they be not very bulkie Our ends must be raised up to aim at God and to sanctifie him in all our duties Our obedience must proceed more out of thankfulnesse and lesse out of constraint of conscience such fruits they must be as are reckoned Gal. 5.22.23 Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Faith c. Thy fruit must be of a singularly excellent nature A tree of righteousness a branch of the true vine must not bring forth grapes and thistles If fornication uncleannesse covetousnesse c. must not be once named among us as becometh Saints then not be brought forth and own'd Muddy water is not a sutable stream to a Christall Fountain Brambles and briers are more fit for a wild common then a garden knot Of the sinfull actions committed by a Saint the wicked will say to God as Jacobs sons did to their father of Josephs Coat See whether this be thy sons coat or no. 2. They must be fruits in point of production apparency and bringing forth Fruits are not in but upon the tree Our goodnesse must not onely appear but yet it must appear If it be it must and will be seen Men must see our good works that God may be glorified Phil. 1.11 If they see them not it must not be because we will not shew them but because they will or cannot see them The Fountain which is full must also overflow The hand must be fill'd as well as the heart with the fruits of righteousnesse It s not the having of good in but the doing of good by us for which we are call'd good Our profiting in holinesse must appear to all men 1 Tim. 4.15 VVe must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Our fruits must feed many 3. They must be fruits sutable to the helps and furtherances bestowed upon us for the producing of them If the soil be very fat the watering very frequent the cost and care very great we look the fruit should be very abundant Indifferent hearts and lives are not good enough where God hath bestowed excellent means He is not a fruitfull Christian who hath but an ordinary growth under rich opportunities Our returning must be proportionable to our receiving They who enjoy much from God and yet are no better then those who enjoy lesse are therefore worse because they are not better Whenas for the time saith the Apostle you should have been teachers of others Heb. 5.12 c. Luk. 12.48 Vnto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required 4. It must be fruitfulnesse in bringing forth all the fruits of righteousnesse Fruits of the first and second Table of Religion toward God and of righteousnesse toward man Fruits inward good thoughts desires purposes longings after God good affections holy joy love fear sorrow Fruits outward good works holy words VVhatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report Phil. 4.8 Observe the Apostles repetition of whatsoever we must not pick and chuse and do whatsoever we please Whatsoever the Lord commands we must do Exod. 9.8.24 3.7 Not examining what the service is which is commanded but who the Master is who commands Growing up in Christ in all things not preferring one thing before another Being fruitfull as the Apostle expresseth it Col. 1.10 in every good work having respect to all the Commandements Psal 119.6.128 esteeming every precept concerning all things to be right Not doing with Herod many things but all things Throughly furnisht to all good works Our feet must endure to walk in a stony as well as in a sandy path As a man who is to plant an Ortyard will get of every good fruit some so we must get every good fruit which we hear of and set our hearts with it The pulse of a gracious person beats evenly and he is neither a maimed person to want any limb nor a Monster to have one limb so big that others want their due proportion 5. They must be fruits as of every good kind so of every kind abundantly not brought forth in a penurious scanty measure Imperfection must be our trouble as well as our pollution The soil of a Christians soul like the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years must bring forth by handfuls We must set no stints and limits to our Christian fruitfulness We must know no enough The degrees of a Christians grace must be like numbers the highest wherof being numbered Phil. 3.13 an higher than that may be named We must look upon every grace like the Faith of the Thessalonians 1 Thess 3.10 to have some thing lacking to it Perfection is our Patern and Proficiency is ever our duty VVe are never gotten far enough till we are gotten home He that thinks himself rich enough is nothing worth and he that desires not to bear much fruit John 15.1 2. is no part of Gods husbandry 6. They must be fruits brought forth when the trees grow old They must be born constantly Trees of Righteousnesse bring forth most fruit in their old age Psal 92.14 in this unlike to other trees who grow barren in their old age They must ever be green and flourishing The bitter fruit of Apostacy cannot be brought forth by a good tree It had been better never to have been planted that we might bear fruit and that we never had begun to bear fruit then afterward to be pluckt up for ceasing to bear fruit The good ground bringeth forth fruit with patience and glory and immortality is the portion onely of those who are patient and continuing in wel-doing 7. They must be fruits in point of maturity not onely buds and blossoms but brought forth to perfection It s not enough for Christians onely to have good motions and purposes but their resolutions must also be brought to execution and not perish like an abortive birth Many make their purposes as one saith like our Eves and their performances like our Holy-dayes Servants work hard upon the one that they may play upon the other so do they labour hard upon their purposes but they are idle and play upon their performances What pitty is it that many a fair blossom is nipt in the head 8. Psal 1.3 They must be fruits in regard of seasonablenesse We must bring forth fruit in due season Fruits are onely acceptable in their season Pleasant fruits are brought forth in their months Ezek. 41. Words spoken and works done in season are as apples of gold in pictures of silver VVe must have our senses exercised to know fit seasons for all we do Good duties must be done in a good and sutable time and that adds much to the goodnes of the Action we must order in this respect our conversation aright If our corn should not ear till harvest were past nor our trees bud till after midsummer men would look
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
are not the best they may be a shape without a soul appearances without an inward principle of life they might be with a despising of the righteousnesse of Christ they might be performed only for want of tentations to the contrary Gods glory might never be aim'd at in the performing them as their end nor his Word eyed as their Rule These things commanded by God might be done in obedience to lust Briefly for the second what was the withering of their fruits 1. They were withering fruit for their deformity and unpleasantnesse to the eye and their sowrnesse and unsavourinesse to the taste of God The fruits of righteousnesse are onely pleasant fruits and the trees of righteousnesse onely pleasant plants A withered Apple is not sweet and delightfull The best performances which grow upon a wicked man are not acceptable as they come from him goodnes of being is before that of working The tree must be good before the fruit can be pleasant Vid. ante part 2. page They who are in the flesh cannot please God The meanest duty of a saint is more amiable than the most gilded performance of a sinner The stammering of a child is more pleasing to a Parent then the best Oratory of a beggar Deut. 32.32 If the vine be a vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrha the grapes will be grapes of gall and the Clusters bitter 2. This fruit might be said be to withered fruit for ceasing to grow bigger and not proceeding to perfection Withering fruit grows not and these stood at a stay their fruit found no new degrees their faith went not from Assent to Adherence and from thence to Assurance They brought not forth fruit to perfection Luk. 8.14 They added nothing to that which was lacking they did not abound more and more in the Work of the LORD Eph. 6.18 Rev. 2.9 Their last Works were not more then their first They soon knew an enough in Christianity They did not press forward towards the mark nor were they like the Sun rejoycing to run its course Phil. 3.13 increasing more more to the perfect day They went not from strength to strength Psal 84. nor studied exactnesse in Christianity Most love to excell in every thing more than in that which is true excellency though they think that abundance of wealth is but a little yet they live as if a little Godlinesse were enough They have their maximum quod sic beyond which they move not and say of spirituall good things as Dives of his temporalls Soul take thine ease thou hast much goods laid up for many years They desire not to have more cubits added to their stature He who hath onely a form of godlinesse and is but the picture of a Christian not having the life thereof will never grow he is still upon the same hinges where he was he goeth on in a Circle of duties prayeth heareth c. as he did of old 3. Their fruit might be called withering as it decay'd languisht and grew lesse and lesse They were so far from obtaining that grace which they wanted that they did not retain that grace which they had they lost their first love and grew worse and worse they were so far from getting more that they kept not what they had already gotten They did not so much stand at a stay as go bâ—ckward the bitterest of their life was in the bottom thereof The sap of abilities which once they had now decay'd All life in holy duties and speeches was withdrawn yea their leaves fell off they could not speak of holy things with so much holy savour as they were wont God withdrew his Spirit from them Thus the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and all his gifts vanished And indeed this follows upon the former where there is no increasing there is some decaying while we neglect to gain we spend upon the stock The Boat which is going up a river that runs with a strong current fals down the stream if the Oars rest but never so little Decayes in spirituals deserve most of our pity It 's not so uncomfortable to see a man decay in his health or estate as in his grace and to lose heavenward to lose his first love to decline from God 4. As the cause of all the former Their fruit was like withered fruit as it wanted spirituall life juice and nourishment from the tree to feed and supply it They had not spirituall life and therefore had not spirituall growth and had spirituall decayes Onely to them who have is more given There is no growing where there is not a living If a snow-ball be rowled up and down and thereby made bigger yet it doth not grow John 15.5 because it is by extra-addition not by intra-reception A vitall Principle is the foundation of growth either naturall or spirituall He that abideth in me and I in him saith Christ the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me or severed from me ye can do nothing The picture of a child will never come up to be a man because in it there is no life They who onely have a name of Christianity and receive not efficacy and power from Christ Eph. 2.10 are as withered fruit without union to and life from him there being no Christian increase We are Gods Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works Till the Spirit of God be put into us there 's no walking or proceeding in his wayes Ezek. 36.27 This for the opening of the first gradation whereby the Appostle sets forth the losse of these Seducers they were trees whose fruit withered The second is contained in this word 2 Branch of Explicat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without fruit But how can the Apostle say here that they were without fruit when in the foregoing words he had said that they had withering fruit 1. Possibly he may here in these words represent them as having cast and lost their withering fruit We know fruit that withers quickly and easily falls off from the tree trees which have withering fruit will soon be without fruit VVe wanting that which onely can make us good for the kind a good root and a renewed Principle of life must needs want that which should make us good for continuance namely internalness and sincerity Out of Christ there can be no perseverance onely union to him makes us permanently holy And it s most just with God that they who would not bear better then should not bear so much as withering fruit that they should cast off the very appearances of fruit and even their outside-profession that they who never regarded the truth and reality of holinesse should from hypocrisie fall to prophanenesse and from a bare form of godlinesse to ungodlinesse and from paint to deformity But this open and plain discovery of their hypocrisie I rather conceive is contained in the last branch of the verse in these Words plucked up by
witherings and decays are opposite to the honour and worship of God None can honour God who divides his service between him and other things He accounts himself not served at all unless always served Who will think that employment vast and large which a man takes up and lays down at his pleasure What proportion bears slight and short obedience to the Majesty of him who is the best and the greatest how can that work be deemed by any beholder sweet and delightful of which men are as soon weary as of some grievous burden who wil account that service profitable and advantagious or its wages to eternity any other than a notion when they who have entred into it think an hour long enough to continue in it or will any think that God gives strength to his servants to perform it who give it over before they have well begun or that he delights in that holinesse which his seeming friends take such frequent libertie to forsake at their pleasure 2. The sinfulnesse of witherings and decayes appear in respect of our selves Prov. 17.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2 c. 11. 1. Whatever professions have been made is's certain there never was sincerity Vnstedfastness is a sure note of unsoundness he never was who ever ceaseth to be a friend for a friend loveth at all times He who leaves Christ never loved him They set not their heart aright and their spirit was not stedfast with God Psal 78.8 2. Spiritual withering renders all former profession unprofitable and in vain He who continues not in had as good never have entred into the waies of God nothing is held done as long as ought thereof remaineth to be done we shall be judged according to what we are not have been Judas not according to his Apostleship whrein he lived John 2.8 Gal. 3 4. but according to his treachery and despair wherein he died our beginning in the spirit followed with ending in the spirit advantageth not that is only wel which ends well 't is not the contention but the conquest which crowns they win the prize not who set out first but continue last 3. Spiritual withering makes our former profession and progress therein to do us hurt It had not only been as wel but better never to have known the way of righteousnesse He who licks up his vomit never casts it up again the house re-entred by Satan is more delightfully and strongly possessed by the impure spirit the water cool'd after heating is now colder then ever the seeming breach betweene sin and the soul being made up again is like a dis-joynted bone well set the union is stronger then ever and it is more easie once to go on then often to begin And as there was nothing Satan did so much endeavour as thy leaving of God so nothing wil he so much hinder as thy returning again to God yea and it may be by this time God is justly provoked to leave that person to Satan who would needs leave God for Satan To conclude none will be so inexcusable before God as they who leave the wayes of holinesse for if those waies were bad why did they enter into them if good why did they not continue in them 3. The sinfulnesse of spiritual withering appears in respect of others 1. They who remain strong and stable do not yet remain joyful but are much sadded by the decayes of any though they fall not with them yet they are cast down for them yea they should sin if they should not be sad and how great a sin is it to make it necessary for them to mourn whom to rejoyce is thy duty Now we live saith Paul 1 Thes 3.8 if ye stand fast in the Lord. Their apostacy then would have been his death 2. The weak are much endangered to be carried away with others for company seldome doth any leave God singly the worst yea the weakest shall have too many followers Although these seducers were carried away by reason of their emptinesse yet all that Jude could do all the diligence he could use was little enough to keep the Christians from being carried away with them It is easier for a weak seducer to carry souls away then for a strong Christian to keep them back 3. The wicked are both confirmed in that their sin into which the decayed Christian is faln and also much deride and reproach that way of truth and holinesse which the unstedfast have forsaken they are confirmed in their sin because their own way hath now the addition of a proselite and the commendation of an Enemy now numbers are a great encouragement and a strong argument to a sinner in any wickednesse and the commendation of an enemy is equivâ—lent to an universal good report sinners will deride likewise and blaspheme the way of truth as if either Christians had formerly embraced it for by-ends or else as if it had not worth and excellency in it to deserve a stedfast persevering in it and the dispraising of holiness by the seeming friends thereof will appear to its enemies to be equivalent to an universall ill report 3. Obs 3. It is the duty of Christians to endeavour after spiritual fruitfulness The Apostle mentions unfruitfulness likewise Luk. 3.8 Canâ— 6.11 as the sin and wo of these corrupt trees seducers This duty of bearing and bringing forth much fruit is frequently noted in Scripture Mat 3.8 bring forth fruit meet for repentance 2 Cor. 9.10 Now he that ministreth seed to the sower c increase the fruits of your righteousness Phil. 1.11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness Col. 1.6 Matth. 21.34.41.44 John 3.8 which are by Jesus Christ c. Jam. 3.17 The wisdome from above is full of good fruits Every branch in me that beareth fruit he purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit John 15.2 He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit I have chosen you that ye should bring forth fruit ver 16. Being fruitfull in every good work Col. 1.10 As touching the nature and cordition of these fruits Phil. 1.27 Eph. 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 12 ult 1. They must be fruits of a right kind good and piritual fruits of the same nature with the good seâ—d that hath been sown in us when wheat is sown tares must not come up nor cockle when baily is cast into the ground Our fruit must be such as becomes the Gospel not fruits of the flesh Nor 2. fruits meerly of gifts parts abilities of utterance knowledge nor only of civil righteousness just dealing toward men freedomâ— from scandal not fruits only of external profession of religion in prayer hearing c. but such as are sutable and proper to a supernatural root and principle fruits worthy of amendment of life Mat. 3. Love out of a pure heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Spiritual fruits fruits brought forth to a spirituall end they must give a sweet and delightful relish though possibly
are as none How should this humble the proudest hypocrite Could he bring to God all the gold and silver in Solomons Temple it were brought by him nothing incomparably below one broken hearted grone for sin and fiduciall breathing after Jesus Christ All his truly good works 〈◊〉 be summed up with a Cypher and though they glister here glow-worm-like in the dark night of this world yet in the bright disquisition of the day of judgment they shall all vanish and disappear Oh! how great will the shame and disappointment of hypocrites be who at that day shall see that all their dayes they have been doing nothing To close this what a comfort may this be to the poorest child of God that God in the midst of all his wants of these common blessings hath yet bestowed one upon him which is distinguishing God bestowes those blessings upon others which a Saint as such needs not have and that blessing upon him which the wicked as such cannot have And how may a child of God improve this for comfort in the weaknesse smallnesse deficiencies if they be his trouble of his grace considering it is fruit true fruit and it s more though it be but one little basket full nay but one small cluster of grapes than all the hypocrites in the world can shew and the least cluster as truly shews that is a vine which bears it as doth the plentifullest increase that ever any Vine brought forth 5. Obs 5. Incorrigibleness in sin is a dismal condition These Seducers were trees twice dead the Apostle despaired of their future living becoming fruitful and this was an estate that argued them extreamly miserable It s a wo to have a bad heart but it s the depth of wo to have an heart that shall never be better Sicknesse is an affliction but sicknesse past recovery a desperate sicknesse is a desperate evil How did it fetch tears from the eyes of Christ that the things belonging to Jerusalems peace were not onely formerly unknown but that now they were utterly hid from their eyes O Ephraim saith God what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I dâ— unto â—hee If ye will not hear saith Jeremy to the incorâ—igible Jews mine eyes shall weep in secret places for your â—ride and miâ—e eyes shall weep sore c. Jer. 13 17. Raâ—hel wept for her children and would not be comforted not because they were ill or sick but were not This incorrigiblenesse in sin which frustrates and disappoints all the means of grace provokes God to a totall and angry removall of them and makes him say I 'le take no more pains with this desperate sinner Rev. 22.11 Prophet ando non optando He that is filthy let him be filthy still It s that which as the Prophet speaks wearies God Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more Isa 1.5 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome Hos 4.14 Ephraim is joyn'd to idols let him alone v. 17 When a tree is utterly dead Pertinax sterilitas when 't is pertinaciously barren the hedg and wal shall be taken away and broken down if it will be fruitlesse it shall be fencelesse it shall neither be prun'd nor dig'd the clouds shall be forbidden to rain Isa 5.6 When the Physician of souls sees men rend in pieces his Prescripts and pull off his Plaisters and throw away those wholesome Potions which he ministreth to purge them he gives them over and suffers them to perish in their sins Punish them he will chasten them he will not Cut them off he will cure them he will not Jer. 6.29 VVhen in stead of being refined in the fire the mettall wil after all the hotest fires and the constant blowing of the bellowes continue inseparable from its drosse when the bellows are burnt in the fire and the founder melteth in vain reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6.29.30 VVhat is it but hell upon earth for sinners to go to hell without controle to be given up to their hearts lusts to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and in a word to be as bad as they will Oh wofull recompence of spirituall pertinacy The earth which under all the drinking in of rain beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing Heb. 6.8 This double death and irrecoverablenesse in sin is a kind of fore-taste of the second death As perseverance in holinesse crowns so pertinacy in sin condemns he who is obstinate in sin unto the end shall undoubtedly receive the curse of eternall death How sore a judgement is it so to be past feeling that nothing cooler then Hell-fire and lighter then the loyns of an infinite God can make us sensible though too late Oh! let us beware of the modest beginnings of sin which certainly make way for immodest proceedings therein every commission of sin is a strong engagement to a following act of wickednesse be who begins to go down to the chambers of death knows not where he shall stop In short let no help to Holinesse leave thee as bad for if so it will leave thee worse then it found thee and present unreformednesse will make away for incorrigiblenesse under the means 6. Obs 6. It s our greatest wisedome and ought to be our chiefest care to be preserved-from Apostacy Take heed of being twice dead i. e. Of adding a death by Apostacy to the death by Originall corruption To this end Let us 1. Be sure to have the truth of spirituall life in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely the externall appearances of life the shews and leaves of Religion the form of godlinesse and a name to live he that would not die twice must be sure he truly lives once hypocrisie will end in apostacy where the truth is not truly loved it will be truly left A tree that is unsound at the root will soon cease from its faint puttings forth the hollow heart will not hold out the outward form without the inward power of godlinesse continues not in times of temptation Labour for a faith of reall reception and please not thy self with that of meer illumination the bellows of persecution which blow the sparks of sincerity into a flame blow the blaze of hypocrisie into nothing 2. Forecast the worst that can befall thee and the best that can be laid before thee to take thee off from the love and wayes of holinesse reckon upon opposition in every way of God he who meets not with the hatred of a man may justly suspect his love to the truth and he who expects not that hatred will hardly cantinue his love to truth when thou enterest upon Religion think not that thou goest to sea upon pleasure but imployment not for recreation but traffick lest in stead of holding out to thy intended Port thou presently makest to the next shore upon the rising
thee Yea of those sins which are unknown to thee shalt thou be convinced by him who knoweth all things We should be then so far from sheltring those sins which we know that we ought to be humbled for such as we know not Thus of the first particular in the carriage of the judge toward the wicked viz. the manner of his judging them namely by way of conviction 2. The parties to be judged follow in the next place who are here said for their quality to be ungodly and for their quantity all the ungodly Of this before at large Thirdly the causes of and matters about which they shal be judg'd are next cōsiderable they are two-fold The first their ungodly deeds In these words their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed Not to enlarge upon this first particular here considerable Vide part 1. Pag. 302.303 c. viz. the generall nature of their deeds here said to be ungodly as being sufficiently known by the former Consideration of the parties who were call'd ungodly By which its manifest that ungodly deeds are primarily and properly such as are committed immediately against God himselfe and so against the first table in the prophane opposing of Gods worship and honour in which respect ungodlinesse is distinguisht from unrightousnesse which properly breaks the Commandements of the second table And yet secondarily and in a more large Consideration ungodlinesse here comprehends any sin committed either against God or man and so against any Commandement of the Law for even that sin which is directly against man hath in it a defect and a withdrawing of some duty due to God If it be enquired why the Apostle onely here saith ungodly and not unrighteous deeds also It s answered for three resons 1. Because ungodliness and unrighteousness are inseparable wheresoever ungodliness is there will be no Conscience made of unrighteousness as the two tables were given so are they broken and embraced both together and he who breaks one makes no Conscience of breaking the other the authority of the giver being the same 2. Because ungodlinesse is the cause of unrightenesse he who hath a prophane godless heart will not stick at any act of unjustice T is the fear of God which is to depart from evill As holinesse puts a man upon righteousnesse so prophanenesse upon unrighteousnesse Pharaoh knew not God and therefore he opprest Israel 3. Because these seducers flatterd themselves with pretences of eminent godlinesse and holiness though they took a liberty to live in many vices and unclean extravagancies The Apostle several times in this Epistle brands them with the name of ungodly ones and threatens judgment for their ungodliness 2. For the second the manner after which they were committed and that was ungodlily which they have ungodlily committed EXPLICATION The words ungodlily committed are contained in one word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it may be rendred by any one Latine word it must be impiarunt nor can it be in any one English word properly expressed but must be rendred either to doe or perform or live ungodlily The same word is expressed but in one place besides this in all the new Testament and that place is 2 Pet. 2.6 where it is rendred living ungodlily In the opening hereof I shall only shew what it is to commit an evil work ungodlily First more generally it notes the proceeding of these nngodly deeds from an ungodly unsanctified prinple an unholy unrepentant heart a mind devoted and addicted to ungodliness this is not the fruit which growes upon a good tree nor the spot of Gods people who though sometime they do that which is ungodly withdraw that duty which is due to God and commit that evil which is against the wil of God In optimis non nihil pessimi Tert. de an c. 23. yet as the Psalmist speaks they do not wickedly as these did depart from God Psal 18.21 the wicked are they who do wickedly against the covenant Dan. 10.32 and of the wicked it is said Dan. 12.10 that they shall doe wickedly But 2. That which this doing ungodlily doth more particularly intend is the performing of wickedness after a wicked and ungodly manner and that principally these four several waies 1. By purposing and intending of sin The wicked is not overtaken with a sudden fit of tentation but resolves on sin long before he makes provision for his lust he is like a man who layes himself to sleep drawes the curtains puts out the candle and he intends and in a sort overtakes his sleep in sin he sets himself in a way that is not good Psal 36. 2. Ungodly deeds are performed after an ungodly manner by devising and contriving of ungodliness the wicked devise mischief Prov. 6.14 He that deviseth to do evil Psal 35.20 Prov. 16 30. Jer. 18.18 Psal 36.4 Vid. Cartwr in Pro. 6.14 shall be called a mischievous person the heart which deviseth wicked imaginations is one of the seven things which the Lord hates Prov. 6.16.18 Against those who devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds is a wo denounced Mich. 2.1 The wicked are workers of iniquity Matth. 7.22 They are curious cunning artificers in and contrivers of sin ungodliness is their art trade and mystery they are wise to do evil and men in malice though children in understanding they are skilful practioners in sin 3. By a delighting and taking pleasure in the committing of sin Wicked men are willingly obedient to it they yeild themselves to execute its commands and they universally resign the whole consent of the wil to the obedience of it Sin is as pleasant to sinners as bread and wine they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the cup of violence they rejoyce to doe evill and delight in the frowardness of the wicked Prov. 2.14 Wickedness is sweet in their mouths and they hide it under their tongues Job 20.12 as it is not the doing of good but the delighting in the doing it that makes it done wel so neither is it simply the doing of evil but the doing thereof delightfully that makes it done ungodlily It is a sport to a foole to do mischiefe Prov. 10.30 4. By continuing and persisting in sin Wicked men grow worse and worse their waies increase to more ungodlinesse they run on in them without repentance none say what have I done It s weakly done to fall but it is wickedly done to lie stil it is bad to stand in the way of sinners much worse to sit in the seat of the scornful OBSERVATIONS 1. The godly sin not as do the wicked Obs 1. The sinful actions of the godly proceed not from an heart altogether void of a sanctified principle there is in them the seed of God the divine nature a renewed part from which their wicked works never issue in the committing of the most ungodly of their actions they themselves are not altogether ungodly and they are overtaken unawares
every way to remove punishment but the right so that they pine away in their iniquity Lev. 26.39 and though their books were torn yet their lessons not learned 2. These seducers are compared to dreamers in sleep in regard of their dreaming that is their vain false empty imaginations dotages doctrines which in the end like dreams deceived themselves and their followers A dream when a man sleepeth seems to have truth and reality in it but when he awaketh it quite vanisheth away he who utters his own foolish conceits and vain delusions is in common speech said to dream and to speak his own dreams and thus these seducers in stead of the truths of God vented their own fables and groundlesse fictions fancies and dreams In this sense Epiphanius understands the Apostle Jude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan adv haer cap. 26. p. 96. when he call's these seducers dreamers Jude speaks not saith he of them who dream'd in bodily sleep but of such who utter their words like them who dream and not like those who speak with the sobriety of such who are awake To the same purpose speaks Irenaeus likewise lib. 1 cap. 20. They put off sath he their own dreams for divine oracles And such have been the dreams of Enthusiasts and of the Anabaptists in Germany one of whom as Sleidan reports cut off his own brothers head in the presence of his parents pretending that he did it by an immediate revelation and command from God The false Prophets are in Scripture oft call'd dreamers because they delivered not the truths of God but the vaine figments of their own deluding and deluded fancies As Deut. 13.3 Jer. 23.25 where the Prophet who saith I have dreamed I have dreamed is by Jeremiah said to be a Prophet of the deceit of his owne heart These seducers of whom Jude speaks being asleep in sin Irenaeus vocat Gnosticos Oniro pompos sua somnia quasi oracula Dei ventilantes lib. 1 cap. 20. deceived themselves and hearers with dâ—ctrines vain opinions and especially false hopes of pleasure and liberty in sin though when their consciences awaked they found themselves miserably deluded by Satan and their own sensual hearts Thus Zophar speaks Jâ—b â—0 8 that the hypocrite shall flie away as a dream that is as the good dreamed of or the joy of a dream which is short vanishing and deceiving so Psal 73 20. As a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awakest shalt thou despise their image Isa 29.8 and thus the Prophet compares the temper of the people under all the judgments of God unto that of a deluded dreamer who pleaseth himself with dreaming of food and fulnesse and when he awakes in stead of a furnisht table and a fill'd stomack finds and feels himself more indigent and nearer famishing then ever he was before Thus the fond sinner is dreaming of a kingdome when he is going to execution and when Jael's nail is nearer his temples then a crown He blessing himself in his heart and saying that he shall have peace though he live in a way of warring against God And sundry ways may sinners delude themselves like dreamers by their vain and groundlesse conceits as 1. in dreaming of their persons 2. of their actions Of their Persons 1. dreaming that they are not so bad as others because they abstain from gross apparent and notorious abominations thus the Pharisee deluded himself Luk. 18.11 Some dream that they have not such and such corruptions because God restrains them from the outward acts of sin as if the rest and silence of corruption alwaies came from the renovation of the spirit whereas it comes not from the want of a mind disposed to sin but of an object proposed to draw forth corruption Others dream that if they had lived in the daies of Christ the Prophets and Maâ—tyrs they would not have persecuted them Though they bitterly oppose those in whom the Image of Christ shines and they who cannot endure that spaâ—k of holinesse in a Saint how could they have loved that flame which was in Christ and hate those most in whom the piety and zeal of the holy Martyrs and Saints of old is revived 2. Sinners delude themselves in dreaming that they are in a good and happy estate before God Rev. 3.17 Gal. 6 3. being indeed miserable and bad Thus some dream that God loves them Psal 69.22 Heb. 12.6 because he gives them wordly prosperitie whereas the prosperitie of the wicked is their ruin and God oftenest gives it in wrath and denies it in love Some dream that their condition is happy because they are civily honest in the world whereas their irreligious honesty is as bad as unhonest religion and except your righteousnesse exceed c. Matth. 5.20 Others dream they are happy because they have been born in the Church and enjoy its priviledges 1 Cor. 10.5 Matth. 7.22 23 whereas a barren fig-tree is nearer cursing then a bramble and they who received Sacraments every meal were destroy'd in the wildernesse Some dream of happinesse because they have some kind of Knowledg Faith Repentance Obedience whereas their knowledg transforms them not it 's light without heat Their faith applies in a sort Christ to them not themselves to Christ but to their lusts their repentance respects the punishment of sin not the sin to be punished they hate sin for hell not as hell and in their tears sin is rather bathed then drowned their obedâ—â—nce is not a serving of God but of themselves upon God they serve God for by-respects Hos 1.4 and in their obedience they aim not at obedience 2. Sinners delude themselves in dreaming concerning their actions that they are good 2 Sam. 6 7. because done with a goâ—diatâ—ntion not considering that a work may be good in a maâ—s own eyes Pâ—ov 16 25. and the issues thereof the waies of death or that they are warrantable because of the example of the multitude whereas the most are the worst and the whole world lies in wickednesse Some dream that small sins are as none as vain thoughts idle woâ—ds whereas the least sin is the bâ—each of a great and royoll Law and an offence against a great God and thoughts and words shall be both brought into judgment Some dream that the outward works of the Law are sufficient whereas the Law in every command is spirituall and binds the heart as well as the hand and they who made their Philacteries broad made the expositions of the Law too narrow Some dream that their actions are good because followed with successe whereas the goodnesse of the action is not to be judged by the goodnesse of the successe but the goodnesse of the successe by the goodnesse of the action plenty could not justifie sacrificing to the Queen of heaven Jer. 44.11 Some because of the corruption of their natures dream of excusing their actions they are but men say
those who better deserved to keep then he to get the Government 2 His Employment with that of the rest of the Levites is mentioned Numb 16.9 to be honourable Numb 3.12.16.8 9. they being separated by God from the congregation of Israel to be brought near to himself to do the service of the Tabernacle and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them The Levites were brought nearer to God then the other Tribes though not so near as the Priests Numb 18.3 1 Chron 6.46 49 Aarons sons the Priests served in the Sanctuary in praying for the people and offering Incense and Sacrifice but the rest of the Tribe of Levi were not to come nigh the Altar upon pain of death Numb 3.9.1.50.3.6 7 8.4.3 4.7.5.18.6 Deut. 10 8. 1 Chron. 6.48.9.28 29 2 Chro. 26.18 1 Chro. 23.28 29. but served in Offices inferior to theirs Their work was 1 To attend the service of the Sanctuary according to the command of the Priests When the Tabernacle was moveable they were appointed to take it down carry set it up and to keep all the Instruments thereof and also with the Priests to carry the Ark of the Lord To wait upon the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord in the courts and in the chambers and in the purifying of all holy things Their work was to watch about the Tabernacle and afterward the Temple to defend it 1 Chron. 9.27 They also were to have the over sight of the Shew-bread Meat-offerings unleavened cakes and of all manner of measure and size they being to see that all measures both of dry and moist things which were used in Gods service might have their just proportion and that there might be a due length and breadth of all things that used to be measured by the mete-yard All manner of just measures for the things belonging to the House of God were to be tryed by the measures and sizes which the Levites kept and these were called the measures of the Sanctuary whether the Levites had the ordering of civil measures and sizes or no is uncertain 1 Chro. 16.4.23.30 2 Chron. 8.14.20.19 30.21.31.2 Nehem. 9.5 2. The work of the Levites was to sing praises to God and they praised him both by singing holy Songs and Hymns and also by Musical Instruments 3. The Levites were to teach the people the Law according to the good word of the Lord 2 Chron. 30.22 and 35.3 and this Employment was common both to the Priests and Levites Deut. 31.10 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. and 31.4 Ezra 7.10 11. Nehem. 8.7 8. and 9.4 5. 4. To the Levites it also belonged with the Priests to take cognizance and to judg in causes about Holy things 2 Chron 19.8 10 11. So that the Priests and Levites were the two Ecclesiastical Orders in Israel employed about holy things the Levites making the lesser the Priests the greater and higher Order and yet both called Brethren Numb 18.6 And in process of time by the appointment of God when the Worship of God was to be stationary and fixt in one place David divided the Levites into sundry Orders and Ranks according to their Families for the discharging of their several functions and Ministeries they having their several courses of waiting and charges allotted to them See 1 Chron. 28.13 and 23. per tot and 25 c 2 Chron. 8.14 2 Chron. 35.4 5 10. The reason of the separating of the Levites to the worship of God is plainly mentioned in Scripture Numb 3.12 So Num. 8.16 I have saith God taken the Levites from among the children of Israel in stead of all the first-born because the first-born are mine for on the day that I smote all the first-born of the Land of Egypt Exod. 12 23 I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel The first-born then were Gods by a particular right of Redemption as well as Creation and therefore were in especial manner to serve him In other Creatures the first born were to be sacrificed to him if they were clean beasts and if they were not to be ransomed at a price for the maintenance of the Tabernacle Now instead of taking the first born of mankind to his service he appointed that the Levites should be peculiarly set apart for it And he chose to be served by one Tribe rather then by a number of first born taken out of many Tribes as Learned Interpreters conceive for prevention of confusion discord and division in holy Services and by the Tribe of Levi rather then any other for their Zeal of his Glory in revenging the indignity done unto him in the worshipping the Golden Calf Exod. 32.26 28. To conclude this Distourse As Israel was separated from all other people to be the Lords peculiar Lev. 20.26 so were the Levites separated from the sons of Israel to be the Lords Numb 8.14 And the employment of the Levites of which this Corah was a chief and among whom he was famous was though inferior to the Priests who were nearer to God in their attendances very honourable And therefore from the high honour thereof doth Moses argue against the ambition of this rebellious Corah whose desire it was to invade the Priestly Dignity also Seemeth it saith he a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you neer to himself Numb 16.9 to do the work of the Tabernacle c. If it be an honour for the greatest Subject to have the meanest Employment about the body of an earthly Prince how much greater is the advancement of the highest sons of men to have the lowest degree of peculiar service to God and truly David though a King went not an inch below his state in not disdaining the Office of a door-keeper in the house of the Lord and in putting on a linnen Ephod 3. For the Posterity of this Rebel Corah we find in Scripture that they were 1 Spared and exempted from this destruction of their father 2 Afterward that they were employed by God in his service which some of them did holily discharge 1 That they were spared is expressed Num. 26.11 The children of Corah died not neither did the fire from heaven nor the opening of the earth hurt them Whether they were in their fathers rebellion and were spared by the Prerogative of free mercy or for Gods care of his Ministry or whether they consented not to the sin of their father as it is most likely or whether they repented upon the warning given by Moses Numb 16.5 I determine not the Scripture being silent Nor will it be needful here to relate that fabulous invention of the Jewes by whose relation God wrought as great a miracle in the saving of Corahs children as he did in the destroying of Corah himself for they write That when the earth opened and swallowed up the father the children were taken up in the air and there remained hanging
adipidibus quasi luto involutae nihil tenue nihil coe leste sed semper de carnibus ructu ventris ingluvie cogitant Hier. l. 2. adv Jov. Quantò corpus impletur tantò anima minoratur Greg. Isai 5.6 Hierom and Ambrose observe that as Moses received the Tables of the Law when he was much in fasting so he broke the Tables when he saw that the people had been eating and drinking as thinking that after Feasting the people were unfit to hear the Law How can an impure Glutton lift up in Prayer pure hands Surfetting oppresseth the heart and suffers it not to lift up it self toward heaven It s the Birdlime of the souls wings It s a weight which presseth us down in our Race yea rather the ungirding of the loynes of our minds our affections which like long and loose Garments being let down into the mire of sensual pleasures hinder and stop us in our Spiritual progress Oh how unfit a mansion is a beastly Epicure for the holy Spirit to dwel in The being drunk with wine is opposed to the being filled with the Spirit Ephes 6.18 The Voluptuous Sensualist is only a Hog-Stie for Satan to lodg in The unclean spirit finds no rest in dry places in those who are sober and temperate in worldly enjoyments but like the Swine not delighting in such dust * Loca arida sunt homines temperatè viventes in quibus Diabolus non invenit requiem Parisiens he loves to wallow in a sensual and impure Glutton as in a slough or quagmire Gluttony is the Sepulcher of the living and a kind of Spiritual drowning of a man 2 This sin profanely denyes God his Service and opposeth him not only notwithstanding but even by his bounty turneth the Temple of the Holy Ghost into a Kitchin and makes as the Apostle speaks a God even of the base filthy belly How unseemly is it for a servant as Solomon speaks Prov. 14.10 to have rule over Princes The reigning of a servant is reckoned to be the first of the four things which the earth cannot bear Prov. 31.22 Gluttony makes the Prince the soul to serve the belly of all the souls servants viz. the parts of the body the basest and filthiest The Apostle speaks of some who serve their own belly Rom. 16.18 Multis servit qui corpori servit Sen. Phil. 3.19 Oh miserable servitude besides the baseness of the serving of such a God of dung it is also very cruel it makes a man a servant to all those meats and drinks which serve the belly it s a slavery to a Master who is never pleased who will have the best provisions brought him and having taken them he throwes them all into the draught and yet is presently calling for more his work is never done he puts his servants upon their drudging for him as long as they live several times every day making men to labour in the filling and emptying of a Sink sometimes three or four score yeers together requiring and exacting his supplies so imperiously and rigorously that his servants oft take thought to the cutting of their hearts Matth. 6.25 and take pains to the cracking of their sinewes for the getting of his provisions and yet when all is done no service is so vain and unprofitable as this belly-service what is it but the dawbing and propping of a rotten cottage which will notwithstanding in a short time crumble away and tumble down the delicate feeding of a condemned Malefactor who must dye and whose strength by all his provisions serves him but to go to Execution yea Carnem impinguare est vermibus escam praeparare what is it but the preparing a Banquet for the wormes for whom the leanest carcass is even fat enough 3. This sin of Gluttony most useth and abuseth that part in its service which of all the rest is so noble and should be most set on work for God and filled with his praises the mouth 4 It s a sin which doth most unsuspectedly surprize us as lying in ambush behind our lawful Enjoyments and which is most like to catch us Dum ad quietâ—msatreâ—atis ab indigentiâ tran situr in ipso transitu laqucus concupiscentiae insidiatur as laying a snare in those wayes wherein we most walk and such an one whereby even Adam in Innocency was catcht 5 This one is an inlet to all sin He who is overcome with this is not able to overcom any sin It having possession of the gate of man his mouth le ts easily into him the whole troop of Vices It is the Divels bridle which he putting into the mouth of a sinner turns him any way at his pleasure When the iron is hot the Smith can fashion it how he will A gluttonous person is Soyl so till'd manured and moistned by Satan that its fit to receive any seed that he shall cast into it Cruelty Uncleanness Security Profaneness c. all grow in that Soyl. 6 Gluttony is the Source and Nurse of all Diseases It must needs be unhealthful to carry a fen within one Luke 12.45 Ille optimus medicus sibi qui modicus cibi Immodicis brevis est atas rara senectus-Vbicunque quae rit caro refectionem invenit defectionem Aug. Ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance is the noblest Physick The inordinate life is not patient enough to stay for sickness Our food becomes by Gluttony in stead of a Plaister a wound The Glutton digs his grave with his teeth and is a self destroyer They who most follow most flye from pleasure Having taken their leave of an hours pleasure they oft meet with a yeeres paine The temperate person only enjoyes the sweetnesse of the Creature 7 This sin is the ruine and hazard of mens Estates The very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luxury properly signifieth the not preserving or keeping of the good which we enjoy How many have swallowed their estates down their throats Prov. 23.21 The Drunkard and the Glutton saith Solomon shall come to poverty The Philosopher askt of the frugaâ— Citizen but a penny but begged of the Prodigal a Talent Because he thought of the one he might beg oft of the other who spent so fast he was like to receive but once 8. Subtrabunt abore Dei in suis membris quod ponunt in ore Diaboli Parisiens It s a sin most injurious to the poor The Gluttons superfluity causeth and increaseth the poors scarciâ—y As the spleen grows so the other parts decay and as the Riotous abound so the poor wants and none â—re so willing to let Lazarus starve at their gate as they who fare sumptuously every day 9 It makes way for eternal emptiness and scarcity He who hath here been unprofitably a gulph to devour Gods Blessings shall hereafter be thrown into a gulph of misery wherein there is not a drop of Mercy How poor is that plenty which makes way for eternal penuty
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
the roots 2 Therfore I understand with Reverend Mr. Perkins and others that these words without fruit are as it were a correction of the former as if the Apostle had said they are trees whose fruit withereth or rather without fruit altogether the fruit which they bear not deserving so much as the name of fruit as trees that bear no other then withering fruit are esteemed no better then unfruitfull trees and thus notwithstanding their withering fruit they may be said to be without fruit in sundry respects 1. They were without fruit in regard that all their forementioned fruits were not produced by the inward life and vigour of the spirit of sanctification in their souls Their fruit grew upon a corrupt tree and proceeded from an unclean bitter root They were not the issues of a pure heart and faith unfaigned but the streams of an unclean fountain The fruitfulnesse onely of slow-bushes Crab-trees and brambles cannot make the year be accounted a fruitfull year A corrupt tree saith Christ cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.18 How can ye that are evill speak good things Mar. 12.24 Their best fruits were but fruits of nature coming from an unregenerated heart That fruit which before his conversion Paul accounted as precious as gold he after esteemed as base as dung 2. They were without fruit in regard their fruits were not brought forth to a Divine end they were directed to no higher an end then selves Riv. in loc Israel saith God is an empty Vine though bringing forth fruit for it followes he bringeth forth fruit to himself I am not ignorant that some Interpreters expound not that Text concerning the fruit of works though yet they grant the place may be by consequence drawn to take in them likewise As these fruits were not fruits of righteousnesse Phil. 1.11 so neither were they to the praise of his glory If thou wilt return O Israel saith God return to me Jer. 4.1 They returned saith the Psalmist but not to the most high The pipe cannot convey the water higher than is the fountain head from whence it comes and these fruits being not from God were not directed to him Fruits brought forth to our selves are rotten at the core they are not for his taste who both looks into and tries the heart 3. They might be without fruit as not producing works in obedience to the Rule The doing of the thing commanded may possibly be an act of disobedience God looks upon all our works as nothing unlesse we do the thing commanded because it is commanded This onely is to serve him for conscience sake A man may do a good work out of his obedience to his lust As its possible for a man to believe 1 Thess 4.3 1 Thess 5.18 not because of Divine Revelation so is it possible for a man to work and not upon the ground of Divine injunction Be not unwise but understand saith the Apostle what is the will of God Eph. 5.17 Mans wisdom is to understand and follow Gods will 4. Without fruit as to their own benefit comfort and salvation The works of Hypocrites are not ordained by God to have heaven follow them at the last day all they had or did will appear to be nothing and when the Sun shall arise then the works which here have shined like glow-worms shall appear unglorious and unbeautiful of all that hath been sown to the flesh shall nothing be reaped but corruption God crowns no works but his own nor will Christ own any works but those which have been brought forth by the power of his own Spirit 5. Lastly Without the fruit of any goodness in Gods account because without love to God 1 Cor. 13. Love is the sweetness of our services If I have not love saith Paul I am nothing and as true is it without it I can do nothing the gift of an enemy is a gift and no gift As love from God is the top of our happiness so love to God is the sum of our duty There is nothing beside love but an Hypocrite may give to God with Gods people it is the kernel of every performance God regards nothing we give him unless we give our selves also Its love which makes a service please both the master and servant Now wicked men in all they bring forth though they may have bounty in the hand yet have no love in the heart they have not a drop of love in a Sea of service This for the Explication of the second aggravation or gradation of the sin and misery of these Seducers they were without fruit The third follows in these words twice dead These words I take to express a further degree of their spiritual wretchedness under the continued Metaphor of Trees 'T was bad to have withering fruit worse to have no fruit at all worse yet to be not only without all fruit but even altogether without life twice dead Two things are here to be explained 1. In what respect these trees may be said to be dead 2. How to be twice dead For the first Death is 1. Temporal and Corporal that which is a privation of life by the departure of the soul from the body 2. Spiritual befalling either the godly or the wicked 1. The godly are said to be dead spiritually three wayes 1. Dead to sin Rom. 6.2 1 Pet. 2.24 the corruption of their natures being by the Spirit of Christ subdued and destroyed 2. Dead in respect of the Law Ceremonial Col. 2.20 dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Moral Gal. 2.19 So Paul saith he was dead to the Law and Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law it being not able to make them guilty who are in Christ nor to terrifie their consciences nor to irritate them to sin 3. Dead to the world Gal. 6.4 so Paul was crucified to the world either because the World contemned and despised him as a dead man or else because the world had no more power to entice and allure him from Christ then the objects of the senses have to work upon a dead man 2. Spiritual death befalls the wicked and unregenerate they being without the Spirit of Christ to animate and quicken them which Spirit enlivens the soul supernaturally as the soul doth the body naturally hence they are said to be dead in sins Eph. 2.1.5 Col. 2.13 and dead Mat. 8.22 Luke 9.60 Rom. 6.13 Joh. 5.25 and to remain in death 1 Joh. 3.14 Their works hence are said to be dead Hebr. 9.14 As the immortality of the damned is no life but an eternall death so the conjunction of the souls and bodies of wicked men is not properly life but umbratilis vita a shadow of life or rather a very death they being without spiritual feeding growth working all vital operations and lying under the deformity loathsomness insensibleness in a spiritual sense of such as are dead or according to the resemblance here used by our Apostle which is
ashamed of our former sin Oh that we could contemplate the shame of sin more in its departure and less its beauty in its coming and labour to look upon our old waies with new eyes opened and enlightned by the spirit of sanctification and then it wil be our greatest wonder that we should heretofore openly do that which we are now ashamed to think of To conclude this how blessed are they whose sins are covered whose transgressions are forgiven Psal 32.1 who have bought and put on that white raiment whereby the shame of their nakednesse cannot appear If ever the sins of the godly be manifested as I conceive they shall be at the day of judgment they shall be so far from bringing shame and confusion to them that they shall be glorious trophies of Gods mercy Christs merit the strength of faith and the truth of repentance 6. Obs 6. The shame of seducers is at length laid open and discover'd The great endeavour of these was to be magnified or rather omnified to have all others debased and nullified to have themselves accounted the only men for knowledg piety priviledges and their waies the only waies of peace and liberty but at length they lost and disgrac'd themselves foamed out and discovered their own shame 1. Sometime their shame is laid open and foamed forth by the discovery of the emptinesse and meer frothy foame of their opinions which are manifested to have had nothing of truth or solidity in them At length they fal upon the shore or dash upon the rock of the scripture and then in stead of drowing the shore or breaking the rock they end in a little froth and emptinesse and in the breaking of themselves alone Heresies are not permanent the word of the Lord only endures for ever it being a lasting fountain never to be dryed up but that which is against the Lord and his truth is but a land-flood though for the present it may swel and grow yet it shal fall and sink and in time vanish quite away Heresies which have for a time born all before them as that of Arianism which Augustine in grief and admiration tels us had invaded all the world come by the advantages of time and scripture discovery to be contemned and neglected Error like the painted beauty of some harlot seems amiable when it walkes in the dim twilight where the orthodox preaching of the word shines not but bring it to scripture light which it mainly shuns and the more we look upon it the more we shall suspect and at length abhor it the sun of scripture scatters the fogs and mists of error ye erre saith Christ not knowing the Scripture How glorious have those adulterate beauties of the whore of Babylon of image-worship transubstantiation merit c. appeared in this nation of old when the candle of Scripture was hid under a bushel but afterward it being set upon a candlestick and giving light to all the house how clearly did they all appear to be fictitious and adulterate and the hatred wherewith they are hated I trust of some is as it was said of Ammons to Thamar greater then that love wherewith they were loved 2. Sometime the shame of seducers is laid open and foamed forth by their loosnesse and profanenesse of life Errors in doctrine producing commonly loosnesse in conversation Thus the Apostle speaks of some who should proceed no further for their folly should be made manifest to all men who should increase to more ungodlinesse and grow worse and worse hereby our Lord bids us discover them by their fruits saith he ye shall know them The vine of truth never produced the thistles and thorns of prophanenesse and loosnesse A man of error is of◠left to be a man of sin Thus these seducers disgraced themselves by foaming out their uncleannesse cruelty rebellion Who wil ever look upon these deformed issues to have truth beautiful truth for their mother Wel may he be suspected who every step stumbles into prophanenesse to have either no eyes or bad ones Thus Papists Anabaptists Seekers have been discovered by their taking pleasure in unrighteousness never to have believed the truth 3. Lastly the Lord oft discovers their shame by their own destruction and disgraceful end and by the judgments which he brings upon them Arius his bowels gushed out Nestorius his tongue was consumed with worms Cerinthus was killed by the fall of an house Montanus hanged himself Manes had his skin torn from his flesh c. and rotted out of his head examples of this kind might fil a volume How many seducers hath God made pillars of salt by their deaths who were unsavory salt during their life-time how many of these stakes hath God set up in the Church as in a pond to keep men from adventuring into gulfs and whirlpools of error Sometime the hand of justice hath found them out witnesse the deaths of many Jesuits and Baals priests of Anabaptists and other blasphemous hereticks And how oft have they been infamous for their strange deaths who laboured to live caede scripturarum by the death and downfall of the scripture Oh then how much are they mistaken who expect to get honour by being patrons of erroneous opinions While the pure lights of the Church have burnt sweetly and shined bright to after ages living when they were dead the other have rotted in their names faded in their honour withered in their graces and in a word even died while they lived and what is there left of all these false pretended lights to posterity but the smoake of a stinking and unsavory snuffe 7. Obs 7 The enemies of God cause their own shame and confusion foaming out saith our Apostle their own shame Hab. 2.10 they are said to consult shame to their own house i.e. their wisest consultations shal be turned into shame against them or they shall be as surely ashamed as if they had consulted or taken counsel to bring shame upon themselves Though shame be not the end of the worker yet shal it be the end of every work of ungodlinesse wicked men twist their own halter and by sin curiously weave their own confusion shame is the natural production of every mans own sin Basil◠de Ira. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. mihi 440. The wicked shall be snared in the work of his own hands Psal 9.16 and held with the cords of his own sins Ps 5.22 Be thy own friend and none can be thy foe disgrace not thy self and then all the world cannot do it T is not any thing cast upon us from without which is truely a shame but something which growes out of a mans self t is not poverty reproach pains c. that dishonour us but impatience revenge unreformedness under all these Every wicked mans dishonour is self-created A sinner reaps no crop but that of which he himself was the sower its common equity that he who sowes should reap God wil render to
but for poor store of fruit and a slender Crop 'T is true Repentance Faith seeking reconciliation with God are continuall Acts to be performed at all times though even for these some times are more seasonable then others as the time of health strength and youth But hearing reading singing solemn Prayer c. may be unseasonably performed Praying is not seasonably performed in the time of Preaching nor Reading in the time of Prayer It s Satans policy to mar duties good for the matter with an unseasonable manner of performing them Seasonablenesse is the grace of our fruits 9. Lastly They must be fruits in respect of the propriety of them They must be our own not performed by a Deputy or an Attourney The Godly is compared to a tree that brings forth his fruit Psal 1.3 It must not be borrowed If our own Lamps be without Oyl we cannot borrow of our neighbours the Saints and Angels have little enough for themselves Papists in this respect build their confidence upon a sandy foundation Another mans feeding or cloathing himself cannot nourish or warm me Nor can another mans beleiving or working save me The just must be saved by his own faith People must not think to go to heaven by the goodnesse of their Ministers nor children by the holinesse of their Parents Gal. 6.4 Thy rejoycing as the Apostle speaks must be in thy self not another If thy Friend thy Pastor thy Parent thy Master be holy for himself and thee too he shall go to heaven for himself and thee too To conclude this Point with some directions how to become fruitfull trees 1. We must be removed off from our naturall root and stock and set upon and ingrafted into a new another Mat. 12.33 VVe must be transplanted from the first to the second Adam The tree must be good before the fruit can be so Men gather not grapes of thornes nor figs of thistles Mat. 7.16.18 Till we be in Christ our best works are but corrupt fruits According to our union with Christ such is our communion with him and fruitfulnesse John 15. Some are united to him onely by the externall tye of visible Ordinances and Profession knit to him by that Obligation made in Baptism no otherwise than many grafts are that do not thrive or live in their stock but onely stand as bound about by a threed and their communion with Christ is onely externall without any spirituall sap or inward influence derived from him to them and therfore their fruit is no other then may grow in the wilderness of heathenisme which naturall honesty and conscience bring forth Our union to Christ must be reall supernaturall Without me saith he ye can do nothing John 15.4 5 6 VVe must abide in him fetch all from him depend upon him The fruits of righteousnesse are by Jesus Christ to the praise of God VVe are to honour the husbandman by making him our Lord and by doing all for him and the Root by doing all in him and from him we must be nothing in our selves either in regard of self times or self-abilities From him is our fruit found First A good tree and then a fruit-bearing tree 2. Shelter thy fruits from the blasting windes of pride Walk humbly with thy God The Valleys men commonly build and plant in and they are cal'd the fruitful valleys The lowly heart is the fruitful heart God gives grace to the humble Men look up to the hils but they dwell in the valleys Superbia ventue exiccans fluenta divinae gratiae Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect to the lowly Psal 138.6 God and humility mutually delight in one another God is alway delighted in giving humility in receiving it being the poorest and yet the richest grace Should God pour grace upon a proud heart it would be as the pouring of Liquor upon the convex side of a vessel He hath fil'd the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away 3. Luk. 1.53 Let no secret lust lye at the root of the tree Grace is that flower at which sin and Satan alwayes labour to be nibling The best Plant may be spoiled with a worm at the root Any one lust retained with love will blast the whole crop of thy graces Beware of every root of bitternesse The Spirit of God is a tender delicate Thing nor will it endure so harsh a companion as any one lust If grace kill not sin sin will kill grace They can never be made friends Pity to any one sin is cruelty to all thy graces the sparing of the former is the spilling of the latter The of growth grace cannot consist with the love of poyson The least sin is terrible to the greatest Saint 4. Psal 1.3 Plant thy self by the rivers of water partake of those waters which flow from under the threshold of the Sanctuary Ezek. 47.12 The inundation of Nilus made Egypt fruitful Delight in a powerful Ministery Verbum Dei nasci pasci nostrum It s as possible at the same time to grow in fruitfulnesse and to decay in love to Ordinances as to increase the fire by taking away the fuel Apostles Pastors Teachers c. are given by Christ for our growth up to the fulnesse of the measure of the stature of Christ As a Christian abates in appetite Eph. 4.13 he will decay in strength 5. Pray for the showres and dewes of Gods blessing Thy planting and watering wil not help without God give the increase He who will have grace in plenty will have prayer in forvency Grace ever puts the soul upon begging for grace The richest Christian hath been oftnest begging for the almes of mercy Jam. 1.5 3 17 That wisdom which is fullest of good fruits must be begged from God 4. Obs 4. The greatest flowrishes and appearances of hypocrisie cannot reach the excellency of the least dram or drop of sincerity All an Hypocrite can do amounts not to fruit These seducers were trees without fruit If Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like a poor Lilly of the field much lesse is an Hypocrite in all his glory beautified like the poorest reall Saint The resplendent and beautiful body of the Sun cannot in respect of life match the little Ant upon the Molehill All the improvements of nature let it be never so till'd rackt manut'd adorn'd cannot reach to the excellency of one dram of Grace A curious Painter may go very far by his Art in imitating of Nature but he can never reach by all his skill to the drawing or painting of life It 's easie to act a King upon the Stage it 's not so easie to be a King in the Throne There is an Emphasis in true Sanctity which the learnedst hypocrite cannot translate The note of sincerity is too high for any but a Saint to reach Till the nature of the tree be changed and of bad made good the fruits