another a cloud is the womb of rain big with it oft as with its issue And therefore as the learned Junius on this place notes when our Apostle adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying that these clouds are without water he rather useth ratione populari a popular and Vulgar kind of speech then stands upon Philosophical accurateness for those clouds which are without water Aristotle and other Philosophers call not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nubes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nebulas thin dispersed vapours which indeed obscure the face of the heavens but have within them no rain for the thirsty earth at all so distinguishing them from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rainy clouds The Naturalists who write concerning watery Meteors enquire how it can be that a cloud should contain so vast a bulk and quantity of heavy waters and not violently and at once fall to the earth heavy things naturally descending or tending downward Several causes are by them assigned some say that they are kept up by their natural and inbred warmth included in them and by the heat without of the Sun and Stars others say by their motion which they have from the winds others by reason of their spungy hollowness which receives and takes in the thin air but Philosophers in this are like little children that cannot speak plain at least to my dulness the safest way according to the best Divines is to resolve this by the Scripture which represents the holding up of the clouds as the work of Gods power and teacheth us that God hath given his command in the creation that the clouds fall not Prov. 8.28 He established the clouds above Gen. 1.6 Let the firmament that is Zanch. de op Dei l. 2. c. 1. p. 277. Aer suâ mediâ regione dividit aquas quae sursum evehuntur ab iis quae infrae fluunt as Zanchy largely and strongly proves the ayr in respect of the middle Region divide the waters from the waters namely those which are drawn up and made clouds for rain from those which run below And Job 26.8 It s expressely said that God bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds and the cloud is not rent under them he hath bound these waters in a though weak slight garment Prov. 30.4 The waters above the Heavens are recorded among the things which God hath estalisht for ever and for which he hath made a decree that they shall not pass Ps 148.4 6. It s his power that enables so weak a cobweb to hold as it were a strong man prisoner it s that alone which lays up even a Sea of waters in the thin sieve or searce of a cloud which till he pleaseth shall not let go one drop Sunt nubes ut spongia quaedam aquarum plena Deus autem mamâ— suae proorovidentiae spongiam bane comprimit non totam simul quantum potest sed paulatim ut molliter descendant aquae Zanch. de op Dei l. 3. c. 6. pag. 383. and then rain shall come as through a sieve or strainer not in floods but in drops Or rather as Zanchy that Divine Naturalist speaks he makes his clouds spunges till he press and squeez them with the hand of his providence not a drop shall fall out of them he presseth these spunges not too hard but gently that so they may moderately and by little and little distil and drop upon us and not overwhelm us as they did the old World when he wrung these spunges hard upon them He whose word is a dam to hinder the proud waves from flowing over the face of the earth hath a word likewise which as a stopple shuts up the bottles of his clouds and keeps them from running out In a word he who hangeth the earth upon nothing is in the next words deservedly said to bind up the waters in his thick clouds For the second particular viz. why the Apostle made choice of a resemblance taken from these clouds He saith these Seducers were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clouds which according to the notation of the word and common usage signifie such as have in them water for the refreshment of the earth and I conceive that our Apostle hereby intends either 1 To shew their duty which was as the Ministers of Christ to be watring clouds to afford to people the sweet and refreshing showers of wholsome Doctrines Or rather 2. Their great boastings hypocritical shews and appearances they seeming and pretending to be clouds full of water as the holy Prophets and Apostles were whereas indeed they were though appearingly full yet really and truly empty unprofitable and waterless like the boaster of a false gift of whom Soloman speaks Prov. 25.14 that he is as clouds without rain though by reason of his great promises he seemed to be full of water and beneficialness As if the Apostle had said These Seducers are clouds full of water of holiness and heavenly doctrine if you will beleeve their own expressions and appearances but if you come to try or use them you shall finde no benefit comfort or refreshment from them And I conceive that the Apostle by calling them clouds intimates their proud and hypocritical pretending to resemble the worthy and profitable Instructers and Teachers of the people of old who are oft and elegantly in Scripture compared to clouds and whose doctrine is resembled to dropping as Isai 5.7 where God according to some threatning to take away the Prophets and their Ministry from the people saith I will command the clouds that they rain no rain And frequently in Scripture is prophesying or teaching called a dropping 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tum docens dâ—ctorve tum pluvia tempesâ—iva 21.30.20 Joel 2.23 My doctrine saith Moses Deut. 32.2 shall drop as the rain Ezek. 21.2 Son of man drop toward c. And prophesie against the land of Israel And Amos 7.16 Prophesie not against Israel drop not thy word against the house of Israel Ezek. 20.46 Son of man drop toward the South and prophesie c. And Micah 2.6 Prophesie or drop not say they to them that prophesie And in ordinary speech we use to say the clouds drop and when it begins to rain it drops Prov. 3.20 His clouds drop down the dew And clouds are a most lively resemblance of faithful Ministers Gen. 1.6 Prov. 8.28 Psal 147.8 Ephes 4.11 Psal 68.11 1. In regard of the cause of both the supream highest cause is God clouds are frequently in Scripture called his clouds Job 26.8 Psal 18.12 Prov. 3.20 Ministers are his they are from him for him kept up by him he gives the word and great shall be the company of those who publish it he sends forth labourers the natural cause of clouds is the Sun drawing up vapours Christ the Sun of righteousnesse he calls appoints gives gifts to Ministers 2. In regard of the condition of clouds they are carried from place to place tossed
there were within them waves of unquietnesse and impatiency raised by the windes of their pride They were murmurers and complainers both against God and man Of this unquietness the Apostle speaks afterwards vers 16. 3. They were as the troublesome and raging waves of the sea in respect of others And this I conceive Jude principally intends in this place The Sea neither resteth it self nor doth it suffer any thing to rest which is upon it it tosseth the ships and tumbleth the Passengers therein from one side thereof to another who reel to and fro like a drunken man and in its rage and fury it often swallows up and devours both ship and men The lives of those who are upon the sea hang by a thred they themselves being neither reckon'd among the dead Moâ—tude quiesâ—nâ—â— nor among the living And thus these Seducers were so restlesse and turbulent that they found no rest but in their motions Like those of whom Solomon speaks Prov. 4.16 VVho sleep not unlesse they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unlesse they cause someto fal Meritò hâ—retici fluctibus maris similes esse dicuntur quòd nuâ—quam quieti sâ—nt nusquam consistant nova semper moliantur surgia misceant seditionem excitent schismata pariant omnia denique perturbent ac pervertanâ— Justinian Vti fluctus fcri navim ita ipsi turbulenti seditiosi Ecclesiam concutiunt Lap. And troublesome they were 1. First to the bodily and outward welfare of others their names they tost up and down by slanders and reproaches they uttered many hard speeches against the Faithful Their tongue set on fire of hell did set on fire the whole course of nature VVhat bittter and uncharitable censures have such fomented in all times against those who did not joyn and hold with them They are wont to lowre brow beat disdainfully frown and look sourly upon them as Cain upon Abel with a discontented and faln countenance and what bitter enemies in all ages Hereticks especially Seducers have been to the lives and safeties of the Godly and Orthodox hath been before in part declared and of old manifested by the Donatists and Arians and more lately by the Papists and Anabaptists who all by their boysterous violence and cruelties shewed themselves raging waves of the sea They were troublesome enemies to all Publick Order They were fierce heady high-minded traitors enflaming and enraging mens spirits against all Government and Rule in Church and State putting all places into confusion and combustion by strifes seditions schismes They were not afraid to speak evill of dignities they set their mouth against the heaven and their tongue walked through the earth 2. But secondly Fluctus fert sunt perversi doctores qui in semet ipsis inquieti semper tumidi amari sunt pacem Ecclesiae firmitatemque obicum semper impugnare non cessant Beda Quem ad modum fluctus maris saevitiâ atque immanitate suâ integra navigia hauriunt aut ad scopulos allidunt it a Gnostici perversis suis dogmatibus plurimos ad interitum pertraehunt sempiternum Justinian in loc Ut fluctus maris intumescunt attolluntur ipsi quodam modo Câ—â—lo minantur non aliter isti in coelum ipsamque Divinam naturam maledicta congerunt Id. Ib. these raging waves troubled and disquieted the spirituall welfare and peace of those Christians into whose societies they had crept whom they tost to and fro by the violent urging of their errours and caus'd to fluctuate and waver in their judgments overturning their faith swallowing them up and drowning them in perdition by their erroneous and impious doctrines Through the tossing and fury of these waves many souls suffered shipwrack and lost the spirituall and precious Merchandize of Faith and holiness with these waves of false teachers and their doctrines were the Galatians disquieted when the Apostle saith There be some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who trouble you or who muddy and stir you like water and cap. 5.12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you This for the opening of the first Branch of this Resemblance the second followes viz. What these raging waves of the sea are said to get and bring upon themselves by all their swelling and raging and that was nothing but shame and disgrace * Vulg. Bâ—z Despumantes Nonnullidispumantes Deseumare proprie valet spumam auferre Dispumare spumam ejicere Quandoque confundi videntur Syriacè qui in manu spumationis suae indicant ignominiam Arabicè sicut fluctus maris commoti ebulliunt in confusionibus seu delictis suis Spuâ—â—ea semifero subpectore murmurat unda Virg. Foming out their shame Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle saith not shame but shames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confusiones Vulg. Dedecora Bez. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to note how great that shame and disgrace was which they discovered And he saith they fomed out their shames that is that by all their forementioned raging and troublesomenesse they brought forth shame to themselves as the raging waves of the sea bring forth fome And most aptly and elegantly in the prosecution of the Metaphor of raging waves doth our Apostle say Instar tumentium undarum quanto altius se superbientes attollunt tanto amplius confusi quasi in spumas dissolvuntur percunt Bed Per dedecora intelliguntur peccata linguae ex immundo turbatoque corde manantia sed brevi in nihilum instar spumae resoluta Mera sonant tonitrua Nugas meras inanes voces effutiunt that by their raging and swelling they brought forth disgrace and shame to themselves as the raging waves of the Sea bring forth fome In these three respects did these raging Waves of whom the Apostle speaks bring forth shame to themselves as the waves of the Sea bring forth fome 1. Because that after all their troubling and disquieting of the Church by their erroneous turbulent and soul-destroying opinions and practises both were found to have as much vanity lightness and emptiness as the fome of the Sea though in their swelling and proud elevation of themselves and unquiet urging of their doctrines they seemed like the huge waves which threaten to touch and wash the very clouds to be raised far above others in knowledg and spiritualness and especially in enjoying of that liberty which they pretended went along with their practises and opinions and so to have climb'd as it were into the third heavens Non minus quis confunditur ob ignorantiam quam ob libidinem detectam Congeries perstrepentium vocum quibus nihil subest sententiae solidioris Vid. Epiph. haer 26. Nonnulli denotari volunt fornicationes veterum illorum baereticorum alii immunditiam gulae luxuriae quae veluti pâ—r spum ammanifestentue yet soon did all their glorious appearances as a highly rais'd billow of the sea falling either upon a rock or the shore end in meer froth
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
meanes by this terme Apostles and wherein stands the difference between them and ordinary Ministers of Christ as namely in respect of immediate calling their authenticall authority in writing and speaking their work and office to plant Churches to worke miracles to give the holy Ghost by imposition of hands to use the Apostolicall rod against obstinate offenders But to passe by these as not concerning our purpose and as being spoken to by others Two things in relation to this testimony here alledged by Jude may be touched by way of explication 1. What Apostles these were of whom Jude speaks and where this testimony is to be found 2. Why Jude makes use of that testimony which came from them and tells that it did come from them 1. Sermo videtur esse tum de verbis scriptis tum de praedicatis Lor. in 2. Pet. 3.2 Non id in propbanis autoribus observavi Id. For the first who these Apostles were that gave this prediction which Jude here alledgeth and where they gave it Although possibly sundry of the Apostles might by word of mouth testifie what Jude here mentions yet I doubt not but he principally relates to their writings And in them doe they frequently foretell and forewarne of these seducers Matthew chap. 24.11 tells us from Christs mouth that many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many John ep 2. cap. 2. ver 18. tells the Christians that there are many Antichrists whereby they knew that it was the last time Possibly Jude might intend these proofs among others but I conceive with Oecumenius that he principally aims at that which Paul and Peter before him had foretold concerning these seducers Paul warned of these seducers in sundry of his Epistles Peter particularly in his second Paul especially foretells of them 1 Tim. 4.1 The spirit speaketh expressely that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits c. and 2 Tim. 3.1 2. This know that in the last dayes perilous times shall come and the description of those who shall make the times so perilous exactly agrees to these seducers as I have shewn throughout this Epistle of Jude for men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers c. incontinent fierce despisers of those who are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God And 2 Tim. 4.3 The time will come when they will not indure sound doctrine but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers Plainly likewise doth Paul foretel the Coming of seducers Act. 20.29 I know this that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them But especially Jude seemes to intend the remembring of that prediction concerning seducers which Peter gives us 2 Pet. 3.3 There shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after their own lusts And our Apostle in exhorting the Christians to remember the words of the Apostles wherein they foretold the coming of these mockers seemes to some to imitate Peter who in the forementioned place ver 2. exhorted the Christians to remember the command of the Apostles namely to avoid the doctrines of seducers knowing that there shall come in the last dayes mockers c. For the second It was not without weighty reason that Jude makes use of the Apostles testimony and mentions the coming thereof from the Apostles and that in respect of Those Apostles Jude himselfe these Christians 1. In respect of those Apostles by the mentioning of their foretelling of these Mockers Jude shews the great care which those faithfull servants of Christ had of the Churches welfare their desires being that the Church should get good by them and live holily and peaceably when they had done living and that they might by their writings live even when they were dead to be serviceable to the Church of Christ 2. In respect of Jude himselfe he mentions the words of the Apostles as to shew his humility in acknowledging the grace and gifts of God bestowed upon others so to shew the sweet accord and agreement beween them and him in the doctrines which he delivered to them in this Epistle concerning these seducers that hereby he might gaine the more credit to himselfe and present service there being a joint concurrence between him and the other Apostles as to this end he had before told the Christians that James was his brother in respect of parentage so here he tells them that he and the other Apostles were brethren in respect of judgement and opinion all the Apostles were stars enlightned by the same sun they drew the waters of life out of the same fountain pluckt the fruits of wholesome doctrines off from the same tree and by the producing of the testimony of so many others who witnessed the same thing with him he more clearly evidenced that he had spoken nothing but the truth against these seducers whom he had so sharply reproved 3. In respect of the Christians to whom he wrote he mentions the Apostles 1. To shew how zealous they ought to be against these seducers and their doctrines in regard the Apostles who were so holy and unerring had given the Christians warning of them and with such vehemency spoken against them as if they were desirous to leave hatred of error as their legacy to their spiritual children 2. To preserve these Christians against discouragements by seeing such ungodly soul-subverting seducers rage and prevail in the Church it being no other than what was foretold by those who could not be deceived and therefore they were not to look upon it as if some strange thing had hapned to them Joh. 16 14. 3. To direct the Christians to the right means to discover and so toavoid all those seducers and seductions wherewith the Church of God was then infested The words of the Apostles being observed these Characters of seducers which they had delivered might be so plainly seen to agree to these who had crept into the Church that the one being known the other could not be hid and they being seen they surely ought to be shun'd OBSERVATIONS 1. Obs 1. Great should be the care of the ministers of Christ to warn the Church of approaching evils especially of seducers The Apostles of Christ foretold of the coming of these seducers among the Christians see the forecited places in the explication Paul warned every one night and day with tears Act. 20.31 They are Watchmen and it s their duty to give warning of every enemy They should be unfaithfull to your souls if they should be friends to your adversaries Their loving and faithfull freeness herein creats them many enemies but they can much more easily endure the wrath of man here for discharging than the wrath of God hereafter for neglecting their duty It s better that the lusts of seducers should curse
slaying and death shall benefit the Saint Worldly enjoyments are given us that we by them should testifie our love to God not by them to got assurance of Gods love to us Oh how slender an evidence of heaven is that with which so ordinarily men go to hel Thou canst only understand that the heart of God is set upon thee by finding that thine is set upon him The least dram of Grace is an earnest of heaven The greatest sum of outward enjoyments amounts not to the least part of payment or pledg of happiness 8. Observ 8. They who are corrupt in their judgment go in the way of cruelty Not to intimate what some have said of cruel Cain that he was the first Heretick sure I am he was after the Divel the first Murderer and these Seducers were as full of hatred as they were of Error They went in the way of Cain They were cruel to souls which by their Errors they poisoned and destroyed cruel to the names and dignities of their Superiors of whom they speak evil They were as the Apostle speaks afterward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce and raging waves ver 13 such as uttered hard speeches ver 15. against the Godly especially Ministers who opposed them in their way of sin Not to speak of the cruelty of Idolaters recorded in the Old Testament as of Pharaoh Hâ—man Ahab Jezabel Manasseh not yet converted Nebuchadnezzar Antiochus nor of the Heathenish Emperors within the first 300 years after Christ by which Tyrants the Apostles suffered violent death and whosoever made profession of their Doctrine were cruelly murdered of Nero Domitian Trajan Antonius Verus Hadrian who crucified Ten thousand Christians in one Mount of the last of the Ten Persecutions wherein in the space of one Month were slain seventeen thousand Martyrs I say to pass by these What lively Expositions upon this Text and the cruelty of Cain have the bloody actions of those been who would have been counted of the Church nay the only Church and friends and brethren to the members thereof as Cain was brother to Abel I might here relate what Ecclesiastical History mentions concerning the cruelty of the Arian Hereticks Theod. l. 1. c. 29. their banishing and false accusing of Meletius and Eustatius Bishops of Antioch and Athanasius of Alexandria the latter of whom hardly escaped with his life l. 5. c. 21. Socrat. l. 2. c. 7.16 for the cruel Arians finding that they could not destroy him by false witness purposed by violence to tear him in pieces the banishing and desposing Paulus from Constantinople by the Arrian Emperor Constantius and at last Socrat. l. 4. c. 22 Theod. l. 4. c. 21. Sozom. l 6. c. 19 Vid. Centur. Magd. p. 79. Cent 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Solit. the cruel murdering of him by the bloody Arians not to mention with these the vast number of examples of Arian cruelty recorded in Ecclesiastical History Socrates Theodoret Sozomen c. consent in this that the Arians banish'd imprison'd cruelly whip'd mock'd tore with nails burnt and exercised the cruellest punishments against the Orthodox and that they were more cruel against them then the Heathens who Tyranniz'd in those times Athanasius saith The inhumanity of the Arians exceeded all expression I might likewise mention what Augustin in sundry Epistles relates of the Cain-like cruelty of the Donatists of his time who pretended to so much Purity as that they held that the Church was no where in the world to be found Epist 50. Quis non Dominus servum suum timere compulsus est Quis quem libet poterat exigere debitorem Quorundam oculi extincti sunt Cujusdam Episcopi manus lingua praecisa est taceo crudelissimas coedes Epist 68. Conclericos nostros plagis immanissimis quassaverunt Quendam immaniter coesum gurgite coenoso volutatum c. Nos fustibus quassant ferróque concidunt In oculos extinguendos calcem mixto accto incredibili excogitatione sceseris mittunt Epist 166.159 Lacerati sunt viri tractae sunt Matronae Infantes necati abacti sunt partus nulli licuit securum esse in possessionibus suis Optat. cont Parl. l. 23. but in that corner of Affrick wherein themselves dwelt In his fiftieth Epistle hee tells us that the Masters stood in fear of their servants that were gone over to the Donatists that no man durst demand the money which his Debtors owed him for fear of clubs and fire the houses of any that offended them were burnt or pulled down and they pulled out the eyes of the Ministers and put them out with Chalk and Vinegar cut off their hands pulled out their tougues cruelly whipt and slew them and then tumbled them in the mud and then carryed them about afterward in derision And though these Sectaries pleaded frequently for toleration and liberty of conscience yet when under Julian the Apostate they had gotten power Who can declare saith Augustin what slaughter they made of the Orthodox All Affrica was filled with blood and desolation men were rent Matrons drag'd Infants slaughtered women with child miscarryed none were secure in their houses But if ever the spirit of Cain breathed in any since his time or if ever any wrote after Cains copy in letters of blood certainly they have been those of the Papacy how deservedly may their Head and Father the Pope be called a Cain in chief and is he called the Son of Perdition as being not only appointed to perdition but the Author of Perdition and destruction How evidently is his Antichristian cruelty set forth by being Drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 It s said by some that There is no day in the year which might not be dedicated to an hundred several Martyrs whose blood hath been shed by the Papal power 1. Papal cruelty spareth not pitieth not any degrees sex order age condition of men opposing their Religion Act. Mon. p. 814. 751 874 710 766 Alphonsus Diazius another Cain barbarously killed his own brother John Diazius because he was a Protestant With what inhumane cruelty have Protestants been compelled to discover for slaughter their dearest relations parents children brethren wives to carry faggots to burn their godly and painful Pastors and which might surpass belief among Heathens children have been constrained to set fire to their own fathers And Thuanus reports That a certain woman having fled to a secret place to shun the rage of her enemies being drawn out of it by them was in the sight of her husband shamefully defiled and then was forced by some of them who ordered her hand to give her husband his deaths wound with a drawne sword Horrid was that spectacle of the child which sprang out of the womb of a woman burnt at Gernsey which being saved out of the fire was by the bloody Executioner cast in again p. 1864. 1879 because it was a
receiving messages and answers from Jehovah Numb 22.8 I will bring you word saith he to Balacs Messengers as the Lord shall speak to me and ver 13. The Lord refuseth to let me go with you and ver 18. I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God Num 23 5 16. and Moses saith that the Lord put a word in Balaams mouth he uttered a Prophesie concerning Christ by Divine inspiration There shall come a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel Numb 24.17 to which Prophesie he prefixeth this solemn Preface He hath said which heard the words of God and knew the knowledg of the most High Vid. Aug. Trac 49. in Joh. which saw the Vision of the Almighty Even the worst men as here Balaam have sometimes foretold future things by a Spirit of Prophesie God inspiâ—ed Pharaoh with a Prophetical Dream God hath shewed unto Pharaoh said Joseph what he is about to do Gen. 41.1 25. The like may be said of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2.47 Some of the wicked who shall be sentenced to depart from Christ at the day of Judgment shall be able to say Have we not Prophesied in thy name Matth. 7 22. Caiaphas the High Priest a bloody unrighteous man Prophesied Joh. 11.51 that Christ should dye for that Nation Possibly Balaam uttered not his Prophesies as understanding their force or genuine sense to be sure his heart was not holily affected with what his tongue uttered which some conceive to be intimated in that expression of putting a word into Balaams mouth a phrase never used concerning the inspiring any of the holy Prophets And whereas Josh 13.22 Balaam is called a Sooth-sayer or Diviner the word which we translate Sooth-sayer is a word of a middle signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dent. 18.10 for in Scripture it is not only taken in the worst sense for one that useth Divination or is a Sooth-sayer but in a good construction for one that prophesies or foretels things to come Mich. 3 11. Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vatem reddiderunt as Mich. 3.11 And some there are who think that Balaam is here called a Sooth-sayer only in regard of his ambition and covetousness and of his ends and aimes in all he did which were not Gods glory or the love of the Truth revealed to him See English Annotâ—on Josh 13 or of his people whom he blessed but his own advancement and the wages and reward of Divination according to the manner of wicked Sooth-sayers But I rather conceive that Balaam out of desire of gain made use of Divellish Arts and unlawful Divinations for the cursing of Israel It s said Numb 24.1 that he went not Annot. in Numb 24. as at other times to seek for Enchantments Whereby it may be evidently collected saith Ainsworth that all his former Altars Sacrifices and consultations with the Lord were by the wicked Art of Enchantment or observing of Fortunes such as the Prophets and Diviners of the Nations used Deut. 18.10 14. which he now left as seeing them not available for his purpose His serving of God Vid. Ames in 2 Pet. p. 272. was mixt with his old Superstition in the number of Altars and Sacrifices in their site or posture towards the points of Heaven in his Gestures and set form of words c. 2. This for the Explication of the first particular viz. whom these Seducers followed or their Guide The second followes viz in what way they followed him or the example which he set before them viz. his Balaams Error for reward In the Greek the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two things are here to be opened 1. What that Error was which they followed 2 How it was for reward For the first The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc Planeta A Planet or wandring Star 2 Pet. 2.15 here translated Error properly signifies an Aberration or wandring from a right path or course wherein a Traveller should walk and therefore more fully Peter explains this Error of Balaam and these Seducers who followed him to be a going astray and forsaking the right way But more particularly the Error whereof the Apostle here speaks is differently expounded 1. Some Learned men conceive it to be that whereby both Balaam and these Seducers were deceived in their expectation of reward and wages honour pleasure profit c. by their sinful endeavours and no doubt but in this respect their way might fitly be called Error or deceit for Balaam in propounding to himself the wages and reward which Balac promised to him in case he would curse the Israelites was himself clearly deceived he being not only disappointed of what he look'd for viz. honour and gain but also bringing upon himself that which he looked not for a violent death by the Sword and most likely the eternal destruction of his soul in stead of receiving his reward from Balac he received it from God Numb 31.8 Josh 13.22 As also did these Seducers draw to themselves in stead of worldly advantages which they aimed at swift destruction and condemnation as the Apostles speak both of soul and body Others as I conceceive more sutably to the scope of the Apostle and to the construction of the other words immediately going before and following understand this Error to be the swerving wandring or deviation of Balaam imitated by the Seducers from the way of Gods will and commandment both in regard of their practice and especially their Doctrine or what they taught others whereby they made them to err and wander from the right way For Balaams practice it was an erring and wandering from the plain and express precept of God in that he went to Balac and that with a defire to curse the people His way was perverse before the Lord Numb 22.32 he was out of Gods way when he was in the way of his journey For his teaching of others he taught Balac to err in counselling him to build Altars and offer Sacrifices for Enchantments and to entice the Israelites to Adultery and Idolatry by the company of the daughters of Moab and it is as plain that he made the Israelites to err from the way of righteousness by teaching Balac to cast a stumbling block before them Rev. 2.14 to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication that thus they sinning might be afterward destroyed As touching these Seducers it is most evident that they in their own practice wandered from the way of righteousness and left the way of Truth in their Doctrines that they were ringleaders to Error blind guides who made many to follow them into the ditch Deceivers 2 Pet. 2. false Prophets bringing in damnable Heresies many following their pernicious wayes And that hereby as Peter speaks They went astray and forsook the right way viz. the way of Truth A great sin 1. because Error is a deviating from and an opposing of the
order and superiority in Church and State they not only despising and speaking evil of Civil Dignities and Dominions as we have formerly shewed at large but opposing and disturbing the state of all Ecclesiastical Order None were such bitter enemies to the faithful Apostles and Ministers of Christ who were the Shepherds Guides Governors Beda vocat Diotrephem haeresiarcham 3 Joh 10. and Overseers by Christ set over the flock and family of his Church None laboured so much to pour contempt upon them and their Doctrine prating against them as John speaks of Diotrephes with malicious words and all that they themselves with Corah might have the preheminency and be look'd upon as Simon Magus their Master to be the only great ones Act 8.10 2 Cor. 10.13.11.18 they commending themselves boasting of things without their measure glorying after the flesh drawing Disciples after them and labouring by winding into the Church to work the faithful Ministers out Cum Core pereunt propterea quòd ficus ille docendi Auctoritatem fibi praeâ— ripuerunt Oecum Hoe est negotium baereticorum non Ethnicos convertendi sed nostra evertendi nostra suffodiunt ut sua aedificent Tert. de praescrip Haereticus est qui alicujus temporalis commodi maxime gloriae principatusque gratiâ falsas novas opiniones gignit vel sequitur Cont. Ep. Paâ—m c. 3. In a word as Oecumenius speaks though they were never so unfit though uncalled yet their main study was to snatch all authority of Teaching to themselves And as Tertullian speaks of Hereticks Their work was not to convert Heathens but to overturn the labours of faithful Teachers and to pull down them to build up themselves And Augustine defines an Heretick to be one who for any worldly benefit especially for glory and preheminence either frames or followes new opinions Of this more pag. 269 Part 1. 2 The great sinfulness of this gainsaying appears sundry wayes It was made up of 1 Contempt of Gods Ordination Moses and Aaron were both placed in their Governments by Gods appointment both immediate and express Prov. 8.15 Rom 13.1 God was more opposed then these his Servants and therefore truly doth Moses tell them that this their gathering together was against the Lord. Num. 16.11 Though Dathan and Abiram Reubenites had the right of natural primogeniture yet do they vainly challenge Preheminence where God hath subjected them If all Civil Honour flow from the King how much more from the God of Kings His hand exalts the poor and casts down the Mighty from their Throne How unsufferable a presumption is it for dust and ashes to go about to mend his work and to subject his Ordination to their own humour 2. Regardlesness of the Publick They cared not what ruin and woe they brought upon the whole company of Israel by the loss of their lawful godly and able Governors so as they might accomplish their own private Designs They were desirous to raise themselves upon the destruction of thousands and their endeavour was to remove away Israels Shelters and Shields their Saviours Shepherds and Pillars yea and at one blow to behead Six hundred thousand men to turne Gods Garden into a Wilderness Gods well govern'd Family into a Den of Thieves and to hasten the death of their Political Parents though thousands of children would have celebrated their Funerals with tears 3. Hypocrisie and falshoood The Rebels pretend that all the Congregation was holy and that Moses and Aaron lifted up themselves Every word was a falshood Numb 16.3 So was Israel holy as Moses and Aaron were ambitious God lifted them up over Israel and they dejected themselves and what Holiness was there in so much Infidelity Idolatry Mutiny What could make them unclean if this were Holiness The Israelites had scarce wip'd their mouth since their last obstinacy but these Pick-thanks tax their Governors and flatter the people and yet all this not out of love to these fond and flattered people of whom they intended to make no other use but to be stirrups to advance themselves into the saddle of Government They pretend that all the people in regard of their holiness might make as near approaches to God as their Governors but their Design was hereby to appropriate all Administrations into their own hands and to wipe the poor people of that which now they laboured to take away from their Governors namely all Power 4 Discontentedness with their present condition While they look'd upon the fâ—w Rulers that were above them they never thought of the many thousands of people who were below them They did so discontentedly look upon the difference between the Levites and the Priests that they considered not the difference between the Levites the people and their thankfulness that they were above so many was drowned in discontentment that one or two are aâ—ove them 5 Envy at and repining against the due advancement of their faithful Governors They envied Moses in the camp and Aaron the Saint of the Lord Psal 106.16 Had Moses and Aaron been but fellowes with the Rebels none had been better beloved but now they are advanced the malice of these Rebels is not inferior to the Honour of their Governors their fault was that God had set them up not that they had ever opposed God or hurt Israel so that the trouble of the Rebels was not the badness of their Governors but the goodness of God The cursed humour of plain down-right Envy which is not troubled that things in the world go ill either in point of sin or sorrow but that they go so well or no worse 6 Pride and ambition Quotics hominibus desidero praeesse toties Deo meo praeire contendo Aug. in Psal 1. They aspired to a Dignity in which God had placed others and for and to which they were neither called nor fitted Their ambition to be above the people made them desirous to be likewise above God who had put others into that Dignity They who were not fit for the Ore Cum indignus essem poni ad romum positus sum ad gubernaculum Aug. Si ille qui virtutibus pollet invitus debet accedere quid de illo qui vitiis sordet Perald Non honorantur ex dignitate sed potius dignitas exhonoratur ab ipsis Id. desire to sit at the Stern Though the thing they desired was good yet their desiring thereof out of Gods way was wicked If they who are fittest to govern should not accept of rule unless they be drawn then they who are unfit should not run to take it Should ambitious Corahs get Power by running they would not be honoured by their great place but their place dishonoured by them 7 In infection and contagion disperst to others Corah draws in Two hundred and fifty into the Conspiracy famous in the Congregation and men of renowne The Plague-sore in this one Corah infects a great part of Israel The contagion was worse
Pelagius altered his opinions concerning Grace and Hilary reports of Arius that he had menstruam fidem for every month a sundry faith as if he had swallowed Moons that he was never consistent to and with himself before the Councel he held for the Divinity of Christ among his companions otherwise Thus the Apostle complains of the Galatians for their being so soon removed unto another Gospel 1 Gal. 6. and warnes his Ephesians chap. 4.14 that they should not be carried about c. and Peter 2 Pet. 2.14 mentions unstable souls Oft from Brownism men wander to Anabaptism from thence to Arminianism thence to Socinianisme and Arminianisme and then they become Seekers or rather indeed loosers of themselves just nothing as a thin empty cloud they are tossed so long up and down by winds that at length they come to nothing at all Their heads are like Inns and their opinions like Travellers which oft lodg not above one night in them like wax they take any new impression It s bard to say whether they are pluralists or neutralists in Religion and as hard to please them in any opinion as to make a Coat that should constantly fit the Moon They know they shall dy but in what faith they know not One error is ever a bridg to another 2 Pet. 3.16 They are called unlearned and unstable and therefore such as wrest the Scriptures whence its plain that by unstable he means such as were not grounded in the Faith and Learning of the Truth Hymeneus and Philetus who once held the Truth concerning the Resurrection afterward erred concerniag the Faith saying that the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. 2.18 2. They might be carried about and unstable in respect of their affections the goodnesse whereof was onely by fits and pangs sometimes they were fire-hot perhaps in Religion soon after stone-cold their heat like that in the fit of an ague is not from nature but distemper and therefore though violent yet not permanent they resemble the Mariners Psal 107.26 of whom the Psalmist speaks that at one time they are mounted up to heaven and presently fall down again into the depths like David who in his youth was full of Spirits and vigor but in his old age grew cold and chilly these who somtime seem'd fervent in spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now are cold in their affections and come to a state of indifferency and neutrality and frame to themselves such a moderation as will just serve the scantling of the times They were they say forward and foolish in the heat of their youth to oppose sin but now they see their error and admire their present staiednesse and the golden mean which they have attained Thus it was with those unsettled Galatians who at first could have pull'd out their eyes for Paul Gal. 4.16 soon after counted him an eye-sore their enemy fortelling them the truth The Church of Ephesus had left her first love Rev. 2.4 Thus Alexander who as some think for his zeal against Diana the Heathens Idol Qui martyrio propinquus erat perfidum sceleratum apostatam factum videmus Cal. in Ac. 19. formidabile exemplum or as others for his noted love towards Paul was like to have been torn in pieces as a Martyr afterwards as Calvin thinks became Pauls deadly adversary 2 Tim. 4.14 and would have martyred him Johns hearers rejoyced in his light for a season Affections raised upon no true grounds will soon fall and by so much the greater will the fall be by how much the higher the building was They who have been sometimes more then Christians in their fervor for afterwards have proved worse then heathens in fury against the truth 3. They might be carried about and unstable in their practices very strict and precise in their carriage at the first very loose and profane afterwards Seducers grew from better to worse or as the Apostle speaks worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13 golden professors haply in their youth silver in their middle age leaden in their old age They set out well but did not hold out at all so appearingly consciencious at the first that the very appearances of sin were shun'd so really wicked at last that the greatest abominations are not scrupled and they are grown so strong that their stomacks can digest those impieties with the very sight whereof heretofore they seem'd to be sick How frequently hath the glorious the morning beginnings of Christian Profession been overcast with the darknesse and gloomy cloudinesse of prophanenesse before the evening Many who have been elevated to a high pitch of Profession have faln like clouds into some dirty lane or slough of uncleannesse and loosnesse Gal. 3.3 They begin in the flesh and end in the flesh though they seem'd to have escapt the pollutions of the world and to be washt from their filthinesse yet they return with the dog to their vomit 2 Pet. 2.22 and with the sow to their wallowing in the mire 2. Plurium conflictus ventorum Lorin Impetuosus turbo Geth Luke 8 23. Mar. 4.37 Hebr. 13.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the second by what they were carried about and unsetled viz. By the windes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies any blast which blows in the air but Peter 2 Pet. 2.17 saith they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried with a tempest the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifying a whirlwind not one wind but a conflict of many winds It s used by the Evangelists in the describing the tempest miraculously appeased and calmed by Christ There were several sorts of winds and tempests wherewith these Seducers were carried about 1. The wind of strange doctrines this is noted by the Apostle Hebr. 13.9 where he warns the Christians that they be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines And Eph. 4.14 with every wind of doctrine Every doctrine which was new was by them entertained as true They had itching ears delighted with novelty not obedient ears attentive to profitable truths whence it was that every new doctrine carried them a several way and that they meeting with several new Doctrines were hurried round as in a whirlwind and knew not where to rest The Divel pleased them like children with change of toyes The true Gospel was neglected for another as Paul speaks Gal. 1.6 they were of the same mind with him who taught them last they were meer moveables in the Church like the water ever of the same figure with the vessel into which its put like a company of cyphers which signifie what it pleaseth the Figure which is put before them 2. Seducers are carried about with the wind of fear to save their skins they car'd not what they held taught did they were impatient of persecution Thus speaks the Apostle of these seducers Gal. 6.12 They constrain you to be circumcised lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
of iniquity though they did not seem to be workers of iniquity yet God discovers them to be such by leading them forth with them There are none who so much dishonour Christ as they who profess to be rooted in him and yet are unfruitful and dead Christians Christ is a fruitfull soil full of strength and for any to be barren and decay appearing to be in him is a great disparagement to him every one will be ready to blame him for all their defects therefore that they may dishonour him no more they are pluckt up from that soil unto which they did but seem to belong for they were there only by a visible profession not by a reall rooting as a liveless stake is put into the ground and in the Civill Law till a tree hath taken root it doth not belong to the soil on which it is planted and then it appears that they never were rooted in Christ Please not then your selves with a meer outward empty profession of godliness with your standing among the trees of Christ in his Ortyard meerly in being accounted trees of righteousness or onely with the having a name to live These things will be so far from hindring that they will further your eradication A dead barren Oak a man will haply suffer to stand in his wood but not a dead Vine in his vineyard it was not a wild tree of the wood which none ever lookt should bear fruit that Christ cursed but an empty fig-tree whose nature promised fruit Root your selves as much downward in inward holinesse as you spread upward in outward profession otherwise God will at length make your hypocrisie known and will not suffer you always to abuse his own patience the good opinions of beholders and the place of your own standing and the longer the lets you stand to deceive others the greater shall you shame be when you shall be discovered This for the third Resemblance whereby the Apostle describes the sin and wickednesse of these seducers trees without fruit whose fruit withereth c. The fourth and fifth follow VIR 13. Raging waves of the sea foming out their own shame Wandring starres to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darknesse for ever THe fourth Resemblance whereby both the impiety and misery of these Seducers are described as in these words Raging waves of the sea foming out their own shame EXPLICATION Two things are here to be explan'd 1. What they are said to be Raging waves of the sea 2. What they are said to get by being so Shame They fomed out their own shame Like the raging waves which after their greatest unquietnesse breake themselves to a little fome For the first their title or what they are said to be in these words Raging waves of the sea Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated raging signifies uncamed wilde waves roaring like the wilde beasts of the wood Hence the vulgar render this place fluctus feri maris Erasmus Vndae efferae maris And Beza Vndae maris efferatae Fluctus vehementes maris Syriac fluctus maris commoti Arab. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. Gavisum in fluctus aequora mota truces Ovid. Latrantes undas Virg. 7. Aeneid Rapidas aquas Act. 27.41 Luk. 21.25 Jer. 31.35 Jer. 5.22 Isa 51.15 Psal 73.3 Interpretations that betoken fiercenesse wildnesse turbulency The same expression is there in VVisd 14.1 A man intending to passe thorough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce troublesome boisterous waves One Poet cals the waves of the Seas fluctus truces cruell terrible And another calls the waters of the Sea Latrantes undas the barking waves as if they made a noise like a barking dog when they were stir'd and rais'd and we frequently speak of angry roaring working boysterous rough troublesome Seas and read in Scriptures of violent waves Acts 27.41 The sea and waves roaring Luk. 21.25 The ship tossed with waves Mat. 14.24 The roaring of waves Jer. 51.55 Jer. 31.35 The tumult of the people and the noise of the seas and waves are put together Psal 65.7 And therefore our Apostle in calling these Seducers raging waves doth not so much intend their instability variablenesse and fluctuation in mind and doctrine their motion by every wind and unstablenesse in the truth though waters are unstable even to a Proverb nor onely the pride and swelling arrogancy of these Seducers though the waves are called proud waves they oft lifting up themselves so high as if they would kisse the Clouds and making as if by their fall they would overspread the earth but in calling them raging waves he rather intends as I said their troublesomenesse and unquietnesse and that in three respects 1. In respect of themselves Their consciences were unquiet tossed and troubled without any inward tranquility and calmnesse in the apprehension of reconciliation with God Isa 57.20 21. Isa 65.14 Isa 48.22 Job 15.20 21 24. Thus saith the Prophet the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Thus Eliphas speaks Job 15.20 The wicked travelleth with pain all his dayes And to the same purpose Zophar Job 20.20 Surely he shall not feel quietnesse in his belly Inward Peace belongs onely to the faithfull It s onely reported of them Psal 119.165 Great peace have they who love thy Law 1 Cor. 1.3 Col. 1.2 2 Thes 1.2 It s onely promised to them He wil speak Peace to his people Psal 85.8 God will reveal to them abundance of peace It s onely requested for them even that peace which passeth understanding to keep their hearts Peace from God being never desired for men to live in a state of war against God Rom. 5.1.9.10 Eph. 2.14 Onely the Faithfull have taken the right course to obtain it They alone are delivered from Gods wrath and have an Interest in Christ who is our peace Gal. 5.22 Isa 59.8 and the Prince of Peace and have that spirit which works it in us and of whom true Peace is a fruit and effect The wicked have not known the way of Peace They may have it in the brow not in the brest in cortice not in corde in the looks not in the Conscience Benummed their consciences may be pacified they cannot be The guilt of sin is an unseen scourge a hidden sore He who hath thorns run into the soals of his feet wheresoever he goes treads upon thorns VVicked men carry their furnace their wrack their wo their prison about them wheresoever they go nor can they any more lay these off then they can lay off themselves 2. The Apostle may compare these Seducers to waves as they are unquiet troubled and moved in regard of God against and under whose will they were impatient fretfull and unsubmissive They did not quietly content themselves with their conditions They were like chaffe which flies into the face of him who fanneth it
times but they are called wandring or planets because they proceed in their orb by various and different motions keep not the same distance nor situation among themselves nor one place under the firmament nor are alwaies of one distance from any of the fixed stars Saturn Jupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna but move sometimes more swiftly sometimes more flowly and are sometimes higher sometimes lower sometimes appearing with more light sometimes with less yea sometimes not appearing at al Unde Cicero planetas dictos existimat per antiphrasim q. minime errantes according to their particular motions The other sort of wandring starrs are but appearingly such and improperly called such and they are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or according to Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as dart Stella discurrentes transvolantes trajicientes leap and run hither and thither and wander into several parts of the heavens and oft fal down upon the earth they being only hot and dry exhalations gathered together in a round heap and yet not compacted throughly elevated unto the highest part of the lower region and there only kindled by antiperistasis Ovid 2. Metaph De 〈◊〉 lapsa sereno quâ— si non Cecidit possit cecidisse videri sâ—pe etiam stellas vento impendente videbis precipites Coelâ— labi Virg. 1 Georg. Decidua sydera Plin. and seeking to ascend higher by the sudden cold of the middle region are beaten back and so appear as though stars should slide and leap from place to place I conceive that Christ speaks of these stars Matth. 24.29 where he saith the stars shal fall from heaven Thus Aug. l. 2. de civ dei cap. 24. vid. Lud. Viv. Comment And that our Apostle speaks of these stars as it is the opinion of Junius Perkins Diodat and also of sundry among the Papists as Cajetan Lapide Lorinus so seems it very probable considering that tho the 7 planets have various different motions in their orbs yet their motions are so regular and constant that they are certainly known even before they have fulfilled them and also give clear direction to a man concerning times and seasons and the parts of the heavens and earth and therefore it seems not probable that the Apostle would call these seducers wandring stars or as the Syriack seductrices or as the Arabick caliginosas by comparing them to the seven planets And besides as the punishments contained in the former metaphors of trees clouds waves are the continuations of the three foresaid resemblances so the punishment which the Apostle subjoynes blackness of darknesse seems a continuation of the metaphor of wandring stars is such as agrees not to the seven planets but to these meteors or transitory impressions or exhalations which though for a time they flame and blaze brightly yet quickly go out and end in soot smoak and black darknesse 2. Why doth our Apostle here call these seducers stars and wandring stars 1. By giving them this title of stars I conceive our Apostle intends either first to shew their duty which was as Christians especially as teachers of others to shine like stars before others both by their doctrine and life and by both to be holily influential upon them or 2. rather the Apostle by calling them stars would insinuate what they desired to be esteemed and accounted among the people namely the eminent and glorious lights of the Church such as were fixed in heaven in respect of their meditations and affections such as directed others in the way to heaven afforded spiritual heat and life and quickning to them whereas indeed they were but false lights wandring stars such as led or rather mis-led people into the waies of error and destruction And both these reasons of the Apostles calling these seducers stars are made more then probable by that frequently used and elegant comparison of scripture wherein the Ministers of the Church are set forth by stars Dan. 8.10 Rev. 12.4 Rev. 1.16 Rev. 2.1 Dan. 12.3 They who turn many unto righteousnesse shal shine as the stars Apoc. 1.20 the seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches c. and most fitly may the Ministers of the Church be compared to stars In regard 1. of their nature a star is of the same nature with the heavens celestial not Elementary Ministers should be pure Job 25.5 1 Tim. 4.12 2 Cor 6.6 blamelesse inoffensive they should teach facienda et faciendo voce et vitâ by lip and life tongue and hand their profession is holy they are compared to Angels called holy Angels the prophets were called holy Prophets In their heart they should experimentally find the work of holinesse and in their conversations express it 1 Cor. 3.5.6.7 Ephes 4.11 2. It is the nature of a star to be receptive of light and that from the Sun Ministers should abound in the light of knowledg They are called lights their lips should preserve knowledg they should be apt to teach and as the stars beams are borrowed from the sun the calling gifts abilities of the Minister are from Christ he hath set them in his Church he is with them without him they can do nothing he gives them work strength successe wages 2. Stars in respect of their situation and position they are high placed above the earth and thus Ministers should be stars advanced above others as in respect of their calling which of all others is the most excellent and honourable and of their gifts of wisdome c. so of that high regard and reverend esteeme double honour which the faithfull should bestow upon them As they have the highest place in the Church so walking worthy of their place they should have the highest place in the hearts of beleevers but especially they should be high and heavenly in their aimes affections Conversations they should carry themselves as the Prophets and Ministers of the most high they should not undertake their high and glorious function for low and base ends for honour wealth Ease but for the advancing of Christ the bringing of soules to heaven Their affections must not be set upon these things which are below money and possessions should lye at their feet not their heart An earthly minded minister resembles a clod not a star their Conversation should be in heaven A Star would give no light if it were not in heaven Instruction is made profitable to the people by the heavenly carriage of the minister Stars are of a round sphericall figure and an orb or boul toucheth the earth not as a plane but only in puncto A little earth should seem enough to a minister 1 Tim. 6.8 And as the greatest stars in regard of their distance from the earth appear but small so those ministers who in gifts and graces are most Eminent 1 Cor. 4.9.13 are yet in the opinions of men small vile Contemptible the off-scouring of the world and basely esteemed this is their lot but withall
by sparing as by punishing I am God and not man and therefore saith he the seed of Jacob are not destroyed We further may gather that it s no sign that men are innocent because they are not punished It follows not because they are great that therefore they are good this followes only God is good Nor doth Gods forbearance prove a sinner pardoned it only speaks him for a time though the Lord knows for how short a time reprieved Justice is not dead but sleepeth God is sometimes said to hold his peace never to be dumb though he be long-suffering yet he is not ever-suffering Gods patience shewes not that God will alwaies spare us but that we should now repent It is not a pillow for the presumptuous but a cordial for the penitent God will require interest hereafter for all his forbearance The longer the Child is in the womb the bigger it will be when it comes forth Judgment delay'd will be increased unless prevented Justice comes surely though slowly to the impenitent the blackness of darkness is reserved for them who are unprofitable under light If Patience make thee not blush Power shall make thee bleed O thou though forborn sinner labour for faith in threatnings take heed of self love and shunning the thoughts of that severity the feeling whereof thou canst not shun Study the end of Gods forbearance and the vanity of all earthly refuges and reliefs against punishment rseerved for an incorrigible sinner 6. Observ Vlt. Things earthly should teach us things heavenly It s our duty to make a spirituall improvement of earthly objects The Apostle makes use of clouds trees stars waves to spirituall purposes The world is a great school to teach us the knowledge of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we have a superiour doctrine yet we must not neglect this The Prophets Apostles and Christ were much in this kinde of instruction by similendes taken from the creatures every of which is a ladder made of many steps to raise up to God A paire of spectacles whereby we may read God the more clearly and plainly Our meditation should be like a Limbeck into which flowres being put sweet water drops from it and out of every earthly object put into our meditations some heavenly considerations should be drawn and drop All the creatures in generall * Agustine saith be more doubted whether he had a soule in his body the effects whereof were evident then whether there were a God in the world Solilâ—â— l. 31. we should improve to the Learning 1. of Gods nature and 2. our duty His nature The invisible things of God are discovered by the creatures Rom. 1.20 His power in making them of nothing and upholding them as he made them all with his word His eternity for he that made them must needs be before them His wisdome is manifest in the beauty variety and distinction order and subordination of one to another the exquisite cunning in the frame of the smallest creature His bounty and goodness in the endowments bestowed upon every one in its kinde his large provision for them all We should likewise 2. improve all the creatures in generall to the learning of our own duty As 1. to depend upon him for all necessaries Act. 17.28 Rom 11.36 Psal 104.29 Deus mundum animat Audimus Creaturam tribus vocibus nobis loquentem prima vex dicit accipe secunda dicit redde Tertia dicit fuge Accipe beueficium redde debitum fuge supplicium Hug. de sanc vic l. 2. de Arc. mor. c. 4. as they doe for provisions their eyes waiting upon him we must knock at his door and go to his fountain Cast our Care upon him in him we live and move and have our beings Of him through him and to him are all things he is the great householder of the world Jezreel cryes to the corn wine and oyle these cry and call to the earth this calls to the heavens but these call to God upon whom they all depend and shall not we doe so 2. All creatures teach us to love him and serve him they being love-tokens God loving us better then them and all being instruments of punishment if we fail in our duty They all serve the Lord by a perpetuall Law The winds and the seas obey him fire snow hayl c. Psal 148.8 All the creatures even frogs grashoppers lice are his souldiers He is commander in chief they are all at his beck In obedience to him they will run from themselves and cease to be themselves the sun will stand still goe back the sea will be a solid wall the fire will not burne iron will swim And they serve us all so constantly day and night they serve us with their sweetest and choycest gifts the Sun with influence of heat and light Trees with delightfull fruit and beasts with fleece and life to their own wasting and destruction Oh how should we serve him even to the loss of the best things we have and how should the constant standing of the creatures in that station wherein God at the first set them make us ashamed of our apostacy from God and rebellion against God! 3. All the creatures in general teach us earnestly to expect a better condition than that which we now injoy The earnest expectation of the Creature saith Paul waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God Rom. 8.19 If there be something in the Creatures groaning and travelling in paine untill now tired out by mans sin and made subject to vanity like an earnest expectation of and waiting for this manifestation should not man who is the sinner and hath made the creature subject to vanity who hath also reason and who shall partake of more happinesse by that manifestation much more desire and look forit shall man of all Creatures rest in and be contented with a state of vanity The very unreasonable yea insensible Creatures will teach us to soar to a more heavenly pitch of spirit And as all the Creatures in generall may thus be improved spiritually so 2. may every particular Creature severally whether in heaven or on the earth For heavenly Creatures the Psalmist tells us Ps 19.1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Ps 8.3 When I consider thy heavens the worke of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained what is man c. The pure and excellent matter of the heavens speaks the greater purity and excellency of the workman how pure also our hearts should be which are his lesser heaven and how pure they should be who expect to live in those heavens into which no impure thing must enter how hatefull also sin is to God who for mans sin will one day set this beautifull house on fire The height of the heavens shewes the infinite height and honour and majestie of him whose standing house is above all the visible heavens whose pallace
two respects might their words be called swelling 1. in respect of the things that they spake 2. Of their manner of speaking them 1. In respect of the things they spake and that 1. of God and so they might speak great swelling words against him either when they blasphemed him in their murmuring and complaining of his providences or otherwise in uttering blasphemous expressions against his glorious and divine excellencies We read of those who set their mouth against the heavens Psal 73.9 and of the beast it s said Rev. 13.5 That there was given him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies * 2 Thes 2.4 Oraclis vocis mundi moderaris babenas Et merito in terris crederis esse Deus Omnia quae Dei quae Christi sunt sibi usurpat Tollit pec cata mâ—ndi dominans à mari ad mare Leo de tribu Judae Radix David mundi Salvator Antichrist exalteth himself above all that is called God Pope Nicholas blasphemously decreed that the Pope was not subject to the secular power because God could not be judged by man The Pope calls himself a god on earth to him he saith is given all power in heaven and in earth he takes away the sins of the world he is the lion of the tribe of Judah the Saviour of the world c. 2. They might speak great swelling words in respect of others 1. Magistrates of whom they spake evil and whom they despised and from subjection to whom they openly professed that they were exempted 2. Illi acclamatur Tu es omnia et super omuia tibi data est omnis potestas in coelo et in terrâ Vid. Paraeum in Apoc. 13. v. 3 Their words in respect likewise of common persons might be swelling as 1. by threatning curses against them who would not embrace their errors Threatning words are swelling words Thus Goliah Rabshakeh Jezabel Benhadad uttered their swelling threats 2. By great and swelling defamations making their throats open sepulchres to bury the names of those who opposed them they being valiant in calumniation but weak in consutation they spake evil of what they knew not 3. By promising great and admirable priviledges of peace pleasure liberty to those who would embrace their errors Thus we read 2 Pet. 2.18 while they spake great swelling words of vanity they allure others through the lusts of the flesh i.e. by promising pleasure and v. 19 they promised them liberty like Mountebanks they proclaimed the vertue of their salves the better to put them off Thus the false prophet Zedekiah making him horns of iron promised that with those the King should push the Syrians til he had destroyed them Thus the divel that great Seducer promised to Christ all the kingdomes of the world and their glory if he would fall down and worship him Matth. 4.9 3. Their words were swelling in regard of Omnes tument omnes scientiam pollicentur ante sunt perfecticatechumeni quam edocti Ipsae mulieres haereticae quam procaces quae audeant do cere contendere exorcismis agere curationes repromittere forsan et tingere Tert. de praescrip c. 41. themselves and those of their own party whom they voiced and cried up with ful mouths for their knowledge and piety hence they arrogated to themselves the title of Gnâ—sticks or knowing men and perfect ones they commended themselves as if they alone had the monopoly of wisdome and had only insight into deep and profound mysteries as if all others in comparison of them were poor short-sighted people and as far short of them for quick-sightednesse as the owl is short of the Eagle Thus Tertullian describes them when he saith They all swel they all promise wisdom they are perfect catechumens before they are taught how mallapert are the very women who are so bold as to teach contend c. Iraeneus likewise describing the pride of the Gnosticks saith Perfectos seipsos vocant quasi nemo possit exaequari magnitudini agnitionis ipsorum nec si Paulum aut Petrum vocas vel alterum quendam apostolum sed plus omnibus se cognovisse et magnitudinem agnitionis solos ebibisse esse autem se in altitudine supra omnem virtutem c. Iren. l. 1. c. 9. Matrem habent iniquitatis suae superbiam dum semper se scire altiora jactitant Hier. in Hos 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Paedag c. 6. Indicatur haereticos resonare vociferari mugire sonum sine fructu emittere in clamore vocisque contentione victoriae summam constitnere Lorin in 2 Pet. 2.18 they call themselves perfect as if none were able to equalize them for the greatnesse of their knowledg as if Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles were inferior to them for knowledge the greatnesse whereof they make as if they had drunk up and devoured boasting of such an height as if they were above all vertue Pride saith Jerom is the mother of their iniquity while they boast of their knowledg in the highest mysteries They thinke higher of themselves saith Clemens Alexandrinus then ever did the Apostle Arius that pestilent heretique as Athanasius reports proudly boasted that he had received his doctrine from the elect of God men that knew God and had received the anointing of the Spirit But concerning the high boastings of heretiques I have spoken before part 1. pag. 270. as also p. 322 c. of this part 2. They might be said to speak swelling words in respect of the manner of speaking those things which they utterd and that both in respect 1. Of their voice and 2. Stile 1. In respect of their voice it might be with that hight and loudnesse which savoured of a proud boysterousness Peter 2 Ep. 2.18 mentioning their speaking great swelling words useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies their lifting up their voices and making a great noise a bellowing or roaring like beasts as if these seducers placed their victory in the loud Contention of their voices Thus the Idolatrous Ephesians lifted up their voices to the hight when they cride out with so much rage Great is Diana of the Ephesians Act. 19.28.34 2. In respect of their stile or phrase wherein they utterd what they spake It hath been the course of seducers to speak bubbles of words sublime straines strong lines big and new expressions that they being not understood may be admired what they want in the weight of matter they make up in the perswasivenesse of wooing words Their novell doctrines were clothed with new and formerly unheard of expressions They layd aside the forme of wholsome words 1 Tim. 1.13 1 Tim. 6.3.4 Or as Chrysosteme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new coynd expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disputationes instituunt de rebus obscurioribus eas etiam sermonis inumbrando novâ quadam obscuritate et vocabulorum recens excogitatorum barbaric Lor in 2 Pet. 2.13 consented not to it but being proud they doted
saint themselves and to say If such an one were commendable and voiced by our Minister for a good man I thank God t is much better with me I never was guilty of halfe his extravagancies and I see I may be a good man yea and commended when I am dead notwithstanding my failings so he calls his allowed wickednesses though I be not so pure as such and such are Oh how unsutable is it that by funerall Sermons men should be made more unfit for death to paint those in the pulpit who are punisht in hell and that a Minister should be strewing that dead body with flowers whose soule is bathing in flames For my part though I should not deny due commendation even at a funerall to some eminently exemplary saint or publiquely usefull instrument yet mostly I thinke his speech concerning the deceased may suffice who said If he were good he did not desire If bad he did not deserve praise 2. When we so admire the persons of some instructers as to neglect and despise others who haply deserve better then they the sin of the Corinthians when the Apostle tells them 1 Cor. 3.21 of their glorying in men some teachers being so gloried in peculiarly as if they were onely worth the hearing and none else to be regarded Some accounted Paul the only teacher some delighted onely in Apollo some magnified Peter as the alone worthy man thus they thought of men above what was meet and they were puffed up for one against another They gloryed in some disdaining all others as not to be named with them though teachers of the same truth because they had an high conceit of their learning wit cloquence holinesse or the like qualifications A great sin doubtlesse and I fear the common sin of this City How unthankfull for the bounty of Christ doe men make themselves hereby who gave all the Ministers of the Gospell to be theirs for their good all things saith the Apostle are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas 1 Cor. 3.21 22. It s unthankfulnesse to a bountifull Prince when he bestowes many Lordships on his favourite if he should regard one of them onely and despise all the rest Yea how injuriously is the Spirit of Christ hereby reproached For the despising of those who are of small gifts is a reproaching of the Spirit of God as if he were defective in his gifts whereas their variety sets forth the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods spirit who divideth to every man severally as he will and worketh all these 1 Cor. 12.11 Besides this sin is oft the maine cause of schismes in the Church It makes people to divide themselves under different teachers whom they admire and it causeth teachers to take away those that affect them from other teachers whom they affect not so much Now this sin of schisme in it selfe very great as afterwards shall be shewn God willing on the 19. ver is made much the greater by being occasion'd by those very gifts of men which God bestowed upon them to this end that there might be no scisme in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another 1 Cor. 12.25 Nor is there any sin which doth more expose Christian Religion to so much contempt and obloquy then this kinde of admiring of persons for hereby severall Companies of Christians are made like the severall schools of Philosophers some whereof followed Plato some Aristotle some Epicurus and the doctrines of faith are but accounted as the proper opinions of severall teachers and all zeal for them is conceived to arise not from a certaine knowledge of heavenly truth but from peculiar humour and strength of fancy And how great a stumbling block must this needs be to those who are without how will it hinder them from embracing the truth and lay it open to derision yet further the sinfulness of this sort of man-admiration appears in that hereby both the despised person is so greived and discouraged that he is infeebled and disabled in his work and also he who is admired is not onely puffed up with pride and thereby occasion'd to adulterate the word invent and broach errors that stil he may be advanced above all others by going in a different way from them but also put upon the pleasing of men by sinfull flatteries in stead of profiting them by faithfull reprehensions To conclude this consideration nothing begets so great an aptness in men to receive errors as this sinfull admiration nor hath any seed of heresies and superstitions proved so fruitfull as this affection commonly makes men take down falsities and error is easily received from them whom we much admire and God doth often leave admired teachers to erre for tryal of the people and the punishing of their vanity in making Gods truth to stand at the devotion of the teacher for its acceptance and trampling upon the holy and perhaps learned labours of those who are more seeing and faithfull than the admired 3. When we so admire mens persons as to give all respect to men in outward greatnesse though perhaps wicked despifing the poor Saints because poor this James reproves my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons James 2. When wickedness in robes is magnified and holinesse in raggs contemned Oh how unworthy is it that the gold ring and costly apparell should be prefer'd before the robe of Christs righteousnesse and the jewel of grace that godliness and good examples should be rejected for their want of a gold ring that he who shall have a throne in heaven must here be a footstool upon earth 4. When Elections and offices are passed and bestowed partially for freindship favour money kinred a sin by much agravated when men have taken oaths to a Corporation to the contrary and it s ost a great tentation to the party who enters by money to sell justice dear 5. When we so admire the person of one as to do injustice in judgment whether Civil or Ecclesiastical which is when our affection doth so blind our judgment by some outward respect or appearance that we will not determine righteously the cause being over ballanced with such forreign considerations as have no affinity with it Thus men are in judicature sometime swayed with foolish pitty sometime with cowardly fear both these the Lord forbids Levit. 19.15 Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor Deut. 1.17 nor honour the person of the mighty This sin would make God a patron of iniquity the sentence being pronounced from God OSERVATIONS 1. Obs 1. The oondition of men in greatest out ward emiuency and dignity is oft very miserable None have so many flatterers and therefore none so few freinds as they flatterers as worms breed in the best fruit When a poor illiterate man is admonished for sin a rich a learned man is admired in nay haply for sin As the bodies so the sonls of Kings and great men
themselves The first is contained in that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it imports three things 1. A fitting and a joyning the building to the foundation 2. A skilful disposing of the materials and parts of the building 3. A progressivenesse and proceeding therein even to perfection and all these are aptly applicable to that spiritual purpose of our apostle in this place for by this expression he intends to put them upon labouring for confirmation and stability in their Christian course by sitting fast to the word the foundation of faith and as a building which is firmely fixed and immoveably set upon its foundation stedfastly to abide in and rest upon the truth of the word that all the winds and waves and oppositions of seducers may not be able to unsettle and remove them And this it is which the Apostle Col. 2.7 intends by the very same expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 built up in which he exhorts the Christians to stability in Christ and his truth by being joyned to him as the building is to the foundation and hence it is that Christ Matth. 7.24 commended the wisedome of that man who built his house upon the rock and ver 26. blamed the folly of him who built his house upon the sand He that heareth my words saith he and doth them I will liken him unto a wise man that built his house upon the rock The firm and unfeined belief of the doctrine of faith is as the resting and depending upon the rock or foundation T is true faith sets us upon Christ as a foundation personall or mediatory upon whom alone we depend for life and salvation but faith sets us upon the word as the foundation scriptural or manifestative or that for the truth of which and of its discoveries we believe in and depend upon Christ And hence it is that as Christ is in scripture called a foundation Eph. 2.10 the chief corner-stone a stone for a foundation and besides whom no other foundation can be layd 2 Cor. 3.11 So is the word adorned with the same title Eph. 2.20 where by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Mat. 16.18 we are to understand their doctrines and the way to build upon Christ is by building upon his word as our foundation for Christ is not a foundation of happinesse every way that man frames in his own heart but onely so as God offers him in the word of the Gospel and Christ makes it all one to build and beleeve on his word as on himselfe He that refuseth me and receiveth not my word Joh. 12.48 And if ye abide in me and my words abide in you Joh. 5.17 As we rest upon a man by trusting to his word so we build upon Christ by building on his word and the word being rooted in our hearts unites us to Christ 2. The Apostle by this phrase of building up puts the Christians upon a right ordering of the materialls and parts of the building for in the building the materialls are not onely to be laid but skilfully to be laid upon the foundation and this comprehends two things 1. The providing of good materialls 2. The placing of them fitly For the first In buildings sundry profitable and usefull materialls are provided as brasse Iron stone timber lime lead glasse c. and in this spirituall building there must be parcells of all graces faith hope love knowledge c. Faith must be those brazen gates to let in Christ into the soule and to shut out Satan watchfulnesse and courage must be as the stone-wall to oppose the approaches of our enemies Patience the dormers bearing the weight of the house and every burden that may be layd upon it Love the Cement to bind and knit all together Knowledge as the windowes to lighten the house Hope as the glasse or casements to look out and wait for things beleeved 2. These must be fiâ—ly placed and that 1. So as that all the parcels may be set upon the foundation Phil. 4.13 all must lean upon Jesus Christ as manifested in scripture grace of it selfe is but a Creature and defectible he can onely continue life and vigor to it without Christ the greatest and highest graces will but be pondera ad ruinam and could neither be set up nor kept up grace will prove but deceitfull unlesse it stands upon upon the strength of Christ the foundation 2. All the parts must be disposed and contrived for the best advantage of and so as they may be most usefull to the dweller Every grace must be for God as it is from him Who builds an house and doth not expect to be accommodated and benefited by it 3. There must be a due proportion between part and part and such a laying out of the one that there may not be too great an abridgment or hindering of the beauty and largenesse of the other Christians must have all the parts of holinesse and parcells of grace There must not be so much alotted for one roome that nothing be left for another a Christian must not be all for knowledge and nothing for Love all for zeal and nothing for humility all for humility nothing for courage A Christian must neither be maimed nor monstrous 4 All the parts must be built according to the line and rule of the word The tabernacle was according to the patterne in the mount Exod 25.40 A Christian must walke and build by rule entertaine every grace and performe every duty which is enjoyned and because 't is enjoyned he must not live according to example but rule 3. By this expression of building up the Apostle puts these Christians upon progressivenesse and perfection in the worke of Christianity he not onely enjoyns every Christian to be busie in building but by this word in Composition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he notes a building up till the work be finished an increasing in building even to a consummating thereof this also is intimated by the note of opposition * But. in the connexion to those who fall off whereby he would teach the Christians not to give over the worke till they be builded up a perfected building for Christ Hence it is that Peter though not in the same words yet to the same effect directs the Christians 2 Pet. 3.17 to grow in grace and 2 Pet. 1.5 to adde grace to grace Adde to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge c. and Eph. 4.15 to a growing up in Christ in all things 'T is true building is a slow and leasurely work a work of time but yet it must be a progressive and proceeding work 't is done by little and little but yet many littles will bring forth much and make a beautiful building at length What more dishonourable then for a man to begin Luc. 14.30 and not to be able to finish the disgrace hereof Christ mentions in the Gospell no change so unworthy and dishonourable as to begin in the
spirit and end in the flesh And not to goe forward in Christianity is to goe backward and they who build not up pull down There 's no standing at a stay in this work the want of a roof impaires the walls the leaving of the building imperfect and unfinisht by not adding what is wanting tends to the ruining of that which is already set up We lose those things which we have wrought 2 ep Joh. 8. To conclude this paines and progressivenesse in this worke Part 1. pag. 158. c. 163. c. Part 2. is about a building which is not temporall and in time to fall down but spirituall and eternall Of this at large before 2. Concerning the second viz. the building up themselves It may be demanded 1. what is meant by themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. How they may be said to be able to build up themselves For the first the word themselves added to building up may import a building up of one another and intend a mutuall duty to be put forth and exercised between Christian and Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus the Apostle Col. 3.16 useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he exhorteth them to admonish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another and Eph. 4.32 to forgive one another and this mutuall and fraternall helping of one another forward in our Christian progresse is elsewhere frequently commanded in scripture Heb. 11.25 exhorting one another and 1 Thes 5.11 edifie one another Christians by their counsells comforts exhortations examples should advance one anothers spirituall welfare but though this be a truth and here not excluded yet this hinders not but that primarily the Apostle intends that every one should promote his own particular holinesse and progresse in the faith of the gospel 2. For the second It may be doubted how we can build up our selves Is edification mans worke Non Libertate gratiam sed gratiâ Libertatem Aug. Are we not Gods workmanship Ans I grant spirituall houses cannot build themselves more then any other Our houses are not naturally houses of God but made so to our hands Vnlesse the Lord build the house all labour is vain And the Apostle points at the builder when in the next words he bids these Christians pray in the holy Ghost But he here writes to the regenerate who have the spirit by whom and whose grace they have spirituall liberty afforded to them and being drawn they run and being acted they are active Gratia acta fit activa Inward and habituall grace was the sole work of the spirit infusing that which is practicall is the worke of the regenerate person flowing from infused grace 2. Though we be Gods workmanship and building yet he builds by meanes and by such precepts as these he exhorts us to submit our selves to the meanes to yield our selves to be hewn squared and laid in the building OBSERVATIONS part 1. p. 182. 183. 184. c. and 219 220. For Observations drawn 1. from the title Beloved as also 2. from the Apostles expressing the doctrine of faith by the terme faith see before 1. From the pleasant and significant metaphor of building I note that The faithfull are the house of God 1. Obs By this resemblance the Church is not seldome set forth Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful in all his house 1 Tim. 3.15 How to behave thy selfe in the house of God 2 Tim. 2.20 In a great house there are vessels c. Heb. 3.6 Whose house we are if we hold fast c. 1 Pet. 4.17 The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God c. 1 Cor. 3.9 Ye are his building 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house And this resemblance of an house aptly belongs to the faithfull either in respect of 1. Christ 2. Themselves 3. God 1. Christ is the foundation of this house he was a Corner-stone Isa 28.16 on which both the Jews and Gentiles meet Eph. 2.20 he is called a stone for a foundation Christ is a foundation 1. in point of sustentation upon him the faithfull build their hope and expectations upon him all their grace and holinesse is built 1 Pet. 2.4 he is a living stone that sends life and influence into all the stones of the building set upon him upon him all their Comforts are built all their rejoycing is in him Take away Christ and all their joy fals to the ground upon him are built all their duties both in respect of power to performe them and in respect of acceptation from God when they are performed 2. Christ is a foundation in respect of union Between the building and this foundation this is the ground of sustentation this union set out sometime by a matrimonial union sometime by an union between head and members sometime by that between root and branches c. is on the part of Christ Rom. 8 9. 1 Cor. 12.8 Phil. 1.19 by his spirit laying hold on us and infusing spiritual life into us and affording to us all supplies of grace On our part by faith putting and setting us into him as also receiving and drawing grace from him 3. Christ is a foundation in point of hiddennesse the building is seen the foundation is hidden he is a hid treasure 1. His person is not yet seen When he shall appear 1 Joh. 3.2 whom having not seen c. 1 Pet. 1.8 2. His benefits and graces are hidden Our life is an hidden life hidden not only to the wicked but even oft to the godly themselves who behold not their own happinesse either of grace or glory This life is the obscurity of their adoption his face is frequently hidden from them and the tokens of his presence removed And for the excellency of this foundation hee is first the sole foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 Act. 4.12 No other foundation can bee laid No other appointed by God No other ever embraced by saints No other ever revealed by the word No other needed beside No other willing or able to bear the weight of the building No other was fit to have the honour of our affiance and dependance 2. He is a strong foundation so strong that he bears up every stone every saint of all sizes that ever was or shal be laid upon him and all their weights and pressures he bears them up alwayes so that they shall never fal They who are built upon this rock are safe Renatus nunquam denascitur Matth. 7. as Mount Sion that cannot be moved The word shall fall but not a Saint because Christ fals not The gates of hell the floods of temptation shall never totally prevail Potest aliosquo modo recedere non penitus excidere a child of God shall never sinne away all his holinesse he may sinne not perish not sinne to death Grace may be abated not abolish't shaken in not out of the soul Of all given to