passage or of the Epistle therefore to be doubted of by the same reason sundry other places of Scripture must be questioned frequently doth the Spirit of God in the Scripture 2 Tim. 3.8 set down that as done in former stories which was not at all there mentioned as Jannes and Jambres their withstanding of Moses Heb. 11.21 Jacobs worshipping on the top of his staffe Moses his saying that the sight upon the Mount was so terrible Heb. 11.21 Psal 105.18 that I exceedingly fear and tremble that Josephs feet were hurt with fetters and that hee was laid in Irons c. Yea how ordinary is it for the Penmen of Scripture to make use of sentences taken out of Heathen Poets as that of Menander 1 Cor. 15 33. Evil communication corrupts good manners Of Epimenides Tit. 1.12 The Cretians are always lyars evill beasts slow bellies Of Aratus Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being The Spirit of God which could sanctifie passages taken out of Heathens and make them Canonical might do the like by this relation or tradition if it were so of the Archangels contention with the Devil and by putting of the Apostle upon the inserting of it give it the stamp of divine authority and so render it to us most certain and infallible and by this we at once answer both those who reject this Epistle because Jude brings an example from tradition no where recorded in Scripture as likewise the Papists who offend in the other extream of excess from hence pleading for a liberty in the Church to joyn traditions with the Holy Scripture whereas they can neither prove that the Apostle had this story by tradition for why might not the Spirit of God reveal to the Apostles what had been done before in ages past as it did to the Prophets what should be done afterwards in ages to come nor that it is lawful for us to do all that the Apostles might who as Rivet well notes did many things by a singular and peculiar right Rivet in Isai p. 474. Apostoli multis singulari jure usurparunt in quibus nemo debet aut etiam potest eos imitari wherein none either ought or is able to imitate them This premised briefly I come to the words of the Verse wherein we have three parts considerable 1. The Combatants Michael the Archangel and the Devil 2. The Strife and Contention it self set down 1. More generally so it s said they contended 2. More particularly and so it was a disputation about the body of Moses 3. The Carriage of the Archangel in this Contention which was twofold 1. Inward in respect of his disposition set down Negatively he durst not bring a railing accusation 2. Outward in respect of his expression set down Affirmatively He said the Lord rebuke thee 1. First Of the parties contending Michael the Archangel and the Devil EXPLICATION In the Explication whereof we shall consider First Michael the Archangel who is described two wayes or from a double Name 1. Of his Person and so he is called Michael 2. Of his Office and Place and so he is called an Archangel The Name of his person is Michael This Name signifies who is as or like or equal unto God But who this person should be learned men agree not Some conceive that the Son of God the second Person of the Trinity is here cald Michael Others that an holy and created Angel is here by Jude intended by the Name of Michael and that as by the Name of Gabriel so likewise of Michael a certain Angel is to be understood And that this latter is the true opinion seems to me undeniable for these reasons 1. Because Michael Dan. 10.13 is called one of the chief Princes that is of the chief Angels or Archangels but how this can fitly be spoken of Christ I understand not whom we must not account one of the number of the Angels but one without or rather infinitely above that number or order even the omnipotent Creator of Angels as well as men Col. 1.16 2. An Angel vers 21. of the forenamed Chapter describing the difficulty of his work tels Daniel that there was none that held with him Inepta filio Dei indigna oratio Gom. de Nom. Mich. Tom. 1. p. 107. Tom. 2. p. 217. or strengthned him but Michael But this expression as learned Gomarus notes seems to be unfitly applied unto Christ because there can be no greater strength named then that of Christ whose power is infinite To say There 's none with me but the Son of God seems an harsh expression he who hath the Son of God to stand by him wanting no other 3. Jude call this Michael an Archangel but as we never read in Scripture that Christ is called an Archangel or a chief or the chief Angel so 1 Thes 4.16 we find that Christ and the Archangel are manifestly distinguished the Apostle saying that The Lord shall descend from heaven with the voice of an Archangel 4. It seems also to be very unmeet to say of Christ that he durst not bring against the Devil a railing accusation Christ being the Lord and Judg of Devils and whom he shall at the last day condemn to eternal punishment yea we find Joh. 8.44 that he passed judgment upon him and pronounced him a murtherer one that hath no truth in him a lyar and the father of a lye a sentence which the Angel here disputing with the Devil though he had just cause yet durst not utter he only saying The Lord rebuke thee 5. The Apostle Peter speaking of this very matter 2 Pet. 2.11 and aggravating the sin of these seducers by this humble carriage of their Superiours plainly speaks not of Christ but of the holy Angels he saying thus whereas Angels which are greater in power and might bring not a railing accusation c. Nor doth the Argument drawn from the signification of the name Michael prove that by Michael we are here to understand the Son of God This word Michael by Interpretation say some is qui sicut Deus and according to them imports one that is as or equal to God a name which say they cannot agree to any creature But it s answered that the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew is not here to be taken relatively as signifying one who but interrogatively Who is and it is ever in Scripture so taken Psal 89.8 Esai 44.7 Jer. 49.19 and 50.44 when used in expressions wherein the Name of God is celebrated as Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee c. So Psal 35.10 all my bones shall say Lord who is like to thee So Psal 71.19 And thus the giving of this name Michael to the creature is no dishonouring of God by making it equal to God Est confessio majestatis Dei non alienatio illius à Deo Gomarus but rather an advancing of God by an humble Confession or acknowledgment
the Church 1 Thes 5.20 Despise not prophesying and 1 Cor. 14.3 He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort So verse 24. 4. Sometimes it signifieth to know and to be able to declare things either past or present which a man either by nature or industry is not able to know and so it signifies to divine thus it is taken Matth. 26.68 Mark 14.65 c. where they who had blinded Christ bid him by way of derision prophesie who it was that smote him to this purpose said the Pharisee Luke 7.39 This man if he were a Prophet would have known c. 5. Strictly and properly to prophesie is to foreshew or foretel things to come or that afterward shall be fulfilled Thus it is taken Acts 21.9 Philip had four daughters Virgins which did prophesie Thus Ezek. 21.2 compared with ver 7. So Ezek. 29.2 30.2 34.2 38.2 And thus it must necessarily be taken in this place Enoch prophesied of these by way of prediction or he foretold their punishment 2. For the second whence Jude received this prophesie or prediction of Enoch To this some say that Jude took this prophesie out of an ancient book written of old by this Enoch the seventh from Adam True it is that in ancient times there were some writings dispersed abroad in the Church under the name of Enoch Tertulâ— de hab mul. cap. 3. and called by the name of Enochs book and of these Origen makes mention in his last Homily on Numbers And Tertullian in his third chapter de habitu muliebri affirms that the book of Enoch was preserved by Noah in the Ark and brought forth after the Flood Non sunt scripta in Canone qui scrvabatur in templo Cur autâ—m hoc nisi quia susâ— câ—tae fidei c. Illa quae sub Enochi nomine proferuntur continent fabulas Rectè à prudentibus judicantur non ipsius esse credenda Aug. l. 15. de civ D. c. 23. and he attributes the opinion of its want of authoritie to the malice of the Jewes who saith he because some eminent testimonies concerning Christ may be produced out of it endeavoured to suppresse it Augustin also mentions books bearing Enochs name That then there were such books called by the name of Enochs t is not denyed but that Enoch was indeed the Author of them and that Jude made use of them none can either probably or soberly suppose The books saith Augustine which under the name of Enoch are produced are to be suspected for false and none of his because the Jewes never accounted them cononical nor kept them in the temple as such and they ahound with fables Among the rest that fond and erroneous conceit so contrary both to Scripture and reason that the Angels in their assumed bodies went in unto the daughters of men and so begat those Gyants mentioned Gen. 6.4 Though this fabulous error being intituled to so holy and ancient an author as Enoch was imbraced by Justin Martyr Cyprian Clemens Alexandrinus Libros Enochi plane supposititios esse ut mihi persuâ—deam fa cit quod in Ecclesia Dei ante Babyâ—enicam cap tiviteâ—em in nullis prophetar um libris fit meutio tam rari thesauri quem non credibile est si in rerum naturâ fuisset Mosem latuisse qui etiam scriptorum Enochimeminisset in hac historia si tunc extitisent Rivet in exerc in Gen. 49 and some others Besides had there been any such true book or prophesie of Enoch in writing no doubt but it would have been very famous and highly set by among the Jewes both for the antiquity and holinesse of the Author as also for the preciousness of the matter in regard whereof some mention would have been made thereof by the holy Prophets or by Philo and Josephus who were curious preservers and writers of Jewish antiquities who yet did never discover to us that rare treasure And that Moses was the first of all the holy writers I think is the constant judgment of all learned divines protestant and popish nor doth Christ Luke 24.27 acknowledg any holy writer to be more ancient then Moses for Luke 24.27 it is said that beginning at Moses he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Now if Enoch had written a book probable it is that Christ would have begun at him he being so long before Moses to have explained the prophesies of his humility and glory the later whereof this prophesie of Enoch here mentioned by Jude doth so clearly discover It s therefore the opinion of some learned men that if there were in Judes time any writing which went under Enochs name it was written by some Jewes who mixed some things Good and true which peradventure they received by tradition concerning the prophesies of Enoch with other things false and fabulous which book of theirs might be more and more in the progress of time corrupted and was deservedly rejected as Apocryphal Possibly out of this Book Jude might take this passage The penmen of holy Scripture have not seldome taken several passages which tended to edification out of profane * Acts 17.28 1 Cor. 15.33 Tit. 1.12 Authors and thereby sanctified them to the use of the Church and yet as Rivet wel notes since Jude saith that Enoch prophesied it was necessary that Jude should have a peculiar revelation from the holy Ghost to assure him that the prophesie recited by an apochryphal Author did indeed come from Enoch for otherwise should he only rely upon the Authority of an apochryphal book the prophesie related by Jude would no more be canonical then it was as set down by the apocryphal writer Others Protestants and Papists assert Capta occasion e ex prophetia Henochi commemorata à Juda libros quasi antiquitus scriptos puublicarnt â— Perer. in Gâ—n Nieremberg de Oâ—ig sacscrip pa. mihi 51. that after the death of the Apostles some impostors taking occasion by Judes alledging the prophesie of Enoch did publish and set forth a book under the name of Enoch that so by its bearing the name of one so pious and ancient it might find the better acceptance Of this opinion is the learned Gomarus who withal gives a parallel instance of the feigning of an epistle under Pauls name to be written to the Laodiceans by occasion of that passage of Colos 4.16 so that according to this opinion some took occasion to write this fictitious book of Enoch by reading of Judes Epistle not that Jude ever saw any book under Enochs name extant or took his prophesie out of it Many learned men therefore very probably conceive that our Apostle received this prophesie from common and undoubted tradition transmitted from the Patriarchs and so handed from generation to generation til such time as it seemed good to the holy Ghost by the Apostle Jude to make it a part of Scripture And thus the Apostle mentions the withstanding of Moses
Common-wealths suffer In troublous times the walls and temple of Jerusalem went but slowly on Though Jesus Christ the head be the only fountaine of spiritual life yet the usual way of Christs strengthning it and perfecting thereof is the fellowship of the body that by what every joynt supplies the whole may be encreased when Church-members are put out of joint they are made unserviceable and unfit to perform their several offices They who were wont to join in prayer sacraments fasting and were ready to all mutuall offices of love are now fallen off from all 4. It s opposite to the future estate of the Church in glory In heaven the faithful shall be of one mind wee shall all meet saith the Apostle in the unity of the faith Eph. 4.13 when we are come to our manly age Wrangling is the work of child-hood and folly and a great peice of the folly of our child-hood Lutheâ— and Calvin are of one mind in heaven though their disciples wrangle here on earth OBSERVATIONS 1. Naturally men love to be boundlesse Obs 1. they will not be kept within any spiritual compasse nor endure to bee held in any bounds This according to one signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle Jude aimes at in this place Wicked men are sons of Belial they cannot endure the yoke of Christ though it be sweet and easie They break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from them Men love to have liberty to damn their own souls Psal 2 3. Hos 4 16. They back-slide like a back-sliding heifer Though men account it no unwelcome streightning to them to have a fence between them and their bodily enemyes yet they cannot endure those limits and bounds of Gods law or corrections which stop them from sin their fear of hurt makes them love preservation their love of pleasure makes them desirous of sinful liberty How good a sign of a gracious heart is it rather to desire to be in Christs inclosure then in Satans champain to account Christs service our liberty and Satans liberty our bondage How just also is God in suffering sinners to take their course and swinge in the wayes of sin and destruction They who wil not be kept within Gods compass are deservedly left to Satans disposall They who are back sliding heifers who will not endure the yoke are justly threatned to be suffered to be as a lamb in a large place without a keeper or preserver They shall have their fill of liberty but their liberty is like that of the Deer which though it were gotten out of the park-pale yet it was at the cruel curtesie of the hounds On the contrary God is very gracious in stopping up his churches way though with a thorny hedge Oh happy thorns that stop us in our waies to hell Such thorns are better then roses The setting up of the thorny hedge Hos 2.6 is a promise a branch of the Covenant Our separation from Rome cannot be charged with schism Obs 2. This will evidently appear if we consider either the ground or the manner of our separation 1. For the ground and cause thereof our separation from Rome was not for some slight and tolerable errours but damnable heresies and grosse idolatries The heresies fundamental and idolatries such as those who hold communion with her cannot but partake of In respect of both which the church of Rome was first Apostatiz'd before ever we separated nor was there any separation from it as it had any thing of Christ or as it was Christian but as it was Romane and Popish The Apostacy of the Roman church which was the ground of our separation appeared sundry ways 1. In that she did thrust the Lord Jesus the great and onely teacher of the church out of the chair and in it placed the Pope as the infallible Doctor of the church to whom she ties her beliefe and subjects her faith though he alwayes may and oft doth rise up against Christ himself 2. The Scriptures the alone rule of faith the Romanists slight and impiously despise and make them an insufficient rule of faith by joyning their over-fond and false traditions to it by preferring a vitious and barbarous interpretation before the sacred originals by making the holy Scriptures to have neither life nor soul nor voice till the interpretation of the church or rather the Pope be added 3. They have depraved the great and main article of faith concerning the justification of a sinner the nature whereof though the Scripture makes to stand in the remission of sinnes and the application of Christs righteousnesse by faith yet they ascribe it partly to Christs and partly to our own merits and righteousnesse in which respect that of the Apostle sutes with them Christ is become of no effect to you who are justified by the law 4. Though the worshipping of the immortal and invisible God under any visible image or representation or the likenesse of a mortal creature be frequently and expresly forbidden in Scripture Ecclesia Romanaeusus admittit basce trinitatis imagines caeque pinguntur non solum ut ostendantur sed ut adorenâ— tur In 3 Aq. 9.29 art 3. yet they set forth and teach the worshiping of the Father under the image of an old man the Son under the image of a Lamb and the holy Ghost of a Dove And Cajetan confesseth that they draw these images of the Trinity not only to shew but to adore and worship them To these I might add their maiming or rather marring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper their denying the cup to the laity Their ascribing of remission and expiation of sin to the sacrifice of the Mass their seven Sacraments their praying to Saints Auge piâ—s justitiam Reisque dona veniam Solve vinela reis Profer lumen Coecis Psalt Rom. and ascribing to the Virgin Mary the bestowing grace and glory pardon of sin c. Their dispensations with the most hideous and bellish abominations as murders incest Sodomy c. for mony c. 2. For the second the manner of our separation it was not uncharitable rash heady and unadvised nor before all means were used for the cure and reformation of the Romanists by the discovery of their errors that possibly could be thought of notwithstanding all which though some have been enforced to an acknowledgment of them they still obstinately persist in them Our famous godly and learned reformers would have healed Babylon but she is not healed many skilful Physicians have had her in hand but like the woman in the Gospel she grew so much the worse By praier preaching writing yea by sealing their doctrine with their bloods have sundry eminent instruments of Christ endeavoured to reclaim the Popish from their errors but in stead of being reclaimed they anathematized them with the dreadfullest curses excommunicated yea murdered and destroyed multitudes of those who endeavoured their reducement not permitting any to trade
with serving of the Lord. Rom. 12.11 Let the Tempter ever find thee imploied The night comes when no man can work John 9.4 but as long as the day lasts no man must loyter As sleep causeth idleness so idleness causeth sleep Strive to attain to the highest pitch of grace and yet ever be working as if thou wert at the very lowest Phil 3.13 Forget those things as the Apostle speaks which are behind Take heed of turning thy spur into a bridle namely of making that former practice of holiness which should be an inducement to thy further active progress an hinderance from proceeding therein All the steps we have taken are lost if we give over before the race be run 6 Keep company with waking Christians such as neither dare sleep in sin themselves nor suffer any to sleep who are neer them In the sweating sickness they say that they who were kept awake by those who were with them escaped but their sickness was deadly if they were suffered to sleep The keeping one another awake is the best fruit of the communion of Saints Heb. 10.24 25 The Apostle speaks of provoking one another to love and good works of exhorting or calling upon one another 7 Watch over thy self in the use of such things as are in themselves lawful In lawful things there is least fear and therefore most danger More perish by meat then by poyson because every man takes heed of the hurtfulness of the latter and fears not any harm by the former Satan lyes in ambush behind our lawful enjoyments Christ was once lost at a feast and oft since in worldly abundance Prosperity never waked any out of sin 'T is as hard to be full and watchful as to be empty and contented Luke 21.34 Sobriety and Vigilancy are put together Take heed lest the vapours of sensual enjoyments overwhelm thee Let the things of this life be thy Solatia not thy Negotia thy refreshments not thy employments use them as the things not for which thou dost live but without which thou canst not live They who are inclined to be gross in their bodies should use much exercise and they who have abundance in the world should take much pains with their hearts lest while they get the world they lose their God VER 9. Yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Divel he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee THese words contain an aggravation of that hainous sin wherewith our Apostle had charged these Seducers in the foregoing verse their Crime was their speaking evil or blaspheming of Dignities the greatness of this sin the Apostle evidenceth and evinceth by comparing of it with the contrary meek and humble carriage of the Archangel even towards the worst of creatures the Divel himself This comparison the Apostle first Propounds ver 9 wherein he describes the meek and humble carriage of the Archangel towards the Divel in his contending with him 2 He accommodates and applies it to these Seducers ver 10. 1 In the comparison propounded in ver 9 there is intimated a threefold amplification of the sin of these Seducers by comparing it with the deportment of the Archangel 1 In respect of the persons compared and this branch of the Comparison is double 1 Between a chief Angel and vile men 2 Between Magistrates and the Divel 1 If Michael an Angel an Archangel durst not rail how impudent and proud are men dust and ashes to adventure to do so 2 If he did forbear to revile the Divel himself the enemy of God and his Church the worst of evil ones and one who was his inferior how great was their sin who would speak evil of Magistrates called Gods and set up by him as those to whom they ought to be in subjection 2 The second branch of the Comparison whereby their sin is amplified was from the different cause about which the Angels and these Seducers were employed The cause for which the Archangel contended was good clear and righteous namely the burial of the body of Moses a work very good whether we consider the Authority of him who enjoined it God himself or the end of the injunction the preservation of the people from Idâ—latry but the cause which these Seducers had undertaken was wicked and sinful considering that it was the blaspheming of that Order which was instituted and ordained by God himself Tit. 3.1 Rom. 13.1 1 Pet. 2.18 and by his special command to be highly honoured and esteemed The third branch of the comparison whereby the Apostle heightens their sin was the different carriage and deportment of the Archangel towards the Divel from that of these Seducers toward Magistrates 1 The Archangel reasoneth humbly and disputes the Seducers peremptorily determine the question pass sentence and give judgment The Angel commits his cause to God and appeals to him for redress and relief the Seducers are Judges in their own cause break their bounds detract from Gods Authority and usurp his Throne The Angel in the fervor of contention when most highly provoked was patient and humble these provoked by none rage and revile These are the particular branches of the comparison set down this verse If it were needful before I come to the handling of these several parts of the verse to premise any thing by way of vindication of it and the whole Epistle from the Exception of those who alledg that the Epistle is not Canonical because the contention about the body of Moses is not mentioned in Scripture but was only a tradition I might answer 1 With Learned Junius the substance of this History is mentioned in Scripture Deut. 34 6. therein we finding that the Lord buried Moses and that none knoweth of his Sepulcher unto this day so that it is plain the body of dead Moses was buried by God i.e. either by his own immediate power or by the instumrental power of an Angel as seems from this place most probable and also that the particular place of his burial was altogether unknown to men and divels 'T is true the Scripture mentious not circumstances either a contention of Michael with the Divel or the carriage and expressions of either party in that contention But therefore 2 Though these passages here set down by Jude be not expressed in the Sacred Story yet 't is sufficient for us that they are now by the Apostle who was led by the Spirit of God inserted into holy Writ Possibly as Rivet notes this story was not delivered to the Apostle by tradition but revealed to him by the Holy Ghost Some indeed say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 3. c. 2. it was taken out of a certain uncertain book called the Ascension of Moses and mentioned by Origen Others that it was handed by tradition from generation to generation But granting either of the two last Is the Divine authority either of this
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
reverence the godly who are departed this life is to be led by that spirit whereby they were led while they lived 2. Observ 2. Threatnings denounced by divine warrant should deter us from sin If Enochs prophesie which was of divine authority foretell judgments they must not be slighted As divine promises should uphold and comfort us in our lowest and weakest estate so should divine threatnings make us tremble and affright us from sin in our greatest strength and highnesse The Ninevites by fearing evils foretold by Jonah against them prevented the feeling of them Josiah holily feard and his heart was tender and he humbled himself when he heard what the Lord spake against Jerusalem 2 Kings 22.19 when Micah the Morashite prophesied in the dayes of Hezekiah King of Judah saying Zion shall be plowed like a field c. Hezekiah feared besought the Lord. Jerem. 26.19 A judgment denounced by God cannot be kept off by power there 's no might or strength against the Lord. The hand of the Lord is not weakned nor is his arme shortned when he minds to deal with his most potent adversaries As God can Create deliverances when he intends to shew mercy so can he create judgements when he purposeth to punish The truth of a threatning will break through the greatest improbabilities of its approaching Though the Caldeans were all as wounded men if he threaten to punish by them Jer. 37.10 they shall be victorious against the unrepenting Jewes There 's no way of flying from God but by flying to him the way to get out of the reach of judgments threatned is to repent by the threatning of them nothing but our repenting sincerely can make God repent mercifully Oh how foolish a madnesse is it by politique endeavours to imagine a prevention of judgments divinely threatned or by persecuting the prophet to think to overthrow the prophesie The Prophets d ee they live for ever yet my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your fathers Zech. 1.5 Paul suffered trouble even unto bonds but the word of God saith he is not bound 2 Tim. 2.9 3. Obs 3. Sinners should look upon the threatnings denounced against others for sin at belonging to them without repentance The wicked against whom Enoch immediately prophesied were such as lived ungodlily in his time and yet the Apostle saith that he prophesied against these seducers The reason is because these lived in the same sins with those wicked ones of old As the promises made to the godly who lived in former times belong to those who imitate them in succeeding ages so the threatnings denounced against former sinners are denounced also against those who follow them in sin and that by the constant analogy and proportion of justice unlesse these repent they shall likewise perish Luk. 13.3 Strong is the inference of the Apostle Rom. 11.21 If God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Threatnings denounced against and inflicted upon those who lived in former times manifest Gods equall dislike of those who shall live in the same sins in succeeding ages he shewing thereby that he is prepared if they will also sin to doe what he hath done against those who lived before them Though Gods forbearance towards some shews that sometime he can spare sinners yet his punishing of others shews that he never loves sin In all ages God is the same he abhors sin in all the ages of the world Psal 7.12 Obs 4. Psal 119 100 Mibi pro archivis est Jesus Cristus Ignat. Mos diabo licus est ut per antiquitatis traâ—ucem commendetur fallacia Aug. qu. 114 nov et vâ—t Test nor will he goe out of his way to gratifie mens lusts changing is not Gods property but the sinners duty If he turn not he will whet his sword 4. Doctrines of greatest antiquity are only to be imbraced as they consent with the testimonies which come from the infallible Spirit of God Enoch though the seventh from Adam and so very ancient yet only is to be believed in what he said as speaking by prophesie and receiving what he delivered from divine revelation Whatsoever doctrines proceed not from or agree not to this are notwithstanding all pretences of antiquity to be rejected as spurious The Papists who have no patronage from Scripture have but a rotten support for their opinions which pretend to greatest antiquity Custome without truth is but the antiquity of error Cypr. Ep 74 The most proudly swelling allegations of the ancients are but like a swoln leg which though it be big is yet but weak and unable to bear up the body Religioâ— is auto ritas non est tem pore metienda Arnob. Contr. Genâ— 2. the authority of religion must not be measured by time We reverence the ancient fathers and hold it our duty to rise up before the hoar head and to honour the person of the aged but still with reservation of the respect we owe to their father and ours that Ancient of daies Non veritas antiquitatis sed antiquitas veritatis Ecclesiae authoritatem confert Riv. contr Q. 7. p. 224. the hair of whose head is like the pure wool Dan. 7.6 In opposition to him we must call no man father Matth. 23.9 Nor yet is this said as if Papists were able to produce better proof out of the testimonie of the ancients for their errors then we can do for the truth but to give the word of God its due which is that rock upon which alone we build our faith The truth is Papists have removed the ancient land-mark which the Father 's set that so they may invade anothers possession Christus veritatem non se consuetudinem coguominavit Tert. l. de vel virg c. 1. their traditions are new boundaries their doctrines of Merits Image-worship Equivocation Transubstantiation Denyal of Priests marriage Power of the Pope are new and upstart not only to the Scripture but even to the writings of the Ancients This for the preface The prophesie it self of the last Judgment followes And in that first of the note of incitement to cause regard to the following description of the judgment in the word Behold EXPLICATION The word Behold is in Scripture used principally these two waies 1. As a note of manifestation of the truth reality certainty of a thing to be observed or believed Thus it s used Mat. 28.20 Behold I am with you to the end of the world Gen 1.29 Apoc. 3.8 9 11 20. Psal 37.36 Zech. 9.9 Matth. 28.20 Gal. 5.2 Behold I have given every herb bearing fruit Gen. 28.15 Behold I am with thee and will keep thee Apoc. 2.10 Behold the devill shall cast some of you into prison Apoc. 9.12 Behold there come two woes more Mat. 26 45. Behold the houre is at hand and the Son of man is betrayd c. Job 5.17 Behold 1.