all their might 3. As it enables us to pray in faith 2 Cor. 3.14 Spiritus vicarius Christi the spirit is called the spirit of faith and the spirit of Christ as it s sent from him so it sends us to him The spirit so intercedes in us on earth for the operation and framing of our prayers that it sends us to him who intercedes for us in heaven for the acceptation of our prayers through Christ we have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father Eph. 2.18 And hence the Spirit enables us to pray in faith nothing wavering Jam. 1.6 in confidence that through the faith of him our prayers shall bee successefull in such a way as our gracious father in Christ sees best for us This is called the full assurance of faith Heb. 10 22. and a praying without doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 faith applying the promise Joh. 14.13 16.23 whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name he will give it you 4. As it enables us to pray in holinesse with pure hearts and hands He is a Spirit of holinesse his office is to make us holy wheresoever he witnesseth he washeth If he be a spirit of faith to strengthen our confidence in Christ hee is a spirit of holinesse to cause our conformity to Christ hence the spirit of grace is mentioned with the spirit of supplication As the spirit makes us come boldly before the throne of grace So he makes us come purely before it too as being a throne of glory If I regard iniquity in my heart saith David the Lord will not hear my prayer Psal 66.18 I will wash my hands in innocency so will I compasse thine altar This legall washing is Evangelically improved 1 Tim. 2.8 Lifting up holy hands and Heb. 10 22. 5. Lastly as it is enables to pray in love The spirit of love for so he is called 2 Tim. 1.17 never in prayer witnesseth Gods love to us unlesse hee drawes ours to him nay for his sake to others He never makes us lift up hands without doubting unlesse also without wrath 1 Tim. 2.8 and when hee makes us at peace with our selves Matth 5.24 hee makes us peaceable to others OBSERVATIONS 1. Obs 1. Without the spirit there 's no praying They who are totally destitute of the spirit in their natural condition can no more pray in faith then a dead man can crave help of another They may have the gift of prayer not in that state the grace of prayer All naturall men are in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brute and mute we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves The wicked call not upon God There 's no naturall man but is spiritually deaf and dumb If a man have not the spirit of grace hee must needs be destitute of the spirit of supplication He is a meer stranger to those prayer-graces faith fervency holinesse love c. Hee derides at prayer I mean prayer by the spirit the wicked they howl upon their beds not pray in the spirit they may say a prayer not pray a prayer as it said of Elijah who prayed in prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 they doe but make a lowd noyse like a wind-instrument They are but like Balaam into whose mouth God put a word without any heat of love or zeal in his soul But why speak I of natural men when as without the acting of the spirit in our very regenerate estate all our abilities to pray are presently gone as a wheel which is turned about with an hand if the hand be taken away the wheele will soon stand still It s necessary that unto the first grace following grace be added man after he is regenerate still needeth the present effectuall conetinuall work of the spirit Preventing grace is not effectuall unlesse helped with a supply of second grace 'T is true even of the regenerate without me ye can doe nothing God giveth first the will and then the deed and continuance of doing that which is truly good Grace must be every way grace else it will be no grace at all He that hath begun a good work in us must also perfect it Phil. 1.6 Oh how heavily do even saints draw and drive when they have sin'd away the spirit of prayer When saints have yielded to sin they are like a bird whose wings are besmear'd with birdlime they cannot flye up to heaven How lamely and miserably I have sometime thought did David pray upon his murder and adultery The fire which consumed the burnt-offering came out from the Lord. Lev. 9.24 2. 2. Obs How excellent and honourable a worke is that of prayer The whole Trinity hath a worke in this holy exercise the holy ghost frameth our requests The Son offereth them up to his Father Rev. 8.3 with his incense the prayers of the Saints are offered he prayes them as it were over againe and the Father accepteth these prayers thus framed and offered up 3. As without the Spirit there is no prayer 3. Obs so without prayer a man evidently shewes himselfe to have nothing of the spirit Wherever the Spirit is there will be praying in the spirit if the Spirit live in us 't will breath in us God never yet had nor ever will have a dumb Child They who are the Lords will name him 1 Tim. 2.19 They who are saints call upon Christ 1 Cor. 1.2 Breathing is a true property of life As soon as ever Paul was converted he prayed Act. 9.11 4. Obs 4. Needs must the prayers of the saints be acceptable They are by the holy Ghost his very grones and by him our spirits are made to grone Oratio longius vulnerat quam sagitta Exod. 17.11 Prayer prevaileth not onely over Creatures but even the very Creator himselfe One faithfull mans prayer is more forcible then a whole army There is a shadow of omnipotency in prayer It was said of Luther he could do what he would Needs must that petition be granted which the framer receives The Lord cannot more be out of love with prayer then with his own will Prayer is but a kinde of Counterpane or reflexion of Gods own pleasure 5. Obs 5. How good is God to his poore saints He not onely grants their prayers but makes their prayers God doth not onely provide a gift but an hand also to take it with not a feast onely but a stomack both grace for the desire and the very grace of desire Oh how sweet also are the Conditions of the Covenant of grace God bids us pray and helps us to pray Commands us duty and enables to performe it gives worke wages and strength 6. Obs 6. It s our greatest wisdome to get and keep the Spirit If either we never had it or lose it we cannot pray 1. 'T is gotten in the ministery of the gospel The Spirit is peculiar to the Gospel and not belonging to the law if
considered alone by it selfe as a distinct Covenant for so it gendereth onely to bondage Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing of faith q d. ye receved the spirit by hearing the gospel 2 Cor. 3.8 The gospel is call'd the ministration of the Spirit 2. 'T is kept by following his motions and suggestions Make much of his presence the Spirit is a delicate thing grieve him not by negligence in using his gifts pride Eph. 4.30 eagernesse after the world sensualitie ungodly company premeditated repeated sins c. If the Spirit be gone thy best friend is gone 'T was Davids prayer Take not thy holy spirit from me Without the spirit thou art like lockless Samson as another man poor weak Samson when the Lord was departed thou art like a ship winde-bound No stirring without the spirits gales Lord what were my life if I could not pray it would even be my burden and how can I pray without thy spirit As a man cannot preach without externall mission so not pray without internall motion 7. How happy are saints in all straits Obs Vlt. they have the spirit to help them pray Ther 's nothing but sin can drive or keep away the spirit Sufferings prisons banishments c. cannot and hast thou the spirit 't is better like Jonah to be praying in a Whales belly then without the Spirit to be devout in a gilded chappel Suppose thy friends cannot will not visit thee the Spirit is a guest that cannot be excluded Like Joseph he delights to manifest himselfe to his when all are gone out Holy Mr. Dod was wont to say never despair of him who can but pray Suppose men cut out thy tongue or stop thy mouth they cannot hinder thee from praying in the Spirit because not the Spirit from praying in thee Ver. 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to Eternall life THe fourth direction whereby the Apostle guides them to observe his exhortion to contend for the Faith against seducers and seduction is contain'd in these words Keep your selves in the Love of God A very apt and sutable mean and course for the foresaid end and purpose for he that will be a friend to God can never be in love with errour which drawes the soul away from God and his truth Two particulars are here in this direction contained 1. That thing about which the Christians were to be employed or the object The love of God 2. How they were to be imploy'd about it viz. By keeping themselves therein Ther 's the act EXPLICATION So that by way of Explication two things may be enquired after 1. What the Apostle intends by the love of God 2. What by keeping themselves therein 1. For the first by the love of God I here understand not that love whereby God loveth man but that whereby man loveth God resteth in him and cleaveth to him as the most absolute good of this both in respect of its severall kindes and properties as also in severall Observations I have very largely spoken in my first part Page 124.136 148. c. To avoid tediousnesse and repetition I shall refer to that place 2. For the second by keeping themselves in this Love I understand perseverance in the loving of God or a preserving of the love of God in their hearts from all those things whereby they might be enticed to let it goe and part with it and this preservation or keeping thereof stands in using those meanes which God hath ordained to preserve in us our Love toward him which is done by sundry 1. Considerations 2. Pactises 1. Considerations 1. Of Gods Lovelinesse and soule-ravishing perfections and his blessed sutablenesse to our soules exigencies Part 1. pag. 152. when we know him to be a full good as having all the scattered Excellencies of all the world and all the persons and things therein in himselfe and infinitely more a filling good and able to satisfie our desires to the brim 2. By considering that he loves us loved us first and perseveres and rests in his love The more we walke in this sun the hotter we shall be nay were our hearts as cold as stones Zeph. 3 17. the sunshine of his love upon us should heat us with love toward him againe Of this at large before part 1. pag. 152.153 3. That every one of us keeps up a love to something the poorest of us hath a love and if not for God for that which is infinitely below him yea which is unworthy of us 4. That we have nothing besides love to give him 5. That he accepts of it in stead of all other things seeks it bespeaks it Deut. 10.40 6. That we alway professe we love him and have chosen him Josh 24.12 7. That its a greater dishonour to him to cease to love him then never to have begun to love him at all 8. That the keeping of our selves in his love is the true keeping of love to our selves Deut. 5.19 We are the gainers by loving him we forsaking his love and our own mercy at once 2. By practises As 1. By keeping our selves in a constant hatred of all sin As love to sin growes love to God will decay These are as two buckets as the one comes up the other goes down 2. By keeping our selves in the delight of Gods friends and favourers who will ever be speaking well of him and by taking heed of those misrepresentations that sinners make of him and his wayes 3. By keeping our selves in the delight of the ordinances wherein his glory and beauty are display'd and Communion with himselfe is enjoyed and our love is increas'd by these in exercising it 4. By endeavouring for an holy remissenesse in loving other things when we love the world as alwayes about to leave and loath it A soul weaned from these brests will onely feed upon Communion with and the enjoyments of God 1 Joh. 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him No outward object should be further beloved then as it is either a pledge of Gods love to us or an incitement of ours to him in short nothing should be loved much but onely he whom we cannot love too much 5. Lastly by keeping up and increasing of Brotherly love among our selves for though the love of God be the cause which makes us love our brethren yet the love of our brethren is not onely a signe but an excellent preservative of our loving of God In every saint we may see Gods image he is Gods best picture now though the love of a man makes us love his picture yet the often delightfull looking upon his picture continues and inflames our love toward him the fire of love to God will be extinguisht in an heart cold and frozen to the saints our love to God and the godly grow and decay together the Sun on the dyal moves
wil give bread and often provides better for the poor children then for the repining parents The Israelites in the wilderness who with sinful solicitousness cryed out that their little ones should be starved for want of food were themselves destroyed in the wilderness for want of faith their children mean while being reserved for Canaan Numb 14.31 Nor yet is it enough to take our children cheerfully at the hand of God but to dedicate them to him thankfully and to part with them contentedly Men are not born into the world only that the world should not be empty but that the Church should be increased and God more served Prov. 3.9 Gen. 18.19 If we ought to honour God with our dead much more with our living substance and to take care that a generation may serve the Lord when we are gone that as we live as it were after our deaths in the persons so Gods glory may live in the services of our children Adam instructed his sons both in the works of their Calling and in the Worship of God And for parting with our children he who gave or rather lent or rather put them to nurse to us may peaceably be permitted to require them again when he pleaseth and he should never lose a friend of any of us for calling for his own 5. Observ 5. Cains please not God in the performance of holy services Prov. 28.9 Isai 1.11 12 13 14. To Cain and his Offering God had not respect He was in his way of sin even when he was sacrificing The Prayer of the wicked is an abomination God delights not in their services he demands Amos 5.21 Isai 66.3 Who hath required them he cannot away with them his soul hates them they are a trouble to him he is weary of them despiseth them he will not accept nor smell their Offerings He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered swines blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol The wicked perform holy services from an unholy heart The Spicing and Embalming of a dead Carcass can put no beauty or value upon it They who are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 Matth. 7.18 All the fruit of an evil tree is evil fruit The works of natural men want an holy principle the Spirit of Christ the Law of the Spirit of Life A beast cannot act the things of reason nor can a man unless sanctified by the Spirit of God do any good work Till a man be ingrafted into Christ and partake of his fatness he is but a wild Olive All the works of unregenerate men are sin as they come from them Without the Holy Spirit there is no holiness Zacheus was too low of himsef to see Jesus he was fain to go up into a tree We are too short to reach to any good work 't is above our reach til the Spirit of God lift us up All the services of a natural man are but the works of nature He doth every Spiritual work carnally John 15.4 Without me saith Christ ye can do nothing All the works of a Christless person are like the children of a woman never marryed spurious and illegitimate they are not done through a power received from Christ Wicked men perform no duty to a right end Phil. 1.11 Their fruits are not fruits to God Rom. 7.4 As they are not from him so neither for him He is neither their principle nor their end Zech. 7.5 Vain-glory is the worm that breeds in the best fruit of the wicked The flame of Jehu's Zeal was but Kitchin fire and therefore his Reformation but Murder in the sight of God Hos 1.4 The Godly saith a Learned man in doing good works are like the Silk-worm which hides her self and is all covered over while she works within the curious Silk which she works Her Motto Operitur dum operatur At the day of Judgment they know not the good works which they did The wickeds outward acts of obedience are works of disobedience He doth not what he doth because God enjoynes it Cum intuitu voluntatis Divinae His Sanctification such as it is is not endeavoured like that 1 Thes 4.3 This is the will of God saith the Apostle your Sanctification He proves not what is the good and acceptable will of God Rom. 12.2 One may do a good work in obedience to his Lusts and that which God bids him do because his lust bids him do it Where there is no Law there is no transgression and where no respect to the Law no obedience The best performances of the wicked are but the gifts of enemies proceeding not from Love which is the sawce of every service making it delightful both to the servant and the Master and the principle of the Saints obedience Gal. 5.6 By nature we are enemies doing our works not with the affection of a child but out of bondage None have been greater enemies to Christ and his Servants and Service then many who have been most exact in outside performances as Paul who in the midst of his Zeal was a Persecuter Lastly The wicked neither have the guilt of sin taken away from their persons by the merit of Christ nor the pollution of it from their services by the Intercession of Christ Ephes 2 8. Till faith have fastned us to Christ neither persons nor performances can be acceptable Good works go not before but follow Justification We are not justified by doing good works but being justified we then do good Abels person was accepted before his Sacrifice Works are rather justified by the person of a man then his person by the works And it s a vain thing to look for Justification from that which thou must first justifie A man till justified is a Leper and every thing he toucheth he maketh unclean to himself As a smal thing which the righteous hath is better then the great possessions so a smal thing that the righteous doth is better then the greatest performances of the wicked Till a man takes Christ by faith his Sacrifices have no golden Censer to perfume them no Altar to sanctifie them nothing but his own evil heart to consecrate them upon Upon which considerations though a wicked man may do what is good morally in the sight of men by way of example or by way Edification to others c. yet not Divinely in relation to Religion or in order to God so as to please him And though God sometimes be pleased to reward the works of wicked men yet do not those works please him The works of Nebuchadnezzar Jehu Ahab c. he did I confess reward temporally but alas it was but temporally They give him services which please not him and he Benefits which profit not them They give him services but not with their heart and he them blessings
they wheras they deserve damnation both for the corruption of nature and the fruits thereof also some dream thus because of the faults of the godly mentioned in Scripture they making that an argument of boldnes in sinning which should be an argument of fear to sin some because they are ignorant and not Book-learn'd whereas ignorance though simple only somewhat extenuates but it excuseth not sin keeps not from hell but only from such a degree of torment as that of unfruitful knowledg and wilful now the common ignorance increaseth both sin and punishment as shewing that men will willingly suffer the damage of ignorance to enjoy the freedom of sinning Som dream that the imployments of their callings may excuse them for the neglect of holy duties as if callings were made to call us away from God or as if eternity were to give way to trifles Others fondly dream that outward tentations the counsels or commands of others inticing them to sin shall sufficiently excuse them whereas the outward tentation could do nothing without the compliance of the inward corruption and the disobeying of God for mans command is a disobedience with a greater disparagement to God then if man had said nothing Endlesse it would be to mention all those spirituall dotages and deluding dreams of sinners about their actions as that they may sin because they dream some places of Scripture will give them allowance or that much good will ensue of their sin that they may take liberty though excessive in things because lawfull that they may do evil because they make account to make amends for it afterward or upon pretence that they do it only for tryall to learn the vanity of sin or that the necessity of their living urgeth them or upon presumption of Gods mercy or by the painting of sin with the colour of vertue To these may be added a sinners dreaming that good duties may be omitted because they are difficult or because of their many other important occasions or because ther 's a purpose of doing them hereafter or in regard of their troubles threatned or because they have done enough good already or more then others or by reasoning from predestination as if being ordained to salvation though they live never so wickedly it shall never disadvantage them c. All which with many more are the vain dreams and delusions of sinners whereby with these seducers they take liberty to offend God and thereby to overthrow themselves OBSERVATIONS 1. Spirituall judgments are the sorest Observ 1 Insensiblenesse in sin and self-delusion were judgments which made these seducers miserable They are judgments which seize upon the soul No blessings so sweet as soul-blessings and no judgments so sore as soul-judgments The soul is the excellency of a man the body is a body of vilenesse the soul is precious excellent every way but only as depraved with sin It s noble in regard of its original functions endowments If all be well with the soul all is well with the man though the body be never so miserable If it go ill with the soul the man is wretched let the body be never so happy The funerall of a noble man is much spoken of when a Prince dies all lay it to heart when his Page dies it is never regarded The body the souls page is not to be lamented from which the soul parts but the soul from which God himself parts And further the distempers which befall the soul are of all others hardest to remove There is no herb in the garden no receipt from the Physician no medicine in the shop that can cure the soul men are only parents and physicians of the body he that made the soul can only mend it the Father of spirits is the only Physician of spirits 'T is omnipotent strength that recovers a sin sick and raiseth and rouzeth a sleeping soul man can cast thee into thy sinful sleep only God can awaken thee outward helps cannot cure the inward man he that sits in heaven can only touch and teach the heart And further the distempers of the soul uncur'd are of all others the most deadly and destructive A scratch on the finger we call a slight wound but a wound that reacheth to the heart is deadly Whatever befals the body is comparatively slight and to be slighted The worst things which befall the body may be sent in mercy they part between us and contemptible enjoyments yea oft they make way for the enjoying of the best blessings but they which befall the soul sever from him in whom all blessednesse is laid up spiritual comforts or miseries are true real the temporal of either are but opinionative Fear not him saith Christ that can kill the body but fear him that can throw both body and soul into hell To conclude Spiritual judgments are alway inflicted in displeasure in the last place as the forest of all as a reckoning for all other faults when all other chastisements are despis'd when God is shewing mercy the last mercies are the best and the further he goeth in mercy the sweeter he is and when he is punishing the last punishments are the forest and the further he goeth the bitterer he is the judgment of pining away in iniquity is the last of all that dismal catalogue Lev. 26.39 The spirit of a deep sleep is contiguous to hell it self Rev. 22.11 he that is filthy let him be filthy still is the last judgment we read of befalling in this life in all the new Testament yea the more God inflicts it the more he is provok'd to inflict it outward punishments move God to pity but this being a sin as wel as a punishment the more it lies upon man the more it offends God 2. Observ 2 All the sinfull sleepinesse of Saints differs much from that of the wicked Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart awaketh saith the Spouse The godly have ever in them a regenerate principle that is waking when they seem to be most sleeping that is contending against natural self The godly as one speaks are more pained and laborious in their sleep Laboriosius dormiunt quam vigilare potucrunt then in their waking it more troubles them to be idle then to do their Lords work their souls yeild not to that slothfulnesse wherewith their senses are overtaken Sensuall sinners sleep all at once all in them and of them sleeps but the Saint keeps his heart watchful The very business of the wicked is but vanity and dreams but the sleeps of the godly are busie and vigilant the wicked sleeps and trifles when he is most serious to work his wickednesse but when the righteous sleepeth his heart riseth and worketh upwards toward God in whom only he finds rest when thus imployed The wicked man sleeps and loves to sleep laies himself to sleep shuts the door draws the curtaines puts out the candle chargeth that none wake him but a Saint is like
the conversion of one sinner and 't is a pleasure to them to be present at the publick ordinances and to look into the mystery of the Gospel 1 Cor. 11.10 Ephes 3 10 As impossible it is they should preach anotheâ— Gospel is to be accursed Gal. 1.8 They surther the Gospel and preserve the true worship of God forbidding the worship of themselues The Law was given by their ministry Luke 2 9. Acts 10.10 The Angel directs Cornelius to send for Peter The Angel brought Philip to instruct the Eunuch invited the Apostle to come to Macedonia and help souls to heaven delivered Peter out of prison to preach the Gospel carried the soul of Lazarus to heaven resisted Balaam in the way wherein he came forth to curse Israel c. Michael and his Angels Rev. 12. fight for the defence of the Church against all the injuries of the Divel But the Divel is the grand adversary of souls Evil Angels labour to stop the passage of the Gospel they put forth their power in Jannes and Jambres to resist Moses in his Ministry The Divel offereth himself to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahabs Prophets He stands at Joshuah's right hand to withstand him in his Office Zech 3 1. Matth. 13. 1 Tim. 4 1. 1 Theâ— 2 18. Rev. 2.10 he soweth tares in the field where the good seed of the word is sown False Doctrines are the Doctrines of Divels Satan hindred Paul once or twice from his journey to the Thessalonians to confiâ—m their faith he raiseth persecution against the Church he cast some into prison And where he cannot hinder powerful preaching he contends to make the word sundry wayes ineffectual some he holds fast in unbelief and contumacy from careless hearers he snatcheth the word Those who happly hear attentively he hinders from practising and of some kind of practisers he often makes Apostates The second thing to be explained 2 Branch of Explicat is the strife and â—â—mbate between Michael and the Divel set forth more particularly in the particular case and cause thereof the Archangel disputed about the body of Moses And here 1 What he did he disputed 2 About what he dâ—d it or the subject of that disputation the body of Moses 1. He disputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifieth a Contest by Argument and Reason besides which manner or strife Justinian in loc there is no other say some after which spirits can strive and contend one with another I shall not dispute the truth of that assertion the mos Angelicus Vid. Zâ—â—ch de Angelis p. 156 the manner of Angelical disputation being to us so dark nor shall I now enquire how Angels represent their minds and apprehensions one tâ— another in their disputations but sure I am that as the Arguments which this holy Archangel produced against the Divel to justifie his action were strong and cogent as being drawn from the revealed will of God so the practice of disputing for convincing the adversaries of the Truth or stopping their mouthes by arguments grounded upon that foundation Acts 17.17.18.4 19.19.9.20.9.24.12 15. was frequently used by the Apostle Paul and to be imitated by us who were our words softer and our Arguments stronger might more convince the Adversary against whom and credit the cause for which we contend If it be here demanded Why this Archangel would dispute with an incorrigible adversary It s answered he disputed not with hopes to recover his Adversary But 1. To credit his cause It was a righteous cause and was worthy of a strong Advocate though the adversary against whom we reason deserves neglect yet the truth for which we argue deserves our contention 2. To apologize for himself He might have been look'd upon as one who resisted and opposed Satan upon bare resolution and self-wil and would effect his desire by bare force had he not disputed the equity of his proceedings with the Divel 3. To render the Divel the more inexcusable Who now though he were so far from being bettered or amended by all the disputation and reasoning of Michael with him that he was the more enraged against the truth yet must needs be more clearly convinced that he opposed the righteous and holy will of God 2. For the subject of this disputation it was saith Jude about the body of Moses The principal doubt in this branch is what should be the cause of this contention and disputation between Michael and the Devil about the body of Moses Sundry causes are by sundry Interpreters mentioned I shall rehearse some of the most probable and cleave to that which I conceive to be the true one Some affirm that the body of Moses is here to be taken figuratively not for that body which was buried on Mount Nebo but for that holy Priesthood about which Satan resisted Joshuah Zech. 3.1 because this Priesthood as a shadow was to be restored at the return of the Captivity and to be in Christ truly fulfilled whom the Apostle cals the body Col. 2.17 that answered the shadowes of the Law Others also making this place of Jude to refer though after a different manner from the former to that of Zech. 3.1 Opinio mystica est ut corpus Mosis fuerit Synagoga ac Synagogam liberari prohibuâ—rit Diabolus de Captivitate Babylonis Lorin in loc Conceive that by the body of Moses we are here to understand the Synagogue or Church of the Jewes the delivery whereof from the Captivity of Babylon Satan say they opposed and Michael contended for But besides the Arguments which have been brought already to prove that this Michael here mentioned by Jude was not Jehovah as was he who is mentioned Zech. 3.1 It seems an harsh expression and no where used to call either the Mosaical Priesthood as fulfilled by Christ or the Synagogue and Church of the Jewes the body of Moses Some conceive that this contention about the body of Moses was from Michaels endeavouring and the Divels opposing of the honourable burial of Moses to whom say they the Divel would have had burial denyed in regard of his slaying of the Aegyptian in his life time and that the Divel contended that the body of a Murderer belonged to him to dispose of But this opinion seems false both in regard of the great distance of time which was between the slaying of the Aegyptian and this contention as also that the Divel knew either that the slaying of the Aegyptian was no true murder or if it were that it was forgiven by God who sundry times after it manifested tokens of signal love to his servant Moses It is therefore lastly and most truly asserted by others that Michael therefore contended with the Divel about the body of Moses because the Divel endeavouring contrary to the express will of God that it might be buried in some open and well-known place that so the Israelites who were alwaies too prone to idolatay
to Israel as was Moses had his grave been known would after his death have been idolatrously worshipped and perheps too consulted with as their guide in the Remainder of their journey into the Land of Canaan Yea Haeres 55. Epiphanius reports that in Arabia Moses for the Miracles wrought by him was accounted a God and that there his Image was worship'd And whereas it may be said that the Israelites could not be so blockish as to have worship'd a dead Moses his mortality being so pregnant a confutation of their idolatry and his Divinity It s answered Idolatry is a sottish sin Spiritual as well as Carnal Whoredome taking away the heart It s just with God that they who lay by his rule should also lay off their own reason Nor yet would the knowne Zeal of Moses while living against such a practice as this have in probability kept the Israelites from this idolatry had Moses his body been discovered considering not only their proneness to that sin and their forgetfulness of holy instruction but also for that they might haply impute the unwillingness of Moses to be worship'd in his life time and while he was among them rather to his modesty and humility then to his disallowing of such a practice after his death when he should be both absent in body and glorious in soul In short needs must that be bad which that evil one is so violent in contending to have effected nor certainly would Satan much have regarded Moses his body had it not been to do hurt to the Israelites souls and he who by his subtilty had once before with so much success drawn the people to Idolatry and almost to destruction by the company of the Midianitish women was much more industrious and hopeful by this means which had a face of greater plausibility and would have proved far more hurtful to have effected the like again OBSERVATIONS 1 The opposition between sin and holiness is universal Observ 1. they never meet but they fight This enmity flies higher then men it reacheth even to Angels also It s in the heart between a man and himself outward between men and men between men and Angels between God and both between Angels and Angels Holiness and sin are irreconcileable Their opposition is reciprocal Holiness can never tamely endure sin nor sin quietly endure holiness These antipathies can never be reconcil'd Such is the opposition between them that they cannot brook one another notwithstanding all the plausible and rarely excellent qualifications that may be mixt with either A Saint cannot love a sinner nor a sinner a Saint as such though either be never so beautiful Affable Noble Learned The Divel meeting with Holiness and Michael with sin though both in an Angel fight and contend with one another It s in this case as with the dressing of some meats though the sauce the mixtures be never so pleasant the dressing never so cleanly and skilful yet if such or such an ingredient be put in the food wil be loathsome to some stomacks and will not down Such a one were a good man saith a wicked person were he not so precise pure And such a one were an excellent companion saith a Saint were he holy and heavenly Between the Wolf and the Lamb there is an antipathy of natures Sir Fr. Bacons Nâ—â— Hist Their guts say some made into Lute-strings will never sound harmoniously together If they live quietly as is prophesied Isai 11.6 it s because the nature of the one is changed They who act from contrary principles by contrary rules for contrary ends must needs thwart one another The people of God may hence be both cautioned and comforted Cautioned not to expect to be altogether quiet if they will be holy Their Legacy left them is in the world to find hatred and trouble Joh. 16. ult They must be men of contention though Angels for their endowments Cautioned a so they should be that they leave not their holiness for then though mans contending with them should end yet Gods would begin and the worlds friendship is bought at too dear a rate when with the loss of Gods favour Cautioned lastly Pax cum viris bellum cum viâ—iis not to hate the person of any under pretence of hating his sin abhor not the body but the sore Zeal must not be destroying but refining fire No man is so good as for all things to be beloved no man so bad as for any thing but sin to be hated The people of God may hence also be comforted when they meet with most contention from men it is but what Angels have met with from Divels nay what Christ hath met with from men and divels As Christ is our Captain so Angels yea Archangels are our fellow souldiers nor shall we any more miscarry then either The worlds bad word is no bad sign Two things much speak a man his company that he keeps and his commendation which he receives Wicked men cannot speak well of them who cry downe their sin nor is their discommendation any disgrace 2 Satan is overmatch'd in his contentions Observ 2. Michael an Archangel a good Angel contends with him Although all the Angels are equal by nature Corpora crassiora inferiora per subtiliora potentiora quodaÌ„ erdinereguntur Omniacorpora per spiritum vitae spiritus vitae irrationalis per spiritum vitae rationalem spiritus vitae rationalis desertor peccator per spiritum vitae rationalem pium justum ille per ipsum Deum Aug. de trin l. 3. c. 3. and created with equal power yet was the power of the faln Angels much impaired by and for their Apostasie and as the holy Angels exceeded them in other qualifications so likewise in this of power Good Angels though they are not Omnipotent yet had they not that chaine put upon them which was put upon the bad immediately after their fall whereby they are both restrained from what they would and oft from what they can This subjection of the bad Angels is manifested by Angustine from that order which God hath placed among the Creatures The bodies saith he which are more gross and inferior are ruled in a certain order by the more subtle and superior All bodies are ruled by a spirit of life and the irrational spirit of life by the rational and that rational spirit of life which fell and sinn'd by that rational spirit of life which is holy and righteous and this holy Spirit by God himselfe Nor do we ever in Scripture read of any contention between the good and evil Angels wherein the good had not the victory Revel 12.8 The Divel and his Angels fought and prevailed not Dan. 10. and ver 9. He was cast out unto the earth The Divel never fights either himself or by his Instruments but he is foyld but he falls Besides the good Angels ever contend for and by a great God
one who had himself been an Idolater The Divel loves to wound Religion in the house of her friend and with her own hands and weapons to make Cromwell a Protestant to sentence a Godly Lambert to death Oh how it delights him to overcome Scripture by alledging not of the Alcoran but the Scripture And as he here dealt with the body so he still deals with the Books and Writings of Gods Moses's the men of God For as he fain would have made him who was the greatest enemy in the world to Idolatry while living to have been the greatest occasion of it when dead so still he contends by Hereticks that they who have been the renowned opposers of Heresie in their life time should be accounted the greatest Patrons of it when dead Thus the Papists contend that the Fathers Augustine Ambrose c. are theirs and for their opinions Thus the Pelagians of our time that Augustin Bucer Vid. John Goodwin Sion Colledg vi sited Ball are for free-will But he much more contends and had rather that a living then a dead Moses shoud be a stumbling block to others If one who is holy may thinks he be useful to me by his dust and relicks how much more by his falls his scandals his corrupt examples Of all others let those who fear God take most heed of giving advantage to Satan When without their knowledg or consent they are by Satan only made advantageous to him it should be their sorrow but when they make themselves so it is their great sin 12. Observ 12. The worst persons are oft compelled both to have and express an high opinion of Gods faithful servants Even Moses one who was a great opposer of and greatly opposed by the Divel is yet secretly by this cursed enemy greatly honoured Yea the people who in Moses his life time would have ston'd him would and Satan knew it too after his death have Idoliz'd him Our blessed Lord when he was murdered by his enemies was by some of them voiced a Just man Luke 18.18 Act. 24.25 Mat. 11.19 the young man calls him Good Master even bloody Herod reverenced the Baptist and Felix trembles at the preaching of Paul Wisdome shall sometimes be justified not only by her children but even by her sworn enemies The father of Lies when he alledgeth Scripture to overthrow it strongly argues that it is the strongest weapon and hath greatest power over the conscience God delights to put a secret honour upon his Saints and wayes and to make even those who love them not to praise them Many lewd livers strictly enjoyn their children to be more Religious Every Saint may be encouraged in Holiness God will often make its greatest opposers to extoâ— it and when in their words they revile it in their conferences they shall commend it The praise of an enemy is equivalent to an universal good report In short Let sinners seriously consider how they can answer this dilemma at the last day If the wayes and people of God were bad why did you so much as commend them if good why did you not more imitate them also If Christ were not a good Master why did the young man call him so if he were why did he not follow him 13. Observ 13. The greatest respect that wickedones manifest toward a Godly Moses is when he is dead While Moses was living he was in danger of being destroyed now dead of being adored by the Israelites Joram when Elisha was living opposed him but when dead laments over him in that pathetical speech My father 2 Kinâ— 13.14 my father the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof Saul disobeyes and rejects Samuel when living but when dead he with great pains though no profit endeavors to recal to enquire of him They build and garnish the Sepulchers of the Prophets when dead Luke 11.47 whom living their fathers led by the same Spirit destroyed God often makes the worth of his servants to be known by the want of them and shewes when they are gone that they who in their life time were accounted the plagues and troublers were indeed the Preservers and Peace makers of Israel They shall then know saith Ezekiel Ezek 33.33 that they have had a Prophet among them And it s a work of little cost and of much credit to extol the dead The wicked are not troubled and molested in their wayes of sin by departed Saints Samson could take honey out of that dead Lion with which he fought when living and which he slew because it ror'd upon him The living who rore and lift up their voices against mens sins and labour to rend them from their corruptions shall be persecuted but when dead voiced up to advance the reputation of those who praise them for sweet and blessed men of God The Papists and many common Protestants who speak highly of Christ and call him their sweet Saviour had they lived in his dayes and heard him preach against their Lusts would have hated him as much as nay more then now they hate those who have but a drop of his fountain of holiness And indeed if a Moses a servant of God in his life time please wicked men it is commonly because he is too like a dead man not so quick and lively against their Lusts as he should It s not the Idolizing but the imitating of the Saints that shews our love either to God or them This for the second part of this verse the strife or contention it self The third followes viz. the carriage and deportment of the Archangel in this combate And first to speak thereof as it 's set down Negatively in respect of his inward disposition so it 's said that he durst not bring a rayling accusation EXPLICATION Two things are here to be considered in the Explication 1. What it was which Michael did forbear viz. to bring a rayling accusation 2 Why it was that he did forbear it He durst not bring it 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Hebraismum idem valet apud Judam quod apud Petrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—scat in Jud. Judâ—cium maledicum Pâ—scat Maledictionis judicium Beâ— Execrabile judiâ—ium Vulg. in Pet. Judicium blasphemiae Vulg. in Jud. For the first The thing forborn is here said to be a rayling accusation The Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an accusation of blasphemie of rayling and Peter 2 Pet. 3.11 calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a railing or blasph mous judgment or accusation both places are rendered by these words railing accusation a judgement or accusation of railing by an Hebraism importing the same in Jude which a blasphemous judgment â—r accusation doth in Peter In the opening whereof 1 I shall shew you what is meant by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred accusation or judgment 2 What the Apostle intends by a railing accusation or the railing of the accusation 3 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that railing
of Brutish Sensuality A mâ—â— may be laden with Gold and yet be as a Brute His being changed from Poor to Rich is but a poor change unless he be changed from Natural to Spiritual from an old to a new man Even the Wealthy Psal 49.10 is called a Fool and a brutish person and ver 12. Man being in honour abideth not he is like the Beast that perisheth Nero was a Lion Herod a Fox The Princes of Israel Wolves Kine of Bashan notwithstanding worldly glory Outward Ornaments make no inward alteration Hence see what is the true standard of Honour Lust is the souls degradation even in all earthly abundance only Grace makes us excellent it destroyes not but elevates nature Sensual objects do not elevate but corrupt us 5. Observ 3. Sensual appetite is deceitful When these Seducers knew things naturally with sensual knowledg they were led to corruption An ignis fatuus leads men into bogs and precipices Natural knowledg carryes men like filly beasts into a snare If the blind lead the blind both must fall into the ditch The Lusts of the sensitive appetite are foolish 1 Tim. 6.9 and therefore foolish because they make men fools who are led by them and Ephes 4.22 the old man is said to be corrupt according to decitful lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As man sheweth his infection with original pollution principally by his Lusts so those Lusts principally discover themselves in their Deceitfulness When they tempt a man to sin they promise pleasure and contentment they perform nothing less but leave the poor seduced sinner spoiled of his happiness and corrupted both inwardly outwardly and eternally Sensual delights strangle with a silken halter Latrones quasi laterones viatoribus amiâ—è se quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—djungunt ut incautos cò facilius grassentur kil a man in the embracing him and like Theeves wil ride friendly and pleasantly with the Passenger that so unawares they may the more easily destroy him Saint James saith a man is drawn away of his own Lusts and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inticed They bait over every hook Oh that when a man saith How can I forbear the bait 〈◊〉 he would ask himself How can I endure the book Oh will the comfort countervail the corruption the spoiling not only of my body of my Goods but the loss of my Soul my Grace my Heaven my God my All. Consider the bitter farewel of al sinfully sweet morsels view them with a Scripture Prospective look upon them as going away as well as coming Behold their back their black side they are venenatae deliciae Poisoned Pleasures T is easier to pass by then get out of the snare If thou be a man of appetite Prov. 23.2 put a knife to thy throat Lust betrayes with a kiss Al carnal delights go out in a stink and commonly it is that of Brimstone As we cannor walk in this life by sight in respect of Glory so should we not in respect of Sensuality As we are absent from heaven in regard of Sense and present there in regard of Love so though we are present among earthly enjoyments in respect of Sense yet should we be absent in regard of affection To conclude this consider the difference betwixt Spiritual and Sensual pleasures The former are good in Harvest the latter only in Seeds-time They who sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption Gal. 4.6 They who sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting The former are bitterly sweet the latter sweetly bitter The former turn water into wine as the latter do Wine into water In that which a man knows Spiritually and to which he is led by the guidance of the Spirit in that he preserves himself And its observable how the Apostle opposeth the deceitful Lusts in ver 22. of Ephes 4. to the Truth in Jesus ver 21. Christ is Truth Lust is vanity and deception Christ gives true happiness and more then was ever expected Lust deludes disappoints corrupts To end this needful Point In all worldly pleasures wisely draw off thy soul by comparing such sordid puddles with the crystal rivers of eternal joyes Let Moderation and heavenly Discourse be two dishes at every Banquet A Souldier supping with Plato who had provided nothing but green herbs said He who sups with Plato shall be better the next day Tertullian said of the Primitive Christians that they did not Tam coenam coenare quam disciplinam One would have thought they had been at a Sermon not at a Supper Oh that Spiriritual delights were more tasted He who lives at the Table of a King despiseth scraps and such are all worldly pleasures esteemed by him who hath tasted how sweet the Lord is The more pleasant any thing is to us the more suspected let it be by us Satan lies in ambush behind our lawful enjoyments as the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost so is Christian temperance the aedituus Tertullian or Keeper of that Temple VER 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Core AT this verse and so on to the seventeenth our Apostle prosecutes the thrid part of that second Argument whereby he puts the Christians upon contending for the faith against Seducers That second Argument was taken from the certainty of the destruction of those Seducers and it s prosecuted from the fourth to the seventeenth verse of this Epistle Pag. 1. Part 2. In the managing whereof as hath been said before the Apostle having first set down several examples of Gods wrath upon others in former times for their sins from the fourth to the eighth verse And secondly Having declared that these Seducers lived in the same sins which God had formerly punish'd in others from the eight to this eleventh verse 3. He now thirdly concludes that these practising their impieties shall partake of their plagues And this conclusion he prosecutes throughout this eleventh verse and forward unto the seventeenth In the handling of which Conclusion the Apostle concludes the destruction of these 1. By propounding 2. By expounding it Or 1. By a Denunciation thereof 2. By a Delineation thereof 1. By propounding and denouncing thereof in those words of this eleventh verse Wo unto them 2. By an expounding or delineating thereof in the following expressions of this and the other verses unto the seventeenth and he expounds it by a mixed description of their sin and misery And he mixedly describes their sin and miseries the effects of their sins three wayes Nominat hos tres prae aliis quia hi tres fuere Dei fidei sanctitatis hostes ac fideles seducere Ecclesiam perdere voluerunt unde fuerunt Simonis Gnosticorum haereticorum typi prodromi Cor. Lapide in loc 1. From the sutable examples of Cain Balaam Core in this
Psal 1.1 They make a trade of sin A sinner falls into sin as the fish the Saint as a child doth into the water In the latter sin is but the former is in sin 4. In respect of its period and term The longest way hath an end The longest course of sin though of a thousand years continuance terminates in destruction The full point of every sinful way is damnation the end though not of the worker yet of the work is death that is the wages of sin The way of sin is broad in the enterance but its narrow in the conclusion Prov. 5.5.7.25 It s the way to hell going down to the chambers of death Foolish sinners in good duties separate the means from the end accounting exactness needless in sinful ways they separate the end from the means thinking torments fabulous although Scripture equally prescribes the former and foretels the latter Gods method is first to bring into a Wilderness and then to Canaan Satan contrarily leads from Canaan into a Wilderness Gods way is right and may seem rugged Satans smooth but false Cain never left travelling in his way of Hyprocrisie Envy Murder till it ended in Despair 4. Branch 4 of Explicat Fourthly By way of Explication we are to enquire How these Seducers went in this way of Cain 1. They went in this way of Cain's formality and hypocrisie They sacrificed I mean partook of the same Ordinances and Priviledges with true Saints in name in the skin they were Christians in the heart at the core they were unholy they pretended to the highest pitch of Religion but all this while as the Apostle calls them they were but ungodly men While they sacrificed outwardly with Cain they had inwardly the spirits of Cains like those of whom Saint John speaks who went out from but never were truly of us Their impure life was a practical confutation of their verbal profession In words they professed Christ but in their deeds they denyed him though the only Lord. 2. They went in the way of Cain in respect of their hatred and malice against the faithful None so much envyed and opposed faithful Pastors and Teachers as they did False Teachers were Pauls standing Antagonists they were like Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses The Scribes and Pharisees of all others most hated Christ Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered him Seducers hate those most who hurt them most The faithful Minister that shines with the light of pure Doctrine these Theeves most strike at The Leaders of Gods Army they principally fight against The Magistrate whom God appointed for the restraining of sin they bitterly hated and envyed and it was not for want of poyson but power that they did not destroy and pluck up Magistracy by the very roots These Seducers were likewise murderers with Cain the worst of Murderers soul-murderers Their work was to draw men into perdition They were deceived and deceiving blindly leading their blind followers into the ditch of destruction They denyed him who is the Way the Truth the Life Their sacrificing was with a murderous intent and though with Cain who spake most kindly to his brother when he was inwardly most cruel they utter fair and sweet expressions yet all was but to deceive the hearts of the simple Under every bait of good words there lay the hook of Error and Heresie They gave their poyson in a gilded cup and ever came with an hammer and a nail when they presented butter in a Lordly dish nor ever were they so much the Ministers of Satan as when they transformed themselves into Angels of light 3 They went in the way of Cain in regard of his complaint and despair They who walk'd in Cains wickedness could not escape Cains woe Jude here denounceth it against them and tells us they were before of old ordained to this condemnation they were beasts made to be taken they corrupted themselves they languish'd and pin'd away in their filthiness There was a ditch followed their blind-leading and though the grace of God was turned into lasciviousness by them and abused as an occasion to sin yet how glad would they have been in the end for one drop of those streames of grace which once they padled in trampled under feet They who formerly taught that by reason of Grace men might sin afteward felt that for want of Grace they and their seduced followers were sure to smart They who once preach'd nothing but grace afterward felt nothing but wrath a just recompence since with Cain they account the greatest sin in the coÌ„mission so smal Obser 1. Abeli nomen inditum fuit a vanitate ut significaretur humanam conditionem meram esse vanitatem ideoque Hebraei Hebel appellant or is haâ—tâ—um qui cito evanesâ—it Riv. in Gen. Exerc. 42. Qui clarus erat nativitate carnis charus existimatione Parentum respuitur a Deo qui habebatur abâ—eâ—tus nul lius momenti re spicâ—tur probatur Respait igitur Deus primogenitos omnes eos qui chari sunt parentibus non colligimus istam consequentiam sod id annotamus non morari Deum hasce carnis praerogativas vel quamcunque aliam excellentiam secularem mag is quam spiritulem Musc in Gen. that they need not to fear it in their after-despairing confession to finde it so great that they are not able to undergo it and besides all this with Cain to be marked with infamy and dishonour to all posterity OBSERVATIONS 1. Priviledges of nature commend us not to God We find not seldom in Scripture that the eldest child proves the unholiest Abel the younger was a Saint Cain the elder was a Murderer Cain excelled Abel in the dignity of Primogeniture and further in the expectation of his Parents Cain if he were not as some think deemed by them to be the promised seed of the woman and their Saviour is yet called a possession obtained of God as one by whom they expected to reap much good and comfort Abel according to his name is deemed unprofitable and vai And yet he who was so eminent both for his Birth and his Parents estimation is rejected and he who was saith Musculus accounted as vain and nothing worth and unprofitable is accepted by God who though he refuseth not yet neither receiveth any for outward Prerogatives he is no respecter of persons Jacob the younger was a godly man and beloved Esau the elder a prophane person and hated of God David the youngest of Jesses sons was he who of them all we find to be according to Gods own heart Ruben the eldest son of Jacob was incestuous Simeon and Levi cruel and bloody Judah adulterous Joseph one of the youngest onely eminent for sanctity among them all If the priviledges of nature had been any thing worth the first-born of the sons of men had not been a Reprobate but God will have his grace known to be free he neither sees nor
eyes of unbeleeving sinners Isai 53.2 Holiness is an inward a hidden beauty Psa 45. a carnall eye cannot either see it or esteem it If grace be as with sinners it is a scar 't is a scar of honour not uncomliness riches and worldly dignities like glow-worms onely shine in the dark night of the world but there 's nothing will have a lustre at the day of judgement but holiness The poorest saint is a Prince and the most glorious sinner a beggar both in a disguise Holiness though veiled with the most contemptible outside carries with it a silent Majesty and sin even in highest dignity bewrays a secret vileness That which is to be desired of a man is his goodness The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12.26 2 Cor. 8.23 The poor Saints are called the glory of Christ who presents them without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Sinners are spots Saints are stars and Jewels as Jewels the stars of the earth and as Stars the Jewels of heaven Though Saints have not an Herald to emblazon their arms yet the Scripture sufficiently sets forth their dignity the rottenest stuffs are oftnest watred and among men sinners most glorious but yet in Scripture they are but spots 2. Sinners are filthy and defiling They are spots for defilement as well as deformity sin and uncleanness are put together The filthiest of beasts are scarce filthy enough to set forth the filthy nature of sinners Swine the Dog the Serpent the Goat the neighing Horse the filthiest things are used in Scripture to set forth sin as dung vomit mire menstruosities leprosie scum pitch Deut. 32.5 plague-sores issues ulcers dead carcasses the blood and pollution of a new-born child the noysom exhalations breathing from a Sepulcher Rom. 3.13 spots Rev. 21.27 a sinner is called that which defileth Sinful gain is filthy lucre Unholy speech is filthy and rotten communication whordome is called uncleanness gluttony turns the Temple of the Holy Ghost into a Kitchin an Hogstie it makes men dunghils and drunkenness common shores and sinks of filthinesse the drunkard is a walking quagmire The covetous wretch that loads himself with thick clay is but a moving muck-heap a speaking dunghil his riches are but dung good as one well when they are spread abroad by charity but stinking and useless when heaped Pride is but a swelling botch Sinners are the children of the filthy and unclean spirit they are of their father the Divel like Joabs posterity therefore all filthy and leprous their natural Parents were naturally all unclean and who did ever bring a clean thing out of filthiness Job 14.4 John 3.6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh Their greatest hatred and enmity is set upon purity and and holinesse clean and sweet objects are death to them as they say that Roses kill the Horsefly the Gospel is to them a savour of death And this filthiness and pollution of sin hath two properties which may render it very hateful Isai 1.13 14 Tit. 1.15 1. It s a spreading pollution 1. Over all of a man flesh and spirit soul body understanding thoughts conscience memory will affections eyes hands tongue 2. All done by a man even the best things the prayers of polluted sinners are abominations their incense stinks their sacrifices are unclean their mercies cruel their profession of godlinesse a form their plausiblest performances no better then embalmed carkases 3. It spreads even unto others and infects them by incouraging teaching seducing constraining them to sin It oft is diffused from the wicked even to the godly themselves nothing more difficult then to be familiar with and not to be infected by sinners the error of the wicked sometimes cleavs to them and the example of sinners entiseth them Spirituale gelicidium Ames Cas Consc The sons of God saw the daughters of men and were polluted What an insensible deadness of spirit and decay of grace doth conversing with sinners bring upon Saints 4. Yea this contagion of sin spreads even to the good creatures of God about us even into them it puts as the Apostle speaks vanity Num. 8.20 21 2 Pet. 3.10 11. Isai 1.18 Jer. 17.1 groaning bondage consumption mourning and at length it will bring combustion and dissolution upon the whole frame of nature 2. It s a deep and indelible pollution of a skarlet and crimson dye compared also to an Ethiopians blackness a Leopards spots not to be washed away with nitre and much sope Hell fire shall not be able to eternity to fetch away the stains of the smallest sins from mans nature yea the greatest measure of grace received in this life by the best of men doth not totally abolish this defilement the best have their sores and stand in need of a curing and a daily cleansing Who can say I have made my heart clean All the Legal washings purifyings and cleansings of the filthiness of the flesh were but faint representations of our need of and purity by being washt in the blood of Christ And oh that sinners would be as unquiet as they are unclean till they wash in that fountain which is set open for sin and for uncleanness Jer. 4.14 Rev. 7.14 2 Cor. 6.11 Psal 150. It s only the blood of God which can wash away the filthiness of sin no other Laver can take away that spot Not onely look but go into it wash thy self all over Cry out O sinner unclean unclean See thy spots in the glass of the Law Be weary of thy defilement as well as thy deformity Being washed keep thy self pure take heed of spotting places and persons Though upon a conscience uncleansed like an old spotted garment a sinner cares not what filth he suffers to drop yet O Saint keep thy new cloaths white clean and pure sin like a mired dog when it fawns upon thee fouls thee A spot will easily be seen upon thee trifles in thee are accounted blasphemies Be not troubled at the spots upon thy name so as thou keepest a pure conscience not that wicked men make them so long as they do not finde them Wash thy self in thine own tears be troubled that thy Justification is so complete and thy Sanctification so imperfect that thou art at once both without spot or wrinckle and yet so full of both In short Labour to be spotless in a spotting and spotted Generation in foul streets to walk with clean garments Let not the Error of the wicked cleave to thee If thou canst not cleanse them which is most desirable let not them defile thee In your Feasts of Charity 3. The Lords Supper is a Love-Feast Observ 3. The Reason why these Feasts of Charity whereof Jude here speaks were annexed to the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.21 22. and also why those ancient Christians did in these Feasts express so much love one to another was because they were about to celebrate that Sacrament which expressed so great a token
which men compared to trees are said to yeild 1. The fruits of the Sanctifying Spirit of God Graces and Works brought forth in the hearts and lives of the Saints called fruits because they come from the Spirit of God as fruit from the tree and are as pleasing to him as the pleasantest fruit is to us Thus we read of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and Fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1.11 Fruits meet for Repentance Matth. 3.8 All comprehended by Paul Ephes 5.9 where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is in all Goodness Righteousness Truth Goodness being that quality contrary to Malice or naughtiness whereby a sinner is evil in himself Righteousness opposed to Injustice whereby one is hurtful and injurious to others Truth opposed to Errors Heresies Hypocrisie c. 3 There are fruits which in themselves and their own nature are bitter corrupt poysonful put forth not only by a corrupt tree but by it as such evil propter fieri in themselves and their own nature such fruits by which the false Prophets were known and whereby men may be known to be wicked men Grapes of Gall and bitter clusters Deut. 32.32 Such works of the flesh as Paul mentions Gal. 5.19 Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Laesciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Hatred c. 3 There are other fruits which are not evil in themselvs unlawful or intrinsecally evil in their own substance and nature propter esse and fieri because they are or are done but because they grow upon such trees by reason whereof something which should make the production of them good is omitted and sundry deffects cleave unto them and they have evil cast upon them by the agent And sundry fruits of this sort and rank there may be upon such trees as Jude speaks of As 1 The Fruits of gifts parts and abilities in matters of Religion as preaching praying utterance of these speaks Christ Matth. 7.22 Many shall say in that day Lord have we not Prophesied c. And 1 Cor. 12.1 they are called Spiritual Gifts wrought by the Spirit but are not Sanctificantia but Ministrantia not so sanctifying him in whom but helping those for whom they are as a rich man may bestow good and dainty dyet upon a poor woman that nurseth his child not for her own sake but that his child may suck good milk from her such fruits as these indeed may beautifie Grace but yet Grace must sanctifie them These may make us profitable to men not acceptable to God 2 The second sort of these fruits which these trees might bear is a temporary faith Oâ—thodox or sound judgment assent to that which is the very Truth of Gods Word that there is a God infinite in all his glorious Perfections that there are three Persons that Christ was God and man c. and that all who believe in him shall be saved Thus some unconverted are said to beleeve for a while Luke 8.13 thus Simon Magus and Demas believed these fruits are good in their kind and without them there can be no holinesse of life nor happinesse after death and yet they are not good enough they not purifying the heart but only perfecting the understanding they being poured only on the head not running down like Aarons oyntment to the heart and other parts though making a man Protestant in doctrin yet leaving him to be a recusant in his life carrying him out to believe the word as faithful but not to embrace it as worthy of all acceptation to shine with light but not to burn with or work by love 3. A third sort of these fruits might be some heated affections sweet motions receiving the word with joy a finding some sweetnesse in the ordinances Matth. 13.20 John 5.35 Matth. 27.3 1 Kings 21. Ezek. 33.32 Ezekiel was to his hearers as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice They who shall be cast into utter darknesse may for a season rejoyce in the light and may have sorrow and grief about sin The Israelites were oft deep in their humiliations Psal 78.4 7. they sought God and returned enquired early after God Ahab humbled himself And yet these fruits are not the best they may spring up from a root not good the pleasantnesse or sadnesse of the matter of any doctrine may cause sutable affections of joy or sorrow the novelty or rarity of a doctrine may much delight or the dexterity and ability of the deliverer the sutablenesss of a clearly discovered truth to a hearers understanding the apprehension of the goodnesse of spiritual things may stir up some flashing desires thus they cried out Lord give us ever more this bread thus Balaam desires to die the death of the righteous yea as some have observed corrupt lusts in men such as pride and self-seeking may produce great affections in holy duties The desire of applause may make men in publick administrations enlarged in their affections The more excellent a Prayer or Sermon is the more carnal the heart of the performer may be the stronger the invention is the weaker the grace may be and as ground full of mines of Gold is oft barren of grasse so a heart ful of grace may it may be barren of the ornaments of words and expressions 4. A fourth sort of fruits born even by these afterward apostates might be external appearances of conformity to the Law of God in avoiding of all open and scandalous courses and in performing the visible and outside acts of obedience Thus the Pharisee was not an Extortioner unjust an Adulterer Paul Matth 18.11 Phil. 3. touching the law was blameless the young man professed he had kept the Law in the letter of it from his youth The Pharisees paid Tithes exactly abhorred idolatry made long prayers and frequent were strict in the outward observation of the Sabboth professed chastity temperance c. Thus it 's said of these very Apostates that they had escap'd the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2.20 and 22. that they had been washed And these fruits of outward conformity to the Law of God are highly commendable sincerity of grace can neither be nor be known without them by them it resolves as Elijah said to shew it self they are commanded by God 1 King 18.15 who though he commands not the godly to fulfill the Law perfectly yet permits them not to break it wilfully and though by the presence of external obedience we cannot conclude salvation yet by the absence thereof we may conclude damnation to follow these honour God benefit others Though our righteousnesse satisfies not justice yet in our unrighteousnesse we cannot be saved without injustice nor is any man called a good man for the good which he hath but the good which he doth outward obedience strengthens true grace where it is and is necessary to preserve a justified estate though not as deserving it yet as removing that which would destroy it And yet all these fruits the acts of externall obedience
that of trees dead they are spiritually dead because without and severed from that root of every good tree the Lord Christ The old Adam is the root upon which they still stand and therefore they are without all spiritual and supernatural life as from the root flows life into all the branches of the tree so from Christ all who are united to him by the Spirit through Faith have by those means the life of holiness derived unto them as in Adam the first root who hath now lost the moisture and vigour of holiness and is become a dryed root all die so in Christ shall all and onely they who are really united to him live Hence it is that as they are without the root and therefore without life so without all spiritual growth and fruitfulness the inward principle of life being wanting needs must the effects that flow from that principle all vitall operations be wanting likewise for though abiding John 15.5 and living by Christ we bring forth much fruit yet sever'd from him we can do nothing It is true that as the wicked have something from Christ like the Spirit of life Heb. 6.4 1 Cor. 12.6 7. so thereby they bring forth something like to good and spiritual fruits I mean those forementioned fruits of gifts assent to the truth sweet affections acts of external obedience but though in the producing of these the Spirit helps them yet it never changeth the nature of the trees but they still retain the natural sowrness of their roots and though God gives them the Spirit to edifie others yet not to sanctifie themselves though Saul had another spirit and sundry Matth. 7. did prophecy and cast out Divels yet all these were but works of ministration not renovation though the Spirit works as an outward efficient cause breathing on them and is in them as in Organis Instruments and Ministers yet not as in domiciliis as in habitations Members for as the soul works not as a form to any part that is not united to the body so neither doth the Spirit of Christ work savingly but in the body of Christ In the wicked it may be spiritus movens a moving spirit in the godly t is onely spiritus inhabitans an inhabiting indwelling Spirit The Spirit of God in an Hypocrire is like an Angel appearing in some outward shape of which he is only an assisting not an informing form for which cause his assumed body hath neither life nor nourishment but the Spirit of God in the godly is like the soul in the body not only assisting but informing and working in them spiritually vitall and supernatural operations And notwithstanding the best workings of the Spirit of God in the wicked they are oft left more fleshly self-confident less poor in Spirit and sensible of their want of Christ then before And thus these Seducers were spiritually dead Or 3. Death is eternal the effect of the former which eternal death is that most miserable condition of the Reprobate after death wherein they are deprived of all the blessedness and glory of heaven standing in the enjoyment and unitive vision of God Visi◠unitiv◠T is indeed the spiritual death continued and perfected As in heaven or eternal life in the enjoyment of God by Christ is begun in this life and completedin the next so is hell or eternal death in the losse of God begun in this and consummate in the next world The presence of God is the heaven of heaven the joy of heaven the life of heaven and of all who shall come thither 2. For the second In what respect these Seducers may be said to be twice dead The word twice Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken two wayes sometimes indefinitly or as a definite put for an indefinite a certain for an uncertain number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Job 33.14 Thus Job 33.14 God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not That is God doth by his gracious ways and means sufficiently abundantly and frequently acquaint man with his will although man be so stupid and senseless as not to understand what the meaning of God is therein So Psal 62.11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth to God that is God hath abundantly oft several times or sundry wayes by his Word and works asserted and discovered that he is eminently and transcendently powerfull Thus the Apostle commands That the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 1.17 should be accounted worthy duplici that is multiplici honore double much manifold honour So the Prophet prayes Jer. 17.18 that his enemies may be destroyed with a double destruction i. e. with a severe through totall destruction so 2 Kings 2.9 Elisha desired that a double portion that is a large abundant portion of the Spirit might be upon him Thus some take the word twice in this place as if by the signification of the very word the Apostle intended that these dead trees were finally dead and past all hopes of recovery such as could never be bettered by all the pains and cost digging dunging c. that could be laid out upon them That our Apostle here intends that these Seducers were like Trees irrecoverably and totally dead I easily grant but withall because trees may be said to be twice dead in respect of their very dying twice or a second time this word twice seems to import in this place a definite certain number and to intend a double or twofold death of these Seducers who are here compared to trees in their dying twice as well as in all the other three respects viz. Their having withered fruit their being without fruit and being pluckt up by the roots Trees then are said to be twice dead thus the first time a tree is said be dead when in the former spring it decayes fades withers in its leaves blossoms or newly formed fruit from this decaying or dying for a dying it is as to leaves and fruit a tree is oft by pruning dressing recovered but if in autumn or the later spring which is the critical or climacterial time of Trees to discover whether their disease be mortal or not the tree fadeth again if then the leaves or what ever it bears wither the rine grow dry and it be as they say sick the fault is then ab intra the root is rotten and the very substance of the tree is inwardly corrupt and putrified no more labour or cost is now bestowed upon it it s now dead twice or the second time and therefore totally and irrecoverably and as I have understood from those who are exactly skill'd in the nature of trees it hath been oft known that trees which have seemed to die in the former spring have afterward been recovered but never did they know that any languishing in the former spring and then after some overtures of reviving in the later spring fading and decaying again ever were recovered and restored
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word with his holy ten thousands or Myriads Four things may here offer themselves to be explained 1. Their quantity in respect of numbers ten thousands 2. Their quality they are holy ones holy ten thousands 3. Their relation They are his his holy ten thousands 4. Their action or employment they are to come with the Lord. 1. For the first The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek properly signifies ten thousand Thus Acts 19.19 where the Apostle mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five myriads it s rendred fifty thousand and Rev. 9.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulgar et Erasm vicies mil lies dena millia two myriads of myriads we translate twenty thousand times ten thousand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 5.11 and Dan. 7.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Septuagint we render ten thousand times ten thousand So Deut. 33.2 Psal 3.6 Dan. 11.12 Luke 12.1 Acts 21.20 And in those places where the word ten thousand is used as here in Jude without the addition of a word of another number it imports an uncertaine and very great vast number or an innumerable multitude Heb. 12.22 there being a certain number put for an uncertaine 2. For the second their quality or property noted in this word holy or Saints These here called holy or saints say some are the angels In millibus sanctorum nun ciorum suorum Cypr. ad Novarian Hugo Lyranus who in Scripture are oft said to be such with whom Christ comes at the last day and also called holy and not seldome is their coming with Christ and their holiness as here put together Thus Luke 9.26 Christ is said to come in the glory of the holy Angels and Matth. 25.31 the Son of man shall come and all the holy Angels with him c. Sometimes they are called mighty Angels 2 Thes 1.7 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels And Deut. 33.2 when God delivered the law upon mount Sinai it is said he came with ten thousands of his Saints where by Saints may be understood Angels who attended God in the delivering of the law in which respect it is said that Israel received the law by the disposition of Angels Acts 7.53 and the law is said to be the word spoken by Angels Heb. 2.2 But others more rightly conceive that by these holy Myriads or ten thousands in this place we are likewise to understand holy men as wel as the holy Angels even the Saints shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 And more plainly 1 Thes 3.13 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is foretold to be with all his Saints And Mat. 13.43 The righteous shal shine forth as the sun in the kingdome of their father and these saints or righteous ones who are to attend upon Christ shall be not only those who before were with Christ in heaven but even those who shal be taken up in the clouds to meet Christ and thereby shall be made a part of his attendance 1 Thes 4.17 So that these myriads this innumerable company shal be made up of all the glorious Angels and Saints it shal be a general assembly all the servants shal wait upon their Master the Lord Jesus We shall saith the Apostle all meet Ephes 4.13 there shall not be one wanting and if Christ bestowes new liveries upon all his Saints they shall all when adorned with them yeild their attendance to him in them But in what respect doth the Apostle call them Saints or Holy Persons are holy in two respects 1. In respect of destination seperation or being set apart to holy services and employments Thus the first-born were holy Exod. 13.2 12. Jer. 1.5 Thus the Prophets and Apostles are oft called holy Jeremiah was sanctified from the womb In this respect these holy Angels and men may be called holy as being set apart to the peculiar work and glorious employment of praising and glorifying of God for ever 2. Persons may be holy in respect of true inherent holiness abiding in them thus likewise these Angels and Saints here mentioned may be called holy for the Angels they were from their very creation perfectly holy and afterward by the grace of confirmation made constant in holinesse as for holy men though they were formerly made holy of not holy privatively that is having lost their holiness had holiness bestowed upon them by regeneration and though they were made holy of lesse holy by having increase and additions of holinesse bestowed upon them in this life yet at this great day they are with the Angels perfectly holy likewise the spirits of just men made perfect in this life they were perficientes perfecting then shal they be perfecti having as much holiness as they can hold as much as God or themselves wil desire being without any mixtures of unholinesse in them all teares being wiped from their eyes and all sins from their souls and they presented faultlesse before that presence of glory not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but being holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 3. For the third they are called his his holy ten thousands and his they are in three respects 1. In respect of Creation he made them all whether Saints or Angels as they are creatures they are the works of his hands 2. As they are Saints they are his also Angels are his by being confirmed in their sanctity Holy men are his because he was the deserving cause of their holiness the pattern or exemplary cause also thereof and lastly by his spirit the efficient cause of their holiness he is made sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1.30 he sanctifies and cleanseth his Church with the washing of water by the word 3. They are his in point of service and attendance for being sanctifyed they wait upon him and serve him in all holy employments here in the kingdome of grace and hereafter shall they attend upon and come with him as his servants in his kingdome of glory 4. For the fourth their coming with the Lord Jesus these ten thousands of his Saints shall come with him 1. For his own glory he wil come in the glory of his holy Angels and he wil likewise come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all those that believe in that day 2 Thes 1.10 How glorious these holy myriads or ten thousands shall make Christ at the day of judgment both in regard of their excellencies and numbers I have shewed p. 529 530 531. c. Part 1. How wil the beauty and multitudes of these subjects set forth the glory of the King of glory who shall have myriads of servants every one shining like myriads of suns and every subject being indeed a King The first time he came as a servant to sinners but the second time he shal come as the Lord of Saints and Angels Then his forerunner was John Baptist now he shall descend
prejudice against nor novelty an inducement to the entertainment of truth 6. Give not way to lesser differences A little division will soon rise up to greater small wedges make way for bigger Our hearts are like to tindar a little spark will enflame them Be jealous of your hearts when contentions begin stifle them in the cradle Act. 3â— 38 Paul and Barnabas separated about a smal matter the taking of an associate 7. Beware of pride the mother of contention and separation Love not the preheminence rather be fit for then desirous of rule despise not the meanest say not I have no need of thee All schismes and heresies are mostly grafted upon the stock of pride The first rent that was ever made in Gods family was by the pride of Angels ver 14. and that pride was nothing else but the desire of independency 8. Avoid self-seeking he who seeks his own things and profit will not mind the good and peace of the church Oh take heed lest thy secular interest draw thee to a new communion and thou colour over thy departure with religion and conscience 1. Thus we have spoken of the First viz. what these seducers did separate themselves 2. The cause of their separation or what they were in these words sensual not having the spirit Wherein 1. Their estate is propounded They were sensual 2. Explained having not the spirit EXPLICATION But 1. In what respect were they Sensual In what respect were they 2. Not having the spirit 2. Why doth the Apostle here represent them to be such 1. For the first 1. The word here translated sensual in the Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cometh from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima the soule so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth primarily one who hath a soule Animalis ab anima non ab ab animo And in Scripture the word is used three wayes 1. Sometimes it s joyned with the word body in opposition to a glorified body and then the body is called a naturall body that is such a body as is informed governed moved by the soule or is subject to animall affections and operations as generation nutrition augmentation c. or such a body as is sustained and upheld by the actions of the soule as it receives from it life and vegetation that is by the action of the vegetative power Vid. Aquin. Cajet Estium Pareum in 1 Cor. 15.44 Homo in puris naturalibus confideratus qui nihil eximium habet praeter animam rationalem Piscat Homo non alia quam naturalis animi luce praeditus Bez. the chiefe whereof is nutrition which cannot be without nourishment so that this naturall body wants the constant help of nourishment for its preservation in which respects it is distinguisht from a glorified body 2. This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Scripture opposed to regenerate and so imports one who hath in him nothing excellent but a rationall soule who is governed onely by the naturall light of reason who hath in him onely naturall abilities and perfections And when thus it s taken our learned translators translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word naturall 1 Cor. 2.14 intending one who is guided by naturall reason he being there opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirituall man who is indued with and guided by a divine and supernaturall illumination 3. It s taken for one who being guided by no better light than that of his own naturall reason or rather who Anima significat animalitatem cum ab animo i. e. parte superiori distinguitur Lapide in Jude Sapimâ—â— animo fruimur anima fine animo anima est debilis being altogether addicted to the service of that part which 1 Thes 5.23 is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule whereby is meant the sensitive and inferiour part of the soule the sensuall appetite common to man with the beasts as distinct from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit or intellectuall and rationall part followes the dictates of that his sensuall appetite and the inclinations of his sensitive soule and his onely benâ—â—â—nd intent is upon satisfaction by worldly delights his study and care is for the sensitive and vegetative part and for those things which belong to the animall and present life and hence it is that some learned * Vid. Lorin in loc men conceive that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sensuall comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in scripture used to denote life and the functions of life common to us with beasts Vox Arabica exponitur per sibi viventes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum Haeretici vocantur animales ab animâ sensitivâ vegetativâ cui toti serviunt quia ut animalia non rationem sed sensum sequuntur viâ—unâ—que in concupisceâ—tiis carnis non spiritus sed sensus puta gulae avaritiae libidinis c. Lapide Thus Christ Mat. 6.25 saith Take no thought for your life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what you shall eat or what you shall drinke c. is not the life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then meat c. And in this notion of sensuality Tertullian after he began to favour Montanisme took the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he fastned that odious name of Physici upon the orthodox because they refused to condemn second marriages And in this place likewise with submisson to more mature judgements I conceive that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is intended to denote their brutish and unruly sensuality Thus the Arabick interpreter and Oecumenius with sundry others likewise understand it Thus likewise our learned translators thought who interpreted the word sensual as conceiving that Jude intended that they altogether served their sensitive and vegetative soul and as beasts followed their senses and lived in the lusts of the flesh not according to the spirit prosecuting those carnall objects with all industry which tend to preserve their present life Ii dicantur animales qui animae indulgent et ea quae ad vitam tuendam valent curiosius sectantur Gnostici animales sunt mortalia bona avidè concupiscunt usque adeo ut ecclesiam potius sibi desereÌ„dam putent quaÌ„ corporeis voluptatibus careant Justinian in loc Praesenti loco congruit ea significatio quâ animales dicuntur qui sectantur eas cupiditates quae sunt secundum animam sensitivam i.e. qui senfibus acsensuum voluptatibus obsequuntur Estius in loc and chusing rather to leave the church then to abridge themselves of any bodily pleasures And the Apostle by this word seems to me to make their bruitish sensuality and propensions to be the cause of their separation as if he said they will not live under the strict discipline where they must be curb'd and restrain'd from following their lusts no these sensualists will be alone by themselves in companies where they may have their fill of all sensual pleasures and where
the flesh are opposed Gal. 6.4 The opposition also is remarkable be not drunk with wine c. but be fill'd with the spirit Eph. 5.18 when sense is gratified the spirit is opposed Marke the like opposition also Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 13.14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lusts thereof and Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these have contrary originalls the one is from earth the other from heaven The motions of sensuall lusts and the spirit are contrary one downward another upward a man cannot look those contrary wayes at once Lust like the womans disease in the Gospel bowes us down to the earth the spirit moves to the things above Like two ballances if one goe up the other goes down they put upon contrary practises Gal. 5.17 walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the deeds of the flesh Gal. 5.16 They both endeavour to take up and each to ingrosse and monopolize the whole man soul and body they will neither endure to have their dominion over man parted They can admit of no accommodation what ever means or helps advance the one suppresse and expell the other The fuel of lust worldly excesse extinguisheth the spirit the preservatives of the spirit prayer word fasting meditation are the poysons of lusts Oh the madnesse then of those who thin◠to serve these contrary masters Matth. 6.4 If one be loved the other must be forsaken The allowance of any inordinate lust is inconsistent with the spirit How great should our care be hence to take the spirits part against the flesh 1. by a through hearty inward work of mortification the plucking up of lust by the roots not only by snibbing the blade of it 2. By a holy and watchful moderation in worldly enjoyments behind which Satan like the Philistines ever lies in ambush when the lust like Delilah is tempting 3. By diverting thy joyes and pleasure upon heavenly objects and 4. By labouring for a sanctified improvement of all the stoppages in the way of lust and Gods breaking down thy bridges in thy march They who want the spirit are easily brought over to sensuality Obs ult Vide Part. 2. ver 10. They had not the spirit and no wonder if sensual Natural light is not enough to overcome natural lusts He who is but a meer man may soon become a prey to sensuality Vae soli woe to him that hath not this spirit to renew him nay constantly to reside in him and to act him Even Saints themselves when the spirit withdraws and leaves them to themselvs how sensual have they proved David Lot Samson are proofs Let thy great care be then to keep the spirit from departing Psal 51. 'T was Davids prayer take not thy holy spirit from me Take heed of giving way to sinnes of pleasure or to sins of deliberation or to repeated sinnes or to sins against conscience or to the sin of pride and presumption of thine own strength delight not in sinful company Beware of worldly mindedness follow the dictates of the spirit and listen to its first motions Fruitfully improve the ordinances wherein the spiritdelights to breath VER 20. But ye Beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost THe second direction to teach the Christians how to observ the former exhortation to contend for the truth and to oppose seducers is building up themselves on their most holy faith yet so as this and the next direction are set down as dispositions and meanes to keep themselves in the love of God mentioned in the next verse In this the Apostle shews and we ought to explain thre things EXPLICATION 1. The Builders or the parties directed Beloved 2. Their Foundation their most holy faith 3. Their building thereon in these words building up your selves on c. 1. Of the parties here called Beloved Part. 1. I have largely spoken before 2. The Foundation Their most holy faith In this I might inquire 1. What is meant by faith 2. How it s call'd your faith 3. How it s call'd most holy 1. Concerning the several acceptations of faith I have largely spoken Par. 1. p. 117.118 c. when I handled the Apostolical exhortation of contending for the faith And here by faithh as in the forementioned place I understand the doctrine of faith For enlargement upon which Vid. ver 3. and wha◠about delivering of the faith I have there said and reasons why the word is called faith I refer the Reader to what I have spoken on the forenamed place 2. This faith is called your faith and the doctrine of faith was theirs 1. Because of Ministration it was delivered to the Saints and by God given to them and to others for their sakes 2. Because they received it were moulded into it it was so delivered to them that they as the Apostle speaks were delivered into it as it was ministred to them so it was accepted by them It was not scorned rejected but received embraced yea contended for by them It was effectually theirs as well as ministerially 3. Theirs it was in regard of the fruit and benefit of it It was for theirs the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.9 It was to them a savour of life not a sentence of condemnation 3. 3 Vid. Lorin in loc It s called most holy faith 1. To put a difference between those unholy and fabulous dreames of these seducers the most impure inventions of the Gnosticks Jewish fables c. 2. Considered in it selfe and that 1. In its supream auhtor and efficient cause the holy Ghost It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by divne inspiration 2 Tim. 3.16 2. In the Instruments of conveying it who were holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 3. Quanam Paul◠Epistol◠non melle dulcior non lacte candidior Hierom. In the matter of it which is altogether holy every word of God is pure The threatnings holy denounced against sin the precepts holy and such as put us onely upon holinesse the comforts and promises holy parts of a holy covenant and such as onely comfort in the practice of holinesse and encourage to holinesse and are made to holy ones 4. In the effects of it It works and exciteth holinesse in nature heart life It s that which being believingly lookt into makes the beholders holy like it selfe as the rods of Jacob which layd before the sheep made them bring forth young ones of the same colour with those rods 3. Their building on this foundation is contained in these words building up your selves Two things are in this branch comprehended 1. How we are to understand this building up 2. This building up of
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
author and fountain of all blessings and so upon the receiving thereof ascribe the praise to God 2. That it may appear we understand our own desires and have sense of the thing we want 3. That others may mutually joyne with us in prayer 4. That our affections may be the more enlarged for as desires help us to words so words inflame our desires 5. To prevent distraction and interruption in our thoughts 3. Psal 38.9 Mat. 4.10 Prayer is made to God onely It is a principal point of divine service 1. God onely is religiously to be worshipt and served 2. God onely knowes whether we pray or no Jer. 23.23 i. e. from the heart 3. God onely is every where present to hear the suits of all 4. God onely is almighty and able to grant whatsoever we ask 4. In prayer as the desires must be made known to God so after a due manner but of that in the next part In the holy Ghost The manner of performing this duty is in the holy ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in scriptures sometime mention made of praying in the spirit of man as 1 Cor. 14.15 I will pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the spirit or in the spirit i. e. say some may understanding and my heart or soule so as I may both understand and also be affected with what I pray And Eph. 6.18 The Apostle injoynes praying in the spirit which may be understood either of Gods spirit or mans but in this place particular and express mention is made of the holy spirit or the spirit of God in which we are to pray whereby is meant by the assistance motion inspiration strength help and guiding of the Spirit for as this sense agrees with the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated in which is in scripture oft of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by as Matth. 5.34 35. swear c. neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by heaven nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the earth nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the head and 2 Cor. 6.6 7. it is eight times thus taken so is it most sutable to other places of scripture where the spirit of God is mentioned with prayer as Zec. 12.13 where is promised the spirit of supplication that is the spirit as giving bestowing and working the gift and grace of prayer as 2 Cor. 4.13 we read of the spirit of faith i.e. the spirit working faith and Rom 8.15 we read of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which we cry Abba Father Jam. 5.16 we find mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifieth a prayer wrought in us and excited and so imports the efficacy and influence of the holy Ghost in enabling us to pray And the Apostle Rom. 8.26 most fully expresseth this truth 1. Affirmatively the spirit helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us 2. Negatively saying we know not what to pray Whence it is cleare not that the spirit of God doth truly and properly pray for us as our high Priest and Mediator or as one of us for another the attributing of the office of Mediatour to the holy Ghost was one of Arius his heresies for then should there bee more than one Mediatour 1 Tim. 2.5 and God should request to God the holy Ghost being God but not man also as was Christ but that the spirit of God stirreth us up to pray quickneth and putteth life into our dead and dull spirits yea and infuseth into us such desires sighs and grones and suggesteth unto us such words as are acceptable to God which for their truth and sincerity for their vehemency and ardency for their power and efficcacy are unutterable they pierce through the heavens and enter un to the throne of grace and there make a loud cry in the ears of God More particularly from these expressions of both these Apostles Paul Jude we may consider wherein this assistance of the holy Ghost or this praying by the holy Ghost stands and consists And that is 1. In respect of the matter 2. Of the manner of our prayer 1. In respect of the matter of our prayer We pray in the holy Ghost as he instructs and teaches us to ask such things as are according to the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.27 1 Job 5.14 lawfull and good things The Spirit of God stirs us not up to desire what his word forbids us to desire We know not what is good for our selves and God hath oft heard us by denying us Though when we ask bread our Father he gives us not a stone yet when we ask a stone God hath oft given us bread The thing asked if by the Spirit is warrantable the Spirit put us upon asking especially spiritual blessings as our lusts upon craving things which are their fuel The spirit of wisedome desires not its owne poyson 2. We pray in the holy Ghost in respect of the manner of our praying And that 1. As it enables us to pray sincerely and heartily Gods Spirit is a spirit of truth And whensoever wee pray in his spirit wee pray likewise in our owne and his stirs up ours to pray The prayer of a Saint goeth not out of fained lips The spirit lifts up the hand and the heart together Psal 25.1.86.4 Lam. 3.41 2. As it enables us to pray with fervency The motions of the Spirit as they are regular in regard of the object so vehement in regard of the manner Rom. 8.26 Its groanes are such as cannot be uttered The symboles of the spirit were fiery tongues Act. 2.2.3 and a mighty rushing wind As a bullet flyeth no further then the force of the powder carryeth it so prayer goeth no further then the fervour of the Spirit driveth it Prayer is called a knocking a seeking and figured by wrestling Gen. 32.26 Hos 12.4 Nay call'd a wrestling Rom. 15.30 The importunity required in prayer is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence Luke 11.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognationem habet cum verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod significat attendere intendere animumque advertere Oratio attentè fundi debet sluggish prayers are no spiritual prayers The device of shooting a letter at the end of a dart used as I have sometimes heard in sieges is a fit embleme of a soul sending its Epistle to heaven As the Spirit wrought vehemently in those holy men who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved by the holy Ghost to speak the word of God to men so it works fervently in those who are to speak in prayer to God David mentions the setting forth of his prayer as incense and incense burnt before it ascended there must be fired affections before out prayers will go up The Tribes Acts 26.27 are said to serve God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a stretching forth themselves with
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