Jude 10

IN this verse, our Apostle accommodates and applies the comparison of Michael the Archangel; or further shewes wherein the holy and humble carriage of Michael, did make the sin of these Seducers appear more sinful and abomnable. The Angel was a Creature, not only of the greatest created Might and Power, but also of Wisdom and Understanding, and knew what the Divel was, namely, a wicked Creature, and destined by God to eternal perdition; accurately also he understood, that the cause wherein he contended with the Divel, was Just and righteous; he knowing the pleasure and will of God concerning the hiding of Moses his Sepulcher; but these (saith he) speak evil of what (persons and things) they know not; are outragious though ignorant; active, though blind. And this want of due wisdom and understanding, in not knowing what they spake against, the Apostle illustrates, by shewing what that kind of knowledg was which was left in these Seducers; namely, such as was meerly brutish and sensual, and such as whereby they corrupted themselves: so that, as they sinned in what they hated and opposed, because they knew it not; so likewise they sinned in what they embraced and loved, because they knew it, but after a natural, beastly manner; viz. for the fatisfying of their sensitive appetites: and our Apostle doth with admirable Artifice subjoyn this second, their natural brutish knowledg, to the former, their ignorance; because thereby he amplifies most wisely both those sins mentioned in ver. 8. viz. their defiling the flesh, and despising of dominions: though (as Junius notes) by a hysteron proteron, he amplifies the latter, their despising of dominion, in the first place.

The words contain principally these two parts: 1. The malicious ignorance of these seducers, in speaking evil of what they knew not. 2. Their sensual knowledge, in corrupting themselves in those things which (like bruit beasts) they knew. In the former they shewed themselves no Christians, in the latter scarce men.

1. Their malicious ignorance, in these words, These speak evil of those things which they know not. Wherein I consider, 1. Their act, βλασφημοῦσι, They speak evil, or blaspheme. 2. The object of which they speak evil, and which they blaspheme: Those things which they know not. To the first of these I have before on verse 8, and verse 9, spoken. Of the latter now.

EXPLICATION.

Three things here are to be opened.

1. What the things are which these seducers are here said not to know.

2. What kind of ignorance, or not knowing of those things it was, wherewith they are here charged.

3. Wherein appears this sin of speaking evil of those things which they knew not.

For the first of these. Some conceive (as Oecumenius and others) that the things of which these seducers were ignorant, and spake evil, were sundry Doctrines, and points of faith, and mysteries of Christian Religion. The Doctrines of Christianity surpass’d their Reason, nor could they be perceived by the power of nature. These seducers were such, as were ever learning, 1 Tim. 3.7. 1 Tim. 1.7. Mat. 15.14. Mat. 22.24. and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth: and having swerved from the faith, turned aside to vain jangling, and desiring to be Teachers of the Law, understood not what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. They were blind leaders of the blind, not knowing the Scriptures. In a word, They consented not to wholsome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4. and to the Doctrine which is according to godliness, but were proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, &c. And particularly, they were ignorant of that main fundamental Gospel truth, viz: that the grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness; they holding, that they were by that grace, freed from all holiness of life, and that all were thereby left at liberty to live as they pleas’d; so that their lusts (like the dust) put out the eyes of their understanding.

2. Others conceive more probably, that though the Apostle here useth an indefinite expression, in saying ὅσα, those things, yet that he here intends principally, that these seducers were ignorant of the nature, institution, and end of that dominion, those dignities which they so much despised and reviled, verse 8. that they knew not, that Magistracy was appointed by God, and that to continue, even in the time of the Gospel, notwithstanding the liberty which Christ hath purchased for us: In short, that they were ignorant of the great utility and beneficialness of Civil Government, in, and to the world; that it defends justice, opposeth vice, preserves publique peace, relieves the oppressed, and is that Tree, under the shadow whereof we quietly, and safely sit, and are sheltered.

2. For the second, What kind of ignorance it was, with which the Apostle here chargeth the Seducers. There are three sorts of ignorance. 1. An happy and profitable ignorance, viz. not to know those things, the knowledge whereof proves hurtful; thus it had been good for Adam, not to have known evil experimentally. It had been good for the Jewes, if they had never known the corrupt and idolatrous fashions of the Heathens; and in some respect, 2 Pet. 2.21. it had been good for Apostates, if they had never known the way of righteousness. 2. There is a knowledge of meer and simple negation; as Christ knew not the day of judgement, and as illiterate Mechanicks, know not sundry Arts and Sciences, as Physick, Astronomy, and this is without sin. 3. There is an ignorance of evil dosposition, and this is twofold. 1. Of frailty, when we are ignorant, and naturally indisposed to the knowledge of those things which we ought to know; but yet we are holily sorrowful for it, mourn under it, and pray against it. Thus even the godly are ignorant. 2. Ignorance of evil disposition may be supine, gross, or affected; when men like themselves well enough in their ignorance, and their ignorance in in themselves; and this is not only non profligata, an ignorance not fought against and opposed, but also affectata, affected and loved, by men who refuse instruction, that so they may sin the more freely, and prosecute evil the more without controlement. This sort of ignorance, is not barely nescire, a nescience, Non est consequens, ut continuò erret, quisquis aliquid nescit; sed quisquis se existimat scire quod nescit. Aug. c. 17. Enchir. Psal. 82.5. Isa. 44.18. and not knowing either of the things which we are injoyned & bound to know; but a nolle soire, a conceited, contracted, contented ignorance, which thinks it knows what it knows not, and desires to unlearn what it knows; the former is the cause of sin, but of the latter, sin is the cause; that ignorance, whereby men desire not the knowledge of the wayes of God, know not (as the Psalmist speaks) nor will understand, but walk on in darkness. In brief, this ignorance wherewith our Apostle chargeth these seducers, is not onely that quâ nesciunt, whereby they discern not; but quâ respuunt, whereby they despise things needful to be known; approve not the things that are excellent, delight in error, quarrel with, and resist the truth, and (as Peter speaks of this very sort of men) are willingly ignorant. Rom. 1.28. 2 Pet. 3.5. the Heathen are said not to like to acknowledge God; their blindness was natural, and they did also voluntarily chuse their superstition, before the knowledge of God.

3. Briefly for the third, Wherein appears the sinfulness of their speaking evil of those things which they knew not.

1. Its a sin discovering the grossest folly. Not to understand, is a mans infirmity, but to speak what, and evilly of what he understands not, is his folly. If folly be discovered in speaking much, even of what we know; more is it manifested in speaking any thing of what we know not. If an ignorant speaker, much more is an ignorant reviler his own Enemy; he shoots up arrows, which for ought he knows, may fall upon his own pate; he speaks that in his fury, which he cannot unsay, and for which he may be undone in his sobriety: He that answereth a matter before he hears it, Prov. 18.13. Prov. 16.23. it is a folly and a shame unto him. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth.

2. To speak evil of what we know not, is greatest injustice. If he speaks unjustly, who utters what is good and just, in a cause which he knows not, because its more by hap (as they say) then by honesty; how much greater is his injustice, who speaks that which is evil and unjust, of what he knows not. Its unjust to speak evil of any, (without a call) though we do know it; much more when we do not know it. How unequal is it, that another should suffer for my ignorance, much more from my self! its the happiness of him who suffers, but the sin of him who offers the injury, that the former hath no fault, but the ignorance of the latter. Though David will ever be reckoned among good men, yet his act of ignorant censuring Mophibosheth, (unheard Mephibosheth!) will ever be reckoned among his unjust actions. The like may be said of Potiphars doing evil to Joseph, before he knew his cause; and Elie’s censuring of Hanna for drunkenness, before he heard her.

3. To speak evil of what we know not, argues the height of malice; he may be malicious, who speaks the evil he knows; much more he, who utters that which he knowes not. Its from want of love, to discover the sin we find in another, but its the excess of malice, to make that sin, which we could not finde. If love makes us believe that good, 1 Cor. 13.7 which we know not in another; then must it be malice, which makes us believe and report that evil, of which we are ignorant. To conclude, Its a malitious rejoycing in evil, to delight in uttering an evil, 1 Cor. 13.6. which we really behold in another: But how great a pleasure doth he take in anothers evil, who rejoyceth in his very fancying, and imagining of that evil against another, which he frames in his own thoughts!

4. To speak evil of what we know not, discovers impudency in wickedness, and a sinful immodesty, as well as maliciousness: such an evil speaking, argues that a man hath sin’d away shame, as well as love: What greater impudency, then for a man to outface at once the common observation of hearers, who haply can contradict foolish slander, and also the danger that false accusation incurs among men; yea, conscience checking, and representing God himself, both observing and threatning ignorant and evil speaking.

OBSERVATIONS.

1. None are so ready to speak as the ignorant. Observ. 1. They who know least, speak most, and oftenest. In multiloquinm, stultiloquium Eceles. 10.14. and 5.3. A fool is hardly discerned, when silent; his picture is best taken, when he is speaking; If he holds his peace, he is accounted wise; he is (by Solomon) called, a prating fool: A sool, saith he, is full of words, and is known thereby; empty vessels sound. A wise man hath something to do before he speaks, and besides speaking; namely, to consider, and let down the Bucket of his tongue, into the Well of his reason, before he pour forth words. A fools work is onely to speak, no wonder then if he doth it with greater speed then a wiser person; and if he (like Jacob, in his hasty providing of meat for his father) more suddenly presents the Hearer with a kid of the Goats, then another shall with Venison; and more easily brings what comes next hand, and is at the tongues end, then another doth that for which he hath laboured: and yet deluded Hearers, to whom such a Present of empty words is tendred, commonly (like blind Isaac) bless, and applaud the bringers thereof, sooner, and more then those, whose words are more weighty, and prepared with greater pains. Their backwardness to learn of others, hath made them so forward to teach others; and because they were fruitless Scholars, they are forward, and fruitless Teachers: And yet these empty speakers, so as they may be commended by the ignorant for knowing, Ja•. 1.19. 2 Sam. 18.22. 〈Greek〉. Inter proverbia Nazianani. In dolio discere fig••inam. 1 Tun. 3.2. 1 Tim. 4 13. care not though they be condemned by those who are knowing, for ignorant. Its good counsel of the Apostle, to be slow to speak, and to take heed of coveting (with Ahimaas) to be Messengers, before we have tydings ready; and with the empty and ambitious Bramble, of desiring to be erected over others, as their instructers, when, having never been instructed, we can administer nothing to the Hearer, but fruitless words, empty leaves, and unsavory discourses. The faulty in this kind, may well give good measure, for they give but had weight, and may sell that cheap, which costs them nothing. Its inverted order, to be Teachers before we are Scholars. The Apostle commands that a Bishop be not διδάσκαλος only, a Teacher; but διδακτικὸς, fit, or meet, or apt to teach; and that he attend to reading, as well as speaking. As without the blessing of God, no means are prevalent; so without the use of means, no blessing can be expected. Its only sutable, that his tongue should be the pen of a ready writer, whose heart hath first been enditing a good matter. Psal 45.1. Nor should the Hearer be less careful to discern, then the Speaker is to indite a good matter. How few Hearers have we, that can yet difference between matter and words; it sufficeth the most, if the hour be fill’d up with an empty noyse, without any solid instruction; how rare is it to find (though we run to and fro in the streets of London) a man (I mean) in understanding. Prov. 18.15.

2. Observ. 2. Ignorance is the cause of opposing the wayes of God. [They speak evil (saith the Apostle) of those things which they know not.] The opposing and crucifying of Christ himself, proceeded from ignorance: Had they known, (saith the Apostle) they would not have crucifyed the Lord of glory. 1 Cor. 2 8. I wot that through ignorance (saith Peter to the Jewes) ye did it, speaking concerning the killing the Prince of Life, Acts 3.15, 17. Christ himself testifies of his Murderers, that they knew not what they did. And these things (saith Christ, speaking of the unkindness and cruelties of sinners against his servants) will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me, John 16.3. John 4.10. If thou knewest (saith Christ to that pore Samaritane) the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me drink, then wouldest thou have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The reason why those prophane ones refused Gods service, Job 21.14, 15. and asked what profit, they should have if they prayed to him, is plainly implyed to be their ignorance; they desired not the knowledge of his wayes, and Who (say they) is the Almighty? &c. The reason why the Heathen did not call upon God, Psalm 79.6. is said to be this, they knew him not. Rom. 3.11. There is none that understandeth, that seeketh after God. Ignorance made the Gentiles strangers from the life of God, Eph. 4.18. Its a sin which never went single, it ever walks in company, and is an inlet to all impiety. Although the prayer of Christ for his ignorant Enemies, shew’d that God might take occasion from their ignorance to forgive them; yet doth it also plainly imply, that the sin to be forgiven them, took its rise from their ignorance, their doing, was from their not knowing what they did. An unregenerate mans practice is, Insipientes in peccato intelligentes in supplicio. a fashioning himself according to lusts in his ignorance, 1 Pet. 1.14.

Did men either see the deformity of sin, or the beauty of holiness, they would neither delight in the former, nor dislike the latter: when there is no knowledge of God in the land, there’s neither truth, nor mercy, Hos. 4 1.2. but swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, &c. The foundation of obedience, must be laid in knowledge, which (in a sort) is the root of other graces, 2 Pet. 1, 2. Grace be multiplyed unto you, through the knowledge of God. See also ver. 3. The will and affections, are led by the understanding, which sits at the stern in the soul: all the sins of the people, are called errors, Heb. 9 7. As Eve, so others since, are drawn to sin, by being deceived, 1. Tim. 2.14.

The first work of grace, is to reform the understanding, Rom. 12.2. Be ye changed, by the renewing of your mind. And Col. 3.10. The new man is renewed in knowledge. The imaginationsand thoughts of the mind, are by the Apostle called (2 Cor. 10.4, 5.) those strong holds, and high things exalted against the knowledg, and to be subdued to the obedience of Christ. How dangerous then is ignorance! He who wanteth the right knowledge of God, is still under the dominion of Satan, who is called, Eph. 6.12. the Ruler of the darkness of this world. This Ruler of darkness, takes up his Throne in dark hearts; none are turned off the Ladder, but such whom he first blinds. I send thee (saith Christ to Paul) to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Acts 26.18. Ignorance is the beaten path to hell, My people perish for want of knowledge, Hos. 4.6. Whomsoever God will have to be saved, he will bring to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2.4. They who have not known Gods wayes, P•al. 95.10, 11 shall never (if we may believe God swearing) enter into his rest. Foolish are they who boast of their good minds and meanings, Concerning Knowledg, s•e Part 1. p. 383, 384. and yet continue ignorant; Without knowledge, the mind is not good. Prov. 19.2. Many cry up practice and good meaning, to cry down knowledge; ignorant devotion, is but feet without eyes, which the farther and faster they carry us, the greater is our deviation and danger.

To conclude this point: How excellent is every way of God, of which onely ignorant ones speak evil! besides the ignorant, heavenly learning hath no Enemy. Thre’s none who know it, (as we say of some men) but love it: All the children of wisdom justifie her, Matth. 11.19 nor was she ever condemned, but by those who never would hear what she could say for her self. How patient should every Saint be under all the reproaches which they meet with for holiness, from blind sinners, whose tongues are in this no slander! A blind man cannot judg of colours. Much more deserve they our pity and prayers for their want of eyes, then our wrath for their abusing their tongues. Let all our revenge be, to labour to make them know and speak better. He who strikes his friend in the dark, will be most offended with himself when the light discovers his mistaken unkindness.

3. How great is the sin of speaking evil of those things, Observ. 3 the worth whereof we do know! If to speak ignorantly and evilly against what is good, be a sin; then to speak knowingly and evilly against it, must needs be a greater sin. If they may sin who think they do God service in speaking against a person; how heinous is their sin, who know that they do God dis-service, and the Divel service in such speaking? All sin against Light, especially reviling against Light, borders upon the sin against the Holy Ghost, and adventures to make too near an approach unto it. To speak evil even of what is not good, may be bad; to speak evil of what is good, is worse; to speak evil of what is good, though we know it to be so, is much worse, and within one step of speaking evil against it, because we know it to be so. Such sins more stupifie and benumb the conscience then do others, and keep it from sensibleness; and therefore it will want a deeper wound (and possibly such an one as shall never be cured) to make it sensible. How deservedly solicitous therefore was holy David in his Prayer, Psal. 19.13. to be kept from sins of Contumacy and Presumption! sins, which as they are more ordinarily committed in dayes of light and much knowledg, so can they not be committed at so easie and cheap a rate, as may those which are caused by ignorance.

4. Observ. 4. We should speak against known evils, and for what we know to be good. If the wicked fear not to speak evil of the good which they know not, how unsutable is it for Saints to be afraid to speak against those evils which they know to be such? As it is a sinful forwardness to speak, at any time, of the things which we know not; so its (oft) sinful backwardness, not to speak the things which we do know: Knowing (saith the Apostle) the terror of the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.11. we perswade men. We speak that we do know, and testifie that we have seen, saith Christ, Joh. 3.11. Shall not sinners forbear to revile holiness, and shall others refrain to withstand impiety? How inexcusable is it, that ignorance should be more active in a wrong, then knowledg in a right way! When men oppose holiness, they fight without eyes; and shall light produce luke-warmness? What a shame is it, that Satan should have more Confessors and Martyrs, then Jesus Christ! If sin and error fears no colours, and covets no corners, should Grace and Truth do either? the fool hardiness of sinners, may justly reprove the faintness of Saints. Its our duty to be valiant for the Truth, and to give the glory of God reparations (as it were) by wiping off the blemishes cast upon it by foolish and ignorant men. When we have upon grounded deliberation chosen our Love, we should zealously express the love of our choice. Sinners (as they say of young mens thoughts of old) think that Saints are foolish, but Saints know that sinners are so. Let not their prosecution of sin, be more zealous then thy reprehension of it; nor their opposition of any way of God be more hot then thy contention for it: Let thy fire have more purity then theirs, but let it not be inferior in its fervor. The Christians Serpent must not devour his Dove. How good a Master do the godly serve, who requires no duty but such as he warrants in, and rewards after the doing! Satans servants are scepticks, and he puts them upon such imployments, in the doing whereof they cannot know they do well; and afterward they shall know they have done ill, and that to their cost.

5. Corrupt affections blear and darken the judgement. Observ. 3. These Seducers hated the wayes of God, and deilghted to oppose them; and therefore they did not, would not know them. He who will be disobedient in heart, shall soon have a dull head. They who love sin, will leave the Truth. Lust opposeth the entrance of the Light. Repentance makes men acknowledg the Truth, 2 Tim. 2.25. Every one who doth evil, hateth the light, John 3.20. Men love not to study such Truths as will hinder them (being known) from going on in some gainful wickedness. Its from unrighteousness, that men imprison Truths. They who thought the believing of the Resurrection would hinder their course in sin, Prov. 28.5. taught that the Resurrection was past, 2 Tim. 2.18. Lust perverts Light, and makes men, in stead of bringing their hearts and lives to the Scripture, to bring, to draw the Scripture, by carnal, and wittily wicked distinctions and evasions, to both. Knowledg is the mother of Obedience, and Obedience the nurse of Knowledge; 〈Greek〉. the former breeds the latter, and the latter feeds the former. Of this largely before Part 1. pag. 616, 617, &c. Observ. 6. Qui prius quam chord as exploraverit, omnes simul inconcinnè percutit, absonum et absurdum strepitum reddit; sic judex qui singulas litigatorum causas non pulsavis, nec audivit, stultam planè & absurdam sententiam pronuntiet necesse est. Petrarc.

6. Its our duty to forbear speaking against any thing which we understand not. He that answereth a matter (saith Solomon) before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him, Prov. 18.13: As men are not to be commended, so neither to be condemned before the knowledge of their cause. As he causeth an harsh and unmusical sound, who strikes and playes upon the strings of an Instrument before he hath tryed and tuned them; so he must needs pass a foolish and absurd Sentence upon any cause, who passeth that Sentence, before he hath seriously heard and weighed the cause to which he speaks. Herein Eli manifested his fault and folly, 1 Sam. 1.14. rashly and weakly charging Hanna with Drunkenness. Thus also David discovered his folly in giving credit to the information of flattering and false-hearted Ziba, against good Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. 16.3, 4. before he had heard what Mephibosheth could alledg for himself. Potiphar likewise shewed himself as unjust, as his wife shewed her self unchast, by an overhasty heeding of his wives false and forged accusation against righteous Joseph. Gen. 39.19, 20 To these may be added, the ignorant censure of those Scoffers who derided the Apostles, filled with the Holy Ghost, as if filled with new wine. Inter triticum & lolium, quamdiu herba est & nondum culmus venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo eft, & in disceruendo, aut nulla, aut perdifficilis distantia. Praemonet ergo Dominus ne ubi quid ambignum est, cito sententiam proferamus, sed Deo judici terminum reservemus. Hieron. Ut nobis exemplum proponat ne m•la hominum, ante praesumamus credere, quam probare, Gr. Mor. l. 19. c. 23. Doubtful cases are to be exempted from our censure. [The wheat and courser grain (saith Hierom) are so like to one another, when newly come up, and before the stalk comes to the ear, that there’s no judging between them, and therefore the Lord by commanding that both should be let alone till the Harvest, admonisheth as that we should not judge of doubtful things, but refer them to the judgment of God.] Even God himselfe, who clearly discernes the secrets of the heart, and needs not examine any cause for his own information, determines not by sentence, till after examination, that so he might teach us by his example the method of judging, Gen. 18.21. Which is to know, before we censure. They who to make shew of what they have not (a quick understanding, and nimble apprehension) will take off a speaker in the midst of his relation, and make as if they knew all the rest of his speech which is to follow; and others, who though they will hear the whole speech out, yet not clearly understanding it, scorn to have it repeated again, lest they might be thought slow of apprehension; by their foolish and ill accommodated answers, do often grosly bewray their ignorance and folly. And this speaking of any thing ignorantly, should principally be avoided by Magistrates and Ministers. By Magistrates, because their passing of a sudden and overhasty answer is accompanied with the hurt of others, and withal, by so much the more should they take heed of this folly, because when they have once passed (though a rash and unjust) sentence; Vid. Cartw. in Prov. 18.13. yet so great a regard must be had (forsooth) to their Honours (by themselves already dishonoured) that seldom or never will they be induced to retract or recal any unrighteous censure, when once they have uttered it. Which sinful distemper appeared not only in those Heathen Governours, In their censuring of John and Christ. Herod and Pilate, but in that holy man David in the case of Mephibosheth. By Ministers likewise should this speaking ignorantly and doubtfully of anything, be avoided, whose work being to direct souls, and that through greatest dangers, to the obtaining of greatest happiness; they cannot be blind Leaders and ignorant Teachers, without the infinite hazard of their followers. How unlike are they, who will be Teachers, before they themselves have been taught, and Affirmers of what they understand not, to him who spake only what he knew, Joh. 3.11.32. and testified onely what he saw and heard.

Thus of the first part of this verse, their malicious and unchristian ignorance, They speak evil of what they know not. The second followes, their sensual knowledg, What they know naturally, as brute Beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

In which words two things are mainly considerable, 1. The sensuality of their apprehensions. 2. Of their Conversations, Or 1. The kind or nature of their knowledg, What they know naturally as brute Beasts. 2. The effect of that their knowledg, In those things they corrupt themselves.

The first is 1. Propounded and specified; in these words, What they know naturally.

2. Expounded by, and compared to the knowledg of the brute Beasts, as brute Beasts.

EXPLICATION.

Three things here require Explication in this second part of the verse.

1 What the Apostle here intends by knowing naturally?

2 Why he compares them for this knowing naturally, to brute Beasts?

3. In what respect by this knowing naturally as brute beasts, Naturaliter nôrunt; i.e. ipsâ duce naturâ, nullo adhibito Magistro. Ut sunt ea quae sensu percipiuntur tactu, viz. & gustu. Justinian. in loc. Naturaliter, solis sensibus, absque judicio rationis, ac si essent bruta animalia, cognoscunt. viz. quae pertinent ad appetitum sensitivum qualia sunt potus, cibus, somnus, veneris usus. Gerh. in •et. 〈Greek〉. Oecum, Scire naturaliter, est scire non consilio ullo, non ratione humanâ, non Spiritus Divini luce, sed caeco naturae impetu, & belluino more. Junius in loc. they are said to corrupt themselves.

1. For the first. By this knowing naturally (in the Greek φυσικῶς) is to be understood, a knowing only by the guidance of Nature, meerly by their senses, by touching, tasting, seeing, &c. a knowing whether a thing please sense, or no, without any other Teaching, or any judgment and reason at all: and it respects those things which belong to the sensitive appetite, as meat, drink, sleep, &c. and hence it might possibly come to pass, that Gagneius conjectured, though without ground, that ἐπίστανται, they know, is put for ἐφίστανται, they desire, or have an appetite. This word [Naturally] is opposed to reason and judgment; these sensual persons onely knew things, as carryed to their outward senses. The force of nature only ruled them: reason never guided them. Oecumenius expresseth it very aptly; Whatever (saith he) with natural force or desire, without putting difference, as irrational creatures, they know, they violently follow, as lustful horses or swine. Junius explains it thus, To know naturally, is to know without counsel, humane reason, or the light of Gods Spirit, and with the blind force of nature, and bestial motion, only following natural appetite, and outward senses.

2. The Apostle doth exegetically explain by an apt comparison, what he intends by this knowing naturally; he saith they know things as brute Beasts, in the Greek ἄλογα ζῶα. The word ἄλογα, brute, signifies either mute, or irrational and brute, either without speech, Act. 25.27. Ἄλογον, praeter rationem, sine ratione. Animantia rationis expertia. Bez. Animalia muta Vulg. O mutis quoque piscibus, donatura cygni si libeat sonum. Horat. or without reason. There being no irrational Creature but is also mute; that is, though not without a voice (so as fish are said more properly to be mute) yet without speech, which none but man useth naturally. Now this knowledg which belongs to brute Beasts, is that which arifeth from the instinct of nature, consisting in the senses, and by the benefit of it, brute Beasts discern between the food which is sutable, and that which is unfit, between that which is beneficial, and that which is hurtful; unto which is joyned a natural appetite toward such things as tend to their preservation. Of this knowledg speaks the Scripture, Isai. 1.3. The Ox knows his Owner, and the Ass his Masters crib. And Psal. 104.21. The young Lions roar after their Prey, and seek their meat from God, &c. And ver. 27. They wait upon thee, that thou maiest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather, thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good. And Job 29.8. The range of the mountains is the pasture of the wild Asse, and he searcheth after every green thing. And ver. 29. The Eagle abideth on the rock, &c. and from thence she seeth the prey: And Chap. 40.15. Behemoth eateth grasse as an Ox: ver. 20. The mountains bring him food: yea, Prov 30.25 The ants prepare their meat in the summer.

And by this knowledg of irrational creatures is that of these sensuallists here by Jude set forth, for sundry Reasons.

1. In their knowledg of things naturally; they desired sensual objects violently and impetuously. They laboured not for them with an holy submissivenesse to, and dependence upon God; but followed them with a brutish fiercenesse: They were like the Lion roaring after his prey; when they see what they love, ther’s no holding them in, with the reins either of Reason or Religion: they ran greedily after reward, subverted whole houses, and taught any error for filthy lucres sake. Tit. 1.11. They were greedy dogs.

2 They received no enjoyments thankfully, not considering the giver; they drank of the river, taking no notice of the fountain; filling their vessel with it, and then turning their backs upon it. They received gifts, but regarded not the hand which bestowed them. Their bellies were filled with treasures (to them) hidden. Like swine feeding on acorns, which though they fall upon their heads, never make them look up to the tree from which they come: When God opened his hand, they shut their hearts; denying the tribute of praises which God expects for all his blessings.

3 They pleased themselves with the gifts solely, never regarding the love of the giver. Beasts care not with what affection any thing is given to them, so as they have the thing which they want. These sensuallists desired not that the gifts which they enjoyed might be turned into mercies: not considering that the love of God is the fulnesse of every enjoyment: in this, worse then some beasts, who suspect a snare when provision is plentifullest. These never caring whether the heart of God were toward them or no, so as his hand were opened; and using the gifts of a Creator, not regarding the affection of a Father; not questioning whether their provisions were bestowed upon them as children, with love; or whether as condemned prisoners, to keep life in them against the day of execution: and in short (like beasts) as the Apostle saith, 2 Pet. 2.12. they were made to be destroyed: they so knew these sensitive objects, as not knowing whether they were fatted by them for slaughter.

4 They knew these things so brutishly, as not to know how to improve them: they cared not to be fitted by them for service. Brute beasts onely live to eat: and so these made their sensual pleasures the end of their living, never referring them to glory-ends; not making them vehicula, chariets, to carry them faster, and to raise them up higher to God in a way of love and duty; but vincula, bonds, to keep and binde them down to the satisfaction of sense. They used not their comforts as wings, to make their thoughts and affections mount up to heaven; but as bird-lime to their wings, and hinderances from all heavenly both desires and services.

5 They knew no measure in the using of these things: They (like swine) wallowed over head & ears in the mud of sensual enjoyments, being themselves gulphs of them, & ingulphing themselves in them; and not tasting them, but even bursting with them. Like some horses, they had rather break their wind, then their draught: Their hearts were overcharged with surfetting, Luke 21.34. They ran to excess of riot. In stead of cheering, they clog’d nature, turning Christianitie into Epicurism; they made their belly their God, and they served it, Rom. 16.18. Phil. 3.19. Their sensual appetites were boundlesse and unlimited; they rather pamper’d, then fed themselves.

6. They so brutishly knew these things, as not to know instruction or any restraint: growing untamed and impatient of the yoke, like a back-sliding heifer; they would not endure admonition: And he (saith Solomon) who hateth reproof, is brutish. Like Jesurun, Prov. 9.8 Deut. 32.15 they waxed fat and kicked. Hence they despised and opposed all dominion and government, like the wilde asse, J•r 2.24. Hos. 8.9. which snuffing up the wind, is not to be catched. A brute beast fed to the ful endureth not to be beaten; these seducers resisted the truth which opposed their lusts, 2 Tim. 3.8. and quarrelled with the word of life: like brute beasts, which though never so sick, will strike at those who let them blood, or give them the wholsomest drink. It was as easie to catch an hare with a tabret, as to make them hear reproof in their sensual enjoyments. They who are in an harvest of worldly pleasures, commonly have harvest-eares, not at leisure to hear what may regulate them in their sensual prosecutions.

7 They knew these things so brutishly, as never to consider of a removal of them, or the approach of the hatchet: they were sensually secure, like the beast, feeding themselves without fear; they mocked at the denunciations of judgment, as Peter speaks, 2 Pet. 3. drinking away sorrow; like the old world, eating and drinking, though the flood were approaching, and never considering that their wine was soon to be turned into water.

8. They so brutishly knew these things, as not to know how to part with them: A beast knowes no other woe, but want of provender; nor sensuallists any other penalty, but the parting with sensual objects: These never learn with Paul, how to want, and how to abound; or with Job, to blesse God when taking away, as well as giving. They so addict themselves to sensitive delights, that they cannot be without them; and so are they fastened to them, and their heart so set upon them, that the pulling them away, is the pulling off their very flesh. When they enjoy them, they are so secure, as if God could never remove them: when they want them, they are so impatient, as if God could never restore them.

For the Third branch of Explication, Branch 3 of Explicat. viz. In what respect by their knowing naturally, they are here said to corrupt themselves. The words [corrupt themselves] are contained in that one word in the Original, φθείρονται, which signifies properly so to spoil and deprave or marr a thing, as that it loseth its former worth and excellencie, or is unfit for that use to which it should be imployed: And among prophane Writers its often used to note the violating and abusing of the body by unchastity; and so its commonly said, that a Virgin, or her Virginity is corrupted or violated. And thus Epiphanius understands it in this place, who saith, Juvenis corruptor, Virgo corrupta. that the Spirit of God by Jude shews these Seducers to be φθειρομένους καὶ φθείροντας, corrupted, and corrupters, in respect of their lasciviousness. But the Scriptures use the word to expresse any other kinde of violation or abuse of a thing. So 1 Cor. 15.33. Evil words corrupt good manners. And Ephes. 4.22. the old man is said to be corrupted, according to deceitfull lusts. And 2 Cor. 11.3. the Apostle useth it to expresse the corruption of the minde, &c. And in this more large sense I take it in this place; as noting not onely bodily, but even spirituall, and eternal corruption. And the word φθείρονται includes that other word, themselves; it being not altogether of the passive form, but of the active and passive together, answering to the Hebrew Conjugation Hithpael, which notes the action of any one toward, or upon himself. And this the Apostle Peter plainly expresseth 2 Pet. 2.12. when he saith, that they utterly perish in their own corruption; they rush into their own ruine, and go of themselves headlong to destruction, as the Fish or Mouse (seeing the bait) into the net or trap, Vide Junium in loc. and then more and more by sin intwisting and entangling themselves to an utter overthrow and perdition.

And more particularly, by their sensual knowledg of carnal objects, they incurr’d a fourfold corruption:

1. They corrupted themselves with a natural corruption; in bringing upon their bodies sundry kinds of Diseases, by their Luxury and intemperance, making themselves old before their time, and hastning their death. As Vermin and Mice haunt those places where there is much food; Immodicis brevis est aetas. et rara senectus. so Diseases abound in those bodies which are used, or rather abused to excess of Riot. More (saith one) are drowned in the cup then in the sea: and Gluttons are said to dig their graves with their teeth.

2. They corrupted themselves with a civil corruption. Overthrowing their Families, and wasting their substance to the maintaining of their intemperance, bringing themselves to a morsel of bread. Sensual and intemperate persons, swallow their estates down their throats; The Drunkand and the Glutton shall come to poverty. Prov. 23.21. Diogenes once said of a Drunkard, whose house was to be sold, I thought he would ere long vomit up his house, alluding to his vomiting in Drunkenness. The Prodigal wasted his portion upon harlots. These corrupters are worse then Infidels, nay beasts, who by the light of nature provide for their young.

3. They corrupted themselves inwardly and Spiritually. And that, 1. By clouding their reason and understanding; Drunkenness being (as one wittily saith) an interregnum of the mind; which for the present loseth the use of reason, whereby a man should be governed. Many have drunk away their wit and wealth too. When Wine gets in, wit (we say) goes out. Wise men are seldom excessive. Anima sicca, anima sapientissima. Hos. 4.11. Wine and women take away the heart. 2. By hindring the Spiritual, and Heavenly, and Supernatural actings of the soul, making it unfit for holy Services, Prayer, Hearing, Meditation, &c. Hence the Apostle opposeth the being drunk with Wine, to the being filled with the Holy Ghost. Excess in sensual, hinders Spiritual pleasures. Hence it was a good rule of Ambrose, So to rise from Table, as to be fit for Prayer. How can he have his heart in Heaven, who (as they say of the fish called the ὄνος, or the Ass fish) hath it in his belly. Grace is starved, while the flesh is pampered. Meat is to be used as our Medicine. Feasting dayes are soul-starving dayes, and Easting days are soul fatting dayes.

4. They corrupted themselves eternally. Destroying themselves soul and body, by the loss of those Pleasures at Gods right hand, Psal. 16. ult. to which here in this life they preferred the pleasures of sin for a season. Sweetly bitter pleasures! sweet in the pallat, bitter in the stomack; bitter to soul and body for ever! How will a fatted Glutton fry in Hell! How dismal a retribution wil a River of brimstone be for a cup of Wine! 1 Cor. 6.10. Drunkards are in the catalogue of the excluded from the Kingdome of God. They who are here drowned in profuseness, shall hereafter be drowned in Perdition; yea, here they begin to be so.

OBSERVATIONS

1. Observ. 1. Cognitio sui intellectue, licet praestantior sit, quâ vis cognitione brutorum, referunt eam ad exercitium operum sensualium. Ut satisfaciant appetitionibus carnalibus. Lor. in loc. How great a confusion and disorder hath sin made in this little world, man! He whose reason was once wholly subjugated to God, and whose appetite was guided by, and submissive to his reason, hath now an understanding which hath cast off the Government of God, and an appetite which hath cast off the guidance of his understanding. In the state of Innocency, the sensitive appetite of man, was ruled by the Golden Scepter of Reason; the sensitive Powers were not factious, but were willingly subject to the Higher Powers, to the intectuals. The first bublings of the soul (as one saith) were pure and Crystaline, and streamed out freely, without any murmuring or foaming; but now, alas! the soul is full of insurrections. The Master waits, and the servant is Master. The knowledg of the understanding is made a Vassal to this natural knowledg. That leading faculty in a man, his understanding, is now a Page to wait upon the sensual appetite, or the knowledg of the senses; and all the contrivances and inventions of the former, are referred to the service of the latter. The Master doth not now lead his horse, but the horse drags and hurries the Master, even as a beast sometimes draws a condemned Malefactor to the place of Execution. All the confusions we see in the world, are but derivations from this. Reason easts off Religion, and then Sense and carnal appetite casts off Reason. All the Errors in Doctrine, proceed from the former, and the irregularities of Practice flow from the latter. The servant casts off the Master in the state, because it hath first cast him off in the soul.

2. Observ. 2 Quia nolunt intelligere quae sunt gratiae, amittunt sapere quae sunt naturae. They who oppose Spiritual Knowledge, justly lose even that which is reasonable, They grow, with these Seducers, meer Sensualists; not admitting the former, deservedly, they part with the latter. These Seducers opposing the Truth of the Gospel, denying the Lord Jesus Christ, and becoming enemies to Supernatural knowledg; now what they knew, they knew but naturally, and only with the knowledg of the outward senses. They would not be real Saints, and they came to be not so much as visible. They would not be Saints, and at length they ceased to be men. Rom. 1.21, 24 26, 28. The Heathens by opposing even the faint light of nature, were by God given up to Uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, to vile affections, and a reprobate mind. Seducers grow worse & worse He who will put out light revealed, shall justly extingnish light implanted. Its righteous with God to leave them to Sense, who will not be guided by Grace. From him who hath not, shall be taken away, even what he HATH: Even appearances of goodness shall be taken away. Brass but Silvered over, will at length plainly appear to be but Brass. A face only beautiful with paint, shall, when wrinkles grow deep, be destitute not only of complexional, but even fictitious beauty also. How exquisitely do these dayes of ours comment upon this Truth! Oh that we could not say, that hundreds, whose eyes have seemed to be fixed upon the Stars, themselves pretending to a Seraphical pitch of knowledg have yet faln into a ditch of beastly sensuality. None so shamefully beggarly, as he who breaks after much trading, Of this more, Part 1 pag. 310 and trusting. Christians, beg of God that your grace may be true and supernatural, and then it will be growing: but if it be only appearing, and not arsiing to true Sanctity, it may soon arrive at sensual Beastiality.

3. Observ. 3. The light of reason is too weak to contend with sensual appetite. When these Seducers had bid adieu to Spiritual light, notwithstanding their rational light, they grew sensual and brutish. Should the Skie be furnish’d with millions of Torches, they all could not (as doth one Sun) bestow those influences upon the earth, whereby it could be made green and fruitful. The light of Grace, is only influential upon the heart and life; That of Reason produceth no fruit truly favoury. That which it doth draw forth, is but like the fruit, which requiring a hotter soyl and Sunshine, (when men somtimes plant it in our colder Countries) never comes to perfection, and hath hardly half heat enough to concoct it. The greatest (if meer) Scholer in the world, knowes nothing as he ought to know, and therefore loves nothing as he ought to love. He sees not (without renewed light) in any way of God, that prevailing transcendent Excellency, which outbids the bravery of every other Object. The light of Reason, in the most knowing Heathen that ever was in the world, was but a candle light, notwithstanding which he was yet in the night: It scattered not the works of Darkness; nor did he (as one saith well) warm his hands at this candle: Notwithstanding this, famous Moralists have been cold in their Devotions, and dissolute in their Practices. The wisest Heathens, (Rom. 1.) how sensual and impure were they, notwithstanding their most refined Reason! and like to Indians, Observ. 4. Quatuor imperia ostensa sunt Danieli, sub similitudine bestiarum, non hominum quia non insurrexerunt per viam rationis, sed impetu sensualitatis. Durand. de Orig. jurisd. which notwithstanding all their Gold and Jewels, are yet wont to goe naked.

4. Outward Enjoyments make no man excellent. He may, yea, (unless he be more then a man) he will become a beast by the using of them. The four Monarchies of the world, were represented to Daniel under the similitudes of Beasts; not of men, because they were neither erected, nor exercised in a way of Reason, but of Brutish Sensuality. A man 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, κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀπάτης. 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 amicè se quasi συνοδίτας adjungunt, 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 δελεαζόμενος, 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. Tis 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.