Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	write_a	write_v	year_n	113	3	4.7506	4	false

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

Christ He hath lost none his sheep never perish Joh. 10.29 2. The Church is an house in respect of Believers who are the stones of which this house is built up and these stones are naturally 1 rugged and unpolished til they be hewen smooth'd and made fit for the building Hos 6.7 the word of God takes away their natural asperity and makes them fit for the building and submissive to Gods disposal and fit for his purpose 2. These stones are of several sizes some greater some lesser Christians are of divers degrees some more eminent some more obscure some of stronger others of weaker graces 3. The stones which are different in their bignesse are yet cemented and united one to another As there is an union of faith betwixt the building and the foundation so there is an union of love between the parts of the building And hence Eph. 4.16 The whole body is said to be fitly joyned together and compacted The greatest stone in the building cannot say to the least it hath no need thereof The Foundation disdaines not the least pibble no more should the strongest stone in the building 3. The Church is an house He who dweleth every where by his essence dwels in his church by the presence of his grace in respect of God Who 1. Dwels in this house He hath two houses That above of glory this below of grace God takes more delight in his Church then in all the world He rests in this house 2. He furnisheth his house with all necessaries yea ornaments his ordinances graces c. 3. He protects his house he that destroyeth the temple of God him will God destroy His enemies shall answer for dilapidations for every breach they have made 4. He repaires his house and when his enemies have broken it he restores it and makes up its breaches it shal never utterly be destroyed 5. He purgeth and cleanseth his house disorders abuses are too ready to creep into it it oft wants reformation Amos. 3.2 Judgment begins at the house of God You have I known of all the families of the earth and therefore I will punish you Man regards not much what lies in his field but he is curious that nothing offensive be laid in his house Judgements begin at the sanctuary Sinnes in the Church are most heinous Christians are so much worse then others by how much they should be better The meditation of this resemblance should therefore put us upon tryal and strengthning of our union to Christ our foundation upon dependency on and trusting to him It serves also to strengthen the love neernesse and dearnesse of believers living stones to make us dedicate our selves to the Lord as his house and temple to offer up the daily sacrifice of prayer and prayse to him to tell Satan and lust whensoever they sue for a roome in our house that every roome is taken up for God that his enemy must not be be let in We are the temple of God on let us not make our selves a temple of idol by covetousnesse or a stewes by uncleanenesse or a tap-house by drunkennesse or a stye by any swinish lusts To conclude this labour for the costly furniture of holinesse for thy house use the perfume of prayer the washing of godly sorrow give the Lord costly intertainment Repaire all thy breaches by repentance Run not too long to ruine Patiently bear the Lords visitation and the meanes he useth to mend and cleanse thee And lastly depend upon him for care and protection in all dangers 2. The word of God is the foundation of a Christian Obs 2. Build your selves on your faith It s a foundation to bear a Saint out in all his duties comforts beleef of truths 1. All our duties services must be built upon a word That which will not stand with the word must be no part of the building the word must be the foundation of practice he that walks by this rule Gal. 6.16 peace shall be upon him 'T is not the shewing of any warrant of man that will bear thee harmelesse at the day of judgment 2. The word is the foundation of a Christians comfort no promises but scripture promises but may deceive No other promises can bear the weight of an afflicted soule Vnlesse thy law had been my delight I should have perished in my affliction Ps 119.92 Absque Scriptura claudicat cogitatio Thy statutes were my songs in the house of my pilgrimage Psal 119.54 3. But especially the word is the foundation of a Christians beleefe of truths asserted we can onely securely assent to the assertions of the word That which I read not I beleeve not A written word is the only food of faith the formall object of faith is the truth manifested in scripture every truth hath an esse credibilis Baron contr Turnbullum Deus verax manifestans Faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deut. 17.18 because it was delivered in the written word and spoken by God Faith is carried to its object under the notion of infallibility which can never be without divine revelation all humane testimony being fallible though not false and hence it is that the revelation of God in his word is onely propounded by God as a foundation of faith Joh. 20.31 These things are written that ye might beleeve 2 Pet. 1.19 We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye doe well to take heed So 1 Joh. 5.13 These things have I written to you that ye beleeve on the name of the Son of God Isa 8.20 To the Law and the Testimony Joh. 5.39 Search the scriptures for in them ye think to have eternall life And this word of God hath onely been embraced by the faithfull in all ages as the foundation of their faith When ever they would prove any thing to be beleeved they have gone to the written word for a foundation of beleefe Thus the noble Bereans Act. 17.11 who searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so Thus Paul Act. 13.33 1 Cor. 2.9 1 Cor. 15.54 Rom. 14.11 grounded what he wrote upon scripture and Act. 24 14. professed that he beleeved all things written in the Law and the Prophets and Act. 26.22 that he said no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come So that the doctrine of faith revealed in the scripture must be the foundation to bear us up and out in all duties to be performed Comforts to be entertained Truths to be embraced And hence as we may see the misery of those who have no foundation at all holding their religion onely for forme fashion example fear of superiours which sandy bottomes will never keep them up from sin nor bear them out in sufferings especially death and and judgment so we should labour to improve the doctrine of faith as our foundation in all the forementioned respects 1. By having a deep sence and feeling of our misery so that not

light of truth had stirred up God thus to shew his great hatred against them God never sends darkness among a people till they shut their eyes against the light If we will imprison truth God may justly set Seducers loose Oh labour then to follow true if you would not be misled by false lights and to be directed by fixed if you would not be seduced by wandring stars To conclude this needful point then with caution both to Ministers and People To the former I offer my humble thoughts in this hearty request That they would consider the best of them have sins enough of their own to answer for without contracting more by the misleading of others As inexcusable it is for Ministers to lead people in a wrong way as for people not to follow Ministers in a right way If then we would not mislead any in this night of darkness and sin let us be sure to be fixed stars our selves let us neither be Planets nor Meteors let us be fixed to our Scripture Principles deliberately chusing what we should love but then stedfastly loving what we have chosen They who are to lift up their voyce as a trumpet If the stars and sea-marks should change their places remove to and fro the passengers who look for constant direction are in danger of being carried and cast upon quick-sands socks must not give an uncertain sound A Minister must be fixed in the Scripture orb not having a particular motion of his own but being meerly carryed according to the motion of that his Orb. In all the reproaches a Minister meets with for turning and moving let his evident adhering to the word manifest that t is not the Shore but only the Boatman that moves the times will at length come up to a Minister if he be stedfast however let him take this for an invincible ground of incouragement He shall be blessed in directing those who will not be directed by him Whosoever doth and teacheth men to observe the Commandements saith Christ shall be blessed Mat 5.19 though he cannot prevail with men to observe them Christ propoundeth not the conversion of people as a property of a faithful Minister but the doing and teaching the will of God To people I present the needfulnese of taking heed that they be not misled to beware of wandring stars false Prophets Seducers It s possible to follow a mis-leading Guide with a good intention but not with good success It may be equally hurtful to receive the word of God as the word of man and to receive the word of man as the word of God Hearers must take nothing upon trust they must love men for their Doctrines but not imbrace Doctrines for men They must try the spirits examine all by the Word and suffer no opinion to travel unless it can shew the Scripture Pass and pronounce its Shiboleth The Scripture like a sword of Paradse should keep errours from entring into our hearts We should not be like Children to gape at and to swallow whatever any puts to our mouths In understanding we should be men and every opinion which cannot endure the beams of Scripture sun is to be thrown down as spurious Build your faith upon no emenency of man ever be more forward to examine then to admire what you hear call none Master but Christ the errour of the Master is alwaies the tentation oft the destruction of the Scholar 5. Obs 5. Great is Gods forbearance towards sinners Blackness of darkness is reserved for them not presently inflicted upon them Frequently doth the Scripture proclaim Gods long-suffering and his being slow to anger The Apostle mentions his forberance and long-suffering Rom. 2.4 He endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 He gave the old World an hundred and twenty years space of repentance He endured the manners of the Israelites forty years in the Wilderness Acts 13.18 Four hundred years he spared the Canaanites Gen. 15.16 And sundry waies may this greatness of Gods long-suffering be amplified 1. He forbears punishing sinners though he see their sin and be most sensible thereof he sees all the circumstances of sin the most secret and retired wickednesses in the heart all are naked ript up ransackt anatomized before him men forbear to punish men because they know not the secret machinations of mischiefe which are against-them but God though he beholds all yet he spares long 2. He doth not only behold sin where it is but lothes it wherever he beholds it though he sees it every where with an eye of observation yet no where with an eye of approbation Sin is opposite to his very nature man may love sin and yet be stil a man but if God should love sin he should cease to be God he is under sin as a cart pressed with sheaves Amos 2.13 All the hatred that man bears to all the things in the world which are either hateful or hurtful to him is not comparable to Gods detestation of the least sin 3. He is able to punish sin wherever he either looks upon it or loathes it As the secretest sinner is within the reach of his eye so the strongest sinner is within the reach of his arm he is as able to throw a sinner into hel as to tel him of hel he in all his forbearances loseth not his power but exerciseth his patience he can but wil not punish 4. He doth not only forbear punishment but seeks to prevent it He waits that he may be gracious He is not willing that any should perish he strikes more gently for a while that he may not strike eternally and he stayes and warns so long that hee may not strike at all 5. He not only suffers sinners long but all the while he puts forth mercy towards them upholds their beings feeds heals helps them Sinners all the while they live spend upon the stock of mercy God is at much loss and great charges in continuing those mercies which they ravel and wanton away unprofitably 6. He forbears to punish without expecting any benefit to himself by it If his long-suffering bring us to repentance the good redounds to us It is then as the Apostle speaks salvation He loseth nothing if we be lost he hath no addition to his own happiness if we be happy 7. He is patient and long-suffering to sinners who is much nay infinitely our superior and more excellent then are we Here a King the King of kings waits for Beggars our Lord and Master stands without at the door and knocks Oh infinite condescention How widely doth Gods carriage towards man differ from mans towards man We poor worms have short thoughts man will presently upon every affront or neglect be ready to call fire from heaven t is well for poor sinning man he hath to do with a long-suffering God His fellow-creature could not would not be so patient God truly shewes himself a God as well

that perfect holinesse required to the seeing of God Per mortem defecantur ut fomite pecati cum corpere mortue ad immortaiitatemp puri resurg●nt Rivet in Ge● exerc 48. prop. fin and therefore that they were to be cleansed by death that with their body of flesh they laying off the corruption of their nature might arise pure and spotlesse to immortality The consideration whereof should put the strongest and those who are most likely to live upon a constant and serious meditation of death and warn them not to expect immortality in this life but daily to wait for their certain and appointed change That blessed saint now with God Mr. Richard Rogers who was another Enoch in his age Sometime of W●●hersfield in Essex my Dear and deceased Grandfather a man whose walking with God appeared by that incomparable directory of a Christian life his book called the Seven Treatises woven out of Scripture and his own experimental practise sometime said in his life time That he should be sorry if every day were not to him as his last day Every morning we arise let us say Art thou my last day or do I look for another Let us live as if we were alwaies dying and yet as such as are ever to live In short the successions and conclusions of generations should put us upon holiness of life as for the preserving a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which followes so especially that we may by our holy example transmit holinesse to posterity that we with Enoch walking with God the Church of God and a seed of Saints may be continued as much as in us lies in our line And truly as otherwise we shall die while we live in the world so hereby we shall live when we are taken out of the world and be like Civet which when t is taken out of the box leaves a sweet savour behind it 4. Observ 4. All issue from Adam As Enoch was so all others were and are from Adam from him all descend by natural propagation He was the root all others but branches he the fountain all others but streams All were hewen out of this rock an observation which puts us upon sundry useful considerations It teacheth us humility As we were from Adam so he was from the dust of the earth and that dust from nothing Our father was Adam our grandfather dust our great grandfather nothing They who are proud that they can derive their pedigree so far as Adam may be humble if they would goe a little farther Remember whence thou art and consider whither thou shalt goe nothing so unsuteable as pride for a clod of the earth A man can never have too low thoughts of himself but in the bowing down his nature to accompany with sin He who would not endure pride in the Angels of heaven wil not endure it in dust and ashes and such even great Abraham calls himself a fitter stile then most illustrious high and mighty invincible c. When thou art mounting up in proud and self-admiring thoughts remember thou art from Adam earthen Adam Agathocles a potters son when he came to be King humbled himself with setting earthen vessels on his cupboard If dust be sprinkled upon the wings of Bees their noises hummings risings wil they say quickly cease when thou beginnest to grow proud sprinkle thy thoughts with this remembrance I am but dust Further we may hence gather the wonderful power of Gods blessing that of one so many millions should come from one root such multitudes of branches God can blesse one into millions and blast millions again into one into nothing Gods powerful benediction multiplied Adams numerous off-spring He whom God blesseth shall be blessed he whom God curseth shall be cursed We see the way to thrive in any kind the blessing of God maketh rich and without it thy own industrious endeavours will not help thee he cursed the fig-tree and it withered up at the roots More particularly we see from whom to beg the increase of posterity It is from God that Jacob expected and desired in his blessing that Ephraim and Manasseth should grow into a multitude Gen. 48.16 See also Ruth 4.11 12. Hence also we may observe the goodnesse of God in continuing the blessing of increase to Adam even after his fall that sinful Adam should be the father of such a posterity God might have said here is enough of one man and too much I le suffer no more to be of the kind We destroy poysonful and hurtful creatures that they may not breed But mark further that merciful power of God to cause a holy off-spring a sanctified seed though not such as coming of yet to come of a sinful faln parent that God should make white paper of dunghil rags that any of Adams unsanctified nature should partake of the divine nature in a word that Enochs should be from Adam Truely there was more mercy discovered in the changing one Enoch than there would have been justice put forth in condemning a whole world In a word how should this our derivation from the first put us upon labouring to get into the second Adam he who is but a man a son of Adam is a miserable man a child of wrath How careful should we be to get off from the old dead poysonful root and stock and to be branches ingrafted into and growing upon the living life-giving stock the Lord Christ In Adam saith the Apostle all dye and in Christ all are made alive as we have born the image of the earthly so should we be restlesse til we bear that of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15.49 5. It is our duty prudently to take our best advantages for truths advancement Thus Jude alledgeth here the prophesie of such a person as might in likelihood most draw respect and credit Of this before pag. 22. part 1. on these words the Brother of James Secondly in the preface here used by Jude before the prophesie the performance of Enoch is to be noted and that was his prophesying Jude saith that he prophesied of these EXPLICATION Three things may be enquired into by way of explication 1. What our Apostle intends in this place by prophesying 2. How Jude came by or whence he received the prophesie of Enoch 3. why he alledgeth and instanceth in this particular prophesie 1. For the first the word prophesie is in Scripture taken five several waies 1. See Diodats annotations on 1 Cor. 11.5 Sometimes it signifies no more then to be present at the publick Ministry and to partake of the doctrine thereof Thus I understand it in that place 1 Cor. 11.5 Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head for otherwise women were not allowed to speak in the Church 2. Prophesie is taken for the written word 2 Pet. 1.20 3. Elsewhere to prophesie signifieth to expound interpret and apply the Scriptures to the edification of