called himself Lord or Head of the Church but discharged it in all Ministers 1 Pet. 5.3 and here taketh a lower title to himself A Servant 2. It is necessary for Christ's Ambassadors to know and assert their Calling from Him that Truth may have weight with People and they may have courage what-ever their faithfulnesse may cost them for while the Apostle knoweth himself to be a Servant of Jesus Christ he dare avow himself by name and surname even when he 〈◊〉 publishing Truths that cost him his life Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ 2. He describeth these to whom the Epistle is mainly directed from the worth of their faith equal to the faith of the Apostles for all saving effects and cleareth the way how they came by it to wit by the vertue of the faithfulnes of God and the merits of Christ Hence Learn 1. The Scriptures are not only given for converting sinners and working grace where it is not Psal 19.7 But also for their sake who are already converted and gracious fine places being mainly intended for them to further their growth guard them against temptations and to fit them for their last meeting with Christ which are the ends of this Epistle directed mainly to them that have obtained precious faith 2. Although some Believers are more strong in believing and so have more joy and peace than others 1 Joh. 2.13 14. Yet is the faith of them all of alike worth in so far as it uniteth them all to the same Saviour from whom the weakest faith shall never shed interesteth them all in the same spiritual promises priviledges and glorious reward and is bought for them all with the same price in all which respects the true faith of the meanest Believer is alike precious with the faith of the Apostles 3. The way how saving faith cometh to the Elect and is wrought in their hearts is by vertue of the faithfulnesse of God who promised to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption the bestowing of it upon the Elect Psal 110.3 and to the Elect in the Covenant of Grace Isa 54.13 Joh. 6.45 It being God's righteousnesse to prove himself faithfull in making all these promises and it comes also through Christ's righteousnesse which is his doing and suffering to purchase it and other saving graces for us and so although we have it freely Yet Christ bought it dear and God is righteous in giving what Himself promised and Christ paid for 1 Joh. 1.9 So the Apostle makes this precious faith to come to all that have it through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Vers 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. In this Salutation he wisheth to them a daily growth in their hearts 1. Of the sweet sense of God's free favour making the graces of His Spirit to thrive 2. Of true spiritual peace flowing from the former and carrying with it every necessary blessing as the signification of these words grace and peace and their order doth import and all this through their growing in that knowledge of God and his Son Christ which hath faith affection and practice with it Hence Learn 1. No lesse than what is here wished for is the Lords allowance to every Believer if they get it not they have themselves to blame for His Majesty doth nothing to mar the multiplying of grace and peace upon all that have precious faith 2. They that would have this rich allowance must not only expect in this order Grace or God's free favour first and then Peace with every necessary blessing But they must study to grow daily in the knowledge of the nature and will of God the purchase fulnesse and offices of Christ so as by the use-making of all heart and life may be changed for such a knowledge is this through which grace and peace is multiplied 3. It is not formality or vain repetition to use frequently the same expressions to God or to others when they flow from new sense of the worth and need of the things for this Apostle and others do ordinarily use these same expressions in the beginnings of their Epistles Grace and peace c. Vers 3. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godlinesse through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and vertue Followeth the ground of his confidence which might also hearten them that it should be acording to his wish to wit That Gods powerful grâ—â—â—â—ad already begun a saving work in them by bestowing freely upon them all that is essential to a gracious frame of spirit within and a holy life without and this he had done by making them so to know Christ as to consent to Him calling them by the Gospel to glory or eternal life as the end by vertue which is grace and holinesse as the way or means Hence Learn 1. The seen beginnings of a saving work of grace are comfortable pledges and confirmations to faith that that work shall thrive it being suitable to the Lords wisdom power and constancy to carry on and perfect what He hath begun for the Apostle wisheth grace and peace to be multiplied According as His divine power had begun the work 2. To give grace to a graceless soul is a work of Gods infinit power there being so much unworthinesse guiltinesse and opposition to hinder that work in all the Elect Therefore the cause of this work is here made divine power 3. The Lord in the bestowing of saving grace worketh both irresistably and freely neither can any for whom it is appointed and purchased so oppose as to hinder the bestowing of it for it is divine power that worketh it Nor can any in nature so use their naturals as to prepare themselves for or merit the bestowing of it for divine power worketh by giving freely all things that pertain to life and so the very preparations for the new life 4. The substance of every saving grace though not the full measure and a right to what may enable for honouring God in practice is given at once in conversion As a Child when it first liveth or is new born hath all the essential parts of a man Therfore to these to whom the Apostle wisheth encrease of grace and upon whom he is to presse growth he affirmeth to be already given all things that pertain to life and godliness 5. The very first beginnings of grace is wrought in the heart by making a sinner drink-in the knowledge of Christ the Law indeed prepares for this work by discovering sin and deserved wrath and terrifying the conscience But the Gospel which holdeâ—â— out Christ the Saviour from sin and wrath having in Him the fulnesse of grace and a heart to let it out freely upon gracelesse sinners is the Spirit 's instrument of working grace for as the Apostle wished grace to thrive in the former Verse
to cleanse and purifie the souls of His People both from the guilt and dominion of sin Ezek. 36.25 Yet His People who are meerly passive in the first infusion of grace Eph. 2.1 are thereafter made by Him active instruments in the carrying on of that work of mortification by employing Christs vertue for subduing and fighting in His strength against their corruptions as is imported in this Ye have purified your souls 4. The Lords mean of purging the souls of His People from the love and power of sin which is naturally in them is their obedience to His Truth which consists not only in their aiming at conformity to those precepts which enjoyn purity and holiness such as that is ver 15. but principally in their imbracing by Faith and use-making of the promises of the new Covenant wherein the Lord undertakes to work this purity Ezek. 36.25 26 27. This is the chief part of that obedience to the Truth which purifieth souls for saith the Apostle Ye have purified your souls in obeying the Truth 5. This obedience to the Truth which purifieth the souls of Believers cannot be attained unto by our own naturall strength or the use of the fittest means of grace without the special working of the Spirit of Jesus who cleareth to sinners the nature of that purity which is pleasing to God and powerfully worketh the same in them for so the Apostle affirms of those Believers that they had purified their souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 6. One special part of this work of purging the souls of Believers consists in the subduing of those filthy roots which are in their hearts contrary to that grace of love to the rest of the Lords People such as pride self-love and the like for this is here made their aim in purifying their souls that they might attain unto unfeigned love of the Brethren importing that their pains was much bent to purge out those evils which are contrary to that grace 7. Believers have need to be seriously pressed to exercise and grow in these graces and duties whereof they have already attained to some approven measure for upon those who had already purified their souls unto unfeigned love of the Brethren the Apostle presseth this See that ye love one another 8. It is not every sort of love to the Saints of God that evidenceth mortification and the indwelling of Christs Spirit but such only as is without dissimulation or hypocrisie which is unfeigned love such as flows from holy principles to wit respect to the Command of Christ and not from respect to our own credit or advantage only from desire of the true good of others and not from love to our selves which is Love out of a pure heart and such as breaks forth in real proofs and is continued toward others notwithstanding of provocations from them which is To love one another fervently Vers 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever The eleventh motive whereby the Apostle presseth upon Believers the study of holiness especially that branch of it which he was last upon to wit Love to the Saints is taken from the excellency of their spiritual original the sum whereof is That since they had a new life and nature in their regeneration wrought in them not by so fading a cause of principle as that which is the instrument of producing their natural substance but by the Word of God which in the effects it hath upon the Regenerate liveth and abideth for ever Therefore the excellency of their new nature and permanency of their spiritual estate should move them to walk suitably unto it and particularly to live in love with the rest of their Fathers Children Hence Learn 1. Every true Believer in Jesus Christ is in some measure acquainted with a new and second birth which is that work of God with sinners whereby there is a new spiritual life and nature communicated to them Eph. 2.1 and they are brought through some pangs and straits arising from the sight of their own sinfulness and fear of deserved wrath Act. 2.37 out of their darkness and bondage which is natural to them and is resembled by the state of the child before the birth into a state of light and knowledge of God in Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 and freedom from the slavery of sin and subjection to wrath Rom. 8.2 and whereby also they are made in some measure to resemble their heavenly Father and are inclined to obey Him and to love Him and all His Children 1 Joh. 5.1 for this the Apostle makes a description of true Believers that they are born again 2. Our life and nature that we have by vertue of this second birth or regeneration is far more excellent than what we have by the first our natural estate is subject to corruption and will be shortly dissolved but our spiritual estate can never fade for though all have immortal souls that are not corruptible yet the natural life and state of all shall be dissolved and the eternal being of those who are unacquainted with Regeneration and a second birth will be but an eternal corruption or perishing which should make all long to be acquainted with Regeneration for to lead us to esteem the one above the other the Apostle commends the one above the other from the difference of their seeds Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible 3. Although the Word separated from the working of the Spirit can do nothing to the regenerating of a sinner Joh. 3.5 yet the Word is the ordinary instrument of the Spirit who makes use of all the principal parts of it in that work of the Law to put the sinner in some straits of the second birth through fear of deserved wrath and of the Gospel to revive the soul and liberate it from those fears and of the Law again to direct the Regenerate how to walk suitably to their estate for the Apostle explains what that incorruptible seed is of which we are born again to wit The Word of God 4. Although there be no life either formally or by way of efficiency in the letters or sound of the words of Scripture and though that Word passeth with the speaking as any other words do Yet in regard of the effects which through the operation of the Spirit it hath upon sinners such as fear and terror upon the believing of the threatnings Act. 2.37 comfort under crosses and quickning for duties upon the believing of the promises Psal 119.50 It is as the Apostle here calleth it A Word that liveth and in regard of the execution of eternal wrath upon them that reject it and of the performance of those everlasting blessings which are promised in it to them that receive and obey it it is a Word that abideth for ever 5. They who do professe and esteem themselves to be of the number of those who are born again should by
nothing of the wrath due to those who count it their heaven to exceed in all carnal delights notwithstanding of the light of the Gospel thereby disgracing their holy profession and making but a sport of deceiving their own souls since they can in the mean time deceive others insinuating themselves in the esteem and society of the Godly whether in their religious or ordinary feasts ver 13. who are so under the power of their unclean lusts that they cannot but manifest their filthy disposition being altogether impotent to resist temptations themselves and ensnaring with their errors and vile practices such others as are not well setled in knowledge and grace And who are so sold to the love of their gain that they make it their heart-exercise to attain thereto for all which he pronounceth them heirs of God's fearful curse Doct. 1. The wrath of God against sin had need to be oft inculcated to the guilty and knit unto the several branches of their sin that so they may have the more lively apprehensions of that wrath and may have their hearts accustomed to think upon it whensoever they think upon their sins that so they may be either stopped in the course of their sin and hastened to repentance or left the more inexcusable Therefore the Apostle in branching out the sin of false teachers and their followers doth so frequently intermix threatnings or some new representation of that wrath they have to expect They shall utterly perish in the former Verse and here they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness and they are cursed children 2. When God reckoneth with the wicked they shall not want a grain weight of the wrath due to them for since they have slighted the use-making of Christ's righteousnesse which makes sinners righteous and the study of holinesse which proveth them righteous they shall receive the reward of unrighteousness which in the Original doth signifie a due proportion of wrath to their sin 3. That which doth ripen wicked men for wrath is not their sins only simply considered but mainly the several aggravations ordinarily attending their sins whereof there may be seen here nine in number As 1. This doth exceedingly aggrege mens sin when they count it their very paradise to satisfie their lusts for so the word in the Original They count it their Eden to riot The more Heaven men apprehend in their sins the more Hell they will find 2. When men become so impudently bent upon their lusts that neither the light of the worlds knowledge of their sin nor thâ— light of the Word discovering the evil and hazard thereof doth restrain them both which may be comprehended in this other aggravation of their sin They count it pleasure to riot in the day time 3. When men by their sins do stain a holy profession that they have made before the world for if these men had not had a fair profession and high esteem in the Church they could not have been spots and blemishes while they feasted with the Lords people which is here made another aggravation of their guilt 4. When men do not only live in sin but do make a sport of it beguiling their own hearts with groundlesse apprehensions that there is neither such evil nor hazard therein as the Word holdeth forth and their own conscience sometimes suggesteth for this is another aggravation They sport themselves in their own deceivings 5. When in the mean time of their living in the slavery of their lusts they are carefull to keep up their esteem with the Godly and attend all occasions of converse with them that so they may cloak their sins for it is here made another aggravation of their guilt that all this wickednesse is committed while they feast with the Lord's People 6. When mens lusts are so vigorous within that they manifest their predominancy in their very outward carriage for this is a further aggravation of their sin They have eyes full of adultery 7. When men become so impotent to resist their lusts that the satisfying thereof becometh their very element out of which they cannot rest as the word here signifieth They cannot cease from sin which is also another aggravation of their guilt 8. When sinners become infectious and insnaring with the bait as the word beguiling in the Original signifies of fair pretences many others to swallow down their foul errors and profane practices this also is a high aggravation of their guilt 9. When men make it their heart-exercise whereabout they spend their wit and affections to fulfill their fleshly desires for this is here the last aggravation of their sin An heart they have exercised with covetous practices Doct. 4. Although it be possible that the Lord's People may without guiltinesse admit into their ordinary and intimate society the worst of men while they do not discover themselves as is clear concerning Ahithophel and Judas Yet doth the admission of such into their society oftentimes prove a great snare especially to those that are admitted while they take occasion there-from to harden themselves in those sins and to count the lesse of that vilenesse the commission whereof doth not mar their esteem and society with the Godly for this is one thing that helped these soul-deceivers to deceive themselves and willingly to overlook the evil of their own condition that notwithstanding of all their wickednesse they were admitted to the society of the Godly and did passe among them for such While they feast with you 5. When men labour not to mortifie their inward lusts the Lord oftentimes doth justly suffer them to manifest the predominancy of these lusts over them in their outward carriage As grace which is lively within will put some beauty upon the outward man Eccl. 8.1 So corruptions vigorous within will readily bewray the person to be its slave Isa 3.9 Having eyes full of adultery or as it is in the Original of the adultress 6. So bewitching is the spirit of error where it entereth and so devoted are deluded souls unto their seducing teachers That though these teachers be judicially plagued of God as ordinarily such are with profanity of life Yet this doth not make their followers loath at them or abhor their errors for though they did riot in the day time and had eyes full of adultery Yet were they still beguiling unstable souls 7. Those who are not rooted in knowledge by clear information and frequent meditation of the Truth and have not their hearts established with Grace by the frequent exercise thereof will readily be a prey to soul-deceivers for these whom they beguile are here called Unstable souls 8. No man doth serve one idol alone but many at once he that is wedded to worldly pleasures will be also to his creditâ— the want whereof doth mar his pleasure and if pleasure and credit be two of a mans idols readily gain will be the third that so he may the more easily attain to the other two Therefore doth the Apostle
1.4 and the dominion of our own lusts Rom. 6.14 hath been and yet is much abused while it is stretched to give liberty to sin and to loose Christians from the holy Commandments of the moral Law as they are now prest in the Gospel for so doth the Apostle forewarn it should be abused along the time of the Gospel as is clear by comparing this with the 1. and 21. Verses 2. They that are much in crying up Christian liberty and little or nothing in pressing the holy Commandments of Christ upon His Redeemed Ones the obedience whereof is a great part of our Christian liberty and one main end of our liberation from our spiritual enemies Luke 1.74 75. they cannot but be slaves to their lusts and so must those be that imbrace that doctrine for while they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption 3. Although every man be bound in Law to be the servant of Christ who can make the worst thing that men can do subservient to His ends Psal 119.91 Yet he who doth voluntarily and ordinarily give-up himself to serve the Devil and his own corruption without resistance or crying to Christ for help is then in a manner a lawful captive to Satan to be detained by him till the Supream Judge execute deserved wrath upon him as one that rendereth himself to a conqueror is his bondslave according to the Law of Nations to which the Apostle alludeth while he saith Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage Vers 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning 21. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesse than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them The Apostle proveth the condition of these Apostates whom he supposeth to have attained so much of the knowledge of Christ as had power upon them to clense their outside to be much worse than it was before that change because their sin and judgment had been lesse if they had never known any thing of the way of justification revealed in the Gospel than it will be now after that hath been cleared to their understanding and yet in doctrine and practice they do cast off another part of the Gospel to wit that which presseth the duties of holinesse upon justified persons Hence Learn 1. Even those who are destitute of the saving knowledge of Christ and strangers to the mortification of heart-pollutions may find so much power of the knowledge of Him as to make them clense their external conversation the knowledge of Christ is so ravishing a subject able to divert even an unrenewed mind from many sinful speculations that even a hypocrite living in love with his secret lusts may escape the pollutions that are breaking forth in the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2. They who have not attained to a heart-outcast with sin and some inward mortification thereof will upon fit occasions and temptations be readily ensnared again and made slaves to these same sins which were externally reformed and from the outward acts whereof only they had made an escape for these here spoken of having only escaped the pollutions that are in the world through the knowledge of Christ they are again intangled and overcome 3. Before men be overcome by temptation they are first entised with the apprehension of some pleasure profit or the like to be had by their sins with which apprehension the hazard and danger of committing the sin is covered and hid as the fisher's hook is by the bait which is the metaphor in the Apostle's expression They are again intangled and overcome 4. The guilt and deserved wrath against those who after illumination by the truth and external renunciation of their sins do return back again to them is much greater than if they had never been so far enlightened and reformed their sins being now against light and some tasts of sweetnesse which is sometimes letten out even to those who do but externally renounce their sins and betake themselves to the way of Christ Heb. 6.4 c. for of such the Spirit of God saith here The latter end is worse with them than the beginning 5. Those to whom the Lord doth make known the way of free justification by the righteousnesse of Christ to them also He doth deliver His holy Commandments the obedience whereof they ought to set about in His strength for so much is imported in the Apostle's words that having known the way of righteousnesse there was a holy Commandment delivered to them 6. It is lesse difficult and more ordinary for men to adhere in their opinion and profession to the way of free justification by Christ's imputed righteousnesse when that way is once cleared to their minds than it is for them to insist in the constant practice of holy duties which Christ presseth upon them and offereth them strength for there being even in corrupt nature which is most averse from holy duties some inclination to be made blessed and that freely which is imported in the Apostle's changing of the expression for he doth not say that after they had known the way of righteousnesse they had turned from it importing that these false teachers did still professe and preach justification by His righteousnesse but after they had known that way they turned from the holy Commandment delivered to them their adhering to the one without the other made their guilt greater than if they had never known that one and no lesse than if they had turned from both Vers 22. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire In the last place the Apostle guardeth against any offence which might be occasioned by the apostasie of these false teachers and their followers in regard they had now proven themselves never to have been inwardly renewed as the true sheep of Christ are but only by their Baptism and profession to have externally renunced that vilenesse whereunto they are now returned again after the custom of dogs and swine according to that common proverb which is made use-of in Scripture Prov. 26.11 Doct. 1. Sin ought to be represented by the Lord's Ministers in its abominable vilenesse especially when men labour to palliate their filthy practices with fair pretences Therefore these vile practices which these false teachers called their christian liberty the Apostle here calleth a licking up of their vomit and a wallowing in the mire 2. They who after external reformation and great profession of holinesse do return unto and continue in their renounced sins do thereby give evidence that they were never inwardly or really