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 t is 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 largâ—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 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 â—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 hirudâ— 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 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 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
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 it s 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 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 wheele will soon stand still It s 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 'T is 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 't will 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 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. It s our greatest wisdome to get and keep the Spirit If either we never had it or lose it we cannot pray 1. 'T is gotten in the ministery of the gospel The Spirit is peculiar to the Gospel and not belonging to the law if
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 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 malâ—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. It s our wisdom to take heed of spiritual sleeping in sin For which purpose 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 it s 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 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 necessiâ—as Aug. â—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 Naturalâ—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 Apostle join'd
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 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 It s 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 liâ—ga torum causas non pulsavis nec audivit stultam planè absurdam sententiam pronuntiet necesse est Petrarc 6. It s 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 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 Mephibâ—sheth 2 Sam. 16.3 4. before he had heard what Mephibâ—sheth could alledg for himself Potiphar likewise shewed himself as unjust as his wife shewed her self unchast by an over-hasty 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 triâ—icum lolium quamdâ—u herba est nondum â—uâ—mus venit ad spâ—cam grandis similitudo eft in disceruendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distanâ—ia Praemonâ—t ergo Dominus ne uâ—i quid ambignum est cito sententiam proferamus sed Deo judici terminum reservemus Hieron Ut nobis exemplum proponat ne mâ—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 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
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 Jâ—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 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 it s often used to note the violating and abusing of the body by unchastity and so it s commonly said that a Virgin or her Virginity is corrupted or violated And thus 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 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
eleventh verse whom he rather mentions then any others in regard of their great hurtfulness to the Church by cruelty seduction and sedition they being the types and forerunners of these Seducers 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 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 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 thâ—â—â—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 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 it s â—â—â—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 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
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 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 't is 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 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 it s a vain thing to look for Justification from that which thou must first justifie A man till justified is a Leper and every 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 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 â—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 quà m 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 It s 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 carpÃtque et carpitur una Supplicâ—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 the Vine brings forth Thorns and the Fig-tree Thistles De melioratione deterioranâ—â—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 prâ—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 It s 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 'T is 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 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
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 inspiâ—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 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 Annotâ—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 It s 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. 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 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 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
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 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 out-lives 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 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 it s 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 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
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 plaâ—e and God after him A very piâ—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 Gâ—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 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 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 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 VER 12. These are spots in your Feasts of Charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear clouds they are without water carryed about of winds trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots THe Apostle having amplified the sin and misery of these Seducers from sundry Examples Hanc
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 sâ—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 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 It s 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 it s 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 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 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 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 hominumque reverentiâ Loâ—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 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 violatiâ—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 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 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 judg is a blind man of colours Caecus de coloribus nâ—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
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 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 sapoâ—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 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 It s 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 repletâ— 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 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 temulentâ—s Hier. â— 2. contr Jov. Viscus Spiritualium pennarum Non currimus onerati Animae
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 Gâ—â—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 It s 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. Deuâ— 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 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 It s 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 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 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 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 aereÌ„ 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 tuÌ„ plerisque aliis observari necesse est scripturaÌ„ noÌ„ 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 Piâ—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
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 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 theâ— 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 It s 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 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 there 's 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 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. â—0 T is 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
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 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 Vncleanness 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 Oâ—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 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 self-seeking 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 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 externall obedience
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 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 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 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 haerâ—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 incâ—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
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 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 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 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 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 â—ight of their Judg trembled to think of their judgment Mat. 8.29 OBSERVATIONS 1. Obs 1. Honorandi propter imitationem non adâ—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 It s 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
with sin they sin of infirmity and weâ—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 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 dâ— 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 't is 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 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 gratiâ— destituutnur Lorin inloc Ut ea quae dura sunt tactui resistunt ita probra et maledicta Gnosticorum à rect â ratione maxime abâ—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 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
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 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. 'T was Davids prayer take not thy holy spirit from me Take heed of giving way to sinnes of pleasure 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 VER 20. But ye Beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost 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 it s call'd your faith 3. How it s 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 which 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 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 It s 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 It s 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. 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 this building up 2. This building up of
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 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 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 prayer is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence Luke 11.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognationem habet cum verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod significat attendere intendere animumque 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
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 It s 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 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 it s 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 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 it s 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 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 't is 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 'T is 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 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
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 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 â— 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 There 's 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 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 It s 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 it s better they should be of bad then good of fearful things then of joyful It s 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 It s 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 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