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A87557 An exposition of the epistle of Jude, together with many large and usefull deductions. Formerly delivered in sudry lectures in Christ-Church London. By William Jenkyn, minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and pastor of the church at Black-friars, London. The second part.; Exposition of the epistle of Jude. Part 2 Jenkyn, William, 1613-1685. 1654 (1654) Wing J642; Thomason E736_1; ESTC R206977 525,978 703

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till the earth closed up again What way they were saved it matters not spared they were and their names were Assir Elkanah and Abiasaph God is so just as to be feared in the midst of his smiles and so merciful as to be beloved in the midst of his frowns his goodness makes him to remember Mercy in the midst of Judgment although our sins sometimes stir him up to remember Judgment in the midst of Mercy 2. It s evident that afterward they were employed by God as Levites in several Services They were Keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle 1 Chron 9.19 Their Fathers had been over the hoste of the Lord namely 1 Chron 9.19 Num. 1.50.2.17 those Levites who encamped about the Tabernacle the hoste of Israel compassing it like the Kings Tent. Some of this Family were for the outward business over Israel 1 Chro. 26.29 namely such things as in the country were to be done gathered and prepared for the House of God for the Service thereof as all manner of provision fewel oil Wine Tythes first fruits c. Some were possibly Teachers in the Law and Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil for the Israelites being governed by the Judicial Lawes Deut. 16.18 2 Chro. 19.8 and the Levites being best exercised therein they were sent abroad among the several Tribes to be Judges But that eminent Employment to which they of Corahs family were designed 2 Chron. 17.8 was singing in the House of the Lord they were set over the service of the Song in the House of the Lord 1 Chron. 6.31 and verse 32. They ministred with singing And Heman a Corahite who is said 1 Chron. 25.5 to be the Kings Seer and to lift up the horn that is say some a Musical Instrument was the chief Musician 1 Chron. 6.39 44. and had his fourteen sons under him for Song in the House of the Lord with Cymbals 1 Chro. 25.6 7 Psalteries and Harps and they are said with their fellowes to be instructed in the Songs of the Lord and to be cunning Many Psalmes as the 42 44 45 46. have in their Title For the Sons of Corah and some conceive that some of the Psalms were penned by them particularly that the forty sixth was their thanksgiving for their escape at their fathers destruction the Title saying Of or for ths sons of Corah to which mention of the Sons of Corah the Chaldee Paraphrast addeth By their hand was it spoken in Prophesie at what time their father was hidden from them but they were delivered and said this Song a conjecture which was occasioned by those words in the second verse We will not fear though the earth be removed c. I rather conceive that the Psalme might be indited by David and that it was appointed for them to set a tune to it and it s generally held that the 88th Psalm was penned by the forementioned Heman 1 Chron. 6.33.37 if so it speaks him a very humble godly son though of a wicked rebellious forefather and how free God is in despersing his Grace and how gracious he was in preserving Corahs posterity is much more manifested in that Samuel ver 27 28 33. a man so eminent for being a holy man Gods favorite and Israels Judg and happy Preserver was one of Corahs off-spring Thus by way of Explication we have seen whom these Seducers followed Corah 2. 2 Branch of Explicat But secondly Wherein did they follow him Jude saith 1. In Gainsaying 2. In perishing therein 1. In this gain-saying 1. I shall shew wherein it stood 2. How Great the sin of it was 1. For the first The word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contradiction or Gain-saying signifieth these either verbal or real Verbal Heb. 7.7 Without all contradiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the less is blessed c. and the Sadduces are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who deny that there is any Resurrection In some places secondly the word principally importeth real contradiction or opposition though not excluding the verbal Thus I take it Heb. 12.3 where it is said of Christ that he endured the contradiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of sinners and I understand it in this place to be a contradiction as by words so chiefly by works More particularly this contention opposition or contradiction which Corah expressed and is at large described Numb 16.1 was that insurrection and Sedition which he enterprized against Moses whom he gainsayed and against whom he stood up to throw Aaron out of and to gain to himself he being of the Tribe of Levi the Office of Priest-hood wherein Aaron was placed by Divine appointment This Real was accompanied coloured over with that verbal gainsaying wherein Corah charged Moses Aaron with usurpation and ambition in taking too much upon the● That this * gaining of the Priesthood was the design is plain from the words of Moses ver 9.10 where he thus expostulates Seemeth it a smal thing to you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himsel c. And seek you the Priest-hood also For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord and what is Aaron that ye murmur against him For the accomplishing of this rebellious Design he doth not only joyn to himself a great company of the chief Levites to throw Aaron out of his Office but incites Dathan and Abiram who were of the Tribe of Reuben in regard of their primogeniture before Moses they being of the eldest Tribe to depose Moses from and to assume to themselves the civil Government at the same time in this work he also joyning with them he well knowing that if Moses continued to enjoy the Government of the Commonwealth he should never be able to carry on his Design of getting to himself the Priesthood As for these Seducers against whom our Apostle here writes I dare not peremptorily assert that the Apostle only intends that they imitated Corah in disturbing the order and rule of the Church I doubt not but ●orah opposed both Civil and Ecclesiastical Order its plainly exprest Numb 16.3 that he with Dathan and Abiram and their followers gathered themselves together both against Moses and against Aaron And supposing that Corah only had opposed Aaron Potest boc exemplum accommodari ad propositum Apostoli etidmsi objecta peccatorum sint diversa Gerb. in 2 Pet. p. 257. by labouring to invade the Priesthood yet as Gerard well notes this example of Corah in opposing Church-order might well be accommodated to Judes purpose were his purpose only to shew that these Seducers were enemies to Civil Order and Superiority for although the sin of Corah and these Seducers had different objects yet they both agree in resisting of Superiors But it s most probable that Jude intends that these Seducers by comparing them to Corah did oppose all
Daniel ub supr in the Reign of Henry the Seventh who though the greatest Peer in the Realm and laden with many Favours and great Offices yet was a man of that exorbitant and unbounded Ambition that nothing would please him but a Preferment which used to go to the Kings Eldest Son Though Peleon be layed upon Ossa and one Mountain of greatness upon another yet will an ambitious mind look upon them all as too low Kingdom added to Kingdom and could it be so world to world would but be a drop to the belly of the Elephant Ambition The best way to satisfie the thirst of one in a Feaver is in stead of giving him drink to cure his Distemper and he who hath the Itch shall more wisely take away the inward cause there of then think to allay it by scratching Le ts not think to satisfie our Lusts by making provision for them its Christian wisdom rather to study to kill then content inordinate desire and more to bring our hearts to our condition then our condition to our hearts Let us look upon that station of life wherein God hath set us as the best for us A garment which fits us is better for us though it be plain then one which is gaudy and three or four handfuls too big God best knowes how to order our Estates Should we be our own carvers we should often cut our fingers Let us also compare our Receipts with our deserts * and our selvs with our inseriors Observ 6. Naturae bonitas nisi pietate confirmetur facile illabescit Cart. Harm and though the former seem small when they stand by themselves yet if we set them by the latter they will appear of a large size and a tall stature 6. A meer man is firm and steady in no relation Natural relations unless back'd by grace are very slippery and unstable foundations of friendship Corah a wicked man though a neer kinsman to Moses proves his greatest Adversary Abels brother Josephs brethren Davids son could not be kept from Murder and Treachery by the bond of nature It is not the alliance but the renovation of nature that can establish friendship easily break the bonds of nature as Samson did his cords till his locks his Lusts be cut off No natural man accounts his own brother that lay in the same womb with him so near to him as the lust that lodgeth in his heart He provides friends most wisely for himself who either finds or makes them friends to God An enemy to God will not long be a friend to thee Natural love oft ends in an unnatural hatred A bad man will not conscienciously be a good husband son brother Grace doth not slay but sanctifie not annihilate but elevate nature turns water into Wine and Spiritualizeth carnal affection How just with God is it that he whom thou dost not desire to make Gods friend shall prove thy foe that thy child which is most cockered by thee in sin should afterward prove the greatest grief to thy heart God suffering to thy sorrow him to rebel against thee whom thou hast suffered and seen without sorrow to rebel against God 7 Innocency is no shelter from opposition Observ 7. The goodness of no person nor cause can exempt either from hatred No man meeker then Moses none better beloved then Aaron none more beneficial to Israel then both no cause more Righteous then the holding a Government to which they were appointed by God himself yet neither the persons nor their cause could be free from the conspiracies and contestations of sinners Jesus Christ himself endured their contradictions Heb. 12.3 and gainsayings It s no sign of a good man to have few opposers nor of a good Cause to have many abettors He who is not opposed by the stream goeth with it The world will hate where God loves So far is Holiness from exempting the Godly from the ill will of sinners that it drawes it forth Let other qualifications of Learning sweet nature Birth c. never so much abound yet Grace marrs the taste of all these in a carnal palat Antipathies can never be smothered reconciled The meekest Moses will he be a Moses shall be gainsayed notwithstanding his meekness The wicked rise up against the Faithful not for doing any evil against but for not doing evil with them If in our keeping close to God we meet with unkindness from the wicked let us not wonder if with love let us be thankful but yet withal suspicious of our selves that we do or at least cautelous that we may not sinfully correspond with them 8. Instruments of publick good Observ 8. often meet with unkind requitals Moses and Aaron Israels deliverers and defenders were gainsayd by an unthankful people Israel owed to these saithful Governors under God their provision peace and protection but for this the tribute which they paid was Conspiracy and Rebellion Nothing is so easily forgotten as the benefits we enjoy by Governors The lightest injuries are easily remembred and are like feathers that swim on the top of the water weighty favours like a piece of lead sink to the bottom and are forgotten Gideon had been a famous Deliverer of Israel Judg. 9.5 but the benefits which that unthankful people enjoyed by him are so neglected that they slew his sons 2 Chro. 24.21 22 Though Jehoiada was the renowned Restorer of Israels Government and Peace yet was his son destroyed by them who next to God owed all that was dear to them to his Faithfulness and Wisdom It s a Kingly honour to meet with unthankful returnes from those to whom we do much good The mothers brest gives milk to the froward Infant that strikes it God would have all especially Publick Officers in all the good they do to eye his Glory and command and not the applause of men No opposition must discourage us in the Faithful discharging of our places nor chase us from the station wherein God hath set us 9 Excellency and Superiority are the marks of Envy Observ 9. Invidemus inferiori ne nobis aequetur pari quia nobis aequatu● superiori quia ei nou ae quamur Though Moses and Aaron cannot be opposed for their sin yet they may be envyed for their Power As Equals are envyed because they are such and Inferiors lest they should be our Equals so principally Superiors because we are not equal to them Joseph was envyed because he was higher then his brethren in his fathers favour Nullae necessitudinis jura tam sancta et inviola●a quae su●● invidiae stimulos non pariuntur praescrtim cum quis inter cognatos ad impertum promovetur Mendez in 1 Sam. 10.16 Paterna largitatis memor non est qui est fraternae immemor charitatis haedum sibi datum negat qui tantam substantiam accepit Chrysol Ser 4. Senior dicitur eò quòd cito aliquis per invidiam consenes●●t Ambr. in Luc. Haec est
invidentium natura ut malin● propria mala pati quam aliena bona intueri Mend in 1 Sam. 5. Quanto ille qui invidetur successu meliore profecerit tanto invidus in majus incendium livoris ignibus inardescit Cypr. lib. de Zel. Liv. Non illos malos faciendo sed istis bona quibus mali facillimè possunt invidere largiendo incitesse dicitur ad odium August in loc and dreamed that he should be higher then they in his worldly condition the Israelites likewise were envied because they increased more then Egyptians David by Saul because the women ascribed more thousands to him then to Saul Moses by Miriam and Aaron because by God advanced above them and here Moses and Aaron by Corah and his Complices because of their Superiority The object of hatred is oft the sin of others but of envy alway the Excellency of others either real or seeming of body mind estate fame c. the cause thereof being pride or an inordinate self-love the Envious ever deeming his own Excellency by anothers happiness to be diminish'd and obscured Thus the elder brother Luke 25. deemed himself wronged by the love which his father shewed to the younger and by reason of Envy against his brothers he forgets his fathers bounty to himself and he who had received all his fathers inheritance denyes that ever his father had given him a kid Of all sinners the Envious is most his own scourge and torment He had rather suffer misery then see others in prosperity as some have noted of the Philistims who could hardly be brought by the smart of their own distresses to send the Ark back to Israel Psal 105.25 it s said that God turned the heart of the Egyptians to hate his people But as Augustin well notes not by making the heart of the Egyptians evil but the Estate of the Israelites prosperous What a moth to the soul saith Cyprian is Envy Qualis est animi tinea in malum proprium bona aliena convertere aliorum gloriam facere suam poeham velut quosdam pectori suo admo ere carnifices c. Cypr. de zel liv to turn anothers good into our own hurt to make anothers glory our own punishment The meditation of this cursed distemper of the Envious may provoke us to contentation in a low condition They are high Towers upon which the lightnings of Envy falls It● oftentimes a mercy to be in misery How many righteous and well-deserving persons have been made faulty and guilty only for their being wealthy and honourable How abundantly doth the sweet safety of a retired life recompence for all that obscurity which seems to debase it How oft have I known those who have lived in envyed honour to envy those who have lived in safe obscurity 10 Heretical Seducers Observ 10. are commonly turbulent and seditious They here followed Corah in his opposing of Authority They who deny the only Lord God as these Seducers did will make nothing of despising Dominion They who oppose Gods Dominion will never regard mans Impious men will not be obedient Subjects The order of obedience prescribed by the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.17 is first to fear God Prov. 24.21 Cunctus totius orbis clerus imperio Magistratus Civilis ex emptus L. 2. decret Tit. 2. Imperator quod habet totum habetà nobis in potestate nostra est ut demu● imperium cui volumus Hadrian in epist ad Archiep. Treu. Mogunt Colon. and then to honour the King My son saith Solomon fear thou the Lord and the King The Romish off spring of Antichrist who throw off and deprave the Law of God will not submit to Civil Authority They openly teach that the Clergy is exempted from the power of the Magistrate So long as the Arch Heretick the Pope lives Corah and these Seducers will never dye In one Pope are many Corahs Seducers Rebels Libertines He usurps a Dominion over all the Princes in the world he makes himself the Sun and from him as the fountain of light he pretends that all Civil Governors as the Moon borrow their light to himself he saith is given all power in heaven and in earth and as profanely he applies that passage Psal 72.8 He shall have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the ends of the earth And that of Prov. 8 15. By me Kings reign And when he speaks concerning the distribution of Empires and Kingdoms he imitates his Father in these words They are delivered to me and to whomsoever I will I give them It would be endless and in some respect needless as having toucht upon this sad Subject before to relate the many bloody machinations and murtherous enterprises of the Popes cut-throats and Emissaries against the persons of Christian Princes Under the wing of this whore of Babylon in the nest of the Popes chair Pag. 179 180 181. having been hacht those stabbings poysonings powder plots and which is worse the defence of all these by his Janizaries the Jesuits in their writings in blood which have fill'd the ears and hearts of true Christians with horror and amazement Nor would it be unsutable to the present Subject to mention the seditious turbulency of the Heretical crew of Anabaptists of late years who to all their other erroneous Tenets adde this that before the day of Judgment Christ should have a worldly kingdome erected where the Saints onely were to have dominion and Magistracy was to be rooted out and with what an inundation of blood these idle and at first neglected dreams and opinions have filled Europe the Histories of the last age have related to us and the Lord grant that we who have read and not been warned by them may never our selves become an History to the age which shall come after us I say no more Of this more page 638. Part 1. 11. It s a sin for those who are uncalled Observ 11. to thrust themselves into the office of the Ministry Hudson 137. Corahs sin was his endeavour to invade the Priesthood Seek ye the Priesthood also saith Moses to him Numb 16.10 And because all the Lords people were holy as Corah alledgeth vers 3. therefore he pretends that others had as much right to discharge the office and function of Aaron as Aaron himself had and that since the people had an holiness by vocation to grace whereby the Israelites were distinguisht from other Nations there needed no holiness of special consecration to distinguish the Priest from other Israelites Now that this sin of Corah which was an invasion of the Priests office may still be committed in the times of the New Testament is clear because the Apostle reproves it in these seducers And that it can be no other way committed in the times of the Gospel but by intrusion of uncalled persons into the Ministry of the Gospel is say * See Mr. Ly fords judicious Discourse some as plain because
his own weapon and to turne his own artillery upon himselfe Further the sinfull tongue of all other parts doth most hurt to others not onely by vexing and afflicting them with calumnies reproaches disgraces but also infecting them and scattering its poison to tempt and draw to sin and error How great should our care be to throw the salt of grace into the streames of our words to labour that our speech should be alway gracious Col. 4.6 and as the Apostle speaks seasond with salt and that both by cleansing the fountaine the heart for if the stomack be corrupt the breath will be unsavory as also by setting a watch before the doore of our lips and by giving entrance to no expressions but such as can bring a passe from the scripture adding to that double guard the teeth and lips with which nature hath hedgd in the tongue a third namely the fear of God which is the best keeper both of heart and tongue alwayes remembring that though words seem to vanish and to dye as soone as we have spoken yet that our words have not done with us when we have done with them but that even of our seemingly perisht expressions and forgotten if sinful words shall we at the last day be convinced The arrowes of our words shot so high that they seem to be lost and out of sight will afterward fall upon the heads of those who shot them up 4. Obs 4. Christ accounts the words spoken against his as utterd against himself These troublesome ruggedtongued sectaries handled the names of others as we have heard rudely but at the last day Christ will convince them of these hard speeches their foolish tongues shall recoyl upon themselves and rebound like an arrow shot against a brazen wall from the reviled innocents to the nocent revilers Jesus Christ wil give his Saints more then treble damages nay fourfold restitution for all the reproaches which they have sustained sinners shal restore the stoln reputations of Saints and that with interest It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to all who even this way trouble his people Christ wel knowes that all the hard speeches against his servants were uttered for his sake because they did not run with the wicked to the same excess of riot they were therefore followed by them with excessive reproaches David said it was for his sake that Saul killed the Priests of the Lord he could not come at David and therefore he destroyed his friends The wicked cannot reach the person and therefore they tear the picture but Christ wil hereafter suffer none to be losers by him that have been losers for him the revilings uttered against Saints wil at the last appear to have been spoken against the truly great ones the favorites of the King of glory Were ye not afraid saith God to Aaron and Miriam to speak against my servant Moses He speaks to them as slandering a great person Ver. 16. These are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaks great swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of advantage IN this verse our Apostle excellently applyes the forementioned prophesie of the last judgment unto these seducers shewing by sundry apt and pregnant proofs that these seducers were guilty of that ungodliness for which the wicked at the last day were to be judged And they discover their ungodlinesse these four wayes 1. By being murmurers complainers 2. Their following their lusts 3. Their boasting speaking great swelling words 4. Their admiration of mens persons 1. They discover their ungodliness by shewing themselves Murmurers Complainers EXPLICATION I shall herein shew two things 1. Who are here meant by murmurers complainers 2. Why Jude expresseth himself against them or what is the greatnesse or hainousnesse of this their sin in being murmurers complainers 1. For the first who are here meant by murmerers complainers The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murmurers imports an expressing of discontentednesse against another in our words and that not aloud with an high voice but with a voice somewhat low muttering and grumbling The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes say some from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grunnio Suum more grunnire murmure leuis aquae strepitus denotatur et a graeco verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descendere videtur to grunt as fat swine and so imports secretly to speak against others saith Gerard with hatred and impatience Thus Matth. 20.11 They who received but a penny for their work thinking themselves wronged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murmured against the good man of the house and the Scribes and Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murmurred against Christ and his disciples for eating with publicans and sinners And John 6.14 the Jewes murmurred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against him because he said he was the bread of life Submissâ voce mussitare So ver 43.61 of the same chapter So 1 Cor. 10.10 neither murmur ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of them also murmured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and were destroyed of the destroyer though sometime as Beza notes the word is taken for any close secret whispering of a matter without offence and indignation as Joh. 7.12.32 yet most frequently and properly it is used in the former signification This mumuring may be either against men or against God himself the word here used by Jude by its own force signifies not one more then another Against man have men frequently murmured as the Israelites against Moses and Aaron nor is any thing more usual then for people to murmur especially against their Governors out of envy impatience or discontent a sin questionless which these seducers were deeply guilty of who despised dominions and spake evil of dignities and yet because the Apostle had accused them for that sin before ver 8. and also threatned destruction against them for it ver 11. Because also the next word Complainers wherein the Apostle shewes the cause of their murmuring notes a complaining of that lot portion condition set out by God for us I rather conceive that this murmuring here with which Jude chargeth these seducers was their muttering of impatient discontented expressions against God himself with whom they were angry and displeased a distemper which allowed is an evident sign of an ungracious ungodly heart the thing which also Jude here intends to prove and contrary to that quiet and silent submissiveness of the godly who with Davd are dumb and open not their mouth because the Lord doth it Psal 39.9 who wil be pleased with God and with whatever he doth when he is most angry with them who wil justifie him when he seems to condemn them A sin likewise is this murmuring against God of which the ungodly Israelites are frequently accused As Deut. 1.27 Exod. 15.24 and for which they were severely punished Concerning those who by murmuring shewed themselves displeased with God the Apostle tels us that God was