Christ That which they entertained meerly for fear they present to others as a doctrine of Faith These are reeds that bow and hang according to the standing of the winds such a reed shaken with the winds was not John Baptist but rather an Oak which will sooner be broken then bend by the winds by an holy Antiperistasis his zeal was doubled by opposition These false Teachers were like a man that goes to Sea for pleasure not for Traffick if a storm arise he will come back or put to the next shore Like that ship Acts 27.15 they bear not up into the wind Jer. 9 3. they are not valiant for the truth Tit. 1.9 nor hold they fast the faithful Word but let it go if enemies contend to pull it away 3. They were carried about with the wind of pride and ambition They gaped after the breath of applause old truths are of no reputation among the giddy sort hence it was that these were carried to teach that whereby they might be voiced and cryed up for some rare men dropt out of the clouds and seeing further then all the rest of their times They could not tell how to get above others unless they taught something different from others truth was counted but a dull stale business and therefore they chose rather to be accounted such as excelled by being erroneous then such as were onely equall to others Vento superbiae omnes haereses animantur by delivering the truth The wind of Pride is the life and soul of Error it is the element wherein it moves and breaths Seducers were puft up as Paul speaks Col. 2.18 vainly by their fleshly minds a humble soul will not easily either teach or follow an Error It hath ever been the property of Seducers to follow the peoples humour with Errors that so the people might follow them with applause 4. They were carried about with the wind of earthly mindedness They taught any false doctrine for filthy lucres sake 2 Pet. 2. they would rarely be carried with any wind but such as blew them some profit they steered their course by the compass of gain their Religion began at their purse strings They served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies Rom. 16.18 This was that wind which carried Balaam about from country to country from Altar to Altar he and his followers loved to be of the Kings Religion Thus Erasmus said that one poor Luther made a great many rich Abbots and Bishops he meant that by preaching against him they were wont to get their great livings and preferments Demas forsook truth to embrace the present world OBSERVATIONS 1. The want of the showrs of a faithful Ministry spiritual rain is a singular curse and calamity Consciencious Ministers are clouds and their Doctrine rain As no rain is so useful and profitable as the rain of the Word so neither is it so great a misery to be deprived of any as of this God often in Scripture promiseth Showres and Teachers as great Blessings Deut. 28.12 The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure the Heaven to give thee rain c. Joel 2.23 Rejoice in the Lord your God for c. he will cause to come down for you the Rain c. And for instructours see Jer. 3.15 Jer. 23.4 I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledg and understanding Isai 30.20 Though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity and the water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more God also threatens the keeping away of rain and the taking away of Instructers as dismal curses Deut. 28.23 Jer. 3.3.14.4 Amos 4.7 Isai 3.2 1 Sam. 3.1 Hos 4.5 Ezek. 3.26 Psal 57.9 The Heaven that is over thy head shall be brass thy rain shall be powder and dust Lev. 26.19 I will make your Heaven as iron and your earth as brass Zach. 14.17 Vpon them shall be no rain Never was a greater plague on Israel then when in three yeers and a half it rained not on the earth in Ahabs time And concerning the Prophets the Lord saith Mich. 2.6 They shall not Hebr. drop Prophesie and Isai 5 6. God threatens his Vineyard that he will commands his clouds his Prophets that they shall rain no rain upon it God threatned a great judgment in great displeasure against the people Ezek. 3.26 when he told Ezekiel that he would make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth and that he should be dumh and no reprover to them and when he threatned that he would remove away the candlestick of Ephesus out of its place Rev. 2.5 The want of Spiritual is a much greater woe then the want of natural rain The withholding of showâ—s from Heaven can but produce a Famine of bread the want of a faithful Ministry brings a Famine of the Word of the Lord Amos 8.11 And this famine of the Word of the Lord is a Soul-famine And 1 Opposeth not Natural but Spiritual life The separation of the soul from the body is but the shadow of death True death stands in the separation between God and the soul Where vision faileth people perish Prov. 29.18 My people perish for want of knowledge Hos 4 6. Salvation and Life eternal stand in Knowledg Joh. 17.3 1 Tim. 2.4 2. Bodily famine takes away our natural strength and vigor whereby we perform our ordinary and worldly actions but a soul-Famine destroyes that Spiritual strength whereby we are enabled to heavenly Employments Praying Repenting Believing Holy-walking 3 Bodily Famine makes the outward man look pale deformed lean unpleasing soul-famine brings a leanness into the soul deformity and profananess into the face of our conversation Who observes not in Congregations whence the Word is taken the miserable change of men and manners In Elies time sin abounded and the reason is set down 1 Sam. 3.1 In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious 4 Bodily Famine as other external judgments may be a help to bring men to God by causing Repentance and bettering Obedience as in the Prodigal but the famine of the Word puts men farther from God and by it men grow more obdurate in sin 5. Bodily Famine may be recompensed and made up with Spiritual food Isai 30.20 Though the Lord give the bread of Adversity yet he countervailes that loss by giving them to see their Teachers whereas Spiritual famine cannot be recompensed by having bodily food because when God takes away the food of the soul he takes away himself the tokens of his presence and Grace and what can be given in exchange for God himself 6 Of bodily Famine people are sensible they cry out thereof and labour for a supply but the more soul famine rageth the more people disregard their misery and slight their wretchedness by fasting forgetting how to feed and with their food losing often their stomacks too How much then are they
the roots 2 Therfore I understand with Reverend Mr. Perkins and others that these words without fruit are as it were a correction of the former as if the Apostle had said they are trees whose fruit withereth or rather without fruit altogether the fruit which they bear not deserving so much as the name of fruit as trees that bear no other then withering fruit are esteemed no better then unfruitfull trees and thus notwithstanding their withering fruit they may be said to be without fruit in sundry respects 1. They were without fruit in regard that all their forementioned fruits were not produced by the inward life and vigour of the spirit of sanctification in their souls Their fruit grew upon a corrupt tree and proceeded from an unclean bitter root They were not the issues of a pure heart and faith unfaigned but the streams of an unclean fountain The fruitfulnesse onely of slow-bushes Crab-trees and brambles cannot make the year be accounted a fruitfull year A corrupt tree saith Christ cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.18 How can ye that are evill speak good things Mar. 12.24 Their best fruits were but fruits of nature coming from an unregenerated heart That fruit which before his conversion Paul accounted as precious as gold he after esteemed as base as dung 2. They were without fruit in regard their fruits were not brought forth to a Divine end they were directed to no higher an end then selves Riv. in loc Israel saith God is an empty Vine though bringing forth fruit for it followes he bringeth forth fruit to himself I am not ignorant that some Interpreters expound not that Text concerning the fruit of works though yet they grant the place may be by consequence drawn to take in them likewise As these fruits were not fruits of righteousnesse Phil. 1.11 so neither were they to the praise of his glory If thou wilt return O Israel saith God return to me Jer. 4.1 They returned saith the Psalmist but not to the most high The pipe cannot convey the water higher than is the fountain head from whence it comes and these fruits being not from God were not directed to him Fruits brought forth to our selves are rotten at the core they are not for his taste who both looks into and tries the heart 3. They might be without fruit as not producing works in obedience to the Rule The doing of the thing commanded may possibly be an act of disobedience God looks upon all our works as nothing unlesse we do the thing commanded because it is commanded This onely is to serve him for conscience sake A man may do a good work out of his obedience to his lust As its possible for a man to believe 1 Thess 4.3 1 Thess 5.18 not because of Divine Revelation so is it possible for a man to work and not upon the ground of Divine injunction Be not unwise but understand saith the Apostle what is the will of God Eph. 5.17 Mans wisdom is to understand and follow Gods will 4. Without fruit as to their own benefit comfort and salvation The works of Hypocrites are not ordained by God to have heaven follow them at the last day all they had or did will appear to be nothing and when the Sun shall arise then the works which here have shined like glow-worms shall appear unglorious and unbeautiful of all that hath been sown to the flesh shall nothing be reaped but corruption God crowns no works but his own nor will Christ own any works but those which have been brought forth by the power of his own Spirit 5. Lastly Without the fruit of any goodness in Gods account because without love to God 1 Cor. 13. Love is the sweetness of our services If I have not love saith Paul I am nothing and as true is it without it I can do nothing the gift of an enemy is a gift and no gift As love from God is the top of our happiness so love to God is the sum of our duty There is nothing beside love but an Hypocrite may give to God with Gods people it is the kernel of every performance God regards nothing we give him unless we give our selves also Its love which makes a service please both the master and servant Now wicked men in all they bring forth though they may have bounty in the hand yet have no love in the heart they have not a drop of love in a Sea of service This for the Explication of the second aggravation or gradation of the sin and misery of these Seducers they were without fruit The third follows in these words twice dead These words I take to express a further degree of their spiritual wretchedness under the continued Metaphor of Trees 'T was bad to have withering fruit worse to have no fruit at all worse yet to be not only without all fruit but even altogether without life twice dead Two things are here to be explained 1. In what respect these trees may be said to be dead 2. How to be twice dead For the first Death is 1. Temporal and Corporal that which is a privation of life by the departure of the soul from the body 2. Spiritual befalling either the godly or the wicked 1. The godly are said to be dead spiritually three wayes 1. Dead to sin Rom. 6.2 1 Pet. 2.24 the corruption of their natures being by the Spirit of Christ subdued and destroyed 2. Dead in respect of the Law Ceremonial Col. 2.20 dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Moral Gal. 2.19 So Paul saith he was dead to the Law and Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law it being not able to make them guilty who are in Christ nor to terrifie their consciences nor to irritate them to sin 3. Dead to the world Gal. 6.4 so Paul was crucified to the world either because the World contemned and despised him as a dead man or else because the world had no more power to entice and allure him from Christ then the objects of the senses have to work upon a dead man 2. Spiritual death befalls the wicked and unregenerate they being without the Spirit of Christ to animate and quicken them which Spirit enlivens the soul supernaturally as the soul doth the body naturally hence they are said to be dead in sins Eph. 2.1.5 Col. 2.13 and dead Mat. 8.22 Luke 9.60 Rom. 6.13 Joh. 5.25 and to remain in death 1 Joh. 3.14 Their works hence are said to be dead Hebr. 9.14 As the immortality of the damned is no life but an eternall death so the conjunction of the souls and bodies of wicked men is not properly life but umbratilis vita a shadow of life or rather a very death they being without spiritual feeding growth working all vital operations and lying under the deformity loathsomness insensibleness in a spiritual sense of such as are dead or according to the resemblance here used by our Apostle which is
Which is the second branch to be opened 2. The inducement encouraging to the duty of looking for the mercy of Christ It was a mercy whereby they should bee brought to eternal life Of this though wee shall enjoy it so much yet can we speak but little Under two words eternal life the Scripture frequently sets forth the state of the Saints of heaven which for its blessednesse is câ—lled life and for its durablenesse eternall 1. Life There is a threefold Life 1. Naturall consisting in the conjunction of the body and soule 2. Spirituall which is eternall life begun in respect of grace here 3. Eternall life in respect of glory hereafter whereby is understood all the happinesse to be injoyed in heaven As under the word death the greatest of evills are comprehended all the miseries inflicted for sin in this and the next state so in that of life of all things the most precious and the most set by are contained all the blessings to be enjoyed here and hereafter but because our happinesse cannot be perfect and consummat til we come to heaven that condition is principally and frequently called life Which life stands in our immediate communion with God in an unitive vision or in seeing and enjoying him Mat. 5.8 1 Jo. 3.2 Psal 16. ult c. Heaven is a low thing without God saith Angustin Whatever is lesse then himselfe is lesse then our desires In him is contain'd infinitely more then either we want or all other things in the world have his presence shall be our life and as it were enliven all things else which without him as here they are so there would be dead things In the immediate full and perfect not in respect of the object but subject uninterrupted reflexive unmixed enjoyment of this God stands life 2. Which in respect of its duration is call'd eternall as never to be interrupted and intermitted so without any end or amission and indeed this it is which makes all the enjoyments of heaven to be truly such and as the faggot-band whereby all the particular parcells of happinesse are bound and tyed together and without which they would be all scattered and lost Frequently is the life of glory said to be eternall Joh 3.15.8.51.11.25 c. pleasures for ever more a treasure in the heaven that faileth not Luk. 12.33 Extra jactum fortunae Extra periculum jacturae an eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 a treasure beyond the reach of theefe and moth c. God the fountaine and treasury of life can never be exhaust The saints can never be willing to part with this God Enemies shall never be able to separate them A compleat happinesse to be truly and necessarily happy also OBSERVATIONS From the whole part 1. Obs 1. The hope of salvation is an helmet to keep off tentations to sin Eph. 6.8 The looking for the mercy of Christ quickens us in our course of Christianity The Apostle directs them to contend for the faith by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus c. 1. It purgeth the heart from fin Whosoever hath this hope purifieth himselfe 1 Joh. 3.3 He who looketh for Christ looks to be like him and therefore he conformes himselfe to Christ in purity He who lookes for great revenues within a few yeares will not cut off his hopes We may say of sinners as of some men who are adventurous in the world they have no thing to lose but rather remove impediments The looking for mercy and the living in sin cannot stand together The love of sin is the confutation of our hopes 2. The looking for this mercy damps our affections to the things of the world He who beholds the glorious sunshine of Christs appearance hath his eyes so dazled that he can behold no beauty in any thing besides He is like Jacob who when he was to goe to a rich Egypt and a deare Joseph was not to regard his stuffe Earthly objects which to earthly mindes seeme glorious 2 Cor. 4.16 to be a beleever have no glory by reason of that glory which excelleth Though Jezabel paints her face he throwes her down and treads her under foot 3. It makes us conscientious in holy duties Paul chargeth Timothy to keep the command without spot by an argument drawn from Christs appearance and upon this ground of looking for a reward from the chief Shepherd Peter warneth the Elders to feed the flock As we cannot conceive what manner of mercy for its glory it is which we look for so neither can we express what manner of persons we should be 1 Cor. 15.58 or what manner of performances ours should be for holinesse What manner of persons saith the Apostle ought we to be 2 Pet. 3.11 4. It engageth to patience under every difficulty and distresse Behold I come quickly hold fast that thou hast Rev. 3.11 Thus. 1 Joh. 2.28 Little children abide in him that when he shall appeare we may have confidence c. Non sunt condigna passiones ad cul pam quae remittitur ad gratiaÌ„ qua immittitur ad gloriam qua promittitur He who beholds a Kingdome appointed for him will abide with Christ in his tentations The drawing nigh of the Lords coming is the Apostles ground of patience Jam. 5.8 and 2 Thes 1.6 7. John Hus and Jerom of Prague appealed from the unjust sentences of men to the righteous judgment of Christ This dayes misery is not worthy of that dayes mercy Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.17 No more comparable with it then is the uncovering of the head a trouble comparable to the honour of receiving a crown 1 Sam. 10. ult Saul held his peace though he were despised because hee was King How easily should our sea of honey swallow up our drop of vinegar Though godlinesse brings sufferings yet it affords encouragements like Egypt which though it were full of poysonous creatures yet full of Antidotes The reason why wee are cast away in tempests is for want of this anchor of hope of the mercy of Christ Let then O Christians the looking for this mercy engage you to duty Remember such mercy to be received deserves better services to bee performed Psal 36.5 As Gods mercy and faithfulnesse are put together so let not his mercy and our faithfulnesse bee severed Brethren if any shame could befall the Saints at the day of judgement it would be for this that they who have done so little on earth for God should receive so much in heaven from God Mercy It s mercy not merit Obs 2. that must stand us in stead at the last day Of this largely pag. 100. Part. 1. as also to this part may be reduced Pag. 101 102 103 104 105. Obs 3. the six Observations there handled concerning Gods mercy Of our Lord Jesus Christ How much are they mistaken who expect mercy and yet have no interest in Christ 'T is the mercy of Christ Christlesse persons are mercilesse
might thereby be drawn to give Moses Divine adoration Deut. 34.6 Michael in zeal to the honour and obedience to the will of God opposed the Divel and contended that the body of Moses should be buried in a seeret place Vid. Chrysost Hom. 5 in Mat. August To. 3. p. 731. Ambr. 2 Offic. c. 7. where no man might know of his Sepulchre This last is the opinion of most if not of all Modern Writers both Protestant and Popish and of sundry of the Antients The most think that Satan in his contention aim'd at stirring up the people idolatrously to worship the very dead body of Moses and some affirm though I suppose without ground that after his death his face retained its former shining lustre and to prevent the idolizing of Moses his very Rod they conceive that Moses took it away with him when he went to dye it being that Rod whereby he had wrought so many Miracles and which was called the Rod of God Others rather think that Satan intended to have put the Israelites upon the idolatrous worshipping of Moses soul or Ghost by the discovery of his Sepulchre this opinion seems to me very probable I know not that the worshipping the reliques of dead mens bodies was an idolatry used in those times I suppose it will not be denyed but that it was the practice of the Heathens to worship the ghosts or souls of the dead who in their life time had been eminent for their greatness and beneficence hence Jupiter Mercury Esculap c. were counted Deities after their deaths for that good which their survivers had received from them while living and Heathens used this their idolatry by occasion of their having among them the Tombs and Sepulchres of the deceased Thus the Cretians worshipped Jupiter for their God whose Sepulchre they boasted that they had among them And hence Lactantius holily and wittily derides them Quomodo potest Deus alibi esse vivus alibi mortuus alibi babere Templum alibi Sepulchrum Lactant. l. 1. c. 11. for honouring a God who as they thought was in one place living in another place dead who in one place had a Sepulchre in another a Temple The Roman Emperors after their deaths were Deifi'd at the burning of their bodies which being burnt their souls were worshipp'd by the name of manes and upon their Sepulchres they engraved these words To the gods Dijs manibus the ghosts or souls of the departed they blindly believing that the souls of the departed did reside about or were present at the places where their bodies were buried and these soules of the departed Heathens were wont to worship and consult with at their graves and Sepulchres a practice which from heathens was received by the Israelites also Hence we read Isaiah 65.4 of the idolatrous Jewes who remained among the graves and lodged in the monuments namely to consult with the spirits of the dead as is clear from Isaiah 8.19 where the Prophet reproves the people for consulting for the living with the dead i e. with the souls or ghosts of those who were dead and departed And at these graves and Sepulchres of the dead were idolaters wont idolatrously to Feast and Banquet with those sacrifices which they had offered to the honour of the dead Hence we read Psalm 106.28 of the great idolatry of the Israelites in eating the sacrifices of the dead And this idolatrous custome of seeking to the dead at their Tombs or Sepulchres the Divel invented that these deluded idolaters who expected to consult with dead men might indeed and really receive answers from and so worship him for though he perswaded his Vassals that they who were dead gave them their answers yet indeed those answers came from him And to this practice the Divel might easily have brought these Israelites could he have obtained the discovery of Moses his Sepulchre which containing the remains of so famous a Law-giver and one so eminent above all the men in the world for acquaintance with God would in probability upon all exigencies have drawn idolaters to it for the adoration of and consultation with Moses especially considering the great and constant need of direction in which the Israelites stood whâ—le they were in the Wilderness for their passage to Canaan though indeed the name of Moses was to have been but a stale or stirrup to have advanced the adoration even of the Divel himself who as he was the sole contriver of this idolatry so would have been pleased most with it and honoured onely by it it being as much beyond the power of idolaters or Divels to deal with a true since dead Moses as it ever was against the will of Moses to have any such dealing with them If it be here objected that the Israelites did not worship at the Sepulchres of Abraham Jacob Joseph and the other Patriarchs and therefore that neither they would have idolatrously worshipped Moses if they had known the place of his burial It s answered that there was far greater likelihood and danger of their idolizing Moses then any of the fore-mentioned Patriarchs and that both in regard of the honour that Moses had received from God and also of that good which the Israelites had received by Moses 1. In respect of the former none of the godly Ancestors of the Israelites were so illustrious as was Moses for working Miracles and so many renowned performances both in Aegypt and after the Israelites came out of it none by the testimony of truth it self being like Moses whom God knew face to face none who had the reputation of being so frequently and long with God and of being a Law-giver to the people and a Mediator between God and them to fetch them Lawes from God and to carry their desires again to God to be taken up that he might converse with God to the top of a flaming Mount the foot whereof no other person might touch upon pain of death to have a face so gloriously shining upon descent from God as if God had imparted to him a kind of ray of Divinity In a word To have God say of him as he did to and of Moses I have made thee a God a speech haply not yet forgotten by Israel to so great and puissant a Monarch as Pharaoh 2. In respect of the great benefits that God bestowed upon the Israelites by Moses never did they receive the like by any other Instrument in any age who ever was there besides Moses by whom God sent so many miraculous plagues upon their Enemies by whom at the holding up of a Rod he divided the Sea and sent six hundred thousand men through it dry-shod and afterward caused it to return upon and swallow up their Enemies by whom he split the Rocks into Cups and gave them water in a scorching Wilderness and fed them with miraculous showres of bread from heaven c. It s therefore probable that one so eminently honored of God and beneficial
under a glorious and victorious Head and Captain Jesus Christ against a cursed yea a captivated enemy who cannot lift up an hand further then the Captain of the good Angels pleaseth in a good cause for the honour of God and the welfare of the Church should they ever be foyld their Captain would lose the most glory How good is God to order that the best Creatures should be the strongest How happy Saints in that they have though an invisible yet an invincible Life-guard an Army of Angels to pitch their tents about them Psal 34.7 whose safety thereby can be no more then shadowed by mountains of full horses and Chariots of fire If any thing do sometimes befall them afflictive to their sense yet nothing can befal them destructive nay not advantageous to their souls How great is our interest to continue our Guard These holy Spirits are driven away by our filthy conversation like Doves that cannot endure noysom places They will protect none whose protection drawes not allegiance to their great Lord and Master Jesus Christ Oh give not the good Angels cause to say of us as David of Nabal 1 Sam. 25.21 Surely in vain have we kept all that they have c. A man without Angels is not without Divels Miserable is it for the poor sinner to be like a Lamb in a large place exposed to the cruelty of the Wolf in stead of being defended by the care of the Shepherd Miserable lastly is the condition of every enemy of Christ and his Church who joynes with that Head and fights under that Leader which is sure to be foyl'd that walks according to the Prince of the power of the air that wars against the Angels of God yea with him the God of those Angels And how can they expect who have fought for Satan against Michael in their life time that Michael should contend with Satan for their souls at their deaths 3. Observ 3. In all contentions our care should be that our cause be good Michael contended in a righteous quarrel It s commonly seen the hottest contentions are bestowed upon the unholiest causes Idolaters cry out louder and longer for Diana of the Ephesians wicked men more strenuously strive for the promoting of the Divels Kingdom then the Saints do for the advancing of Christs How loud did Baals Priests cry to their God for help 1 King 18 26 28. and how cruelly did they gash their bodies when the reputation of their dumb and deaf Deity was hazarded How eager were the men of Ophrah Judg. 6.28 that Gideon might be put to death for throwing down of the Altar of Baal But what a shame is it that blind Zeal should be more eager and active then that which is inlightned The goodness of that for which we contend only commends the greatness of our fervor in contending for it The more fiery and furious a horse is which wants eyes the more dangerous to himself and others is his career The higher and stronger the winds are which drive the Ship upon the sands and Rocks the more destructive and inevitable will be the wrack of the Ship We must first be sure we have a clear a Scripture-way and then how sweet and sutable a connexion is it to be fervent in spirit when serving the Lord We should mistrust and fear our course is wrong Rom. 22.11 when we find our hearts most eager and impetuous and when we are sure our course is right we should be ashamed that we are so faint and sluggish 4. Satan contends with the strongest even with the strongest Angel Observ 4. No Excellency can exempt any one from his onsets He adventured upon Christ himself The most famous Worthies mentioned in Scripture Job Marth 4. David Peter c. could not escape the Divels encounter This Serpent set upon our first parents in their innocency He commonly singles out the Leaders for combate and they often meet with the sharpest assaults That Christian which is most Angelical shall find Satan most Diabolical The Divels malice being most against God is most against them who have in them most of God in them he labours to be revenged on him In the servants he strikes at the Master And God in Wisdom so orders it that they who have most strength should be most exercised to make his graces the more manifested to all Beholders God was not delighted that Job should be assaulted and tempted but that thereby Satan should be overcome And such is the Divels malice that he will trouble those most in the way whom he knowes he can least hinder of the end He contends though he conquers not Where he cannot destroy our grace he will labour to disquiet our peace Satans assaults are no sign of Gods hatred nor should they be any occasion of our censures If we be not so fiercely set upon as others in stead of censuring them for having no grace at all let us rather think that they have more then our selves They whom Satan least troubles commonly least trouble him In short what need have weaklings of watchfulness when the Divel fears not an Archangel A weak Christian when watchful is in less danger then the strongest when secure He who sets upon an Angels strength will not fear humane weakness If he comes upon those who have nothing to help forward his Conquest he will come with a courage upon those who bring him weapons In the best of us there 's a strong party for Satan to joyn with all 5. Observ 5. The more God advanceth any in gifts and employments the more Satan molests them If this Archangel were not though some think he was employed about the burying of Moses's body yet sure we are he was here employed in contending for God and that he was a choice if not the cheifest of all the servants that God kept in this great family of the world the great minister and messenger of God to perform his masters pleasure in matters of highest concernment Persons of publick employment are most fiercely assail'd by Satan they who are set apart to offices whereby God is most glorified and his Church relieved are set upon by Satan the enemy of both We never read that Moses David Paul c. were molested by the Divel till they were appointed to be Gods Archangels as it were his Messengers in delivering governing teaching the Church God never imployes any in service but 't is to oppose Satans Kingdome and the higher their service is the hotter is the opposition which they make and whosoever disturbs Satan shaâ—l be sure to hear of him the more watchful any one is to do his duty the more watchful is Satan to do him hurt commonly God shewes his servants in their entrance into duty what they are like to meet with in the continuance thereof and thereby he gives them such proof of his faithfulness in supporting them that all the rage of hell afterward shall onely prevent
security not overthrow faith awaken not dishearken them And ever as the servants of God are afflicted so are they fitted for his service God is but trayning them to a due expertness in high emploiments The more any one contends for God the more let him expect to contend with Satan They who most stop the divels mouth least stop his malice Reckon upon Satans wrath if thou goest about Gods work they deceive themselves who expect to be quiet and serviceable at the same time such groundless apprehensions are but the inlets to apostacy and make us to forsake our duty because we cannot perform it with our outward ease To conclude Satans opposition should not discourage us from duty nay we should look upon it is an hopeful sign of the conscionable discharge of our duty Let us be sure that we are imployed by God in his work and that we labour to perform it after his mind and then let us account opposition our encouragement and crown as being that which almost only meets us in a good Cause 6 Decent burial belongs to the bodies of the departed Observ 6. God himself buried Moses nay as most think the grand Argument whereby Satan disputed with the Archangel Vid. Jun. in loc for the publickness of Moses his Sepulcher was the known fitness of bestowing a comely burial upon the bodies of Gods servants nor did Michael at all contend that Moses might not be buryed but that the Divel might not be at the Funeral or not have the interring of him Gen. 23. Nature it self teacheth a decency of Burial The very Heathens readily entertained Abrahams motion to sell him a Burying place yea they had it in their own practice Ver. 6. In the choice of our Sepulchers bury thy dead And want of burial is so hateful that some have been more restrained by the fear of not being buryed Gen. 25.9 Gen. 47.30 Gen. 50.25 then of dying Abraham was buryed in the same cave with Sarah after him Isaak Jacob Joseph there also was Rebecca bestowed And when the Kings and Judges of Israel are recorded their Burials with their places are also mentioned of which there are three ranks 1 Some deserving ill only buryed in the City of David the upper part of Jerusalem wherein was the Temple and Davids Palace but not in the Sepulcher of their fathers thus was Jehoram 2 Chron. 21.19 Joash who fell to Idolatry 2 Chron. 24.16 and Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.27 2. Others who were good Kings were buried in the City of David and in the Sepulchers of their fathers And 3. Some of the highest Merit were buryed in the City of David 2 King 9.37 in the Sepulchers of their fathers and in the upper part of the Sepulchers of the Sons of David as Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.33 Nor was it a smal judgment that God inflicted upon Baasha and Jezabel Jer. 22.19 that they should be buryed in the bellyes of dâ—gs that Jehoiakim should be buried with the burial of an Ass drag'd out by the heels and cast into a ditch Isal 14.20 Psal 63 11. and that the King of Babylon should not be joyned with the Kings in burial Neither was it a slight imprecation which fell from David Let them be a portion to Foxes nor a smal threatning Jer. 14 16. That the bones of the Kings Priests and Prophets should be taken out of the grave and laid open to the Sun and Moon 2 Sam. 2.5 Hence David highly commended the burying of Saul though a bad man for a good work As of a sore judgement doth the Church complain The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fouls of the Heaven c. there was none to bury them Sutable it is Psal 139. that so choice and curious a piece of Gods work-manship as mans body should not be carelesly laid aside yea it hath been repaired redeemed as well as made by God Gal. 4.4 5. Eph. 1.1.7 1 Cor. 6.20 partner in Redemption with the soul and bought with the precious bloud of Christ The body also God hath sanctified it 's his Temple The Oyntment of Sanctification rests not only upon the head the soul but diffuseth it self to the body the skirts also 1 Thess 5.23 The chair where the King of Glory hath sate should not be abused With the bodies of our deceased friends we had lately sweet commerce The body of the wife was lately entertained with dear embracement The body of our child a piece of our selves The body of a dear friend what was it but our self divided with a several skin The body of a faithful Minister an earthen Conduit-Pipe whereby God conveyed Spiritual comforts to the soul The body when living was a partner with the soul in all her actions it was the souls brother twin what could the soul do without it Whatever was in the understanding was conveyed by the sense The soul sees by the bodies eyes hears by its ears works by its hands c. yea even now still there is an indissoluble relation between the dust in the grave and the glorious soul as the union of Christs dead body to the deity was not dissolved in the time of its lying in the Sepulcher Burying places were not among the Jewes called the houses of the dead but of the living The body is sown not cast away it is not dead but sleepeth The grave is a bed and the Church-yards sleeping places In short the glory of the bodies future estate challengeth the honour of burial All the precious Oyntments bestowed upon the dead of old had been cast away had it not been for the hope of a Resurrection A great Heir that shal hereafter have a rich Inheritance is regarded though he be for the present in rags And this decent burial of the dead discovers the more then heathenish barbarousness of Papists who do not only deny but recal the granting of burial to the dead bodies of the Saints Paulus Fagius Pet. Martyrs Wife digging them up again as they did at Oxford and Cambridg in Queen Marye's time Herein worse then heathens as testifies the greater humanity of allowing Interment in Alexander to the body of Darius Hanibal to that of Marcellus Caesar to Pompey The comfort of Saints it is that the happiness of their sâ—uls is not confined to the burial of their bodies Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116.15 Psal 139.16 who carefully keeps every one of their bones and as he left not one out of his book when he made them at first so to be sure neither shall one be missing when he will remake them their very bodies being the members of Christ and part of that lump whereof he was the first fruits Câ—r 15.20 To conclude this the care yet of a dead body should not be comparable to that of a â—â—ving soul What profit is it for the body to be embalmed
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
of the least storm Though Christ requires thee not actually as yet to forsake all for him Luk. 14.28 29.30 33. Et aequissimum sperae ad iniquissimum te paerae Vide page 372 373 374. yet he will have thee habitually prepared to do so Sever all worldly comforts from Christ in thy thoughts and try how thou canst love him by and for himself for his own beauty without his cloaths and external ornaments 3. Take heed of the smallest decay or a beginning to remit of thy holiness And to this end 1 Tremble at those sins which are seemingly but small what ever hath the nature of sin must be the object of hatred the least enemy to be sure of the soul must not be despised Though some sins may seem small comparatively yet there is none but must be accounted great considered in it self the least sin herein resembling the Earth which though it be but a point to the Heavens yet is a vast and immeasurable body of it self There is nothing little which offends a great God or hurts an immortall soul Poyson and death are lodg'd in the least sin and as unfaithfulnesse to God is discovered in a smaller as well as a greater sin as towards men in a trifling as well as a weighty thing so commonly doth it proceed from shewing it self in sins accounted slight to manifest it self in courses notoriously and hainously sinfull the decay of a tree first appears in its washy boughs and twigs but by little and little it goeth on further into the bigger arms and from them to the main body and decay of grace is first seen in smaller matters petty oaths slight omissions 2. And therefore secondly oppose sin in its bud beginnings in its first motions overtures solicitations the greatest deludge begins with a drop every sin defiling the conscience makes a man the more carelesse of it He who dares not wade to the ankles is in no danger of having the water reach as high as his neck Sinners increase to more ungodliness when they once descend they know not where to stop the beginnings of sin are modest the progress adventurous the conclusion may be impudent in open apostasie A drop of water may quench that spark which if neglected till it grow to a flame may violently destroy a whole townâ— the greatest Crocodile did at first lie in a little Egg. Yea thirdly Be afraid of the occasions of sin the sparks in a flint let alone are quiet but beat it with a steel they come out Non avis utiliter viscatis effugit alis Ovid Gen. 6.2 Psal 119.37 Job 31.1 and kindle a great fire let not occasions of sin beat upon thy heart it s easier to pass by the snare then to wind ones self out of it if thou wouldst not like long for eat and impart the forbidden fruit gaze not on it a Christians charity it is not to be and his prudence not to behold a provocation to sin God will preserve us in our ways not in our wandrings 4. Never look upon thy self as perfect or thy progress in holiness as sufficient 4. More viatorum nequaquam debemus aspicere quantum jam iter egimus sed quantum superest ut peragamus ut paulisper siaâ— praeteritum quod timide adhuc attenditur futurum Gr. Mor. l. 22. c. 7 Phil. 4 14. he who thinks he hath enough will soon come to have nothing that we have will be gone unless we strive to get more look not backward in thy Christian race to see how many thou hast outstript but look forward on those who have gotten ground of thee consider not so much how far thou hast gone and how many come short of thee as how far thou art to go and how far thou comest short of commanded perfection our greatest perfection in this life is to contend after perfection we must never cease growing till we be grown into heaven Christianity knows no enough he who hath the least grace hath enough to be thankful he who hath the most hath not enough to be either proud or idle He will be stark naught who laboureth not to be as good as the best In rowing up a River that runs with a strong stream if we rest our oats we fall down the stream while we neglect to gain we spend on the stock he who hid his Talent lost it 5. Presume not upon thine own strength and power to stand thou bearest not the root but it bears thee Qui operaturut accedamus idem operatur ne discedamus Aug. de bon pers cap. 7. Praesumptio firmitatis impedit firmitatem Gods power only is our support by it we are kept through faith to salvation they who call not upon God go aside from God Psal 14.3 4. He who first sets us up must also shore and keep us up he who hath brought us to himself must also hold us that we depart not from himself we are poor weak reeds but tyed to the strong pillar of Gods power we shall stand he who relyeth upon himself hath a reed for his upholder we cannot put too much confidence in God or too little in our selves Peters over-ventrousness tript up his heels Mat. 26.33 Let us not be like sick men who when they have had a good day or two think themselves presently well again and so putting off their warmer clothes put on thinner garments and adventure into the fresh air whereupon follow irrecoverable relapses It s the fear of God in the heart which keeps us from departing from him Prov. 3.5 let us fear always if we would fall never Be not high-minded but fear Lean not saith Solomon to thine own understanding he who is his own Teacher hath a fool to his Master 7. God at length discovers unsound empty Obs 7. and decaying Christians to be what they are These fruitless dead trees are at length pluckt up by the roots their inside is turned outward They who going among the drove of Professors are but like sheep shall be detected either here or hereafter to be but goats thus Cain at the first a Sacrificer yet being an Hypocrite was given up to be a Murtherer and was cast out of the sight of the Lord out of his Fathers family from the Ordinances Doeg detained before the Lord 1 Sam. 21.7 about religious offices afterward discovers his unsoundness of heart by his cruelty and more afterward did God lay him open when at his destruction it was seen and said that This is the man that made not God his strength c. Psal 52.1 The like may be said of Judas of whom Doeg was a Type his discovery by his treachery and of Sauls also by that horrid act of murthering the Priests and going to the Witch God also taking away his Spirit from him they who are not of us will at length be suffred to go out from us God leads those who secretly turne aside to crooked wayes with the workers
such a want of light as hinders a man from walking like that Aegyptian darkness by which people were constrained to sit still Caligo tenebrarum Bez. Perfectio tenebrarum Arab. and not to rise out of their place for three dayes So the addition of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blackness notes a further increase of this darkness such as is spoken concerning that in Aegypt as may be felt Darkness seems to be black and thereby the same thing is imported with that of utter darkness Mat. 8.12 and 21.13 and 25.30 i. e. such as is outmost and furthest removed from the region of light for this Phrase blackness of darkness Caligo Caliginosissima Isa 60.2 Gross darknes intends as much as most black thick darkness it being a kind of Hebraical Phrase like unto that Mat. 26.64 the right hand of Power that is a most powerful right hand So Rom. 7.24 a body of death is put for a mortal body And Eph. 4.24 holiness of truth for true holiness This thick black gross darknes is not to be understood Properly for that negation Of this see Part 1. p. 503. at large or privation of light by reason of the absence of the Sun c but Metaphorically for great calamities and miseries And in Scripture there is a three-fold misery set forth by darknesse 1. External misery John 30.26 When I looked for good evil came unto me and when I waited for light there came darkness So Isa 5.30 If one look to the Land behold darkness and sorrow So Isa 8.22 Zech. 1 15. Joel 1.2 Amos 5.20 They shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness Isa 47.5 Get thee into darkness O Daughter of the Caldeans c. 2. Internal comprehending 1. 1 Pet. 2.9 1 Thes 5.4 John 3.19 Darkness and blindness of mind the want of the saving knowledge of God and his waies Luke 1.79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death c. Ioh. 1.5 The light shineth in darkness c. Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometime darkness but now are ye light in the Lord c. 2. Spiritual dissertion or the withdrawing of the light of Gods countenance and thus Heman complains Psal 88.6 That God had laid him in darkness And Isa 50.10 Who is there among you that walketh in darkness and seeth no light c. 3. Eternal darkness The miserable condition of the damned in Hell by reason of their separation from God called utter darkness Mat. 22.13 and 8.12 because farthest distanced from the light of Gods pleased countenance and this estate of misery is fitly compared to darkness both in respect of the Cause and the Effect of darkness 1. The though only deficient Cause of darkness is the withdrawing of the light so the separation from the favourable presence of God Matth. 7.23 Matth. 25. is the greatest misery of the damned the Hell of Hell is to be without Gods loving and gracious presence in Hell 2. The Effect of darkness is horror and affrightment and trouble There 's no joy but in Gods presence in that there is fulness of joy The misery of this condition see described Part 1. p. 505. Aeternis tenebris damnari decet qui sese transfigurantes in Angelos lucis veram lucem non praedicarunt sed suasmet magis tenebras caligines dilexerunt in meras errorum tenebras alies pracipitaverunt Lorin in loc Rectè in tenebras tormentorum mittentur aeternas qui in Ecclesiam Dei sub nomine lucis tenebras inducebant errorum Bâ—da Psalm 16. but without it only weeping and wailing blackness of darkness thick darkness purae tenebrae not the least glimpse and crevis of light and mixture of Joy And most fitly is this punishment of blackness of darkness threatned against these Seducers who transformed themselves into Angels of Light and yet held not forth the light of the Truth but loved darkness more then light and lead others into the darkness of sin and Error and how just was it that they should suffer by thick true perfect darkness who deluded the world with seeming and appearing light 2. For the certainty and unavoidableness of this punishment Jud. saith this blackness of darkness is reserved for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word properly imports the solicitous keeping and reserving of a thing lest it be lost or taken away by others a keeping with Watch and Ward most accurately and vigilantly as a Prisoner is kept Hence it is that Act. 4.3 and 5.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to signifie a Prison In this place therefore as there is implyed Gods present forbearance to punish these Seducers with the blackness of darkness it being reserved and kept for them not actually as yet inflicted upon them so there is principally intended the certainty and unavoidableness of this punishment and the impossibility of the pertinacious sinners escaping thereof Nor is it any wonder that this estate should be thus certainly reserved for them Denâ—tat firmum ratum divinae justitiae decretum de suppliâ—ie aeterno Lorin in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.4 the firm and irreversible decree saith Lorinus in this place Orthodox of God to punish them for ever or that ordaining them of old to condemnation mentioned ver 4. is here denoted so that as in Gods decree Heaven is an Heritance reserved for the Faithful this misery is reserved for the wicked Needs likewise must this punishment be reserved for incorrigible sinners if we consider the Truth Justice Power Omniscience of God His Truth it being impossible for him to lye and who is as true in his threatnings against the obstinate as in his promises to the returning sinner His Justice whereby he will not suffer sin alwayes to go unpunished Rom. 2.5 6. and will render to every one according to his work His Power so great that none can deliver the wicked out of his hand yea so great as that they can neither be able to keep out nor break out of Prison his Omniscience whereby none can escape or hide himself from his eye In short needs must this blackness of darkness be certainly reserved if we consider the foolish diligence even of sinners themselves they daily hoarding up their own Damnation and treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath like some precious treasure which they keep so carefully as if they were afraid that any should bereave them of it 3. For the durableness and continuance of this their misery the Apostle saith it was for ever The misery Everlasting chains under darkness ver 6. Everlasting fire ver 7. and yet the equity whereof see Part 1. pag. 508.588 Eternity it is that shall make their fire hot their chains heavy their darkness black and thick How long doth a dark night seem in this world but how dark will a not long but eternal night seem in the next world How hideous is that woe
that perfect holinesse required to the seeing of God Per mortem defecantur ut fomite pecati cum corpere mortue ad immortaiitatemp puri resurgâ—nt Rivet in Geâ— exerc 48. prop. fin and therefore that they were to be cleansed by death that with their body of flesh they laying off the corruption of their nature might arise pure and spotlesse to immortality The consideration whereof should put the strongest and those who are most likely to live upon a constant and serious meditation of death and warn them not to expect immortality in this life but daily to wait for their certain and appointed change That blessed saint now with God Mr. Richard Rogers who was another Enoch in his age Sometime of Wâ—â—hersfield in Essex my Dear and deceased Grandfather a man whose walking with God appeared by that incomparable directory of a Christian life his book called the Seven Treatises woven out of Scripture and his own experimental practise sometime said in his life time That he should be sorry if every day were not to him as his last day Every morning we arise let us say Art thou my last day or do I look for another Let us live as if we were alwaies dying and yet as such as are ever to live In short the successions and conclusions of generations should put us upon holiness of life as for the preserving a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which followes so especially that we may by our holy example transmit holinesse to posterity that we with Enoch walking with God the Church of God and a seed of Saints may be continued as much as in us lies in our line And truly as otherwise we shall die while we live in the world so hereby we shall live when we are taken out of the world and be like Civet which when t is taken out of the box leaves a sweet savour behind it 4. Observ 4. All issue from Adam As Enoch was so all others were and are from Adam from him all descend by natural propagation He was the root all others but branches he the fountain all others but streams All were hewen out of this rock an observation which puts us upon sundry useful considerations It teacheth us humility As we were from Adam so he was from the dust of the earth and that dust from nothing Our father was Adam our grandfather dust our great grandfather nothing They who are proud that they can derive their pedigree so far as Adam may be humble if they would goe a little farther Remember whence thou art and consider whither thou shalt goe nothing so unsuteable as pride for a clod of the earth A man can never have too low thoughts of himself but in the bowing down his nature to accompany with sin He who would not endure pride in the Angels of heaven wil not endure it in dust and ashes and such even great Abraham calls himself a fitter stile then most illustrious high and mighty invincible c. When thou art mounting up in proud and self-admiring thoughts remember thou art from Adam earthen Adam Agathocles a potters son when he came to be King humbled himself with setting earthen vessels on his cupboard If dust be sprinkled upon the wings of Bees their noises hummings risings wil they say quickly cease when thou beginnest to grow proud sprinkle thy thoughts with this remembrance I am but dust Further we may hence gather the wonderful power of Gods blessing that of one so many millions should come from one root such multitudes of branches God can blesse one into millions and blast millions again into one into nothing Gods powerful benediction multiplied Adams numerous off-spring He whom God blesseth shall be blessed he whom God curseth shall be cursed We see the way to thrive in any kind the blessing of God maketh rich and without it thy own industrious endeavours will not help thee he cursed the fig-tree and it withered up at the roots More particularly we see from whom to beg the increase of posterity It is from God that Jacob expected and desired in his blessing that Ephraim and Manasseth should grow into a multitude Gen. 48.16 See also Ruth 4.11 12. Hence also we may observe the goodnesse of God in continuing the blessing of increase to Adam even after his fall that sinful Adam should be the father of such a posterity God might have said here is enough of one man and too much I le suffer no more to be of the kind We destroy poysonful and hurtful creatures that they may not breed But mark further that merciful power of God to cause a holy off-spring a sanctified seed though not such as coming of yet to come of a sinful faln parent that God should make white paper of dunghil rags that any of Adams unsanctified nature should partake of the divine nature in a word that Enochs should be from Adam Truely there was more mercy discovered in the changing one Enoch than there would have been justice put forth in condemning a whole world In a word how should this our derivation from the first put us upon labouring to get into the second Adam he who is but a man a son of Adam is a miserable man a child of wrath How careful should we be to get off from the old dead poysonful root and stock and to be branches ingrafted into and growing upon the living life-giving stock the Lord Christ In Adam saith the Apostle all dye and in Christ all are made alive as we have born the image of the earthly so should we be restlesse til we bear that of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.49 5. It is our duty prudently to take our best advantages for truths advancement Thus Jude alledgeth here the prophesie of such a person as might in likelihood most draw respect and credit Of this before pag. 22. part 1. on these words the Brother of James Secondly in the preface here used by Jude before the prophesie the performance of Enoch is to be noted and that was his prophesying Jude saith that he prophesied of these EXPLICATION Three things may be enquired into by way of explication 1. What our Apostle intends in this place by prophesying 2. How Jude came by or whence he received the prophesie of Enoch 3. why he alledgeth and instanceth in this particular prophesie 1. For the first the word prophesie is in Scripture taken five several waies 1. See Diodats annotations on 1 Cor. 11.5 Sometimes it signifies no more then to be present at the publick Ministry and to partake of the doctrine thereof Thus I understand it in that place 1 Cor. 11.5 Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head for otherwise women were not allowed to speak in the Church 2. Prophesie is taken for the written word 2 Pet. 1.20 3. Elsewhere to prophesie signifieth to expound interpret and apply the Scriptures to the edification of
is an Evah to himself We must not altogether blame suggestions and temptations without The Divel tempted David to number the people and to see Bathsheba naked but after both he confesseth that he had sinned Commonly volenti It may in this case be said Nolenti non fit injuria None can hurt him that will not hurt himself Every man is tempted when he he is drawn away of his own lust Poyson would never hurt unlesse taken in The strongest enemy cannot hurt us nor the falsest delude us if we will be true to our selves Were there not a complying principle outward objects of sin would draw out nothing but detestations as in Christ in whom because the Divel found nothing he could do nothing against him And it is the duty of the godly to make use of ungodly examples not for imitation but greater abhorrence Saints like fire in cold weather should be hotter and holyer for living in times of greatest coldnesse and prophaneness The best men have oft lived in worst places as Lot Elijah Obadiah c. and shined as lights in the midst of a crooked Nation and redeem'd the time although nay because the dayes were evil 'T is not outward power and opportunity to sin but inward poyson that makes us sin and therefore in all our humiliations we should more angrily smite upon our own thighs than upon any outward occasional furtherances to sin 9 The servitude and slavery of a man that follows his lust is very miserable Tit. 3.3 Serving divers lusts Obser 9. Oh how true a drudg is hee that is a lacquey to his lusts and who hath lusts for his Leaders and Commanders 1. A servant is hindred from doing any thing but what his Master pleaseth A servant to his lusts is in the bond of iniquity hindred not onely from doing but even from willing to doe any thing but what pleaseth his lusts He is alienated from the life of God cannot hear pray meditate holily Sometimes he is in arcta custodia in close custodie not so much as able to go about the very outward works of holiness at least he is in libera custodia he cannot do them any further then his lusts allow never spiritually hee is Satans captive Gaol-bird The Romans cu◠off the thumbs of their slaves that so they might be able to handle the Oar but not the Sword so the Divel hinders his slaves from holy services but leaves them in a posture of activity for sin Satan gives some of his slaves longer line then hee gives to others but he ever keeps them in his power 2. A servant is servilely imployed The Gibeonites were hewers of wood and drawers of water A Sinner is put upon basest and hardest works like the Israelites in Egypt who had their shoulders under burdens and were put upon base and dirty drudgeries Issachar couched under his burden like an Asse A wicked man takes pains to go to hell his imployments are most painful and vile the workie-dayes of a Saint are better then the holidayes of a Sinner Christs yoak is easie and his burden light 3. A servant is beaten belly-beaten back-beaten Oh the wounds of conscience that sinners get in the service of their lusts there 's no peace to them they carry furnaces in their brests silent scourges Not to speak of the wounds upon their bodies healths names estates 4. A servant is rewarded but what are the sinners wages Sum'd up they are in that one word how comprehensive Death The very work of a Saint is abundant wages the very wages of a sinner his greatest wo. After sinners have drudg'd for lusts all the day of their lives Satan lodgeth them in flaming sheets at night Hee who hath now been their Tempter wil then be their Tormenter And yet how unlike is a servant to lusts to a servant unto men 1. The work of a mans servant is at length at an end A sinners work is never done peccator nunquam feriatur sinners have no holidayes they drudg without intermission on the Sabbath they sin in prayer hearing Sacraments in eating drinking recreations on earth in hel 2. A mans servant is weary of his servitude groans like the Israelites under his bondage and desires delivery A slave to lust loves to be so stil he is a boared slave that wil not be free but accounts every one his enemie that would deliver him hee thinks his servitude his liberty his prison his palace 3. Among men one master hath many servants but spiritually one servant hath many masters serving saith the Apostle Tit. 3.3 divers lusts and pleasures Quot habet Dominos qui unum non habet yea these masters are contrary some haling this way others another Covetousnesse hales one way prodigality and pride another ambition drags one way uncleanness another A sinner by these lusts is drawn as by wild horses 4. Among men the master is better and more honourable then the servant but a servant to lusts serves masters that are infinitely below and baser then himself a man never goes below himself but when he serves them Every lust is the divels brat and Satans excrement how unworthy is that servitude when a heaven-born soul hath such a master Only sin disennobles intellectual nature making men sinners Angels divels Concerning the means of opposing and overcoming of lusts see at large before The third proof which our Apostle brings to shew that these seducers were ungodly men Vulg. Superba Bez Tumida Tigur vehementer fastuosa Alii praetumida supra modum turgida immen sa Projicis ampullas et sesquipedalia verba Horat. and to be judged at the last day is set down in these words wherein he taxeth them of their proud arrogant boasting their mouth speaketh great swelling words These words Great swelling words are in the Greek expressed in this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth not only big bulkie bunching out or swelling but all these to a very great measure or as some beyond measure the composition increasing the signification and importing that these seducers spake words of a vastly rising swelling H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De educ lib. mountanous bignesse Thus Plutarch useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turgid or swelling speech is very unfit to be used about civil affaires And a very apt and true accusation is this brought against these false teachers by Jude it having been the constant course of hereticks to speak very high and bigly swelling words Descripsit sermo apostolicus Jovinianum loquentem buccis tumentibus et inslata verba trutinantem Hier. l. 1. Contr. Jovin of arrogant boasting Hierom applyeth this expression of swelling words to Jovinian whom saith he the Apostle describes speaking with swoln cheeks and puft up expressions Two things may here be opened 1. What the Apostle meant by great swelling words 2. Wherein stands the sinfulness of using them For the first In
husband spends her thoughts upon him by this time thinks she he is come to such a place to night he lodgeth in such an house The thoughts of saints run upon this mercy of Christ Heb. 11. Psal 39. 1 Pet. 1. The reason why they are call'd strangers here is because they dwell so much in their thoughts of another condition Every saint is made to looke upwards Beneficiall and great things are much thought on The covetous man thinks of his treasure the labourer of his hire the prisoner of his enlargement the heir of his possession And great things are greatly observed and serious matters seriously regarded Trivial toyes and enjoyments cannot hinder a saint from the thoughts of this great mercy yea all other things are but so many steps to raise his meditation to it Wicked men are bow'd downward in their contemplation as in their condition Saints are low in the latter high in the former They are as unlike as a piece of dirt and a ball Cast dirt upon the earth it lies still cast a ball on it and it rebounds upward 2. Belief of this mercy The looking for this mercy imports a groundednesse of expectation A saint looks for nothing without the foundation of a promise Faith certainly layes hold on that certaine word Heb. 6.11.19 and hence hope hath such a certainty as never makes us ashamed There 's a full assurance of hope call'd therefore the sure and stedfast anchor of the soule This expectation is not overcome by humane sense and reason Heb. 11.1 but climbs above them Faith gives a reality to things not seen This looking is for that which is clean contrary to sense It s an hope above hope they who have it see the mercy of Christs coming even through a cloud of sin and misery and look at things within the vaile Heb. 6.19 3. Ardent desires after this mercy This looking for it implies the welcomness and acceptableness of it and it s a looking for mercy Saints are both said to be lookers for and lovers of it 2 Tim. 4.8 they are sick of love to it The Bride saith Come Rev. 22.21 Come Lord Jesus Come quickly shuts up the scripture and summes up the churches wishes Rev. ult There 's a griefe for his absence and a groaning desire after his presence Rom. 8.23 We sigh in our selves waiting c. as no worldly difficulty can disappoint so no worldly enjoyment can bribe the souls desires A Saint with Abraham stands at his tent doore or with Sisera's mother 2 Pe◠3 12 looks out of the window and saith why is his chariot so long a coming It hasteth Wee cannot thus look for Christ unlesse we love him 2 Thes 3.5 the devils and the wicked have a fearfull the faithful a longing looking for Christ 4. It imports patience of expectation The faithfull will stay Gods leisure for his dole of mercy as beggars at a doore that continue there till there be leisure to serve them They make not hast Isa 28.16 Though they dwell in an unkind world and among them that hate peace Though they are wounded with crosses yet they say with Augustine Lord here burn wound cut the mercie of Christ makes amends for all Though they are environed with a body of death and had infinitely rather if God pleased change a necessity of sinning for a necessity of obeying yet they contentedly think Gods time is the best for removing though the worst of evils Their patience concocts their miseries and their empty stomaks keep them from being sick though in a wide and stormy sea Rom. 8.21 Through faith and patience they inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 This looking for the Spirit of Christ is 2 Thes 3.5 called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patience it selfe Mercy must not be bestowed nay 't will bee no mercy if patience be not tryed Certainty countervails all delayes 5. This looking conteins in it a joyful expectation of that great good for which we look Though the deferring makes the heart sad and sick yet the expecting thereof makes the heart glad and cheerful Wee rejoyce under the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 In whom believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet 1.8 If Abraham looking for the day of Christs humility two thousand yeares before rejoyced must not believers needs rejoyce in looking for the day of his and their own glory approaching so neer it being now as it were the last minute of the last houre before the day of our marriage redemption coronation 6. It notes prudent vigilancy what wee look for wee watch for when we look either for friend or foe we keep our selves waking Hence Luke Luk. 12.36 37. makes this looking and watching all one They who look for an Enemy will watch to prevent his coming as Christ speaks of the theif They who look for a friend will watch to welcome and entertain him All who look for mercy labour to be found in peace they look up as watchmen upon their Tower they keep their loyns girt and they are in the posture of servants expecting their Lord they are afraid of surfets and sleeping by worldly pleasures They who reach after this mercy must let worldly trifles fall out of their hand 2 Pet. 3.11 The better the mercy to be enjoyed is the fitter we should be to receive A prepared mercy sutes not with an unprepared heart Every day to a saint should be as his last And of every one he should say art thou the last or look I for another Am I now in a meet posture to receive the mercy of Christ To shut up this it is not strange that Jude enjoins these Saints to look for this mercy of Christ considering the sutablenes of this exhortation to the persons exhorted who 1. are Saints such as have the spirit which saith Come whose motions are upward who are begotten again to this lively hope who as they are men look upward with their faces so as they are Saints and new men look upward with their spirits and wait for Christ from heaven 1 Thes 1.10 and love his appearance 2. Tim. 4.8 Such as are like the young ones of the fouls of heaven who though they may be hatch't under a hens wing yet being growne they presently flye abroad The Saints are born and for a time live in the world yet they soon shew that they are not of this world who 2. also were so opposed and tempted by seducers that looking for the Crowne of life was little enough to make them constant to the death 2. Considering for whom they were to look their Master their Husband Head their Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ 3. Considering for what they looked mercy to bee bestowed at a time when they should want it most even at Christs coming when nothing else will help Lastly considering the great beneficialnesse of this mercy it was such a mercy whereby they should be possessed of eternal life
that of trees dead they are spiritually dead because without and severed from that root of every good tree the Lord Christ The old Adam is the root upon which they still stand and therefore they are without all spiritual and supernatural life as from the root flows life into all the branches of the tree so from Christ all who are united to him by the Spirit through Faith have by those means the life of holiness derived unto them as in Adam the first root who hath now lost the moisture and vigour of holiness and is become a dryed root all die so in Christ shall all and onely they who are really united to him live Hence it is that as they are without the root and therefore without life so without all spiritual growth and fruitfulness the inward principle of life being wanting needs must the effects that flow from that principle all vitall operations be wanting likewise for though abiding John 15.5 and living by Christ we bring forth much fruit yet sever'd from him we can do nothing It is true that as the wicked have something from Christ like the Spirit of life Heb. 6.4 1 Cor. 12.6 7. so thereby they bring forth something like to good and spiritual fruits I mean those forementioned fruits of gifts assent to the truth sweet affections acts of external obedience but though in the producing of these the Spirit helps them yet it never changeth the nature of the trees but they still retain the natural sowrness of their roots and though God gives them the Spirit to edifie others yet not to sanctifie themselves though Saul had another spirit and sundry Matth. 7. did prophecy and cast out Divels yet all these were but works of ministration not renovation though the Spirit works as an outward efficient cause breathing on them and is in them as in Organis Instruments and Ministers yet not as in domiciliis as in habitations Members for as the soul works not as a form to any part that is not united to the body so neither doth the Spirit of Christ work savingly but in the body of Christ In the wicked it may be spiritus movens a moving spirit in the godly t is onely spiritus inhabitans an inhabiting indwelling Spirit The Spirit of God in an Hypocrire is like an Angel appearing in some outward shape of which he is only an assisting not an informing form for which cause his assumed body hath neither life nor nourishment but the Spirit of God in the godly is like the soul in the body not only assisting but informing and working in them spiritually vitall and supernatural operations And notwithstanding the best workings of the Spirit of God in the wicked they are oft left more fleshly self-confident less poor in Spirit and sensible of their want of Christ then before And thus these Seducers were spiritually dead Or 3. Death is eternal the effect of the former which eternal death is that most miserable condition of the Reprobate after death wherein they are deprived of all the blessedness and glory of heaven standing in the enjoyment and unitive vision of God Visi◠unitiv◠T is indeed the spiritual death continued and perfected As in heaven or eternal life in the enjoyment of God by Christ is begun in this life and completedin the next so is hell or eternal death in the losse of God begun in this and consummate in the next world The presence of God is the heaven of heaven the joy of heaven the life of heaven and of all who shall come thither 2. For the second In what respect these Seducers may be said to be twice dead The word twice Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken two wayes sometimes indefinitly or as a definite put for an indefinite a certain for an uncertain number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Job 33.14 Thus Job 33.14 God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not That is God doth by his gracious ways and means sufficiently abundantly and frequently acquaint man with his will although man be so stupid and senseless as not to understand what the meaning of God is therein So Psal 62.11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth to God that is God hath abundantly oft several times or sundry wayes by his Word and works asserted and discovered that he is eminently and transcendently powerfull Thus the Apostle commands That the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 1.17 should be accounted worthy duplici that is multiplici honore double much manifold honour So the Prophet prayes Jer. 17.18 that his enemies may be destroyed with a double destruction i. e. with a severe through totall destruction so 2 Kings 2.9 Elisha desired that a double portion that is a large abundant portion of the Spirit might be upon him Thus some take the word twice in this place as if by the signification of the very word the Apostle intended that these dead trees were finally dead and past all hopes of recovery such as could never be bettered by all the pains and cost digging dunging c. that could be laid out upon them That our Apostle here intends that these Seducers were like Trees irrecoverably and totally dead I easily grant but withall because trees may be said to be twice dead in respect of their very dying twice or a second time this word twice seems to import in this place a definite certain number and to intend a double or twofold death of these Seducers who are here compared to trees in their dying twice as well as in all the other three respects viz. Their having withered fruit their being without fruit and being pluckt up by the roots Trees then are said to be twice dead thus the first time a tree is said be dead when in the former spring it decayes fades withers in its leaves blossoms or newly formed fruit from this decaying or dying for a dying it is as to leaves and fruit a tree is oft by pruning dressing recovered but if in autumn or the later spring which is the critical or climacterial time of Trees to discover whether their disease be mortal or not the tree fadeth again if then the leaves or what ever it bears wither the rine grow dry and it be as they say sick the fault is then ab intra the root is rotten and the very substance of the tree is inwardly corrupt and putrified no more labour or cost is now bestowed upon it it s now dead twice or the second time and therefore totally and irrecoverably and as I have understood from those who are exactly skill'd in the nature of trees it hath been oft known that trees which have seemed to die in the former spring have afterward been recovered but never did they know that any languishing in the former spring and then after some overtures of reviving in the later spring fading and decaying again ever were recovered and restored