Jude 12 (part 2 of 3)

7 This sin, is the ruine and hazard of mens Estates. The very word ἀσωτία, 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 frugal 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. Its a sin most injurious to the poor. The Gluttons superfluity causeth, and increaseth the poors scarcity. As the spleen grows, so the other parts decay; and as the Riotous abound, so the poor wants; and none are 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. Oh woful receipts, which are only in this life, and not followed with being received! Sinful pleasures are by some compared to those Locusts, Rev. 9.7. the Crowns upon whose heads, are said to be only as it were such, or such in appearance, and like Gold; but ver. 10. it is said, there were (not as it were, but) stings in their tayles. The pleasures of sin are seeming and appearing; the pains true and real.

9. In feasting we are too prone to cast away holy fear. Observ. 9. These Seducers fed themselvs without fear. In doing those things which are lawful, we are too ready to be fearless both of God and our selves. Job feared that his sons had sinned, by this want of Gods fear in their Feasting, Job 1.5. Its an easie matter to sin, when the thing we are about is not sinful. Our lawful comforts, as Trading, Sleeping, Marrying, Feasting, are oft occasions of what is unlawful. Luk 17.27, 28 The old world was very fearless of sinning when they eat, drank, bought, sold; so fearless, that nothing would awaken them but feeling. Most people are drowned in the shallowes of lawful enjoyments. The meat and drink which in themselves are wholsome, have killed a thousand times more than ever did poyson, because the forme are not feared, as is the latter. Men startle at evident and known sins, whereas in lawful and allowed delights, they are oft overtaken without suspicion. Besides, as Feasting is a lawful, so it is a full condition. And when we have most fulness, we commonly have least fear. Men who most abound in enjoyments, are most bold in wickedness. Jesurum waxed fat and kicked, Deut. 32.15. When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord. Deut. 6.12. Agnrs prayer was against Riches, Prov. 30.9. upon this ground, lest being full he should forget God. In slippery pathes we are most ready to fall; and in a condition of greatest abundance, we soonest are overturned. A full condition is commonly but fewel to lust; nor can our sensual hearts easily feed upon pleasing objects, without surfetting. Isai. 28.1. The Drunkards of Ephraim, were on the head of the fat vallies. Its a rare thing to see Religion flourish in a rich Soil. Where the Soil is Richest, there the Inhabitants commonly are most Riotous. And if it be thus, then as worldly abundance is a weak Argument to prove Gods love, and as we should be content to want, yea, pray against, and shun those delights which will occasion us, being full, to deny God; so should we (particularly) feast with holy fear, which will keep us from sin in our Feasting, from falling in such a slippery path. This fear of God and our selves, we shall shew,

1 By propounding holy ends in our Feasting. As 1 The refreshing of our bodies, we not living to eat, but eating to live, and to keep our frail cottages in meet reparations. 2 We should aim at the glorifying of God, at the delighting in the giver, by and above his gifts: the being more firmly tyed to him with every cord of love. A godly man hath a heavenly end, in doing of every earthly ployment; and though he doth the same thing which he was wont to do, yet now he doth it for an higher end, and would account a Feast, to be but a dry morsel, if thereby he might not see it come in love, and be enabled to return it again to love.

2. By acknowledging Gods Attributes. In our feasts meditating, 1 On Gods fulness and sufficiency, who with the opening of his hand fills every Creature, and is the great house-holder of the whole world. 2 On his goodness, in causing so many Creatures to dye for us, who deserved death most of all, and are less then the least of all Gods mercies.

3 By observing Divine Rules. 1 That Rule of Piety. 1. In praying for a blessing, and particularly for a heart to be thankful for the receiving, holy in the using, and fruitfull in the improving every gift. 2. In using holy discourse: this Box of Ointment, we then should bring and break, like that good woman, Luke 7.36. Bread and salt are necessary at every feast; our discourse must both feed and season others. 2. The rule of Charity in remembring the poor, whose wants our compassions should make us feel, though our conditions do not, and to shew that our bowels are not shut up, our hands should be open. 3. The rule of Temperance, sometimes we should fast, never be gluttonous. If thou beest (saith Solomon) a man of appetite, Prov 23.2. put a knife to thy throat. Nature seems to dictate thus much, by giving to man a smaller mouth, and a narrower throat, then any other creature of his bigness, hath: we should rise from the greatest feast, fit to pray.

This for the first Resemblance whereby the Apostle describes the estate of these Seducers. The second follows, wherein he compares them to clouds without water, carried about of the winds.

EXPLICATION.

Two particulars are here to be explained.

1. From what sort of creatures, he draws the resemblance, viz. From clouds.

2. From what sort of clouds, viz. 1. From empty clouds. 2. From unstable clouds.

In the first, From what sort of creatures the resemblance is drawn. Two things are considerable.

1. What we are to understand by clouds.

2. Why the Apostle made choice of such a resemblance, taken from these clouds.

1. For the first, the word is νεφέλαι, clouds, derived (as some think) from the Hebrew word Nuph, which signifieth to drop, or (as others) from Naphal to fall, or descend. And a cloud (such as the word νεφέλη, properly imports) is a moist vapour drawn up by the heat of the Sun, unto the middle Region of the air, where being by the coldness of that place knit together, and congealed, it so continueth untill (being dissolved and melted by the warmth of the Sun) it be turned into rain; Zanch. de op. Dei l. 3. c. 6. p. 381. Nubes est vapor humidus & crassus, qui ad mediam aerē regionem, à sole elevatus, à frigore autem regionis condensatus, tamdiu talis manens, donec calore solis liquefactus, in pluviam convertitur. Psal. 77.17. Isai. 5.7. 1 Kings 18. Illud hoc loco, tū pleris que aliis observari necesse est, scripturā nō uti accuratione Philosophorum, sed ratione populari in nominandis rebus, 〈Greek〉 distinctionis ergo, à Philosophis nebulae appellantur, quae 〈Greek〉, sunt & νεφέλη ἄγονος Arist. Met. l. 1 c. 9. Jun. in Jude Hoc sanè est ex mirabilibus naturae, quae consuetudinis vitio, viluerunt. Pined. in Job 26. So that the property and use of clouds, is to carry water and rain for the use of the earth, they water the garden of the earth, like a Garden-pot; they are the treasuries of rain, and (as one saith) rain condensed or congeal’d, and rain is a cloud dissolv’d. Or (as another) a cloud is the womb of rain, big with it (oft) as with its issue. And therefore (as the learned Junius on this place notes) when our Apostle adds ἄνυδροι to νεφέλαι, saying, that these clouds are without water, he rather useth ratione populari, a popular and Vulgar kind of speech, then stands upon Philosophical accurateness; for those clouds which are without water, Aristotle and other Philosophers call not νεφέλας, nubes, but ὁμίχλας, nebulas, thin dispersed vapours which (indeed) obscure the face of the heavens, but have within them, no rain for the thirsty earth at all; so distinguishing them from νεφέλαι, rainy clouds.

The Naturalists who write concerning watery Meteors, enquire, how it can be, that a cloud should contain so vast a bulk and quantity of heavy waters, and not violently and at once fall to the earth; heavy things naturally descending or tending downward: Several causes are by them assigned, some say, that they are kept up by their natural and inbred warmth, included in them, and by the heat (without) of the Sun and Stars; others say, by their motion which they have from the winds; others by reason of their spungy hollowness, which receives and takes in the thin air; but Philosophers (in this) are like little children, that cannot speak plain, (at least to my dulness,) the safest way (according to the best Divines) is to resolve this, by the Scripture, which represents the holding up of the clouds as the work of Gods power, and teacheth us that God hath given his command in the creation, that the clouds fall not, Prov. 8.28. He established the clouds above. Gen. 1.6. Let the firmament (that is, Zanch. de op Dei, l. 2. c. 1. p. 277. Aer, suâ mediâ regione, dividit aquas quae sursum evehuntur. ab iis quae infrae fluunt. as Zanchy largely and strongly proves, the ayr, in respect of the middle Region) divide the waters from the waters, namely those which are drawn up, and made clouds for rain, from those which run below: And Job 26.8. Its expressely said, that God bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them: he hath bound these waters in a (though weak, slight) garment, Prov. 30.4. The waters above the Heavens, are recorded among the things which God hath estalisht for ever, and for which he hath made a decree that they shall not pass, Ps. 148.4, 6. Its his power that enables so weak a cobweb, to hold (as it were) a strong man, prisoner; its that alone, which lays up even a Sea of waters, in the thin sieve or searce of a cloud, which (till he pleaseth) shall not let go one drop, Sunt nubes, ut spongia quaedam aquarum plena. Deus autem mam• suae proorovidentiae, spongiam bane comprimit, non totam simul, & quantum potest, sed paulatim, ut molliter descendant aquae. Zanch. de op. Dei, l. 3. c. 6. pag. 383. and then rain shall come (as through a sieve, or strainer) not in floods, but in drops. Or rather (as Zanchy that Divine Naturalist speaks) he makes his clouds spunges; till he press and squeez them with the hand of his providence, not a drop shall fall out of them; he presseth these spunges not too hard, but gently, that so they may moderately, and by little and little distil and drop upon us, and not overwhelm us, as they did the old World, when he wrung these spunges hard upon them. He whose word is a dam to hinder the proud waves from flowing over the face of the earth, hath a word likewise which (as a stopple) shuts up the bottles of his clouds, and keeps them from running out. In a word, he who hangeth the earth upon nothing, is in the next words deservedly said, to bind up the waters in his thick clouds.

For the second particular, viz. why the Apostle made choice of a resemblance taken from these clouds. He saith these Seducers were νεφέλαι, clouds, which according to the notation of the word, and common usage, signifie such as have in them, water for the refreshment of the earth: and I conceive that our Apostle hereby intends either, 1, To shew their duty, which was as the Ministers of Christ to be watring clouds, to afford to people the sweet and refreshing showers of wholsome Doctrines: Or rather, 2. Their great boastings, hypocritical shews and appearances, they seeming and pretending to be clouds full of water, as the holy Prophets and Apostles were; whereas indeed, they were (though appearingly full, yet) really and truly empty; unprofitable and waterless, like the boaster of a false gift, of whom Soloman speaks, Prov. 25.14. that he is as clouds without rain; though by reason of his great promises, he seemed to be full of water, and beneficialness: As if the Apostle had said, These Seducers are clouds full of water of holiness and heavenly doctrine, if you will beleeve their own expressions and appearances; but if you come to try or use them, you shall finde no benefit, comfort, or refreshment from them. And I conceive, that the Apostle by calling them clouds, intimates their proud and hypocritical pretending to resemble the worthy and profitable Instructers and Teachers of the people of old, who are oft and elegantly in Scripture compared to clouds, and whose doctrine is resembled to dropping, as Isai. 5.7. where God (according to some) threatning to take away the Prophets and their Ministry from the people, saith, I will command the clouds that they rain no rain: And frequently in Scripture is prophesying or teaching called a dropping: מורה tum docens doctorve tum pluvia tempestiva. 21.30.20. Joel. 2.23. My doctrine (saith Moses) Deut. 32.2. shall drop as the rain, Ezek. 21.2. Son of man, drop toward, &c. And prophesie against the land of Israel. And Amos 7.16. Prophesie not against Israel, drop not thy word against the house of Israel, Ezek. 20.46. Son of man, drop toward the South, and prophesie, &c. And Micah 2.6. Prophesie (or drop) not, say they to them that prophesie. And in ordinary speech we use to say, the clouds drop, and (when it begins to rain) it drops, Prov. 3.20. His clouds drop down the dew. And clouds are a most lively resemblance of faithful Ministers. Gen. 1.6. Prov. 8.28. Psal. 147.8. Ephes. 4.11. Psal. 68.11. 1. In regard of the cause of both: the supream highest cause is God; clouds are frequently in Scripture called his clouds, Job 26.8. Psal. 18.12. Prov. 3.20. Ministers are his, they are from him, for him, kept up by him, he gives the word, and great shall be the company of those who publish it; he sends forth labourers; the natural cause of clouds, is the Sun drawing up vapours; Christ the Sun of righteousnesse, he calls, appoints, gives gifts to Ministers. 2. In regard of the condition of clouds; they are carried from place to place, tossed too and fro with the winds; Ministers are oft removed by God, from one place (in anger for its unfruitfulness) to another, and tossed by the winds of persecution, hither and thither, the Church nevertheless by their dispersion, gaining moisture, and spiritual benefit. 3. In regard of their situation, clouds are above us, Ministers are (dignified by God) over us in the Lord, and they (as clouds) ought to be nearer heaven, and more having their conversation there then others, Phil. 3.20. They are not clods, but clouds, yea stars, yea angels. 4. Clouds they are in respect of sustentation, upheld by the powerful Word of Gods providence; else (as clouds under their loads) they could never be upheld, they are as dying, yet behold they live; stars in the right hand of Christ. 5. In respect of fulness, usefulness, and beneficialness. A cloud is both umbrifera and imbrifera, bringing shadow, and moisture to the earth; a faithful Minister cools and refresheth a scorched conscience by preaching the righteousness of Christ; he is a messenger; an Interpreter, one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness, Job 33.23. his feet are beautiful, Rom. 10.15. as welcome to a scorched conscience, as the rain to the parched earth; these spiritual clouds drop down the fruitful showrs of heavenly doctrine. 2 Tim. 2.24 Good Ministers are apt to teach. 6. Like clouds, they spend and consume themselvs in dropping on others; like salt and Torches, they melt themselves to benefit others; like Silk-worms, they weave out their own bowels to cover others nakednesse.

But secondly, Explicat. 2. from what sort of Clouds doth our Apostle draw a resemblance to sute with these Seducers?

1. From empty Clouds, without water.

2. From unstable Clouds, carried about, &c.

1. From empty Clouds, they are νεφέλαι ἄνυδροι, Clouds without water. Here two things ought to be explain’d.

1. VVhat it was to be without VVater.

2. VVhen it was a sin to be so.

For the first, as in Scripture the Prophets and Ministers are compared to Clouds, so their heavenly Doctrine, to Water or Rain showred down from those Clouds: My Doctrine (saith Moses) Deut. 32.2. shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb. And Isa. 55.10, 11. As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, &c. So shall my word be, that goeth out of my mouth, &c. And Heb. 6.7. The earth drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, & bringeth forth herbs &c. 1 Kings 17.14 Job 5.10. Job 36.27 Psal. 104.13 147.8. Psal. 65.10. Prov. 19.12 Ier. 31.12. Deut. 28.12. Ier. 5.24. Isa. 44.3. Es. 30.23. 44.14. And most fitly may the Word be compared to rain; 1. For its originall; God gives Rain, Jer. 15.22 Are there any among the vanities of the heathen that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O LORD, &c. Deut. 11.14. I will give you the rain of your land, Lev. 26.4. I will give you the rain in due season. God can onely give us a Word; Its called the Word of the Lord. He appoints what Ministers should preach, and he teacheth them how to Preach; and he makes the Word effectuall.

2. Rain is of a searching insinuating nature, soaking to the roots. The Word searcheth the heart, Fontes siccos eos appellat: Fontes scilicet quòd acceperint agnitionem domini Christi: siccos autem quia non congruenter vivunt. Aug. de fid. & Op. c. 25. Ubi fons sine aquâ, ibi lutum & erroris & peccati, nec lavat sed Coinqunat. Glos, Irenaeus. l. 1. c. 33. haereticos vocat fungos. Augustin. lib. de Haeres. Fabulones; Philologesnon Philosophos. Folia dant, non fructus, verba non scientiam, sophismata, non solida argumenta; jactant crepant que Scripturam, sed eam non intelligunt, imo pervertunt. Aperiunt quasi fontes scientia, qui aquam non habent doctrinarum promittunt imbrem, velut nubes Prophetica. Hiron. 2. contra Iov. pricks the heart, and purgeth it, Act. 2.37. Heb. 4.12.

3. Rain cooleth and refresheth the earth, and plants; the Promises of the Word, delight the soul, the chapt gasping thirsty soul. Isa. 44.3.

4. Rain softneth the earth, though hard like Iron. The Word maketh the heart tender, and pliable, obedient, Jer. 31.37. Ezek. 36.26. and fit to be moulded according to Gods mind.

5. Rain causeth the earth to be fruitfull; the Word makes us fruitfull in every grace and good work: Its an instrumentall cause of spirituall growth, 1 Pet. 2.2. Psal. 1.3. 1 Pet. 3.16. So that these seducing teachers were Clouds: 1. Without the water of holinesse and sanctification of heart, life, and example; they made shew to be the onely sublime Saints, and Christians of the first magnitude, and that others (in comparison of them) were but in the lowest form of godlinesse, and Religion; yet these ungodly men had not in them a drop of true Sanctity; they onely had a form of godlinesse, 2 Tim. 3.5. but denying the power thereof; and these waterlesse wells (as Peter cals them) had nothing in them, but the mud and filth of sin, not to cleanse, but pollute, and defile.

2 They were without the water of true Knowledge; they pretended to be the onely knowing Persons, that they onely had two eyes, and all others but one. They assumed to themselves, the title of Gnostici, for their great (pretended) insight into the Doctrines of Faith; They lookt upon others, as the Pharisees upon the people, who (they said) knew not the Law, and were accursed; or as Caiphas upon the other Priests, he telling them that they knew nothing, and yet for all this they were empty, and without the water of saving Knowledge, and Instruction. Their doctrines were but wind, chaff, and idle speculations, vain janglings, contentions about words, not profiting them who are exercised therein, improving no soul heaven-ward, making it after all their empty discourses, no further admitted into communion with Christ, cleansed from sin, in love with holinesse, fitted for death: in a word, their verball triflings never made a Proselite to Jesus Christ, but onely to an opinion. They had perhaps the wisdom of Words, but not the words of wisdom. They left the Scripture, and onely regarded dreams, and fables. They were blind leaders of the blind, and erred from the right way; Desiring to be teachers of the Law, they understood neither what they said, nor whereof they affirmed. And in stead of being Clouds that bedewed their hearers with the drops of heavenly instruction, 1 Tim. 1.7. they were clouds onely to darken their mind with error, and to hide from them the Sun-shine of Truth (as Oecomenius glosseth.) 3. They were without the water of Consolation and Refreshment, for those who expected benefit and relief from them. Who so boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds without rain, (saith Solomon) Prov. 25.14. All the glorious promises of peace and liberty which they made to their misled followers, were empty and deceitfull; While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruptiou. 2 Pet. 2.19. They pretended that they had found out a nearer way to heaven, then any before them had done, and that people might without fetching such a compasse of Mortification and holinesse, go straight on to Peace and Blessednesse: But their poor deceived Disciples found them herein, to be but clouds without water, such who could not make good these promises, and that there was no peace in impurity. 2 Pet. 2.17. Peter cals them wels without water, elegantly describing their disappointing of those who expected relief and refreshment for their souls from them, they being like the waters or wels in an hot Summer, that Jer. 15.18. are said to lie or fail; or a brook that is deceitfull, Job. 6.15. disappointing the thirsty who go to them for refreshment. They who trusted to what these seducers promised by their Doctrines, being like to those little ones, who being sent to the Pits (Jer. 14.3.) found no water, returning with their vessels empty, asham’d and confounded, covering their heads.

2. For the second, Wherein it was a sin for these Seducers, to be as clouds without water.

1. It argued prophane, presumption; namely, in undertaking a holy Function, for which they had no fitness; they had no worth, either of piety, or sufficiency; they had lips, but not such as could preserve Knowledg; they polluted the holy things of God with their unmeetness to mannage them; had they been persons of greatest abilities, the work of teaching and instructing souls, would have deserved and taken them all up; 2 Cor. 2.16. the shoulders of an Angel would have been weak enough for the weight of such a service; Who is (saith Paul) sufficient for these things? A mortal man would have scorned to be put off with such performances as they thought good enough for the great GOD. These cursed deceivers offered to God, not a male, but a corrupt thing. The God who is the best and greatest, requires the best and greatest of our abilities. But these offered that to God which cost them nothing.

2. It argued the sin of unusefulnesse and unprofitablenesse; they could not give what they had not; they had no worth, and they did no work. They had no water, nor did they pour down any. They were wicked, and slothfull; and therefore wicked, because slothfull, Mat. 25.26. These false teachers knew not what labour meant. They were spent not with cutting, but rusting. They were loyterers in the time of harvest. And they were neither faithfull, nor labourers. If they did sweat at all, it was not with working, but feeding. They were not as Clouds, that spend themselves in watering the earth. They were not impaired by service, but sensuality; If a private person must be a Publick good, then must not a Publick person be a private good. They lived to themselves, and cumbred their places to no purpose in the world When men went secure to hell, they quietly suffered them to do so. Their cruelty was great, because it was Soul-cruelty, they starved souls.

3. In their sin was delusion and hypocrisie; as they neither had worth nor did good, so in both they opposed their profession. They voiced themselves to be the onely able Instructers; but as the waterlesse clouds delude the expecting husband-man, so did these, their fond followers. They pretended to be spirituall nurses, and (though they expected full paiment) they gave the children but empty, windy breasts. Their deluded Disciples spent their mony for that which was not bread, and their labour for that which satisfied not: Had these seducers appeared to be what they were, empty, they had not been call’d clouds; or had they been what they appeared to be, they had not been call’d clouds without water. Under a glorious title, their lodg’d a base and unworthy temper.

Its a great sin to be confutations of our Professions. Injustice is not so inexcusable in any, as in a Judg; Blindness is not so blameable in any, as in a guide; a seer, silence, in none is so hatefull, as in a Preacher; drinesse no where so unexpected, as in a Well, a Cloud.

It was not the barren Oak or Elm, (from which fruit was never expected) but the Figtree, whose kind, was fruitful, that Christ cursed for unfruitfulnesse Nor did the dammage of their hypocrisie onely redound to themselves. A by reason of their emptinesse, they did good to none, so in regard of their seeming fulnesse, they did hurt to many. How easily might their misguided followers spend their time in a vain gaping after these empty clouds of error and presumption, for the water of Life and happinesse, and mean while neglect the Rain of Heaven, a Soul-saving Ministry? these erroneous guides, though hereby aggravating their own, yet not excusing their followers from damnation.

2. Our Apostle, to set forth the instability as well as the emptiness of these seducers, drawes a comparison, to sute these seducers, from clouds, as carried about with the winds; he saith, They are ὑπὸ ἀνέμων περιφερόμεναι.

Two things I shall here touch, by way of Explication.

1. What the Apostle here intends by their being carryed about.

2. What those winds were, by which they were carryed about.

1. For the first, their being carried about is noted in this word, περιφερόμεναι, Carried about, driven this way and that way, not abiding or resting in any one place, like any light matter, feathers, stubble, dust, &c. which are at the courtesie of every blast and puff of wind; And hereby, is intended the unstablenesse and unsetlednesse of these seducers, in their Christian course. Expressed likewise by the same word, Eph. 4.14. Children tossed to and fro; and περιφερόμενοι, carried about with every wind of Doctrine: and Heb. 13.9. μὴ περιφέρεσθε, Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. If one wind comes, the cloud is carried this way; if another, that way; somtimes to one quarter of the Heavens; at other times to a quite contrary: so was it with these unsettled souls, who wanting the ballast and solidity of grace in their heart, were unstable, unconfirmed in their opinions, affections and practices. For the Apostle may hereby intend a three-fold instability and unsetlednesse, or their being carried about in three respects.

1. In respect (principally I conceive) of opinion and judgment; they were not setled in the truths of Religion; like those 1 Kings 18.21. who halted between two opinions. They continued not in the faith, grounded and setled, (as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.23.) they were not placed upon a firm foundation, nor were they seated as a man in a seat, from which he cannot easily be removed; and ‘tis frequently observed; that the erroneous are never firm either to the truth or their own opinions. They forget what they have been, unsterstand not what they are, and know not what they shall be. Augustine tels us how frequently Pelagius altered his opinions concerning Grace, and Hilary reports of Arius, that he had menstruam fidem, for every month a sundry faith, as if he had swallowed Moons, that he was never consistent to, and with himself. before the Councel, he held for the Divinity of Christ; among his companions, otherwise. Thus the Apostle complains of the Galatians, for their being so soon removed unto another Gospel, 1 Gal. 6. and warnes his Ephesians chap. 4.14. that they should not be carried about, &c. and Peter (2 Pet. 2.14.) mentions unstable souls. Oft from Brownism men wander to Anabaptism, from thence to Arminianism, thence to Socinianisme and Arminianisme, and then they become Seekers; or rather indeed, loosers of themselves, just nothing, as a thin empty, cloud, they are tossed so long up and down by winds, that at length they come to nothing at all. Their heads are like Inns, and their opinions like Travellers, which oft lodg not above one night in them; like wax, they take any new impression. Its bard to say whether, they are pluralists or neutralists in Religion, and as hard to please them in any opinion, as to make a Coat that should constantly fit the Moon. They know they shall dy, but in what faith they know not. One error is ever a bridg to another. 2 Pet. 3.16. They are called unlearned and unstable, and (therefore) such as wrest the Scriptures; whence its plain, that by unstable, he means such as were not grounded in the Faith and Learning of the Truth. Hymeneus and Philetus, who once held the Truth concerning the Resurrection, afterward erred concerniag the Faith, saying, that the Resurrection was past already, 2 Tim. 2.18.

2. They might be carried about, and unstable in respect of their affections, the goodnesse whereof was onely by fits and pangs, sometimes they were fire-hot (perhaps) in Religion; soon after, stone-cold: their heat, like that in the fit of an ague, is not from nature, but distemper, and therefore, though violent, yet not permanent; they resemble the Mariners, Psal. 107.26. of whom the Psalmist speaks, that at one time they are mounted up to heaven, and presently, fall down again into the depths; like David, who in his youth was full of Spirits and vigor, but in his old age grew cold and chilly; these who somtime seem’d fervent in spirit, ζέοντες τῷ πνεύματι, now are cold in their affections, and come to a state of indifferency and neutrality, and frame to themselves such a moderation, as will just serve the scantling of the times. They were (they say) forward and foolish in the heat of their youth, to oppose sin, but now they see their error, and admire their present staiednesse, and the golden mean which they have attained. Thus it was with those unsettled Galatians, who at first could have pull’d out their eyes for Paul, Gal. 4.16. soon after counted him an eye-sore, their enemy, fortelling them the truth. The Church of Ephesus had left her first love, Rev. 2.4. Thus Alexander, who (as some think) for his zeal against Diana, the Heathens Idol, Qui martyrio propinquus erat, perfidum & sceleratum apostatam factum videmus. Cal. in Ac. 19. formidabile exemplum. or (as others) for his noted love towards Paul, was like to have been torn in pieces as a Martyr; afterwards (as Calvin thinks) became Pauls deadly adversary, 2 Tim. 4.14. and would have martyred him. Johns hearers rejoyced in his light for a season. Affections raised upon no true grounds will soon fall; and by so much the greater, will the fall be, by how much the higher the building was. They who have been sometimes more then Christians in their fervor for, afterwards have proved worse then heathens, in fury against the truth.

3. They might be carried about and unstable in their practices: very strict and precise in their carriage at the first: very loose and profane afterwards: Seducers grew from better to worse, or (as the Apostle speaks,) worse and worse; 2 Tim. 3.13. golden professors haply in their youth, silver in their middle age, leaden in their old age. They set out well, but did not hold out at all; so appearingly consciencious at the first, that the very appearances of sin were shun’d; so really wicked at last, that the greatest abominations are not scrupled, and they are grown so strong, that their stomacks can digest those impieties, with the very sight whereof, heretofore, they seem’d to be sick. How frequently hath the glorious, the morning beginnings of Christian Profession been overcast with the darknesse and gloomy cloudinesse of prophanenesse, before the evening! Many, who have been elevated to a high pitch of Profession, have faln (like clouds) into some dirty lane, or slough of uncleannesse and loosnesse. Gal. 3.3. They begin in the flesh, and end in the flesh; though they seem’d to have escapt the pollutions of the world, and to be washt from their filthinesse, yet they return with the dog to their vomit, 2 Pet. 2.22. and with the sow to their wallowing in the mire.

2. Plurium conflictus ventorum. Lorin. Impetuosus turbo. Geth. Luke 8 23. Mar. 4.37. Hebr. 13.9. 〈Greek〉. For the second, by what they were carried about and unsetled, viz. By the windes, ὑπὸ ἀνέμων; the word ἄνεμος signifies any blast which blows in the air, but Peter 2 Pet. 2.17. saith, they are ὑπὸ λαίλαπος ἐλαυνόμεναι, carried with a tempest; the word λαῖλαψ properly signifying a whirlwind, not one wind, but a conflict of many winds. Its used by the Evangelists in the describing the tempest miraculously appeased and calmed by Christ. There were several sorts of winds and tempests wherewith these Seducers were carried about.

1. The wind of strange doctrines; this is noted by the Apostle, Hebr. 13.9. where he warns the Christians that they be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. And Eph. 4.14. with every wind of doctrine: Every doctrine which was new, was by them entertained as true. They had itching ears, delighted with novelty, not obedient ears attentive to profitable truths; whence it was that every new doctrine carried them a several way, and that they meeting with several new Doctrines, were hurried round as in a whirlwind, and knew not where to rest. The Divel pleased them (like children) with change of toyes. The true Gospel was neglected for another, as Paul speaks, Gal. 1.6. they were of the same mind with him who taught them last; they were meer moveables in the Church; like the water, ever of the same figure with the vessel into which its put; like a company of cyphers, which signifie what it pleaseth the Figure which is put before them.

2. Seducers are carried about with the wind of fear; to save their skins, they car’d not what they held, taught, did; they were impatient of persecution. Thus speaks the Apostle of these seducers, Gal. 6.12. They constrain you to be circumcised, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. That which they entertained meerly for fear, they present to others as a doctrine of Faith. These are reeds that bow and hang, according to the standing of the winds; such a reed shaken with the winds, was not John Baptist, but rather an Oak, which will sooner be broken, then bend by the winds, by an holy Antiperistasis, his zeal was doubled by opposition. These false Teachers were like a man that goes to Sea for pleasure, not for Traffick; if a storm arise, he will come back, or put to the next shore: Like that ship, Acts 27.15. they bear not up into the wind, Jer. 9 3. they are not valiant for the truth, Tit. 1.9. nor hold they fast the faithful Word, but let it go, if enemies contend to pull it away.

3. They were carried about with the wind of pride and ambition. They gaped after the breath of applause; old truths are of no reputation among the giddy sort; hence it was, that these were carried to teach that whereby they might be voiced, and cryed up for some rare men, dropt out of the clouds, and seeing further then all the rest of their times. They could not tell how to get above others, unless they taught something different from others; truth was counted but a dull, stale business; and therefore they chose rather to be accounted such as excelled by being erroneous, then such as were onely equall to others, Vento superbiae omnes haereses animantur. by delivering the truth. The wind of Pride is the life and soul of Error, it is the element wherein it moves and breaths; Seducers were puft up (as Paul speaks, Col. 2.18.) vainly by their fleshly minds; a humble soul will not easily either teach, or follow an Error; It hath ever been the property of Seducers, to follow the peoples humour with Errors, that so the people might follow them with applause.

4. They were carried about with the wind of earthly mindedness. They taught any false doctrine for filthy lucres sake; 2 Pet. 2. they would rarely be carried with any wind, but such as blew them some profit; they steered their course by the compass of gain; their Religion began at their purse strings: They served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, Rom. 16.18. This was that wind which carried Balaam about from country to country, from Altar to Altar; he and his followers loved to be of the Kings Religion: Thus Erasmus said, that one poor Luther, made a great many rich Abbots and Bishops; he meant, that by preaching against him, they were wont to get their great livings and preferments; Demas forsook truth, to embrace the present world.

OBSERVATIONS

1. The want of the showrs of a faithful Ministry (spiritual rain) is a singular curse and calamity. Consciencious Ministers are clouds, and their Doctrine rain. As no rain is so useful and profitable as the rain of the Word, so neither is it so great a misery, to be deprived of any, as of this. God often in Scripture promiseth Showres and Teachers as great Blessings, Deut. 28.12. The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure, the Heaven to give thee rain, &c. Joel 2.23. Rejoice in the Lord your God, for &c. he will cause to come down for you the Rain, &c. And for instructours, see Jer. 3.15. Jer. 23.4. I will give you Pastours according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledg and understanding. Isai. 30.20. Though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity, and the water of Affliction, yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more. God also threatens the keeping away of rain, and the taking away of Instructers, as dismal curses, Deut. 28.23. Jer. 3.3.14.4. Amos 4.7. Isai. 3.2. 1 Sam. 3.1. Hos. 4.5. Ezek. 3.26. Psal. 57.9. The Heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, thy rain shall be powder and dust. Lev. 26.19. I will make your Heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. Zach. 14.17. Upon them shall be no rain. Never was a greater plague on Israel, then when in three yeers and a half, it rained not on the earth in Ahabs time. And concerning the Prophets, the Lord saith, Mich. 2.6. They shall not (Hebr. drop) Prophesie; and Isai. 5.6. God threatens his Vineyard, that he will commands, his clouds (his Prophets) that they shall rain no rain upon it. God threatned a great judgment in great displeasure against the people Ezek. 3.26. when he told Ezekiel, that he would make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth; and that he should be dumh, and no reprover to them: and when he threatned that he would remove away the candlestick of Ephesus, out of its place, Rev. 2.5. The want of Spiritual, is a much greater woe then the want of natural rain. The withholding of showers from Heaven, can but produce a Famine of bread; the want of a faithful Ministry, brings a Famine of the Word of the Lord, Amos 8.11. And this famine of the Word of the Lord, is a Soul-famine. And

1 Opposeth not Natural, but Spiritual life. The separation of the soul from the body, is but the shadow of death: True death stands in the separation between God and the soul. Where vision faileth, people perish, Prov. 29.18. My people perish for want of knowledge, Hos. 4 6. Salvation and Life eternal stand in Knowledg, Joh. 17.3. 1 Tim. 2.4.

2. Bodily famine takes away our natural strength and vigor, whereby we perform our ordinary and worldly actions; but a soul-Famine destroyes that Spiritual strength, whereby we are enabled to heavenly Employments, Praying, Repenting, Believing, Holy-walking.

3 Bodily Famine makes the outward man look pale, deformed, lean, unpleasing; soul-famine brings a leanness into the soul, deformity and profananess into the face of our conversation. Who observes not in Congregations, whence the Word is taken, the miserable change of men and manners! In Elies time, sin abounded, and the reason is set down 1 Sam. 3.1. In those dayes the word of the Lord was precious.

4 Bodily Famine, as other external judgments, may be a help to bring men to God, by causing Repentance, and bettering Obedience, as in the Prodigal; but the famine of the Word, puts men farther from God, and by it men grow more obdurate in sin.

5. Bodily Famine may be recompensed and made up with Spiritual food. Isai. 30.20. Though the Lord give the bread of Adversity, yet he countervailes that loss, by giving them to see their Teachers, whereas Spiritual famine cannot be recompensed by having bodily food, because when God takes away the food of the soul, he takes away himself, the tokens of his presence and Grace: and what can be given in exchange for God himself?

6 Of bodily Famine people are sensible, they cry out thereof, and labour for a supply; but the more soul famine rageth, the more people disregard, their misery, and slight their wretchedness; by fasting, forgetting, how to feed, and with their food, losing (often) their stomacks too. How much then are they mistaken who account Spiritual showres, their greatest plague, and complain of these dewes of Grace, as if they were a deluge of woe; to whom the word of the Lord is the greatest burthen; who cry out, the Land cannot bear it! A Church without a Preacher, is as a Ship sayling in a dark night, on a rough Sea, without a Pilot. Never was Christ more moved in compassion toward the people, then when he saw them scattered as sheep without a Shepherd. They who would be rid of the Word, would also be without pardon, peace, holinesse, happinesse; it being the Word of Faith, the Word which sanctifies, the Gospel of Peace, the Word of life, the Power of God to salvation. Ministers are Saviours, Watch-men, Labourers in the Harvest, Nurses, Guides, Builders, Sowers, Seers, Light, Salt, Clouds, &c. VVhat then are places destitute of saving instruction, but unsafe, spoiled, starved, waste, blind, wandering, unsavoury, barren? and yet how commonly do many curse the preaching of the word, as the people who live under the torrid Zone, do the rising of the Sun! To conclude, what apparent enemies are they to the souls of people, who hinder the preaching of the Gospel! who will not suffer it to run and be glorified; who revile and abuse the faithful Dispensers thereof! an act (no doubt) of greater unthankfulness, then to wrong and abuse a man, who in a time of Famine should open his Garners for the relief of a whole Country.

2 The greatest commendation of a Minister, Observ. 2 is industry for, and usefulness to the souls of others. Clouds are not appointed for themselves, but to water the earth; and in doing so, they consume themselves: like Silkworms, Ministers wear and weave out their own boweis. ‘Tis a sin for any, much more for a Minister, to be an unprofitable servant. He must not go to Sea in his Ministerial Calling for Pleasure, but Employment. He must say (with Pompey) who being to sayl over the Seas with Corn to relieve distressed Rome, and being told by the Pilot, that it would prove a dangerous Voyage; answered, 〈Greek〉. It is not necessary we should live, but that we should sayl. The Excellency of the Sun is not so much in respect of its glory and splendor, as its influences and beneficialness: and he who expects hereafter to shine like the Sun, must here run like the Sun. They who preach the Sun of Righteousness, must be like the Sun who cometh forth of his chamber like a Bridegroom, and rejoiceth to run his race. The clods of the earth, may be of a more dull and sad temper, rest and lye still; but the clouds of Heaven, must be in a perpetual motion. Ministers must, like the Cherubims, which give attendance in the presence of God, have wings for expedition in the execution of his will. They are called Labourers, and workmen; they labour in the Word and Doctrine. Pauls glory was not, that he was more advanced, but that he laboured more abundantly then they all: As much as in me is (saith he) I am ready to preach the Gospel. He made Preaching his business; therein he was glad to spend, and to be spent, 2 Cor. 12.15. Knowledg without industry, speaks no man Excellent. None is accounted good, for the good he hath, but the good he doth. A wooden key that opens the door, is a better one, then a Golden one that cannot do it. Greatest industry is alway to be used about the salvation of souls. Impudent importunity is in no case so commendable as in this Paul was an excellent Orator, and all his Oratory was to perswade men to be saved. Never did Malefactor so plead to obtain his own life, as did Paul beg of men to accept of life. He was an importunate woer of souls, and he would take no denyal. Ministers must rather be worn with using then rusting. The sweat of a Minister (as it is reported of Alexanders) casts a sweet smell; his Talents are not for the Napkin, but Occupation; not to be laid up, but to be laid out. They who are full Clouds, should be free in pouring out, returning as they have received. How unworthily do they deal with God, who are all for taking in, and nothing for laying out! How liitle is the age and place wherein they live, beholding to them! How just is it with God, that they who will not give him the interest of their abilities, by improving and acting them, should lose the principal, by ceasing to have and retain them! 1 Cor. 12.7. The manifestation of the Spirit, is given to every one to profit withal. Standing water soon putrifies. Musical Instruments which are most used, sound most melodiously. Eccles. 5.17. If Solomon observed it to be a great vanity, that some men had Riches, who had not power to use them; how much greater is the vanity of having great intellectual abilities, and yet to have no power to make use of them, for the good of others? In short therefore, Ministers must remember that they are not appointed for sight, but service, and usefulness. We account not a Pillar to be good because it is sightly, but strong. We should fear to sit under that Structure, the Pillars whereof are, though curiously gilded and painted outwardly, yet crazy and rotten within. Its better to be under a disgraced, persecuted Paul, then under a silken Diotrephes, who is altogether for worldly glory and preheminence, nothing for duty and performance.

3 Ministers of the Gospel must be full and watery clouds. Observ. 3 Able and apt to teach; gifted and enabled to their Ministry. As Ambassadors, they must be sure to have their instructions with them; 2 Cor. 3.6. Ephes. 4.2. and to be able Ministers of the New Testament, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry. Able to impart Spiritual gifts, Match. 13.52. 2 Tim. 2.15. bringing forth out of his treasure, things new and old being Workmen that need not be shamed, rightly dividing: the Word of Truth.

1. Able they must be to open the Scriptures: They must have the water of Knowledg, and be able to unlock the Cabinet of the Word, fit to feed the people with understanding: to role away the stone from the mouth of the well, for the watering of the flocks of Christ. He who calls for a reasonable Sacrifice, will not be content with an unreasonable Sacrificer; Ministers must teach every one in all wisdom, Col. 1.28.

2. They must have ability to convince gainsayers by sound Doctrine, Tit. 1.9. A Ministers brest, should be a Spiritual Armory, furnished with Spiritual Weapons, for overcoming of opposers. Apollos mightily convinced the Jewes; so Paul disputed against the adversaries of the Truth, Act. 9.29. and 17.17.

3 The Gift of working upon the affections, and quickning to duty. Ability, not only to enlighten the understanding, but to warm the heart. I think it meet, &c. 2 Pet. 1.13. (saith Peter) to stir you up. Paul knowing the terror of the Lord, perswaded men. The Ministers lips, like Isaiahs, Isai. 6.6. must be touched with a live coal, and he must partake of that Spirit, which came down in the likeness of fiery tongues, to fire the affections of his Hearers, and to make their hearts burn within them, with love to holy duties. It was said of Basil, that he breathed as much fire as eloquence.

4. The gift of comforting the distressed conscience; of speaking a word in season to him that is weary, Isai. 50.4 of declaring to man his uprightness: of binding up the broken heart, and of pouring oyl into its wounds; of dropping the refreshing dewes of the Promises upon the parched Conscience: In a word, of giving every one his Portion, like a Faithful and wise Steward.

5. Lastly, They must have the water of Grace and Sanctification. Of this their hearts and life should both be full. If a Beast was not to come to the Mount, where the Law was delivered, much less may he who is a beast deliver the Law. The Doctrine of a Minister must credit his life, and his life adorn his Doctrine. Dead Doctrine, not quickned with a holy life (like dead Amasa) lying in the way, stops people, that they will not go on cheerfully in their Spiritual warfare. Doth God require that the Beast which is offered to him, should be without blemishes; and can he take it well that the Priest who offers it should be full of blemishes?

He then who will win souls (we see) must be able and wise. A Minister must be throughly furnished (as Paul speaks.) There is some wisdom required to catch Birds, 2 Tim. 3.17. Fish, and Vermine; how much more to catch souls? The best Minister may blush to consider how unfit he is for his Calling; and when he hath gotten the greatest abilities, he should beg pardon for his unableness, and pray and study for a further increase of his gifts. They are none of Christs Ministers, who are not in some measure gifted for their work. He that sendeth (saith Solomon) a Message by the hand of a fool, cutteth off the feet, Prov. 26.6. and drinketh damage; he is sure to suffer for it, it being all one, as if he should cut off a mans legs, and then bid him go on his Errand.

To conclude, how unworthy and profane are they who bestow such of their children upon the Ministry, as are the dullest and most unfit of all their number! who say, that when a child is good for nothing, be is good enough to make a Preacher; whose children (as Doctor Stoughton speaks in allusion to his speech who called Basil, the Gift of an Ague, he being preserved from the violence of an Arian Emperor, 〈Greek〉 because he recovered his son of a dangerous Ague) may be called the gift of some lameness, infirmity, deformity; Offer it now to thy Governor, will he be pleased with thee?

4. Ministers are sustained and upheld in their work by the mighty power of God. It is much to be wondred, Mal. 1.8. that the Natural, Observ. 4. but more that the Spiritual clouds are kept from falling. Its God who bindeth up the waters in the cloud; so that it is not rent under them, Job 26.8. He that established and made a decree, which shall not pass, for the waters above the Heavens. Psal. 148.4, 6. It was God who preserved Elijah when Jezabel had vowed his death; God delivered Paul out of the mouth of the Lion; he kept Isaiah in his Ministry during the Reign of four; and Hosea during the Reign of five Kings: he continued Noah an hundred and twenty years, against the opposition of the old world. Jeremy, notwithstanding all his enemies, was upheld in his work till the Captivity. God promiseth the Church, that their Teachers should not be removed into corners, but that their eyes should behold them. Isai. 30.20. Luke 13.32. A Minister of Christ may say, as Christ of his working of miracles, I preach the Word to day, and to morrow, and do the world what they can, they shall not hinder me, till that day be come that Christ hath appointed; The Ministers are stars in Christs hand So long as theres any one soul, which these Lights are to guide to Heaven, all the blasts of Hell can never extinguish them. God sets them, and God keeps them up; he erects, he upholds, he gave, and he continues their commission, Durante beneplacito; they are Ambassadours, 2 Cor. 5.20. whom he calls home when he pleaseth. Let not (then) the servants of Christ, fear man in the doing of the work of their Lord. He who hangs the earth upon nothing, and keeps the clouds from being rent under the burthen of the waters, can uphold them under all their pressures. Their times are in Gods hand; they are neither in their own, nor in their enemies. They shall fight against thee (said God to Jeremy) but they shall not prevail against thee, Jer. 1.19. for I am with thee. Let faithful Ministers, fear none but their Master, and nothing but sin and unfaithfulness. Not outward evils, because he sleeps not who preserves them; but inward evils, because he sleeps not who observes them. Let Ministers undauntedly make their faces hard against the faces of the wicked. In their own cause let them be as flexible as a reed; in Gods, as hard as an Adamant; who can powerfully say to the strongest enemies of his Ministers, Do my Prophet: no harm; and who will turn the greatest harm which they receive for his sake, into good, and make even a fiery chariot to carry his zealous Elijahs into heaven. Hence likewise, people are taught how to have their faithfull Ministers continued; namely, by making God their friend, who at His pleasure removes and continues them. How carefull were they of Tyre and Sidon to be at peace with Herod, because their Country was nourished by the Kings Country? Acts 10.20. Tis doubtlesse, greater wisdom to make God our friend, by whose Care and Providence our Country is nourished spiritually, and supplied with those who should break the Bread of Life unto us. If People would keep their Ministers, let them keep and love no sin: Upon the repentance of the Jews, God promised them, that his sanctuary should be in the midst of them for evermore, Ezek. 37.26. Let them bring forth (likewise) the fruits of the Gospel. The Husbandman layes his ground fallow, when he perceives it will not quit Charges. The Kingdom of heaven (saith Christ) shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation which will bring forth the fruits thereof, Mat. 21.43.

Lastly, let them be importunate with God in Prayer, to uphold his Ministers. Importunity held Christ with the Disciples, when he was going away, Luk. 24.29. Say, Lord, Thou shalt not go till thou hast blessea me, with more spirituall blessings and grace by the means of grace. Oh! lay hold upon God, as Galeacius’s children hung about his legs, when their Father was going from, them to live at Geneva. The Prophet complains, Isa. 64.7. that none stirred up himself to take hold of GOD. Say, O thou the hope of Israel, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the Land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Jer. 14.8. When Peter was cast into prison, prayer was made with out ceasing of the Church unto God for him; and their Prayer broke open the prison-doors, and knockt off Peters chains. When Paul was a prisoner at Rome, Philem 22. He. 13.18, 19. he tels Philemen, I trust that through your prayers, I shal be given unto you.

5. Obs. 5. Ministers must not in this world, expect a setled quiet condition.

They are clouds, and they must look to be tossed, and hurried by the winds. The faithfullest servants of Christ, have ever been opposed by when opposers of the sinners and sins of the times wherein they lived. They are Light, and therefore theeves and sore eyes cannot endure them. They are Souldiers, and if they (like Ishmael) will draw their sword against every one, every ones sword shall be against them. They are the salt of the earth, and therefore smart and biting; fishers, and therfore they shal be tossed as upon the sea. Which of the Prophets (saith Steven) have not your fathers persecuted? Acts 7.52. Mat. 5.12. Mat. 23.34. Luk. 11.49 So persecuted they the Prophets, (saith Christ) I send unto you Prophets, &c. and some of them ye shall kill, &c. and persecute.

So long as Ministers will not suffer wicked men to be quiet in their lusts, they will not suffer Ministers to have quiet lives. Satan doth not so much oppose any of the Souldiers in Christs Army, as he doth the Commanders; nor doth that wolf any way, so much endeavor the devouring of the Sheep, as by the removing of the Mastives. By the persecuting likewise, and scattering of His Ministers; God wisely provides for the relief of his Church: God waters the several parts thereof, by dispersing these Clouds into severall quarters. They who were scattered abroad (saith Luke) went every where preaching the word, Acts 8.4. 〈Greek〉. Act. 8.4. Unlesse the seed be scattered, ther can be no crop expected. & the scattering of the sowers, makes way for the scattering of the seed. The scattering of Simeon and Levi in Israel, dispersed the knowledg of the Law. By the carrying of the Jews into captivity, the Truth was made known among the heathen. In the Primitive persecution, Persecutio veritatis, propagatio veritatis. the more were made Martyrs, the more Christians were made. By the irruption of the Gothes and Vandals, the persecuters themselves became Christians. The persecution of the Truth, is the Propagation thereof. The sufferings that happened to Paul, fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel.: Phil. 1.11. A consideration which should sweeten the bitternesse of a Ministers persecution and unsetlement. God doth not onely thereby make them more pure, but his Church more numerous; they ought to prefer service before safety, and account that condition to make most for their good, whereby they may make most to become good.

To conclude this, let Ministers take heed, In tantum Deo places in quantum tum hominibus displices. Ruat Coelum & terra potius quam aliquid Christo discedat. Luth. Obs. 6. lest they abate in their zeal and faithfulness for God, to gratifie a sinful world. If I please men (saith Paul) I am not the servant of Christ; Its much easier to bear the wrath of men, for the conscionable discharge, then the wrath of God, for the unconscionable neglect of our duty.

6. People should sit under the ministery of the Word, as under the rain distilling from the clouds; they should be as the dry and parched soil, not in regard of barrennesse under, but thirstinesse after heavenly Doctrine, and the dews of Grace; like those of whom Job speaks, who waited for him as for the rain, Job 29.23. Gasping after the Word, as the chapt earth opens its mouth, Tot linguae, quot fissurae. in its clests for the showers (every cleft whereof, is as it were, a tongue to call to the clouds for Rain) People should be a thirst for God, yea the living God, Psal. 42.1. panting after Christ in his Promises, as the Hart after the water brooks; Open thy mouth wide (saith God) and I will fill it: The reason why we come not to the Word, drink not, relish not, digest not, is because we thirst not after it. This thirst must be first, an inward, hearty sincere thirst; My soul followeth hard after thee; Psal. 63.1. my heart saith, thy face will I seek. Isa. 26.8. The desire of our soul is to thy Name. Our desires must not be (as they say of some spices) hot in the mouth, cold in the stomack; not only the expression of the tongue, but accompanied also with the sincerity of the heart. Christians must not be like some hounds, which following the game, open very loud, with the rest for company, when they have not the scent of that beast which they pursue. We must thirst, Cant. 4.8. Psal. 42.2.4 Psal. 119 17. 2. Cer. 7.11 Rom. 12.11 with the inward savour of that good wch is in the Word. Secondly, It must be a vehement, ardent thirst, like that of David, Psal. 119.20. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath, &c. with the whole heart, vers. 10. Psal. 119.81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord. All the sweetnesse is put into the benefits of the Gospel, which God could put into them, and all the desire must be set upon them, which thy soul can set upon them: All the vehement propensions, wherewith things are carryed to their Centers, in their courses can no more then shadow out spirituall desires. If a rock should fall from the Clouds, it would break any interveening impediment; the Sun cannot be stopt in its course: Gun-pouder bears all away, that would hinder its force. 3. Its a predominant thirst. No power of nature, is so importunate and clamorous for satisfaction, as tasting; a thirsty man, much more ardently desires water, then another doth beautifull prospects, sweet smells, melodious Musick. These things being wanting, a man can live; not so, without Water: Those a man would have, this (he saith) he must, he will have. A spiritually-thirsty soul, desireth nothing much, but him whom it cannot desire too much: A greater fire is made for the roasting of an Ox, then of an Egg; and greater is the flame of desire after the great and vast benefits of the Gospel, then after these curt and inconsiderable things, here below; in comparison of Christ they are dung, dross, losse; a Christian will step over them and kick them away, when God requires; lay them down as sacrifices, There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee, Psal. 73.25. or hate them as snares. Christ gives himself wholly to the soul, and so doth a soul deal with him. The greatest worth that it sees in any thing, beside Christ, is this, that it may be be left for Christ. 4. It is an industrious thirst, ‘tis not a lazy veleity, but a desire which takes pains for the thing desired; it suffers not a man to sit still, but makes him seek, knock, ask, cry, call, sell all, wrastle, strive (all Scripture-expressions) it offers violence to, and makes an holy riot upon heaven. Its like fire, that will not be smothered: It saith (as Elijah to Obadiah) As the Lord liveth, I will shew my self; It stands not for any cost, it turns every stone: Like the arrow drawn to the head, it flies apace. It’s not like the desire of the slothfull, which slayes him, because his hands refuse to labour, Prov. 21.25.

5. Its a resolved, waiting, permanent thirst: Gen. 49.19. Luk. 2 25. Iratum colit numen. Hence we frequently read of waiting for the Lord, and his Salvation and Consolation; It stayes the Lords leisure, and will not away though the Lord seems to deny. No waters of discouragement, shall quench it. It doth not cast off hope, because it cannot presently find comfort; Tis good (saith the soul) that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, Lam. 3.26. Like one who goes to an house, to speak with one much his Superiour: the spiritually thirsty soul, will tarry the Lords leisure for his coming to it. 6. Its a thirst determined and limited to that One Thing upon which its set: Nothing else will serve its turn, nor will it be brib’d or put off with any thing in stead thereof; Whom (saith the Psalmist) have I in heaven but thee? Psal. 73.25. Psal. 27.4. and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee; One thing (saith David) I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. What have I (said Abraham) so long as I go childlesse? and what have I, (saith the soul) so long as I go Christless? Land, riches, honours, children, &c. are good, but yet they are not Christ! A bag of gold wilnot serve him who is perishing with thirst, in stead of a cup of water. 7. Its a returning, progressive thirst; ‘tis never fully satisfied on this side Heaven, it puts upon craving and seeking again, and again. The earth desires not rain once onely in a year, but a return of showres, the latter as well as the former rain: nor doth refreshment with drink to day, make a man regardless therof to morrow. Davids desire was to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. The least degree of spirituall relief, Psal. 23.6 Psal. 27.4. satisfies and stayes a Christians stomack to the world; but the greatest takes not away its further desires of Christ. 8. Its a thank full thirst, it blesseth the Lord for every drop of grace, with the Psalmist, Psal 63.5. My soul is satisfied as with marrow, and fatnesse; and my mouth shal praise thee with joyfull lips. Oh! saith the soul; Lord, who shall praise thee if I do not? A soul satisfied with mercy, Psal. 103.3. Rom. 7.25. 1 Tim. 1.17. Nibil leve, quo anima reparatur. is a spirituall Psalm sung out in the praises of God. Blessed be God, who hath blessed us, (saith Paul) with spirituall Blessings; as soon as ever Paul had said, Christ came into the world to save sinners, whereof he was chief, he adds, his Doxology, Now to the King immontall, &c. What a delightfull fragrancy comes from, and what a face of freshnesse, greennesse, cheerlinesse is upon the face of the parched grasse, and Plants, after a shower of Rain? Oh! what a spirituall freshnesse of joy, is upon, what sweetly breathings of praises issue from that soul which God hath relieved with his spirituall Showres of Love and favour. The souls greatest trouble is now, that it brings not forth more fruits of new obedience, after those Showres, and its now as boundless in duty, as heretofore it was in desires.

7. Obs. 7. Seducers are wont to make great shews and appearances of worth in themselves and their Doctrines. These Seducers seem’d to be full, watery clouds, whose wombs were big with the rain of instruction, and holinesse, but (for all this) the Apostle tels us, they were clouds without water. Heresie is compared to leaven, Mar. 8.15. and among other reasons, for its puffing and raising the dough. This spirituall Leaven puffs up men with an undue and excessive opinion of their own parts and Graces; The Pharisees trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, 2 Pet. 2.20. and despised others, Luk 18.9. No doubt (think they) we are the people, and Wisdome shall dye us with, Job 12.2. They are vainly puft up by their fleshly minde. Col. 2.18. The Ministers of Satan desired to be accounted the Ministers of righteousnesse. False Apostles (2 Cor. 10.12.) commended themselves, measured themselves by themselves, and compared themselves among themselves. They measured and esteemed themselves according to their own mind and judgment, and not according to their reall worth or excellency. Regnat luscus inter c•cos. They (also) never considered the excellency of others, who were much beyond them in worth, but onely such who were of the same pitch with themselves or (as some understand the place) they commend and receive praises from one another, and among themselves. And whereas the Apostle saith (vers. 13.) that he would not boast of things without his measure; he intimates that these Seducers boasted beyond all the bounds or measure of their gifts and calling: or (according to some) that they boasted of their labouring in the Gospel, beyond the measure and term of Pauls Labour. Theophilact and Oecumenius conceiving that these Seducers falsely boasted that they had propagated the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and that according to the Psalmist, Psal. 19. Their line was gone through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Arius vainly gloried, that God had revealed something to him, that was hid from the Apostles themselves. Vide Danaeum in descriptione arboris. Haeres. 〈Greek〉. Epiph. Haer. 24. Montanus boasted that he was the Paraclet or Comforter himself. Simon Magus, the father of these hereticall seducers, boasted that he was the mighty power of GOD. Hereticks boldly inintrude into things which they have not seen; they professe knowledg falsely so called. The disciples of Basilides voyced themselves onely to be men, and all others to be swine and dogs, saith Epiphanius; and Nazianzen tels Eunomius, that he was (he means in his own Conceit) a beholder of things which to all others are invisible, 〈Greek〉. Naz. in Orat. 33. an hearer of things which it is not lawfull to utter; that he was taken up to heaven as was Elias; that he had seen the face of God as had Moses; that he was rapt up into the third heavens as was Paul. Thus the Papists stile some of their Schoolmen, Angelicall, Seraphicall, irrefragable, most subtill, illuminate. The consideration of all which should make us more wary of being led away with the big words, and high expressions of these titular worthies: Let us consider what the power is which goeth along with their words: and in stead of admiring the flourishing titles of every vain dogmatist, examine what is the consonancy between the Scriptures and their opinions. Who honours a meer titular nominal Prince? Let us not be taken with the glory of the doctor, but search into the bowels of the Doctrine: Fools indeed, being to take mony, wil be put off with brasse coin, because it glisters; but a wary man tryes it by the Touchstone. Try all your Doctors and Doctrines by the Word, and ever be more ready to suspect then admire either.

8. Obs. 8. Its a great and inexcusable sin to make shew of that goodnesse, of which we are wholly void, and to which we are opposite.

Sinfull was the pretending of these Seducers, to be watering clouds, big and black, accompanied with emptinesse and drynesse.

The sin of the Church of Sardis was, the resting in a bare and meer name and shew of holy life. A Christian must look after both name and thing. The Prophet chargeth the Jews with swearing by the Name of the LORD, Isa. 48.1, 2. and making mention of the GOD of Israel, but not in truth and righteousnesse, with contenting themselves to be called of the holy City, &c. Nor will this impiety seem small, if we consider either GOD, others, or our selves.

1. The sinfulnesse hereof appears in respect of God: It pollutes and prophanes His Name. What greater prophanation thereof imaginable, than to put it upon an unholy, hellish heart: Is it not more insufferable, then to cloath a swine with the Robes of a Prince, and to put the Crown and Scepter of a King upon the head, and into the hand of a dunghil-raker? Is any disgrace to an Emperour greater, then for a base-bornslave to voice himself his son, and heir to his Crown? This is that pollution of GODS Name, with which GOD charged the people, Ezek. 36.20.

2. In respect of others. It hardens the wicked, who when they see the meer profession separated from the reality of holinesse, applaud themselves, and think their own estate very blessed, and that Religion is a meer notion and nullity, deride also at it, as did the Heathens at those hypocriticall Israelites: These are (said they) the people of the Lord, and are gone forth of his Land. q. d. These are your Saints, your Israelites, that came out of the holy Land: And what more damps the goodnesse of young beginners, than the falsenesse and emptinesse of those who have made great shews of forwardnesse in holinesse? thereby, one Hypocrite more pulling them back, than an hundered sincere ones can put them forward. At the best they set up, their staff before they are gone half way, and are made like the people, who seeing the body of Amasa lye dead by the way side, stood stil. In short, what are these bare pretenders to holinesse, but deluders of others, gins, and pitfalls in Religion, dunghils covered over with snow, reeds that run into the arms of those who lean upon them, and such who do not onely by their faithlesseness (oft) deceive and gull those who trust them with their estates and worldly concernments, but also much more dangerously misguide and delude the souls of those who follow their empty doctrines, and crooked lives?

But 3. The greatnesse of this sin appears, principally by considering them who ve in it. For 1. All their glorious appearances are purely unprofitable unto them. Thereport of a mans being wealthy, adds nothing to his estate, or that of full feeding to one who is hungerstarved. God tells the hyocritical Jews, that they trusted in lying words, Jer. 7.8. when they onely trusted to their outside shews, I will declare thy righteousnesse, and thy works (said God to that false-hearted people) and they shall not profit thee, Isa. 57.12. 2. Shews, without reality of holinesse, are very hurtfull. 1. Appearing goodnesse makes men furthest from being and becoming really good. Religion is a very serious, reall businesse; yea, its very reality, and call’d in Scripture, Truth it self: As the priviledges, so the practices of godlinesse are indeed and in Truth, and by nothing so much opposed, as shadows and falsnesse. 2. They who please themselves with appearances will never labour for the reality of holinesse, nor truth in the inward parts; they are seldome reproved by others, nor is it so easie to fasten a reproof upon them, as upon those who are void of all shews of Religion; and so they go on in a miserable quietnesse, and uninterruptednesse to their own destruction. 3. They who barely appear holy, are of all others the most impudent, not blushing to be accounted such as their own consciences tell them they are far from being. Naomi was ashamed of her self, when the men of Bethlehem said, Is not this Naomi? Cal me not (said she) Naomi, call me Marah, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Ruth. 1.20. But these say, cal us Christians, though they are no better than heathens; call us Saints, though they are inwardly but rotten Sepulchers: Account us to be in the highest form of Religion, though they have not (as yet) stept over the threshold of Religon’s School. Esteem us to be ful, although we be altogether empty. True saints are asham’d of commendation, though they be full of worth: hypocrites glory in being commended, though they have nothing in them commendable. When men have not the thing, its most unreasonable that they should have the name. When God gave Abram the name of Abraham, he told him there was a reason why he should be called by that name, Gen. 17.5. Thy Name shall be called Abrabam, for a father of many Nations, have I made thee. Abigail said concerning her Husband, As his name is, so is he, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; and if Christians be our name, true Christianity should be with us. Lastly, such clouds without water, appearing Professors, render themselves, of all others, most inexcusable. If Religion were bad, why did they so much as profess it; if good, why did they not more, even love it also? If they took upon themselves, the title and trade of Gods servants, why would they not do his work? If God be a master, where is his fear; if a father, where is his honour? If they would not be his servants, why would they be called so? If they would be called his servants, why would they not be so? how fearful should we then be, of putting our souls off, with shadows of goodness! Labour for that truth in the inward parts, which all the expressions of the outward man are not able to reach; and remember that hereafter, all paint must fall off, which was not laid in the oyle of sincerity; and Hypocrites shall be discovered and unmasked both to their own consciences, and the judgments of all others.

9. The empty are also unstable. Observ. 9. These clouds without water, are by the Apostle said to be carried about of the winds. The Apostle 2 Pet. 3.16. joyns the unlearned and unstable together; and Heb. 13.9. he mentions the establishment of the heart with grace. A heart (then) empty of saving knowledg, and true holiness is soon unsetled; and needs must it be so, being not firmly united to, and set into Christ by faith; unbelief and distrust, make a man carried up and down like a Meteor. He who is not built upon the Rock, can never stand: if a Reed be not tyed to some stronger thing, it can never be kept from bending and shaking; where grace the fruit is not, there Christ the root is not; and where there is no root, there is no stability. Further, where there is a total emptiness of holiness, there is an emptiness of peace and contentment; there is no peace to the wicked. And he who wants true contentment, will ever be looking out for it, 〈Greek〉. where it is not to be had; without joy life is no life, and if it be not gotten one way, another will be tryed: Who will shew us any good, is the language of natural men? they have still hopes to be better; and like men in a Fever, they toss from one side of the bad to the other, in hope to finde coolness and refreshment; but a soul that exerciseth it self in the ways of holiness, tells every temptation. You would draw me away to my lose: 2 Cor. 7.32, 35 Cor non tutum, nisi totum. Scinditur in certum studia in contraria. Yet again, a heart void of grace is divided in the service of God, and therefore an unsetled heart; tis not united to fear Gods Name; it serves not the Lord without distraction; all of its love, fear, joy, runs not one way, but having inclinations not wholly bestowed upon God, and several ways of the hearts out-going from God being allowed, its never safe and certain; when the scales are even in weight, they tremble, and waver, sometime one is up, sometime another; they who will serve two Masters, God and the creature, and are double-minded, and will divide their hearts between them, will often be wavering, and shew themselves sometimes for Religion, sometime for the world; grace fixeth, and weighs down the heart for God and to God, and chuseth him onely. Here’s the true Reason then (in the general) why men are so tossed and carried away from the truth of the Gospel, they are empty of the truth of grace; they go from us, because they were never of us; they are a Land-flood, a Cistern onely, receiving from without, and void of an inward living principle and fountain.

10. Observ. 10. Christians should beware of unstedfastness, of being carried away with any winds, from their holy stedfastness in the truth. Continue in the things which you have learned, 2 Tim. 3.14. Be not as children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. To this end, 1. Let the Word of Christ ballast your souls; store them with the knowledg of saving Principles of Religion. Empty Table-books are fit to have any thing written in them, and a soul empty of the knowledg of wholsome truths, is a fit receptacle for any error. Do ye not err, (saith Christ) because ye know not the Scriptures, Mat. 22.29. Stones will easily be removed, unless fixed upon a foundation. He who buyes commodities without either weighing or measuring them, may easily be deceived, the Scripture is the measure and ballance of every opinion. How easily may he be cheated with Errors in stead of truth, who buyes onely in the dark? Ignorant Christians are like Infants which gape, and take in whatsoever the Nurse puts to their mouths. 2. Labour to get your hearts fastned to the truth, by love, as well as your heads filled with the truth, by light; he who never loved truth, may easily be brought to leave truth, and to imbrace error. He who embraced truth he knew not why, will forsake it, he knows not how; the heart which hath continued deceitful under truth, may soon be deceived by error; a literal, without an experimental knowledg of the truth, may quickly be drawn to error from that wherein we find neither pleasure nor profit, we may easily be enticed. But when once we feel the truth both enlightning and delighting, unloading its treasures of glory into our souls quieting our consciences, quelling our lusts, changing us into the Image of the Lord, quickning our graces; Seducers will not be able to cheat us of this Jewel, because we know they can bring us nothing in exchange, for which we should barter it away. 3. Let there not be any one lust * 〈Greek〉. Theoph, in Rom. 16. allowed within thee, to loosen thee from the truth. They who are not sound in the fear of God, may easily become unsound in the faith of God. A remisse heart will close with remiss principles. The mystery of Faith must be held in a good conscience, 1 Tim. 1.9. which some (saith the Apostle) having cast away, have made shipwrack of the faith: he comparing conscience to a ship, and faith to a treasure therein imbarked, which must needs miscarry, if the ship be cast away; any corrupt affection entertained, the soul like an unwalled, and unfenced City, lies open to the rage and rapine of, and ruine by any enemy. If Seducers sute their bait to the unmortified lust of a sinner, Prov. 25.8. he is easily made their prey. Of this at large before. Particularly, beware of Pride, the proud Christian, Page 615, 616 617, part 1. like a light puft bladder, will easily be puft any way of Error; a Bird of a very small carkass, and of many Feathers, is easily carried away with the wind; Pride is the mother of Heresie; the proud man it is, who consents not to wholsome Doctrine, but dotes about questions, 1 Tim. 6.3, 4. Humility is the best fence against Error; an humble man is so small, in his own eyes, that the shot of Seducers cannot hit him; and lies so low, that all their Bullets fly over him. God teacheth the humble, but the proud person is Satans Scholler. 2. Fence thy soul against worldly mindedness; a worldly heart will be bought and sold at every rate. The truth can never be safe in the closet of that heart, which Error can open with a golden picklock. The covetous both make merchandise of others, 2 Pet. 2.13, 14. and will be made merchandise by others: The hook of error, is easily swallowed down by a worldly heart, if it be baited with (though filthy) lucre. Take heed of being a servant of truth, Fraus & malitia haereticorum vel dolend a est tanquam hominum, vel cavenda est, tanquam haereticorum, vel irridenda tanquam imperitorum. Aug. for gain, for (if so) thou wilt soon be a slave unto error, for more gain. 3. Keep out of the wind of seducing Doctors, and their Doctrines. Mark them who cause divisions, and avoid them, Rom. 16.17. If it be dangerous to be tempted by, what is it then to be tempters of the Divel. Turn away from such as creep into houses, and lead souls captives 2. Tim. 3.5, 6. Eat not of the banquets of him who hath been found out, to mix poyson in his dishes; let holy Zeal (in this respect) hinder Civility. Ut fallacius incautis ovibus obrepant, manente luporum ferocia, deponunt lupinam speciem sese divinae legis sententiis velut quibusdam velleribus obvolvunt, ut cum quisque lanarum mollitiem persenserit, nequaquam aculeos dentium pertimescat. Vinc. Lyr. cap. 36. Polycarpus Marcioni aliquando occurrenti sibi, & dicenti, cognosce nos; respondit, cognosco te primogenitum Satanae. Tantum Apostoli & horum Discipuli babuerunt timorem, ut neque verbo tenus communicarent alicui eorum, qui adulteraverant veritatem. Iren. l. 3. c. 3. pag. mihi 171. If these Seducers come to you, yet neither teceive them into your houses, nor bid them God speed. Shun the meeting places of Error as the Schools of impiety. Beware of false Prophets, who put on a sheepskin-profession over a woolvish purpose, Deceitful Workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, 2 Cor. 11.13. The Divel never deceives in his own likeness. Feed not like silly sheep upon rotten grass, because its sweet and lussious. Polycarp would entertain no acquaintance with Marcion, but termed him the first born of the Divel; and (as Irenaeus tells the Apostles and their Disciples) were so full of holy fear, that they would not communicate with Hereticks in the world, who had adulterated the word. Let not Satan take us among his own, lest he make us of his own. Of these things see more, pag. 266, 267. Part 1.

Thus much for that second comparison, whereby the Apostle describes the sin and misery of these Seducers; viz, Clouds without water, &c. The third followes in these words, Trees whose fruit withereth; without fruitt twice dead, plucked up by the roots.

Two things, principally, are here considerable, in this Resemblance taken from bad and corrupt trees.

Their badness in consideration 1. Of their fruits. 2. Of the trees themselves.

1 In consideration of their fruits; so our Apostle expresseth.

1. The decay and withering of their fruits; whose fruit withereth.

2 Their cessation from, and privation of their fruit; their fruit was none; without fruit.

2 Their badness, in consideration of themselves, the trees, which 1 Were irrecoverably dead; twice dead. 2. Deservedly therefore plucked up by the roots