If we be not so fiercely set upon as others, in stead of censuring them for having no grace at all, let us rather think that they have more then our selves. They whom Satan least troubles, commonly least trouble him. In short, what need have weaklings of watchfulness, when the Divel fears not an Archangel? A weak Christian, when watchful, is in less danger then the strongest when secure. He who sets upon an Angels strength, will not fear humane weakness. If he comes upon those who have nothing to help forward his Conquest, he will come with a courage upon those who bring him weapons. In the best of us there's a strong party for Satan to joyn with all.
5. Observ. 5. The more God advanceth any in gifts and employments, the more Satan molests them. If this Archangel were not (though some think he was) employed about the [Page 83]burying of Moses's body, yet sure we are, he was here employed in contending for God; and that he was a choice, if not the cheifest of all the servants that God kept in this great family of the world; the great minister and messenger of God to perform his masters pleasure in matters of highest concernment. Persons of publick employment are most fiercely assail'd by Satan; they who are set apart to offices, whereby God is most glorified and his Church relieved, are set upon by Satan the enemy of both. We never read that Moses, David, Paul, &c. were molested by the Divel, till they were appointed to be Gods Archangels, (as it were) his Messengers, in delivering, governing, teaching the Church. God never imployes any in service, but 'tis to oppose Satans Kingdome; and the higher their service is, the hotter is the opposition which they make; and whosoever disturbs Satan, sha [...]l be sure to hear of him: the more watchful any one is to do his duty, the more watchful is Satan to do him hurt,: commonly God shewes his servants in their entrance into duty, what they are like to meet with in the continuance thereof; and thereby he gives them such proof of his faithfulness in supporting them, that all the rage of hell afterward shall onely prevent security, not overthrow faith; awaken, not dishearken them: And ever as the servants of God are afflicted, so are they fitted for his service; God is but trayning them to a due expertness in high emploiments. The more any one contends for God, the more let him expect to contend with Satan: They who most stop the divels mouth, least stop his malice: Reckon upon Satans wrath, if thou goest about Gods work; they deceive themselves who expect to be quiet and serviceable at the same time, such groundless apprehensions are but the inlets to apostacy, and make us to forsake our duty, because we cannot perform it with our outward ease. To conclude; Satans opposition should not discourage us from duty, nay we should look upon [Page 84]it is an hopeful sign of the conscionable discharge of our duty. Let us be sure that we are imployed by God in his work; and that we labour to perform it after his mind, and then let us account opposition our encouragement and crown, as being that which almost only meets us in a good Cause.
6 Decent burial belongs to the bodies of the departed. Observ. 6. God himself buried Moses; nay (as most think) the grand Argument whereby Satan disputed with the Archangel, Vid. Jun. in loc. for the publickness of Moses his Sepulcher, was the known fitness of bestowing a comely burial upon the bodies of Gods servants; nor did Michael at all contend that Moses might not be buryed, but that the Divel might not be at the Funeral, or not have the interring of him. Gen. 23. Nature it self teacheth a decency of Burial. The very Heathens readily entertained Abrahams motion to sell him a Burying place; yea, they had it in their own practice; Ver. 6. In the choice of our Sepulchers bury thy dead. And want of burial is so hateful, that some have been more restrained by the fear of not being buryed, Gen. 25.9. Gen. 47.30 Gen. 50.25. then of dying. Abraham was buryed in the same cave with Sarah; after him, Isaak, Jacob, Joseph; there also was Rebecca bestowed. And when the Kings and Judges of Israel are recorded, their Burials with their places are also mentioned; of which there are three ranks, 1 Some deserving ill, only buryed in the City of David (the upper part of Jerusalem, wherein was the Temple and Davids Palace) but not in the Sepulcher of their fathers; thus was Jehoram, 2 Chron. 21.19. Joash, who fell to Idolatry, 2 Chron. 24.16. and Ahaz, 2 Chron. 28.27. 2. Others who were good Kings, were buried in the City of David, and in the Sepulchers of their fathers. And 3. Some of the highest Merit were buryed in the City of David, 2 King. 9.37. in the Sepulchers of their fathers, and in the upper part of the Sepulchers of the Sons of David; as Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 32.33. Nor was it a smal judgment that God inflicted upon Baasha and Jezabel, Jer. 22.19. [Page 85]that they should be buryed in the bellyes of d [...]gs, that Jehoiakim should be buried with the burial of an Ass, drag'd out by the heels, and cast into a ditch; Isal. 14.20. Psal. 63 11. and that the King of Babylon should not be joyned with the Kings in burial. Neither was it a slight imprecation which fell from David, Let them be a portion to Foxes; nor a smal threatning, Jer. 14 16. That the bones of the Kings, Priests and Prophets should be taken out of the grave, and laid open to the Sun and Moon. 2 Sam. 2.5. Hence David highly commended the burying of Saul (though a bad man) for a good work. As of a sore judgement, doth the Church complain, The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fouls of the Heaven, &c. there was none to bury them. Sutable it is, Psal. 139. that so choice and curious a piece of Gods work-manship as mans body, should not be carelesly laid aside; yea, it hath been repaired, redeemed, as well as made by God; Gal. 4.4 5. Eph. 1.1.7. 1 Cor. 6.20. partner in Redemption with the soul, and bought with the precious bloud of Christ. The body also God hath sanctified, it's his Temple. The Oyntment of Sanctification rests not only upon the head (the soul) but diffuseth it self to (the body) the skirts also. 1 Thess 5.23 The chair where the King of Glory hath sate, should not be abused. With the bodies of our deceased friends, we had lately sweet commerce: The body of the wife was lately entertained with dear embracement: The body of our child, a piece of our selves: The body of a dear friend, what was it, but our self divided with a several skin? The body of a faithful Minister, an earthen Conduit-Pipe, whereby God conveyed Spiritual comforts to the soul. The body when living, was a partner with the soul in all her actions; it was the souls brother twin: what could the soul do without it? Whatever was in the understanding, was conveyed by the sense. The soul sees by the bodies eyes, hears by its ears, works by its hands, &c. yea, even now still there is an indissoluble relation between the dust in the grave, and the [Page 86]glorious soul: as the union of Christs dead body to the deity, was not dissolved in the time of its lying in the Sepulcher. Burying places were not (among the Jewes) called the houses of the dead, but of the living. The body is sown, not cast away; it is not dead, but sleepeth. The grave is a bed, and the Church-yards sleeping places. In short, the glory of the bodies future estate, challengeth the honour of burial. All the precious Oyntments bestowed upon the dead of old, had been cast away, had it not been for the hope of a Resurrection. A great Heir that shal hereafter have a rich Inheritance, is regarded, though he be for the present in rags. And this decent burial of the dead, discovers the more then heathenish barbarousness of Papists, who do not only deny, but recal the granting of burial to the dead bodies of the Saints, Paulus Fagius Pet. Martyrs Wife. digging them up again, as they did at Oxford and Cambridg, in Queen Marye's time. Herein worse then heathens, as testifies the greater humanity of allowing Interment, in Alexander to the body of Darius; Hanibal, to that of Marcellus; Caesar to Pompey. The comfort of Saints it is, that the happiness of their s [...]uls, is not confined to the burial of their bodies. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints; Psal. 116.15. Psal. 139.16. who carefully keeps every one of their bones: and as he left not one out of his book when he made them at first, so to be sure, neither shall one be missing when he will remake them; their very bodies being the members of Christ, and part of that lump whereof he was the first fruits. C [...]r. 15.20. To conclude this, the care (yet) of a dead body should not be comparable to that of a [...]ving soul. What profit is it for the body to be embalmed, and entomb'd richly, and the soul to be tormented eternally? As great a folly is the respecting of the vile body, joyned with the neglecting of the precious soul, as for a frantick mother only to lament the loss of the coat of her drowned child. Nor lastly, ought this care of the bodies of [Page 87]the departed, though formerly never so holy, amount to a superstitious reverencing of their Relicks. Some think that the prevention of this sin was the ground of Michaels contention with the Divel. But sure we are, though the divel could not obtain a licence for this sin, of Michael, he hath obtained command for it, Vid. Concil. Trident. S [...]ss. 24 from the Pope. It's hard to name that martyr'd Saint, who hath not left some limb behind him to be adored: to name this folly is to confute it; for besides its Idolatry and derogation from the merits of Christ; it's injurious to the Saints themselves, giving their bodies only insepultam sepulturam, keeping them from their honour of rest, Jer 8.1, 2. and bringing them into the compasse of a condition threatned as a curse. yea Lastly, Isa 18.14, 16. this popish foppery of adoring relicks, is ridiculous. The very Popish Historians tell us, that the bones of the worship'd have prov'd afterwards to be the relicks of theeves and murderers; and common observation proves, that the cross of Christ, the milk of the Virgin, and the relicks of Saints are increased to such a proportion as makes them more the objects of derision then adoration. The best reverence we can give to the departed, is to respect their spiritual relicks, their holy lives and example.
7 Satans aim in every contention, is to draw to sin: Obser. 7. The body of Moses, Satan regarded not any further, then to hurt the souls of the Israelites: All his contentions with Christ, were purposely to win him to sin. If ever Satan desired any thing which was good, yet 'twas after an ill manner, or to a wrong end: He would not contend against your estates, lives, liberties, were it not to get advantage against your souls. As God in all his contentions with us, aimes at the advancing of our holinesse; so Satan propounds this as his end of every contention, the drawing us to wickednesse. He would not have contended against Jobs children, goods, body &c. had he not aim'd to drive him to distrust and impatience. [Page 88]He had not winnowed Job of worldly comforts, but for the winnowing him of his grace; Luke 22, 31. Satan (saith Christ to Peter) hath desir'd to have you, and winnow you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail thee not. The drift of the Divel, was to sift out Peters faith: All the storms he raiseth against godly Ministers and Christians, are not so much against their persons, as to hinder from holy performances: When he casts some into prison, disgraceth, impoverisheth, kils them, his aim in all this is, that he may hinder the doing of good. He will allow all worldly enjoyments, if thereby he may the better accomplish the end of drawing to sin: He is a Spirituall, and a malicious enemy; spirituall, Gratia morsus Diaboli. and therefore spirituall morsels are only suted to his pallat; Grace (like that herb call'd morsus diaboli) is that which he nibbles at; throw him this head over the wall, and with Joab, he will soon raise his siege. He is a soul-adversary, and no blood is so sweet to him as the blood of souls. Give me thy soul (saith he) and keep thou (nay, I'le give thee) thy goods: Our enemies are spirituall wickednesses [...], in heavenlies, Eph. 6.12. i. e. heavenly things. He is a malicious enemy, and well he knows that the greatest hurt he can do, is to take away the greatest good; as he most strikes at the best men, so most at the best things in men; their grace: their soul, he is truly a murderer that aims at the heart. God deals with his people in a way of chastisement, the Divel deals with them for destruction; he contends not to take away our gold, but our God: Its the most diabolical disposition, to endeavour to put people upon sin, not to be willing to be miserable alone; nay not only to be willing to follow, and go along with others to hell, but to make them follow, or go with us; what a true born progeny of hell did those Papists shew themselves, who drew timorous Christians to recant, and then put them to death, that so they might be murderers of soul and body at once? and who [Page 89]daily by the Jesuits (Satans factors) compasse sea and land to make proselites; let it be the greatest fear of every Christian, lest others should be so much as occasioned by them to sin: grieve much when any sin; most, Psal. 69.6. when by thy means; Pray that none may be confounded for thy sake. Our greatest contention should be to advance holinesse; all the good which Satan doth to the body, is to hurt the soul; so all the hurt which any (in place) do to the bodies of others, should be for the good of their souls; as Satans lenitives are poysonous, so our very Corrosives should be Salubrious.
8. Obser. 8. Satan can bring colourable reason for the fowlest practices; even for that which he intended should be the sin, and Idolatrous snare of Israel, he can dispute, and that with an Archangel. It's probable he here argued for the fitnesse of burying Moses's body in a known place, from the eminency of the mans piety and worth, while living; from the great unseemliness, that so faithfull and publick a servant of God should be buried in hugger mugger; what? Psal. 112.6. (might he say) shal not the just be had in everlasting remembrance? Is not an obscure funerall the way to obscure all that ever Moses did, and at once to make the people forget Gods works, with Moses's name? As the worst courses may be coloured over by specious pretences, so ther's none so skilful at this art as Divel; he is an expert logician, and shew'd himself so in this disputation; he can make, as the beautifullest grace, seem deformed, so the most deformed sin, seem beautiful. He puts, as the colour of sin upon grace, so the colour of grace upon sin. Never could the true Samuel have spoken better, then did this counterfeit to Saul at Endor; In the deluding of Saul, he took the help of Samuels prophecy. The Lord hath done even as he spake by mine hand. 1 Sam. 28.17. He often kils men (as David Goliah) with their own sword; he winding himself into them, and them into sin, by that which is the only preservative against sin, the Scripture: He can alledge [Page 90] something good, to hinder from any thing good; he can overthrow duty by duty: he drawes the fairest glove over the blackest hand, and seems to make the worst cause without all danger or absurdity: he had that to say, Mat. 4.6. which the Son of God himself could not refuse; he disputed against him (though fallaciously) with Scripture Arguments, Promissionem obj [...]i [...], conditio [...]m a [...]it. had he had a Psalter, he would have shewn Christ the very place: nor is there any sinner whom he cannot furnish with a Scripture to defend his lust; and such a Scripture as the deluded novice hath neither skill nor will to answer. The truth which Satan speaks, ever tends to destroy truth. In alledging of Scripture, he both colours himself and his motion, and frames himself, according to the disposition of the Parties with whom he deals. He knows the authority of Scripture alway swayes in the School of the Church. Its our safest course, to hold up against Scripture-light, all the plausible Reasons or Scriptures, which Satan brings for any opinion or practice; to ponder, with Prayer, and study, every allegation, and to consider whether in their scope & end, they are not against other direct Scriptures, and the Principles of Religion; for Gods Spirit never alledgeth Scripture, or propounds Arguments, but to lead us into the knowledge, and practice of some truth. This was Moses his rule, Deut. 13.1. to try a false Prophet by his scope. If any Scripture or Reason, be alledged to put us upon sin, though the Text be Gods, yet the gloss and allegation is the Divels.
9. Observ. 9. In dealing with our greatest Adversaries, we must do nothing wilfully, but with the guide of Reason. Michael did not (though he could have done it) here shake off his opponent without answer, or a rational disputation, (though he deserved none;) but to shew, that he did not withstand Satans motion, meerly of a wilful mind, but upon just ground, he answers him, and disputes the case with him. Christ himself did not put off this very Adversary of Michael, Matth. 4. without an answer; and when he refused [Page 91]the most unreasonable request of the sons of Zebedee, he gave a just Reason, Mark 10.40. It is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. Its good, though our Adversaries are stubborn, yet to manifest the ground of all those opinions and practices wherein we oppose them: our courses should be so good, as to deserve to be justified; though our Adversary may so bad, as not to deserve to be answered: and we shall hereby, though not recover him, yet both acquit and quiet our selves, and possibly preserve others from being infected with that sin, which rather our Reason then Resolution, is likely to prevent.
10. Observ. 10 Satan delights to put people upon giving that honour which is onely due to God to something else besides God. He here contends for the Servant against the Master, and for the worship of Moses, against the worship of God.
Satan makes people give that honour to the creature, which is due to God, two wayes. 1. Inwardly, 2. Outwardly. 1 Inwardly. 1. By making people to put their trust and confidence upon something besides God, to make flesh their arm, to put confidence in man, Joh. 31.24. Psal. 20.7. Prov. 3.5. to trust in Horses and Chariots. 2. By making people to set their love and delight upon other things more then God; to love their pleasures more then God, 2 Tim. 3.4. Phil. 3.19. Eph. 5 5. to make gain their godliness, to be idolaters by covetousness, to set their heart on that which was made to set their feet upon. 3. By making them to bestow that fear upon the creature, which is onely due to God; to fear mans threats, more then Gods; and him who onely can kill the body, Isa. 8.13. Isa. 7.2. Isa. 51.12 13. Hos. 5.11. more then him who c [...]n throw both body and soul into hell: to walk willingly after the (though wicked) Commandment.
2. Outwardly, Satan makes people give the honour to the creature, which is due to God, two wayes. 1. By the worshiping that for God, which is not; thus the Heathen worship false gods, Mars, Jupiter, Diana, Dagon, Baal, M [...]loch, Mahomet; and thus Papists give Divine [Page 92]worship to Reliques, stocks, stones, a breaden God. 2. By worshiping God by other means, and after another manner, than he hath appointed. That cannot be Gods worship, which is devised by another, the manner prescribed by himself being refused: the worshipping of God according to mans devises and traditions, shall be as far from acceptation, as ever it was from his institution. He best knows what he loves best.
Nor is it a wonder, that Satan thus opposeth Gods worship, not onely in regard he is an Adversary to God, and strives to break insunder those bands of allegiance, whereby the creature is tyed to the Creator, and to deprive God of his homage; as also because an Adversary to man, whom he endeavours to draw into Gods displeasure; but by the making men to worship thecreature in stead of God, he aimeth to advance his own honour and worship, in the room of Gods. If men come once to be children of disobedience, and sons of Belial, such as will not submit to Gods will, and bear his yoke, Eph. 2.2. John 14.31. 2 Cor. 4.4. Joh. 8.41. Acts 13.10. they walk according to the Prince of the power of the ayre, he is their Father, Prince, God; both in regard of his own usurpation, and their acceptation. In all Divine worship, whatsoever is not performed to God, is performed to the Divel, there being no mean between them in worship; God and Satan divide the world of worshippers, for although in the intention of the worshippers, the Divel be not worshipped, yet worshipped he is, in respect of the invention of the worship, which was Satans devise and appointment; and hence it is, that we meet in Scripture, such frequent mention of the worshipping of Divels. The Gentiles, 1 Cor. 10 20. yea, the Jewes, Psal. 106.37. Lev. 17.7. sacrificed to Divels. And the truth is, Satan his contention that the people might find the way to Moses's Sepulchre, was but that they might lose the way to Gods service, and find the way to his own; as was more fully shewn in the Explication. Oh how lamentable is it, that so bad a Master should have so [Page 93] much service! that he who sheds our blood, should be more willingly and frequently served, then he who shed his own bloud for us! To conclude, if holy Michael here contended, that others might not worship any other than God, let us more contend that we our selves may not do so. If Satan throw us down, yet let us not cast our selves down. We have another, a better Master, his will let us study; the voice of his Word and Spirit let us hear. Be above all those baits where with Satan a lures to the adoring of any thing in stead of Christ. Know nothing great or good but the service of Christ.
11. Observ. 11. Satans great design is to make the holyest persons the greatest occasions of sin. He had much rather that a Moses, who had so zealously opposed Idolatry, should be Idolized, then one who had himself been an Idolater. The Divel loves to wound Religion in the house of her friend, and with her own hands and weapons: to make Cromwell (a Protestant) to sentence a Godly Lambert to death. Oh how it delights him to overcome Scripture by alledging, not of the Alcoran, but the Scripture! And as he here dealt with the body, so he still deals with the Books and Writings of Gods Moses's, the men of God: For as he fain would have made him who was the greatest enemy in the world to Idolatry, while living, to have been the greatest occasion of it, when dead; so still he contends by Hereticks, that they who have been the renowned opposers of Heresie in their life time, should be accounted the greatest Patrons of it when dead. Thus the Papists contend that the Fathers, Augustine, Ambrose &c. are theirs, and for their opinions: Thus the Pelagians of our time, that Augustin, Bucer, Vid. John Goodwin, Sion Colledg vi. sited. Ball, are for free-will. But he much more contends, and had rather that a living, then a dead Moses shoud be a stumbling block to others. If one who is holy, may (thinks he) be useful to me by his dust and relicks, how much more by his falls, his scandals, his corrupt examples? Of [Page 94]all others, let those who fear God, take most heed of giving advantage to Satan. When without their knowledg or consent, they are by Satan, only made advantageous to him, it should be their sorrow; but when they make themselves so, it is their great sin.
12. Observ. 12. The worst persons are oft compelled both to have, and express an high opinion of Gods faithful servants. Even Moses, one who was a great opposer of, and greatly opposed by the Divel, is yet secretly by this cursed enemy, greatly honoured. Yea, the people who in Moses his life time would have ston'd him, would (and Satan knew it too) after his death have Idoliz'd him. Our blessed Lord, when he was murdered by his enemies, was by some of them voiced a Just man; Luke 18.18. Act. 24.25. Mat. 11.19. the young man calls him Good Master; even bloody Herod reverenced the Baptist; and Felix trembles at the preaching of Paul. Wisdome shall sometimes be justified, not only by her children, but even by her sworn enemies. The father of Lies, when he alledgeth Scripture to overthrow it, strongly argues that it is the strongest weapon, and hath greatest power over the conscience. God delights to put a secret honour upon his Saints and wayes, and to make even those who love them not, to praise them. Many lewd livers, strictly enjoyn their children to be more Religious. Every Saint may be encouraged in Holiness. God will often make its greatest opposers to exto [...] it: and when in their words they revile it, in their conferences they shall commend it. The praise of an enemy, is equivalent to an universal good report. In short, Let sinners seriously consider how they can answer this dilemma at the last day, If the wayes and people of God were bad, why did you so much as commend them? if good, why did you not more, imitate them also? If Christ were not a good Master, why did the young man call him so? if he were, why did he not follow him?
13. Observ. 13. The greatest respect that wickedones manifest toward [Page 95]a Godly Moses, is when he is dead. While Moses was living he was in danger of being destroyed; now dead, of being adored by the Israelites. Joram when Elisha was living, opposed him; but when dead, laments over him, in that pathetical speech, My father, 2 Kin [...] 13.14. my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. Saul disobeyes and rejects Samuel when living, but when dead, he with great pains (though no profit) endeavors to recal, to enquire of him. They build and garnish the Sepulchers of the Prophets, when dead, Luke 11.47. whom (living) their fathers (led by the same Spirit) destroyed. God often makes the worth of his servants to be known by the want of them; and shewes when they are gone, that they who in their life time were accounted the plagues and troublers, were indeed the Preservers and Peace makers of Israel. They shall then know (saith Ezekiel, Ezek 33.33.) that they have had a Prophet among them. And its a work of little cost, and of much credit, to extol the dead. The wicked are not troubled and molested in their wayes of sin by departed Saints. Samson could take honey out of that dead Lion, with which he fought when living, and which he slew because it ror'd upon him. The living who rore and lift up their voices against mens sins, and labour to rend them from their corruptions, shall be persecuted; but when dead voiced up (to advance the reputation of those who praise them) for sweet and blessed men of God. The Papists and many common Protestants, who speak highly of Christ, and call him their sweet Saviour, had they lived in his dayes, and heard him preach against their Lusts, would have hated him as much as, nay, more then now they hate those who have but a drop of his fountain of holiness. And indeed, if a Moses, a servant of God in his life time please wicked men, it is commonly because he is too like a dead man, not so quick and lively against their Lusts as he should. Its not the Idolizing, but the imitating of the Saints, that shews our love either to God or them.
[Page 96] This for the second part of this verse, the strife or contention it self. The third followes, viz. the carriage and deportment of the Archangel in this combate. And first to speak thereof as it's set down Negatively, in respect of his inward disposition, so it's said, that he durst not bring a rayling accusation.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here to be considered in the Explication.
1. What it was which Michael did forbear; viz. to bring a rayling accusation.
2 Why it was that he did forbear it? He durst not bring it.
1 [...] per Hebraismum idem valet apud Judam, quod apud Petrum [...]. P [...]scat. in Jud. Jud [...]cium maledicum. P [...]scat. Maledictionis judicium. Be [...]. Execrabile judi [...]ium. Vulg. in Pet. Judicium blasphemiae. Vulg. in Jud. For the first, The thing forborn is here said to be a rayling accusation. The Greek hath [...], an accusation of blasphemie, of rayling; and Peter, 2 Pet. 3.11. calls it, [...], a railing, or blasph mous judgment, or accusation; both places are rendered by these words, railing accusation; a judgement or accusation of railing, by an Hebraism, importing the same in Jude, which a blasphemous judgment, [...]r accusation doth in Peter.
In the opening whereof,
1 I shall shew you what is meant by this [...], here rendred accusation or judgment?
2 What the Apostle intends by a railing accusation, or the railing of the accusation?
3 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that railing accusation from which this holy Angel did here abstain?
1. For the first, the word [...], here translated accusation, properly signifies a sentence or judgment past upon a person, as appears by sundry places of Scripture [Page 97]and therefore this accusation must needs be such a charging of another with some hainous crime, as whereby we judg and sentence him to be guilty of the Crime, and by reason thereof, of punishment: So that here, the Archangel, notwithstanding Satans person, cause, and carriage, were wicked, did forbear to bring any charge against him, whereby he might appear to judge or sentence him as guilty of punishment. Nor do we find in Scripture, (and here in this place the contrary is clearly manifested) though holy Angels were often employed as the Messengers and Ministers of God against the wicked, to withstand them, and to execute upon them Gods judgements, that they at all censured them, but ever they left the judging of them to God; a practice sutable to a gracious person, and acceptable to God, who though he requires publick, yet forbids private judgement. When he calls and ordains any to judge others, and to pass sentence upon them for their offences, 'tis their duty to perform his pleasure, though with the displeasing of any; but when he calls them not, they must not judge others for the pleasing of themselves. Publick Judgment is required by God of Magistrates, for the suppression of Injustice, and the protection of the innocent; but private judgment past upon others, it being without any lawful call from God, meerly out of private revenge and personal hatred, is frequently in Scripture forbidden, and here by Michael forborn. His work was a work of service, not of Judicature. He was fellow creature with this (though evil) Angel, not a fellow Judge with God. Michael and the Divel were now both pleaders before God, and God only was to pass sentence. Michael opposed the practice and attempt of the Divel, and might judge it evil; but he censured not his person, a work which he left to God: though the Divel deserved to be judged for his sin, yet God deserved not to be robbed of his glory; and Michael would not do a work, which God never commissionated [Page 98]him to perform; nor would he to shew his hatred to the Divel, shew himself disobedient to God. God wants not our wickedness to do his own work, nor the beesom of our passion to sweep his house.
For the second, What the Apostle intends by a railing accusation or by this railing here, with the accusation forborn. The word is [...], and signifieth properly, an hurting of ones name by evil speaking; and its used in Scripture, either for evil speaking against God, or the Creature: the first is principally called Blasphemy; which is committed three wayes: 1 When that is attributed to God, which is repugnant to his nature; as to say, that it is possible for God to sin, or that he is corporeal. 2 When that is denyed to God, which to his nature and excellency belongs to him; as Omnipotency, Omniscience, &c. 3 When that is attributed to the creature which is due to God; as to say that any Creature is Omnipotent, created the world, or can forgive sin; a sin which God commanded should be punished with death, Lev. 24.16, 23.
But its here (as in other places) used concerning the Creature, Qui maledicit alteri, hoc ipso judicat eum & condemnat. Estius in loc. Quid aliud est dicere, Iste est fornicator & usurarius, quam dicere, ipse debe [...] esse diaboli. Perald. p. 320. and is most aptly added to the former word, Judgment, or accusation, because both in sinful judgment there is a speaking evil, or a hurting the name of another; and also; in evil speaking, there is a passing of judgment. He that judgeth or sentenceth another, must needs do it for some evil which he layes to his charge; and he who layes that evil to his charge, judgeth him thereby to deserve punishment. And this sin of evil speaking is committed against man, either in his absence, or in his presence.
1. In his absence, so its called detraction and back-biting; of this evil speaking, some reckon six sorts, 1. The publishing of the secret faults of others. 2. The relating of what evil we hear, with increasing and aggravating it. 3. The accusing them of false crimes. [Page 99]4. The denying of those good things which we know either to be in others, or to be done by them in secret. 5. The diminishing of that good which is manifest. 6. The perverting or turning of good spoken by another, into evil. Others reduce all these to three heads: They say the sin of back-biting or detraction is 1. By uttering things against others, which are false and evil: and that first, when we speak evil of them by accusing them for that which we know is false, and which they never did. Thus Ziba spake evil of Mephibosheth, by informing David, that he went not out to meet David, 2 Sam. 16.3 but stayed at home expecting to be made King of Israel. 2 When we speak evil of others upon bare suspicion, slight reports, or any insufficient ground. Thus the Princes of Ammon charged Davids servants with deceit, 2 Sam. 10.3. and caused them to be abused upon suspicion that they were Spies.
2 [...] This sin of Evil speaking by detraction is committed by uttering against others true things after a sinful and evil manner: and that several wayes: As 1 In the way of searching into, and blazing of secret infirmities; uncovering that which ingenuous humanity would conceal, and making the house top a pulpit to preach of what was done in the closet: A tale-bearer revealeth secrets, but a man of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter, Prov. 11.13. 2 When we amplifie the offences of others beyond their due proportion; when for fifty we set down an hundred, and hold spectacles before faults of a smal print, to make them seem greater then they are, representing that as done presumptuously, which was done weakly; or as done unconscionably, which was done carelesly; or as done deliberately, which was done rashly. 3. When we speak good of another, but either lessen or deprave it, as done with a bad intention, in hypocrisie, for bad ends; and so relate the truth, but with wicked, and false insinuations and collections of evil. Thus Doeg spake the truth to Saul concerning David, but [Page 100]falsly insinuated, that David and the Priests conspired against him. 1 Sam. 22.9, 10 4. When in speaking of a thing truly, done or spoken, we destroy the sense, and pervert the meaning, Thus the Jewes spake evil of Christ, when they witnessed against him, that he said, He would destroy the Temple, and build it up againe in three dayes.
3 We may commit this sin of evil speaking against others by detraction, even by others; and that both 1. By suborning those who will accuse and speak evil of them; as Jezabel did against Naboth, and the Jewes against Christ, Act. 6.11. and Stephen. And 2. By receiving of evil reports against them from others, when in stead of driving away a back-biting tongue with an angry countenance, Prov. 25.23. as the North wind driveth away rain, we encourage and cherish evil speakers by our receiving what defamations they bring us, still to steal from the good names of others: when though we set not our neighbours name on fire, yet we stand and gladly warm our hands by it, when we see it set on fire.
2 The sin of evil speaking may be in his presence, 2 or to his face; and then its either meeking or railing. 1 Mocking is when a disgraceful taunt or gird is given to another; [...]. as Gen. 37.19. the brethren of Joseph scoffingly called him Dreamer; the children, 2 King. 2.23. called Elisha, Bald-pate; and so in Babylon, they mock at the Israelites for their Hebrew songs, Psal. 137 2. [...]. Rayling is properly when any sin or wickedness is objected, as Murder, Uncleanness, Sedition: Thus Shimei called David a bloody man, and a man of Belial; and the Heathens called the Christians Incestuous enemies to the State, &c.
The third particular in this first branch, viz. what Michael did forbear to do, is the sinfulness of bringing this Judgment of railing or evil speaking. And this appears,
1. In regard of God. Its a wickedness eminently injurious [Page 101]to him, its strictly prohibited by him, Mat. 7.1. Lev. 19.16. Col. 3.8. Eph. 4.3. James 4.11. Severely threatned & punished. 2 Kin 2.32. 2 Kings 2.23. It audaciously invades the seat and room of God himself, taking his office out of his hands, who is the Judge of heaven and earth: and from our standing before the judgement seat of Christ, the Apostle argues strongly against the judging of others, Rom. 14.10 Judge nothing (saith the Apostle) before the time. 1 Cor. 4.5. And what hath any man to do to judge another mans servant? and when we speak evil a gainst any for his holiness, we most of all speak evil against him who is the Author of that holiness: Yea, this sin of reviling and evil-speaking, is contrary to the course and carriage of God, who approves of the wayes of his people, highly esteems of their graces, accepts and rewards their weak endeavours; he pleads for his Saints, acquits them, answers accusations brought against them, and pronounces a righteous sentence upon them: he cals Nathaneel, a true Israelite; Paul, an Elect vessel, &c.
2. In regard of those who hear these evil speakings. Hearers commonly do both willingly and hurtfully hear others defamed. It damps and destroys in them the love of their Brethren: Its a draught, though of sweet, yet of deadly poyson, given in at the ear: It layes a stumbling-block before the blind, by abusing, and falsly, or unduly informing the ignorant, to whom the defamation is reported. It hath separated chief friends.
3. In regard of the Party who is guilty of evil-speaking: This sin, speaks his madness and folly: so as he may destroy his Neighbours name, he adventures to damn his own soul: so as he may make others think ill of him whom he hat [...]s, he cares not how deeply he himself incurs the wrath of God: so as he may but kill one by defaming hm, he cares not, though in the doing thereof, he destroyes thousands by infecting them. He is like one, who will blow in a heap of dust, though thereby [Page 102]he puts out his own eyes: truly said Solomon, Prov. 10.18. He that uttereth slander is a fool. True Religion cannot consist with such a course. If any man seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that mans Religion is vain. Jam. 1.26. A good man cannot be an evil speaker.
This sin. of evil-speaking, is the disgrace of the evilspeaker. Its a practice of the Old man, unbeseeming and to be layd off by Christians (that profess new life) as sordid rags, Col. 3.8. An evil-speaker is the Divels eldest son, he bears his name; his mouth is the Divels vessel, which he fils with the water of cursing; he is the Divels tooth (dens Diaboli) to bite men; he is a Pedlar, furnisht with wares by the Divel, to vend and put off in the world for him; he scatters perfumes to delight him; Detrectore, Diabolo thurisicant. Pera. d. p. 320. he tels tales to make him merry; he more defiles his own heart and tongue, then his Neighbours name; he is by some not unfitly compared to a Butchers Dog, taught by his Master not to touch the good and choyce pieces of flesh in the shop, but the filthy offal, or any putrified pieces, he greedily and eagerly devours: by others, to Swine, who if, they come into a Garden, in one part whereof, grow a thousand sweetly fragrant flowers, and in a corner whereof, is laid an heap of dung, delight more to be groveling in the dung, then smelling on the flowers; or who go not to the flowers to smel, but to root them up. They rake in the faults and infirmities of others, their graces they abhor as much to observe, as they do to imitate; like Owles, in the dark they see, in the sun-shine they are blind.
This evil speaking is a soul-disquieting sin: it wears out, whets out the heart with vexation. Envy the mother of calumnie is the saw of the soul: an evil speaker is his own scourge. Invidia animae scrra. Miserable is his life, who placeth his content in anothers unhappiness, in stead of his own happiness.
To conclude, it's a God-provoking sin: punish'd frequently in this life by defamations, (a payment in [Page 103]its own coyn) troubles, law-contentious, losse of estate, and often life; as appears in the death of the 42 children, 2 King. 2.23 of Shimei, the leprosie of Miriam &c. He who casts up the stones of reproaches, will crack his own crown. But certainly (without repentance) destructive eternally, excluding from the kingdome of God, 1 Cor. 6.10. God will reprove in his wrath, if we reproach with our words. Psal. 50.19, 20. when we have done with our speech, our speech hath not done with us.
4. In respect of him who is spoken against; evil speaking is a sin of the greatest cruelty; it takes away that which is better then honour, riches, yea life; and such a good which being stolen away, cannot be recompensed, because its worth cannot be estimated: Evil speaking buries the dear and precious name (the throat of the evil speaker being herein an open sepulchre.) At the best, it deals with men as the Ammonites with Davids servants, it takes away half their names, cuts their reputation off at the midst; and commonly, they who are defamed in some one respect, are suspected and slighted upon every occasion; one flie marres the whole pot of ointment. And one defamation wil be sooner believed, though reported but by one never so unworthy of credit, then a commendation, though confirmed by the joynt suffrages of an hundred faithfull witnesses. The reviler lives upon mans flesh and blood, as his meat and drink; nay upon something better, the name being better then life. By a good name many have done good after their deaths; by the losse of it, many have been rendred uselesse while they lived. The former have lived when they were dead; the latter have been dead while they lived. Evil speaking is more cruel then hell, for hell only devoures the bad, but the hell of the tongue the good and bad too.
This for the explication of the first branch, namely what the Archangel did forbear, viz to bring a railing accusation. The second follows to be [Page 104]explain'd, namely why he did forbear it, he durst not bring it. Wherein, two things are to be opened.
1. What is meant by his not daring. 2. Why he was not daring.
1 For the first, The words are [...] in the Original, and the word [...] here expounded by daring, hath a double signification in Scripture; sometimes it signifieth to endure, bear, sustain, or to be able and fit to undertake, undergo such or such a difficulty; and thus it's taken Rom. [...], Mori sustineat. Beza. 5.7. one dare or will endure to dye for a good man: and so the, sense will be this, Michael durst not; that is, could not endure, was not able to give a rayling accusation. But it more frequently signifieth to be bold, or to dare to do, or to adventure upon a businesse, as not being dismaied with any dangers. Thus it is taken, Phil. 1.14. Mark. 15.43. John 21.12. And thus it is to be understood in this place, Jude intending that the Archangel durst not be so bold, or was holily affraid to bring against the Divel a railing accusation. And thus the difference between the seducers and the Archangel (by whose contrary practice, the Apostle aggravates the sin of the seducers) will appear more clear and evident. The Apostle telling us, 2 Pet. 2.10. that these bold libertines were presumptuous, and not afraid to speak evill of Dignities. But the Archangel durst not &c.
2. Why was the Archangel thus far from daring and adventuring? There are three grounds of fear to adventure upon any way, or course propounded to us. 1. A natural desire of our own preservation, causing a dread of any thing which may endanger it: This in it self is no sin, it having been, not onely in the holiest men, but in Jesus Christ himself, who prayed, that if it were possible, the Cup of death might pass from him. 2. That corruption of nature, whereby the creature feareth nothing but the smart of punishment, and shuns it only [Page 105]as it is afflictive to sense, not at all as it is offensive to God; the Party thus fearing, having an heart onely filled with guilt, and self-accusation, and empty of that faith which worketh by love: Thus the Divels believe and tremble.
3. That Principle of grace, whereby persons fear sin as its opposite, and displeasing to God, whom they dare not offend; not onely because he sets himself against sin, but principally, and in the first place, because sin sets it self against God: This was the holy fear of David, Psalm 119.12. My flesh trembleth because of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgements. First he feared God, and then he stood in awe of his judgements. This is indeed to fear sin as Hell, and not onely to fear it for Hell This is that fear commended by Solomon, Prov. 16.6. for causing us to depart from evil; a fear, that proceeds more from sense of duty enjoyned, then of danger threatned; and whereby we more respect Gods will, then our own woe: In a word, a fear which therefore is regardful of Gods wrath, because it proceeds from a faith which reposeth it self on his mercy.
OBSERVATIONS
1. Obser. 1. Purity of affection should accompany Angelical illumination. Michael had the holiness, as well as the wisdome of an Angel: he had not onely ability to dispute, but care to keep from sin in disputing. An head full of knowledge, with a heart forward to sin, agree indeed to an Angel, but tis an Angel of darkness. An Archangel given over to wickedness is an Arch-divel. Great knowledge, without holiness, is but a great tentation; Si velles intelligere ut Angelus, quod non potes, cur non vis velle ut Deus, quod potes? Nieremb. de ador. in sp. & ver. knowledge (saith the Apostle) puffeth up. Sanctity in a Child, is better then all the understanding of Divels. A clean heart, is better then a clear head. If thou desirest (saith one well) to understand like an Angel, why art thou not more desirous to will as doth God. The great Diana of worship in the world, is brain-knowledge, and estimation [Page 106]for an accute and reaching apprehension; whereas holiness is esteemed but as a dull contemptible qualification: but the glory of Michael here in the Text, was to keep himself from sin. Its pity that a good head, and a good heart, should not ever be companions; or that the notional perception of truth, should at any time go along with the practical refusal thereof. Wicked Angels, (or Ministers) who by their Doctrine teach people how to be saved, do by their lives teach God how to damn themselves. If the Lord hath given thee integrity of heart, though thy parts be but mean, bless him, he hath truly shewn thee the more excellent way, afforded thee an angelical excellency.
2. Observ. 2. Its an high commendation then to shun sin, when we are necessitated to converse with sinners. Michael disputes with the Divel, but yet holily, and Angelically. He got no infection from his divellish carriage. The Divel sets upon our blessed Saviour more then once, yet Christ gathered no soil from this unclean spirit. Its a sign of a good constitution, to continue healthful in a bad and infectious ayre. The truth of grace should shew it self, in its care not onely to avoid the company of sinners, but the contagion by sinners: Perhaps we cannot shun the former, yet we should, and by holy watchfulness may, escape the other. If we cannot do the wicked good by conversing with them, we must take heed lest they do us hurt. Its a justly suspected goodness, which can onely hold up in good company: He, who will then be bad, rather overtakes sin, then is overtaken by it; but he who keeps the spark of holiness alive, in the midst of damps, and quench-coals, Psal. 120.5. though he may with holy David bewail his condition in respect of bad company, yet may he withal rejoyce, in the hopes of his own integrity.
3. Observ. 3. Its our duty to learn this Angelical Lesson, of forbearing to bring railing accusations. To this end, 1. Be much and serious in accusing thy sinful self. In this duty [Page 107]tis hard to be severe enough: Put not thy eyes into thy pocket, when thou art alone at home: Its a sign, that they who desire to sacrifice their brethrens names, are (as Pharaoh charged the Israelites) but too idle; I mean, they labour not about their own hearts: every Enemy, by how much the nearer, by so much the more hateful is he to us; our own sins are our nearest, and should be our hatefullest Enemies. 2. Envy not the worth of any: the very word (invidia) envy, may either be derived from looking into, or not looking upon another at all: the envious are guilty of both, they will not look at all upon what is truly excellent; they love to look through and through, when they think they have found any thing culpable; in both respects they are occasioned to be evilspeakers. When they onely are on the dark side of the cloud, its no marvel that they stumble into slanders. 3. Look upon every action of another, with the spectacles of love. The Apostle tels us, that love thinketh, and it is as true, that it speaketh no evil: Malice (we say) never spake well; it ever makes, if it finds not faults, 1 Cor. 13.5. and puts a false gloss, and a wrested interpretation upon the Text of every action; love covers a multitude of faults where they are, malice creates them where they are not. 4. Keep a watch before thy mouth: Pray that thou may [...]st have Gods ayd. Resolve with David, before thou entrest into any company, not to offend with thy tongue: Check thy self, when thou perceivest thy proneness to offend: Return not evil for evil: Being defamed, intreat: Bless, and curse not: Rom. 12.14. 1 Cor. 4.13. Lock the door of thy lips so fast, that the strongest provocation may never be able to pull it open: Strike not the second blow: Let the Ball of contention go down on thine end: In stead of reviling revilers, commit thy cause to him that judgeth righteously: Herein thou followest Christ. When thou hearest another reviled, be as a Stone-wall, when thou hearest thy self reviled, be as a soft Mud-wall; in the former respect, shew thy opposition, in the latter thy [Page 108] patience; in the former carry not the Divel in thine ear; in the latter, carry him not in thy tongue. 5. Deal with anothers good name, as thou wouldst have him deale with thine, if it comes in his way; they who handle the names of others most rudely, are most delicate when they themselves come to be touch'd. But nothing is more just with God, then to suffer others to open their mouths against those, who will open their own against their neighbours.
4. Observ. 4. There is no cowardize in not daring to sin. The lowest of all the holy Angels, hath more magnanimity, then all the presumptuous sinners on earth; yet lo here the chiefest (as some suppose) of all, that heavenly host durst not sin in reviling. True valor stands in the opposing, not in the stooping to sin. It's not magnanimity but madnesse, to damn thy soul, and to fight with the Lord of hosts: Men of greatest courage in Scripture, have ever been most fearfull of sin. David, who had shed the blood of so many thousands, yet waters his bed with tears for his sin: He who had overthrown so many Armies, is himself laid flat by one poor Prophet. Josiah was stout-hearted, and yet tender hearted also. The greatest cowardize, is to yeild thy self a captive to any lust: The audacious swearer is the coward, not he who fears an oath. The world doth ridiculously voice for valorous, even the great pretenders to valour; I mean, bloody duellists, or single combatants: of all sorts of sinners in the world, these are the truest dastards, in being so excessively fearful of reproaches, who, suspecting they shall be pursued by the report of cowardize, fly, they know not whither; even as far as hell, before they dare look back. They who fight with others, are overcome of their own lusts: They who dare not fight with an enemy, either with tongue or hand, for fear of displeasing God, overcome their lust, which is a greater discovery of valour then to vanquish a city. It is not courage, but fool-hardinesse, to go boldly to hell, proceeding [Page 109]from an ignorance of danger; sinners therein being like Americans, who press upon the mouth of the Musquet, because they know not its force.
5. The fear of God is the bridle of sin. Observ. 5 The not daring to sin, is a preservation against sin. This fear stopt the Archangel from giving the Divel, a railing accusation. This holy fear, made him contemn Satans reproaches, and will make any to despise all the difficulties of shame and sorrow, which may be met with, in the way of holiness. The greater fear, expels the less; the fearing of him, who can destroy the soul, abolisheth the fear of them, who can only touch the body. If God be our fear, we shall not fear mans fear; he who feareth God, Isa. 8 13. feareth nothing but him; he had rather be mocked for holiness, then damned for sin; he is not like children, that fear an ugly vizard which cannot hurt them, but fear not the fire that may consume them: he is not such a fool, as to be laughed out of his happiness, and to hazard the losse of his soul, because he will not be mocked. Abraham thought, if the fear of God had been in that place, Gen. 20.11. that they would not have slain him for his wives sake. How (saith Joseph) shall I do this great evil, Gen. 39.9. and sin against God! The fear of God (saith Solomon) is, to hate evill: Prov. 8.13. it causing us, not onely outwardly to abstain from sin, but inwardly to abhor it; not onely binding the hand, but also changing the heart: the fear of man will make us hide, the fear of God even hate sin also. Fear is the daughter of faith, Heb. 11.7. and faith assents to the truth of the word, as promising, and commanding, so threatning. The worth of Gods fear, wil be known to eternity: That which keeps from sin, keeps from the onely evil; they who fear the word, shall not feel the rod. 1 trembled (saith Habakuk) in my self, Hab. 3.16. that I might rest in the day of trouble. If we would not fear with a servile distrustful fear hereafter, Timeamus prudenter, ne timeamus inaniter. Aug. we must fear with an awful child-like fear for the present. If we fear wisely, we shall not fear vainly. In short, we hence learn the [Page 110]true reason of all the wickedness and wo in the world: Had the fear of God been here, sin had not been here, and punishment had been prevented; that which is now wo, had then been watchfulness.
Thus far in this third part of this verse, of the first (the Negative) branch thereof. Durst not bring against him a railing accusation. The second (the Positive) follows, in these words, But said, The Lord rebuke thee.
EXPLICATION.
Two things for the explaining of this second Branch of the third part,
1. What Michael here intends by the Lords rebuking of Satan?
2. Why he useth this imprecation, and desires the Lord would rebuke him?
1. [...], Increpo interminor. Significat increpare cum potestat [...]. & objurgatione im perare, & ab in cepto deterrere. Justinian. in Jud. Increpando imperare & impe rando increpare. Lap. in 3. Zec. Interdicere, & imperare additis minis. Lor. in loc. Divinum imperium efficax. For the first, The word Rebuke, in the Original is [...], the Vulgar renders it imperet, the Lord rule thee. Beza and Erasmus, increpet, the Lord chide or rebuke thee, and the word signifieth both to charge or command, by way of severe commination, or threatning, to prevent disobedience in the commanded; as also (and most properly) to chide or reprehend, so as a servant is rebuked by his Master, who both by his charging with threats, and chiding or rebuking, shewes, as his Authority to command, so his strength and ability to punish, in case the party whom he threats and chides be not deterred from going on in his begun Enterprise. And because the commands, threats, and rebukes of God are not verbal, but efficaciously put forth in their effects; this word [...], here used by Jude, is used by the Evangelist to express the Authority and Power of Christ, in stilling and calming the winds of the sea Matth. 8.26. [...], he rebuked the wind: and in casting the Divel out of the possessed, [...], &c. Mark 9.25. He rebuked the foul spirit; and in healing Simous wives mother of the Feaver, Luke 4.39. [...], He rebuked the [Page 111]feaver. So that this imprecation here used by the Archangel, of rebuking Satan, 1 Presupposeth Satans bold readiness to oppose, and resolution to overthrow the pleasure of God, unless he were hindred by the force of Gods threats and rebukes, and the slavishness of Satans fear, who forbears and gives over any wicked attempt, meerly for fear of punishment, and by a powerful restraint from God. And 2. It more properly intends the Soveraign Authority of God over the highest of wicked creatures, and his power, whereby without any paines, easily, even as by the uttering of a rebuking word, he quels the Divel; yea, the putting forth of his Authority and Power in the curbing and restraining of that his impudent Malignancy, whereby he resisted the will and pleasure of God concerning the body of Moses.
To the second, why Michael in this hot contestation with the Divel, interposed this imprecation, or desire of Gods rebuking him. I answer, hereby he exprest 1 his confidence in, 2. Zeal for, 3. Submissiveness to God.
1. Hereby he would shew his confidence, that God was able to maintain that righteous cause wherein he was now employed, viz. his opposing of Satan; the holy Angel manifesting, that he whose will and pleasure it was that the Sepulcher should be concealed, could easily curb and restrain this evil spirit from accomplishing, though he suffered him to attempt the discovery thereof. His carriage herein agrees to his name; for as his name Michael signified, Who is like, or equal to the Lord; so by saying, The Lord rebuke thee, he exprest that Satans contestations against so great a God, were all but in vain, he being a great and powerful Lord, and the Divel though a wicked and rebellious, yet a weak and timorous slave and underling, the Lord being able to chide all the Divels undertakings and contentions into nothing, even with one word or rebuke of his mouth.
2. Hereby Michael discovered his Zeal for God. [Page 112]Though this holy Angel was not so sinfully hot as to revile Satan, yet was he so holily zealous, as to plead, yea, to imprecate for God. He who was holily patient in his own, was holily impatient in Gods cause and quarrel. He prayes not here in his own, but in Gods behalf, that the foul mouth which had disputed against, and blasphemed the holy God, might by that God be stopt. Angels are zealous for Gods glory. Some think that the name of Seraphim, is therefore given to some of them, for their burning zeal. As God takes the dishonour offered to any of his Angels and Messengers, as offered to himself, so should they more sadly resent the dishonour offered to God, then if it had befaln themselves. Deut. 32.35. Michael here, seeing the Divels carriage impudently derogating from Gods glory, could no longer refrain, but zealously prayes, The Lord rebuke thee.
3. Hereby he shewes his holy and humble submissiveness to God, and forbearance to be his own, or his Adversaries Judge; he remits, and refers revenge to God, desiring that God would take up the controversie: The Lord (saith he) rebuke thee. The holy Angel beseeched God to be Mediator between him and the Divel in this disputation: he knew well that vengeance belonged to God. and therefore he desires that God would deal with him, as seemed best to himself: he repayes not evil for evil, neither in affection, or expression and speech; God being the righteous Judge, he expects the sentence onely from him; who best knew what punishment the Divel deserved, and how to vindicate the glory of his own Name, and from whose hand the Archangel well knew, that the Divel was not able to make an escape. In short, the Divels sinful opposing of Michael, yea, of Gods glory, by contending for the discovery of M [...] ses Sepulchre, was no warrant for Michael to offend God by expressing any undue desire of revenge; he therefore remits the matter to Gods determination, The Lord (saith he) rebuk [...] thee.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Satans forbearance of, Observ. 1 or desisting from any way of wickedness, is purely from Gods threatning rebuke, and h [...] powerful chiding him. The Archangel saith not, The Lord mend, change, reform thee; but, The Lord hinder, stop, and by his power, effectually rebuke thee. Satan may be driven away from some act of sin, by Gods power, not drawn by Gods love; like a Dog, he fears the whip, not leathing that which he is compell'd to leave. The Divel is held in an everlasting bond of sin; he is wedg'd and wedded to sin; He sinneth (as its said, 1 John 3.8) from the beginning; since he began, he never did, nor shall cease from the love, although he may be forced to forbear the outward act of sin: there's in him an utter impotency to any good, nor can he lay down his unholy inclination; he may be curb'd, he shall never be changed: Its ever a torment to him, not a delight, to forbear any wickedness; when he besought Christ not to torment him, Luke 8 28. the torment against which he prayed, was that his ejection out of the possessed, whereby he was hindred from doing that hurt which he desired; it being immediately added by the Evangelist, For he (Christ) had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Satan came to tempt Christ of his own inclination, but he went away by Christs powerful command. He ceased to molest Job, when he had vexed him, as much as he could obtain leave to do: when he gives over any enterprize, he changeth not his nature, but constrainedly leaveth his exercise: he goes, but tis when he can stay no longer, when his Cummission is expired. Every commanded performance or forbearance, is not a sign of grace. That which is incident to the Divel, argues no grace in man. Balaam was forbidden to curse the people of God, and he forbears, but forcedly, against his will. Let not men content themselves with the Divels obedience. To leave sin for fear of hell, may go along with the love of it more then heaven. [Page 114]When Moses's Parents exposed him to the waters, they loved him as much as (or more then) ever. To leave sin for want of a body to commit it, is not to leave our affection to it; the leaving of sin at our death-beds, is seldome true; ever suspicious. God loves a living Christian: any one will be a Christian dying. Duties without, must flow from a gracious forwardness within. Joyn that in thy obedience, which the Divel hath divorced; inward subjection, to outward services. Its one thing to be hindred from, another thing to hate sin. The rebukes of our Superiors, may cause the former, a Principle of inward renovation, can onely produce the later. More of this in my former part, p. 491, 492, 497.
2. Observ. 2. Gods power limits Satans. Though the will of Satan shall never be changed, yet his power is by God often curbed, when he is most violently running on in any way of opposition to God or man, God can stop, and chide him back; of this also par. 1.442, 447. With what an holy fearlesness may the godly go on in duty! The wicked are willingly serviceable to a Master, who cannot protect them from Gods wrath: Oh let us serve him chearfully, who is able and willing to keep us from the Divels rage; we see likewise to whom we owe our preservation, onely to him, who rebukes Divels.
3. Observ. 3. How easily doth God prevail over his greatest Enemies! Tis but (as it were) a chiding, and rebuking them, and even in their greatest fury, they are mute, and dare not, cannot quetch: what more easie, then for a Master to give a word of rebuke? a word of Gods mouth, is enough to make the Divels tremble; they are all underlings to God, they are before him as nothing: the greatest mountain of worldly strength and opposition, shall be before God but a mountain of chaff. If God do but ari [...]e, Psalm 68.1 Psalm 2.4. his Enemies are scattered; yea, he who sits in heaven, shall ha [...]e them in derision; he derides them sitting: the fire doth not so easily consume the stubble, [Page 115]the wind dissipate the smoak, the Rod of iron break in pieces a Potters vessel, as God overthrowes his Enemies. With a word did God make the creature, with a word he moves it, with a word he stops it, with a word he destroys it; in all these, Psal. 142.15. his word (as the Psalmist speaks) runneth very swiftly. How vain are they who think that worldly greatness, their wealth, their strength, their youth, can shield them from the stroke of Gods power, whetted with his wrath! The sithe can get as well through the green grass, as the dry stubble: He who hath but faith enough to believe himself a creature, may be caution'd against Security in sin: The most glistring Monarch, is but a gilded potsherd; in nothing so mad, as to think it self safe, in contending with its maker; nor is it a less excusable folly, to be swallowed up of fear, by reason of the worldly greatness of any of Gods Enemies. Who art thou that art afraid of man that shall dye, and the Son of man, that shall be made as grass, Isa. 51.12. and forgettest the Lord thy Maker? At the rebuke of God, his, and our Enemies shall flee and fall. How great is that folly, whereby men sleight the great God, and fear a silly worm! All the peace and forbearance that God expresseth towards his Enemies, proceeds not from his want of power, but from the greatness of his patience; a strong inducement to us, who are weak worms, to be patient under injuries, which we cannot repel; since God is so full of forbearance, who is both infinitely provoked by, and infinitely powerful to be avenged of his strongest Enemies.
4. The holiest persons, Observ. 4. are most offended with practices that oppose Gods glory. When Satan dishonours God, the holy Angel cannot refrain from praying that God would rebuke him. Michael doth not onely dispute for God, but he desires God to plead for himself: It would have been below Michael, to have been affected with any thing a creature should have said or done, unless the honour of God had been concerned; nothing [Page 116]is little, whereby Gods Name, or mans soul suffers. The more any one knows the excellencies in God, or hath tasted of the love of God, the less can he endure any thing either done or said against God. Angels, who continually behold the beauty of Gods face, do most abhor that which doth blemish, disparage it. These sons of God, endure not any thing whereby the honour of their Father suffers. Heaven it self would be no heaven to those glorious Spirits, should they be constrained to behold Gods name polluted. No meer man ever had on earth, so clear a glympse of Gods glory as had Moses; nor was ever any so holily impatient, when he apprehended a blemish to be cast upon it. The broken Tables, the Israelites, which this meekest of men caused to be put to the sword, yea, his request that himself might be blotted out of the book of life, rather then any blot should be cast upon Gods honour, sufficiently prove, that he who touch'd it, touch'd the apple of his eye. How unlike to Angels are they who put up no injuries with such a tame contentedness, as those which are offered to Gods name! who never say to any, The Lord rebuke you, but to those who dishonor themselves? yea, are ready to rebuke themselves, whensoever they stumble upon any act of Zeal. Surely, the fire of such mens Zeal is not Angelical and heavenly; but culinary and smoaky. What likelihood that they shall ever inhabit the place, that are such strangers to the disposition of Angels?
5. Observ. 5. Its unsutable to a gracious temper to recompence evil for evil. Michael here commits his cause, and remits revenge to God; sutable to whose carriage is the command of Scripture against private revenge, Prov. 20.22. Say not thou, I will recompence evil; and Prov. 24.29. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work: And Rom. 12.17. Recompence to no man evil for evil: and ver. 19. Avenge not your selves, but rather give place to [Page 117]wrath. Revenge opposeth the mind of God; and it both disturbs and expels the Spirit which would abide in the soul, and is the Spirit of Peace and Dove-like Meekness; and lets in, and gives place to the Divel, who is the father and furtherer of War and revenge. It divesteth God of his Office; God alone knowes how to punish our enemies without passion and inequality: It makes him, in stead of a Judge, only an Executioner: It takes the sword out of Gods hand, and drives him from his dominion. What difference makes it between the party pr [...]voking and provoked, save that the last is last in the offence against God? both are equally displeasing to him, whose Law is by both broken; and supposing that our enemy hath deserved to be hated, why hath God deserved to be disobeyed? Nor doth revenge less oppose our own welfare, then Gods pleasure. The Divel by this sin bereaves a man of his reason, and (like a bird of prey, which seizing upon a dead Carkass, first pecks out its eyes) he blinds his understanding, and then leads him into what wickedness he pleaseth. By revenge we lose all that good which we might get, even by injuries. Holy patience turnes every injury thrown at us, into a precious stone, and makes it an addition to our Crown. Qui injuriam patitur, magis dolere debet de peccato injuriantis, quam de injuriâ sibi allatâ. He who hath received an injury, if wise to improve it, hath received a fauour, a reward; and its against the rule of Justice to return evil for good. What madness is it, because our enemy hath done us wrong, to do our selves more? because he hath hurt our bodies, to damn our souls? that we may kill our enemies Ass (his body) to kill our selves? that we may tear his garment [...] to lose our own lives? What unmanly folly is it to hate those in their sickness, or madness, whom we love in their health? to hate those wronging us, whom we would love when they do us good? When our enemies are most unkind, they shew more distemper in themselves, then they do hatred to us; and therefore deserve more pity, then opposition. [Page 118]What greater cruelty then to cut and wound one who is dead, I mean Spiritually? What more ridiculous, then because one hath taken a way something from us, therefore to throw away all that is left behind? because he hath stoln away our Cloak, or twenty Pounds, therefore to throw our coat, or whole Inheritance into the sea? When one hath taken from us the cloak of our good name, Ridiculum est, odio nocentis innocentiam perdere. Senec. or a little of our worldly estate, how wild a folly is it therefore to throw away by revenge, the beautiful garment of our Innocency; yea, the inheritance of Heaven? Its ridiculous, for the hatred of him that hurt us, to cast away that which never hurt, will alwayes be helpful to us; and because we are bereaved of something which we had, our goods, therefore to throw away all we are, our souls. What madness comparable to that, whereby in our prayers, we daily powre forth curses against, in stead of requests for our selves? Who would not think him weary of his life, who being struck by one whom he knowes to be full of Leprosie and Plague sores, will spend his time in grapling and contending with him again? None can avenge himself upon another without Spiritual defilement and Infection; and (which is most inexcusable) that malice for which he is so much enraged against another, he loves in himself. The empty, transitory, though reproachful expression of his brother, he layes to heart; but the sword of revenge, with which the Divel endeavours to kill him, he contemns and disregards. In a word, what temper is more childish then that of revenge, whereby like children, men desire and delight to strike that thing which hurt them? Its folly to beat the Instrument which wounded us; our wisdome it is, to labour that the wound which is given us may be healed and sanctified: Yea, there is more of brutishness then manliness, when we are kick'd to kick again. Nothing more honours a man then the overcoming of revenge. He who can master his own revengeful heart, hath a spirit [Page 119]truly noble, and fit to govern others. Upon Davids sparing of Saul, wisely did Saul say thus to David, The Lord hath delivered me into thy hands, 1 Sam. 24.18, 20 and thou killedst me not: And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt be King. He only hath something supernatural in Charity, who requites evil with good, who loves his enemies, doth good to them that hate him, wearyeth them with patience, and writes after a heavenly Copy, Matth. 5.14. More of this Part 1. pag. 131, 132.
6. Observ. ult. The consideration of our having a God to whom we may commit our cause, is the best meanes to make us patient under wrongs. Michael was a servant to a great Lord, and to him he appeals, and layes the controversie before him: The Lord rebuke thee. There would be more bearing in the world, were there more believing. Did we look more upon him that is Invisible, we should less regard the evils which we see and feel: Walk before me, (saith God to Abraham) and be perfect. Nothing, either of pleasure or pain, will seem great to him, in whose eye there is this great Lord. The greatest prop in opposition is to have a God to fly unto. The greatest loss for him, shall be made up (again) by him. When David considered that God was his portion, Psal. 16.4, 5. he abhorred to go to other Subterfuges. They who believe they have a God to right them, will not wrong themselves so much as to revenge their own wrongs. God (they know) will do it, as more equally, so more beneficially: And the true reason, why there is no more willingness either to forbear any sin, or to bear any sorrow, is because we think not of this great Lord, so as either to fear, or trust him. They who can call God Father, may with Christ pray concerning their enemies, Forgive them. They who can see heaven opened, and Christ at the right hand, pleading for them, may with Steven, [...]ead for their enemies, and pray, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
IN this verse, our Apostle accommodates and applies the comparison of Michael the Archangel; or further shewes wherein the holy and humble carriage of Michael, did make the sin of these Seducers appear more sinful and abomnable. The Angel was a Creature, not only of the greatest created Might and Power, but also of Wisdom and Understanding, and knew what the Divel was, name [...]y, a wicked Creature, and destined by God to eternal perdition; accurately also he understood, that the cause wherein he contended with the Divel, was Just and righteous; he knowing the pleasure and will of God concerning the hiding of Moses his Sepulcher; but these (saith he) speak evil of what (persons and things) they know not; are outragious though ignorant▪ active, though blind. And this want of due wisdom and understanding, in not knowing what they spake against, the Apostle illustrates, by shewing what that kind of knowledg was which was left in these Seducers; namely, such as was meerly brutish and sensual, and such as whereby they corrupted themselves: so that, as they sinned in what they hated and opposed, because they knew it not; so likewise they sinned in what they embraced and loved, because they knew it, but after a natural, beastly manner; viz. for the fatisfying of their sensitive appetites: and our Apostle doth with admirable Artifice subjoyn this second, their natural brutish knowledg, to the former, their ignorance; because thereby he amplifies most wisely both those sins mentioned in ver. 8. viz. their defiling the flesh, and despising of dominions: though (as Junius notes) by a hysteron proteron, he amplifies the latter, their despising of dominion, in the first place.
[Page 121] The words contain principally these two parts: 1. The malicious ignorance of these seducers, in speaking evil of what they knew not. 2. Their sensual knowledge, in corrupting themselves in those things which (like bruit beasts) they knew. In the former they shewed themselves no Christians, in the latter scarce men.
1. Their malicious ignorance, in these words, These speak evil of those things which they know not. Wherein I consider, 1. Their act, [...], They speak evil, or blaspheme. 2. The object of which they speak evil, and which they blaspheme: Those things which they know not. To the first of these I have before on verse 8, and verse 9, spoken. Of the latter now.
EXPLICATION.
Three things here are to be opened.
1. What the things are which these seducers are here said not to know.
2. What kind of ignorance, or not knowing of those things it was▪ wherewith they are here charged.
3. Wherein appears this sin of speaking evil of those things which they knew not.
For the first of these. Some conceive (as Oecumenius and others) that the things of which these seducers were ignorant, and spake evil, were sundry Doctrines, and points of faith, and mysteries of Christian Religion. The Doctrines of Christianity surpass'd their Reason, nor could they be perceived by the power of nature. These seducers were such, as were ever learning, 1 Tim. 3.7. 1 Tim. 1.7. Mat. 15.14. Mat. 22.24. and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth: and having swerved from the faith, turned aside to vain jangling, and desiring to be Teachers of the Law, understood not what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. They were blind leaders of the blind, not knowing the Scriptures. In a word, They consented not to wholsome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4. and to the Doctrine which is according to godliness, but were proud, knowing nothing, but [Page 122]doting about questions and strife of words, &c. And particularly, they were ignorant of that main fundamental Gospel truth, viz: that the grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness; they holding, that they were by that grace, freed from all holiness of life, and that all were thereby left at liberty to live as they pleas'd; so that their lusts (like the dust) put out the eyes of their understanding.
2. Others conceive more probably, that though the Apostle here useth an indefinite expression, in saying [...], those things, yet that he here intends principally, that these seducers were ignorant of the nature, institution, and end of that dominion, those dignities which they so much despised and reviled, verse 8. that they knew not, that Magistracy was appointed by God, and that to continue, even in the time of the Gospel, notwithstanding the liberty which Christ hath purchased for us: In short, that they were ignorant of the great utility and beneficialness of Civil Government, in, and to the world; that it defends justice, opposeth vice, preserves publique peace, relieves the oppressed, and is that Tree, under the shadow whereof we quietly, and safely sit, and are sheltered.
2. 2 For the second, What kind of ignorance it was, with which the Apostle here chargeth the Seducers. There are three sorts of ignorance. 1. An happy and profitable ignorance, viz. not to know those things, the knowledge whereof proves hurtful; thus it had been good for Adam, not to have known evil experimentally. It had been good for the Jewes, if they had never known the corrupt and idolatrous fashions of the Heathens; and in some respect, 2 Pet. 2.21. it had been good for Apostates, if they had never known the way of righteousness. 2. There is a knowledge of meer and simple negation; as Christ knew not the day of judgement, and as illiterate Mechanicks, know not sundry Arts and Sciences, as Physick, Astronomy, and this is without sin. 3. There is an ignorance [Page 123] of evil dosposition, and this is twofold. 1. Of frailty, when we are ignorant, and naturally indisposed to the knowledge of those things which we ought to know; but yet we are holily sorrowful for it, mourn under it, and pray against it. Thus even the godly are ignorant. 2. Ignorance of evil disposition may be supine, gross, or affected; when men like themselves well enough in their ignorance, and their ignorance in in themselves; and this is not only non profligata, an ignorance not fought against and opposed, but also affectata, affected and loved, by men who refuse instruction, that so they may sin the more freely, and prosecute evil the more without controlement. This sort of ignorance, is not barely nescire, a nescience, Non est consequens, ut continuò erret, quisquis aliquid nescit; sed quisquis se existimat scire quod nescit. Aug. c. 17. Enchir. Psal. 82.5. Isa. 44.18. and not knowing either of the things which we are injoyned & bound to know; but a nolle soire, a conceited, contracted, contented ignorance, which thinks it knows what it knows not, and desires to unlearn what it knows; the former is the cause of sin, but of the latter, sin is the cause; that ignorance, whereby men desire not the knowledge of the wayes of God, know not (as the Psalmist speaks) nor will understand, but walk on in darkness. In brief, this ignorance wherewith our Apostle chargeth these seducers, is not onely that quâ nesciunt, whereby they discern not; but quâ respuunt, whereby they despise things needful to be known; approve not the things that are excellent, delight in error, quarrel with, and resist the truth, and (as Peter speaks of this very sort of men) are willingly ignorant. Rom. 1.28. 2 Pet. 3.5. the Heathen are said not to like to acknowledge God; their blindness was natural, and they did also voluntarily chuse their superstition, before the knowledge of God.
3. Briefly for the third, 3 Wherein appears the sinfulness of their speaking evil of those things which they knew not.
1. Its a sin discovering the grossest folly. Not to understand, is a mans infirmity, but to speak what, and [Page 124]evilly of what he understands not, is his folly. If folly be discovered in speaking much, even of what we know; more is it manifested in speaking any thing of what we know not. If an ignorant speaker, much more is an ignorant reviler his own Enemy; he shoots up arrows, which for ought he knows, may fall upon his own pate; he speaks that in his fury, which he cannot unsay, and for which he may be undone in his sobriety: He that answereth a matter before he hears it, Prov. 18.13. Prov. 16.23. it is a folly and a shame unto him. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth.
2. To speak evil of what we know not, is greatest injustice. If he speaks unjustly, who utters what is good and just, in a cause which he knows not, because its more by hap (as they say) then by honesty; how much greater is his injustice, who speaks that which is evil and unjust, of what he knows not. Its unjust to speak evil of any, (without a call) though we do know it; much more when we do not know it. How unequal is it, that another should suffer for my ignorance, much more from my self! its the happiness of him who suffers, but the sin of him who offers the injury, that the former hath no fault, but the ignorance of the latter. Though David will ever be reckoned among good men, yet his act of ignorant censuring Mophibosheth, (unheard Mephibosheth!) will ever be reckoned among his unjust actions. The like may be said of Potiphars doing evil to Joseph, before he knew his cause; and Elie's censuring of Hanna for drunkenness, before he heard her.
3. To speak evil of what we know not, argues the height of malice; he may be malicious, who speaks the evil he knows; much more he, who utters that which he knowes not. Its from want of love, to discover the sin we find in another, but its the excess of malice, to make that sin, which we could not finde. If love makes us believe that good, 1 Cor. 13.7 which we know not in another; then must it be malice, which makes us believe and report that evil, of which we are ignorant. To conclude, Its a malitious [Page 125] rejoycing in evil, to delight in uttering an evil, 1 Cor. 13.6. which we really behold in another: But how great a pleasure doth he take in anothers evil, who rejoyceth in his very fancying, and imagining of that evil against another, which he frames in his own thoughts!
4. To speak evil of what we know not, discovers impudency in wickedness, and a sinful immodesty, as well as maliciousness: such an evil speaking, argues that a man hath sin'd away shame, as well as love: What greater impudency, then for a man to outface at once the common observation of hearers, who haply can contradict foolish slander, and also the danger that false accusation incurs among men; yea, conscience checking, and representing God himself, both observing and threatning ignorant and evil speaking.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. None are so ready to speak as the ignorant. Observ. 1. They who know least, speak most, and oftenest. In multiloquinm, stultiloquium Eceles. 10.14. and 5.3. A fool is hardly discerned, when silent; his picture is best taken, when he is speaking; If he holds his peace, he is accounted wise; he is (by Solomon) called, a prating fool: A sool, saith he, is full of words, and is known thereby; empty vessels sound. A wise man hath something to do before he speaks, and besides speaking; namely, to consider, and let down the Bucket of his tongue, into the Well of his reason, before he pour forth words. A fools work is onely to speak, no wonder then if he doth it with greater speed then a wiser person; and if he (like Jacob, in his hasty providing of meat for his father) more suddenly presents the Hearer with a kid of the Goats, then another shall with Venison; and more easily brings what comes next hand, and is at the tongues end, then another doth that for which he hath laboured: and yet deluded Hearers, to whom such a Present of empty words is tendred, commonly (like blind Isaac) bless, and applaud the bringers thereof, sooner, and more then [Page 126]those, whose words are more weighty, and prepared with greater pains. Their backwardness to learn of others, hath made them so forward to teach others; and because they were fruitless Scholars, they are forward, and fruitless Teachers: And yet these empty speakers, so as they may be commended by the ignorant for knowing, Ja [...]. 1.19. 2 Sam. 18.22. [...]. Inter proverbia Nazianani. In dolio discere fig [...]inam. 1 Tun. 3.2. 1 Tim. 4 13. care not though they be condemned by those who are knowing, for ignorant. Its good counsel of the Apostle, to be slow to speak, and to take heed of coveting (with Ahimaas) to be Messengers, before we have tydings ready; and with the empty and ambitious Bramble, of desiring to be erected over others, as their instructers, when, having never been instructed, we can administer nothing to the Hearer, but fruitless words, empty leaves, and unsavory discourses. The faulty in this kind, may well give good measure, for they give but had weight, and may sell that cheap, which costs them nothing. Its inverted order, to be Teachers before we are Scholars. The Apostle commands that a Bishop be not [...] only, a Teacher; but [...], fit, or meet, or apt to teach; and that he attend to reading, as well as speaking. As without the blessing of God, no means are prevalent; so without the use of means, no blessing can be expected. Its only sutable, that his tongue should be the pen of a ready writer, whose heart hath first been enditing a good matter. Psal 45.1. Nor should the Hearer be less careful to discern, then the Speaker is to indite a good matter. How few Hearers have we, that can yet difference between matter and words; it sufficeth the most, if the hour be fill'd up with an empty noyse, without any solid instruction; how rare is it to find (though we run to and fro in the streets of London) a man (I mean) in understanding. Prov. 18.15.
2. Observ. 2. Ignorance is the cause of opposing the wayes of God. [ They speak evil (saith the Apostle) of those things which they know not.] The opposing and crucifying of Christ himself, proceeded from ignorance: Had they known, [Page 127](saith the Apostle) they would not have crucifyed the Lord of glory. 1 Cor. 2 8. I wot that through ignorance (saith Peter to the Jewes) ye did it, speaking concerning the killing the Prince of Life, Acts 3.15, 17. Christ himself testifies of his Murderers, that they knew not what they did. And these things (saith Christ, speaking of the unkindness and cruelties of sinners against his servants) will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me, John 16.3. John 4.10. If thou knewest (saith Christ to that pore Samaritane) the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me drink, then wouldest thou have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The reason why those prophane ones refused Gods service, Job 21.14, 15. and asked what profit, they should have if they prayed to him, is plainly implyed to be their ignorance; they desired not the knowledge of his wayes, and Who (say they) is the Almighty? &c. The reason why the Heathen did not call upon God, Psalm 79.6. is said to be this, they knew him not. Rom. 3.11. There is none that understandeth, that seeketh after God. Ignorance made the Gentiles strangers from the life of God, Eph. 4.18. Its a sin which never went single, it ever walks in company, and is an inlet to all impiety. Although the prayer of Christ for his ignorant Enemies, shew'd that God might take occasion from their ignorance to forgive them; yet doth it also plainly imply, that the sin to be forgiven them, took its rise from their ignorance, their doing, was from their not knowing what they did. An unregenerate mans practice is, Insipientes in peccato intelligentes in supplicio. a fashioning himself according to lusts in his ignorance, 1 Pet. 1.14.
Did men either see the deformity of sin, or the beauty of holiness, they would neither delight in the former, nor dislike the latter: when there is no knowledge of God in the land, there's neither truth, nor mercy, Hos. 4 1.2. but swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, &c. The foundation of obedience, must be laid in knowledge, which (in a sort) is the root of other graces, [Page 128]2 Pet. 1, 2. Grace be multiplyed unto you, through the knowledge of God. See also ver. 3. The will and affections, are led by the understanding, which sits at the stern in the soul: all the sins of the people, are called errors, Heb. 9 7. As Eve, so others since, are drawn to sin, by being deceived, 1. Tim. 2.14.
The first work of grace, is to reform the understanding, Rom. 12.2. Be ye changed, by the renewing of your mind. And Col. 3.10. The new man is renewed in knowledge. The imaginationsand thoughts of the mind, are by the Apostle called (2 Cor. 10.4, 5.) those strong holds, and high things exalted against the knowledg, and to be subdued to the obedience of Christ. How dangerous then is ignorance! He who wanteth the right knowledge of God, is still under the dominion of Satan, who is called, Eph. 6.12. the Ruler of the darkness of this world. This Ruler of darkness, takes up his Throne in dark hearts; none are turned off the Ladder, but such whom he first blinds. I send thee (saith Christ to Paul) to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Acts 26.18. Ignorance is the beaten path to hell, My people perish for want of knowledge, Hos. 4.6. Whomsoever God will have to be saved, he will bring to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2.4. They who have not known Gods wayes, P [...]al. 95.10, 11 shall never (if we may believe God swearing) enter into his rest. Foolish are they who boast of their good minds and meanings, Concerning Knowledg, s [...]e Part 1. p. 383, 384. and yet continue ignorant; Without knowledge, the mind is not good. Prov. 19.2. Many cry up practice and good meaning, to cry down knowledge; ignorant devotion, is but feet without eyes, which the farther and faster they carry us, the greater is our deviation and danger.
To conclude this point: How excellent is every way of God, of which onely ignorant ones speak evil! besides the ignorant, heavenly learning hath no Enemy. Thre's none who know it, (as we say of some men) but love it: All the children of wisdom justifie her, Matth. 11.19 nor was she ever [Page 129]condemned, but by those who never would hear what she could say for her self. How patient should every Saint be under all the reproaches which they meet with for holiness, from blind sinners, whose tongues are in this no slander! A blind man cannot judg of colours. Much more deserve they our pity and prayers for their want of eyes, then our wrath for their abusing their tongues. Let all our revenge be, to labour to make them know and speak better. He who strikes his friend in the dark, will be most offended with himself when the light discovers his mistaken unkindness.
3. How great is the sin of speaking evil of those things, Observ. 3 the worth whereof we do know! If to speak ignorantly and evilly against what is good, be a sin; then to speak knowingly and evilly against it, must needs be a greater sin. If they may sin who think they do God service in speaking against a person; how heinous is their sin, who know that they do God dis-service, and the Divel service in such speaking? All sin against Light, especially reviling against Light, borders upon the sin against the Holy Ghost, and adventures to make too near an approach unto it. To speak evil even of what is not good, may be bad; to speak evil of what is good, is worse; to speak evil of what is good, though we know it to be so, is much worse, and within one step of speaking evil against it, because we know it to be so. Such sins more stupifie and benumb the conscience then do others, and keep it from sensibleness; and therefore it will want a deeper wound (and possibly such an one as shall never be cured) to make it sensible. How deservedly solicitous therefore was holy David in his Prayer, Psal. 19.13. to be kept from sins of Contumacy and Presumption! sins, which as they are more ordinarily committed in dayes of light and much knowledg, so can they not be committed at so easie and cheap a rate, as may those which are caused by ignorance.
[Page 130] 4. Observ. 4. We should speak against known evils, and for what we know to be good. If the wicked fear not to speak evil of the good which they know not, how unsutable is it for Saints to be afraid to speak against those evils which they know to be such? As it is a sinful forwardness to speak, at any time, of the things which we know not; so its (oft) sinful backwardness, not to speak the things which we do know: Knowing (saith the Apostle) the terror of the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.11. we perswade men. We speak that we do know, and testifie that we have seen, saith Christ, Joh. 3.11. Shall not sinners forbear to revile holiness, and shall others refrain to withstand impiety? How inexcusable is it, that ignorance should be more active in a wrong, then knowledg in a right way! When men oppose holiness, they fight without eyes; and shall light produce luke-warmness? What a shame is it, that Satan should have more Confessors and Martyrs, then Jesus Christ! If sin and error fears no colours, and covets no corners, should Grace and Truth do either? the fool hardiness of sinners, may justly reprove the faintness of Saints. Its our duty to be valiant for the Truth, and to give the glory of God reparations (as it were) by wiping off the blemishes cast upon it by foolish and ignorant men. When we have upon grounded deliberation chosen our Love, we should zealously express the love of our choice. Sinners (as they say of young mens thoughts of old) think that Saints are foolish, but Saints know that sinners are so. Let not their prosecution of sin, be more zealous then thy reprehension of it▪ nor their opposition of any way of God be more hot then thy contention for it: Let thy fire have more purity then theirs, but let it not be inferior in its fervor. The Christians Serpent must not devour his Dove. How good a Master do the godly serve, who requires no duty but such as he warrants in, and rewards after the doing! Satans servants are scepticks, and he puts them upon such imployments, in the doing whereof they [Page 131]cannot know they do well; and afterward they shall know they have done ill, and that to their cost.
5. Corrupt affections blear and darken the judgement. Observ. 3. These Seducers hated the wayes of God, and deilghted to oppose them; and therefore they did not, would not know them. He who will be disobedient in heart, shall soon have a dull head. They who love sin, will leave the Truth. Lust opposeth the entrance of the Light. Repentance makes men acknowledg the Truth, 2 Tim. 2.25. Every one who doth evil, hateth the light, John 3.20. Men love not to study such Truths as will hinder them (being known) from going on in some gainful wickedness. Its from unrighteousness, that men imprison Truths. They who thought the believing of the Resurrection would hinder their course in sin, Prov. 28.5. taught that the Resurrection was past, 2 Tim. 2.18. Lust perverts Light, and makes men, in stead of bringing their hearts and lives to the Scripture, to bring, to draw the Scripture, by carnal, and wittily wicked distinctions and evasions, to both. Knowledg is the mother of Obedience, and Obedience the nurse of Knowledge; [...]. the former breeds the latter, and the latter feeds the former. Of this largely before Part 1. pag. 616, 617, &c. Observ. 6. Qui prius quam chord as exploraverit, omnes simul inconcinnè percutit, absonum et absurdum strepitum reddit; sic judex qui singulas li [...] ga torum causas non pulsavis, nec audivit, stultam planè & absurdam sententiam pronuntiet necesse est. Petrarc.
6. Its our duty to forbear speaking against any thing which we understand not. He that answereth a matter (saith Solomon) before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him, Prov. 18.13: As men are not to be commended, so neither to be condemned before the knowledge of their cause. As he causeth an harsh and unmusical sound, who strikes and playes upon the strings of an Instrument before he hath tryed and tuned them; so he must needs pass a foolish and absurd Sentence upon any cause, who passeth that Sentence, before he hath seriously heard and weighed the cause to which he speaks. Herein Eli manifested his fault and folly, 1 Sam. 1.14. rashly and [Page 132]weakly charging Hanna with Drunkenness. Thus also David discovered his folly in giving credit to the information of flattering and false-hearted Ziba, against good Mephib [...]sheth, 2 Sam. 16.3, 4. before he had heard what Mephib [...]sheth could alledg for himself. Potiphar likewise shewed himself as unjust, as his wife shewed her self unchast, by an overhasty heeding of his wives false and forged accusation against righteous Joseph. Gen. 39.19, 20 To these may be added, the ignorant censure of those Scoffers who derided the Apostles, filled with the Holy Ghost, as if filled with new wine. Inter tri [...]icum & lolium, quamd [...]u herba est & nondum [...]u [...]mus venit ad sp [...]cam, grandis similitudo eft, & in disceruendo, aut nulla, aut perdifficilis distan [...]ia. Praemon [...]t ergo Dominus ne u [...]i quid ambignum est, cito sententiam proferamus, sed Deo judici terminum reservemus. Hieron. Ut nobis exemplum proponat ne m [...]la hominum, ante praesumamus credere, quam probare, Gr. Mor. l. 19. c. 23. Doubtful cases are to be exempted from our censure. [The wheat and courser grain (saith Hierom) are so like to one another, when newly come up, and before the stalk comes to the ear, that there's no judging between them, and therefore the Lord by commanding that both should be let alone till the Harvest, admonisheth as that we should not judge of doubtful things, but refer them to the judgment of God.] Even God himselfe, who clearly discernes the secrets of the heart, and needs not examine any cause for his own information, determines not by sentence, till after examination, that so he might teach us by his example the method of judging, Gen. 18.21. Which is to know, before we censure. They who to make shew of what they have not (a quick understanding, and nimble apprehension) will take off a speaker in the midst of his relation, and make as if they knew all the rest of his speech which is to follow; and others, who though they will hear the whole speech out, yet not clearly understanding it, scorn to have it repeated again, lest they might be thought slow of apprehension; by their foolish and ill accommodated answers, do often grosly bewray their ignorance and folly. And this speaking of any thing ignorantly, should principally be avoided by Magistrates and Ministers. By Magistrates, because their passing of a sudden and overhasty answer is accompanied with the hurt of others, [Page 133]and withal, by so much the more should they take heed of this folly, because when they have once passed (though a rash and unjust) sentence; Vid. Cartw. in Prov. 18.13. yet so great a regard must be had (forsooth) to their Honours (by themselves already dishonoured) that seldom or never will they be induced to retract or recal any unrighteous censure, when once they have uttered it. Which sinful distemper appeared not only in those Heathen Governours, In their censuring of John and Christ. Herod and Pilate, but in that holy man David in the case of Mephibosheth. By Ministers likewise should this speaking ignorantly and doubtfully of anything, be avoided, whose work being to direct souls, and that through greatest dangers, to the obtaining of greatest happiness; they cannot be blind Leaders and ignorant Teachers, without the infinite hazard of their followers. How unlike are they, who will be Teachers, before they themselves have been taught, and Affirmers of what they understand not, to him who spake only what he knew, Joh. 3.11.32. and testified onely what he saw and heard.
Thus of the first part of this verse, their malicious and unchristian ignorance, They speak evil of what they know not. The second followes, their sensual knowledg, What they know naturally, as brute Beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
In which words two things are mainly considerable,
- 1. The sensuality of their apprehensions.
- 2. Of their
Conversations, Or
- 1. The kind or nature of their knowledg, What they know naturally as brute Beasts.
- 2. The effect of that their knowledg, In those things they corrupt themselves.
The first is 1. Propounded and specified; in these words, What they know naturally.
[Page 134] 2. Expounded by, and compared to the knowledg of the brute Beasts, as brute Beasts.
EXPLICATION.
Three things here require Explication in this second part of the verse.
1 What the Apostle here intends by knowing naturally?
2 Why he compares them for this knowing naturally, to brute Beasts?
3. In what respect by this knowing naturally as brute beasts, Naturaliter nôrunt; i.e. ipsâ duce naturâ, nullo adhibito Magistro. Ʋt sunt ea quae sensu percipiuntur tactu, viz. & gustu. Justinian. in loc. Naturaliter, solis sensibus, absque judicio rationis, ac si essent bruta animalia, cognoscunt. viz. quae pertinent ad appetitum sensitivum qualia sunt [...]tus, [...]bus, somnus, veneris usus. Gerh. in [...]et. [...]. Oecum, Scire naturaliter, est scire non consilio ullo, non ratione hu [...]nanâ, non Spiritus Divini luce, sed caeco naturae impetu, & heliu [...]no more. Junius in loc. they are said to corrupt themselves.
1. For the first. By this knowing naturally (in the Greek [...]) is to be understood, a knowing only by the guidance of Nature, meerly by their senses, by touching, tasting, seeing, &c. a knowing whether a thing please sense, or no, without any other Teaching, or any judgment and reason at all: and it respects those things which belong to the sensitive appetite, as meat, drink, sleep, &c. and hence it might possibly come to pass, that Gagneius conjectured, though without ground, that [...], they know, is put for [...], they desire, or have an appetite. This word [Naturally] is opposed to reason and judgment; these sensual persons onely knew things, as carryed to their outward senses. The force of nature only ruled them: reason never guided them. O [...]cumenius expresseth it very aptly; Whatever (saith he) with natural force or desire, without putting difference, as irrational creatures, they know, they violently follow, as lustful horses or swine. Junius explains it thus, To know naturally, is to know without counsel, humane reason, or the light of Gods Spirit, and with the blind force of nature, and bestial motion, only following natural appetite, and outward senses.
[Page 135] 2. The Apostle doth exegetically explain by an apt comparison, what he intends by this knowing naturally; he saith they know things as brute Beasts, in the Greek [...] The word [...], brute, signifies either mute, or irrational and brute, either without speech, Act. 25.27. [...], praeter rationem, sine ratione. Animantia rationis expertia. Bez. Animalia muta Vulg. O mutis quoque piscibus, donatura cygni si libeat sonum. Horat. or without reason. There being no irrational Creature but is also mute; that is, though not without a voice (so as fish are said more properly to be mute) yet without speech, which none but man useth naturally. Now this knowledg which belongs to brute Beasts, is that which arifeth from the instinct of nature, consisting in the senses, and by the benefit of it, brute Beasts discern between the food which is sutable, and that which is unfit, between that which is beneficial, and that which is hurtful; unto which is joyned a natural appetite toward such things as tend to their preservation. Of this knowledg speaks the Scripture, Isai. 1.3. The Ox knows his Owner, and the Ass his Masters crib. And Psal. 104.21. The young Lions roar after their Prey, and seek their meat from God, &c. And ver. 27. They wait upon thee, that thou maiest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather, thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good. And Job 29.8. The range of the mountains is the pasture of the wild Asse, and he searcheth after every green thing. And ver. 29. The Eagle abideth on the rock, &c. and from thence she seeth the prey: And Chap. 40.15. Behemoth eateth grasse as an Ox: ver. 20. The mountains bring him food: yea, Prov 30.25 The ants prepare their meat in the summer.
And by this knowledg of irrational creatures is that of these sensuallists here by Jude set forth, for sundry Reasons.
1. In their knowledg of things naturally; they desired sensual objects violently and impetuously. They laboured not for them with an holy submissivenesse to, and dependence upon God; but followed them with a brutish fiercenesse: They were like the Lion roaring after [Page 136]his prey; when they see what they love, ther's no holding them in, with the reins either of Reason or Religion: they ran greedily after reward, subverted whole houses, and taught any error for filthy lucres sake. Tit. 1.11. They were greedy dogs.
2 They received no enjoyments thankfully, not considering the giver; they drank of the river, taking no notice of the fountain; filling their vessel with it, and then turning their backs upon it. They received gifts, but regarded not the hand which bestowed them. Their bellies were filled with treasures (to them) hidden. Like swine feeding on acorns, which though they fall upon their heads, never make them look up to the tree from which they come: When God opened his hand, they shut their hearts; denying the tribute of praises which God expects for all his blessings.
3 They pleased themselves with the gifts solely, never regarding the love of the giver. Beasts care not with what affection any thing is given to them, so as they have the thing which they want. These sensuallists desired not that the gifts which they enjoyed might be turned into mercies: not considering that the love of God is the fulnesse of every enjoyment: in this, worse then some beasts, who suspect a snare when provision is plentifullest. These never caring whether the heart of God were toward them or no, so as his hand were opened; and using the gifts of a Creator, not regarding the affection of a Father; not questioning whether their provisions were bestowed upon them as children, with love; or whether as condemned prisoners, to keep life in them against the day of execution: and in short (like beasts) as the Apostle saith, 2 Pet. 2.12. they were made to be destroyed: they so knew these sensitive objects, as not knowing whether they were fatted by them for slaughter.
4 They knew these things so brutishly, as not to know how to improve them: they cared not to be fitted by [Page 137]them for service. Brute beasts onely live to eat: and so these made their sensual pleasures the end of their living, never referring them to glory-ends; not making them vehicula, chariets, to carry them faster, and to raise them up higher to God in a way of love and duty; but vincula, bonds, to keep and binde them down to the satisfaction of sense. They used not their comforts as wings, to make their thoughts and affections mount up to heaven; but as bird-lime to their wings, and hinderances from all heavenly both desires and services.
5 They knew no measure in the using of these things: They (like swine) wallowed over head & ears in the mud of sensual enjoyments, being themselves gulphs of them, & ingulphing themselves in them; and not tasting them, but even bursting with them. Like some horses, they had rather break their wind, then their draught: Their hearts were overcharged with surfetting, Luke 21.34. They ran to excess of riot. In stead of cheering, they clog'd nature, turning Christianitie into Epicurism; they made their belly their God, and they served it, Rom. 16.18. Phil. 3.19. Their sensual appetites were boundlesse and unlimited; they rather pamper'd, then fed themselves.
6. They so brutishly knew these things, as not to know instruction or any restraint: growing untamed and impatient of the yoke, like a back-sliding heifer; they would not endure admonition: And he (saith Solomon) who hateth reproof, is brutish. Like Jesurun, Prov. 9.8 Deut. 32.15 they waxed fat and kicked. Hence they despised and opposed all dominion and government, like the wilde asse, J [...]r 2.24. Hos. 8.9. which snuffing up the wind, is not to be catched. A brute beast fed to the ful endureth not to be beaten; these seducers resisted the truth which opposed their lusts, 2 Tim. 3.8. and quarrelled with the word of life: like brute beasts, which though never so sick, will strike at those who let them blood, or give them the wholsomest drink. It was as easie to catch an hare with a tabret, as to make them hear reproof in their sensual enjoyments. [Page 138]They who are in an harvest of worldly pleasures, commonly have harvest-eares, not at leisure to hear what may regulate them in their sensual prosecutions.
7 They knew these things so brutishly, as never to consider of a removal of them, or the approach of the hatchet: they were sensually secure, like the beast, feeding themselves without fear; they mocked at the denunciations of judgment, as Peter speaks, 2 Pet. 3. drinking away sorrow; like the old world, eating and drinking, though the flood were approaching, and never considering that their wine was soon to be turned into water.
8. They so brutishly knew these things, as not to know how to part with them: A beast knowes no other woe, but want of provender; nor sensuallists any other penalty, but the parting with sensual objects: These never learn with Paul, how to want, and how to abound; or with Job, to blesse God when taking away, as well as giving. They so addict themselves to sensitive delights, that they cannot be without them; and so are they fastened to them, and their heart so set upon them, that the pulling them away, is the pulling off their very flesh. When they enjoy them, they are so secure, as if God could never remove them: when they want them, they are so impatient, as if God could never restore them.
For the Third branch of Explication, Branch 3 of Explicat. viz. In what respect by their knowing naturally, they are here said to corrupt themselves. The words [corrupt themselves] are contained in that one word in the Original, [...], which signifies properly so to spoil and deprave or marr a thing, as that it loseth its former worth and excellencie, or is unfit for that use to which it should be imployed: And among prophane Writers its often used to note the violating and abusing of the body by unchastity; and so its commonly said, that a Virgin, or her Virginity is corrupted or violated. And thus [Page 139] Epiphanius understands it in this place, who saith, Juvenis corruptor, Virgo corrupta. that the Spirit of God by Jude shews these Seducers to be [...], corrupted, and corrupters, in respect of their lasciviousness. But the Scriptures use the word to expresse any other kinde of violation or abuse of a thing. So 1 Cor. 15.33. Evil words corrupt good manners. And Ephes. 4.22. the old man is said to be corrupted, according to deceitfull lusts. And 2 Cor. 11.3. the Apostle useth it to expresse the corruption of the minde, &c. And in this more large sense I take it in this place; as noting not onely bodily, but even spirituall, and eternal corruption. And the word [...] includes that other word, themselves; it being not altogether of the passive form, but of the active and passive together, answering to the Hebrew Conjugation Hithpael, which notes the action of any one toward, or upon himself. And this the Apostle Peter plainly expresseth 2 Pet. 2.12. when he saith, that they utterly perish in their own corruption; they rush into their own ruine, and go of themselves headlong to destruction, as the Fish or Mouse (seeing the bait) into the net or trap, Vide Junium in loc. and then more and more by sin intwisting and entangling themselves to an utter overthrow and perdition.
And more particularly, by their sensual knowledg of carnal objects, they incurr'd a fourfold corruption:
1. They corrupted themselves with a natural corruption; in bringing upon their bodies sundry kinds of Diseases, by their Luxury and intemperance, making themselves old before their time, and hastning their death. As Vermin and Mice haunt those places where there is much food; Immodicis brevis est aetas. et rara senectus. so Diseases abound in those bodies which are used, or rather abused to excess of Riot. More (saith one) are drowned in the cup then in the sea: and Gluttons are said to dig their graves with their teeth.
2. They corrupted themselves with a civil corruption. [Page 140]Overthrowing their Families, and wasting their substance to the maintaining of their intemperance, bringing themselves to a morsel of bread. Sensual and intemperate persons, swallow their estates down their throats; The Drunkand and the Glutton shall come to poverty. Prov. 23.21. Diogenes once said of a Drunkard, whose house was to be sold, I thought he would ere long vomit up his house, alluding to his vomiting in Drunkenness. The Prodigal wasted his portion upon harlots. These corrupters are worse then Infidels, nay beasts, who by the light of nature provide for their young.
3. They corrupted themselves inwardly and Spiritually. And that, 1. By clouding their reason and understanding; Drunkenness being (as one wittily saith) an interregnum of the mind; which for the present loseth the use of reason, whereby a man should be governed. Many have drunk away their wit and wealth too. When Wine gets in, wit (we say) goes out. Wise men are seldom excessive. Anima sicca, anima sapientissima. Hos. 4.11. Wine and women take away the heart. 2. By hindring the Spiritual, and Heavenly, and Supernatural actings of the soul, making it unfit for holy Services, Prayer, Hearing, Meditation, &c. Hence the Apostle opposeth the being drunk with Wine, to the being filled with the Holy Ghost. Excess in sensual, hinders Spiritual pleasures. Hence it was a good rule of Ambrose, So to rise from Table, as to be fit for Prayer. How can he have his heart in Heaven, who (as they say of the fish called the [...], or the Ass fish) hath it in his belly. Grace is starved, while the flesh is pampered. Meat is to be used as our Medicine. Feasting dayes are soul-starving dayes, and Easting days are soul fatting dayes.
4. They corrupted themselves eternally. Destroying themselves soul and body, by the loss of those Pleasures at Gods right hand, Psal. 16. ult. to which here in this life they preferred the pleasures of sin for a season. Sweetly bitter pleasures! sweet in the pallat, bitter in the stomack; [Page 141]bitter to soul and body for ever! How will a fatted Glutton fry in Hell! How dismal a retribution wil a River of brimstone be for a cup of Wine! 1 Cor. 6.10. Drunkards are in the catalogue of the excluded from the Kingdome of God. They who are here drowned in profuseness, shall hereafter be drowned in Perdition; yea, here they begin to be so.
OBSERVATIONS
1. Observ. 1. Cognitio sui intellectue, licet praestantior sit, quâ vis cognitione brutorum, referunt eam ad exercitium operum sensualium. Ut satisfaciant appetitionibus carnalibus. Lor. in loc. How great a confusion and disorder hath sin made in this little world, man! He whose reason was once wholly subjugated to God, and whose appetite was guided by, and submissive to his reason, hath now an understanding which hath cast off the Government of God, and an appetite which hath cast off the guidance of his understanding. In the state of Innocency, the sensitive appetite of man, was ruled by the Golden Scepter of Reason; the sensitive Powers were not factious, but were willingly subject to the Higher Powers, to the intectuals. The first bublings of the soul (as one saith) were pure and Crystaline, and streamed out freely, without any murmuring or foaming; but now, alas! the soul is full of insurrections. The Master waits, and the servant is Master. The knowledg of the understanding is made a Vassal to this natural knowledg. That leading faculty in a man, his understanding, is now a Page to wait upon the sensual appetite, or the knowledg of the senses; and all the contrivances and inventions of the former, are referred to the service of the latter. The Master doth not now lead his horse, but the horse drags and hurries the Master, even as a beast sometimes draws a condemned Malefactor to the place of Execution. All the confusions we see in the world, are but derivations from this. Reason easts off Religion, and then Sense and carnal appetite casts off Reason. All the Errors in Doctrine, proceed from the former, and the irregularities of Practice flow from the latter. The servant [Page 142]casts off the Master in the state, because it hath first cast him off in the soul.
2. Observ. 2 Quia nolunt intelligere quae sunt gratiae, amittunt sapere quae sunt naturae. They who oppose Spiritual Knowledge, justly lose even that which is reasonable, They grow, with these Seducers, meer Sensualists; not admitting the former, deservedly, they part with the latter. These Seducers opposing the Truth of the Gospel, denying the Lord Jesus Christ, and becoming enemies to Supernatural knowledg; now what they knew, they knew but naturally, and only with the knowledg of the outward senses. They would not be real Saints, and they came to be not so much as visible. They would not be Saints, and at length they ceased to be men. Rom. 1.21, 24 26, 28. The Heathens by opposing even the faint light of nature, were by God given up to Uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, to vile affections, and a reprobate mind. Seducers grow worse & worse He who will put out light revealed, shall justly extingnish light implanted. Its righteous with God to leave them to Sense, who will not be guided by Grace. From him who hath not, shall be taken away, even what he HATH: Even appearances of goodness shall be taken away. Brass but Silvered over, will at length plainly appear to be but Brass. A face only beautiful with paint, shall, when wrinkles grow deep, be destitute not only of complexional, but even fictitious beauty also. How exquisitely do these dayes of ours comment upon this Truth! Oh that we could not say, that hundreds, whose eyes have seemed to be fixed upon the Stars, themselves pretending to a Seraphical pitch of knowledg have yet faln into a ditch of beastly sensuality. None so shamefully beggarly, as he who breaks after much trading, Of this more, Part 1 pag. 310 and trusting. Christians, beg of God that your grace may be true and supernatural, and then it will be growing: but if it be only appearing, and not arsiing to true Sanctity, it may soon arrive at sensual Beastiality.
3. Observ. 3. The light of reason is too weak to contend with sensual [Page 143]appetite. When these Seducers had bid adieu to Spiritual light, notwithstanding their rational light, they grew sensual and brutish. Should the Skie be furnish'd with millions of Torches, they all could not (as doth one Sun) bestow those influences upon the earth, whereby it could be made green and fruitful. The light of Grace, is only influential upon the heart and life; That of Reason produceth no fruit truly favoury. That which it doth draw forth, is but like the fruit, which requiring a hotter soyl and Sunshine, (when men somtimes plant it in our colder Countries) never comes to perfection, and hath hardly half heat enough to concoct it. The greatest (if meer) Scholer in the world, knowes nothing as he ought to know, and therefore loves nothing as he ought to love. He sees not (without renewed light) in any way of God, that prevailing transcendent Excellency, which outbids the bravery of every other Object. The light of Reason, in the most knowing Heathen that ever was in the world, was but a candle light, notwithstanding which he was yet in the night: It scattered not the works of Darkness; nor did he (as one saith well) warm his hands at this candle: Notwithstanding this, famous Moralists have been cold in their Devotions, and dissolute in their Practices. The wisest Heathens, ( Rom. 1.) how sensual and impure were they, notwithstanding their most refined Reason! and like to Indians, Observ. 4. Quatuor imperia ostensa sunt Danieli, sub similitudine bestiarum, non hominum quia non insurrexerunt per viam rationis, sed impetu sensualitatis. Durand. de Orig. jurisd. which notwithstanding all their Gold and Jewels, are yet wont to goe naked.
4. Outward Enjoyments make no man excellent. He may, yea, (unless he be more then a man) he will become a beast by the using of them. The four Monarchies of the world, were represented to Daniel under the similitudes of Beasts; not of men, because they were neither erected, nor exercised in a way of Reason, but of Brutish Sensuality. A m [...] may be laden with Gold, and yet be as a Brute. His being changed from Poor to [Page 144] Rich, is but a poor change, unless he be changed from Natural to Spiritual; from an old, to a new man. Even the Wealthy ( Psal. 49.10) is called a Fool, and a brutish person: and ver. 12. Man being in honour abideth not, he is like the Beast that perisheth. Nero was a Lion, Herod a Fox, The Princes of Israel Wolves, Kine of Bashan, notwithstanding worldly glory. Outward Ornaments make no inward alteration. Hence see what is the true standard of Honour. Lust is the souls degradation even in all earthly abundance, only Grace makes us excellent; it destroyes not, but elevates nature. Sensual objects do not elevate, but corrupt us.
5. Observ. 3. Sensual appetite is deceitful. When these Seducers knew things naturally, with sensual knowledg, they were led to corruption. An ignis fatuus leads men into bogs and precipices. Natural knowledg carryes men (like filly beasts) into a snare; If the blind lead the blind, both must fall into the ditch. The Lusts of the sensitive appetite are foolish, 1 Tim. 6.9. and therefore foolish, because they make men fools, who are led by them: and Ephes. 4.22. the old man is said to be corrupt according to decitful lusts, [...]. As man sheweth his infection with original pollution, principally by his Lusts; so those Lusts principally discover themselves in their Deceitfulness. When they tempt a man to sin, they promise pleasure and contentment; they perform nothing less, but leave the poor seduced sinner spoiled of his happiness, and corrupted both inwardly, outwardly, and eternally. Sensual delights strangle with a silken halter, Latrones quasi laterones; viatoribus ami [...]è se quasi [...] [...]djungunt, ut incautos cò facilius grassentur. kil a man in the embracing him, and like Theeves, wil ride friendly and pleasantly with the Passenger, that so unawares they may the more easily destroy him. Saint James saith, a man is drawn away of his own Lusts, and [...], inticed. They bait over every hook. Oh that when a man saith, How can I forbear the bait [...] he would ask himself, How can I endure the book? Oh, will the comfort countervail [Page 145]the corruption; the spoiling, not only of my body of my Goods; but the loss of my Soul, my Grace, my Heaven, my God, my All. Consider the bitter farewel of al sinfully sweet morsels; view them with a Scripture Prospective; look upon them as going away, as well as coming. Behold their back, their black side; they are venenatae deliciae, Poisoned Pleasures. Tis easier to pass by, then get out of the snare. If thou be a man of appetite, Prov. 23.2. put a knife to thy throat. Lust betrayes with a kiss: Al carnal delights go out in a stink, and commonly it is that of Brimstone. As we cannor walk in this life by sight in respect of Glory, so should we not in respect of Sensuality. As we are absent from heaven in regard of Sense, and present there in regard of Love; so though we are present among earthly enjoyments in respect of Sense, yet should we be absent in regard of affection. To conclude this, consider the difference betwixt Spiritual and Sensual pleasures; The former are good in Harvest, the latter only in Seeds-time: (They who sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. Gal. 4.6. They who sow to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.) The former are bitterly sweet; the latter sweetly bitter. The former turn water into wine, as the latter do Wine into water. In that which a man knows Spiritually, and to which he is led by the guidance of the Spirit, in that he preserves himself: And its observable how the Apostle opposeth the deceitful Lusts in ver. 22. of Ephes. 4. to the Truth in Jesus, ver. 21. Christ is Truth, Lust is vanity and deception. Christ gives true happiness, and more then was ever expected. Lust deludes, disappoints, corrupts.
To end this needful Point, In all worldly pleasures, wisely draw off thy soul, by comparing such sordid puddles with the crystal rivers of eternal joyes. Let Moderation, and heavenly Discourse be two dishes at every Banquet. A Souldier supping with Plato, who had provided nothing but green herbs, said, He who sups with Plato, [Page 146] shall be better the next day. Tertullian said of the Primitive Christians, that they did not, Tam coenam coenare, quam disciplinam. One would have thought they had been at a Sermon, not at a Supper. Oh that Spiriritual delights were more tasted! He who lives at the Table of a King, despiseth scraps; and such are all worldly pleasures esteemed, by him who hath tasted how sweet the Lord is. The more pleasant any thing is to us, the more suspected let it be by us. Satan lies in ambush behind our lawful enjoyments; as the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, so is Christian temperance the aedituus, Tertullian. or Keeper of that Temple.
AT this verse, and so on to the seventeenth, our Apostle prosecutes the thrid part of that second Argument, whereby he puts the Christians upon contending for the faith against Seducers.
That second Argument was taken from the certainty of the destruction of those Seducers; and its prosecuted from the fourth to the seventeenth verse of this Epistle. Pag. 1. Part 2. In the managing whereof (as hath been said before) the Apostle having first set down several examples of Gods wrath upon others in former times, for their sins, from the fourth to the eighth verse. And secondly, Having declared that these Seducers lived in the same sins which God had formerly punish'd in others, from the eight to this eleventh verse.
3. He now thirdly concludes; that these practising their impieties, shall partake of their plagues. And this conclusion he prosecutes throughout this eleventh [Page 147]verse, and forward unto the seventeenth. In the handling of which Conclusion, the Apostle concludes the destruction of these,
- 1. By propounding,
- 2. By
expounding it. Or
- 1. By a Denunciation thereof.
- 2. By a Delineation thereof.
1. By propounding and denouncing thereof, in those words of this eleventh verse, Wo unto them.
2. By an expounding or delineating thereof in the following expressions of this and the other verses, unto the seventeenth; and he expounds it by a mixed description of their sin and misery; And he mixedly describes their sin, and miseries (the effects of their sins) three wayes: Nominat hos tres prae aliis, quia hi tres fuere Dei, fidei, & sanctitatis hostes, ac fideles seducere, & Ecclesiam perdere voluerunt; unde fuerunt Simonis, Gnosticorum, & haereticorum typi & prodromi. Cor. Lapide in loc.
- 1. From the
sutable examples of
- Cain,
- Balaam,
- Core,
- 2. From sundry elegant comparisons, ver. 12, 13
- 3. From the certain and infallible Prophecy of Enoch, propounded and amplified ver. 14, 15, 16.
This eleventh verse then, consists of these two parts.
- 1. A Denunciation of Wo and Judgment.
- 2. An Amplification thereof, from the three forementioned examples of Cain, Balaam, Core.
1. The Denunciation of Judgment, in these words, Wo unto them.
EXPLICATION.
It may be demanded, In what sense the words, [Page 148] Wo unto them, are here used, and how to be understood?
The uttering of this word, Wo, denoting in Scripture grievous calamities and miseries, either present or approaching; is used three waies:
1. Vae condolentis, imprecantis, praedicentis. There is vae dolentis, and condolentis; when woe is used as an Exclamation of grief, pity, and commiseration; and then it imports as much as if the Apostle had said, Alas, how am I grieved, (in consideration of their approaching ruine) for these wretched sinners, that are running to their own destruction! and thus the word wo is often taken in Scripture: as Mich. 7.1. where the Church resenting the general corruption of the times, and her smal number, cryes out, Wo is me, for I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits, as the gleanings of the Vintage. The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. Thus also the Prophet Isaiah, chap. 24.16. laying to heart the wickedness of the people, and the Judgments which were to follow, expresseth his holy sympathy in these words, Wo unto me, the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, &c. Thus the same Prophet again, chap. 6.5. Then said I, Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, &c. for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts, &c. So Jer. 4.41. and 6.4. Jer. 13.27. and 45.3. Lam. 5.16. Now though it cannot be denyed, but that the faithful do, and ought with holy commiseration to lay to heart the miseries of others; yet I understand not this expression of wo in this place, in this sense; for besides that Jude knew, that these Seducers were ungodly men, and appointed to this condemnation; his scope was not to express his sorrow for them, but to warne the Church of them, by discovering the Judgements of God against them.
2. There is vae imprecantis, a wo of cursing and imprecation, used sometimes by Godly men, against the [Page 149] implacable, and irrecoverable enemies of God. Thus the Prophet Habakkuk utters it against the Caldean, who wasted the Church, Hab. 2.6, 9, 12, 15, 19. Psal. 40, 14, 15 59.14. Thus David Psal. 109.6, 7, 8, 9, &c. prayeth for the destruction of his enemies. That the Apostles had this power of cursing the incurable enemie, of the Church, whose destruction the Lord had extraordinarily revealed to th [...] [...]nd that they used it, is very evident; Paul prayeth [...] 2 Tim. 4.14.) that the Lord would reward Alexander the Copper-smith according to his work: And its hard to deny, Non dicit Apostolus [...], reddet; sol [...], reddat: Sunt vota imprceantis, non verba praedicentis. Rivet. in Psal. 40. that Jude in this place doth put forth that power against these Seducers: Sure I am, Paul, Gal. 5.12. prayeth, that the false Teachers might be cut off, who troubled the Church; and he who enabled the Apostles to foreknow the ruine of Seducers certainly, without error, might help them to desire it holily without revenge. And never did either Christ or his Apostles, express so much heavenly vehemency against any, as against those who hindred the eternal salvation of souls; witness the woes eight times repeated by Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees, Matt. 23. As also Pauls carriage towards Elimas the Sorcerer, Acts 13. Some (indeed) of this impious rabble, who were not so obstinate, malicious, and subtle as others, Jude might spare; he desiring the Christians afterward, that on some they should have compassion, putting a difference.
And if it be here demanded, How the Apostle could lawfully say, Wo unto them?
I answer, 1. He expresseth not this wo unto them in respect of his own cause, but the cause of God; not as they were his, but Gods enemies.
2. He directs not his imprecations against persons curable, but incurable; and he might know them to be so by some extraordinary inspiration.
3. His affections herein were not carnal, but Divine and Spiritual, stirred up purly by Zeal to Gods glory, and the safety of the Church. In a word, If this wo [Page 150]here pronounced by Jude, were a wo of imprecation, he was carryed to the uttering thereof by the same Spirit, by which he penned the Epistle.
3. There is a vae praedicentis, a Wo of prediction and denunciation, whereby imminent and impendent evils are foretold and denounced against others; and in this sense its [...]monly used and uttered in Scripture, Eccles. 4.10. Eccles. 10.16. Isai. 3.9.11. 28.1. 30.1. 31.1. Hos. 9.12.24 Matth. 24.19, and most commonly by the Prophets: Isai. 3.11. Wo unto the wicked, for it shall be ill with them: Isai. 5.8. Wo unto them that joyn house to house, &c. And ver. 11. Wo to them that rise early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink. Matth. 24.19. Wo to them that be with child, and give suck in those dayes, &c. And this sense (though some Learned men exclude not that which was last mentioned) we may safely admit in this place: our Apostle concluding, that undoubtedly they who were as bad as the worst of former sinners in respect of sin, should be as miserable as they were in regard of punishment.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 Spiritual and eternal woes, Obser. 1. are the true woes. To be woful indeed, is to be under the wrath of God. This is the wo here by Jude denounced against, and by God inflicted upon these Seducers. Whatever wo comes without Gods wrath, may have more of weal in it, then of woe. Other woes touch the skin, these the soul. Other woes part between us and our Estates, names, worldly comforts; but these between us and God, in whom is laid up all happiness. How foolish is every sinner to fear the name, the shadow, and not to tremble at the thing, the reality of woe, like the beast, who is more affrighted with the flash of the fire, and the noise of the report which is made in shooting off the Gun, then with the fear of the bullet. Eternal woes come with less noise, and therefore with more neglect then others: They kill, though they do not affright. [Page 151]The fear which Christ commands is of him who kils the soul. Of this more, Part 1 p. 282. What proportion of misery is there between the souls leaving the body, and Gods leaving the soul? Bodily miseries are but opinionative and appearing. There is not a drop of true woe, in a deluge of outward troubles which befal a Saint.
2 Wickedness ends in wo. Observ. 2 Sinners may see nothing but wealth in the commission, but they shall find nothing but wo in the conclusion of sin. Every Lust, though it kisseth, yet betrayes. Rom. 6.21. The end (as the Apostle speaks) is death. Its the truest wisdom to consider, whether, when we find it difficult to overcome the present tentation, it be not more difficult to undergo the following woe. Oh, could we but look upon the blackness of the back of sin, how little should we be allured with the fairness of its face! How far from wisdom will it be for the deluded sinner hereafter to say, I did not think it would have been thus with me, that hell was so hot, that Gods wrath was so heavy! The mirth of every secure sinner, that goes dancing to hell, Amara sint omnia gaudia quibus respondent aeterna supplicia is no better then madness. How bitter should that drop of pleasure be to us, which is answered and overtaken with a sea of pains! There's no judging of our future, either wo or happiness, by what appears at present. The portion of Gods peoples cup, is to have the best, and of the wickeds, to have the bitterest at the bottom; and yet the top of the cup seemeth to promise the contrary to both.
3. Scripture imprecations and cursings, Observ. 3. must not be drawn to be our examples. We may indeed pray against the wicked practices of others, that God would stop and hinder them; with David, that God would turn the wisdom of Achitophel into foolishness. 2. Its lawful for us to pray for temporal afflictions to befal the wicked, to the end that they being sensible of Gods anger against sin, may be brought to repentance, and so to salvation. But 3. Prayers for the eternal confusion [Page 152]of others, are not absolutely to be put up to God. They who wil imitate the Scripture in imprecations against others, must be sure they imitate those holy men who uttered them, in being led by the same Spirit, both of infallibility, in discerning of mens persons and Estates; and also of purity, or freedom from those corrupt affections wherewith our zeal for Gods glory is ever too much mixed, and therefore to be suspected. This counsel Christ gave his Disciples, Luke 9.55. Matth. 5.44. who asking whether (after the example of Elijah) they should pray that fire might come down from heaven to consume the Samaritanes? q.d. Yours is motion not of zeal, but revenge. Ideo Deum à se expellit, qui illum à proximo avertit; & facit Deo injuriam, quia seipsum judicem constituit, et Deum tortorem. Aug. Ser. 4. de Sanc. were answered by Christ, that they knew not what spirit they were of. Our Masters precept was, Bless them that curse you; yea, bless and curse not: and his pattern left us is 1 Pet. 2.23. set down in these words, When he was reviled, he reviled not again. The time of Prayer (saith Chrysostom] is the time of meekness. And he (saith Augustine) drives away God from himself, who would turn him away from others; he being injurious to God, in making him the Executioner, and himself the Judg.
4. Observ. 4. God warnes of wo, before he sends wo. He takes not sinners at the advantage (as he might) in the act of sin, but he foretels the woe before he inflicts it. He usually cutteth men down by the mouth of his Ministers, Gen. 15.16. Matth. 23.37 before he cuts them off by the hand of Executioners; by the sword of his mouth, before he doth it by the mouth of the sword. Gods method is to give premonition, before he inflicts punishment. The two destructions of Jerusalem by the Caldeans and Romans, came not till foretold by the Prophets and Christ: Of the two general destructions of the world; Ge [...] 6.3. 2 Pet. 3. the past by water, and the suture by fire, sufficient warning hath been given: God hereby speaks himself gracious, and the wicked inexcusable. He threatneth that he may not smite; and he smiteth that he may not slay; and he slayeth some sometimes temporally, R [...]v 2.21. that they may not be destroyed [Page 153]eternally. God foretels ruin, that it may be prevented. Jonah's prophecying of Niniveh's overthrow, Venturum se praedicat, ut cum venerit, quos damnet non inveniat. Greg was (as Chrysostom saith) a kind of overthrow of the Prophecy. And hereby the wicked are proclaimed inexcusable. They cannot say in their greatest suffering, but that they had premonition. Even the enemies of God shall justifie him when he condemns them. They cannot but excuse God from desire of revenge, the desirers whereof are not wont to give warning. Professa perdu t [...]dia vindictae locum. Sen. Medea. Christians, take heed of turning the denunciations of woe into wantonness. Its neither for want of sin in man, nor strength in God, that in stead of wounding he only warns. His hand is not weakened that it cannot strike; nor his arm shortned that it cannot reach us: He hath not lost his power, but he execiseth his patience, and he exerciseth his patience in expecting our repentance. Non ille potentiam perdidit, sed patientiam exercet. Patientiam exercet suam, dum poenitentiam expectat, tuam. Aug. Let us prepare to meet our God, even when he is coming toward us, before he come at us. Let us dispatch the Messengers of Prayer and Reformation, to meet him, and make peace with him, while he is vet in the way, and afar off. Though Gods patience lasts long, it will not last ever. If we will sin, notwithstanding a wo threatned; we shall be punish'd notwithstanding a mercy promis'd. He who is long a striking, strikes heavy. The longer the child is in the womb, the bigger it is when it comes forth. The longer it is ere wo comes, the bigger will it be when it comes. No mettal so cold as Lead before it is melted, but none more scalding afterward.
5. Ministers must denounce woes against the wicked. Observ. 5. Jude describes the fierceness of Seducers, and exhorts the Christians to compassion; and yet his meekness abolisheth not his zeal. The regard of Gods glory, and the souls of the Saints, drawes forth this severe denunciation against the Enemies of both. He is as bold to foretel their woe, as they to proclaim their wickedness. The like spirit we may behold in the holy men before [Page 154]him: Causam populi apud Deum precibus; causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegavit. Greg. Exod. 32.27. Moses so meek, that, when he was with God, though he pleaded the cause of the people with prayers, yet when he was with the people, he pleaded the cause of God with the sword. The Prophets after him, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, were cold and calm in their own, but full of heavenly heat in Gods cause. Their denunciations of woes (like lightning which smites the highest Towers) spared not the greatest, if Enemies to God. Prophetical zeal, struck at sin where ever it found it; witness all those numerous threatnings scattered in every leaf of their Prophecies. The Apostles had their rod, as well as the spirit of meekness, and did partake of that spirit which was represented as well by fiery tongues, as the shape of a Dove. Paul strikes Elimas blind, and cursed Alexander. Christ himself, whose mouth ( Matth. 5.) was so full of Beatitudes, no less then eight several times, denounceth woes against the Enemies of God. Its the disposition of Saints, to be holily impatient, when Gods glory suffers; and (though never else) then to esteem anger seemly: disgraces against their father, they cannot put up, these injuries they cannot concoct. Their Commission likewise requires this temper, Isaiah 58.1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voyce like a trumpet, shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. Jer. 1.7.8. Whatsoever I command thee, that thou shalt speak, be not afraid of their faces. A dumb Dog is good for nothing but the Halter. Though the Children in the house must not be bitten, yet the Thief either without or within, Chrysost. must not be spared; sinful silence and flattery, most oppose a Ministers function. If sinners will be bold, let not Ministers be bashful: The most zealous Ministers, have lived in the worst times; and they who are most hated for their holy vehemency, can better endure the hatred of people for the discharge of duty, then the wrath of God for the neglect thereof: He that reproves, shall have favour at the last both of God and man. And [Page 155]even here a zealous Reprover is honoured, when he is hated; and the cause (saith one) why God makes the world so bitter to the Ministers by sufferings, is because they are no more bitter [...] to the world by Reprehensions. To conclude this, let none, no not the greatest, be angry with Ministers for their faithfulness in reproving: If there were Physicians, or Chyrurgians onely provided for the poor, and not for the rich, the rich would be accounted of all the most miserable; and truly they were much more miserable for their souls, Crudelis est eorum mollities, quibus molesta est nostra vehementia. Calv. in Mat. 13. if they onely were debar'd from reproofs, the Physick of the soul. There is no greater sign of a gracious heart, then to be both holily patient in the taking, and wisely zealous in the giving of a reproof.
2. Thus of the first part of this verse, the denunciation of judgement, Wo unto them. The second followes, the amplification thereof, from three examples, of Cain, Balaam, and Core; and first that of Cain, in these words, They have gone in the way of Cain.
EXPLICATION:
Four things here are to be touched by way of Explanation.
- 1. Who this Cain was.
- 2. What his way was.
- 3. Why its call'd a way.
- 4. How Seducers are said to go in his way.
1. For the first, the holy story relates (besides the other particulars which I shall note in the second, his way:)
- 1. His Birth.
- 2. The imposition of his name.
1. His Birth is described, Gen. 4.1. where its said, that Adam knew Eve his wife, and that she conceived and bare Cain. This Cain was the first-born of the first Parents in the world, and so Elder brother to all the sons [Page 156]of men; and Moses to shew the common and constant way of the multiplication of man-kind, fully declares his generation; Creavit ex terrâ procreavit ex legitimo conjugio. Pareus. Musc. hereby manifesting, that Cain was neither form'd out of the earth, as was Adam; nor of the rib of the man, as was Eve: that he came not of Adam alone, without Eve, nor of Eve alone without Adam; but that there was a conjunction of both: that Adam knowing his wife (a modest expression) she conceived and bare Cain. And withal, in this relation of the Birth of Cain, Moses discovers, that generation (to continue to the worlds end) derives the corruption of our first Parents to all their Posterity, (though generation it self be not culpable, but natural, and by God appointed:) So that whosoever is now naturally begotten, and conceived, hath not a holy and pure nature, (as had our first Parents before they sinned) but a nature depraved and corrupted, as they had after they had sinned: and particularly in relation to Cain, he shewes that Adam, a sinner, and of a corrupt nature, knowing Eve, who was infected also with sin, and she conceiving and bringing forth Cain; its no wonder that this their first-born was of so wicked and corrupted a disposition, since he was conceived and born of the seed of sinful flesh: nor is it to be thought, that Abel an holy man, had his holiness derived to him from his Parents, as if he had not with Cain been conceived in sin; but that by the meer and singular grace of God, he had that integrity bestowed upon him, of which Gain was destitute.
2. For the imposition of Cains name. The word Cain, is derived of Cana, which signifieth a possession; for his Mother Eve giving him that name, said she had gotten, obtained, or possessed a man from the Lord. Its here disputed by learned men, what Eve intends, by saying I have gotten a man (ETH. JEHOVAH, (as we render it) from the Lord: Sundry conceive (in regard the Preposition ETH is commonly a note of the Accusative [Page 157]case) that Eves words are thus to be read, Acquisivi virum Jehovam, I have gotten a man that is the Lord; as if she had thought that this her first-born was that promised seed, the Messiah, which God had promised should break the head of the Serpent, and redeem man-kind from sin and misery: but the Preposition ETH, [...] Certum est particulam E [...]h, ut. plurimum esse [...]otam Accusativi casus, quem verba transitiva regunt; sed tamen acc [...]pi non raro pro à, ex, de, cum, Praepositionibus: & exempla adfe runt ex scripturâ Grammatici, ubi particula illa juncta verbo intransitivo aut Hithpael, accipitur pro [...], cum Gen. 5.22. Exod. 1.1. pro [...], vel abs. Gen. 44 4. Riv. in Gen. Jun. Trem. Rivet. Mercer. is oft in the Scripture, a note of the Ablative, and imports as much as from, with, by, &c. as Gen. 5.22. Enoch walked, ETH ELOHIM, with God. Exod. 1.1. The Children of Israel who came [ETH] with Jacob into Aegypt. Gen. 44.4. When they were gone [ETH HAIR] out of, or from the City, &c. Some there are who take [ETH] here for the note of the Dative [...], and then the meaning of the words is, I have gotten a man to the Lord; that is, who after our death shall (though herein she was mistaken) in our stead, serve and worship the Lord. But the best expound [ETH] (as I said) by with, from, by, &c. and so the meaning is, I have gotten a man [...], that is, by the favour, help, and blessing of the Lord, as his gift, by ratifying his blessing of multiplication, Chap. 1.28. and that both blessing my conception of a Child, and also my Child-birth, without the assistance of a Midwife: This may well be the meaning of the place, and Eves thankful acknowledging Gods bounty in giving her a son; as its sutable to those expressions of Scripture, Gen 33.5. Psalm 127.3. where Children are said to be an heritage, and gift of the Lord: so is it agreeable to the carriage of holy persons in other times, who thus have prais'd the Lord for their Children: though Eve (besides the common apprehension and acknowledgement of Gods blessing and bounty herein) probably did expect some extraordinary comfort and relief by this her son, to sweeten that afflicted estate into which they had brought themselves, and particularly, she her husband, and self by sin.
2. For the second, What Jude here intends by the way of Cain?
[Page 158] The word way in Scripture, is frequently mentioned, and is oft used as a Metaphorical expression of a mans course and manner of living, carriage, or conversation in the world, whether good or bad.
1. Good, called the way of the Righteous, Psal. 1.6. The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous. Prov. 2.20. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men. 2 Chron. 11.17. and 17.3, 20. and 20.32. and 21.12, and 27.6. 1 Sam. 8.3. Samuels sons walked not in the wayes of their-father. So verse 5. 2 Kin. 22.2. Josiah walked in the way of his father David. The good way; Samuel (1 Sam. 12.23.) saith, that he would teach the people the good way. So Jer. 6.16. Nec prece, nec pretio, nec gratiâ, nec periculo nec simultate, à viâ rectâ deduci oportet. Cicer. Rhet. l. 3. Ask for the old paths, where is the good way. Job 22.3. Psalm 101.2.6. The right way. 1 Sam. 12.23. And of these Seducers its said, 2 Pet. 2.15. That they have forsaken the right way. Also its call'd the narrow way, Mat. 7.14. because grievous and unpleasing to the flesh. Also the way of understanding, Prov. 21.16. and Prov. 9.6. Isaiah 40.14. The way of wisdom, Prov. 4.11. The way of peace, Rom. 3.17. The way of Righteousness, Prov. 16.31. Mat. 21.32. The way of light, Job 21.13. The way of holiness, Isa. 35.8. The way of truth, Psal. 119 30. 2 Pet. 2.2. The way of salvation, Acts 16.17.
2. Bad, call'd The way of the wicked, Psal. 1.6. The way of the ungodly shall perish, Prov. 2.12. Prov. 1.15. Prov. 4.14. 1 Kings 8.32. 1 Kin. 15.26. 2 Kin. 8.18. Psal. 146.9. The way of the wicked he turneth upside down, Prov. 4.19. The way of the wicked is as darkness. Prov. 13.15. The way of the transgressors is hard. The way of the Heathen, Jer. 10.2. Acts 14.16. The way of ones own heart, Eccles. 11.9. Isaiah 57.17. An unequal way, Ezek. 18.35, 29. and 33.17. A way that is not good, Psal. 36.5. Prov 16.29. An evil way, Prov. 28.10. Prov. 8.13. The way of a fool, Prov. 12.15. Of the froward, Prov. 22.5. A way of pain or grief, Psalm 139.24. A stubborn way, Judges 2.19. A broad way, Mat. 7.13. A way of darkness, Prov. 2.13. A way not cast up, Jer. 18.15. Under this evil and wicked way, fals the way of Cain, here mentioned by Jude, which is not so largely to be taken, [Page 159]as for the whole sinful course and carriage of Cain, throughout his life, but for some particular course of his, for which in Scripture he is most condemned and punished by God, and in which he was by these Seducers most imitated; Abel obtulit praestantius sacrificium, non id intelligi debet ratione materiae aut quantitatis, sed animi offerentis & fidei. Rivet. in Gen. 4. Ex fide [...]btuli [...] non s [...]lum ex mandato Dei, sed etiam fiduciâ promissio ni [...]; [...]erto statuens non opere o perato [...]u [...]us [...] tus, se aliquid mercri, s [...]d prop [...]er victimum M [...]ssi [...]e signfic [...]tt [...]m hac victi má, se recipi [...] gratiam Dei. Pareus in G [...]n. and that way might be made up of three principal parts:
1. The way of hypocrisie. Cain indeed offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and perhaps (though some deny it) every way as good and costly (in respect of the outside thereof) as was that of Abel; yet he sacrificed in a faithless hypocritical manner, as is clear from the reason why Abels sacrifice was better, and better accepted with God then Cains; and that reason rendered by the Apostle, Heb. 11. was because Abel offered in faith; by which faith, he offering a better sacrifice, and better accepted, its plain that Cain sacrificed not in faith, he performed a good work, but with a rotten and hypocritical heart; not inspirit and truth worshipping God. The faith of Abel in offering his sacrifice, stood principally in two things: 1. In eying the rule and command of God obediently, who had enjoyned it. 2. In expecting acceptation from God for the Merit, not of his work, but of Christ, who was signified by his sacrifice. Of both these, Cain though sacrificing, was destitute, neither offering because he believed the Command of God was to be obeyed, nor in offering, looking to find acceptance for his Person and performance through Christ; but prophanely, customarily, and proudly doing the thing which God commanded, but disregarding the manner commanded in doing it.
2. A second way of Cain, and that principally (as I conceive) here intended by our Apostle, was the hatred and murder of his brother, [...]. 1. He slew a man, herein sinning against the common nature of mankind. 2. He slew one that was his subject, and obedient to him, whom he ought therefore to have defended against all injury and violence. 3. He destroyed not [Page 160]a slave, and a vulgar subject, but his own brother; (and some think that Cain and Abel were twins.) Hoc nomine non simplicite [...] homicida, aut servicida, fed fratricida. 4. A just and good man, did not slay an unjust and wicked man; but a wicked and ungodly, slew a just and innocent man. 5. He did not slay him for any fault of his, but for his holy and sincere worshipping o [...] the true God. 6. He slew him not stirr'd up by any sudden rage, heat or commotion of mind, or by imprudence; but out of setled hatred and in a way of study to take away his life. 7. This murder was committed by Cain, after God had admonish'd him to take heed of that sin. 8. And after he had made a shew of friendship and reconciliation to his brother, Gen. 4.8. Cain talked (viz friendly and familiarly) with his brother, and then he slew him. Hence this inhumane murder, is that sin for which by the Apostle John, Cain is said to be of that wicked One, 1 Joh. 3.12. In short, First he inwardly hated and envyed his brother, because his sacrifice was better accepted than his own; and then he expressed this hatred, by his cruelty in killing him. His hatred, was murder begun; and his murder, was hatred perfected. He, who cared not how he served God, regarded not how he used his brother. Cain begins with sacrifice, and ends with murder. There were in the whole world but two brothers and the one was a Butcher of the other; Abel was the first Martyr, and Cain the first Murderer: And the same cause, that moved Satan to tempt the first man to destroy himself and his Posterity, moves the second man to destroy the third. Groundless envy! what hurt did Gods accepting of Abel do to Cain? what help against God, rejecting of Cain, could be brought by Abel? It should have been Cains joy to have seen his brother accepted; it should have been his sorrow to have seen that himself deserved a rejection. Could Abel have stayed Gods fire from descending, or should he if he could, reject Gods acceptation, to content a brother? Cain was envious, because God or Abel is [Page 161]not less good: He envied that good in his Brother, which he neglected in himself. In short, Cains envy made him bloody; and indeed (as one aptly expresseth it) such is this fin, that if it eats not anothers, heart it will eat our own.
A third way of Cain, was manifested in the complaining of his Curse: Gen. 4.13 My punishment (saith he) is greater then I can bear. The words in the Original admit of a double reading: Some understand them to be words of despair of mercy, and read them thus, Major est iniquitas mea quam parcere (so Arias,) My sin is greater then that I should ever obtain pardon. Others think they are words aggravating his punishment, and complaining of its severity; and they read them thus, Major est punitio mea quam ut feram, My punishment is greater then I can undergo. And this Interpretation seems to be most favoured by the following words, Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive, &c According to this Interpretation, he doth not so much confess the greatness of his sin, as complain of the grievousness of his punishment; and seems not to be so solicitous of reconciliation with God, as of preservation of his life. [...] Iniquitas, poena iniquitatis. [...] Ferre, remittere: Verbum Nasa frequens est in significatione portandi: fed quia ferre & tolerare, etiam apud Latinos, significationem habent parcendi ideo est in voce ambiguitas. R [...]ve [...]. in Gen. p. 218. But nothing hinders us from taking the words properly, as words of despair of pardon; for those which follow, may be an exaggeration of his calamity, as if he had said, I am not only (wretch that I am) without hope of pardon from God, but banished also from my dear Parents, and compelled to wander about in the world. And these different Interpretations were occasioned by the different significations of the two words in the Original, Avoni, and Minnese. The former imports both iniquity and the punishment of iniquity. The latter, both taking away or remitting, and also bearing and sustaining. There is no danger in reading the words either way; for as the words allow either reading, so his impatience and despair imply each other; [Page 162]his despair of the taking away of his sin being the true cause of his accounting his punishment greater then could be born (for its sin only that makes punishment heavy:) and the complaining of the intolerableness of the punishment, a true sign of his despair of the pardon of his sin; so that it matters not much which way we take. Its plain, that as he rather accused God of cruelty against himself, then himself of cruelty against his brother; so that he added to the taking away of his brothers life, the denying of Gods nature, in making his own sin greater then Gods Mercy; (horrid, heinous either to speak or think!) In short, hereby Cain shewed that he could keep no mean; From security in sin, he fel into despair after sin.
3. 3 Branch of Explicat. The third thing to be explained is, Why this course of Cain is here called a way? Take it in these following considerations.
1. A way is that wherein there are sundry Passengers. Out of a way Passengers or Travellers are not to be expected, but in a way persons ordinarily pass to and fro. There's no way of sin, though it be even Cains, but some, yea many traverse it. The worst courses find most imitation. Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat, Matth. 7.13. The way of sin is most trodden and beaten. Sinners go to hell in multitudes; and its as much against their nature to go to hell alone, as to go in the way to heaven at all: They encourage one another in an evil way. They wonder at those who go not with them, and reproach them, thinking them mad for going out of the way, 1 Pet. 4.4. Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.
2. This sinful course is a way, in respect of the expertness of those who walk in it. When men are out of the way, they often understand not where they are and whither they are going; but in a w [...]y which they [Page 163]have often beaten, they go on skilfully and expertly: Hence every one is esteemed expert, and believed in his way. He who hath been long used to a way, will undertake to go it blindfold; he knowes every turning, Town, Mark, Miles end. The wicked are witty in sin, Mattr. 7.22. they are workers of iniquity, [...], Curious contrivers of wickedness, wise to do evil; Though to do good they understand not, but are sottish children: When in sin, they are in their Element, and wiser in their generation then the children of light. Put them out of their way, and they are presently at a loss. How left-handed are they in holy duties! how untowardly do they discourse of, and act for God! they are children in understanding.
3. In respect of progressiveness. When a man is in a way, he stands not still, and takes not only one or two, but many steps, goes on step by step. Wicked men proceed in sin; they grow worse and worse; they know where they began, but not where they shall end. Cain proceeded from formality in Gods service, to hatred against his brother; from hatred, to dissimulation; from thence to murder; from thence to despair, &c. His way was made up of several stages. Every step he took left a stronger engagement to go on. The child of God, by the frailty of the flesh, may slip, step into sin; but he doth not stand, go on, keep a course in that way: They are the wicked who stand in the way of sinners. Psal. 1.1. They make a trade of sin. A sinner falls into sin as the fish, the Saint, as a child doth into the water. In the latter sin is, but the former is in sin.
4. In respect of its period and term. The longest way hath an end. The longest course of sin, though of a thousand years continuance, terminates in destruction. The full point of every sinful way is damnation; the end, though not of the worker, yet of the work, is death; that is the wages of sin. The way of sin is broad in the enterance, but its narrow in the conclusion: Prov. 5.5.7.25. Its the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. Foolish [Page 164]sinners, in good duties separate the means from the end, accounting exactness needless: in sinful ways they separate the end from the means, thinking torments fabulous: although Scripture equally prescribes the former, and foretels the latter. Gods method is first to bring into a Wilderness, and then to Canaan; Satan contrarily leads from Canaan into a Wilderness. Gods way is right, and may seem rugged; Satans smooth, but false. Cain never left travelling in his way of Hyprocrisie, Envy, Murder, till it ended in Despair.
4. Branch 4 of Explicat. Fourthly, By way of Explication, we are to enquire; How these Seducers went in this way of Cain?
1. They went in this way of Cain's formality and hypocrisie. They sacrificed (I mean) partook of the same Ordinances and Priviledges with true Saints; in name, in the skin they were Christians, in the heart, at the core they were unholy; they pretended to the highest pitch of Religion; but all this while (as the Apostle calls them) they were but ungodly men. While they sacrificed outwardly with Cain, they had inwardly the spirits of Cains; like those of whom Saint John speaks, who went out from, but never were truly of us. Their impure life, was a practical confutation of their verbal profession. In words they professed Christ, but in their deeds they denyed him, though the only Lord.
2. They went in the way of Cain, in respect of their hatred and malice against the faithful. None so much envyed and opposed faithful Pastors and Teachers as they did. False Teachers were Pauls standing Antagonists; they were like Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses. The Scribes and Pharisees of all others most hated Christ. Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered him. Seducers hate those most, who hurt them most. The faithful Minister, that shines with the light [Page 165]of pure Doctrine, these Theeves most strike at. The Leaders of Gods Army they principally fight against. The Magistrate whom God appointed for the restraining of sin, they bitterly hated and envyed; and it was not for want of poyson, but power, that they did not destroy and pluck up Magistracy by the very roots. These Seducers were likewise murderers with Cain, the worst of Murderers, soul-murderers. Their work was to draw men into perdition. They were deceived and deceiving, blindly leading their blind followers into the ditch of destruction. They denyed him who is the Way, the Truth, the Life. Their sacrificing was with a murderous intent; and though with Cain, who spake most kindly to his brother when he was inwardly most cruel, they utter fair and sweet expressions, yet all was but to deceive the hearts of the simple. Under every bait of good words, there lay the hook of Error and Heresie. They gave their poyson in a gilded cup, and ever came with an hammer and a nail, when they presented butter in a Lordly dish; nor ever were they so much the Ministers of Satan, as when they transformed themselves into Angels of light.
3 They went in the way of Cain, in regard of his complaint and despair. They who walk'd in Cains wickedness, could not escape Cains woe. Jude here denounceth it against them, and tells us, they were before of old ordained to this condemnation; they were beasts, made to be taken; they corrupted themselves; they languish'd and pin'd away in their filthiness. There was a ditch followed their blind-leading: and though the grace of God was turned into lasciviousness by them, and abused as an occasion to sin, yet how glad would they have been in the end, for one drop of those streames of grace, which once they padled in, & trampled under feet? They who formerly taught, that by reason of Grace men might sin; afteward felt, that for want of Grace they and their seduced followers were sure to smart. They who [Page 166]once preach'd nothing but grace, afterward felt nothing but wrath; a just recompence, since with Cain they account the greatest sin in the cōmission so smal, Obser. 1. Abeli nomen inditum fuit a vanitate, ut significaretur humanam conditionem meram esse vanitatem; ideo (que) Hebraei, Hebel appellant or is ha [...]t [...]um qui cito evanes [...]it. Riv. in Gen. Exerc. 42. Qui clarus erat nativitate carnis, & charus existimatione Parentum, respuitur a Deo; & qui habebatur ab [...]e [...]tus & nul lius momenti, re spic [...]tur & probatur. Respait igitur Deus primogenitos & omnes eos qui chari sunt parentibus? non colligimus istam consequentiam, sod id annotamus, non morari Deum hasce carnis praerogativas, vel quamcun (que) aliam excellentiam secularem mag is quam spiritulem. Musc. in Gen. that they need not to fear it; in their after-despairing confession, to finde it so great, that they are not able to undergo it; and besides all this, with Cain, to be marked with infamy and dishonour to all posterity.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Priviledges of nature commend us not to God. We find not seldom in Scripture, that the eldest child, proves the unholiest. Abel, the younger, was a Saint; Cain, the elder, was a Murderer: Cain excelled Abel in the dignity of Primogeniture, and further, in the expectation of his Parents. Cain, if he were not (as some think) deemed by them to be the promised seed of the woman, and their Saviour; is yet called a possession obtained of God, as one by whom they expected to reap much good and comfort; Abel, according to his name, is deemed unprofitable and vai. And yet he who was so eminent, both for his Birth, and his Parents estimation, is rejected and he who was (saith Musculus) accounted as vain, and nothing worth, and unprofitable, is accepted by God; who though he refuseth not, yet neither receiveth any, for outward Prerogatives: he is no respecter of persons. Jacob the younger was a godly man; and beloved; Esau, the elder, a prophane person, and hated of God. David, the youngest of Jesses sons, was he, who of them all, we find to be according to Gods own heart. Ruben, the eldest son of Jacob, was incestuous, Simeon and Levi cruel and bloody, Judah adulterous; Joseph one of the youngest, onely eminent for sanctity among them all. If the priviledges of nature had been any thing worth, the first-born of the sons of men, had not been a Reprobate; but God will have his grace known to be free: he neither sees nor loves as man doth, because he finds a lovely object; but he of his own [Page 167]free bounty makes a person lovely, and then loves him: with God, the first are often the last, and the last, first. When the Lots were given forth for the chusing of an Apostle, though Joseph called Barsabas, who was sirnamed Justus, was the Brother or near Kinsman of Christ, Ut intelligamus cum qui humano judicio praefertur esse inferiorem apud Deum. Lorin. c. 1. yet the Lot fell upon Matthias. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many Noble are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and weak things of the world, to confound the things that are mighty, &c. 1 Cor. 1.27. Thou hast hid these things (saith Christ to his Father) from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes; for so it seemed good in thy sight. How groundlesly do any conclude that God loves them, from worldly preheminences!
Tis not any gift without us, but something of peculiar grace wrought within us, that can evidence the favour of God toward us: not the first born, but the new born; not the eldest, but the holiest, that may say, I know Lord that thou lovest me. To conclude, Its the duty of those, who have received more favour from God then others, as to acknowledge that God hath done more for them, then for others; so that it was only his meer love, that he did not more for others then them; and to cry up free grace with heart, tongue, pen, life.
2. Though grace may be repaired in our selves, Observ. 2 yet is sin propaga [...]ed to ours. The clearest grain being sown, sends forth that chaff from which it was fanned. Cain was too like his father in that, wherein both were unlike God. Adam might see his own sinful nature in Cain, not that grace whereby he had laid hold upon the promised seed▪ nor the fruit of his care in training up his Children in Religion. Before Adam fell, holiness was natural, and sin would have been adventitious; but now since the fall, sin was natural, and holiness adventitious. The corruption of nature, is that Legacy which Adam [Page 168]leaves to every one of his sons: grace is not native, but donative; not by generation, but Regeneration.
After sin, corrupt, mortal Adam, begets a corrupt mortal Cain; for although Adam through the grace of God were renewed by [...]aith and repentance, yet his son naturally begotten of him, was such as his father became by sin. That which is born (saith Christ John 3.6.) of the flesh, is flesh: where the Begetter, and Bearer, Psalm 14.3. Rom. 3.12 Eph. 2.2, 3. are a lump of corruption, the birth is no whit better. When God look'd down upon Adams sons, they were all corrupt, not one who in himself was of a more pure refined condition, or free from a depravedness, and disorder of the whole man. Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? Adam begets a son in his own likeness, Gen. 5.3. That which is required to conveying Original sin, is, that a man by true generation do descend from Adam. God at the first set Adam as a publick person, representing the person of all mankind, with this condition, that if he retain'd his integrity, the blessing of multiplication once given, should be sanctified to him for the bringing forth of a Posterity, righteous, and holy like himself; but if he fell away from his obedience, that the blessing should be turned into a [...]rse, and should be a means of multiplying a corrupt and sinful generation. He, who conveyed his nature to his Posterity, conveyed also the pollution thereof. In the first man the p [...]rson corrupted the nature; in every other man, nature corrupts the person: whosoever is a man by the propagation of Adams nature, is also a sinner by the derivation of Adams corruption. Before we can partake of renovation by grace, we must know our pollution by nature: pride caus'd, and humility should sollow our degenerate estate: the ancient House, the many Descents, the Coat, the Crest of a born Leaper, should not make him proud: happy we, if the corruption derived from the first, drive us to the second Adam: this latter also hath a posterity who bear his Image. The [Page 169]Church comes out of Christs side, in the sleep of his death: Let us labour to be ingrafted into him, to draw from him a Spiritual life, 1 Cor. 15.49. Rom. 5.12, 14 to bear the image of the heavenly, as we have born that of the earthly. Whatsoever the first Adam brought into the world by sin, the second carries out by righteousness. In a word, How due, and sutable a recompence is it for every Parent, to labour to bring their Children into a state of grace by education, whom they have made sinners by propagation!
3. Our expectations in earthly blessings, Observ. 3. often disappoint us. Eve names her eldest son, Cain, a possession, Fallitur auguri [...] spes bona saept su [...]. and her second son, Abel, which signifieth vain or unprofitable: she shew'd (as some think) hereby the preposterousness of her affection, and that she esteemed most of the worst: Her Cain (she was not herein unlike carnal Parents among us) was her jewel; her Abel was vain and unprofitable in her thoughts: She who mistook (saith one) the fruit of the Garden, mistook also the fruit of her own Body; her hope deceived her in both. God often crosseth us in those comforts, from which we look for most contentment. He whom Eve called a possession, destroyes the best part of her possession. Absolo [...], call'd the fathers peace, proved his greatest disturber. If thou makest any earthly enjoyment thy possession, God may make it thy murderer; and that thy trouble, which thou expectest, should be thy rest. If the Lord loves us, he will not suffer us to love any thing more then himself; and its our wisdom, to set our hearts upon nothing, but that which is above the reach of danger and disappointment; and to love nothing much, but what we cannot love excessively.
4. Its the duty of Parents, to be thankful (with Eve) for their children. Children are an heritage of the Lord, Observ. 4. Clavis coeli, sepulch [...]i, cordis, & matricis in ma [...]u Dei. and the fruit of the womb is his reward, Psalm 127.3. God will be known to have the Prerogative of opening the heavens, the grave, the heart, and the womb. These are the children [Page 170](saith Jacob) which God hath given me. Its vile ingratitude to murmur at the numerousness of our offspring; to rejoice when our Cattel multiply, and repine when our children increase: and to despise a Present of Gods preparing and sending, so curious a piece of workmanship, Psal. 139.15. wrought with that incomparable and stupendious Artifice in the lower parts of the earth. Its Heathenish distrustfulness to fear that he who hath provided children for us, will not provide necessaries for them. He who hath given mouths, wil give bread, and often provides better for the poor children, then for the repining parents. The Israelites in the wilderness who with sinful solicitousness, cryed out, that their little ones should be starved for want of food, were themselves destroyed in the wilderness for want of faith, their children mean while being reserved for Canaan. Numb. 14.31 Nor yet is it enough to take our children cheerfully at the hand of God, but to dedicate them to him thankfully, and to part with them contentedly. Men are not born into the world only that the world should not be empty, but that the Church should be increased, and God more served. Prov. 3.9. Gen. 18.19. If we ought to honour God with our dead, much more with our living substance, and to take care that a generation may serve the Lord when we are gone; that as we live (as it were) after our deaths in the persons, so Gods glory may live in the services of our children. Adam instructed his sons, both in the works of their Calling, and in the Worship of God. And for parting with our children; he who gave, or rather lent, or rather put them to nurse to us, may peaceably be permitted to require them again when he pleaseth; and he should never lose a friend of any of us, for calling for his own.
5. Observ. 5. Cains please not God in the performance of holy services. Prov. 28.9. Isai. 1.11, 12, 13, 14. To Cain and his Offering God had not respect. He was in his way of sin, even when he was sacrificing. The Prayer of the wicked is an abomination: God delights [Page 171]not in their services; he demands, Amos 5.21. Isai. 66.3. Who hath required them? he cannot away with them, his soul hates them; they are a trouble to him; he is weary of them, despiseth them; he will not accept, nor smell their Offerings; He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a Lamb, as if he cut off a dogs neck; he that offereth an Oblation, as if he offered swines blood; he that burneth Incense, as if he blessed an Idol. The wicked perform holy services from an unholy heart. The Spicing and Embalming of a dead Carcass, can put no beauty or value upon it; They who are in the flesh, cannot please God: Rom. 8.8. Matth. 7.18 All the fruit of an evil tree, is evil fruit. The works of natural men, want an holy principle, the Spirit of Christ, the Law of the Spirit of Life. A beast cannot act the things of reason; nor can a man, unless sanctified by the Spirit of God, do any good work. Till a man be ingrafted into Christ, and partake of his fatness, he is but a wild Olive. All the works of unregenerate men, are sin as they come from them: Without the Holy Spirit there is no holiness. Zacheus was too low of himsef to see Jesus, he was fain to go up into a tree: We are too short to reach to any good work; 'tis above our reach til the Spirit of God lift us up. All the services of a natural man, are but the works of nature. He doth every Spiritual work carnally. John 15.4. Without me (saith Christ) ye can do nothing. All the works of a Christless person, are like the children of a woman never marryed, spurious and illegitimate; they are not done through a power received from Christ.
Wicked men perform no duty to a right end. Phil. 1.11. Their fruits are not fruits to God, Rom. 7.4. As they are not from him, so neither for him. He is neither their principle, nor their end. Zech. 7.5. Vain-glory is the worm that breeds in the best fruit of the wicked. The flame of Jehu's Zeal was but Kitchin fire, and therefore his Reformation but Murder in the sight of God, Hos. 1.4. ‘The Godly (saith a Learned man) in doing good works, [Page 172]are like the Silk-worm, which hides her self, and is all covered over while she works, within the curious Silk which she works.’ Her Motto, Operitur dum operatur. At the day of Judgment they know not the good works which they did.
The wickeds outward acts of obedience, are works of disobedience: He doth not what he doth, because God enjoynes it, Cum intuitu voluntatis Divinae. His Sanctification (such as it is) is not endeavoured like that 1 Thes. 4.3. This is the will of God (saith the Apostle) your Sanctification. He proves not what is the good and acceptable will of God, Rom. 12.2. One may do a good work in obedience to his Lusts, and that which God bids him do, because his lust bids him do it. Where there is no Law, there is no transgression; and where no respect to the Law, no obedience.
The best performances of the wicked, are but the gifts of enemies, proceeding not from Love, which is the sawce of every service (making it delightful both to the servant and the Master) and the principle of the Saints obedience. Gal. 5.6. By nature we are enemies, doing our works, not with the affection of a child, but out of bondage. None have been greater enemies to Christ, and his Servants and Service, then many who have been most exact in outside performances; as Paul, who in the midst of his Zeal was a Persecuter.
Lastly, The wicked neither have the guilt of sin taken away from their persons, by the merit of Christ, nor the pollution of it, from their services, by the Intercession of Christ. Ephes. 2 8. Till faith have fastned us to Christ, neither persons nor performances can be acceptable. Good works go not before, but follow Justification. We are not justified by doing good works, but being justified we then do good. Abels person was accepted before his Sacrifice. Works are rather justified by the person of a man, then his person by the works. And its a vain thing to look for Justification from that which thou must first justifie. A man till justified, is a Leper, and every [Page 173]thing he toucheth he maketh unclean to himself. As a smal thing which the righteous hath, is better then the great possessions; so a smal thing that the righteous doth, is better then the greatest performances of the wicked. Till a man takes Christ by faith, his Sacrifices have no golden Censer to perfume them, no Altar to sanctifie them, nothing but his own evil heart to consecrate them upon: Upon which considerations, though a wicked man may do what is good morally in the sight of men, by way of example, or by way Edification to others, &c. yet not Divinely in relation to Religion, or in order to God, so as to please him. And though God sometimes be pleased to reward the works of wicked men, yet do not those works please him. The works of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehu, Ahab, &c. he did (I confess) reward temporally; but alas, it was but temporally. They give him services which please not him, and he Benefits which profit not them. They give him services, but not with their heart; and he them blessings, but not with his heart: and that little he bestowes upon them is not to recompence hypocritical, but to encourage sincere obedience. on Jer. 35.19. God often (as Calvin saith) rewarding the shadow, to shew how the substance of vertue would please him. Wicked men are hence, 1. Cautioned, not to leave holy duties undone. The certainty of their sinning in performing them, must not, Simon Magus was commanded to pray, Acts 8.22 cannot abrogate the Law of God, which enjoynes them. Nor is our duty impaired with our power to serve the Lord. When a thing done is evil, not in its substance, and because it is done, but because of our irregular manner of performing of it, we ought still to do it, notwithstanding the defects cleaving to it. 2 They should likewise hereby be made willing to go out of themselves to Jesus Christ for his spirit and merit. Till Paul saw all that he could do to be but dung and dogs meat, he never could duly esteem the excellency of the knowledg of Christ. Till we account our owne righteousness to be but filthy rags, [Page 174]we shall never esteeme Christs to be a beautiful robe.
6. Observ. 6. Envy is a pernicious, and yet a groundless and foolish wickedness. It was the entrance of Cains way, and the in-let of his murder. It's a sin that breaks both Tables at once; the first by discontent with God, the latter by injuriousness to man. Who is able to stand before Envy? Cant. 8 6. Calamitas sine remedio est, odis se foelicem. Cypr. lib. de Zelo & Livore Adhuc divitem malicia non descrit, quem jam possidet poena, qui non se ad Lazarum duci postulat, sed ad se Lazarum [...]ult deduci. Chrysel. Ser. 122. It's (as jealousie) cruel as the grave: it's a Calamity without a Remedy. Some understand that request of the rich Glutton, that Lazarus might be sent to him with water to cool his tongue, to proceed from Envy, he desiring rather that Lazarus should be tormented with him, then himself eased by Lazarus; and he craving not that he should be carryed to Lazarus, but that Lazarus should be sent to him. It was the cruelty of Envy that sold innocent Joseph, and that sought the destruction of good David: From Envy it was that the Divel overthrew our first Parents; and by it he puts Cain upon killing his innocent Brother, and the Jewes upon murdering the holyest person in the world. Plainly also doth this Envy of Cain discover the groundlesness of this sin. The fault of Abel was not that he had hurt Cain, Nusquiam melius invidos torqucre poteritis, quàm virtutibus & gloriae serviendo. Aug. Ser. 18. ad frat. in Erem. but that God accepted Abel. Truly is Envy therefore said to be worse then Covetousness: The Covetous is only unwilling to distribute his own goods, but he loves to see others communicate theirs; but the Envious neither will do good himself, nor is willing that others should do so: he is angry that God is so bountiful. Its worse then hatred and anger; for these in desiring the hurt of another, have their rise from the Offence which is offered by him; but Envy hath its rise meerly from its own malignity. Risus abest omnis nisi quem fecere dolores; Successus hominum, carpítque et carpitur una. Supplic [...]úmque suum est.— And in some respect it's the worst of all sins; for when the Divel tempts to them, he draws men by the bait of some delight; but the Envious he catcheth without a bait; for Envy is made up of bitterness and vexation. Other mens welfare is the envious mans wound. To him [Page 175]the Vine brings forth Thorns, and the Fig-tree, Thistles. De melioratione deterioran [...]r, sola miseria invidiâ caret. Nothing but misery pleaseth him, nor is any thing but misery spared by him. Every smile of another, fetcheth a sigh from him. To him bitter things are sweet, and sweet bitter. And whereas the enjoyment of good is unpleasant without a companion, Nuliius rei possessio jucunda sine socio. Senec. One seeing an envious man very sad, said, I know not whether this man hath received some hurt, or another some good. the Envious had rather want any good then that another should share with him. A certain Prince (they say) promised an Envious and a Covetous man, that he would give them whatsoever they desired of him, upon this condition, that he who ask'd last should have twice so much as he who ask'd first: when both were unwilling therefore to ask first, the Prince commands the Envious man to ask in the first place, and his request was, that one of his own eyes might be put out, that so both the other mans eyes might be put out also. Superbia mihi aufert-Deum; invidia pr [...]ximum, ira meipsum. Hug. de S. Vict. August. in loc. Non illos malos faciendo, sed istis bona quibus mali facillimè pessent invidere, largiendo, incitasse dicitur ad odium. How contrary is Envy to Charity! which without my labour makes all the happiness of another mine own: Hence Envy is said to take away from every man his Neighbour. Its said, Psal. 105.25 that God turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people: which God did (as Augustin interprets it) not by making the Egyptians evil, but by bestowing upon the Israelites those good things for which the wicked were ready to envy them.
To conclude, envy is its own punishment; a saw, a scourge, not so much to him upon whom it is set, as to him in whom it is. It's a moth which breeds in us, and corrupts us. 'Tis a natural sin, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. Saints have been overtaken with it; Peter, Joh. 21.20, 21. Joshuah, Numb. 11.29. Qui faucibus invidiae carere desiderat, illam haereditatem appetat, quam numerus possidentium non angustat. Greg. Let us labour against it. To help us herein, let us love such good things which one, yea many may have, without the detriment of others; which may be enjoyed by, & be distributed to every one without diminution: and withal, beat down the love of our selves, and the apprehension of our own Excellency. Could we understand our owne baseness and unworthiness, we should not envy [Page 176]those who are above us, but wonder that any should be below us.
7 There is no measuring of Gods love by outward events. Observ. 7. Wicked Cain stands over bleeding Abel, whose Sacrifice was first accepted, and now himself sacrificed. Death was denounced as a curse for sin, yet behold it first lights upon a Saint. No man knows love or hatred by any thing which befals the outward man We cannot read or understand Gods heart by any thing he dispenseth outwardly with his hand. Eccles. 9.1. He oft suffers an Abel to be killed, in love, and a Cain to survive, in hatred. Prosperity and impunity often slay the sinner, when slaying and death shall benefit the Saint. Worldly enjoyments are given us, that we by them should testifie our love to God; not by them to got assurance of Gods love to us. Oh how slender an evidence of heaven, is that with which, so ordinarily men go to hel! Thou canst only understand that the heart of God is set upon thee, by finding that thine is set upon him. The least dram of Grace is an earnest of heaven. The greatest sum of outward enjoyments amounts not to the least part of payment, or pledg of happiness.
8. Observ. 8. They who are corrupt in their judgment, go in the way of cruelty. Not to intimate what some have said of cruel Cain, that he was the first Heretick; sure I am, he was after the Divel, the first Murderer; and these Seducers were as full of hatred, as they were of Error; They went in the way of Cain. They were cruel to souls, which by their Errors they poisoned and destroyed: cruel to the names and dignities of their Superiors, of whom they speak evil. They were (as the Apostle speaks afterward) [...], fierce and raging waves, ver. 13 such as uttered hard speeches, ver. 15. against the Godly, especially Ministers, who opposed them in their way of sin. Not to speak of the cruelty of Idolaters recorded in the Old Testament, as of Pharaoh, H [...] man, Ahab, Jezabel, Manasseh (not yet converted,) [Page 177] Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus; nor of the Heathenish Emperors, within the first 300 years after Christ (by which Tyrants the Apostles suffered violent death, and whosoever made profession of their Doctrine were cruelly murdered) of Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Antonius Verus, Hadrian, who crucified Ten thousand Christians in one Mount; of the last of the Ten Persecutions, wherein, in the space of one Month, were slain seventeen thousand Martyrs. I say, to pass by these, What lively Expositions upon this Text, and the cruelty of Cain, have the bloody actions of those been, who would have been counted of the Church, nay, the only Church, and friends, and brethren to the members thereof, as Cain was brother to Abel!
I might here relate what Ecclesiastical History mentions concerning the cruelty of the Arian Hereticks, Theod. l. 1. c. 29. their banishing and false accusing of Meletius and Eustatius Bishops of Antioch, and Athanasius of Alexandria: the latter of whom hardly escaped with his life; l. 5. c. 21. Socrat. l. 2. c. 7.16 for the cruel Arians, finding that they could not destroy him by false witness, purposed by violence to tear him in pieces: the banishing and desposing Paulus from Constantinople, by the Arrian Emperor Constantius: and at last, Socrat. l. 4. c. 22 Theod. l. 4. c. 21. Sozom. l 6. c. 19 Vid. Centur. Magd. p. 79. Cent 4. [...] Epist. ad Solit. the cruel murdering of him by the bloody Arians: not to mention with these, the vast number of examples of Arian cruelty, recorded in Ecclesiastical History; Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomen, &c. consent in this, that the Arians banish'd, imprison'd, cruelly whip'd, mock'd, tore with nails, burnt, and exercised the cruellest punishments against the Orthodox; and that they were more cruel against them then the Heathens who Tyranniz'd in those times. Athanasius saith, The inhumanity of the Arians exceeded all expression.
I might likewise mention what Augustin in sundry Epistles relates of the Cain-like cruelty of the Donatists of his time, who pretended to so much Purity, as that they [Page 178]held, that the Church was no where in the world to be found, Epist 50. Quis non Dominus servum suum timere compulsus est: Quis quem libet poterat exigere debitorem! Quorundam oculi extincti sunt. Cujusdam Episcopi manus & lingua praecisa est; taceo crudelissimas coedes. Epist. 68. Conclericos nostros plagis immanissimis quassaverunt. Quendam immaniter coesum, & gurgite coenoso volutatum. &c. Nos fustibus quassant ferróque concidunt. In oculos extinguendos, calcem mixto accto incredibili excogitatione sceseris mittunt Epist. 166.159. Lacerati sunt viri, tractae sunt Matronae, Infantes necati, abacti sunt partus, nulli licuit securum esse in possessionibus suis. Optat. cont. Parl. l. 23. but in that corner of Affrick, wherein themselves dwelt. In his fiftieth Epistle hee tells us, that the Masters stood in fear of their servants that were gone over to the Donatists; that no man durst demand the money which his Debtors owed him, for fear of clubs and fire; the houses of any that offended them, were burnt or pulled down; and they pulled out the eyes of the Ministers, and put them out with Chalk and Vinegar, cut off their hands, pulled out their tougues, cruelly whipt and slew them; and then tumbled them in the mud, and then carryed them about afterward in derision. And though these Sectaries pleaded frequently for toleration and liberty of conscience, yet when under Julian the Apostate, they had gotten power, Who can declare (saith Augustin) what slaughter they made of the Orthodox▪ All Affrica was filled with blood and desolation; men were rent, Matrons drag'd, Infants slaughtered, women with child miscarryed, none were secure in their houses.
But if ever the spirit of Cain breathed in any since his time, or if ever any wrote after Cains copy in letters of blood, certainly they have been those of the Papacy: how deservedly may their Head and Father the Pope be called a Cain in chief; and is he called the Son of Perdition! as being not only appointed to perdition, but the Author of Perdition and destruction. How evidently is his Antichristian cruelty set forth by being Drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus! Rev. 17.6. Its said by some that There is no day in the year which might not be dedicated to an hundred several Martyrs, whose blood hath been shed by [Page 179]the Papal power. 1. Papal cruelty spareth not, pitieth not any degrees, sex, order, age, condition of men opposing their Religion. Act. & Mon. p. 814. 751 874 710 766 Alphonsus Diazius (another Cain) barbarously killed his own brother John Diazius because he was a Protestant. With what inhumane cruelty have Protestants been compelled to discover for slaughter, their dearest relations, parents, children, brethren, wives, to carry faggots to burn their godly and painful Pastors! and (which might surpass belief among Heathens) children have been constrained to set fire to their own fathers. And Thuanus reports, That a certain woman, having fled to a secret place to shun the rage of her enemies, being drawn out of it by them, was in the sight of her husband shamefully defiled, and then was forced by some of them who ordered her hand, to give her husband his deaths wound with a drawne sword. Horrid was that spectacle, of the child which sprang out of the womb of a woman, burnt at Gernsey, which being saved out of the fire, was by the bloody Executioner cast in again, p. 1864. 1879 because it was a young Heretick. A child of eight years old, was by them scourged to death for Religion, and a boy under twelve years condemned for the six Articles: yea, Popish cruelty forbears not either to bury the quick, p. 816. (as one Marion was condemned to be buryed alive) or to unbury the dead, by violating of their graves, digging out the bodies and burning them; thus they dealt with the bodies of Bucer, Fagius, Wickliff, &c. How frequently hath Papal power made Kings and Princes Wolves and Tygers one against another! and sent forth Cut-throats and Villains with pardons, to stab and poison the Kings and Potentates of the earth! their lives by any Art (they hold) may be taken away, if the Pope hold them excommunicate. Emanuel Sa affirms it lawful for one to kil a King, Latâ sententiâ quisque potest fieri executor. In Aphor. de Rege & Regis Instit. l. 1. c. 6. if the Pope have sentenced him to death, though he be his lawful Prince. But Mariana gives direction how it may be done with the best convenience; He thinks Poison to be the best way; but [Page 180]yet for the more secrecy, Quod si evaserint, instar magnorum Heroum in omni vita suscipiendi: si vero secus accidat, gratam hominibus, gratam superis hostiam cadere, nobili conatu ad omnem posteritatis memoriam illustratos judicamus. Marian. l. 1. de reg. c. 7. that it be cast upon the Saddles, Garments, Chaires of the Prince. And he further tells us, that if they who kill such Kings shall escape, they ought to be looked upon, and received as long as they live, as great and noble Worthies; but if it fall out otherwise, that they lose their lives in the undertaking, that then they are a sweet smelling Sacrifice to God and man, and that their names shall be illustrious to all posterity.
This book of Mariana was approved by the gravest and learnedst of the Jesuites Order, and so with a special Commission from Claudius Aquaviva their General, with their approbations, and other solemn priviledges, it was printed at Toledo and Mentz, and lastly, inserted into the Catalogues of the books of their Order. Its not lawful (saith Bellarmine) for Christians to tolerate an Heretical King, Nonlicet Christianis tolerare regem haereticum, si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haresim. B [...]llar. l. 5. de Rom. Pont. c. 7. Potestas spiritualis debet coercere temporalem omni modo & viâ. Id. l. 5. c. 6 if he labors to draw his subjects to his Heresie; and (saith he) its lawful for the Spiritual power to restrain the Temporal by all means and wayes; and when the Pope hath passed sentence upon a King, then after this publick sentence, they generally affirm it lawful for any to kill a King. So Bellarmine, Gregory de Valentia, Tolet, Suarez, Molina, Lessius, &c.
Nor 2 doth Popish cruelty less discover it self in the numbers, then in the ranks and degrees of those whom they destroy for Religion. These Popish Cains destroy multitudes of Abels. Infamous is the cruelty of that savage Minerius the Popes Champion, in his bloody Enterprise against the Merindolians; he destroy'd twenty and two Townes, and murdered the Inhabitants, whether they resisted or not; and when the men of Merindol flying from his Army, left behind them their tender wives and children, this Popish blood-hound practiced all manner of Villany and Cruelty upon them. The Town of Cabriers, upon condition that he would use no violence against them, was yeilded into his hands, but he falsified his promise, hewing thirty men in pieces in one place; putting forty feeble women, some with [Page 181]child, into a barn full of straw, caused it to be set on fire at the four corners, and such who got out, he caused to be cut in pieces. In this one Town, were thus mercilesly murdered, above a thousand Protestants. To these I might add, the cruel murdering of about eight hundred Protestants in two Townes in Calabria, fourscore whereof had their throats cut one by one, white, way to the Church, Digr. 50. yet so as that every one was left but half dead by the Excutioner: And the French Massacre, wherein in thirty dayes were thirty thousand slaine; Farnesius vowed to ride his ho [...]se to the saddle in the blood of Lutherans. not to speak of that incredible effusion of blood which the Spaniards have made among the poor Indians, under pretence of converting them to the faith; they having in the space of forty years slaine Seven and thirty millions of people; famishing in three Months seven thousand children; at one time massacring two thousand Gentlemen; and murdering with such cruelty, that to avoid it, poor men would hang themselves, with their wives and children. Lastly, and principally, this bloudy disposition of Cain discovers it self in the cruel and savage manner of murdering. Minerius (forementioned) cut off the paps of the poor mothers of sucking children, and the children looking for suck from their dead mothers, were starved to death. It hath been their practice to hold men in death so long as they could, Moriatur, ut sentiat se mori. inflicting (as it were) a thousand deaths in one, and making them so to dye, as to perceive themselves to die. Acts Monum. p. 869 805 860 What should I speak of their burning men by piece-meal, and that with Brimstone, pitch, and tar, &c. with barrels of pitch and tar dropping upon their heads? Joannes de Roma, a Monk, having got a commission to examine the Lutherans, used this torment to force them to accuse themselves; He filled boots with boyling grease, and put them upon the legs of those whom he suspected; and tying them backward to a form with their legs hanging down over a soft fire, he examined them.
To this Cain-like cruelty of the erroneous Papists, I [Page 182]might add that of the Anabaptists in Germany, who were as bitter and bloody enemies to the Reformed party, as were the Papists; and more opposed God and Orthodox Christians, then they did the Papists themselves; they alway voicing Luther to be worse then the Pope. I shall not mention the bloody uproars made by Munzer, John Mathias, John Becold, Knipperdolling, John Geles, Henry Goethlit, James of Kemp, &c. with their followers, at Wormes, Ausburg, Bazil, Shafhuse, Berne, Munster, Amsterdam, &c. filling all places with bloud and slaughter; murdering their own natural brethren, yea, their wives, and pursuing the doctrine of the Gospel, and the professors thereof, especially the godly Ministers, with cruel fury. It will be more then sufficient to set down the words of one concerning this savage crew, See Sleidan. Bullinger, Heresbachius, Hortensius, &c. Mr. Bayly. who hath taken much pains in examining their Doctrines and practices; his words are these, The spirit of Mahomet, was not so hellish in making an open trade of bloodshed, robbery, confusion, and Catholick oppression, through the whole earth, as the spirit of Anabaptism.
Nor need we think it strange concerning the fiery cruelty of those who embrace and follow false Doctrines. The erroneous in their judgment, may be left of God to apprehend so much truth, and weight, and worth in their errors, that even that thing ( conscience I mean) which by its light and tenderness, hinders others from sin by discovering it to them, and troubling them for it, may, being depraved by error, put people upon sinful injuriousness to others, and to think that they do God the best service, when they are most cruel to his best servants. And (as its commonly observed) no feuds are so deadly, no contentions so bitter, as those upon which conscience puts men; conscience urging more strongly then interest: and as a good conscience is a thousand witnesses to comfort and excuse for what good we have done; so may an erroneous conseience be a thousand [Page 183]weights to induce us to what evil we have not done.
And farther, such is mans natural enmity against the way of Truth, which opposeth his Lust and advanceth Gods will, that if the white horse go forth, the red horse will follow him at the heels; and they who carry the light of the Truth, shall be sure to be maligned, puft at, pursued. Acts 19. Hence the idolatrous Ephesians cryed out with maddest rage, Great is Diana.
And as the tide of mans inclination, so likewise is the wind of all Satans endeavours set against the Truth. He who is an old Serpent, is also a red Dragon; yea therefore a Dragon red and cruel, because a Serpent false and deceitful. He did not abide in, nor can he abide the Truth. As a Serpent he made, and was the Father of Lyes; as a Dragon he shields, and is the Defender of Lyes.
To conclude: The Wisdom and Power of God, is in nothing more manifested, then in overthrowing Error by the weight of its own cruelty and rage; and in making the Professors thereof to increase by dying; in making every Martyr a stone to break the teeth of those maddogs who bite them, and to overcom by being overcome. The professors of T [...]ruth (then) have as little cause to be secure, as the patrons of Error have of being cruel. Never did the light shine, but the wicked bark'd. at it. If righteous Abel was murdered when there was but one Cain, what may he expect, when Cains do so abound both in wrath and numbers! Martyrdome came into the world early: The first man that dyed, dyed for Religion. And how careful should Christians be, that they leave not the Truth of God, to avoid the wrath of men! Its better to dye fighting for it, then flying from it. How much sorer an enemy is the great God, then a silly worm! And they who leave the love of Truth, will soon leave their love to the Professors thereof. Every Apostate is in the high way to become a Persecuter.
[Page 184] Lastly, It may be a word of Comfort as well as Caution to all persecuted Abels. Cains do not so much strike at them, as at Truth in them, and professed by them. Joh. 17 14. I have given them thy Word (saith Christ) and the world have hated them. God will vindicate his own cause. Though the enemies are red with the blood of Truths Champions, yet their great Captain will one day appear in garments made red with the blood of their enemies, whom he will tread in the wine-press of his wrath; and the blood of every Abel cryes with a loud voice for vengeance, which will never give rest to the righteous Judge, till all those who will not become the friends of his Truth, become his footstool for rising up against it.
9. Observ. 9. Great is the difference between the sinning of the Godly and wicked. The sin of the wicked is his way; he delights, proceeds, is skilful in it; sin is a sport to him; he is a curious Artificer and cunning worker of iniquity; he goes on, and proceeds from one degree of wickedness to another. When he performes any good duty, it is not his way; he rather steps into it, or stumbles upon it, then chuseth it, walks in it. Cains Sacrifice to God, is not here called his way, but his Sacrificing of his brother. God accounts of men by the constant tenor and bent of their hearts and lives. The Godly may fall into sin, but he lives not, rests not in sin; He may (like the sheep) be thrown into the mire, but he doth not (like the Swine) tumble, and wallow, and delightfully snort therein. Of this more before p. 32, 33 &c. Part 2 He sins not with full consent; there are some contrary votes in his soul against every sinful suggestion; He sleeps, but his heart wakes. Holiness is his way, and whensoever he is drawn out of it by some deceitful lust, or by some seducing tentation, he cryes out with David, Psal. 119.176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek thy servant. He never leaves calling and enquiring, till he hath got into the right way again; and when he is so, he walks more [Page 185]humbly, watchfully, evenly, and mends his pace; he gaines ground by his stumbling; he doth not (as wicked men) wickedly depart from God. A Saint falls, 2 Sam. 22.22. and cryes, I fall, as a child that falls into the fire. A sinner falls, and loves to fall, and is like a stone that falls to the center. As there is much difference between the suffering, so between the sinning of the good and bad: As sufferings are on the Saints, and not on them; so sin is in them, and not in them. The sufferings of the Godly are on them as afflictive to sense, not on them as penal for sin, so as to sink and destroy them; but the wrath of God abides on the wicked, and falls upon them as upon its proper place, to remain and dwel upon them: so when the Godly sin, they are not swallowed up of sin, grace works them out again; but the wicked lye soaking in their sin, and (as God speaks Lev. 26) pine away in their iniquity; and if God should give them to live in the world to eternity, they would live it in sin. A Godly man is like a pure Fountain, into which dirt is throwne, though it be thick and muddy for the present, yet at length it works it out; whereas a sinner is like a standing water, into which when dirt is thrown at the best, it doth but settle and fall to the bottom; and when it appears clearest, the dirt is not wrought out, but there abides, and upon every stirring discovers it self. A Saint lives not, walks not in sin; wickedness is not his way: Whensoever he sins, he looks upon himself as in his wandering, not as in his way. If thou wouldst try thy sincerity, examine the bent of thy heart, and whether sin be thy delight, thy way; or thy trouble, thy disallowed aberration.
10 Despair is the period of Presumption. Observ. 10. The contempt of Grace ends in the despair of Grace. God graciously warned Cain, he sins, and despairs having sinned. These Seducers live in sin, notwithstanding Grace, and are overwhelmed in wo, and deprived of Grace. Of this before pag. 334. part 1 No poyson is so deadly as that which is extracted out of [Page 186]Grace. Abused mercy pleads against a sinner most perswasively. Oh that they who are so fearless when they sin, would consider how fearful they shall be when they have sinned: They who when they are tempted, fear no wrath, no death; after ward will be ready to say with Cain, Every one who meets us will kill us. The way to be bold when the wicked shall be afraid, is to be afraid when the wicked are bold. He who is afraid of sin, shall not feel punishment.
11. Observ. 11. They who most plead for liberty, exercise most cruelty. None would rule so much, and so bloodily, as they who deny others to rule altogether. These Seducers who despised Dominions, and spake evill of Dignities, for all that, walk'd in the way of Cain. They who would have all others to be cyphers, to do nothing, would themselves be Cains, to do too much. Their little finger was heavier then the Magistrates loynes. They who shall peruse the Writings of Austin concerning the Donatists, and among them the Circumcellious; as also the relations of others concerning the Anabaptists of Germany, shall find both these Sects to be bloody Commentators upon this Truth. They who abrogate the Law of God, will indure no Law but that of their own making: Though they have cryed out of persecution, and complain'd of restraint, when they have been under the power of others; yet they have most tyrannized over the Spiritual and Civil Liberties of others, when they have gotten the power into their owne hands. And its impossible that they should rule gently and meekly, who are themselves ruled and ordered by Satan, that cruel one. They who are not delivered from the hand of this enemy, will neither serve God in righteousness and holiness themselves, nor suffer others to do so: Nor will any be so unwilling, that others should have liberty in holiness, as they who most love and allow liberty in sin.
This for the amplification of the wickedness and wo [Page 187]of these Seducers from this first example; viz. of Cain.
2. I come to speak thereof, as set forth by that of Balaam; in these words, And ran greedily after the Error of Balaam for a reward.
EXPLICATION.
Three things are here to be opened.
1. Their guide: Balaam.
2. The example he set before them: Erring for Reward.
3. The manner of their following this Example, set forth in their running greedily after the same.
1. For the first; Their Guide was Balaam. Concerning his practice and punishment; it will be more proper to speak in the following part. Touching his Country, Parentage, and Office, I shall speak briefly in this.
1. For his Country; We read, Deut. 23.4. That it was Mesopotamia, and that the Town or particular place of Mesopotamia where he resided, was Pethor; and of himself he saith, Numb. 23.7. Balac the King of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the Mountaines of the East. This Mesopotamia, and Aram (or Syria) are used indifferently, sometimes the one for the other: Non solum [...] quòd aliqua tan. tum Syriae particula sit, quae [...] dicitur Mesopotamia pr [...] prie dicta, sed, quòd maxima Syriae pars, tota sit Mesopotamia, & inter amnis, viz. inter Euphratem & Tygrim. Pined. in Job. 23 and not only because some smal part of Syria is Mesopotamia, properly so called; but because the greatest part of Syria is called Mesopotamia, or the Region lying between those two great Rivers, Tygris and Euphrates: Some there are who have thought that this Balaam was a Midianite; and their reason is, because Numb. 31.8. and Josh. 13.22. its said, that he was slain with the Midianites, when the Israelites destroyed them. Of this opinion is Masius, one of the Learnedst among the Pontifician Expositors. Pineda in his Comment upon Job seeming also inclinable to it: for though the [Page 188]Scripture tels us, that he was of Aram or Mesopotamia, yet (say they) under the name of Aram or Mesopotamia (largely taken) is contained so large a tract of Countries, as takes in Midian; and some conceive, that he speaks himself to be of Aram, to gain the more honour and credit to himself, because the Aramites and Caldeans were in those dayes most famous for Divining and Astrologie. But whether his abode among the Midianites, was by reason that Midian was his Countrey; or whether he took the Midianites in his way homeward from the King of Moab, to give them counsel to draw Israel to sin; or whether he returned to them again from his Country of Aram or Mesopotamia to receive his wages, I determine not; sure I am, it was a most just retribution of providence, that he should be among the Midianites when they were destroyed; Numb. 31.16. their Counsellor in sin, deserving to be their copartner in punishment. Numb. 22.5. Mich. 6.5. Quia Graece dicitur [...], significatur Bal [...]am faisse silium B [...] sor; lic [...]t Num. 22. dicatur filius Beor, et aut hic positus est vox Bosor pro Beor, aut utro (que) nomine vocabatur. Salmer. Gen. 26 34. Gen. 36.2. Josh. 7.1. 1 Chron. 2.5. 1 Chron. 8.31, 33. Judg. 6.32. 2 Sam. 11.21
2. For the Parentage of Balaam, the Scripture tells us, that he was the son of Beor; and 2 Pet. 2.15. he is called Balaam the son of Bosor. How could both be true? The Vulgar Translation renders the place, Balaam ex Bosor, Balaam of Bosor, as if Bosor were the name of a place where Balaam lived. But the words in the Original, [...] (not [...], but) [...], will not bear that interpretation, but must necessarily denote, not the place, but parent of Balaam, as some of the Papists themselves, notwithstanding their Zeal for their Translation, are forced to grant. And whereas the father of Balaam is Numb. 22.5. Mich. 6.5. called Beor, not Bosor, its conceived by some, that he was [...], had two names, viz. Beor and Bosor, this bestowing of two names on one man being frequent in Scripture; thus the wife of Esau is called both Bathshemath and Adah. the son of Zerah is called both Zimri and Zabdi; Mephibosheth is called Merib-baal; Ishbosheth is called Esh-Baal; Jerubbaal, Jerubesheth. Others answer, That [Page 189]the word Beor is here put for Bosor, 2 King. 15.29. 1 Chron. 5.6. 1 Chron. 2.9. Ma [...]th. 1.3. Josh. 24.30. Judg. 2.9. which mutations of proper names are frequent: so Tiglath Pileser is called Tilgath Pilneser; Ram is called Aram; the place where Josh [...]ah was buried, is called both Timnath heres, and Timnath serah, &c.
3. For the Office of Balaam; he is called both a Prophet, and a Sooth-sayer or Diviner. A Prophet he is expresly called by Peter, 2 Pet. 2.16. and in the story of Balaam set down by Moses, there is frequent mention of his receiving messages and answers from Jehovah, Numb. 22.8. I will bring you word (saith he to Balacs Messengers) as the Lord shall speak to me; and ver. 13. The Lord refuseth to let me go with you; and ver. 18. I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God; Num 23 5, 16. and Moses saith, that the Lord put a word in Balaams mouth; he uttered a Prophesie concerning Christ by Divine inspiration; There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel. Numb. 24.17. to which Prophesie he prefixeth this solemn Preface, He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledg of the most High, Vid. Aug. Trac. 49. in Joh. which saw the Vision of the Almighty. Even the worst men (as here Balaam) have sometimes foretold future things by a Spirit of Prophesie: God inspi [...]ed Pharaoh with a Prophetical Dream: God hath shewed unto Pharaoh (said Joseph) what he is about to do, Gen. 41.1, 25. The like may be said of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 2.47. Some of the wicked who shall be sentenced to depart from Christ at the day of Judgment, shall be able to say, Have we not Prophesied in thy name? Matth. 7 22. Caiaphas the High Priest, a bloody unrighteous man, Prophesied ( Joh. 11.51) that Christ should dye for that Nation. Possibly Balaam uttered not his Prophesies, as understanding their force or genuine sense; to be sure, his heart was not holily affected with what his tongue uttered: which some conceive to be intimated in that expression, of putting a word into Balaams mouth, a phrase never used concerning the inspiring [Page 190]any of the holy Prophets. And whereas, Josh. 13.22. Balaam is called a Sooth-sayer or Diviner; the word which we translate Sooth-sayer is a word of a middle signification; [...] Dent. 18.10. for in Scripture it is not only taken in the worst sense, for one that useth Divination, or is a Sooth-sayer; but in a good construction, for one that prophesies or foretels things to come, Mich. 3 11. Sept. [...], Vatem reddiderunt. as Mich. 3.11. And some there are, who think that Balaam is here called a Sooth-sayer, only in regard of his ambition and covetousness; and of his ends and aimes in all he did, which were not Gods glory, or the love of the Truth revealed to him, See English Annot [...]on Josh. 13 or of his people whom he blessed, but his own advancement, and the wages and reward of Divination, according to the manner of wicked Sooth-sayers. But I rather conceive, that Balaam out of desire of gain, made use of Divellish Arts and unlawful Divinations for the cursing of Israel. Its said, Numb. 24.1. that he went not, Annot. in Numb. 24. as at other times, to seek for Enchantments. Whereby it may be evidently collected (saith Ainsworth) that all his former Altars, Sacrifices and consultations with the Lord, were by the wicked Art of Enchantment, or observing of Fortunes, such as the Prophets and Diviners of the Nations used, Deut. 18.10, 14. which he now left, as seeing them not available for his purpose. His serving of God, Vid. Ames. in 2 Pet. p. 272. was mixt with his old Superstition, in the number of Altars and Sacrifices, in their site or posture towards the points of Heaven, in his Gestures and set form of words, &c.
2. 2 This for the Explication of the first particular, viz. whom these Seducers followed, or their Guide: The second followes, viz in what way they followed him, or the example which he set before them; viz. his [ Balaams] Error for reward. In the Greek the words are [...].
Two things are here to be opened.
1. What that Error was which they followed?
[Page 191] 2 How it was for reward?
For the first, The word [...], [...], Hinc Planeta, A Planet or wandring Star. 2 Pet. 2.15. here translated Error, properly signifies an Aberration, or wandring from a right path or course wherein a Traveller should walk; and therefore more fully Peter explains this Error of Balaam, and these Seducers who followed him, to be a going astray, and forsaking the right way; But more particularly, the Error whereof the Apostle here speaks, is differently expounded. 1. Some Learned men conceive it to be that whereby both Balaam, and these Seducers, were deceived in their expectation of reward and wages, honour, pleasure, profit, &c. by their sinful endeavours; and no doubt, but in this respect their way might fitly be called Error or deceit, for Balaam in propounding to himself the wages and reward, which Balac promised to him, in case he would curse the Israelites, was himself clearly deceived; he being not only disappointed of what he look'd for, viz. honour and gain, but also bringing upon himself that which he looked not for, a violent death by the Sword, and (most likely) the eternal destruction of his soul: in stead of receiving his reward from Balac, he received it from God, Numb. 31.8. Josh. 13.22. As also did these Seducers draw to themselves, in stead of worldly advantages, which they aimed at, swift destruction and condemnation (as the Apostles speak) both of soul and body. Others (as I conceceive) more sutably to the scope of the Apostle, and to the construction of the other words, immediately going before and following, understand this Error to be the swerving, wandring or deviation of Balaam (imitated by the Seducers) from the way of Gods will and commandment, both in regard of their practice, and (especially) their Doctrine, or what they taught others, whereby they made them to err and wander from the right way: For Balaams practice it was an erring and wandering from the plain and express precept of God, in that he went to Balac, and [Page 192]that with a defire to curse the people. His way was perverse before the Lord, Numb. 22.32 he was out of Gods way when he was in the way of his journey. For his teaching of others, he taught Balac to err, in counselling him to build Altars and offer Sacrifices for Enchantments, and to entice the Israelites to Adultery and Idolatry by the company of the daughters of Moab; and it is as plain that he made the Israelites to err from the way of righteousness; by teaching Balac to cast a stumbling block before them, Rev. 2.14. to eat things sacrificed to Idols, and to commit fornication; that thus they sinning, might be afterward destroyed.
As touching these Seducers, it is most evident that they in their own practice wandered from the way of righteousness, and left the way of Truth in their Doctrines; that they were ringleaders to Error; blind guides, who made many to follow them into the ditch; Deceivers, 2 Pet. 2. false Prophets, bringing in damnable Heresies, many following their pernicious wayes: And that hereby (as Peter speaks) They went astray, and forsook the right way, viz. the way of Truth. A great sin, 1. because Error is a deviating from, and an opposing of the way and Word of Truth. Errors (as Tertullian speaks) arise caede Scripturarum, by the fall of Scripture. The Erroneous resist the Truth, 2 Tim. 3.8. The least Error disposeth the heart to reject the greatest Truth: And as in nature, darkness destroyes light, blindness puts out sight, sickness removes health; so Errors undermine and destroy Truth. None are such enemies to Scripture, as the lovers of Error; they ever oppose it, either by denying it, or perverting it. 2 Errors are deviations from holinesse; they oppose Grace as well as Truth. They everthrow the saith of people, and also eat up Godliness. An Erroneous head, and a godly heart will not meet. 2 Tim. 3.5. Error makes men deny the power of Godliness, and its an in-let to profaneness. Every Text in Judes Epistle, is a Comment on this Truth: The Apostle [Page 193]calls false Teachers evil workers, Phil. 3.2. They whose minds are defiled, are reprobate to every good work. Tit. 1.15, 16. 2 Thes. 2.3. Truth reforms as well as informs. Antichrist is called the man of sin. The corrupting of the judgment, is the casting poyson into the spring. 3. Error is catching and diffusive. The Erroneous have many followers; nor do they go to hell alone. Every Error meets with a complying party in our natures. Truth is hardly entertained; Error readily admitted. And seldome is any one erroneous, but withal he endeavours to propagate his Opinion, and that violently, and subtilly. 4. Error, by departing from Truth and Holiness, opposeth the peace of the Church. From mens not consenting to wholsome words, come envy, strife, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4. Gal. 5.12. and reviling. I would they were cut off (saith Paul) that trouble you. Error turnes men into devouring Dogs, Phil. 3.2. grievous wolves, Acts 20.29. Witness Arians, Donatists, Papists, Anabaptists. To conclude, Error is pernicious, damnable, a shipwrack, a Gangreen, creeping from joynt to joynt till it eateth out heart and life, and destroyeth all Truth, Grace, Peace, Salvation.
2. For the second thing, viz. Error for reward. The word in the Greek is [...]. Our Learned Divines observe against the Papists, that though [...], sometime signifies a reward due and deserved, or hire due to a workman for his work; yet it is at other times, Mercedis nomen passim in sacris Scripturis accipitur pro constituto quidem prae min, sed eo tamen gratuito. B [...]z. in Mat. 6. Matth. 20.8.14.15. a word of a middle signification, nothing a free and gratuitous, as well as a due and deserved reward; and plainly doth it signifie Rom 4.4. a reward of meer grace, not an hire or wages; and the force of the word doth imply only a reward due by the Covenant of him who giveth it, unto him to whom 'tis given, whether the work which he doth deserveth it or no. The penny given to those who had wrought but only one hour, and that in the cool of the day, is as well called by this word of reward, as the penny given to them who had born the heat and burden [Page 194]of the whole day. In this place it denotes the wages or recompence which Balaam and these Seducers aimed at, and expected for their Error; for I read not [...] reward, as relating to the word [...], Error, (as some Learned men do) thus, They ran greedily after the Error or deceit of the reward or wages of Balaam: Deceptione merced is quâ de ceptus fuit Balaam, effusi sunt Beza, Erasmus. Vatablus, Pagnin. Errore Balaam mercede, effusi sunt. Vulg. Montan. Melior sensus, quod effusi sunt propter mercedem, seu mercedis gratiâ, ita ut in [...], supplcatur [...]. Sic Occumenius. [...] Errantes sicut ille, lucri & quaestus gratiâ, dogmata prava annunciaverunt. Lorin. Praepositio [...], quae est in [...] posoit Genitivum. Lapid. in loc. Nonnulli perperam reddunt deceptione mercedis quâ deceptus, &c. Multo elegantius, aptiusque vocem [...], Graecanica scholia ad subsequentia refert, ut sensus sit, Gnosticos, Balaami errorem secutos esse mercedis cupiditate, ut subandienda sit vox [...], &c. Justinian. in loc. but I rather refer the word [...], Reward (as others better) to the word [...] (ran greedily) thus, They ran greedily for reward after Balaams Error; that is, as Balaam toyl'd, journeyed, took pains, went from place to place, from Altar to Altar, &c. to speak perversly, to curse Israel, and give wicked and pernicious counsel; and all this for filthy lucre or base gain, and to get reward from Balac; so these Seducers care not what Heresies they utter, what pernicious and damnable Doctrines they preach, or Errors they broach, so as they may but gain reward and wages from poor deluded people. And our last English Translation intends this sense. Thus likewise Oecumenius, Mo [...]tanus, Justinian, with sundry others. And as this Interpretation of their running greedily for reward after Error, is most apt and elegant, and seems best (say some) to answer the Original word [...], in regard of its composition; so is it most agreeable to those other places of Scripture which mention the end which falfe Teachers propound to themselves, in venting their Errors, and which tell us, that they serve their own belly, Rom. 16.18. that their gain is godliness, 1 Tim. 6.5. that they err from the faith while they covet after money, 1 Tim. 6.10. that they teach things which they ought not, for filthy lucres sake, Tit. 1.11. that through covetousness they make Merchandise of people, with feigned words, 2 Pet. 2.3. that they have an heart exercised with covetous practices, 2 Pet. 2.14. Cyprian writing of Novatus, that mischievous [Page 195]Heretick, saith that he was Avaritiae inexplebili rapacitate furibundus, Beyond measure, Avaritiaest plerumque Haeresium comes, fomes, mater, nutrix, &c, Ames. in 2 Pet. and even to madness covetous. The covetousness of Hereticks, is the companion, fewel, mother, nurse (saith Amesius) of their Heresies.
Now the sinfulness of following Error for reward, appears in two things especially
1. In its profaneness: What more profane and godless course imaginable, then for an Instructer of souls to be a Vassal to dung! Covetousness is iniquity in all men, but blasphemy in a Teacher of souls. His Titles, Master, Office, Doctrine, are all heavenly; how insufferable is it then for him to be earthly! How shall he take off mens affections from the world, when as he followes that as most precious, which he tells others is most superfluous? The birds of the ayr which fly next heaven, neither sow, nor reap, nor carry into the barne; and how unsutable is it, that they who by their vocation are next heaven, should yet in their deportment be furthest from it! That they should be like Foxes, disswading the beasts from that booty which they intend to make their own; and that they bidding men look upward, should cast their own eys only downward! Thou, O man of God (saith Paul, speaking of coveteousness, 1 Tim. 6.11 to Timothy) flye these things: A man of God must not be a man of the world, a slave to Mammon, a meer muck-worm, or rather a moving muck-heap. A Star of heaven, nay, an Angel, must not degenerate into a clod of earth. What likewise more profane then to barter away precious souls, heaven, Christ, God himself, for base pelf, filthy lucre? to make Merchandize for a piece of earth, of Christians and Christianity? How unsu [...]able and disproportionable a prize is Silver, when for it that soul is sold for which Christ died! In short, How impious is it to sell that Truth for dung, which we ought to buy with our bloods!
2 In its Hypocrisie and dissimulation. Who ever [Page 196]broached or taught an Error professedly for gain, nay without a pretence of advancing Truth, and of aiming at Gods glory, and the good of souls? What cozenage so vile, as that which seems pious? All deceit is abominable, and that most which shrouds it self under the wing of Religion; for gain to be the meaning, and Godliness the cloak? Is not this as bad as for Jacobs sons to hide their cruelty against Shechem with Circumcision? for Abner to cover his revenge against Ishbosheth with the Divine Oracle? Quaerunt discipulos quos petuniis emunge [...]e possunt, non qu [...]d salutem animarum procurare curabaut. Mont. App. Sec. 28. Absolom his Treason with a Religious Vow? Jezabel her murder with a Fast? This odious dissimulation of these Seducers, made them like the Kite, to be eying the prey on the dunghil, gain, when they seemed to sore up to the clouds in their instructing of souls. Its most unsutable for Satans servants, and Mammons Drudges to be cloaked with Christs Livery, to deliver Doctrines for gain, and yet to pretend Conscience, Religion.
The third particular to be opened is, After what manner they followed the Error of Balaam for reward. 3 Branch of Explication. Jude saith, [...], They ran greedily after it. The word properly signifieth, they poured out themselves, it being a resemblance taken from the pouring out of water. And according to this Resemblance, taken from the pouring forth of water, the word may note either,
1. A pouring forth in point of Destruction, dissolution, and overthrow; such as whereby in regard of their total and irrecoverable ruin and perdition, these Seducers (with Balaam) became utterly lost, as water poured out. Thus the Psalmist, as a Type of Christ, describing his extreme debilitation, and approaching dissolution, complains Psal. 22.14, that he was as water poured out. So the woman of Tekoah, setting forth a desperately lost estate, saith, we must needs dye, and are as water spilt on the ground. In this sense its said, Josh. 7.5 [Page 197]when the Israelites were smitten before the men of Ai, Qui roborc excellens eras, aut esse debueras, factus es debilis & attenuatus, viribus omnibus destitutus. Ita aptissimèqua. drat oppositio. Qui eras principium robor is mei, effusus es sicut aqua, liquefactus es, exhaustus viribus, ita ut nihil à te deinceps sit expectandum magni & heroici. Rivet in Gen. 49. that the hearts of the people melted, and became as water; and thus also I understand that expression of Jacob concerning Reuben, Gen. 49.4. whom, though in respect of what he might have been by the right of primogeniture, he calls his might, the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power; yet in regard of what he was to be in the losse of this power and dignity; Jacob saith, that he was unstable, or poured forth as water, that is, was to be weak, brought low, and so emptied of strength, that nothing great and heroick was to be expected from him. How fitly this dissolution and lost estate agreed to Balaam and these seducers, that sought to heighten and strengthen their condition by error and unrighteousness, who sees not? their sin could not be a stable and solid foundation of greatness, but it made them vanish and perish like water poured forth; they perisht in their names, estates, bodies, souls. And therefore the Arabick renders this place, in mercede exaruerunt, in their reward they dryed up or decayed, as after the pouring forth of water there follows driness in that thing out of which the water is poured.
2. Or this pouring forth as water (according to others better) may import a pouring forth in respect of the forwardness, force, violence, Acts 2.17.18.33. So Acts 10.45 Sic dicimas effundere se in li bidine, in questus, lacbrym [...], vota; effundere furorem, iram, minas, querelas, rabiem, vires, vocem, honores in mortuum. Lor. in loc. and impetuousness of these wicked men, in the sinfull prosecution of their lusts; and thus this resemblance, of pouring forth as water, is ordinarily used in Scripture; as Hos. 5.10. I will pour out my wrath upon them like water, Amos 5.24. Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Jude then here intends, that these Seducers put forth themselves, in the prosecution of their lust, like water poured out. As a forcible swelling stream breaks down the banks, and violently bears down all before it, so these were so mad upon their gain, that they could not be restrained, but violently broke down all [Page 198]the banks and bounds which were set to keep them in. And probably the Apostle may here refer (in his setting down the violent eagerness of these seducers upon their reward) to that furious march, and impetuous progress of Balaam, when he journeyed to Moab, upon promise of wages, whom neither Gods prohibition before he began his journey, nor the crushing of his foot, nor the speaking of the Asse, nor the drawn sword of the Angel in his journey, nor the ineffectualness of all his enchantments afterward, could hinder from pursuing his covetous design; but early in the morning, up he gets, breaks the bounds of Gods command, begins his journey, furiously strikes, madly answers his Asse, wildly lays about him, breaks through all difficulties, at length comes to Balac; and then runs from Altar to Altar with inchantments; and in a word, would not give over till the sword which he saw drawn before his eyes, was sheathed in his bowels.
And this violent impetuousness put forth by Balaam, these seducers, and other wicked men; this running greedily in the prosecution of their lusts, is notably set forth in Scripture, and that principally by these two considerations: 1. The means used for the hindring and reclaiming them, have not stopt and hindred them: like the man possest with Devils, no chains are strong enough to hold them. Hence 'tis that the prosecution of lust is sometimes compared to the effusion, 1 Pet. 4.4. [...]. Isa. 57.20. Jer. 2.23. Jer. 8.6. Hos. 4.19. rushing out, foming or boyling of the Sea: Sometime to the swiftness of a Dromedary traversing her way, sometime to the rushing of a Horse into the battell: Also the back sliding of an heifer which will endure no yoke, not be kept in any bounds: Hos. 8.9. to the unbridled unruliness of the wild Ass, which is and will be alone by himself, and will not endure any man to come neer him, to bring him under government. Who, saith God, hath sent out the wild Asse? &c. he scorneth the multitude of the City, and regardeth not the crying of the driver, Job 39.5. that is, who but I [Page 199](God) hath manumised or set free the wild Ass from all service of men, and set, and kept him loose from those bands to which other Cattel are subject, whereby they serve in the Cart, plow and under the saddle? &c. If drivers should offer to urge him to work, as they do tame beasts, he would scorn it, and shew them a light pair of heels. If a whole City should seek to scare him and bring him to work, he would not regard it; An exact embleme of a man pursuing his lust, who will not endure to hear of a master, but will be a stranger to discipline, knows no other law but his lust, will be a son of Belial, without a yoke; yea the vehement impetuousness of the wicked in prosecuting their lusts, Jer. 2.24. [...]. Clem. Alexandr. is set out by the violence of a wild Asse, winding the male, and running mad after after him, in her occasion none being able to turn her away, or willing to weary themselves therein; the wicked set sheir hearts on their iniquity, Hos. 4.8. The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill, Eccles. 8.11. More particularly, 1. The Word and Will of God hinders not sinners in their courses of lust; they break the yoke, Jer. 5.5. and burst the bonds. They break bands asunder, and cast away cords from them. Jesus qui potuit solem sistere ne procederet, avaritiam bominum non potuit sistere ne serperet: ad vocem ejus sol stetit, avaritia non stetit. Sole itaque stante confecit Jesus triumphum, avaritia procedente pene amisit victoriam, Ambr. l. 2. de offic. cap. 26. When the Prophet had exhorted the people to turn from their evill ways, they tell him plainly, Jer. 18.12. and 2.25. There is no hope; that is, it is to no purpose to speak to us, there is no possibility of reclaiming us, we are resolvedly bent upon our courses which we have pitcht upon, and firmly fixt to live as we list our selves. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, and thou wouldst not hear, Jer. 22.22. Though Joshua stopt the Sun, that swiftly running creature, in its course; yet by severest threats, and strictest prohibition, he could not hinder Achan from his covetous attempt. Though Samuel told the Israelites the manner of their King that was to reign over them, and foretold them their many and certain calamities which should thereby ensue, yet they refused to hear Samuels voyce, and said, Nay, [Page 200]but there shall be a King over us. Neh. 9.16, 17.26.29. Fuit hoc gentilitium ac genuiuum vitium Judaeorum, ut nihil minus crederent quam quod à Prophetis traderetur. Mendoz. in 1 Sam. 8. Deut. 29.2. Matth, 29 21 Gen. 5.31.7.6. The Levites in their confession, acknowledg that their fathers hardned their necks, dealt proudly, harkned not to Gods commandments, refused to obey, were disobedient, rebelled against him, cast his Law behind their backs, sinned against his Judgments, withdrew the shoulder, would not hearken.
So obstinate was Judas in his sin, that the admonishing of the Traytor, and mentioning of the Treason, by Christ himself, could not work upon him. Though Cain was forewarned of God to take heed of hurting his brother, yet would he not be stopt from the Murder, Gen. 4.7. The preaching of Righteousness to the old and obstinate world by Noah, who by the language of his tongue in speaking to them, and hand also in building the Ark (a work wherein he spent an hundred years) foretold them of their approaching Deluge, could not reclaim them from their lusts; yea, the slow proceedings of God in raining upon the earth forty dayes, could not work upon those obstinate sinners, but as they lived, so they dyed in their contumacy. The like may be said of the Sodomites, Gen. 19.9. who would not be disswaded from their unclean persecutions by all the Arguments that righteous Lot could use. The Jewes would not, by the most clear and convineing Miracles of Christ, be reclaimed or convinced.
Yea 2, So great is a sinners contumacy, that the greatest of Gods judgments cannot reclaim him. Thou hast stricken them (saith the Prophet) but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder then a rock, Jer. 5.3. And chap. 8.6. Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battel. The most visible and apparent threatnings of death cannot stop the horse from running into the battle, nor a sinner from proceeding in his course of wickedness. Such was the resolution of the Egyptians in pursuing the Israelites, that they would rush into the sea, which they [Page 201]knew, could not be divided for their sakes, and enter the jawes of death, rather then think of a seasonable Retreat. Rather then sinners will not satisfie their unlawful Lusts, they will spend, and profusely cast away their dearest enjoyments. Quòd Aaron jubet inaures demi, ab auribus uxorum, &c. non absurdè intelligitur, difficilia praecipere voluisse, ut hoc modo eos ab illâ intentione revocaret. Aug. q. 141. in Exod. Abulens. q 10. Some think that Aaron being required to make gods for the Israelites, demanded of them their golden ear-rings, which were in the ears of their wives, their sons and daughters, to try whether he could suppress that Idolatrous desire, by calling for those things which were so dear and costly; and yet the people were so obstinately bent upon Idolatry, that notwithstanding these difficulties, they took Aaron at his word, and gave their most precious Ornaments for the making of a Golden Idol; and Abulensis thinks, that these ear-rings were taken away from the younger sort (their sons and daughters) against their wills, and with such violence, that their ears were torn and bloody, before the Ear-rings were pull'd from them. Jeroboam, by the rending of the Altar, and the drying up of his hand, was not reclaimed from Idolatry, 1 King. 13.33. Esau, rather then he would not satisfie his sensual appetite, for a mess of pottage sold his precious birth-right. Verberari à Damone mallebat quam à Deo coronari. Illa flagella adorabat, haec dona fastidiebat. Mall [...]t suh diabolicis plantis crudeliter tundi, quam inter divinas ulnas molliter foveri. Mendoz in 1 Sam. 8.22 But that which is the most astonishing wonder of all, is, that the Idolaters were so pertinaciously set upon their Idolatry, that they spared not their dearest children, but offered the fruit of their loynes and wombs to Idols, to Divels. And who can sufficiently admire that sottish and sinful pertinacy of Ahaz, who as he trespassed yet more against God in his distress, so he exprest i [...] by sacrificing to the gods of Damascus which smote him? being more desirous in the worshipping of Divels to be scourged, then in serving the true God to be crowned; and that he might satisfie his Lust, more willing to be trampled under Satans feet then to be taken into Gods embracements. See further for this Amos 4.6, 8, 9, 10. &c. the Prophets repeating Yet have ye not returned, &c. And Isai. 9.13. The people [Page 202]turneth not to him that smiteth. Nor can the vanity insuccessfulness, and apparant ineffectualness of all the endeavours of sinners, no nor yet their weariness, weakness, and inabilities, take them off from their lusts. Hence God speaks concerning the Jewes, in the pursuing of their Idolatrous courses. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, There is no hope, Isai. 57.10. Though she was tired out with the length of her journeys in sending to Idolaters, and saw that all her toyling and tyring out her self was in vain, yet she would not give over, but went on still desperately in that toylsome and chargeable course; though all her endeavours were fruitless and unsatisfying, yet she never said, Jer. 2.36, 37. 7.8. 2.12. Isai. 30.5, 6. Hos. 8.7. Why should I weary my self any longer? Though sinners observe that nothing which they do profits them; that all their cisternes are broken, and will hold no water; that they sow the wind, and reap the whirle wind; that their chariot wheels are broken off, and all their bridges broken down; that whatever they labour to lay hold on, flies away from them as did Joseph from his Mistris, when she took hold of his coat: In short, Notwithstanding the ineffectualness of all their labours, they yet are like those Sodomites, who though they were smitten with blindness, yet wearied themselves in feeling for, and finding of Lots door; and were as full of unclean rage as ever. Though the bodies of sinners may grow weary, and thereby the services of their bodies fail and languish, yet their Lusts are as vigorous and green as ever; like a furious Rider, never wearyed by the length of his Journey, though the poor beast under him be tired and worn out. The Carcass may be worn and wearyed out, but Lust is never tired: Lust outlives its faculties, and never growes crazy in the oldest body. If the faculty could, lust would still rise up early, lye down late, pursue unclean objects, lade it self with thick clay.
2 Sinners, in stead of being stop'd or hindred in the [Page 203]prosecution of their lusts, by the means used to restrain them, become thereby the more violent and outragious in their courses. 1 King. 18.22. The longer the Priests of Baal continued unanswered, and the more Elijah derided them; the more they leaped, the louder they cryed, and the more they cut and gasht themselves. Why should ye (saith the Prophet) be stricken any more? Isai. 1.5. ye will revolt more and more: Ahaz in his affliction trepassed yet more. The Worshippers of Diana, when their Idolatry was opposed, cryed out with the more vehement rage, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Act. 19.28. Jerusalem being called of God to weeping and mourning, in opposition to God, fell to all expressions of Joy, in slaying of Oxen, and killing of sheep. The rebellious Israelites, who when Caleb perswaded them to go up to Canaan, refufed the undertaking; when Moses forbade them, desperately and obstinately, to their own destruction, adventure upon it. The wicked in the Laná of uprightness, Isai. 26.10. where his wickedness is discovered and reproved, will deal the more unjustly. When Christ had so clearly convinced the Jewes of their sin and his own innocency, that they could hold dispute no longer with him, they run from arguments to stones and raylings, Joh. 8.28. Thou art a Samaritan (said they) and hast a Divel. When he had wrought a miracle on the Sabbath day, and justified his action, they were the more filled with madness. When Stephen had reproved the Jewes of their hypocrisie and cruelty, Luke 6.11. Cum coeli janua aperirentur, ipsas Judaei mentes claudebant. Aug. Act. 7-54.57. they were cut to the heart, gnashed upon him with their teeth, stopped their ears, ran upon him and stoned him. When Peter (though a holy man) was charged to be one of Christs company, he denyes it, with Cursings and Damnings of himself. When the Prophet told Asa of his folly in making a league with the Syrians, its said, that he was in a rage, and imprisoned the Prophet. [...]. Mat. 26.74. 1 Chro. 16.10 2 Chro. 36.16. When God sent to the Israelites by his Prophets to make knowne to them their sins, they mocked and misused them, and despised the word which they delivered from God. As the Prophets [Page 204] ledled the Israelites, so they went from them, Hos. 11.2. They would have nothing to do with them or their Doctrine. When God would have healed Israel by his Word, Mercies and Judgments; when he tryed to cure the sins of his people, their secret wickedness manifested it self; all the means which he used, in stead of healing them, Hos. 7.1. did but stir and provoke the evil humours, and being rubbed on their sores, they kick'd and raged the more. The rage of the mad dog is the more increas'd by the chain; and the swelling of the stream, by the stopping thereof; and they who are hindred in their passage in the streete by carts, go on the faster afterward. The more rubs and stops Balaam met with in his Journey, the more was his fury and violence increased. Nor did the Sodomites ever rage so much, as when they were opposed by the gentle admonition of Lot, and the sutable and seasonable punishment of blindness.
Nor will this violence and fury seem strange, if we consider, that in the prosecution of lust, wicked men are carryed on, both in the way of their own natural propensions, and inclinations; and also, by the strong and vehement impulsions of that powerful and impure spirit the Divel. The violent and propense motions of a person to any sin, are set out in Scripture by the word Spirit, because they are naturally seated in the spirit, and furthered by a bad spirit; stirred up in and by an unholy spirit; so we read of the spirit of a deep sleep, Isai. 29.10 A perverse spirit, Isai. 19.14. The spirit of whoredom, Hos. 4.12.
The natural propension alone, hath very much in it to cause a vehemency and swiftness in motion; but when seconded and set forward by the force of an outward agent, the vehemency of that motion is much increased. A stone thrown and hurryed downward, moves the swifter, because the natural weight thereof is improved by an accessory impression: And the natural motion [Page 205]of a person in sin, is made much more eager and impetuous, by the impulsions of Satan; sinners then in the following their lusts are both carried down the tide of their own nature, and withall vehemently driven by the winds of Satans Instigations: and how swift a passage must needs be made by both conjoyned?
Besides, wicked men follow their lusts, and indeavour their satisfaction as their chief end and good, and they have no other God; gain was Balaams God, Quic quid proponitur tanquam fin, is quaeritur nullâ adhibitâ mensurâ. Aquin. and advantage was the godliness of these seducers. And whatsoever (saith Aquinas rightly) any one propounds to himself as his chief end, he seeks and prosecutes without measure. Every man endeavouring to obtain, that, with his best and greatest industry, which he apprehends as the best and greatest good.
To conclude, Lust knows no enough, no satisfaction, it always desiring more; ever needy, and therefore ever greedy; ever empty, and therefore ever earnest; lust can finde no center or terme, and therefore it will be eager in motion. Sinners are said to drink iniquity like water, Job 15.16. not onely in regard of the easinesse of drinking, (drink being more easily and speedily taken down then meat) but in regard of the excessivenesse, men drink water without measure, because without the bridle of fear to restrain them; fear of drunkenness may restrain men from drinking much wine, but men care not how much water they take in, they fearing no danger. The Apostle ( Eph. 4.19.) speaks of working uncleanness [...], with greediness, or as the word properly signifies with having more. There's enough in the objects of lust to entice it, not enough to content it; there are reserves of desires in the soul, fresh supplies of lustings new rays'd, whensoever the old are cloy'd or foiled; no more is lust satisfied with its objects, then the fire is with wood, then the grave with carcases; the more we give it, the more it will demand; and if by lading it with courtesies we think to oppress [Page 206]it, the more its thus oppressed (with the Israelites in Egypt) the more it will grow.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Observ. 1. Satan makes use of the meetest and ablest Instruments to advance his designs. Balaam a Prophet he deems of all other the fittest to curse Israel. He oft employs refined wits to defend Error, as Arius, Sabellius, Pelagius, Socinus, Arminius: He carves his Mercury on the most promising peeces: He useth those to pervert the world, who transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ, 2 Cor. 11.13, 15. and the Ministers of righteousnesse; he speaks by those who know how to use fair speeches, wisdome of words, sleight, cunning craftiness, and can lye in wait to deceive: Ephes. 4.14. Satan knows that his cause is bad, and therefore he imploys those in the mannaging thereof, who are able to make the best of a bad matter; rotten stuffs want most watring, and wrinkled faces most painting; and error and impiety skilfullest pretences, subtillest evasions, fairest glosses, and most cunning insinuations. Tertullus is fittest to plead against Paul: Soothsayers to oppose Moses: A Simon Magus to deceive the whole City. Besides, Satan is most hurtfull to the Church when he opposeth it by subtilty and seduction. Balaam did more hurt to the Israelites by his counsel, then the Moabites could by their courage; the daughters of Moah by tempting to Adultery and Idolatry, destroyed 24000; the sons of Moab could not overcome one: they whom God hath furnisht with the best weapons of arts and parts, have oft given his Church the deepest wounds. Men of great ability, should labour to be men of good abilities, and great integrity. There's no eminency either of outward power, or inward parts, but the Devil labours to make usefull and subservient to his own ends, and interest, and a stirrup to lift him up into the saddle. How great a pitty is it that a good, a clear head, should be accompanied [Page 207]with a bad, an unclean heart! Tremble to think that any of thy accomplishments should be ornaments to beautifie the Devil. Diabolus cupit abs te ornari. That thy voice should make him Musick, that thy wit, eloquence, strength, authority, should be weapons to fight for him against thy Lord, and their Donor. Oh let not Satan drink the wine of that vineyard which he never planted, or draw out of that Well which he never digged, inhabit that house which he never built. Oh let all thy endowments be Engines imployed for the Giver. Thy abilities never have their due improvements, but when they advance Christ. Never had the Ass so rich, so precious a burden, as when Christ sate upon it.
2. Observ. 2. God often gives excellent endowments to wicked persons. Balaam, famous for his prophesies, was in famous for his prophanenesse; they who are workers of iniquity, may prophesie in Christs Name, work miracles, Matth 7. and cast out Devils; both Judas and Caiphas prove this point. God is a very bountifull Master, some bones and crumbs he lets fall even to dogs; Gods bounty is so full a Cup, that though it be fill'd for his children, some drops run over upon the wicked. And by the endowments of the worst of men, God often doth good to his Church; gifts are ministrantia, not sanctificantia, beneficial to others, not to the owners; for edifying, not sanctifying; they are (as it were) Gods shipping, to convey his treasury of grace upon the shore of his people, souls. God oft gives men excellent parts and abilities to benefit others, as some rich or noble man, who causeth the Nurse to fare daintily, for the good of his child, to which she gives suck; not out of love to her self. The Israelites were enriched even by gold that was Egyptian; they who preach Christ out of envie, may yet preach Christ to the benefit of hearers. A Raven brought Elijah food, and wicked men may sometimes profitably dispence the food of life; the dull whetstone [Page 208]may sharpen the knife; the deaf bell may give a found to the ears of others; a sweetly sounding Lute, not it self delighted with the Musick, may yet recreate, yea almost ravish others. An unskilful Serving-man may open the gate for his Master, and let it shut to again before he himself can get through. Balaams mouth uttered an excellent prophesie of Christ and his Church, for the good of others, his own heart (mean while) being untoucht, untaught; God put the word of prophesie but into his mouth. And further God will have a tribute of glory even from his enemies. Balaam in the midst of his rage and covetousness, praised God: he can extract water out of the rock, and raise children out of stones; it is not so much glory for God to take away wicked men, as to use their evill to his own holy purposes; as the heart of Balaam cursed against his tongue, so his tongue blessed against his heart: God makes wicked men to serve him, when they think most to resist him; and that which is not, nay is contrary to the end of the worker, he makes the end of the work. Lastly, God will render wicked men inexcufable, even by their own carriage; they who preach and praise the ways of God to others, can have no apology for their own not practising them; let none then please himself with parts and gifts of edification without the power of godlinesse; these are but like Ʋriahs letters, which cut the throat of him that carried them. A drop of grace, is worth a sea of gifts; he that can shed one tear of godly sorrow, presents a more acceptable gift to God, then all the silver and gold of Solomons Temple. Light may make a good head, onely heat can make a good heart. The Divel knows more, and can speak as good a Sermon as any man, and yet he is still a Divel. Rejoyce not therefore in gifts without grace; not (as Christ said) that the Divels are subject unto you; but in this, that your names are written in heaven. Labour for that which never was, nor can be bestowed upon an enemy; the Spirit may be assisting, [Page 209]where it never is inhabiting; God may speak to an enemy, he only speaks peace to a friend. Grace is the proper and genuine effect of the Spirit, gifts are but (as it were) the outward artificial effects thereof; and as much difference is there in the Spirits production of these two, as between a mans begetting of his child, and making of an house: Gifts are (as it were) dead graces, but graces are living gifts. The greatest ministring gifts, expel no lust, mortifie no inordinate affection, cleanse no heart; when gifts are in their eminency, sin may be in its prevalency. In that man who is the fullest of them, there may be as much room for the Devil to dwell, as ever. A man may be a great Scholer, and yet a great sinner; yea (unless sanctified by grace) the greater scholer, the greater sinner, and enemy to God; and so the more gifts, the more condemnation: as it is with a sinking ship, the more its laden with gold, the deeper it sinks, so the more a man is laden with gifts, (without graces) the deeper he sinks into hell: Indeed gifts may beautifie grace, but grace onely sanctifies gifts; as the Gold beautified the Temple, but the Temple sanctified the gold. To conclude, as there may be a gracious heart, who never had these gifts, so they who have them are not certain alwayes to enjoy them; the least drop of saving grace, shall grow to a river; but the greatest flood of gifts may decay to lesse then a drop. There's nothing that God bestows upon us, but he may repent of the giving thereof, unless it be grace.
3. Obs. 3. Its great both impiety and ignominy to be a ringleader in sin, with Balaam to mislead others. The greatest Seducer who hath a double portion of wit to teach others error and heresie, an Haeresiarch obtains no more by all this, then to become primogenitus Diaboli, Satans eldest Son. Its honorable to lead others to Heaven, to teach men the way to happiness, to be an Abraham, a Joshua, a David, to instruct our families to bring our house with our selves to serve the Lord, to teach sinners [Page 210]in the way, but to be a Jeroboam, an Elymas, a Balaam, how disgraceful, how destructive is it! Have not men sins enough of their own, unless they make the sins of others their own also? How deeply shall they be plunged into hell, Quid proderit non puniri suo, qui alieno puniendus est peccato? who are crush'd both with their own, and their other mens sins also! By every one whom thou hast made wicked, shalt thou (without repentance) hereafter be made woful. Some think that the reason why the rich Glutton desired that his brethren might not come into that place of torment with him, was, because the coming of those whom he had put upon sin, would have been an addition to his torment. Seldome will Princes pardon the ring-leaders of a Rebellion: And rarely is it seen, but that the Teachers of others to sin, have been eminent either for repentance or ruin. Corah, Dathan, &c. who were ring-leaders in the rebellion, smarted accordingly. And think, though God peradventure should at any time give thee repentance, how many fresh bleedings, and renewed troubles of soul will, nay, should be stirred up in thee by the recollection of thy former putting those upon sin, who, though sinning with thee, (it may be) never repented with thee, and so were either by thy counsel or example, sent to hell! It was not, the least part of Pauls aggravation of his sin, nor of his trouble, even when he was converted, that he had formerly compelled men to Blaspheme. If thou hast led others to Hell, God will not, without deep repentance, bring thee to Heaven. And upon none lies there so strong an engagement as upon thee, of doing good to others souls for time to come. Paul converted, was as earnest to draw men to Christ, as formerly he was industrious to drive them from Christ. Of a Wolf he became a Shepherd.
4. Observ. 4. Love of Lust makes men Erroneous. Balaams love to reward, made him say any thing. Of this largely in the former part, page 615.
5 Observ. 5. Desire of gain will carry a man upon any wickedness. It neither fears, nor forbears any sinful course for the [Page 211]attaining its end: They that will be rich, fall into tentation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful Lusts, Avaritia est plus velle quam sat est. Aug. de lib. arb. l. 3. c. 17. Hom. 13. in Act. 1 Tim. 6.9. They meet with many enticements unto sin, and they will not fear to embrace any enticement: They are (as Chrysostom expresseth it) as a City without walls, on every side beset with Besiegers, and unable to resist any assault. The love of money (saith the Apostle) is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6.10. Take this away (saith Chrysostom) and thou takest away all wickedness, Fraud, Rapine, War, Heresie, Thest, Lying, Contention, &c. A covetous man (saith he) knows no friend, nay, no God. Dicitur radix omnium malorum, ad fimilitudinem radicis arboris, quae alimentum praestat toti arbori. Aquin. part 2. q. 84. Art 1. Ex parte intentionis, superbia, quae est appestitus excellentiae, est initium omnis peccati; sed ex parte executionis, est primum id quod praebet opportunitatem adimplendi omnia desideria peccaii, & ex haec parte avaritia, &c. Art. 2. ubi supra. Dolus in Idolo. Deos quis (que) sibi utiles cudit. Pro ar is quia pro focis. The love of money gives nourishment to every sin, as the root doth to the whole tree. And Aquinas conceives, that though pride, in respect of intention, be the root of sin, as its the scope and end which the sinner looks at, in his sinning; the end of obtaining all Temporal good things being (as he saith) that a man thereby may get a kind of singular perfection and excellency to himself; yet that covetousness is the root and beginning of sin, in respect of execution, as its that which furnisheth a man with matter to act and commit sin, and gives opportunity to fulfil all the desires of sin. Agreeable to this is that of Solomon, Prov. 28.20. He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent: and chap. 23.4. Labour not to be rich. He that desires more then enough, will not know where to stop, will break all bounds. To desire beyond the bounds of sufficiency, is to seek for more then man may pray for. No sooner doth a man, step over this hedge, but he is presently in the wide, wild, and boundless Champain of Covetousness, and being once there, he hath no limits to keep him in. Achans taking of the accursed thing; Ahabs violent and injurious snatching away of Nabohs Vineyard; Judah his selling of his Master; Gehezie's, and Ananias's and Saphyrah's lying, Demetrius's contention for Idol- Diana; Saul's disobeying of God in sparing the cattle; and Jehu's halt in Reformation, [Page 212]sufficiently prove this Truth. The covetousness of the Scribes, Luke 20.47. made them devour widowes houses; for it the Priests made the Temple a Den of Thieves, by admitting of Money-Changers, &c. They cared not with what corruption they filled the Temple, so as they might fill their own Treasuries. Popery hath hewen the principal Pillars of her Superstition out of this Rock of Covetousness. Its a Religion wholly compacted and contrived for gain, not only gotten from the living, by Pardons, Masses, Confessions, Offerings, Pilgrimages, Worshipping of Saints, Indulgences; Multò aequanimius decem millium animarum ferunt jacturam quàm decem solidorum. Nicol. Clemangis de Pontif. Magis aurum suspiciunt quam Coelum. Neh. 13.16. Amos 8. by making of a Money-matter of the most crying Abominations; of Witch-craft; of Murder of Father, Mother, Child, Wife; of Incest, Sodomy, Beastiality, &c. But also from the Dead, who pay large Tributes by meanes of their Purgatory; a toy which they cry not up at all for Truth, but meerly for Traffick. Silver is in the sacks mouth of every Popish Error. Covetousness swallowes down any equivocation, oath, lye, perjury. 'Tis this sin that makes the Sabbath, Sabbatum Tyri & Bacchi, a Marketting and Junketting, a selling and swilling day; that stupifies the bowels of nature, and maketh men without natural affection toward dearest relations, desiring their deaths, in stead of preserving their lives. The thirst after gain, makes men thirsty after blood, as Balaam, Ahab, and Judas were both covetous and bloody. If the hands be not defiled with blood, its the Law, not conscience that keeps them clean. Its Covetousness that licenseth the publick Stewes at Rome, and those sties of Curtezans. Many have violated their matrimonial faith and chastity, and the Covenant of their God, allured more with the Adulterers purse, Jer. 6.13. then his person. And what are all the Thefts, False-dealings, Oppressions, Usury, but the issues of this sin! Judas was covetous, and therefore a Thief. Theft and Covetousness are joined together, 1 Cor. 6.10. Whence come false-accusing, [Page 213]pleading for an unrighteous cause, the making the conscience a very hackney, the flattering of men in sin, and the having of their persons in admiration, but from love of advantage? Covetousness damps holiness, as the damp of the earth puts out a candle. A covetous heart, like places where most Gold is, is most barren. Christians, think not to be free of any one, if you will embrace this one sin.
To overcome it, 1. Overcome the unbelief of thy heart; the root of this root of all evil, is distrust of Gods promise and providence. Sinful care comes from small faith; Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation (saith the Apostle) be without Covetousness; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He who hath God for his, in him finds his Gold, and all things else. The Lord is my Shepherd, (saith David) I shall not want. Psal. 23.1. Job 22.23. If thou return to the Almighty, &c. then shalt thou lay up Gold as dust, &c. yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, or Gold, Aurum lectissimum. Jun. ver. 25 or choice Gold (as Junius reads it.) He that by Faith makes God his Gold, shall never through covetousness make Gold his God.
2. Rectifie thy opinion of Riches. The earth is the lowest of Creatures, and made to be trampled under our feet; and the Primitive Christians laid the price of their possessions at the feet of the Apostles. Act 4. ult. Gold and Silver are fitter to set our feet, then our hearts upon. It would be against nature, for earth and heaven to joyn together: when an incongruity is it then, for our souls, purer then the heavens, to be glued to the clods? To have much, is not to be rich. God is called Rich in Scripture, not for Money, but for Mercy. Rom. 10.12. True Riches, stand more in doing, then in receiving good. Nec vera, nec vestra. Worldly enjoyments have but the name, the shew of Riches. There's nothing but opinion that makes them excellent. The common names given to Riches, are bestowed but abusively. They are not gain; by them, for them, men oft lose their souls. Not goods; they [Page 214]neither make us good, nor are they signs of goodness. They are not substance, they are but shadowes, nor can they so much as shadow the Excellency of those which are true. They are not means conducing to the chief end, happiness; indeed they are means to damn and undo many a soul: they are nothing; Solomon saith, they are not; i. e. in point of Duration, Satisfaction, efficacy, and usefulness when we are in distress.
To conclude this. 3. To overcom Covetousness, study the Excellency of Riches indeed, true Riches, of being rich to God, 1 Tim. 6.11 Math. 6 19. Quodam cordis itinere divitias tuas sequere. Sequatur totum nostrum, quo praecesserit aliquid nostrum. Aug. rich in faith, rich in Heavenly Treasures. Look upon him that is Invisible; view the Sun, and then thy eyes will be so dazled, that in other things thou wilt behold no beauty. Consider thy Crown, and contemn the Dung-hill. Our Head is in Heaven, let head and heart be together. Let thy soul take a journey every day by Faith to thy Country, thy Treasure, thy Christ. Largely of this, see Part 1. pag. 372
6. Observ. 6. Much is the power and goodness of God seen, in the turning of the violent propensions of the heart, from any way of sin, toward himself. His power; for what but the power of Grace can turn the tide and stream of Nature? Humane Lawes can curb us from the act and exercise of sin, but only the Law written in the heart, can command and change the heart, and destroy in it, the love and propension to sin. Here is clearly applicable that of the Psalmist, Psal. 114 5 What ailed thee, Oh thousea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wert driven back? ye mountains, that ye skipped like Rams, and ye little hills like Lambs? The answer is, Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord. Who but God can stop the Sun in its career, and make it go backward? Who but he can stop a Saul in his Journey, and make him go back as well in heart as in body, and become more earnest in praying then ever now he was in persecuting? The Church complaing that she was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak, Jer. 31.18. aptly adds, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. The giving [Page 215]of a clean heart is a work of Creation, Create it in me, saith David. Nor is the Goodnesse of God herein less observable then his Power. How great is that love which doth us good against our wills, and turned us when we were running greedily to our own destruction! when we regarded the perswasions of men no more then doth the wild Ass (as Job speaks) the cry of the Driver! When all the means which friends, parents, Job 39.7. Ministers could use to reclaim us, were lost upon us; nay, we much worse (as was the woman in the Gospel by going to the Physician!) then what love was it, (nay, was it not) for Christ to teach, to touch the heart, and to turn us, when we had run even to Hel gates! Nor was the smartest dispensation, the most unpleasing stop, the most pricking thorny hedg any other then an unspeakable mercy, that hindred thee from finding thy way to Hell, and running greedily to thine own damnation. How much better was it to be diverted, then damned?
7. They who strive to hinder sinners in their course, Observ. 7. are like to meet with unkind returnes of opposition. Till God turnes their hearts, how angry are men with stops, and vexed that bridges are broken down, when they are running greedily, and marching furiously! All the hatred which Ministers meet with, is because they would stop sinners in their way to hell, and will not suffer them to be at peace, when they are going on to eternal paines. Never did any meet with so many cruel and bloody contradictions from sinners, as he who in his life, & Doctrin, and death did most oppose sin; Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? saith Paul. He who was sent to turn people from Satan to God, had all the rage of people and Satan turned against him. Hatred (saith Luther) is the Genius of the Gospel. Sauls Javelin, followed Davids Musick. Its very likely, that he who is quiet among sinners, suffers them to be quiet in sin. We should pity sinners, though, [Page 216]nay because they oppose us; if we turn them, they will love and thank us, and whensoever they come to be their own friends, they will be ours. However, the Lord will reward even unsuccessful faithfulness; and to be sure, we can much better bear hatred from the wicked for doing, then from God for neglecting our duty.
8. Observ. 8. The best way by which to try our sin cerity, is willingness to be stopt in any way, in which our lusts would make us run most greedily. If sinners run greedily and violently after their Lusts, then none but Saints can rejoice when they are stopt in the prosecution of them, and bless God (as David did for Abigails counsel) when they are hindred in any sinful career. God promiseth to his Elect a thorny hedg, Hos. 2.6. if they will be gadding; and they look upon it as a singular mercy: they being thereby turned back to their first husband. Only the people of God love that preaching which most opposeth their Lusts; and that Angel most (or Messenger of God) which stands with the drawn Sword of the Word to hinder them in their unlawful journey. Exangue & nobile quoddam Martyrii genus The patient and thankful enduring of stops and stroaks when we are sinning, is a very Noble, though a bloodless Martyrdom; a true note of true grace.
9 Observ. 9. Men have most cause to suspect their courses are is bad, when swift. When they run greedily, that they run wickedly; when they run fast, that they run wrong. When we are in any way of God, commonly we do but go, or rather creep; but in the way of sin, after the Error of Balaam, we are ready to run, and that greedily too; we are here carryed with wind and tide, our own inclinations, and Satans impulsions: the Jewes cryed out against Christ, they not so much as whispering against Barabbas. It was misguided Zeal, when the Disciples desired that fire might come down from heaven. When ever we are furious in any March, we should fear that we are in Balaams Journey; I mean, we ought to suspect [Page 217]the goodness of that undertaking, wherein we are most violent; and to doubt that we are sailing to a wrong Port, when with a full gale and a strong tide. A smooth, if a false way, should not delight us; nor should a rugged, if a right way, dishearten us. Its no sign thou pleasest God, or speakest the Truth, because men do not oppose thee in what thou dost or sayest. We must be wiser then either Christ or his Apostles, if we have got the skil to please the most, in doing that which is best. The peaceableness of sinners, is but impiety not opposed. Rather should I hope that what I do is right, when wicked men most rage and roar against me for doing it. When the Divel roars (saith Luther) its a sign I have struck him right: that is good which Satan hates.
To conclude this. Embrace no opinion, because it is maintained with multitudes and violence. Fire and faggot of old, were but weak arguments to prove the truth of Transubstantiation. As strong passions destroy a good, so do they not seldom discover a bad cause. 1 Cor. 4.19. Non vociferatio, sed ratio. Paul resolved to know not the speech, but the power of them who were puffed up. The worship of Diana is cryed up with more rage, then that of the true God is advanced with Zeal.
10 Observ. 10. Little do they who run down the hill know where they shall stop. These Seducers poured forth themselves to the utmost. Who knows in what a sad agreement the very Parley and Treaty with any Lust may end. The more modest motions which it makes at first, may end in an excessive immoderate pouring forth, and a profuse spending of what we have and are, our time, estates, yea strength of body and soul, and all which is in our power to bestow upon it. Men foolishly may think, that when they have gone thus or thus far, they will go no further, and stop at their pleasure; and that their Lusts will grow dry, as he in the Fable, who having a mind to go over a river dry-shod, and seeing it [Page 218]run with a fierce stream, hoped that within a little space it would run it self quite dry; Expect at dum defluat amnis at ille,—Labitur & labetur. but after all his waiting and expecting, the River ran with as full a stream as ever: And so though men think that their Lusts will at last grow dry, and that they shall easily step over them unto God, yet the sinful desires of the heart, wil grow stronger and stronger. They are like to be safest, who kill Lust in the cradle. He who gives way to it now, may justly be given over to it hereafter. He who will, against Gods command, step up to the ankles, justly may, beyond his own expectation, wade till he be over head and ears, and so swallowed up. And hence (to conclude) we may gather the desireable safety of those wayes, wherein there can be no immoderateness, and which cannot be loved excessively, though never so earnestly.
11. Observ. 11. Tis from a Divine hand that wicked men are hindered from greatest outrages. Balaams running was so greedy, and his march so furious, that he had curst the people, had not God stopt him. Its an arm of Omnipotency that pulls the wicked baek from those courses which their heart stands to. Its no thank to them that their worst undertakings are not successful. Whence is it that the world is not over-run with evil, but from this, That men cannot do so ill as they would? When we consider the impure propensions of nature, we ought to be thankful that every man is not a Divel to his neighbor. Psal. 76.10. [...] It is God that puts a stop to the sinner, as well as to the sea. Whatever rage of his enemies it is that breaks not forth, is bridled, in by God. It is not for want of poyson in the hearts, but power in the hands of the wicked, that the people of God are not both curst and crusht at once. How should we both admire the power, and praise the goodness of that God, who hinders the sell and fierce nature of wicked men from venting it self upon the poor unarmed Church? who bridles up, and sets bounds to that proud sea of sinners rage, which is so much [Page 219]higher then the poor humble earth, the Church in her low estate? and to sing after all our deliverances, in the tune of the thankful Psalmist, If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, Psal. 124.2, 3. then they had swallowed us up quick? &c. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul; then the proud waves had gone over our soul. The floods lifted up their voice, the floods lifted up their waves; Psal. 93.3, 4 the Lord on high is Mightier then the noise of many waters, yea then the mighty waves of the sea.
12. God is never more offended with men, Observ. 12. then when he gives them most scope and liberty in sin, that they may run greedily. Balaam and these Seducers were appointed to destruction, and God lets them run greedily in the way that leads to it. The after permission which God gave Balaam to go to Balac, was worse then the former denyal. God suffers some things with an indignation, not for that he gives allowance to the Act, but that he gives a man over to his sin in the act. Its one thing to like, another thing to suffer. God never liked Balaams journey, yet he displeasedly gives way to it: as if he had said, Well, since thou art so hot on thy journey, be gone; and thus Balaam took it: else, when God after professed his displeasure for the journey, it had been a ready answer, Thou commandest me: But herein his silence argues his guilt. Balaams suit and Israels Quails had one fashion of Grant, in anger. How much better is it to have gracious denyals, then angry yeildings! to have our way in sin stop'd up with thorns, then strewed with Roses! God is never more angry, then when he is not angry. Never are men in such likelihood of snaring, and strangling themselves as when God gives the greatest length of line. Seldom doth God suffer men to be their own Carvers, but they cut their own fingers. God in granting sinful desires, hates; and in denying them, loves the Petitioners. I had rather (said Augustin) have that mercy whereby I am whipped [Page 220]into the right way, then suffered to wander out of it.
13. Observ. 13. How shameful is it to be sluggish in our race toward the eternal reward! Balaam runs greedily toward a false, we remissly toward a sure reward; he rose up early, Illi [...]crius ad pernicicm, quàm nos ad salutem. and sadled his Ass: The night seemed long to his forwardness: he needed neither Clock nor Bell to awake him, his desires made him restless. Where is the Christian that deserves not to be condemned even by the very Damned! Who presseth toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, Phil. 3.14. &c? Who offereth that holy violence to the Kingdom of Heaven? knocks, seeks, asks, with half that industry for Spiritual Blessings, for Heaven, for Life, which wicked men put forth in labouring for their own destruction? I have heard of a Philosopher, who living near a Black-Smith, and hearing him up every morning at his Hammer and his Anvil, before he could get out of his bed to his Book, profest himself ashamed, that such an ignoble Employment as that Smith followed, should be more diligently attended then his more serious and excellent studies. Blush (O Christian) when thou seest wicked men to sweat in their worldly, and thy self to grow cold in Heavenly Employments. Surely, were the Sweetness, the honourableness, the vastness, the profitableness of Gods service seriously considered, holy Duties would find hotter affections in us. What a shame is it, that worldlings should be more laboriously busied about rattles and triffles, then we about the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternity!
This for the amplification of the sin and wo of these Seducers from the second Example; viz. of Balaam.
3. The third followes; viz. that of Core, in these words, And perished in the gainsaying of Core.
EXPLICATION.
Two things here are principally considerable, and to be explained.
1 Whom they followed, Corah.
2 Wherein they followed him. 1 In his gain-saying, 2 In perishing therein.
1 Whom they followed. Corah. Here it may be inquired, Who this Corah was?
Besides his sin and punishment (whereof anon) the Scripture mentions 1. his Pedigree, 2. Employment, and 3 Posterity. Exod. 6 18. 1 Chron. 6.1
1 For his Pedigree: He was of the Tribe of Levi; his fathers name was Izhar, the brother of Amram, who was father to Moses; so that Corah, and Moses whom he opposed, were brothers children, or Cozens Germane: the nearness of this relation, could not hinder him from attempting the downfal of those who better deserved to keep, then he to get the Government.
2 His Employment (with that of the rest of the Levites) is mentioned Numb. 16.9. to be honourable, Numb. 3.12.16.8, 9. they being separated by God from the congregation of Israel to be brought near to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them. The Levites were brought nearer to God, then the other Tribes, though not so near as the Priests. Numb. 18.3. 1 Chron 6.46, 49 Aarons sons, the Priests, served in the Sanctuary in praying for the people, and offering Incense and Sacrifice; but the rest of the Tribe of Levi were not to come nigh the Altar upon pain of death, Numb. 3.9.1.50.3.6, 7, 8.4.3, 4.7.5.18.6. Deut. 10 8. 1 Chron. 6.48.9.28, 29 2 Chro. 26.18 1 Chro. 23.28, 29. but served in Offices inferior to theirs. Their work was 1, To attend the service of the Sanctuary, according to the command of the Priests. When the Tabernacle was moveable, they were appointed to take it down, carry, set it up, and to keep all the Instruments thereof, and also with the Priests to carry the Ark of the Lord, To wait upon the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things. [Page 222]Their work was to watch about the Tabernacle, and afterward the Temple, to defend it, 1 Chron. 9.27. They also were to have the over sight of the Shewbread, Meat-offerings, unleavened cakes, and of all manner of measure and size; they being to see, that all measures, both of dry and moist things, which were used in Gods service, might have their just proportion, and that there might be a due length and breadth of all things, that used to be measured by the mete-yard. All manner of just measures for the things belonging to the House of God, were to be tryed by the measures and sizes which the Levites kept, and these were called the measures of the Sanctuary; whether the Levites had the ordering of civil measures and sizes or no, is uncertain. 1 Chro. 16.4.23.30 2 Chron. 8.14.20.19, 30.21.31.2. Nehem. 9.5. 2. The work of the Levites was to sing praises to God, and they praised him both by singing holy Songs and Hymns, and also by Musical Instruments. 3. The Levites were to teach the people the Law; according to the good word of the Lord, 2 Chron. 30.22. and 35.3. and this Employment was common both to the Priests and Levites, Deut. 31.10. 2 Chron. 17.7, 8, 9. and 31.4. Ezra 7.10, 11. Nehem. 8.7, 8. and 9.4, 5. 4. To the Levites it also belonged with the Priests to take cognizance, and to judg in causes about Holy things, 2 Chron 19.8, 10, 11. So that the Priests and Levites were the two Ecclesiastical Orders in Israel employed about holy things, the Levites making the lesser, the Priests, the greater and higher Order, and yet both called Brethren, Numb. 18.6. And in process of time, by the appointment of God, when the Worship of God was to be stationary and fixt in one place, David divided the Levites into sundry Orders and Ranks, according to their Families, for the discharging of their several functions and Ministeries, they having their several courses of waiting and charges allotted to them. See 1 Chron. 28.13. and 23. per tot. and 25, &c, 2 Chron. 8.14. 2 Chron. 35.4, 5, 10. The reason of the [Page 223]separating of the Levites to the worship of God, is plainly mentioned in Scripture; Numb. 3.12. So Num. 8.16. I have (saith God) taken the Levites from among the children of Israel, in stead of all the first-born, because the first-born are mine; for on the day that I smote all the first-born of the Land of Egypt, Exod. 12 23 I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel. The first-born then were Gods by a particular right of Redemption, as well as Creation, and therefore were in especial manner to serve him. (In other Creatures, the first born were to be sacrificed to him, if they were clean beasts; and if they were not; to be ransomed at a price for the maintenance of the Tabernacle.) Now instead of taking the first born of mankind to his service, he appointed that the Levites should be peculiarly set apart for it: And he chose to be served by one Tribe, rather then by a number of first born taken out of many Tribes (as Learned Interpreters conceive) for prevention of confusion, discord and division in holy Services: and by the Tribe of Levi, rather then any other, for their Zeal of his Glory, in revenging the indignity done unto him, in the worshipping the Golden Calf, Exod. 32.26, 28. To conclude this Distourse; As Israel was separated from all other people to be the Lords peculiar, Lev. 20.26. so were the Levites separated from the sons of Israel, to be the Lords, Numb. 8.14. And the employment of the Levites (of which this Corah was a chief, and among whom he was famous) was (though inferior to the Priests, who were nearer to God in their attendances) very honourable. And therefore from the high honour thereof, doth Moses argue against the ambition of this rebellious Corah, whose desire it was to invade the Priestly Dignity also: Seemeth it (saith he) a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself, Numb. 16.9. to do the work of the Tabernacle? &c. If it be an honour for the greatest Subject to have the meanest Employment about the body of an [Page 224] earthly Prince, how much greater is the advancement of the highest sons of men, to have the lowest degree of peculiar service to God; and truly David, though a King, went not an inch below his state in not disdaining the Office of a door-keeper in the house of the Lord, and in putting on a linnen Ephod.
3. For the Posterity of this Rebel Corah, we find in Scripture, that they were 1 Spared and exempted from this destruction of their father. 2 Afterward that they were employed by God in his service, which some of them did holily discharge.
1 That they were spared, is expressed Num. 26.11. The children of Corah died not, neither did the fire from heaven, nor the opening of the earth hurt them. Whether they were in their fathers rebellion, and were spared by the Prerogative of free mercy, or for Gods care of his Ministry; or whether they consented not to the sin of their father (as it is most likely;) or whether they repented upon the warning given by Moses, Numb. 16.5. I determine not, the Scripture being silent. Nor will it be needful here to relate that fabulous invention of the Jewes, by whose relation God wrought as great a miracle in the saving of Corahs children, as he did in the destroying of Corah himself; for they write, That when the earth opened and swallowed up the father, the children were taken up in the air, and there remained hanging, till the earth closed up again. What way they were saved, it matters not, spared they were; and their names were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. God is so just, as to be feared in the midst of his smiles; and so merciful, as to be beloved in the midst of his frowns: his goodness makes him to remember Mercy in the midst of Judgment; although our sins sometimes stir him up to remember Judgment in the midst of Mercy.
2. Its evident, that afterward they were employed by God as Levites, in several Services: They were Keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle, 1 Chron 9.19. Their Fathers [Page 225]had been over the hoste of the Lord; namely, 1 Chron 9.19 Num. 1.50.2.17. those Levites, who encamped about the Tabernacle, the hoste of Israel compassing it like the Kings Tent. Some of this Family were for the outward business over Israel, 1 Chro. 26.29. namely, such things as in the country were to be done, gathered, and prepared for the House of God, & for the Service thereof, as all manner of provision, fewel, oil, Wine, Tythes, first fruits, &c. Some were (possibly) Teachers in the Law, and Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil; for the Israelites being governed by the Judicial Lawes, Deut. 16.18. 2 Chro. 19.8. and the Levites being best exercised therein, they were sent abroad among the several Tribes to be Judges. But that eminent Employment to which they of Corahs family were designed, 2 Chron. 17.8 was singing in the House of the Lord: they were set over the service of the Song in the House of the Lord, 1 Chron. 6.31. and verse 32. They ministred with singing. And Heman a Corahite, who is said, 1 Chron. 25.5. to be the Kings Seer, and to lift up the horn: (that is, (say some) a Musical Instrument) was the chief Musician, 1 Chron. 6.39 44. and had his fourteen sons under him, for Song in the House of the Lord, with Cymbals, 1 Chro. 25.6, 7 Psalteries and Harps: and they are said (with their fellowes) to be instructed in the Songs of the Lord, and to be cunning, Many Psalmes (as the 42, 44, 45, 46.) have in their Title, For the Sons of Corah; and some conceive that some of the Psalms were penned by them; particularly that the forty sixth was their thanksgiving for their escape at their fathers destruction: the Title saying, Of, or for ths sons of Corah, to which mention of the Sons of Corah, the Chaldee Paraphrast addeth, By their hand was it spoken in Prophesie, at what time their father was hidden from them, but they were delivered, and said this Song; a conjecture which was occasioned by those words in the second verse, We will not fear though the earth be removed, &c. I rather conceive, that the Psalme might be indited by David, and that it was appointed [Page 226]for them to set a tune to it; and its generally held, that the 88 th Psalm was penned by the forementioned Heman; 1 Chron. 6.33.37. if so, it speaks him a very humble, godly son, (though) of a wicked rebellious forefather; and how free God is in despersing his Grace, and how gracious he was in preserving Corahs posterity, is much more manifested in that Samuel, ver. 27, 28, 33. a man so eminent for being a holy man, Gods favorite, and Israels Judg and happy Preserver, was one of Corahs off-spring.
Thus, by way of Explication, we have seen whom these Seducers followed, Corah.
2. 2 Branch of Explicat. But▪ secondly, Wherein did they follow him: Jude saith,
- 1. In Gainsaying.
- 2. In perishing therein.
1. In this gain-saying: 1. I shall shew wherein it stood. 2. How Great the sin of it was?
1. For the first, The word in the Greek, [...], Contradiction, or Gain-saying, signifieth these, either verbal or real.
Verbal, Heb. 7.7. Without all contradiction, [...], the less is blessed, &c. and the Sadduces are called [...], those who deny that there is any Resurrection.
In some places (secondly) the word principally importeth, real contradiction or opposition (though not excluding the verbal.) Thus I take it, Heb. 12.3. where it is said of Christ, that he endured the contradiction ( [...]) of sinners; and I understand it in this place, to be a contradiction, as by words so (chiefly) by works. More particularly, this contention, opposition or contradiction, which Corah expressed and is at large described, Numb. 16.1. was that insurrection and Sedition which he enterprized against Moses, whom he gainsayed, and against whom he stood up, to throw Aaron out of, and to gain to himself (he being of the Tribe of Levi) the Office of Priest-hood, wherein Aaron was placed by Divine appointment. This Real was [Page 227]accompanied & coloured over with that verbal gainsaying, wherein Corah charged Moses & Aaron with usurpation and ambition, in taking too much upon the [...]. That this gaining of the Priesthood was the design, is plain from the words of Moses, ver. 9.10 where he thus expostulates, Seemeth it a smal thing to you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himsel? &c. And seek you the Priest-hood also? For which cause both thou, and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him? For the accomplishing of this rebellious Design, he doth not only joyn to himself a great company of the chief Levites to throw Aaron out of his Office, but incites Dathan and Abiram, who were of the Tribe of Reuben, in regard of their primogeniture before Moses (they being of the eldest Tribe) to depose Moses from, and to assume to themselves, the civil Government, at the same time; in this work he also joyning with them; he well knowing, that if Moses continued to enjoy the Government of the Commonwealth, he should never be able to carry on his Design of getting to himself the Priesthood.
As for these Seducers, against whom our Apostle here writes, I dare not peremptorily assert, that the Apostle only intends that they imitated Corah in disturbing the order and rule of the Church; I doubt not but [...]orah opposed both Civil and Ecclesiastical Order: (its plainly exprest, Numb. 16.3. that he with Dathan and Abiram, and their followers, gathered themselves together, both against Moses, and against Aaron). And supposing that Corah only had opposed Aaron, Potest boc exemplum accommodari ad propositum Apostoli, etidmsi objecta peccatorum sint diversa. Gerb. in 2 Pet. p. 257. by labouring to invade the Priesthood; yet (as Gerard well notes) this example of Corah in opposing Church-order, might well be accommodated to Judes purpose, were his purpose only to shew, that these Seducers were enemies to Civil Order and Superiority; for although the sin of Corah and these Seducers had different objects, yet [Page 228]they both agree, in resisting of Superiors. But its most probable that Jude intends that these Seducers, (by comparing them to Corah) did oppose all order and superiority in Church and State, they not only despising and speaking evil of Civil Dignities and Dominions (as we have formerly shewed at large) but opposing and disturbing the state of all Ecclesiastical Order. None were such bitter enemies to the faithful Apostles and Ministers of Christ, who were the Shepherds, Guides, Governors, Beda vocat Diotrephem haeresiarcham. 3 Joh 10. and Overseers, by Christ set over the flock and family of his Church. None laboured so much to pour contempt upon them and their Doctrine, prating against them (as John speaks of Diotrephes) with malicious words; and all, that they themselves (with Corah) might have the preheminency, and be look'd upon (as Simon Magus, their Master) to be the only great ones, Act 8.10. 2 Cor. 10.13.11.18 they commending themselves, boasting of things without their measure, glorying after the flesh, drawing Disciples after them; and labouring by winding into the Church, to work the faithful Ministers out: Cum Core pereunt, propterea quòd ficus ille, docendi Auctoritatem fibi prae [...] ripuerunt. Oecum. Hoe est negotium baereticorum, non Ethnicos convertendi, sed nostra evertendi nostra suffodiunt ut sua aedificent. Tert. de praescrip. Haereticus est qui alicujus temporalis commodi, & maxime gloriae principatusque gratiâ, falsas & novas opiniones gignit vel sequitur. Cont. Ep. Pa [...]m. c. 3. In a word (as Oecumenius speaks) though they were never so unfit, though uncalled, yet their main study was, to snatch all authority of Teaching to themselves. And (as Tertullian speaks of Hereticks) Their work was not to convert Heathens, but to overturn the labours of faithful Teachers; and to pull down them to build up themselves▪ And Augustine defines an Heretick to be one who for any worldly benefit, especially for glory and preheminence, either frames or followes new opinions. Of this more pag. 269 Part 1.
2 The great sinfulness of this gainsaying, appears sundry wayes. It was made up of
1 Contempt of Gods Ordination. Moses and Aaron were both placed in their Governments by Gods [Page 229]appointment, both immediate and express. Prov. 8.15. Rom 13.1. God was more opposed then these his Servants; and therefore truly doth Moses tell them, that this their gathering together was against the Lord. Num. 16.11. Though Dathan and Abiram (Reubenites) had the right of natural primogeniture, yet do they vainly challenge Preheminence where God hath subjected them. If all Civil Honour flow from the King, how much more from the God of Kings! His hand exalts the poor, and casts down the Mighty from their Throne. How unsufferable a presumption is it for dust and ashes to go about to mend his work, and to subject his Ordination to their own humour!
2. Regardlesness of the Publick. They cared not what ruin and woe they brought upon the whole company of Israel, by the loss of their lawful, godly, and able Governors, so as they might accomplish their own private Designs. They were desirous to raise themselves upon the destruction of thousands: and their endeavour was, to remove away Israels Shelters, and Shields; their Saviours, Shepherds, and Pillars; yea, and at one blow to behead Six hundred thousand men; to turne Gods Garden, into a Wilderness; Gods well govern'd Family, into a Den of Thieves; and to hasten the death of their Political Parents, though thousands of children would have celebrated their Funerals with tears.
3. Hypocrisie and falshoood. The Rebels pretend that all the Congregation was holy, and that Moses and Aaron lifted up themselves: Every word was a falshood. Numb. 16.3. So was Israel holy, as Moses and Aaron were ambitious: God lifted them up over Israel, and they dejected themselves; and what Holiness was there in so much Infidelity, Idolatry, Mutiny? What could make them unclean, if this were Holiness? The Israelites had scarce wip'd their mouth since their last obstinacy, but these Pickthanks tax their Governors, and flatter the people; and yet all this not out of love to these fond and flattered [Page 230]people, of whom they intended to make no other use, but to be stirrups to advance themselves into the saddle of Government. They pretend, that all the people (in regard of their holiness) might make as near approaches to God as their Governors; but their Design was hereby to appropriate all Administrations into their own hands, and to wipe the poor people of that which now they laboured to take away from their Governors; namely, all Power.
4 Discontentedness with their present condition. While they look'd upon the f [...]w Rulers that were above them, they never thought of the many thousands of people who were below them. They did so discontentedly look upon the difference between the Levites and the Priests, that they considered not the difference between the Levites & the people; and their thankfulness that they were above so many, was drowned in discontentment, that one or two are a [...]ove them.
5 Envy at, and repining against the due advancement of their faithful Governors. They envied Moses in the camp, and Aaron the Saint of the Lord, Psal. 106.16. Had Moses and Aaron been but fellowes with the Rebels, none had been better beloved; but now they are advanced, the malice of these Rebels is not inferior to the Honour of their Governors; their fault was, that God had set them up, not that they had ever opposed God, or hurt Israel: so that the trouble of the Rebels was not the badness of their Governors, but the goodness of God. The cursed humour of plain down-right Envy, which is not troubled that things in the world go ill, either in point of sin or sorrow, but that they go so well, or no worse.
6 Pride and ambition. Quotics hominibus desidero praeesse, toties Deo meo praeire contendo. Aug. in Psal. 1. They aspired to a Dignity in which God had placed others, and for, and to which they were neither called nor fitted. Their ambition to be above the people, made them desirous to be likewise above God, who had put others into that Dignity: [Page 231]They who were not fit for the Ore, Cum indignus essem poni ad romum, positus sum ad gubernaculum. Aug. Si ille qui virtutibus pollet, invitus debet accedere, quid de illo qui vitiis sordet! Perald. Non honorantur ex dignitate sed potius dignitas exhonoratur ab ipsis. Id. desire to sit at the Stern. Though the thing they desired was good, yet their desiring thereof out of Gods way, was wicked. If they who are fittest to govern should not accept of rule unless they be drawn, then they who are unfit, should not run to take it. Should ambitious Corahs get Power by running, they would not be honoured by their great place; but their place dishonoured by them.
7 In infection and contagion disperst to others. Corah draws in Two hundred and fifty into the Conspiracy, famous in the Congregation, and men of renowne. The Plague-sore in this one Corah, infects a great part of Israel. The contagion was worse then the Act; his wickedness was diffusive. He would neither be alone in wo nor wickedness. His abode was so near to the Reubenites, that he soon infuseth his poyson into Dathan and Abiram: he errs not without many followers. Surely his sin and woe had been sufficient, though he had not drawn in partakers in both; but its the constant guise of sinners, as to forbear the laboring after happiness themselves, and to hinder others; so to run into ruin themselves, and to carry others with them; though they shall dearly find hereafter that it is not in this case, the more the merryer, every sinner being but a bundle of fewel to make the fire of wrath burn the hotter against any who led him into sin.
8. Great ingratitude to God and their Governors, for all that care and cost which they laid out upon them. How unkind a requital was this to God and his Servants, for the many miraculous protections, directions, provisions, which primarily from him, and secondarily from them, they had received! What did Moses gain, by the troublesome Government, but danger and despight? Who but Moses, would not have wisht himself rather with the Sheep of Jethro, then these Wolves of Israel? How full of care was Moses, and all that these Rebels might be secure! Magistracy is like an upper [Page 232]garment, which a man puts on when he rides in wet and dirty weather; though Magistracy be uppermost, yet all the dirt and dashes fall upon it; the under garments are mean while kept dry and clean.
9 Boldness and obstinacy in sin. What a presumptuous wickedness was it for Corah and his complices to take the Censers and offer Incense. Had they had the least drop of Gods fear, their hands would have shaken, and the Censers would have fallen out of them. Though Corah had lately seen the judgment of God upon Nadab and Abihu, yet his Contumacy would not be check'd. The mentioning of the holy Censers and Incense, Si qua fuisset residua in illis, gutta timoris Dei, repente è manibus excedissent acerrae. Se vulgi favore munire tentat contra Deums Ac si objecto fumo vellet solis luccm extingucre. Si ambitiosis applaudit mundus inebriantur, exitiali fiduciâ, ut in nubes ipsas conspuant. Calvin, in Numb. 16. should have made him dread his own destruction, by intermedling beyond his Calling: but as Calvin well notes, by the favour of the people he banished the fear of God, and so opposeth God, as if he would have put out the Sun with smoak.
The second thing, wherein they followed Corah; was in Perdition; noted in these words, and perish, or perished (Greek [...]) in the gainsaying, &c. The time both past and present, is oft put for the future; to import and signifie the great and undoubted certainty that a thing shall come to pass; that its as sure to be, as if it were already accomplished: And thus the Apostle is to be understood, in saying, that these Seducers perish, or perished in Corahs gainsaying. The Greek word [ [...]] notes not only a bare dying (for so it doth in its best signification) but a dying by some miserable means; as by hunger, Luke 15.17. Sometime a destruction by hell, 2 Thes. 1.9. In which respect Judas is called the son of Perdition and Destruction. Joh. 17.12 and the Divel is called ( Rev. 9.11) A Destroyer: And Paul calleth the man of sin (2 Thess. 2.3.) the Son of [Page 233]Perdition, he being such both Actively and Passively. The word (saith Gerard) is used to note Temporal, Gerb. Harmon. Spiritual, and Eternal destruction. The Simple word [...], signifies to destroy; but the Compound (and such is this here used by Jude) is not without a further Emphasis.
Concerning the destruction of Corah, we read at large Numb. 16. It is much controverted by Learned men, what kind of Destruction this of Corah was. Some think that he was swallowed up in the earth with Dathan and Abiram, they referring the words of Moses. Num. 16.30. ( If the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, &c.) to all three, viz. Corah, Dathan and Abiram; and it being said, Numb. 26.10. the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up (meaning Dathan and Abiram) together with Corah, when that company dyed; what time the fire devoured Two hundred and fifty men. And that Corah also was swallowed up, Ambrose, Richelius, Lorinus, with some others conceive. Others (probably) think that Corah was not swallowed up with the rest; that though all his substance and Tents were destroyed by that punishment, and also all that appertained to him (his children only excepted) yet they think that Corah himself was consumed with fire from Heaven with the Two hundred and fifty men that offered Incense, ver. 35 Of this opinion are Cajetan, Oleaster, Haimo, Perkins, Tremelius, Diodate. And their Reasons are,
1 Because it seems by several passages in the History, Vid. Num. 16.25, 27, 28, 29, 30. that Moses spake concerning Dathan and Abiram only, and those which belonged to them, when he said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me, &c. if the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, &c.
2 When Dathan and Abiram, are expresly said to be swallowed up, there's mention made, ver. 32. only (in relation to Corah) that all the men that pertained to Corah, and all their goods, were swallowed up: Corah [Page 234]himself being not named, as are the other two.
3 They say, that when in other places this destruction is rehearsed, as Deut. 11.6. Psal. 106.17. there is mention made only of the swallowing up of Dathan and Abiram, with theirs, not of Corah at all.
4 Some are much confirmed in this apprehension, from that command of God, ver. 38.39, 40 that the brasen Censers of those who were burnt, should be made broad plates to cover the Altar, for a memorial that no stranger come near to offer Incense before the Lord, that he be not as Corah, and his company. From which command they conceive, that Corah was with the rest, burnt with fire. 1. Because he joyned with the rest of the company in offering Incense (as is plain, because others were to take warning by his punishment, not to offer Incense; and ver. 6. Moses saith, Take you Censers, both Corah, and all his company; and ver. 17. (saith Moses to Korah) Bring every man his Censer, thou also and Aaron, &c,) Now say they, its probable, Korah sinning by fire, was also punisht by fire, and joyning in the same sin, and being present Korach ipse cum ill is ducentis quinquaginta era [...], quos ignis Coelestis consumpsit. Num. 16.25. Tremel when the fire devoured the rest (which was immediately after their offering Incense) that he was also joyned in the same punishment. 2. When Moses speaks here of the offenders, he joynes them together in the punishment, he calls them Corah and his company, in these words, That he be not as Corah and his company. 3. The Censers which were to be Plates for the Altar, are called, the Censors of those which were BURNT: now Corahs Censer was among those which were Plates for the Altar; because the reason why they were to be Plates for the Altar, was their offering them before the Lord, and their being hallowed, ver. 38. which agree to Corahs Censer, as well as to the Censer of any other. 4. Gods command to make Plates of the Censers of those who were burnt, being followed with this reason, that others be not as Corah and his company, seems to import, that others by looking upon the Censers of [Page 235] those who were burnt, should take heed of being as Corah and his company, namely, burnt as they were. And whereas its said, Numb. 26.12. that the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, together with Corah, &c. Some understand that place not of Corahs person, but his Substance, Goods, and Retinue; and therefore Tre [...] melius reads it, Absorpsit eos, & quae erant Korachi▪ The earth swallowed them up, and those things which appertained to Corah, as we find Numb. 16.32. Others conceive, That Corah is joyned here with the other who were swallowed up, Because he was a Confederate in the same wickedness, and was punish'd by a miraculous death at the same time. But to leave the further discussion hereof; sure we are, that Corah was also destroyed: Jude here tells us, that he perished: and it hath been observed, that (most, if not) all those whom the Scripture mentions as Opposers of Lawful Authority, have been punished by violent death, God not vouchsafing them so much as a reprival to a Death-bed; several instances have I set down in my former Part, pag. 631. God makes them marks of vengeance, who remove the ancient Land-marks, set for Order and Propriety in a Nation; In Psal. 3. and (as Chrysostom notes) they who durst open their mouthes against Moses and Aaron, making their threats an open Sepulcher to bury their Diguities, were justly punished, when the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up such Rebels.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 The great misery and disgrace to be a ringleader in sin. Corah is here only mentioned by Jude; Observ. 1. he was the great wheel of the Rebellion: 'Tis thought that he exasperated Dathan and Abiram, by the pretence of their primogeniture before Moses. It is too much to follow in wickedness; but to lead, it is inexcusable, insufferable. The Rebels that opposed Moses and Aaron, are called Corahs company, Numb. 27.3. Num. 16.5, 6. and the Rebellion [Page 236]it self, is called the matter of Corah, Numb. 16.49. He who was higher then the rest in sin, is principally braned in Scripture story with perpetual infamy. Of this more in Balaams example.
2 Bad parents may have good children. Observ. 2. Jeroboam, Amon, Ahaz, and here Korah are pregnant proofs hereof. God is free in his gifts of Grace. He disperseth them where and to whom he pleaseth. They who have nothing in themselves or parents, to commend them to God, are received by him, to shew that the foundation of all Gods love, is in his own bosome, and that the priviledges of nature commend us not to him. God also wil hereby shew the excellency of Graces Original; that it is not by Generation, but Regeneration; not Native, but Donative; not by the first, but second Birth. The bad parents of a godly child, proclaim that their child hath a Heavenly Father, and that good which they never bestowed upon it; as the wicked child of godly parents proclaimes, that they who contributed a Natural, could not afford a Spiritual being. Yea further, hereby God will manifest the power of his Grace, which in a sort gathers grapes of thornes, and figs of thistles, and can bring pure water thorow a filthy and polluted channel; and that the power and poyson of natural and sinful example cannot hinder the irresistible strength of his own spirit. How wisely (lastly) doth God hereby beat Satan, and batter his kingdom with his own weapons, and strike him thorow, with arrowes taken out of his own quiver! How should the consideration hereof engage the godly children of godless parents, 1. To love, admire, and serve that God, who hath transplanted them out of Satans Nursery into his own Orchard; who made white paper of dunghil rags! If Thomas said, Lord, why wilt thou manifest thy self to us, and not to the world? well may a Godly child say, Lord, why wilt thou manifest thy self to me, and not to my father and mother? 2. To be humble [Page 237]in considering of the Rock out of which they were hewn, and the Fountain from which they flowed, and the poorness and impurity of their beginning, even when they are in the midst of their highest proceedings in holiness. To pity likewise, and to labour to do good by a Spiritual [...] (or natural affection Spiritualized) to the souls of their poor unregenerate parents, that they may study to requite them for being the causes of their natural being, Deo & parenti non redditur aquivalens. by procuring their parents Spiritual birth; and truely, no way but this can that Maxime be confuted, The child can never recompense the parent.
3 Great is our proneness to follow corrupt example. Observ. 3. Hundreds here run after one rebel. Of this before Part 1. pag. 572.
4 Corrupt Greatness is very influential upon, Observ. 4. and into Inferiors. Let but an eminent Corah go before, and the rest will follow. Great men seldom sin alone: witness Absolom, Jeroboam, Simon Magus. Of this before, Part 1. prg. 573.
5. Ambition knowes no bounds. Observ. 5. An high condition seems but low to an high spirit. Corah was a Levite, and his priviledge and Dignity thereby was not smal; ( Seemeth it a small thing to you (saith Moses) that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself?) yet his ambition made it seem contemptible, because he had not the Priesthood also. Absalom, though a Kings son, and his fathers beloved son, and newly taken into favour, yet because he had not the Kingdome, could not be contented. Haman, though the greatest Favourite of the greatest Monarch in the world, yet because he had not the obeysance of poor Mordecai, accounted all his Preferments worth nothing. The greatest Honors do but widen and enlarge the Ambitious mans desires; they do but entice, not content a man. The Subjects whom Kings have advanced to highest Dignities, have [Page 238]ever been forwardest to oppose and depose those who have exalted them, and all because they have thought that they could never be high enough; witness the Conspiracy of the Nobles, exalted to highest English Honours in the Raign of William the First, and that famous example of the great Stanly, Vid. D [...] History of William the I. p. 40 And S r. Fran. Bacons of H. 7 No rewards can clear accounts with them that over value [...]hei [...] merits. Daniel ub. supr. in the Reign of Henry the Seventh, who though the greatest Peer in the Realm, and laden with many Favours, and great Offices, yet was a man of that exorbitant and unbounded Ambition, that nothing would please him but a Preferment which used to go to the Kings Eldest Son. Though Peleon be layed upon Ossa, and one Mountain of greatness upon another, yet will an ambitious mind look upon them all, as too low. Kingdom added to Kingdom, and (could it be so) world to world, would but be a drop to the belly of the Elephant, Ambition. The best way to satisfie the thirst of one in a Feaver, is in stead of giving him drink, to cure his Distemper; and he who hath the Itch, shall more wisely take away the inward cause there of, then think to allay it by scratching. Lets not think to satisfie our Lusts by making provision for them; its Christian wisdom, rather to study to kill, then content inordinate desire; and more to bring our hearts to our condition, then our condition to our hearts. Let us look upon that station of life wherein God hath set us, as the best for us. A garment which fits us, is better for us, though it be plain, then one which is gaudy and three or four handfuls too big. God best knowes how to order our Estates. Should we be our own carvers, we should often cut our fingers. Let us also compare our Receipts with our deserts and our selvs with our inseriors. Observ. 6. Naturae bonitas nisi pietate confirmetur, facile illabescit. Cart. Harm.; and though the former seem small when they stand by themselves, yet if we set them by the latter, they will appear of a large size, and a tall stature.
6. A meer man is firm and steady in no relation. Natural relations, unless back'd by grace, are very slippery and unstable foundations of friendship. Corah, a wicked [Page 239]man, though a neer kinsman to Moses, proves his greatest Adversary. Abels brother, Josephs brethren, Davids son, could not be kept from Murder and Treachery by the bond of nature. It is not the alliance, but the renovation of nature, that can establish friendship. easily break the bonds of nature, as Samson did his cords, till his locks (his Lusts) be cut off. No natural man accounts his own brother that lay in the same womb with him so near to him, as the lust that lodgeth in his heart. He provides friends most wisely for himself, who either finds or makes them friends to God. An enemy to God, will not long be a friend to thee. Natural love oft ends in an unnatural hatred. A bad man will not conscienciously be a good husband, son, brother. Grace doth not slay, but sanctifie; not annihilate, but elevate nature; turns water into Wine, and Spiritualizeth carnal affection. How just with God is it, that he whom thou dost not desire to make Gods friend, shall prove thy foe! that thy child which is most cockered by thee in sin, should afterward prove the greatest grief to thy heart! God suffering, to thy sorrow, him to rebel against thee, whom thou hast suffered and seen without sorrow, to rebel against God.
7 Innocency is no shelter from opposition. Observ. 7. The goodness of no person nor cause can exempt either from hatred; No man meeker then Moses, none better beloved then Aaron, none more beneficial to Israel then both; no cause more Righteous, then the holding a Government, to which they were appointed by God himself; yet neither the persons nor their cause could be free from the conspiracies and contestations of sinners. Jesus Christ himself endured their contradictions, Heb. 12.3. and gainsayings. Its no sign of a good man, to have few opposers; nor of a good Cause, to have many abettors. He who is not opposed by the stream, goeth with it. The world will hate where God loves. So far is Holiness from exempting the Godly from the ill will of sinners, that it drawes it forth: Let other qualifications of Learning, sweet nature, Birth, &c. never so much abound, [Page 240]yet Grace marrs the taste of all these in a carnal palat. Antipathies can never be smothered, reconciled. The meekest Moses, will he be a Moses, shall be gainsayed, notwithstanding his meekness. The wicked rise up against the Faithful, not for doing any evil against, but for not doing evil with them. If in our keeping close to God we meet with unkindness from the wicked, let us not wonder; if with love, let us be thankful; but yet withal, suspicious of our selves that we do, or at least cautelous that we may not sinfully correspond with them.
8. Instruments of publick good, Observ. 8. often meet with unkind requitals. Moses and Aaron, Israels deliverers and defenders, were gainsayd by an unthankful people. Israel owed to these saithful Governors (under God) their provision, peace, and protection; but for this, the tribute which they paid was Conspiracy and Rebellion. Nothing is so easily forgotten as the benefits we enjoy by Governors. The lightest injuries are easily remembred, and are like feathers, that swim on the top of the water: weighty favours, like a piece of lead, sink to the bottom, and are forgotten. Gideon had been a famous Deliverer of Israel; Judg. 9.5. but the benefits which that unthankful people enjoyed by him, are so neglected that they slew his sons. 2 Chro. 24.21, 22 Though Jehoiada was the renowned Restorer of Israels Government and Peace, yet was his son destroyed by them, who (next to God) owed all that was dear to them to his Faithfulness and Wisdom. Its a Kingly honour, to meet with unthankful returnes from those to whom we do much good. The mothers brest, gives milk to the froward Infant that strikes it. God would have all, especially Publick Officers, in all the good they do, to eye his Glory and command, and not the applause of men. No opposition must discourage us in the Faithful discharging of our places, nor chase us from the station wherein God hath set us.
[Page 241] 9 Excellency and Superiority are the marks of Envy. Observ. 9. Invidemus inferiori, ne nobis aequetur; pari, quia nobis aequatu [...]; superiori quia ei nou ae quamur. Though Moses and Aaron cannot be opposed for their sin, yet they may be envyed for their Power. As Equals are envyed because they are such, and Inferiors lest they should be our Equals; so principally Superiors, because we are not equal to them. Joseph was envyed, because he was higher then his brethren, in his fathers favour, Nullae necessitudinis jura tam sancta et inviola [...]a quae su [...] invidiae stimulos non pariuntur; praescrtim cum quis inter cognatos ad impertum promovetur. Mendez. in 1 Sam. 10.16 Paterna largitatis memor non est. qui est fraternae immemor charitatis: haedum sibi datum negat, qui tantam substantiam accepit. Chrysol. Ser 4. Senior dicitur eò quòd cito aliquis per invidiam consenes [...]t. Ambr. in Luc. Haec est invidentium natura, ut malin [...] propria mala pati, quam aliena bona intueri. Mend in 1 Sam. 5. Quanto ille qui invidetur, successu meliore profecerit, tanto invidus in majus incendium, livoris ignibus inardescit. Cypr. lib. de Zel. & Liv. Non illos malos faciendo, sed istis bona quibus mali facillimè possunt invidere. largiendo, incitesse dicitur ad odium. August. in loc. and dreamed that he should be higher then they, in his worldly condition; the Israelites likewise were envied, because they increased more then Egyptians; David by Saul, because the women ascribed more thousands to him then to Saul: Moses by Miriam and Aaron, because by God advanced above them; and here Moses and Aaron by Corah and his Complices, because of their Superiority. The object of hatred, is oft the sin of others; but of envy, alway the Excellency of others, either real or seeming, of body, mind, estate, fame, &c. the cause thereof being pride, or an inordinate self-love; the Envious ever deeming his own Excellency by anothers happiness, to be diminish'd and obscured. Thus the elder brother, Luke 25. deemed himself wronged by the love which his father shewed to the younger, and by reason of Envy against his brothers, he forgets his fathers bounty to himself; and he who had received all his fathers inheritance, denyes that ever his father had given him a kid. Of all sinners, the Envious is most his own scourge and torment. He had rather suffer misery, then see others in prosperity: as some have noted of the Philistims, who could hardly be brought by the smart of their own distresses to send the Ark back to Israel. Psal. 105.25. its said, that God turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people: But (as Augustin well notes, not by making the heart of the Egyptians [Page 242]evil, but the Estate of the Israelites prosperous. What a moth to the soul (saith Cyprian) is Envy, Qualis est animi tinea, in malum proprium bona aliena convertere, aliorum gloriam facere suam poeham & velut quosdam pectori suo admo ere carnifices, &c. Cypr. de zel & liv. to turn anothers good into our own hurt; to make anothers glory, our own punishment! The meditation of this cursed distemper of the Envious, may provoke us to contentation in a low condition. They are high Towers, upon which the lightnings of Envy falls. It [...] oftentimes a mercy to be in misery. How many righteous and well-deserving persons, have been made faulty and guilty, only for their being wealthy and honourable! How abundantly doth the sweet safety of a retired life, recompence for all that obscurity which seems to debase it! How oft have I known those who have lived in envyed honour, to envy those who have lived in safe obscurity!
10 Heretical Seducers, Observ. 10. are commonly turbulent and seditious. They here followed Corah in his opposing of Authority. They who deny the only Lord God (as these Seducers did) will make nothing of despising Dominion. They who oppose Gods Dominion, will never regard mans. Impious men, will not be obedient Subjects. The order of obedience prescribed by the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.17. is first to fear God, Prov. 24.21. Cunctus totius orbis clerus imperio Magistratus Civilis ex. emptus. L. 2. decret. Tit. 2. Imperator quod habet, totum habetà nobis in potestate nostra est, ut demu [...] imperium cui volumus. Hadrian. in epist. ad Archiep. Treu. Mogunt. & Colon. and then to honour the King. My son (saith Solomon) fear thou the Lord and the King. The Romish off spring of Antichrist, who throw off, and deprave the Law of God, will not submit to Civil Authority. They openly teach, that the Clergy is exempted from the power of the Magistrate. So long as the Arch Heretick the Pope lives, Corah and these Seducers will never dye. In one Pope are many Corahs, Seducers, Rebels, Libertines. He usurps a Dominion over all the Princes in the world: he makes himself the Sun, and from him as the fountain of light he pretends that all Civil Governors, (as the Moon) borrow their light; to himself he saith, is given all power in heaven and in earth; and as profanely, he applies that passage ( Psal. 72.8) He shall have Dominion from [Page 243]Sea to Sea, and from the River unto the ends of the earth. And that of Prov. 8 15. By me Kings reign. And when he speaks concerning the distribution of Empires and Kingdoms, he imitates his Father in these words, They are delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will, I give them. It would be endless (and in some respect, needless, as having toucht upon this sad Subject before) to relate the many bloody machinations, and murtherous enterprises of the Popes cut-throats and Emissaries against the persons of Christian Princes. Under the wing of this whore of Babylon, in the nest of the Popes chair, Pag. 179, 180, 181. having been hacht those stabbings, poysonings, powder plots, and which is worse, the defence of all these, by his Janizaries, (the Jesuits) in their writings (in blood) which have fill'd the ears and hearts of true Christians, with horror and amazement. Nor would it be unsutable to the present Subject, to mention the seditious turbulency of the Heretical crew of Anabaptists of late years, who to all their other erroneous Tenets, adde this, that before the day of Judgment, Christ should have a worldly kingdome erected, where the Saints onely, were to have dominion, and Magistracy was to be rooted out; and with what an inundation of blood, these idle, (and at first) neglected dreams and opinions have filled Europe, the Histories of the last age have related to us, and the Lord grant, that we who have read, and not been warned by them, may never our selves become an History to the age which shall come after us. I say no more. Of this more, page 638. Part 1.
11. Its a sin for those who are uncalled, Observ. 11. to thrust themselves into the office of the Ministry. Hudson 137. Corahs sin was his endeavour to invade the Priesthood; Seek ye the Priesthood also? saith Moses to him, ( Numb. 16.10.) And because all the Lords people were holy, (as Corah alledgeth. vers. 3.) therefore he pretends that others had as much right to discharge the office and function of Aaron, as Aaron himself had; and that since the people had [Page 244]an holiness by vocation to grace, (whereby the Israelites were distinguisht from other Nations) there needed no holiness of special consecration, to distinguish the Priest from other Israelites. Now that this sin of Corah, which was an invasion of the Priests office, may still be committed in the times of the New Testament, is clear, because the Apostle reproves it in these seducers: And that it can be no other way committed, in the times of the Gospel, but by intrusion of uncalled persons into the Ministry of the Gospel, is (say See Mr. Ly fords judicious Discourse. some) as plain, because there is no other office which these Seducers could invade, answering to that of the Legall Priesthood, but this office of the Evangelical Ministry. From all which it will unavoidably follow, that they who shall enter into the office, of the Ministry, onely upon the pretence of inward abilities, without receiving a Commission and authority from God, and a particular separation to that office, are guilty of sin against God, and that no light and slight one, Corahs sin. The receiving then of a power by way of authority, external mission, and commission, from those whom God hath appointed to confer it, Verbum quod proximis privati annunciant, authoritate specialis officii, non constringit auditores ad obedientiam, sed virtute objecti seu materiae, quae verbo isto continetur. Apol. de min. Ec. 1 Thes. 4.18.5.14. Heb. 3.13. 1 Pet. 3.1. is requisite for those who will enter upon the Ministerial function; which no man may undertake, but by power lawfully thus conferred. That private Christians in a way of Christian charity, may, yea ought to confer with one another, by way of information, admonition, consolation, &c. and so communicate their gifts for their mutual edification, 'tis not denied or envied, but granted, yea earnestly desired; Its yeelded also, that in some cases of urgent necessity befalling the Church, when tis as yet not fully planted, formed, or when 'tis scattered and disperst by persecution, and so hindred from that ordinary and orderly course of ministration, which it enjoys in times of peace and setledness, private Christians may publikely instruct others: yet this cannot be alledged against the course, which the Scripture hath establisht [Page 245]for sending forth of Ministers, Rom. 10.15. Heb. 5.4, 2 Tim. 1 6. 1 Tim. 4.14. 1 Tim. 5.22 5. Acts 13.1, 2. and 14.22, 23. Tit. 1.5. 2 Tim. 2.2. As neither were the great eminency and commonness of gifts, in the Church of Christ, in the times of the Apostles, which were bestowed upon many who were not ordaind and set apart for the Ministry, any hindrances from the conferring of Ministerial power on them, by setting them apart for the Ministerial employment. Timothy was a man of much holiness, and of excellent parts, and yet these hindred not his after separation to his holy function by the Presbytery. The command of the Apostle, 1 Tim. 5.22. that Timothy should lay hands suddenly on no man, clearly argues, that they on whom he did lay hands, were before to be men gifted with internal qualifications, (for the tryall whereof, Timothy was forbidden to be too sudden in ordaining.) And most clear is that of 2 Tim. 2.2. where for a succession of teachers, Timothy is commanded to commit the things which he had heard of Paul to faithful men, able to teach others: whereby its evident, that they were to be able and faithful, before Timothy committed those things to them. There is not onely a meetness for, but an inauguration into, the office of the Ministry, required of those who are to enter into it; and gifts are not sufficient to make Ministers, without the ordinary call and Mission, setled in the Church by Christ. Every Israelite, or Levite, able to offer Incense was not admitted to offer; none but the Sons of Aaron, who were particularly set apart thereto, had that honour; nor can any under the times of the Gospel, who hath never so much inward furniture of gifts, be a right Minister or Officer from Christ, where there is not a right Commission, and Patent given in his Name by due Ordination. As it is Treason for the ablest Statesman, or Lawyer, to undertake the office of an Embassadour or Judg, before he be made such, by those, who only can confer that power, so its an insufferable affront offered to Jesus Christ, for any to pretnd the doing of that [Page 246]in his Name, which is done without his declared will and consent. Of this more, page 10, 11. Part. 1.
12. How ready are men to be weary of enjoying those things, Observ. 12. which they did most impatiently desire when they wanted them! What would not these Rebels have given for a Moses and an Aaron, to deliver them out of their Egyptian bondage! how welcome were the first tidings of Gods appointing them to be the instruments of so great a mercy! And yet now they have a while enjoyed them, and tasted the benefit of their government, how weary were they of both, and therein of their own happiness! The people who with passionate, and sinful earnestness cryed out for a King, after the manner of other Nations; so soon as God had gratified their desires therein were (a great part of them) weary of what they so ardently wished, despised their King, brought him no presents, and muttered their unthankful discontentedness in these words, Plerun (que) acci dit hominibus, ut non habita desiderent, habita detestentur, A bulens. q. 24. How shall this man save us? 1 Sam. 10.27 And long before that the same people who would have been glad of the coursest pulse in a starving Wilderness, murmured because they had no better commons then bread from heaven, Angels food; herein in a sort resembling David, whose soul longed for the water of Bethlehem, and yet when his three Worthies, with the endangering of their lives, had brought of that water to him, he poured it out on the earth and would not drink thereof, 2 Sam. 23.15, 16, 17. How righteous is God in denying us many a comfort, notwithstanding our earnest and impetuous craving thereof he knowing that when he gives it us, we shall either unthankfully despise it, or rather prophanely abuse it! How willingly should we justifie God in all his deferrings, and denyals of creature-enjoyments! for though we think that the want of them, will undo us, yet he knows that the having of them, would both hurt us, and dishonour him.
13. Observ. 13. God opposeth the opposers of lawfull authority. They [Page 247]are enemies more to themselves, then to those to whom they are enemies; Quid si princeps jubeat quod non debes facere? Contemne potestatem, ti [...]endo potestatem Si aliquid [...]usserit curator, nonne faciendum est, ita quidem; tamen si contra▪ Proconsulem jusscrit, non utique contemnis potestatem, sed m [...]jori servire eligis: [...]ursum si aliquid proconsul jubeat & aliud jubeat Imperator, nunquid dubitatur i [...]o contempto, isti serviendum; Ergo si aliud Imperator, aliud Deus quid judicat? &c. Aug. de verb. D [...]m Se [...]m. 6. Nequaquam mores illorum consectari velis, qui ordinem istum invertunt, & regi primum, deinde Deo deferendum esse honorem existimant. Salaz in Prov. 24. they perish in their gainsayings with this Corah. An evil man seeketh onely rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Prov. 24.2 [...]. My son, (saith Solomon) Fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given to change, for their calamity shall arise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruine of them both? Some interpret this place of Solomon to be a command, that fear and obedience should be yeelded to the King in a way of subordination and subjection to God; as if Solomon had said, Be sure thou fear God in the first place, and the King onely in the second; so that when the commands of God and the King, seem to cross one another, let God rather be obeyed then the King; q. d. Fear and obey the King in the Lord. And the next words: Meddle not with them who are given to change, they understand of the changing of that order of obeying God in the first place; q. d. meddle not with them that would change, or invert that order, here injoyned by God; and would perswade thee to obey the King in the first pla [...]e, and God after him. A very pi [...]us, but I question whether a proper Interpretation. Others therefore better understand this rule of Solomon, of obedience to Kings for God, q. d. shew thy fearing of God, by fearing the King; thy fearing of G [...]d, should put thee upon fearing the King, who is the Minister of God, and in his stead. By those words [which are given to change.] I conceive we are to understand a brief Character of those that are seditious, who out of a desire of alterations and change in Political government, shake off their due and former obedience to the Magistrate. He adds, Their calamity shall arise suddenly, that is, their conspiracies, and machinations shall speedily and unexpectedly be discovered, and God and the King will both set themselves with their power against him. And lastly, for those words, [ Who knoweth the ruine of them [Page 248]both? Some undestand this [of them both] to be meant of God and the King: as if Solomon had said. Who knoweth what that ruin or perdition is, which both God and the King will bring upon the Rebellious? taking ruin here actively, of God and the Kings ruining them. Others better, by the ruine of them both, understand, the ruine which shall befal both the party given to change, and him who shall meddle with him; that is, shall be (though) but a partaker, or accessory, or drawn in to joyn with him. A Scripture, the Explication whereof, I have the more willingly toucht upon, because it is so clear a Comment upon the present Instruction.
It hath been observed by some (as I have noted upon the eighth verse, in the foregoing Part) That the calamity of no sinners ordinarily ariseth so suddenly, unavoidably, and certainly, as that of the Seditious. We rarely, if at all, meet with any in Scripture who opposed Authority, but have been punished eminently in this life (to the observation of others:) and scarce do we read of any Seditious person, who was not taken away by a violent death; witness the Examples of Corah and his complices, Absalom, Shebah, Joah, Adonijah, Zimri, Baasha, Athaliah. And its observable, that of these Seducers, Jude here saith, that they perish'd, to note the speediness, certainty, and irrecoverableness of their destruction. I need not mention the numerous examples of Gods severity against Seditious persons, recorded in our own Histories. They who have read of Becket, Montford, Mortimer, the Piercies, Tyler, Warbeck, Wyat, the Gun-powder-Traytors, Squire, Lopez, Campian, &c. will easily acknowledg the severity of God against the Tribe of Traytors. Nor seems there to be so much wrath put forth by God against them, without extraordinary cause. Opposing of Lawful Authority, being both an open affronting and resisting the Ordinance of God, and a pulling down and demolishing [Page 249]his very image and representation in the world; (an indignity unsufferable, were it only offered to men) as also a crossing of that merciful provision of God, whereby he will have humane Society, and thereby his Church upheld and propagated in the world, Treasons and Seditions being the pulling down of the pillars and the plucking up the foundations (as it were) of the worlds Edifice: In a word, How just is it with God, that they should restrain others from sin unwillingly, by being made examples, who will take away those who should restrain others from sin willingly, by their place and Office! and that they should be made marks of Vengeance, who will attempt the removing of the ancient Land-marks, set by God for Order and Propriety in Nations! How the consideration hereof should make us thankful to God our Supreme Protector, and shew us how deeply God is offended with a people, when their alterations, Conspiracies, and Kingdome-quakes are frequent: and engage Magistrates in duty and allegiance to God, who receive so much protection from God: as also (lastly) make us loath and leave those Lusts which are greatest enemies to Government, I have in sundry Observations, mentioned in my former Part, pag. 632, 633, 634, 635, 636, 637, &c.
14. How merciful is God even in judgment! Observ. 14. God spared Korahs Posterity, when the father was destroyed. God in his severity will be loved, and in his indulgence feared. He mixed his smartest dispensations with sweetness: Mercy it was, that Corahs Posterity should be preserved from death: more, that God should make so holy an off-spring to come of so unholy a parent; most of all, that one who had been rebellious against God, should have a seed so eminently serviceable to God. In the destructions of the parents in the Wilderness, he spared the children. [Page 250]He cut off some luxuriant branches, but did not cut downe the tree. God layes up Mannah with the rod: He ever shewes that mercy pleaseth him, though sometimes he be put upon judgement. How should this goodnesse of God teach us both thankfulness and imitation! Thankfulness in his severest dispensations; we may in the midst of them say, He hath not dealt with us after our sins: Even in our greatest Rebellions we may see him indulgently, and undeservedly sparing us, or ours. If he have suffered our forefathers to be covered with the darkness of Superstition and ignorance, he hath dealt more graciously with us, their Posterity, who live to praise him, like Corahs children, for that goodness which we no more deserved then our forefathers did. If the fire of his displeasure burn against us, who knowes but our children may live to have better hearts, and to see better times, and to be the more humble and holy seed of Rebellious parents! Hence we learn imitation likewise; when we are employed in works of greatest severity, we should not throw off tender-heartedness. We should remember that gentleness becomes us in punishing the worst, who hath ever something to draw out our pity; and to be sure, less to draw out our severity to them, then we had to deserve Gods toward us.
THe Apostle having amplified the sin and misery of these Seducers, from sundry Examples, Hanc conclusionem, duobus comparationis gener ibus exornat, unum est in exemplis rerum ante gestarum positum: alterum in exemplis elegantissimis rerum naturalium Exempla 1. Historica. 2. Physica. Jun. in loc. now further illustrates the same by sundry apt and elegant comparisons, in this and the following verse. Three of these similitudes (whereby he describes their estate) are set down in this verse, and two in the next, in both five.
In this verse, they are compared,
- 1. To spots; These are spots, &c.
- 2 To clouds without water, carryed, &c.
- 3 To decayed trees; Trees whose fruit withereth.
1. To spots; in these words, These are spots in your feasts of Charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.
EXPLICATION.
Four things are here to be explained.
1. What these Seducers are her called, or the name affixed to them, Spots.
2. Where they conversed, or to what company these spots cleaved. In your Feasts of Charity.
3 What they did there? 1. They Feast: 2 They feed themselves.
4. How they feasted and fed? viz. without fear.
1 For the first. They are called spots, in the Greek, [...]. The word hath a double signification, very congruous to the present scope and drift of the Apostle.
[Page 252] 1. The word [...], (here interpretend Spots) signifieth Rocks, Quemadmodum scopuli, navigantibus infesti sunt ac perniciosi, cum inopinato occurrunt sic isti, coepulan. tibus, insperatam perniciem inferunt. Oecum. [...], non solum est glarea, id est, terrae species quae maculas facile relinquit, sed etiam concavum saxum, in litore maris, seu lacuum ac fluminum in quam concavitatem, tanquam in commune receptaculum, sordes aquarum confluunt. Aret. Confragosa in mart saxa, & cavernosae rupes Gagn. [...] apud prophanos Authores, usurpatur primò pro macula in veste è vi no vel unguine ei inhaerens, quae eam decolorat: secundò pro naevo in facie. Gerh. in 2 Pet. 2.13. Derivatur à [...], à trahendo coeno; quasi denotentur spurcissimi haeretici, cognominati etiam [...], quòd coenum & lutum significat, Borborita, five Borboriani. Lorin. in loc. Est metaphora à panno: vel vestibus, in quibus ex gutta vini, olei, alteriùsue rei, contrahitur alius color quam sit nativus Aret. in Ephes. [...] propriè significat vituperium, à verbo [...] vituperare. 2 Cor. 6.3 & 8 20. LXX. ustrpant pro [...], quod generaliter significat aliquid in corpore, vel actione vitae, quod incurrit reprehensionem. Gerh. in 2 Pet. such as in the sea (not being by Mariners discerned and shunned) may easily cause Shipwrack. And in this sense Oecumenius understands the word in this place; as if these Seducers in their meetings with the Christians, were as pernicious to their souls, as are Rocks in the sea to those Ships, which by the unwariness of the Mariner, unexpectedly dash against them. Others conceive, that they are compared to Rocks neer the shore, which being hollow, contract and gather the filth and mud which the sea casts up into their holes; as if the Apostle would note them to be a colluvies, sink, or common receptacle of all filth and wickedness. But 2. I conceive the word is here more fitly rendred spots, then rocks; for the word spots, [...], 2 Pet. 2.13. is of the same derivation and signification, and used upon the very same occasion with this; and there it is joyned with the word [...], which imports blemishes, or any thing in the body or Actions which may render either liable to disgrace and reproach. They are (saith Peter) [...] ( Labes & maculae, Bez. Coinquinationes, et maculae, Vulg.) spots and defilements, or blemishes. And the words [...], and [...], a spot, among profane Writers, betoken defilement and deformity, and are used either to signifie any speck, mole, or wrinkle on the face, or any stain on the garment, by the dropping of wine or oyle upon it (very often done in Feasting); (which notion (saith Lorinus) is most agreeable to the Apostles purpose of speaking concerning their being spots in [Page 253] Feasts); Tritum est; nominibus abstractis improbissimum quem (que) appellare, facem, pestem, perniciem, scelus. Lorin. In abstracto est magna Emphasis, ut enim hominem insigniter sceleratum vocamus scelus; sic Apostolus falsos doctores, utpote insigniter maculatos & inquinatos vocat maculas, & inquinamenta. Gerh. in 2 Pet. Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium. Martial. and by way of resemblance its used concerning the spots and stains of the soul; namely, sins which render him who was made after Gods Image, defiled and deformed: Hence the Apostle speaks of the Church (washt and cleansed by Christ) as not having ( spot, [...]) or wrinkle, but as being holy, and [...], without blemish, Eph. 5.27. Nor is it without a singular Emphasis, that the Apostle expresseth them (who were themselves so defiled, and ready to spot and defile the Christians) by a word in the abstract, calling them not such as doe defile and bespot, but even very spots and defilements; and thus abstractly speaks the Spirit of God, in other Scriptures, when it would increase and intend the signification. We have found this man a pest, a very plague, Acts 24.5. Eph. 5.8. Once were yee darkness, but now are ye light. And most deservedly are these impure Seducers called spots, both in regard 1. Of their deformity, and 2. Defilement. 1. Of their deformity; 1. They (like spots) cast a deformity, disgrace, or blemish upon their Christian profession: What Heathen, who never heard of Christ, but would have thought Christ (seeing these beastly Epicures,) a Bacchus, and these Love-Feasts, (as prophaned by these) Bacchus's feasts? Aestimari à cultoribus potest ille qui colitur, Salu. Ezek. 36.20. Eezk. 43.8. the worship and worshipped, being judged of according to the Worshippers. They have prophaned (saith God to the Jews in captivity) mine holy Name, (among the Heathen) when they said, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land.
2. They were spots of deformity to the meetings wherinto they came; they were blemishes to the faces of the Christian assemblies. As one or two brass-shillings in a sum of money, make all the rest suspected; so by the unholiness of some, the rest suffered. Wicked men look upon spots among, and upon Saints, with a multiplying glass, and as with old mens Spectacles, making a great letter in a small print: Heathens seeing these among Christians, might say, such are they all, never a [Page 254]barrel better Herring. Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 7. Qui & ipsi ad detrectationem divini nominis & Ecclesiae, à Satana praemissi sunt, uti secundum alium modum, quae sunt illorū audientes homines, & putantes omnes nos tales esse, avertant aures suas à praeconio verita. tis. Iren. l. 1. cap. 24. p. 30. [...]. 2 Pet. 2. ult. Epiph. lib. 1. tom. 2. cap. 26. pag. mihi 86. [...]. Refert Clemens Alexandrinus, illis verbis, Luc. 6.30. Omni petenti te tribue, ad impurissimae libidinis defensionem abusos. Ad epulas solemni die coeunt cum omnibus liberis, sororibus, matribus, sexus omnis homines & omnis atatis. Illic post multas epulas ubi convivium caluit, & incestae libidinis fervor exarsit, canis, qui candclabro nexus est▪ jactu offusae, extra spatium lineae quâ vinctus est, ad impetum & saltum provocatur, sic everso atque extincto conscio lumine, impudentibus tenebris nexus infandae cupiditatis involvunt. Minut. Fel. in Octavio. Hence it was that Irenaeus writes concerning the Carpoeratians, that they were men sent by Satan to defame the Name of God, and the Church: that men observing their wickedness, and thinking that we all were such, might turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth. To the same purpose likewise speaks Epiphanius, These men (saith he) were sent forth by Satan to be a disgrace to the Church, they putting upon themselves the name of Christians; that for their sakes, the Nations might abhor to get any good by the Church of God, reject truth preached, and think that all who are in the Church, are like to them, and for the wickedness of a few, reproach all the rest; and therefore where-ever any of them come, the Gentiles will have nothing to do with us.
3. They were spots of deformity to themselves, they disgraced not onely their professions, but their very persons, and blemisht even humane nature it self; they turned themselves into beasts, and caus'd in themselves an interregnum of reason, making reason (the Prince) to be a Lacquey, and sense (the servant) to ride, and be exalted; if ever any deserved to be called brute beasts, dogs turned to their vomit, or sows wallowing in mire, they were these impure Borborites.
2. They were spots of defilement: 1. Carnally, they defiled themselves, their own bodies, their flesh, (these defile the flesh, vers. 8.) by drunkenness, and especially by uncleanness. I tremble to English what Epiphanius reports, of these impurities, among the Gnosticks; and Clemens Alexandrinus, and Minutius Felix, among the [Page 255] Carpocratians at their meetings. That sins of unchastity are peculiarly defiling, hath been shewn before, Part. 1. pag. 614, 615.
2. They defil'd one another spiritually, they were pitch, and it was hard to touch them, and not to be defiled; they were leaven, plague-sores, gangrenes, lepers, diffusive of sin, infectious to others; the Divel conveyed his puddles through these pipes. The contagion of these, infected the sound, but the soundness of the healthful recovered not the infected. That Christian had need be of a very hail constitution indeed, who conversing with such Pestilential persons, contracts not their sickness. Every sin (as we say of some diseases) is catching. Any root of bitteruess springing up may defile many, Hebr. 12.15.
Thus we see the first thing opened, viz The Name which the Apostle affixeth to them; he calls them Spots▪
2. For the second, Erasmum qui charitates vertit, Gagneus reprehendit quiâ nunquam vel rarò pro dilectine, sumitur [...] in plurati. Lorin. Si dicuntur [...], impiis istis vindicaretur quod totius ecclesiae erat, ne (que) enim [...] istorum hominum erant propriae, ac proinde [...] addi non potuit, cum communesessent Ecclesiae to [...]ius. Gerh. in 2. p. The places where these spots did cleave and stick, or the meetings and companies which these Seducers frequented, are exprest in these words, Your feasts of charity, [...]; though the word [...] in the singular number, signifieth love, or charity, yet the word [...] being in the plurall, is seldome or never taken in that sense, but for Feasts, or Banquets of love; whence it is that Erasmus is by some reprehended, for turning these words, [...], in charitatibus in your charities; and as deservedly do Beza and Gerard correct the Vulgar Translation, which reads this place in epulis suis, in their feasts, viz. of love, as if the Apostle intended that these Seducers were spots in their own feasts; whereas these love-feasts, were the brotherly meetings of the Church, into which these sensual Epicures intruded, and unto which, like spots they cleaved. And therefore our Apostle (in this word [...] to which some Copies adde, [...],) tels the Christians, that these impure companions did feast with them, by that occasion they manifesting their [Page 256]lewdnesse; The Institution of these love-feasts, was founded on the custome of the Church, which immediately before the celebration of the Lords Supper, used to have a feast, Longè probabilius est, morem fuisse. ut prius haberetur convivium illud commune, postea fierèt participatio sacrae Eucharistiae. Estius in 1 Cor. 11.20. Videatur quo (que) Aug. Ep. 118. ad Januar. Tert. cap. 39. A polog. Coena nostra, de nomine, rationem suam ostendit; vocatur [...], id quod dilectio penes Graecos est; quantiscunque sumptibus constet, lucrum est, pictatis nomine facere sumptum; siquidem inopes quosque refrigerio isto juvamus, &c. non prius discumbitur quam oratio ad Deum praegustetur; editur quantum esurientes capiunt, bibitur quantum pudicis est utile; ita saturantur, ut qui meminerint, etiam per noctem, adorandum Deum sibi esse; ita fabulantur, ut qui sciant Dominum audire. Post aquam manualem, & lumina, ut quisque de Scripturis sanctis, vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere, hinc probatur quomodo biberit, aeque oratio convivium dirimit; inde disceditur non in catervas caesionum, neque in classes discursationum, nec in eruptiones lasciviarum, sed ad eandem curam modestiae & pudicitiae, ut qui non tam coenam coenaverint quam disciplinam. to testifie, continue, & increase, brotherly love among themselves; as also to the poor, who hereby were releived; whence they had their name [...], charities, as if they were so intended for love, that there could not be so fit a name by which to call them, as Love it self. Of these Feasts speaks the Apostle, 1 Cor. 11.21. when he saith, That every one taketh before other, [...], his own supper, as also 2 Pet. 2.13. where he speaks concerning the feasting of these Seducers with the Christians; and freque [...]t mention is made of these Feasts among the Ancients. Of whom Tertullian speaks the most fully in his 39 th Chapt. of his Apolog. where he tells us, That the name of those feasts manifested their nature, they being called by a Name which signifies love. In them (saith he) our spiritual gains, countervail for all our worldly costs; we remember the poor; we ever begin with prayer. In eating and drinking we relieve hunger, but shew no excess. In our feeding at Supper, we remember that we are to pray in the night: In our discourse, we consider that God hears us. As soon as water for our hands, and lights are brought in, any one sings either out of the Scriptures, or (as he is able) some meditation of his own, and by this, he shews how temperate he was at Supper-time. Prayer is the first and last dish of the Feast, with this it began, and with this it ends; and when we depart, our behaviour is so religious and modest, that one would have thought, we had rather been at a Sermon [Page 257]then a Supper. And Tertullian writing to the Martyrs in Prison, relates how they were relieved, Per curiam Ecclesiae, & agapen fratrum; by the care of the Church, and the Charity of the brethren at their Love Feasts. Of these also speaks Cyprian, Cypr. l. 3. ad Qurrinum. Agapen & dilectionem fraternam, Religiese & firmiter exercendam, &c. in his third book to Quirinus, where he saith, that these Feasts of Charity, and brotherly love, are Religiously and firmly to be exercised: so that the ground of those ancient Love-Feasts, was provision for the poor brethren, the preserving of mutual love among themselves, and the expressing by both, their thankfulness to God for bestowing his Son upon them; in which respect they thought it most sit to celebrate them immediately before their receiving of the Lords Supper; Justin. Mart. pro. Christian. Apol. 2. though in a short time (in the Church of Corinth) these Feasts of Charity grew to be corrupted and abused by divisions, the excluding of the poor Christians from them, as also by Riot and Luxury, 1 Cor. 11.21.
Some conceive that these Feasts of Charity were by the Christians (converted from Gentilisme) brought into the Church, to retain some thing like the customes of the Heathens, who were wont at the time of their sacrificing to their Gods, to have publick Feasts of Joy, which Feasts, Paul (1 Cor. 10.21.) calls, the Cup of Divels, and the Table of Divels. Others think, they were introduced in imitation of the Jewes, who by Gods appointment, were wont to joyn Feasting, to their offering of their Eucharistical Sacrifices, and their Peace-Offering; as Deut. 27.7. Thou shalt offer Peace-Offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoyce before the Lord thy God. So Exod. 18.12. Jethro having taken Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for God, Aaron came and all the Elders of Israel, to eat bread with him before God. See likewise Deut. 14.23. and 12.7. and 16.11. and Exod. 3.18. though God bids Moses ask Pharaoh that Israel might go and Sacrifice in the Wilderness, yet chap. 5.1. Moses desires Pharaoh, that they might [Page 258]hold a Feast unto God in the Wilderness. And Calvin thinks, that this both Jewish and Heathenish custom of joyning Sacrificing and Feasting together, Nec dubito quin Sacrificio rum ritus, tam Judaels quam Gentibus communes, causam praebuerint. Video enim Christianos sic vitia rituum ferè correxisse, ut simi [...]itudinem aliquam retinerent Calvin. in 1 Cor. 11. Ad exemplum & quandam repraesentationem illius coenae, quam Christus ultimam habuit cum suis discipulis, priusquam corporis & sanguinis sui Mysterium institueret. Estius in locum. was imitated by the Christians in these Feasts, they being almost ever wont (saith he) so to correct and reform the vitiousness of Superstitious Rites and Customes, as yet to retain a resemblance to them. Estius (with sundry others) think that these Love-Feasts (being before the Sacrament) were used in imitation of Christ, who instituted the holy Sacrament immediately after the ordinary Supper. An opinion which seems most probable, both in regard of the great likelihood, that the Christians would imitate their Master, rather then Heathens, as also because the Jewish and Heathenish Feastings were after their Sacrificing; whereas the Love-Feasts of the Christians were before the Sacrament, as the best Interpreters observe on 1 Cor. 12.23.
3. [...], unà epulor, à [...] coepulantes, unà epulantes, convivantes. Dicitur de Nebuchadnezare, Judith 1.16. quod fuerit in Nineve [...], soluto animo convivatus, seu luxuriosa convivia agitans. The third thing to be explained, is, what these Seducers did in these meetings of the Christians? Set down in these two expressions.
- 1 They feast with you.
- 2 They feed themselves.
1. They feast with you. Greek [...]. The word [...] which signifies to Feast or Banquet, though Eustathius derives from [...], which signifies food or nourishment, yet Athenaeus rather thinks it to come of [...], because it is said to be well with them, or they fare well, or live merrily, who are feasted and entertained with Banquets. Hence Clemens Alexandrinus said that [...] the true Feast or Banquet is only in heaven, [...]2 Paed. cap. 1. p. 142. Some think the word signifies to feast or banquet publickly. which may aptly agree to [Page 259]this place, the Love-Feasts being publick Meetings: And Peter speaks them riotous in the day time, openly and in the light, they not seeking to shelter their Luxury in darkness and corners. According to others, it notes a Feasting or Banquetting, riotously and Luxuriously. Thus its taken in Lucian, who tells us of one Gorgias, who being a hundred and eight years old, and being askt, by what means he had lived to so great an age, answered, That he had reached those years, because he never could be induced ( [...]) to go about to any Feasts or Banquets, to which by his friends he was invited. And this signification of Riotous Banquets, is most sutable to this place, where these voluptuous Epicures, are said to feed without fear, Ex suis Erroribus fructum planè nullum, praeter usum deticiarum carpunt. Id enim spectant unum ut genio, gulaeque indulgeant, seseque omnibus voluptatibus ingurgitent. Justinian. in 2 Pet. Quin etiam dum nobiscum epulantur non o [...] caritatem, id faciunt, & ut sal [...] & mensae communicatio nem ineant, sed ut occasionem, ad decipiend [...] mulieres, nanc [...]s cantur. O [...]cum. the bridle of excess; These served their belly, and made it their God. Peter saith, 2 Pet. 2.13. that they count it pleasure to ryot, being given up to, and swallowed up in Voluptuousness, Lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God. Pleasure was the fruit which they expected by sowing all their Heresies.
And when the Apostle tells these Christians, not only of the riotous Feasting of these Epicures; but of this their Feasting with them, they being not only [...], but [...], that they had crept into their companies, and s [...]t among them, he discovers to them their danger of being seduced by their company to their Errors and Sensualities; he wisely insinuating that these Seducers did not come charitably, into their Feasts of Charity, but to gain occasion to delude and ensnare them by Error; and therefore Peter saith, that while they feasted with these Christians, they sported themselves with their own Deceivings.
2. The Apostle saith, they were feeding themselves, [...]. The word [...], here translated feeding, is properly such a feeding as belongs to the office of a Shepherd, or one who feeds Cattel. Some translate it ruling or governing: the word indeed may [Page 260]bear that signification; it being not only applyed to Teachers, Act. 20.28. 1 Cor. 97. 1 Pet. 5.2. &c. but also to Kings, Mat. 2.6. A Governor, that ( [...]) shall rule my people: and Rev. 19.15. [...], He shall rule them with a rod of iron. Its used by the LXX. Psal. 2 9 where we transtate it, Rule. It comprehends besides feeding, other parts of a Shepherds office, as the leading, seeking, reducing, defending, healing of his Sheep; though according to the notation of the word, it importeth as much as [...], to remain or continue in the Pasture, viz where the Sheep are, which the Shepherd is to attend. Of old, a King or Ruler was called (as particularly, Agamemnon by Homer) [...], the Shepherd or Ruler of the people, it being his Office to regard them as a Shepherd doth his flock: And hence it is, that the Arabick turnes this place; gubernant seipsos suâ virtute, as if they would be under no Government but their own; Pagnin, Erasmus, and Vatablus, suopte ductu arbitrioque viventes: Ordering and guiding themselves, according to their own will and pleasure. But (as our Learned Divines have noted concerning this word, against the Papists, who interpret it to rule, for the establishing of the Popes Rule) a word of a double signification is to be understood according to the Subject matter spoken of; This being spoken of a Spiritual Pastor, cannot be meant of Ruling as a King; and it being spoken (as in this place) of those who were employed about feeding their bodies, Beza pascenies. Vulg. pascenies. and feasting, and (as Peter hath it) who counted it pleasure to riot, and fare diliciously) I conceive its better translated, Feeding. And some think, the Apostle did make choice of this word, [...], which oft signifies a Shepherds feeding of his flock, to aggravate the fault of these Cormorants, and secretly to tax their hypocrisie, who bragging and pretending to be the only eminent Shepherds and feeders of the people, took no other care, but only to fill their own bellies; and in stead of feeding their Sheep, did [...], feed themselves, but did indeed flea and [Page 261]feed upon them, they neither feeding their souls nor their bodies, but poysoning the former, and riotously wasting upon their own sensual appetites, that which was appointed at the charge of the Church, for the feeding of the latter. The Apostle (as some conceive) alluding to that threatning, uttered against the Shepherds, Ezek. 34.2. Wo be to the Shepherds of Israel, that do feed themselves; should not the Shepherds feed the flock? For my part, I conceive the Apostle here useth the word [...], which oft signifies the feeding of Sheep, or other cattle in Pastures to note the brutish and beastly Sensuality of these Epicures, who fed more like cattle in a fat Pasture, then Christians at a Feast of holy sobriety, and where they should (as Tertullian speaks) rather feast upon holy discourse, then full dishes. So that when the Apostle saith, these Seducers were [...], and [...]; he notes;
1 They feasted and fed immeasurably, beyond the bounds of Christian moderation, more like Beasts then either Saints or men: Their hearts were oppressed with surfetting, their souls were lodg'd like bright candles, in the filthy greasie Lanthorns of their bodies, and by eating made so dull and sluggish, that they were unfit for holy Services; like the Sodomites, 2 Pet. 2.13. they offended in the fulness of bread, they were drowned in delights.
2 The Apostle notes by these expressions, that they feasted and fed upon delicates; they loved to fare very well, to feed high and deliciously; plain dishes would not serve the turn: Like the Israelites, Manna without Quails would not content them. The sin likewise of Elies sons, who not content with what portion God had allowed them; viz. the shoulder, the brest, the tongue, nor to eat the flesh sod, according to the Law; catched at what came to hand; 1 Sam. 2.13, 14 and they would have it raw, that they might cook it to please their licorous taste.
3 The Apostle notes, they fed greedily, and earnestly; [Page 262]so intent and eager they were upon their feeding, that they never thought of giving thanks, either before or after. Their eyes were upon the Table, like those of Swine upon the Acorns, so that they never look'd up to the hand that shaked down their Plenty: like the people, Exod. 32.6. They sat down to eat and drink: They rather did raven and devour, then eat or feed. They resolved all the powers of their mind upon their meat. This was Esau's sin, who was so greedy after Meat, that he had no regard of his Birth-right. They went to their food with the violence and eagerness of Bruits, that cannot be kept off.
4 It may also be intended, that they feasted and fed injuriously, both with, and upon the Christians; not only forgetting the poor Christians, whom they suffered to fast, when they were feasting: but mis-spending and wasting the contribution belonging to the mainterance of the poor, and (as some conceive) of the Ministry; and if so, they feasted and fed Sacrilegiously also. The sursetting of these Gluttons was accompanied with the starving of Lazarus.
5 They feasted and fed impurely, and lustfully; making the plenty which God bestowed upon them, but fodder and fewel to nourish their Lusts of Uncleanness, Like fed horses, they neighed after their neighbours wives. Elies sons were Gluttons and Adulterers; Esau was sensual in feeding land also a Fornicator.
4 4 Our Apostle saith, that this feeding of themselves, was [...], without fear. These words, without fear, may be referred either to the word [...], Feasting with you, or [...], feeding themselves. Oecumenius seems doubtful which of these to embrace; but (as Lorinus saith) Ad rem nostram nihil interest, Eodem res redit. è Lap. it matters not, which way we take, both aiming at the same scope, Absque ulla Dei hominum (que) reverentiâ Lo [...]in. which is to shew the security and impudency of these Gluttons in their sensual pleasures. And without fear, they may be said to feed themselves, either in respect [Page 263]of God; or the Church, with whom they feasted; or of themselves; they neither fearing God metu, convivantes sine timore, sive quia intrepidè sese fidelibus convivantious miscent, sive quia liberius gulae ac genio indulgent▪ &c. Justin. in lcc nor timore, neither fearing his wrath to punish them, nor reverentially fearing to displease him by sin; they being likewise touched with no reverence of that holy Society, with which they sate; nor yet at all with any mistrust or jealousie of the Slipperiness and sensuality of their own hearts; and this their fearlesness they shewed two wayes.
1 In their entrance into the meetings and Assemblies of the Church; they never took any heed to their feet when they went into those places where the saints assembled. With the same unholy, unprepared, unreverent disposition of heart, Nec dicatis vos habere animos pudicos, & oculos impudicos, quia impudicus oculus impudici cordis est nuncius. Etiam intactis ab immundâ violati [...] ne corporibus, fugit castitas ipsa de moribus August. in reg Monach. 109. They shewed themselves spots and blemishes, [...], in the Love-feasts, by sporting themselves [...], in their Deceivings. 2 Pet. 2.13. Verbis virus pectoris evomunt. Lap. did they undertake these Religious, with which they were employed about earthly businesses and Banquets: they feared not to go to these Feasts, and after (as Augustin thinks) to the Eucharistical Banquet, without their Wedding Garment of Holiness. They trembled not with unwashen hands, to touch those tremenda Mysteria; those Mysteries which might have struck terror into the hearts of any but such secure and impudent sinners.
2 They shewed their fearlesness in their carriage when they were entered into the Assembly. 1. They were not afraid of lascivious Gestures. Their eyes were then Adulterous; for so the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.13, 14. to these words, while they feast with you, presently adds, having eyes full of Adultery, or the Adulteress. They were not afraid of unclean looks and glances. 2 In their meetings (probably) they were not afraid to utter unseemly expressions and erroneous conceits; whereby (as Peter goes on) they defiled and beguiled unstable souls. They went into the Assemblies to fish for Proselites. There was no way so likely for these to prove themselves spots ( [...]) in these Feasts, as by their words. The tongue (saith James) is [...], bespotting and defiling, not only our own body by engaging it to, [Page 264]and involving it in sin: but others also by communicating, and suggesting evil to others, and a full belly at a feast, Cum venter reficitur, lingua desrenatur. is commonly (among those who are more modest then were these impure Libertines) accompanied with an unbridled tongue. 3. (And especially) in these Feasts of charity, Gurgites, & belluones, nati Veneri & Ventri. they were not afraid of feeding excessively, and riotously. Peter tells us, they counted it pleasure to riot; they engulf'd themselves into the waters of fulness and excess, and never feared a drowning either of their souls or bodies by their intemperance; Vide Clem. Alex. paed. l. 2 c. 1, 2. they would observe no stakes set up in those waters, nor set any limits to their lusts; they took no heed lest their hearts might be oppressed by surfetting, nor did they at all care how ill accommodated mansions their souls lived in, by pampering of their bodies; nor how unfit they made themselves for performing of holy duties. The impairing their health, the digging their graves with their teeth, the being Felons of themselves, never troubled them; much lesse did they fear lest they might (in stead of Kings) be Tyrants and torturers of the creatures; they fear'd not the wronging of the poor, whose goods they devoured; in short, they feared not that God would punish them with want for this their wantonness, or with eternal pains for these their short and sensual pleasures, but like beasts (to which they are compared, 2 Pet. 2.12. and Jude 19.) when they were in the fat pastures of riot and sensuality, they never feared the shambles or slaughter-house, though they were made to be taken and destroyed, and perished in their own corruption.
OBSERVATIONS.
These are spots.] Observ. 1. 1. Sinners are deformed creatures: As a spot, so sin is the deformity of a person, yea it makes him to be, and become, a very deformity; sin is a blemish cast upon Gods Image. The very angelical nature was by sin made deformed; by it Angels became Divels. [Page 265]Though never so many other accomplishments of spirituality, wisedome, strength, and immortality were left behind, yet upon their fall, they lost their beauty. No endowments without holiness, can make any person truly excellent. The greatest Potentates in the world (while living in sin) are but (like Naaman) noble Lepers. Every wicked man is a naked person, not onely because without a shelter, but an ornament also. Sinners are both shelterless and shameful. The people after their Idolatry were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame, Exod. 32.25. Holiness is both a souls and Churches ornament. Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a Bride her attire, yet my people have forgotten me, &c. Jer. 2.32. Holiness (as the ark was to Israel) is the souls glory, and when the Philistines have taken it away, the true glory is departed, it is but an Ichabod. The most golden Israelite notwithstanding all his priviledges, in Gods esteem, had but an Aethiopian skin; a Jew, an Egyptian, an Edomite, an Ammonite, Jer. 9.26. and a Moabite in Gods account are all one, if without the Circumcision of the heart. Wicked men are in their best dresse, but vile persons, the very blots and blemishes of their societies. Sin is that, not only of which, the people of God are (afterward) ashamed; but that of which even sinners themselves are ashamed, when most they love it; and therefore even the worst of men, yea Divels, have loved the appearance of holiness: the rottenest Sepulchers have loved painting; the filthiest Harlot, a wip'd mouth; the prophanest heart, a dress of Religion; (the cloaths of sin are better worth then its whole body.) Even Satan delights to appear like an Angel of light, and is ashamed of his own colours. All the performances of wicked men are but deformities; their prayers an abomination; the calling of their assemblies is iniquity; when they spread forth their hands, God hides his eyes, Isai. 1.13, 14, 15, How incompetent a [Page 266]judg is a blind man of colours, Caecus de coloribus n [...]n judicat. or a sinner of beauty! The Blackmoor (they say) thinks the blackest face beautifullest, and wicked men voice wickedness to be the greatest comliness. Jesus Christ himself had no beauty, or comeliness in the eyes of unbeleeving sinners, Isai. 53.2. Holiness is an inward, a hidden beauty, Psa. 45. a carnall eye cannot either see it, or esteem it. If grace be (as with sinners it is) a scar, 'tis a scar of honour, not uncomliness; riches and worldly dignities, like glowworms, onely shine in the dark night of the world; but there's nothing will have a lustre at the day of judgement, but holiness. The poorest saint is a Prince, and the most glorious sinner, a beggar (both) in a disguise. Holiness, though veiled with the most contemptible outside, carries with it a silent Majesty, and sin even in highest dignity, bewrays a secret vileness. That which is to be desired of a man is his goodness. The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour. Prov. 12.26. 2 Cor. 8.23. The poor Saints are called the glory of Christ; who presents them without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Sinners are spots, Saints are stars and Jewels; as Jewels, the stars of the earth; and as Stars, the Jewels of heaven. Though Saints have not an Herald to emblazon their arms, yet the Scripture sufficiently sets forth their dignity; the rottenest stuffs are oftnest watred, and among men, sinners most glorious, but yet in Scripture, they are but spots.
2. Sinners are filthy and defiling. They are spots for defilement, as well as deformity; sin and uncleanness are put together. The filthiest of beasts, are scarce filthy enough to set forth the filthy nature of sinners: Swine, the Dog, the Serpent, the Goat, the neighing Horse: the filthiest things are used in Scripture to set forth sin, as dung, vomit, mire, menstruosities, leprosie, scum, pitch, Deut. 32.5. plague-sores, issues, ulcers, dead carcasses, the blood and pollution of a new-born child; the noysom exhalations breathing from a Sepulcher, Rom. 3.13. spots. Rev. 21.27. a sinner is called that which defileth; [Page 267]Sinful gain is filthy lucre. Unholy speech is filthy and rotten communication; whordome is called uncleanness; gluttony turns the Temple of the Holy Ghost into a Kitchin, an Hogstie; it makes men dunghils; and drunkenness common shores and sinks of filthinesse, the drunkard is a walking quagmire. The covetous wretch that loads himself with thick clay, is but a moving muck-heap, a speaking dunghil; his riches are but dung, good (as one well) when they are spread abroad by charity; but stinking and useless when heaped. Pride is but a swelling botch. Sinners are the children of the filthy and unclean spirit, they are of their father the Divel, like Joabs posterity (therefore) all filthy and leprous; their natural Parents were (naturally) all unclean; and who did ever bring a clean thing out of filthiness? Job 14.4. John 3.6. that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Their greatest hatred and enmity is set upon purity and and holinesse; clean and sweet objects are death to them, as they say, that Roses kill the Horsefly; the Gospel is to them a savour of death. And this filthiness and pollution of sin hath two properties which may render it very hateful. Isai. 1.13, 14, Tit. 1.15. 1. Its a spreading pollution: 1. Over all of a man, flesh and spirit, soul, body, understanding, thoughts, conscience, memory, will, affections, eyes, hands, tongue. 2. All done by a man, even the best things, the prayers of polluted sinners, are abominations; their incense stinks, their sacrifices are unclean, their mercies cruel, their profession of godlinesse a form, their plausiblest performances, no better then embalmed carkases. 3. It spreads even unto others, and infects them, by incouraging, teaching, seducing, constraining them, to sin It oft is diffused from the wicked, even to the godly themselves; nothing more difficult then to be familiar with, and not to be infected by sinners; the error of the wicked sometimes cleavs to them, and the example of sinners entiseth them. Spirituale gelicidium. Ames. Cas. Consc. The sons of God, saw the daughters of men, and were polluted. What an insensible deadness of spirit and decay [Page 268]of grace doth conversing with sinners bring upon Saints! 4. Yea, this contagion of sin spreads even to the good creatures of God about us, even into them it puts (as the Apostle speaks) vanity, Num. 8.20, 21 2 Pet. 3.10, 11. Isai. 1.18. Jer. 17.1. groaning, bondage, consumption, mourning; and at length it will bring combustion and dissolution upon the whole frame of nature. 2. Its a deep and indelible pollution, of a skarlet and crimson dye, compared also to an Ethiopians blackness, a Leopards spots, not to be washed away with nitre and much sope. Hell fire shall not be able (to eternity) to fetch away the stains of the smallest sins from mans nature; yea the greatest measure of grace received in this life, by the best of men, doth not totally abolish this defilement: the best have their sores, and stand in need of a curing, and a daily cleansing: Who can say, I have made my heart clean? All the Legal washings, purifyings, and cleansings of the filthiness of the flesh, were but faint representations of our need of, and purity by being washt in the blood of Christ. And oh, that sinners would be as unquiet, as they are unclean, till they wash in that fountain, which is set open for sin and for uncleanness. Jer. 4.14. Rev. 7.14. 2 Cor. 6.11. Psal. 150. Its only the blood of God, which can wash away the filthiness of sin; no other Laver can take away that spot. Not onely look, but go into it, wash thy self all over. Cry out (O sinner,) unclean, unclean; See thy spots in the glass of the Law. Be weary of thy defilement, as well as thy deformity. Being washed, keep thy self pure, take heed of spotting places and persons. Though upon a conscience uncleansed, like an old spotted garment, a sinner cares not what filth he suffers to drop, yet (O Saint) keep thy new cloaths white, clean and pure; sin like a mired dog, when it fawns upon thee, fouls thee. A spot will easily be seen upon thee; trifles in thee are accounted blasphemies. Be not troubled at the spots upon thy name, so as thou keepest a pure conscience; not that wicked men make them, so long as they do not finde them. Wash thy self in [Page 269]thine own tears, be troubled that thy Justification is so complete, and thy Sanctification so imperfect; that thou art at once both without spot or wrinckle, and yet so full of both. In short, Labour to be spotless, in a spotting and spotted Generation; in foul streets to walk with clean garments. Let not the Error of the wicked cleave to thee. If thou canst not cleanse them (which is most desirable) let not them defile thee.
[In your Feasts of Charity.]
3. The Lords Supper is a Love-Feast. Observ. 3. The Reason why these Feasts of Charity (whereof Jude here speaks) were annexed to the Lords Supper (1 Cor. 11.21, 22.) and also why those ancient Christians did in these Feasts express so much love one to another, was because they were about to celebrate that Sacrament, which expressed so great a token of Gods love towards them, as deserved unfeigned and fervent affections in them toward one another. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper (then) promotes and testifies, confirmes and contributes to the mutual love which ought to be among Christians. The Passover (but a shadow of the Lords Supper) tended to increase the love of the Receivers. 1. It was to be one whole Lamb. Exod. 12.2, 3, 6, 8, 15, 19, 46, 49. 2. Not one bone of it was to be broken. 3. It was a joynt action, wherein every one was to communicate; and therefore to be performed with joynt affection. 4. It was to be eaten in one house; to shew that there was to be among those who did eat, an unity and harmony of hearts and affections. One house will not hold those who are at jars and dissensions, and divided in affection. 5. The eating of the Passeover, was to be done at one and the same time, month, day, hour, and that in the Evenning, when they were all in their cold blood, the injuries and offences of the day forgotten and forgiven, (the Sun being not to go down upon our wrath) when their affections were as calm and quiet, as the evening. 6. The partakers of the Passeover were all to be ordered in the [Page 270]receiving thereof by one Law. There was but one Law for the Stranger and the Home-born; both did unanimously submit to the same rule, and consent to the same direction. 7. It was to be eaten without leaven, whereby (as the Apostle expounds it) was noted the keeping the Feast without the leaven of Maliciousness and Wickedness, 2 Chro. 30.12. 1 Cor. 5.7, 8. And when Hezekiah restored the Passeover, its expresly said, that to all Judah was, by the good hand of God, given one heart, and that they met at one time, and in one place, and that they kept the Feast of the Passover with great joy. But if we look from the Shadow to the Substance, Am [...]r dignitatis nesciu [...], dignationis dives. we shall see this Love and Unity of the Faithful more clearly manifested.
1. Our Saviour being to ordain this Sacrament, gave all his Disciples an example of Christian and loving condesoension, Joh. 13.4, 34 even to the washing one anothers feet. After this institution, he presseth upon them the Commandment of Love, as the chief Commandment, and their principal Duty, both by the president and precept of Love, shewing that his Supper was a Communion of Love.
2. Consider the appellations of this Sacrament. Its called the Communion; the Table of the Lord; the Lords Supper; Coena [...]. a word not noting the time of, but fellowship in eating. Eating together was ever held a token of friendship. Josephs love to his brethren was testified by feasting them. 2 Sam. 9.7. Davids love to Mephibosheth, by causing him to eat bread at his Table continually: David calls his familiar friend, Stuck. Antiq. Conv. l. 1. c. 3. one that did eat of his bread, Psal. 41.9, The eating at one Rack, hath bred peace between the very savage Beasts. And that hatred which was between the Jewes and Egyptians, could no way be more fitly exprest, then by their mutual abominating to eat bread one with another. Men by nature are directed to express their loves and reconcilements, by Feasts and Invitations: and this Communion which (by eating and drinking) the Faithful have one with another, the Apostle [Page 271]tells us, comes from their partaking of one Christ. 1 Cor. 10.16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless (saith he) is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ? and the Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ? For we being many, are one Bread and one Body; for we are all partakers of that one Bread: that is, we partaking of the same Christ, and having Communion in his Merits, and Benefits, have thereby Communion also one with another in the Lords Supper. And we all partaking of that one Bread, broken and divided into divers parts, are made one Body and one Bread, though we be never so many. The Faithful then partaking all of one Christ, and every one of them having Communion in his Body and Blood, have also communion among themselves; nor can this but be a Communion of much dearness and nearness, which ariseth from the partaking of this one Christ, and all his Benefits and Merits; for hereby
1. They are all children of the same Father, Gal. 3.26. We are all the Sons of God, by faith in Christ; and to as many as received him, he gave power to be the Sons of God; and what nearer bond, then to be the children of the same Father? In the Lords Supper the Faithful sit like Olive branches round about their Fathers Table: Love as brethren (saith the Apostle.) How good and pleasant is it (saith the Psalmist) for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 By partaking of this one Christ, the Faithful are all Members of the same Body, Ephes. 4.15. and they grow up into him who is the head, and from him receive life and grace, being as Members animated with the same Spirit, (and therefore the Apostle speaks of drinking into one Spirit, in the Lords Supper) incorporate into his mystical Body; now what can more aptly express the near union, dear affection, tender sympathy between Christian and Christian, then this, being fellow members of one body. One member accounting the woe and welfare of another ven as its own.
[Page 272] 3. By partaking of one Christ in the Sacrament, they profess themselves to be of the same Faith and Religion; Religio, à religando. to expect life and happiness the same way, (for Christ is the way) and this sameness of Religion hath bound those who have been of false Religions very strongly together. Now that by feeding together in the Lords Supper, there is profest a Communion in the same Religion, the Apostle strongly proves (1 Cor. 10.18.) from the practice of Israel after the flesh (that is, the Jewes who descended from Jacob or Israel by carnal propagation) these carnal Israelites who lived in his time, and denyed Christ, were (saith the Apostle) by eating of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar; that is, professed themselves to be of the Jewish Religion and Worship, and to approve of the same.
4. By partaking of one Christ at the Lords Supper, the Faithful profess themselves to be the servants of one Lord and Master. Fellow servants must not fall out and beat one another. Luk. 12.45. The servants of this one Lord, should be of one mind. If Christ be not divided, his servants should shun division.
5. Hereby they profess, that they are to be pardoned by the same blood, shed for many, for the remission of sins, Matth. 28.28. And what inducement stronger to move us to forgive a few pence, who have been forgiven so many pounds! What wil quench hatred, if the blood of Christ will not!
6 Hereby they profess, as that they all live in the same Family here, where they feed at the same Table, serve the same Master, own the same Father; so that they shall live together in the same habitation for ever, they pattaking of that meritorious blood, which is the parchase of the same Inheritance; they having all thereby the same Key to open Paradise withal. They who receive Christ (as Communicants profess to do) shal be received. One Saint may truly say to another, You and I must be better acquainted. And what an Engagement [Page 273]to love is this for us to consider, we shal for ever live and love together in Heaven. Oh! how should Christians begin to do that here, which they shall never be weary of doing to all eternity! If one house, then one Heaven calls for one heart. Thus the appellations given to the Sacrament, the Table of the Lord, the Lords Supper, the Communion, &c. shew it to be a Love-Feast.
3. The outward Elements, Bread and Wine, us'd at the Supper, evince the same. Separated and several grains and grapes, make one and the same Bread and Wine. They who are severed and disjoyned from one another, Vid. Cvpr. Ep. 76. ad Magnum not onely by sea, habitation, trades, but in heart also, and affection, are by the receiving of Christ in this Sacrament, re-united into one Spirituall Body, as the Elements (though originally severall) are into one artificiall Masse. We being many (saith the Apostle) are one Bread. How necessary (then) is the Lords Supper in these times, when Love doth so much decay! If the Christians in their Summer season, when Love was burning hot, did so lay on this fewel; what need have we then to do so in this Winter Season, when the Love of most grows so cold! Confident I am, that the withdrawing of this Sacrament that feeds and foments Love, hath much tended to the decay therof among us. And further, this discovers the great policy of Satan, not onely in hindering from the Sacrament, which was appointed to strengthen Love, but in breaking Love by this very Sacrament. Who would ever have expected to have heard of a Sacramentary war! How many valiant Champions lost their livs in this Land, in their Smithfield fights, about the controversie of Transubstantiation! and how subtilly hath the Murderer of souls, mixt his poyson, with the Sacramental bread, and stoln away the Cup in the Papacy! What fierce contestations have there been between Calvinists and Lutherans, about consubstantiation! Who remembers not the Prelaticall fury, in imposing superstitious for Sacramental gestures! and oh that [Page 274]the flames of these unchristian quarrels about the Sacrament did not blaze and spread even at this very day! Oh the unbrotherly breaches between Brethren about the admission and qualification of Communicants! Consider, dear Christians, whether Satan be not like to prevail, when he turns that Artillery whereby we should batter his Forts, upon our selves, and makes his strongest weapons o [...] War, even of Olive Branches, Ensigns and Emblemes of Peace! and is not Love in danger of death, when [...]ts Food is dayly poyson'd! Who warms his hands at these flames of Contention, but only our Adversary! Satan (as they say of the Lawyer) will be the only gainer, when you fall out (like unkind Brethren) about your Fathers will and Testament. The Lord humble us for all those unworthy receivings which have made us so unkind and quarrelsome about the receiving this Feast of Love, the Lords Supper; and he make us for the future, in all our opinions about, and participations of it, to be men in understanding, and children in malice. Part 1. For the tryals of Love, see page 144.145.146. &c.
4. Obs. 4. Spotted and spotting sinners are unfit guests at holy feasts. The Apostle, by saying these seducers were spots in the Feasts of Charity, notes the unsutableness of such blemishes to Assemblies, that should be clean and Christian; these spots casting an uncomliness upon those holy Meetings which made those spots appear, and set off, with the more uglines and uncomlines. The mixture of scandalous persons in Church-fellowship, is here by the Apostle blam'd: and if their meeting at these feasts of Charity, be reprehended here by the Apostle; if at these Feasts, these spots appeared so black and deformed, how much more reproveable was their meeting at the Lords Supper, which is an Ordinance of Christ wherein approaches to him are more near, and ought to be more holy then in those Feasts of Charity. Spots and blemishes (as Mr. Perkins well spake of his times) ought [Page 275]to be washt off by Ecclesiasticall Discipline, from the faces of holy Assemblies at the Lords Supper, because they pollute it. True it is, that, first, there are two sorts of pollution of the Lords Supper, the one that which makes the Sacrament no Sacrament, but a common or unhallowed thing, to those that do receive it, as if it were given by those who are no Ministers, or to those who are no Church, or without the blessing and breaking of the Bread; the other sort of pollution of the Sacrament is, that which makes the administration thereof to be sinful, and those who administer it to be guilty, they doing that which is contrary to the revealed wil of God. This latter kind of pollution, is by admitting spotted and scandalous sinners. 2. Its granted, that the mixture of the scandalous, pollutes not the Sacrament, to those who have used all the lawful means against it, who have (being Officers) discharged their duty by exercising Church Discipline, and being private Christians, admonished the offenders, and petitioned those, who have the authority for the restraining of them from the Sacrament: in that case, though the scandalous partake of the Sacrament, Indisciplinata patientia. Aug. yet officers and worthy Communicants partake not of their sin. But otherwise, that the admission of scandalous persons to the Sacrament is a pollution of that Ordinance, its evident. Give not (saith Christ) that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Mat. 7.6. By that which is holy, I understand, though primarily, yet not solely the Word; but consequently the Sacraments, Prayer, Christian admonition. Christ doth not speak of one holy thing onely, nor doth he say ( the pearl) but he saith, that which is holy, &c. and pearls. And by dogs and swine, are not onely to be understood Infidels, Heathens, and open Apostates, and persecuters, which like dogs bite, bark, and contradict, but also such who like swine, prophane, trample these Pearls under their feet, and by an impure swinish life, shew how [Page 276]much they despise holy things. And needs must the Sacrament be prophaned, when in the use thereof, not grace, but sin is encreased, because hereby the main end of the Sacrament, which is to be food to nourish grace, and poyson to kill sin, is perverted: but no grace is nourished in any prophane impenitent sinner, he being spiritually dead, and so without the life of grace. And further, his hand is strengthened in sin; for by his receiving the Sacrament, he is much more difficultly converted, than such a sinner who hath been kept back from the Sacrament altogether, & by joining in the highest act of Church Communion, an impenitent sinner intertains a good opinion of his spiritual happiness, and so trusts in lying vanities. Haec enim Dei voluntas non erit in aternum, ut Ecclesia christiana, alicui gratiam Christi & remissionem peccatorum, annunciatione verbi divini deneget, & eidem exhibitiōne Sacramentorum spondeat? Ursin judicium de disc [...]pl. Ecclesiast. Mat. 26.28. Luk. 22.19, 20 And again, the giving of the Sacrament to those who are known to live in gross sins without repentance, is a contradiction to, and a confutation of the Word, which denounceth condemnation against them that eat and drink unworthily, and in the faithful delivery thereof, we pronounce the wrath of God to such as live impenitent in sin; the word saith, Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulte [...]ers, &c. shal inherit the Kingdom of God. And do we not by giving the Sacrament to these, give the ly to the Word? do we not in the Sacrament, absolve those whom we condemn in the Word, and open the Kingdom of Heaven in the Sacrament, to those against whom we shut in the Word? for is not the Sacrament a Seal of the Covenant, the righteousness of Faith, and the promises of the Gospel, as is evident by those Sacramental Phrases, This is my body, this is my bloud, which denote a spirituall obsignation and exhibition of the Benefits of Christs Body and Bloud? and doth not Christ say to those to whom he delivered the Sacrament, This is my body which is given for you, and this is my bloud which is shed for you, and for many, for the Remission of sins? Do not they, then, who consent to wicked and scandalous persons, their taking of the Sacrament, acknowledge the children of the [Page 277]devil to be the children of God, and the enemies of God to be in Covenant with him, and so partake of the Benefits of the Covenant from him? Further, is it not a prophanation of the Sacrament of Baptism, to baptize a Jew or a Pagan professing a resolution to turn Christian, who, yet, is an openly prophane and wicked liver, and continues under the power of visible and abominable sins, although he be able to make a sound and Orthodox confession of Faith? And shall a scandalous living in murder, adultery, swearing, lying, &c. keep a man from entering into the visible Church, by the door of Baptism, and shall they not as wel hinder him, from being welcom'd at the Table, in the house, as a child and friend? Yet again, Is the Sacrament Prophan'd by admitting Infants and Ideots, who can make no good use of it; and is it not as much, if not more polluted, by admitting those to it, who will make a very bad use of it? also may not one man by ignorance, drunkenness, defence of sin, heresie, &c. ly under a finfull contracted dissability to examine himself, and so to be an unfit Communicant, as another man may lye under a naturall disability? and is not a man more blameable for the former then the latter? Further, holy things under the Leviticall Law were polluted and prophaned by wicked and prophane persons, Ezek. Chap. 23.38.39. They have defiled my sanctuary, &c. For when they had slain their children to their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary to prophane it. And Psal. 15.1. in that Question, Who shall abide in thy Tabernacle? The Prophet shews by those offences for which men were excluded from the Sanctuary, what it was which should keep men from eternal Life; and why that morall unholinesse (for of such he speaks) which made men unfit to go into the Sanctuary (which had a sacramentall signification of Christ) should not as well excludethem, from the Sacrament, I understand not. Were not the Sacrifices of old, polluted by the offering of them by prophane and [Page 278]morally unholy persons, Haggai 2.14. so (that is unclean) is this people before me, so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer therein, unclean. Where its plain, that the morall unholiness of the persons, defiled holy Ordinances; the people and their works being evil, the Lord for that cause accounteth their Sacrifices to be unclean. If morally prophane persons defil'd the Sacrifices of old, Psal. 50.16. they may surely be charged with defiling our Sacraments now.
5. Obs. 5. Luxuriantur de [...]acultatibus vestris in sustentationem Ministerii, & usum pauperum collatis. Gerh. in 2 Pet. 2.13. Sacrilegium dicatur q. sacri Laedium; vel q. sacrae legis laesio. Committitur vel in personam, vel locum, vel [...]em. Altentstaig. Lexic. Levit. 5.16, 17 Levit. 22.14 Such things as are given for the Publick benefit of the Church, are not to be consumed in, or converted to any other uses. These Feasts of Charity which were appointed for the relief of the poor Christians and Ministery, were profanely wasted by these Seducers. This sin is commonly called sacriledg, which by som is thought to be so called, q. sacrae legis, vel rei laesio, the hurting, spoiling, or violation of an holy Law, or thing. Others better consider it, q. sacra legere, to gather holy things, and they define it to be a taking away of things consecrated and devoted to the Lord. This is mentioned in Scripture to be done either ignorantly or knowingly; if ignorantly, it required according to the Law, restitution of the Principal, with an addition of the fifth part over and above, as a forfeiture for the offence, and a Caveat against the like in future time. 2. Reconciliation or Atonement, the Priest being to make an Attonement with the ram of the trespass-offering; to note the greatness of the offence against God. If this sin were committed of knowledg and wittingly, that which was taken, and all that the taker had, was for the Lord as a Sacrifice, for rest [...]tution; and he with his whole family stoned and burnt for purgation. This judgment of God upon Achan for taking that to his own use which was devoted to God, is largely related, Josh. 7. As also the punishment inflicted upon The word [...], which we barely translate Kept back, properly signifies a nimming, or purloining, & so is the word rendred, Ti [...]. 2.10 significat surripere, suffurari aut clam subdu [...]ta in Commodum nostrum convertere. Sic usurpatur à 70. in casu sacrilegii, Josh. 7.1. 2 Mac. 4.32. Graecè [...] dicitur, qui furtim aliquid decerpit, cum totam rem tollere non ausit. Estius in loc. Dum ex eo quod promiserat partem subtraxit, sacrilegii condemnatur. Aug. de verb. Ap Ser. 25. pa. mihi 378. Deo displicuit detrabere de pecunia, quam voverat Deo. Id Ser. 10. de diversis pag. mihi 1570. Ideo condemnati quia post votum, obtulerunt quasi sua, & non ejus cui semel ea voverant. Hieron. Ep. 8. pag. mi. hi 55. Prov. 12.10. 1 Cor. 6.6. 2 Sam. 16.9. Ananias, for changing that which was dedicated to an holy, to his private use. It is a snare or destruction to the man (saith Solomon, [Page 279]Prov. 20.25.) who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry: That is, to apply or take that to his own use, which was appointed to Gods, yea, to go about to do it, by enquiring how the vow might be made void. For that may be call'd holy, which is not such onely by Creation, as Angels and the first man, but also by dedication, and separation; and that whether this separation were by Gods command; or by mans free and voluntary bestowing it. In the old Law, Tithes, first Fruits, &c. were holy, and now in the times of the Gospel, those things which are either appointed by Law, or bestowed by the Liberality of men, for the maintaining of the worship and service of God, and Divine uses; and the taking away of these is the devouring of holy things. A sin by so much the more hainous in these times, by how much the more bounty hath been exercised by those who lived in times of blind Superstition, for the maintaining of idolatry. How unseemly is it, that men should live, as if all their light seemed to shew them how to delude God; as if faith had banished all fidelity, as if any worship, better deserved maintainance from men, then His, who gives men their own, both maintainance and worship; yea, as if the more they saw into Religion, the more they saw in it, which deserves starving and overthrow! This sin, which some Divines make to be a breach of the eighth Commandment (Thou shalt not steal) must needs be of thefts the worst, because it is a robbing of him who is the best, even GOD himself. Will a man rob GOD? yet ye have robbed me, Malach. 3.8.
It is a sin to wrong our beast, yea our enemies beast; a greater to wrong man; and if no injury may be offered to man, no not our enemy, much less to our Brother, and if not to our Brother, much less to our Superior, to a King; and if not to an earthly King, far less to the KING and LORD of Heaven, who is our SUPERIOR in the highest deg [...]ee, who is our [Page 280]Father and Benefactor, our Maker, and feeder and Father. When Joseph had feasted his Brethren, then to steal his Cup, what greater injury! God forbid (say they) we should do this thing. Gen. 44.7. And aptly doth Solomon call the devouring of holy things a snare, in regard its a sin, alluring us to overthrow; there's in it a bait to cover the hook, and somwhat scattered to draw us into the net. To a foolish sinner, the gain appears very beautifull and beneficiall: The wedg of gold, and the Babylonish garment, Psal. 35.26. Ioel. 3.4. seemed to Achan at first, great enticements, but the garment cloathed him with shame and dishonour and the wedg of gold was a wedg to rive his soul and body asunder. How severely doth GOD threaten those of Tyre and Sidon for their Sacriledge, in ransacking the Temple, and in taking away the gold and silver appointed for His Service, and carrying it into their idol-temples! If it were not Lawfull for None can alienate, but he that hath the propriety, and is owner; If therefore in that which is given to God he hath the propriety, then must they who go about to alienate it, dispose of that which is none of theirs. Lev. 25.23. Ezek. 45.14. Ananias and Saphirah having consecrated the whole price of their own land to God, to keep away part thereof; then it is much more unlawfull to keep away any part thereof from the Church, which we never gave, it being the Churches possession before we were born, such alienation, not being made in case of extream necessity, for the maintaining of the Commonwealth, and preserving of life, or for the Churches greater benefit and conveniency. Satan knows that the outward Worship of GOD and Religion cannot be continued without a Ministry, Syned Ancyr. circa ann. 308. Synod Arelateus. 2. ann. 326. Synod Antioch. ann. 344 Concil. Carthag. 4. an. 401 Concil. Tolet 2. ann. 529. Concil. Syn. 9. ann. 658. nor a Ministry without Ministers, nor Ministers without such goods as should sustain them; and hence he instigates prophane men to violate and steal Church-goods, that thereby the Ministery, GODS Worship, and the Salvation of Souls may be overthrown. The alienation of Church-goods hath been prohibited by the decrees of sundry ancient Councels. If our fore-Fathers by the injury of their times, mistaking the truth, gave ought superstitiously to Romish Priests, to Religious uses, 'tis [Page 281]fit their general purpose should be kept, with amendment of their particular Error.
6. The godly in this world, Observ. 6. are never totally freed from the company of the ungodly. It was the lot of these Christians, to have these wicked men with them. The godly must never love, but yet they will alway have the company of the wicked; though they should not feast together, yet they will alway live together. They who will be quite freed from the company of the wicked must (as Paul speaketh, 1 Cor. 5.10.) needs go out of the world; our delight should onely be in the godly, but it will be our condition to be among the ungodly; and God thus disposeth of the outward estate and condition of his people for sundry causes. Hereby, they are made more watchful over their hearts, and ways; the greater their danger is, the less is their security; the more dirt and defilement they see, the more they labour to keep their garments pure, and to gird up their loyns; when enemies approach our Cities, we double our watch. In times of infection, we most mind our Preservatives. Save your selves from this untoward generation (said Peter, to the new Converts, Acts 2.40.) he means not so much by leaving the places, as by taking heed of the impurities wherein the wicked live. By this abiding likewise among the wicked, the godly are more put upon loving and cleaving to one another. Its noted Gen. 13.7. Upon the mention of the Canaanite and Perizzite their being in the land, when the strife was between the herdmen of Abram and Lot, that Abram desired there might be no strife between them. Countrymen in a strange country, should beware of contention; the common foe should make disagreeing brethren unite; dissention will be both their ruine and their reproach, and will both disgrace and destroy them. If a Herod and a Pilate could be made friends, should not Saints joyn together when Christ is struck at; sometime God makes his people by the [Page 282]presence of the wicked, more zealous against wickednesse; the neernesse of contraries, strengthens their opposition; the eye increaseth grief, and hatred: nor have any Saints so much set themselves against sin, as they who have been most compelled to see sin: the best men have oft lived in the worst times; the hottest fire is in the coldest winter, the brightest Stars in the darkest night. Phil. 2.15. In the mids of a crooked and perverse nation, the godly shine as lights. Lots righteous soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked, and Davids eyes ran down with rivers of tears, when he saw Gods Law broken. What a work of power is it, that a sea of ungodliness should in stead of damping, redouble the heat of a Saints love to holinesse! Aut inveniet sine crimine, aut tollet sine patrocin [...]e. Aug. Further, God will hereby either better the wicked, or render them inexcusable; either their living among his people shall change, or condemn them; either the holy conversation of Saints shall turn the hearts, or stop the mouths of sinners; they shall not be able to plead ignorance of their duty, when they have been instructed by the language of lip and life. Though Noah by preparing the Ark, saved his own house, yet he condemned the world. Heb. 11.7. To conclude, by the company of wicked men, God makes his people more prize communion with himself, long for heaven, where there shall be neither sin nor sinner to molest them, where they shall no longer sojourn in Meshech, Psal. 120 5, 6. nor dwell in the tents of Kedar; nor their souls with them which hate peace; Heaven would not be sweet, if the world were not bitter; nor the company of Saints in glory, be so desirable, were it not for the unkindness of, and vexation by sinners on earth. Oh how sweet will that condition be, where all the society shall be of one mind! How melodious that chore, which shall ever sing without any jarring, any discord. Till which condition, let us, what ever our times, where ever we abide, neither impatiently complain of God, nor sinfully comply with the ungodly, but account [Page 283]it our duty to do the wicked what good we can, if we cannot do them what good we would; to be careful that they maynot, and comforted that they cannot, do us that harm they would; but contrarily, both by their company, yea, and unkindnesses, that good they would not.
7. Feasting is not ever unlawful. The Christians here are not blamed for their chear, Observ. 7. but warned of their guests. The holiest men (in Scripture we read) have made Feasts, as Abraham, Lot, Isaac, David, Solomon; Gen. 19.3. 21.8. 36.30. Nehemiah also and Ezra ( Nehem. 8.10.) commanded the people to eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing was prepared. 2 Sam. 3.20. Luke 5.29. John 2.1.8. And more then once I read of our Saviours honouring of a feast with his presence. God hath provided not only for our necessity, but also lawful delight; and his bounty reacheth not only to our being, but honest solace; nor doth it only give us naked lives, but lives clothed with many comforts, that we may more then live, even live cheerfull. When Christs mother told him, they had no Wine, he turns Water into Wine, even to a very great proportion; he thought it not enough that they should have water to quench their thirst, he gives them also Wine to chear their spirits; and it being at a feast, that quantity which at another time had been superfluous, was now but necessary. A man may be angry so he sin not, and take lawful delights so he surfet not; why hath God given man such choice of earthly delights, but for his use? Some observe that God hath made more creatures serving for the delights of man, then for his necessity; and certainly he hath made nothing in vain. The whole Earth (full of his goodness) is a well-furnisht table; if we altogether fast, we shew our selves but sullen guests; some, indeed have run from the world, and to avoid the danger of pleasure, have changed places of plenty, for solitary and barren mountains and deserts; but may not the world be in a desart? a boyling desire in a neglected body? Did not Hierom [Page 284]find Rome in his heart, when onely rocks and bushes were in his eye? but God hath appointed a better way then this; the wiseman will be an Hermite at home; and its a much more Christian practice, to turn the world out of our selves, then our selves out of the world; we may distinguish between the love of pleasure, and the use of it; we may warm our selves in the Sun, without worshipping it; we may be merry, without being mad; and get crucified affections to our lawful and delightful comforts, and without this inward mortification upon the heart, notwithstanding our leaving of outward enjoyments, we shal be snared; as the Bird, which though getting loose from the stone to which she was tyed, yet flying with the string about her leg, is in danger to be eutangled in every bough. But yet,
8. Observ. 8. Gluttony is a great sin. It was here the sin of these Seducers, they fed themselves though among men, yet not like men, but beasts; and all their food was but fewel for their lusts: Peter joyns their feasting, and their eyes full of adultery together, 2 Pet. 2.13, 14. Several Schoolmen reduce them all to five heads, Praeproperè, lautè, nimis, ardenter, studiosè. ways is the sin of Gluttony committed.
1. As first, when men offend in the quantity of what they eat; when they eat and drink in too great abundance; its lawful sometimes to exceed in provision, but never to exceed the bounds of moderation. We are forbidden Prov. 23.20. to be among riotous eaters of flesh, the feasting of the Ancients, was called but eating of bread; and Christ Luke 21.14. bids us take heed lest our hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness. That proportion of meat, I confesse, surchargeth the stomacks of some, which perhaps is not enough to satisfie the hunger of another; as that quantity of rain, will make a clay ground drunk, which will scarce quench the thirst of a sandy country; but this I fear not to assert, that we offend in the excessive quantity of our food, when at any time we eat so much, as to be disabled to perform the service which we owe to God, ether [Page 285]in our general or particular Callings. Fulnesse of bread was one of Sodoms sins. Moderate showers refresh the earth, immoderate drown it. Nor yet are men onely gluttons by overcharging their stomacks, but also by overcharging their estates, spending that in superfluity, which they should use for necessity.
2 When we offend in the quality of our food. Procul sint à conviviis tuis, phasides aves, crassi turtures, attagen Ionicus, & omnes aves quibus amplissima patrimonia avolant. Hier. Ep. 9. ad Salvinam Sufficit ut condimenta fiant comestibilia, non concupiscibilia. Bern. Palatum tuum fames excitet non sapores. Sen Satius est demere de prophano & addere ad Sacrum, quam demere de Sacro & addere ad prophanum. Proverb. Judaic. And that, 1. When our meat is too costly. What we eat is put into a Vessel that corrupts it. Necessaries are fitter for the body (the souls servant) then Delicacies. Manna had been better for the Israelites, then Quails, Numb 11. He was a Glutton who fared Sumptuously. And here also is caution to be used, as some mens stomacks and estates require more food; so others in both respects, may have that which is more costly. 3. In quality of our food we offend, when our meats are incentives to sin. Our enemy the flesh is too strong for us, though we take away his Armour, and fight against him. We need not put Weapons into his hand, and send him Ammunition. We need not, should not help the flesh; the better part is much in danger of being overmatched, though we make not the sensual part two to one, by affording it Auxiliaries. Our own corruption wants the bridle, more then the spur. And some to these add 3. The unlawfulness of eating such meat as is too young. And they say, the prohibition of eating that which wants age, is contained in that command, Exod. 23.19. Thou shalt not seeth a Kid in his Mothers milk. The Creatures are condemned to dye for us, and they expect, though not our pardon, yet our reprieve.
3. When we offend in the manner of eating. As 1. Say some; when we eat too soon, too hastily; namely, before the time of eating (without any necessary cause) Wo to them that rise early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink. Isai. 5.11. Eccles. 10.17. Woe to the Land whose Princes eat in the morning; a time wherein the belly is not to [Page 286]be filled, First seek the Kingdome of God. but the heart ordered; and the mind fed with holy Meditations. The Tavern is a place never very seemly for a Christian; but in the morning very unseemly. If Princes should eat in due season, much more ordinary people. If a Master (as Christ speaks) gives not his servant leave to sit down at meat, till he have first waited upon him, we should not suffer the souls Page and servant (the body) to feed, till it have first attended upon the soul in its Spiritual Repasts of Prayer and Meditation. 2. When we eat Animalia ruminantia, ruminant post sumptionem cibi, sed gulosm, ante. Perald. de Gulâ. Tantâ accuratione, & arte coquorum, cuncta apparantur, quatenus quatuor, aut quinque ferculis devoratis, prima non impediant novissima, nec satietas minuat appetitum Spretis naturalibus quos Deus indidit rebus, quibusdam adulterinis gula provocatur sapo [...]ibus. Quis dicere sufficit, quot modis sola ova versantur, & vexantur, quanto studio evertuntur, nunc quidem frixa, nunc assa, nunc farsa, nunc mixta, nunc sigillatim apponuntur. Ber. Apol. ad Gul. Non cibus sed appetitus est in vitio. Amos 4.6. studiously, making it our work to provide and prepare for the belly, to invent and study pleasing dishes, strange meats, Forraign Sauces, when men live to eat, meditating upon nothing but the Treacher. As some men by intemperance overthrow the Nature of man; so others by this sinful studiousness, and exactness in Feasting, overthrow the nature of their meat; when things are prepared with so much Art, that the nature of the Creature is lost; and the Eater knowes not what he eats. Oh, how unworthy is it for a Christian to be alway plodding about, and contriving of his meats! to lock up his soul in the Kitchin, which should be walking in Heaven. 3. When we eat with a vehement appetite, and greedily: Thus men may be gluttonous, in feeding upon the coursest fare. David, though he earnestly desired the water of Bethlehem, yet in stead of drinking it greedily, poured it upon the ground. Gluttons rather devour, then eat their meat, and rather indeed are eaten up with it. They drink of the stream, and forget the fountain; their greediness swallowes up their thankfulness; and as soon as ever they have filled their bucket, they turn their backs upon the well. 4. When we feast without any difference of times. How unseasonable was it for Josephs brethren to eat bread, when their brother was in the pit! or for the Israelites to eat the Lambs of the flock, and the Calves out of the midst of the stall, to drink Wine in bowles, &c. and not to be grieved for the affliction of Joseph! To slay [Page 287]Oxen, kill sheep! &c. when God called to weeping and mourning, &c. when the Church drinks blood and tears, we should not drink Wine in bowles; we should rejoice with trembling; and feast, as if we feasted not. Its Gods goodnesse that he calls us to feast any day; our own Licentiousness, if we will feast every day. He who fared sumptuously every day, shall be in eternal want of so much as one drop. 5 When we feast uncharitably, feasting the Rich, never thinking upon the poor, Luke 14.12, 13. When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy, &c. rich neighbours, but call the poor, &c. Lazarus must not starve at the gate, we must not be like Oaks, who with their Acornes only feed Swine. 6. When we feast with too much expence of time in Feasting; when we dine all day, and sup all night; when our supper shall tread upon the heels of our dinner. Wo to them that continue untill night, till wine enflame them. Isa. 5 11. This expence of time is worse then our expence of meat and money. The former may be regained, not the latter; and yet how frequently do men complain that they have spent too much mony; how rarely, that they have spent too much time at Feasting! Prodigality of time is the worst.
If the opening of the nature of this sin, and shewing what it is, do not sufficiently discover the odiousness thereof, let us a little further look upon it by other disswasive considerations.
1. Gluttony is an enemy to all holiness of life. Venter pinguis non gignit tenuem sensum. Hieron. Mente recta uti non possunt, multo cibo & potu replet [...]. Cicer. Tota chriorum vita insomnium quoddam, rationis naufragium. It hinders a man from doing himself any Spiritual good. It blunts the understanding with blockishness and stupidity. Whosoever is deceived by wine (saith Solomon, Prov. 20.1) is not wise. Wisdom is not found in the Land of the Living, Job 28.13. The Vulgar reads it, in terrâ suaviter viventium, in the Land of those who live in delights and pleasures. Whoredome, Wine, and new wine (saith the Prophet, Hos. 4.11) take away the heart. The four children, Dan. 1.16, 17. who lived upon a frugal Dyet, were [Page 288]most eminent for Learning and wisdom, Wine in Feasts, and the not considering of the operations of Gods hands, are put together, Tabulas legis quas accepit abstinentia, conteri fecit ebrietas Ambr. cap. 6. de Helia. & jejun. Sciebat Dei sermonem non posse audire temulent [...]s. Hier. [...] 2. contr. Jov. Viscus Spiritualium pennarum. Non currimus onerati. Animae adipidibus quasi luto involutae, nihil tenue, nihil coe leste, sed semper de carnibus, & ructu, & ventris ingluvie cogitant. Hier. l. 2. adv. Jov. Quantò corpus impletur, tantò anima minoratur. Greg. Isai. 5.6. Hierom and Ambrose observe, that as Moses received the Tables of the Law when he was much in fasting, so he broke the Tables when he saw that the people had been eating and drinking; as thinking that after Feasting the people were unfit to hear the Law. How can an impure Glutton lift up in Prayer, pure hands? Surfetting oppresseth the heart, and suffers it not to lift up it self toward heaven: Its the Birdlime of the souls wings. Its a weight which presseth us down in our Race; yea rather the ungirding of the loynes of our minds, our affections, which like long and loose Garments, being let down into the mire of sensual pleasures, hinder and stop us in our Spiritual progress. Oh how unfit a mansion, is a beastly Epicure for the holy Spirit to dwel in! The being drunk with wine, is opposed to the being filled with the Spirit, Ephes. 6.18. The Voluptuous Sensualist is only a Hog-Stie for Satan to lodg in. The unclean spirit finds no rest in dry places, in those who are sober and temperate in worldly enjoyments; but like the Swine, not delighting in such dust, Loca arida sunt homines temperatè viventes, in quibus Diabolus non invenit requiem Parisiens. he loves to wallow in a sensual and impure Glutton, as in a slough or quagmire. Gluttony is the Sepulcher of the living, and a kind of Spiritual drowning of a man.
2 This sin profanely denyes God his Service, and opposeth him, not only notwithstanding, but even by his bounty turneth the Temple of the Holy Ghost into a Kitchin; and makes (as the Apostle speaks) a God even of the base, filthy belly. How unseemly is it for a servant (as Solomon speaks, Prov. 14.10) to have rule over Princes. The reigning of a servant, is reckoned to be the first of the four things, which the earth cannot bear Prov. 31.22. Gluttony makes the Prince (the soul) to serve the belly (of all the souls servants, viz. the parts of the body) the basest and filthiest. The Apostle speaks [Page 289]of some who serve their own belly. Rom. 16.18. Multis servit, qui corpori servit. Sen. Phil. 3.19. Oh miserable servitude! besides the baseness of the serving of such a God of dung; it is also very cruel, it makes a man a servant to all those meats and drinks which serve the belly; its a slavery to a Master who is never pleased, who will have the best provisions brought him, and having taken them, he throwes them all into the draught, and yet is presently calling for more; his work is never done, he puts his servants upon their drudging for him as long as they live; several times every day, making men to labour in the filling and emptying of a Sink, sometimes three or four score yeers together, requiring and exacting his supplies so imperiously and rigorously, that his servants oft take thought to the cutting of their hearts, Matth. 6.25. and take pains to the cracking of their sinewes, for the getting of his provisions; and yet when all is done, no service is so vain and unprofitable as this belly-service; what is it but the dawbing and propping of a rotten cottage, which will notwithstanding, in a short time crumble away, and tumble down: the delicate feeding of a condemned Malefactor, who must dye, and whose strength by all his provisions serves him but to go to Execution? yea, Carnem impinguare, est vermibus escam praeparare. what is it but the preparing a Banquet for the wormes, for whom the leanest carcass is even fat enough?
3. This sin of Gluttony most useth and abuseth that part in its service, which of all the rest is so noble, and should be most set on work for God, and filled with his praises, the mouth.
4 Its a sin which doth most unsuspectedly surprize us, (as lying in ambush behind our lawful Enjoyments) and which is most like to catch us, Dum ad quiet [...]msatre [...]atis ab indigentiâ tran situr, in ipso transitu, laqucus concupiscentiae insidiatur. as laying a snare in those wayes wherein we most walk, and such an one whereby even Adam in Innocency, was catcht.
5 This one is an inlet to all sin. He who is overcome with this, is not able to overcom any sin. It having possession of the gate of man, his mouth, lets easily into [Page 290]him, the whole troop of Vices. It is the Divels bridle, which he putting into the mouth of a sinner, turns him any way, at his pleasure. When the iron is hot, the Smith can fashion it how he will. A gluttonous person is Soyl so till'd, manured, and moistned by Satan, that its fit to receive any seed, that he shall cast into it; Cruelty, Uncleanness, Security, Profaneness, &c. all grow in that Soyl.
6 Gluttony is the Source and Nurse of all Diseases: It must needs be unhealthful to carry a fen within one. Luke 12.45. Ille optimus medicus sibi, qui modicus cibi. Immodicis brevis est atas, & rara senectus-Ʋbicunque quae rit caro refectionem, invenit defectionem. Aug. Ab [...] Temperance is the noblest Physick. The inordinate life, is not patient enough to stay for sickness. Our food becomes, by Gluttony, in stead of a Plaister; a wound. The Glutton digs his grave with his teeth, and is a self destroyer. They who most follow, most flye from pleasure: Having taken their leave of an hours pleasure, they oft meet with a yeeres paine. The temperate person only enjoyes the sweetnesse of the Creature.
7 This sin, is the ruine and hazard of mens Estates. The very word [...], Luxury, properly signifieth the not preserving, or keeping of the good which we enjoy. How many have swallowed their estates down their throats! Prov. 23.21. The Drunkard and the Glutton (saith Solomon) shall come to poverty. The Philosopher askt of the fruga [...] Citizen but a penny, but begged of the Prodigal a Talent. Because he thought of the one he might beg oft, of the other, who spent so fast, he was like to receive but once.
8. Subtrabunt abore Dei, in suis membris, quod ponunt in ore Diaboli. Parisiens. Its a sin most injurious to the poor. The Gluttons superfluity causeth, and increaseth the poors scarci [...]y. As the spleen grows, so the other parts decay; and as the Riotous abound, so the poor wants; and none [...]re so willing to let Lazarus starve at their gate, as they who fare sumptuously every day.
9 It makes way for eternal emptiness and scarcity. He who hath here been, unprofitably a gulph to devour [Page 291]Gods Blessings, shall hereafter be thrown into a gulph of misery, wherein there is not a drop of Mercy. How poor is that plenty, which makes way for eternal penuty. Oh woful receipts, which are only in this life, and not followed with being received! Sinful pleasures are by some compared to those Locusts, Rev. 9.7. the Crowns upon whose heads, are said to be only as it were such, or such in appearance, and like G [...]d; but ver. 10. it is said, there were (not as it were, but) stings in their tayles. The pleasures of sin are seeming and appearing; the pains true and real.
9. In feasting we are too prone to cast away holy fear. Observ. 9. These Seducers fed themselvs without fear. In doing those things which are lawful, we are too ready to be fearless both of God and our selves. Job feared that his sons had sinned, by this want of Gods fear in their Feasting, Job 1.5. Its an easie matter to sin, when the thing we are about is not sinful. Our lawful comforts, as Trading, Sleeping, Marrying, Feasting, are oft occasions of what is unlawful. Luk 17.27, 28 The old world was very fearless of sinning when they eat, drank, bought, sold; so fearless, that nothing would awaken them but feeling. Most people are drowned in the shallowes of lawful enjoyments. The meat and drink which in themselves are wholsome, have killed a thousand times more than ever did poyson, because the forme are not feared, [...] is the latter. Men startle at evident and known sins, whereas in lawful and allowed delights, they are oft overtaken without suspicion. Besides, as Feasting is a lawful, so it is a full condition. And when we have most fulness, we commonly have least fear. Men who most abound in enjoyments, are most bold in wickedness. Jesurum waxed fat and kicked, Deut. 32.15. When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord. Deu [...]. 6.12. Agnrs prayer was against Riches, Prov. 30.9. upon this ground, lest being full he should forget God. In slippery pathes we are most ready to fall; and in a condition of [Page 292]greatest abundance, we soonest are overturned. A full condition is commonly but fewel to lust; nor can our sensual hearts easily feed upon pleasing objects, without surfetting. Isai. 28.1. The Drunkards of Ephraim, were on the head of the fat vallies. Its a rare thing to see Religion flourish in a rich Soil. Where the Soil is Richest, there the Inhabitants commonly are most Riotous. And if it be thus, then as worldly abundance is a weak Argument to prove Gods love, and as we should be content to want, yea, pray against, and shun those delights which will occasion us, being full, to deny God; so should we (particularly) feast with holy fear, which will keep us from sin in our Feasting, from falling in such a slippery path. This fear of God and our selves, we shall shew,
1 By propounding holy ends in our Feasting. As 1 The refreshing of our bodies, we not living to eat, but eating to live, and to keep our frail cottages in meet reparations. 2 We should aim at the glorifying of God, at the delighting in the giver, by and above his gifts: the being more firmly tyed to him with every cord of love. A godly man hath a heavenly end, in doing of every earthly ployment; and though he doth the same thing which he was wont to do, yet now he doth it for an higher end, and would account a Feast, to be but a dry morsel, if thereby he might not see it come in love, and be enabled to return it again to love.
2. By acknowledging Gods Attributes. In our feasts meditating, 1 On Gods fulness and sufficiency, who with the opening of his hand fills every Creature, and is the great house-holder of the whole world. 2 On his goodness, in causing so many Creatures to dye for us, who deserved death most of all, and are less then the least of all Gods mercies.
3 By observing Divine Rules. 1 That Rule of Piety. 1. In praying for a blessing, and particularly for a heart to be thankful for the receiving, holy in the using, and [Page 293]fruitfull in the improving every gift. 2. In using holy discourse: this Box of Ointment, we then should bring and break, like that good woman, Luke 7.36. Bread and salt are necessary at every feast; our discourse must both feed and season others. 2. The rule of Charity in remembring the poor, whose wants our compassions should make us feel, though our conditions do not, and to shew that our bowels are not shut up, our hands should be open. 3. The rule of Temperance, sometimes we should fast, never be gluttonous. If thou beest (saith Solomon) a man of appetite, Prov 23.2. put a knife to thy throat. Nature seems to dictate thus much, by giving to man a smaller mouth, and a narrower throat, then any other creature of his bigness, hath: we should rise from the greatest feast, fit to pray.
This for the first Resemblance whereby the Apostle describes the estate of these Seducers. 2 The second follows, wherein he compares them to clouds without water, carried about of the winds.
EXPLICATION.
Two particulars are here to be explained.
1. From what sort of creatures, he draws the resemblance, viz. From clouds.
2. From what sort of clouds, viz.
- 1. From empty clouds.
- 2. From unstable clouds.
In the first, From what sort of creatures the resemblance is drawn. Two things are considerable.
1. What we are to understand by clouds.
2. Why the Apostle made choice of such a resemblance, taken from these clouds.
1. For the first, the word is [...], clouds, derived (as some think) from the Hebrew word Nuph, which signifieth to drop, or (as others) from Naphal to fall, or descend. And a cloud (such as the word [...] properly imports) is ‘a moist vapour drawn up by the heat [Page 294]of the Sun, unto the middle Region of the air, where being by the coldness of that place knit together, and congealed, it so continueth untill (being dissolved and melted by the warmth of the Sun) it be turned into rain;’ Zanch. de op. Dei l. 3. c. 6. p. 381. Nubes est vapor humidus & crassus, qui ad mediam aerē regionem, à sole elevatus, à frigore autem regionis condensatus, tamdiu talis manens, donec calore solis liquefactus, in pluviam convertitur. Psal. 77.17. Isai. 5.7. 1 Kings 18. Illud hoc loco, tū pleris (que) aliis observari necesse est, scripturā nō uti accuratione Philosophorum, sed ratione populari in nominandis rebus, [...] distinctionis ergo, à Philosophis nebulae appellantur, quae [...], sunt & [...] Arist. Met. l. 1 c. 9. Jun. in Jude Hoc sanè est ex mirabilibus naturae, quae consuetudinis vitio, viluerunt. Pi [...]d. in Job 26. So that the property and use of clouds, is to carry water and rain for the use of the earth, they water the garden of the earth, like a Garden-pot; they are the treasuries of rain, and (as one saith) rain condensed or congeal'd, and rain is a cloud dissolv'd. Or (as another) a cloud is the womb of rain, big with it (oft) as with its issue. And therefore (as the learned Junius on this place notes) when our Apostle adds [...] to [...], saying, that these clouds are without water, he rather useth ratione populari, a popular and Vulgar kind of speech, then stands upon Philosophical accurateness; for those clouds which are without water, Aristotle and other Philosophers call not [...], nubes, but [...], nebulas, thin dispersed vapours which (indeed) obscure the face of the heavens, but have within them, no rain for the thirsty earth at all; so distinguishing them from [...], rainy clouds.
The Naturalists who write concerning watery Meteors, enquire, how it can be, that a cloud should contain so vast a bulk and quantity of heavy waters, and not violently and at once fall to the earth; heavy things naturally descending or tending downward: Several causes are by them assigned, some say, that they are kept up by their natural and inbred warmth, included in them, and by the heat (without) of the Sun and Stars; others say, by their motion which they have from the winds; others by reason of their spungy hollowness, which receives and takes in the thin air; but Philosophers (in this) are like little children, that cannot speak plain, (at least to my dulness,) the safest way (according to the best Divines) is to resolve this, by the Scripture, which represents the holding up of [Page 295]the clouds as the work of Gods power, and teacheth us that God hath given his command in the creation, that the clouds fall not, Prov. 8.28. He established the clouds above. Gen. 1.6. Let the firmament (that is, Zanch. de op Dei, l. 2. c. 1. p. 277. Aer, suâ mediâ regione, dividit aquas quae sursum evehuntur. ab iis quae infrae fluunt. as Zanchy largely and strongly proves, the ayr, in respect of the middle Region) divide the waters from the waters, namely those which are drawn up, and made clouds for rain, from those which run below: And Job 26.8. Its expressely said, that God bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them: he hath bound these waters in a (though weak, slight) garment, Prov. 30.4. The waters above the Heavens, are recorded among the things which God hath estalisht for ever, and for which he hath made a decree that they shall not pass, Ps. 148.4, 6. Its his power that enables so weak a cobweb, to hold (as it were) a strong man, prisoner; its that alone, which lays up even a Sea of waters, in the thin sieve or searce of a cloud, which (till he pleaseth) shall not let go one drop, Sunt nubes, ut spongia quaedam aquarum plena. Deus autem mam [...] suae proorovidentiae, spongiam bane comprimit, non totam simul, & quantum potest, sed paulatim, ut molliter descendant aquae. Zanch. de op. Dei, l. 3. c. 6. pag. 383. and then rain shall come (as through a sieve, or strainer) not in floods, but in drops. Or rather (as Zanchy that Divine Naturalist speaks) he makes his clouds spunges; till he press and squeez them with the hand of his providence, not a drop shall fall out of them; he presseth these spunges not too hard, but gently, that so they may moderately, and by little and little distil and drop upon us, and not overwhelm us, as they did the old World, when he wrung these spunges hard upon them. He whose word is a dam to hinder the proud waves from flowing over the face of the earth, hath a word likewise which (as a stopple) shuts up the bottles of his clouds, and keeps them from running out. In a word, he who hangeth the earth upon nothing, is in the next words deservedly said, to bind up the waters in his thick clouds.
For the second particular, viz. why the Apostle made choice of a resemblance taken from these clouds. He saith these Seducers were [...], clouds, which according [Page 296]to the notation of the word, and common usage, signifie such as have in them, water for the refreshment of the earth: and I conceive that our Apostle hereby intends either, 1, To shew their duty, which was as the Ministers of Christ to be watring clouds, to afford to people the sweet and refreshing showers of wholsome Doctrines: Or rather, 2. Their great boastings, hypocritical shews and appearances, they seeming and pretending to be clouds full of water, as the holy Prophets and Apostles were; whereas indeed, they were (though appearingly full, yet) really and truly empty; unprofitable and waterless, like the boaster of a false gift, of whom Soloman speaks, Prov. 25.14. that he is as clouds without rain; though by reason of his great promises, he seemed to be full of water, and beneficialness: As if the Apostle had said, These Seducers are clouds full of water of holiness and heavenly doctrine, if you will beleeve their own expressions and appearances; but if you come to try or use them, you shall finde no benefit, comfort, or refreshment from them. And I conceive, that the Apostle by calling them clouds, intimates their proud and hypocritical pretending to resemble the worthy and profitable Instructers and Teachers of the people of old, who are oft and elegantly in Scripture compared to clouds, and whose doctrine is resembled to dropping, as Isai. 5.7. where God (according to some) threatning to take away the Prophets and their Ministry from the people, saith, I will command the clouds that they rain no rain: And frequently in Scripture is prophesying or teaching called a dropping: [...] tum docens d [...]ctorve tum pluvia tempes [...]iva. 21.30.20. Joel. 2.23. My doctrine (saith Moses) Deut. 32.2. shall drop as the rain, Ezek. 21.2. Son of man, drop toward, &c. And prophesie against the land of Israel. And Amos 7.16. Prophesie not against Israel, drop not thy word against the house of Israel, Ezek. 20.46. Son of man, drop toward the South, and prophesie, &c. And Micah 2.6. Prophesie (or drop) not, say they to them that prophesie. And in ordinary [Page 297]speech we use to say, the clouds drop, and (when it begins to rain) it drops, Prov. 3.20. His clouds drop down the dew. And clouds are a most lively resemblance of faithful Ministers. Gen. 1.6. Prov. 8.28. Psal. 147.8. Ephes. 4.11. Psal. 68.11. 1. In regard of the cause of both: the supream highest cause is God; clouds are frequently in Scripture called his clouds, Job 26.8. Psal. 18.12. Prov. 3.20. Ministers are his, they are from him, for him, kept up by him, he gives the word, and great shall be the company of those who publish it; he sends forth labourers; the natural cause of clouds, is the Sun drawing up vapours; Christ the Sun of righteousnesse, he calls, appoints, gives gifts to Ministers. 2. In regard of the condition of clouds; they are carried from place to place, tossed too and fro with the winds; Ministers are oft removed by God, from one place (in anger for its unfruitfulness) to another, and tossed by the winds of persecution, hither and thither, the Church nevertheless by their dispersion, gaining moisture, and spiritual benefit. 3. In regard of their situation, clouds are above us, Ministers are (dignified by God) over us in the Lord, and they (as clouds) ought to be nearer heaven, and more having their conversation there then others, Phil. 3.20. They are not clods, but clouds, yea stars, yea angels. 4. Clouds they are in respect of sustentation, upheld by the powerful Word of Gods providence; else (as clouds under their loads) they could never be upheld, they are as dying, yet behold they live; stars in the right hand of Christ. 5. In respect of fulness, usefulness, and beneficialness. A cloud is both umbrifera and imbrifera, bringing shadow, and moisture to the earth; a faithful Minister cools and refresheth a scorched conscience by preaching the righteousness of Christ; he is a messenger; an Interpreter, one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness, Job 33.23. his feet are beautiful, Rom. 10.15. as welcome to a scorched conscience, as the rain to the parched earth; these spiritual clouds drop down the fruitful showrs of [Page 298]heavenly doctrine. 2 Tim. 2.24 Good Ministers are apt to teach. 6. Like clouds, they spend and consume themselvs in dropping on others; like salt and Torches, they melt themselves to benefit others; like Silk-worms, they weave out their own bowels to cover others nakednesse.
But secondly, Explicat. 2. from what sort of Clouds doth our Apostle draw a resemblance to sute with these Seducers?
- 1. From empty Clouds, without water.
- 2. From unstable Clouds, carried about, &c.
1. From empty Clouds, they are [...], Clouds without water. Here two things ought to be explain'd.
- 1. VVhat it was to be without VVater.
- 2. VVhen it was a sin to be so.
For the first, as in Scripture the Prophets and Ministers are compared to Clouds, so their heavenly Doctrine, to Water or Rain showred down from those Clouds: My Doctrine (saith Moses) Deut. 32.2. shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb. And Isa. 55.10, 11. As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, &c. So shall my word be, that goeth out of my mouth, &c. And Heb. 6.7. The earth drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, & bringeth forth herbs &c. 1 Kings 17.14 Job 5.10. Job 36.27 Psal. 104.13 147.8. Psal. 65.10. Prov. 19.12 Ier. 31.12. Deut. 28.12. Ier. 5.24. Isa. 44.3. Es. 30.23. 44.14. And most fitly may the Word be compared to rain; 1. For its originall; God gives Rain, Jer. 15.22 Are there any among the vanities of the heathen that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O LORD, &c. Deut. 11.14. I will give you the rain of your land, Lev. 26.4. I will give you the rain in due season. God can onely give us a Word; Its called the Word of the Lord. He appoints what Ministers should preach, and he teacheth them how to Preach; and he makes the Word effectuall.
2. Rain is of a searching insinuating nature, soaking [Page 299]to the roots. The Word searcheth the heart, Fontes fic [...]os [...]os appeli [...]t: Font [...]s scilic [...]t quòd acceperint agnitionem domini Christi: siccos autem quia non congruenter vivunt. Aug. de fid. & Op. c. 25. Ʋbi fons sine aquá▪ ibi lutum & errori [...] & peccati, n [...]c lavat sed Coinqunat. Glos, Irenaeus. l. 1. c. 33. haereticos vocat fungos. Augustin. lib. de Haeres. Fabulones; Philologesnon Ph [...]losophos. Folia dant, non fructus, verba non scientiam, sophismata, non solida argumenta; jactant crepant (que) Scripturam, sed eam non intelligunt, imo pervertunt. Aperiunt quasi [...]ontes scientia, qui aquam non habent doctrinarum promittunt imbrem, velut nubes Prophetica. Hiron. 2. contra Iov. pricks the heart, and purgeth it, Act. 2.37. Heb. 4.12.
3. Rain cooleth and refresheth the earth, and plants; the Promises of the Word, delight the soul, the chapt gasping thirsty soul. Isa. 44.3.
4. Rain softneth the earth, though hard like Iron. The Word maketh the heart tender, and pliable, obedient, Jer. 31.37. Ezek. 36.26. and fit to be moulded according to Gods mind.
5. Rain causeth the earth to be fruitfull; the Word makes us fruitfull in every grace and good work: Its an instrumentall cause of spirituall growth, 1 Pet. 2.2. Psal. 1.3. 1 Pet. 3.16. So that these seducing teachers were Clouds: 1. Without the water of holinesse and sanctification of heart, life, and example; they made shew to be the onely sublime Saints, and Christians of the first magnitude, and that others (in comparison of them) were but in the lowest form of godlinesse, and Religion; yet these ungodly men had not in them a drop of true Sanctity; they onely had a form of godlinesse, 2 Tim. 3.5. but denying the power thereof; and these waterlesse wells (as Peter cals them) had nothing in them, but the mud and filth of sin, not to cleanse, but pollute, and defile.
2 They were without the water of true Knowledge; they pretended to be the onely knowing Persons, that they onely had two eyes, and all others but one. They assumed to themselves, the title of Gnostici, for their great (pretended) insight into the Doctrines of Faith; They lookt upon others, as the Pharisees upon the people, who (they said) knew not the Law, and were accursed; or as Caiphas upon the other Priests, he telling them that they knew nothing, and yet for all this they were empty, and without the water of saving Knowledge, and Instruction. Their doctrines were but wind, chaff, and idle speculations, vain janglings, [Page 300]contentions about words, not profiting them who are exercised therein, improving no soul heaven-ward, making it after all their empty discourses, no further admitted into communion with Christ, cleansed from sin, in love with holinesse, fitted for death: in a word, their verball triflings never made a Proselite to Jesus Christ, but onely to an opinion. They had perhaps the wisdom of Words, but not the words of wisdom. They left the Scripture, and onely regarded dreams, and fables. They were blind leaders of the blind, and erred from the right way; Desiring to be teachers of the Law, they understood neither what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. And in stead of being Clouds that bedewed their hearers with the drops of heavenly instruction, 1 Tim. 1.7. they were clouds onely to darken their mind with error, and to hide from them the Sun-shine of Truth (as Oecomenius glosseth.) 3. They were without the water of Consolation and Refreshment, for those who expected benefit and relief from them. Who so boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds without rain, (saith Solomon) Prov. 25.14. All the glorious promises of peace and liberty which they made to their misled followers, were empty and deceitfull; While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruptiou. 2 Pet. 2.19. They pretended that they had found out a nearer way to heaven, then any before them had done, and that people might without fetching such a compasse of Mortification and holinesse, go straight on to Peace and Blessednesse: But their poor deceived Disciples found them herein, to be but clouds without water, such who could not make good these promises, and that there was no peace in impurity. 2 Pet. 2.17. Peter cals them wels without water, elegantly describing their disappointing of those who expected relief and refreshment for their souls from them, they being like the waters or wels in an hot Summer, that Jer. 15.18. [Page 301]are said to lie or fail; or a brook that is deceitfull, Job. 6.15. disappointing the thirsty who go to them for refreshment. They who trusted to what these seducers promised by their Doctrines, being like to those little ones, who being sent to the Pits ( Jer. 14.3.) found no water, returning with their vessels empty, asham'd and confounded, covering their heads.
2. For the second, Wherein it was a sin for these Seducers, to be as clouds without water.
1. It argued prophane, presumption; namely, in undertaking a holy Function, for which they had no fitness; they had no worth, either of piety, or sufficiency; they had lips, but not such as could preserve Knowledg; they polluted the holy things of God with their unmeetness to mannage them; had they been persons of greatest abilities, the work of teaching and instructing souls, would have deserved and taken them all up; 2 Cor. 2.16. the shoulders of an Angel would have been weak enough for the weight of such a service; Who is (saith Paul) sufficient for these things? A mortal man would have scorned to be put off with such performances as they thought good enough for the great GOD. These cursed deceivers offered to God, not a male, but a corrupt thing. The God who is the best and greatest, requires the best and greatest of our abilities. But these offered that to God which cost them nothing.
2. It argued the sin of unusefulnesse and unprofitablenesse; they could not give what they had not; they had no worth, and they did no work. They had no water, nor did they pour down any. They were wicked, and slothfull; and therefore wicked, because slothfull, Mat. 25.26. These false teachers knew not what labour meant. They were spent not with cutting, but rusting. They were loyterers in the time of harvest. And they were neither faithfull, nor labourers. If they did sweat at all, it was not with working, but feeding. They were not as Clouds, that spend [Page 302]themselves in watering the earth. They were not impaired by service, but sensuality; If a private person must be a Publick good, then must not a Publick person be a private good. They lived to themselves, and cumbred their places to no purpose in the world When men went secure to hell, they quietly suffered them to do so. Their cruelty was great, because it was Soul-cruelty, they starved souls.
3. In their sin was delusion and hypocrisie; as they neither had worth nor did good, so in both they opposed their profession. They voiced themselves to be the onely able Instructers; but as the waterlesse clouds delude the expecting husband-man, so did these, their fond followers. They pretended to be spirituall nurses, and (though they expected full paiment▪) they gave the children but empty, windy breasts. Their deluded Disciples spent their mony for that which was not bread, and their labour for that which satisfied not: Had these seducers appeared▪ to be what they were, empty, they had not been call'd clouds; or had they been what they appeared to be, they had not been call'd clouds without water. Under a glorious title, their lodg'd a base and unworthy temper.
Its a great sin to be confutations of our Professions. Injustice is not so inexcusable in any, as in a Judg; Blindness is not so blameable in any, as in a guide; a seer, silence, in none is so hatefull, as in a Preacher; drinesse no where so unexpected, as in a Well, a Cloud.
It was not the barren Oa [...] or Elm, (from which fruit was never expected) but the Figtree, whose kind, was fruitful, that Chr [...]st cursed for unfruitfulnesse Nor did the dammage of their hypocrisie onely redound to themselves. A by reason of their emptinesse, they did good to none, so in regard of their seeming fulnesse, they did hurt to many. How easily might their misguided followers [...]pend their time in a vain gaping after these empty clouds of error and presumption, for the water [Page 303]of Life and happinesse, and mean while neglect the Rain of Heaven, a Soul-saving Ministry? these erroneous guides, though hereby aggravating their own, yet not excusing their followers from damnation.
2. Our Apostle, to set forth the instability as well as the emptiness of these seducers, drawes a comparison, to sute these seducers, from clouds, as carried about with the winds; he saith, They are [...].
Two things I shall here touch, by way of Explication.
1. What the Apostle here intends by their being carryed about.
2. What those winds were, by which they were carryed about.
1. For the first, their being carried about is noted in this word, [...], Carried about, driven this way and that way, not abiding or resting in any one place, like any light matter, feathers, stubble, dust, &c. which are at the courtesie of every blast and puff of wind; And hereby, is intended the unstablenesse and unsetlednesse of these seducers, in their Christian course. Expressed likewise by the same word, Eph. 4.14. Children tossed to and fro; and [...], carried about with every wind of Doctrine: and Heb. 13.9. [...], Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. If one wind comes, the cloud is carried this way; if another, that way; somtimes to one quarter of the Heavens; at other times to a quite contrary: so was it with these unsettled souls, who wanting the ballast and solidity of grace in their heart, were unstable, unconfirmed in their opinions, affections and practices. For the Apostle may hereby intend a three-fold instability and unsetlednesse, or their being carried about in three respects.
1. In respect (principally I conceive) of opinion and judgment; they were not setled in the truths of Religion; like those 1 Kings 18.21. who halted between [Page 304]two opinions. They continued not in the faith, grounded and setled, (as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.23.) they were not placed upon a firm foundation, nor were they seated as a man in a seat, from which he cannot easily be removed; and 'tis frequently observed; that the erroneous are never firm either to the truth or their own opinions. They forget what they have been, unsterstand not what they are, and know not what they shall be. Augustine tels us how frequently Pelagius altered his opinions concerning Grace, and Hilary reports of Arius, that he had menstruam fidem, for every month a sundry faith, as if he had swallowed Moons, that he was never consistent to, and with himself. before the Councel, he held for the Divinity of Christ; among his companions, otherwise. Thus the Apostle complains of the Galatians, for their being so soon removed unto another Gospel, 1 Gal. 6. and warnes his Ephesians chap. 4.14. that they should not be carried about, &c. and Peter (2 Pet. 2.14.) mentions unstable souls. Oft from Brownism men wander to Anabaptism, from thence to Arminianism, thence to Socinianisme and Arminianisme, and then they become Seekers; or rather indeed, loosers of themselves, just nothing, as a thin empty, cloud, they are tossed so long up and down by winds, that at length they come to nothing at all. Their heads are like Inns, and their opinions like Travellers, which oft lodg not above one night in them; like wax, they take any new impression. Its bard to say whether, they are pluralists or neutralists in Religion, and as hard to please them in any opinion, as to make a Coat that should constantly fit the Moon. They know they shall dy, but in what faith they know not. One error is ever a bridg to another. 2 Pet. 3.16. They are called unlearned and unstable, and (therefore) such as wrest the Scriptures; whence its plain, that by unstable, he means such as were not grounded in the Faith and Learning of the Truth. Hymeneus and Philetus, who [Page 305]once held the Truth concerning the Resurrection, afterward erred concerniag the Faith, saying, that the Resurrection was past already, 2 Tim. 2.18.
2. They might be carried about, and unstable in respect of their affections, the goodnesse whereof was onely by fits and pangs, sometimes they were fire-hot (perhaps) in Religion; soon after, stone-cold: their heat, like that in the fit of an ague, is not from nature, but distemper, and therefore, though violent, yet not permanent; they resemble the Mariners, Psal. 107.26. of whom the Psalmist speaks, that at one time they are mounted up to heaven, and presently, fall down again into the depths; like David, who in his youth was full of Spirits and vigor, but in his old age grew cold and chilly; these who somtime seem'd fervent in spirit, [...], now are cold in their affections, and come to a state of indifferency and neutrality, and frame to themselves such a moderation, as will just serve the scantling of the times. They were (they say) forward and foolish in the heat of their youth, to oppose sin, but now they see their error, and admire their present staiednesse, and the golden mean which they have attained. Thus it was with those unsettled Galatians, who at first could have pull'd out their eyes for Paul, Gal. 4.16. soon after counted him an eye-sore, their enemy, fortelling them the truth. The Church of Ephesus had left her first love, Rev. 2.4. Thus Alexander, who (as some think) for his zeal against Diana, the Heathens Idol, Qui martyrio propinquus erat, perfidum & sceleratum apostatam factum videmus. Cal. in Ac. 19. formidabile exemplum. or (as others) for his noted love towards Paul, was like to have been torn in pieces as a Martyr; afterwards (as Calvin thinks) became Pauls deadly adversary, 2 Tim. 4.14. and would have martyred him. Johns hearers rejoyced in his light for a season. Affections raised upon no true grounds will soon fall; and by so much the greater, will the fall be, by how much the higher the building was. They who have been sometimes more then Christians in their fervor for, afterwards have proved [Page 306]worse then heathens, in fury against the truth.
3. They might be carried about and unstable in their practices: very strict and precise in their carriage at the first: very loose and profane afterwards: Seducers grew from better to worse, or (as the Apostle speaks,) worse and worse; 2 Tim. 3.13. golden professors haply in their youth, silver in their middle age, leaden in their old age. They set out well, but did not hold out at all; so appearingly consciencious at the first, that the very appearances of sin were shun'd; so really wicked at last, that the greatest abominations are not scrupled, and they are grown so strong, that their stomacks can digest those impieties, with the very sight whereof, heretofore, they seem'd to be sick. How frequently hath the glorious, the morning beginnings of Christian Profession been overcast with the darknesse and gloomy cloudinesse of prophanenesse, before the evening! Many, who have been elevated to a high pitch of Profession, have faln (like clouds) into some dirty lane, or slough of uncleannesse and loosnesse. Gal. 3.3. They begin in the flesh, and end in the flesh; though they seem'd to have escapt the pollutions of the world, and to be washt from their filthinesse, yet they return with the dog to their vomit, 2 Pet. 2.22. and with the sow to their wallowing in the mire.
2. Plurium conflictus ventorum. Lorin. Impetuosus turbo. Geth. Luke 8 23. Mar. 4.37. Hebr. 13.9. [...]. For the second, by what they were carried about and unsetled, viz. By the windes, [...]; the word [...] signifies any blast which blows in the air, but Peter 2 Pet. 2.17. saith, they are [...], carried with a tempest; the word [...] properly signifying a whirlwind, not one wind, but a conflict of many winds. Its used by the Evangelists in the describing the tempest miraculously appeased and calmed by Christ. There were several sorts of winds and tempests wherewith these Seducers were carried about.
1. The wind of strange doctrines; this is noted by the Apostle, Hebr. 13.9. where he warns the Christians that they be not carried about with divers and strange [Page 307]doctrines. And Eph. 4.14. with every wind of doctrine: Every doctrine which was new, was by them entertained as true. They had itching ears, delighted with novelty, not obedient ears attentive to profitable truths; whence it was that every new doctrine carried them a several way, and that they meeting with several new Doctrines, were hurried round as in a whirlwind, and knew not where to rest. The Divel pleased them (like children) with change of toyes. The true Gospel was neglected for another, as Paul speaks, Gal. 1.6. they were of the same mind with him who taught them last; they were meer moveables in the Church; like the water, ever of the same figure with the vessel into which its put; like a company of cyphers, which signifie what it pleaseth the Figure which is put before them.
2. Seducers are carried about with the wind of fear; to save their skins, they car'd not what they held, taught, did; they were impatient of persecution. Thus speaks the Apostle of these seducers, Gal. 6.12. They constrain you to be circumcised, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. That which they entertained meerly for fear, they present to others as a doctrine of Faith. These are reeds that bow and hang, according to the standing of the winds; such a reed shaken with the winds, was not John Baptist, but rather an Oak, which will sooner be broken, then bend by the winds, by an holy Antiperistasis, his zeal was doubled by opposition. These false Teachers were like a man that goes to Sea for pleasure, not for Traffick; if a storm arise, he will come back, or put to the next shore: Like that ship, Acts 27.15. they bear not up into the wind, Jer. 9 3. they are not valiant for the truth, Tit. 1.9. nor hold they fast the faithful Word, but let it go, if enemies contend to pull it away.
3. They were carried about with the wind of pride and ambition. They gaped after the breath of applause; [Page 308]old truths are of no reputation among the giddy sort; hence it was, that these were carried to teach that whereby they might be voiced, and cryed up for some rare men, dropt out of the clouds, and seeing further then all the rest of their times. They could not tell how to get above others, unless they taught something different from others; truth was counted but a dull, stale business; and therefore they chose rather to be accounted such as excelled by being erroneous, then such as were onely equall to others, Vento superbiae omnes haereses animantur. by delivering the truth. The wind of Pride is the life and soul of Error, it is the element wherein it moves and breaths; Seducers were puft up (as Paul speaks, Col. 2.18.) vainly by their fleshly minds; a humble soul will not easily either teach, or follow an Error; It hath ever been the property of Seducers, to follow the peoples humour with Errors, that so the people might follow them with applause.
4. They were carried about with the wind of earthly mindedness. They taught any false doctrine for filthy lucres sake; 2 Pet. 2. they would rarely be carried with any wind, but such as blew them some profit; they steered their course by the compass of gain; their Religion began at their purse strings: They served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, Rom. 16.18. This was that wind which carried Balaam about from country to country, from Altar to Altar; he and his followers loved to be of the Kings Religion: Thus Erasmus said, that one poor Luther, made a great many rich Abbots and Bishops; he meant, that by preaching against him, they were wont to get their great livings and preferments; Demas forsook truth, to embrace the present world.
OBSERVATIONS
1. The want of the showrs of a faithful Ministry (spiritual rain) is a singular curse and calamity. Consciencious [Page 309]Ministers are clouds, and their Doctrine rain. As no rain is so useful and profitable as the rain of the Word, so neither is it so great a misery, to be deprived of any, as of this. God often in Scripture promiseth Showres and Teachers as great Blessings, Deut. 28.12. The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure, the Heaven to give thee rain, &c. Joel 2.23. Rejoice in the Lord your God, for &c. he will cause to come down for you the Rain, &c. And for instructours, see Jer. 3.15. Jer. 23.4. I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledg and understanding. Isai. 30.20. Though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity, and the water of Affliction, yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more. God also threatens the keeping away of rain, and the taking away of Instructers, as dismal curses, Deut. 28.23. Jer. 3.3.14.4. Amos 4.7. Isai. 3.2. 1 Sam. 3.1. Hos. 4.5. Ezek. 3.26. Psal. 57.9. The Heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, thy rain shall be powder and dust. Lev. 26.19. I will make your Heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. Zach. 14.17. Ʋpon them shall be no rain. Never was a greater plague on Israel, then when in three yeers and a half, it rained not on the earth in Ahabs time. And concerning the Prophets, the Lord saith, Mich. 2.6. They shall not (Hebr. drop) Prophesie; and Isai. 5▪6. God threatens his Vineyard, that he will commands, his clouds (his Prophets) that they shall rain no rain upon it. God threatned a great judgment in great displeasure against the people Ezek. 3.26. when he told Ezekiel, that he would make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth; and that he should be dumh, and no reprover to them: and when he threatned that he would remove away the candlestick of Ephesus, out of its place, Rev. 2.5. The want of Spiritual, is a much greater woe then the want of natural rain. The withholding of show [...]s from Heaven, can but produce a Famine of bread; the want of a faithful Ministry, brings a Famine of the Word of the Lord, Amos 8.11. And this famine of the Word of the Lord, is a Soul-famine. And
[Page 310] 1 Opposeth not Natural, but Spiritual life. The separation of the soul from the body, is but the shadow of death: True death stands in the separation between God and the soul. Where vision faileth, people perish, Prov. 29.18. My people perish for want of knowledge, Hos. 4 6. Salvation and Life eternal stand in Knowledg, Joh. 17.3. 1 Tim. 2.4.
2. Bodily famine takes away our natural strength and vigor, whereby we perform our ordinary and worldly actions; but a soul-Famine destroyes that Spiritual strength, whereby we are enabled to heavenly Employments, Praying, Repenting, Believing, Holy-walking.
3 Bodily Famine makes the outward man look pale, deformed, lean, unpleasing; soul-famine brings a leanness into the soul, deformity and profananess into the face of our conversation. Who observes not in Congregations, whence the Word is taken, the miserable change of men and manners! In Elies time, sin abounded, and the reason is set down 1 Sam. 3.1. In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious.
4 Bodily Famine, as other external judgments, may be a help to bring men to God, by causing Repentance, and bettering Obedience, as in the Prodigal; but the famine of the Word, puts men farther from God, and by it men grow more obdurate in sin.
5. Bodily Famine may be recompensed and made up with Spiritual food. Isai. 30.20. Though the Lord give the bread of Adversity, yet he countervailes that loss, by giving them to see their Teachers, whereas Spiritual famine cannot be recompensed by having bodily food, because when God takes away the food of the soul, he takes away himself, the tokens of his presence and Grace: and what can be given in exchange for God himself?
6 Of bodily Famine people are sensible, they cry out thereof, and labour for a supply; but the more soul famine rageth, the more people disregard, their misery, and slight their wretchedness; by fasting, forgetting, [Page 311]how to feed, and with their food, losing (often) their stomacks too. How much then are they mistaken who account Spiritual showres, their greatest plague, and complain of these dewes of Grace, as if they were a deluge of woe; to whom the word of the Lord is the greatest burthen; who cry out, the Land cannot bear it! A Church without a Preacher, is as a Ship sayling in a dark night, on a rough Sea, without a Pilot. Never was Christ more moved in compassion toward the people, then when he saw them scattered as sheep without a Shepherd. They who would be rid of the Word, would also be without pardon, peace, holinesse, happinesse; it being the Word of Faith, the Word which sanctifies, the Gospel of Peace, the Word of life, the Power of God to salvation. Ministers are Saviours, Watch-m [...]n, Labourers in the Harvest, Nurses, Guides, Builders, Sowers, Seers, Light, Salt, Clouds, &c. VVhat then a [...]e places destitute of saving instruction, but unsafe, spoiled, starved, waste, blind, wandering, unsavoury, barren? and yet how commonly do many curse the preaching of the word, as the people who live under the torrid Zone, do the rising of the Sun! To conclude, what apparent enemies are they to the souls of people, who hinder the preaching of the Gospel! who will not suffer it to run and be glorifi [...]d; who revile and abuse the faithful Dispensers thereof! an act (no doubt) of greater unthankfulness, then to wrong and abuse a man, who in a time of Famine should open his Garners for the relief of a whole Country.
2 The greatest commendation of a Minister, Observ. 2 is industry for, and usefulness to the souls of others. Clouds are not appointed for themselves, but to water the earth; and in doing so, they consume themselves: like Silkworms, Ministers wear and weave out their own boweis. 'Tis a sin for any, much more for a Minister, to be an unprofitable servant. He must not go to Sea in his M [...] nisterial Calling for Pleasure, but Employment. He [Page 312]must say (with Pompey) who being to sayl over the Seas with Corn to relieve distressed Rome, and being told by the Pilot, that it would prove a dangerous Voyage; answered, [...]. It is not necessary we should live, but that we should sayl. The Excellency of the Sun is not so much in respect of its glory and splendor, as its influences and beneficialness: and he who expects hereafter to shine like the Sun, must here run like the Sun. They who preach the Sun of Righteousness, must be like the Sun who cometh forth of his chamber like a Bridegroom, and rejoiceth to run his race. The clods of the earth, may be of a more dull and sad temper, rest and lye still; but the clouds of Heaven, must be in a perpetual motion. Ministers must, like the Cherubims, which give attendance in the presence of God, have wings for expedition in the execution of his will. They are called Labourers, and workmen; they labour in the Word and Doctrine. Pauls glory was not, that he was more advanced, but that he laboured more abundantly then they all: As much as in me is (saith he) I am ready to preach the Gospel. He made Preaching his business; therein he was glad to spend, and to be spent, 2 Cor. 12.15. Knowledg without industry, speaks no man Excellent. None is accounted good, for the good he hath, but the good he doth. A wooden key that opens the door, is a better one, then a Golden one that cannot do it. Greatest industry is alway to be used about the salvation of souls. Impudent importunity is in no case so commendable as in this Paul was an excellent Orator, and all his Oratory was to perswade men to be saved. Never did Malefactor so plead to obtain his own life, as did Paul beg of men to accept of life. He was an importunate woer of souls, and he would take no denyal. Ministers must rather be worn with using then rusting. The sweat of a Minister (as it is reported of Alexanders) casts a sweet smell; his Talents are not for the Napkin, but Occupation; not to be laid up, but to be laid out. They who [Page 313]are full Clouds, should be free in pouring out, returning as they have received. How unworthily do they deal with God, who are all for taking in, and nothing for laying out! How liitle is the age and place wherein they live, beholding to them! How just is it with God, that they who will not give him the interest of their abilities, by improving and acting them, should lose the principal, by ceasing to have and retain them! 1 Cor. 12.7. The manifestation of the Spirit, is given to every one to profit withal. Standing water soon putrifies. Musical Instruments which are most used, sound most melodiously. Eccles. 5.17. If Solomon observed it to be a great vanity, that some men had Riches, who had not power to use them; how much greater is the vanity of having great intellectual abilities, and yet to have no power to make use of them, for the good of others? In short therefore, Ministers must remember that they are not appointed for sight, but service, and usefulness. We account not a Pillar to be good because it is sightly, but strong. We should fear to sit under that Structure, the Pillars whereof are, though curiously gilded and painted outwardly, yet crazy and rotten within. Its better to be under a disgraced, persecuted Paul, then under a silken Diotrephes, who is altogether for worldly glory and preheminence, nothing for duty and performance.
3 Ministers of the Gospel must be full and watery clouds. Observ. 3 Able and apt to teach; gifted and enabled to their Ministry. As Ambassadors, they must be sure to have their instructions with them; 2 Cor. 3.6. Ephes. 4.2. and to be able Ministers of the New Testament, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry. Able to impart Spiritual gifts, Match. 13.52. 2 Tim. 2.15. bringing forth out of his treasure, things new and old being Workmen that need not be shamed, rightly dividing: the Word of Truth.
1. Able they must be to open the Scriptures: They must have the water of Knowledg, and be able to unlock the Cabinet of the Word, fit to feed the people with [Page 314]understanding: to role away the stone from the mouth of the well, for the watering of the flocks of Christ. He who calls for a reasonable Sacrifice, will not be content with an unreasonable Sacrificer; Ministers must teach every one in all wisdom, Col. 1.28.
2. They must have ability to convince gainsayers by sound Doctrine, Tit. 1.9. A Ministers brest, should be a Spiritual Armory, furnished with Spiritual Weapons, for overcoming of opposers. Apollos mightily convinced the Jewes; so Paul disputed against the adversaries of the Truth, Act. 9.29. and 17.17.
3 The Gift of working upon the affections, and quickning to duty. Ability, not only to enlighten the understanding, but to warm the heart. I think it meet, &c. 2 Pet. 1.13. (saith Peter) to stir you up. Paul knowing the terror of the Lord, perswaded men. The Ministers lips, like Isaiahs, Isai. 6.6. must be touched with a live coal, and he must partake of that Spirit, which came down in the likeness of fiery tongues, to fire the affections of his Hearers, and to make their hearts burn within them, with love to holy duties. It was said of Basil, that he breathed as much fire as eloquence.
4. The gift of comforting the distressed conscience; of speaking a word in season to him that is weary, Isai. 50.4 of declaring to man his uprightness: of binding up the broken heart, and of pouring oyl into its wounds; of dropping the refreshing dewes of the Promises upon the parched Conscience: In a word, of giving every one his Portion, like a Faithful and wise Steward.
5. Lastly, They must have the water of Grace and Sanctification. Of this their hearts and life should both be full. If a Beast was not to come to the Mount, where the Law was delivered, much less may he who is a beast deliver the Law. The Doctrine of a Minister must credit his life, and his life adorn his Doctrine. Dead Doctrine, not quickned with a holy life (like dead Amasa) lying in the way, stops people, that they will not [Page 315]go on cheerfully in their Spiritual warfare. Doth God require that the Beast which is offered to him, should be without blemishes; and can he take it well that the Priest who offers it should be full of blemishes?
He then who will win souls (we see) must be able and wise. A Minister must be throughly furnished (as Paul speaks.) There is some wisdom required to catch Birds, 2 Tim. 3.17. Fish, and Vermine; how much more to catch souls? The best Minister may blush to consider how unfit he is for his Calling; and when he hath gotten the greatest abilities, he should beg pardon for his unableness, and pray and study for a further increase of his gifts. They are none of Christs Ministers, who are not in some measure gifted for their work. He that sendeth (saith Solomon) a Message by the hand of a fool, cutteth off the feet, Prov. 26.6. and drinketh damage; he is sure to suffer for it, it being all one, as if he should cut off a mans legs, and then bid him go on his Errand.
To conclude, how unworthy and profane are they who bestow such of their children upon the Ministry, as are the dullest and most unfit of all their number! who say, that when a child is good for nothing, be is good enough to make a Preacher; whose children (as Doctor Stoughton speaks in allusion to his speech who called Basil, the Gift of an Ague, he being preserved from the violence of an Arian Emperor, [...] because he recovered his son of a dangerous Ague) may be called the gift of some lameness, infirmity, deformity; Offer it now to thy Governor, will he be pleased with the [...]?
4. Ministers are sustained and upheld in their work by the mighty power of God. It is much to be wondred, Mal. 1.8. that the Natural, Observ. 4. but more that the Spiritual clouds are kept from falling. Its God who bindeth up the waters in the cloud; so that it is not rent under them, Job 26.8. He that established and made a decree, which shall not pass, for the waters above the Heavens. Psal. 148.4, 6. It was God who preserved Elijah when Jezabel had vowed his death; God [Page 316] delivered Paul out of the mouth of the Lion; he kept Isaiah in his Ministry during the Reign of four; and Hosea during the Reign of five Kings: he continued Noah an hundred and twenty years, against the opposition of the old world. Jeremy, notwithstanding all his enemies, was upheld in his work till the Captivity. God promiseth the Church, that their Teachers should not be removed into corners, but that their eyes should behold them. Isai. 30.20. Luke 13.32. A Minister of Christ may say, as Christ of his working of miracles, I preach the Word to day, and to morrow, and do the world what they can, they shall not hinder me, till that day be come that Christ hath appointed; The Ministers are stars in Christs hand So long as theres any one soul, which these Lights are to guide to Heaven, all the blasts of Hell can never extinguish them. God sets them, and God keeps them up; he erects, he upholds, he gave, and he continues their commission, Durante beneplacito; they are Ambassadours, 2 Cor. 5.20. whom he calls home when he pleaseth. Let not (then) the servants of Christ, fear man in the doing of the work of their Lord. He who hangs the earth upon nothing, and keeps the clouds from being rent under the burthen of the waters, can uphold them under all their pressures. Their times are in Gods hand; they are neither in their own, nor in their enemies. They shall fight against thee (said God to Jeremy) but they shall not prevail against thee, Jer. 1.19. for I am with thee. Let faithful Ministers, fear none but their Master, and nothing but sin and unfaithfulness. Not outward evils, because he sleeps not who preserves them; but inward evils, because he sleeps not who observes them. Let Ministers undauntedly make their faces hard against the faces of the wicked. In their own cause let them be as flexible as a reed; in Gods, as hard as an Adamant; who can powerfully say to the strongest enemies of his Ministers, Do my Prophet: no harm; and who will turn the greatest harm which they receive for his sake, into good, and make even [Page 317]a fiery chariot to carry his zealous Elijahs into heaven. Hence likewise, people are taught how to have their faithfull Ministers continued; namely, by making God their friend, who at His pleasure removes and continues them. How carefull were they of Tyre and Sidon to be at peace with Herod, because their Country was nourished by the Kings Country? Acts 10. [...]0. Tis doubtlesse, greater wisdom to make God our friend, by whose Care and Providence our Country is nourished spiritually, and supplied with those who should break the Bread of Life unto us. If People would keep their Ministers, let them keep and love no sin: Upon the repentance of the Jews, God promised them, that his sanctuary should be in the midst of them for evermore, Ezek. 37.26. Let them bring forth (likewise) the fruits of the Gospel. The Husbandman layes his ground fallow, when he perceives it will not quit Charges. The Kingdom of heaven (saith Christ) shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation which will bring forth the fruits thereof, Mat. 21.43.
Lastly, let them be importunate with God in Prayer, to uphold his Ministers. Importunity held Christ with the Disciples, when he was going away, Luk. 24.29. Say, Lord, Thou shalt not go till thou hast blessea me, with more spirituall blessings and grace by the means of grace. Oh! lay hold upon God, as Galeacius's children hung about his legs, when their Father was going from, them to live at Geneva. The Prophet complains, Isa. 64.7. that none stirred up himself to take hold of GOD. Say, O thou the hope of Israel, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the Land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Jer. 14.8. When Peter was cast into prison, prayer was made with out ceasing of the Church unto God for him; and their Prayer broke open the prison-doors, and knockt off Peters chains. When Paul was a prisoner at Rome, Philem 22. He. 13.18, 19. he tels Philemen, I trust that through your prayers, I shal be given unto you.
[Page 318] 5. Obs. 5. Ministers must not in this world, expect a setled quiet condition.
They are clouds, and they must look to be tossed, and hurried by the winds. The faithfullest servants of Christ, have ever been opposed by when opposers of the sinners and sins of the times wherein they lived. They are Light, and therefore theeves and sore eyes cannot endure them. They are Souldiers, and if they (like Ishmael) will draw their sword against every one, every ones sword shall be against them. They are the salt of the earth, and therefore smart and biting; fishers, and therfore they shal be tossed as upon the sea. Which of the Prophets (saith Steven) have not your fathers persecuted? Acts 7.52. Mat. 5.12. Mat. 23.34. Luk. 11.49 So persecuted they the Prophets, (saith Christ) I send unto you Prophets, &c. and some of them ye shall kill, &c. and persecute.
So long as Ministers will not suffer wicked men to be quiet in their lusts, they will not suffer Ministers to have quiet lives. Satan doth not so much oppose any of the Souldiers in Christs Army, as he doth the Commanders; nor doth that wolf any way, so much endeavor the devouring of the Sheep, as by the removing of the Mastives. By the persecuting likewise, and scattering of His Ministers; God wisely provides for the relief of his Church: God waters the several parts thereof, by dispersing these Clouds into severall quarters. They who were scattered abroad (saith Luke) went every where preaching the word, Acts 8.4. [...]. Act. 8.4. Ʋnlesse the seed be scattered, ther can be no crop expected. & the scattering of the sowers, makes way for the scattering of the seed. The scattering of Simeon and Levi in Israel, dispersed the knowledg of the Law. By the carrying of the Jews into captivity, the Truth was made known among the heathen. In the Primitive persecution, Persecutio veritatis, propagatio veritatis. the more were made Martyrs, the more Christians were made. By the irruption of the Gothes and Vandals, the persecuters themselves became Christians. The persecution of the Truth, is the Propagation [Page 319]thereof. The sufferings that happened to Paul, fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel.: Phil. 1.11. A consideration which should sweeten the bitternesse of a Ministers persecution and unsetlement. God doth not onely thereby make them more pure, but his Church more numerous; they ought to prefer service before safety, and account that condition to make most for their good, whereby they may make most to become good.
To conclude this, let Ministers take heed, In tantum Deo places in qu [...]n tum hominibus displices. Ruat Coelum & terra potius quam aliquid Christo discedat. Luth. Obs. 6. lest they abate in their zeal and faithfulness for God, to gratifie a sinful world. If I please men (saith Paul) I am not the servant of Christ; Its much easier to bear the wrath of men, for the conscionable discharge, then the wrath of God, for the unconscionable neglect of our duty.
6. People should sit under the ministery of the Word, as under the rain distilling from the clouds; they should be as the dry and parched soil, not in regard of barrennesse under, but thirstinesse after heavenly Doctrine, and the dews of Grace; like those of whom Job speaks, who waited for him as for the rain, Job 29.23. Gasping after the Word, as the chapt earth opens its mouth, Tot linguae, quot fissurae. in its clests for the showers (every cleft whereof, is as it were, a tongue to call to the clouds for Rain) People should be a thirst for God, yea the living God, Psal. 42.1. panting after Christ in his Promises, as the Hart after the water brooks; Open thy mouth wide (saith God) and I will fill it: The reason why we come not to the Word, drink not, relish not, digest not, is because we thirst not after it. This thirst must be first, an inward, hearty sincere thirst; My soul followeth hard after thee; Psal. 63.1. my heart saith, thy face will I seek. Isa. 26.8. The desire of our soul is to thy Name. Our desires must not be (as they say of some spices) hot in the mouth, cold in the stomack; not only the expression of the tongue, but accompanied also with the sincerity of the heart. Christians must not be like some hounds, which following the [Page 320]game, open very loud, with the rest for company, when they have not the scent of that beast which they pursue. We must thirst, Cant. 4.8. Psal. 42.2.4 Psal. [...] 19 17. 2. Cer. 7.11 Rom. 12.11 with the inward savour of that good w ch is in the Word. Secondly, It must be a vehement, ardent thirst, like that of David, Psal. 119.20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath, &c. with the whole heart, vers. 10. Psal. 119.81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord. All the sweetnesse is put into the benefits of the Gospel, which God could put into them, and all the desire must be set upon them, which thy soul can set upon them: All the vehement propensions, wherewith things are carryed to their Centers, in their courses can no more then shadow out spirituall desires. If a rock should fall from the Clouds, it would break any interveening impediment; the Sun cannot be stopt in its course: Gun-pouder bears all away, that would hinder its force. 3. Its a predominant thirst. No power of nature, is so importunate and clamorous for satisfaction, as tasting; a thirsty man, much more ardently desires water, then another doth beautifull prospects, sweet smells, melodious Musick. These things being wanting, a man can live; not so, without Water: Those a man would have, this (he saith) he must, he will have. A spiritually-thirsty soul, desireth nothing much, but him whom it cannot desire too much: A greater fire is made for the roasting of an Ox, then of an Egg; and greater is the flame of desire after the great and vast benefits of the Gospel, then after these curt and inconsiderable things, here below; in comparison of Christ they are dung, dross, losse; a Christian will step over them and kick them away, when God requires; lay them down as sacrifices, There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee, Psal. 73.25. or hate them as snares. Christ gives himself wholly to the soul, and so doth a soul deal with him. The greatest worth that it sees in any thing, beside Christ, is this, that it may be be left for Christ. 4. It is an industrious thirst, 'tis not a lazy veleity, but a desire [Page 321]which takes pains for the thing desired; it suffers not a man to sit still, but makes him seek, knock, ask, cry, call, sell all, wrastle, strive (all Scripture-expressions) it offers violence to, and makes an holy riot upon heaven. Its like fire, that will not be smothered: It saith (as Elijah to Obadiah) As the Lord liveth, I will shew my self; It stands not for any cost, it turns every stone: Like the arrow drawn to the head, it flies apace. It's not like the desire of the slothfull, which slayes him, because his hands refuse to labour, Prov. 21.25.
5. Its a resolved, waiting, permanent thirst: Gen. 49.19. Luk. 2 25. Iratum colit numen. Hence we frequently read of waiting for the Lord, and his Salvation and Consolation; It stayes the Lords leisure, and will not away though the Lord seems to deny. No waters of discouragement, shall quench it. It doth not cast off hope, because it cannot presently find comfort; Tis good (saith the soul) that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, Lam. 3.26. Like one who goes to an house, to speak with one much his Superiour: the spiritually thirsty soul, will tarry the Lords leisure for his coming to it. 6. Its a thirst determined and limited to that One Thing upon which its set: Nothing else will serve its turn, nor will it be brib'd or put off with any thing in stead thereof; Whom (saith the Psalmist) have I in heaven but thee? Psal. 73.25. Psal. 27.4. and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee; One thing (saith David) I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. What have I (said Abraham) so long as I go childlesse? and what have I, (saith the soul) so long as I go Christless? Land, riches, honours, children, &c. are good, but yet they are not Christ! A bag of gold wilnot serve him who is perishing with thirst, in stead of a cup of water. 7. Its a returning, progressive thirst; 'tis never fully satisfied on this side Heaven, it puts upon craving and seeking again, and again. The earth desires not rain once onely [Page 322]in a year, but a return of showres, the latter as well as the former rain: nor doth refreshment with drink to day, make a man regardless therof to morrow. Davids desire was to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. The least degree of spirituall relief, Psal. 23.6 Psal. 27.4. satisfies and stayes a Christians stomack to the world; but the greatest takes not away its further desires of Christ. 8. Its a thank full thirst, it blesseth the Lord for every drop of grace, with the Psalmist, Psal 63.5. My soul is satisfied as with marrow, and fatnesse; and my mouth shal praise thee with joyfull lips. Oh! saith the soul; Lord, who shall praise thee if I do not? A soul satisfied with mercy, Psal. 103.3. Rom. 7.25. 1 Tim. 1.17. Nibil leve, quo anima reparatur. is a spirituall Psalm sung out in the praises of God. Blessed be God, who hath blessed us, (saith Paul) with spirituall Blessings; as soon as ever Paul had said, Christ came into the world to save sinners, whereof he was chief, he adds, his Doxology, Now to the King immontall, &c. What a delightfull fragrancy comes from, and what a face of freshnesse, greennesse, cheerlinesse is upon the face of the parched grasse, and Plants, after a shower of Rain? Oh! what a spirituall freshnesse of joy, is upon, what sweetly breathings of praises issue from that soul which God hath relieved with his spirituall Showres of Love and favour. The souls greatest trouble is now, that it brings not forth more fruits of new obedience, after those Showres, and its now as boundless in duty, as heretofore it was in desires.
7. Obs. 7. Seducers are wont to make great shews and appearances of worth in themselves and their Doctrines. These Seducers seem'd to be full, watery clouds, whose wombs were big with the rain of instruction, and holinesse, but (for all this) the Apostle tels us, they were clouds without water. Heresie is compared to leaven, Mar. 8.15. and among other reasons, for its puffing and raising the dough. This spirituall Leaven puffs up men with an undue and excessive opinion of their own parts and Graces; The [Page 323] Pharisees trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, 2 Pet. 2.20. and despised others, Luk 18.9. No doubt (think they) we are the people, and Wisdome shall dye us with, Job 12.2. They are vainly puft up by their fleshly minde. Col. 2.18. The Ministers of Satan desired to be accounted the Ministers of righteousnesse. False Apostles (2 Cor. 10.12.) commended themselves, measured themselves by themselves, and compared themselves among themselves. They measured and esteemed themselves according to their own mind and judgment, and not according to their reall worth or excellency. Regnat luscus inter c [...]cos. They (also) never considered the excellency of others, who were much beyond them in worth, but onely such who were of the same pitch with themselves or (as some understand the place) they commend and receive praises from one another, and among themselves. And whereas the Apostle saith (vers. 13.) that he would not boast of things without his measure; he intimates that these Seducers boasted beyond all the bounds or measure of their gifts and calling: or (according to some) that they boasted of their labouring in the Gospel, beyond the measure and term of Pauls Labour. Theophilact and Oecumenius conceiving that these Seducers falsely boasted that they had propagated the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and that according to the Psalmist, Psal. 19. Their line was gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Arius vainly gloried, that God had revealed something to him, that was hid from the Apostles themselves. Vide Danaeum in descriptione arboris. Haeres. [...]. Epiph. Haer. 24. Montanus boasted that he was the Paraclet or Comforter himself. Simon Magus, the father of these hereticall seducers, boasted that he was the mighty power of GOD. Hereticks boldly inintrude into things which they have not seen; they professe knowledg falsely so called. The disciples of Basilides voyced themselves onely to be men, and all others to be swine and dogs, saith Epiphanius; and Nazianzen tels Eunomius, that he was (he means in his own [Page 324]Conceit) a beholder of things which to all others are invisible, [...]. Naz. in Orat. 33. an hearer of things which it is not lawfull to [...]tter; that he was taken up to heaven as was Elias; that he had seen the face of God as had Moses; that he was rapt up into the third heavens as was Paul. Thus the Papists stile some of their Schoolmen, Angelicall, Seraphicall, irrefragable, most subtill, illuminate. The consideration of all which should make us more wary of being led away with the big words, and high expressions of these titular worthies: Let us consider what the power is which goeth along with their words: and in stead of admiring the flourishing titles of every vain dogmatist, examine what is the consonancy between the Scriptures and their opinions. Who honours a meer titular nominal Prince? Let us not be taken with the glory of the doctor, but search into the bowels of the Doctrine: Fools indeed, being to take mony, wil be put off with brasse coin, because it glisters; but a wary man tryes it by the Touchstone. Try all your Doctors and Doctrines by the Word, and ever be more ready to suspect then admire either.
8. Obs. 8. Its a great and inexcusable sin to make shew of that goodnesse, of which we are wholly void, and to which we are opposite.
Sinfull was the pretending of these Seducers, to be watering clouds, big and black, accompanied with emptinesse and drynesse.
The sin of the Church of Sardis was, the resting in a bare and meer name and shew of holy life. A Christian must look after both name and thing. The Prophet chargeth the Jews with swearing by the Name of the LORD, Isa. 48.1, 2. and making mention of the GOD of Israel, but not in truth and righteousnesse, with contenting themselves to be called of the holy City, &c. Nor will this impiety seem small, if we consider either GOD, others, or our selves.
1. The sinfulnesse hereof appears in respect of [Page 325]God: It pollutes and prophanes His Name. What greater prophanation thereof imaginable, than to put it upon an unholy, hellish heart: Is it not more insufferable, then to cloath a swine with the Robes of a Prince, and to put the Crown and Scepter of a King upon the head, and into the hand of a dunghil-raker? Is any disgrace to an Emperour greater, then for a base-bornslave to voice himself his son, and heir to his Crown? This is that pollution of GODS Name, with which GOD charged the people, Ezek. 36.20.
2. In respect of others. It hardens the wicked, who when they see the meer profession separated from the reality of holinesse, applaud themselves, and think their own estate very blessed, and that Religion is a meer notion and nullity, deride also at it, as did the Heathens at those hypocriticall Israelites: These are (said they) the people of the Lord, and are gone forth of his Land. q. d. These are your Saints, your Israelites, that came out of the holy Land: And what more damps the goodnesse of young beginners, than the falsenesse and emptinesse of those who have made great shews of forwardnesse in holinesse? thereby, one Hypocrite more pulling them back, than an hundered sincere ones can put them forward. At the best they set up, their staff before they are gone half way, and are made like the people, who seeing the body of Amasa lye dead by the way side, stood stil. In short, what are these bare pretenders to holinesse, but deluders of others, gins, and pitfalls in Religion, dunghils covered over with snow, reeds that run into the arms of those who lean upon them, and such who do not onely by their faithlesseness (oft) deceive and gull those who trust them with their estates and worldly concernments, but also much more dangerously misguide and delude the souls of those who follow their empty doctrines, and crooked lives?
But 3. The greatnesse of this sin appears, principally by considering them who ve in it. For 1. All their glorious [Page 326]appearances are purely unprofitable unto them. Thereport of a mans being wealthy, adds nothing to his estate, or that of full feeding to one who is hungerstarved. God tells the hyocritical Jews, that they trusted in lying words, Jer. 7.8. when they onely trusted to their outside shews, I will declare thy righteousnesse, and thy works (said God to that false-hearted people) and they shall not profit thee, Isa. 57.12. 2. Shews, without reality of holinesse, are very hurtfull. 1. Appearing goodnesse makes men furthest from being and becoming really good. Religion is a very serious, reall businesse; yea, its very reality, and call'd in Scripture, Truth it self: As the priviledges, so the practices of godlinesse are indeed and in Truth, and by nothing so much opposed, as shadows and falsnesse. 2. They who please themselves with appearances will never labour for the reality of holinesse, nor truth in the inward parts; they are seldome reproved by others, nor is it so easie to fasten a reproof upon them, as upon those who are void of all shews of Religion; and so they go on in a miserable quietnesse, and uninterruptednesse to their own destruction. 3. They who barely appear holy, are of all others the most impudent, not blushing to be accounted such as their own consciences tell them they are far from being. Naomi was ashamed of her self, when the men of Bethlehem said, Is not this Naomi? Cal me not (said she) Naomi, call me Marah, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Ruth. 1.20. But these say, cal us Christians, though they are no better than heathens; call us Saints, though they are inwardly but rotten Sepulchers: Account us to be in the highest form of Religion, though they have not (as yet) stept over the threshold of Religon's School. Esteem us to be ful, although we be altogether empty. True saints are asham'd of commendation, though they be full of worth: hypocrites glory in being commended, though they have nothing in them commendable. When men [Page 327]have not the thing, its most unreasonable that they should have the name. When God gave Abram the name of Abraham, he told him there was a reason why he should be called by that name, Gen. 17.5. Thy Name shall be called Abrabam, for a father of many Nations, have I made thee. Abigail said concerning her Husband, As his name is, so is he, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; and if Christians be our name, true Christianity should be with us. Lastly, such clouds without water, appearing Professors, render themselves, of all others, most inexcusable. If Religion were bad, why did they so much as profess it; if good, why did they not more, even love it also? If they took upon themselves, the title and trade of Gods servants, why would they not do his work? If God be a master, where is his fear; if a father, where is his honour? If they would not be his servants, why would they be called so? If they would be called his servants, why would they not be so? how fearful should we then be, of putting our souls off, with shadows of goodness! Labour for that truth in the inward parts, which all the expressions of the outward man are not able to reach; and remember that hereafter, all paint must fall off, which was not laid in the oyle of sincerity; and Hypocrites shall be discovered and unmasked both to their own consciences, and the judgments of all others.
9. The empty are also unstable. Observ. 9. These clouds without water, are by the Apostle said to be carried about of the winds. The Apostle 2 Pet. 3.16. joyns the unlearned and unstable together; and Heb. 13.9. he mentions the establishment of the heart with grace. A heart (then) empty of saving knowledg, and true holiness is soon unsetled; and needs must it be so, being not firmly united to, and set into Christ by faith; unbelief and distrust, make a man carried up and down like a Meteor. He who is not built upon the Rock, can never stand: if a Reed be not tyed to some stronger thing, it can never [Page 328]be kept from bending and shaking; where grace the fruit is not, there Christ the root is not; and where there is no root, there is no stability. Further, where there is a total emptiness of holiness, there is an emptiness of peace and contentment; there is no peace to the wicked. And he who wants true contentment, will ever be looking out for it, [...]. where it is not to be had; without joy life is no life, and if it be not gotten one way, another will be tryed: Who will shew us any good, is the language of natural men? they have still hopes to be better; and like men in a Fever, they toss from one side of the bad to the other, in hope to finde coolness and refreshment; but a soul that exerciseth it self in the ways of holiness, tells every temptation. You would draw me away to my lose: 2 Cor. 7.32, 35 Cor non tutum, nisi totum. Scinditur in certum studia in contraria. Yet again, a heart void of grace is divided in the service of God, and therefore an unsetled heart; tis not united to fear Gods Name; it serves not the Lord without distraction; all of its love, fear, joy, runs not one way, but having inclinations not wholly bestowed upon God, and several ways of the hearts out-going from God being allowed, its never safe and certain; when the scales are even in weight, they tremble, and waver, sometime one is up, sometime another; they who will serve two Masters, God and the creature, and are double-minded, and will divide their hearts between them, will often be wavering, and shew themselves sometimes for Religion, sometime for the world; grace fixeth, and weighs down the heart for God and to God, and chuseth him onely. Here's the true Reason then (in the general) why men are so tossed and carried away from the truth of the Gospel, they are empty of the truth of grace; they go from us, because they were never of us; they are a Land-flood, a Cistern onely, receiving from without, and void of an inward living principle and fountain.
10. Observ. 10. Christians should beware of unstedfastness, of being carried away with any winds, from their holy stedfastness [Page 329]in the truth. Continue in the things which you have learned, 2 Tim. 3.14. Be not as children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. To this end, 1. Let the Word of Christ ballast your souls; store them with the knowledg of saving Principles of Religion. Empty Table-books are fit to have any thing written in them, and a soul empty of the knowledg of wholsome truths, is a fit receptacle for any error. Do ye not err, (saith Christ) because ye know not the Scriptures, Mat. 22.29. Stones will easily be removed, unless fixed upon a foundation. He who buyes commodities without either weighing or measuring them, may easily be deceived, the Scripture is the measure and ballance of every opinion. How easily may he be cheated with Errors in stead of truth, who buyes onely in the dark? Ignoran [...] Christians are like Infants which gape, and take in whatsoever the Nurse puts to their mouths. 2. Labour to get your hearts fastned to the truth, by love, as well as your heads filled with the truth, by light; he who never loved truth, may easily be brought to leave truth, and to imbrace error. He who embraced truth he knew not why, will forsake it, he knows not how; the heart which hath continued deceitful under truth, may soon be deceived by error; a literal, without an experimental knowledg of the truth, may quickly be drawn to error from that wherein we find neither pleasure nor profit, we may easily be enticed. But when once we feel the truth both enlightning and delighting, unloading its treasures of glory into our souls quieting our consciences, quelling our lusts, changing us into the Image of the Lord, quickning our graces; Seducers will not be able to cheat us of this Jewel, because we know they can bring us nothing in exchange, for which we should barter it away. 3. Let there not be any one lust * [...]. Theoph, in Rom. 16. allowed within thee, to loosen thee from the truth. They who are not sound in the fear of God, may easily become unsound in the faith of God. A remisse [Page 330]heart will close with remiss principles. The mystery of Faith must be held in a good conscience, 1 Tim. 1.9. which some (saith the Apostle) having cast away, have made shipwrack of the faith: he comparing conscience to a ship, and faith to a treasure therein imbarked, which must needs miscarry, if the ship be cast away; any corrupt affection entertained, the soul like an unwalled, and unfenced City, lies open to the rage and rapine of, and ruine by any enemy. If Seducers sute their bait to the unmortified lust of a sinner, Prov. 25.8. he is easily made their prey. Of this at large before. Particularly, beware of Pride, the proud Christian, Page 615, 616 617, part 1. like a light puft bladder, will easily be puft any way of Error; a Bird of a very small carkass, and of many Feathers, is easily carried away with the wind; Pride is the mother of Heresie; the proud man it is, who consents not to wholsome Doctrine, but dotes about questions, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4. Humility is the best fence against Error; an humble man is so small, in his own eyes, that the shot of Seducers cannot hit him; and lies so low, that all their Bullets fly over him. God teacheth the humble, but the proud person is Satans Scholler. 2. Fence thy soul against worldly mindedness; a worldly heart will be bought and sold at every rate. The truth can never be safe in the closet of that heart, which Error can open with a golden picklock. The covetous both make merchandise of others, 2 Pet. 2.13, 14. and will be made merchandise by others: The hook of error, is easily swallowed down by a worldly heart, if it be baited with (though filthy) lucre. Take heed of being a servant of truth, Fraus & malitia haereticorum vel dolend a est tanquam hominum, vel cavenda est, tanquam haereticorum, vel irridenda tanquam imperitorum. Aug. for gain, for (if so) thou wilt soon be a slave unto error, for more gain. 3. Keep out of the wind of seducing Doctors, and their Doctrines. Mark them who cause divisions, and avoid them, Rom. 16.17. If it be dangerous to be tempted by, what is it then to be tempters of the Divel. Turn away from such as creep into houses, and lead souls captives 2. Tim. 3.5, 6. Eat not of the banquets of him [Page 331]who hath been found out, to mix poyson in his dishes; let holy Zeal (in this respect) hinder Civility. Ʋt fallacius incautis ovibus obrepant, manente luporum ferocia, deponunt lupinam speciem sese divinae legis sententiis velut quibusdam velleribus obvolvunt, ut cum quisque lan [...] rum mollitiem persenserit, nequaquam acul [...]os dent [...]um pertimescat. Vinc. Lyr. cap. 36. Polycarpus Marcioni aliquando occurrenti sibi, & dicenti, cognosce nos; respondit, cognosco te primogenitum Satanae. Tantum Apostoli & horum Discipuli babuerunt timorem, ut neque verbo tenu [...] communicarent alicui [...]crum, qui adulteraverant veritatem. Iren. l. 3. c. 3. pag. mihi 171. If these Seducers come to you, yet neither teceive them into your houses, nor bid them God speed. Shun the meeting places of Error as the Schools of impiety. Beware of false Prophets, who put on a sheepskin-profession over a woolvish purpose, Deceitful Workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, 2 Cor. 11.13. The Divel never deceives in his own likeness. Feed not like silly sheep upon rotten grass, because its sweet and lussious. Polycarp would entertain no acquaintance with Marcion, but termed him the first born of the Divel; and (as Irenaeus tells the Apostles and their Disciples) were so full of holy fear, that they would not communicate with Hereticks in the world, who had adulterated the word. Let not Satan take us among his own, lest he make us of his own. Of these things see more, pag. 266, 267. Part 1.
Thus much for that second comparison, whereby the Apostle describes the sin and misery of these Seducers; viz, Clouds without water, &c. The third followes in these words, Trees whose fruit withereth; without fruitt twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Two things, principally, are here considerable, in this Resemblance taken from bad and corrupt trees.
Their badness in consideration 1. Of their fruits. 2. Of the trees themselves.
1 In consideration of their fruits; so our Apostle expresseth.
1. The decay and withering of their fruits; whose fruit withereth.
[Page 342] 2 Their cessation from, and privation of their fruit; their fruit was none; without fruit.
2 Their badness, in consideration of themselves, the trees, which 1 Were irrecoverably dead; twice dead. 2. Deservedly therefore plucked up by the roots
EXPLICATION.
So that four particulars, we shall here explain in this similitude borrowed from bad trees; the lost estate and the Spiritual misery of these Seducers being set down by a fourfold gradation, or by four steps, each one arising up to a further degree and height of wretchedness then the other; and the lower making way for the higher.
1. When they seemed to have fruit, at the best, it was decaying, withering.
2 This withering fruit, proved no fruit; without fruit.
3 This ceasing from fruit, or this no fruit was joyned with a total want of life in the trees, ever to produce any more fruit; twice dead.
4 This total want of life made an easie way for the losse of place and ground to continue in.
1. For the first, The Apostle saith, that they were Trees whose fruit withereth. The word whereby he expresseth it, is [...], which according to the different apprehensions of Interpreters, hath several interpretations affixed to it. The Vulgar Latine renders it Autumnales, Autumn-trees, or trees of Autumn; from [...], which (somtimes) signifieth Autumn; and such trees (say some) the Apostle calls these Seducers, because when trees at that time of the year, begin to put forth, and make shew of bearing fruit, they bring not their fruit to perfect maturity (it being too late in the year) and men judg it to be a sign that the trees themselves [Page 333]also are withering, and shortly after will dye. Others (rather explaining then opposing this Interpretation) conceive that these words, [...], intend Arbores ultimi, finientis, extremi, senescentis Autumni, trees of the latter end of Autumn, or that part which is next to Winter, because [...] properly signifies, the ending, far spent Autumn, it being called so, [...], à finiente Autumno, from the going out, or wasting away of Autumn; and this (say they) may be the meaning of the Apostle, that as at the end of Autumn (toward the beginning of November) the fruit and leaves of trees fall off, and the trees themselves seem to wither and dye; so these Seducers (what shew soever they made formerly) were at last empty and destitute, not only of Fruit, all true worth and goodness; but also even of all shewes, shadowes, and appearances thereof; but this seems rather to be intended in the last branch, Plucked up by the roots. Others think, that by [...], the Apostle meanes, Arbores frugiperdas, such as spoil and destroy fruit ( [...], which they make to be the same with [...]) as if the Apostle had intended that these Seducers aimed by all they did and brought forth, only to corrupt and spoil the Church, even as fruit being rotten and putrified, easily corrupts and infects that fruit which lyes near it: but this seems not to be an apt beginning to that following gradation, of their being without fruit; it being worse to hurt others, then not to be good our selves. Others conceive that the word [...], respects not (here) that time of the year which we call Autumn, but only the nature of the fruit, which these trees brought forth; namely, such as are withered, and altogether unprofitable, as if these trees were called, [...], or [...], as bringing forth no fruit, but what was corrupt and withered; the Apostle hereby intending, that though these Seducers seem to [Page 334]promise and make a shew of good and whosom fruit, yet they wanting that vitalis succus, the vital moysture, and inward vigour of faith, could bring nothing forth to maturity and perfection, but all their fruits were withered and corrupt. This Interpretation of the withering and corruptness of their fruit, I conceive most genuine and sutable to the scope of the Apostle; though he should (as many Learned men think he doth) compare these Seducers to Autumn▪trees, the fruit of such trees being (mostly) but withered and immature, and not coming to its perfection.
More particularly, two things are here further to be opened.
1. What that fruit was, which these Seducers might have; and what kind of fruits these Trees might bear.
2 What was the withering of that fruit.
1. For the First. That fruit which they might bear.
There are three sorts of Metaphorical fruits, mentioned in Scripture, which men compared to trees, are said to yeild.
1. The fruits of the Sanctifying Spirit of God (Graces and Works) brought forth in the hearts and lives of the Saints; called fruits, because they come from the Spirit of God, as fruit from the tree, and are as pleasing to him as the pleasantest fruit is to us. Thus we read of the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. and Fruits of Righteousness, Phil. 1.11. Fruits meet for Repentance, Matth. 3.8. All comprehended by Paul, Ephes. 5.9. where he saith, The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness, Righteousness, Truth. Goodness, being that quality, contrary to Malice or naughtiness, whereby a sinner is evil in himself, Righteousness opposed to Injustice, whereby one is hurtful and injurious to others. Truth opposed to Errors, Heresies, Hypocrisie, &c.
3 There are fruits which in themselves and their own nature, are bitter, corrupt, poysonful, put forth not only [Page 335]by a corrupt tree, but by it, as such, evil propter fieri in themselves and their own nature; such fruits by which the false Prophets were known, and whereby men may be known to be wicked men, Grapes of Gall and bitter clusters, Deut. 32.32. Such works of the flesh as Paul mentions, Gal. 5.19. Adultery, Fornication, Ʋncleanness, Laesciviousness, Idolatry, Witcheraft, Hatred, &c.
3 There are other fruits which are not evil in themselvs, unlawful or intrinsecally evil in their own substance and nature, propter esse and fieri, because they are, or are done: but because they grow upon such trees, by reason whereof, something which should make the production of them good, is omitted, and sundry deffects cleave unto them, and they have evil cast upon them by the agent.
And sundry fruits of this sort and rank there may be upon such trees as Jude speaks of. As
1 The Fruits of gifts, parts, and abilities in matters of Religion, as preaching, praying, utterance; of these speaks Christ, Matth. 7.22. Many shall say in that day, Lord, have we not Prophesied &c. And 1 Cor. 12.1. they are called Spiritual Gifts, wrought by the Spirit; but are not Sanctificantia, but Ministrantia; not so sanctifying him in whom; but helping those for whom they are; as a rich man may bestow good and dainty dyet upon a poor woman that nurseth his child, not for her own sake, but that his child may suck good milk from her; such fruits as these (indeed) may beautifie Grace, but yet Grace must sanctifie them. These may make us profitable to men, not acceptable to God:
2 The second sort of these fruits, which these trees might bear, is a temporary faith, O [...]thodox, or sound judgment, assent to that which is the very Truth of Gods Word; that there is a God, infinite in all his glorious Perfections; that there are three Persons; that [Page 336]Christ was God and man &c. and that all who believe in him shall be saved. Thus some unconverted are said to beleeve for a while, Luke 8.13. thus Simon Magus, and Demas believed; these fruits are good in their kind, and without them there can be no holinesse of life, nor happinesse after death, and yet they are not good enough, they not purifying the heart, but only perfecting the understanding; they being poured only on the head, not running down like Aarons oyntment to the heart and other parts: though making a man Protestant in doctrin, yet leaving him to be a recusant in his life, carrying him out to believe the word as faithful, but not to embrace it as worthy of all acceptation, to shine with light, but not to burn with, or work by love.
3. A third sort of these fruits might be some heated affections, sweet motions, receiving the word with joy. a finding some sweetnesse in the ordinances: Matth. 13.20, John 5.35. Matth. 27.3. 1 Kings 21. Ezek. 33.32. Ezekiel was to his hearers, as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice. They who shall be cast into utter darknesse, may for a season rejoyce in the light, and may have sorrow and grief about sin. The Israelites were oft deep in their humiliations; Psal. 78.4 7. they sought God and returned, enquired early after God: Ahab humbled himself. And yet these fruits are not the best, they may spring up from a root not good; the pleasantnesse or sadnesse of the matter of any doctrine, may cause sutable affections of joy or sorrow; the novelty or rarity of a doctrine, may much delight; or the dexterity and ability of the deliverer, the sutablenesss of a clearly discovered truth to a hearers understanding; the apprehension of the goodnesse of spiritual things, may stir up some flashing desires; thus they cried out, Lord, give us ever more this bread; thus Balaam desires to die the death of the righteous, yea (as some have observed) corrupt lusts in men, such as pride and selfseeking, may produce great affections in holy duties: The desire of applause may make men in publick administrations enlarged in their affections. The more excellent a [Page 337]Prayer or Sermon is, the more carnal the heart of the performer may be; the stronger the invention is, the weaker the grace may be; and as ground full of mines of Gold, is oft barren of grasse, so a heart ful of grace may, it may be barren of the ornaments of words and expressions.
4. A fourth sort of fruits born even by these (afterward) apostates, might be external appearances of conformity to the Law of God, in avoiding of all open and scandalous courses, and in performing the visible and outside acts of obedience: Thus the Pharisee was not an Extortioner, unjust, an Adulterer. Paul, Matth, 18.11. Phil. 3. touching the law, was blameless: the young man professed he had kept the Law (in the letter of it) from his youth. The Pharisees paid Tithes exactly, abhorred idolatry, made long prayers and frequent, were strict in the outward observation of the Sabboth, professed chastity, temperance &c. Thus it's said of these very Apostates, that they had escap'd the pollutions of the world, 2 Pet. 2.20. and 22. that they had been washed: And these fruits of outward conformity to the Law of God, are highly commendable; sincerity of grace can neither be, nor be known without them: by them it resolves (as Elijah said) to shew it self; they are commanded by God, 1 King. 18.15. who (though he commands not the godly to fulfill the Law perfectly, yet) permits them not to break it wilfully: and though by the presence of external obedience, we cannot conclude salvation, yet by the absence thereof we may conclude damnation to follow; these honour God, benefit others. Though our righteousnesse satisfies not justice, yet in our unrighteousnesse we cannot be saved without injustice; nor is any man called a good man for the good which he hath, but the good which he doth: outward obedience strengthens true grace where it is, and is necessary to preserve a justified estate, though not as deserving it, yet as removing that which would destroy it. And yet all these fruits, the acts of [Page 338]externall obedience, are not the best; they may be a shape without a soul: appearances without an inward principle of life, they might be with a despising of the righteousnesse of Christ; they might be performed only for want of tentations to the contrary: Gods glory might never be aim'd at, in the performing them, as their end, nor his Word eyed as their Rule. These things commanded by God, might be done in obedience to lust.
Briefly for the second, what was the withering of their fruits.
1. 1 They were withering fruit, for their deformity and unpleasantnesse to the eye, and their sowrnesse, and unsavourinesse to the taste of God. The fruits of righteousnesse are onely pleasant fruits, and the trees of righteousnesse onely pleasant plants. A withered Apple is not sweet and delightfull: The best performances which grow upon a wicked man, are not acceptable as they come from him: goodnes of being is before that of working. The tree must be good, before the fruit can be pleasant; Vid. ante part. 2. page. They who are in the flesh cannot please God. The meanest duty of a saint is more amiable than the most gilded performance of a sinner: The stammering of a child is more pleasing to a Parent, then the best Oratory of a beggar. Deut. 32.32. If the vine be a vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrha, the grapes will be grapes of gall, and the Clusters bitter.
2. This fruit might be said be to withered fruit, for ceasing to grow bigger, and not proceeding to perfection.
Withering fruit grows not, and these stood at a stay, their fruit found no new degrees; their faith went not from Assent to Adherence, and from thence to Assurance; They brought not forth fruit to perfection, Luk. 8.14.
They added nothing to that which was lacking; they did not abound more and more in the Work of the LORD. Eph. 6.18. Rev. 2.9. Their last Works were not more then their first. [Page 339]They soon knew an enough in Christianity. They did not press forward towards the mark; nor were they like the Sun, rejoycing to run its course, Phil. 3.13. & increasing more & more to the perfect day. They went not from strength to strength, Psal. 84. nor studied exactnesse in Christianity. Most love to excell in every thing, more than in that which is true excellency, though they think that abundance of wealth is but a little, yet they live as if a little Godlinesse were enough. They have their maximum quod sic, beyond which they move not, and say of spirituall good things, as Dives of his temporalls, Soul take thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. They desire not to have more cubits added to their stature. He who hath onely a form of godlinesse, and is but the picture of a Christian, not having the life thereof, will never grow; he is still upon the same hinges where he was; he goeth on in a Circle of duties, prayeth, heareth, &c. as he did of old.
3. Their fruit might be called withering, as it decay'd, languisht, and grew lesse and lesse.
They were so far from obtaining that grace which they wanted, that they did not retain that grace which they had, they lost their first love, and grew worse and worse; they were so far from getting more that they kept not what they had already gotten. They did not so much stand at a stay as go b [...]ckward; the bitterest of their life was in the bottom thereof. The sap of abilities which once they had, now decay'd: All life in holy duties and speeches was withdrawn; yea, their leaves fell off; they could not speak of holy things with so much holy savour as they were wont. God withdrew his Spirit from them: Thus the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and all his gifts vanished: And indeed, this follows upon the former, where there is no increasing; there is some decaying; while we neglect to gain, we spend upon the stock. The Boat which is going up a river, that runs with a [Page 340]strong current, fals down the stream, if the Oars rest but never so little: Decayes in spirituals deserve most of our pity. It's not so uncomfortable to see a man decay in his health or estate, as in his grace, and to lose heavenward, to lose his first love, to decline from God.
4. (As the cause of all the former) Their fruit was like withered fruit, as it wanted spirituall life, juice and nourishment from the tree to feed and supply it: They had not spirituall life, and therefore had not spirituall growth, and had spirituall decayes. Onely to them who have, is more given. There is no growing where there is not a living. If a snow-ball be rowled up and down, and thereby made bigger, yet it doth not grow, John. 15.5. because it is by extra-addition, not by intrareception. A vitall Principle is the foundation of growth, either naturall or spirituall: He that abideth in me and I in him, (saith Christ) the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me, (or severed from me) ye can do nothing. The picture of a child will never come up to be a man, because in it there is no life. They who onely have a name of Christianity, and receive not efficacy and power from Christ, Eph. 2.10. are as withered fruit, without union to, and life from him, there being no Christian increase. We are Gods Workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works. Till the Spirit of God be put into us, there's no walking, or proceeding in his wayes, Ezek. 36.27.
This for the opening of the first gradation, whereby the Appostle sets forth the losse of these Seducers, they were trees whose fruit withered.
The second is contained in this word, 2 Branch of Explicat. [...], without fruit.
But how can the Apostle say here, that they were without fruit, when in the foregoing words he had said, that they had withering fruit?
1. Possibly, he may here in these words represent [Page 341]them, as having cast and lost their withering fruit. We know, fruit that withers, quickly and easily falls off, from the tree; trees which have withering fruit, will soon be without fruit. VVe wanting that which onely can make us good for the kind, a good root, and a renewed Principle of life, must needs want that which should make us good for continuance, namely internalness and sincerity. Out of Christ there can be no perseverance, onely union to him makes us permanently holy: And its most just with God, that they who would not bear better then, should not bear so much as withering fruit, that they should cast off the very appearances of fruit, and even their outside-profession; that they who never regarded the truth and reality of holinesse, should from hypocrisie fall to prophanenesse, and from a bare form of godlinesse to ungodlinesse; and from paint to deformity. But this open and plain discovery of their hypocrisie, I rather conceive is contained in the last branch of the verse, in these Words, plucked up by the roots.
2 Therfore I understand, with Reverend Mr. Perkins, and others, that these words, without fruit, are (as it were) a correction of the former, as if the Apostle had said, they are trees whose fruit withereth, or rather without fruit altogether, the fruit which they bear, not deserving so much as the name of fruit; as trees that bear no other then withering fruit, are esteemed no better then unfruitfull trees; and thus notwithstanding their withering fruit, they may be said to be without fruit in sundry respects.
1. They were without fruit, in regard that all their forementioned fruits, were not produced by the inward life and vigour of the spirit of sanctification in their souls; Their fruit grew upon a corrupt tree, and proceeded from an unclean bitter root: They were not the issues of a pure heart, and faith unfaigned, but the streams of an unclean fountain. The fruitfulnesse onely of slow-bushes, [Page 342]Crab-trees, and brambles, cannot make the year be accounted a fruitfull year. A corrupt tree (saith Christ) cannot bring forth good fruit, Mat. 7.18. How can ye that are evill speak good things? Mar. 12.24 Their best fruits were but fruits of nature, coming from an unregenerated heart. That fruit which before his conversion Paul accounted as precious as gold, he after esteemed as base as dung.
2. They were without fruit, in regard their fruits were not brought forth to a Divine end; they were directed to no higher an end then selves. Riv. in loc. Israel (saith God) is an empty Vine, though bringing forth fruit; for (it followes) he bringeth forth fruit to himself.
I am not ignorant, that some Interpreters expound not that Text concerning the fruit of works, though yet they grant, the place may be by consequence drawn to take in them, likewise. As these fruits were not fruits of righteousnesse, Phil. 1.11. so neither were they to the praise of his glory.
If thou wilt return, O Israel (saith God) return to me Jer. 4.1. They returned, (saith the Psalmist) but not to the most high. The pipe cannot convey the water higher than is the fountain head from whence it comes, and these fruits being not from God, were not directed to him.
Fruits brought forth to our selves, are rotten at the core; they are not for his taste who both looks into, and tries the heart.
3. They might be without fruit, as not producing works in obedience to the Rule. The doing of the thing commanded may possibly be an act of disobedience. God looks upon all our works as nothing, unlesse we do the thing commanded, because it is commanded. This onely is to serve him for conscience sake. A man may do a good work out of his obedience to his lust As its possible for a man to believe, 1 Thess. 4.3. 1 Thess. 5.18 not because of Divine Revelation, so is it possible for a man to work [Page 343]and not upon the ground of Divine injunction. Be not unwise, but understand (saith the Apostle) what is the will of God, Eph. 5.17. Mans wisdom is to understand and follow Gods will.
4. Without fruit as to their own benefit, comfort, and salvation. The works of Hypocrites are not ordained by God to have heaven follow them; at the last day all they had, or did, will appear to be nothing; and when the Sun shall arise, then the works which here have shined like glow-worms, shall appear unglorious and unbeautiful; of all that hath been sown to the flesh, shall nothing be reaped but corruption; God crowns no works but his own; nor will Christ own any works, but those which have been brought forth by the power of his own Spirit.
5. Lastly, Without the fruit of any goodness in Gods account, because without love to God. 1 Cor. 13. Love is the sweetness of our services. If I have not love (saith Paul) I am nothing: and as true is it, without it I can do nothing; the gift of an enemy, is a gift, and no gift. As love from God is the top of our happiness, so love to God is the sum of our duty. There is nothing beside love, but an Hypocrite may give to God, with Gods people: it is the kernel of every performance; God regards nothing we give him, unless we give our selves also; Its love which makes a service, please both the master and servant. Now wicked men in all they bring forth, though they may have bounty in the hand, yet have no love in the heart, they have not a drop of love, in a Sea of service.
This for the Explication of the second aggravation, or gradation, of the sin and misery of these Seducers: they were without fruit. 3 The third follows, in these words; twice dead.
These words, I take to express a further degree of their spiritual wretchedness, under the continued Metaphor of Trees. 'Twas bad to have withering fruit, [Page 344]worse to have no fruit at all; worse yet, to be not only without all fruit, but even altogether without life; twice dead.
Two things are here to be explained.
- 1. In what respect these trees may be said to be dead.
- 2. How to be twice dead.
For the first. Death is 1. Temporal, and Corporal; that which is a privation of life, by the departure of the soul from the body.
2. Spiritual, befalling either the godly, or the wicked. 1. The godly are said to be dead spiritually, three wayes. 1. Dead to sin, Rom. 6.2. 1 Pet. 2.24. the corruption of their natures being by the Spirit of Christ subdued and destroyed. 2. Dead in respect of the Law Ceremonial, Col. 2.20. (dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world.) Moral, Gal. 2.19. So Paul saith, he was dead to the Law, and Rom. 7.4. Ye are dead to the Law, it being not able to make them guilty who are in Christ, nor to terrifie their consciences, nor to irritate them to sin. 3. Dead to the world, Gal. 6.4. so Paul was crucified to the world, either because the World contemned and despised him as a dead man; or else, because the world had no more power, to entice and allure him from Christ, then the objects of the senses have to work upon a dead man. 2. Spiritual death befalls the wicked and unregenerate, they being without the Spirit of Christ to animate and quicken them, which Spirit enlivens the soul supernaturally, as the soul doth the body naturally; hence they are said to be dead in sins, Eph. 2.1.5. Col. 2.13. and dead, Mat. 8.22. Luke 9.60. Rom. 6.13. Joh. 5.25. and to remain in death. 1 Joh. 3.14. Their works (hence) are said to be dead, Hebr. 9.14. As the immortality of the damned, is no life, but an eternall death; so the conjunction of the souls and bodies of wicked men, is not properly life, but umbratilis vita, a shadow of life, or rather a very death, they being without spiritual feeding, growth, working, all vital operations, and [Page 345]lying under the deformity, loathsomness, insensibleness, (in a spiritual sense) of such as are dead; or (according to the resemblance here used by our Apostle, which is, that of trees dead) they are spiritually dead, because without, and severed from that root of every good tree, the Lord Christ. The old Adam is the root upon which they still stand, and therefore they are without all spiritual and supernatural life; as from the root flows life into all the branches of the tree, so from Christ, all who are united to him by the Spirit through Faith, have (by those means) the life of holiness derived unto them; as in Adam, the first root who hath now lost the moisture and vigour of holiness, and is become a dryed root, all die; so in Christ shall all (and onely) they who are really united to him live. Hence it is, that as they are without the root, and therefore without life, so without all spiritual growth and fruitfulness; the inward principle of life being wanting, needs must the effects that flow from that principle (all vitall operations) be wanting likewise; for though abiding, John 15.5. and living by Christ, we bring forth much fruit; yet sever'd from him, we can do nothing. It is true, that as the wicked have something from Christ like the Spirit of life, Heb. 6.4. 1 Cor. 12.6, 7. so thereby they bring forth something like to good and spiritual fruits; I mean, those forementioned fruits of gifts, assent to the truth, sweet affections, acts of external obedience: but though in the producing of these, the Spirit helps them, yet it never changeth the nature of the trees, but they still retain the natural sowrness of their roots; and though God gives them the Spirit to edifie others, yet not to sanctifie themselves; though Saul had another spirit; and sundry ( Matth. 7.) did prophecy, and cast out Divels; yet all these were but works of ministration, not renovation; though the Spirit works as an outward efficient cause, breathing on them; and is in them as in Organis, Instruments, and Ministers, yet not as in domiciliis, as in habitations & Members; for as [Page 346]the soul works not as a form to any part, that is not united to the body; so neither doth the Spirit of Christ work savingly, but in the body of Christ. In the wicked it may be spiritus movens, a moving spirit: in the godly, tis onely spiritus inhabitans, an inhabiting, indwelling Spirit. The Spirit of God in an Hypocrire, is like an Angel appearing in some outward shape; of which he is only an assisting, not an informing form; for which cause, his assumed body hath neither life, nor nourishment; but the Spirit of God in the godly, is like the soul in the body, not only assisting, but informing, and working in them spiritually vitall, and supernatural operations. And notwithstanding the best workings of the Spirit of God in the wicked, they are oft left, more fleshly, self-confident, less poor in Spirit, and sensible of their want of Christ then before. And thus these Seducers were spiritually dead. Or 3. Death is eternal, the effect of the former: which eternal death is that most miserable condition of the Reprobate after death; wherein they are deprived of all the blessedness and glory of heaven, standing in the enjoyment and unitive vision of God; Visi [...] unitiv [...]. Tis (indeed) the spiritual death continued and perfected. As in heaven, or eternal life, in the enjoyment of God by Christ, is begun in this life, and completedin the next; so is hell or eternal death in the losse of God, begun in this, and consummate in the next world. The presence of God is the heaven of heaven, the joy of heaven, the life of heaven, and of all who shall come thither.
2. 2 For the second, In what respect these Seducers may be said to be twice dead.
The word twice ( Gr. [...],) is taken two wayes; sometimes indefinitly, or as a definite put for an indefinite, a certain for an uncertain number. [...], as Job 33.14. Thus Job 33.14. God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. That is, God doth by his gracious ways and means sufficiently, abundantly, and frequently acquaint man with [Page 347]his will, although man be so stupid and senseless, as not to understand what the meaning of God is therein. So Psal. 62.11. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth to God; that is, God hath abundantly, oft, several times, or sundry wayes by his Word, and works asserted, and discovered, that he is eminently and transcendently powerfull. Thus the Apostle commands, That the Elders that rule well, 1 Tim. 1.17. should be accounted worthy duplici, that is, multiplici honore, double, much, manifold honour: So the Prophet prayes, Jer. 17.18. that his enemies may be destroyed with a double destruction, i. e. with a severe, through, totall destruction; so 2 Kings 2.9. Elisha desired that a double portion, that is, a large, abundant portion of the Spirit might be upon him. Thus some take the word (twice) in this place, as if by the signification of the very word, the Apostle intended, that these dead trees were finally dead, and past all hopes of recovery, such as could never be bettered by all the pains and cost, digging, dunging, &c. that could be laid out upon them. That our Apostle here intends, that these Seducers were like Trees irrecoverably, and totally dead, I easily grant; but withall because trees may be said to be twice dead, in respect of their very dying twice, or a second time; this word twice, seems to import in this place, a definite certain number, and to intend a double or twofold death of these Seducers; who are here compared to trees in their dying twice, as well as in all the other three respects, viz. Their having withered fruit; their being without fruit; and being pluckt up by the roots.
Trees then, are said to be twice dead, thus; the first time, a tree is said be dead, when in the former spring it decayes, fades, withers in its leaves, blossoms, or newly formed fruit: from this decaying or dying (for a dying it is, as to leaves and fruit) a tree is oft by pruning & dressing recovered; but if in autumn or the later spring, which is the critical or climacterial time of Trees to discover [Page 348]whether their disease be mortal or not, the tree fadeth again; if then the leaves, or what ever it bears, wither, the rine grow dry, and it be (as they say) sick, the fault is then ab intra, the root is rotten, and the very substance of the tree is inwardly corrupt and putrified, no more labour or cost is now bestowed upon it, its now dead twice, or the second time, and therefore totally and irrecoverably; and (as I have understood from those who are exactly skill'd in the nature of trees) it hath been oft known, that trees which have seemed to die in the former spring, have afterward been recovered; but never did they know that any languishing in the former spring; and then after some overtures of reviving in the later spring, fading and decaying again, ever were recovered and restored afterward. In like manner, these seducers of whom Jude speaks, had a double death, or were twice dead, first they were dead in respect of their natural condition, by being (as are others) born in sin, and so (as the Apostle speaks, Ephes. 2.1) dead in sin; from this they were so far recovered, as that they seem'd to live and (as Peter speaks, 2 Pet. 2.20.) to have escaped the pollutions, of the world; and by visible profession to flourish, and to give fair hopes of bearing good fruit: notwithstanding this first death, they were not given over as irrecoverable, but their later death which was by Apostacy from the faith of Christ, by reintangling themselves in the pollutions of the world, and returning to their vomit and wallowing in the mire, brought them into such a hopelesse deplorable condition, that our Apostle no more expected their recovery, then the restoring of a tree dead twice, or the second time.
Indeed there is an Apostacy of impotency of affection, and prevalency of lust, a recidivation or relapse into a former sinfull condition, out of forgetfulnesse and falsenesse of heart, for want of the fear of God, to ballance the conscience, and to fix and unite the heart to him. This was the frequent sin of Israel in breaking their Covenants, [Page 349] Psal. 106.7, 8 9, 12, 13. and this falling from our first love, and returning again to folly, though it be exceeding dangerous, yet God is pleased sometimes to forgive and heal it, as he promiseth to some, Hos. 14.3. But there is another kind of Apostacy, which is proud, wilful, stubborn, malicious; and whereby after the taste of th [...] good word of God, and the powers of the world to come. Men set themselves to hate and oppose godlinesse, to do despight to the spirit of grace, to rage against the word, to trample upon the blood of the Covenant, and when they know the spiritualness and holiness of Gods waies, the innocency and piety of his servants, they do yet set themselves against them for that very reason (though under other pretences:) This speaking against the Spirit, this opposing, persecuting the doctrine, worship, waies, servants of Christ; so, as that the formal motive of malice against them, is the lustre and holinesse of that spirit which appeareth in them; and the formal principle of it, neither ignorance, nor self ends, but very wilfulnesse and immediate malignity, is that daring height of enmity against godlinesse, which shall never be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come; i. e. say some, Matth. 12.32. neither in this life by justification, nor in the world to come by publick judiciary absolution; or rather (as others) shal be plagued and punished in this life, and in that which is to come; In the former spiritually, in the other eternally; and God leads those who thus offend, forth, with the workers of iniquity; as cattle are led to slaughter, or malefacters to execution. And hence it was that Peter, Epist 2 2 20. said, their later end is worse then their beginning, and that it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesse, then after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandments delivered to them. Nor is the irrecoverablenesse of such backsliders any wonder. 1. This their Apostacy in the formal nature of it, is qu [...]t [...] contrary to faith and repentance: John 6.37. by faith we come to Christ, cleave to him, prize Christ as infinitely precious [Page 350]but by this apostacy, we draw back, depart from him, let him go, vilifie, set him at naught, and after covenant entred into with God, fling up the bargain, and deal with our sins, as the Israelites did with their servants, dismiss them, and then take them again; and (in a word) so repent of our former, that our heart is incurably hardned against future repentance: Luke 12.47. 2. And further, such of all sinners most provoke God to beat them with many stripes; a much sorer punishment do they deserve, then did those who died without mercy: they sin wittingly and willingly, not out of ignorance, but against knowledg; not only against light, but love also; and they trampling upon the blood, & spurning against the bowels of Christ, even mercy it self becoms their enemy, and pardoning grace frequently tendred, Ex perversâ voluntate facta libido: Dum servitur libidini, facta consuetudo; Dum consuetudini non resistitur▪ facta necessitas. Aug. l. 8. Conf c. 5. and seemingly received, but truly rejected, now condemns them; so that they cannot sin at so cheap a rate, as they who never had the knowledg of Christ. 3. Besides, their foreheads are now steeld, and they are made impudent in sin. The oftner a thief is imprisoned, the less he blusheth: Custome in sin makes the heart brawny, insensible, and seared as with an hot Iron; lust causeth custome, and custome contracts necessity, and every return to sin, makes the sinner more unable to resist it. When a disease first meets with a strong constitution, it finds an enemy to grapple with; as it weakens the body, so the body weakens it, both their forces spend together one upon another, and they fight upon some terms of equality. But suppose the body gets the victory, Debilitas ad resurgendum, in recidivante augmentatur. and the disease departs, yet if a new adversary, a new sicknesse soon sets upon it again, here is great odds; the one is fresh, the other quite out of heart: it is not now strong enough to bear the means of recovery, but altogether lies at the diseases mercy. In the first estate of sin, the soul perhaps did grapple with sin; and if it were foyl'd, yet, not without reluctancy, it could endure reproof, and suffer the word of exhortation; but sin returning upon it again, the soul is so weakned, that it [Page 351]makes no resistance, sin entring as an enemy upon a weakned and depopulated Country. When Satan returns to his house (saith Christ) he finds it empty, that is, empty of the Spirit of God, and the power thereof, Matth. 12 44. which might oppose him; as well as swept and garnished, i. e. adorned with all those unbeautiful and deformed beauties which please him. All the former profession of an apostate, serves but to make him take the deeper die in sin; and no colour is so lasting, as when profanenesse is laid upon appearing holinesse.
Lastly, Satans reentry is with more fiercenesse and resolution, then was at the first his Entry; when he returns to his house from whence he came out, as he finds the house empty and swept, &c. so he brings seven spirits with him worse then himself. After he was compell'd to go out of the man, he found no rest (saith the text:) yea, all the while he was banish'd out of him, he was as a man living in a dry and desert wildernesse, Quamdiu domicilium in hominibus non inveniat, omnia loca, vel cultissima, squalidas solitudines existimat. Cartw. harm. (for such is every habitation to Satan in comparison of mans soul:) now then, how great must his resolution needs be the second time, both to assail and hold his former possession! If ever the Jaylor catch the Prisoner, who through indulgence shewed him, broke prison, he will be sure to lay him fast enough: he that before had no shackle, shall be bound with two chains for failing; before he was in liberâ custodia, had the liberty of the prison; now he is in arctâ custodia, cast into the Dungeon; before he had but one keeper, now he hath seven worse to captivate and enthral him. They who have escap'd in profession the servitude of Satan, and seem to cleave to a new, a better master, should they again revolt from Christ, and be reapprehended by their old Jaylor; how irrecoverably will he make them his own, how watchful will he be, to keep them in hold, and his hold in them; by hardning their hearts, searing their consciences, following them with temptations, and even hindring them from all the very appearances of holinesse? And that [Page 352]brings me to the last Branch of explication.
This for the explication of the third gradation of these seducers misery; they were twice dead. The fourth and last follows, 4 pluck'd up by the roots.
It was bad for these trees to wither, to be without fruit, to be dead, twice dead, though having still the place and appearance of trees; but to be without growth, fruit, life, and place also, makes the losse and woe compleat.
Pluck'd up by the roots, Gr. [...]; rooted up as plants, they might be said to be in two respects.
1. In respect of removal from their former place wherein they stood.
2. In respect of the discovery of the rottennesse and unsoundnesse of the root, by that removal, the manifesting what was at the bottome of the tree, the turning of the inside, outward.
1. In the former sense, the Apostle must speak by way of prediction, for according to it, they were pluck'd up by the roots, either 1. out of the soyl of the Church, by being removed at first out of the affections and prayers of the Church, and afterward by excommunication quite cast out of the Church; it being denied to such unsound trees, any longer to stand in such a garden. Or 2. Pluck'd up by the roots, out of the soyl of the world; and out of the land of the living; and this plucking up was by death, which plucks up not only the withered, dead, but even the most greene, flourishing deeply, and strongly rooted tree in the world.
But I understand the Apostle to speak of a plucking up, in point of discovery of all that unsoundness or secret rottenn [...]ss which was at the root of these trees, and the manifestation of them by their abominable errors and prophaneness, to be such as never had any vital influence from Christ. Trees may have withered fruit, be without fruit, and quite (twice) dead, and yet he [Page 353]who passeth by them, and beholds them among the rest of trees, may possibly be ignorant, (especially at that time of the year, when other trees also are without leaves and fruits,) that these trees are utterly and irrecoverably dead; but when he sees them pluckt up by the roots, then their voidness and privation of life is made evident and manifest to every one: haply most thought they were dead before, but now all know they are dead. Other trees which yet stand, perhaps they may suspect to be dead, but these which are pluckt up by the roots, they evidently and certainly behold to be so. Nor is it any wonder that these dead trees should also lose their place, and plainly appear to be altogether dead; if we consider, 1. How unable dead roots were long to bear and hold up the trees; and 2. How just it was with the owner to pluck up those trees.
For the first, How could that tree stand constantly, which wanted a living root to supply and feed it? a dead root bears not a steady tree; as without a vigorous and living root, the tree cannot be kept from withering in its fruit, so neither from its ceasing to stand; out of Christ there can be no perseverance. He who sets us up, onely keeps us up: he who laboured to make his Picture stand alone, quickly saw the vanity of his endeavour, when he considered (as he said) that somthing (life he meant) was wanting within. As the hope, so the holinesse of the Hypocrite is like the Spiders web; Union by pro [...]ssion will not serve the turn to make us persevere. N [...], to that, there must be added union by real implantation. If the heart be not set right, the Spirit will not be stedfast with God, Psal. 78.8. They who stand loose from Christ will never stand long; an Hypocrite and his very profession, will part in a temptation; He who beleeves not, will never be establisht.
For the second, Most j [...]st was it w [...]h God, to pluck up these trees by the roots for the punishing of their hypocrisie. These Seducers (of whom Jude speak [...]) who [Page 354]would never endure to be more than, are now suffered not to be so much as Hypocrites; In corde, funus occultè prius suo putore sentitur, quàm moribus nostra cogitationc prospicitur. Aug. Ep. 227. they never cared to be better then visible, and now they are not so good as visible Professors; they who would not have the life of trees, shall not now have the room and place of trees; they who were inwardly corrupt, are now openly prophane; they regarded not the reality, and they retain not the appearances of sanctity; they who formerly feared not to appear unholy in the sight of God, are afterward discovered justly to be unholy in the sight of man. Heretofore they disdained to be Scholers of Truth, and they now are left to be Masters of Error. In a word, they who once were deemed to be something, when they were nothing, now neither are, nor appear to be any thing; and (as Christ said) From them who had not, even that which they seemed to have, is taken away. 2. Justly doth God pluck up these trees by the root, to punish them for their unfruitfulnesse: as a fruitless soil, so a fruitless tree is nigh to cursing. Hebr. 6. If Solomon (a Type of Christ) have a vineyard, he must have a thousand peeces of silver, Cant. 8. and the keepers thereof, (but) two hundred; the chief gain was to come to Solomon: he that planteth a vineyard, should eat of the fruit of it; and there is no plant in Gods vineyard, but God will either have gloty from it, by its bearing fruit, or glory on it; by its burning in the fire.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Observ. 1. Even corrupt trees bear some fruit. These trees had fruit, though it were but withered fruit; most men go to Hell in the way of religious appearances; they who shall be excluded out of heaven, will pretend many good works; prophecying, miracles, Mat. 7.23. Outside services are cheap, and cost but little: good words (we say) are good cheap, they may procure much credit, though they ask but little cost. Besides, natural conscience will not be put off with a total laying aside of duty; and if Satan [Page 355]can cheat poor souls, with putting a Pibble in stead of a Pearl into their hands, he thinks it as much cunning as if he put nothing into their hands at all; nothing doth so dangerously hinder men from happiness, as the putting off themselves with shadows and appearances of that which is really and truly good. He who is altogether naked, may be sooner brought to look after the getting a garment, then he who pleaseth himself with his own rags, wherewith he is already clad. A man who is smoothly civil, and morally honest, is in greatest danger of being suffered to go to Hell without disturbance; he snorts not in his sinful sleep to the disturbing of others, and he is seldom jogged and disquieted, nay perhaps he is highly commended. Christians, please not your selves in the bare profession and appearances of Christianity; that which is highly esteemed among men, may be abominable before the Lord; let not the quid, but the quale, not the work done, but the manner of doing it, be principally regarded; examine your selves also concerning the principle whence your actions flow, the righteousness whereby they are to be accepted, the rule by which they are regulated, the end to which they tend; and (as the Apostle speaks) Let every one examine his own work, and consider whether his duty be such as will endure the Scripture Touchstone.
2. Withering and decaying in holinesse, Observ. 2. is a distemper very unsuitable, and should be very hateful to every Christian. It was the great sin and wo of these seducers, and should be look'd upon as such by us, and that upon these following considerations.
1. In respect of God; Decayes in our Christian course, oppose his nature in whom is no shadow of change. Mal. 3.6. Psal. 102.24. I am the Lord (saith he) I change not. He is eternally, I am, and ever the same; his years are throughout all generations: And what hath inconstancy to do with immutability? how unlike to the Rock of ages, are chaffe and stubble? no wonder that his soul takes no pleasure in [Page 356]those who draw back, and that they onely are his house, who hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope, Hebr. 10 38. Hebr. 6.6. firm to the end. If a frail weak man will not take a house, out of which he shall be turned within a few years; how unpleasing must it be to God to be so dealt with? 2. Spiritual decays and witherings are unsutable to the works of God. His work is perfect, Deut. 32.4. he compleated the work of Creation, he did it not by halves. Gen. 2.1. The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. God finished the building of his house before he left. His works of providence, whether general or special, are all perfect; he never ceaseth to provide for, and sustain the creatures; the doing hereof one year, is no hinderance to him from doing the like another, and another; nay the day, week, month, Psal. 23. Psal. 71.17, 18 Christus perseveravit pro te, ergo tu pro illo perseveres, Bern. de temp. 56. Ibi tu figas cursus tui metam, ubi Christus posuit suam. Idem Ep. 254. Obtulerunt ci Judaei si de cruce descenderet, quòd crederent in illum: Christus vero, pro tanto munere sibi oblato, noluit opus redempti [...]nis humanae inchoatum, relinquere inconsummatum. Perald. p. 216. year, generation, end; but Gods providentiall care still goes on, he upholds every creature, nor is the shore of providence in danger of breaking; he feeds, heals, delivers, cloaths us unweariedly; goodness and mercy follow us all the dayes of our lives; he regards us from our youth, and forsakes us not when we are grayheaded. Most perfect are his works of special providence: Redemption is a perfect work; Christ held out in his sufferings, till all was finisht: Though the Jews offered to beleeve in him if he would come down from the Cross, yet would he not leave the work of mans Redemption inconsummate. He finisht the work which was given him to do; he saves to the utmost, delivers out of the hands of all enemies; nor doth he leave these half destroyed, they are thrown into the bottom of the Sea; he hath not onely toucht, taken up, but quite taken away the sin of the world. Nor will he leave the work in the soul imperfect: he is the author and finisher of our Faith. His whole work shall be done upon Mount Sion: he will carry on his work of grace, till it be perfected in glory, where the spirits of just men shall be made perfect, and the Saints come unto a perfect man. 3. Spiritual witherings [Page 357]and decayings are opposite to the Word of God. 1. The Word commands Spiritual progressiveness; Be thou faithful unto the death, Rev 2 10. Let us not be weary of well doing, Gal. 6.9. Look to your selves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, John E [...]p. 2. v. 8. Let us go on to perfection, Hebr. 6.1. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor. 7.1. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God, Hebr. 3.12. 2. The Word threatens spiritual decays. If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearfull looking for of vengeance, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebr. 10.26, 27, 31. I have something against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, Rev. 2.4. If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, Hebr. 10.38. 3. In aternum se divino mancipat familatui. Ob hoc inflexibilis & obstinatae mentis▪ punitur aeternaliter malum licet temporaliter perpetratum, quia quod breve fuit tempore vel opere, longum esse constat in pertinaci voluntate, ita ut si nunquam more [...]etur, nunquam v [...]lle pec [...]are d [...]sineret; ita & [...]ndefessum presi icu [...] stud [...]m p [...]o [...]profectione reputatur. Perald. ubi supra, The Word encourageth proceeding in holiness; I will give thee a crown of life, Rev. 2.10. Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry, Hebr. 10.37. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, Rev. 22 12. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. Nor need it seem strange, that the proceeding of a godly man in holiness for a few years, is rewarded with eternity; for as the sin of the wicked is punisht eternally, because they being obstinate and inflexible, would sin eternally, should they always live; so the sincere desire and endeavour of the godly to proceed in holiness is crowned eternally, because should they always live, they would always, and progressively be holy. 4. Spiritual witherings and decays are opposite to the honour and worship of God. None can honour God, who divides his service, between him and other things. He accounts himself not served at all, unless always served Who will think that employment vast and large; which a man takes up and lays down at his pleasure? What proportion [Page 358]bears slight and short obedience to the Majesty of him, who is the best and the greatest? how can that work be deemed by any beholder sweet and delightful, of which men are as soon weary, as of some grievous burden? who wil account that service profitable and advantagious, or its wages to eternity, any other than a notion, when they who have entred into it, think an hour long enough to continue in it? or will any think, that God gives strength to his servants to perform it, who give it over before they have well begun? or that he delights in that holinesse, which his seeming friends take such frequent libertie to forsake at their pleasure?
2. The sinfulnesse of witherings and decayes appear in respect of our selves. Prov. 17.17. [...]. Arist Rhet. l. 2 c. 11. 1. Whatever professions have been made, is's certain there never was sincerity. Ʋnstedfastness is a sure note of unsoundness; he never was, who ever ceaseth to be a friend; for a friend loveth at all times. He who leaves Christ, never loved him. They set not their heart aright, and their spirit was not stedfast with God. Psal. 78.8. 2. Spiritual withering renders all former profession unprofitable, and in vain: He who continues not in, had as good never have entred into the waies of God; nothing is held done, as long as ought thereof remaineth to be done; we shall be judged according to what we are, not have been: Judas, not according to his Apostleship whrein he lived, John 2.8. Gal. 3 4. but according to his treachery and despair wherein he died; our beginning in the spirit, followed with ending in the spirit, advantageth not; that is only wel, which ends well: 'tis not the contention, but the conquest which crowns: they win the prize, not who set out first, but continue last. 3. Spiritual withering makes our former profession and progress therein to do us hurt. It had not only been as wel, but better never to have known the way of righteousnesse: He who licks up his vomit, never casts it up again: the house reentred by Satan is more delightfully and strongly possessed by the impure spirit; the water cool'd after heating, is [Page 359]now colder then ever; the seeming breach betweene sin and the soul, being made up again, is like a dis-joynted bone well set; the union is stronger then ever; and it is more easie once to go on, then often to begin. And as there was nothing Satan did so much endeavour as thy leaving of God; so nothing wil he so much hinder, as thy returning again to God; yea, and it may be, by this time, God is justly provoked to leave that person to Satan, who would needs leave God for Satan. To conclude, none will be so inexcusable before God, as they who leave the wayes of holinesse; for if those waies were bad, why did they enter into them? if good, why did they not continue in them?
3. The sinfulnesse of spiritual withering appears in respect of others. 1. They who remain strong and stable, do not yet remain joyful, but are much sadded by the decayes of any; though they fall not with them, yet they are cast down for them; yea, they should sin if they should not be sad: and how great a sin is it, to make it necessary for them to mourn, whom to rejoyce is thy duty! Now we live (saith Paul 1 Thes. 3.8.) if ye stand fast in the Lord. Their apostacy then, would have been his death. 2. The weak are much endangered to be carried away with others for company; seldome doth any leave God singly: the worst, yea the weakest shall have too many followers. Although these seducers were carried away by reason of their emptinesse, yet all that Jude could do, all the diligence he could use, was little enough to keep the Christians from being carried away with them. It is easier for a weak seducer to carry souls away, then for a strong Christian to keep them back. 3. The wicked are both confirmed in that their sin, into which the decayed Christian is faln, and also much deride and reproach that way of truth and holinesse, which the unstedfast have forsaken; they are confirmed in their sin, because their own way hath now the addition of a proselite, and the commendation [Page 360]of an Enemy; now numbers are a great encouragement, and a strong argument to a sinner in any wickednesse, and the commendation of an enemy, is equiv [...]lent to an universal good report; sinners will deride likewise and blaspheme the way of truth, as if either Christians had formerly embraced it for by-ends, or else, as if it had not worth and excellency in it, to deserve a stedfast persevering in it; and the dispraising of holiness by the seeming friends thereof, will appear to its enemies to be equivalent to an universall ill report.
3. Obs. 3. It is the duty of Christians, to endeavour after spiritual fruitfulness. The Apostle mentions unfruitfulness likewise, Luk. 3.8. Can [...]. 6.11. as the sin and wo of these corrupt trees, seducers: This duty of bearing and bringing forth much fruit, is frequently noted in Scripture, Mat 3.8. bring forth fruit meet for repentance, 2 Cor. 9.10. Now he that ministreth seed to the sower, &c, increase the fruits of your righteousness; Phil. 1.11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, Col. 1.6. Matth. 21.34.41.44. John. 3.8. which are by Jesus Christ, &c. Jam. 3.17. The wisdome from above is full of good fruits. Every branch in me that beareth fruit, he purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit. John 15.2. He that abideth in me and I in him, bringeth forth much fruit; I have chosen you that ye should bring forth fruit, ver. 16. Being fruitfull in every good work, Col. 1.10. As touching the nature and cordition of these fruits, Phil. 1.27. Eph. 5.3, 4. 1 Cor. 12 ult 1. They must be fruits of a right kind; good and piritual fruits of the same nature with the good se [...]d that hath been sown in us; when wheat is sown, tares must not come up; nor cockle, when baily is cast into the ground. Our fruit must be such as becomes the Gospel, not fruits of the flesh. Nor 2. fruits meerly of gifts parts, abilities of utterance, knowledge, nor only of civil righteousness, just dealing toward men, freedom [...] from scandal; not fruits only of external profession of religion, in prayer, hearing, &c. but such as are sutable and proper to a supernatural [Page 361]root and principle, fruits worthy of amendment of life, Mat. 3. Love out of a pure heart. 1 Tim. 1.5. Spiritual fruits, fruits brought forth to a spirituall end; they must give a sweet and delightful relish, though possibly they be not very bulkie. Our ends must be raised up to aim at God, and to sanctifie him in all our duties: Our obedience must proceed more out of thankfulnesse, and lesse out of constraint of conscience; such fruits they must be as are reckoned, Gal. 5.22.23. Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Faith, &c. Thy fruit must be of a singularly excellent nature: A tree of righteousness, a branch of the true vine, must not bring forth grapes and thistles. If fornication, uncleannesse, covetousnesse, &c. must not be once named among us (as becometh Saints) then not be brought forth and own'd. Muddy water is not a sutable stream to a Christall Fountain. Brambles and briers are more fit for a wild common, then a garden knot. Of the sinfull actions committed by a Saint, the wicked will say to God, as Jacobs sons did to their father of Josephs Coat, See whether this be thy sons coat or no.
2. They must be fruits in point of production, apparency and bringing forth. Fruits are not in, but upon the tree. Our goodnesse must not onely appear, but yet it must appear: If it be, it must and will be seen. Men must see our good works, that God may be glorified. Phil. 1.11. If they see them not, it must not be because we will not shew them, but because they will or cannot see them. The Fountain which is full must also overflow. The hand must be fill'd as well as the heart, with the fruits of righteousnesse. Its not the having of good in, but the doing of good by us, for which we are call'd good. Our profiting in holinesse must appear to all men. 1 Tim. 4.15. VVe must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Our fruits must feed many.
3. They must be fruits sutable to the helps and furtherances bestowed upon us for the producing of them [Page 362]If the soil be very fat, the watering very frequent, the cost and care very great, we look the fruit should be very abundant. Indifferent hearts and lives are not good enough, where God hath bestowed excellent means. He is not a fruitfull Christian who hath but an ordinary growth under rich opportunities. Our returning must be proportionable to our receiving. They who enjoy much from God, and yet are no better then those who enjoy lesse, are therefore worse, because they are not better; Whenas for the time, (saith the Apostle) you should have been teachers of others, Heb. 5.12. &c. Luk. 12.48. Ʋnto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.
4. It must be fruitfulnesse in bringing forth all the fruits of righteousnesse. Fruits of the first and second Table; of Religion toward God, and of righteousnesse toward man. Fruits inward, good thoughts, desires, purposes, longings after God, good affections, holy joy, love, fear, sorrow. Fruits outward; good works, holy words: VVhatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, Phil. 4.8. Observe the Apostles repetition of whatsoever; we must not pick and chuse, and do whatsoever we please. Whatsoever the Lord commands we must do. Exod. 9.8.24 3.7. Not examining what the service is, which is commanded; but who the Master is, who commands: Growing up in Christ in all things; not preferring one thing before another. Being fruitfull (as the Apostle expresseth it, Col. 1.10.) in every good work, having respect to all the Commandements, Psal. 119.6.128. esteeming every precept concerning all things to be right; Not doing with Herod many things, but all things: Throughly furnisht to all good works: Our feet must endure to walk in a stony, as well as in a sandy path. As a man who is to plant an Ortyard will get of every good fruit, some; so we must get every good fruit which we hear of, and set our hearts [Page 363]with it. The pulse of a gracious person beats evenly; and he is neither a maimed person to want any limb, nor a Monster to have one limb so big, that others want their due proportion.
5. They must be fruits, as of every good kind, so of every kind abundantly, not brought forth in a penurious scanty measure. Imperfection must be our trouble, as well as our pollution: The soil of a Christians soul, like the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years, must bring forth by handfuls. We must set no stints and limits to our Christian fruitfulness. We must know no enough. The degrees of a Christians grace must be like numbers, the highest wherof being numbered, Phil. 3.13. an higher than that may be named. We must look upon every grace like the Faith of the Thessalonians, 1 Thess. 3.10. to have some thing lacking to it. Perfection is our Patern, and Proficiency is ever our duty. VVe are never gotten far enough, till we are gotten home. He that thinks himself rich enough is nothing worth, and he that desires not to bear much fruit, John 15.1, 2. is no part of Gods husbandry.
6. They must be fruits brought forth when the trees grow old. They must be born constantly. Trees of Righteousnesse bring forth most fruit in their old age, Psal. 92.14. in this unlike to other trees, who grow barren in their old age. They must ever be green and flourishing. The bitter fruit of Apostacy cannot be brought forth by a good tree. It had been better never to have been planted that we might bear fruit, and that we never had begun to bear fruit, then afterward to be pluckt up for ceasing to bear fruit. The good ground bringeth forth fruit with patience; and glory and immortality is the portion onely of those who are patient, and continuing in wel-doing.
7. They must be fruits in point of maturity; not onely buds and blossoms, but brought forth to perfection. Its not enough for Christians onely to have good motions and purposes, but their resolutions must also be [Page 364]brought to execution, and not perish like an abortive birth. Many make their purposes (as one saith) like our Eves, and their performances like our Holydayes: Servants work hard upon the one, that they may play upon the other; so do they labour hard upon their purposes, but they are idle and play upon their performances. What pitty is it, that many a fair blossom is nipt in the head?
8. Psal. 1.3. They must be fruits in regard of seasonablenesse. We must bring forth fruit in due season. Fruits are onely acceptable in their season: Pleasant fruits are brought forth in their months, Ezek. 41. Words spoken, and works done in season, are as apples of gold in pictures of silver. VVe must have our senses exercised to know fit seasons for all we do. Good duties must be done in a good and sutable time, and that adds much to the goodnes of the Action; we must order in this respect, our conversation aright. If our corn should not ear till harvest were past, nor our trees bud till after midsummer, men would look but for poor store of fruit, and a slender Crop. 'Tis true, Repentance, Faith, seeking reconciliation with God, are continuall Acts to be performed at all times, (though even for these, some times are more seasonable then others, as the time of health, strength, and youth.) But hearing, reading singing, solemn Prayer, &c. may be unseasonably performed. Praying is not seasonably performed in the time of Preaching, nor Reading in the time of Prayer. Its Satans policy to mar duties, good for the matter, with an unseasonable manner of performing them. Seasonablenesse is the grace of our fruits.
9. Lastly, They must be fruits in respect of the propriety of them. They must be our own; not performed by a Deputy, or an Attourney. The Godly is compared to a tree that brings forth his fruit, Psal. 1.3. It must not be borrowed: If our own Lamps be without Oyl, we cannot borrow of our neighbours; the [Page 365]Saints and Angels have little enough for themselves. Papists in this respect build their confidence upon a sandy foundation. Another mans feeding or cloathing himself, cannot nourish or warm me: Nor can another mans beleiving or working save me. The just must be saved by his own faith. People must not think to go to heaven by the goodnesse of their Ministers, nor children by the holinesse of their Parents. Gal. 6.4. Thy rejoycing (as the Apostle speaks) must be in thy self, not another. If thy Friend, thy Pastor, thy Parent, thy Master be holy for himself, and thee too, he shall go to heaven for himself and thee too.
To conclude this Point, with some directions how to become fruitfull trees.
1. We must be removed off from our naturall root and stock, and set upon and ingrafted into a new, another. Mat. 12.33.
VVe must be transplanted from the first to the second Adam. The tree must be good before the fruit can be so. Men gather not grapes of thornes, nor figs of thistles. Mat. 7.16.18 Till we be in Christ, our best works are but corrupt fruits. According to our union with Christ, such is our communion with him and fruitfulnesse. John 15. Some are united to him onely by the externall tye of visible Ordinances and Profession; knit to him by that Obligation made in Baptism, no otherwise than many grafts are, that do not thrive or live in their stock, but onely stand as bound about by a threed; and their communion with Christ is onely externall, without any spirituall sap or inward influence derived from him to them; and therfore their fruit is no other, then may grow in the wilderness of heathenisme, which naturall honesty and conscience bring forth. Our union to Christ must be reall, supernaturall. Without me (saith he) ye can do nothing: John 15.4, 5 6 VVe must abide in him, fetch all from him, depend upon him. The fruits of righteousnesse are by Jesus Christ, to the praise of God. VVe are to honour the husbandman, by making him our Lord, and by doing all for [Page 366]him; and the Root, by doing all in him and from him; we must be nothing in our selves, either in regard of self times, or self-abilities: From him is our fruit found. First, A good tree, and then a fruit-bearing tree.
2. Shelter thy fruits from the blasting windes of pride. Walk humbly with thy God. The Valleys men commonly build and plant in, and they are cal'd the fruitful valleys. The lowly heart is the fruitful heart. God gives grace to the humble: Men look up to the hils, but they dwell in the valleys: Superbia ventue exiccans fluenta divinae gratiae. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly, Psal. 138.6. God and humility mutually delight in one another; God is alway delighted in giving, humility in receiving; it being the poorest, and yet the richest grace. Should God pour grace upon a proud heart, it would be as the pouring of Liquor upon the convex side of a vessel. He hath fil'd the hungry with good things, and sends the rich empty away.
3. Luk. 1.53. Let no secret lust lye at the root of the tree. Grace is that flower, at which sin and Satan alwayes labour to be nibling, The best Plant may be spoiled with a worm at the root. Any one lust retained with love, will blast the whole crop of thy graces. Beware of every root of bitternesse. The Spirit of God is a tender delicate Thing; nor will it endure so harsh a companion as any one lust. If grace kill not sin, sin will kill grace. They can never be made friends. Pity to any one sin, is cruelty to all thy graces: the sparing of the former, is the spilling of the latter. The of growth grace cannot consist with the love of poyson. The least sin is terrible to the greatest Saint.
4. Psal. 1.3. Plant thy self by the rivers of water; partake of those waters which flow from under the threshold of the Sanctuary. Ezek. 47.12 The inundation of Nilus made Egypt fruitful. Delight in a powerful Ministery. Verbum Dei, & nasci & pasci nostrum. Its as possible at the same time to grow in fruitfulnesse, and to decay in love to Ordinances, as to increase the fire by taking away the fuel. Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, &c. are given [Page 367]by Christ for our growth up to the fulnesse of the measure of the stature of Christ. As a Christian abates in appetite, Eph. 4.13. he will decay in strength.
5. Pray for the showres and dewes of Gods blessing. Thy planting and watering wil not help, without God give the increase. He who will have grace in plenty, will have prayer in forvency. Grace ever puts the soul upon begging for grace. The richest Christian hath been oftnest begging for the almes of mercy. Jam. 1.5. & 3 17 That wisdom which is fullest of good fruits, must be begged from God.
4. Obs. 4. The greatest flowrishes and appearances of hypocrisie, cannot reach the excellency of the least dram or drop of sincerity. All an Hypocrite can do, amounts not to fruit. These seducers were trees without fruit. If Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a poor Lilly of the field, much lesse is an Hypocrite in all his glory beautified like the poorest reall Saint: The resplendent and beautiful body of the Sun cannot in respect of life, match the little Ant upon the Molehill. All the improvements of nature, let it be never so till'd, rackt, manut'd, adorn'd, cannot reach to the excellency of one dram of Grace. A curious Painter may go very far by his Art in imitating of Nature, but he can never reach by all his skill, to the drawing or painting of life; It's easie to act a King upon the Stage, it's not so easie to be a King in the Throne. There is an Emphasis in true Sanctity, which the learnedst hypocrite cannot translate. The note of sincerity is too high for any but a Saint to reach. Till the nature of the tree be changed, and of bad made good, the fruits are as none. How should this humble the proudest hypocrite! Could he bring to God all the gold and silver in Solomons Temple, it were (brought by him) nothing; incomparably below one broken hearted grone for sin, and fiduciall breathing after Jesus Christ. All his truly good works [...] be summed up with a Cypher; and though they [Page 368]glister here, glow-worm-like in the dark night of this world, yet in the bright disquisition of the day of judgment, they shall all vanish, and disappear. Oh! how great will the shame and disappointment of hypocrites be, who at that day shall see, that all their dayes they have been doing nothing? To close this, what a comfort may this be to the poorest child of God, that God (in the midst of all his wants of these common blessings) hath yet bestowed one upon him, which is distinguishing! God bestowes those blessings upon others, which a Saint (as such) needs not have, and that blessing upon him, which the wicked (as such) cannot have: And how may a child of God improve this for comfort in the weaknesse, smallnesse, deficiencies (if they be his trouble) of his grace, considering it is fruit, true fruit; and its more (though it be but one little basket full, nay but one small cluster of grapes) than all the hypocrites in the world can shew; and the least cluster as truly shews that is a vine which bears it, as doth the plentifullest increase that ever any Vine brought forth.
5. Obs. 5. Incorrigibleness in sin, is a dismal condition. These Seducers were trees twice dead; the Apostle despaired of their future living & becoming fruitful, and this was an estate that argued them extreamly miserable. Its a wo to have a bad heart: but its the depth of wo to have an heart that shall never be better. Sicknesse is an affliction, but sicknesse past recovery; a desperate sicknesse, is a desperate evil. How did it fetch tears from the eyes of Christ, that the things belonging to Jerusalems peace were not onely formerly unknown, but that now they were utterly hid from their eyes! O Ephraim, (saith God) what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I d [...] unto [...]hee? If ye will not hear (saith Jeremy) to the incor [...]igible Jews, mine eyes shall weep in secret places for your [...]ride, and mi [...]e eyes shall weep sore, &c. Jer. 13 17. Ra [...]hel wept for her children, and would not be comforted, [Page 369]not because they were ill or sick, but were not. This incorrigiblenesse in sin, which frustrates and disappoints all the means of grace, provokes God to a totall and angry removall of them; and makes him say, I'le take no more pains with this desperate sinner. Rev. 22.11. Prophet ando non optando. He that is filthy let him be filthy still. Its that which (as the Prophet speaks) wearies God. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. Isa. 1.5. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome. Hos. 4.14. Ephraim is joyn'd to idols, let him alone. v. 17 When a tree is utterly dead, Pertinax sterilitas. when 'tis pertinaciously barren, the hedg and wal shall be taken away, and broken down (if it will be fruitlesse, it shall be fencelesse) it shall neither be prun'd nor dig'd, the clouds shall be forbidden to rain, Isa. 5.6. When the Physician of souls sees men rend in pieces his Prescripts, and pull off his Plaisters, and throw away those wholesome Potions which he ministreth to purge them, he gives them over, and suffers them to perish in their sins. Punish them he will, chasten them he will not. Cut them off he will, cure them he will not, Jer. 6.29. VVhen in stead of being refined in the fire, the mettall wil after all the hotest fires, and the constant blowing of the bellowes, continue inseparable from its drosse, when the bellows are burnt in the fire, and the founder melteth in vain, reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them, Jer. 6.29.30. VVhat is it but hell upon earth, for sinners to go to hell without controle; to be given up to their hearts lusts, to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; and in a word, to be as bad as they will? Oh wofull recompence of spirituall pertinacy! The earth, which under all the drinking in of rain, beareth thorns and briars, is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, Heb. 6.8. This double death, and irrecoverablenesse in sin, is a kind of fore-taste of the second death; As perseverance in holinesse crowns, so pertinacy in sin condemns; he who is obstinate in sin unto the end, [Page 370]shall undoubtedly receive the curse of eternall death: How sore a judgement is it, so to be past feeling, that nothing cooler then Hell-fire, and lighter then the loyns of an infinite God, can make us sensible, though too late? Oh! let us beware of the modest beginnings of sin, which certainly make way for immodest proceedings therein; every commission of sin is a strong engagement to a following act of wickednesse; be who begins to go down to the chambers of death, knows not where he shall stop: In short, let no help to Holinesse leave thee as bad, for if so, it will leave thee worse then it found thee, and present unreformednesse, will make away for incorrigiblenesse under the means.
6. Obs. 6. Its our greatest wisedome, and ought to be our chiefest care to be preserved-from Apostacy. Take heed of being twice dead, i. e. Of adding a death by Apostacy, to the death by Originall corruption.
To this end, Let us, 1. Be sure to have the truth of spirituall life in us, [...]. not onely the externall appearances of life, the shews and leaves of Religion, the form of godlinesse, and a name to live; he that would not die twice, must be sure he truly lives once; hypocrisie will end in apostacy; where the truth is not truly loved, it will be truly left. A tree that is unsound at the root, will soon cease from its faint puttings forth: the hollow heart will not hold out; the outward form without the inward power of godlinesse, continues not in times of temptation. Labour for a faith of reall reception, and please not thy self with that of meer illumination; the bellows of persecution which blow the sparks of sincerity into a flame, blow the blaze of hypocrisie into nothing. 2. Forecast the worst that can befall thee, and the best that can be laid before thee, to take thee off from the love, and wayes of holinesse; reckon upon opposition in every way of God; he who meets not with the hatred of a man, may justly suspect his love to the truth; and he [Page 371]who expects not that hatred, will hardly cantinue his love to truth; when thou enterest upon Religion, think not that thou goest to sea upon pleasure, but imployment; not for recreation but traffick; lest in stead of holding out to thy intended Port, thou presently makest to the next shore, upon the rising of the least storm. Though Christ requires thee not actually (as yet) to forsake all for him, Luk. 14.28, 29.30, 33. Et aequissimum sperae & ad iniquissimum te paerae. Vide page 372, 373, 374. yet he will have thee habitually prepared to do so: Sever all worldly comforts from Christ in thy thoughts, and try how thou canst love him by, and for himself; for his own beauty without his cloaths, and external ornaments. 3. Take heed of the smallest decay, or a beginning to remit of thy holiness. And to this end, 1 Tremble at those sins which are seemingly but small; what ever hath the nature of sin, must be the object of hatred, the least enemy (to be sure of the soul) must not be despised. Though some sins may seem small comparatively, yet there is none but must be accounted great, considered in it self; the least sin herein resembling the Earth; which though it be but a point to the Heavens, yet is a vast and immeasurable body of it self. There is nothing little, which offends a great God, or hurts an immortall soul: Poyson and death are lodg'd in the least sin; and as unfaithfulnesse to God is discovered in a smaller, as well as a greater sin (as towards men in a trifling, as well as a weighty thing) so commonly doth it proceed from shewing it self in sins accounted slight, to manifest it self in courses notoriously and hainously sinfull; the decay of a tree first appears in its washy boughs and twigs, but by little and little it goeth on further, into the bigger arms, and from them to the main body; and decay of grace is first seen in smaller matters, petty oaths, slight omissions. 2. And therefore secondly, oppose sin in its bud & beginnings, in its first motions, overtures, solicitations: the greatest deludge begins with a drop; every sin defiling the conscience, makes a man the more carelesse [Page 372]of it. He who dares not wade to the ankles is in no danger of having the water reach as high as his neck. Sinners increase to more ungodliness; when they once descend, they know not where to stop; the beginnings of sin are modest, the progress adventurous, the conclusion may be impudent, in open apostasie. A drop of water may quench that spark, which if neglected till it grow to a flame, may violently destroy a whole town [...]; the greatest Crocodile, did at first lie in a little Egg. Yea thirdly, Be afraid of the occasions of sin; the sparks in a flint let alone, are quiet; but beat it with a steel, they come out, Non avis utiliter viscatis effugit alis. Ovid. Gen. 6.2. Psal. 119.37. Job 31.1. and kindle a great fire; let not occasions of sin beat upon thy heart; its easier to pass by the snare, then to wind ones self out of it; if thou wouldst not like, long for, eat, and impart, the forbidden fruit, gaze not on it; a Christians charity it is, not to be, and his prudence not to behold, a provocation to sin: God will preserve us in our ways, not in our wandrings 4. Never look upon thy self as perfect, or thy progress in holiness as sufficient; 4. More viatorum nequaquam debemus aspicere quantum jam iter egimus, sed quantum superest ut peragamus ut paulisper sia [...] praeteritum, quod timide adhuc attenditur futurum. Gr. Mor. l. 22. c. 7 Phil. 4 14. he who thinks he hath enough, will soon come to have nothing; that we have will be gone, unless we strive to get more; look not backward in thy Christian race, to see how many thou hast outstript; but look forward on those who have gotten ground of thee: consider not so much how far thou hast gone, and how many come short of thee; as how far thou art to go, and how far thou comest short of commanded perfection; our greatest perfection in this life, is to contend after perfection; we must never cease growing, till we be grown into heaven; Christianity knows no enough: he who hath the least grace, hath enough to be thankful; he who hath the most, hath not enough to be either proud or idle. He will be stark naught, who laboureth not to be as good as the best. In rowing up a River that runs with a strong stream, if we rest our oats, we fall down the stream; while we neglect to gain, we spend on the stock; he who hid his Talent, lost it. 5. Presume [Page 373]not upon thine own strength, and power to stand; thou bearest not the root, but it bears thee; Qui operaturut accedamus, idem operatur ne discedamus. Aug. de bon. pers. cap. 7. Praesumptio firmitatis impedit firmitatem. Gods power only is our support, by it we are kept through faith to salvation: they who call not upon God, go aside from God, Psal. 14.3, 4. He who first sets us up, must also shore, and keep us up; he who hath brought us to himself, must also hold us, that we depart not from himself; we are poor weak reeds, but tyed to the strong pillar of Gods power, we shall stand; he who relyeth upon himself, hath a reed for his upholder; we cannot put too much confidence in God, or too little in our selves: Peters over-ventrousness tript up his heels. Mat. 26.33. Let us not be like sick men, who when they have had a good day or two, think themselves presently well again, and so putting off their warmer clothes, put on thinner garments, and adventure into the fresh air, whereupon follow irrecoverable relapses. Its the fear of God in the heart, which keeps us from departing from him: Prov. 3.5. let us fear always, if we would fall never: Be not high-minded, but fear; Lean not (saith Solomon) to thine own understanding; he who is his own Teacher, hath a fool to his Master.
7. God at length discovers unsound, empty, Obs. 7. and decaying Christians to be what they are. These fruitless, dead trees, are at length pluckt up by the roots; their inside is turned outward. They who going among the drove of Professors, are but like sheep, shall be detected either here, or hereafter, to be but goats; thus Cain, at the first a Sacrificer, (yet being an Hypocrite) was given up to be a Murtherer, and was cast out of the sight of the Lord, out of his Fathers family, from the Ordinances. Doeg, detained before the Lord, 1 Sam. 21.7. about religious offices, afterward discovers his unsoundness of heart by his cruelty, and more afterward did God lay him open, when at his destruction, it was seen and said, that This is the man that made not God his strength, &c. Psal. 52.1. The like may be said of Judas [Page 374](of whom Doeg was a Type) his discovery by his treachery; and of Sauls also, by that horrid act of murthering the Priests, and going to the Witch, God also taking away his Spirit from him; they who are not of us, will at length be suffred to go out from us. God leads those who secretly turne aside to crooked wayes, with the workers of iniquity; though they did not seem to be workers of iniquity; yet God discovers them to be such, by leading them forth with them. There are none who so much dishonour Christ, as they who profess to be rooted in him, and yet are unfruitful and dead Christians. Christ is a fruitfull soil full of strength; and for any to be barren and decay, appearing to be in him, is a great disparagement to him; every one will be ready to blame him, for all their defects: therefore that they may dishonour him no more, they are pluckt up from that soil unto which they did but seem to belong, for they were there only by a visible profession, not by a reall rooting, as a liveless stake is put into the ground; and in the Civill Law, till a tree hath taken root, it doth not belong to the soil on which it is planted; and then it appears that they never were rooted in Christ: Please not (then) your selves with a meer outward empty profession of godliness, with your standing among the trees of Christ in his Ortyard, meerly in being accounted trees of righteousness, or onely with the having a name to live. These things will be so far from hindring, that they will further your eradication. A dead barren Oak a man will haply suffer to stand in his wood, but not a dead Vine in his vineyard; it was not a wild tree of the wood, which none ever lookt should bear fruit, that Christ cursed; but an empty fig-tree, whose nature promised fruit. Root your selves as much downward in inward holinesse as you spread upward in outward profession; otherwise God will at length make your hypocrisie known, and will not suffer you always to abuse his own patience, [Page 375]the good opinions of beholders, and the place of your own standing, and the longer the lets you stand to deceive others, the greater shall you shame be, when you shall be discovered.
This for the third Resemblance, whereby the Apostle describes the sin and wickednesse of these seducers, trees without fruit, whose fruit withereth, &c. The fourth and fifth follow.
THe fourth Resemblance, whereby both the impiety and misery of these Seducers are described, as in these words: Raging waves of the sea, foming out their own shame.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here to be explan'd.
1. What they are said to be; Raging waves of the sea.
2. What they are said to get by being so; Shame: They fomed out their own shame. Like the raging waves, which after their greatest unquietnesse, breake themselves to a little fome.
For the first, their title, or what they are said to be, in these words, Raging waves of the sea, Gr. [...].
The word [...] here translated raging, signifies uncamed, wilde waves, roaring like the wilde beasts of the wood. Hence the vulgar render this place fluctus feri maris: Erasmus, Ʋndae efferae maris: And Beza [Page 376] Ʋndae maris efferatae. Fluctus vehementes maris. Syriac. fluctus maris commoti Arab. [...]70. Gavisum in fluctus aequora mota truces. Ovid. Latrantes undas. Virg. 7. Aeneid. Rapidas aquas. Act. 27.41. Luk. 21.25 Jer. 31.35. Jer. 5.22. Isa. 51.15. Psal. 73.3. Interpretations that betoken fiercenesse, wildnesse, turbulency. The same expression is there in VVisd. 14.1. A man intending to passe thorough [...], fierce, troublesome, boisterous, waves, One Poet cals the waves of the Seas fluctus truces, cruell, terrible; And another calls the waters of the Sea, Latrantes undas, the barking waves; as if they made a noise like a barking dog, when they were stir'd, and rais'd: and we frequently speak of angry roaring; working, boysterous, rough, troublesome, Seas, and read in Scriptures, of violent waves, Acts 27.41. The sea and waves roaring, Luk. 21.25. The ship tossed with waves, Mat. 14.24. The roaring of waves, Jer. 51.55. Jer. 31.35. The tumult of the people, and the noise of the seas and waves are put together, Psal. 65.7. And therefore our Apostle in calling these Seducers raging waves, doth not so much intend their instability, variablenesse, and fluctuation in mind and doctrine, their motion by every wind, and unstablenesse in the truth, though waters are unstable even to a Proverb; nor onely the pride and swelling arrogancy of these Seducers, though the waves are called proud waves, they oft lifting up themselves so high, as if they would kisse the Clouds, and making as if by their fall, they would overspread the earth; but in calling them raging waves, he rather intends (as I said) their troublesomenesse and unquietnesse: and that in three respects.
1. In respect of themselves: Their consciences were unquiet, tossed and troubled, without any inward tranquility and calmnesse in the apprehension of reconciliation with God. Isa. 57.20, 21. Isa. 65.14. Isa. 48.22. Job. 15.20, 21, 24. Thus (saith the Prophet) the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked. Thus Eliphas speaks, Job 15.20. The wicked travelleth with pain all his dayes; And to the same purpose, Zophar, Job 20.20. Surely he shall not feel quietnesse in his belly. Inward Peace belongs [Page 377]onely to the faithfull. Its onely reported of them, Psal. 119.165. Great peace have they who love thy Law. 1 Cor. 1.3. Col. 1.2. 2 Thes. 1.2. Its onely promised to them. He wil speak Peace to his people, Psal. 85.8. God will reveal to them abundance of peace. Its onely requested for them, even that peace which passeth understanding to keep their hearts; Peace from God being never desired for men to live in a state of war against God. Rom. 5.1.9.10 Eph. 2.14. Onely the Faithfull have taken the right course to obtain it: They alone are delivered from Gods wrath, and have an Interest in Christ who is our peace, Gal. 5.22. Isa. 59.8. and the Prince of Peace, and have that spirit which works it in us; and of whom true Peace is a fruit and effect. The wicked have not known the way of Peace. They may have it in the brow, not in the brest; in cortice; not in corde; in the looks, not in the Conscience. Benummed their consciences may be, pacified they cannot be. The guilt of sin is an unseen scourge, a hidden sore. He who hath thorns run into the soals of his feet, wheresoever he goes, treads upon thorns: VVicked men carry their furnace, their wrack, their wo, their prison about them, wheresoever they go; nor can they any more lay these off, then they can lay off themselves.
2. The Apostle may compare these Seducers to waves as they are unquiet, troubled, and moved in regard of God, against and under whose will they were impatient, fretfull and unsubmissive. They did not quietly content themselves with their conditions. They were like chaffe which flies into the face of him who fanneth it, there were within them waves of unquietnesse, and impatiency, raised by the windes of their pride. They were murmurers and complainers, both against God and man. Of this unquietness the Apostle speaks afterwards, vers. 16.
3. They were as the troublesome and raging waves of the sea in respect of others: And this I conceive Jude principally intends in this place. The Sea neither resteth [Page 378]it self, nor doth it suffer any thing to rest which is upon it; it tosseth the ships, and tumbleth the Passengers therein from one side thereof to another: who reel to and fro like a drunken man; and in its rage and fury it often swallows up and devours, both ship and men: The lives of those who are upon the sea, hang by a thred, they themselves being neither reckon'd among the dead, Mo [...]tude quies [...]n [...]. nor among the living: And thus these Seducers were so restlesse and turbulent, that they found no rest but in their motions. Like those of whom Solomon speaks, Prov. 4.16. VVho sleep not unlesse they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away unlesse they cause someto fal. Meritò h [...]retici fluctibus maris similes esse dicuntur quòd nu [...]quam quieti s [...]nt, nusquam consistant, nova semper moliantur, surgia misceant, seditionem excitent, schismata pariant, omnia deni (que) perturbent ac pervertan [...]. Justinian. Ʋti fluctus fcri navim, ita ipsi turbulenti & seditiosi Ecclesiam concutiunt. Lap. And troublesome they were, 1. First to the bodily and outward welfare of others; their names they tost up and down by slanders, and reproaches; they uttered many hard speeches against the Faithful. Their tongue set on fire of hell, did set on fire the whole course of nature. VVhat bittter, and uncharitable censures have such fomented in all times against those who did not joyn and hold with them! They are wont to lowre, brow beat, disdainfully frown, and look sourly upon them, as Cain upon Abel. with a discontented and faln countenance; and what bitter enemies in all ages, Hereticks (especially Seducers) have been to the lives and safeties of the Godly and Orthodox, hath been before in part declared, and of old manifested by the Donatists and Arians, and more lately by the Papists, and Anabaptists, who all by their boysterous violence, and cruelties, shewed themselves raging waves of the sea. They were troublesome enemies to all Publick Order: They were fierce, heady, high-minded, traitors, enflaming and enraging mens spirits against all Government and Rule in Church and State, putting all places into confusion and combustion by strifes, seditions, schismes; They were not afraid to speak evill of dignities; they set their mouth against the heaven, and their tongue walked through the earth.
[Page 379] 2. But secondly, Fluctus fert, sunt perversi doctores qui & in semet ipsis inquieti semper, tumidi & amari sunt, & pacem Ecclesiae, firmitatem (que) obicum semper impugnare non cessant. Beda. Quem ad modum fluctus maris saevitiâ at (que) immanitate suâ integra navigia hauriunt, aut ad scopulos allidunt, it a Gnostici perversis suis dogmatibus plurimos ad interitum pertraehunt sempiternum, Justinian. in loc. Ut fluctus maris intumescunt & attolluntur, & ipsi quodam modo C [...]lo minantur, non aliter isti in coelum ipsam (que) Divinam naturam maledicta congerunt. Id. Ib. these raging waves troubled and disquieted the spirituall welfare and peace of those Christians into whose societies they had crept, whom they tost to and fro by the violent urging of their errours, and caus'd to fluctuate and waver in their judgments, overturning their faith, swallowing them up, and drowning them in perdition, by their erroneous and impious doctrines: Through the tossing and fury of these waves, many souls suffered shipwrack, and lost the spirituall and precious Merchandize of Faith and holiness; with these waves of false teachers, and their doctrines, were the Galatians disquieted when the Apostle saith, There be some [...], who trouble you, or who muddy and stir you like water; and cap. 5.12. I would they were even cut off, which trouble you.
This for the opening of the first Branch of this Resemblance: the second followes, viz. What these raging waves of the sea are said to get, and bring upon themselves by all their swelling and raging; and that was nothing but shame and disgrace; Vulg. B [...]z. Despumantes. Nonnullidispumantes. Deseumare proprie valet spumam auferre. Dispumare, spumam ejicere. Quando (que) confundi videntur. Syriacè, qui in manu spumationis suae, indicant ignominiam. Arabicè, sicut fluctus maris commoti, ebulliunt in confusionibus, seu delictis suis. Spu [...]ea semifero subpectore murmurat unda. Virg. Foming out their shame. Gr. [...].
The Apostle saith not shame, but shames, [...], Confusiones. Vulg. Dedecora Bez. [...]. to note how great that shame and disgrace was which they discovered. And he saith, they fomed out their shames, that is, that by all their forementioned raging and troublesomenesse, they brought forth shame to themselves; as the raging waves of the sea bring forth fome.
[Page 380] And most aptly and elegantly (in the prosecution of the Metaphor of raging waves) doth our Apostle say, Instar tumentium undarum, quanto altius se, superbientes attollunt, tanto amplius confusi quasi in spumas dissolvuntur & percunt. Bed. Per dedecora, intelliguntur peccata linguae ex immundo turbato (que) corde manantia, sed brevi, in nihilum instar spumae resoluta. Mera sonant tonitrua. Nugas meras, & inanes voces effutiunt. that by their raging and swelling they brought forth disgrace and shame to themselves, as the raging waves of the Sea bring forth fome.
In these three respects did these raging Waves, of whom the Apostle speaks, bring forth shame to themselves, as the waves of the Sea bring forth fome. 1. Because that after all their troubling, and disquieting of the Church by their erroneous, turbulent and soul-destroying opinions and practises, both were found to have as much vanity, lightness, and emptiness as the fome of the Sea; though in their swelling and proud elevation of themselves, and unquiet urging of their doctrines they seemed like the huge waves (which threaten to touch and wash the very clouds) to be raised far above others in knowledg and spiritualness, and especially in enjoying of that liberty which they pretended went along with their practises and opinions, and so to have climb'd (as it were) into the third heavens; Non minus quis confunditur ob ignorantiam quam ob libidinem detectam. Congeries perstrepentium vocum quibus nihil subest sententiae solidioris. Vid. Epiph. haer. 26. Nonnulli denotari volunt fornicationes veterum illorum baereticorum, alii immunditiam gulae, & luxuriae. quae veluti p [...]r spum ammanifestentue. yet soon did all their glorious appearances, as a highly rais'd billow of the sea, falling either upon a rock or the shore, end in meer froth and some, emptinesse and vanity. And indeed what are all the Doctrines and opinions (opposed or not warranted by Scripture) whereby any pretend to benefit themselves and others, but gay and gilded nothings (at the best?) what have they in them but a form of knowledge, Rom. 2.20. a shew of wisdom, 2 Col. 23. vain babling; science falsely so called, 1 Tim. 6.20. strifes of words, 2 Tim. 2.4. vain deceit, 2 Col. 8. froth and fome, swelling words of vanity? They bring no real relief and sollid comfort to the soul. They are not bread, but chaff; not milk, but wind to one who hath a holy hunger. And their emptiness doth a humble and serious Christian commonly perceive as soon as their errors are first broched and vented; and it will not be long ere the silly, both seducer and seduced shall know it also, either by being [Page 381]changed to a love of the truth, Non vacat probabilitate, per participium [...] insinuatam effraenem venerem, cujus deam latine dictam venerem, Graci Gentiles appellaverunt [...] à spuma quae dicitur [...], quod è maris spuma, orta videtur vel quod seminis natura sit [...] spumosa, vel quod sit [...] stultitiae dea. Lor. in loc. In medio quondam concreta profundo, spuma sui gratum (que) manet mihi nomen ab illa. Ovid 4. Met. Per confusione sive dedecora, intelliguntur sordes ac immunditiae quas fluctus & undae coagitatae [...]ollisae spumantes in litus egerunt. Lor in loc. Gnostici sua ipsorum dedecora despumant, in spumam post jactabundum inmorem ex vita suae instabili, & dissolubili turpidine desinentes. O [...]cum. Moles existunt aquarum quanto (que) tanquam montes, & lapsu suo, videntur absorbere univers [...]m terram, sed litus, & arenam ubi attigerint, desiciunt, nihil nisi spumam, paleas, limum, fimum, lutum, sordes, relinquunt. Una cum ululatione & despumatione maledicta, calumnias, convitia, injurias, blasphemias contra Deum, san [...]s, magestratus, Ecclesiam, omnes ordines ejus [...]c [...]e. Lorin. in loc. 2 Tim. 3.8, 9. or by being punished for the love of errour. Now what a shame was it for these seducers after all their appearing bignesse with some rarely featur'd and beautifull truths, to swell with nothing but a tympany of pride and vanity; to seem to travell with a mountain, and to bring forth a mouse; to appear to be the onely illuminate, accomplisht doctors, (accounting others but babes) pretending to be richly laden and fraught with the treasures of understanding, peace, liberty, abilitie, of all which they seemed to have the monoply; and when all comes to all, to discover nothing but beggery, vanity, and disappointment of expectation, meer froth, and fome?
2. These raging waves, the seducers, brought forth shame to themselves, as the raging waves of the sea bring forth fome; in respect of that impiety, corruption, filthiness, and uncleanness, which they discovered by their swelling rage; what doth the sea after all its boiling & turbulence, cast up, but mire and dirt, an unclean scum, a filthy froth? The more thick & muddy the waters are, the more scum & some do they by their ebullitions and agitations send forth; how aptly did this agree to these impure Seducers! Did not all their swelling, proud, & unquiet contentions, end in profaneness, and Libertinism, as well as emptiness and vanity? did they not turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness? Did not they who were lifted up unto Heaven in shews of spiritualness and piety, afterward fall as low as Hell into all carnal and unclean practises, by luxury, gluttony and uncleanness? When they spake great swelling words of vanity; was it not to allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much waentonness, th [...]se that were clean escaped from them who live in error? when they seemed to be looking up to the Heavens by high speculations, and thereby would needs appropriate to themselves, the name of Gnosticks, or the knowing men, (like that unwary Star-gazer) they tumbled into the ditch of all filthiness and prodigious uncleanness. By [Page 382]their violent and turbulent venting of, and contending for their opinions, whereby they tossed and shipwrackt poor souls, what did they bring forth, but loosness and prophaneness, the casting off, reviling, and slandring of Magistracy, and all restraint, sedition, tumults, rapine, the liberty of being as bad as they would without controle, the blaspheming of God? and in short, while they promised liberty to others, they themselves were the servants of corruption. And was not now the folly of these men of corrupt minds, and reprobate concerning the faith, made manifest to all men? and was there any shame in the world comparable to this? for men not only to appear altogether empty of what good they seemed to have, and love; but wholly filled with all that evill which they seemed not to have, yea to loath? for this (the greatest) folly to be made known to all men, and for all their deluded followers to see, that they who pretended to be healers of others, should be the s [...]ckest of any; and that they who were esteemed ghest in holiness, should be found to be lowest in wickedness? Nothing is there of which a man should be so much ashamed, as of sinning, and of no sinning so much, as of sinning after an appeaing height of, and contention for holiness.
3. These Seducers brought forth shame to themselves, as the raging waves of the Sea, bring forth fome, in respect of the destruction and everthrew both of themselves, and their errors. The waves of the Sea cast forth their fome, by being broken and dasht in peeces; they seem'd indeed, when they were lifted up to heaven in their height, and rage, to threaten the breaking or devouring of the rocks or shore whensoever they should fall; but when they fall, they onely break themselves (the rock or shore still continuing unbroken, and unhurt▪) and so they come to some: And how evidently do seducers bring forth their shame (even as the dasht waves their some) by their own, and their errours [Page 383]destructions? Errours have ever broken by beating upon the rock of truth, which hath in all ages, stood firm against, (in stead of being broken) by all the rage of erroneous seducers. False doctrins, Sicus fluctus licet tumentes, litus & saxa ver [...]erames ab iis repulsi resiliunt, abeunt (que) in spumas & evanescunt, si [...] & impetus fastus, ac furores har [...] ticorum verberantes Ecclesiam, in s [...]ipsos dissiliunt & evanescunt. [...]ap. in loc. like the waves of the sea, may sometimes seem to cover the truth, but never can they conquer it, no more then the stubble can overcome the flame, the cloud the Sun, the wave the rock. Truth hath ever got by losing, and prevailed by being seemingly overcome; Errour hath ever lost by gaining, and been overcom by seeming to conquer. By the advantages of time and Scripture discovery, magnified errours come to be abhorred; and by heresies, as they who are approved are made manifest, so truth it self comes to be both approved and manifested. And as for heresiarchs and seducers themselves, they have been broken in pieces by divisions, by disgrace and ignominy, by dispair, though armed, ever to conquer naked truth; by externall judgements upon their bodies, or else by the everlasting overthrow of their souls, they bringing upon themselves swift destruction: and what greater shame can possibly be brought forth, then that which comes by their own overthrow and destruction: and that after; nay, by their own height and elevation?
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. There is no peace to the wicked when they are at the highest.
The highest waves are yet unquiet; notwithstanding a sinners outward swelling and greatnesse, he (like a limb of the body pained, though swelled) hath a conscience inwardly vexations. He is like a man who hath broken bones under a beautifull sute of apparell; disjoynted fingers under a golden glove; like a book of direfull Tragedies, bound up with a gilded fair cover; or (as some body once said) like Newgate, having a comely outside structure, but within nothing but howling▪ [Page 384]chains, dungeons, and blacknesse. Ther's no peace to the proudest, richest, honourablest sinnner. Till the inward distemper of the heart be removed, and that trouble-heart (sin) expel'd, outward advancement can no more help him, than scratching can cure a man of the itch, his bloud being corrupt an dinfected, and no inward means used to cleanse it. Besides, True peace comes from the injoying communion with God, and from the apprehension of the removall of true woes and wretchednesse; what true peace can appearing comforts bring to that man, Fallacia bona, vera mala. who remains under real wretchedness? Outward highness is but seeming and fictitious, spiritual miseries are truly and really such. He who cannot see that he is delivered from wrath to come, cannot be pacified with any enjoyments that are present: He is all his life long subject to bondage; Heb. 2. and but like a rich or noble prisoner, who, though he be plentifully fed, respectively attended, and civily used by his Keeper, is yet in an hourly expectation of condemnation. A child of God is more quiet upon the wrack, than a sinner is upon a bed of down. His motto may well be, mediis traquillus in undis. Though he be in troubles, yet troubles are not in him. So long as the winde gets not into the bowels of the earth, there is no earthquake, though the wind bluster never so boysterously about and without the earth. If the terrours of Gods wrath and the guilt of sin be kept out of the conscience; outward afflictions upon the body, cannot cause any true trouble. We call it a fair day, if there be a clear sunshine, and a fair sky over head, though it be dirty under foot; and if all be well upward, if God shine upon us with the light of his Countenance, our condition is comfortable, though it be afflicted and uncomfortable in earthly respects. A Saint hath musick in the house, when there are storms without it, and when it rains upon the tiles. In a word, the godly have quiet rest in their motion; but the wicked have unquiet motion in their rest; how [Page 385]litle are wicked men to be envied in their triumphs! how much better is it to have peace with God in trials, then to be his enemies in triumph! Of this see pag. 116 part 1. And also before and after, under the head of Peace, very largely.
2. Obs. 2. The erroneous are oft as disquieting and troublesome where they live, as the waves of the sea; Like the raging waves of the sea.
I have before largely spoken of their raging in point of bloudinesse and cruelty, Vers. 11. but they which are not gone so far as open persecution, are yet commonly men very turbulent and unquiet. They trouble and disquiet peoples consciences, tossing them with the windes of their doctrines, not suffering them to hold any truth certainly, but with hesitancy and doubting, casting in many scruples into their minds, with their doubtfull disputations, wracking both the Scriptures, and their hearers, by distracting their thoughts and apprehensions with what may be said for and against the truth, never studying to ground and stablish them in the knowledge thereof; leaving their Disciples hereby, like a cloud tossed with contrary winds, and a ball bandy'd between two rackets. Their onely work indeed is to unsettle, and first to make people believe nothing, and to unbelieve or at least to waver in their belief of what is true, that so they may be brought to believe that which is false; they who are drunken with errour, will have the spirituall staggers; they are as pendulous and uncertain as a meteor, they have no Center for their unsettled apprehensions: Schisms rend the coat, heresie disquiets and cuts the heart. Nor do seducers onely disquiet and trouble others, by unsetling them from the truth, but also by hurrying and driving people from one errour to another. Sectaries rest not in one, but oft travel through all opinions. One errour is a bridg to another. Errours are like Circles in a pond, one begets another, a lesser makes way for a greater; a lower is but a step or stair to help to an higher, like a [Page 386]whirl-pool, which first sucks in one part, and then the other, and never desists until it draws in the whole body. Heb. 13.9. Vide Danaei annotationes in Lib. Angustini de haer [...]s. Seducers grow worse and worse, and still increase to more ungodlinesse. Heresie is a flood ever swelling, and a gangrene ever spreading. The Galathians were soon removed to another Gospel. Nor are the erronious less troublesome to the outward temporal peace of persons, witness the divisions and factions which they have made in families, between nearest relations, in Congregations, Cities, Civil States. Hereticks are commonly seditious and tumultuary. Novatus was (as Cyprian calls him) a fire-brand to kindle sedition: an Enemy to peace, turning the world upside down. What raging outragious waves wear the Donatists, Fax et ignis ad conflanda seditionis inc [...]ndia, hostis quietis, tranquillitatis adversarius, pacis ini micus. Cypr. 49. ad Cornel. August. epist. 50. ad Bonif. Ep. 68. ad Januar. Circumcelliones! Augustine in his Epistles tells us frequently of their rapines, robberies; how near sundry States (in these later times) have been to subversion by the Anabaptists, they who write their histories, have related at large: nor will this unquietness of the erroneous seem strange, if we consider by whose blowing these waves are raised. It is the breath of that Aeolus of hell which stirs them up: he will toss and trouble, though he cannot swallow up the ship of the Church. All hereticks are Satans Emissaries. He is the father of lyes, and lyars, and a lying spirit in the mouth of every false Prophet, and needs must they rage and run, whom he stirs up. Nor is any thing so impatient of restraint as error. No hereticks could ever patiently endure to be oppos'd: whensoever ether the windes of Civil or ecclesiasticall power, of sword or word, have blown against the tide of heresies, presently they grow rugged and boysterous. These seducers spake evil of dignities. Covetousness and pride, which oftnest put men upon error, are (both) impetuous lusts, and impatient of resistance. The thirst after gold and glory hath troubled all the world. Seducers run greedily after their own gain, and compasse sea and Land to make proselytes. [Page 387]The Papists had never raged against Luther, if he had not struck at the Popes Crown, and the Monks bellyes. And lastly, the truth is, when the heretical rage, its much out of cowardise; for though they look highly, and scornfully, yet they are so conscious of the crazmess of their cause, that they cannot but be angry with every adversary. A sickly man cannot indure the sharp ayre, nor a sickly opinion the sharpness of opposition. They who are orthodox, and contend for truth, should hence be cautious: Let them take heed of learning frowardnes of the froward. God wants not our passions to promote his truth. Let the fury of the blinde promote pitie in those who have eyes; and let us break the rage of the waves only by being rocks of constancy, resolution, and zealous opposition. In short, let all those Magistrates who will be favourers of the erroneous, consider whom they nourish, and withall whether it be not the greatest imprudence to cherish their destroyers, and to destroy their preservers; and whether they never heard of some who in opposition to Church-Government, have helpt up those that in opposition to Civil Government, have puld down them.
3. It is the lot of the Church to be amongst raging waves; Obs. 3. to be troubled and disquieted in the world. The faithful on this side heaven are annoyed with the unquiet carriage of the wicked. Psal. 69.15. Psal. 32.6. Is. 59.19. Psal. 32.6. The water-floods (oft) are ready to overflow them: they are in the floods of great waters. The floods of ungodly men (saith David, Ps. 84.4.) made mee afraid. The people of God are oft accounted the troublers, but they are indeed the troubled of Israel. Ther's no resting place for the feet of these doves, in this deluge of sin and sorrow here below. they are tossed up and down in their names, estates, bodies, soules, by their Enemies, as by raging waves. There is no more likelihood that they should be at rest upon earth, than there is that a man should be quiet upon the sea; nor is it (indeed) fit that it should be [Page 388]otherwise. The windes of trouble and unquietness blow them profit, and working waves work them much benefit. Hereby they are made to long for their haven, for that rest which remaines for the people of God. If the world were a place of rest, they would be too ready, here, to set up their rest, and the thoughts of heaven would be troublesome, and they would be ready to say and hope that they should never be removed, and its good being here: The world is too sweet to them, now 'its so bitter; they suck at its brests heartily, even when the Lord rubs them over with wormwood. Peregrinationes aerumnas non sentimus. Oh what would they do, were the world altogether sweet! If they love so much to smell to it, when it is full of thorns, what would they do were it altogether roses? The more Noahs flood increas'd, the higher was the ark raised; and the troubles of the world raise the thoughts and desires of the faithfull, the neerer to heaven. The fruitfull over-flowings of Nilus would hinder them from looking up to heaven for rain and refreshment. tossings in the world, make the people of God to be in the world rather patiently, then delightfully. Againe, by the tossings of the world, they are put upon that holy exercise of prayer. He that would learn to pray (saith the Proverb) must goe to sea. Raging waves make the people of God call and cry for help. The Disciples call'd to Christ when they were tossed; even the heathen Mariners in a storme cald every man upon his god. Jonah 1. [...] à [...]. The word storme in the Greek is derived from two words, which signifie much sacrificing; how earnestly did David and Hezekiah pray, when they were upon the waves! Musick (we say) sounds best upon the waters, and so do the prayers of the Saints, upon the waters of worldly troubles. When he slew them, then they sought him. Psal. 73.34. In their affliction (saith God) they will seek me early. God oftentimes defers to deliver his people from trouble, though they pray, that so the praying which he so much loves [Page 389]may stil be continued. As we use to deal with some Musicians, whom we wil not presently reward for their musick, because we desire more of it. Again, were it not for these raging waves, the Saints depending upon, and submissiveness to God could not be so manifested. Every one will trust him in a calm; its only true faith that can rest upon him in a restless condition, and see a haven through all the waves. Nor doth God use to teach his people patience, but by being passive; tribulation (saith Paul) worketh patience Rom. 5.3. Trouble is esca patientiae, food, without which patience would starve. Some say, the Saints never can learn their lesson of patience but in the school of trouble. And further, the raging of the waves makes the people of God to magnifie their Pilot and preserver, for his power, wisdome, love: His power which keeps the Church (like another Mesopotamia) in the midst of the sea, and preserves it from being overturned; though not from being tossed; and which bounds those proud waves, so that they shall not overflow the Church, even wh [...]n the Sea of the wicked world is so much in power and policy about it. His power likewise is seen, in that in the floods of great waters, they shall not come neere to the godly; not to his soule, to destroy its grace, and (oft) not to disturb its peace: it hereby appearing, that even when the floods lift up their voice, yet the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. Psal. 93.3, 4. To conclude, How plainly doe the wisdome and love of God discover themselves toward the faithfull, when they are tossed by the waves! his wisdome, in making the very rage of these waves to praise him, and in stead of breaking his Church, onely to cleanse it; and in stead of drowning it, to carry it to its haven, where it shal never be tossed more, and so skilfully to make it saile with every winde! His love, in that he will not refuse to bear his people company when they go through the waters, [Page 390]and to be their companion, yea Pilot in a storm, and then to give them a great calm within: and in a word, to assure them, that they shall never be cast away with the wicked, though they may be cast among them: Let us not censure the faithful in their most tossed estate. There's not a drop of wrath in a sea of a Saints sufferings. Could you see how free his inside is, and his end shall be from storms and tossings, you would rather envy then censure him; the waves which Satan raiseth, shew that he hath a treasure, which that enemie would fain have cast away; but yet should he so far prevail, tis a treasure which wil swim to shore with him. To conclude, let the faithful (of all people) most prepare for storms, and waves; as it is best for them to be among raging waves, so its too much for them, both to have a haven in their passage, and in the end of their passage too: As long as the people of God are sayling to that port, the divel wil tosse them; and this he wil do though, nay, because he cannot destroy them. Let them be sure, that by faith they get Christ into the ship, or rather into their souls; that by obedience they undertake their voyage for him, that their cause be good, and that by repentance they cast out every Jonah, and then let them fear no waves.
4 The Church hath most trouble from those within her. Obser. 4. She hath sometime (saith Bernard) had peace from Heathens, Pax à Pagauis, nunquam à filiis. never (or but very rarely) from her own children. No adversaries were such raging waves, as these, who were domestical. Of your selves (saith Paul Acts 20.30.) shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock. These Seducers were not Heathens without, but Professours who had crept into the Church. No evils are so great as those which come to the Church from within. The inward intestine divisions, ruptures, heresies, schisms, have cost [Page 391]the Church more lamentations, then ever did her persecution from without. The heathen Emperors never were so vexatious to her as Arians, Donatists, Anabaptists, Papists. Outward enemies scratch the face, they within, stab the heart of the Church: From the former she suffered; by the latter she both sinned and suffered: by the former she was under Persecution from men, by the latter under Provocation against God; by the former she was but sollicited to tell where her great strength lay, by the latter she cut off her locks, threw away her own weapons, and betrayed her strength; by her suffering from without, the enemies laboured to beat her off from continuing Christian; by her scandal within, she beats them off from becoming Christians. Wonder not then that the Divel hath alwayes used this home-bred engine of evil against the Church; namely, the ungodly carriage of those within her, and the stirring up troubles in her own bowels; He knows, that there is no sword to this; and that they will never adventure their lives for God and one another in war, who will neither love God nor one another in peace. Oh, how should Christians labour to disappoint and countermine this the Divels most destructive policie! Christians, if we must die, let us die like men, by an unanimous holy contention against the common Enemie; not like fools, by giving him our sword, and destroying one another by heresies, schisms, prophaneness in our own bowels.
5 Sin is a persons greatest shame: Observ. 5 That which should most make him ashamed and confounded in himself, and that which shall make him a spectacle of shame, disgrace and infamie to others. O my God (said Ezra, chap. 9.6.) I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my sace to thee, for our iniquities are increased, &c. There is the shame that sin should make in us: Thou hast consulted shame to thine own house, Hab. 2.10. by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thine own soul, Psal. 40.14. [Page 392] Let them be brought to shame. So Nah. 3.5. I will shew, &c. the Kingdoms thy shame: there is the shame that sin brings upon us. In the former respect sin should be shame; in the latter it shall be shame. Its sin only which deprives a man of true glorie and excellencie, and is the degradation of his nature. Men account that their shame, which to do or suffer, is much below their port and rank. Oh how much goes that man below himself, who was created Gods favourite and son, having his love fixt and image stampt upon him, the Viceroy of the creation, a consort with Angels, whose nature is taken into the union of the person of the son of God; whose purchase was no less then the blood of God, whose soul is a little heaven for the great God to dwell in, whose bodie is the Temple of the holy Ghost; whose habitation shall be the Empyrean heaven, a Citie, a Kingdome purer, more glorious then a thousand Suns, nay in comparison whereof a thousand Suns are but sack-cloth: How much (I say) goes this excellent creature below himself, in being a! thorow-fare, threshold, foot-stool, vassal to unclean spirits! yea, in having his heaven-born soul a very sink or common receptacle for that which is infinitely baser then all the dung, off-scouring, filth, excrements upon earth, or then any thing which hath a being! How much lower is this descending, then for a King to imbrace dung-hils, or for Nebuchadnezzar to be a companion for beasts! Rom. 6.21. Well might the Apostle say, that of this condition the Romans were now ashamed. Indeed, there is nothing but sin which truly disgraceth a man: Nothing but sin which disgraceth a man in Gods eye, whose estimate is the true Standard of Honour: nothing but sin makes us unfit for that habitation of glory: nothing shameful unless sinning, but befell the Lord of glory: Nothing but sin which will make us unglorious at the last day, when Christ shall appear with ten thousands of glorious Saints and Angels.
[Page 393] Oh how much are they mistaken who account sinne their glory, who are asham'd of their glory (holiness;) Pudor est medi. cina pudoris. and glory in their shame, their sin! Are there not many who cannot blush in the doing of that, Eph. 5.12. Jer. 8.12. at the hearing whereof tis our duty to blush? They were not ashamed, neither could they blush; they have sin'd away shame, in stead of being ashamed of sin, and will not (now) suffer nature to draw her vail of blushing before their abominations. When the Colours and Ensigns of a battle are lost, we then give the battle for lost; some have aptly called blushing the colour of vertue displaid by nature in the countenance: When Satan hath taken away our colours, and custome of sin hath banished even sense of sin, and shame for sin, our case seems to be desperate. Other evils which sin bringeth, are curable, the anguish of conscience, the wrath of God, the breach of charity; but the shame of sin can (nay must) never be got out: the more holy we are now, the more should we be ashamed of our former sin. Oh that we could contemplate the shame of sin more in its departure, and less its beauty in its coming, and labour to look upon our old waies with new eyes, opened and enlightned by the spirit of sanctification, and then it wil be our greatest wonder that we should heretofore openly do that which we are now ashamed to think of.
To conclude this, how blessed are they whose sins are covered, whose transgressions are forgiven, Psal. 32.1. who have bought and put on that white raiment, whereby the shame of their nakednesse cannot appear! If ever the sins of the godly be manifested (as I conceive they shall be) at the day of judgment, they shall be so far from bringing shame and confusion to them, that they shall be glorious trophies of Gods mercy, Christs merit, the strength of faith and the truth of repentance.
6. Obs. 6. The shame of seducers is at length laid open and discover'd. The great endeavour of these, was to be magnified, [Page 394]or rather omnified, to have all others debased and nullified; to have themselves accounted the only men for knowledg, piety, priviledges; and their waies the only waies of peace and liberty; but at length they lost and disgrac'd themselves, foamed out, and discovered their own shame. 1. Sometime their shame is laid open, and foamed forth by the discovery of the emptinesse and meer frothy foame of their opinions, which are manifested to have had nothing of truth or solidity in them. At length they fal upon the shore, or dash upon the rock of the scripture, and then in stead of drowing the shore or breaking the rock, they end in a little froth and emptinesse and in the breaking of themselves alone. Heresies are not permanent; the word of the Lord only endures for ever, it being a lasting fountain never to be dryed up: but that which is against the Lord and his truth, is but a landflood: though for the present it may swel and grow, yet it shal fall and sink, and in time vanish quite away. Heresies which have for a time born all before them, (as that of Arianism, which Augustine in grief and admiration tels us, had invaded all the world) come by the advantages of time and scripture discovery, to be contemned and neglected: Error, like the painted beauty of some harlot, seems amiable when it walkes in the dim twilight, where the orthodox preaching of the word shines not; but bring it to scripture light (which it mainly shuns) and the more we look upon it, the more we shall suspect, and at length abhor it: the sun of scripture scatters the fogs and mists of error; ye erre saith Christ, not knowing the Scripture. How glorious have those adulterate beauties of the whore of Babylon, of image-worship transubstantiation, merit &c. appeared in this nation of old, when the candle of Scripture was hid under a bushel! but afterward it being set upon a candlestick, and giving light to all the house; how clearly did they all appear to be [Page 395]fictitious and adulterate! and the hatred wherewith they are hated (I trust) of some, is (as it was said of Ammons to Thamar) greater then that love wherewith they were loved. 2. Sometime the shame of seducers is laid open and foamed forth by their loosnesse and profanenesse of life; Errors in doctrine producing commonly loosnesse in conversation. Thus the Apostle speaks of some who should proceed no further, for their folly should be made manifest to all men, who should increase to more ungodlinesse, and grow worse and worse; hereby our Lord bids us discover them, ( by their fruits (saith he) ye shall know them). The vine of truth never produced the thistles and thorns of prophanenesse and loosnesse: A man of error, is of [...] left to be a man of sin. Thus these seducers disgraced themselves by foaming out their uncleannesse, cruelty, rebellion. Who wil ever look upon these deformed issues to have truth, beautiful truth for their mother? Wel may he be suspected, who every step stumbles into prophanenesse, to have either no eyes or bad ones: Thus Papists, Anabaptists, Seekers, have been discovered by their taking pleasure in unrighteousness, never to have believed the truth. 3. Lastly, the Lord oft discovers their shame by their own destruction and disgraceful end, and by the judgments which he brings upon them. Arius his bowels gushed out; Nestorius his tongue was consumed with worms, Cerinthus was killed by the fall of an house. Montanus hanged himself. Manes had his skin torn from his flesh, &c. and rotted out of his head; examples of this kind might fil a volume. How many seducers hath God made pillars of salt by their deaths, who were unsavory salt during their lifetime! how many of these stakes hath God set up in the Church, as in a pond to keep men from adventuring into gulfs and whirlpools of error! Sometime the hand of justice hath found them out; witnesse the deaths of many Jesuits and Baals priests, of Anabaptists, and other blasphemous hereticks. And how oft have they been infamous for their strange deaths, who laboured [Page 396]to live caede scripturarum, by the death and downfall of the scripture! Oh (then) how much are they mistaken, who expect to get honour by being patrons of erroneous opinions! While the pure lights of the Church have burnt sweetly, and shined bright to after ages, living when they were dead; the other have rotted in their names, faded in their honour, withered in their graces, and (in a word) even died while they lived: and what is there left of all these false pretended lights, to posterity, but the smoake of a stinking and unsavory snuffe?
7. Obs. 7 The enemies of God cause their own shame and confusion; foaming out (saith our Apostle) their own shame. Hab. 2.10. they are said to consult shame to their own house, i.e. their wisest consultations shal be turned into shame against them, or they shall be as surely ashamed, as if they had consulted or taken counsel to bring shame upon themselves. Though shame be not the end of the worker, yet shal it be the end of every work of ungodlinesse: wicked men twist their own halter, and by sin, curiously weave their own confusion; shame is the natural production of every mans own sin: Basil [...] de Ira. [...]. Pag. mihi 440. The wicked shall be snared in the work of his own hands, Psal. 9.16. and held with the cords of his own sins; Ps. 5.22. Be thy own friend, and none can be thy foe; disgrace not thy self, and then all the world cannot do it. Tis not any thing cast upon us from without, which is truely a shame, but something which growes out of a mans self; tis not poverty, reproach, pains &c. that dishonour us, but impatience, revenge, unreformedness under all these. Every wicked mans dishonour is self-created. A sinner reaps no crop, but that of which he himself was the sower; (its common equity that he who sowes should reap) God wil render to every one according to his own works. As grace is glory in the bud, and glory nothing but grace blown out, so sin is seminally and radically, eternal shame and ignominy, [Page 397]and that shame is nothing but sin extended and displaied. So good is God, that he would not suffer sin, unlesse thereby he were able to make it appear shameful; so much is God in love with his own glory, that he would never endure any to oppose his, unlesse thereby he intended to overthrow theirs; God never gave any of his enemies line, but to strangle themselves: we read of no enemies of God, but they shamed themselves; Infirmitas animositatis. Facites animos mens generosa capit. Tu licet extre mos latè dominare per Indos &c. si prava cupis si duceris irâ, servitii patiere jugum, tolerabis iniquas interius— Claudian in paneg. Theodos. Non fortior judicandus est quileonem, quam qui violentam in scipso inclusam feram superat iracundiam aut qui rapacissi mas volucres dejicit quam qui cupiditates avidissimas coercet aut qui Amazonem bellatricem, quam qui libidi [...]cm vincit pudoris ac famae debellatricem. Cicer pro Marcel. Pharaoh, Achitophel, Haman, Siserah, Senacherib, Julian, &c. How should this comfort his people in the midst of all the height and glory of his enemies! Though they cannot pull them down, yet they shall lay their own glory in the dust: and how can God want weapons to beat his enemies, who can beat them with their own?
8. Men by rage and fury, lay open and discover their shame; when these seducers came to be raging waves, fierce and impetuous in their way, they soon disgraced themselves, and foamed out their own shame; a weak spirit is by nothing so much manifested as by wrath and passion: commonly men think that anger is an effect of magnanimity, whereas indeed it proceeds from weaknesse; an underling to passion, hath a base low built disposition, to which children, and women (therefore called the weaker sex) are more subject then men. The Latines express all passion (anger especially) by the word impotentia, impotency and weaknesse; and hence Solomon, Prov. 25.28. He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a City that is broken down ad without walls; what so weak, and beggarly, and so much at the cruel courtesie of every invader, as a City without all defence? Such a one is he whose raging passions sway him without controle; he who scorns to be a servant to man, is a slave to lust, a base sensual bruitish lust: The strong man (according to scripture censure) is he who is slow to anger, nay (saith Solomon) Prov. 16.32. He is better then the mighty, and he [Page 398]that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a City: had a man conquered the world without him, and not his lust within him, he were but in a splendid glistering servitude: wel might he with Alexander sit down and weep, but not because their is no other world to conquer, but because their is stil another, or rather, because there are so many, and every one so much stronger than a world; I mean, unmortified passions: David in sparing of Saul, and overcoming of himself, was stronger then David when he overcame Goliah; for killing of Goliah, he was but promised to be Sauls son in law; but by subduing his own passion, Saul deservedly conjectures that David should be his successor; and now I know wel (saith Saul) that thou shalt surely be King &c. Saul seeing in David a power to govern his own affections, foresaw that David was fit to rule a whole kingdome; but how unfit was Saul to be King of Israel, who was not a King over, but a slave to his own passion! A swine in an Emperors robe is most uncomly, and so is he who is a ruler over men without him, and a vassal to beasts within him. Men account it the greatest disgrace to be looked upon and called fools; but the spirit of God makes wrath and passion, the fools coat or badge; frequently do we read of a fools wrath, Prov. 12.16. a fools wrath is presently known: so Pro. 27.3. a fools wrath is mentioned for its heaviness: & He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. And anger resteth in the bosome of fools (saith Solomon) Eccles. 7.9. its loved, cherished, delighted in, as a thing laid in a mans bosome, and it resteth there, it departeth not; a wise man useth anger as physick in its proper time, but a fool useth it as his constant dyet: Its an inmate to a fool, tis but a passenger through the heart of a wise man, it doth not lodg in it all night, Ephes. 4.26. Its a mans prudence to defer his anger, and his glory to passe over a transgression, Prov. 19.11. and James calls it the meeknesse of wisdome, cap. 3.13. A governour of his [Page 399]passion is by some called angelus in carne, yea deus terrestris: no lamb was ever so meek, as was he who was wisdome itself: He that is slow to anger, is of great understanding, Prov. 14.29. Nor doth the shame of these slaves to passion only appear in their name, and estimate for folly, but in the shameful effects of this rage, where it mastereth any; A stone is heavy (saith Solomon) and the sand is weighty, but a fools wrath is heavier than them both. Prov. 27.3. A fool having no wisdom to moderate his passion, or to keep it (as a wise man doth) from falling with its full weight. Let a bear robbed of her whelps, meet a man (saith he) rather then a fool in his folly. This cruellest of beasts shews not so much rage, as a man in his fury; how oft hath rage whetted tongue, teeth, swords, prepared snares, poisons, fires, &c. for destruction! How little doth it distinguish twixt friends and foes, sweeping away parents, children, brethren, with its torrent! it regards neither venerable old age, nor the tendernesse of age or sex, nor favours received, nor vertue and piety. Its a short madnesse, and an inter-regnum and eclipse of reason, forgetting even the ruin and destruction of the very party in whom it swayeth, it making him neither to feel nor fear mutilations, wounds, deaths; [...]. Incomparabiliter salubriusest, etiam irae justae pulsanti non aperire penetrale cordis, quam admittere non facile recessuram et perventuram. De surculo ad [...]bem &c. Aug. [...]p. 149. it makes a man to put off himself, changing him into a monster, and as if he were to put on a vizar upon a stage (as Basil expresseth it) it represents him another from himself, with eyes flaming, mouth foaming, teeth grinding, colour distempered &c. Christians, as you love true honour, beware of being inslav'd to passion, especially this of wrath and troublesomenesse to others; stop its entrance, take heed (as Augustine excellently) when just anger knocks at the door, that the unjust croud not in with it; from a twig, 'twil grow to a beam: his advice is (rather then it should do so) to shut the door upon that anger which is just: In the midst of all thy injuries, labour for a meek and a quiet [Page 400]spirit. In sinful contentions, he who is the conqueror, is the slave; let not thy adversary be thy teacher, nor be thou his looking glasse, to shew him his shape in thy self; let him behold in thee a mind above, and deaf to, and impenetrable by reproaches; let not judgment be troden under foot. If thine adversary deserve pitty, why dost thou rage against him? if punishment, why dost thou imitate him? To conclude this, (as Basil in that excellent discourse of his concerning anger) Never think thy self worthy of estimation from others, [...]. Et infra, [...]. Basil. de Ira. or others unworthy of estimation from thee; studie the due ordering of thy irascible part, let it be at the command of grace, and then it wil be helpful to thee against sin. Oh how happy were we if all our anger and indignation were set upon sin! we can never hate sin enough, unlesse we mix indignation with our hatred; use thine anger like the dog, to spare those of the family, or the flock; I mean men, and set it upon the thief, the wolf, thine own lusts: Let not that which was given thee to be helpful to thee, be by thee made hurtful to thee; let the sword of anger spare Isaak, and sacrifice the ram; be angry but sin not; Anger should not be destroyed, but sanctified. Be angry with the tempter the divel, who stirs up thy brother to wrong thee: and be not like the furious dog, who bites the stone thrown, and meddles not with the hand that threw it. The man is to be pittied, Satan threw this stone at thee, he instigated thy brothers passion. In short, as the Unicorns horn, upon the forehead of that fierce creature, is most hurtful and destructive, but in the Apothecaries shop most useful and salubrious; so passion which men by nature abuse, to the hurt of themselves and others, should by grace be made helpful and beneficial to both.
9. Obs. 9 Its the inward corruption of the heart, which sends forth the foame of shameful actions, These seducers (like the sea) had that foame and filth first within [Page 401]them, which afterward they foamed out and sent forth. There could never be an unclean foame sent forth, unlesse there were first filthinesse in the sea. All the unholinesse and irregularity of practice comes from the hearts depravednesse: Evil things are brought forth from the evil treasure of the heart; out of the heart (saith Christ) come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries; the heart is the womb of all sinful and impure issues; an unholy root sends forth bitter and sinful fruits. All the prodigious abominations which are made visible in the conversation, proceed from an unsanctified disposition; Who sees not, then, at what door to lay all the deformed issues of mens practices? how foolishly are men displeased with themselves for their outward transgressions in their lives, while they tamely and quietly endure an unchanged and unrenewed heart! why should any be displeased with that tree for bearing of fruit, whose roots they wil continue to dung and water? how vaine and preposterous, are those endeavours of reformation, which are without inward renovation! If the tree continue bitter and corrupt, all the influences of heaven cannot make the fruit good. If we would have an holy life, we must labour for a changed heart: A Christians reformation begins at the wrong end, when it begins at his fingers ends; as the heart first lives naturally, so spiritually; the foundation of most mens mortification is too shallow, tis not hearty and inward enough; and hence tis, that their religion (in these daies) is like our buildings, more slight, and lesse durable than of old: Its fond to think of drying up the streams, when we nourish the fountain. David began at the right end, Psal. 51. when he desired the Lord to create in him a clean heart; til the heart be healed, we only skin the sore, we root not out the core of the corrupt matter, and hence the cure comes to be only cloaked. Christians, Curar palliativa. would you heal the unwholsome water of your lives? you must [Page 402]first cast salt into the spring; get thy sea first made pure within at the bottome, and then thy foame, thy mire and dirt wil not be cast up; purge thy stomack, if thou wouldst not have an unsavory breath; remove the inward dunghil, and then thou wilt be rid of outward steams; lay thy mine under the foundation, cleanse your hands ye sinners (saith James;) James 4.8. but then the way prescribed is, purifie your hearts ye double-minded. New professions, expressions sewed to an old disposition, wil but make the rent the greater. And remember that,
10. The unrenewed heart, if stir'd and moved, soon discovers its foame and silthinesse. Isa. 47.20. These seducers (like the sea) put forth their unclean mire and dirt when disquieted and enraged. The waters which are dirtyest at the bottom, appear fair and clear in a calm and serene day; but when the storms and winds arise, they then shew what is in them; til the heart be cleansed, any occasion or tentation wil draw forth its filthiness. If our lusts be not dead, but only sleeping, every jog wil soon stir them up: London-streets (inclinable of themselves to be dirty) are (we say) by a smal showr made foule. A wicked man is but a chained Lion, or a tamed divel at the best. If he appear holy at any time, tis not because he is a sea without mire, but without storms; when his tide of nature is opposed by the winds, either of reprehension or chastisement, he wil shew himself but dirty water: Acts 19 28. we read not that the Ephesians foamed out their shame, til they apprehended their Diana-worship struck at; nor that the Jews foamed out theirs, til Steven had touched them for their hypocrisy; Acts 7.54. nor that they railed and called Christ Samaritan, and one that had a divel, John 8.28. till he convinced them of their sin, and his own innocency; nor did the Sodomites discover their shameful uncleannesse so much, til Lot reproved them: (oh with how gentle a gale was their sea of sin troubled!) Hos. 11.2. Never did the secret sicknesse or wickednesse of [Page 403] Ephraim so much shew it self, nor were the evil humours so much provoked and stirred, until God went about to heal them; nor did the rage of Pharaohs heart against God, swel so prodigiously, til Gods judgment lay upon him. We see then how best to try the truth and strength of grace: O Christian, what art thou when stirred? dost thou not foame out dirt in a storme? art thou good when thou art pleased, calm when the tide of thy nature, and the wind of word or providence go together? truly this is no great matter; but observe thy self, when occasions of sin meet thee, when winds crosse thee, when reproofs and corrections would stop thee, and blow in thy very teeth: will thy heart neither like the dunghil, stink when thou meetest with the sun-shine of an allurement; nor with the sea, foame when thou meetest with the wind of opposition? canst thou then be calm with David, and say, Let the righteous smite me? and with Job, blesse the Lord? and with the Church, say, I wil bear the indignation of the Lord, for I have sinned against him? and with that holy Martyr, Lord I wil bow, and thou shalt beat? John Brown. Canst thou kiss the rod, lay thy hand upon thy murmuring mouth, and desire that God would rather give thee submission to, then deliverance from the stroke? canst thou under smarest severities heartily beg of the Lord that he would have his wil of thee, by pulling down thy proud stomack, before he throws away his smartest rod? And when the blasts of the word resist thy dearest corruption, and oppose thee in thy sweetest wayes of sin; when the faithful Minister levels his darts, and sets the point of the drawn sword of the spirit, most directly against thy bosome-lust, canst thou then (I say) in stead of rebelling, yeild thy self an humble prisoner to Jesus Christ, fall down at his feet, and say, Lord I submit, what wilt thou have me to do? Blessed be thy strictest commands and threatnings against my sin, and blessed be the mouth of thy servant which uttered them? This is an happy sign that God hath begun [Page 404]to cleanse thy heart from that filth, which one unrenewed, would have put forth upon these occasions.
11. Obs. 11 The turbulent and unquiet temper of a wicked man, makes him much to differ from a Saint. The godly are indued with that wisdome from above which is peaceable; they offer no wrongs, they return no revenge; their peace from God inclines their heart to peaceableness toward men: a quiet conscience never produced an unquiet conversation. The peace of God makes those who have offered wrong to others, willing to make satisfaction; and those who have suffered wrong from others, readyto afford remission. If the great God, who is offended, speaks peace to man, should not poor man, when an offender, offer peace much more to man? If God be pacified toward man, upon his free grace; should not man be pacified to man, it being a commanded duty? The more God quiets us, the lesse shall we sinfully disquiet others: Its the portion of Saints, to find trouble in the world, not their property to cause trouble in the world. The reason why Gods people are accounted unpeaceable in the world, is, because they disquiet mens lusts: Their wil is for peace, but tis necessity which makes them contend. Col. 3.15. The peace of God rules in their hearts; and when the unquiet affections of anger, hatred, revenge, arise in them, (like the judg or umpire of publick wrastlings) this peace of God doth [...], rule by appeasing st [...]ifes, and ending controversies. In short, the people of God are doves, sheep, not birds and beasts of prey: Christ gave the Lamb; they wil not have the Lion, or the Tiger for their cognisance. The unpeaceablenesse of godly men is because they have no more godlinesse: As the sons of God have a precept, so have they a property to be harmlesse. Phil. 2.15.
The last resemblance whereby the Apostle describes the sin and misery of these seducers, is contained [Page 405]in these words: Wandring stars, to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darknesse for ever.
EXPLICATION.
Two parts are here to be explained.
- 1. Their title. Wandring stars.
- 2. Their estate. To whom is reserved &c.
In the first, their title, two things are to be opened.
- 1. What the Apostle here terms these seducers.
- 2 Why he so terms them.
1. What he here terms them. viz. 1. Stars. and those 2. Wandring Stars. [...] secundum aliqu [...]s derivatur ab [...] quòd a stra [...] putent esse, id est, ignea, unde et ignes et fla [...] m [...] pr [...] stellis &c. sidus quia sidat, insidat, codemque loco stet, Varro vocatum vult. Alii deducunt à [...] et [...], scribendo cum y, sydus. q. sit signum in quo simul stella conspiciantur. Lorin. in loc.
1. Stars, [...]. Not to enquire whither the word [...] be derived from the Hebrew [...], signifying fire, because stars appear fiery, by poets called fires and flames; or [...], because of its coruscation and shining, or from the word [...], because a star is never standing stil, but alwaies in motion: nor to discourse of the magnitude, numbers, motions, influences of the stars. The nature of a star properly so called, is the same with that of the heaven, wherein its placed; the Scripture mentions no difference between their nature; and the parts of simple bodyes, (such are the heavens,) are of the same nature with the whole. Besides, if the stars were not of the same nature with the heavens, they should be of an elementary nature, and so their motion should be direct and straight; whereas its ever circular. And yet a star is not so transparent, subtil, and thin a body as is the other part of the heaven, for if so, it could not shine, reflect, and cast forth light, more then doth the orb or heaven wherein it shines. A thin and diaphonous body, as the air, may receive, but not reflect light. It hath therefore more thicknesse and condensation, then the other parts of [Page 406]the heaven, that so it may reflect and cast forth those beams which are cast upon it by the sun; and in respect of that compactnesse and thickness wherein the star exceeds the other part of heaven, the orb or heaven in which the star shines, is not unfitly compared to meer and pure water, but the star to water congealed or turned into ice, Ipsi coeli quantum ad omnes partes in se quidem luminosi sunt, Lumine corum substantiam penetrante, non tamen nisi ratione astrorum, possunt lumen de se refundere Ex hac sua densitate et Compactione, habent ut possint radios solares ad se emissos reflectere. Titelm. phys. p. 98. or (as some make the comparison) the heaven wherein the star is placed, is like a broad and plain plank, or cloven board, but the star like the knot or knurle in the board.
2. Wandring stars Gr. [...].
There are two sorts of wandring stars. 1. Such as are commonly and properly called the seven planets, which are termed planets or wandring stars, not because they wander more then other stars, or are rovingly and uncertainly carryed hither and thither, (for they have a most constant and regular motion, which they duly fulfil in their set and definite times;) but they are called wandring; or planets, because they proceed in their orb, by various and different motions, keep not the same distance nor situation among themselves, nor one place under the firmament; nor are alwaies of one distance from any of the fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. but move sometimes more swiftly, sometimes more flowly; and are sometimes higher, sometimes lower, sometimes appearing with more light, sometimes with less, yea sometimes not appearing at al, Unde Cicero planetas dictos existimat, per antiphrasim: q. minime errantes. according to their particular motions.
The other sort of wandring starrs, are but appearingly such, and improperly called such, and they are termed [...], (or according to Aristotle [...]) such as dart, Stella discurrentes, transvolantes, trajicientes. leap, and run hither and thither, and wander into several parts of the heavens, and (oft) fal down upon the earth, they being only hot and dry exhalations gathered together in a round heap, and yet not compacted throughly, elevated unto the highest part of the lower region, and there [Page 407]only kindled by antiperistasis, Ovid 2. Metaph. De [...] lapsa sereno qu [...] si non Cecidit, possit cecidisse videri, s [...]pe etiam stellas vento impendente videbis precipites Coel [...] labi—Virg. 1 Georg. Decidua sydera. Plin. and seeking to ascend higher, by the sudden cold of the middle region are beaten back, and so appear as though stars should slide and leap from place to place. I conceive that Christ speaks of these stars, Matth. 24.29. where he saith, the stars shal fall from heaven. Thus Aug. l. 2. de civ. dei cap. 24. vid. Lud. Viv. Comment.
And that our Apostle speaks of these stars, as it is the opinion of Junius, Perkins, Diodat, and also of sundry among the Papists, as Cajetan, Lapide, Lorinus; so seems it very probable, considering that tho the 7 planets have various & different motions in their orbs, yet their motions are so regular and constant, that they are certainly known even before they have fulfilled them, and also give clear direction to a man concerning times and seasons, and the parts of the heavens and earth; and therefore it seems not probable, that the Apostle would call these seducers wandring stars, or (as the Syriack) seductrices, or (as the Arabick) caliginosas, by comparing them to the seven planets: And besides, as the punishments contained in the former metaphors of trees, clouds, waves, are the continuations of the three foresaid resemblances, so the punishment which the Apostle subjoynes, [blackness of darknesse] seems a continuation of the metaphor of wandring stars & is such as agrees not to the seven planets, but to these meteors or transitory impressions or exhalations, which though for a time they flame and blaze brightly, yet quickly go out and end in soot, smoak, and black darknesse.
2. Why doth our Apostle here call these seducers stars, and wandring stars.
1. By giving them this title of stars, I conceive our Apostle intends either first to shew their duty, which was as Christians, especially as teachers of others, to shine like stars before others, both by their doctrine and life, and by both to be holily influential upon them: [Page 408]or 2. (rather) the Apostle by calling them stars, would insinuate what they desired to be esteemed and accounted among the people, namely the eminent and glorious lights of the Church, such as were fixed in heaven in respect of their meditations and affections, such as directed others in the way to heaven, afforded spiritual heat and life and quickning to them; whereas indeed, they were but false lights, wandring stars, such as led or rather mis-led people into the waies of error and destruction. And both these reasons of the Apostles calling these seducers stars, are made more then probable by that frequently used and elegant comparison of scripture, wherein the Ministers of the Church are set forth by stars. Dan. 8.10. Rev. 12.4. Rev. 1.16. Rev. 2.1. Dan. 12.3. They who turn many unto righteousnesse, shal shine as the stars. Apoc. 1.20. the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches, &c. and most fitly may the Ministers of the Church be compared to stars. In regard 1. of their nature: a star is of the same nature with the heavens, celestial, not Elementary; Ministers should be pure, Job. 25.5. 1 Tim. 4.12. 2 Cor 6.6. blamelesse, inoffensive; they should teach facienda et faciendo, voce et vitâ, by lip and life, tongue and hand; their profession is holy, they are compared to Angels, called holy Angels; the prophets were called holy Prophets: In their heart they should experimentally find the work of holinesse, and in their conversations express it. 1 Cor. 3.5.6.7 Ephes. 4.11. 2. It is the nature of a star to be receptive of light, and that from the Sun; Ministers should abound in the light of knowledg. They are called lights; their lips should preserve knowledg, they should be apt to teach: and as the stars beams are borrowed from the sun; the calling, gifts, abilities of the Minister are from Christ; he hath set them in his Church, he is with them, without him they can do nothing; he gives them work, strength, successe, wages.
2. Stars in respect of their situation and position, they are high placed above the earth; and thus Ministers [Page 409]should be stars advanced above others, as in respect of their calling, which of all others is the most excellent and honourable, and of their gifts of wisdome &c. so of that high regard, and reverend esteeme, double honour which the faithfull should bestow upon them. As they have the highest place in the Church, so walking worthy of their place, they should have the highest place in the hearts of beleevers; but especially they should be high and heavenly in their aimes, affections, Conversations: they should carry themselves as the Prophets and Ministers of the most high; they should not undertake their high and glorious function for low and base ends, for honour, wealth, Ease, but for the advancing of Christ, the bringing of soules to heaven. Their affections must not be set upon these things which are below: money and possessions should lye at their feet, not their heart. An earthly minded minister resembles a clod, not a star; their Conversation should be in heaven. A Star would give no light, if it were not in heaven. Instruction is made profitable to the people by the heavenly carriage of the minister: Stars are of a round sphericall figure, and an orb or boul toucheth the earth not as a plane, but only in puncto. A little earth should seem enough to a minister, 1 Tim. 6.8. And as the greatest stars, in regard of their distance from the earth appear but small, so those ministers who in gifts, and graces are most Eminent, 1 Cor. 4.9.13. are yet in the opinions of men, small, vile, Contemptible, the off-scouring of the world, and basely esteemed: this is their lot, but withall, Mat. 20.26. it should be their Care to be little in their own esteeme, though never so higly advanced above others, considering that as Gods free love gave them their place, and glory, so their own pride may quickly take away both from them.
3. Stars in respect of the different degrees of their glory. One star differs (saith the Apostle) from another [Page 410]star in glory. 1 Cor. 15.41. There is one glory of the Sun, another of the Moon. In Christ Jesus is the fulnesse of light and knowledge, and to his Ministers he variously and differently dispenseth his gifts, there are difference of administrations, diversities of gifts, diversities of operations, 1 Cor. 12.4, 5.6. though the same Spirit, Lord, God. To one is given by the spirit the word of wisdome, to another the word of knowledge, &c. the selfe same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. Ministers have gifts differing according to the grace that is given them. There are severall notes in Musick, yet all make up one harmony; and there are sundry and different qualifications in Ministers, yet all tending to the Churches use and benefit. And therefore
4. Stars in respect of their usefulnesse and beneficialnesse to the Church. Stars are not made to be useful to themselves but others. Ministers must not seek their own, but others good. Stars give direction, light, influences, &c. Its a great help to mariners, when they can see a star in a dark night. When Paul and they sailed with him could see neither Sun, nor star for their direction, they were without all hope of coming safe to Land, Act. 27.20. Many poor souls are cast away for want of ministers to direct to Christ: they should be like that star, which shew'd the Wisemen where to finde Christ. And (as they did, so) people should rejoyce with exceding joy when they see such a star. Ministers (as stars) should give light to, and be the light of the world, both in respect of Doctrine and Conversation. A minister must not hide his gifts & put his candle under a bushel: nor should others extinguish these Lights, either by withdrawing the oyle of maintenance, or blowing them out with the wind of persecution. These stars must shine though dogs bark, though men shut their eyes, and in a night of persecution; yea then most brightly. Their light should shine that God may be glorified. 1 Tim. 4.12. They must be examples in word, Conversation, Charity. [Page 411]&c. 2 Tit. 7. 1 Pet. 5.3. 1 Cor. 4.16. 1 Cor. 11.1. In all this shewing themselves patternes of good works ensamples to the flock, that others may follow them. In short, ministers (as stars) must be Common goods, usefull by their influences of warmth, moysture, to refresh and to make fruitfull the weary, the barren hearts of their hearers, to beget and increase grace in them; and although they see not a desired successe of their labours, yet they must not refraine their influences, nor be discouraged with the earths unfruitfulness,
God speaks of the Pleiades and Orion, Job. 38.31. which are a company of stars in the heavenly Orb; Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? When the Pleiades arise, its Spring; they open the earth, they make herbs and flowers grow, the trees to sprout, and the plants to wax green. Orion produceth cold, the Winter comes when that shewes it self. Good Ministers (as the Pleiades) quicken the heart, warm and make it fruitful in holiness. Bad Ministers (like the stars of Orion) cool and dead peoples hearts to all goodness.
5. Stars in respect of their swift and Constant motion; they must be stars for motion, as well as for promotion: Tis true, their motion should only be in their Orb and Sphere; they should not so visit others Dioces, as to neglect their own; nor be Busie-bodies in other mens matters, nor intangle themselves in the affairs of this life, nor follow other vocations, lest they teach those of other vocations to fall into theirs; they must not leap out of their own element, nor forsake the employments of Prayer, Study, Preaching, &c. In worldly affairs, they should be as fish out of the water; but yet in their own Orb let them move: Loytering is unsutable to a Harvest-man; they must be Workmen that need not be ashamed; its better to be worn with using, then rusting. Pauls glory was not, that he Lorded it, but that he laboured more then they all: they must never [Page 412]think their labour is ended, till their life be ended: they must look upon their motion and work as circular, it must ever return; and the end of one service, is to be the beginning of another: their lives must be a succession of labours, praying, studying, preaching, conversing; (yea (if God wil) conflicting must be added) like the waves of the Sea, overtaking one another: The wages will countervail for all.
6. Stars, in respect of their Duration and Continuance. They are set in a Firmament: All the powers of Hell, shall never utterly remove Ministers. Till we all meet in the unity of the faith, &c. We shall have Pastours and Teachers. Jer. 31.36. The Ordinances of the stars, are such, as shall not depart from before God: They are established for ever: Jer. 33.25. God hath made a Covenant with the day and night, not to be broken: Till the end of the world, there shall be stars in the Heaven, Ministers in the Church; Christ will be with them, and therefore they must needs be to the end of the world: Could they have been pul'd down, that work had long agoe been done. When Satan the Dragon did his utmost, he left two parts of three behind; and that third part which he swept down, were not fixt in their Orb, not faithful to their trust, but wandring stars: but they who are in the right hand of Christ, shall never be pluck'd away; Christ will have his number alwaies. And they who will go about to pull the stars out of his right hand, shall feel the strength of his right hand. The destroying of the Ministry out of the Church, is but a vain attempt; and yet, though these stars shall shine to the end of the World, they shall shine no longer. When the night of sin and ignorance is at an end, when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise, and the Lord Jesus himself shall come, there will be no more use of these stars. When we come to drink out of the Fountain, we shall no more need the Bottle: Prophesies shall fail, Tongues shall cease, Knowledge shall vanish [Page 413]away: When that which is perfect is come, 1 Cor. 13.8, 10. then that which is in part shall be done away. Christ shall both succeed, and exceed them. All the stars in the Firmament, cannot make a Day; nor can all the Teachers in the world convey that light, which Christ will afford in Heaven. Oh how gloriously will our Sun shine, when all the (somtimes) glorious stars, shall be swallowed up in his glory!
2. The Apostle cals these Seducers not simply stars, but wandring stars: And why wandring stars? (understanding such as are sliding, gliding, shootting, falling stars?)
1. In regard of the matter of these stars: They were but earthly exhalations, when they seemed to shine in all their glory; they were not of that pure Celestial nature, with those stars which they did so resemble; they had Earthly, or as Austin speaks of the rich Glutton, they had animas triticeas, wheaten hearts, they sought themselves; their belly was their God, they minded earthly things: Earth and Slime was their food and fewel: and when the earthly exhalation of Profit, Pleasure, and Honour was spent, these stars went out: They were not like stars that shined to benefit the earth, but meerly to be fed, and by being fed by the earth. They were slimie, sensual, unclean creatures, when they were most shining; servants of corruption: They taught false Doctrines for filthy lucres sake, and steered their Course by the Compass of Profit; so that though the world (had they been true stars) should have been guided by them, they were guided by the world.
2. In respect of their outside shewes and hypocrisie: Though they were but slymie matter, yet they had a bright and shining appearance; They transform'd themselves into Angels of light. They had a glorious outside, and an inglorious inside; like those false Teachers among the Galatians, they did onely [...], make a fair shew outwardly. A wandring star, hath nothing [Page 414]of a star but the shew; and these nothing of Ministers, but onely the Title; they were confutations of their professions, being without knowledge, vain janglers. their science was falsly so called; though they might term themselves Gnosticks, and pretend to be the only knowing men in the Church, they left the Scripture, and onely regarded Fables. They were stars without influences, they neither furthered the holiness, nor the peace of their Hearers; their Doctrines tended to carnal liberty and uncleanness; and soon did their mistaken Admirers find, that peace and true liberty could never be found in such waies.
3. In respect of their instability: A wandring star keeps no certain course: the skilfullest Astrologer knows not which way it will move. They who leave the truth, know not where they shall stop; the heart is onely established with grace: A soul without holiness, is a Ship without Ballast; it holds every thing, and truly holds to nothing. These Seducers, like a skipping, dancing star, wavered, doubted, were Scepticks in Religion, not settled in the Truths thereof, halting between several opinions; not placed upon a firm Foundation, nor partaking of the full assurance of understanding, neither firm to the Truth, nor their own opinions; forgetting what they have been, not understanding what they are, and not knowing what they shall be.
4. In respect of * [...], errare, Mat. 18.12, 13. and 22.29. Seducere; Mat. 24.4. Mark 13.5.6. Joh 7.12. inerrorem induci & seduci, Mat. 24.24. Luke 21.8. 1 Cor. 15.33. Errare & in errorem mittere, 2 Tim. 3.13. [...], seductor, Mat. 27.63. 2 Cor. 68. 2 Joh. 7. [...], spiritu [...] erroris, five errenei, 1 Tim. 4.1. seduction, and misleading of others. A wandring star, is an unsafe guide: The word [...], here translated wandring, comes from a word which signifies to err or wander, as also to seduce, mislead, or make another to err; and is a word borrowed from Travellers, who are wandring in a wrong way. The Syriack read this place, stellae seductrices. The unwary Mariner, Per devia ducunt. who sails by a wandring star, may as well dash upon a Rock or quick-sands, as hit upon his Haven. The Traveller, who follows a wandring star, [Page 415]must at best wander, and is in danger of falling into a River, or Quagmire. The blind lead the blind, and both fall into the ditch. The deceived Seducer, is also deceiving. Many follow these false, these fools-fires, though into pernicious wayes. Seducers have most Disciples; and though the Leader shall be deepest in damnation, yet the follower will be as comfortless, in falling with him, as inexcusable in following of him.
5. Lastly, Wandring stars, in respect of their extinction, and being put out. These wandring stars continue not. Seducers may flash, and blaze, and flourish for a while, but they are not permanent: The true star, shall stand as long as the Frmament; it may be eclipsed, and there may be an interposition of Clouds, to hinder its appearing; but never shall there be a destruction of its light. How frequently have we seen the Erroneous with their errours, like blazing Meteors, go out in smoak and stink, when the sweetly influential stars, the faithful Ministers of the word, have still increased in their pure lustre!
Seducers, like transitory Meteors amd impression, end (as I said in the former part of this verse) in the smoak of shame and dishonour here, when their errours are discovered; and hereafter, when for their errours they are punished: whereas he who is a real, fixed, influential star, continues to shine both in the brightness of the truth which he holds forth, and in the glory of that recompence which he shall enjoy: In respect of the former, the brightness of truth, even dead, he lives; the truth which he preached, lives for ever: Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but not one jot of his heavenly Doctrine. Do the Prophets (saith God by Zachariah) live for ever? but my words, Zech. 1.5. and my statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets, did they not take hold of your Fathers? the truth lives, though the man dies. The Ministers may be bound, [Page 416]but the word of God (saith Paul) is not bound, its influence cannot be restrained. Heresie hath often dyed with the Heretick, but truth survives the Preacher. In respect of the latter, the glory of recompence, the true star, the faithful Ministers, shall shine as the stars in the Firmament, with the light of glory, who have conveyed to so many the light of grace: whereas, should the wandring star not be extinguished, and end here in the darkness of ignominy, and discovery of his black errour, yet his end hereafter shall be the blackness of darkness in hell. This for the opening of the first particular, Their title, wandring stars. The second followes: Their estate; To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Three things here are briefly to be opened:
- 1. The horribleness and dismalness of the punishment it self: blackness of darkness:
- 2. The certainty and unavoidableness thereof: Its reserved for them.
- 3. Its durableness and continuance: 'tis for ever.
For the first: [...] ab [...], retineo quia per ten [...] bras gradum sistere cogimur. The dismalness of their misery is set out by blackness of darkness.
As darkness is properly taken for the negation, defect, and privation of light; and according to the notation of the word, for such a want of light, as hinders a man from walking; like that Aegyptian darkness, by which people were constrained to sit still, Caligo tenebrarum, Bez. Perfectio tenebrarum, Arab. and not to rise out of their place for three dayes: So the addition of this word [...], blackness, notes a further increase of this darkness, such (as is spoken concerning that in Aegypt) as may be felt; Darkness seems to be black. and thereby the same thing is imported with that of utter darkness, (Mat. 8.12. and 21.13. and 25.30.) i. e. such as is outmost and furthest removed from the region of light; for this Phrase blackness of darkness, Caligo Caliginosissima. Isa. 60.2. Gross darknes. intends as much, as most black, thick darkness; it being a kind of Hebraical Phrase, like unto that, Mat. 26.64. the right hand of Power; [Page 417]that is, a most powerful right hand: So Rom. 7.24. a body of death, is put for a mortal body: And Eph. 4.24. holiness of truth, for true holiness.
This thick, black, gross darknes, is not to be understood Properly, for that negation, Of this, see Part 1. p. 503. at large. or privation of light by reason of the absence of the Sun, &c: but Metaphorically, for great calamities and miseries. And in Scripture there is a three-fold misery set forth by darknesse:
1. External misery, John 30.26. When I looked for good, evil came unto me, and when I waited for light, there came darkness. So Isa. 5.30. If one look to the Land, behold darkness and sorrow. So Isa. 8.22. Zech. 1 15. Joel 1.2. Amos 5.20. They shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darkness. Isa. 47.5. Get thee into darkness, O Daughter of the Caldeans, &c.
2. Internal, comprehending 1. 1 Pet. 2.9. 1 Thes. 5.4. John 3.19. Darkness and blindness of mind; the want of the saving knowledge of God and his waies, Luke 1.79. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, &c. Ioh. 1.5. The light shineth in darkness, &c. Eph. 5.8. Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, &c. 2. Spiritual dissertion, or the withdrawing of the light of Gods countenance; and thus Heman complains, Psal. 88.6. That God had laid him in darkness. And Isa. 50.10. Who is there among you, that walketh in darkness, and seeth no light? &c.
3. Eternal darkness. The miserable condition of the damned in Hell, by reason of their separation from God, called utter darkness, Mat. 22.13. and 8.12. because farthest distanced from the light of Gods pleased countenance; and this estate of misery is fitly compared to darkness, both in respect of the Cause and the Effect of darkness: 1. The (though only deficient) Cause of darkness, is the withdrawing of the light; so the separation from the favourable presence of God, Matth. 7.23. Matth. 25. is the greatest misery of the damned: the Hell of Hell, is to [Page 418]be without Gods loving and gracious presence in Hell. 2. The Effect of darkness, is horror and affrightment, and trouble. There's no joy but in Gods presence, in that there is fulness of joy, The misery of this condition, see described, Part 1. p. 505. Aeternis tenebris damnari decet qui sese transfigurantes in Angelos lucis, veram lucem non praedicarunt, sed suasmet magis tenebras & caligines dilexerunt, & in meras errorum tenebras alies pracipitaverunt. Lorin. in loc. Rectè in tenebras tormentorum mittentur aeternas, qui in Ecclesiam Dei, sub nomine lucis tenebras inducebant errorum. B [...]da. Psalm 16. but without it, only weeping and wailing; blackness of darkness, thick darkness, purae tenebrae, not the least glimpse and crevis of light, and mixture of Joy. And most fitly is this punishment of blackness of darkness, threatned against these Seducers, who transformed themselves into Angels of Light, and yet held not forth the light of the Truth, but loved darkness more then light, and lead others into the darkness of sin and Error: and how just was it, that they should suffer by thick, true, perfect darkness, who deluded the world with seeming and appearing light!
2. For the certainty and unavoidableness of this punishment. Jud. saith, this blackness of darkness is reserved for them [...]. The word properly imports the solicitous keeping and reserving of a thing, lest it be lost or taken away by others; a keeping with Watch and Ward, most accurately and vigilantly, as a Prisoner is kept. Hence it is that Act. 4.3. and 5.18. [...] is used to signifie a Prison. In this place therefore (as there is implyed Gods present forbearance to punish these Seducers with the blackness of darkness, it being reserved and kept for them, not actually (as yet) inflicted upon them, so) there is principally intended the certainty and unavoidableness of this punishment, and the impossibility of the pertinacious sinners escaping thereof. Nor is it any wonder that this estate should be thus certainly reserved for them; Den [...]tat firmum & ratum divinae justitiae decretum de suppli [...]ie aeterno. Lorin. in loc. [...]. 1 Pet. 1.4. the firm and irreversible decree (saith Lorinus, in this place Orthodox) of God to punish them for ever, or that ordaining them of old to condemnation, mentioned ver. 4. is here denoted, so that as in Gods decree, Heaven is an Heritance reserved for the Faithful; this misery is reserved for the wicked. Needs likewise must this punishment be reserved [Page 419]for incorrigible sinners, if we consider the Truth, Justice, Power, Omniscience▪ of God; His Truth, it being impossible for him to lye; and who is as true in his threatnings against the obstinate, as in his promises to the returning sinner. His Justice, whereby he will not suffer sin alwayes to go unpunished, Rom. 2.5, 6. and will render to every one according to his work: His Power, so great, that none can deliver the wicked out of his hand; yea, so great, as that they can neither be able to keep out, nor break out of Prison; his Omniscience whereby none can escape, or hide himself from his eye. In short, needs must this blackness of darkness be certainly reserved, if we consider the foolish diligence even of sinners themselves; they daily hoarding up their own Damnation, and treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; like some precious treasure which they keep so carefully, as if they were afraid that any should bereave them of it.
3. For the durableness and continuance of this their misery; the Apostle saith it was for ever. The misery, Everlasting chains under darkness, ver. 6. Everlasting fire ver. 7. and yet the equity whereof, see Part 1. pag. 508.588. Eternity it is that shall make their fire hot, their chains heavy, their darkness black and thick. How long doth a dark night seem in this world! but how dark will a (not long, but) eternal night seem in the next world! How hideous is that woe, whereby the wicked shall ever strive to part with that which they shall never lose, and crave that which they shall never procure! If it be so great a misery for a starving Prisoner to be kept without bread but for a day or two in a Prison; and to see through his grate, Passengers laden with that plenty of provisions, which he must not so much as touch, Oh what a woe will it be, for the Damned ever to see the Faithful feasting themselves in the fruition of Gods presence, and they to know that they shall eternally starve (and yet not dye) in the want of the least drop, the smallest crumb of that full Banquet of Happiness, [Page 420]which the Saints ever enjoy in Gods presence!
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Observ. 1. The world, without the Word, lies in a condition of darkness. The Ministers of the Word, are the stars, the light of the world; take them away, and every place is full of darkness. The people to whom Christ preacht, sate (before) in darkness, in the region and shadow of death, Matth. 4.16. The Ephesians, sometime were darkness, (saith the Apostle.) Before the Gospel is savingly delivered, we are under the power of darkness; and darkness is that term from which we are called when we are brought out of our natural estate. And in three respects is the world without the Gospel, in darkness.
1. In respect of ignorance; 1. It knowes not God. The Gentiles are said to be such as knew not God: The Word only discovers him savingly, because it onely makes known God in Christ. The wisest of the Heathens, till this light came, could not know him; The world by wisdom knew not God, they worship [...] the unknown God. 2. It knowes not the will and wayes of God: and this followes from the former, for he who knowes not what another is, cannot know what he loves. The will of God is only laid down in the Word of God. There is no service pleaseth him, but that which himself prescribes. The knowledg of the Heathen only serves to render them inexcusable for not doing what they knew, not able sufficiently to understand all they had to do.
2. The world is in darkness in respect of wickedness and unrighteousness. A man in the dark sits still and forbears to walk, as he doth who is in the light. Wicked men are unprofitable, slothful servants, unactive in the wayes of God, [...]zek. 15.45. not those by whom God gaines. They are like the branches of the Vine, in building, good [Page 421]for nothing. He who is in the dark, wanders, stumbles, or falls every step that he takes. Every wicked action, is a falling into a slough, and down a precipice, a deviating from the way of Gods Commandments; and therefore sin is in Scripture called a work of Darkness. Yea, they who are in the dark, are not ashamed of the filthiest garments which they wear, or of the uncomeliest actions they perform; and they who are without the light of the Word, in a night of sin and ignorance, blush not in the doing of those things, which he, who is Spiritually inlightned, is ashamed to hear, behold, or think of. What profit (saith the Apostle) have you in those things whereof you are now ashamed?
3. The world is in darkness, in respect of fear, horror, and misery: Men in the dark, tremble at the stirring of every twig: There were they (saith David, Psal. 14.5.) in great fear: and it is called their fear; Fear not (saith the Prophet, Isai. 8.12.) their fear. It is only the light of Gods countenance which scattereth the clouds of fear. Till fury be taken out of God, fear can never be removed out of men; but through the fear of death, they are all their life time subject to bondage; Hebr. 2.15. when any misery befals them, they tremble, as did the Elders of Bethlehem at Samuels coming, they not knowing whether it comes peaceably or no: nor is it any wonder that the darkness of fear, should here seize upon those who expect utter darkness hereafter in the everlasting separation from the light of Gods countenance, wherein there is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. We see (then) the true cause, that the world hath ever so much hated the word, which discovers its deeds of darkness. I have given them thy word (saith Christ) and the world hath hated them; Joh. 17.14. and he who was the word Incarnate, was also hated by the world, because he testified that the deeds thereof were evil. Hatred is the genius of the Gospel (saith Luther) [Page 422]the shadow which ever attended upon the Gospels sunshine. Though Saints are blameless and harmlesse; the sons of God without rebuke; Phil. 2.15. yet if they wil shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, they must look for opposition; but how irrational and groundlesse is this hatred of the world! for though the word manifests its deeds of darknesse, yet withall it discovers its destruction in eternal darknesse; and were the light thereof beheld and loved, it would prevent it and lead by the light of grace, to that of glory.
2 Obs. 2 Great is the difference between the light which shines here, and that which we shall behold hereafter. In the night of this world, we have stars to give us light; we have a light which shines in a dark place; but when the sun shall arise, 2 Pet. 2. all these stars shal be put out: Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, are given but til we all meet in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledg of the Son of God. Eph. 4.13. and then prophesies and tongues shall cease, knowledg shall vanish away: when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away, when we shal behold the light of the sun, we shall no more want star-light, or candle-light; the immediate vision of God, shall abolish these: the people of God shal be above Ordinances and Ministry, when they shall be above sin and error: In heaven, all our difficulties and knots shal be untied: though here we are doubtful of many truths, yet in heaven we shall truly have cause to say, now Lord, thou speakest plainly, and not in parables. He who died in his child hood, in heaven knowes more, then the wisest Solomon ever did upon earth; and that little light or speak of joy which here the Saints had, shall in heaven be blown into a flame, their bud of joy shall there be a ful blown flowre; Psal. 97.11. here light is sown, but there shalbe a harvest, a fulnesse of joy: Oh blessed estate!
3. Obs. 3 People should labour to walk and work by the light of the Ministry. Yet a little while (saith Christ) is the light [Page 423]with you, walk while ye have the light, John 12.35. let us walk decently (saith the Apostle Rom. 13.13) as in the day. The light of the Gospel must put Christians upon a two fold manner of walking and working.
1. Speedily. 2. Accurately.
1. Speedily. Our light is not lasting, our candle may soon be put out; the most brightly shining Minister, shall ere long, be put under the bushel of the grave, if he be not before blown out by the blast of Satans rage, and the worlds persecution; your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live for ever? Zech. 1.5. The light of life is but very short, but the light of the seasons of grace are far shorter. A book which is not our own, but only lent us to read on, and that but for a day or two, we make much hast to read over. In the grave, there is no more preaching, no more hearing of Sermons; The living, the living they only praise God, and preach to men; short seasons require speedy services. Oh what a shame is it that we should have torn so many books, worn out so many Ministers, and yet have learned no more lessons I which of us can promise to our selves, that our light shall shine half so long, as we have formerly abused it, and wantond in the shining of it? Oh what would damned spirits give for one glympse of ministerial light again! would they not (think we) might they have such a favour, plie their work faster then ever they formerly did, or now we do? we have scribled out much paper to no purpose, we are almost come to the end thereof, and had we not then need behusband our time, and write the closer?
2. Let us walk and work accurately in the shining of ministerial light; decently, precisely. Though our light be but star-light in comparison of what it shall be in heaven, yet it is sun-light, compared with that which shined in the time of the old Law, and since in the daies of Popery; we are now neither darkned with Jewish [Page 424]shadowes, nor popish fogs; we live under the clearest dispensation of the covenant of grace; we therefore live worse, than did they in those times, because we live not better: How many Kings and Prophets would have thought themselves happy, to have seen one of the dayes of the Son of man which we enjoy! our great salvation neglected, wil be damnation great and heightned; what a shame is it for us, that many have done their masters work better by dim moon-light, than do we by clear sun-light! How shameful is it for us in the light of the Gospel, to shew our selves in the filth and sordid rags of sin and profanenesse! Cast off the works of darknesse in a Land of light.
4. Observ. 4. Its an high degree of impiety for any, especially for those who pretend to be inctructers of souls, to mislead and seduce others from the right way. The sin of these Seducers, it was to be false Lights, and wandring and misguiding Meteors, who pretended to be the eminent and true Teachers of souls, and to be both influential and directing stars. Severely do we find Christ denouncing woes against the Scribes and Pharises; and with much holy acrimony doth he reprove them for being blind and mis-guiding Guides, calling them several times fools and blind: Mat. 23.16.17, 19. And verse 26. he names the Pharisee, Thou, blind Pharisee: And ( whosoever (saith Christ) shall break one of the least of these Commandements, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven: that is, shall be contemned, and not counted worthy to be so much as a Member of the Church of God in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul sharply expresseth himself against seducing Teachers, calling them the Ministers of Satan, 2 Cor. 11.15. False Apostles, deceitful Workers, verse 13. Grievous Wolves, Dogs, Acts 20.29. Phil. 3.2, &c. How sad a complaint is that of the Prophet! Isa. 3.12. They which lead thee, cause thee to erre. And Chap. 9.16. The Leaders [Page 425]of this people, cause them to erre, and they that are led of them, are destroyed. And Jer. 23.13. I have seen folly in the Prophets of Samaria, they have caused my people Israel to erre. No sins are so eminently, and inexcusably sinful, as those committed against mens callings and professions. What wickedness greater, then for a Judge to be unjust, for a Physician to be a Murderer, for a Seer to be blind, for a Guide to misguide? Tis not so heinously sinful for any, as for a Teacher of souls, to be a deceiver of souls: Who shall shew a soul the way to heaven, if a Minister (like Elijah, who pretending to lead the blind Syrians to Dothan, guided them to Samaria, where they were in the midst of their Enemies;) shall lead them the way to Hell? Who should save life, if they who should break the bread of life, give poyson in stead of bread? Or if they whose lips should feed many, only infect and poyson many? And further, what seduction is so destructive as soul-seduction? Is the misery of leading mens bodies into Ditches and Quagmires by a fools fire, comparable to the woe of being led into the pit of perdition, and the ditch of hell and damnation by an erroneous Minister? he that is mis-guided into hell, can never be drawn out again: here tis true, vestigia nulla retrorsum, no coming back. The cheating a man of his money, though it be a loss, its a recoverable one; but he thats deceived of his soul, guld out of his God, what hath he more to lose, or what possibility hath he ever to repair his damage? There is no folly so great, as to be coggd and inticed out of life eternal; nor any deceit so cruel, as to cheat the soul: nothing can be light, wherewith the soul is hurt. Oh how deeply then is God provoked, when he delivers up a people to the mis-guidings of Seducers! Its better ten thousand times to have a tyrannical Prince over our bodies, then to have a treacherous Pastour over our souls; and yet how do people groan and sigh under the former, [Page 426]and how slightly do they regard the latter! Surely, if for the sins of a people, their Magistrates are oppressive; for their sins it is, that their Ministers are erroneous. How just is it with God, that they who will not be Disciples to truth, should be Proselytes to errour! that when none will follow the seeing Guide, many should follow the pernicious wayes of the blind Guide! The true deserving cause of peoples seduction, is, (as the Prophet speaks) The people love to have it so. The Prophets prophesie falsly, and the people love to have it so; Jer. 5.3. They will not indure sound Doctrine, they will not suffer a Micaiah to instruct them, and therefore God sends them a Zedekiah to seduce them. They who received not the love of the truth, had strong delusions sent them from God, and upon them the deceivableness of unrighteousness took hold, 2 Thess. 2.10, 11. The Prophet is a fool, (saith Hosea, Chap. 9.7.) The spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The instructers of Israel, were foolish, blind, and erroneous; because the iniquity of the people in rebelling against the light of truth, had stirred up God thus to shew his great hatred against them. God never sends darkness among a people, till they shut their eyes against the light. If we will imprison truth, God may justly set Seducers loose. Oh labour then to follow true, if you would not be misled by false lights; and to be directed by fixed, if you would not be seduced by wandring stars. To conclude this needful point (then) with caution both to Ministers and People: To the former, I offer my humble thoughts in this hearty request, That they would consider, the best of them have sins enough of their own to answer for, without contracting more by the misleading of others. As inexcusable it is, for Ministers to lead people in a wrong way, as for people not to follow Ministers in a right way. If then we would not mislead any in this night of darkness and sin, let [Page 427]us be sure to be fixed stars our selves: let us neither be Planets nor Meteors, let us be fixed to our Scripture Principles, deliberately chusing what we should love, but then stedfastly loving what we have chosen. They who are to lift up their voyce as a trumpet, If the stars and sea-marks should change their places, & remove to and fro, the passengers, who look for constant direction, are in danger of being carried and cast upon quick-sands & socks. must not give an uncertain sound. A Minister must be fixed in the Scripture orb, not having a particular motion of his own, but being meerly carryed according to the motion of that his Orb. In all the reproaches a Minister meets with for turning and moving, let his evident adhering to the word, manifest that tis not the Shore, but only the Boatman that moves; the times will at length come up to a Minister, if he be stedfast; however, let him take this for an invincible ground of incouragement, He shall be blessed in directing those who will not be directed by him; Whosoever doth, and teacheth men to observe the Commandements (saith Christ) shall be blessed, Mat 5.19. though he cannot prevail with men to observe them. Christ propoundeth not the conversion of people, as a property of a faithful Minister, but the doing and teaching the will of God. To people, I present the needfulnese of taking heed that they be not misled; to beware of wandring stars, false Prophets, Seducers. Its possible to follow a mis-leading Guide with a good intention, but not with good success. It may be equally hurtful to receive the word of God, as the word of man; and to receive the word of man, as the word of God. Hearers must take nothing upon trust; they must love men for their Doctrines, but not imbrace Doctrines for men: They must try the spirits, examine all by the Word, and suffer no opinion to travel, unless it can shew the Scripture Pass, and pronounce its Shiboleth. The Scripture (like a sword of Paradse) should keep errours from entring into our hearts. We should not be like Children, to gape at, and to swallow whatever any puts to our mouths. In understanding we should be men, and every opinion which cannot endure [Page 428]the beams of Scripture sun, is to be thrown down as spurious. Build your faith upon no emenency of man; ever be more forward to examine, then to admire what you hear; call none Master but Christ; the errour of the Master, is alwaies the tentation, oft the destruction of the Scholar.
5. Obs. 5. Great is Gods forbearance towards sinners. Blackness of darkness is reserved for them, not presently inflicted upon them. Frequently doth the Scripture proclaim Gods long-suffering, and his being slow to anger: The Apostle mentions his forberance and long-suffering, Rom. 2.4. He endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, Rom. 9.22. He gave the old World an hundred and twenty years space of repentance. He endured the manners of the Israelites forty years in the Wilderness, Acts 13.18. Four hundred years he spared the Canaanites, Gen. 15.16. And sundry waies may this greatness of Gods long-suffering be amplified. 1. He forbears punishing sinners, though he see their sin, and be most sensible thereof; he sees all the circumstances of sin, the most secret and retired wickednesses in the heart, all are naked, ript up, ransackt, anatomized before him; men forbear to punish men, because they know not the secret machinations of mischiefe, which are against-them but God, though he beholds all, yet he spares long. 2. He doth not only behold sin where it is, but lothes it wherever he beholds it; though he sees it every where with an eye of observation, yet no where with an eye of approbation. Sin is opposite to his very nature; man may love sin, and yet be stil a man; but if God should love sin, he should cease to be God: he is under sin, as a cart pressed with sheaves, Amos 2.13. All the hatred that man bears to all the things in the world, which are either hateful or hurtful to him, is not comparable to Gods detestation of the least sin. 3. He is able to punish sin, wherever he either looks upon it or loathes [Page 423]it. As the secretest sinner is within the reach of his eye, so the strongest sinner is within the reach of his arm: he is as able to throw a sinner into hel, as to tel him of hel; he in all his forbearances, loseth not his power, but exerciseth his patience; he can, but wil not punish. 4. He doth not only forbear punishment, but seeks to prevent it: He waits that he may be gracious. He is not willing that any should perish: he strikes more gently for a while, that he may not strike eternally; and he stayes and warns so long, that hee may not strike at all. 5. He not only suffers sinners long, but all the while he puts forth mercy towards them, upholds their beings, feeds, heals, helps them. Sinners all the while they live, spend upon the stock of mercy; God is at much loss, and great charges, in continuing those mercies, which they ravel and wanton away unprofitably. 6. He forbears to punish, without expecting any benefit to himself by it: If his long-suffering bring us to repentance, the good redounds to us: It is then (as the Apostle speaks) salvation. He loseth nothing, if we be lost; he hath no addition to his own happiness, if we be happy. 7. He is patient and long-suffering to sinners, who is much, nay infinitely our superior, and more excellent then are we. Here, a King, the King of kings waits for Beggars; our Lord and Master stands without at the door and knocks: Oh infinite condescention! How widely doth Gods carriage towards man, differ from mans towards man? We (poor worms) have short thoughts; man will presently upon every affront or neglect, be ready to call fire from heaven; tis well for poor sinning man, he hath to do with a long-suffering God: His fellow-creature could not, would not be so patient. God truly shewes himself a God, as well by sparing, as by punishing: I am God and not man, and therefore (saith he) the seed of Jacob are not destroyed. We further may gather, that its no sign that men are innocent, [Page 430]because they are not punished: It follows not, because they are great, that therefore they are good; this followes only, God is good. Nor doth Gods forbearance prove a sinner pardoned, it only speaks him for a time (though the Lord knows for how short a time) reprieved. Justice is not dead, but sleepeth. God is sometimes said to hold his peace, never to be dumb: though he be long-suffering, yet he is not ever-suffering. Gods patience, shewes not that God will alwaies spare us; but that we should now repent. It is not a pillow for the presumptuous, but a cordial for the penitent. God will require interest hereafter, for all his forbearance. The longer the Child is in the womb, the bigger it will be when it comes forth. Judgment delay'd, will be increased, unless prevented. Justice comes surely, though slowly to the impenitent; the blackness of darkness is reserved for them, who are unprofitable under light: If Patience make thee not blush, Power shall make thee bleed. O thou (though) forborn sinner, labour for faith in threatnings; take heed of self love, and shunning the thoughts of that severity, the feeling whereof, thou canst not shun. Study the end of Gods forbearance, and the vanity of all earthly refuges, and reliefs, against punishment rseerved for an incorrigible sinner.
6. Observ. Ʋlt. Things earthly should teach us things heavenly. Its our duty to make a spirituall improvement of earthly objects. The Apostle makes use of clouds, trees, stars, waves, to spirituall purposes. The world is a great school to teach us the knowledge of God. [...]. Though we have a superiour doctrine, yet we must not neglect this. The Prophets, Apostles, and Christ were much in this kinde of instruction, by similendes taken from the creatures; every of which is a ladder made of many steps to raise up to God. A paire of spectacles whereby we may read God, the more clearly and plainly. Our meditation should be like a Limbeck, [Page 431]into which flowres being put, sweet water drops from it; and out of every earthly object put into our meditations; some heavenly considerations should be drawn and drop. All the creatures in generall, Agustine saith, be more doubted whether he had a soule in his body (the effects whereof were evident,) then whether there were a God in the world. Solil [...] l. 31. we should improve to the Learning, 1. of Gods nature, and 2. our duty. His nature, The invisible things of God are discovered by the creatures, Rom. 1.20. His power, in making them of nothing, and upholding them (as he made them) all with his word. His eternity, for he that made them, must needs be before them. His wisdome is manifest in the beauty, variety and distinction, order and subordination of one to another, the exquisite cunning in the frame of the smallest creature. His bounty and goodness, in the endowments bestowed upon every one in its kinde, his large provision for them all.
We should likewise 2. improve all the creatures in generall to the learning of our own duty. As 1. to depend upon him for all necessaries, Act. 17.28. Rom 11.36. Psal. 104.29. Deus mundum animat. Audimus Creaturam tribus vocibus, nobis loquentem, prima vex dicit, accipe: secunda dicit, redde: Tertia dicit, fuge. Accipe beueficium, redde debitum, fuge supplicium. Hug. de sanc. vic. l. 2. de Arc. mor. c. 4. as they doe for provisions, their eyes waiting upon him: we must knock at his door, and go to his fountain, Cast our Care upon him; in him we live and move, and have our beings. Of him, through him, and to him, are all things: he is the great householder of the world. Jezreel cryes to the corn, wine and oyle, these cry and call to the earth, this calls to the heavens, but these call to God, upon whom they all depend: and shall not we doe so? 2. All creatures teach us to love him and serve him, they being love-tokens, God loving us better then them; and all being instruments of punishment, if we fail in our duty. They all serve the Lord by a perpetuall Law. The winds and the seas obey him; fire, snow, hayl &c. Psal. 148.8. All the creatures, even frogs, grashoppers, lice, are his souldiers. He is commander in chief, they are all at his beck. In obedience to him they will run from themselves, and cease to be themselves; the sun will stand still, goe back, the sea will be a solid wall, the fire will not burne, iron will swim. And they serve [Page 432]us all so constantly day and night: they serve us with their sweetest and choycest gifts: the Sun with influence of heat and light. Trees with delightfull fruit, and beasts with fleece and life, to their own wasting and destruction. Oh how should we serve him even to the loss of the best things we have, and how should the constant standing of the creatures in that station wherein God at the first set them, make us ashamed of our apostacy from God and rebellion against God!
3. All the creatures in general teach us earnestly to expect a better condition than that which we now injoy. The earnest expectation of the Creature (saith Paul) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Rom. 8.19. If there be something in the Creatures ( groaning and travelling in paine untill now, tired out by mans sin, and made subject to vanity) like an earnest expectation of, and waiting for this manifestation; should not man who is the sinner, and hath made the creature subject to vanity, who hath also reason, and who shall partake of more happinesse by that manifestation, much more desire and look forit? shall man (of all Creatures) rest in, and be contented with a state of vanity? The very unreasonable, yea insensible Creatures, will teach us to soar to a more heavenly pitch of spirit.
And as all the Creatures in generall may (thus) be improved spiritually, so 2. may every particular Creature severally, whether in heaven or on the earth. For heavenly Creatures, the Psalmist tells us Ps. 19.1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Ps. 8.3. When I consider thy heavens, the worke of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man? &c. The pure and excellent matter of the heavens speaks the greater purity and excellency of the workman; how pure also our hearts should be, which are his lesser heaven; and how pure they should be who expect to live in those heavens, into which no impure [Page 433]thing must enter: how hatefull also sin is to God, who for mans sin will one day set this beautifull house on fire. The height of the heavens, shewes the infinite height, and honour, and majestie of him whose standing house is above all the visible heavens, whose pallace, seat and pavillion is in heaven above. The circular, round figure of the heavens teacheth us the infiniteness and perfection of the maker. The firmness and stability of the heavens, declares Gods truth and unchangeableness, whose word is their pillar; the safety likewise of that place to lay up our treasures in: their swift motion and revolution in 24. houres, instructs us of the readiness and swiftness which we should express in duty. The light of heaven (of so unknown a nature) shewes us the incomprehensible nature of God. The diffusiveness and Comfortableness of light, speaks what Comfort is in the light of his face, which (as light) though imparted to thousands, yet is not impaired or made lesse for the good of others. The purity of light contracting no filthiness, though looking into it, teacheth us his holiness, who though he sees sin every where, yet loves it no where, and is ever in an irreconcileable opposition against all the works of darkness. The oneness, brightness, purity, greatnesse, influences, eclypses of the Sun, teach us the sun of righteousness, the Lord Christ, is the only Saviour, most swift to help, the brightness of his fathers glory, holy, powerfull, infinitely usefull and beneficiall, the directer, enlivener, cherisher of his Church: and all this though darkned (once,) eclipsed and clouded with a naturall body and sufferings. The moon her borrowing of light from the Sun, her changes, spots, inferiority, governing of the night, disappearing at the arising of the Sun, speaks the dependency of the Church upon Christ, her many changes and various conditions in this life, her defects and deformities, subordination to Christ, as also the uncertainty and variableness [Page 434]of every worldly condition, the smalness and lownes, of all earthly enjoyments, their spotedness with many cares, fears, wants, their usefulnesse onely while we are in the night of this world, their disappearing and vanishing when the sun of righteousness shall come in glory. The stars, in respect of the constancy, continuance of their Courses in their orbes, Communicativenesse of light, differing one from another, their glistering, and influences, declare the stability of Gods promises to his Church, which can never be broken; Jer. 31.35. our duty to continue in our own sphere, to afford our help and light to them who stand in need The different degrees likewise of grace and glory hereafter, the clearest shining of grace in the night of affliction. Of the Clouds we have spoken before. The ayre also by its invisibleness, ubiquity, preservation of our life, should minde us, that God is, though he be not seen, that he is every where, within me, without me, included in, excluded from no place; the preserver also of our lives, in whom we live, move and have our beings. The windes by their thinness, piercing, powerfull motions, freedom, inconstancy, teach us as Gods invisibility, his irresistable power in his works of nature and grace, the free motion of the spirit, and the secret working thereof in the heart; Job: 3.7. Motum scimus, nescimus modum. Job. 7.3. so the vanity, and levity of man, and all humane things, the inability of any Creature to withstand God, the misery of those who are not built upon Christ as their rock and foundation, the unsetledness of the erroneous, tossed with every wind of doctrine. Of the earth likewise with the creatures there, as well as the heavens, should we make a spirituall improvement▪ Speak to the earth (saith Job. 12.18.) and it shall teach thee. How excellint (saith David) is thy name in all the earth? The earth (then) by its hanging on nothing, its stability, plenty, lowness, the labouring about it, and its receiving of seed, instructs us of the infinite power and strength [Page 435]of God, the ability of his word to sustain the burdens of the soul, the riches of his throne, whose foot-stool is so deckt; Gods goodnesse to sinful man, in spreading and furnishing for him such a table; his care for his people, he so cloathing the grass of the field, and providing for the very beasts; the unsutablenesse of pride to man, the earth being his mother, whence he came and whither he goeth; it teacheth us also wisdome, to get our hearts above these drossy, earthly objects, and to have our conversation in heaven, the pains also which we ought to take to dig deep for wisdome, which is more precious than gold, and to receive the seed of the word into a prepared soyl, a good and honest heart. The trees upon the earth, in respect of their variety of sorts, growth, shelter, fruitfulnesse, decay, teach us, that difference which is among men; some are wild trees of the wood, and of the field, without the Church; others are planted in the garden and ortyard of the Church: some have neither the fruits of holinesse, nor the leaves of profession; others have leaves, who are without fruit; others (trees of righteousness) have both: some are as the taller Cedars, some as the lower shrubs, some are rich and noble, some poor and contemptible in the world; but when both are turned to ashes, then both alike; the ashes of a beggar are as good as those of a King. Some men fall by old age and want of natural moysture, others are before their time cut down in their green years with the ax of death. There is no spiritual growth or continuance, unlesse we draw life from Christ our root; the more pruning, watring, and heavenly influences God bestowes upon us, the more fruitful should we be; the more laden with fruit, the more we should bow our selves down in humility and communicativenesse; the very grasse tels us we are withering creatures, and that the flourishing condition of the wicked is much more withering: The corn dying and fructifying, teacheth us the resurrection. [Page 436] Ask now the beasts (saith Job) and they shall teach thee: They all teach us the greatnesse of his possessions and riches, whose are the beasts upon a thousand hils: also the thankful knowing and owning of God; the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his Masters crib. The Lion teacheth us the strength of Christ, and the cruelty of Satan. In the horse and mule, we see our untaught and refrectary nature: In the sheep our disposition to wander, and our duty to hear and follow our shepherd, and our helplessness without him; also his meeknesse and patience, Ut pastor docebat, ut ovis sil [...] bat. Aug. who as a sheep before the shearers was dumb, and opened not his mouth: In the lamb likewise observe him who was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; who was a lamb for innocency and gentlenesse, a sacrificed Lamb for spotlessenesse and satisfaction. The dog and swine wil mind us of the uncleannesse of sinners, and especially of the odiousness of Apostacy, which is a turning to the vomit, and to the wallowing in the mire. The serpent teacheth us wisdome to preserve our selves: Psal. 22. Job 12.7. The very ant, providence and diligence to lay up for the future: The despicable worm represents the lownesse of him for our sin, who was a worm and no man; the taking of beasts in a snare, should put us in mind of the snare of sin. Ask likewise (saith Job) of the fowles of the air and they shall tell thee. These may support faith, and scatter our distracting cares, they being fed though they neither sow nor reap; Their observing also of their several seasons, The Stork in the heavens knowing her appointed times, and the Turtle, Crane, and Swallow, observing the times of their coming, teach us to know the judgment of the Lord, and the day of our visitation; what a lively pattern of meknesse and simplicity is the dove! the early chirping and singing of the birds in the morning, may teach man his duty to praise God as soon as he awakes in the morning; as a godly man once said to a Bishop who was sleeping in bed too long in the morning, surrexerunt passeres, et [Page 437]stertunt pontifices. How much greater is the care of Christ in protecting his servants, than that of a hen toward her chickens, in gathering them under her wings! Speak to the fishes of the sea, (saith Job) these have a speech though they are mute. The sea it self by its rage, fury, and foaming, shews us the inconstancy and troublesomeness of the world, the unquietness of wicked men, the power of him who stils it and keeps it within its bounds: By its fulness notwithstanding the running of so many floods & rivers out of it, it directs us to him who is an inexhaust fountain of good, having never a whit the lesse for all he gives: the running of the rivers into the sea whence they come, shews that as all is from him in bounty, so all must be returned to him by duty: The fish themselves wil teach us the misery of want of government, Hab. 1.14. Prov. 10.23. Tit. 3.3. Joh. ult. Luke 5.10. Matth. 4.19. when men are as the fishes of the sea, that have no ruler over them, but the greater devoureth the less. Their sporting and skipping, speaks the disposition of sinners, who sport in sin as their element before they are [...]cht; and the power of the gospel, whereby they are taken: The fewness of those which are catcht in comparison of those which are left, shewes the small number of those who are taken with that net, compared with those who are left: In the catching (also) of the fish with a net or hook unawares, we are taught the folly of men taken with the baits of sin, who think not of their time, but are taken as fish in an evil net. In short, the whole creation is a scripture of God, Creati [...] mundi scriptura DeiUniversus mundus Deus explicatus. a book, and the heaven, the earth, the waters are three great leaves; the creatures contained in these are so many lines by all which we may read a Divinity-lecture. Though the creature is not able to lead us into a saving knowledg of the mysteries of Christ, yet it gives us such advan tages to know God, as willeave us inexcusable in our ignorance. How should this doctrine humble us, who by our apostacy are become the scholars of the creatures! Christians, who have both teason and [Page 438]grace, may learn from those who have not so much as sense and life: Adams knowledg of God, led him to the knowledg of the creatures, but now man by the creature, learns the knowledg of God; like Balaams ass, the creatures now teach their Master, man is now sent to their school, put back like an idle truant to the lowest forme; How happy were man, could he learn of the very ass, Oneramus asinum, et non curat quia asinus est, at si in ignem impellere, si in foveam praecipitare velis, cavet quam um potest, quia vitam amat, et mortem timet. Bern. which (as Bernard observes) wil bear any load because he is an ass; but if we offer to thrust him down some steep hil, or drive him into the fire, he holds back, and shuns it; whereas a blockish sinner hath no fear of that which brings eternal damnation? But (of all others) how justly reproveable are they who in stead of furthering their salvation, hasten their destruction by the creatures, in abusing them to excess, riot, gluttony?
To conclude this point, for the putting us upon making an holy use of created objects, let us consider that there is a double use of every creature, natural and spiritual. If we content our selves with the natural use without the spiritual, we do not take the one half of that comfort in the creature which God gave it for: and indeed, what do we more then the brute beast, which hath a carnal and natural use of the creature as wel as we? These seducers for knowing things only naturally (as we have heard) are compared to brute beasts; let us not therefore as children, look only upon pictures and gaies in our books, and gaze upon the gilded leaves and cover; but let us look to our lesson which we should learn therein. And let us know, we never use the creatures as their Lords, unlesse we see our Lord in them: a carnal man profits his body, a spiritual man his soul also by them; Every creature may be a Preacher to him, in whom the spirit first inwardly preacheth. A man may be cast into such a condition, as whereby he may be hindred from good actions; but what unlesse a bad heart, can hinder him [Page 439]from good meditation? And as it is with Bees, though they gather hony from a flower, they leave it as fragrant and fresh as they found it; so we gathering spiritual thoughts from our worldly enjoyments and employments, in stead of hurting and hindring them, we benefit and inrich our selves, and advance them.
THese two verses contain the third branch of the description of the lost estate of these seducers in respect of their sin and misery, which in these words are further set forth by the ancient and infallible prophesie of Enoch, and that prophesie is 1. declared and propounded here in these two verses. 2. Applied to these Seducers in the (16, the) following verse.
In the declaration and propounding thereof, I consider,
1. The Preface prefixed by Jude, before it.
2. The Prophesie it self.
1. The Preface, in these words, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these. Wherein two particulars are considerable:
1. The Excellent person here mentioned, Enooh; describ'd from his descent and Pedegree, the seven [...]h from Adam.
2. His honourable performance, He prophesied of these.
[Page 440] 1. In the Prophesie it self of the last judgement. I find,
1. A note of incitement, to cause a regard to the following description of the judgement, in the word Behold.
2. That Description of the judgement, to the regard of which we are incited; which description of the judgement hath two parts:
- 1. The coming of the Judge to judgement.
- 2. The Carriage of the Judge in judgement.
1. In His coming to judgement, I observe,
- 1. His Title, The Lord.
- 2. His approach, Cometh.
- 3. His Attendants, With ten thousands of Saints.
2. His Carriage in judgement is observable,
- 1. Toward the wicked, wherein I consider,
- 1. The manner of his judging, which is to be by way of conviction: to convince.
- 2. The
Parties to be judged,
all the godly: Which Parties are considerable,
- 1 In their Nature, so they are ungodly.
- 2 In their Numbers and extent, so they are said to be all the ungodly.
3. The Causes of the judgement, which are two:
1. Their Works, considerable in their general nature, said to be ungodly. 2. In the particular manner how they were committed, which they have ungodly, or ungodlily committed.
2. Their Words, where is to be noted,
1. What kind of speeches they uttered, hard speeches.
2. By whem they were uttered, ungodly sinners.
3. Against whom, against him.
2. In the second, viz: the Application of this Prophesie ( v. 16.) Jude shewes, that these Seducers were the ungodly which hereafter are to be judged; and this [Page 441]their ungodliness, Jude there discovers by several signs:
1. Their discontentedness. 2. The following their lusts. 3. Their boasting. 4. Their admiration of mens persons
1. I begin with the Preface, and in that, first with the consideration of the Person here mentioned, Enoch, the seventh from Adam.
EXPLICATION.
Three things here I shall enquire into by way of Explication.
1. In what respect Enoch may be said to be the seventh from Adam.
2. Why the Spirit of God in Scripture, doth exactly set down the genealogies and successions of the Patriarchs, whereby it comes to be known, that Enoch was the seventh from Adam.
3. Why Jude, chusing to alledge the prophesie of Enoch, cals him the seventh from Adam.
1. For the first, Enoch was so the seventh person from Adam, as that both Adam and himself must be computed to be two of that number. Enoch was not so the seventh from, as to be the seventh after, or the seventh that came of Adam. The like expression is used Mat. 1.17. All the generations from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations: into which Abraham and David themselves must be taken to make them up fourteen. And thus the scripture frequently reckons Enoch the seventh, as Luke 3.37, 38. 1 Chron. 1.1, 2, 3. Gen. 5.3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18. 2. Enoch was not so the seventh person from Adam, as that there were no more then seven persons begotten from the time of Adam to Enoch; for all those six Patriarchs, mentioned before Enoch, are said to beget sons and daughters, and of those sons and daughters there came likewise a great number; but Enoch is called the seventh from Adam, because he was exactly the seventh in that particular, direct line from Adam to him.
[Page 442] 2. For the second. The Spirit of God so exactly mentions the succession of the Patriarchs of old, for sundry reasons: As first, To discover his care to keep, and uphold his Church, by shewing where it was, in what families it continued, and how it was by his goodnesse preserved and propagated in all, even the worst and most corrupt ages of the world: The posterity of Cain was to be totally destroyed by the flood, and God swept them away with the beesome of destruction; to what end therefore, should they be so fully recorded? but the seed of Seth, was to be preserved both in the deluge of waters, and of all succeeding calamities; and therefore their descents and successions are punctually recorded.
2. God hereby shewes the great delight which he took in speaking of his Church and Children, and their concernments, above all other people in the world. The sacred history mentions the posterity of Cain, but occasionally, and by the way, as the relation thereof had a necessary connexion with the history of the Church, and as making it more clear and complete; and therefore the scripture relates not either the successions or actions of those without the Church in a constant course or series of history, nor doth it use that exactnesse and industry in treating of them, which it useth in setting down the affaires of the Church. Hence it is (as Rivet well notes) that those things which seem to be of lesse moment and weight are so diligently described in Scripture story, as Jacobs flocks, his pilled rods of poplar and hasel, the conceiving of the flocks before them, and bringing forth cattle ringstraked, Vid. Riv. exercit. pag. 630 631. i [...] 30. Gen. speckled, and spotted &c. when as the holy story passeth over in neglective silence, the beginnings and progress of the great Empires and Dominations of the world, as of the Assyrians, Egyptians, Grecians, &c. (subjects, in appearance, more worthy the mentioning;) the Lord herein (saith the fore mentioned [Page 443]Author) being like a Master of a family, Ut patri familias cura major est liberorum et domesticorum quam latisundii; sic etiam apud Deum majoris sunt m [...] menti familiae piorum quam quaevis aliae quae in toto orbe dominationi ejus subsunt. Ut parons liberorum et familiae ita curam gerit, ut suorum gestus, sermones & actiones omnes observet, et quaecunque ipsis accidunt diligentissimè consideret: sic Deus in familiis piorum tamquam in domo su [...] observat et numerat capillos illorum, actiones, studia, et gressus eorum respicit &c. Riv. in Gen. pag. 632. who doth not with so much care and delight regard his grounds and fields abroad, as he doth his familie and children with their carriage and concernments at home in his house, where he diligently and delightfully observes all the speeches, gestures, actions of his little ones, and whatever befals them, &c.
3. God by this exact delivering the successions and genealogies of the Patriarchs, would shew the excellency and antiquity of the scriptures, above all other historical writings in the world, which are not able to afford us a certain Cronologie concerning the times of the Patriarchs before the flood.
4. Especially by this recording the successions of the Patriarchs; the Lord discovers who they were of whom the true Messiah came according to the flesh, and this he doth both for the honour of Christ as man, whose pedigree that it might be perfect, was to be preserved and distinctly drawn as far as from Adam, as also for the confirmation of our faith, touching his incarnation; the Scripture mentioning the order, and names, of all his progenitors, even from Adam; and thereby suffering us not to doubt of the truth of his humane nature, unless we wil imagine that all the names and successions of his progenitors mentioned from the beginning of the world to his birth, were fabulous and fictitious, and so make the continued line from Adam to Christ to be a continued lye, which to imagine were not more blasphemous and antiscriptural, then ridiculous and unreasonable. And the scripture by telling us that Christ came of those ancient Patriarchs, Causa cur Lucas as [...]enderit ad Adamum usque, 1. Ut doceret beneficia Messiae, non saltem pertinere ad Abrahamum et eos qui illum secuti, sed ad patres Abrabamo anteriores, imo ad ipsum Adamum. 2 Ut vin dicaret Messiae gratiam, non sal [...]em sc extendere ad gentem Judaicam. & filios Abra [...]ae, sed et ad multo, Ada filios extra Abrahami posteritatem, qui benedictionis ejus debeant esse participes, Japheto adducto in tab [...]rnacula, Semi. Spanhem. Dub Evang. 19. p. 91. would teach us that the benefits of the Messiah were extended to those who lived far, yea farthest before him, to the patriarchs before the flood, and even to Adam himself, who by his sin gave occasion for a Saviour to visit poor man with mercy, and (as some note) by setting down the progenitors of Christ, who [Page 444]lived before the flood, and so, long before Abraham, the Scripture would teach that the grace of Christ extended it self not only to the Jewes, and the seed of Abraham, but also to many of the sons of Adam, who were not of the posterity of Abraham; but were to be made partakers of the blessing by Christ, when Japhet should be brought to dwel in the tabernacles of Shem.
3. Touching the third, viz. why Jude here terms Enoch the seventh from Adam. Sundry reasons may be assigned. As,
1. To distinguish this Enoch from another of that name, who was the third from Adam, and of the posterity, yea the immediate son of cursed Cain, mentioned Gen. 4.17.
2. To shew how holy and zealous Enoch was in sinful times. In a most dissolute and prophane age, he prophesies of, and foretels the destruction of sinners: Though he perhaps did them but little good by his prophecy, yet they did him as little hurt by their prophaneness. This taper was not extinguish'd by the damps of a sinful generation; this star shined brightly in a black night: Enoch the seventh, as afterward Noah the tenth from Adam, walked with God in a corrupt age, and did not only preserve his own holinesse, but prophesie against others unholiness.
3. He cals Enoch the seventh from Adam, to gaine the more credit and esteem to that prophesie, which he is about to mention, and the more to convince these seducers of the truth thereof; in regard both 1. of the great antiquity, and 2. the eminent piety of him who uttered this prophesie.
1. By the antiquity of a prophet who was the seventh from Adam, The Apostle wisely insinuates not only that even from the beginning of the world, holy men have prophesied of the end thereof; but that even then the miserable end of the wicked was foretold; [Page 445]and that they who were farthest remote from these seducers, and who therefore were most impartial, and could not be byast by affection to any fides or parties, prophesied of their overthrow.
2. By the eminent and renowned piety of this Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who walked so closely with God, and did so please God, that he accounted him too good to live long upon earth, and would not stay for his company in heaven, til he had finish'd the ordinary time of living, but took him to himself, before he had lived to half the years either of his father, or of his son. I say, by this admirable holiness of Enoch, Jude might stop the mouths of these seducers, and render them either unable to resist the evidence of this prophesie, or inexcusable in not submitting to it.
This eminent holiness of Enoch, is in Scripture expressed in these words, He walked with God; words few in number, but great in weight; and which (upon this apt occasion) I shall briefly explain.
By this walking with God, more generally, is rather intended, his giving up himself to the worship and service of God, in the leading a hooy life, then a peculiar Ministration, in the discharging the office of the priesthood; this walking with God, being the same with his walking in the way of Gods commandments; and his ordering the whole course and frame of his conversation according to the will and commadment of God; and this metaphor of walking with God, is taken from two friends, unanimously and willingly going the same course and path together as companions. More particularly this his walking with God, 1. Intends a setting of God before his eyes, and a living alwaies as in his sight, and as being present with him, and thereby his humble reverencing of, and fearing to offend God, and a studying to please him, and to approve himself to him, ( walk before me, and be thou perfect, Gen. [Page 446]17.1.) Gods presence with us, being as certain and undoubted, as is his with whom we do after a sensible manner and openly converse.
2. This walking with God, intends a friendly and familiar acquaintance and conversing with God; (for can two walk together unlesse they be agreed?) God did not pass by Enoch as a stranger, These words he walked with God, the 70 read [...] ben [...]placuit Deo▪ Unde Author Ep. ad Hebr. Cap. 11.5. [...]. nor use him as a page, only to go after him; but (as a friend and companion) he walked with God: Thus Abraham is called Gods friend, and Christ calls his disciples his friends; and his humble familiarity and acquaintance with God, consisted 1. in his apprehension, of a propriety, and interest in God: without this he would have stood far from God, as a foe, a fire, not walked with God as a friend: anothers God cannot comfort us, a souls solace stands in this pronoune my, my Lord, my God: when Enoch foresaw that God was coming to execute judgment upon all the wicked, he then knew that God was his God and friend. 2. Enochs familiar acquaintance with God, consisted in a friendly and mutual speaking and discoursing between God and him; this was no silent walking, no dumb shew; God spake to him by exciting of his graces, and putting into him holy motions, and telling his soul, that he was his salvation, by directing him in his doubts; he spake to God, by daily meditation, ready acceptation of his grace, by pouring forth all his cares by prayer into the bosome of his heavenly father, by repromission of obedience, praying continually; see Psal. 27.8. Psal 119.164. taking his counsel in his doubts. Psal. 119.24.3. This humble and holy acquaintance appeared, in Enochs exercising his fiduciary relying and reposing himself upon God, without anxiety and solicitousness, for the providing for him in all his necessities; he cast all his care upon God, as a faithful friend, who cared for him; he wholly committed himself and all his affaires to his God; he did not wound himself with [Page 447]heart-cutting cares; he was not like the Lion that roars after his prey, but like the sheep that depends upo [...] the care of the shepherd: Thus David, the Lord (saith he) is my shepherd, I shall not want. 4. En [...]chs humble and sweet acquaintance with God, stood in his enjoying of all his comforts in God, and God in them; he so much esteemed communion with God, that he accounted nothing sweet, but what he had with his love and smile; he was not a slave to sense, delighting himself only in the good things themselves which he enjoyed; he accounted every condition sweet or bitter, so far forth as God did communicate himself in it, or withdraw himself from it; so that he was neither unduly lifted up in his enjoyments, nor dejected in his losses; the God of his delight being ever, and evenly the same: nothing was delightful to Enoch by it self, but only God, other things only as they came with God, as though water is only sweet, when something sweet is put into it; yet hony and sugar are sweet alone by themselves.
3. This walking with God, notes, spiritual motion; there cannot be a walking without a moving. Enoch neither stood by God, nor sat with God, but walked with God; the commandments of God, were the way wherein he walked and moved; and every act of obedience was a several step taken in that way: in all his motions, he observed some duty enjoyned, and eschewed some sin forbidden, so that he praised God with the language of his conversation; he could not have walked unless he had been as practical as he was speculative and professing; only works speak, words are silent before God and man; nor did he only practise this walking with God, when he was exercised in the duties of Gods immediate worship, but also when imployed in the works of his particular place and calling. In the performing of the former, he was (as it were) in heaven; in the doing of the latter, heaven [Page 448]was in him; the necessary employments of his calling took him not off from conversing with God; they did not make him at all renounce this: Paul when he was making of tents, did not cast off conversing with God; neither doth piety make us idle in our places, nor doth moderate diligence in our callings make us impious and prophane: and indeed, we cannot walk with God unlesse we serve him both in our general and particular callings.
To conclude this discourse of Enochs walking with God, with a touch of the manner how he performed it; 1. He walked with God solely, he admitted no intruders into, or disturbers of his heavenly converses with his God; the world followed him as a servant, walked not with him as a companion: (this God cannot abide) he rather used the world, than enjoyed it; or rather used it as if he used it not: God cannot bear the the company of Mammon; the love of God and the world cannot stand together. 2. He walked with God evenly, and in a direct course; he halted not, like the Israelites, 1 King. 18.21. between two: he made straight pathes for his feet; he gave allowance to no wandrings, nor false waies; they who wil walk in bypaths, walk not with God, but alone; and therefore Enoch walked in a straight path to heaven, and turned not aside to crooked waies, not treading in the way of any known sin. 3. He walked cheerfully, not unwillingly or constrainedly, or sadly, his walking being with him who is the God of all comfort: and indeed, God takes no pleasure in that mans company, who accounts not walking with him a pleasure; Enoch was not by fear, or force, or restraint detained before the Lord, but he delighted himself in him, looking upon holy duties as his priviledges as wel as his tasks: nor indeed can any walk cheerfully, but when with God; his company makes the valley of the shadow of death to be a pleasant way, a bitter condition sweet, and a sweet condition [Page 449]sweeter. 4. He walked constantly, unweariedly with God, from strength to strength, til he appeared before him in the heavenly Sion. Enochs goodness was not by fits and starts, like that of some hypocrites; he did not take a step or two, but walked with God: this his walking with God, lasted as long as his continuing in the world; he did not set out wel only in the beginning, but held out wel also, til the end of his race.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. The faithful must be holy in unholy times. Enoch in a corrupt age walked with God, Obs. 1. and kept close to him when most left him; Saints must shew that they are not of the world, when they are in it; they must not be conformed to the world, nor run with the world to the same excess of riot; 1 Pet. 4.4. As their righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of hypocrites, so must it condemn the unrighteousness of the profane: the rest of their time, they should not live to the lusts of men, but to the wil of God; they are forbidden to follow a multitude to do evil, to go in the way of evil men, Prov. 4.14. to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknesse: Elijah was zealous for God, Eph. 5.11. when he scarce could discern any to joyn with him: as Noah was saved by God, when the earth was overwhelmed with an inundation of water, so did he walk with God, when it was overspread with an inundation of wickedness; Psal. 71 7. Isa. 8.18. Jer. 20.7. when David was looked upon as a monster, Isaiah and the faithful as wonders, yet they retained their integrity; when the wicked have almost made void the law, even then, nay therefore must the godly love Gods Commandments, and esteem all his precepts, Psal. 119.126, 127, 128. concerning all things to be right: God is a friend, a father; and as this friend loves us in the day of our adversity, so should he be beloved, in the day when his honour suffers. May not God say to those that temporise with his enemies for fear, or hope, Is this your kindnesse to your friend? Is there any time, wherein God hath left or forsaken us; and should there [Page 450]be any wherein we are weary of walking with God? Is God our father, and can we endure with a tame patience to see him dishonoured? Its reported of a Son, who though (before) dumb yet seeing enemies about to kill his father, presently cried out, kil not my father. The sons of God, must glorifie their father, and shine as lights in a crooked and perverse nation. Ephes. 2.15. Nor can the truth, much less the strength of grace, or the power of godlinesse, ever be manifested, unless it appears in times of opposition; there is no power seen, where there are no difficulties contended with; wherein doth the life of grace, differ from death in sin, if Christians shal be carried down the stream of their times unholinesse? Grace wil ever conflict with that sin, either in the soul or the world, which it is not able to conquer; it wil condemn it, though it cannot execute it. And what more unreasonable (lastly) then for us to mete to God with one measure, and to expect that he should mete to us with another! How can we expect that he should love us in that day, wherein he wil leave the most, if we wil not walk with him in this day when most forsake him! Study then (O Saints) to give the name of God reparations for all the disgrace which wicked men cast upon it: Discover the true noblenesse of your Christian spirit, and of minds spiritually generous, by gathering vigour, and growing invincible, from the very oppositions of the wicked, and the impieties of your times.
2. It is a singular and blessed priviledg to walk with God. Observ. 2. It was the great happinesse and ennoblement of Enoch, this seventh from Adam. The happinesse of walking with God, appears in these particulars. 1. It is a persons greatest honour: tis honourable to follow, much more to walk with a King; how great is the dignity then of walking with the King of Kings! Its Gods lowest condescension to walk with us, and our highest advancement to walk with him. [Page 451]The company of sin debaseth, and the walking with God dignifieth a man. God w [...]th man, is the greatest with the least; Henoch was one of the greatest on earth, he was royally descended, the seventh from Adam in the blessed line; he had six such tutors and teachers, (viz the six first patriarchs) to make him learned, as never man had; but that which is testified of him as his honour, was this his walking with God. Oh unconceiveable dignity, conferred upon poor impure dust and ashes, to walk with him who is attended with ten thousand times ten thousand of glorious Saints and Angels for his followers! 2. In this walking with God, is greatest delight and solace: solitarinesse is uncomfortable, company sweet, but none so delightful as Gods; he who hath not God to bear him company is alone, though he hath all the comforts of the world to accompany him. Of all the creatures, there was not found a fit companion for Adam, nor can any creature fitly sute the soul with its society; good company is the life of our lives, the sweetnesse of our abodes on earth; but Gods company is the truly good company; there is no melody in any consort to which this delight is not added. A man is said to be alone, though he have many beasts with him, if he be without the company of man; and a Christian is alone notwithstanding all the world be with him, if God be absent. Whom (saith the Psalmist) have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee, Psal. 73.25. A sinner is the truly solitary, sad person: oh how sweetly contentful is his life, who when all his outward comforts leave him, can say (as did Christ when his disciples left him alone) yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. John 16.37. Quid timet homo in sinu Dei positus? 3. In walking with God, there is true safety; what need that man fear who lies in the bosome, or walks by the side of such a father, though he walks in the vale of the shadow of death? who dares offer that man any injury [Page 452]that walks with a King? Of this largely before, part. 1. pag. 58.59, 60, &c. 63. no evil is so insolent as to arrest us, when the King of Kings graciously accompanies us. Fear not Abraham (saith God) I am thy shield, Gen. 15.1. If God be with us, who shall be against us; If he wil help, what shall hurt us? his society is our true safety; so long as God was with Samson, the Philistins could not conquer him; but when the Lord was departed from him, Judg. 16.20 he soon becomes a prey to his enemies: Gods presence is a Saints life-guard; til God leave him, dangers are but trifles; He ever keeps those who walk with him, either from the presence of every misery, or from the hurt and misery of the misery. Lastly, In this walking with God, is the greatest gain and profit to be found; what good thing can he deny us, Psal. 8.4. who denies us not himself? God is not only a shield, but an exceeding great reward: How can he want who is with, and hath him that is all things? God mine, and all mine; he wil fulfil the desire of all that fear him: no good thing shall be wanting to them; nor wil God deny them any blessing, which doth not oppose their blessedness; Psal. 23.1. nor any good, which hinders, not from enjoying the chiefest good; and if he thinks it meet to keep away these externals, he will supply their absence with himself. The Almighty wil be thy gold, Job 22 25.
3. Even of the longest lived Patriarchs, there was a succession, not a constant continuation. Adam the first, Seth the second, Eccles. 1.4. Enosh the third, &c. Enoch the seventh; One generation goeth, another cometh: The coming of new generations, shewes the going and passing away of the old; the later crowds the former out of the world; one goeth away to make roome for another: The longest lived of these ancient Patriarchs, had in the world but his time and turn, which at length ended. It hath been observed by some, that none of them lived (no not Methuselah) a thousand years; and some say the reason thereof was, because God would [Page 453]by their dying before the end of a thousand years, make good his threatning; Ratio valde diluta. Riv. in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die; it being said that a thousand years with God, are but as one day: but in this there seems to be more wit then weight. A more solid reason of their dying within the foresaid terme, seems to be because thereby God would shew, that the longest life of any of the sons of men, in respect of God himself, is but very short, and not able to reach to that space, which in respect of Gods eternity is not a day; Confer longissimam nostram aetatem, cum aeternitate, in ea prope modum aetate quâ illae bestiolae, reperiemur. Cic. l. 1. Tusc. for which cause Cicero▪ 1. Tusc. quaest. compares the longest life of man to that of that beast brought forth by the river Hippanis, which lives not above one day, and dying when the sun sets, dyes then decrepit. Compare (saith he) our longest age with eternity, and we shal be found after a sort, in the same age with that beast. Tis added to the relation of the long lives of every one of the ancient Patriarchs, And he dyed. The repetition whereof, seems not to be vvithout great reason, vvhich was not only to shew the brittlenesse and srailty of mans continuance (even as nothing in comparison of eternity,) but principally to shew the immoveable certainty of that threatning of death against the disobedience of our first parents, notwithstanding the vaine and deceitful promise of the divel; as also to manifest that the holiest men (whose death was the wages of sin) were in this life without that perfect holinesse, required to the seeing of God, Per mortem defecantur, ut fomite pecati cum corpere mortue ad immortaiitatemp; puri resurg [...]nt. Rivet in Ge [...]. exerc. 48. prop. fin. and therefore that they were to be cleansed by death, that with their body of flesh, they laying off the corruption of their nature, might arise pure and spotlesse to immortality. The consideration whereof, should put the strongest, and those who are most likely to live, upon a constant and serious meditation of death; and warn them not to expect immortality in this life, but daily to wait for their certain and appointed change. That blessed saint now with God, Mr. Richard Rogers (who [Page 454]was another Enoch in his age, Sometime of W [...]hersfield in Essex, my Dear and deceased Grandfather. a man whose walking with God appeared by that incomparable directory of a Christian life, his book called the Seven Treatises, woven out of Scripture and his own experimental practise) sometime said in his life time, That he should be sorry, if every day were not to him as his last day: Every morning we arise, let us say, Art thou my last day, or do I look for another? Let us live as if we were alwaies dying, and yet as such as are ever to live. In short, the successions and conclusions of generations, should put us upon holiness of life; as for the preserving a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which followes, so especially, that we may by our holy example, transmit holinesse to posterity; that we (with Enoch) walking with God, the Church of God, and a seed of Saints may be continued (as much as in us lies) in our line. And truly, as otherwise we shall die while we live in the world, so hereby, we shall live when we are taken out of the world, and be like Civet, which when tis taken out of the box, leaves a sweet savour behind it.
4. Observ. 4. All issue from Adam. As Enoch was, so all others were and are from Adam; from him all descend by natural propagation: He was the root, all others but branches; he the fountain, all others but streams. All were hewen out of this rock; an observation which puts us upon sundry useful considerations. It teacheth us humility. As we were from Adam, so he was from the dust of the earth, and that dust from nothing. Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, our great grandfather nothing. They who are proud that they can derive their pedigree so far as Adam, may be humble if they would goe a little farther: Remember whence thou art, and consider whither thou shalt goe; nothing so unsuteable as pride for a clod of the earth. A man can never have too low thoughts of himself, but in the bowing down his nature to accompany [Page 455]with sin. He who would not endure pride in the Angels of heaven, wil not endure it in dust and ashes; and such even great Abraham calls himself; a fitter stile, then most illustrious, high and mighty, invincible, &c. When thou art mounting up in proud and self-admiring thoughts, remember thou art from Adam, earthen Adam. Agathocles a potters son, when he came to be King, humbled himself with setting earthen vessels on his cupboard. If dust be sprinkled upon the wings of Bees, their noises, hummings, risings, wil (they say) quickly cease; when thou beginnest to grow proud, sprinkle thy thoughts with this remembrance, I am but dust. Further, we may hence gather, the wonderful power of Gods blessing, that of one, so many millions should come; from one root such multitudes of branches: God can blesse one into millions, and blast millions again into one, into nothing; Gods powerful benediction multiplied Adams numerous off-spring. He whom God blesseth, shall be blessed; he whom God curseth, shall be cursed: We see the way to thrive in any kind; the blessing of God maketh rich, and without it, thy own industrious endeavours will not help thee: he cursed the fig-tree, and it withered up at the roots. More particularly, we see from whom to beg the increase of posterity. It is from God that Jacob expected and desired in his blessing, that Ephraim and Manasseth should grow into a multitude, Gen. 48.16. See also Ruth 4.11, 12. Hence also, we may observe the goodnesse of God, in continuing the blessing of increase to Adam, even after his fall; that sinful Adam should be the father of such a posterity: God might have said, here is enough of one man, and too much; Ile suffer no more to be of the kind. We destroy poysonful and hurtful creatures that they may not breed. But mark further, that merciful power of God to cause a holy off-spring, a sanctified seed (though not such, as coming of; yet) [Page 456]to come of a sinful faln parent; that God should make white paper of dunghil rags: that any of Adams unsanctified nature, should partake of the divine nature: in a word, that Enochs should be from Adam. Truely, there was more mercy discovered in the changing one Enoch, than there would have been justice put forth in condemning a whole world. In a word, how should this our derivation from the first, put us upon labouring to get into the second Adam; he who is but a man, a son of Adam, is a miserable man, a child of wrath: How careful should we be to get off from the old, dead, poysonful root and stock, and to be branches ingrafted into, and growing upon the living life-giving stock, the Lord Christ! In Adam (saith the Apostle) all dye, and in Christ all are made alive; as we have born the image of the earthly, so should we be restlesse til we bear that of the heavenly. 1 Cor. 15.49.
5. It is our duty, prudently to take our best advantages, for truths advancement. Thus Jude alledgeth here the prophesie of such a person as might in likelihood most draw respect and credit. Of this before, pag. 22. part 1. on these words, the Brother of James.
Secondly in the preface here used by Jude before the prophesie, the performance of Enoch is to be noted, and that was, his prophesying. Jude saith that he prophesied of these.
EXPLICATION.
Three things may be enquired into by way of explication.
1. What our Apostle intends in this place by prophesying.
2. How Jude came by, or whence he received the prophesie of Enoch.
3. why he alledgeth and instanceth in this particular prophesie.
[Page 457] 1. For the first, 1 the word prophesie is in Scripture taken five several waies.
1. See Diodats annotations on 1 Cor. 11.5. Sometimes it signifies no more then to be present at the publick Ministry, and to partake of the doctrine thereof. Thus I understand it in that place, 1 Cor. 11.5. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head; for otherwise women were not allowed to speak in the Church.
2. Prophesie is taken for the written word. 2 Pet. 1.20.
3. Elsewhere to prophesie, signifieth to expound, interpret, and apply the Scriptures, to the edification of the Church. 1 Thes. 5.20. Despise not prophesying, and 1 Cor. 14.3. He that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. So verse 24.
4. Sometimes it signifieth to know and to be able to declare things either past or present, which a man either by nature or industry, is not able to know; and so it signifies to divine; thus it is taken, Matth. 26.68. Mark. 14.65. &c. where they who had blinded Christ, bid him by way of derision, prophesie who it was that smote him; to this purpose said the Pharisee, Luke 7.39. This man, if he were a Prophet, would have known, &c.
5. Strictly and properly to prophesie, is to foreshew, or foretel things to come, or that afterward shall be fulfilled. Thus it is taken Acts 21.9. Philip had four daughters, Virgins, which did prophesie. Thus Ezek. 21.2. compared with ver. 7. So Ezek. 29.2. 30.2. 34.2. 38.2. And thus it must necessarily be taken in this place. Enoch prophesied of these by way of prediction, or he foretold their punishment.
2. 2 For the second, whence Jude received this prophesie or prediction of Enoch. To this some say, that Jude took this prophesie out of an ancient book, [Page 458]written of old by this Enoch the seventh from Adam. True it is, that in ancient times, there were some writings dispersed abroad in the Church, under the name of Enoch, Tertul [...] de hab. mul. cap. 3. and called by the name of Enochs book; and of these Origen makes mention in his last Homily on Numbers. And Tertullian in his third chapter, de habitu muliebri, affirms that the book of Enoch was preserved by Noah in the Ark, and brought forth after the Flood, Non sunt scripta in Canone qui scrvabatur in templo. Cur aut [...]m hoc nisi quia sus [...] c [...]tae fidei &c. Illa quae sub Enochi nomine proferuntur, continent fabulas. Rectè à prudentibus judicantur non ipsius esse credenda. Aug. l. 15. de civ. D. c. 23. and he attributes the opinion of its want of authoritie, to the malice of the Jewes, who (saith he) because some eminent testimonies concerning Christ may be produced out of it, endeavoured to suppresse it. Augustin also mentions books bearing Enochs name. That then there were such books called by the name of Enochs, tis not denyed; but that Enoch was indeed the Author of them, and that Jude made use of them, none can either probably or soberly suppose. The books (saith Augustine) which under the name of Enoch are produced are to be suspected for false, and none of his, because the Jewes never accounted them cononical, nor kept them in the temple as such; and they ahound with fables: Among the rest, that fond and erroneous conceit, so contrary both to Scripture and reason, that the Angels in their assumed bodies went in unto the daughters of men, and so begat those Gyants mentioned Gen. 6.4 (Though this fabulous error (being intituled to so holy and ancient an author as Enoch) was imbraced by Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Libros Enochi plane supposititios esse, ut mihi persu [...]deam, fa cit quod in Ecclesia Dei ante Baby [...]enicam cap tivite [...]em in nullis prophetar um libris, fit meutio tam rari thesauri, quem non credibile est si in rerum naturâ fuisset, Mosem latuisse, qui etiam scriptorum Enochimeminisset, in hac historia si tunc extitisent. Rivet. in exerc. in Gen. 49 and some others.) Besides, had there been any such true book or prophesie of Enoch in writing, no doubt but it would have been very famous and highly set by among the Jewes, both for the antiquity and holinesse of the Author, as also for the preciousness of the matter, in regard whereof some mention would have been made thereof by the holy Prophets, or by Philo and Josephus, who were curious preservers, and writers of Jewish antiquities; who yet, did never discover [Page 459]to us that rare treasure. And that Moses was the first of all the holy writers, I think is the constant judgment of all learned divines, protestant and popish; nor doth Christ, Luke 24.27. acknowledg any holy writer to be more ancient then Moses; for Luke 24.27. it is said, that beginning at Moses, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Now if Enoch had written a book, probable it is, that Christ would have begun at him, (he being so long before Moses) to have explained the prophesies of his humility and glory; the later whereof this prophesie of Enoch here mentioned by Jude, doth so clearly discover. Its therefore the opinion of some learned men, that if there were in Judes time any writing which went under Enochs name, it was written by some Jewes, who mixed some things Good and true, (which peradventure they received by tradition concerning the prophesies of Enoch) with other things false and fabulous; which book of theirs might be more and more in the progress of time corrupted, and was deservedly rejected as Apocryphal. Possibly out of this Book Jude might take this passage. The penmen of holy Scripture, have (not seldome) taken several passages which tended to edification, out of profane Acts 17.28. 1 Cor. 15.33. Tit. 1.12. Authors, and thereby sanctified them to the use of the Church; and yet (as Rivet wel notes) since Jude saith that Enoch prophesied, it was necessary that Jude should have a peculiar revelation from the holy Ghost, to assure him that the prophesie recited by an apochryphal Author, did indeed come from Enoch: for otherwise, should he only rely upon the Authority of an apochryphal book, the prophesie related by Jude would no more be canonical, then it was as set down by the apocryphal writer.
Others (Protestants and Papists) assert, Capta occasion e ex prophetia Henochi commemorata à Juda, libros quasi antiquitus scriptos puublicarnt [...] Perer. in G [...]n. Nieremberg de O [...]ig. sacscrip. pa. mihi 51. that after the death of the Apostles, some impostors (taking occasion by Judes alledging the prophesie of Enoch) did [Page 460]publish and set forth a book under the name of Enoch, that so by its bearing the name of one so pious and ancient, it might find the better acceptance. Of this opinion is the learned Gomarus, who withal gives a parallel instance of the feigning of an epistle, (under Pauls name) to be written to the Laodiceans, by occasion of that passage of Colos. 4.16. so that according to this opinion, some took occasion to write this fictitious book of Enoch, by reading of Judes Epistle: not that Jude ever saw any book under Enochs name extant, or took his prophesie out of it. Many learned men therefore very probably conceive, that our Apostle received this prophesie from common and undoubted tradition transmitted from the Patriarchs, and so handed from generation to generation; til such time as it seemed good, to the holy Ghost by the Apostle Jude, to make it a part of Scripture. And thus the Apostle mentions the withstanding of Moses by Jannes, and Jambres; Jacobs worshipping upon the top of his staffe; Moses his saying that the sight upon the mount was so terrible, that I exceedingly fear and quake. Thus it is said that Josephs feet were hurt with fetters, and that he was laid in irons; all which passages, being no where mentioned in their proper stories, were received by tradition from generation to generation; the Spirit of God nevertheless sanctifying them, and giving them the stamp of divine authority, to be most certain and infallible, by putting the penmen of holy writ to insert them into the Scripture. And by this which hath been said, we answer, those who argue against the canonicalness of this Epistle, from Judes alledging (as they conceive) an apocriphal Author, or his bringing in a tradition no where recorded in Scripture, the If be did cite it out of any Author. citing of these by our Apostle, being so far from making him apocryphal, that he makes them (so far as he useth them) canonical: as also, we hereby answer the Papists, who because the Apostles have sometimes transferred some things from [Page 461]humane writings and tradition, into holy Scripture; take the boldness to doe the like also, and to joyn traditions with the holy Scripture; they not considering that they want that spirit of discerning which the Apostles had, who by making use of traditions, gave them divine authority. They were immediately acted by the holy Ghost in all their writings; but we are not endowed with the same measure of the Spirit, and therefore neither are able nor ought to imitate them herein.
The third thing to be explained is, 3 why the Apostle alledged and instanced in this particular prophesie of Enoch.
The reasons why Jude made choice of this prophesie, may be reduced to these two heads.
1. The first taken from the prophet.
2. The second from the prophesie it self.
And the consideration of the prophet Enoch, induced Jude to use the prophesie, because the Prophet was 1. Eminent for his antiquity; he was the seventh from Adam: This seems to put great respect upon the prophesie, as if Jude had said, The sins of these seducers which had judgment threatned against them, almost from the very beginning of the world, so many thousands of years before they were committed, must needs be hainous and odious, now when these sinners are acting them: and those sins which God hath so anciently threatned, wil at length be most severely punished. 2. This prophet was famous both for his piety and priviledges (of the former of which before,) he was not only eminent for his piety in walking with God, which was his own benefit, and for his publick usefulnesse, in warning and instructing that corrupt age in which he lived, keeping up the name of God in the world, opposing the profaneness of his times; but also for that glorious and (before) unheard of priviledg of being taken to God, who thereby proclaimed him to be fit for no company but his own, and one for whom no [Page 462]place was good enough but heaven; a child, though sent abroad into the world as the rest, yet whom his father so tenderly loved, that he would not suffer him to stay halfe so long from home as his other children. One who had done much work in a little time, and who having made a proficiency in that heavenly art of holines above all his fellows, had that high degree of heavenly glory conferd upon him, long before the ordinary time.
2. Prophetia est mentis illuminatio ad res futuras cognoscendas, reveiante Dco. In respect of the sutableness of the Prophesie it selfe to Judes present occasion. And 1. it was most sutable in respect of its certainty, it was a Prophesie. Enoch prophesied, he spake from God, not uttering his own inventions, but Gods inspirations; the foretelling of things to come being a divine prerogative, and such which without revelation from God, the creature cannot attain. Luc. 1.70. And the scripture assures us that it was God who spake by the mouth of his holy Prophet which have been since the world began. How sutable was it to produce a prophesie sure to be sulfild coming from God by the mouth of an holy prophet against these fearlesse scorneful sinners, who mockt at the last judgment! 2. Of its severity, what prophesie more fit for the secure scorners then a prophesie of judgment, the last, universall, undvoidable, unsupportable, eternall judgment? They might possibly slight the particular examples of Gods judgments upon the Angels, the Sodomites, the Israelites; but the arrow of the generall judgment prophecyed of by Enoch against all the ungodly, would not, perhaps, be so easily shaken out of their sides. If any denunciation could affect them, surely it would be that which was propheticall; and if any propheticall denunciation, that of the last judgment. If the last judgement hath made heathens tremble, Qui male vivit judicandum se diffidit. Chrysol. s. 5.59. when but discourst of before them, how should it dismay those who profess to know God, when threatned against them! How bold in sin are they who will not [Page 463]fear the judgment! Si unicum timendum scire quae in illo sunt punienda, non ageret. Greg. in Job. 19. How can he who beleeves judgment to be dreadful, but dread to do that which shall be punisht in that judgment! Even the devils at thel [...]ight of their Judg, trembled to think of their judgment, Mat. 8.29.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Honorandi propter imitationem, non ad [...]randi propter religionem. Aug. de ver. rel. cap. 55. 1 Cor. 11.1. Adorantur Crucem, et vendunt Crucifixum. The greatest honour to departed Saints is to imbrance their holy instructions. Enochs person was not to be worshipt, but his prophecye to be believed. Saints are to be honourd by following of their doctrines, by imitation of their practices, not by religious adoration. Its easie to commend their memories by our words, and to reverence their reliques; but the art of Christianity appears, in praising them with the Language of our Conversations. The bark of a tree may be carryed upon a mans shoulder without any paine or difficulty, but it requires strength and labour to carry away the body of the tree; the outside or shell of superstitious, Popish adorations, men easily performe; the heart and life of religion, which is that of the heart and life, men cannot away with. The Pharisees, who painted the sepulchers of the deceased Prophets, opposed their piety, as also those holy ones in their times, who were acted by the same spirit of holiness which shew'd it self in those Prophets of old. The Jewes who boasted that they had Abraham for their father, did not the works of their father Abraham, but of their father the Devil. Many are like Samson, that took honey out of the dead lion, voice dead ancient saints to be sweet and holy men; who, were they alive, to roare upon them for their lusts, would oppose and hate them; the right way (then) to reverence the godly who are departed this life, is to be led by that spirit whereby they were led while they lived.
2. Observ. 2. Threatnings denounced by divine warrant should [Page 464]deter us from sin. If Enochs prophesie (which was of divine authority) foretell judgments, they must not be slighted. As divine promises should uphold and comfort us in our lowest and weakest estate; so should divine threatnings make us tremble, and affright us from sin, in our greatest strength and highnesse. The Ninevites by fearing evils foretold by Jonah against them, prevented the feeling of them. Josiah holily feard, and his heart was tender, and he humbled himself when he heard what the Lord spake against Jerusalem. 2 Kings 22.19. when Micah the Morashite, prophesied in the dayes of Hezekiah King of Judah, saying, Zion shall be plowed like a field, &c. Hezekiah feared, & besought the Lord. Jerem. 26.19. A judgment denounced by God cannot be kept off by power: theres no might or strength against the Lord. The hand of the Lord is not weakned, nor is his arme shortned, when he minds to deal with his most potent adversaries. As God can Create deliverances when he intends to shew mercy, so can he create judgements when he purposeth to punish. The truth of a threatning will break through the greatest improbabilities of its approaching: Though the Caldeans were all as wounded men, if he threaten to punish by them, Jer. 37.10. they shall be victorious against the unrepenting Jewes. Theres no way of flying from God, but by flying to him: the way to get out of the reach of judgments threatned, is to repent by the threatning of them: nothing but our repenting sincerely, can make God repent mercifully. Oh how foolish a madnesse is it, by politique endeavours to imagine a prevention of judgments divinely threatned; or by persecuting the prophet to think to overthrow the prophesie! The Prophets, dee they live for ever? yet my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? Zech. 1.5. Paul suffered trouble even unto bonds, but the word of God (saith he) is not bound. 2 Tim. 2.9.
[Page 465] 3. Obs. 3. Sinners should look upon the threatnings denounced against others for sin, at belonging to them, without repentance. The wicked against whom Enoch immediately prophesied, were such as lived ungodlily in his time; and yet the Apostle saith, that he prophesied against these seducers: The reason is, because these lived in the same sins with those wicked ones of old. As the promises made to the godly who lived in former times, belong to those who imitate them in succeeding ages, so the threatnings denounced against former sinners, are denounced also against those who follow them in sin; and that by the constant analogy and proportion of justice, unlesse these repent, they shall likewise perish. Luk. 13.3. Strong is the inference of the Apostle, Rom. 11.21. If God spared not the naturall branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Threatnings denounced against and inflicted upon those who lived in former times, manifest Gods equall dislike of those who shall live in the same sins in succeeding ages; he shewing thereby, that he is prepared (if they will also sin) to doe what he hath done against those who lived before them. Though Gods forbearance towards some, shews that sometime he can spare sinners; yet his punishing of others, shews that he never loves sin. In all ages God is the same, he abhors sin in all the ages of the world; Psal. 7.12. Obs. 4. Psal. 119 100 Mibi pro archivis est Jesus Cristus, Ignat. Mos diabo licus est, ut per antiquitatis tra [...]ucem commendetur fallacia. Aug. qu. 114 nov. et v [...]t. Test. nor will he goe out of his way to gratifie mens lusts: changing is not Gods property, but the sinners duty. If he turn not, he will whet his sword.
4. Doctrines of greatest antiquity are only to be imbraced as they consent with the testimonies which come from the infallible Spirit of God. Enoch, though the seventh from Adam, and so very ancient, yet only is to be believed in what he said, as speaking by prophesie, and receiving what he delivered from divine revelation. Whatsoever doctrines proceed not from, or agree not to this, are (notwithstanding all pretences of antiquity) to be rejected as spurious. The Papists who [Page 466]have no patronage from Scripture, have but a rotten support for their opinions which pretend to greatest antiquity: Custome without truth is but the antiquity of error. Cypr. Ep 74 The most proudly swelling allegations of the ancients, are but like a swoln leg, which though it be big, is yet but weak, and unable to bear up the body: Religio [...] is auto ritas non est tem pore metienda. Arnob. Contr. Gen [...]. 2. the authority of religion must not be measured by time. We reverence the ancient fathers, and hold it our duty to rise up before the hoar head, and to honour the person of the aged; but still with reservation of the respect we owe to their father and ours, that Ancient of daies, Non veritas antiquitatis, sed antiquitas veritatis Ecclesiae authoritatem confert. Riv. contr. Q. 7. p. 224. the hair of whose head is like the pure wool, Dan. 7.6. In opposition to him, we must call no man father, Matth. 23.9. Nor yet is this said, as if Papists were able to produce better proof out of the testimonie of the ancients for their errors, then we can do for the truth; but to give the word of God its due, which is that rock upon which alone we build our faith. The truth is, Papists have removed the ancient land-mark, which the Fathers set, that so they may invade anothers possession: Christus veritatem non se consuetudinem coguominavit. Tert. l. de. vel. virg. c. 1. their traditions are new boundaries, their doctrines of Merits, Image-worship, Equivocation, Transubstantiation, Denyal of Priests marriage, Power of the Pope, are new and upstart; not only to the Scripture, but even to the writings of the Ancients.
This for the preface. The prophesie it self of the last Judgment followes. And in that, first of the note of incitement, to cause regard to the following description of the judgment, in the word, Behold.
EXPLICATION.
The word (Behold) is in Scripture used principally these two waies.
1. As a note of manifestation of the truth, reality, certainty of a thing to be observed or believed. Thus [Page 467]its used Mat. 28.20. Behold I am with you to the end of the world. Gen 1.29. Apoc. 3.8, 9, 11, 20. Psal. 37.36. Zech. 9.9 Matth. 28.20. Gal. 5.2. Behold I have given every herb bearing fruit. Gen. 28.15. Behold I am with thee and will keep thee. Apoc. 2.10. Behold the devill shall cast some of you into prison. Apoc. 9.12. Behold there come two woes more. Mat. 26 45. Behold the houre is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayd &c. Job. 5.17. Behold, 1. Usurpatur ad indicandam rei praesentis exhibitionem. happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth. Psal. 33.18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him.
2. As a note of admiration, 2. Ad excitandam ex rei mirandae praedicatione, attentioonem. or to stir up attention for the great and stupendious wonderfulness of some thing that fals out. Thus it is taken 2 King. 6.17. Behold the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire. Matth. 27.51. Behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain. And 28.2. Behold there was a great earthquake. Luke 1 [...] 16. Act. 1.10.7.56.12.7. Gen. 29.6. Isa. 7.14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive. 1 Cor. 15.51. Behold I shew you a mysterie, &c. The word (behold) in this place may sutably to the subject in hand, (the coming of Christ to judgment) be considered as denoting both these.
1. The certainty and truth thereof, it being a thing as sure, as if it were before our eyes, and already accomplished: like that minatory prediction of the prophet concerning the house of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 14.14. But what? even now. A thing that ought to sink into the hearts of hearers, and that which they cannot too firmly and fixedly believe. The infallible predictions of Scripture, which must be fulfilled, the judgments of God already executed upon some sinners, the fears of a natural conscience, Gods justice which wil render to every one according to his works; And lastly, Act 1.11. Matth. 24 3 [...]. 2 Thes. 1.7 & [...] Act 17.32, 24, 25▪ Gen 18 25 1 Thes. 1.5. 2 Co [...] 5 10. R [...]v 20.12 the fitness that the body shal have its due retribution as wel as the soul; all prove the certainty of the last judgment. The certainty of his coming, I have spoken to before, part 1. p. 536.
2. The word (Behold) may be considered as a note of admiration, denoting a most wonderful and [Page 468]strange thing, like that Behold, Hab. 1.5. Behold and wonder marvellously, for I wil work a work in your daies which ye wil not believe though it be told you. And this coming of Christ is wonderful and strange, 1. In respect of the wicked, to whom it is unexpected, they thereby being unprepared for it; it comes as a snare upon them, in a day wherein they look not for it, in an houre wherein they are not aware. Luke 12.46. as a theef in the night. When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travel upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. 1 Thes. 5.2. 2. Its wonderful in respect of the astonishing glory of the coming of Christ to judgment, together with the judgment it self: of which I have largely spoken pag. 525, Part 1. to 540. I must not repeat.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obser. 1. Our thoughts only of those things which are truly great and glorious, should be high and admiring. Behold (saith Enoch) as noting the astonishing wonderfulness of the last judgment. This truly great thing should be looked upon as such. It is the folly of most men, to look upon smal things as great, and upon great things as smal: Humane judgments affright and amaze them, the last judgment they slight and neglect; these want that rectified judgment of the Apostle, who cals the day of judgment the appearing of the great God; and so preached of the judgment to come, that he made Felix tremble; whereas he tels us, how little he past for mans judgment. 1 Cor. 4 3. Thus likewise our Saviour directs his disciples to contemn that which is smal and contemptible, (fear not him that kils the body;) and to dread that which is truly great and formidable, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hel, Matth. 10.28. When the disciples beheld with wonder, and shewed to Christ the beautiful buildings of the temple, he with an holy contempt of those outside beauties [Page 469]tells them, there shall not be one stone of all those stately structures, left upon another, that shall not be thrown down: and when Satan shewd and offered him all the Kingdomes of the world with their glory, he shewd his Contempt of the prospect and promotion, with a Get thee behind me, Satan; but when he observed the faith of the Centurion, he wonders, and expresseth his admiration to the people. Luc. 7.9.
2. Observ. 2. Great is our naturall backwardness to mind [...] and believe the coming of Christ to judgment. E [...]ch prefixeth a note of incitement to his prophesie. The wicked take occasion to be secure and to cast off the thought of Christs coming from the procrastination and delaying thereof. Men scoff at the promise of the Coming of Christ, 2 Pet. 3, 4, because (say they) since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation. That servant, Luke 12.45. who said, that his Lord delayd his Coming, in stead of minding and preparing for it, did beat his fellow servants, and also did eat, drinke, and was drunken. Hence it is that men say, peace and safety, even when sudden destruction is coming upon them. 1 Thes. 5.3. Men are naturally led by sense, what they see not, feel not, they beleeve not. As Noahs flood was a type of the last judgment, so the disposition of men when that deluge approcht, resembled that which shall be in sinners at the coming of Christ. As in the dayes before the flood, there was eating, drinking, marrying &c. so shall also the Coming of the son of man be. Mat. 24.38, 39. And so great (likewise) is naturally every sinners selfe love, that they love to shun the thoughts of every thing which they love not: they are ready to say to themselves, as did Peter to Christ, Be it far from thee, this shall not be to thee: they put far from them the last day, because they look upon it as the evill day, nay the wo [...]st day: they love the world, and their hearts grow to it, and therefore [Page 470]tis death to them, to think of an unsettlement. Their Sodom they so much delight in, that (like Lots wife) they cannot endure to think of a shoure of fire; herein resembling some, who are therefore unwilling to make their wills, because they cannot away with the thoughts of death. To rectifie this distemper, as we should labour to finde this great day a good day, and the great Lord our good Lord, & to be such that even out of this devouring lion we may take honey; so, consider that,
3. Obs. 3. Concerning the certaitnty of the judgment, see be fore. The last judgment is to be lookt upon as a matter of greatest certainty: not as a fiction, but as a most reall and undoubted thing. We should look upon it to be as certaine as if it were already with us. Its the policy of Satan to make us diffident of that, which we should be confident of, and confident of that of which we should be diffident. He presents his own lyes as certainties, and Gods truths, as lyes, or at the best, as Conjecturall uncertainties: but our faith must take into its vast comprehension Gods whole revealed will, part whereof is this of the last judgement. The last and dreadfull judgement will never affright us from sin, if we look upon it in the devils dress of uncertainty; for then we shall but sport with it, and make it our play-fellow in stead of our monitor. Let us therefore labour to make it by prayer and meditation to sink into our hearts, Si nunc omne peccatum, manifestâ plecter [...]tur poenâ, nihil ultimo judicio reservari crederetur: rursus si nullum peccatum nunc puni ret apertè divinitas, nulla esse divina providentia putaretur. Aug. de Civ. Dei cap 8. and to beleeve it, though never so distant from, or opposite to sense; taking heed lest the deferring thereof, and the present impunity of sinners, destroy or damp our belief of Christs coming to judgment; considering that if every offender should now be openly punished, men would think that nothing would be reserved to the last judgment; as on the contrary, if no offender should be plagued, men would beleeve that there were no providence. And let us beware lest we make that concealment of the last judgment to be an occasion of sin, which God intends should be an incentive to repentance.
[Page 471] This briefly for the note of incitement &c. Behold. The description of the judgment followes, Rev. 1. Jo. 5.27. and in that, first of the first part. The coming of the judg to judgment, in these words, The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints.
EXPLICATION.
And here 1. the Title, 2. Approach, 3. Attendance of the Judg, are all worthy of consideration by way of explication.
1. Tune manifestè veniet judicaturus justè, qui occultè venerat judicandus injustè. Aug. Of the title (Lord) I have spoken very largely before pag. 344 &c. p. 1. Of the greatness of this Lord, the Judg, as he is God and man, I have also spoken pag. 527, 528, 529. The reasons also why he shal even as man judge the world, I have mentioned p. 525, 526, 528. and how he excludes not Father and holy Ghost. Nor wil it be needful here again to repeat the fitness of Christ for judicature, Rev. 6.16. 1 Jo. 2.28. Rev. 5.9. Rev. 19.11. Psal. 45.6. 2 Cor. 5.10. Rev. 1.14. 1 Cor. 4.5. in respect of his advancement after his humiliation, the necessity that the judicial proceeding should be visible, the great horror and amazement of his enemies, the comfort of the Saints, the excellent qualifications of this judg in regard of his righteousnesse, omniscience, strength and fortitude, &c.
2. For the second therefore, Act. 1.11.10.42.17.13. Aoristum secundum ponit pro futuro. the Approach of the Judg, in the word cometh, Gr. [...], in which word Jude puts the signification of the time past, for the time to come, after the manner of the Prophets, who are wont to speak of those things which are to come, as if they were already past; and this he doth for two reasons: First to note the certainty of Christs coming to judgment, it being as sure as if it were already. Concerning this certainty of the coming of Christ to judgment, I have spoken already pag. 536, Part 1. and in several pages before. 2. Secondly to shew the nearness thereof, Christs coming is at hand; 1 Cor. 7▪ the time is short (saith Paul) its sails almost wound up. The Judge stands at the doors. He that shal come, wil come, and wil not [Page 472]tary. If he were coming in Enochs time, if in the first, what is he then in the last times (as these are frequently called!) come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Behold I come quickly. Rev. 3.11. The Brides prayer and the Bridegrooms promise are both for speedy coming, Rev. 1.7. Behold he cometh with clouds &c. not shall come; he is as good as come already. Christ cometh to us either in spirit, or in person.
1. In Spirit he cometh. 1. In the Ministry, to win and perswade us to come unto him: thus he went and preached in Noahs time to the spirits now in prison, 1 Pet. 3.19. 2. In some special manifestation of his presence in mercy or judgment: The former, when he meets us with comfort, strength, and increase of grace. John 14.18.23. The later, in testification of displeasure. Rev. 2.16. John 16.8.
2. In person he comes two waies. 1. in carnem. 2. in carne. 1. Into flesh, in humility in his incarnation, to be judged. 2. In flesh, in glory at the last day, to judg all flesh.
- Where consider 1. Whence he cometh.
- Where consider 2. Whither he cometh.
- Where consider 3. When he cometh.
1. Whence he cometh; from heaven. 1 Thes. 4.16. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven; he shall come in the clouds of heaven; to heaven he ascended, and from heaven wil he descend. Acts 1.11. This Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come, as ye have seen him go into heaven: And its necessary that Christ should come from heaven to judg, because it is not meet that the wicked should come thither to him, though to be judged; for into that holy place, can no unclean thing enter.
2. Whither cometh he? some think that the judgment seat shal be upon the earth, that the sentence may be given where the faults have been committed, and that in some place neer Jerusalem, where the judg was [Page 473]formerly unjustly condemned; and particularly some think it shal be in the valley of Jehoshaphat (though that place Joel 3.12. contains but an allegorical or typical prophesie.) The Apostle seems to intimate that the place of judgment shal be in the air, 1 Thes. 4.17. where he mentions our being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, it being probable that the judgment shall be in that place where we shall meet the judg, in the clouds of the air, (and the Scripture saith he shall come in the clouds of heaven) and then the divels shal be conquered and sentenced in the very place wherein they have ruled all this while as princes: but over what place, it seems to me a rashness to determine.
3. When shal he come? In the end of the world; but the particular age, day, or year, is not known to man or Angel, Mark 13.32. this secret the Spirit revealed not to, nor taught the Apostles, who yet were led by him into all necessary truths; and Christ must come as a thief in the night, and as in the daies of Noah, when men knew nothing. And we are commanded to watch, and to be ever prepared, because we know not the houre: The childish curiosity of sundry in their computation of a set year, wherein the day of judgement shall be, rather deserves our caution, then confutation.
3. The third thing to be opened in this coming of the Judg, is his attendance, in these words, ten thousands of his Saints. The words in the original are, [...], word for word, with his holy ten thousands, or Myriads.
Four things may here offer themselves to be explained.
- 1. Their quantity, in respect of numbers, ten thousands.
- 2. Their quality, they are holy ones, holy ten thousands.
- 3. Their relation. They are his, his, holy ten thousands.
- [Page 474] 4. Their action or employment, they are to come with the Lord.
1. For the first. The word [...] in the Greek, properly signifies ten thousand. Thus Acts 19.19. where the Apostle mentions [...], five myriads; its rendred fifty thousand, and Rev. 9.16. [...], Vulgar. et Erasm. vicies mil lies dena millia. two myriads of myriads; we translate twenty thousand times ten thousand. [...], Rev. 5.11. and Dan. 7.10. ( [...],) according to the Septuagint) we render ten thousand times ten thousand. So Deut. 33.2. Psal. 3.6. Dan. 11.12. Luke 12.1. Acts 21.20. And in those places where the word ten thousand is used (as here in Jude) without the addition of a word of another number, it imports an uncertaine, and very great vast number, or an innumerable multitude; Heb. 12.22. there being a certain number put for an uncertaine.
2. For the second, their quality or property, noted in this word holy or Saints.
These here called holy or saints (say some) are the angels, In millibus sanctorum nun ciorum suorum. Cypr. ad Novarian. Hugo. Lyranus. who in Scripture are oft said to be such with whom Christ comes at the last day, and also called holy: and not seldome is their coming with Christ, and their holiness (as here) put together. Thus Luke 9.26. Christ is said to come in the glory of the holy Angels, and Matth. 25.31. the Son of man shall come, and all the holy Angels with him, &c. Sometimes they are called mighty Angels, 2 Thes. 1.7. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels. And Deut. 33.2. when God delivered the law upon mount Sinai, it is said, he came with ten thousands of his Saints; where by Saints may be understood Angels, who attended God in the delivering of the law, in which respect it is said, that Israel received the law by the disposition of Angels, Acts 7.53. and the law is said to be the word spoken by Angels, Heb. 2.2. But others more rightly conceive, that by these holy Myriads or [Page 475] ten thousands in this place, we are likewise to understand holy men, as wel as the holy Angels; even the Saints shall appear with him in glory, Col. 3.4. And more plainly, 1 Thes. 3.13. the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is foretold to be with all his Saints. And Mat. 13.43. The righteous shal shine forth as the sun in the kingdome of their father; and these saints or righteous ones who are to attend upon Christ, shall be not only those who before were with Christ in heaven, but even those who shal be taken up in the clouds to meet Christ, and thereby shall be made a part of his attendance, 1 Thes. 4.17. So that these myriads, this innumerable company shal be made up of all the glorious Angels and Saints; it shal be a general assembly; all the servants shal wait upon their Master the Lord Jesus. We shall (saith the Apostle) all meet, Ephes. 4.13. there shall not be one wanting: and if Christ bestowes new liveries upon all his Saints, they shall all, when adorned with them, yeild their attendance to him, in them.
But in what respect doth the Apostle call them Saints or Holy? Persons are holy in two respects. 1. In respect of destination, seperation, or being set apart to holy services and employments. Thus the first-born were holy, Exod. 13.2 12. Jer. 1.5. Thus the Prophets and Apostles are oft called holy: Jeremiah was sanctified from the womb. In this respect these holy Angels and men may be called holy, as being set apart to the peculiar work, and glorious employment of praising and glorifying of God for ever. 2. Persons may be holy in respect of true inherent holiness abiding in them; thus likewise these Angels and Saints here mentioned may be called holy: for the Angels, they were from their very creation perfectly holy, and afterward by the grace of confirmation made constant in holinesse: as for holy men, though they were formerly made holy of not holy, privatively, that is, having lost their holiness, [Page 476]had holiness bestowed upon them by regeneration; and though they were made holy of lesse holy, by having increase and additions of holinesse bestowed upon them in this life, yet at this great day, they are with the Angels perfectly holy likewise, the spirits of just men made perfect; in this life they were perficientes, perfecting; then shal they be perfecti, having as much holiness as they can hold; as much as God or themselves wil desire, being without any mixtures of unholinesse in them, all teares being wiped from their eyes, and all sins from their souls, and they presented faultlesse before that presence of glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but being holy and without blemish. Eph. 5.27.
3. For the third, they are called his, his holy ten thousands; and his they are in three respects. 1. In respect of Creation, he made them all, whether Saints or Angels; as they are creatures, they are the works of his hands. 2. As they are Saints, they are his also, Angels are his by being confirmed in their sanctity: Holy men are his, because he was the deserving cause of their holiness, the pattern or exemplary cause also thereof; and lastly, by his spirit, the efficient cause of their holiness, he is made sanctification to us, 1 Cor. 1.30. he sanctifies and cleanseth his Church with the washing of water by the word. 3. They are his, in point of service and attendance; for being sanctifyed, they wait upon him, and serve him in all holy employments here in the kingdome of grace, and hereafter shall they attend upon, and come with him as his servants in his kingdome of glory.
4. For the fourth, their coming with the Lord Jesus; these ten thousands of his Saints, shall come with him.
1. For his own glory, he wil come in the glory of his holy Angels, and he wil likewise come to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all those that believe in [Page 477]that day, 2 Thes. 1.10. How glorious these holy myriads or ten thousands shall make Christ at the day of judgment, both in regard of their excellencies and numbers. I have shewed p. 529, 530, 531. &c. Part 1. How wil the beauty and multitudes of these subjects set forth the glory of the King of glory, who shall have myriads of servants, every one shining like myriads of suns, and every subject being indeed a King?
The first time he came as a servant to sinners, but the second time he shal come as the Lord of Saints and Angels. Then his forerunner was John Baptist, now he shall descend with the voice of the Archangel, 1 Thes. 4.16. then he was attended with twelve poor contemptible men, but now with many millions of glorious Angels; and the Angels (more particularly) shall by their attendance, make Christs coming glorious in regard of their service and ministry; for they shall perform the work of the great day, in gathering together the Elect, severing the tares from the wheat; (they are called reapers,) running at every command of Christ: And this work they shall doe, 1. Powerfully, they are the Angels of his power; they are principalities and powers, and excel in power; and at that day Christs power shal be added to their own 2. They shal doe the work of Christ willingly; behold their readiness: the servants said, shall we gather up the tares? M [...]tth. 13.28. They who desire commission aforehand wil [...] be ready enough when they have it. 3. They shal performe it justly, holily, faithfully; they shall mingle no corrupt passions with their executions, nor corruptly respect any persons. Rev. 15.16. The seven Angels are clothed in pure and white linnen. 4. Diligently and perfectly, in most strict and exact manner; though Angels compared with God are imperfect, yet in comparison of Gods law, they have perfection, and no spot of sin cleaveth to them; nor else could they continue in their glorious state, if they should not be answerable [Page 478]to Gods law in the purity of their nature, and perfection of their work.
2. Christ wil come with these ten thousands for the glory of his Saints, and confusion of the wicked; here Saints have glorified him, but then he will glorifie them; they who have here lien among the pots, shall shine with raies of majesty. What glory comparable to that of appearing with Christ in glory, of being priviledged with the dignity of judging and condemning wicked men, 1 Cor. 6.3. Vid. 5 16. part 1 Matth. 12.41, 42. Luk. 11.31, 32. yea Angels? and that not only 1. by having the practices of these Saints, compared to those of the damned. Nor 2. only by their consenting to, and approving of the sentence which Christ shall passe upon the wicked. But also 3. In regard of that dignitas assessoria, that dignity whereby they shall be advanced to an honourable assessorship with the Lord Christ, in sitting (as it were) with him upon the throne of Judicature: As likewise 4. (they in that Judgment being to appear with Christ, manifest victors over all their enemies) by trampling upon all the pride, malice, and weakness of divels and wicked men, and openly and holily insulting over them as vile, vanquished, and contemptible enemies.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Our greatest wisdom and truest interest, is to make Jesus Christ our friend against the last day. The Lord cometh. He now is, but then he wil openly declare himself to be the Lord. How happy will they be, who then put their trust in him, who have chosen and taken him to be their Lord! 2 Cor. 5.9. The service of Christ wil then appear to be the only safety and dignity. The wicked who here take no care to make him their Lord, wil (at that day) cal him their Lord, Matth. 7. to be sure, they shal find and feel him their Lord. How unable wil the enemies of Christ at the last day be to oppose him, the Lord that cometh from heaven! In regard of his [Page 479]very situation he wil be above them, and have the advantage of them. Against earthly power they might make their party good; the Ministers of Christ they oppos'd, but this mighty Lord, who shall come armed with an infinite power and dominion over all creatures, which shall be acknowledged by them all; (the Angels shal observe and attend it; the heavens, earth, and elements shall be dissolved by it; the dead bodies of men shall be raised up out of the graves, the sea, the bellies of beasts, by it:) I say, this mighty Lord will easily and unavoidably crush them. A careful servant, that expects his masters return, wil labour to have the work set him, finish'd. If the Bridegroom be coming, let the Bride deck her self, like Rebecca, espying Isaak afar off, Gen. 24.65. as Joshua exhorted Israel, chap. 3.5. Be sanctified, for to morrow the Lord wil do wonders among you; (He means, in leading them to Caanan:) so our Joshuah commands us to be sanctified, because in the last day, the Lord wil doe wonders in leading us to the heavenly Canaan. Let us part from sin; a malefactor cannot stand before the Judge; nor shall the wicked stand in judgment. Our care should be, that we may be found of him in peace; and no peace can any one have with Christ, who is not at war with sin. And how much better and easier is it to bear the yoke of service here in doing his will, than that of severity hereafter in the undergoing his wrath. Of this see more, pag. 543. part 1.
2. Obs. 2. The Saints have a strong ground for moderation in every condition. The Lord cometh, and they shal come with him: The Lords coming is the Apostles argument to urge moderation, Phil. 4.5. How patient and ful of forbearance should they be in sustaining all their crosses and injuries! Contendly should they here be accounted the refuse and off-scouring of the world. Acts 3 19. Eph. 4 30. Luke. 21.28. Their Lord is coming, and they shal come with him in glory; though men here make them their footstoole, [Page 480]yet Christ hath allotted for every of them a throne. In this world they are not accounted worthy of the society of men, Rom. 8.23. 2 Tim. 4.8. 2 Thes. 1.6, 7.10. Jam. 5.6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. 4.4. but then they shall be in the comp any of Angels, yea Christ himself. Now Christ seems for a while to leave his family, every piece of household stuffe appears to be mis-placed, or all (as it were) to lye in a huddle or heap together, beautifullest vessels to lie among the pots; but then the vessels of honour shal be set up in their places, and the vessels of dishonour thrown into theirs. It is not fit that our glory should appear, so long as Christs glory is hid. In the winter, all the sap, and life, and fruit, is hid in the root, and then the tree appears not what it is; but the Summer coming, all that was within, appears; so in this our winter, though we be the sons of God, yet it appears not what we shal be, 1 Joh 1, 2. but when Christ shal appear, we shall be like him.
3. Obs. 3. How cheerfully may Saints think of the last judgment! This Lord is their brother, their Saviour and head; he it is who is coming: no wonder if the Bride saith, 2 Tim. 4.8. Come. Rev. 22.17 And that the saints are caled such as love his appearance: A loving wife, longs for the return of her husband from a far Country. At that judgment day, the judg wil condemn none but malefactors; they who here are justified, shall then be declared to be so. Tis true, Christ the judg is (here) called a Lord; but yet he is so the saints Lord, as that he is also their husband. How great is the difference 'twixt a guilty malefactors calling the Judg, my Lord, and a loyal wife her giving her husband that title! Who is it that condemns, if the judg accept, acquit us? he it is that shall judg us, who also died for our sins. The father hath delivered all judgment to him, who himselfe was delivered for our sins, and sent into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved by him: How shal he who was sent into the world to save believers, condemn them? how shall he who [Page 481]comes to condemn others for hurting them, hurt them himself? how shal he who the first time came to be put to death for them, sentence them to die when he comes the second time? How should he throw them away, who was made their head to gather them together? As therefore the believers of the old Testament longed to see the first coming of Christ, when he came in the form of a servant; so should the believers of the new Testament desire the second coming of Christ in glory, when he shal come as a Lord, the Lord cometh. Of this before, part 1. pag. 545. The nearer the day of Jubilee came, the more the joy of prisoners and debtors was increased; the nearer the day of our redemption approacheth, the more should we lift up our heads.
4. Obs. 4. Christ wil be attended only by holy ones at the last day. Holy myriads. None shal meet with him in peace, but they who first meet with him in purity: He wil profess to the workers of iniquity at the last day, that he knowes them not: How unsutable to the dignity of Christ, wil it be to be attended by those who have no better raiment then the filthy rags of sin! If Achish an earthly King had no need of mad men; what need wil the King of glory have of unholy men! If he commands us here to have no fellowship with the works of darknesse; wil he himselfe in that day of light and glory, shew any love to them? How shall Christ at that day acquit those openly from the guilt of sin, who are not before parted from the filth of sin? Men here in this world are oft ashamed of holinesse, but at the last day, it wil be the best ornament, the best defence; without it no man shal see God: How shal Christ present unclean ones, without spot before the presence of glory? They who wil be ashamed of Christ here for his holiness, shall deservedly hereafter find Christ ashamed of them for their uncleanness.
5. How great is the patience and long-suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ; who is contented so long to [Page 482]be hid, and not to shew himself in glory to the end of the world, suffering (mean while) his glory to be vailed, yea trampled on by the wicked. The heavens are now as a curtain between our eyes and his glory: He is out of sight, and (among the most) out of mind; his patience is despised, and the promise of his coming derided; yea his very Saints do not so much believe, love, admire him as they should, in regard of their sins, and his hiding his face. He forbears to shew forth his glory and power in judgment; not constrainedly, but voluntarily; not because he cannot punish, but because he would have sinners repent. And all this time of his forbearance, he sees all the impieties committed against him, and indignities offered to him and his; yea his hatred of all the sins which he beholds, is infinitely more keen and intense, then that of all the Saints and Angels in the world. How unworthily and disgracefully was this Lord of glory used, when he veiled and hid his glory here upon earth! And yet (I say) with what patience and long suffering doth he forbear to manifest his majesty and greatness to the view of the world; we poor worms have short thoughts and think a short time, long and tedious, ere our enemies fal, and we rise; but Christ suffers very long. How patiently should we endure to have our glory obscured, and injuries unrevenged, since our Lord our master, the judg himself is the greatest sufferer, and yet voluntarily unrevenged!
6. Obs. 6. When Angels and Saints are in their greatest glory, obsequiousness, and serviceableness to Christ becomes them. All the Saints and Angels of heaven shal worship and advance Christ, when they appear in their highest dignity; of him they wil not be ashamed when they are in their best clothes, their robes of most shining glory; when they lay off al their infirmities, they throw off no love to Christ: as Saints are made glorious in their bodies, so are those bodies joyned to spirits, [Page 483]made perfect in holiness, and that holiness wil shew it self in duty and obedience. How unlike to ten thousands of Saints▪ are they who think they are too good to honour Christ, when they are in outward glory and dignity! when they are in their rags, low and afflicted, they wil then stoop to do something for Christ; but when in their best apparel, set up, advanced to any pitch of worldly eminency; they then think, they shall spoil their clothes, and disgrace their dignities by attending upon Christ. Do Saints and Angels wait upon him in their glory, and shal worms upon the dunghil think it much to serve him! did he our Lord empty himself of glory, to save, yea serve us; and shal not we his servants serve him when filled with glory! Of this more, pag. 457. Part. 1.
Thus far of the first part of the description of the judgment, viz. the coming of the Judg. The second followes, the carriage of the Judg in judgment, ver. 15. and in that, 1. His carriage toward all. 2. Particularly toward the wicked.
1. Toward all, in these words, To execute judgment upon all.
For this first. Two things here require explication.
1. What the Apostle here intends by execution of judgment. How judgment is here to be taken, and wherein the execution of judgment at the last day doth consist, I have spoken at large before, pag. 511, 512, 513. Part 1.
2. How it is said that Jesus Christ shall execute judgment upon all, or concerning the universality of this judgment, I have likewise spoken before, pag. 532. Only as to this text, it is to be considered, that the word [...] here fitly translated upon, though sometimes it signifies adversus, against, cannot here be so rendred, in regard Jude speaks of all the whole company [Page 484]of those who are to be judged, whom he distinguisheth into good and bad in the next words, to convince all that are ungodly among them; and some (namely the godly) shall not have judgment executed against them, although there shall be a judgment concerning, and upon them, to be sure in respect of an happy sentencing. This word (then) [...], I take in that sense in which it is used, [...] 2 Cor. 15.15. we have testified ( [...],) of or concerning God, that he raised up Christ, &c.
The Observations hence, follow likewise in the forementioned places.
In the second, the carriage of the judg toward the wicked, 1. The manner of his judging them, is considerable; which is to be, by way of conviction. To convince &c.
EXPLICATION.
The word in the Original [...], here translated to convince, imports more then here is expressed, and indeed more then can be expressed in any one English word: the simple word [...], (the signification whereof by its composition is here increased and enlarged) is a word belonging to courts of judicature, and signifies two things, 1 to prove. 2. to reprove.
1. To prove against one, or to accuse or convince one of a crime so clearly, evidently, and unanswerably, by arguments, reasons, or testimony, that nothing can be objected, alledged, or pretended against the proof, by him who is accused, but he is thereby compelled to acknowledg the truth of the accusation. And answerably to this signification, the word [...] is used Joh. 8.9. they which heard it, [...], being convinced by their own conscience, went out &c. so ver. 46. which of you [...], convinceth me of sin. 1 Cor. 14.24, 25. He is convinced ( [...]) &c. the secrets of his heart are made manifest, &c.
[Page 485] 2. To reprove, or reprehend, or correct; and that verbally and by word, as Luc. 3.19. Herod the tetrach [...], being reproved by him (John) for Heredias &c. so Ephes. 5.11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darknesse, but rather [...], reprove them. So Tit 2.15. [...], rebuke with all authority &c. And really or by deed, as Heb. 12.5. Rev. 3. ver. 19. where rebuking is expounded by chastning. The word [...] here used by Jude, may aptly import either of these significations, and by its Composition, makes either the more full and significant. For the first, at the last day, Christ shall bring to the remembrance of sinners, those things which they have done, so set their sins in order before them, and so evidently convince, irradiate, and dilate their Consciences, that then, they shall bring in such full and impartiall evidence against them, as shall silence them, and stop their mouthes, they shall have nothing to object, but shall be compell'd to acknowledg what they have done, and doe thereby deserve. And this inward Conviction of Conscience they shall be no more able to shake off, then to shake off themselves and their very being; they shall see this lightning, though they should labour to shut their eyes: the witnesse, the guilty, the judg, Idem testis, reus judex, tortor, flagellum. the tormenter and scourge are all one. Sinners shall have a selfe Conviction, an ineternal Conviction. They shall in that day take part with Christ against themselves who have here taken part with their lusts against Christ. This is that opening of the books, mentioned Rev. 20.12. Wicked mens consciences shall in the last day be opened, though here they be sealed books. In this life they were brib'd, and gave in partiall and imperfect evidence; but then they shall bring in the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That writing which heretofore was almost imperceptible, [Page 486]shall, being held to the fire of divine vengeance, be made legible: And then 2. As Christ shall convince them evidently, so shall he reprove them severely, vex them in his sore displeasure, the lamb will then be turn'd lion: he whose bowels heretofore made a noise, shall now thunder in his indignation. This reproof shall be both verball and reall: 1. Verball and by word of mouth. Rom. 2.15, 16. Rev. 20. Cuique opera in memoriam rev [...]cantur et mentis intuitu mirâ celeritate cernuntur. Aug. l. 20. de C. D cap. 14. Christus in voce evidens apparebit, qui prius cum venisset occultus ante Judicem filuit. Aug. l. 20. de C. D. C. 24. Qui omnibus se conspiciendum exhibebit in gloria majestatis, etiam omnibus [...]diendum, se praebebit in voce judicis Estius. in sent. 4 dist. 47. sec. 1. That part of the judgment which stands in disquisition or examination (according to the most) shall be transacted, not by voice, but in silence in every ones Conscience, as the books which shall be opened at the last day, are not materiall, but those of the Consciences. That part which stands in denouncing sentence, at least in respect of the generall sentence, which shall be pronounced either for the Elect or against the reprobate, shall be dispacht (I conceive) by pronouncing a verball sentence. Thus most of the Schoolmen thinke, encouraged thereto by Augustin, who saith, Christ shall come openly hereafter with a voice, who coming the first time in obscurity, was silent before the judg: and they doubt not but that he who shall openly be seen in a visible shape, shall openly be heard by an audible voice. Now how dreadful will that definitive sentence of Loss and paine be, depart from me into everlasting fire? words brim full of woe, and wherein is sum'd up the whole damneds wretchednesse. All the happinesse of the Creature hath but one neck, and that cut in sunder by the one blow of a sentence of departure from God.
2. Reall. The sentence shall be executed. The sentence shall not be a thunderclap without a thunderbolt, nor a report without a bullet; but this word shall be operative, efficacious, a working word, a fiery stream proceeding from the throne of the Judg, and sweeping the condemned into hell, 2 Thes. 1.9.
OBSERVATION. Obs. Part. 1. See pag. 517.544.449. Labour to be convinced of sin here. Condemnn thy self. Psal. 50.21.
Its the greatest folly to shelter our sin with hopes of secrecy. As all things are open and naked before the eyes of our Judg now, so will he make them apparant before our own eyes hereafter. God is not mocked. Jer. 23.24. Can any man hide himselfe in secret places that I should not see him? Though sinners now think that God is such a one as themselves, yet will God hereafter reprove them and set their sinnes in order before them. Every sinne is fully and clearly manifest before God, yea naked, unquartered, and ript up before his eyes, as when a man anatomizeth a body, whereby he curiously findes out every little vein or muscle, though they be never so close and hidden. The ungodly shall be convinced of the most concealed wickednesses, and their mouth shall be shut so soon as ever Gods book is opened. We may delude men, we cannot deceive God: they cannot convince, unlesse men be witnesses against thee; God will convince thee by making thine own Conscience to witnesse for him against thee. Yea, of those sins which are unknown to thee, shalt thou be convinced by him who knoweth all things. We should be (then) so far from sheltring those sins which we know, that we ought to be humbled for such as we know not.
Thus of the first particular, in the carriage of the judge toward the wicked, viz. the manner of his judging them, namely by way of conviction.
2. The parties to be judged, follow in the next place, who are here said for their quality to be ungodly, and for their quantity, all the ungodly. Of this before (at large)
Thirdly the causes of, and matters about which they shal be judg'd are next cōsiderable, & they are two-fold:
[Page 488] The first, their ungodly deeds. In these words; their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.
Not to enlarge upon this first particular here considerable, Vide part. 1. Pag. 302.303. &c. viz. the generall nature of their deeds, here said to be ungodly, as being sufficiently known by the former Consideration of the parties who were call'd ungodly. By which its manifest that ungodly deeds are primarily and properly such as are committed immediately against God himselfe, and so against the first table, in the prophane opposing of Gods worship and honour, in which respect ungodlinesse is distinguisht from unrightousnesse, which properly breaks the Commandements of the second table; And yet secondarily, and in a more large Consideration, ungodlinesse here comprehends any sin committed either against God or man, and so against any Commandement of the Law; for even that sin which is directly against man, hath in it a defect and a withdrawing of some duty due to God. If it be enquired why the Apostle onely here saith ungodly, and not unrighteous deeds also, Its answered, for three resons.
1. Because ungodliness and unrighteousness are inseparable: wheresoever ungodliness is, there will be no Conscience made of unrighteousness: as the two tables were given, so are they broken and embraced both together, and he who breaks one, makes no Conscience of breaking the other, the authority of the giver being the same.
2. Because ungodlinesse is the cause of unrightenesse: he who hath a prophane godless heart, will not stick at any act of unjustice. Tis the fear of God which is to depart from evill. As holinesse puts a man upon righteousnesse, so prophanenesse upon unrighteousnesse. Pharaoh knew not God, and therefore he opprest Israel.
3. Because these seducers flatterd themselves with [Page 489]pretences of eminent godlinesse and holiness; though they took a liberty to live in many vices and unclean extravagancies: The Apostle several times in this Epistle, brands them with the name of ungodly ones, and threatens judgment for their ungodliness.
2. For the second, the manner after which they were committed, and that was ungodlily, which they have ungodlily committed.
EXPLICATION.
The words ungodlily committed, are contained in one word in the Original [...], if it may be rendred by any one Latine word, it must be impiarunt; nor can it be in any one English word properly expressed, but must be rendred either to doe or perform or live ungodlily. The same word is expressed but in one place besides this in all the new Testament, and that place is 2 Pet. 2.6. where it is rendred living ungodlily. In the opening hereof, I shall only shew what it is to commit an evil work ungodlily.
First, more generally it notes the proceeding of these nngodly deeds from an ungodly, unsanctified prinple; an unholy unrepentant heart, a mind devoted and addicted to ungodliness; this is not the fruit which growes upon a good tree, nor the spot of Gods people, who though sometime they do that which is ungodly, withdraw that duty which is due to God, and commit that evil which is against the wil of God, In optimis non nihil pessimi. Tert. de an. c. 23. yet as the Psalmist speaks, they do not wickedly (as these did) depart from God, Psal. 18.21. the wicked are they who do wickedly against the covenant, Dan. 10.32. and of the wicked it is said, Dan. 12.10. that they shall doe wickedly.
But 2. That which this doing ungodlily, doth more particularly intend, is the performing of wickedness after a wicked and ungodly manner, and that principally these four several waies.
1. By purposing and intending of sin. The wicked is [Page 490]not overtaken with a sudden fit of tentation, but resolves on sin long before; he makes provision for his lust; he is like a man who layes himself to sleep, drawes the curtains, puts out the candle, and he intends, and in a sort overtakes his sleep in sin; he sets himself in a way that is not good. Psal. 36.
2. Ungodly deeds are performed after an ungodly manner, by devising and contriving of ungodliness; the wicked devise mischief, Prov. 6.14. He that deviseth to do evil, Psal. 35.20. Prov. 16 30. Jer. 18.18. Psal. 36.4. Vid. Cartwr. in Pro. 6.14. shall be called a mischievous person; the heart which deviseth wicked imaginations is one of the seven things which the Lord hates, Prov. 6.16.18. Against those who devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds, is a wo denounced, Mich. 2.1. The wicked are workers of iniquity, Matth. 7.22. They are curious, cunning artificers in, and contrivers of sin; ungodliness is their art, trade, and mystery; they are wise to do evil, and men in malice, though children in understanding; they are skilful practioners in sin.
3. By a delighting and taking pleasure in the committing of sin: Wicked men are willingly obedient to it; they yeild themselves to execute its commands, and they universally resign the whole consent of the wil to the obedience of it. Sin is as pleasant to sinners, as bread and wine; they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the cup of violence; they rejoyce to doe evill, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked, Prov. 2.14. Wickedness is sweet in their mouths, and they hide it under their tongues, Job. 20.12. as it is not the doing of good, but the delighting in the doing it that makes it done wel, so neither is it simply the doing of evil, but the doing thereof delightfully, that makes it done ungodlily. It is a sport to a foole to do mischiefe Prov. 10.30.
4. By continuing and persisting in sin. Wicked men grow worse and worse, their waies increase to more ungodlinesse, they run on in them without repentance: none [Page 491]say, what have I done? Its weakly done to fall, but it is wickedly done to lie stil; it is bad to stand in the way of sinners, much worse to sit in the seat of the scornful.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. The godly sin not as do the wicked. Obs. 1. The sinful actions of the godly, proceed not from an heart altogether void of a sanctified principle; there is in them the seed of God; the divine nature, a renewed part, from which their wicked works never issue; in the committing of the most ungodly of their actions, they themselves are not altogether ungodly; and they are overtaken unawares with sin, they sin of infirmity and we [...]kness; with the purpose of their hearts, Acts 11.23. they cleave to the Lord, though by sin they be diverted from their holy resolutions and turned out of the way; they overtake not sin, but are overtaken by it; like a good marks-man, they aim and level right at the mark; though Satan and their own unregenerate part, sometime jogging them (as it were) by the elbow, make them in their performances, swerve and deviate from the fame: Nor do the godly goe about sin with the witty wickedness and skilfulness of the ungodly; they are brought up to another trade, being thildren in malice, and men in understanding; they are under the captivity of sin, which though it may haply have a victory, and exercise tyranny over them as an usurper, doth not exercise a raign over them as a King; they are taken sometime in a tentation by that which the Apostle calls [...], Rom. 7.23. a captivating law, which as by the point of the spear, or edg of the sword forcibly overcomes them, but it doth not bring their whole wil to a compleat consent and subjection to it; they do what they hate, Rom. 7.15. there is ever something in them which hates sin, which though it doe not alway succeed to prevent sin, yet it [Page 492]doth alway supply with repentance after the commission of sin; In discordiâ s caruis et spiritu non facile obtinetur tam perfecta victoria, ut etiam quae sunt abrumpenda non illigent, et quae sunt intersicienda, non vulne. rent. Leo d [...] jejun, sep. mens ser. and though some kind of consent went before to conceive sin, yet it shall not follow after to allow it being committed. Of these things more before. concerning walking in the way of Cain.
Obs. 2. The wicked sin not of infirmitie. They do not fall into, but follow sin; they are not pull'd into sin against their wil, or unawares, but they wallow in it: they are not surprized by sin, but they sel themselves to it; not sinning frailely, but ungodlily; they are not, after purpose to walk in the waies of Gods commandment, withdrawn unawares out of the way; but they please themselves in wandring, and like the beggar, they are never out of their way, or truly displease themselves for being so, when they are most so; let no wicked man then flatter himself by preending such a sin is his infirmity; sins of weakness are not committed wickedly, nor is there wanting so much strength in any saint, as to strive against them, and to arise up from them.
3. The manner of committing sin, is that which shall condemn. Obs. 3. As the manner of doing good is that which commends a good action, so the manner of committing evil, is that which makes it most deformed in Gods sight. There is no sin shall condemn, which is not committed wickedly; that which is sincerely opposed and repented of, shal never destroy: (when the Virgin cried out, she was not to dye.) In stead of destroying us for it, we shall be delivered from it. Hence 'tis that sundry sins of the wicked (mentioned in Scripture) were more severely punished, then those committed by the godly, though (as to the nature of the sin it self) the later seemed much more hainous. A child of God sins not, so neither shall he smart, as doth the sinner.
This briefly for the first sort of causes or matters about which the wicked shal he judged, their ungodly [Page 493]deeds which they have ungodlily committed. Non nulli codices post [...] addunt [...]. Lorin. Sed verba per verbum loquendi satis intelliguntur. Jd. The second followes, viz. their hard speeches spoken against him.
EXPLICATION.
The words (hard speeches) are comprised in this one word (in the Greek) [...], hard; which one word (hard) must nevertheless be restrained to speeches, Vis Graecae vocis [...], duritiem importat ex ariditate, quam ariditatem spiritualiter habent hi quorum cor durum est, et quorum anima dici potest sine aquâ, quia humore grati [...] destituutnur. Lorin. inloc. Ut ea quae dura sunt, tactui resistunt, ita probra et maledicta Gnosticorum à rect â ratione maxime ab [...]orrent. Justinian in loc. [...]. 2 Sam. 3 39. 2 Sam. 2.17. Isa. 14.3. Isa. 21 2 chap. 27.8.48.4. Cant. 8.6. in respect of the word which followes (namely spoken) This word [...] (hard,) according to the force of its own signification, imports that hardness which comes from the dryness of a thing, and which thereby is unpleasing, harsh, rugged, and so hurtful to the touch; and works or words may be said to be hard, when they are grievous, harsh, unpleasing, churlish, rough: Thus Exod. 1.14. it is said that the Egyptians made the lives of the Israelites bitter (according to the Septuagint) [...], with hard bondage, 1 Sam. 5.7. his (Gods) hand is ( [...]) sore upon us, and upon Dagon our God. So it is said of Nabal, 1 Sam. 25.3. that he was [...], churlish and evil, &c. 1 Kings 12.4. is mentioned the ( [...]) grievous service of Solomon. 1 Kings 12.13. The King answered the people ( [...]) roughly, or (as here in Jude) hard speeches. Joseph spake [...]) roughly. Matth. 25.24. I knew that thou art ( [...]) an hard man.
By these hard speeches therefore Jude intends, though not such as were afflictive, hurtful to Christ; (for as our good words cannot benefit him, so neither can our bad ones harm him;) yet such as among men are accounted harsh, grievous, and offensive; such as were spoken in opposition, contempt, obstinacie, stubbornness against him: And thus two waies they spake hard speeches against Christ.
1. Directly; when they spake falsely, blasphemously, and irreverently, againsthis person, natures, or offices. [Page 494]And of this I have spoken largely before, pag. 364, &c.
2. Indirectly they spake against him, 1. In speaking against his word; and 2. The persons whom he would have them reverence.
1. For his word, they deride and mock at its promises, which they voiced to be encouragements to them to live as they list: The gospel of grace, they turn into laciviousness, and profess that it gives them liberty to cast off all obedience; and therefore all the precepts (they say) are antiquated, and of no other use now, then to shew from what they are delivered. The purity and holiness required therein, they deride as needless niceness, as the fetching of a wearisome compasse, and the going the farthest way about in the journey and course of Christianity. The threatnings of the word, they securely scoff at, as if they were but empty sounds, reports without bullets, thunder-claps without bolts; they scorn to be stopped in their carnal and sensual prosecutions (as did they of old by the foretelling of a flood) by the denunciation of a day of judgment: they scoffingly enquiring, where is the promise of his coming? 2 Pet. 3. They look upon examples of judgment as fables, or nothing at all concerning them: the examples of divine patien [...]e, they boldly turn into presumption, with Lamech, Gen. 4.4. If Cain be to be avenged seven fold, surely Lamech seventy and seven fold. Justinian. in loc.
2. They speak against him, in speaking against the persons of others; their governors and superiors they reproach, and speak evil of dignities. Of which largely, ver. 8. Though they allowed not the Magistrate to use the sword against them, yet did they abuse that which was sharper then a sword against him. Against private Christians, they spake 1. boastingly and proudly. And thus Psal 31.18. Davids enemies spake hard things, proudly; and Psal. 94.4. they spake hard things, and boast themselves, namely by threatning such things [Page 495]which were grievous to be born, insufferable and insupportable; they herein resembling the waves of the sea, which in their proud swelling seem to threaten the swallowing up of ships and shore.
2. They speake hard things against Christians, by slandering and defaming them, cassing undue aspersions upon them, 1 Pet. 4.4. because these could not find, they made and minted many accusations against them; and that both by uttering those things against them, which were false and evil, as also by uttering true things after a false and sinful manner, as by blazing of secret infirmities, amplifying offences beyond their due proportion, lessning and depraving the good which was in, or done by them; perverting and destroying the sense and meaning of their words.
3. They speak hard things against Christians by censuring and judging them; they uncharitably passed sentence against their persons and practices, voicing the former to be hypocrites, because they would not be prophane; and to have no more then, because they had so much as the appearance of holiness: they judged harshly of their future estate, and of those actions which to these censurers were unknown; (for they spake evil of what they knew not) they ever judged the worst.
4. They spake hard things by mocking and deriding the godly; the holy strictness and preciseness of the Saints, occasioned their scorn: These libertines derided them, as if they had made an idol of conscience, because they durst not run wi [...]h them to the same excess of riot. They turned the glory of holy men into shame; for that which made the godly more then men, they abused them as children. Luke 23.11. [...] As (in likelihood) those sturdy Gyants in Enochs time, scoffed both at his purity and predictions; so did these sensual monsters, mock at the Christians, both for their being such manner of persons, and also for the motive of their being so, the promise [Page 496]of the coming of Christ to judgment.
OBSERVATIONS. Obs. 1.
1. The excellency of any way or persons exempts them not from hard words. Even Christ himselfe hath hard words utterd against him; Christ endured, and therefore he had the Contradiction of sinners. Where wicked men cannot finde, they will make a cause to speak against Christ, and rather then they will have none at all, this shall be it, that they can finde none. The good word of the ungodly is no Commendation to the commended: what evill have I don (said one to a wicked man) that thou shouldst speak well of me? A man is much known by those who accompany and commend him: the Commendation of sinners, since Christ had their Contradiction, should rather make thee suspect then sooth thy selfe. If thou wilt be like Christ in being holy, thou must be like him in being disgraced. Expect not to have the good word of sinners, nor be troubled for wanting it. In short, let us not think the worse of Christ or his wayes, because they meet with the unkinde word of the world; rather let us be so experimentally acquainted with the worth and goodnesse of both, that we may be able to confute the hard words of the wicked; to say, we have found Christ good, when others shal give him hard words; nay that we may be the more incited to speak for Christ, the more ungodly men speak against him. To conclude, let us be harsh to our lusts, and to our sinfull natures, and be sensible of the harshnesse and hurtfulnesse of sin, and then we shall both account Christ good; and speak good, not hard words of him.
2. Obser. 2. A wicked tongue is rugged, harsh grating. It speaks hard things. It is not made of bone, nor is there a bone in it (as some observe) but yet it utters words that are harder then bones, yea sharper than swords. It hath made incurable gashes in the name. [Page 497]the poyson latent in and vented by the tongue, is deadly. The mockings of the tongue are call'd cruell. Many men have adventurd to lose their lives, rather than they would endure the rugged and unpleasing expressions of the tongue. Reproaches are like the living Coals of Juniper which burne hotest, and (some say) they may be kept a whole year. Psal. 120.4. The tongue (like fire) though it be a good servant, is a bad master. The Unicorns horne is very salubrious and beneficiall when the apothecary useth it in his shop, but very hurtfull when upon the head of that fierce and wilde creature. Hence we should be warned to take heed of having a tongue hurtfull to others, as also to labour to sh [...]eld our selves with innocence and patience against this cruelly cutting instrument, and to finde that the ruggednesse and harshnesse of others tongues may be onely as a file or wisp, to take away the rust and filth of our corruption; remembring that even the best Saints oft want the rubber of a sinners tongue to make them clean, and that they may make as good an use of the reproaching tongue of an Enemy, as of the reproving or comforting tongue of a friend; and that hereby the swords of the tongue shall let out the corruption of their soares, and doe them good against the will of their Enemies.
3. Obs. 3. For our words we are responsible before the tribunall of Christ. Words passe away in respect of the sound, not in respect of the guilt and effect even of idle words men shall give account. Matth. 12.26. [...], worklesse words, which benefit not, and administer no grace to the hearer; how much more then for hurtfull words! If a man may sin by silence, how much more by hurtfull speaking! The sins of the tongue much dishonour God. Of all creatures, man alone had the glory of speech bestowd upon him (and indeed, to what end should an irrationall [Page 498]creature be furnisht with language?) his tongue was to proclaime his reason, and that by setting forth the glory of his Maker. Man was made to glorifie God, and the tongue is that instrument whereby he should principally doe it. To offend God then by the tongue, is to fight against him with his own weapon, and to turne his own artillery upon himselfe. Further, the sinfull tongue of all other parts doth most hurt to others, not onely by vexing and afflicting them with calumnies, reproaches, disgraces, but also infecting them, and scattering its poison to tempt and draw to sin, and error. How great should our care be to throw the salt of grace into the streames of our words, to labour that our speech should be alway gracious, Col. 4.6 and (as the Apostle speaks) seasond with salt! and that both by cleansing the fountaine the heart (for if the stomack be corrupt the breath will be unsavory) as also by setting a watch before the doore of our lips, and by giving entrance to no expressions but such as can bring a passe from the scripture: adding to that double guard the teeth and lips, with which nature hath hedgd, in the tongue, a third, namely the fear of God, which is the best keeper both of heart and tongue; alwayes remembring that though words seem to vanish, and to dye as soone as we have spoken, yet that our words have not done with us when we have done with them, but that even of our seemingly perisht expressions, and forgotten (if sinful) words, shall we at the last day be convinced. The arrowes of our words, shot so high that they seem to be lost and out of sight, will afterward fall upon the heads of those who shot them up.
4. Obs. 4. Christ accounts the words spoken against his, as utterd against himself. These troublesome, ruggedtongued sectaries handled the names of others (as we have heard) rudely; but at the last day, Christ will convince [Page 499]them of these hard speeches: their foolish tongues shall recoyl upon themselves, and rebound like an arrow shot against a brazen wall, from the reviled innocents, to the nocent revilers. Jesus Christ wil give his Saints more then treble damages, nay, fourfold restitution, for all the reproaches which they have sustained; sinners shal restore the stoln reputations of Saints, and that with interest. It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to all, who even this way trouble his people. Christ wel knowes that all the hard speeches against his servants were uttered for his sake; because they did not run with the wicked to the same excess of riot, they were therefore followed by them with excessive reproaches. David said, it was for his sake, that Saul killed the Priests of the Lord; he could not come at David, and therefore he destroyed his friends. The wicked cannot reach the person, and therefore they tear the picture; but Christ wil hereafter suffer none to be losers by him, that have been losers for him, the revilings uttered against Saints, wil at the last appear to have been spoken against the truly great ones, the favorites of the King of glory: Were ye not afraid (saith God to Aaron and Miriam) to speak against my servant Moses? He speaks to them as slandering a great person.
IN this verse our Apostle excellently applyes the forementioned prophesie of the last judgment, unto these seducers, shewing by sundry apt and pregnant proofs, that these seducers were guilty of that ungodliness [Page 500]for which the wicked at the last day were to be judged. And they discover their ungodlinesse these four wayes.
- 1. By being murmurers, complainers.
- 2. Their following their lusts.
- 3. Their boasting: speaking great swelling words.
- 4. Their admiration of mens persons.
1. They discover their ungodliness, by shewing themselves Murmurers, Complainers.
EXPLICATION.
I shall herein shew two things. 1. Who are here meant by murmurers, complainers. 2. Why Jude expresseth himself against them, or what is the greatnesse or hainousnesse of this their sin, in being murmurers, complainers.
1. For the first, who are here meant by murmerers, complainers.
The first word [...], murmurers, imports an expressing of discontentednesse against another in our words; and that not aloud with an high voice, but with a voice somewhat low, muttering, and grumbling. The word [...], comes (say some) from [...], grunnio, Suum more grunnire murmure, leuis aquae strepitus denotatur, et a graeco verbo [...] descendere videtur. to grunt as fat swine; and so imports secretly to speak against others (saith Gerard) with hatred and impatience. Thus Matth. 20.11. They who received but a penny for their work, thinking themselves wronged; [...], murmured against the good man of the house; and the Scribes and Pharisees [...], murmurred against Christ and his disciples for eating with publicans and sinners. And John 6.14. the Jewes murmurred ( [...]) against him, because he said he was the bread of life. Submissâ voce mussitare. So ver. 43.61. of the same chapter. So 1 Cor. 10.10. neither murmur ye, [...], as some of them also murmured ( [...]) and were destroyed of the destroyer; though sometime (as Beza notes) the word is taken for any close secret whispering [Page 501]of a matter without offence and indignation, as Joh. 7.12.32. yet most frequently and properly it is used in the former signification. This mumuring may be either against men, or against God himself; the word here used by Jude, by its own force, signifies not one more then another. Against man have men frequently murmured, as the Israelites against Moses and Aaron; nor is any thing more usual, then for people to murmur (especially) against their Governors, out of envy, impatience, or discontent; a sin questionless which these seducers were deeply guilty of, who despised dominions, and spake evil of dignities; and yet because the Apostle had accused them for that sin before, ver. 8. and also threatned destruction against them for it, ver. 11. Because also the next word Complainers, wherein the Apostle shewes the cause of their murmuring, notes a complaining of that lot, portion, condition set out by God for us, I rather conceive that this murmuring here, with which Jude chargeth these seducers, was their muttering of impatient, discontented expressions against God himself, with whom they were angry and displeased: a distemper which (allowed) is an evident sign of an ungracious, ungodly heart (the thing which also Jude here intends to prove) and contrary to that quiet and silent submissiveness of the godly who (with Davd) are dumb and open not their mouth because the Lord doth it, Psal. 39.9, who wil be pleased with God, and with whatever he doth, when he is most angry with them who wil justifie him, when he seems to condemn them. A sin likewise, is this murmuring against God, of which the ungodly Israelites are frequently accused. As Deut. 1.27. Exod. 15.24. and for which they were severely punished. Concerning those who by murmuring shewed themselves displeased with God, the Apostle tels us, that God was not well pleased with them, for they were overthrown in the wildernesse; their displeasure was wicked and sinful, but yet [Page 502]weak and impotent; Gods was holy and righteous, and withal potent and irresistible: Man hath no abilitie with his anger, he may hate God, but he cannot hurt him; nay, in stead thereof, he only hurts himself; every arrow which he shoots up to God, falling down upon his own pate.
2. The other expression whereby Jude sets forth their sin, is here [...], translated, complainers, which doth not (as indeed I think no one word can) fully express the force of the word used by the Apostle, which signifieth complainers, blamers, or accusers of that part, portion, or alotment which was set out for them in the world. The word being made up of two, the one [...], which signifies blaming or complaining; the other [...], a lot portion, or division. The Apostle then by this word [...], complainers of their lot and portion, explaines the former, [...], murmurers; by it shewing what it was at which these people murmured, namely that their condition in the world was not so rich, great, and honourable, as was that of some others; they murmured, as if God had unequally distributed their estate and portion; because they had not as much as others, they thought they had not enough, nay nothing. Haply they were displeased that they were not the governors of the world, that any were above them; and indeed this was the true reason why they speak evil of dignities, and opposed Magistrates, not because they hated ruling, but because they themselves were not the rulers. And this further clearing of their sin by the Apostle, further proves them ungodly (the Apostles scope) for in complaining of their lot and portion, what did they but accuse God either of want of righteousnesse or wisdom in his distributions, and dispensations, as if either he had defrauded them of their due, or not understood fitly to proportion their estates. And what can be more contrary to godliness (which as the Apostle speaks) is [Page 503]joynd with contentment, or self-sufficiency, 1 Tim. 6.6. than discontentedly never to be sufficed with what God hath laid out for us? what more unlike that holy disposition of Saints, whereby they say with David, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance, the lines are faln to me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage? Psal. 16.5, 6. Discontentednesse with our times and estates is that which the holy Ghost deservedly chargeth with sinfull folly: Eccles. 7.10. Say not thou, what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this. q.d. do not by considering of the goodness of former times, complain discontentedly of Gods providence in ordering thee to live in those which he hath alloted for thee.
For the second, 2 Why Jude expresseth himselfe against their murmuring and complaining, or what is the heinousnesse considerable in this their sin? I answer, our Apostle by charging them herewith (as I said) intends to prove them ungodly men, and such bold sinners as utterd had speeches against God.
Now how much ungodlinesse layes open it self by this sin of murmuring discontentednesse against Gods administrations, appears, by considering what those sins are whereof this sin is made up and consists, and wherewith its ever accompanied. First in this is contained that great sin of unbelief and distrustfulness. He who complains of his portion, doth not believe that God is his portion and will supply him accordingly. He who believes that God is his portion, needs not complain of his portion; no, he that can say with David, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, will undoubtedly add, the lines are faln to me in pleasant places, I have a goodly heritage. Psal. 16.5, 6. That God who is self-sufficient, is alsufficient: sufficient for the soul, fills every corner thereof: the Bee in the hive puts not forth its sting, nor doth the soul, when centred upon God, disquiet us. So [Page 504]that this murmuring discontednesse clearly argues, that the soul departs from the living God, and looks not upon him as a good able and willing to relieve it in its exigences, a sin (doubtless) very heinous, and such as much dishonours Gods alsufficiency, and that which God oft punisht in Israel, and which was the Companion, or rather the cause of all their murmurings against him; as appears Ps. 78.19, 20. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? He smote the rock, but can he give bread also, can he provide flesh for his people?
2. This sin discovers (as a fruit of the former) the going out of the heart after some other portion besides God, nay more then God; which because it cannot obtain in so large a measure as it desires, (like a child that cries because its pincht in a strait coat much too little for it) a man becomes unquiet and complaining. Now how great an impiety is it, to lament and complaine more for the want of trifles, then for the want of that great soul-satisfying good, namely, that God who hath all in him that may do or make us good! like a foolish mother, who having many lovely children, will not look upon them, but only regards & delights her self with babies, or puppets made of clouts. How deservedly great is that complaint of God, they have forsaken me the fountaine of living waters, and have hewed them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns that can hold no waters! How inexcusable a wickednesse was it for the King of Israel, in stead of seeking of God, to goe to Baalzebub the God of Ekron for the recovery of his health! What greater disloyalty then for a soul, like Potiphars wife, to wrangle and rage because it cannot obtaine its servant (the Creature) to satisfie its uncleane desires, and to despise the chast and truly comfortable imbracements of her Lord, to whom its marryed, and tyed by dearest and strictest bonds.
3. This murmuring discontentednesse discovers [Page 505] the great sinne of unthankfulnesse for what portion we enjoy. A murmurer cannot be thankful, nor can he who is thankful for what he hath, murmur for what he is without; but he wonders that God should give him any thing, not frets because God doth not give him every thing; he saith (with Jacob) I am less then the least of all thy mercies; and doth not mutter against God for not bestowing upon him greater. This distemper of discontent (contrarily) causeth men to think so much of what they want, that they quite forget what they already have received: Thus the Israelites discontentedly murmured for what they had not, and unthankfully forgat what they had. Discontednesse makes heavy mercies to sink to the bottome, and to be forgotten; and light wants and troubles to swim on the top; and it makes men so fretful, in that a few are above them, that they are utterly unthankful for their being above so many; and God loseth a friend of the discontented person, for but doing with his own as he pleaseth.
4. In this is manifested the sin of a proud conceit of our own worth and deservings, a sinful self-justification, when Gods dispensations are severe and afflictive. He who complains of Gods dealing, secretly applauds his own deservings; he who murmurs against Gods hand, shewes that he is not angry with his own heart; he alwaies saith, see what have I lost, how many comforts do I want; but he never saith, what have I done? how many corruptions hath my heart, which make me unfit to enjoy a fuller portion in the world? All the fault is laid upon God, nothing upon himself, as if his sin never threw one mite into the treasury of his sufferings, he counts God a hard master, and himself a good servant: and if it be a great sin in the courts of men to acquit the wicked, and to condemn the innocent, how inexcusable a wickednesse is it to condemn God, and acquit our selves! A discontented camplainer saith not [Page 506]with David, I and my fathers house have sinned: these sheep, what have they don? Nor with the humble soul, The Lord is righteous, and I wil bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; but flyes in the face of God, in stead of falling down at his feet. In one word; this discontent is a shield for sin, and is a sword against God.
5. This sin unduly and sacrilegiously usurps Gods own seat and throne: what doth he who complaines of Gods administrations, but in effect profess that he would be in the room of God to order the world after his own mind, and that he hath more wisdome, care, justice, and therefore fitness to dispose of men and to alot them their portions, than God himselfe? Interpretatively, he sayes like Absolom, there is none that takes care to order mens affaires: O that I were King of the world, then should things be better ordered then now they are: And he saith to God, as that master of the feast to his self-advancing guest, come down, sit lower, and give way to thy betters to sit above thee! Whereas alas, should such silly Phaetons as we but govern the world (as they fable he did the chariot of the sun) for one day, we should set all things on fire: nay, should we be left to cut out our own portions, and be our own carvers, how soon should we cut our own fingars? And how can he whose wil is the rule of rectitude, do any thing unrighteously? man doth a thing because its just, but therefore is a thing just because God doth it; far be it from God (saith Elihu) that God should do wickedness, J [...]b. 34.10. and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity: who can be more careful then he who is more tender over his, than a mother is over her sucking child? who so wise as the only wise God, whose eyes run to fro, throughout the whole earth, nay who indeed is all eye to behold all the concernments of the sons of men?
6. Lastly, This sin of discontentednesse with our [Page 507]own private alotments, takes men off from minding the more publick and weighty concernments of Gods Church; making them to disregard and forget it in all her sufferings and hazards; what doth more then this sin, cause men to mind their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, and to lose the thoughts thereof in a crowd of discontented cares for themselves? It is impossible for him that is overmuch in mourning for himself, to be mindful of, or mournful for Zion. Now what an unworthy distemper is this, for men to live as if God had made them only to mind their own private conditions in the world, to regard only the painting of their own Cabbins, though the ship be sinking? and so as it may be wel with themselves to be carelesse how it fares with the whole Church of Christ? We should rejoyce that God would set up a building of glory to himselfe, though upon our ruins, and that Christ ariseth, though we fal; that his kingdome comes, though ours goes, that he may be seene and honoured, though we stand in a crowd, and be hidden.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. God hath divided, Obs. 1. set out for every one his portion here in the world. These seducers, in complaining of their part and alotment, shew that God appoints to every one his dimensum or proportion that he thinks fittest for them. God is the great housholder of the world, and Master of that great family; and as it was the custome of ancient times, to divide and give to every one his portion of meat and drink, and his set allowance of either; (whence we read Psal. 11.6. of the portion of the wickeds cup) so God deals out to every one what estate he thinks meetest. To some he gives a Benjamins portion in the world, five times so much as to others: he is the soveraign disposer of us, and of all our concernments, and he best knowes what is best for us; and to his people, he ever gives them [Page 508]that alotment, which best sutes with their obtaining of the true good, himself, and ever affords them, if not what they would, yet what they want. Oh how should this consideration work us to a humble contentednesse with all our alotments, and make us bring our hearts to our condition, if we cannot bring our condition to our hearts! In a word, when we see that the condition of others is higher then ours; let us consider that it is better to wear a fit garment, then one much too big, though golden.
2. Obs. 2. No estate of outward fulness can quiet the heart, and stil its complaints. These seducers feasted sumptuously, fed themselves to the full, and fared high; and yet for all that, they murmured and complained. The rich man in the Gospel in the midst of all his abundance, cryes out, What shall I doe? Luke 12.17. Neither the life, nor the comfort of the life consists in the abundance of the things which we enjoy. None complain so much, as they who have the greatest plenty. Though Nabal had in his house the feast of a King, yet soon after his heart dyed in him, and he became like a stone, 1 Sam. 25.27. Nabals heart was like the kidney of a beast, which though inclosed in fat, is it self lean. Solomon in his glory, reads a lecture of the creatures vanity. Ahab and Haman were as discontented in heart, as great in estate; vast is the disproportion between the soul and all wordly objects, for they being but momentany and vanishing, dead and inefficacious▪ earthy and drossie, are unsutable to the souls excellency and exigencies. Tis not the work of wordly abundance, to take away covetousnesse, but of grace in the heart: the lesson of contentment must be learned in a higher Schoole than outward plenty.
3. Obs. 3. They who deserve worst, complaine and murmur most; And are most ready to thinke that they are most hardly dealt with. None are so unthankful as the unworthy: Israelites murmure. Absalom [Page 509]is discontented. Haman cries out, what doth all this availe me? &c. whereas Jacob tells God, that he was not worthy of the least of all the mercies and truth which God had shewd him, Gen. 32.10. Job praised and submitted to God, taking from him as well as giving to him. None see their unworthinesse so little, as they who are fullest of unworthinesse: and til a man see himselfe deserving nothing, he wil ever complain of God when he abridgeth him of any thing. Besides, the wicked mortifie no lusts, and therefore they are angry when their lusts are not fulfiled, when their itch is not scratched, because they take not away the inward distemper which caused it; but especially they look not upon God as their portion in Christ: and who can be content or praise God, that hath no spirituall blessings to blesse him for? How readily [...]hen (in stead of being angry with Gods dispensations) should we chide our own corruptions, and oft blush, that so many Saints have been so patient under mountaines, and that such sinners as we should so complaine under feathers?
4. Obs. 4. Its our duty to take heed of this sinfull distemper of murmuring against, and complaining of Gods dealing with us. To this end, in the most unpleasing dispensation of providence, 1. 1 More study what thou deservest, than consider what thou sustainest. Whatever thy Condition be, thou hast deserved that it should have been worse. The fire is not answerable to thy fewel. Wonder more at what good thou hast, then what thou wantest; and at the evill thou art without, then at that which thou undergoest. The godly say, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities. Tis his mercy that we are not consumed. Our God hath punished us less than our iniquities. 2. 2 More mourne for thy incorrigiblenesse under, than the unpleasantnesse of any providence; that thou hast been so long in the fire, and lost no more of [Page 510]thy drosse; that folly is still so bound up in thy heart notwithstanding all thy rods of Correction, Hos. 13 13. and that thou art that foolish childe which stayes so long in the place of breaking forth of Children. 3 3. More labour to make thy shoulder strong, than to get thy burden taken off, and rather to be fit to endure cross providences than to have them ended. To this end, 1. Prov. 23.18. More looke upon providence as concluding, then as at present: in the end thou shalt say, the wilderness was the best way to Canaan, and that God dealt better by thee than thou couldst have done by thy selfe. Wait the winding up of providence, prejudg not Gods proceedings; he oft turns water into wine▪ Gods furthest way about, will prove better than thy shorter Cut. 2. Clear up thy interest in Christ, and so possesse thy selfe of true riches. Gratia Dei portio locuples. If God be thy portion, thou wilt never complaine, its small, or smart. [...] Labour to kill Lust, which is the sting of every trouble, making a sweet Condition bitter, and a bitter Condition bitterer: rather mend thy house, then complain of the raining into it. Get affections weaned from the world: Count the greatest worldly gain small, and then thou wilt never think the greatest loss great. Love every thing, besides Christ, as about to leave and loath it. 4. Endeavour after submissivenesse of heart. Say rather, oh that I had patience under, than riddance from my trouble. Study for an annihilated will or rather to have thy will losing it self, in Gods. 5. Compare thy l [...]t with theirs who have less then thou hast, and yet deserve more then thou dost. If thy drink be small, others drink water; if thine be water, others drinke gall; if thine be gal, others drink blood; if thine be blood, others drink damnation.
6. More Consider whence every providence is, than what it is: tis bitter in the streame, but sweet in the fountaine. Observe the hand of a soveraigne Lord, a wise Governour, a merciful Father, a righteous Judg. [Page 511]In Precepts, consider not what is commanded, but who commands. In Providence, not what is the Correction, but who is the Correcter; the former will make thee obedient in doing, the latter in suffering.
4 4 Remember, if thou hast a murmuring tongue, God hath a hearing ear: God hears thee when thou mutterest most secretly, most inwardly. He who hears the grones of his own spirit, hears the grumblings of thine. Exod. 16.7, 8 9, The Lord (saith Moses) teareth our murmurings. If his ear be open, let thy mouth be stopt; be afraid thy God should hear thee. Murmuring is a great provocation.
5. 5. Eccles. 7.10. Meditate of the folly and vanity of this sin of discontented murmuring against God. 1. Consider it cannot benefit and relieve us. I may say of sinfull complaining (as Christ of sinful Care) which of you by complaining, can add one cubit to his stature? Never did any find ease or obtaine their desire by contending with God. An impatient murmurer is like a man sick of a burning fever, who tumbles and tosseth from one side of the bed to the other for coolnesse, but till his distemper be removed, he gets no ease. God must have his will; theres no escaping from him but by submiting to him. Its a vaine thing for a man in a boat, by pulling with a cable at the rock, to thinke to draw the rock to him. 2. Its a distemper which disquiets him most in whom it is. The impatient murmurer is his own martyr, his afflictions are selfe-created. He would take it very ill to have another doe halfe so much against him, as he doth against his own soule. All his trouble is from his own pride, through which comes all Contention with God and man. Tis fulnesse of the stomack which makes a man sea-sick, and the proud heart which causeth all the vexation in a troublesome estate. The arrow of murmuring shot up against God, falls down upon the head of him who shot it. The wild [Page 512]bull in the net, in stead of breaking it, doth by strugling the more, hamper himselfe. 3. This sin of discontentednesse [...] deprives a man of all that spirituall benefit which he may reap by the troublesomnesse of his wordly alotments. Were not men peevish and unsubmissive, they might take honey out of the carcass of every Lion-like and tearing trouble. They might learn those lessons of heavenly mindednesse, meeknesse, faith, mortification, which would countervaile for every cross. The silent and submissive acceptance of a severe dispensation, turns every stone thrown at us into a precious stone, and produceth the peaceale fruit of righteousnesse: whereas murmuring discontentednesse makes us spend that time in beating of our selves, and wrangling with God, which we might profitably improve in labouring for a sanctifyed use of every dispensation.
This for the first proofe, that this seducers were those ungodly ones who should be judg'd at the last day. viz. because they were murmurers, Complainers. The second followe [...] in these words, Walking after their own lusts.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here to be opened. 1. Their guides who led them; their own lusts. 2. Their following these guides; they walked after them.
In the first, their guides are set down 1. by way of specification, so its said they were lusts. 2. By their relation, or their appropriation to these seducers; and so they are said to be their own.
1. They are specified and denominated lusts. Two things here are considerable. 1. What is meant by lusts. 2. Wherein their hurtfulnesse stands. 1. The word [...], lust, is indifferently used concerning lust, good or bad, it denoting by its proper force, only an ardent, earnest desire. And therefore there [Page 513]are lusts not onely lawfull and indifferent (they being the motions of the concupiscible power, desiring such objects as tend to the preservation of nature, Luk. 16.21. That which in insensible things is [...], the sensible and rationall is [...] Phil. 1.23. Psal. 119 127. as meat, drink, rest &c.) but also holy and spirituall; in which respect the spirit is said to lust against the flesh, Gal. 5.17. in regard of that new and holy inclination of the regenerate, whereby they endeavor to put off the old man, and to put on the new. But here (as elswhere very frequently, the word [...] intends Carnall, sinfull, and Corrupt lust. And this is twofold.
1. Originall; that inordinate disposednesse, that inbred and primitive pravity of nature, standing in an aversation from all good, and propension to all evill; the root not only of all wicked desires, in the will, but also of all the evill thoughts in the understanding; and its cald lust, because it principally discovers it selfe by sinfull lustings, and by them manifests its vigor and strength. And of this speaks the Apostle Jam. 1.14, 15. when lust hath conceived, &c.
2. Actuall: Is every sinful rising or inodinate motion against the law of God, every evil desire springing from the root of Original concupiscence. And of these speaks the Apostle Eph. 2.3. We had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, &c. and also Eph. 4.22. that ye put off, concerning the former Conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts. Rom. 6.12. Let not sin reign in your mortall bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof; our naturall Corruption is the root which sends forth these lusts as its branches, and upon them grow those bitter fruits mentioned, Gal. 5.19. adultery, fornication, witch [...]raft, heresie, uncleannesse, lasciviousness, idolatry, &c. Now these lusts are of two sorts. 1. The vitious inclinations of our mindes, or of the upper or rationall soul. We must not restraine lusts [Page 514]to the sensitive or lower part of the soul only, (which they cal the unreasonable) exempting the mind and reason from these blemishes; these lusts of the flesh into which the radical pollution of nature hath diffused it self, belonging to the understanding and reason also, as wel as to the other inferior faculties; the very wisdome of the flesh, being (as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 8.7.) enmity against God, and such as cannot be subject to his law and wil; for from hence is all impiety, idolatry, superstitution, heresie, rejecting of the truth; and indeed all those sins which directly are committed against the first table, and the Apostle expresly mentions the wils of the mind, Eph. 2.3. whereby he understands that superior part called [...], Gal. 5.20.21. intellective and discursive; and the Apostle Col. 2.18. speaking of those who drew others to the superstitutious worship of Angels, discovers that flesh is found in their very mind or understanding, in these words, vainly puft up by his fleshly mind ( [...].
2. The lower and more brutish appetites, in the sensitive part of the soul, the motions to uncleanness, drunkennesse, gluttony, the lusts called of the flesh, 1 John 2.16. the vehement motions of the soul after sensual delights and carnal pleasures, which oft degenerate into beastly excess. These are Ephes. 2.3. called the [...], Rom. 13.14. 1 Pet. 1.14. 1 Pet. 2.11. the wils of the flesh, joyned also with pleasures, Tit. 3.3. serving divers lusts and pleasures; And Tit. 2.12. called worldly lusts.
The Original contagion of mans nature having poysoned and corrupted all the cogitations of the mind and conceptions of the heart, from them diffuseth it self through the affections, and inferior appetites, stirs up innumerable inordinate passions, to the breach of the second Table of the law. And from the corruption of this inferior part, the whole depravation of nature is (I conceive) called flesh; it drawing the unregenerate from things above and heavenly, to such [Page 515]as are below and earthly; from spiritual to corporal objects; from the Creator, to the creature; and after a sort, transforms a man into a beast: And these carnal desires, sensual lusts, are the guides which (our Apostle saith) these seducers followed, as is evident from what he had expressed against them in the fourth verse, turning the gace of God into wantonnesse: and verse 8, filthy dreamers, defiling the flesh: and ver. 10. what they know naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves: and ver. 11. feeding themselves without fear, &c. And from these ungodly lusts (as he after cals them) the Apostle may well prove them ungodly men.
2. For the second. The sinfulnesse of these sensual lusts, appears in respect 1. Of their objects, when such things are desired and craved as are forbidden, Ephes. 53.4. whether persons or things. 2. Of their measure, when things lawful are desired unlawfully, because excessively; the desires after food, apparel, sleep, recreations, or any other sensual delights being boundless, and concupisence unlimited; when in eating, men so gluttonize, that their souls in their bodies are like a candle in a stinking, greazy lanthorn; when we grasp the world, til we make our sinnews crack. Oh how unsutable is it for men to grow cold in prayer, hearing, and to sweat in the world; to account a little grace enough, and enough wealth a little! 3. Of their end, when things are desired not for the glory of God, but for our own pleasure, greatness, and benefit; not for the advancing of God, but our selves; when we seek great things for our selves; not for the fitting us to duty, but for our carnal interest: all the good things we crave, should be scaffolds to erect a building of honour to God, not to erect a structure of glory to our selves. It is the part of an Epicure, not of a Christian, to make his enjoyments center in himselfe, and to sing with that sensualist, in the midst of abundance, [Page 516] Soul, thou hast much goods &c. take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.
4. Of their effects: and so they are sinfull in being, 1. Entangling and incumbring; like long garments, which being let down about ones heels, hinder him from walking, and trip them up in his race; and therefore the Apostles commands us to gird up the loines of our mindes. Hence by some, they are not unfitly cald the birdlime of our spirituall wings; Vis [...]us spiritualium pennarum. and by others compar'd to a string tyed to a birds leg, with which she flying unto the trees, is hamperd in the boughs. Inordinate lusts stop Christians progresse heaven-ward; Mar. 4.19. 1 Pet. 2 1.2 they hinder him in prayer, meditation, heairng, practising: they choke the word: and from the lusting of the flesh against the spirit, tis that the Apostle saith, ye cannot doe the things that you would, Gal. 5.17. women are led into error with divers lusts, 2 Tim. 3.6.
2. These lusts are deceitfull: so they are cald expressely by the Apostle. [...] Cupiditates deceptionis, ut vir sanguinis homo peccati. Vir desideriorum. Heb [...]. Psal. 7.15. James 1.14. [...]. Ephes. 4.22. and that in severall respects. 1. They are not what they seem to be. All the pleasures which are found in them, are but false and appearing, not true and reall, and proper. But secondly, and especially, they are termed lusts of deception or error, because they doe not what they promise; they are deluding and disappointing of that expectation which they raise up in any one. They promise honour, pleasure, riches, &c. but they performe nothing lesse, and make a man more miserable after all his endeavouring to satisfie them, then he was before; by their imbraces they strangle. They who sow to the flesh, of the flesh reap corruption; lusts end in death, and therefore in disappointment. Like a Chimney-pe [...]ce, they are faire without, black within. They promise a Rachel, they give a Leah. They give not what, but contrary to what they promise. What was Achans wedge of [Page 517]gold, The brests of lust give winde and wormwood. but an instrument to rive his body and soule a sunder? and what did his Babylonish garment cloath him with, but confusion? Hence they who will be rich are said to fall into many foolish lusts, that is, such as make them fooles who fall into them. 1 Tim. 6.9. Solomon speaks of a lustfull foole, who went as an ox to the slaughter, and a foole to the correction of the stocks.
3. These lusts are defiling: they are unclean lusts, Non faciunt b [...]nos vel malos mores, nisi beni vel maliamores. Corrupt and corrupting. The old man is said to be corrupt according to deceitfull lusts, Ephes. 4.22. Christ tells us that the lusts which are within defile a man, Matth. 15.19. They corrupt and defile the very body, as I have shewn before, much more the soul, making it an unclean cage of unclean birds: they defile all we are, ye all we doe, prayers, hearings, Sacraments. We lift up impure hands if in wrath.
4. disquieting lusts: 1 Tim. 6.9. [...] dammosas cupiditates. they are called noysome or hurtfull. Every man set upon lust troubles his own flesh. How many more are made Martyrs to their lusts than to God himselfe? Oh the diseases, losses, torments, disgraces that uncleannesse, drunkennesse, ambition, wrath, covetousnesse, &c. have brought upon their vassals, who indeed are no other than very hackneys, whipt and driven through thick and thin, in obedience to their lusts! But most of all doe they fight against the soul. 1 Pet. 2.11. by reason of their contrariety they tear and pull it severall wayes. They disquiet the Conscience: the very worst and foulest dayes of a saint, are better than the dayes of a sinners sunshine. How many wracks and silent scourges doe sinners carry in their bosomes for satisfying their lusts? In a word, they drown the soul in perdition, and produce an eternity of paine for a moment of pleasure. To all this I might add, the unquietnesse of mens lusts to others who live near them, from whence (saith James) come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts? Jam. 4.1.
[Page 518] This for the first particular, the denomination of these guides, which these seducers followed. They were lusts.
2. The relation of these lusts to these seducers is mentioned; the Apostle calls them their 2 Tim. 4.3. James 4.1.3. 2 Pet. 3.3. Jude 18. OWN: and so they were in severall regards.
1. In respect of propagation, and derivation. Lust is the Legacy left by our progenitors: Tis a natural, imbred, hereditary propension to sin, from which all those unholy motions and inordinate inclinations proceed, after which these seducers walked. Men are carried to the service of lust by the tide of Nature, as well as by the winde of Tentation. Lusts are more truly ours then any thing left us by our parents.
2. In respect of seat and habitation. Lusts are our own, because they are in us, in our hearts; they lie liegers for Satan in the soul, and there they are his proxies, spokesmen, and advocates. And therefore Christ saith Matth. 15.19. Out of the heart proceed murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, &c. Men lodge not strangers, but their own: my children are with me in bed, Luke 11.7. Lusts are our owne then, because we harbour them, lodg them, bed them, give them houseroom, heart-room. 3. Their own in point of provision: Men provide for their own children and charge; and much more do they so for their own lusts. The Apostle speaks of making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, Rom. 13. ult. The high fare, the impure dalliances, unclean objects of these Seducers, were all provisions for their lusts: The work of the Covetous, Glutton, Proud, &c. is to prog, project for, and provide fewel for lusts, like the poor Israelies, that painfully gathered stubble, to please their taskmasters. 4. Their own in point of protection and defence: as men provide for, so likewise protect their own. These Seducers would not endure the wind to blow upon their lusts: Hence 'twas [Page 519]that they spake evil of dignities appointed to curb their lusts. Hence they were raging waves, and gave the faithful hard words. Sometimes sinners protect their lusts with denyal, with excuses, allegations of Scripture, appearances of sanctity; and if none of these will do, with fire and sword, open rage and opposition; yea, with tears and lamentations, as those women who wept for Tammuz, as if some gainfull good were taken from them; as Micah cryed for his gods, and as the Harlots bowels yearned over her own child. 5. Lastly, their own in point of peculiarity of delight and dearnesse. Some lusts are peculiarly a mans own: such as to which he is given by constitution: so some men are addicted to gluttony, drunkennesse, some to Uncleanness, some to Covetousnesse, others to Ambition, &c. By Interest, calling, the time, age, or place wherein he lives. Psal. 18.23. David kept himself (as he saith) from his own iniquity: that is, (as I conceive by the subject of that Psalm) from murdering of Saul, a sin to which his Interest tempted him. The reason why some men follow not some lusts, is because some are not so peculiarly their own; but stop them in the prosecution of their own, and then they shew themselves.
Thus of the first Branch of Explication, the Guides: The second follows, viz. the following of these Guides, in these words, Walking after, &c.
[...], walking: An usuall Metaphor in Scripture to set forth the course of a mans life, whether good or bad. Luke 1.6. Zechary and Elizabeth were righteous, [...], walking in all the commandments, &c. False Teachers (2 Pet. 2.10.) the Apostle calls [...], those who walk after the flesh. So 2 Pet. 3.3 and 1 Pet. 4.3.
And most fitly is this their following their lusts called a walking, in respect 1. Of their motion, labour and unquietnesse in the prosecution of them; a man [Page 520]who walks, sits not stil, but is laborious and restless: none are such true drudges, as they who serve their lusts, as Paul speaks, Tit. 3.3. 2. Its called walking, in respect of skilfulnesse. They who walk in a path, are versed in it, and skil'd in it, know every step of it: Wicked men are wise to do evil, they are curious and witty workers of iniquity, Matth. 7.22. 3. Walking, because of progressiveness; he who walks, stands not at a stay, but goes on from step to step; the wicked grow worse and worse, they daily add something to their stature in sin; they add sin to sin; they never think they have done enough for lust, they are daily throwing some more mites into the treasuries of Gods wrath, and their own wickednesse. 4. Walking, in regard they are going and tending to some term or place; the wages of sin, and the end of every lust is death; though hel be not the end of the worker, yet is it of the work; every lust is hel in the bud, and it hath fire and brimstone in the belly of it; damnation is its center. 5. Walking, in point of a voluntary obsequiousness; wicked men obey their lusts, they willingly walk after the commands and dictates thereof; Saints are dragged, sinners walk after lust, they are not driven; They seek after their own heart and eyes, after which they goe a whoring, Numb. 15.39. They are taken captives of the divel at his wil. 2 Tim. 2.26. taken alive by his baits without any resistance. [...]. What ever lust (the divels spokes man) dictates, they obey.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. All the visible abominations and notorious extravagancies in the world, come from within: Lust is the womb of all the drunkennesse, gluttony, adultery murders; these things come from within, the heart; from the lusts that war in our members, come warrs and fightings. These Seducers fel into all profaneness and licentiousness, by following their lusts: A [Page 521]lustful heart makes a leud life; that is the Trojan horse, from whence issue all hurtful practises; we see then the folly of only external mortification; whats the whipping of the flesh, lying in the ashes, voluntary poverty, outward abstinences, without inward mortification, but the plucking off the leaves, without the withering of the root? Of this more before. Pag. 400. &c. part 2. The lusts must be destroyed inwardly, before ever practises can be with success amended outwardly: Christ so cursed the figtree, that it withered at the root, that was the way for fruit never to grow on it more.
2. In reformation, Obs. 2. tis not enough to forsake the evils we have no desires after; but we must leave our lusts, yea our own lusts, those evils to which we are most inclined. Some men wil say, they are no sectaries, why, heresie is not their lust: others say, they are not drunkards, when drunkennesse is not their lust. The prodigal pleaseth himself that he is no covetons griper, &c. but this is a token of sincerity to forsake our own evil waies; and like those who sighting with an enemy, marre every good piece of ground, to strike at those si [...]ns, which by custome, constituion, interest, we are most addicted to.
3. The course of a wicked man in sin, Obs. 3. is very earnest and impetuous. Tis with a sinful lusting and an eager desire. Of this at large before, pag. 198. &c in Baalams running greedily.
4. Obs. 4. Its the duty of faithful instructers (with holy Jude here) to tel men of their own lusts; to strike at those sins to which they see them most inclined: Thus did the prophets, who lifted up their voice like a trumpet, and told Judah of their transgressions. Thus did Christ, who reproved not idolatry, but pharisaism and hypocrisie, the sins of his time: otherwife Ministers do but like unfaithful souldiers who in war, discharge not against the enemy, but shoot up into the air; though striking at mens lusts makes Ministers hateful, yet it speaks them faithful.
[Page 522] 5. Obs. 5. Miserable is the condition of the poor mis-led followers of seducing teachers. The seducer followes his lust, and the follower is led by the seducer; here it is true, the blind leads the blind. In all solicitations to follow others, we should consider whether they be led by Christ, or by lust: Be followers of others only as they are led by Christ: you set your watches not by the clock, but by the sun; do so with your hearts.
6. Great may be the comfort to Gods people in case of inward, Obs. 6. if hateful temptations. When vile motions come into the godly, and they do not lust after, but dislike them; nor entertain them with spiritual dalliance, they may be assured, that those evils shal not be charged upon them. Before a temptation can be a sin, it must have somewhat of lusting in it: Christ was tempted as we are, and yet he sinned not, because he rejected his temptations: How great a comfort may it be, when Christ is thy love, and lust thy loade!
7. Obs. 7. Though wicked men have their own several peculiar lusts, yet they all agree together against Christ. Pilat and Herod consent in this third. Envy moved the high Priests against Christ; covetousness stirred up Judas, popularity Pilate, but all these lusts concentred in opposing of Christ: Pharisees and Sadduces unite their forces against him, though they were mortal enemies between themselves; a feaver and a lethargy are contrary to one another, yet both are against health: and therefore let not people please themselves in opposing some kind of sins, let them ask themselves whether there be not that within them, that is enmity to Christ. And what a strong argument may this be to the godly, who have their lesser differences, to unite for Christ against sin?
8. Every mans wo and wickedness ariseth from himself, Obs. 8. his own lusts. The root of all is in our selves. Every man forgeth his own confusion, and coyneth his own calamity: None is hurt purely from another. A man (as Augustine saith) is an Evah to himself. [Page 523]We must not altogether blame suggestions and temptations without. The Divel tempted David to number the people, and to see Bathsheba naked; but after both, he confesseth that he had sinned. Commonly, volenti. It may in this case be said, Nolenti non fit injuria: None can hurt him that will not hurt himself. Every man is tempted, when he he is drawn away of his own lust. Poyson would never hurt unlesse taken in. The strongest enemy cannot hurt us, nor the falsest delude us, if we will be true to our selves. Were there not a complying principle, outward objects of sin would draw out nothing but detestations, as in Christ; in whom, because the Divel found nothing, he could do nothing against him. And it is the duty of the godly, to make use of ungodly examples, not for imitation, but greater abhorrence. Saints (like fire in cold weather) should be hotter and holyer for living in times of greatest coldnesse and prophaneness. The best men have oft lived in worst places; as Lot, Elijah, Obadiah, &c. and shined as lights in the midst of a crooked Nation; and redeem'd the time although, nay, because the dayes were evil. 'Tis not outward power and opportunity to sin, but inward poyson that makes us sin; and therefore in all our humiliations, we should more angrily smite upon our own thighs, than upon any outward occasional furtherances to sin.
9 The servitude and slavery of a man that follows his lust, is very miserable. Tit. 3.3. Serving divers lusts. Obser. 9. Oh how true a drudg is hee that is a lacquey to his lusts, and who hath lusts for his Leaders and Commanders! 1. A servant is hindred from doing any thing but what his Master pleaseth. A servant to his lusts, is in the bond of iniquity; hindred not onely from doing, but even from willing to doe any thing but what pleaseth his lusts: He is alienated from the life of God, cannot hear, pray, meditate holily: Sometimes he is in arcta custodia, in close custodie, not so much as able to go [Page 524]about the very outward works of holiness: at least he is in libera custodia, he cannot do them any further then his lusts allow, never spiritually; hee is Satans captive, Gaol-bird. The Romans cu [...] off the thumbs of their slaves, that so they might be able to handle the Oar, but not the Sword; so the Divel hinders his slaves from holy services, but leaves them in a posture of activity for sin: Satan gives some of his slaves longer line then hee gives to others; but he ever keeps them in his power. 2. A servant is servilely imployed: The Gibeonites were hewers of wood and drawers of water. A Sinner is put upon basest and hardest works: like the Israelites in Egypt, who had their shoulders under burdens, and were put upon base and dirty drudgeries. Issachar couched under his burden like an Asse. A wicked man takes pains to go to hell: his imployments are most painful and vile: the workie-dayes of a Saint are better then the holidayes of a Sinner: Christs yoak is easie, and his burden light. 3. A servant is beaten, bellybeaten, back-beaten: Oh the wounds of conscience that sinners get in the service of their lusts! there's no peace to them; they carry furnaces in their brests, silent scourges. Not to speak of the wounds upon their bodies, healths, names, estates. 4. A servant is rewarded: but what are the sinners wages? Sum'd up they are in that one word (how comprehensive!) Death. The very work of a Saint is abundant wages; the very wages of a sinner his greatest wo. After sinners have drudg'd for lusts all the day of their lives, Satan lodgeth them in flaming sheets at night. Hee who hath now been their Tempter, wil then be their Tormenter. And yet how unlike is a servant to lusts, to a servant unto men!
1. The work of a mans servant is at length at an end; A sinners work is never done; peccator nunquam feriatur, sinners have no holidayes: they drudg without intermission: on the Sabbath they sin, in prayer, [Page 525]hearing, Sacraments, in eating, drinking, recreations, on earth, in hel.
2. A mans servant is weary of his servitude, groans like the Israelites under his bondage, and desires delivery. A slave to lust loves to be so stil, he is a boared slave that wil not be free, but accounts every one his enemie that would deliver him, hee thinks his servitude his liberty, his prison his palace.
3. Among men, one master hath many servants, but spiritually one servant hath many masters, serving (saith the Apostle Tit. 3.3.) divers lusts and pleasures; Quot habet Dominos qui unum non habet! yea these masters are contrary, some haling this way, others another: Covetousnesse hales one way, prodigality and pride another; ambition drags one way, uncleanness another. A sinner by these lusts is drawn as by wild horses.
4. Among men, the master is better and more honourable then the servant; but a servant to lusts serves masters that are infinitely below, and baser then himself; a man never goes below himself, but when he serves them. Every lust is the divels brat, and Satans excrement; how unworthy is that servitude, when a heaven-born soul hath such a master! Only sin disennobles intellectual nature, making men sinners, Angels divels. Concerning the means of opposing and overcoming of lusts, see at large before.
The third proof which our Apostle brings to shew that these seducers were ungodly men, Vulg. Superba. Bez Tumida. Tigur. vehementer fastuosa. Alii praetumida; supra modum turgida immen▪ sa. Projicis ampullas et sesquipedalia verba. Horat. and to be judged at the last day, is set down in these words (wherein he taxeth them of their proud arrogant boasting) their mouth speaketh great swelling words. These words Great swelling words are in the Greek expressed in this one word [...], which signifieth not only big, bulkie, bunching out, or swelling, but all these to a very great measure, or (as some) beyond measure; the composition increasing the signification, and importing that these seducers spake words of a vastly rising, [Page 526]swelling, H [...]. De educ. lib. mountanous bignesse. Thus Plutarch useth the word [...], when he saith that [...], turgid or swelling speech is very unfit to be used about civil affaires. And a very apt and true accusation is this brought against these false teachers by Jude; it having been the constant course of hereticks, to speak very high and bigly swelling words, Descripsit sermo apostolicus Jovinianum loquentem buccis tumentibus et inslata verba trutinantem. Hier. l. 1. Contr. Jovin. of arrogant boasting. Hierom applyeth this expression of swelling words to Jovinian, whom (saith he) the Apostle describes speaking with swoln cheeks, and puft up expressions.
Two things may here be opened. 1. What the Apostle meant by great swelling words. 2. Wherein stands the sinfulness of using them.
For the first. In two respects might their words be called swelling; 1. in respect of the things that they spake: 2. Of their manner of speaking them.
1. In respect of the things they spake, and that 1. of God, and so they might speak great swelling words against him, either when they blasphemed him in their murmuring and complaining of his providences, or otherwise in uttering blasphemous expressions against his glorious and divine excellencies: We read of those who set their mouth against the heavens, Psal. 73.9. and of the beast its said, Rev. 13.5. That there was given him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies. 2 Thes. 2.4. Oraclis vocis mundi moderaris babenas. Et merito in terris crederis esse Deus. Omnia quae Dei, quae Christi sunt, sibi usurpat, Tollit pec cata m [...]ndi, dominans à mari ad mare. Leo de tribu Judae. Radix David, mundi Salvator. Antichrist exalteth himself above all that is called God. Pope Nicholas blasphemously decreed, that the Pope was not subject to the secular power, because God could not be judged by man. The Pope calls himself a god on earth, to him (he saith) is given all power in heaven and in earth; he takes away the sins of the world, he is the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Saviour of the world, &c. 2. They might speak great swelling words in respect of others. 1. Magistrates, of whom they spake evil, and whom they despised, and from subjection to whom they openly [Page 527]professed that they were exempted. 2. Illi acclamatur, Tu es omnia, et super omuia: tibi data est omnis potestas in coelo et in terrâ. Vid. Paraeum. in Apoc. 13. v. 3 Their words in respect likewise of common persons might be swelling, as 1. by threatning curses against them who would not embrace their errors; Threatning words are swelling words. Thus Goliah, Rabshakeh, Jezabel, Benhadad uttered their swelling threats. 2. By great and swelling defamations, making their throats open sepulchres, to bury the names of those who opposed them, they being valiant in calumniation, but weak in consutation; they spake evil of what they knew not. 3. By promising great and admirable priviledges of peace, pleasure, liberty to those who would embrace their errors. Thus we read 2 Pet. 2.18. while they spake great swelling words of vanity, they allure others through the lusts of the flesh, i.e. by promising pleasure; and v. 19 they promised them liberty; like Mountebanks, they proclaimed the vertue of their salves, the better to put them off. Thus the false prophet Zedekiah, making him horns of iron, promised that with those, the King should push the Syrians, til he had destroyed them. Thus the divel that great Seducer, promised to Christ all the kingdomes of the world and their glory, if he would fall down and worship him. Matth. 4.9.
3. Their words were swelling in regard of Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur, ante sunt perfecticatechumeni, quam edocti. Ipsae mulieres haereticae quam procaces? quae audeant do. cere, contendere, exorcismis agere, curationes repromittere, forsan et tingere. Tert. de praescrip. c. 41. themselves and those of their own party, whom they voiced and cried up with ful mouths, for their knowledge and piety: hence they arrogated to themselves the title of Gn [...]sticks, or knowing men, and perfect ones, they commended themselves, as if they alone had the monopoly of wisdome, and had only insight into deep and profound mysteries; as if all others in comparison of them were poor short-sighted people, and as far short of them, for quick-sightednesse, as the owl is short of the Eagle. Thus Tertullian describes them, when he saith, They all swel, they all promise wisdom, they are perfect catechumens before they are taught; how mallapert are the very women, who are so bold as to teach, contend, &c. Iraeneus likewise describing the pride of the Gnosticks, [Page 528]saith, Perfectos seipsos vocant, quasi nemo possit exaequari magnitudini agnitionis ipsorum, nec si Paulum aut Petrum vocas, vel alterum quendam apostolum, sed plus omnibus se cognovisse, et magnitudinem agnitionis solos ebibisse, esse autem se in altitudine supra omnem virtutem, &c. Iren. l. 1. c. 9. Matrem habent iniquitatis suae superbiam, dum semper se scire altiora jactitant Hier. in Hos. 5 [...]. 1. Paedag c. 6. Indicatur haereticos resonare, vociferari, mugire, sonum sine fructu emittere, in clamore vocisque contentione victoriae summam constitnere. Lorin. in 2 Pet. 2.18. they call themselves perfect, as if none were able to equalize them for the greatnesse of their knowledg; as if Peter, or Paul, or any of the Apostles were inferior to them for knowledge; the greatnesse whereof they make as if they had drunk up and devoured, boasting of such an height as if they were above all vertue. Pride (saith Jerom) is the mother of their iniquity. while they boast of their knowledg in the highest mysteries. They thinke higher of themselves (saith Clemens Alexandrinus) then ever did the Apostle.
Arius that pestilent heretique (as Athanasius reports) proudly boasted that he had received his doctrine from the elect of God, men that knew God, and had received the anointing of the Spirit. But concerning the high boastings of heretiques I have spoken before part 1. pag. 270. as also p. 322, &c. of this part.
2. They might be said to speak swelling words, in respect of the manner of speaking those things which they utterd: and that both in respect 1. Of their voice, and 2. Stile.
1. In respect of their voice, it might be with that hight and loudnesse which savoured of a proud boysterousness. Peter (2 Ep. 2.18.) mentioning their speaking great swelling words, useth the word [...], which properly signifies their lifting up their voices and making a great noise, a bellowing or roaring like beasts; as if these seducers placed their victory in the loud Contention of their voices. Thus the Idolatrous Ephesians lifted up their voices to the hight, when they cride out with so much rage, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, Act. 19.28.34.
2. In respect of their stile or phrase wherein they utterd what they spake. It hath been the course of seducers to speak bubbles of words, sublime straines, strong lines, big and new expressions, that they being not understood, may be admired: what they want [Page 529]in the weight of matter, they make up in the perswasivenesse of wooing words. Their novell doctrines were clothed with new and formerly unheard of expressions. They layd aside the forme of wholsome words, 1 Tim. 1.13. 1 Tim. 6.3.4. Or as Chrysosteme [...], new coynd expressions [...] Disputationes instituunt de rebus obscurioribus, eas etiam sermonis inumbrando novâ quadam obscuritate, et vocabulorum recens excogitatorum barbaric. Lor in 2 Pet. 2.13 consented not to it: but being proud, they doted about strifes of words; their speeches in this respect are aptly by the Apostle twice call'd vaine-bablings. Gr. [...], meere empty cracks of words, windy expressions without any substance. Thus Paul Rom. 16.18. tells us of some, that by good words and faire speeches, by a winning, meretricious wording of what they delivered, deceived the hearts of the simple: and Peter, 2 Pet. 2.3. with fained words, they make merchandise of you. They resembled merchants, who commend their wares to sale, by using false words fitted to that purpose. Seducers doctrines, like some empty boxes in the Apothecaries shops, or some forry book that the Stationer hath a minde to put off, shall have goodly titles affixed to them. And commonly (especially at the first broching of an error) seducers are wont to shadow and cloud what they utter in obscure and doubtfull expressions, and to swath their heresie while it is yet in its infancy, in the clouts of obscurity.
2. The sinfulnesse of using these great swelling words is considerable,
1. In the hypocrisie of it. Seducers put beautifull colours upon that which within is blacknesse and rottennesse, gay titles upon empty books and boxes; they speak lyes in hypocrisie. Oh how contrary is this both to a God of truth, and the truth of God! they deal with their persons and opinions as some Popes have done, who in naming themselves, have such names of holinesse imposed upon them, as are most contrary to their ungodly natures and dispositions.
2. In the seducing others, who by hearing the high promises, and viewing the holy appearances of godlinesse affixed to opinions and persons, are led away [Page 530]to their own destruction after them both. Words are too oft esteemed according to the estimate of the speaker. Tert. de praescrip. contr. Haer. cap. 3. Tertullian observes that sundry were edified into error by the example, high reputation of those that had fallen into error: though we should judg of persons by their faith, yet commonly we do judg of faith by persons: If men like the cook, they wil eat of the meat whether it be wholsome, and wel drest or not: the having of the gifts and persons of men in admiration, hath drawn many to follow their pernicious waies. Men of renown (like Corahs complices) perish not alone; and yet is there any who hath not sins enough of his own to answer for, unlesse he become likewise a misleader of others, and so contract their sins upon himself likewise?
3. In the destructivenesss of this arrogant boasting to him who useth it: how impossible is it, that ever he should blush at those errors and impieties whereof he boasts? they who wil speak highly of their own follies, are farthest from amendment, and by consequence farther from mercy. The boasting Pharisee was farther from mercy then the blushing publican: Luke 18.12.14. Recovery cannot be obtained but in a way of confession. A proud boaster obstructs to himself the way of his own happinesse; others may, he must miscarry. And how hard is it for one who hath spoken highly of his own person or opinion, ever to vail his proud and sinful gallantry by an humble and holy retractation!
OBSERVATIONS▪
1. Obs. 1 None are so ready to commend themselves, as they who are least commendable. They who are lowest in worth, are commonly highest in boasting: they who are emptiest of grace swel most with pride. Wicked men advance, Saints debase themselves; Goliah, Rabshakeh, Senacherib, Benhadad, Jezabel, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. were all egregious boasters. And among other titles which the Apostle gives those wicked men, 2 Tim. [Page 531]3.2. he cals them boasters; but mark the language of Saints, Abraham calls himself dust and ashes. Jacob speaks himself not worthy of the least of all Gods mercies. David saith (and that as a type of Christ) that he was a worm and no man. Agur, that he was more bruitish than any man, and had not the understanding of man. When Paul had said that he laboured more then they all, he corrects himself by adding, not I, 1 C [...]r 15.10. but the grace of God with me. Though Luke writes that Matthew made Christ a great feast, yet Matthew himself saith, Christ did eat bread with him. As humility makes way for more grace, so grace ever makes way for more humility. They who have most grace, ever most see their own want of grace: that which a man boasteth of when he is in his natural estate, he blusheth at when God opens his eyes; he is now (saith the Apostle) ashamed of it. Rom. 6. Paul a pharisee, accounted himself blamelesse, and perfect: Paul a Christian, reckoned himself the chiefest of sinners, and the least of Saints. Of some we say, when they are single, they want nothing but a wife; but when they are married, they want every thing else. They who are without grace, say they want little or nothing; they who have grace, see they want every thing: they are the poor people who cry in London streets what they have; the richest Merchant holds his peace, and proclaims not his wealth to the world. Besides, a wicked man makes himself his end, and improveth all his endowments to self advancement; and therefore the more wicked, the more he sets up himself by boasting of what he hath. Moses was a beautiful child, and his parents hid him; they who have most beauty, most hide it; a child of God like Moses, when God appeared in the bush, hides his face, and pulls off his shoos; covers what is comely, and confesseth what is deformed and uncomly. Pride (then) is both a sign and a cause of want of grace; a Saint ever sees he hath enough to be thankful, and thinks he never hath enough to be proud.
[Page 532] 2. Obs. 2. Self-advancement is a sin and folly to be shunned; Let another mans mouth praise thee, and not thine own, a stranger, Laudet te os alienum, accuset te os tuum. and not thine own lips. They who strove in the Olympick games, did never (when victors) put the crown upon their own heads, but that honour was done them by another. [...] It is our duty to do things worthy of praise, our sin and folly to praise our selves for doing them. Our works should praise us, not our words. Humilitas lau. dum fugitiva. Its said of Greg. Nazianzen, that he was high in his performances, but low in his opinion. It is our duty to carry our selves so, as our very enemies may be forced to speak wel of us; The sheep only speaks how much it feeds by its wooll, milk, fatness, fruitfulness. (and some have noted, that the word stranger, Let a stranger praise &c. Pro. 27.2. (Nochri) sometime signifies an enemy in Scripture.) But we our selves are of all men, the unfittest for that employment; praise is comly in thy enemies mouth, not comely in thy friends, uncomly in thine own. The performances which (another reporting them) appear glorious, being related by thy self, lose all their luster, because they who praise their own good deeds are thought not therefore to report them, because they did them; but therefore to have done them, Pin. Ep. 8. ad Saturntnum. l. 1. that afterward they might report them. A man in commending, does not, yea undoes what he is a doing. Thou hearest witnesse of thy self, (said the Pharisees) thy witnesse is not true. When Paul mentioned his own necessarie praise, 2 Cor. 12.16, 17.21. he saith, he speaks foolishly, and that he was become a fool in glorying, 2 Cor. 12.11. Though he were compelled thereto. A man should not therefore doe any good, that he may have a good report, but therefore and only therefore desire a good report, that he may be in the greater capacity of doing good. If a man commend himself, he should do it modestly and constrainedly, for the advantage of the Gospel. Paul speaks his commendation as belonging to a third person; I knew a man &c. 2 Cor. 12.2. and ver. 11. ye have compelled me, &c. But [Page 533]ordinarily we should neither praise nor dispraise our selves; even the latter of these being the giving of others an occasion to praise us, and oft a putting of praise (as one saith aptly) to usury, Robinsons observations. that we may receive it with the greater advantage. To conclude, if it be a sin to praise our selves when we have done good, how great an impiety is it to glory in evil! the former discovers the corruption of a man, the latter of a divel. Lastly, Though it be a sin for a man to commend himself, yet tis our duty to praise the good we see in, and done by others; that God may be honoured, Thus diis, laus bonis debetur. who was the Author of all good, and men encouraged; the doer to proceed, the beholder to imitate him.
3. Obs. 3. Great swelling words should not seduce us from the truth: We should not regard the words, but the weight of every teacher; nor who speaks, but what is spoken: the Kingdome of God is not in word, but power. 1 Cor. 4.20. We must not mislike truth, because the bearers words are low and contemptible; nor imbrace error because the words of him who brings it, are lofty and swelling. A Christian should be a man in understanding, not like a little child, ready to swallow what ever the nurse puts to the mouth. We should ever be more forward to examine by Scripture with the noble Bereans, the truth of what is taught us, than to be bewitched like the [...]ish Galatians with the words of any teacher; suspect the cause that needs them, and the men that use them: as a rotten house, so a rotten cause needs most props. Truth like a beautiful face, needs no painting: Though he were one that speaks big, nay with the tongue of an Angel, nay were an Angel; yet if he preached another Gospel, we should hold him accursed: Christians should labour for knowledg to discern between great words and good words, or rather between good words and good matter.
This for the third proof, that these seducers were those ungodly men who should be judged at [Page 534]the last day. viz. because they spake great swelling words. The fourth and last followes, in these words, having mens person in admiration, because of advantage.
In which words our Apostle 1. describes what they did, they had mens persons in admiration. 2. Discovers why they did it; for advantage.
For the first: their having mens persons in admiration.
EXPLICATION.
That we may understand the sin wherewith these Seducers are here charged, in admiring of persons, We must first open these two expressions.
1. Persons. 2. Admiring, or having in admiration.
2. Shew what admiring of persons is here by the Apostle condemned, and why.
1. For the former. The word persons in the Original is [...]: now though [...] signifieth the face, and properly answers to an Hebrew word of the same signification, yet in Scripture its taken several waies; not to speak of the divers acceptations of the word in Scripture, when attributed to God; as being too remote from our present purpose; when it is used concerning the creature, 1. its given to things without life; as Matth. 16.3. and L [...]e 12.56. ye can discern the face of the skie; that is, the outward shew, or appearance. Luke 21.35. and Acts 17.20. we read of the face of the earth; in which places its taken for the superficies or outside. 2. Most frequently to man; and so, 1. properly, it signifies his face and countenance. Thus Matth. 6.16. they disfigure their faces, and ver. 17. wash thy face. So Matth. 26.67. then did they spit in his face. 2. His person; as 2 Cor. 1.11. the gift bestowed upon us by the meanes of many persons, [...]. 3. His bodily presence, 1 Thes. 2.17, we being taken from you [...], in presence. [Page 535]4. A man, as accomplished with his gifts, excellen▪ cies or indowments, real or appearing; which are outwardly beheld, or looked upon to belong to him; (for which he is (oft unduly) respected) either in regard of his body, mind, or outward condition; and thus its taken Matth. 22.16. Mark 12.14, where the Herodians tel Christ that he regarded not [...], the person of men, and Acts 10.34. God is no respecter of persons. So Rom. 2.11. And thus I take it in this place, where Jude accuseth these servile seducers for their excessive sinful flattering of men in eminency, advanced in respect of their outward state of wealth, honour, &c for their own private gain and advantage.
2. The other expression is admiring, or as we render it, having in admiration. Gr. [...]. A [...] video, unde [...]. It signifieth two things. 1. To wonder at a thing in respect of its strangeness, unusualness, at which men use to look very earnestly and intently. Thus its taken, Matth 8.27. where it is said, that Christ rebuking the winds, and the sea, the men marvelled, [...]. So Matth. 21.20. when the fig-tree withered, its said, the disciples marvelled; Matth. 27.14. Luk. 1.21 63. Luk. 4.22. Euk. 11.38. John 7.21. when Christ had with such admirable wisdom answered the ensnaring question of the Herodians, it is said they marvailed. Matth. 22.22. &c.
2. It signifieth highly to honour, fear, or reverence the person or thing which we look upon as strange; and thus some take it, Matth. 8.10. when Christ heard of the centurions faith, it is said, [...], he marvelled; that is (say some) he respected and honoured his faith. Thus its taken in this place of Jude. Vid. Ravanel in Tit. admiratio. These seducers honoured highly, advanced, cried up the endowments and qualifications of great men, for advantage; and probable it is, that the Apostle expresseth their honouring of mens persons by the admiring them, because the Septuagint so translate those places, where honour and respect to persons is mentioned. When Naaman the Syrian is said to be honourable; they render [Page 536]the place [...], 2 Chron. 19.7. Septuag. admired in his person. So Deut. 10.17. the Lord regardeth not persons.
2. For the second, what admiring of persons is to be condemned as unlawfull. Certainly all kind of admiring of persons is not unlawfull before God, nor disallowed by this Apostle. Honour to the persons of others may lawfully be given; Even for those gifts and endowments wherewith God hath furnisht them, whether outward or inward: for the outward glory and majesty which God gave Nabuchadnezar, all people trembled and feared before him, Dan. 5.19. And God commands honour to parents naturall and politicall; and the elders who rule well, are to be counted worthy of double honour. And some are deservedly preferr'd before others, for their age, calling, gifts, graces, relation to us. But severall wayes admiring of persous is unlawfull. I shall reduce them all to these two heads.
1. As this admiration of man doth more particularly concerne 1. God.
- 2. Man. 1. The admired.
- 2. Man. 2. The admirer.
- 2. Man. 3. Others.
1. As it may concern God. And thus we admire men sinfully. 1. When we so admire man, as that we honour him without eying Gods Command: the lowest service must be done in obedience to the highest master: our earthly parent must be honoured and admired because our heavenly Father injoynes it. An Earthly master must not be honoured and served with an eye onely to his Command, but out of Conscience of duty to Gods Command. Herein must we resemble that noble Roman who disdaining to bow before a forreigne Prince, when he came into his presence, let fall his ring, which he stooping to take up, and thereupon the Prince insulting, the Roman utters these, words, Non tibi, sed annulo; I bow not to thee, but to take up my ring. Or as that Frederick Barbarossa, [Page 537]who kneeling down before the Pope to receive his Crowne, said, Non tibi sed Petro, not to thee but to Peter. The Apostle makes the application, when he injoynes servants to be obedient unto Masters, as unto Christ, not as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, Eph. 6.6, 7. and not as men-pleasers, but &c. fearing God. Col. 3.22.
2. When we so admire men as to honour and serve them in those things which they command against God: our earthly Lord must be obey'd, but our heavenly Lord must be preferred. When these two come in Competition, we are disobedient unlesse we be disobedient. Against my heavenly fathers will, I neither owe buriall to my dead, nor obedience to my living Father. Whether it be right to obey God or man (saith the Apostle) judg you. Ephraim was oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the Commandement. Hos. 5.11.
3. When we so admire men for any excellency as not to give the glory thereof to God, the sweetnesse of the stream must not make us forget the fountain. Men must be honoured as instruments, not adored as deities. It was cursed, and it proved costly flattery which was given to Herod, when the people shouted, It is the voice of God, and not of a man; because he gave not God the glory, he was smitten, and eaten up of wormes, Act. 12.22, 23. That must not be offered to any which the best never durst take, namely, the praise of having or doing any thing of themselves. How fearfull have holy men been in their highest performances, lest any of Gods glory should cleave to their fingers! When Peter had wrought that great Miracle of healing the creeple, and the people greatly wondered, fearing the sinfull admiring of his person, he takes all from himselfe, and casts all upon Christ. Yee men of Israel: (saith he) why look ye stedfastly upon us, as though by our own power or holinesse, We had made this man to walk? [Page 538]The God of Abraham &c. hath glorified his Son Jesus, &c. Barnabas and Paul rent their clothes when the people were about to sacrifice to them. I laboured (saith Paul) more abundantly then they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1 Cor. 15.10. Our sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor. 3.5. Who is Paul, or who is Apollo, but Ministers by whom ye beleeved? I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, &c. 1 Cor. 3.5, 6, 7. the Corinthians faith was not to stand in the wisdome of men, but power of God, 1 Cor. 2.5, 39. People are commonly in extreames; either they deifie men, or nullifie them. Either they make them dwarfs or Gyants; but for people so to admire any men as to ascribe their conversion, or edification to them; as if men were not onely Gods instruments and Christs servants, but Gods and Christs themselves; and as if their grace were from the abilities of the teacher, and not from the power of Christ, is a very plainly sinfull admiring of mens persons, even to an unchairing of Christ, and a lifting up of man into his Seat; to a depriving the shepherd and Bishop of our soules, and a substituting another in his roome. In a word, It is all one, as to thanke the ax for building the house, and to attribute nothing to the Carpenter. Nor indeed is it any other than idolatry.
4. When we so admire and honour men, as to put that trust and Confidence in them, which we owe only to God. Thou (saith Job) art my confidence. Job. 31.24. He is the confidence of the ends of all the earth. Ps. 65.5. Put your trust in the Lord. Psal. 4.5. Trust in him at all times. Ps. 62.5. so Psal. 37.3. But men, though never so full of love, skill, strength, must not have our trust. Put not confidence in a guide. Mic. 7.5. It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes, Psal. 118.8. Every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Ps. 39.5. Cease from man whose breath is in his [Page 539]nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isa. 2.22. Man is to be us'd as a wand in our hand, not lean'd upon as our staffe or support; in subordination to, not sin stead of God; onely as one that can help us, if God will help him; as one that of himselfe cannot move, or undertake, much less accomplish any good for us. Oh how oft hath God snapt in sunder all these rotten crutches in England! and how many lectures of vanity hath he read upon men in greatest admiration!
5. When we so admire men as to fear their power more then Gods. Men are sinfully admired, both when (they being for us) appear to us so great as that God need not help us; & when (they being against us) they appear so great as that God cannot help us. Man is idolized both by looking upon him as one that can work without God, & much more by looking upon him as able to work against God. How sinfully did the Israelites admire the persons of the Gyants in Canaan, in respect of ther strength and stature! How sinfully did David admire Saul, when against Gods promise he said, he should perish by his hand! thus the Israelites sinfully admire the Egyptians, when upon the sight of them, notwithstanding the word and works of God, they tell Moses in their march, that he tooke them away to dye in the wildernesse. Exod. 14.11. Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall dye &c? and forgettest the Lord thy maker. Isa. 51.12. The fearing of man is the forgetting of God.
6. When we admire mens goodness, or what of God we see in men, their persons, loving the message for the messenger, the liquor for the vessel, holy instruction for the sake of him who gives it; and so hearing the word of God as the word of man; this is to prefer a man of God before God in a man, or rather man before God. And (contrary to what Tertullian speaks) not to judg of persons by faith, but of faith by persons.
2. Admiration of persons is sinful as it concerns Man. [Page 540]and 1. As it concerns the admired, and so admiration of persons is sinfull.
1. When we admire such persons, as are not able to bear their own admirations. A proud man having done any thing commendably, is not (yet) fit to be commended. Some weak braines will be turn'd with a small quantity of wine; others more strong will indure more. Herod was intoxicated with applause, when the people cryde him up for a God; but Paul and Barnabas rend their clothes, and are ready to sacrifice themselves when the people meditate a sacrificing to them. A weak stomack cannot concoct fat morsells, he is a man of strong grace, who can hear his own commendations without hurt. Nothing more discovers a man then the praising him. Its as the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, Prov. 27.21.
2. When we so admire persons, as thereby to make a prey of them, or to overthrow either their bodies or soules. Thus the Herodians, Matth. 22.16. admired and honoured Christ, telling him that he was true, and taught the way of God in truth, and regarded not the person of man; but all this was but to intangle and destroy him, by bringing him on to answer to a captious question. Thus afterward Christ was betrayd with a kisse; and not seldome have we known that men have laine in ambush behinde the thickets of commendation and admiration, and so unsuspectedly, faln upon the unwary and credulous hearer. Jael gives her nail soon after her milk, and poyson is oftnest drunke in gold. Thus after the death of Jehoiadah, the Princes of Judah, came and made obeysance to King Joash, whereby they prevaild with him to leave the house of the Lord, 2 Chr. 24.17. and to serve groves and Idols: and thus (as Ecclesiastical history tells us) Simon Magus cry'd up Nere above the clouds, and accounted and cald him a God, to make him the greater Enemy to the Christians. [Page 541]Thus Tertullus admired the person of Felix, that thereby he might stir him up against Paul. Act. 24.2.
3. When we so admire persons, as to cover, hide and excuse their sin because of their greatnesse. A sin the greater, in regard that greatnesse ought to be so far from being a cloke for, that it is an aggravation of sin and makes it the more hainous. A wicked person in scripture phrase is but a vile person, & by so much the more vile, by how much the more he corrupts and abuses any eminent gifts and endowments which God hath bestowed upon him. The word speaks as basely of rich wicked ones, as they think contemptibly of Gods people That wicked King was very low in the eyes of the holy Prophet, who said, were it not that I regard the person of Jehoshap at King of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee, 2 King. 3.14. See more of this before pag. 2. part 14. Unsanctified greatnesse is most likely to be pernitious, and therefore should be most reprehened.
2. Admiration of persons is sinfull as it concernes the admirer, and so
1. When we so admire persons, as thereby onely to advance and advantage our selves, and that 1. either in profit and gaine: or 2. in honour or reputation. 1. In profit: and thus these seducers here admired great ones, and honoured their greatnesse for their own advantage, servilly cringing and crouching to them for filthy lucre: they gave them great titles, and flattered them in sin, and assented to them in every thing, that they might fill their purses, and (as Peter speaks) through covetousnesse, did they with feined words make merchandise of people, hereby shewing that they neither served Christ, nor indeed those whom they flatterd, but their own bellies: at once laying off both the Christians, and the Man. 2. In honour and and reputation, and for this end sometimes the persons of great men, are admired, as Mr Fox tells us that the bloody [Page 542]Tyger Steph. Gardiner was wont to admire the person of Henry the 8. speaking of him to others with greatest honour, and calling him his gracious Lord and Master, onely to be lookt upon as his favourite, though he knew that the King never loved him. But for honour, hypocrites commonly admire the persons of good men, admire their persons (I say) though they imitate not their practises. Thus Saul desired the presence of Samuel, to be honoured before the people. Thus the Scribes and Pharises admired the dead Prophets, onely to be accounted (as they were) holy.
2. When we so admire persons as withall to imitate their sins and imperfections. Thus these seducers were so admired, as that many followed their damnable errors, putting no difference between their faces and the warts, their speaking and stammering. The falls and folly of the admired, are commonly the snares of the admirers; and the error of the master oft the tentation of the scholar. Its very hard to admire the person of another, and not to imitate his imperfections.
3. Admiration of persons is sinfull as it concernes and hurts others: and so
1. When for some commendable actions or endowments, we so admire a person who is in most things very discommendable, and a known wicked person that thereby we give occasion to the hearer, who is though wicked, yet not so wicked as he, to judg his own condition very good, and to blesse and flatter himselfe in his sin, as thinking that he deserves Commendation as well as, or better then the other. This I have ever thought to be one stratagem whereby the hands of the wicked have been strengthned in sin; and a stumbling block which some either weakly or wickedly have laid before others. Thus I have oft heard even with grief, when in funerall Sermons, a prophane drunkard, a swearer, an adulterer, or one perhaps at the most but civilly honest, hath for some [Page 543]few good deeds, been cryed up and even sainted by the Preacher, that the wickedest persons have been ready to saint themselves, and to say, If such an one were commendable, and voiced by our Minister for a good man, I thank God, tis much better with me, I never was guilty of halfe his extravagancies, and I see I may be a good man, yea and commended when I am dead, notwithstanding my failings, (so he calls his allowed wickednesses) though I be not so pure as such and such are. Oh how unsutable is it, that by funerall Sermons men should be made more unfit for death! to paint those in the pulpit who are punisht in hell, and that a Minister should be strewing that dead body with flowers, whose soule is bathing in flames! For my part, though I should not deny due commendation, even at a funerall, to some eminently exemplary saint, or publiquely usefull instrument; yet mostly, I thinke his speech concerning the deceased may suffice, who said, If he were good, he did not desire; If bad, he did not deserve praise.
2. When we so admire the persons of some instructers, as to neglect and despise others who haply deserve better then they: the sin of the Corinthians, when the Apostle tells them, 1 Cor. 3.21. of their glorying in men, some teachers being so gloried in peculiarly, as if they were onely worth the hearing, and none else to be regarded. Some accounted Paul the only teacher, some delighted onely in Apollo, some magnified Peter as the alone worthy man; thus they thought of men above what was meet, and they were puffed up for one against another. They gloryed in some, disdaining all others as not to be named with them, though teachers of the same truth; because they had an high conceit of their learning, wit, cloquence, holinesse, or the like qualifications. A great sin doubtlesse, and (I fear) the common sin of this City. How unthankfull for the bounty of Christ, doe men make themselves [Page 544]hereby, who gave all the Ministers of the Gospell to be theirs for their good! ( all things saith the Apostle are yours, whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, 1 Cor. 3.21, 22.) Its unthankfulnesse to a bountifull Prince, when he bestowes many Lordships on his favourite, if he should regard one of them onely, and despise all the rest. Yea how injuriously is the Spirit of Christ hereby reproached! For the despising of those who are of small gifts, is a reproaching of the Spirit of God, as if he were defective in his gifts; whereas their variety sets forth the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods spirit, who divideth to every man severally as he will, and worketh all these, 1 Cor. 12.11. Besides, this sin is oft the maine cause of schismes in the Church. It makes people to divide themselves under different teachers whom they admire, and it causeth teachers to take away those that affect them, from other teachers whom they affect not so much. Now this sin of schisme (in it selfe very great (as afterwards shall be shewn, God willing, on the 19. ver.) is made much the greater by being occasion'd by those very gifts of men, which God bestowed upon them to this end, that there might be no scisme in the body, but that the members should have the same care one of another, 1 Cor. 12.25. Nor is there any sin which doth more expose Christian Religion to so much contempt and obloquy, then this kinde of admiring of persons; for hereby severall Companies of Christians are made like the severall schools of Philosophers, some whereof followed Plato, some Aristotle, some Epicurus; and the doctrines of faith are but accounted as the proper opinions of severall teachers, and all zeal for them is conceived to arise not from a certaine knowledge of heavenly truth; but from peculiar humour and strength of fancy. And how great a stumbling block must this needs be to those who are without, how will it hinder them from embracing the truth, and lay it open to derision? yet further, [Page 545]the sinfulness of this sort of man-admiration appears, in that hereby both the despised person is so greived and discouraged, that he is infeebled and disabled in his work, and also he who is admired, is not onely puffed up with pride, and thereby occasion'd to adulterate the word, invent and broach errors, that stil he may be advanced above all others by going in a different way from them; but also put upon the pleasing of men by sinfull flatteries, in stead of profiting them by faithfull reprehensions: To conclude this consideration, nothing begets so great an aptness in men to receive errors, as this sinfull admiration; nor hath any seed of heresies and superstitions proved so fruitfull as this; affection commonly makes men take down falsities, and error is easily received from them whom we much admire; and God doth often leave admired teachers to erre, for tryal of the people, and the punishing of their vanity in making Gods truth to stand at the devotion of the teacher, for its acceptance, and trampling upon the holy and (perhaps) learned labours of those who are more seeing and faithfull than the admired.
3. When we so admire mens persons as to give all respect to men in outward greatnesse, (though perhaps wicked) despifing the poor Saints, because poor; this James reproves, my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons, James 2. When wickedness in robes is magnified, and holinesse in raggs contemned. Oh how unworthy is it that the gold ring, and costly apparell should be prefer'd before the robe of Christs righteousnesse, and the jewel of grace! that godliness and good examples, should be rejected for their want of a gold ring, that he who shall have a throne in heaven, must here be a footstool upon earth!
4. When Elections and offices are passed and bestowed partially, for freindship, favour, money, kinred, [Page 546]a sin by much agravated, when men have taken oaths to a Corporation to the contrary, and its ost a great tentation to the party who enters by money, to sell justice dear.
5. When we so admire the person of one, as to do injustice in judgment, whether Civil or Ecclesiastical; which is when our affection doth so blind our judgment by some outward respect or appearance, that we will not determine righteously, the cause being over ballanced with such forreign considerations as have no affinity with it. Thus men are in judicature sometime swayed with foolish pitty, sometime with cowardly fear; both these the Lord forbids. Levit. 19.15. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, Deut. 1.17. nor honour the person of the mighty. This sin would make God a patron of iniquity, the sentence being pronounced from God.
OSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. The oondition of men in greatest out ward emiuency and dignity is oft very miserable. None have so many flatterers, and therefore none so few freinds as they: flatterers (as worms) breed in the best fruit. When a poor illiterate man is admonished for sin, a rich, a learned man is admired in, nay, haply for sin. As the bodies, so the sonls of Kings and great men, have oftnest poyson given them. Hushai humoured Absalom, Ziba flattered David the people admired Herod, &c. Jezabel foothed Ahab out of sadness into sin. Ahab had four hundred false Prophets who flatter'd him in to wickedness, and and but one faithfull Michaiah to tel him the truth. The common sound in the ears of Princes is, quod libet licet, your will is a law; as if they could not be carryed fast enough into sin by the tide of their own nature, Canis Aulicus. Melius est in [...] quam in [...] incidere. unless they be driven also by the wind of flatterers breath. The running water hath no certain colour of his own, but its coloured like the soyl which is under it; so flatterers fit themselves to every humor. Aristippus for his flattering of Dionysins, was cal'd the [Page 547] Court-spaniel. Flatterers are crows that hover about the carcass of greatness, friends in prosperity onely, summer freinds, like lookers upon a dyal, they only regard men when the sun of prosperity shines upon them, likelice, they leave dead bodies.
None are so little to be envied by others, or so much to be carefull of themselves, as they who are in dignity: they should much more delight in words that are bitter, and wholesome, then in such as are sweet and destructive. 'Twas a holy and wise resolution of David, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me; Psal. 101 6, 7. he that worketh deceit shall not dwell with me, &c. And Psal. 141.5. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindnesse, &c. Faithfull are the words of a freind, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitfull. Prov. 27.6. Pro. 27.4. Pro. 28.23. A flattering mouth worketh ruin. Prov. 26.28.
2. Obs. 2. How just is God in stayning the pride of worldly glory! The persons of great ones are oft admired and adored as Gods, and therefore God makes them often lower than men. God oft even smites godly men when they are over admired. That late renowned Gustavus of Sweden, fear'd as truly, as humbly, when he said, he thought that God would take him off, because men too much admired him, When we unduly set men up, God deservedly pulls them down. How many golden calves, how much sinfully adored greatness hath God ground to powder of late years in England! We are angry that it is done, but why are we so well pleased with that sin which did it?
3. How sinful is it to admire our own persons! Obs. 3. If it may be ungodly to admire others in their outward excellencies, how much more then, our selves, who are conscious of so many inward defilements and deformities? Concerning self-advancement, I have spoken in the last words.
4. It is a sin to receive, Obs. 4. much more to seek for admiration from others. If it be a sin to offer it, it must be a [Page 548]sin to receive it. The receiver of vain-glory, is as a theif in Gods account, though others bring it to him; Ye receive honour one of another. If men admire us sinfully against our wills, it is not our sin; if we close with the tentation, we become partners in their wickedness. We cannot be too worthy of having praise, nor too wary in hearing it. All our commendations should fall upon us as sparks upon wet tinder, humility should damp all our prayses. Siomnes me odissent, baberem quod est meum, si propter me amarent, usurparem quod est tuum. Nier. dead. 414.
Its as unsafe for a proud person to have prayses flye about him, as for a disarm'd man to stand among flying bullets a gracious heart can only digest both his sufferings, and elevations, so as neither to be impatient under the former, nor to be proud under the latter; they alone set every crown of commendation upon the head of Jesus Christ. How vain and sinfull is it to hunt after our own bane, and Gods dishonour, popular applause!
5. Obs. 5. The proudest spirits are oft the basest; These arrogant seducers, who spake great swelling words, unworthily cringed, and basely crouched in the admiring of persons for their own advantage. None now are so proud in their highness, nor so base in their lowness, as they; see an evident example in Benhadad, who though at first he proudly demanded of Ahab, 1 King 10.5, 6.10 31.32. his silver and gold, wives and children, and the plunder of all his houses, and brag'd that the dust of Samaria should not suffice for handfulls for his army, yet being overcome, he sends his servants to Ahab with sackcloath on their loyns, and ropes about their necks, with a petition for the life of his servant Benhadad. See Mr. Pryn in the life of the late A chB [...]sh [...]p of Couturbury Job. 32.31, 32 The late Bir shops who tyraniz'd over their poor brethren, were yet the most servile flatterers even to the servants of the King for their own advantage. Oh how different is this temper from that true and heavenly noblenesse of Saints! who with Elihu, cannot accept any mans persons; nor know not to give flattering titles! who in their own cause, though high, they bow as low as the reed; yet in [Page 549]the cause of God, when they are lowest, Flexibiliores arundine, duriores adamante. they are as stout and strong as the Oak, yea, as hard a the Adamant. There is a silent glory, and a secret generosity, that discovers it self in the poorest Saint; a rich, honourable sinner, is a begger in robes; a poor, disgrac'd, imprison'd Saint, is a King in raggs. Paul at the bar discovers more true nobleness and magnanimity, than Felix upon the Bench. The former reproved sin, and speaks of judgment with courage; the latter hears him with a servile trembling; the Scribes and Pharisees taught with servile flattery, Christ with authourity, and not as they.
6. Obs. 6. Its our duty to preserve our selves from this note of ungodlinesse, and practice of ungodliy ones admiring of persons. To this end,
1. Get an untainted, renew [...]d judgement; a carnal eye sees nothing glorious but carnal out side objects. Moses had a rectified judgement, a sanctified estimate, he prized the reproach of Christ above the treasures of Egypt, Heb 11.26. A skilfull eye discerns the excellency of a picture curiously drawn, though it be not adorn'd with gold, yea though it be set in a rotten frame; and contemns the gaudry of that workmanship which is onely rich, and hath nothing of art. A rich sinner, is but a vile person in a saints eye, an honourable leper. The four Monarchies in Scripture-emblems, are but four beasts, violent, base, sensual. Ahab is not worth the looking upon by an holy Elijah; as beholders are, so will things be accounted; the World loves its own; a child is taken with a gay, more than with the conveyance of a great estate.
2. Study the nature of a persons true glory; this (grace I mean) is spiritual, hidden, not sensible, and outward. The best of a man, and that which is truely admirable is within; the Kings daughter is all glorious within; Psal. 45.10. grace is vayled, the man of the heart is a hidden man. 1. Pet. 3.4. That which is most to be desired of a man, is that [Page 550]which cannot be seen, his goodness. We admire the lesser because we see not the greater beauties: the worst of a man is, that which the eye sees; he who admires onely the wealth and outward grandeur of a person, neglecting his grace, is as ridiculous as he who reverenceth a Princes robes, and despiseth his person.
3. Study the vanity of all common endowments and accomplishments, wherewith the most gaudy sinner is adorned; consider they are but beauties in fancy, and appearance, outside glisterings, at the best but wel acted vanities. There's not one of them, but God puts upon his enemies; with them he oft gilds pot-sherds, they are paint which is put upon the worst faces, and waterings upon the rottenest stuffes, such as alter not the nature of him who hath them, who is still but a swine under all his robes, an asse though crown'd, or though carrying the rites of Isis. All the honor, parts, domination, riches in the world ammount not to the excellency of the least dram of true grace; they are not objects noble enough for a Christians admiration. I remember when I was a child, that I heard a godly Gentlewoman relate, that that holy man of God (old Mr. Culverwell) heartily chid her for saying, that she wondred how such a (formerly poor) man (of whom they were speaking) came to be so exceeding rich; Oh! (saith he) are these toyes fit for such an one as thou art to wonder at? besides, there's no robe of worldly excellency but must be layd off. The greatest potentate must stand naked of them at the day of Judgment; nay before; their honour descends not with them to the grave: when they crow'd into that narrow hole, all their gaudy ornaments will be swept off. The dust of an Emperor is no sweeter than that of a beggar.
4. Study Gods dispensations: in them we shall see that he is no respecter of persons; [...] he hath commonly set the greatest respect upon those things and persons that are of least account in the world. He hath chosen the [Page 551]base things of the world, poor fishermen for disciples, nay, great sinners. The things of God were hidden from the wise and prudent, and reveal'd to Babes; God chose not the Eagle, or Lyon, but Dove and Lamb for sacrifice: the poor of the world, rich in faith. Jam. 2.5. He accepteth not the persons of Princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor. Job. 34.19.
5. Study thine own profession, which is that thou art a Saint, not a Sensualist; that thou art a servant of Christ, not of men; that thou expectest to admire God for ever in glory; not wormes upon a dunghill; that thou art cal'd out of the world, and crucified to it, and that they who are spirituall and heavenly are thy brethren thy companions, thy fellow-members. Oh! how heinous an evil is it for Christians to despise Christians, the Heroes of heaven, and to admire the wicked, Satans slaves. Oh! what a dishonor is it to Christ, and a confutation of thy Christianity, when thou who art acquainted with higher glories, admirest dung and dunghil-rakers! In short, remember, thy Master never admired any thing but grace, regarding that in a poor woman, when he despised all the glory of the world.
6. Banish selfe interest and carnall designs out of all the respects thou givest to others: the aiming at honor or riches, will pervert thy estimate, and make thee admire those that can most advantage thee. This will make a great saint basely to fall down before unsanctified greatnesse; Luther could not admire the Pope, because he admired neither money nor preferment. Covetous designs will make thee, with these seducers, to honour those, where there is most gain, not most grace. Mortification is the best remedy against sinfull admiration.
For the second, 2 viz. The motive of their admiring of others, or why they did it, viz. For Advantage, besides what I have spoken in this last branch, I refer the Reader to Part 2. pag. 193. &c. 210. concerning the running, &c. for reward.
THe body and substance of this divine Epistle continued from the Preface in the two first verses, to the Conclusion in the two last verses, contains (as I have said part 1. pag. 179.) An exhortation to the Christians earnestly to contend for the faith: in the managing whereof
1. The Apostle sets down the reasons of his sending them this exhortation.
2. The exhortation it self; both contain'd in ver. 3d.
3. Severall arguments to move the Christians to imbrace that exhortation from the 3d. to the 17. ver.
4. And fourthly sundry directions to guide and teach the Christians how to observe that exhortation, from 17th. to the 24th. verse.
Of the three former, we have largely by Gods assistance spoken: now we come to speak of the fourth and last, the directions: And these directions are of two sorts.
1. Such as concerne
- 1. Christians themselves.
- 2. Others.
1. The former in relation to themselves, are principally five.
- 1. The improving and recollecting of the words of the Apostles who foretold the carriage of these seducers, containd in these three, the 17, 18, 19. verses.
- 2. Edification on their holy faith. ver 20.
- 3. Supplication in the holy Ghost. Ibid.
- [Page 553] 4. Conservation of themselves in the love of God. p. 21.
- 5. Expectation of the coming of Christ. Ibid.
2. Such directions as concern their Carriage toward others are laid down ver. 22, 23. whereof afterward, Deo volente.
The first is the improving of the testimony of the Apostles. In which testimony I note five particulars.
1. To whom 'tis commended: to his beloved.
2. How it was to be improved: by remembring it.
3. From whom it proceeded: the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Wherein it consisted: in a prediction that there should be mockers, walking after their ungodly lusts.
5. To whom it is applyed, viz. to these seducers. These are they who separate themselves. ver. 19.
1. Concerning the first. The persons to whom this testimony is commended: such as he calls beloved, I have at large spoken before, part. 1. pag. 180. &c.
2. As also concerning the second, viz. their recalling it to remembrance, part. 1. pag. 376. &c.
3. For the third, from whom this testimony proceeded, viz. the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
EXPLICATION.
I might in the explication hereof be large in setting down the nature of the apostolicall function; and in shewing what Jude meanes by this terme Apostles, and wherein stands the difference between them and ordinary Ministers of Christ, (as namely, in respect of immediate calling, their authenticall authority in writing, and speaking; their work and office to plant Churches, to worke miracles, to give the holy Ghost by imposition of hands, to use the Apostolicall rod against obstinate offenders.) But to passe by these as not concerning our purpose, and as being spoken to by others.
[Page 540] Two things in relation to this testimony here alledged by Jude may be touched by way of explication.
1. What Apostles these were of whom Jude speaks, and where this testimony is to be found.
2. Why Jude makes use of that testimony which came from them, and tells that it did come from them.
1. Sermo videtur esse tum de verbis scriptis, tum de praedicatis. Lor. in 2. Pet. 3.2. Non id in propbanis autoribus observavi. Id. For the first, who these Apostles were that gave this prediction which Jude here alledgeth, and where they gave it. Although possibly sundry of the Apostles might by word of mouth, testifie what Jude here mentions, yet I doubt not but he principally relates to their writings. And in them doe they frequently foretell and forewarne of these seducers. Matthew (chap. 24.11.) tells us from Christs mouth, that many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many. John (ep. 2. cap. 2. ver. 18.) tells the Christians, that there are many Antichrists, whereby they knew that it was the last time. Possibly Jude might intend these proofs among others; but I conceive (with Oecumenius) that he principally aims at that which Paul and Peter before him had foretold concerning these seducers. Paul warned of these seducers in sundry of his Epistles. Peter particularly in his second Paul especially foretells of them, 1 Tim. 4.1. The spirit speaketh expressely, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, &c. and 2 Tim. 3.1, 2. This know, that in the last dayes perilous times shall come; (and the description of those who shall make the times so perilous, exactly agrees to these seducers, as I have shewn throughout this Epistle of Jude) for men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, &c. incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God. And 2 Tim. 4.3. The time will come when they will not indure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, they shall heap to themselves teachers. Plainly likewise doth Paul foretel the Coming of seducers, Act. [Page 555]20.29. I know this, that after my departure, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock: also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away Disciples after them. But especially Jude seemes to intend the remembring of that prediction concerning seducers which Peter gives us, 2 Pet. 3.3. There shall come in the last dayes, scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And our Apostle in exhorting the Christians to remember the words of the Apostles, wherein they foretold the coming of these mockers, seemes to some, to imitate Peter, who in the forementioned place, ver. 2. exhorted the Christians to remember the command of the Apostles (namely to avoid the doctrines of seducers) knowing that there shall come in the last dayes mockers, &c.
For the second. 2 It was not without weighty reason that Jude makes use of the Apostles testimony, and mentions the coming thereof from the Apostles, and that in respect of Those Apostles, Jude himselfe, these Christians.
1. In respect of those Apostles; by the mentioning of their foretelling of these Mockers, Jude shews the great care which those faithfull servants of Christ had of the Churches welfare, their desires being, that the Church should get good by them, and live holily and peaceably, when they had done living; and that they might by their writings, live even when they were dead, to be serviceable to the Church of Christ.
2. In respect of Jude himselfe, he mentions the words of the Apostles, as to shew his humility in acknowledging the grace and gifts of God bestowed upon others, so to shew the sweet accord and agreement beween them and him in the doctrines which he delivered to them in this Epistle, concerning these seducers, that hereby he might gaine the more credit to himselfe and present service, there being a joint concurrence [Page 556]between him and the other Apostles: as to this end he had before told the Christians, that James was his brother in respect of parentage, so here he tells them that he and the other Apostles were brethren in respect of judgement and opinion; all the Apostles were stars enlightned by the same sun, they drew the waters of life out of the same fountain, pluckt the fruits of wholesome doctrines off from the same tree; and by the producing of the testimony of so many others who witnessed the same thing with him, he more clearly evidenced that he had spoken nothing but the truth against these seducers, whom he had so sharply reproved.
3. In respect of the Christians to whom he wrote: he mentions the Apostles, 1. To shew how zealous they ought to be against these seducers and their doctrines, in regard the Apostles, who were so holy and unerring, had given the Christians warning of them, and with such vehemency spoken against them, as if they were desirous to leave hatred of error as their legacy, to their spiritual children.
2. To preserve these Christians against discouragements, by seeing such ungodly soul-subverting seducers, rage, and prevail in the Church; it being no other than what was foretold by those who could not be deceived; and therefore they were not to look upon it as if some strange thing had hapned to them. Joh. 16 14.
3. To direct the Christians to the right means, to discover, and so toavoid all those seducers and seductions, wherewith the Church of God was then infested. The words of the Apostles being observed, these Characters of seducers which they had delivered, might be so plainly seen to agree to these who had crept into the Church, that the one being known, the other could not be hid, and they being seen, they (surely) ought to be shun'd.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Great should be the care of the ministers of Christ to warn the Church of approaching evils, especially of seducers. The Apostles of Christ foretold of the coming of these seducers among the Christians, (see the forecited places in the explication) Paul warned every one night and day with tears. Act. 20.31.
They are Watchmen, and its their duty to give warning of every enemy. They should be unfaithfull to your souls, if they should be friends to your adversaries. Their loving and faithfull freeness herein creats them many enemies: but they can much more easily endure the wrath of man here for discharging, than the wrath of God hereafter for neglecting their duty. Its better that the lusts of seducers should curse them a while, then the souls of their people to all eternity. Ministers must defend as well as feed their flock, and keep away poyson as well as give them meat; drive away the Wolfe, as well as provide pasture. Cursed be that patience which can see the Wolfe, and yet say nothing. If the heresies of seducers be damnable, the silence of Ministers must needs be so too.
2. Obs. 2, Its our duty to acknowledge and commend the gifts and graces of God bestowed upon others, with respect. Jude honourably mentions these Apostles, both for the dignity of their Function, and also for the faithfulnesse of their discharge thereof, by forewarning the Christians. The prudent commending of the gifts and graces of another, is the praysing of the giver, and the incouragement of the receiver. The good we see in any one is not to be dampt, but cherisht; nor should the eminency of our own, make us despise anothers endowments. Peter, though he had oft heard Christ himselfe preach, and long been conversant with Christ upon earth, though at Pentecost the spirit was poured upon him, yet he thought it no derogation from his [Page 558]worth to make an honourable mention of Paul, to read his Epistles, and to alledge the authority of his writings. 2. Pet. 3.15. Peter doth not say, why is not my word as credible as Pauls, but without any selferespect he appeals to Paul, honours Paul, and fetcheth in Paul for the warrant of his writings. Oh, how unworthy is it either to deny or deminish the worth of others!
How unsutable is it to the spirit of Christianity, when meer shame compels a man to speak something in commendation of another, to come with a But in the conclusion of our commendation! But in such or such a thing he is faulty and defective. This kind of commendation is like an unskilful farriers shooing of an horse, who never shoes but he pricks him.
3. Obs. 3. The consent between the pen-men of scripture is sweet and harmonious: they were all breath'd upon by the same spirit, and breath'd forth the same truth and holinesse. Jude and the rest of the Apostles agree unanimously against these seducers. Moses and all the Prophets accord with the Apostles in their testimony of Christ. Luke 24. Peter and Paul agree harmoniously. 2. Pet. 3.15. All holy writers teach one and the same faith. They were severall men, but not of sevrall minds. The consideration whereof, affords us a notable argument to prove the divine authority of Scripture, all the penmen whereof, though of several conditions, living in several ages, places and countreys, yet teach the same truth, and confirm one anothers doctrine. 2. It teacheth in the exposition of Scripture to endeavor the making of them all to agree. Weemes. When other writers oppose the Scripture, we should kill the Egyptian, and save the Israelite: but when the holy writers seem, (for they never more than seem) to jar one with another, wee should study to make them agree, because they are brethren. But 3. and especially, the consideration hereof should put all Christians upon agreeing in believing [Page 559]and imbracing the truth: if the writers agreed, Mauns dextra non taniopere indiget ministerio sinistrae, quam necessaria est Ecclesiae doctoribus Concordia. Gerhard. 2 Pet. 3.15. the readers should do so too, but cheifly the preachers of the word should take heed of difference among themselves in interpreting the Scripture. Concord among teachers is as necessary as is the help of the left hand needful to the right. When the children fall out in interpreting their fathers Testament, the Lawyer only gains; and when Ministers are at variance among themselves, hereticks onely rejoyce, and get advantage to extoll and promote errour. In a word, (as the Apostle holily exhorts, Phil. 3.16.) we should walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, and 1. Cor. 1.10. Speak the same thing, labouring that there may be no division among us, but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment. All Contention among Ministers should be who shall be foremost in giving of honour, and gaining of souls.
4. Obs. 4. Scripture is the best preservative against seduction. The Apostle directs the Christians to make use of the words of the Apostles to that end. The Scripture is the best armory to afford weapons against seducers. Its onely the Sword of the Spirit the word of God, that slayes error. Mat. 4. Jesus Christ made use of it when he conflicted with that arch-seducer the devill. The reason why people are children tossed about with every wind of seduction, is because they are Children in Scripture-knowledge. They are children which commonly are stoln in the streets, not grown men. Ye erre (saith Christ to the Sadducees) not knowing the Scripture. The Scripture is the light which shines in a darke place, an antidote against all hereticall poyson. A touchstone to try counterfeit opinions; that Sun, the lustre whereof if any doctrines cannot endure, they are to be thrown down as spurious. And this discovers the true reason of Satans rage against the word in all ages: never did any theefe love the light, nor any seducer delight in [Page 560]the word. Luci fugae. Hereticks fly the Scripture as the owle doth the Sun: when that ariseth, they flye to their holes, when that sets they fly abroad and lift up their voice. Its Satans constant design that there may not be a sword found in Israel. Our care should be to arraigne every errour at the bar of Scripture, and to try whether it can speake the scripture shibboleth, whether it hath given them letters of commendation or no, or a passe to travell up and down the Church or no, If to Scripture they appeal, to Scripture let them goe: and let us with those noble Bereans, with pure, humble, praying, unprejudiced hearts, search the Scriptures whether those things are so.
5. Obs. 5. They who are forewarn'd should be forearm'd. Its a shame for them who have oft heard and known the doctrines of the Apostles, to be surprized by seducers. Jude expects that these Christians who knew what the Apostles had delivered, should strenously oppose all seduction. To stumble in the light, is inexcusable. To see a young beginner seduced, is not so strange; but for an old disciple, a grey-headed gospeller to be mislead into error, how shamefull is it! and yet how many such childish old ones as these are, doth England, London afford; who justly, because they are ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, but remaine unprofitable hearers of truth are left by God to be easily followers of error?
The fourth particular which I considered in Judes producing of this testimony of the Apostles, was wherein this testimony consisted, or the testimony it selfe laid down in the 18. ver. in these words, That there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodlylusts. In which words these seducers are described, 1. From the time wherein they appeared. 2. From their qualities or conditions wherewith they appear'd, according to which the Apostle saith, they were, 1. Mockers. 2. Such as walked after their lusts.
[Page 561] 1. For the first, their appearance was in the last time.
EXPLICATION.
Two things here briefly for explication.
1. What the last time is?
2. Why these seducers shewd themselves in the last time?
1. For the understanding of the first; the last time (in the Greek * [...], in quo necesse est ut consistamus. Ultimum dicitur, ultra quod pergere non licet. [...]) we must know, that by speeches of last time, the Scripture meanes sometime a Continuation or length of time, sometime an end of time. When by the last time it meanes a Continuation of time, it intends a space, which in respect of that compasse of time whereof it is the last part, may fitly be called the last time. Thus the life of man being made up of severall ages, the last space thereof, old age, may be called its last time.
Thus within the compasse of a year, there being foure seasons, the last season thereof, winter, may be cald the last time of a yeare; or, 1. Uitimum tempu [...]. 2. Ultimum temporis. sometime by the last time, is meant terminus temporis, the very end or expiring of time, as the moment wherein a man dyes is his last time, or the last day of December, is the end or last time of the year.
Now thus the last time is the end of the world, and it is ever exprest in the singular number, and usually called the last day, as foure times Joh. 6 th and once in the 11 th 1. Pet. 1.5. And thus 1. Pet. 1.5. the last time is taken, where the Apostle mentions that salvation ready to be revealed in the l [...]st time.
The last time in this place must needs be taken in the former sense, viz. for a space which is the last age of the world, or the last part of its time: and thus those places are ever to be taken where we read of the last times or dayes (in the plurall number) as 1 Pet. 1.20. Its said that Christ was manifested in the last times, which times have continued many hundreds of yeares. [Page 562]So Heb. 1.2. God hath spoken in these last dayes by his Son. So 2 Tim. 3. In the last dayes perilous times shall come. And Act. 2.17. In the last dayes, I will powre out of my spirit. So 2 Pet. 3.3. And thus its taken in this place. Nor doth the holy Ghost intend these last times, (by a word of the singular number in any place, as I remember) save onely in this place of Jude. Now by these last times in generall, are meant all those times from the revelation of Christ to the end of the world, Vid. Mead. in his learned discourse of the Apostasie of the last times. in which space the Kingdom of Christ was founded and advanced in the world: which times, because saith (learned Mead) they are under the last Monarchy ( viz. the Roman) are cald the last times: and because under the times of that last Monarchy the Kingdome of Christ appeard in the world: hence its said, that in these last dayes God hath spoken by his Son, Heb. 1.2. and 1 Pet. 1.20. Christ was manifested in these last times. and Gal. 4.4. When the fulnesse of time was come, God sent forth his Son &c. Others thinke that these times after the coming of Christ to the end of the world are call'd the last times, in respect of those which went before, wherein the state of the Church was oft changed, and the Covenant frequently renewed; but now by the death of Christ the Covenant of grace being so establisht, that its never againe to be renewed, or changed; but the condition of the Church is to be in a sixt state to the end of the world, and no other to succeed it, these are cald the last times.
For the second why these prophane seducers arose in these last times.
1. The last times are times of presumption and security, and therefore of dissolutenesse and impiety. In former times, judgments were threatned, the dissolution and destruction of all things foretold; but because the execution hereof is not beheld, therefore they who live in these times are encouraged to sin. Because sentence against their evill works is not speedily executed, [Page 563]therefore are their hearts set to do evill. This security Christ foretells should be in the last of the last dayes, namely, at his coming to judgment, as in the dayes before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, &c. so shall also the coming of the Son of man &c. and this continuance of all things as they were from the beginning, occasion'd these seducers, to scoff at the promise of his coming. 2. Pet. 3.4. The neerer they came to the feeling, the further they were from the fearing of punishment.
2. They who live in the last dayes, are more skilfull practitioners in sin, wittily wicked, understand more how to contrive sin, and work iniquity, by the improved experiences of their own and former times. Thus as 'tis in every other art, so likewise in that of sinning, by length of time, custome, and experience, tis improved to a greater degree of finenesse and exactnesse; The sinners of the last times are men, they of former times were but children in wickednesse. That old Serpent, the older he growes the more of the serpent he hath, and so it is with the seed of the Serpent.
3. In the last times, the Kingdome of Jesus Christ is more to be enlarged, and advanced, and therefore the malice of Satan is the more increased. As Christ riseth in glory, so will Satan and sinners more swell with rage and envy. Its said, that those people that live in places where the sun is hottest and most scorching, every morning curse the rising sun; and thus in times where the Gospel reacheth men with its holy heat and light, they curse and malign it. Hatred is the genius of the Gospel, and as wicked men the more raged at Christ the older he grew, so the more his Gospell spreads the more the Devill despights it.
4. Lastly. In the last times, the Devils time growes short, and therefore his wrath growes great. Satan labours to supply the shortnesse of his time, with the [Page 564]sharpnesse of his assaults. Besiegers make their last onset upon town or Castle, the most resolute and terrible of all others. Satan now sets upon soules by seduction the more furiously because when these times are at an end, he shall never be suffered to doe so any more. Like a malicious tenant, who perceiving that his terme is almost expired, doth what he can to ruine the house; or like a bloody tyrant, who suspecting the loss of his usurped Soveraignty, makes havock among his subjects.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. The wicked are worst in the best times; In the last dayes, wherein the light of the Gospel, the knowledge of Christ, and the meanes of grace are most abundant, the wicked are most wicked. In the land of uprightnesse they live unholily. As the meanes of grace can make no man good, of themselves; so by reason of our oppositenesse to holinesse, they occasion us to be far worse. A Judas in the fellowship of Christ. A Doeg detained before the Lord. An unreformed person under the meanes of reformation, is most pertinaciously such. The meanes of grace without the grace of the the meanes, doth but draw forth our rage against them. Let not men therefore please themselvs, because either the times or places wherein they live are holy, unless these finde themselvs betterd by them. The higher we are lifted up, the sorer will be our fall; we cannot sin at so cheap a rate in these last times, as formerly. Sins in the last times finde out the lowest places in hell. Let this likewise be an apology for the Gospell. Lay not the sins of Gospel-times to the Gospels charge, since men are not wicked because the Gospel is so much preacht; but because 'tis no more than preacht, not liv'd and practis [...]d also.
2. Obser. 2. The dispensation of the Covenant of grace is now unalterable. In former times, it hath appeard under severall dresses and formes; but now in the last times [Page 565]we must look for no renovation or change thereof. The present administration of the Covenant goeth next to the end of the world, Vid part, 1. p 231, 232, & [...] and shall be closed up of the last day.
3. Obser. 3. Vide Part 1. p. 337 God is abundant in the discovery and dispensing his grace even in times wherein men prophanely abuse it; the Gospel is in the last times most liberally afforded, though most ungratefully neglected, and abused.
4. Of all times, Obser. 4. the last require most care in our carriage: They who live in them, injoy the helps and advantages of the former. Jesus Christ is most clearly discovered. We should doe our work better by sun light, than others have by twylight, else 'twill be our inexcusable, shame. We should imitate God, as his last works, his works in the last times, are his best, so should ours be, the best of our lives should be in the bottome of time; nay herein our very adversary should teach us; if his rage against God increaseth because his time of doing hurt is short; should not our zeal increase, because the time of our doing good is short? Besides, in the last times we have greatest tentations, most examples of sin; when the times are worst, we should be best; and if we cannot make the times good, they should not make us bad. In dirty wayes we should tuck up our garments, we should keep our selves from this untoward generation, and shine as lights in a crooked and perverse nation, and give Gods glory reparations, for all it suffers from the wicked
5. The people of God should bear, and forbear. Obs. 5.
1. Bear their crosses: these are the last times, the end of time is approaching, and with time all their troubles shall end. Be patient (saith James;) for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and the Judg standeth at the doore. And Heb. 10.37. Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. And 1 Pet. 1.6. Now for a season ye are in heavinesse. The elect which cry day and night to him, shall be averged speedily, Luke 18.7, 8. [Page 566] And our light affliction is but for a moment, 2 Cor. 4.17. We count a moment a thousand yeares, but in Scripture-Computation a thousand yeares are but a moment. Nothing should be great to him, to whom is known the greatnesse of eternity. He who keeps a City for his Prince, though it be straitly besieged wil hold out, if reliefe be approaching. Our reliefe, redemption, from all troubles, drawes nigh; oh how great a shame and vexation will it afterward be, to deliver up our selves, 1 Cor. 7.29, 30 by impatience to apostasie, since our reliefe is within the sight of the besieged, we being in the last times.
2. Forbear, use comforts moderately: Let your moderation be known, the Lord is at hand. Phil. 4.4. A tenant being in the last year of his house, builds not, plants not. He is a mad man who sets up a stately fabrick upon that ground which is troubled with earth-quakes, and sure shortly to sink; lay up treasures in heaven; labour for everlasting habitations, a City that hath foundations. Because the time is short, they that marry should be as if the married not, &c. they that buy as if they possessed not, &c. for the fashion of this world passeth away; love not the world, 1 John 2.16. It passeth way, v. 17. Ʋse perishing comforts with perishing affections: love them, as alwaies about to leave them.
Thus of the first part considerable in the testimony it self, viz. the time when these seducers were to appear: the last time. The second follows, their qualities, which are here said to be these two. First mocking. Secondly Walking after their lusts.
The first is set forth in this word Mockers.
EXPLICATION.
Two things I shall here briefly shew by way of explication.
1. What we are to understand by mockers.
[Page 567] 2. How great the sin is to be mockers. From [...] est proprie, instar pucri aliquem tractare, iudificare, et irridere. Gerh H [...]rm. de passione pag mihi 106.
1. For the first. The word in the Greek [...], properly signifies such who deride and mock at others, as if they were but foolish, and silly children; or such who scorn or scoffe at any thing, as if it were but foolish and childish. And to this signification of the word agree those expressions whereby mocking, is shewn; as sometime by 1. Scornful and contemptuous speeches; thus Josophs brethren call'd him the Dreamer; Elijah was call'd Bald-pate; Gal. 6.7. [...], nasum significat. Naso suspendit adu [...]o Horat. Serm. 1. Christ the King of the Jewes &c. 2. Deriding and scornful gestures, as [...]iering with the nose, making of mouths, nodding of the head, Psal. 22.7. Making a wide mouth, putting out of the tongue, Isa. 57.4. and shooting out the lip, Prov 16.30. Psal. 22 7. Putting out of the finger, Isa 58.9. Clapping of the hands; Lam. 2.15 3. Scornful and abusive dealings; thus Christ was crown'd with thorns, clad in purple, a reed was put into his hand, he was spit upon, &c.
But that we may understand what the Apostle here means by mockers, we must consider this malicious and contemptuous derision or mocking, in his objects, against which it is committed. It is expressed either against man, or God himself.
1. Against man, and that for several causes. As
1. For his Country: so some interpret that place. Ezek. 36.6. where God tels the Israelites, that they have born the shame of the heathen. And ver. 15. that they should not bear the reproach of the people any more. It seems that the heathen objected to the Jewes, the frequent sterilities and famines of their land, (which we read of in Scripture) or the destructions and captivities which for their sins they had endured. Julian the Apostate call'd Christ (by way of contempt) the Galilean; and (to some) it seems a contemptuous proverb, Can there any good come out of Nazareth? Joh. 1.46.
2. For his poverty and meanness; Christ in and for [Page 568]his sufferings was mocked, Mat. 20.19. and 27.29, 31 Thus Tobiah mocked the poor Jews, when building, saying If afox go up, he shal even break down their stone wal, Ne. 4.3. And thus Solomon tels us, that he who mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker, Prov. 17.5. The contempts of this nature, reflect upon God himself; who, when the rich and the poor meet together, is the maker of them both. Prov. 22 2.
3. For his deformity, or any infirmitie of bodie; and so they mocked Elias, when they said (2 Kin. 2.23.) Come up thou bald-pate: thus men are mock'd for their low stature, their black and unbeautiful complexion, their weaknesse &c.
4. For his religion, or godlinesse, Heb. 11.36. the godly suffered cruel mockings; thus Micol mocked David for dancing before the Ark. 2 Sam. 7. Thus Festus tels Paul, that too much learning had made him mad, Acts 26.23. This sort of mocking was that which the Babylonians expressed against the Jews in their captivity: Let us hear your Hebrew songs, Psal. 137. such (some conceive) was Ishmael's mocking of Isaak, Gen. 21.9. and this was that derision expressed against those who had received the gifts of the holy Ghost, Acts 2. profane scoffers saying, that they were drunk with new wine. Psal. 69.12. David was the song of the drunkards; I and the children which thou hast given, are for signs and wonders, Isa. 8. ver. 18.
5. For his office and employment: and thus they ask'd Jehu, wherefore that mad fellow (meaning the Prophet) came to him? 2 King. 9.11.
2. Mocking (with highest impiety) is expressed against God himself; and that sometimes as in respect of his works of judgment, so oftnest of his word; as either commanding, reprehending, or threatning; thus when Christ had preached against covetousnesse, the Pharisees, who were covetous, derided him. Thus Isa. 22.12. [Page 569]when the Lord called the secure scorners to weeping and mourning, to baldnesse and girding with sackcloth; there was joy, and gladnesse, slaying of oxen, and killing of sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, &c. When Hezekiahs Posts went with letters to stir up Israel to celebrate the passeover at Jerusalem, they were mocked. 2 Chron. 30.10. Sad is the complaint of Jeremy, chap. 20.7, 8. I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me &c. The word of the Lord is made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily; and that in 2 Chron. 36.16. They mocked the messengers of the Lord, and despised his words &c. When Paul discoursed of the resurrection, Act. 17.32. some mocked; and of this mocking at Gods word, our Apostle accuseth these seducers (I conceive) in this place. I Doubt not but they mocked at dominions and dignities, at the holinesse likewise and godly strictness of these Christians, as at a needlesse and vain severly; 2 Pet. 3 4. but here Jude seems to run parallell with Peter, who tells us, 2 Pet. 3. that the mockers of the last times shewed themselves such, by deriding at the promise of Christs coming, they asking, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were &c. These sensual Atheists, then turning the grace of God into wantoness, and giving over themselves to the following of their lusts, securely derided and scoft at any directions of holinesse, or denunciations of judgements, which opposed them in their ungodly courses, as vain and contemptible fables.
2. For the second, viz. the great sinfulnesse of mocking.
1. Its a sin of unspeakable profaneness, very hainous in respect of the glorious excellency of that God whom we mock. It is a great offence to mock man, a weak worme, a King, our parents; but to mock the great God, is a surpassing wickednesse. What doth the profane mocker, but (according to the meaning of his name) carry himself toward God, as if all his power, [Page 570]justice, threatnings, commands, ordinances, were childish toyes?
2. In respect of that grosse unbelief which is in it; men are therefore mockers, becanse they are unbelievers: threatnings, commands, promises are therefore derided, because they are distrusted. Where is the promise (said these mockers) of his coming? all which the God of truth saith, 2 Pet. 3.4. is accounted but a notion, a fable.
3. It argues the greatest contempt of Gods long-suffering and forbearance. That goodness of God which should lead to repentance, is to scorners a pillow of security; and what greater uningenuousness, then to make God a sufferer because he makes not us to suffer, and to strike him because he strikes not us, to fight against him with his own weapons?
4. It makes all the means of grace ineffectuall; scorners will not be better'd: Prov. 9.7, 8. Rebuke a scorner, and he will hate thee; the strength of this sin makes all the helps of holinesse to be but weak; they all slide off, as water from an oyld post. A scorner, is (as it were) a brazen wall, which beats back all the arrows of reprehension. Mocking argues obduratenesse in sin; It extinguisheth light naturall, and opposeth light spirituall. Pertinacem monere, est speculum caeco objicere. The admonishing of a scorner is the holding of a looking-glasse before a blind man, who indeed by his breath may blemish the glasse, but cannot behold himselfe.
5. It notes progressiveness in sin, and the ariving even to the top of impiety: the beginnings of sin are modest. Its bad to sin (as at the first sinners doe) though with blushing and concealment; but afterward by continuing in sin, not only to grow insensible of it, to proclaim it, to maintain it, but to scorne all reproofs and threatnings against it; this shewes a sinner is higher by the head and shoulders in sin, than other men; and one who is gone so far in ungodlinesse, that [Page 571]he seldom turnes. The LXX. express the Hebrew word which signifies a Scorner by the word [...], Prov. 20.1. which signifies incorrigible, that which cannot be tamed because a Scorner is such: there is no hope of him. Commonly Mockers are either Idolatrous or profane. The little children who mockt Elisha, and called him Bald pate, came out of that Idolatrous City where Jeroboam had set up his Calf: and Idolatrous Jeroboam and his Courtyers were great Scorners, Hos. 7.5. probably they scoft at those who would not yield to that Idolatrous way of Worship that Jeroboam had set up. Oft also Profaneness and Sensuality causeth mocking: When the King was sick with wine, he stretched out his hand with Scorners, Hos. 7.5. When wicked men are most pampered, they scoff most at piety. Religion makes them sport at their Feasts, Psalme 35.16. Mockers in Feasts.
6. Scorners are the gratest instruments of Satan; the main promoters of his cause, and advancers of his Kingdome. The Hebrew word, Scorners (according to the LXX) is exprest by the word [...], Psal. 1.1. which signifieth Plagues, in the Chair of Plagues, because Scorners are plagues to the place where they live, and do infect many. Scorners are they who sit in the chair, Psal. 1.1. Prov. 29.8. and are the Doctors of impiety, and the Antesignani and ringleaders to all mischief. They are the spokesmen and proctors of Satan. Nor do any bring such instruments of Cruelty to wound Religion and Religious ones, as do Scoffers. Mocking is called a Persecution, Gal 4.29. and mockings are called cruel mockings. Heb. 11. By no devices doth the Divel so much dishearten from Religion, and afflict for Religion, as by this. By no means hath hee more instructed those who would be bad, and discouraged others from being good.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Great is the patience and forbearance of God. Observ. 1. None [Page 572]but a God, would spare those impudent and bitter Scoffers, which he is so able to punish. Men are under nothing so impatient, as under scoffs and derisions. How sull of vexation are they, when either they have not wit enough to return scoff for scoff, or strength enough to return stripes and blowes for scoffs? But God is as full of patience to endure Scoffers, as of power to confound them. Surely, God as truly shewes himself a God by sparing, as by punishing these his enemies. Of this before Part 2. pag. 561. To whom is reserved, &c.
2. Observ. 2. How just will the confusion of Scorners be! Nothing is more sutable and deserved, then for the impudent in sin to be dashed out of countenance, to be beaten with their own weapon: The Lord scorneth the Scorners, Pro. 3.34. He will mock at the calamities of those when they come, who mocked at God before they came. None was a more bitter Scoffer at the Godly, than that cruel Doctor Story, who when the meek and Lamb-like Martyr, Fox Martyrolog. Missed Mr. Denly, was singing a Psalm at the Stake, wounded his face by throwing a faggot at it, adding this bitter and profane Scoff, That be had spoiled a good old Song; but never was Mocker so handsomely mock'd, for in Queen Elizabeths times, hee being beyond Sea, Authorized to go on Ship board, to search out the Heretical Books (as they called them) which he hoped to find in the Ship of an English Merchant, and going down into lower parts thereof, to ransack it for that purpose, the hatches were presently clapt downe upon him, the Sailes hoised up, he brought into England, and deservedly for Treason, executed at Tyburn.
3. Its our duty patiently to carry our selves under mockings. Observ. 3. It hath been the lot of the Saints in all ages to meet with them: Psal. 44.14. Thou makest us a by-word among the Heathen, Psal. 109.25.79.4. Psal. 79.4. We are become a reproach and derision to them who are round about us. And Psal. [Page 573]109.25. I became a reproach (saith David) to them; Psal. 31.1. when they looked upon me, they shaked their heads. Tertullian tells us, That the Christians in his time, were mocked for ignorance. The Heathens painted the God of the Christians with an Asses head, and a Book in his hand, to signifie, that though they pretended Learning, yet they were silly and unlearned people. Such who kept the Sabbath, were said to have a Disease upon them, in regard whereof, they were fain to rest once in the week. Athanasius was called Sathanasius, for being an Adversary to the Arians. Cyprian was abused by the name of Coprian, one that gathers up dung. But why speak I of the mockings which befel Christians; they were the portion of Christ himself (as I have before shewed.) Our head was crowned with these thornes; they spit in his face, gave him a reed for a Scepter, bowed before him: Though he despised, yet he indured the shame, Hebr. 12.2. If mocking were the Dyet-drink of Christ should not wee patiently taste now and then a drop thereof? yea, none can bear so much contempt as God doth daily. Besides, by impatience under scoffs we hurt our selves more then Scoffers can do. If we would not vex and disturb our own souls by impatience, our enemies could not hurt us by reproaches; and indeed, this self-disquieting is the only way to gratifie our enemies, whose alone aim by mocking is to trouble and disturb us. And by fretfulness and rage we are liable to discover as much evil, as our enemies can discover by all their scoffs; and though wee are unjustly reproached, yet we may discover so much folly and passion, as to be a just cause of Reproach. We live among Reproachers, and Scoffers, and without patience we shall never have comfortable lives, but the comfort and quiet of our lives will ever lye at the mercy of others. The greatest evil of reproach is from him that receives it. As it is with meat, so it is with mockings: It is not the goodness and sweetness of meat in it self, that makes it to be good [Page 574]and sweet to me; but so it is to me, as my stomack and body is affected; and scoffs and reproaches are not evils as they come from him that casts them upon us, but the greatest part of the evil of reproaches comes from the affection of the receiver. Further remember, there is more honour in bearing scoffs patiently, then there is disgrace in having them cast upon us wrongfully. Every fool can cast a reproach, but onely the wise man can bear it well. Chrysostome tels us, That the Reproacher is below a man, but the Patient under reproach, is equal to an Angel. Consider likewise, that God takes the care of our names, as well as of our souls. When Davids enemies spake mischievous things against him, hee tells us, Psal. 38.12, 13. that he heard not; but vers. 15. he saith, that God hears. The less we hear, the more God will hear. They who mock here, shall bee mocked hereafter; and they who are here mocked, shall then be honoured. And how countervailing a mercy is it to be delivered from eternal Reproach! Meditate also how much contempt and mocking, many do justly suffer for their sins. Many care not how much shame they endure in the service of a base Lust. Who are so basely looked upon as the Drunkards, Covetous? and yet they go on, and blesse themselves, notwithstanding their reproach. What cause have we then to go on in the wayes of God, though all the world mock us! Consider also what honour God hath put upon thee for the present. He hath (if thou art Godly) brought thee to the honourable estate of Sonship, and hath put his glory upon thy soul, and hath honoured thee by that neer relation thou hast to Christ. How base was Hamans spirit, who being so honoured by the King, was so vexed because Mordecai would not bow to him! And truly it is a sinful baseness in Saints, that when God hath raised them to such glory, as to be members of, and coheirs with his Son, and hath provided for them the glory of Heaven: yet for all this, when they have but a [Page 575]mock from men, to be so discouraged and cast down, as if all the honour that God had put upon them were nothing. Think likewise how much religion hath been scoft at for your sake: and is it so great a matter for you to be mocked for religion? Chrysostome saith, that when for us our Lord is blasphemed, 'tis worse then if we perished. Consider also the goodnesse of God in keeping in those many secret wickednesses of thy heart from appearing, which had they been suffered by God to break forth, would have been matter enough of scorn and reproach, whereas now the enemies are fain to watch, and pry, and pump for some occasion, & yet can hardly find any. Remember also that there is more danger in being honored, then contemned by men. Luther said, his greatest fear was the praise of men, & that reproach was his joy, and that he would not have the glory & fame of Erasmus. Lastly, The bearing of scoffs patiently is a great help to our progress in godlinesse: As they who have overcome the evil of shame in a way of sin, grow hardned in sin; so they who regard no reproach cast upon them for holinesse, will much proceed therein. And that we may beare the cruellest mockings patiently, 1. Labour to get good by them; If thou seest another so vigilant to find thee out, to reproach thee; how vigilant shouldst thou be over thy selfe, to find out what is in thee to humble thee! Psal. 119. Herein (as David speaks) be wiser then thine enemies; and the lesse credit thou hast in the world, labour for the more in heaven. 2. Perswade thy soul of the reality of the honour, that is in the waies of God: Prov. 18.7. consider thy honour here is real, true, and hereafter it shall be visible to all. 3. Pity your reproachers; be troubled for their sin, in stead of thine own disgrace. 4. Spread thy condition before the Lord when thou art mocked. Psal. 109.12. prayer was Davids best medicine against mocks. 5 Labour for holy magnanimity and greatnesse of spirit: Psal. 57.2.3 Great men think themselves above reproaches; exercise thy soul with the great things of eternity. Its a weak [Page 576]spirited man, who cannot endure contempt. St Johns spirit was so holily high, that he calls all the malicious words of Diatrophes but triflings. 6. Return not scoffe for scoffe, for hereby as you will harden scoffers in their sin, 3 John 10. [...]. for hereby as you will harden scoffers in their sin, who will think they do not worse then you, and shew that you think there is a greater evil in suffering then sinning; so you are put to base shifts, as if you thought that you had no other remedy for an ill name but an ill tongue; and you deprive your selves of relief from God: and ever remember that he who is willingly overcome in the fight of scoffing, is ever the better man. 7. Keep conscience quiet; let not thy heart reproach thee, Job. 27.6. Winds move not the earth, unlesse they get within it; be carefull of what you do, and then you need not care what men say.
4. Obser. 4. Its our duty to shun the sin of scoffing, especially at the people, word, and waies of God. To this end,
1. See the beauty and excellency of them. Men deride that which they account base and contemptible; let not worldly bravery dazle your eyes. Study the glory of holinesse, the comlinesse and rationality of every way of God: Learning and religion meet with no other mockers but the ignorant.
2. Consider Satans end in stirring up mockers against the waies and people of God; the divel knowes there is no such likely way to darken religion, and to damp the hearts of people from embracing it, as by these; and therefore it is observable, that Julian one of the subtilest enemies that ever the cause of God had, would not oppose religion by open persecution, but sought all means to cast contempt upon it by jeers and scoffs, and hereby he drew off multitudes from it.
3. Labour for faith in threatnings; faith fears a threatned evil as much as sense mourns under an inflicted evil; faith takes into its vast comprehension the threatnings of judgments, as wel as the promises of mercies; [Page 577]and causeth holy fear in respect of the former, as it quells unholy fear in respect of the latter.
4. Study the end of Gods forbearance. 2 Chron. 36.16. It is not that thou shouldst mock at God, but repent of sin. Scoffers turne the motive to repentance, 25.16. into an incouragement of rebellion. God is not long-suffering, that the wicked should be securely sinning. How unavoidable is his destruction, who is ruin'd by the meanes of recovery!
5. Study the vanity of all earthly refuges: Judgment will throw them down all, the overflowing scourge will easily break down these weak banks, nor will any fancyed defences appear any other then paper towers, when wrath approacheth. Ezech. 22.24. Can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong (saith God) in the day when I shall deal with thee. Tis not so easie to resist judgments when they come, as tis to scoff at them before they come. Scoffers, when vengeance meets them, will be found to be but like cowardly souldiers, who though they vaunt, and boast, and swagger before the enemy comes, will run away as soon as they see him come.
5. Its our duty to take heed that mockers at our holiness, Obs. Ʋlt. hinder us not in the wayes of holinesse. Though the clouds darken the light of the Sun, yet the Sun ceaseth not its course; Was there ever such a fool, as to be scoft out of his inheritance? and yet its a greater folly to be scoft out of holiness; this will make us a reproach before God, Angels and Saints, yea and before our very enemies, who will, when they have got their will of us, the more vilifie and contemn us; whereas if we persist in holinesse, they inwardly admire us. They who sought by scoffing to hinder Nehemiahs work, would have mockt him much more, had they made him to have given it over. He that will not suffer scoffes for Gods name, shall deservedly suffer it for his own sin.
[Page 578] The second property of these seducers was their walking after their own ungodly lusts, of which I have spoken largely before ver. 16.
The fifth and last particular in this first direction, viz. the remembring the words of the Apostles, is the application of their testimony to these seducers, ver. 19. in these words. These are they who separate themselves, sensuall, having not the spirit. In which words the Apostle shewes that these who separate themselves from the Church, were scorners, and that these who were sensuall and void of the spirit, did follow their ungodly lusts. Or in the words Jude expresseth, 1. The sin of these seducers in Separating themselves. 2. The cause thereof, which was 1. Their being sensuall; and 2. their not having the spirit. For the first, their separation.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here to be opened.
1. What the Apostle here intends by separating themselves.
2. Wherein the sinfulnesse thereof consists.
1. segregantes. separantes. Disterminantes. Exterminantes. For the first: The words in the Originall are [...]. This word [...] (severall wayes rendred by severall interpreters) may signifie the unbounding of a thing, and the removing of a thing from those bounds and limits wherein it was set and placed (for the words [...] and [...] signifie to terminate or circumscribe a thing within limits and bounds, and the preposition [...] added to it, may import Thus the Preposition [...] is frequently taken in Scripture. the taking away or exempting a thing from those bounds and limits wherein it was contained) and this interpretation of making themselves boundlesse, as being a generation of Libertines that would be kept within no bounds or compasse of restraint by Scripture, Magistrates, Church-discipline, &c. doth both agree [Page 579]to the word [...], and also the whole series of the Epistle, and context, in which the Apostle (immediately before) saith, they walked after their own lusts and immediately after, saith, they were sensuall, given over to sensuall pleasures. These seducers were sons of Belial, without a yoke, like yokelesse heifers. Scope and Liberty were their study. They would needs make the way to heaven (as he who went over a narrow bridge with spectacles before his eyes, desired to make the bridg) seeme broader then it was. This interpreation I dare not reject, I desire to present it to the learned: but though upon my maturest thoughts I much incline to it, yet seeing the streame of interpreters going another way, I shall not refuse the second, according to which the word [...] imports the parting and separating of one thing from another by bounds and limits put between them, and the putting of bounds and limits for distinction and separation between severall things, it being (thus) a resemblance taken from fields, or Countries, which are distinguisht and parted from each other by certain boundaryes and Land-marks set up to that end: and thus its commonly taken by interpreters in this place, wherein these seducers may be said to separate themselves, divide, or bound themselves from others, either first, doctrinally, or secondly, practically.
1. Doctrinally, by false and hereticall doctrines, whereby they divided themselves from the truth, and faithfull, who were guided by the truth of the Scripture, and walked according to the rule of the word; hence these seducers were deceiving and deceved, and its said that they brought in damnable heresies, and many followed their pernitious wayes; and that they spake perverse things to draw away Disciples after them. 2 Pet. 2. And thus they separated themselves from the Church; 1. By holding that the grace of God, gave men liberty to live as they pleased, and by maintaining of unchristian [Page 580]libertinisme, because Christ had purchased Christian liberty for us. Whereas the word teacheth the contrary, namely, because the grace of God hath appeared, therefore that we should deny ungodlinesse and worldly lust.
2. By teaching that among the people of God there ought to be no Civil Magistrate, no superiority, nor any to restraine and hinder people from their going on in what wayes they pleased; whereas the word commands every soule to be subject.
3. By denying the day of judgment, at which they scoft as at a vaine scar-crow, because it was deferred; whereas the faithfull were, 1 Pet. 4.4. to account the long suffering of the Lord salvation, to labour to be made meet for the approach of Christ, and to look for the mercy of the Lord to eternall life.
2. Practically, they might separate themselves as by bounds and limits. 1. By prophaneness, and living in a different way from the Saints, namely in all loosenesse and uncleannesse; for as the faithfull separate and difference themselves from the wicked by their holy and heavenly Conversation, so the wicked divide themselves from the faithfull, by prophaneness and falling from the profession of godlinesse into all manner of loosenesse and irregularity; and thus the ungodly make such bounds between themselves and saints, as saints dare not break over, ungodlinesse being too high a wall for a godly man to scale, or rather too deep a mote for him to swim over and wade through.
2. Calv. in loc. discessionem faciunt ab ecclefiâ quia disciplinae jugum ferre nequeunt. By Shismaticalness and making of Separation from, and divisions in the Church. Because they proudly despised the doctrines or persons of the Christians, as contemptible and unworthy; or because they would not endure the holy severity of the Churches discipline, they (saith Calvin) departed from it. They might make rents and divisions in the Church by schismaticall withdrawing themselves from fellowship and Communion [Page 581]with it. Their heresies, were perverse and damnable opinions, their schism was a perverse Separation from Church-Communion; the former was in doctrinalls, the latter in practicals. Schismaticos facit non diversa fides, sed communionis disrupta societas. Aug. Co [...]tr. Faust. l. 20. c. 3. The former was opposite to faith; this latter to charity. By faith all the members are united to the head; by charity, one to another; and as the breaking of the former is heresie, so their breaking of the latter was schism. And this schisme stands in the dissolving the spirituall band of love and union among Christans, and appears in the withdrawing from the performance of those duties which are both the signes of, and helps to Christian unity; as prayer, hearing, receiving of Sacraments &c. for because the dissolving of Christian union, chiefly appears in the undue separation from church communion, therfore this rending is rightly call'd schisme. It is usually said to be twofold, 1. Negative, Camero de schismate 2. Positive. The first, the Negative is when there is onely simplex secessio, when there is onely a bare secession, a peaceable and quiet withdrawing from Communion with a Church, without making an he [...]d against that church from which the departure is. 2. The other, the positive is when persons so withdrawing doe so consociate and draw themselves into a distinct and opposite body, setting up a church against a church, or as divines expresse it, from Augustine, an altar against an altar, and this it is which in a peculiar manner, and by way of eminency is called by the name of schisme, and becomes sinful either in respect 1. of the groundlesnesse, or 2. the manner thereof; 1. The groundlesnesse, when there is no casting of persons out of the church, by an unjust censure of excommunication, no departure, by unsufferable persecution, no heresie nor idolatry in the church maintained, no necessity (if Communion be held with a Church) of communicating in its sins and corruptions. 2. The manner of separation makes it unlawfull; when 'tis made without due endeavour and [Page 582]waiting for reformation of the church, from which the departure is: and such a rash departure is against charity, which suffers both much and long, 1 Cor. 13.4. all tolerable things; It is not presently distasted, when the justest occasion is given, it first useth all possible meanes of remedy. The Surgeon reserves dismembring, as the last remedy. It looks upon a sudden breaking off from communion with a church (which is a dismembring) not as surgery, Non medicina sed Laniena, non Chirurgia, sed Carnificina. but but chery, not as medicinal, but cruel.
2. For the second, the sinfulnesse of this separation, appears several wayes. Not to the speak of the sinfulnesse of separation by heresies and prophanness, I having in this and the former part of this Commentary shewn it at large before; Error of Balaam. ver. 11. Sunt qui peccatum schismatis adaequent peccato heresis; sunt qui illud adhuc prae isto exaggerent. Musc. loc. Com. de schism Aug. Cont. Donat. lib. 2. cap. 6. but briefly to manifest the sinfulnesse of schismatical separation. I shall not spend time to compare it with heresie, though some have said that Schism is the greater sin of the two. Augustin tels the Donatists, that Schisme was a greater sin than that of the Traditores, who in time of persecution, through fear delivered up their bibles to the persecutors to be burnt (A sin at which the Donatists took so much offence, that it was the ground of their separation.) But to passe by these things: by these three considerations especially, the sinfulnesse of Schism shews it selfe.
In respect of
- 1. Christ.
- 2. The parties separating.
- 3. Those from whom they separate.
1. In respect of Christ, it is first an horrible indignity offered to his body, it dividing Christ (as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1.15.) and makes him to appear the head of two bodyes: how monstrous and dishonourable is the very conceit hereof!
2. It is rebellion against his Command, his great command of love, the grace of love is by some call'd the queen of graces, and it's greater then faith in respect of it's object, not God only but man; its duration, which is eternal; its manner of working, not in a way of receiving Christ [Page 583](as faith) but of giving out the soul to him; Eph. 4.3. Phil. 2.2. Joh. 13.34. and the command of love is the greatest command in respect of it Comprehensivenesse, it taking in all the commandements, the end of them all being love, and it being the fulfilling of them all.
3. Joh. 12.52. Its opposite to one great end of Christs greatest undertaking (his death) which was that all his Saints should be one.
4. It tends to frustrate his prayer for unity among Saints, Joh. 17. and endeavours that Christ may not be heard by his father.
5. It opposeth his example; By this shall all men (saith he) know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another. Love is the Livery and Cognizance which Christ gives to every Christian. If there be no fellowship among Christians, there's no following of Christ. Let this mind be [...]n you that was in Christ Jesus, Phil 2 5.
6. Its injurious to his service and worship. How can men pray, if in wrath and division? how can Christians fight with heaven and prevail, when they are in so many divided troops? Nullum schisma non sibi aliquam confingit haeresim, ut recte ab Ecclesiâ recessisse videatur. Hierom, in Tit. Schisma viam facit ad haeresim et separationem à Christo. What worthinesse can be in those Communicants who celebrate a feast of love, with hearts full of rancour and malice?
2. In respect of the parties separating. For,
1. It causeth a decay of all grace. By divisions among our selves,▪ we endeavour to divide our selves from him, in and from whom is all our fulnesse. All wickednesse follows contention. Upon the stock of schism, commonly heresie is grafted; there is no schism (saith Jerome) but ordinarily it inventeth and produceth some heresie, that so the separation may seem the more justifiable. The Nonatians and Donatists from schism fell to heresies: our own times sadly comment upon this truth, they equally arising to both. The farther lines are distanced one from another, the greater is their distance from the Center; and the more divided Christians are among themselves, the more they divide themselves from Christ. [Page 584]Branches divided from the tree, Anima vivisicat membra cohaerentia, non divuls [...] Peccatum schismatis non martyrii sanguine deletur. Quo pacto qui animum pro Christo exponis, Ecclesiam oppugnes, pro quâ animum suam Christus tradidit? receive no sap from the root. The soul gives life to members which are joyn'd together not pluckt asunder.
2. Schism is the greatest disgrace to the schismaticks. A schismatick is a name much disowned, because very dishonourable. All posterity loads the name of sinfull Separatists with disgrace and abhorrency. He spake truly, who said, the sin and misery of schism cannot be bloted out with the blood of martyrdom. Hee cannot honorably give his life for Christ, who makes divisions in his Church, for which Christ gave his life.
3. In respect of the Church from which this separation is made; For, 1. Its injurious to the honor of the Church, whose greatest glory is union. 3. Cant. 6.9. How can a body be rent and torn without the impairing of its beauty? Besides, how disgracefull an imputation is cast upon any Church, when we professe it unworthy for any to abide in it, that Christ will not, and therefore that we cannot have communion with it?
2 Its injurious to the peace and quietnesse of the Church. Schismaticks more oppose the peace of the Church, then do heathens. If the natural body be divided and torn, pain and smart must needs follow. The tearing and rending of the mystical bodie goes to the heart of all sensible members. They often cause the feaverish distempers of hatred, wrath, seditions, envyings, murders. Schism in the Church puts the members out of joynt, and disjointed bones are painful. All my bones (saith David) are out of joint. Church divisions cause sad thoughts of heart; true members are sensible of these schisms, though artificiall ones feel nothing. None rejoyce but our enemies. Oh impiety to make Satan musick, and to make mourning for the Saints!
3. Its opposite to the edification of the Church. Division of tongues hindred the building of Babel, and doubtlesse division in hearts, tongues, hands, heads, must [Page 585]needs hinder the building of Jerusalem; while parties are contending, Churches and Common-wealths suffer. In troublous times the walls and temple of Jerusalem went but slowly on. Though Jesus Christ the head be the only fountaine of spiritual life; yet the usual way of Christs strengthning it and perfecting thereof, is the fellowship of the body, that by what every joynt supplies, the whole may be encreased; when Church-members are put out of joint, they are made unserviceable, and unfit to perform their several offices. They who were wont to join in prayer, sacraments, fasting, and were ready to all mutuall offices of love, are now fallen off from all.
4. Its opposite to the future estate of the Church in glory. In heaven the faithful shall be of one mind; wee shall all meet (saith the Apostle) in the unity of the faith, Eph. 4.13. when we are come to our manly age. Wrangling is the work of child-hood and folly, and a great peice of the folly of our child-hood. Luthe [...] and Calvin are of one mind in heaven, though their disciples wrangle here on earth.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Naturally men love to be boundlesse, Obs. 1. they will not be kept within any spiritual compasse, nor endure to bee held in any bounds. This (according to one signification of the word [...]) the Apostle Jude aimes at in this place. Wicked men are sons of Belial; they cannot endure the yoke of Christ, though it be sweet and easie. They break his bonds asunder, and cast away his cords from them. Men love to have liberty to damn their own souls. Psal. 2, 3. Hos. 4▪ 16. They back-slide like a back-sliding heifer. Though men account it no unwelcome streightning to them to have a fence between them and their bodily enemyes, yet they cannot endure those limits and bounds of Gods law or corrections, which stop them from sin; their fear of hurt makes them love preservation, their love of pleasure makes them desirous of sinful liberty. How good a sign of [Page 586]a gracious heart is it, rather to desire to be in Christs inclosure, then in Satans champain! to account Christs service our liberty, and Satans liberty our bondage! How just also is God in suffering sinners, to take their course and swinge in the wayes of sin and destruction! They who wil not be kept within Gods compass, are deservedly left to Satans disposall. They who are back sliding heifers, who will not endure the yoke, are justly threatned to be suffered to be as a lamb in a large place, without a keeper or preserver. They shall have their fill of liberty; but their liberty is like that of the Deer; which though it were gotten out of the park-pale, yet it was at the cruel curtesie of the hounds. On the contrary, God is very gracious in stopping up his churches way, though with a thorny hedge. Oh happy thorns, that stop us in our waies to hell! Such thorns are better then roses. The setting up of the thorny hedge, Hos. 2.6. is a promise, a branch of the Covenant.
Our separation from Rome cannot be charged with schism. Obs. 2.
This will evidently appear, if we consider either the ground or the manner of our separation.
1. For the ground and cause thereof; our separation from Rome was not for some slight and tolerable errours, but damnable heresies and grosse idolatries. The heresies fundamental, and idolatries such, as those who hold communion with her, cannot but partake of. In respect of both which, the church of Rome was first Apostatiz'd before ever we separated; nor was there any separation from it, as it had any thing of Christ, or as it was Christian, but as it was Romane and Popish. The Apostacy of the Roman church, which was the ground of our separation, appeared sundry ways. 1. In that she did thrust the Lord Jesus the great and onely teacher of the church out of the chair, and in it, placed the Pope as the infallible Doctor of the church, to whom she ties her beliefe; and subjects her faith, [Page 587]though he alwayes may, and oft doth rise up against Christ himself. 2. The Scriptures (the alone rule of faith) the Romanists slight and impiously despise, and make them an insufficient rule of faith, by joyning their over-fond and false traditions to it, by preferring a vitious and barbarous interpretation before the sacred originals, by making the holy Scriptures to have neither life, nor soul, nor voice, till the interpretation of the church (or rather the Pope) be added. 3. They have depraved the great and main article of faith, concerning the justification of a sinner, the nature whereof though the Scripture makes to stand in the remission of sinnes, and the application of Christs righteousnesse by faith, yet they ascribe it partly to Christs, and partly to our own merits and righteousnesse, in which respect that of the Apostle sutes with them. Christ is become of no effect to you who are justified by the law. 4. Though the worshipping of the immortal and invisible God under any visible image or representation, or the likenesse of a mortal creature, be frequently and expresly forbidden in Scripture, Ecclesia Romanaeusus admittit basce trinitatis imagines, caeque pinguntur non solum ut ostendantur, sed ut adoren [...] tur. In 3 Aq. 9.29. art. 3. yet they set forth, and teach the worshiping of the Father, under the image of an old man, the Son under the image of a Lamb; and the holy Ghost of a Dove. And Cajetan confesseth, that they draw these images of the Trinity, not only to shew, but to adore and worship them. To these I might add their maiming, or rather marring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, their denying the cup to the laity. Their ascribing of remission and expiation of sin to the sacrifice of the Mass, their seven Sacraments, their praying to Saints, Auge pi [...]s justitiam. Reisque dona veniam. Solve vinela reis. Profer lumen Coecis. Psalt. Rom. and ascribing to the Virgin Mary, the bestowing grace and glory, pardon of sin, &c. Their dispensations with the most hideous and bellish abominations, as murders, incest, Sodomy, &c. for mony, &c.
2. For the second, the manner of our separation, it was not uncharitable, rash, heady, and unadvised, [Page 588]nor before all means were used for the cure and reformation of the Romanists, by the discovery of their errors, that possibly could be thought of; notwithstanding all which (though some have been enforced to an acknowledgment of them) they still obstinately persist in them. Our famous, godly, and learned reformers would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; many skilful Physicians have had her in hand, (but like the woman in the Gospel) she grew so much the worse. By praier, preaching, writing, yea, by sealing their doctrine with their bloods, have sundry eminent instruments of Christ endeavoured to reclaim the Popish from their errors; but in stead of being reclaimed, they anathematized them with the dreadfullest curses; excommunicated, yea murdered and destroyed multitudes of those who endeavoured their reducement, not permitting any to trade, buy or sell, to have either religious or civil communion with them, except they received the beasts mark in their hands and forheads. All which considered, we might safely forsake her, nay could not safely do otherwise. Since, instead of our healing of Babylon, we could not be preserved from her destroying of us, we did deservedly depart from her, and every one go into his own Country: and unlesse we had so done, Jer. 51.9. we could not have obeyed the cleare precept of the word. Apoc. 18. Come out of her my people &c. Apoc. 18.4. Timothy is commanded to withdraw himself from perverse and unsound teachers. Though Paul went into the Synagogue, 1 Tim. 6.3.5. disputing and perswading the things concerning the Kingdome of God; yet when divers were hardned and beleeved not, Acts 19.9. but spake evill of that way, 1 Cor. 10.14. he departed from them, and separated th [...] disciples. And expressely is Communion with idolaters forbidden, 2 Cor. 6.14.17. what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse? what Communion hath light with darknesse? what concord hath Christ with Belial? what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? [Page 589]Come out from among them, and be ye separate. And Hos. 4.11. Though thou Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend: and Come ye not unto Gilgal, neither goe ye up to Bethaven. Though in name that place was Bethel, the house of God; yet because Jeroboams calf was set up there, it was indeed Bethaven, the house of vanity. If Rome be a Bethaven for idolatry and corrupting of Gods worship, our departure from it may be safely acknowledged and justified. In vaine therefore do the Romanists, Stapleton, Nic. Sanderus de visib. monar. eccles praefat. ad lect. Staplet. demonstrat. Princ. fid. l. 4. c. 10. Sanders & others brand our separation from them with the odious imputation of Donatisme, and schisme; it being evident out of Augustine, that the Donatists never objected any thing against, nor could blame any thing in the Church (from which they separated) either for faith or worship: whereas we have unanswerably proved the pseado-Catholick Romane-Church to be notoriously guilty both of heresie and idolatry; and our adversaries themselves grant, in what ever Church either of those depravations are found, Communion with it, Schisma aliud malum, aliud bonum. Malum quo bona bonum quo mala scinditur unitas. Musc. de schism. is to be broken off. I shall conclude this discourse with that passage out of Musculus, concerning schisme. There is (saith he) a double schisme, the one bad, the other good; the bad is that whereby a good union, the good that whereby a bad union is broken asunder. If ours be a schisme, it is of the later sort.
3. Obs. 3. The voluntary and unnecessary dividing and separation from a true Church is schismaticall. When we put bounds and partitions between it and our selves, we sin (say some) as did these seducers, here taxed by Jude. If the Church be not hereticall or Idolatrous, or do not by excommunication, persecution, &c. thrust us out of its Communion; If it be such an one, as Christ the head hath communion with, we the members ought not by separation to rend and divide the body. To separate from Congregations, where the word of truth and Gospel of salvation are held forth in an ordinary [Page 590]way, 1 Tim. 3.15. as the Proclamations of Princes are held forth upon pillars to which they are affixed; where the light of the truth is set up as upon a candlestick, to guide passengers to heaven. To separate from them to whom belong the Covenants, and where the Sacraments, the seals of the Covenant, Rev. 1.13. and for substance rightly dispensed, where Christ walketh in the midst of his golden Candlesticks, and discovers his presence in his ordinances, whereby they are made effectuall to the Conversion and edification of soules, in an ordinary way; where the members are saints by a professed subjection to Christ and his Gospell, and haply have promised this explicitely and openly; where there are sundry who in the judgement of charity may be conceived to have the work of grace really wrought in their hearts, by walking in some measure answerable to their profession, I say to separate from these, as those with whom Church Communion is not to be held and maintaind, is vnwarrantable and schismaticall. Pretences for separation (I am not ignorant) are alledged. Frequently and most plausibly that of mixt Communion, and of admitting into Church-fellowship the vile with the pretious, and those who are chaff, and therefore ought not to lodge with the wheat. Answ. 1. Not to insist upon what some have urged, viz. that this hath been the stone at which most Shismaticks have stumbled, and the pretence which they have of old alledged, as having ever had a spiritum excommunicatorium, a spirit rather putting them upon dividing from those who they say are unholy, then putting them upon any godly indeavours of making themselvs holy, as is evident in the examples of the Audaeans, Novatians, Donatists, Anabaptists, Brownists &c. 2. Let them consider, whither the want of the exact purging and reforming of these abuses proceed not rather from some unhappy obstructions and politicall restrictions (whether or no caused by those who make [Page 591]this objection, God knowes) in the exercise of discipline, then from the allowance or neglect of the Church it selfe. Nay 3. Let them consider whether when they separate for sinfull mixtures, the Church be not at that very time purging out those sinfull mixtures: and is that a time to make a separation from a Church by departing from it, when the servants of Christ are making a separation in that Church by reforming of it? But 4. Let it be seriously weighed, that some sinfull mixtures are not a sufficient cause of separation from a Church. Hath not God his Church even where corruption of manners hath crept into a Church, if purity of doctrine be maintained? and is separation from that Church lawful, from which God doth not separate? did the Apostle, because of the sinful mixturess in the Church of Corinth, direct the fuithful to separate? Must not he who will forbeare communion with a Church, till it be altogether freed from mixtures, tarry till the day of judgment? til when, we have no promise that Christ will gather out of his Church whatsoever doth offend. 5. Let them consider, whether God hath made private Christians stewards in his house, to determine whether those with whom they communicate, are fit members of the Church or not; or rather, whether it be not their duty when they discover tares in the Church, in stead of separating from it, to labour that they may be found good corne, that so when God shall come to gather his corn into his garner, they may not be thrown out? Church-officers are ministerially betrusted with the ordering of the Church, and for the opening and shutting of the doors of the Churches Communion, by the Keyes of doctrine and discipline; and herein if they shall either be hindred or negligent, private Christians shall not be intangled in the guilt of their sin, if they be humbled, and use all lawful means for remedy, though they do communicate. 6. Let them search whether there be [Page 592]any Scripture warrant, to break off communion with the Church in the ordinances, when there is no defect in the ordinances themselves, only upon this ground, because some are admitted to them, who because of their personal miscarriages, ought to be debarred. The Jewes of old, though they separated when the worship it self was corrupted, 2 Chron. 11.14, 16. yet not because wicked men were suffered to be in outward communion with them, Jerem. 7.9, 10. nor do the precepts or patterns of the Christian Churches for casting out of offenders, give any liberty to separation in case of failing to cast them out; and though the suffering of scandalous persons be blamed, yet not the communicating with them. 1 Cor. 5.11. Rev. 2.14.15.20.24. The command not to eat with a brother who is a fornicator or covetous &c. concerns not religious, but civil communion, by a voluntary, familiar, intimate Conversation, either in being invited or in inviting, as is clear by these two Arguments. 1. That eating which is here forbidden with a brother, is allowed to be with an heathen; but its the civil eating which is onely allowed to be with a heathen; therefore its the civil eating which is forbidden to be with a brother. 2. The eating here forbidden, is for the punishment of the nocent, not for a punishment to the innocent; but if religious eating at the Sacrament were forbidden, the greatest punishment would fall upon the innocent, the godly. Now though such civil eating was to be forborne; yet it follows not at all, much lesse much more, that religious eating is forbidden, 1. Because civil eating is arbitrary and unnecessary, not so religious, which is enjoyned, and a commanded duty. 2. There is danger of being infected by the wicked in civil, familiar, and arbitrary eatings; not so injoyning with them in an holy and commanded service and ordinance. 3. Civill eating is done out of love either to the party inviting, or invited, but religious is done out of love to Jesus Christ, were it not for whom, we would neither eat at [Page 593]Sacrament with wicked men, nor at all.
To conclude this, separation from Churches, from which Christ doth not separate, is schismatical; now its clear in the Scripture, that Christ owneth churches where faith is sound for the substance, and their worship, Gospel-worship, though there be many defects and sinfull mixtures among them And what I have said concerning the schismaticalnesse of separation because of the sinfull mixtures of those who are wicked in practise, is as true concerning separation from them who are erroneous in judgement; if the errours of those from whom the separation is made, be not fundamental, and hinder Communion with Christ the head. And much more clear, (if clearer can be) is the schismaticalnesse of those who separate from and renounce all Communion with those churches, which are not of their own manner of Constitution, and modeld according to the platform of their own particular church-order. To refrain fellowship, and communion with such Churches who professe Christ their Lord, whose faith is sound, whose worship is Gospel-worship, whose lives are holy, because they come not into that particular way of church-order which we have pitcht upon, is a schismaticall rending of the church of Christ to pieces. Of this the church of Rome are most guilty, who do most plainly [...], and circumscribe and bound the church of Christ within the limits and boundaries of the Romane jurisdiction, even so as that they cast off all churches in the world, yea and cut them off from all hope of salvation, who subject not themselves to their way. Herein likewise those separatists among our selves are heniously faulty who censure and condemn all other churches, though their faith, worship, and conversation be never so scriptural, meerly because they are not gathered into church order, according to their own patterns. In scripture, churches are commended and dignified, according as their fundamental faith was sound, and their lives holy; not according to [Page 592] [...] [Page 593] [...] [Page 594]the regularity of their first manner of gathering. And notwithstanding the exactest regularity of their first gathering, when churches have once apostatiz'd from faith and manners, Christ hath withdrawn communion from them, and most severely censured them. And this making of the first gathering of people into church-fellowship, to be the rule to direct us with whom we may hold communion, wil make us refuse some churches, upon whom are seen the Scripture characters of true churches, and joyn with others onely upon an humane testimony, because men onely tell us they were orderly gathered.
It should be our care to shun separation. Obs. ult. To this end,
1. Labour to bee progressive in the work of mortification; the lesse carnal we are, the lesse contention and dividing will be among us. Are ye not carnal (saith the Apostle?) and he proves it from their divisions; separation is usually, but very absurdly, accounted a sign of an high grown christian: we wrangle because we are children, Jam. 4.1. and are men in malice because children in holinesse; wars among our selves proceed from the lusts that war in our members.
2. Admire no mans person: the excessive regarding of some, makes us despise others in respect of them; when one man seems a gyant, another will seem a dwarfe in comparison of him. This caused the Corinthian schism. Take heed of man-worship, as well as image-worship; let not idolatry be changed, but abolish't. Of this largely, before, upon Having mens persons in admiration.
3. Labour for experimental benefit by the ordinances. Men separate to those churches which they account better, because they never found those where they were before (to them) good. Call not Ministers good (as the young man in the Gospel did Christ) complementally only; for if so, you wil soon cal them bad. Find the setting up of Christ in your hearts by the Ministry, and then you will not dare to account it Antichristian. If with Jacob, we could say of our Bethels, God is here; wee would set up pillars, [Page 595]nay bee such, for our constancy in abiding in them.
4. Neither give nor receive scandals; give them not to occasion others to separate, nor receive them to occasion thine own separation; watch exactly, construe doubtfull matters charitably. Look not upon blemishes with multiplying glasses, or old mens spectacles. Hide them, though not imitate them; sport not your selves with others nakednesse. Turn separation from, into lamentation for the scandalous.
5. Be not much taken with novelties. New lights have set this church on fire; for the most part they are taken out of the dark-lanthorns of old Hereticks. They are false and fools fires to lead men into the precipice of separation. Love truth in an old dresse; let not antiquity be a prejudice against, nor novelty an inducement to the entertainment of truth.
6. Give not way to lesser differences; A little division will soon rise up to greater, small wedges make way for bigger. Our hearts are like to tindar, a little spark will enflame them. Be jealous of your hearts when contentions begin, stifle them in the cradle. Act. 3 [...].38. Paul and Barnabas separated about a smal matter, the taking of an associate.
7. Beware of pride, the mother of contention and separation. Love not the preheminence; rather be fit for, then desirous of rule; despise not the meanest; say not, I have no need of thee. All schismes and heresies are mostly grafted upon the stock of pride. The first rent that was ever made in Gods family, was by the pride of Angels, ver. 14. and that pride was nothing else but the desire of independency.
8. Avoid self-seeking: he who seeks his own things and profit, will not mind the good and peace of the church. Oh take heed lest thy secular interest draw thee to a new communion, and thou colour over thy departure with religion and conscience.
1. Thus we have spoken of the First, viz. what these [Page 596]seducers did; separate themselves.
2. The cause of their separation, or what they were, in these words, sensual, not having the spirit. Wherein,
1. Their estate is propounded, They were sensual:
2. Explained, having not the spirit.
EXPLICATION.
But
- 1. In what respect were they Sensual.
- In what respect were they 2. Not having the spirit.
2. Why doth the Apostle here represent them to be such.
1. For the first.
1. The word here translated sensual, in the Gr. [...], cometh from [...] anima, the soule; so that [...] signifieth primarily one who hath a soule: Animalis ab anima, non ab ab animo. And in Scripture the word is used three wayes. 1. Sometimes its joyned with the word body, in opposition to a glorified body; and then the body is called a naturall body, that is, such a body as is informed, governed, moved by the soule; or is subject to animall affections and operations, as generation, nutrition, augmentation, &c. or such a body as is sustained and upheld by the actions of the soule, as it receives from it life and vegetation; that is, by the action of the vegetative power, Vid. Aquin. Cajet. Estium, Pareum. in 1 Cor. 15.44. Homo in puris naturalibus confideratus qui nihil eximium habet praeter animam rationalem, Piscat. Homo non alia quam naturalis animi luce praeditus. Bez. the chiefe whereof is nutrition, which cannot be without nourishment; so that this naturall body wants the constant help of nourishment for its preservation, in which respects it is distinguisht from a glorified body. 2. This word [...], is in Scripture opposed to regenerate, and so imports one who hath in him nothing excellent but a rationall soule, who is governed onely by the naturall light of reason, who hath in him onely naturall abilities and perfections. And when thus its taken, our learned translators, translate [...] by the word naturall, 1 Cor. 2.14. intending one who is guided by naturall reason, he [Page 597]being there opposed to [...], the spirituall man, who is indued with, and guided by a divine and supernaturall illumination. 3. Its taken for one who being guided by no better light than that of his own naturall reason, or rather who, Anima significat animalitatem, cum ab animo, i. e. parte superiori distinguitur Lapide in Jude Sapim [...] animo, fruimur anima; fine animo anima est debilis. being altogether addicted to the service of that part which 1 Thes. 5.23. is call'd [...], the soule, (whereby is meant the sensitive and inferiour part of the soule, the sensuall appetite, common to man with the beasts, as distinct from [...], the spirit, or intellectuall and rationall part) followes the dictates of that his sensuall appetite, and the inclinations of his sensitive soule, and his onely ben [...]nd intent is upon satisfaction by worldly delights; his study and care is for the sensitive and vegetative part, and for those things which belong to the animall and present life: and hence it is, that some learned Vid. Lorin. in loc. men conceive that [...] sensuall, comes from [...], as [...] is (in scripture) used to denote life, and the functions of life common to us with beasts. Vox Arabica exponitur per sibi viventes. [...]Oecum. Haeretici vocantur animales ab animâ sensitivâ & vegetativâ, cui toti serviunt. quia ut animalia non rationem sed sensum sequuntur, vi [...]un [...]que in concupisce [...]tiis carnis non spiritus, sed sensus puta gulae, avaritiae libidinis▪ &c. Lapide. Thus Christ, Mat. 6.25. saith, Take no thought for your life, [...], what you shall eat, or what you shall drinke, &c. is not the life ( [...]) more then meat &c. And in this notion of sensuality Tertullian, after he began to favour Montanisme, took the word [...] when he fastned that odious name of Physici upon the orthodox, because they refused to condemn second marriages. And in this place likewise (with submisson to more mature judgements) I conceive that [...] is intended to denote their brutish and unruly sensuality. Thus the Arabick interpreter, and Oecumenius, with sundry others likewise understand it. Thus likewise our learned translators thought, who interpreted the word sensual, as conceiving that Jude intended that they altogether served their sensitive and vegetative soul, and (as beasts) followed their senses, and lived in the lusts of the flesh, not according to the spirit, prosecuting those carnall objects with all industry, which tend to [Page 598]preserve their present life, Ii dicantur animales, qui animae indulgent, et ea quae ad vitam tuendam valent, curiosius sectantur. Gnostici animales sunt, mortalia bona avidè concupiscunt, us (que) adeo ut ecclesiam potius sibi deserē dam putent, quā corporeis voluptatibus careant. Justinian in loc. Praesenti loco congruit ea significatio quâ animales dicuntur qui sectantur eas cupiditates quae sunt secundum animam sensitivam i.e. qui senfibus acsensuum voluptatibus obsequuntur. Estius in loc. and chusing rather to leave the church, then to abridge themselves of any bodily pleasures. And the Apostle by this word, seems to me to make their bruitish sensuality, and propensions, to be the cause of their separation: as if he said, they will not live under the strict discipline where they must be curb'd and restrain'd from following their lusts; no, these sensualists will be alone by themselves in companies, where they may have their fill of all sensual pleasures, and where they may gratifie their genius to the utmost. And this exposition of [...] most aptly agrees also to that first interpretation of [...], viz. such who will bee boundlesse, and kept within no limits, or compass [...] but like a company of beasts shut up in a field, who seeing better pasture in that on the other side of the hedge, and desirous also of more scope, break the fence and leap over the barrs that they may both run and raven. The more I think of [...], the more I incline to think the Apostle intends thereby to represent them boundless, extravagant libertines.
Of this their sensuality I have before spoken atla rge on verse 10. and 12.
2. The Apostle represents them, not having the spirit.
The word spirit (not to speak of the many acceptations of the word, when attributed to creatures, to angels, the soul, &c.) when attributed to God, is taken either, 1. [...], essentially, and so God is call'd a spirit, a spiritual essence, Joh. 4.24. and the divine nature of Christ is set forth by the word spirit. 1 Tim. 3.16. 1 Pet. 3.18. Heb. 9.14. Or 2. hypostaticῶs, personally, in which respect it notes the third person in the blessed Trinity: and thus its taken, either, 1. properly for the third person, Matth. 28.19 Joh. 1.32. and 14.26. Eph. 1.13. 1 Thes. 1.6. &c. or 2. improperly and metonymically, for the effects and gifts of the holy spirit, ordinary or extraordinary; in which respect some are said to be anointed with the spirit, to [Page 599]have the spirit on and in them, to be fill'd with the spirit, 1 Cor. 1.4. 2 Cor. 6.6. Gal. 3.2. Gal. 5.17. Luc. 2.25. 4 18. Act. 2.17, 18. Tit. 3.6. Act. 8.16 10.44. Luc. 1.41. Act. 4.8.31.6.3.5.7.55.13.9.52. Rom. 8.1.9. and in this respect these seducers are said not to have the spirit, viz. the saving, working, gifts, graces of the spirit, to teach, act and rule them, to sanctifie and purifie them, &c. which they wanting, it was no wonder that they were sensuall and given over to the sinfull prosecution of all carnall delights and pleasures: not having the spirit, they could not walke in the spirit. Gal. 5.21. not having the spirit to lust in them against the flesh, they must needs be carried away wi [...] the lusts of the flesh, as acting them without contradiction.
For the second, 2 the Apostle seemes to adde this their sensuality and want of the spirit to their separating themselves, not onely to shew that sensuality was the cause of their separation, and the want of the spirit the cause of both; but as if he intended directly to thwart and crosse them in their pretences of having an high and an extraordinary measure of spiritualnesse above others, by their dividing themselves from others, who as these seducers might pretend, were in so low a forme of Christianity, and had so little spiritualnesse that they were not worthy to keep them company; whereas Jude tells these Christians, that these seducers were so far from being more spirituall then others, that they were meere sensualists, and had nothing in them of the spirit at all. For by their boundlesse separation and sensuality, they shewed, that 1. They had not the spirit of wisdome, discerning, and illumination, to discover to them the beauty of that holinesse and truth which was in the wayes of the Saints which they hated and forsook, and to guide and lead them to that happinesse which they should look after for themselves. The spirit is a spirit of truth, of knowledge, Joh. 14.17.15.26. of judgement, Isa. 11.2. Isa. 26.8. The spirit guides into all truth, and is a voice which saith, This is the way: [Page 600]whereas these seducers were led by a fooles-fire into the bogs and precipices of delusion and damnation by a lying spirit, a spirit of errour. 1 Joh. 4.16.
2. They had not the spirit of renovation to change their natures, of sanctification and holinesse to mortifie their lusts: Rom. 1.4. the spirit of God is an holy spirit, a spirit of grace, Zech. 12.10. through the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the flesh, Rom. 8.13. whereas these impure monsters wallowed in all manner of sensuality and uncleannesse, and shewed that they were acted by an uncleane, impure spirit; that they walkt not after the spirit, but the flesh.
3. Rom. 15.30. Gal. 6.1. They had not the spirit of meeknesse, Love [...]ce: these are the fruits of the spirit, Gal. 5.7. the spirit makes us enjoy peace in our selves, and study peace with others, whereas these boutifeus and incendiaries, made rents and schismes in the Church of Christ; by their divisions, they shewed themselves carnall.
4. 2 Cor. 3.17. They had not the spirit of Liberty and activity in the wayes of God; they were without any quickning of the spirit, they were not able to doe any good worke, nor enlivened in any way of holinesse; but slaves and prisoners (even in arctâ custodiâ) to Satan, and their own lusts; the servants of corruption, though they boasted of liberty.
OBSERVATIONS Obs. 1.
1. Commonly sensuality lies at the bottome of sinfull separation and making of Sects. Separate themselves, sensual, &c. 'Tis oft seen that they who divide themselves from the faithfull, either in opinion or practise, aime at loosnesse and libertinisme. Such were the Nicolaitans and the Disciples of Jezabel. Apoc. 2.6.20 who seduced the people of God to commit fornication. Hereticks are seldome without their harlots, Simon Magus had his Helena, Montanus his Maximilla, Donatus his Lucilia, Priscillian his Galla, Pope [Page 601] Sergius his Marozia. Gregory the seventh his Matildis. Alexander the sixth his Lucretia. Leo the tenth his Magdalena. Paul the third his Constantia. Rome, which condemns all the Churches in the world, tolerates stewes, and sets an easie rate upon all the impure practises of luxury, naturall and unnaturall. Non est adulterium apud nos, cum enim unum eundemqspiritum habeamus, unum Corpus sumus. Gastius de exord. Anab. The Anabaptists allow plurality of wives, and some of them have said, that none of their sect can commit adultery with anothers wife (according to the Ad alterum part 1. p. 615.616. &c. etymology of adulterium) for all of their sect (say they) are so knit the one to the other, that they are all one body. John of Leiden had 13. wives, and gave a liberty to every one to marry as many as they pleas'd. Its reported that after the taking of Munster there was not found a maid of 14. yeares that had not been viciated by his followers. Of this before.
2. Its possible for those who are sensuall and without, Obs. 2. Part 1. pag. 309. part 2. p. 130. the spirit, to boast of spiritualnesse. Of this before.
3. Sanctity and sensuality cannot agree together. If a man be sensuall, he hath not the spirit; if he have the spirit, he will not be sensuall. Sowing to the spirit, Obs. 3. and to the flesh, are opposed. Gal. 6.4. The opposition also is remarkable, be not drunk with wine, &c. but be fill'd with the spirit, Eph. 5.18. when sense is gratified, the spirit is opposed Marke the like opposition also, Rom. 8.13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall dye; but if ye through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Rom. 13.14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill it in the lusts thereof: and Gal. 5.17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: these have contrary originalls, the one is from earth, the other from heaven. The motions of sensuall lusts, and the spirit are contrary, one downward, another upward (a man cannot look those contrary wayes at once) Lust, like the womans disease in the Gospel, bowes us down to the earth, the spirit moves to the things above. [Page 602]Like two ballances, if one goe up, the other goes down, they put upon contrary practises. Gal. 5.17. walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the deeds of the flesh, Gal. 5.16. They both endeavour to take up, and each to ingrosse and monopolize the whole man, soul and body: they will neither endure to have their dominion over man parted. They can admit of no accommodation; what ever means or helps advance the one, suppresse and expell the other. The fuel of lust, (worldly excesse) extinguisheth the spirit; the preservatives of the spirit▪ prayer, word, fasting, meditation, are the poysons of lusts. Oh the madnesse then of those who thin [...] to serve these contrary masters! Matth. 6.4. If one be loved, the other must be forsaken. The allowance of any inordinate lust is inconsistent with the spirit. How great should our care be (hence) to take the spirits part against the flesh! 1. by a through hearty inward work of mortification & the plucking up of lust by the roots, not only by snibbing the blade of it. 2. By a holy and watchful moderation in worldly enjoyments (behind which Satan like the Philistines ever lies in ambush when the lust like Delilah is tempting) 3. By diverting thy joyes and pleasure upon heavenly objects: and 4. By labouring for a sanctified improvement of all the stoppages in the way of lust, and Gods breaking down thy bridges in thy march.
They who want the spirit are easily brought over to sensuality. Obs. ult. Vide Part. 2. ver. 10. They had not the spirit, and no wonder if sensual. Natural light is not enough to overcome natural lusts. He who is but a meer man, may soon become a prey to sensuality. Vae soli, woe to him that hath not this spirit to renew him, nay constantly to reside in him, and to act him. Even Saints themselves, when the spirit withdraws and leaves them to themselvs, how sensual have they proved! David, Lot, Samson are proofs. Let thy great care be then to keep the spirit from departing. Psal. 51. 'Twas Davids prayer, take not thy holy spirit from me, Take heed of giving way to sinnes of pleasure, [Page 603]or to sins of deliberation, or to repeated sinnes, or to sins against conscience, or to the sin of pride and presumption of thine own strength; delight not in sinful company. Beware of worldly mindedness, follow the dictates of the spirit, and listen to its first motions. Fruitfully improve the ordinances wherein the spiritdelights to breath.
THe second direction to teach the Christians how to observ the former exhortation to contend for the truth, and to oppose seducers, is building up themselves on their most holy faith; yet so as this and the next direction, are set down as dispositions and meanes to keep themselves in the love of God, mentioned in the next verse. In this the Apostle shews, and we ought to explain thre things.
EXPLICATION.
1. The Builders, or the parties directed. Beloved.
2. Their Foundation, their most holy faith.
3. Their building thereon, in these words, building up your selves on &c.
1. Of the parties here, called Beloved, Part. 1. I have largely spoken before.
2. The Foundation. Their most holy faith.
In this I might inquire,
- 1. What is meant by faith.
- 2. How its call'd your faith.
- 3. How its call'd most holy.
1. Concerning the several acceptations of faith, I have largely spoken Par. 1. p. 117.118. &c. when I handled the Apostolical exhortation of contending for the faith. And here by faithh (as in the forementioned place) I understand the doctrine of faith. For enlargement upon w ch, Vid. ver. 3. and wha [...] about delivering of the faith, I have there said. and reasons why the word is called faith, I refer the Reader to what I have spoken on the forenamed place.
2. This faith is called your faith, and the doctrine of faith was theirs. 1. Because of Ministration, it was delivered to the Saints, and by God given to them, and to others for their sakes.
[Page 604] 2. Because they received it, were moulded into it: it was so delivered to them, that they (as the Apostle speaks) were delivered into it, as it was ministred to them, so it was accepted by them. It was not scorned, rejected, but received, embraced, yea contended for by them. It was effectually theirs, as well as ministerially.
3. Theirs it was in regard of the fruit and benefit of it. It was for theirs the salvation of their souls, 1 Pet. 1.9 It was to them a savour of life, not a sentence of condemnation.
3. 3 Vid. Lorin. in loc. Its called most holy faith.
1. To put a difference between those unholy and fabulous dreames of these seducers, the most impure inventions of the Gnosticks, Jewish fables, &c.
2. Considered in it selfe, and that,
1. In its supream auhtor, and efficient cause, the holy Ghost. It was [...], by divne inspiration, 2 Tim. 3.16.
2. In the Instruments of conveying it, who were holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost. 2 Pet. 1.21.
3. Quanam Paul [...] Epistol [...] non melle dulcior, non lacte candidior. Hierom. In the matter of it, which is altogether holy, every word of God is pure. The threatnings holy, denounced against sin; the precepts holy, and such as put us onely upon holinesse; the comforts and promises holy, parts of a holy covenant, and such as onely comfort in the practice of holinesse, and encourage to holinesse, and are made to holy ones.
4. In the effects of it. It works and exciteth holinesse in nature, heart, life. Its that which being believingly lookt into, makes the beholders holy like it selfe; as the rods of Jacob which layd before the sheep, made them bring forth young ones of the same colour with those rods.
3. 3 Their building on this foundation is contained in these words, building up your selves. Two things are in this branch comprehended. 1. How we are to understand [Page 605]this building up. 2. This building up of themselves. The first is contained in that word [...], and it imports three things. 1. A fitting, and a joyning the building to the foundation. 2. A skilful disposing of the materials and parts of the building. 3. A progressivenesse and proceeding therein, even to perfection, and all these are aptly applicable to that spiritual purpose of our apostle in this place: for by this expression he intends to put them upon labouring for confirmation and stability in their Christian course by sitting fast to the word, the foundation of faith, and as a building which is firmely fixed and immoveably set upon its foundation, stedfastly to abide in and rest upon the truth of the word; that all the winds, and waves and oppositions of seducers may not be able to unsettle and remove them. And this it is, which the Apostle, Col. 2.7. intends by the very same expression [...], built up; in which he exhorts the Christians to stability in Christ and his truth, by being joyned to him as the building is to the foundation; and hence it is that Christ, Matth. 7.24. commended the wisedome of that man, who built his house upon the rock, and ver. 26. blamed the folly of him who built his house upon the sand. He that heareth my words (saith he) and doth them, I will liken him unto a wise man that built his house upon the rock. The firm and unfeined belief of the doctrine of faith is as the resting and depending upon the rock or foundation. Tis true, faith sets us upon Christ as a foundation personall or mediatory, upon whom alone we depend for life and salvation; but faith sets us upon the word as the foundation scriptural or manifestative, or that for the truth of which, and of its discoveries, we believe in and depend upon Christ. And hence it is, that as Christ is in scripture, called a foundation, Eph. 2.10. the chief corner-stone, a stone for a foundation, and besides whom, no other foundation can be layd, 2 Cor. 3.11. So is the word adorned with the same title, Eph. 2.20. where by the [Page 606]foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Mat. 16.18. we are to understand their doctrines; and the way to build upon Christ, is by building upon his word as our foundation: for Christ is not a foundation of happinesse every way that man frames in his own heart; but onely so as God offers him in the word of the Gospel; and Christ makes it all one to build and beleeve on his word as on himselfe. He that refuseth me, and receiveth not my word, Joh. 12.48. And if ye abide in me and my words abide in you. Joh. 5.17. As we rest upon a man by trusting to his word, so we build upon Christ by building on his word, and the word being rooted in our hearts, unites us to Christ.
2. 2 The Apostle by this phrase of building up, puts the Christians upon a right ordering of the materialls and parts of the building: for in the building the materialls are not onely to be laid, but skilfully to be laid upon the foundation: and this comprehends two things. 1. The providing of good materialls. 2. The placing of them fitly.
For the first. In buildings, sundry profitable and usefull materialls are provided, as brasse, Iron, stone timber, lime, lead, glasse &c. and in this spirituall building there must be parcells of all graces, faith, hope, love, knowledge &c. Faith must be those brazen gates to let in Christ into the soule, and to shut out Satan; watchfulnesse and courage must be as the stone-wall to oppose the approaches of our enemies: Patience the dormers bearing the weight of the house, and every burden that may be layd upon it: Love the Cement to bind and knit all together: Knowledge as the windowes to lighten the house; Hope, as the glasse or casements to look out and wait for things beleeved.
2. These must be fi [...]ly placed, and that, 1. So as that all the parcels may be set upon the foundation, Phil. 4.13. all must lean upon Jesus Christ as manifested in scripture: grace of it selfe is but a Creature, and defectible; [Page 607]he can onely continue life and vigor to it: without Christ the greatest and highest graces will but be pondera ad ruinam, and could neither be set up nor kept up: grace will prove but deceitfull, unlesse it stands upon upon the strength of Christ the foundation. 2. All the parts must be disposed, and contrived for the best advantage of, and so as they may be most usefull to the dweller. Every grace must be for God, as it is from him. Who builds an house and doth not expect to be accommodated and benefited by it? 3. There must be a due proportion between part and part, and such a laying out of the one, that there may not be too great an abridgment or hindering of the beauty and largenesse of the other. Christians must have all the parts of holinesse and parcells of grace. There must not be so much alotted for one roome, that nothing be left for another; a Christian must not be all for knowledge, and nothing for Love; all for zeal, and nothing for humility; all for humility nothing for courage. A Christian must neither be maimed, nor monstrous. 4 All the parts must be built according to the line and rule of the word. The tabernacle was according to the patterne in the mount. Exod. 25.40. A Christian must walke and build by rule, entertaine every grace, and performe every duty which is enjoyned, and because 'tis enjoyned: he must not live according to example, but rule.
3. By this expression of building up, the Apostle puts these Christians upon progressivenesse and perfection in the worke of Christianity: he not onely enjoyns every Christian to be busie in building, but by this word (in Composition) [...], he notes a building up till the work be finished, an increasing in building, even to a consummating thereof: this also is intimated by the note of opposition But. (in the connexion) to those who fall off; whereby he would teach the Christians not to give over the worke till they be [Page 608]builded up a perfected building for Christ. Hence it is that Peter (though not in the same words, yet to the same effect) directs the Christians 2 Pet. 3.17. to grow in grace, and 2 Pet. 1.5. to adde grace to grace. Adde to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge &c. and Eph. 4.15. to a growing up in Christ in all things. 'Tis true, building is a slow and leasurely work, a work of time; but yet it must be a progressive and proceeding work: 'tis done by little and little, but yet many littles will bring forth much, and make a beautiful building at length. What more dishonourable, then for a man to begin, Luc. 14.30. and not to be able to finish? the disgrace hereof Christ mentions in the Gospell, no change so unworthy and dishonourable as to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. And not to goe forward in Christianity is to goe backward, and they who build not up, pull down. There's no standing at a stay in this work; the want of a roof, impaires the walls, the leaving of the building imperfect and unfinisht by not adding what is wanting, tends to the ruining of that which is already set up. We lose those things which we have wrought, 2 ep. Joh. 8.
To conclude, this paines and progressivenesse in this worke, Part 1. pag. 158. &c. 163. &c. Part 2. is about a building which is not temporall, and in time to fall down, but spirituall and eternall. Of this at large before.
2. Concerning the second viz. the building up themselves; It may be demanded 1. what is meant by themselves, [...]. 2. How they may be said to be able to build up themselves.
For the first, the word, themselves, added to building up, may import a building up of one another, and intend a mutuall duty, to be put forth and exercised between Christian and Christian; [...]. and thus the Apostle Col. 3.16. useth the word [...]; where he exhorteth them to admonish [...], one another: and Eph. 4.32. to forgive one another: and this mutuall and fraternall [Page 609]helping of one another forward in our Christian progresse, is elsewhere frequently commanded in scripture, Heb. 11.25. exhorting one another, and 1 Thes. 5.11. edifie one another. Christians by their counsells, comforts, exhortations, examples, should advance one anothers spirituall welfare; but though this be a truth, and here not excluded, yet this hinders not but that primarily the Apostle intends that every one should promote his own particular holinesse, and progresse in the faith of the gospel.
2. For the second. It may be doubted how we can build up our selves. Is edification mans worke? Non Libertate gratiam, sed gratiâ Libertatem. Aug. Are we not Gods workmanship? Ans. I grant, spirituall houses cannot build themselves more then any other. Our houses are not naturally houses of God; but made so to our hands. Ʋnlesse the Lord build the house, all labour is vain. And the Apostle points at the builder, when in the next words he bids these Christians pray in the holy Ghost. But he here writes to the regenerate, who have the spirit, by whom, and whose grace they have spirituall liberty afforded to them, and being drawn they run, and being acted they are active. Gratia acta fit activa. Inward and habituall grace was the sole work of the spirit infusing; that which is practicall is the worke of the regenerate person flowing from infused grace.
2. Though we be Gods workmanship and building, yet he builds by meanes; and by such precepts as these he exhorts us to submit our selves to the meanes, to yield our selves to be hewn, squared, and laid in the building.
OBSERVATIONS. part 1. p. 182. 183. 184. &c. and 219, 220.
For Observations drawn 1. from the title, Beloved, as also 2. from the Apostles expressing the doctrine of faith by the terme faith, see before.
1. From the pleasant and significant metaphor of building. I note, that The faithfull are the house of God. 1. Obs. [Page 610]By this resemblance the Church is not seldome set forth. Heb. 3.2. Moses was faithful in all his house. 1 Tim. 3.15. How to behave thy selfe in the house of God. 2 Tim. 2.20. In a great house there are vessels, &c. Heb. 3.6. Whose house we are, if we hold fast, &c. 1 Pet. 4.17. The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. &c. 1 Cor. 3.9. Ye are his building. 1 Pet. 2.5. Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. And this resemblance of an house aptly belongs to the faithfull, either in respect of
- 1. Christ.
- 2. Themselves.
- 3. God.
1. Christ is the foundation of this house; he was a Corner-stone, Isa. 28.16. on which both the Jews and Gentiles meet, Eph. 2.20. he is called a stone for a foundation, Christ is a foundation 1. in point of sustentation, upon him the faithfull build their hope and expectations; upon him all their grace and holinesse is built, 1 Pet. 2.4. he is a living stone, that sends life and influence into all the stones of the building set upon him; upon him all their Comforts are built; all their rejoycing is in him. Take away Christ, and all their joy fals to the ground; upon him are built all their duties, both in respect of power to performe them; and in respect of acceptation from God when they are performed.
2. Christ is a foundation in respect of union. Between the building and this foundation, this is the ground of sustentation, this union (set out sometime by a matrimonial union, sometime by an union between head and members; sometime by that between root and branches, &c.) is on the part of Christ, Rom. 8 9. 1 Cor. 12.8. Phil. 1.19. by his spirit laying hold on us, and infusing spiritual life into us, and affording to us all supplies of grace. On our part by faith, putting and setting us into him, as also receiving and drawing grace from him
3. Christ is a foundation in point of hiddennesse, the [Page 611]building is seen, the foundation is hidden, he is a hid treasure. 1. His person is not yet seen. When he shall appear, 1 Joh. 3.2. whom having not seen, &c. 1 Pet. 1.8. 2. His benefits and graces are hidden. Our life is an hidden life, hidden not only to the wicked, but even oft to the godly themselves, who behold not their own happinesse either of grace or glory. This life is the obscurity of their adoption, his face is frequently hidden from them, and the tokens of his presence removed.
And for the excellency of this foundation; hee is first the sole foundation. 1 Cor. 3.11. Act. 4.12 No other foundation can bee laid. No other appointed by God. No other ever embraced by saints. No other ever revealed by the word. No other needed beside. No other willing or able to bear the weight of the building. No other was fit to have the honour of our affiance and dependance.
2. He is a strong foundation, so strong that he bears up every stone, every saint of all sizes that ever was or shal be laid upon him, and all their weights and pressures; he bears them up alwayes, so that they shall never fal. They who are built upon this rock are safe, Renatus nunquam denascitur. Matth. 7. as Mount Sion that cannot be moved. The word shall fall, but not a Saint, because Christ fals not. The gates of hell, the floods of temptation shall never totally prevail, Potest aliosquo modo recedere, non penitus excidere. a child of God shall never sinne away all his holinesse, he may sinne, not perish, not sinne to death. Grace may be abated, not abolish't, shaken in, not out of the soul. Of all given to Christ, He hath lost none: his sheep never perish. Joh. 10.29.
2. The Church is an house in respect of Believers, who are the stones of which this house is built up, and these stones are naturally 1, rugged and unpolished, til they be hewen, smooth'd and made fit for the building, Hos. 6.7. the word of God takes away their natural asperity, and makes them fit for the building, and submissive to Gods disposal, and fit for his purpose. 2. These stones are of [Page 612] several sizes, some greater, some lesser. Christians are of divers degrees, some more eminent, some more obscure, some of stronger, others of weaker graces. 3. The stones which are different in their bignesse, are yet cemented and united one to another. As there is an union of faith betwixt the building and the foundation, so there is an union of love between the parts of the building. And hence Eph. 4.16. The whole body is said to be fitly joyned together and compacted. The greatest stone in the building cannot say to the least, it hath no need thereof. The Foundation disdaines not the least pibble, no more should the strongest stone in the building.
3. The Church is an house, He who dweleth every where by his essence, dwels in his church by the presence of his grace. in respect of God. Who,
1. Dwels in this house. He hath two houses. That above, of glory; this below, of grace. God takes more delight in his Church then in all the world. He rests in this house.
2. He furnisheth his house with all necessaries, yea ornaments, his ordinances, graces, &c.
3. He protects his house, he that destroyeth the temple of God, him will God destroy. His enemies shall answer for dilapidations, for every breach they have made.
4. He repaires his house, and when his enemies have broken it, he restores it, and makes up its breaches, it shal never utterly be destroyed.
5. He purgeth and cleanseth his house; disorders & abuses are too ready to creep into it, it oft wants reformation. Amos. 3.2. Judgment begins at the house of God. You have I known of all the families of the earth, and therefore I will punish you. Man regards not much what lies in his field, but he is curious that nothing offensive be laid in his house. Judgements begin at the sanctuary. Sinnes in the Church are most heinous. Christians are so much worse then others, by how much they should be better. The meditation of this resemblance should therefore put us upon tryal and strengthning of our union to Christ our foundation; upon dependency on, and trusting to him. It serves also to strengthen the love, neernesse, and dearnesse of believers. [Page 613]living stones, to make us dedicate our selves to the Lord, as his house and temple, to offer up the daily sacrifice of prayer and prayse, to him, to tell Satan and lust, whensoever they sue for a roome in our house, that every roome is taken up for God, that his enemy must not be be let in. We are the temple of God, on let us not make our selves a temple of idol, by covetousnesse, or a stewes by uncleanenesse, or a taphouse by drunkennesse, or a stye by any swinish lusts. To conclude this, labour for the costly furniture of holinesse for thy house, use the perfume of prayer, the washing of godly sorrow, give the Lord costly intertainment. Repaire all thy breaches by repentance. Run not too long to ruine. Patiently bear the Lords visitation and the meanes he useth to mend and cleanse thee. And lastly, depend upon him for care and protection in all dangers.
2. The word of God is the foundation of a Christian. Obs. 2. (Build your selves on your faith) Its a foundation to bear a Saint out in all his duties, comforts, beleef of truths. 1. All our duties, services must be built upon a word. That which will not stand with the word, must be no part of the building: the word must be the foundation of practice; he that walks by this rule, Gal. 6.16. peace shall be upon him. 'Tis not the shewing of any warrant of man that will bear thee harmelesse at the day of judgment. 2. The word is the foundation of a Christians comfort, no promises but scripture promises but may deceive. No other promises can bear the weight of an afflicted soule: Ʋnlesse thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction. Ps. 119.92. Absque Scriptura claudicat cogitatio. Thy statutes were my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Psal. 119.54. 3. But especially the word is the foundation of a Christians beleefe of truths asserted, we can onely securely assent to the assertions of the word. That which I read not I beleeve not. A written word is the only food of faith, the formall object of [Page 614]faith is the truth manifested in scripture, every truth hath an esse credibilis, Baron. contr. Turnbullum. Deus verax & manifestans. Faith is [...]. Deut. 17.18. because it was delivered in the written word, and spoken by God. Faith is carried to its object under the notion of infallibility, which can never be without divine revelation; all humane testimony being fallible, though not false; and hence it is that the revelation of God in his word is onely propounded by God as a foundation of faith, Joh. 20.31. These things are written, that ye might beleeve. 2 Pet. 1.19. We have a more sure word of prophesie, whereunto ye doe well to take heed. So 1 Joh. 5.13. These things have I written to you, that ye beleeve on the name of the Son of God. Isa. 8.20. To the Law and the Testimony. Joh. 5.39. Search the scriptures, for in them ye think to have eternall life. And this word of God hath onely been embraced by the faithfull in all ages as the foundation of their faith. When ever they would prove any thing to be beleeved, they have gone to the written word for a foundation of beleefe. Thus the noble Bereans, Act. 17.11. who searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. Thus Paul. (Act. 13.33. 1 Cor. 2.9. 1 Cor. 15.54. Rom. 14.11.) grounded what he wrote upon scripture and Act. 24 14. professed, that he beleeved all things written in the Law and the Prophets: and Act. 26.22. that he said no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come. So that the doctrine of faith revealed in the scripture, must be the foundation to bear us up, and out in all duties to be performed, Comforts to be entertained, Truths to be embraced. And hence, as we may see the misery of those who have no foundation at all, holding their religion onely for forme, fashion, example, fear of superiours, which sandy bottomes will never keep them up from sin, nor bear them out in sufferings; especially death and and judgment; so we should labour to improve the doctrine of faith as our foundation in all the forementioned respects.
[Page 615] 1. By having a deep sence and feeling of our misery, so that not finding in our selves whereon to found our selves, wee may be driven to look after the foundation discovered in the scripture, which is onely Jesus Christ.
2. By faith, whereby we give a supernatural assent to the word, and spiritually discern the truth thereof, whereby, likewise we apply the word to our selves, and are knit unto it as a foundation▪ as mingling it with faith. Although the doctrine of faith be a foundation in it selfe, yet it is not so to us, unlesse we believe it, and apply it to our selves by the gift of faith.
3 By labouring that the word may take so deep a root in the heart, that it may descend into the affections, and there be embraced until it hath wrought an experience of its owne delightful sweetnesse.
4. By several needful considerations. 1. By considering that it never failed any that ever depended upon it, it having in all practises, distresses, debates, upheld them. The publick faith of heaven was never broken, the promises, commands and assertions of the word have born Saints out in all difficulties. 2. By considering that every other foundation will fail, whether fancied by our selves or suggested by others, tis but a lying vanity. 3. By studying the nature of him whose word it is, who is the rock of ages, in whom is no shadow of change, for whom it is impossible to lye to us, or deny himselfe.
Sundry Observations which might have been concerning stedfastnesse and proceeding in Christianity, and the usefulnesse of a constant progresse therein to keep us from seduction (the best way for Christians not to bee losers of what they have, is to be labourers for what they want) I shall not mention, as having larg [...]ly insisted thereupon before. Part. 1. p. 174. 175. Part. 2. p. 328. &c. 355. &c. 370. &c.
Thus of the second direction, whereby the Apostles teacheth the Christians to embrace the fore-going exhortation of contending for the faith. viz. Edification [Page 616] on the faith, The third follows, viz. praying in the holy Ghost, whereby he instructs them (withal) how to build prosperously, viz. by taking in Gods help, and how to to keep themselves in the love of God, which is the direction next ensuing.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here to be opened.
1. The thing to be performed, Prayer.
2. The manner of performing it, in the holy Ghost.
1. The thing to be done, or what he commands: Prayer, Praying.
I shall not here handle the duty of prayer in a common-place-way, [...]. by insisting either upon the sundry sorts of prayer, Petition for good things, Deprecation to remove evil things, Intercession for others, Imprecation against others, Thanksgiving for our selves or others: or upon the Circumstances of prayers, for time, place, measure: onely as to the former, I shall note, that when this word prayer is set alone, as it is here in Jude, it compriseth all the kinds under it; when it is joyned with thanksgiving alone, it compriseth all kindes belonging to request; when [...]t is joyned with deprecation or intercession, it is restrained to a desire of good things for our selves. But as to the present occasion, I shall only shew what prayer is in regard of its generall nature.
The word in the original here used [...] praying, imports an earnest wishing or craving of such things which are according to our desire, because by prayer we open our hearts desire to God. There are sundry rhetorical, breif, commendatory descriptions used by learned men to set forth prayer; as, The key of heaven, and of all Gods Cabinets, the Conduit of mercy, Dr. Sibbs. Oratio cararum hirud [...]. faith flaming, Jacobs ladder, an invisible and invincible weapon, a victory over the omnipotent, the consumption of cares, a box of ointment broke upon the head of Christ, the perfume of heaven, the mount of transfiguration, the soules messenger, Satans [Page 617]scourge. The ascending of the mind to God. [...]. To wave these, though sweet and pious expressions, prayer is more fitly call'd (according to the nature and import of the word [...], a right opening of the desire of the heart to God; or (as the Apostle Phil 4.6.) [...], Damasc. de orthod. fid. l. 3. c. 24. a making known of our desires to him; or (as some) a religious speech directed to God after a due sort, concerning things appertaining to his glory and our good.
1. First, the will is fill'd in prayer with desires, and then these desires flame forth, blaze upward, and are opened to God. Formally, prayer is an act of the will, and hath its Conception in the heart as in its womb: and
2. Then its birth is the expression of our desires, how ever uttered. And these desires are expressed sundry wayes, either by an inward or an outward word, there being a twofold speech, the first [...], and [...], a speech uttered with the voice; the second [...], and [...], a speech conceived in the minde: 1. [...]2. [...]1. Vocalis. 2. Mentalis. prayer is not the outward voice onely or chiefly, but the inward of the soule. Sighs are articulate. Exod. 14.15. Moses is said to cry to God, when we read not of his uttering any words: and 1 Sam. 1.13. Hannah spake in her heart, but her voice was not heard; her prayer was oratio mentalis, Non vox sed votum, non musica cordula sed Cor, Non clamans sed amans clangit in aure Dei. Psal. 142.2. 2 Tim. 2.22. Psal. 119.7. an inward mentall prayer, and this is the strongest voice of all, and by it we speak loudest in the ears of God. Hence prayer is call'd the lifting of the heart to God. Ps. 25.1. and the pouring forth of the soule before the Lord, Psal. 62.8. 1 Sam. 1.15. As for that prayer which is onely the outward speech of the mouth, without the inward of the heart, it is rather lip-labour then prayer. Desires are usually made known by outward meanes, words, signes; words doe most exactly set forth the intent of the heart; yet signes also, as lifting up the hands or eyes, stretching abroad the armes, bowing the knees, doe both expresse and excite inward affection. But by inward meanes, as sighes and groans, [Page 616] [...] [Page 617] [...] [Page 618]God discerneth a mans desires, as well as by words and signes, he understanding the motions of the heart as well as of the tongue. And hence it is that God knowing the secrets of the heart, and understanding our thoughts afar off, prayer is not made, to make known our desires to God, as if otherwise God would be ignorant of them, but to testifie mans obedience to that order which God hath set down, God appointing prayer in this way a meanes to obtaine needfull blessings: & that very wisely, as 1. That by making known of our wants to God, we may not only know, but acknowledg God to be the author and fountain of all blessings, and so upon the receiving thereof ascribe the praise to God. 2. That it may appear we understand our own desires, and have sense of the thing we want. 3. That others may mutually joyne with us in prayer. 4. That our affections may be the more enlarged: for as desires help us to words, so words inflame our desires. 5. To prevent distraction and interruption in our thoughts.
3. Psal. 38.9. Mat. 4.10. Prayer is made to God onely. It is a principal point of divine service. 1. God onely is religiously to be worshipt and served. 2. God onely knowes whether we pray or no, Jer. 23.23. i. e. from the heart. 3. God onely is every where present to hear the suits of all. 4. God onely is almighty and able to grant whatsoever we ask.
4. In prayer, as the desires must be made known to God, so after a due manner: but of that in the next part, In the holy Ghost.
The manner, of performing this duty, is in the holy ghost, [...].
There is in scriptures sometime mention made of praying in the spirit of man, as 1 Cor. 14.15. I will pray [...], with the spirit, or in the spirit, i. e. (say some) may understanding and my heart or soule, so as I may both understand, and also be affected with what I pray. And Eph. 6.18. The Apostle injoynes praying in the spirit, which may be understood either of [Page 619]Gods spirit or mans: but in this place, particular and express mention is made of the holy spirit, or the spirit of God, in which we are to pray; whereby is meant by the assistance, motion, inspiration, strength, help and guiding of the Spirit; for (as this sense agrees with the preposition [...], here translated in, which is in scripture oft of the same signification with [...], by, as Matth. 5.34, 35. swear, &c. neither, [...], by heaven, nor [...], [...]. by the earth, nor [...], by the head; and 2 Cor. 6.6, 7. it is eight times thus taken) so is it most sutable to other places of scripture, where the spirit of God is mentioned with prayer, as Zec. 12.13. where is promised the spirit of supplication, that is, the spirit as giving, bestowing and working the gift and grace of prayer, (as 2 Cor. 4.13. we read of the spirit of faith, i.e. the spirit working faith,) and Rom 8.15. we read of the spirit ( [...]) by which we cry Abba Father. Jam. 5.16. we find mentioned [...], which properly signifieth a prayer wrought in us, and excited, and so imports the efficacy and influence of the holy Ghost in enabling us to pray. And the Apostle Rom. 8.26. most fully expresseth this truth. 1. Affirmatively, the spirit helpeth our infirmities; and maketh intercession for us. 2. Negatively, saying, we know not what to pray. Whence it is cleare, not that the spirit of God doth truly and properly pray for us, as our high Priest and Mediator, or as one of us, for another, (the attributing of the office of Mediatour to the holy Ghost was one of Arius his heresies) for then should there bee more than one Mediatour, 1 Tim. 2.5. and God should request to God (the holy Ghost being God, but not man also as was Christ,) but that the spirit of God stirreth us up to pray, quickneth and putteth life into our dead and dull spirits, yea and infuseth into us such desires, sighs and grones, and suggesteth unto us such words as are acceptable to God, which for their truth and sincerity for their vehemency and ardency, for their power and efficcacy [Page 620] are unutterable, they pierce through the heavens, and enter un to the throne of grace, and there make a loud cry in the ears of God. More particularly, from these expressions of both these Apostles, Paul & Jude, we may consider, wherein this assistance of the holy Ghost, or this praying by the holy Ghost stands and consists; And that is, 1. In respect of the matter. 2. Of the manner of our prayer.
1. In respect of the matter of our prayer. We pray in the holy Ghost, as he instructs and teaches us to ask such things as are according to the will of God, [...]. Rom. 8.27. 1 Job. 5.14, lawfull and good things. The Spirit of God stirs us not up to desire what his word forbids us to desire. We know not what is good for our selves, and God hath oft heard us by denying us. Though when we ask bread, our Father he gives us not a stone, yet when we ask a stone God hath oft given us bread. The thing asked (if by the Spirit) is warrantable; the Spirit put us upon asking (especially) spiritual blessings, as our lusts upon craving things which are their fuel. The spirit of wisedome desires not its owne poyson.
2. We pray in the holy Ghost in respect of the manner of our praying. And that 1. As it enables us to pray sincerely and heartily. Gods Spirit is a spirit of truth. And whensoever wee pray in his spirit, wee pray likewise in our owne, and his stirs up ours to pray. The prayer of a Saint goeth not out of fained lips. The spirit lifts up the hand and the heart together. Psal. 25.1.86.4. Lam. 3.41.
2. As it enables us to pray with fervency. The motions of the Spirit, as they are regular in regard of the object, so vehement in regard of the manner. Rom. 8.26. Its groanes are such as cannot be uttered. The symboles of the spirit were fiery tongues, Act. 2.2.3. and a mighty rushing wind. As a bullet flyeth no further then the force of the powder carryeth it, so prayer goeth no further then the fervour of the Spirit driveth it. Prayer is called a knocking, a seeking, and figured by wrestling. Gen. 32.26. Hos. 12.4. Nay call'd a wrestling. Rom. 15.30. The importunity required in [Page 621]prayer is called [...], impudence, Luke 11.8. [...] cognationem habet cum verbo [...] quod significat attendere, intendere, animum (que) advertere. Oratio attentè fundi debet. sluggish prayers are no spiritual prayers. The device of shooting a letter at the end of a dart (used as I have sometimes heard in sieges) is a fit embleme of a soul sending its Epistle to heaven. As the Spirit wrought vehemently in those holy men who were [...], and [...], moved by the holy Ghost to speak the word of God to men, so it works fervently in those who are to speak in prayer to God. David mentions the setting forth of his prayer as incense. and incense burnt before it ascended: there must be fired affections, before out prayers will go up. The Tribes, Acts 26.27. are said to serve God [...], which signifieth a stretching forth themselves with all their might.
3. As it enables us to pray in faith, 2 Cor. 3.14. Spiritus vicarius Christi. the spirit is called the spirit of faith, and the spirit of Christ; as its sent from him, so it sends us to him. The spirit so intercedes in us on earth, for the operation and framing of our prayers, that it sends us to him who intercedes for us in heaven, for the acceptation of our prayers; through Christ we have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father. Eph. 2.18. And hence the Spirit enables us to pray in faith, nothing wavering, Jam. 1.6. in confidence that through the faith of him, our prayers shall bee successefull, in such a way as our gracious father in Christ sees best for us. This is called the full assurance of faith, Heb. 10 22. and a praying without doubting, 1 Tim. 2.8. faith applying the promise, Joh. 14.13. & 16.23. whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name, he will give it you.
4. As it enables us to pray in holinesse, with pure hearts, and hands. He is a Spirit of holinesse, his office is to make us holy, & wheresoever he witnesseth, he washeth. If he be a spirit of faith to strengthen our confidence in Christ, hee is a spirit of holinesse to cause our conformity to Christ; hence the spirit of grace is mentioned with the spirit of supplication. As the spirit makes us come boldly before the throne of grace; So he makes [Page 622]us come purely before it too, as being a throne of glory. If I regard iniquity in my heart (saith David) the Lord will not hear my prayer, Psal. 66.18. I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compasse thine altar. This legall washing is Evangelically improved. 1 Tim. 2.8. Lifting up holy hands, and Heb. 10 22.
5. Lastly, as it is enables to pray in love. The spirit of love (for so he is called 2 Tim. 1.17.) never in prayer witnesseth Gods love to us, unlesse hee drawes ours to him, nay for his sake to others. He never makes us lift up hands without doubting, unlesse also without wrath. 1 Tim. 2.8. and when hee makes us at peace with our selves, Matth, 5.24. hee makes us peaceable to others.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Without the spirit there's no praying. They who are totally destitute of the spirit, in their natural condition, can no more pray in faith then a dead man can crave help of another. They may have the gift of prayer, not (in that state) the grace of prayer, All naturall men are in this respect [...], brute and mute. we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves. The wicked call not upon God. There's no naturall man but is spiritually deaf and dumb. If a man have not the spirit of grace, hee must needs be destitute of the spirit of supplication. He is a meer stranger to those prayer-graces, faith, fervency, holinesse, love. &c. Hee derides at prayer, I mean prayer by the spirit: the wicked they howl upon their beds, not pray in the spirit; they may say a prayer, not pray a prayer, as it said of Elijah who prayed in prayer, [...], Jam. 5.16. they doe but make a lowd noyse like a wind-instrument. They are but like Balaam, into whose mouth God put a word, without any heat of love or zeal in his soul. But why speak I of natural men? when as without the acting of the spirit in our very regenerate estate, all our abilities to pray are presently gone: as a wheel which is turned about with an hand, if the hand be taken away, the [Page 623]wheele will soon stand still. Its necessary that unto the first grace, following grace be added; man after he is regenerate, still needeth the present, effectuall, conetinuall work of the spirit. Preventing grace is not effectuall, unlesse helped with a supply of second grace. 'Tis true even of the regenerate, without me, ye can doe nothing; God giveth first the will, and then the deed, and continuance of doing that which is truly good. Grace must be every way grace, else it will be no grace at all. He that hath begun a good work in us, must also perfect it. Phil. 1.6. Oh how heavily do even saints draw and drive, when they have sin'd away the spirit of prayer! When saints have yielded to sin, they are like a bird whose wings are besmear'd with birdlime, they cannot flye up to heaven. How lamely and miserably (I have sometime thought) did David pray upon his murder and adultery! The fire which consumed the burnt-offering came out from the Lord. Lev. 9.24.
2. 2. Obs. How excellent and honourable a worke is that of prayer! The whole Trinity hath a worke in this holy exercise; the holy ghost frameth our requests; The Son offereth them up to his Father; Rev. 8.3. with his incense the prayers of the Saints are offered, he prayes them (as it were) over againe; and the Father accepteth these prayers thus framed and offered up.
3. As without the Spirit there is no prayer, 3. Obs. so without prayer a man evidently shewes himselfe to have nothing of the spirit. Wherever the Spirit is, there will be praying in the spirit: if the Spirit live in us, 'twill breath in us. God never (yet) had, nor ever will have a dumb Child. They who are the Lords, will name him. 1 Tim. 2.19. They who are saints, call upon Christ. 1 Cor. 1.2. Breathing is a true property of life. As soon as ever Paul was converted, he prayed, Act. 9.11.
4. Obs. 4. Needs must the prayers of the saints be acceptable They are by the holy Ghost, his very grones, and by him [Page 624]our spirits are made to grone. Oratio longius vulnerat quam sagitta. Exod. 17.11. Prayer prevaileth not onely over Creatures, but even the very Creator himselfe. One faithfull mans prayer is more forcible then a whole army. There is a shadow of omnipotency in prayer. It was said of Luther, he could do what he would. Needs must that petition be granted, which the framer receives. The Lord cannot more be out of love with prayer, then with his own will. Prayer is but a kinde of Counterpane or reflexion of Gods own pleasure.
5. Obs. 5. How good is God to his poore saints! He not onely grants their prayers, but makes their prayers. God doth not onely provide a gift, but an hand also to take it with; not a feast onely, but a stomack; both grace for the desire, and the very grace of desire. Oh how sweet also are the Conditions of the Covenant of grace! God bids us pray, and helps us to pray; Commands us duty, and enables to performe it, gives worke, wages, and strength.
6. Obs. 6. Its our greatest wisdome to get and keep the Spirit. If either we never had it, or lose it, we cannot pray. 1. 'Tis gotten in the ministery of the gospel. The Spirit is peculiar to the Gospel, and not belonging to the law, if considered alone by it selfe as a distinct Covenant; for so it gendereth onely to bondage. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith. q d. ye receved the spirit by hearing the gospel. 2 Cor. 3.8. The gospel is call'd the ministration of the Spirit.
2. 'Tis kept by following his motions, and suggestions. Make much of his presence; the Spirit is a delicate thing: grieve him not by negligence in using his gifts, pride, Eph. 4.30. eagernesse after the world, sensualitie, ungodly company, premeditated, repeated sins, &c. If the Spirit be gone, thy best friend is gone. 'Twas Davids prayer, Take not thy holy spirit from me. Without the spirit, thou art like lockless Samson, as another man: poor, weak Samson, when the Lord was departed! thou art like a ship winde-bound. No stirring without the spirits [Page 625]gales. Lord, what were my life if I could not pray! it would even be my burden; and how can I pray without thy spirit? As a man cannot preach without externall mission so not pray without internall motion.
7. How happy are saints in all straits! Obs. Ʋlt. they have the spirit to help them pray. Ther's nothing but sin can drive or keep away the spirit. Sufferings, prisons, banishments, &c. cannot: and hast thou the spirit, 'tis better, like Jonah, to be praying in a Whales belly, then without the Spirit, to be devout in a gilded chappel. Suppose thy friends cannot, will not visit thee, the Spirit is a guest that cannot be excluded. Like Joseph, he delights to manifest himselfe to his, when all are gone out. Holy Mr. Dod was wont to say, never despair of him who can but pray. Suppose men cut out thy tongue, or stop thy mouth, they cannot hinder thee from praying in the Spirit, because not the Spirit from praying in thee.
THe fourth direction whereby the Apostle guides them to observe his exhortion to contend for the Faith against seducers and seduction, is contain'd in these words. Keep your selves in the Love of God. A very apt and sutable mean and course for the foresaid end and purpose; for he that will be a friend to God, can never be in love with errour, which drawes the soul away from God and his truth.
Two particulars are here in this direction contained.
1. That thing about which the Christians were to be employed, or the object, The love of God.
2. How they were to be imploy'd about it, viz. By keeping themselves therein. Ther's the act.
EXPLICATION.
So that by way of Explication two things may be enquired after.
- 1. What the Apostle intends by the love of God.
- 2. What by keeping themselves therein.
1. For the first, by the love of God, I here understand not that love whereby God loveth man, but that whereby man loveth God, resteth in him, and cleaveth to him as the most absolute good; of this both in respect of its severall kindes and properties, as also in severall Observations I have very largely spoken in my first part. Page. 124.136 148. &c. To avoid tediousnesse and repetition, I shall refer to that place.
2. For the second, by keeping themselves in this Love, I understand perseverance in the loving of God, or a preserving of the love of God in their hearts, from all those things whereby they might be enticed to let it goe and part with it: and this preservation or keeping thereof stands in using those meanes which God hath ordained to preserve in us our Love toward him; which is done by sundry
- 1. Considerations.
- 2. Pactises.
- 1. Of Gods
Lovelinesse and soule-ravishing perfections, and his blessed sutablenesse to our soules exigencies:
Part 1. pag. 152.when we know him to be a full good, as having all the scattered Excellencies of all the world and all the persons and things therein, in himselfe, and infinitely more; a filling good, and able to satisfie our desires to the brim.
- 2. By considering that he
loves us, loved us first, and perseveres and
rests in his love. The more we walke in this sun, the hotter we shall be; nay were our hearts as cold as stones,
Zeph. 3▪ 17.the sunshine of his love upon us should heat us with love toward him againe. Of this at large before part 1. pag. 152.153.
- [Page 627] 3. That every one of us keeps up a love to something; the poorest of us hath a love, and if not for God, for that which is infinitely below him, yea which is unworthy of us.
- 4. That we have nothing besides love to give him.
- 5. That he accepts of it, in stead of all other things, seeks it, bespeaks it, Deut. 10.40.
- 6. That we alway professe we love him, and have chosen him. Josh. 24.12.
- 7. That its a greater dishonour to him, to cease to love him, then never to have begun to love him at all.
- 8. That the keeping of our selves in his love, is the true keeping of love to our selves. Deut. 5.19. We are the gainers by loving him; we forsaking his love and our own mercy at once.
2. By practises. As 1. By keeping our selves in a constant hatred of all sin. As love to sin growes, love to God will decay. These are as two buckets, as the one comes up, the other goes down. 2. By keeping our selves in the delight of Gods friends, and favourers, who will ever be speaking well of him, and by taking heed of those misrepresentations that sinners make of him and his wayes. 3. By keeping our selves in the delight of the ordinances, wherein his glory and beauty are display'd, and Communion with himselfe is enjoyed, and our love is increas'd by these in exercising it. 4. By endeavouring for an holy remissenesse in loving other things: when we love the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it. A soul weaned from these brests, will onely feed upon Communion with, and the enjoyments of God. 1 Joh. 2.15. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. No outward object should be further beloved then as it is either a pledge of Gods love to us, or an incitement of ours to him: in short, nothing should be loved much, but onely he whom we cannot love too much 5. Lastly, by keeping up and increasing of Brotherly love among our [Page 628]selves; for though the love of God be the cause which makes us love our brethren, yet the love of our brethren is not onely a signe, but an excellent preservative of our loving of God. In every saint we may see Gods image, he is Gods best picture, now though the love of a man makes us love his picture: yet the often delightfull looking upon his picture, continues and inflames our love toward him; the fire of love to God will be extinguisht, in an heart cold and frozen to the saints; our love to God and the godly grow and decay together; the Sun on the dyal moves though not so swiftly, yet according to the proportion of its motion in the heavens: and so though our love to God be more swift and intense, then that to the saints; yet this is proportion'd to that; without love to a brother we can have no assurance of Gods love to us, nor any continuance of our love to God. He who hath not the love of a brother toward saints, cannot have the love of a son toward God.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. 1. Obs. We are very ready to decay and grow remisse in our love to God. Keep your selves (saith Jude.) The word [...] keep, notes such a keeping as wherewith we keep a prisoner, our gadding hearts should be kept with all diligence. Its hard to get, and not easie to keep up our spirituall fervour. The love of most growes cold; water growes cold of it selfe, but it gets heat from the fire, we grow remisse of our selves; fervent from the Spirit. When we goe from prayer, Sacraments, hearing, though our hearts have been warmed, yet upon our going into our worldly employments, we are ready soon to fall into a spirituall chilnesse, as those whose heat having come outward, going into the sharp aire, are very ready to catch cold. A tender person had need to take heed of leaving off any cloathes, and our hearts upon leaving off of duty, are subject to [Page 629]abate in the heat of their affections. God complaines of those who had lost their first love. Our hearts are like green wood, wherein fire cannot be kept without continuall blowing; Grace of it selfe is desectible, Rev. 2.4. and without constant supplies of the Spirit, it would soon come to nothing. It is onely kept by the power of God. Parents will not trust their little children to have their money in their own keeping. How had we need beg of God, to keep this Jewell of love for us, and to preserve it from being stolne from us!
2. The lest things should be most carefully kept. Obs. 2. Spiritualls are onely worth the keeping; and indeed onely can be kept. Men cannot alwayes either keep the world, or their love to it. Judas threw away his 30. pieces, and his love to them at the same time. There wil come a time when as we shal say, Eccles. 12.1. we have no pleasure in these things. 'Tis good sometimes in a way of duty to part with these things; for to be sure, wee shall part with them in a way of necessity. How poore is that man, who hath no better a treasure then that which is at the courtesie of the theif and moth! Oh how great is their folly who will keep every thing but that which deserves their care: to lay up trash and pibbles under lock and key, and to lay their gold and Jewels abroad in the streets! If thou canst keep thy God, thy love, be not troubled though thou partest with thy gold.
3. Further, How great, how full a good is God! Obs. 3. Even when we have him, and have had him never so long, he hath enough within him to draw forth fresh and fresh loves toward him. The more we love him, the more we should love him. The glorious saints in heaven sing a new song, because it is a song of love. It is new to them, and sweet, though they have been singing it so many thousands of years. We soon grow weary of our worldly toys after we have had them a while. As they are withering objects, so our delight in [Page 630]them is a withering delight; they are fulsome, rather then delightfull and filling. 'Tis true prophane Esau said, I have enough; and a saint saith. I have enough; but with as much difference are both these enoughs, as when one man saith, I have enough by taking a little fulsome Physick, and a thirsty man saith, I have enough, by drinking a sufficient draught of thirst-satisfying water. Before worldly enjoyments are had, they seeme beautifull, but when they are once obtain'd, they soone clog the soule. Here is the excellency of spiritualls, they sweetly fill and satisfie, and yet at the same time we ever desire and hunger for more.
4. Obs. Ʋlt. The preserving of our love to God is an excellent preservative against Sectaries and false teachers. He who loves God, will feare to break the unity and peace of the Church, Eph. 4.15. also he will [...], follow the truth in love. Errour comes from mens affection; a cold corrupt suming, vapouring stomack makes an aking head. A corrupt cold heart which wants the heat of love to God, makes an erroneous head. And besides, God hath bound himselfe to keep them from errour and folly who love him. If a man love and keep the commands and will of God, he shall know his will. God never leaves them that will not leave him first. A man will not forsake a friend, a lover. Sweet and sutable is that expression, Psal. 91.14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: and Psal. 145.20. Psal. 119.132. The Lord preserveth all them that love him. Be mercifull unto me (saith David) as thou usest to doe to them that love thee. Though heresies and false teachers come, yet these (as Paul speaks 1 Cor. 11.19.) shall but make those which are approved to be manifest. They shall discover true love to God, not destroy it. And fidelity will be the more apparent (like that of loyall subjects in times of sedition) in the treachery of others. To conclude, this love is a brest-plate (as the Apostle calls it, 1 Thes. 5.8.) to repell all [Page 631]the darts of errour. Oh then what need have we to goe abroad with this brest-plate, in these times wherein these deadly arrows flye so thick! And consider here the true cause that so many are wounded with them. Christians want their brest-plate, their hearts are not kept, nor their love preserved for God.
The last direction which our Apostle prescribes, is conteined in these words. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. An excellent and sutable direction! The expectation of a reward in heaven, countervails and sweetens all their labour and faithfulnesse in opposing the enemies of truth upon earth; and withall keeps up their love to God, who commands their resisting of errour and seduction.
Two things are here principally contained. 1. A duty. The looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ: where he sets down, 1. What was to be regarded; the mercy of Christ. 2. How it was to be regarded; by looking for it. 2 An enducement encouraging to the performance of that duty; Eternal life.
EXPLICATION.
In the first branch, two things are to bee explained,
- 1. What the Apostle means,
- 1. By mercy.
- 2. The mercy of Christ.
- 2. What by Looking for it.
For the first, mercy. Gr. [...]. I have very largely discoursed thereof Part. 1. pag. 92. on those words, Mercy to you. To avoid needlesse repetition, I only say, that mercy as attributed to man is such a sympathy or compassion of heart as enclines us to relieve the miserable.
But as attributed to God, and Christ (in glory, as here) it notes either, 1. A gracious disposition or inclination to help and succour us in our distresses. De Na. Dei. l. 4. c. 4. q 1, As for sympathy and compassion, they are not (as learned Zanchy [Page 632]observes) essentiall to mercy in selfe, but accidentall to it, in regard of our present state.) 2. The effects and expressions of mercy, or the actual helping of us out of our distresses; and so God is said to have mercy on us, and shew mercy to us.
Now these effects of mercy, are either common or special. Common, such as are afforded to all men and creatures. Psal. 147.9. Luke 6.36. &c. Special, bestowed upon the elect; who are the vessels of mercy, and who onely have the inward effects of mercy, in preventing and following grace; the outward, in justifying and glorifying mercy bestowed upon them. And thus mercy is principally to be taken in this place, and that peculiarly for those gracious expressions and discoveries of mercy, w ch shall be shewn toward the faithful in acquitting and delivering them at Christs second coming, or coming to judgment. And this is called mercy in scripture, 2 Tim. 1.18. where the Apostle speaking of Onesiphorus, prayes that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And deservedly its so called. For,
1. It comes from the purpose and intention of free favour and good will. Joh. 6.39. This is the Fathers will that hath sent me, that I should lose nothing, &c. Luk. 12.32. Fear not little flock, it is your fathers good will to give you the kingdome. The means and the end, the bestowing of grace and glory, are both referred to the Fathers pleasure Election to this state was from free grace. And in that regard the Elect are called vessels of mercy.
2. In it there are the greatest effects and discoveries of mercy. A removal of all bad, sin, sorrow, tears, temptations; outward, inward, eternal evils. Woes from our selves, other men, devils, God himselfe. A confluence of all good, of perfect grace in the soul, glory on the body and soule. By it we enter into the vision and fruition of the cheifest good, a supply of all exigencies. A fulnesse of joy, Rivers, nay a fountain of pleasures. In one word, in this respect, 'tis not so much a mercy, one mercy, [Page 633]as a bundle of mercies, and the perfection and consummation of them all. Its call'd by the Apostle [...], the mercy, that mercy, by way of excellency. God here had much mercy in his heart, but his hands will be full of mercy at the coming of Christ.
3. Its mercy in respect its bestow'd upon the miserable. Indeed the saints are vessels of mercy, and in comparison of the reprobate, happy in this life; but yet in comparison of the glorified they are miserable, and that in respect of the remainders of sin in the soule, the frequent eclipses of Gods lightsome and loving countenance, tentations from devils, opposition and persecution from a cruel and unkinde world; they are here in a valley of teares, surrounded with shame, sicknesses, paines, losses, deaths. Their eyes run down with rivers of teares, they are men of sorrow, yea sorrow is not only their condition but their duty: but sorrow and sighing shall flee away, Luc. 17.7. [...]. Arist. pol. 1. [...].4. Rom. 8.17. Gal. 4.7. Rom. 11.35. 1 Cor. 4.7. Phil. 2.13. Bonum opus in quantum est naturae, est impuratum; in quantum gratiae, non est nostrum. [...]. Basil in Psal. 14. and all teares shall be wiped from their eyes, when this mercy comes.
4. Its mercy because bestowd upon those who could not merit and deserve it. Rom. 6.23. Eternall life is the gift of God. It could never be deserved by doing nor suffering. The best men are unprofitable servants. Al our good is either ipse, aut ab ipso, either God or from God; all we doe is due debt, all we receive is from free grace. Our very sufferings are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8.18. We are not purchasers, but heirs of this happinesse; our works as they are good, are not ours but Gods meer gifts, as they are ours they are impure & imperfect. Besides, none can give any thing to God equivalent to what he hath already received, therefore he cannot deserve that which he hath not received. I am les [...] (saith Jacob) then the least of thy mercies. What shall I render for them, saith David. Gen. 32.10. Psal. 116.12. Theres no proportion between a finite worke and an infinite reward, a reward no lesse then the infinite rewarder himselfe. [Page 634]Its the alone free grace of this God whereby we come to partake of his glory.
2. But why is it the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ?
1. Its his, ratione meriti, he hath purchased it by his merit. The obedience of Christ was not onely satisfactory, but meritorious, by reason of the infinitenesse of the person, there being an infinitely greater excesse and proportion of vertue in his obedience, then of malignity in our disobedience; by vertue of which merit a purchase is made of this mercy, as well as there is a removall made of our misery. Christs merit at his first, procures mercy at his second coming.
2 Its his, respectu praeparationis, he hath prepar'd us for it, Parat quodammodo mansiones, mansionibus parando mansores. Aug. Trac. 68. in Job. by sending his Spirit into us to make us meet to partake of this mercy. He hath bestowed upon us the earnest of our inheritance, and the first fruits of the Spirit, given us a part in the first resurrection. The heaven without us is from his merit, the heaven within us from his Spirit.
3. 'Tis his, respectu donationis, of giving and exhibiting it at his coming. 'Tis he who shall be the Judg to acquit the saints, that shall pronounce the blessed sentence, Come ye blessed &c. that shall give his faithfull souldiers a Crowne of righteousnesse at that day. 2. Tim. 4.7. That shall present us faultlesse before the presence of glory Jude 24.
Secondly, 2 in this first branch, we are to consider what is this looking for this mercy? Gr. [...], noting properly an earnest receiving of it, or taking it to us as some welcome guest or stranger whom we take in. A disposition commended in and commanded to the saints. Tit. 2.13. [...], looking for that blessed hope: and Christ commands his to be like men [...], Luke 12.36. Rom. 16.2. that looke for their Lord. And this comprehends severall particulars under it, as
1. Meditation of this mercy. I may thinke of that which I doe not look for, but I cannot look for that of which I do not think.
[Page 635] The wife that lookes for the returne of her welcome husband, spends her thoughts upon him; by this time (thinks she) he is come to such a place, to night he lodgeth in such an house. The thoughts of saints run upon this mercy of Christ. Heb. 11. Psal. 39. 1 Pet. 1. The reason why they are call'd strangers here, is, because they dwell so much in their thoughts of another condition. Every saint is made to looke upwards. Beneficiall and great things are much thought on. The covetous man thinks of his treasure, the labourer of his hire, the prisoner of his enlargement, the heir of his possession. And great things are greatly observed, and serious matters seriously regarded. Trivial toyes and enjoyments cannot hinder a saint from the thoughts of this great mercy; yea all other things are but so many steps to raise his meditation to it. Wicked men are bow'd downward in their contemplation, as in their condition. Saints are low in the latter, high in the former. They are as unlike, as a piece of dirt, and a ball. Cast dirt upon the earth, it lies still, cast a ball on it, and it rebounds upward.
2. Belief of this mercy. The looking for this mercy imports a groundednesse of expectation. A saint looks for nothing without the foundation of a promise. Faith certainly layes hold on that certaine word; Heb. 6.11.19. and hence hope hath such a certainty as never makes us ashamed. There's a full assurance of hope, call'd therefore the sure and stedfast anchor of the soule. This expectation is not overcome by humane sense and reason, Heb. 11.1. but climbs above them. Faith gives a reality to things not seen. This looking is for that which is clean contrary to sense. Its an hope above hope: they who have it, see the mercy of Christs coming even through a cloud of sin and misery, and look at things within the vaile. Heb. 6.19.
3. Ardent desires after this mercy. This looking for it, implies the welcomness and acceptableness of it; and its a looking for mercy. Saints are both said to be lookers for, [Page 636]and lovers of it. 2 Tim. 4.8. they are sick of love to it. The Bride saith, Come, Rev. 22.21. Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly, shuts up the scripture, and summes up the churches wishes. Rev. ult. There's a griefe for his absence, and a groaning desire after his presence. Rom. 8.23. We sigh in our selves, waiting, &c. as no worldly difficulty can disappoint so no worldly enjoyment can bribe the souls desires A Saint with Abraham, stands at his tent doore, or with Sisera's mother, 2 Pe [...]. 3, 12, looks out of the window, and saith, why is his chariot so long a coming? It hasteth. Wee cannot thus look for Christ, unlesse we love him. 2 Thes. 3.5. the devils and the wicked have a fearfull, the faithful a longing looking for Christ.
4. It imports patience of expectation. The faithfull will stay Gods leisure for his dole of mercy, as beggars at a doore that continue there till there be leisure to serve them. They make not hast, Isa. 28.16. Though they dwell in an unkind world, and among them that hate peace. Though they are wounded with crosses, yet they say with Augustine, Lord, here burn, wound, cut, the mercie of Christ makes amends for all. Though they are environed with a body of death, and had infinitely rather (if God pleased) change a necessity of sinning for a necessity of obeying, yet they contentedly think Gods time is the best for removing, though the worst of evils. Their patience concocts their miseries, and their empty stomaks keep them from being sick, though in a wide and stormy sea. Rom. 8.21. Through faith and patience they inherit the promises, Heb. 6.12. This looking for the Spirit of Christ, is, 2 Thes. 3.5. called [...], patience it selfe. Mercy must not be bestowed, nay 'twill bee no mercy, if patience be not tryed. Certainty countervails all delayes.
5. This looking conteins in it a joyful expectation of that great good for which we look. Though the deferring makes the heart sad and sick; yet the expecting thereof makes the heart glad and cheerful. Wee rejoyce under [Page 637]the hope of the glory of God, Rom. 5.2 In whom believing, we rejoyce with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. 1 Pet, 1.8. If Abraham looking for the day of Christs humility, two thousand yeares before, rejoyced; must not believers needs rejoyce in looking for the day of his and their own glory approaching so neer, it being now (as it were) the last minute of the last houre before the day of our marriage, redemption, coronation?
6. It notes prudent vigilancy; what wee look for, wee watch for; when we look either for friend or foe, we keep our selves waking. Hence Luke, Luk. 12.36, 37. makes this looking and watching all one. They who look for an Enemy will watch to prevent his coming (as Christ speaks of the theif.) They who look for a friend, will watch to welcome and entertain him. All who look for mercy, labour to be found in peace, they look up as watchmen upon their Tower, they keep their loyns girt and they are in the posture of servants expecting their Lord, they are afraid of surfets and sleeping by worldly pleasures They who reach after this mercy must let worldly trifles fall out of their hand. 2 Pet. 3.11. The better the mercy to be enjoyed is, the fitter we should be to receive. A prepared mercy sutes not with an unprepared heart. Every day to a saint should be as his last. And of every one he should say, art thou the last, or look I for another? Am I now in a meet posture to receive the mercy of Christ?
To shut up this, it is not strange that Jude enjoins these Saints to look for this mercy of Christ, considering the sutablenes of this exhortation to the persons exhorted, who 1. are Saints, such as have the spirit, which saith Come, whose motions are upward, who are begotten again to this lively hope, who (as they are men) look upward with their faces, so (as they are Saints and new men,) look upward with their spirits, and wait for Christ from heaven, 1 Thes. 1.10. and love his appearance, 2. Tim. 4.8. Such as are like the young ones of the fouls of heaven, who though they may be hatch't under a hens wing, yet being [Page 638]growne, they presently flye abroad. The Saints are born, and for a time live in the world, yet they soon shew that they are not of this world, who 2. also were so opposed and tempted by seducers, that looking for the Crowne of life was little enough to make them constant to the death. 2. Considering for whom they were to look, their Master, their Husband, Head, their Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Considering for what they looked, mercy, to bee bestowed at a time when they should want it most, even at Christs coming, when nothing else will help. Lastly, considering the great beneficialnesse of this mercy, it was such a mercy whereby they should be possessed of eternal life. Which is the second branch to be opened.
2. 2 The inducement encouraging to the duty of looking for the mercy of Christ. It was a mercy whereby they should bee brought to eternal life. Of this, though wee shall enjoy it so much, yet can we speak but little. Under two words, eternal life, the Scripture frequently sets forth the state of the Saints of heaven; which for its blessednesse is c [...]lled life, and for its durablenesse eternall.
1. Life. There is a threefold Life. 1. Naturall, consisting in the conjunction of the body and soule. 2. Spirituall, (which is eternall life begun) in respect of grace, here. 3. Eternall life, in respect of glory hereafter, whereby is understood all the happinesse to be injoyed in heaven. As under the word death, (the greatest of evills) are comprehended all the miseries inflicted for sin, in this and the next state: so in that of life (of all things the most precious, and the most set by) are contained all the blessings to be enjoyed here and hereafter; but because our happinesse cannot be perfect and consummat, til we come to heaven, that condition is principally and frequently called life. Which life stands in our immediate communion with God in an unitive vision, or in seeing and enjoying him. [Page 639] Mat. 5.8. 1 Jo. 3.2. Psal. 16. ult. &c. Heaven is a low thing without God (saith Angustin.) Whatever is lesse then himselfe, is lesse then our desires. In him is contain'd infinitely more then either we want, or all other things in the world, have: his presence shall be our life, and (as it were) enliven all things else, which without him (as here they are, so) there would be dead things. In the immediate, full and perfect, (not in respect of the object but subject) uninterrupted, reflexive, unmixed, enjoyment of this God, stands life.
2. Which in respect of its duration is call'd eternall; as never to be interrupted, and intermitted, so without any end or amission: and indeed, this it is which makes all the enjoyments of heaven to be truly such, and as the faggot-band whereby all the particular parcells of happinesse are bound and tyed together, and without which they would be all scattered and lost. Frequently is the life of glory said to be eternall. Joh 3.15.8.51.11.25. &c. pleasures for ever more, a treasure in the heaven that faileth not. Luk. 12.33. Extra jactum fortunae. Extra periculum jacturae. an eternall weight of glory. 2 Cor. 4.17. a treasure beyond the reach of theefe and moth, &c. God the fountaine and treasury of life can never be exhaust. The saints can never be willing to part with this God. Enemies shall never be able to separate them. A compleat happinesse, to be truly and necessarily happy also!
OBSERVATIONS. [From the whole part.]
1. Obs. 1. The hope of salvation is an helmet to keep off tentations to sin. Eph. 6.8. The looking for the mercy of Christ quickens us in our course of Christianity. The Apostle directs them to contend for the faith by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus &c. 1. It purgeth the heart from fin, Whosoever hath this hope, purifieth himselfe, 1 Joh. 3.3▪ He who looketh for Christ, looks to be like him, and therefore he conformes himselfe to Christ in purity. He who lookes for great revenues within a few yeares, will not [Page 638] [...] [Page 639] [...] [Page 640]cut off his hopes, We may say of sinners, as of some men who are adventurous in the world; they have no thing to lose. but rather remove impediments. The looking for mercy, and the living in sin cannot stand together. The love of sin is the confutation of our hopes. 2. The looking for this mercy damps our affections to the things of the world. He who beholds the glorious sunshine of Christs appearance hath his eyes so dazled, that he can behold no beauty in any thing besides. He is like Jacob, who when he was to goe to a rich Egypt and a deare Joseph, was not to regard his stuffe. Earthly objects, which to earthly mindes seeme glorious, 2 Cor. 4.16. to be a beleever have no glory, by reason of that glory which excelleth. Though Jezabel paints her face, he throwes her down, and treads her under foot.
3. It makes us conscientious in holy duties. Paul chargeth Timothy to keep the command without spot, by an argument drawn from Christs appearance; and upon this ground, of looking for a reward from the chief Shepherd, Peter warneth the Elders to feed the flock. As we cannot conceive what manner of mercy (for its glory) it is which we look for, so neither can we express what manner of persons we should be, 1 Cor. 15.58. or what manner of performances ours should be for holinesse. What manner of persons (saith the Apostle) ought we to be? 2 Pet. 3.11.
4. It engageth to patience under every difficulty and distresse. Behold I come quickly, hold fast that thou hast. Rev. 3.11. Thus. 1 Joh. 2.28. Little children, abide in him, that when he shall appeare, we may have confidence &c. Non sunt condigna passiones ad cul. pam quae remittitur, ad gratiā qua immittitur, ad gloriam qua promittitur. He who beholds a Kingdome appointed for him, will abide with Christ in his tentations. The drawing nigh of the Lords coming, is the Apostles ground of patience. Jam. 5.8. and 2 Thes. 1.6, 7. John Hus and Jerom of Prague appealed from the unjust sentences of men, to the righteous judgment of Christ. This dayes misery, is not worthy of that dayes mercy. Rom. 8.18. 2 Cor. 4.17. No more comparable with it, [Page 641]then is the uncovering of the head, a trouble comparable to the honour of receiving a crown. 1 Sam. 10. ult. Saul held his peace, though he were despised, because hee was King. How easily should our sea of honey swallow up our drop of vinegar! Though godlinesse brings sufferings, yet it affords encouragements; like Egypt which though it were full of poysonous creatures, yet full of Antidotes. The reason why wee are cast away in tempests, is for want of this anchor of hope of the mercy of Christ. Let then (O Christians) the looking for this mercy, engage you to duty. Remember such mercy to be received, deserves better services to bee performed. Psal. 36.5. As Gods mercy and faithfulnesse are put together, so let not his mercy and our faithfulnesse bee severed. Brethren, if any shame could befall the Saints at the day of judgement, it would be for this, that they who have done so little on earth for God, should receive so much in heaven from God.
Mercy.] Its mercy, not merit, Obs. 2. that must stand us in stead at the last day. Of this largely, pag. 100. Part. 1. as also to this part may be reduced, Pag. 101, 102, 103, 104, 105. Obs. 3. the six Observations there handled concerning Gods mercy.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.] How much are they mistaken who expect mercy, and yet have no interest in Christ! 'Tis the mercy of Christ. Christlesse persons, are mercilesse persons, mercilesse in respect they shew no mercy, and mercilesse because they receive no mercy; true saving mercy is derived from God through Christ. Hee hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. God in himself is a full fountaine, verse 3. but in his Sonne he onely is an overflowing fountaine of mercy. He who is in Christ a God of mercy, is in himselfe a God of wrath. It was a saying of Luther, Let me have nothing to doe with a God in himself. Nolo Deum absolutum. Luther. We are onely accepted in the Sonne of his love. Its his blood which onely quencheth the fire of his Fathers wrath. As soon mayest thou extract water out of a consuming fire, as a drop of mercy out of an unreconciled majesty. Say not then (poore ignorant sinner) [Page 642] he that made me, will save me, God is a mercifull God. What mercy for him who despiseth mercy, by refusing Christ? Think not with a fawning presumption to say God is my God. I tell thee, he is onely so thy God, as that he is also thy Judge.
They who have Christ for theirs, 4. Obs. Turbabor, non perturbabor quia vulneram Christi recordabor. cannot be under wrath. Their portion is mercy, In all conditions, they meet with mercy. 'Tis mercy when 'tis misery; [...]et their straits, poverty, disgraces, death, judgment come, 'tis all mercy. The day of judgement shall be to them a day of mercy; Aug. nay therefore a day of mercy, because a day of judgement, for God shall bee most just in shewing them that mercy which by Christ is so dearly purchased. So that even as they may appeal from the justice of God to his mercy, so may they (in a sort) expect mercy from his justice. How willingly then may Saints submit to every divine though smart dispensation! God may be severe, never unmercifull toward them. There's not a drop of wrath in a sea of their sufferings. If God scourge them, 'tis in mercy. Oh how great is the difference between an Executioners axe, and a Fathers rod!
5. Obs. 5. Its our wisdome to be made fit to look for the mercy of Christ, Of this, see Part 1. pag 543, 544. &c.
6. Obs. Ʋlt. Its our duty to be quickned in looking for this mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Its certainty, greatness, speedinesse, are all motives, of which at large before Part. 1. pag. 536, 537. &c. 545, 546.
WE have handled the first sort of directions, guiding these Christians how to contend for the [Page 643]faith, viz. such as chiefly concern themselves.
The directions of the second sort, viz: such as concern their carriage towards others, are contained in these two verses, wherin the Christians are directed to the using of a different deportment & carriage toward the different delinquents w ch were among the seduced for their recovery.
The first kind of deportment and carriage, is that of Christian lenity and gentlenes towards some, in the 22. ver.
The second is that of holy austerity and severity toward others, ver. 23.
Their carriage of Christian gentlenesse toward some, is enjoyned, 1. More generally. by setting down the thing to be done. viz. their shewing of compassion, 2. More particularly how they should extend their compassion, in way of making a difference between offenders.
EXPLICATION.
Two things then are here briefly to be explained.
1. What Jude intends by having compassion of some.
2. What by making a difference.
1. For the first, Have compassion. Gr. [...]. Vulg. [...], arguite. By compassion here we must not onely understand inward sympathy, no nor yet onely inclination to help the miserable, but principally the expressing both these by outward real tokens and effects of mercy; and here more particularly these expressions were to be put forth toward those who were such of the seduced followers of these ungodly seducers, of whose recovery the Saints had most hope.
Not that the Apostle exhorts the Christians by a preposterous patience, either, 1. To wink at and dissemble their sinnes and errours, and silently to forbear the discovering of them to the offenders. Silence in a reprover was by Luther called an irremissible sin, and the greatest hatred to the offender: and if sinne be bold, reprehension must not be bashfull. Or, 2. (much lesse) to sooth and flatter sinners in their errours and impieties. A wickednes which is in scripture frequently charged upon, and reproved [Page 644]in false Prophets, Isa. 58.1. Ezek. 3.17, &c. and the contrary duty of faithfull and upright reprehension is both commanded and encouraged. Lift up thy voyce, shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sin, and Prov. 20.23. Hee that rebuketh a man, afterward shall find more favour then he who flattereth with his tongue.
But by this shewing of compassion toward some offenders, hee intends an endeavour in convincing of, and reproving for sinne, to reduce them from their falls and follies, in a mild, gentle, meek manner, and a mixing or seasoning all the meanes used for their reduction and repentance, with Christian gentlenesse and sweetnesse, so as the offender may not be swallowed up of grief & dispair. The same counsel is given by Paul, Gal. 6. namely, of restoring a faln brother in the spirit of meeknesse, and 2 Tim. 2.25. of instructing those who oppose themselves, in meeknesse. In the former place Paul bids them [...], restore such an one, &c. the word fignifying to set a joynt or bone that is broken, to shew the care and skill of him who undertakes the imployment of a reprover. Sinfull severity is too ready to creep into and corrupt the duty of reprehension. Commonly men are either too remisse if thy endeavour gentlenesse, or too austere, if labour for faithfulnesse. But it must be with a reprover as with a Chirurgian, who binds not up the wound either duriter or segniter, Nec duriter, nec segniter. either too slack or too hard; This Christian gentlenesse shews it selfe toward the offender in restoring him, several wayes. 1. Buy porpounding a reproofe in our own person, and declaring how great a sinne it would have been for our selves to have done thus or thus. So Paul 2 Cor. 4.6. These things (saith he) I have in a figure transferr'd to my selfe and to Apollo for your sakes, that by this wise way, hee might reprove them and their teachers in making of sects and factions. 2. By conveying the sharpest reproofs in sweet and gentle words, and accompanying them with courteous carriage. The pill of a reprehension is [Page 645]to be gilded and sugred over with gentlenesse: soft words do best with strong arguments. The iron of Napthalies foot was dipt in oyl. 3. By conveying the reproof in a parable, as Nathan did in his convincing David of his sinne. Who hereby was made his own judge, and spared the Prophet the unpleasing paines of a large application. 4. By perswading the reprehended of our love to their persons, and convincing them that tis not the person who hath sinned, but the sinne of the person which we strike at. A man will take any thing from one that loves him. A Chirurgion wee will not strike, though he cut us deep, whereas we will not endure half those wounds from a murderer, without returning stroke for stroke. 5. By mixing hopes of pardon with the severest reprehensions and denunciations. When God had humbled Adam, hee concludes with the promise of the seed of the woman. Thus Joseph dealt with his brethren when he had humbled them. Thus Nathan with David. The needle of the law is but to make way for the thred of the Gospel, and the most legall reprehension must bee uttered with an Evangelicall purpose and intention.
For the second, 2 this compassion must bee exercised by putting a difference, [...]. The word having several readings and significations, is differently rendred by interpreters The vulgar Latin reading the place [...], interprets it, arguite judicatos, reprove them as being judged, without hope of recovery (it making the Apostle to speak of the openly and incorrigibly wicked) and so Beza saith he found it in three Greek copies: But this is overthrowne by comparing this with the next exhortation. But others save with fear, &c. the opposition is destroyed by this exposition. Others reading (also) [...], though they hold to [...], yet interpret it, arguite judicati, reprove some while ye are judged; that is, faithfully admonish them, though they condemn and censure you; [Page 646]but since the word [...], may signifie discerning or putting a difference, and this signification is most sutable to the Apostles scope, which is wisely to direct them to discern betweene offender and offender: & since the word [...], is of a middle signification, and may be as well taken actively as passively, I therefore doubt not but it is most aptly rendred by reverend Beza, Or dijudican [...]es. habito delectu, putting a difference, that is between those who are more gently, and those who are more severely to dealt with, by reason of their several demerits, and dispositions. &c.
More particularly, this putting of a difference between some and others, is considerable in two respects.
- 1. In respect of the parties offending.
- 2. In the way of their offending.
1 For the parties. 1. Difference is to be put between Magistrates in publick authority, and private persons: In the reproving of the former more prudence and caution is required, their authority being to be honoured, when their faults are reprehended. Of this see more, Part. 2. pag. 152. Difference is to be put between those of more soft, tender, and humble dispositions, and those who are more rugged and pertinacious. A Venice-glasse is not to be rub'd so hard as an iron or brasse-vessel. A word will do more with some then a blow will do with another. A gentle admonition will be more prevalent with one, then a dreadfull commination will be with another. The reed will be more easily bowed then the sturdy oak. The fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is the Cart-wheel turned about upon the Cummin, but the fitches are beaten with a staffe, and the Cummin with a rod, Isa. 28.27.3. Difference is to put between those of nearer relation to us, and others. Snakes or Foxes I will destroy in my own and my neighbours garden, but with more hatred and indignation in my own then in his. Sinners in mine own family, my own servants, children, relations, I should oppose, and reprove [Page 647]for sinne with more zeal then anothers. By how much an enemy is nearer to me, by so much the more sharp is the conflict with him.
2. In the way of their offending, 1. Some offend, either in judgment, or practice, of ignorance, blind zeal, as the Jews who had the zeal of God, but not according to knowledg Ro. 10.2. Paul persecuted the Church of God ignorantly. Others of malice and obstinacy, who know they offend, and yet persist. Between these a great difference is to be put, Tit. 3.10. Philip. 3.15. Some of simple ignorance, who have not the means of knowledge; others of wilfull and affected ignorance, who are willingly ignorant, and refuse the means of knowledg. 2. Some offend secretly, and so the scandall is the smaller, the offence being known but to few, haply but to one. Others sinne publickly, and the sun is a blushing beholder of their enormities, and they are observed by all. If the offence bee private, First admonish the party between thee and him, If he hear thee not, tell the Church. If he offend publickly, he must (for preventing the like in others) be openly reproved, 1 Tim. 5.20. The plaister must be as broad as the sore. 3. Some sinne of infirmity, over-born by the violence of sudden passion; others of premeditated, contrived forecast. The latter is to be more humbled. The one fell by a slip and trip (as it were) the other lay down, yea made his bed (as easie as he could) before. 4. Some have falne but once, 'tis the first fault, the first time they were overtaken; others live in and practise sinne, as their trade, their element. Gentle physick will serve for a begun distemper, a chronicall disease is cured more hardly and harshly. 5. Some are Leaders and captains in wickednesse, haply, heresiarchs, and masters, and authors of heresie, the contrivers and commanders of impiety; others are poor misled seduced souls, like Absaloms followers: now the heads of treason and conspiracies are most severely punish't, Mark them who cause division. Rom. 16.17.6. Lastly, some offend in matters [Page 648]of highest and most vast importance. Haply their errour is fundamentall, as Papists in justification by works, Idol worship &c. possibly their practice hath been bloody, their offence adultery, incest &c. others offend in matters not of so high a nature, as haply in an errour disciplinary, or if in doctrine, not overturning the foundation, but building of hay and stubble upon it. All sins want an equall price and merit for satisfaction, but not an equall severity in our reprehension.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Those duties which seeme most opposite must be reconciled in our practice. Holy mourning, and rejoyceing, love and hatred, holy anger and meeknesse, zeale, and Compassion. Job was holily both patient and impatient. Patient under his crosses, Impatient against the sinfull counsell of his wife. Moses was the meekest man, and yet eminent for zeale; when he was with God, he prayed for the people; when with the people, he pleaded even with the sword for God. Holy duties never interfere among themselves. Causam populi apud Deum precibus; causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegavit. Greg. In vaine doe men pretend the distance of the Commands, as if they could not be brought together. Holinesse never destroyes holinesse. There's a Connexion betweene every duty. The faithfull prefer not one duty before another; but are uniforme in observing the Commands.
2. 2. Obs. Col. 3.12. Compassion is most sutable to a Christian. They have obtained mercy, they are elect of God, and put on bowels of mercy. They are peculiarly commanded to be mercifull from the patterne of Gods mercy. Luk. 6.36. to sympathize with others in their afflictions. 1 Pet. 3.8. Christ and all the saints are herein our copy. Jer. 9.1. Mat. 9.36. Luk. 19.41. 2 Cor. 11.29. Grace dryes not up, but diverts the streame of [Page 649]our affections. Holy men have ever been most tender hearted. Insensiblenesse of others miseries is neither sutable to us as men or Christians. According to the former we are the same with others, according to the latter, grace hath made the difference. If Christians be hardhearted who should be soft and tender?
3. The soules of people are true objects of mercy. No misery is so great as that of soules: Obs. 3. they who are spiritually miserable cannot pity themselves, though their words speak not, yet their woes doe. We weep over a body from which the soule is departed, and shall we not doe so, much more over a soule from which God is departed? What in this world is so noble, excellent, precious as the soule? We pity not so much a baseborn beggar in his distresses, but when we behold some high borne Prince brought to beggery, how doe our bowels yearn! The soule is heaven-borne, noble in regard of its originall and endowments. Oh weep to think that hell should have such excellent furniture as precious soules; that these who are, Acts 20. or rather were once so high, should fall so low. I wonder not at Pauls industry, intreaties, wooings, 2 Tim. 2. sollicitations in doing good to soules, his advice to Timothy to be instant in season, and out of season, to exhort &c. Paul was an excellent Orator, and all his oratory was to woe and win upon soules, and to perswade men to be saved. Never did malefactor so plead for his own life, as did Paul plead with men to accept of life. Though the more he loved, the lesse he was beloved, though the more he sued to people, the more he suffered from them, yet he patiently suffered all this for the Elects sake. He labours abundantly. He becomes all things to all men, that he might by all means save some. 1 Cor. 9.22, 2. Cor. 10.1. Eph. 4.1, Rom. 12.1. 2 Thes. 2.1. He besiegeth soules with beseechings, throughout all his Epistles. Its impossible to be too importunate with soules. Even impudency here is holy. Courtesie must vaile to Christianity.
[Page 650] 4. Obs. 4. Compassion is not to be denyed to the faln, as if there were no hope of their restitution and salvation. Paul commands that they should be restored who are overtaken with a sin. Gal. 6.1. As the best of saints have sometimes faln, so they have also been raised, and afterward better then ever before; He who doth but stumble, gets ground by his stumbling. Jonah, Peter and David stumbled, yea, fell fouly, but they were raised, and received, and afterward were more holy and watchfull then ever before. And although Christ saith that whosoever shall deny me before men shall be denyed before my Father &c. Heb. 6.4, 5, 6. yet this is meant of a totall and finall denyall: and although a wilfull, malitious, universall renouncing of the known truth admit of no sacrifice for sin, yet the gospel excludes none from pardon, that can be humbled, and sincerely sorrowfull for their falls. Greatly therefore did the Novatians erre, in teaching that sins committed after Conversion, are unpardonable. Christian meeknesse must, as wholly restrain unjust, so temper even just anger; our zeal must not transgresse its due limits. We live not among the perfect, but such as are subject to many slips. And we have frequent want of Gods meeknesse and gentlenesse towards us in our daily falls and follies. Considering what we both have been, and may again be; we should pity the fallen. If two travellers fall into a deep ditch, the one being helpt out, must not deny help to the other.
5. Obs. 5. Wisdome is requisite in every one that would recover a fallen brother. There must be a wise discerning between offender and offender. The setting of a soule in joynt is a point of skill and dexterity. It is not for every horseleach to meddle with this art. Every unskilfull workman is not to tamper with mens soules. The Apostle puts those that are spirituall, Gal. 6.1. upon this employment such as had received a greater portion of the graces of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 14.37. and were stronger [Page 651]then others. He who speaks a word to the weary, Philip. 3.13 must have the tongue of the spiritually learned. The wisest course must be chosen for recovering of the fallen. The Physician administers not the same medicine to every patient, but he varies his prescriptions according to the nature of the disease, or the constitution of the diseased. Oh that Christians would employ their wisdomes for God: we see how wise men are to damn and undoe their soules, and how witty seducers are to mislead others into sin and errour; why should not Christians then study the heavenly art of saving and delivering the soules of others?
The gifts of God are not bestow'd upon us for our selves alone, but for the good of others. Obs. 6. Every Private Christian (in some sort) should be a publick good. The possession of our gifts belongs to us, but the use of them to others also. No Christian is a treasurer, but a steward of Gods gifts. The more spirituall any man is, the more he is bound to restore others. The hotter the Sun shines upon the wall, the more it warmes the passenger. The more mercy hath relieved thee, the greater obligation lies upon thee to relieve others. As any man hath received the gift, so let him minister unto others 1 Pet. 4.10. 'Tis not the having of good in us, but the doing of good by us, that makes us called good.
2. 2 The Apostle directs these Christians how to carry themselves towards others more obstinate and pertinacious sinnesrs, namely, with holy severity, In these words, And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
The words consist of two parts.
1. A duty enjoyned. To save others with fear.
2. The manner of performing it.
- 1. Vehemently and earnestly, pulling them out of the fire.
- 2. Vigilantly and warily, hating even the garment spotted, &c.
[Page 652] 1. For the first, The duty, others save with fear.
EXPLICATION
1. What intends the Apostle by these others.
2. What by saving?
3. What by saving them with fear.
1. For the first, by others, he means those who were to be lookt upon as unlike to those of whom hee had spoken in the fore-going part, that were to bee dealt with in a way of Christian compassion. This is cleare by the adversative expression [...], and, or rather but. So that as those of whom they were to have compassion, were of the more hopefull and corrigible sort, who had haply fallen out of ignorance, infirmity, or blind zeal; so these others were such as were more obstinate and stubborn in their sin and errours, and who did more knowingly and malitiously offend; and by this indefinite expression others, he intends those more hatefull sinners of any rank or degree whatsoever, high or low, rich or poor, there being no sinfull respect of persons to be had, in this terrifying them from their accursed impieties.
2. 2 He directs to save these others, that is, to deliver them from that sinne into which they had fallen, and destruction into which they were falling; saving is in Scripture attributed 1 To God. 2. To Christ. 3. To men. 1. To God, who is the supreme author of our safety & deliverance, by whose proper power we are made safe from evils, either in respect of Common salvation or preservation afforded to all men, or of peculiar salvation bestowed upon those who believe. According to that of 1 Tim. 4.10. He is the Saviour of all men, especially those who believe.
2. To Christ, who is called a Saviour. Luk. 2.11. Matth. 1.21. The onely Saviour, Act. 4.12. a strong sufficient Saviour, a horn of salvation, able to the utmost to save. And that both by delivering by his merit and spirit, from the condemning and destroying, as also from the [Page 653]reigning and defiling power of all our spirituall enemies.
3. To men. Who are frequently in scripture said to save, and to be Saviours. Obad. 21. Saviours shall come upon mount Sion. 1 Cor. 7.16. How knowest thou O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? 1 Tim. 4.16. Thou shalt save thy self and them that heare thee, &c. Jam. 5.20. Not as if men were the authors of our salvation, but instruments and subordinate helps and means appointed by God to serve his providence in the saving of themselvs or others, whether from bodily or spiritual enemies. Words proper to the supreme cause, being thus in Scripture attributed to the instrument, who though he bee by God appointed to use the severest meanes towards any, yet all is to be done in order to their salvation and recovery, 1 Cor. 5.5. 2 Tim. 2.25, 26. Tit 1.23. The most sharp and cutting reproofs are to bee used that the reproved may be sound in the faith.
3. He directs to the saving of these others with fear, Gr. [...]. 3 The Apostle means by terrifying of them, or making them afraid of continuing in their sin, lest they fall into destruction of soul & body. So that hereby the Apostle intends the using Christian severity toward these others, as by shewing compassion, he directed them to use Christian lenity and gentlenesse toward the former. For though Jude intends not that these to whom he wrote should put forth or exercise wayes of terrour in a civil or earthly respect, by corporal punishments, (in which regard the Magistrate is called a terror to evil works, Rom. 13.3.) yet spiritually, and by using spiritual meanes, and for the saving of the Spirit, he directs them to terrifie these offenders; and this may be done two wayes: either, 1. By charitative, or, 2. By authoritative meanes. 1. Charitatively, or in a way of Christian charity, and thus one Christian is bound to terrifie another from sinne, and not to suffer him without reproof and denunciation of Gods judgements to [Page 654]goe on in any way of wickednesse. And this (though) severity, is a token of love, and the refraining from it interpreted by the Spirit of God to be hatred. Levit. 19. Thou shalt not hate thy brother.
2. Authoritatively, or by those whom God hath put into office for this end (among others) to reduce offenders, and save them by fear. And this authoritative affrighting from sin is double: 1. Doctrinall. 2. Disciplinary.
The Doctrinall, is put forth three wayes.
1. By information, and clear discovering of the nature of sin in it selfe, and shewing the difference between good and evill, and the hatefulnesse of sin both in its nature and effects. For want of this knowledge many a soule hath perish't.
2. By application and conviction, and bringing home the sin to the conscience of the offender. Thus Nathan, Thou (saith he to David) art the man. Thus Peter to those Converts, Him (meaning Christ) ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine. Thus also Stephen, Acts 7.51. Ye doe alwayes resist the holy Ghost. Isa. 58.1. Thus God bids the Prophet to tell the people of their transgression. Ministers must not be like fencers, who so strike every where, that indeed they strike no where; but the two edg'd sword of the word they must sheath in the bowells of sinners, and lay the deformed brat of sin at the right doore, and so must we preach, that in our Ministry the Spirit may convince of sin. Joh. 16.8.
3. By Commination and denouncing of punishments for sin, that so by hearing them men may not feel them. Offenders must be warned of the wrath to come. Knowing the terrour of the Lord, we warne men. Thus frequently the Prophets denounced judgments against sinners. Woe unto them. Of this largely before part 2. pag. 153, 154.
2. There is a disciplinary affrighting from sin. Consisting 1. in solemn and particular admonition of a party [Page 655]offending, with a declaration of judgment against him in case of obstinacy. Mat. 18. A sinner is first to hear this from the Church. 2. Suspension from the Lords Supper, and denying the pledges of grace to the wicked as unworthy of them. How should the child be asham'd, who is debar'd from sitting at his fathers table with the rest of his brethren! How can he thinke himselfe fit to partake of benefits signified in the Sacrament, to sit down in the Kingdome of glory, who is duly excluded from participating of the signes thereof in the Kingdome of grace! 1 Cor. 5.5. Mat. 18.17. 1 Tim. 1.20. Of this before largely part 2. pag. 3. Excommunication, whereby obstinate sinners are cast out of the Church, and delivered up to Satan, and accounted as heathens, and reckoned among the number of Satans servants, who rules in the world, and therefore to have him hereafter pay them their wages.
2. OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Others.] We must be carefull to save others as well as our selves. No man should be willing to be saved alone. A Christian should not be a Cain; We are neither born the first, nor second time for our selves. he is in a sort his brothers keeper. Nor are the Ministers solely the watchers over, or saviours of their people. In many cases every sheep is to be a shepherd. Hence those exhortations of provoking one another, Heb. 10.24. Looking diligently lest any of you faile of the grace of God. Heb. 12.15. Exhorting one another. Salvation is large enough for our selves and others. If Gods eye be good, ours should not be evill. The doing good to others soules is encouraged, Jam. 5.20. And rewarded, Dan. 12.3. Its the nature of grace to propagate it selfe. The Spirit appeared in the likenesse of fiery tongues, and both fire and tongues are very communicative; the one of it▪ selfe and heat, the other of sound and voice. Our relations of Brethren, fellow members, &c. call for this expression of love. Yea the contrary practice of sinners who damne and defile [Page 656]one anothers soules, may put us upon this duty. How great then is their sin who destroy the soules of others, by error and seduction, and ungodly example? &c. who watch over others for evill, and to make proselites for hell, who are factors for Satan, and agents for that Prince of darknesse! If their own sin and damnation will be so heavie a burden, what will other mens sinnes and damnations also be to them in hell! O what a holy covetousnesse should be in every Saint to propagate holinesse and leven others with grace in the world! Oh pray, Lord let hell never be the fuller for me or mine, but heaven for both! In respect of the priviledge of saving of soules (its by some said) that saints on earth excell the very glorified in heaven.
2. Obs. 2. Others,] Necessity should be the mother of severity. Others, i. e. they who will be by no other means reclaimed, upon whom compassion will not worke, must be saved by feare. First gentle meanes must be used, severe afterwards. Severity (though good) is but accidentally good, not in it selfe, but onely because of mans stubbornenesse: Medicines were only brought in and kept up by sicknesse. The Bee gives its honey naturally, its sting onely when provok't. We should run to Compassion, but be driven to rigor. If the birds will be driven away, its needlesse to shoot them: our will must bring forth peace, necessity war. Paul was much more willing to come to the Corinthians with the Spirit of meeknesse, then with the rod of severity. Even when we are most deeply engaged in rigor, let all see that in afflicting others, we more afflict our selves.
3. Obs. 3. Others.] Severity is to be regulated not by outward respects, but by the merit of the offence. Others, that is, they who are more obdurate, not who are further from us in relation, or poorer &c. should be affrighted. Though the nature of the offence should [Page 657]should make us put a difference in our rigours, yet other considerations forraigne to the cause, should not. Some are fiery hot in terrifying the poorer sort, whereas the rich are like the mount that might not be toucht. Having mens persons in admiration. An ungodly base respecting of persons! Of it see at large before, pag. 536, 537. Part. 2.
4. Save.] Even a man may be a saviour of soules. Obs. 4. See the proofs in the Explication. Paul speaks of labouring by all meanes to gaine some. And we read of those who catch men, and win soules, and Christ mentions the gaining of thy brother. How great an honour doth God cast upon weak wormes! 1. If the supreme Cause be pleas'd to attribute salvation to men because of ministry, should not men attribute salvation to God in regard of efficacy? How carefull should we be to honour that God who so dignifies dust and ashes! Lay that Crown at his feet which he sets on thy head. How industrious should this likewise make us in doing good to others! The Lord reckons it as our own. Though he guided thy hand every letter, yet he saith, thou hast written the faire copie, whereas indeed onely the blots and blurs were thine. Though thou didst but lay on the plaister, yet he attributes the cure to thee, who couldst never put vertue into the salve. To conclude this, how fearfull should any be of despising the ministry of man! Though salvation sometime be attributed to our selves, that we may not be negligent, and properly to God, that we may not idolize man; yet its often ascribed to others that we may not contemn their help.
5. [Save with fear.] Obs. 5. Severity should be exercised to this end, to save. The scope of using the sharpest rebukes by spirituall Physicians, should be cure. Mercifull intentions must be lodged under severest performances. The end of Excommunication must be the saving of the Spirit. Tit. 1.13. The most cutting reproofs must be given to others, that they may be sound in the faith. Even the [Page 658]dreadfullest Censures of the Church are not mortall, but medicinable. In the body of the Church, members are wounded and cut, that themselves and the whole body may be saved. And herein Ecclesiasticall censures excell civill punishments, the latter being to preserve the publick peace, and for warning to others; the former being principally to save the offenders soule. How sharply did Peter reprove Simon Magus when he said, Thy mony perish with thee, and thou art in the gall of bitternesse! and yet he addeth, repent, and pray &c. We must not reprove men to disgrace their persons, but to shame their sins, and neither insulting over mens falls, nor despairing of their risings. And therefore let not people sume and rage against the constrained rigour of the faithfull (especially) Ministers, for 'tis not butchery but Surgerie. As reprehension faithfully ministred shewes the strength of zeale, so meekly received, the sincerity of grace. A godly heart would not one threatning lesse to be in the Bible. 'Tis a bloodlesse martyrdome humbly to embrace the strokes of a reprover. To conclude, how ridiculously prophane are the Papists, whose loudest thunderings out of excommunication are against the holiest persons! But Christs Spirit is not in their counsells, nor will he refuse graciously to meet thee unjustly ejected, as he did the blinde man sinfully cast out by the Jewes.
6. [Save with feare.] Obs. 6. Severity to sin is mercy to the soule. This affrighting made way for saving. Holy severity is a wholsome thing: even rending Mastiffes are very usefull to kill woolves. The nipping frosts of winter, though not so pleasant as summer Sunshine, yet are as needfull for the earth, they killing the wormes and vermin. Jacob is said to Every one according to his blessing. Gen. 49.28. Nonnul lis bene dixit maledicendo. blesse his sons, and yet he sharply censured three. The smitings of the righteous are desirable to a saint. They are precious ointment. They slay sin and save the soule. How [Page 659]wilde a madnesse is it then to be angry with them, who by telling thee truth love thy peace. There's none but fools that oppose faithfull reprovers, and who are such, that if the truth be told them, will not be pleased, and if they be pleased the truth is not told them. Such a disposition as this is an evident token that God hath a purpose to destroy them. 2 Chron. 25.16. How much is this cruelty to their own soules to be pitied by every reprover! They oppose reproofs and their own happinesse both at once. Let them read their dismall doome, Prov. 29.1. He who being often reproved hardneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. To conclude this, let those whom God hath appointed to be reprovers, take heed lest like drones they lose their stings. If sinners be not saved, it should be their trouble; if they be neither reproved nor saved, Mr. Daniel Rogers Davids cost. its their sin also. Oh let not the sinners Phrensy drive any Minister into a palsie.
7. [With fear.] Wicked men are oft fearlesse in sin, Obs. 7. though on hel's brink. These sinners were to be made to fear, but otherwise they were fearlesse, they were without feare or shame, bold presumptuous sinners. The sweetnesse of sin doth so bewitch, that the bitternesse of sin doth not affright. Sinners looke upon wrath through the wrong end of the prospective glasse, so that it seemes remote. They put on Satans spectacles, which greatens mercy, Of this before, part 2. pag. 576. 577. and lessens wrath to the eyes of sinners: they are faithlesse, therefore fearlesse.
Ʋlt. [With fear.] Obs. Ʋlt. Bold presumption makes way for fear. These libertines who fed themselves without fear, and feared no judgement, but mock't at the promise of Christs coming, if ever they came to salvation, went by the way of fear. Oh that you would thinke of this in your bold adventurings upon sin: your audacious undertakings must all be undone, and pick't out stitch by stitch. That which was thy glory, thy [Page 660]rejoycing, thy valour will afterward be thy shame, thy sorrow, thy fear. And truly 'tis happy if the Lord make it so before it be too late. Holy fear is no signe of unmanly cowardize. Of this at large. Part 2. pag. 108.
This for the first part, the duty, Others save with fear. The second followes, the manner of performing it, and first for the vehemency and holy earnestnesse thereof, pulling them out of the fire. This hath two branches. 1. A sinners woe. 2. A saints work. The first is to be in the fire. The second is to pull them out of the fire.
EXPLICATION.
1. What is meant by their being in the fire.
2. What by pulling out of the fire.
1. For the first. Not to enlarge upon the severall Metaphoricall acceptations of the word Fire in Scripture 1. Its sometime used to set forth sin. 2. Misery and punishment.
1. Sin. All sin, Isa 9.18. Wickednesse burneth as the fire. More particularly the burning lust of uncleannesse, Rom. 1.27. they burned in lust one toward another. Ignis Sodomiticus. And 1 Cor. 7.9. Its better to marry then to burn. Thus with this fire Sodome burnt, before it burnt with fire from heaven; Sine Cerere & Libero friget Venus. Venus in vino. and this agrees to these impure wretches compared to Sodomites, ver. 6. for sin and punishment, and this fire of lust hath gluttony for its fewell.
2. Misery and trouble. And these are compared to fire. 1. As probatory and refining. Thus Isa. 31.9. fire in Zion and furnace in Jerusalem. So 1 Pet. 4.12. Fiery tryall, which is to try you. Or 2. as its painfull and tormenting, in which respect hell torments may be compared to fire. Or 3. As its violent and irresistable. 4. As its diffusive and spreading. 5. As it smutcheth and takes away beauty. 6. As its dangerously destructive and consuming; hence the wrath of God is compared [Page 661]unto fire, fire is kindled in my anger which shall burne upon you. So Ezek. 22.31. and Heb. 10. Our God is a consuming fire. Hence the people returned from Babylon, is said to be a brand pluckt out of the fire, Zec. 3.2. (to which place Jude haply alludes:) and this I take to be the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place, where he speaks of these seducers as being in the fire, to set forth their dangerously miserable estate, and destructive courses. These sinners without recovery by Christians, were certainly to be destroy'd and consum'd here and hereafter. They corrupted themselves, ver. 10. and they who sow to the flesh, reap Corruption. Gal. 6.4. And the consumption and destructivenesse of this fire is worse then that of naturall fire. 1. Because a sinner lying under wrath is consumed spiritually. His precious soule [...]is destroyed; and this is worse then if his house, his money, his childe, his body were consumed in fire. The fire which, destroyes the soule, consumes not the drosse but the gold. 2. In this fire a sinner is destroy'd insensibly he feeles no paine, fears no hurt. Men shun materiall fire, but they run into this fire. Fooles makes a sport of sinne and wrath, sin is their Element, they are displeased with any who would pluck them out of it. Like the horse, they wil not stir, though they be in never so much danger by the approaching flames. 3. He is destroyed pitilesly, there are few that rescue and pluck him out of the fire. Every one will quench the fire which burns the house, few labour to quench the fire which burns the soule. There are few faithfull reprovers. Who warns his neighbour of Gods wrath! most are afraid to black or burn their fingers Most men poure oyl rather then water to these flames. 4. He is destroy'd everlastingly. Naturall fire consumes so as it ends and eats up that which it burnes; this fire is ever destroying, never destroyes. Without the blood of Christ its unquenchable; a sinner shall ever burn in it, but never be burnt up in it. Mors vivacissima. That which makes other fire so [Page 662]dreadful, namely to make an end of things, would make this fire mercifull.
2. For the second, the plucking out of this fire. Gr. [...]. The word properly signifies the souldiers violent rushing or seizing upon a town or Castle for plunder or prey. The Kingdome of heaven suffers violence, and the violent [...], take it by force &c. And more particularly.
This plucking sinners out of their misery as out of fire, imports 1. Speedinesse. When a thing is in the fire it endures no delayes. Sin like poyson admits of no dallyance. The abiding in spirituall fire but a little longer, Venenata non patiuntur inducias. In sacris non est deliberandum. may make the recovery impossible, no deliberation so dangerous; Its needlesse here to call a councell. While we are lingring and doubting, the fire is devouring. Satan (like a subtle Enemy) never desires to treat but for his own advantage.
2. It imports sollicitousnesse and care, an holy feare of the future event, the ruine of that which is to be pluck't out of the fire. Paul was afraid of the Galathians, Gal. 4.19. holy love is sollicitous, doth its best, but fears the worst. Titus had an earnost care for the good of the Corinthians, and their burning calamity, caused in Paul burning care. Who is offended (saith he) and I burne not? 2 Cor. 8.16.
3. Pity and Commiseration. The more violence and speed is used in plucking a good thing out of the fire, the more tender pity is expressed. If pity should be shewed to thy neighbours beast, or to his house, much more to his owne body, but most of all to his soule. Its reported of Aeneas, that his pity made him take his father upon his shoulder, and carry him out of the flames of Troy. Its storyed Gen. 19.16. that while Lot, his wife and daughters lingred in Sodome, upon which fire was falling, the Lord being mercifull to them, the Angels brought him forth and set him without the City. This mercy in this spirituall [Page 665]plucking out, is here imported.
4. Esteem and appreciation. Men pluck that with eagernesse out of the fire, which they value and set by. A peice of pot-sherd they neglect, but a costly garment, some rare book, or much more a deare child, Oh how earnestly are they snatch't out of the flames! The estimate which ought to bee had of souls is much greater. Heaven-born, beautifully endowed, eternal souls are so precious that Christ shed his blood for them, and Satan only delights in shedding theirs.
5. Hazard and indangering of him who plucks the party out of the fire. They who will take a thing out of the fire, commonly burn their own fingers. The most zealous adventurers for soules have seldome escaped the scorching rage and fury of the wicked. Hatred is (as Luther calls it) the G [...]spels genius; truth begets hatred, both in others, and (oft) in him whom we labor to save. Satan will not let go his hold willingly. All the militia of hell is raysed against the faithfull saving of souls. All the holy Prophets, Apostles, Min [...]ters, more or lesse, must feel the scorching of the fire, if they will bee plucking out of souls. The Saviours of soule; must bee sufferers for souls, and herein resemble the great Saviour, who for souls was the greatest sufferer.
6. Diligence, earnest industry. This is principally here intended according to the signification of the word [...] They who pluck a precious thing out of the fire, do it with putting forth all their vigour and pains. They who will save souls, must apply heart and head to this employment. Faithfull Ministers are ever laborious. They are peculiarly called Labourers. They labour in the word and doctrine. As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel. Rom. 1.15. This work hee made his businesse, and he gave himselfe to it. In comparison of this, his diligence for other things was but negligence. For three years together he warned every one with tears, Act. 20.31. He was willing to spend and be [Page 666]spent. 2 Cor. 12.15. He was fervent in the spirit in this serving of the Lord. In plucking a precious thing out of the fire, the finger is not held up, but violently is the thing layd hold upon, and drawn forth with our hand.
OESERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. The fire,] The hell of a sinner is begun in this life. Hee is even here in the fire; hell-fire is but his greater sensiblenesse of that fire of wrath, wherein he even now is. As heaven, so hell is now in this world in semine. In hell the damnation of the wicked is but displayed; Here it is, though wrapt up as the flag about the staffe. Sinners in this life are treasuring up of wrath: put sinne into its best dresse it is but gilded damnation. The fire of Gods wrath is kindled on this side hell, and it burnes inward, onely in hell it blazeth out. The incorrigible are condemned already. They are even here the children of perdition, and there is nothing between them and the fire of hell, but a thin wall of flesh. And therefore,
2. Obs. 2. How madly merry is every sinner! Fond creature, to bribe and sooth thy burning soul with toyes and rattles! How unseasonable and unsutable is thy mirth, when thou art burning thy soul; and yet (as the idolaters of old, when they sacrificed their children to idols) makest musick and singing! This doth every secure sinner. Oh how much better is it here to mourn and shed the teares of godly sorrow, especially to get the blood of Jesus Christ to quench the flames before they blaze out in hell, where they will be unquenchable.
3. Obs. 3. Per quot pericula itur ad majus periculum! The Divel hath his martyr [...]; nay the most are burnt for irreligion. Wicked men here burn themselves (not as Saints to escape) but (in regard of the end of the work) to embrace eternal burnings. It should be a shame to consider how mad sinners are upon, and patient in the flames of wrath and sin, and how impatient Saints are in those flames out of which all the heat and hurt is taken.
4. Obs. 4. Even they who are in the fire may be pulld out. [Page 665]There's a peradventure mention'd of Gods giving repentance even to opposers, 2 Tim. 2.25. Such (saith the Apostle) were some of you. 2 Cor. 6.9. [...], such trash, such rubbish; Manasseh, Magdalen, and Paul the greatest of sinners, and those Christians hatefull and hating one another, serving divers lusts, and children of wrath, found mercy; Eph. 2.1. Tit. 3.3. God sometimes turnes people in their race of sinne, when they are gotten almost to their gole, hell-gates, and receives prodigals who smel of the hogs-trough, and recovers brands which are smutch't, singed, yea almost consumed. The freenesse of his grace, the riches of mercy, the depth of his wisdom, the greatnesse of his power, are all hereby magnified: we must not despair of the most seemingly desperate. We may censure the actions, not determine the ends (though) of great sinners. To conclude, the greater the mise [...]y and the more scorching the fire is out of which any o [...] us have been pluckt, the stronger is, the engagement upon us to save others, and to serve our Saviour.
5. The faithfull are very useful and beneficial to the world. Obs. 5. Tis a misery when any thing deare to us falls into the fire; but this is by much the greater, when there's no man neer to pluck it out of the fire. They who save our goods from the flames are commended for helpfull people. But they who save souls from the wrath of God and the fire of hell, are much more necessary. The people of God are falsly accounted the troublers and incendiaries of the world whereas their work is to recover out of the fire, not to cause and encrease the fire. There are none so miserable as they who may be suffred to lye in sinne as long as they please, without controlers or recoverers, who may bee as bad as they please, without check or reprehension.
6. The greatest diligence in recovery of souls, Obs. ult. is very excusable. The most earnest plucking of our treasure or child out of the fire wants not an apology. The best things require most labour about them. Trifles, fancies, riches, [Page 676]honours deserve not our diligence. Cum periculo iguis temporalis eripiendus est peccator, ex igne aeterno. No perswasions should be so vehement, no paines so great as those wee take for souls. We may easily be too importunate and painful when we labour for our bodies, but its impossible to be so when we labour to benefit ours or others souls. Tis an holy impudence to be impudent in urging any to pity their better part. Its a sinfull bashfulnesse to bee so courteous to forget christianity. Wee can never warn men too much of their spiritual danger. Its very good manners in christianity, to stay and knock again, though we have knockt more then thrice at the door of a sinners conscience. Either here or hereafter his conscience will commend us, though now his lusts bee angry with us. How willing therefore should people bee to take holy importunity for their souls good, in good part! If importunity overcame an unrighteous judg to do good to another, how much more should it prevail with us for our own good? Let not Ministers complain that they spread out their hands to a gainsaying people.
2. 2 In this manner of recovering these offenders, the Apostle enjoynes in the second place, that it should bee done with vigilancy and warynesse; In these words, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. And this he adds to the former, to warn the Christians that in their conversing with these offenders, when they laboured to recover them, they should take heed of getting any hurt from them, they being onely to deal with them as physicians, not as companions. Explicat.
EXPLICATION.
Two things are here briefly to be explained.
- 1. The thing to be hated, the garment spotted, &c.
- 2. How and why it was to be hated.
1. For the first, the garment spotted with the flesh. Many impertinent and overcurious expositions by Popish writers are given us of this place, some understand this garment spotted by the flesh, properly as if Jude intended that the filthy uncleanness and obscenities of these impure sinners, did not only defile their manners and actions, but [Page 667]even their very clothes & garments, by reason of their nearness to their defiled flesh, and even these (say they) Jude bids these Christians to shun or not touch, to shew their hatred of carnal uncleannesse. Levior mihi sensus videtur quam ut gravitatem Apostolicam deceat. Justinian. in loc. But Justinian seems rightly to conceive that this is an exposition of more lightness then to savour of apostolical gravity. Others by this garment understand that natural unholinesse which Paul calls the old man with his deeds, and commands the Christians to put off as an old filthy garment, Col. 3.9.
But this is not agreeable to the scope of the Apostle, which is not to direct the Christians what to put off from, and hate in themselves, but to shun and hate that which might bee conveyed from others to themselves. The best exposition is that given by learned Calvin, and some others, who say that by this garment spotted by the flesh, the Apostle intends that which seems to have any affinity or neernesse to the vices of these sinners which were among them. And this is very much confirmed, 1. by the word [...], here translated (even) which (as Calvin notes) ad amplificationem valet, hath the force of amplification, and imports as if the Apostle had said in a full speech, hating not onely the flesh it selfe, but even the garment spotted or infected by the flesh, and also 2. by that apt allusion which in these metaphorical expressions, Jude makes unto that commanded rite of the ceremonial law, whereby the Israelites were ceremonially unclean, not onely by touching the flesh of one who had a running issue, or the matter it selfe that issued forth, but even by touching the seat, bed, saddle, garments of such a person, Levit. 15.4, 5, 6, 17. &c. so that this direction of hating the garment spotted by the flesh, imports as much as if Jude had said, Know Oh Christians, though I have exhorted you to have compassion of the persons of these sinners, and to labour with them that they might bee pluckt out of their miserable estate yet I would have you warily to take heed to your selves, lest while you are about the curing of them, they infect you, and lest that [Page 668]while you lend them your hand to draw them out of the pit, they being stronger then you, pull you in to them. Nay, so far must you be from allowing and likeing their grosse and ungodly practices, that you must abstaine from whatever hath any neighbourhood or nearnesse to their sins. For not onely would▪ I have you kept from touching the infecting and defiling flesh, the sin it selfe; but I exhort you to hate even the very cloathes, or that which fits any thing near to it, or borders upon it, or hath affinity to it. And this direction principally comprehends two particulars.
1. That they should hate all incentives, occasions, inducements or inlets to sin, and that both in respect of themselves, and others. 1. In respect of themselves. Its safest keeping far from the brinke of the river. He who bath fallen, and yet will walke in slippery places, shewes that (yet) he hath not been bruised enough. Thus Eves looking on the apple, so as that it drew on her appetite; her parly with the Serpent should have been avoided. 2. In respect of others. Paul was very carefull to avoid occasions of making others sin, though things which he avoided were neither sinfull in themselves, nor to him. Pauls eating of flesh was lawfull in it selfe, and lawfull to him, and yet rather then he would offend his weak brother, 1 Cor. 8.13. Rom. 14.21. Gal 4.19. he would never doe it while the world stands. Paul was sometimes here travelling in birth with his little children, and was like a careful mother that is with child, who forbears many meats for fear of doing her childe hurt. Thus Paul, refused to circumcise Titus, fearing the confirmation of the Jews in their errour. Gal. 2.3.
2. That they should avoid that which carries a shew of evill, and is liable to misconstruction. Thus Paul refused the using his liberty in taking a lawfull maintenance for his labours, lest a sinister interpretation of covetousnesse and mercenary affection should have been put upon it by his adversaries. Though here it [Page 669]must be noted, that in all necessary duties, we must yield absolute obedience to God, though to the world it appear never so evill. Christ preached himselfe the bread of life, though the Jewes were offended, Joh. 6. Daniel will pray three times a day, though it cost him his life. John will preach against Herodias, though all the Court be offended. For though evill must not be done that good may come of it, yet good must be don though evill may come of it. Thus in doctrine wee must abstaine from such speeches, which though they may have a right interpretation, Haereticorum vocabula timenda. yet carry a shew of evill. To say we are saved by works, may have a true interpretation, but its better to abstaine from it, because it hath an appearance of popish merit. To call Evangelicall Ministers Priests may be truly expounded, but it were better to avoid the expression, because of the shew of Popish sacrifice and priesthood. The words of hereticks are to be avoided. And if we will keep the faith of the scriptures, we must keep the words of the scriptures. Those things which are malè colorata, though not in se mala, which have an ill colour, though not an ill nature, must be shun'd.
Caesar said of his wife, that she ought to be without suspicion of fault, as wel as without fault. Valentinian having a drop of the water sprinkled upon his garment, which was cast about by the Priests in their heathenish services, cut out that piece of cloth upon which that drop fell, from the rest of the garment. The ancient Christians would not set up lights and bayes at their doores, Tertul. lib. de Idol. though for this they were persecuted as Enemies to the Emperour, because the temple and the doores of Idolaters were wont to be thus garnished. These primitive Christians would not endure that any Christian should looke toward Jerusalem, praying, because they would avoid shew of Judaisme. Augustine thought it in his time, unlawful to fast on the Sabbath day, because the Manichees did so. God appointed [Page 650]his own Ceremonies, so, as a wall of partition might be put between the Israelites and Heathens. In which respect his people are forbid to eat swines flesh, (the ordinary food of the gentiles to make their heads bald, to shave their beards, to cut their flesh. And Aquinas thinks, that because the Heathens set their Temples East-ward, Aquin. 1 [...].20. 3. [...]. therefore Gods was set West-ward, ad arcendam idololatriam (saith he.) Not onely apparant sins, but sins in appearance are to bee avoided by Christians. Even the accompaning with sinners is suspicious, as well as the acting of their impieties is heinous. Tell me (said a good man once) where thou hast been, Eph. 5.7. and I will tell thee what thou hast done. A man sins as well by not reproving a swearer, as by swearing. He that doth not preserve the law, doth not observe it. This (say some) was one reason why David refused to take the threshing floore, oxen, &c. as a gift, but would buy them, because he would avoid the shew of covetousnesse.
For the second, why this garment spotted &c. was to be hated, i. e. inwardly loath'd, outwardly shun'd.
- In respect of God.
- In respect of Themselves.
- In respect of Others.
1. God. 1. 'Tis his Command, he would have his to adorne the Gospel, to shine as lights, to abstaine from all appearance of evill, and be holy in repute, as well as in reality. 2. His honour is hereby advanced. The farther we keep from defiling our selves, the more we keep from dishonouring him. Its the glory of the Gospel, when men cannot lay any thing like an evill to our charge, and when they cannot speak reproachfully and truly at the same time. 3. His example is hereby imitated. He hates all thats evill and like evill. The conformity of our affections with the Lord is very acceptable. How highly is the Church of Ephesus commended for hating the doctrine of the Nicholaitans, [Page 671]which (saith the Lord) I also hate. There is in God no shadow of change, and therefore nothing like sinne: He is of purer eyes then to behold sin or to look upon iniquity.
2. Themselves. 1. It is a true note of sincerity to shun evil in its very likenesse. He who hates a person, loves not his very picture. This is a main difference betweene a sound Christian and an hypocrite. A wicked man will abstain from evil in extreams, but commonly hee cares not for petty and appearing evils. Hence, tell him of such and such a sinne, his reply usually is, give me some plain manifest scriptures against it, scriptures which oppose his sinne by consequence and proportion will not serve the turn. It must onely be a plain bare-faced evill that he will forsake. An hypocrite loves the appearance of good more than goodnesse it selfe; the godly hates the very appearance of evil, as well as the evil it selfe. 2 Its his wisedome to avoid the appearance of evil. Hee who will never give way to so much as an appearing, shall not be overthrown with a real evil. Hee who will not touch, will not taste, much lesse swallow down a sinne. And hee who cares not to avoid the appearance of evil, by little and little cometh to esteeme the evil and the appearance both alike: the beginnings of sinne are modest, and yet make way to immodest proceedings. 3. He takes the wisest course to preserve his good name, he who abstains from appearing evils, provides for his conscience and reputation at once; and stops the mouths of accusers abroad, as well as of the accuser in his owne bosome.
3. Others, 1. The weake. 2. The wicked. 1. They who shunne the very resemblance of sinne. make those who are any thing inclinable to follow them, more exact and precise in their walking. [...]ommonly if a leader will adventure upon an appearing, a follower will be imboldned thereby to commit a real evil: for though when we behold men strict in holinesse, we are too ready to hope that we may bee allowed to come a [Page 672]little short of them, yet when wee see any take liberty to do that which enclines to evil, wee are prone to imagine that we may go a little beyond them. They who write copyes must write a fair hand; trifles in a leader are blasphemies. As reports lose nothing in the telling, so sinne loseth nothing in the imitating. Commonly the Scholer out-goes the Master.
2. They who allow themselves in appearing evils, harden wicked men, who ever make the faults of such seem bigger, and more then they are, and for fifty write downe an hundred; and ever make use of the appearing evils of Saints as sheilds and apologies [...]o bear them out in their greatest enormities.
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Obs. 1. Sinne and sinners are spotting and defiling, they stain what they touch. Of this before largely, Part. 2. p. 226. &c
The allusion here, is to a running issue defiling the thing it toucheth.
2. Obs. 2. The people of God in this world are subject to defilements. Jude in exhorting the Christians to carry themselves compassionately towards sinners, directs them likewise to carry themselves warily, lest they get hurt from them. Tis as hard to bee in the world and not to be polluted by it, as to be among infectious persons and not to be infected. The best of Saints have a principle in them which will make them catch infection. The great industry of worldly persons is to pollute the godly. Jam. [...]. ult. The power of religion is principally seem in keeping a [...] of the world. The people of God had need gird up their loynes, and carry themselves watchfully in every place and condition; spots are easily seen in white garments, and defilements on those who have more then ordinary purity. The men of the world are spotting, defiling creatures. They are such vessels of dishonour which a man cannot touch without pollution. A vessel of honour must purge himselfe from these, [Page 673]2 Tim. 2.21. And how great cause have Saints to long for that place, where they shall bee freed from places of, and temptations to sin! In infectious times we use to covet the country, and to desire an open and fresh ayre. Tis for scullions to be among the pots, and for worldly men to love to live in the world.
3. Obs. 3. Reprehension of sinne must be accompanied with sincere hatred to sinne. 'Twas not enough for these Christians to make offenders afraid, unlesse they also hated that thing from which they terrified them. That man will be but an ineffectual reprover, Personatae reprehensiones fri gent. Animum non saciunt, qui animum non habeut. and seldome works upon the heart, who speaks onely from the lip. The best oratory is that which proceeds from experience, knowing (saith Paul) the terrour of the Lord, we warn men. Hee who doth but act the reprover, doth seldome benefit the reproved. But should such a notionall teacher of others, do the [...]m good, what benefit comes to himselfe? surely he would be but like an unskilful serving-man, who opens the gate for his Master, but lets it fall to again, so as that he himselfe is hindred from following.
4. Appearances of good are to be loved and respected. Obs. 4. If any thing like to sinne be to be loathed, then the very shews and pictures of holiness are to be regarded. Christ, lookt upon the young man in the Gospel, and loved him. The outward humiliation of Ahab, went not without its reward. His appearing repentance had an appearing recompence. And God (saith Calvin) would shew how much he loved the truth of grace, by rewarding the shadow thereof. We love the picture for the persons sake. Much more we should love and cherish the least spark or dramme true of grace; The very smoking flax, and bruised reed. Its murder to kill a little infant of a spanne long, as wel as a full grown man.
5. A Christians honour is exactnesse in carriage. Obs. 5. Hee must walk accurately, not onely abstaining from grosse, but even from the finest spun sinnes, the very shew and appearance thereof. Every earthly Artist is so much regarded [Page 674]as he can shew exactnesse in this profession. In false religions exactnesse is highly set by; how great a sinne and shame then is it, that exactnesse in the most honourable art should only bee reproached! The enemies of precisenesse most oppose Christianity, nay they who are ashamed of holy strictnesse, are ashamed of the greatest glory.
6. Obs. 6. Great is the safety of the wayes of God. They preserve from coming neer the confines of sinne and destruction. The farther from sinne the more distant from danger. Hee who keeps himselfe far from sinne, needs not fear though troubles come never so neer. Vid. Part. 1. The beloved of the Lord shaldwel in safety by him, Deut. 33.12. though they are not taken out of the world, Joh. 17.15. yet they are kept from the evil, and so as that the evil one toucheth them not.
7. Obs. 7. Religion provides for our fame, as well as for our conscience. It keeps us from any appearance of a spot or suspicion of a sinne. Sinne martyrs the name, but holiness puts us upon those things onely which are of good report, our names are onely scratcht by the briars of sinne. In keeping our purity we cannot part with our reputations, unlesse it be among those whose praise is our reproach, and whose reproach is our praise.
WE have finished (by Gods assistance) the two first parts of this divine Epistle, viz.
1. The Title. Conteined in the two first verses.
2. The Body and substance of the Epistle, conteined from the 2d. verse to the 24.
[Page 675] The third Part, the Conclusion, layd downe in ver. 24.25. remaines to be handled. Though I shall rather briefly touch, then handle these two verses. Both because my scope when I began this Epistle was to insist upon the body and substance thereof, and because I have already at large spoken of the main part of the 24 th verse, viz. Christ preserving us from falling, and also in regard that the substance of the 25 th verse is handled by those who comment upon the Lords Prayer, and both largely and learnedly by Doctor Gouge in his Exposition of that prayer.
These two verses shut up this whole Epistle with a sacred and solemn Doxology, and celebration of Gods name by praise and thanksgiving. And three parts are herein principally considerable.
1. The person to whom praise is given, the Lord Christ, set forth three wayes.
- 1. By his
power.
- 1. To keep these Christians from falling.
- 2. To present them faultlesse before, &c.
- 2. By his Wisedome. The only wise God.
- 3. By his Goodnesse. Our Saviour.
2. What the praise is that is given him, viz. The praise of Glory. Majesty. Dominion. Power, All amplified by their duration, now and ever.
3. The manner how this praise is given him, intended in this word Amen.
1. For the first. The party praysed, is so described by our Apostle, as that the saith of these Christians may be the more confirmed in the praying for and expecting those things to which Jude in this Epistle had exhorted them.
And first he is set forth by his power, 1. To preserve them from falling. Of this power of Christ to preserve from falling into sinne and misery, I have at large spoken [Page 676]part 1. pag. 58, 59. &c. on these words, preserved in Christ Jesus. I here avoid repetition.
2. He is set forth by his power to present them faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. In which words are contained a description of the glorio usestate of the Church in heaven. This estate is,
- 1. Generally propounded.
- 2. Particularly exemplifyed.
1. In the generall proposition the saints are said to be presented before the presence of his glory.
2. The particular exemplification thereof is
1. Privative, by removing of all deformity, noted in the word faultlesse.
2. Positive, by partaking of fulnesse of joy, noted in this expression, with exceeding joy.
1. Statcere, sistere. The word (present) Gr. [...], Imports, 1. To place or set, as Matth. 4.5. Matth. 18.2. To dispose of a thing to a station. And 2. To place it in a way of firmnesse and stability, to establish it, Rom. 3.31. Matth. 12.26. The same thing is intended both here and Eph. 5.27. [...]. where the Apostle speaks of Christs presenting to himselfe a glorious Church: in which place the word [present] is taken from the custome of solemnizing a marriage. First the Spouse was wooed, and then set before or presented to her husband, that he might take her for his wife to be with him. Thus Eve was presented by God to Adam, that he might take her for his wife, Gen. 2.22. and Esther was presented to Ahasuerus; to which custome Paul elegantly alludes 2 Cor. 11.2. I have espoused you to one husband, that I may [...], Present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And this presentation is said to be before the presence of his glory. Gr. [...]. By this glory is meant the beaming forth, discovery, manifestation of the excellency of Christ before the saints. That of which Christ speaks, Joh. 17.24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where [Page 677]I am, that they may behold my glory, &c. By which glory I understand, not only that glory of soul and body, which he hath in common with the saints, subjectively abiding and inherent in him; but also that which is bestowed upon the humane nature by the personall union, and its exaltation to the right hand of God, above all saints and Angels. Before the presence of this his glory shall the saints be placed. [...], before it, coram, Rev. 3.21. in conspectu, in the full view of it, in a clear and open vision (not as having a glymps of this glory) right against it; The sunshine of Christs glory shall be full upon them, and they look full upon it, yea so as to be made partakers of it (in their measure;) this Sun looking upon them will make them shine also. Mat. 13.42. The wife of Christ shall shine with his beames, and be advanced to his dignity, so far as she is capable of it; she shall eat and drinke with him at his table in his Kingdome. Luk. 22.30. and Eph. 5.27. Its said she shall be presented a glorious Church.
Thus we see this glorious estate is generally propounded. But 2. Its particularly exemplyfied, and that.
1. Negatively, and so its said, he will present the saints without spot, [...], irreprehensible, unblameable, such as in whom the greatest Carper, or strictest and most curious beholder shall not be able to behold any thing amisse, no defect of what should be, or excesse of what should not be. The Church shall not have spot, wrinkle, or any such thing, no staine, or scar, no freckle or deformity. Nothing of staine or contagion received from others, no wrinkle, no defect of spirituall moysture, nothing which may make her seeme uncomely in Christs eye: not onely great and heinous sins (which are great botches and boyles) but every least speck and wrinkle shall be taken away. Now sin is subdued, but then it shall be rooted out. Here saints are freed from the power of it, but then [Page 678]from the presence of it also. He who will wipe away all teares from the eyes of his Church, will undoubtedly take away all matter of mourning from her soule. Heaven would not be heaven to a saint, could any spot continue in heaven. But when sin is gone, sorrow must needs flye away: if the fountaine be dryed up, the streames must needs follow. Sin brought in teares, and teares shall goe away with sin. Because saints shall be presented faultlesse, therefore with exceeding joy: For,
2. This glory is exemplyfied positively, With exceeding joy. Gr. [...]. The word imports an exceeding joy, Gaudium gestuosum. with an outward leaping, dancing, or some such cheerfull motion of body, an exultation which is exprest in the gesture. 1 Pet. 18. Ʋnspeakable is the joy in the hoping for this glory; How great will the joy be of having it! A Bunch of grapes greatly delights, what then will all the Crop of Canaan! Its call'd not only fulnesse of joy, Gaudium est quoddam filentinm appetitum &c, quidam thronus jam considentis affectus, quoddam sine sastidio epulum cord is, quaedam mors desiderii, quidam avaritia limes, &c. quoddam satis. Nieremb. de arte vol. l. 1. Prolep. 5. but joy it selfe, Mat. 25 41. And needs must it be so; for what is joy but the quieting and resting of the soule in its object, the filling it to the brim with what it desired! Joy is the stilling of all our longings, a cessation of all our cravings. Joy to desire, is what rest is in respect of motion. When motion ends, then comes rest. When desire is fill'd, then comes joy. Now what crevis, cranny, nook or corner of the soule is there which shall not be satisfied in heaven, by the immediate and perfect fruition of that chief good, God himselfe, who is the heaven of heaven, and who shall fill the soule as those waterpots of Galilee were fill'd up to the very brims? There shall be no empty spaces left in the soule untaken up. He who hath fulness enough to fil himself (a vast ocean) must needs have enough to fill the soule (comparatively) a small vessell. He who is selfe-sufficient, alsufficient, must needs be soule-sufficient.
Thus the person is described in respect of his power.
[Page 679] 2. He is set forth by his wisedome, in these words, The onely wise God.
1. He is call'd God. Of which largely before part 1. pag. 356, 357. &c.
2. He is call'd wise. He oft in scripture, hath the name wisdome it selfe Prov. 8.22, 23, 24. &c. Christ is call'd the wisdome of God. This his wisdome (as here attributed to God) is twofold. 1. His wisdome of science, or theoreticall wisdome, whereby he is omniscient, and with one immutable, eternall act of understanding perfectly sees, and perceives, observes, and knows all things. 2. His wisdome of working, Job. 12.13. whereby he does all things, both in respect of Creation and providence with infinite wisdome: Oculus mundi. according to the former, he is said to be a God of knowledge, 1 Sam. 2.3. There is no Creature that is not manifest in his sight. All things are naked and opened unto his eyes. Heb. 4.13. Known unto God are all his works. Acts 15.18. He seeth under the whole heaven. 2. According to the latter, he is said to make all his workes in wisdome. Psal. 104.24. By wisdome he made the heavens. Psal. 136.5 Isa. 40.28. Psal. 92.6. By wisdome hath he founded the earth, and stablisht the world, Prov. 3.19. Jer. 10.12. &c.
3. He is said to be onely wise. Not to exclude the wisdome of the Father, and holy Ghost, but the wisdome of all the Creatures. As God the Father is call'd the onely true God, not to exclude the Son and holy Ghost; And though the Creatures have wisdome, yet is not theirs comparable to Christs, nor deserves the name of wisdome. 1. For his wisdome of science, which is 1 universal, perfect compleat. He knowes himselfe and all things, Joh. 21.17. 1 Joh. 3.20. Acts 15.18. Knowne to God are his works, Psal. 147.5. his understanding is infinite. Whereas the greatest part of what man knowes is the least part of what he doth not know. 2. Hee knowes things to come. Isa. 41.23. Men and divells cannot foretell future Contingents, but either by Gods [Page 680]discovery, Praescientia Dei tot habet [...]estes quot facit Prophetas. Tert. Potentiae divin [...] extenditur ultra futura. or conjecturally. His prescience, hath so many witnesses as he hath made Prophets.
3. He knows all things possible, though they never shall actually be: his knowledge is as large as his power, and his power is such as that he can doe more then he ever will do. An artificer may frame that house in his head which he never will set up with his hand. God calleth those things that are not as if they were, Rom. 4.17.
4. He knows all things clearly, particularly, distinctly. All things are anatomiz'd, ript up before him. Heb. 4.13. His knowledge is not (as ours) generall or confused. We are said to know a man, though we know not an hundred things in a man.
5. He knowes the least things. Every circumstance of every action. His knowledge extends it selfe to every hair of the head, Matth. 10.30. Every sparrow that lights on the ground.
6. He knowes things with one simple view; not as man, by sense, opinion, relation, reasoning and discoursing, and drawing conclusions from proposition, and gathering knowledge of that which is lesse knowne by that which is more knowne. He is not for knowledge beholding (as we are) to the images and representations of things, which first are printed on our sancy, and thence offered to our understanding. Hee goes not out of himselfe to the objects for knowledge. He knew them before they were.
7. [...]. Chron. 28.9 Jer. 11, 24, 17.10. 1 King. 8.39. Psal. 139.2. Psal. 94.11. Ezek. 14.3. 1 Cor. 4.5. Matth. 9.4. Obliviscitur [...]. He knows the secretest things, even the very thoughts of the heart, he knows them when they are, hee knows them before they are; as what we do think, so what we will think, he puts thoughts into us, he publisheth, punisheth, reproveth thoughts.
8. He knowes permanently, nothing slips out. He forgets nothing, his knowledg can neither bee diminish't nor increas'd.
And 2. for the wisedome of his working. 1. He onely is originally wise; the wisdome of the wisest is from him. [Page 681] Bezaleels wisdome was bestowed by him, hee tiacheth men wisedome: all wisedome either speculative or practical is from Christ, every candle received light from his. The very husbandmans discretion is from God; Isa. 28.26. 2. He onely is exactly, perfectly, throughly wise, all his works for number, measure, and weight are done to the height of wisedome, not one of the creatures could have been made in greater wisdome. The fayrest copy that was ever written by the sons of men had some blots and scratches in it. The wisest men sometime slip and sleep like the wise virgins. 3. Hee onely is irresistibly wise, there is no wisedome against him, Prov. 21.30. None can goe beyond him. He destroyes the wisedome of the wise, 1 Cor. 1.19. and bringeth to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
3. The person praysed is set forth from his goodnesse and compassion in saving. Concerning the meaning of the word Saviour, as also from what Christ saves, and how excellent a salvation his is, see before Part. 1. p. 195.196, 197.
2. The second main part of this Doxology, is The praise it selfe which is here given to Christ, viz. the praise of Glory. Majesty. Dominion. Power. All set forth by the duration, for ever & ever.
1. Glory. By it I understand that infinite and incomprehensible excellency by which Christ excelleth all, and for which he is to be honoured above all. The glory of a thing is that excellency thereof, Exod. 33.20. which causeth it to be in high esteeme, and procureth fame and renown unto it. The glory of his essence is the God-head it self. When Moses desired God to show him his glory, God answered, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live, so that Gods glory is his face, and his face is himself. This Glory is the fountain of all glory, and excellency in the creature. All the creatures shine in any excellency with beams borrowed from Gods glory, as [Page 682]the stars shine with the light they receive from the Sun. And its brightnesse obscureth all other glory. The glorious angels have wings to cover their faces; otherwise the brightnes of Gods glory would dazle them. The glory of God is without measure, infinite, above comprehension, A light to which none can approach, 1 Tim. 6.16. When God darted a faint ray of this glory upon Moses's face, they were afraid to come nigh him. How much more may any creature be afraid to come to God by reason of the incomprehensible shining of his glorious face? When the Sun shines the Stars are not seen. When Gods glory shines no other is seen.
2. Magnifi [...]er [...]ia est [...] erum magnarum & excelsatum cum animi ampla quadam & splendida propositione agitatio atque administratio. Cic, de Juvent. Majesty. Gr. [...], Majesty or magnificence. By this we are to understand that admirable highnesse and greatnesse, amplitude, splendor, dignity of Christ (as God) which appears principally in his works, thereby making himselfe wonderfull, Psal. 111.3. The works of the Lord are great, and called wonderfull. The royall Majesty of Solomon, Ahasuerus, Nebuchadnezzar, in their apparell, buildings, feastings, attendance, &c. were but sordid and contemptible in comparison of Gods Majesty shewn forth in the truth, wisedome, justice, goodnesse, power of his works. In respect of these the Psalmist saith, he is cloathed with honour and Majesty.
3. Dominion, [...], properly signifying strength, Luk. 1.51. sometime power and by consequent dominion. I here understand by [...], the strength and ability of Christ, whereby hee can doe whatsoever hee will. This strength and might extendeth it selfe unto every thing that by power may bee done. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Gen. 18.14. Psal. 115.3. 1 Job. 4.4. Psa. 147.5. Eph. 3.20, 21. With God nothing is impossible. Luk. 1.37. With God all things are possible. Mar. 10.27. He is God Almighty, [...]. All things are within the compasse of his power, but such as import impotency and imperfection, as matters of iniquity, contradiction, passion, [Page 683]infirmity &c. All the power of the Creature is derived from, and subordinate to this.
4. Power. Gr. [...]. Ab [...] non est jus proprie, sed efficacia, talis quae quod vult aequum aut iniquum facile effectum dat. Grot. in Joh. 19.10. [...]. Libertas est potestas agendi ut velis, quâ datur extra alios esse, aliis obstrictum non esse, sed liberum, sui juris supereminere, praecellere. [...] q [...]asi [...]. The word signifieth authority and power. It properly importeth a Liberty to doe as one list. By it in this place Jude (I conceive) intends that supreme soveraignty and authority which Christ hath over all things, in governing and commanding them. He is an absolute Lord. Of this I have largely discoursed, part 1. pag. 344, 345. &c. on those words, The onely Lord.
2. All these are amplified from their duration. Now, and ever. Gr. [...]. Now that is in this life, and in all the ages of the world. The originall word [...] doth properly signifie that which is for ever, and because an age is the usuall and longest distinction of time, this same word is put for age. And when there is no end of that which is spoken of, the plurall number ages, or all ages, is used to set out the everlastingnesse of it. And this Eternity properly taken, is proper to God. For though other things are said sometimes to be for ever, and may have sempiternity or everlastingnesse (which looks forward to that which is to come;) yet they have not Eternity, which looketh backward and forward, and cannot (as here the properties of God) be said to be without beginning and ending. Besides, the very continuance of every creature is alterable and dependent. All the glory, majesty, power, Acts 17.28. Rom. 11.36. Dominion of the Creature is as the flower of the field, fading, indeed every thing in this world, like flowers, the sweeter they are, the shorter lived they are, and the sooner withering; the more beautifull (as they say of glasse) the more brittle.
3. Lastly, In this divine doxology, Amen signaculum orationis Dominicae. Hier. in Mat. 6. is considerable after what manner, or with what affection this praise is given; this is set down in the word Amen. Which imports a Confirmation of all that was said before, [Page 684]as is clear from 1 Kings 1.36. The Greek Translators turn it [...], be it done. And the root from whence the word cometh signifieth as much; but it was held fit by the primitive Church, Non est interpretatum, non ut esset negatum, sed ne vilesceres nudatum. Aug. Trac. in Joh. 41. Judai non solum ad omnes preces, sed ad omnes Conciones & Expositiones Allegoricas, dicere debent Amen, ut per hoc significent, quod credant id omne quod Rabbini l [...]quuntur. Buxtorf, de Synagog. Judaic. c. 1. p. 64. for the greater dignity of the word, (saith Augustin) not to translate it. Some have noted, that it cannot be translated without losing much of its weight; for when 'tis added to a speech, it is 1. A note of assent, and therefore it was not used onely by the Jewes at prayer, but at the Sermons and Expositions delivered by the Rabbins, to testifie that the people assented, and agreed to all that they taught. Hence Amen may not unfitly be call'd (as it were) a kinde of audible subscription. Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.16. directs the Christians to speake in a known tongue, that the unlearn'd understanding what he heareth, may give his assent to it by saying, Amen. 2. It importeth earnest desire. Hence Jer. 28.6. Jeremiah said Amen to the (though false) prophesie of Hananiah concerning the returne of the Captives to their Land, to shew how earnestly he desired that it might be so. 3. Stedfast faith, or a trusting that the thing to which we say Amen shall so be as was spoken, either when petition'd by us, or promis'd by God. And hence it is that Christ having made a promise of his second Coming, the Church saith, Amen. Rev. 22.20.
Having thus briefly explained this concluding Doxology, I might draw from its severall parts very many large and fruitfull Observations. But because I have noted many of them in the forenamed places where I have met with the same subjects contained in these verses, as also because I onely intended a touch upon this Doxology, I shall conclude with these generall notes.
1. Obs. 1. Praysing of God is a worke very sutable to Saints.
[Page 685] 2. After all exhortations for the obtaining any good, Obs. 2. God must bee acknowledged the Authour of that good.
3. Its our duty to praise God for future blessings, Obs. 3. for what we have in hope, as well as for what wee have in hand.
4. Spirituall blessings principally deserve our praises. Obs. 4.
5. In our adresses to God, Obs. 5. wee should have such apprehensions, and use such expressions concerning him as may most strengthen our faith.
6. Our speeches concerning Christ, must be with highest honour and reverence. Obs. 6.
7. Prayse should conclude that work which Prayer began. Obs. 7.
8. The concluding thanksgivings which are affixed to writings, are onely to be given to God. Rom. 16.27. Obs. 8. Claus [...]la doxologicae Deo propriae. Estius. in 2 Pet. 2 Tim. 4.18. Heb. 13.21. &c. I have ever with the deepest abhorrency of my soul lookt upon the endings of many Popish books, especially of those made by Jesuits, who share their concluding praises, between God and Saints. Thus Tannerus concludes his first Tome of School-divinity, Pineda his Comment on Ecclesiastes, with returns of prayse to God and the Virgin. Quos mihi ad hoc opus patronos & tutelares advocavi. pag. 1659. Virgini Dei genetrici Mariae & divini numinis conciliatrici. Baron: ad fin. Tom. 1. Annal. Tua ope et intertersessione da, ut quod hic exterius scripsi, interius spiritus sanctus suggera [...] Cornel. à Lapide in Heb. 13. ad fin. Sanctius ends his on the Kings and Chronicles, with ascribing the glory to God, the Virgin Mary, Ignatius, and Francis Xaverius; all which (saith he blasphemonsly) I have called upon as my Patrons and Defenders in the performing this work. Thus Baronius ends the First Tome of his Annals with ascribing the praise thereof to God the Father, Son and holy Ghost, and (to use his own words) to the most holy Virgin Mary, the mother of God and our reconciler. But Cornelius à Lapide exceeds all, in blasphemy and idolatry, who divides all the praises between Saint Paul and the Virgin Mary, at the end of his Comment on Pauls Epistles. Hee tells Paul, that by his strength and intercession, he had performed that work, and hee desires him to grant that the holy Ghost may make his writings beneficiall to others, [Page 686]yet hee tells the Virgin Mary, that he owes himselfe, Cui me, meaque omuia debeo, utpote quae me in hoc opere direxit, invit, instruxit, [...]ss [...]it (que), ut tarda, & impolita mens & manus mea fiereut calamus scribae velociter scribentis. Id, Ibid. and all his works to her, and that shee hath made his dul mind and hand, as the pen of a ready writer, pag. 1035, 1036.
For my selfe, All of good that I have, can doe, or have in this or any other service ever done, I humbly desire may be returned only to the honour and praise of my most dear and blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose grace was the principle of all that is rightly done in this performance, whose spirit was my guide in doing it, whose word was my rule, whose glory was my end, whose merit can alone procure acceptance for me and all my services, and the everlasting enjoyment of whose presence is my souls desire and longing. Amen.
ERRATA.
PAge 5 line 8 del despising, pag 5 l 35 read evill of, pag 7 l 22 r it, p 8 r highest, p 24 l 9 r sinner, pag 44 marg r Isag. p 53 l 12 r make, p 73 l 13 r in that, p 80 l 20 r ful of, p 102 marg r detractatores, p 112 l 22 r moderator, p 200 l 22 r prosecutions, p 205 marg r finis, p 253 l 21 r ever, p 257 l 3 r curam, p 288 marg r adipibus p 300 l 17 r Cocumenius, p 335 l 152 defects, p 381 marg del [...], p 512 l 13 r peaceable, p 544 l 25 26 dele so much, p 560 marg r lucifugae, p 583 marg r Hieron, p 612 marg r aliquo, p 637 l 32 r as they look, p 672 l 27 r seen. p 678 marg r silentiam appetitus, p 644 l 28 r By propounding.
EXPLICATION.
By way of Explication I shall enquire into these two particulars:
1 Why the Apostle calls Magistrates, Explicat. 1 or persons in authority, Dignities.
[Page 3] 2 What was the sin of speaking evill of those dignities? Est vis quaedum per quam Princeps sibi conciliat in hominum animis singularem quandam admirationem ac venerationē, et cum utraque conjunctum metum. Gerb. de Mag. Pol.
1 For the first: The Apostle calls them Dignities, in Gr. [...], glories, because of that glory and excellency wherewith God is pleased eminently and peculiarly to adorn them, whereby they raise in the minds of people a singular admiration and veneration to themselves, joyned with fear. To this purpose speaks the Prophet concerning Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 5.18. The most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar majesty and glory: and for the majestie that he gave him, all People, Nations and Languages trembled and feared before him.
And more particularly, this dignity or glorie appears: 1 In those glorious titles wherewith Magistrates are dignified and odorned above others: Luk. 22.25 Matth. 20 25 Rom. 13.3. Luk. 12.11. 2 Chr. 23.20. Jer. 14.3. Ezek. 31.5 1 Sam. 9.16 Psal. 83.11. Psal. 82.1, 6 Psal. 89.7. Gen. 41.43. and thus they are called Kings, Princes, great men, Rulers, Powers, Governors, Nobles, mighty ones, Captains, children of the most high, the sons of the mighty, Fathers, anoynted, Saviours, and as the upshot of all, Gods, because they are from God, and ought to be for God: they are appointed by him, and to be imployed for him; they stand in the place of God, and are his vice-gerents on earth, and have a particular charge and power of executing the judgments of God among men. 2 Chron. 19.4. Ye judg not (saith Jehoshaphat to his Judges) for men, but for the Lord.
2 In those Endowments and qualifications wherewith God hath adorned them for the executing of their places▪ Mutavit ei cor, quod ante erat parvum & servile, in cor regale. Abul. Altius & audacius cor habuit. Hug. Car. Cor immutatum, habebat, quia qui asinas quaesierat, jam de regni dispositione cogitabat. Greg. God never bestowing employments without end [...]ents. Saul being chosen King, is said to have another heart given him, 1 Sam. 10.9. He had those heroick gifts and Kingly abilities of wisdom, valour, &c. infused into him, which enabled him to discharge his place of Government. He who formerly sought asses, now spent his thoughts about preserving his Kingdom. When David was anointed King by Samuel, its said▪ that the spirit of God came upon him, 1 Sam. 16.13. which furnish'd him with gifts, as of sanctification (wherewith [Page 4]though formerly he were endowed, N [...]m. 11.17 2 King. 2.15 Exod. 18.21 Deut. 1.13. yet possibly not in so great a measure as now;) so of Regiment and Government; and it may be, of Prophesie and Poesie.
3 In that due respect or honour which is yeilded to them: This is first, Internall; consisting 1. in an honorable opinion and high estimation of them: Despising and thinking evil with the heart, will make way for despising and speaking evil with the tongue: The people thought David worth ten thousand of them. Num. 16.3 It was Corahh's sin to think (for else he had not said as he did) that Moses and Aaron were no more excellent then the rest of the people. 2. This internal honour stands in a reverent and awfull fear of them; a duty which we owe to our Parents, either by nature or analogy, Lev. 19.3.
Secondly, Externall; as 1. To rise up when the person of the Magistrate is in presence, Job. 29.8. 2 (as in most Countries) to uncover the head. 3 To bow the body, 2 Sam. 24.20. the knee, Gen. 41.43. 4 To stand, Exod. 18.13. 2 King. 5.25. 5 To be silent when he speaks, and to attend, Job. 29.9, 10. 6. To use words of submissivenesse, as Gen. 42.10. They call Joseph My Lord, and themselves ( ver. 13.) his servants. 7 To obey, Josh. 1.6. though in the Lord, Ephes. 6.1. 8 To pray for the Magistrate, 1 Tim. 2.1, 2.
4 Lawyers and Polititians mention sundry jura Majestatis, Vid. Bodin. de Repub. l. 1. c. 10 or Rights belonging to Majestie: As 1. The giving of Lawes. Arnisseum l. 2. de jur. Majest. c. 1. n. 8. 2 The exercise of supreme Jurisdiction, beyond which there is no appeal. 3. The power of the Militia. 4 Receiving Tribute of Lands, Cus [...]me from the Sea, Subsidie of Goods. 5 The liberty of Hunting. 6 A propriety in such things as have no rightfull owners to claim them. 7. The deriving of Honours. Gen. 41.41, 42 8 The coyning of Money. To which may added that State or port sutable to their places, in respect of Attendance, Diet, Apparel, Buildings, &c.
In the second Branch of Explication we are to enquire, 2 what was the sin of speaking evil of Dignities?
[Page 5] These words, speak evil] are in the Original one word, Idem valet quod [...] alterius [...]mam laedere maledictis. [...], they blaspheme: It signifies properly to hurt ones name by defamation, or slander. And though it be now appropriated to a dishonour offered to Gods name; yet it's frequently in Scripture spoken of defaming or evill speaking against man, as 1 Cor 4.13. Being defamed, evil spoken of, ( [...]) blasphemed, we intreat: and 1 Pet. 4.4. Wherein they think it strange, that ye run not with them to the same excesse of riot, Tit. 3.2. [...], blaspheming, or speaking evill of you. So Rom. 3.8. [...], as we be slanderously reported. And here in this place the word is spoken concerning the defaming, or speaking evill of persons in authority: A sin with which the Seducers are in this place charged; they being such, who, because they could not by the power of their hand remove and displace Magistrates, would do their utmost to blast and abuse them by the poyson of their tongue.
This sin of speaking evill of Dignities, may be severall wayes committed: Sometimes more secretly, by whispering onely, or libelling, for fear of censure: scandals of Governors have seldome any fathers; they kill, and make no report; they steal away reputation. Sometimes more openly, and before any, promiscuously: and both these wayes of evil speaking may be in a way either of murmuring, or of mutining. Of murmuring: When the people are in any distresse, Hominibus injuriâ affectis, aut pro merito minimè evectis promptum est in viros principes debacchari, & animi sui acerbitatem exspu [...] ri. Riv. in Exod. par. 2. pag. 71. col. 2. oft the first stone of complaint is thrown against the Magistrate; The Israelites want water, and they pray not to God, but murmur against Moses, as if he had made the waters bitter, and the wildernesse dry. Its a Kingly condition to deserve well and hear ill. If men prosper never so much, they only applaud themselves; if they suffer never so little; they murmur against their Rulers. Of mutining: Sometimes men so speak evill Magistracy, as to raise up evil against them. Murmurers offend out of impatiency, mutiners out of envie: By the former [Page 6]Governors are taxed for not taking enough; Numb. 16.3. by the later, for taking too much upon them: though Moses's command was a burden to him, yet was it an ey-sore to others, Corah and his company. This sin offends both by uttering against Rulers things false and evill: thus Absolom unworthily traduceth his Fathers Government, 2 Sam. 15.3 by telling the Israelites that there was no man deputed of the King to hear them; and Shimei cursed and reviled David, 2 Sam. 16.7 by calling him bloudy man, and man of Belial: And things true and good, falsly and evilly, as sometimes, though reporting, yet lessening, extenuating and detracting from their good actions, or depraving them as done of bad intents, for bad ends, or in hypocrisie; by uncovering their secret infirmities, by amplifying and aggravating their faults; affirming that miscarriage to be deliberately done, which was done rashly; or presumptuously, which was done weakly, &c.
The sinfulnesse of this evil speaking appears severall wayes: See Part 1 pag. 130, 131. concerning the sin of despising dominion. 1. By its notorious thwarting and opposing the evident commands of Scripture, Exod. 22.28. Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the Ruler of thy people. Eccles. 10.20. A Text cited by Paul himself, Acts 23.5. who there (as I humbly conceive) apologizeth for himself for his sudden and unadvised expression, in calling the high Priest a whited wall; the words [...] not signifying, I knew not, absolutely; but I wist not, I considered not, I heeded not, I took not sufficient notice how he was the high Priest; q.d. In my haste I termed him whited wall, which term (I confesse) might wel have been spared; not because it was false, but not fit nor consonant to that which is written, Honour the King, 1 Pet. 2.17. Render to all their dues, &c. Honour to whom honour, Rom. 13.7. The will of God against all pretexts imaginable, should be the end of all strife. 2 Because the speaking evil of Dignities is the speaking evil of God himself who ordained them. Pro. 17.5. If he who mocketh the [Page 7]poor, then much more he who revileth the Ruler, Imaginem Dei Rex gestat, idcirco colend [...] et amandus est; si non propter se, sal [...]m vocationis & functionis suae causâ. reproacheth his Maker. In the contempt of Magistrates God accounts himself contemned: They have not (saith God to Samuel, 1 Sam. 8.7) rejected thee, but they have rejected me. And this was the true cause why God was so angry with Miriam and Aaron, who spake against Moses, Wherefore (saith he) were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Numb. 12.1, 8 Heb. 5. To speak against him whom God appointed and set on work, is to speak against a great one indeed. 3. By the punishments inflicted upon such revilers, which are evident in the example of Miriam, Absolom, Corah, &c. And all Princes are not like Titus (the delight of mankind) who said, None can reproach mee, D [...]liciae humani generis. Nemo me insequi contumeliâ potest, propterea quòd nihil ago quod reprehendi mereatur: ea verò quae falsè de me dicuntur, prorsus negligo. Dio. because I do nothing that can be reprehended; and those things which are spoken of me falsly, I altogether neglect: for Tiberius, when Paconius had scattered reproachfull Verses against him, wrote to the Senate to appoint severe punishment against him: and although many Princes have remitted the injury as offered to their own persons; yet as prejudiciall to the good of the Common-wealth, they have, and that deservedly, punish'd them: and however Princes themselves have spared such railers, yet God would not suffer them to go unpunished, as in the case of Shimei, whom (though David spared, yet) God spared not. 4 This speaking evil of Magistrates is a spreading evill, hurtful to others: the reviler kils many with one shoot; himself, speaking wickedly; the Ruler, whom he accuseth unjustly; his hearer, who listens to him credulously. A reproaching tongue, being though worst to himself, yet hurtfull to those who hear him: Lev. 19.16. a Tale-bearer. Rokel signifieth a Trafficker up and down. and who knoweth how great a fire the tongue of one reviler may kindle? Seldome doth such a pedler open his pack of wares, but some or other will buy: No musick is so sweet to the most, as to hear well of themselves and ill of their Rulers. Peoples hearts and ears are commonly tindar and touchwood, presently [Page 8]taking fire when any spark of defamation, flies from the fire of a revilers tongue; and how great a flame such a spark may kindle, we may see in the cases of Absolom and Sheba.